Fleuron (architecture)

A fleuron is a flower-shaped ornament,[1] and in architecture may have a number of meanings:

  1. It is a collective noun for the ornamental termination at the ridge of a roof, such as a crop, finial or épi.
  2. It is also a form of stylised Late Gothic decoration in the form of a four-leafed square, often seen on crockets and cavetto mouldings.
  3. It can be the ornament in the middle of each concave face of a Corinthian abacus.
  4. Finally, it can be a form of anthemion, a Greek floral ornament.[2]
  1. ^ "Fleuron" Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press 2009
  2. ^ Curl, James Stevens (2006). A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (Second ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 880 pages. ISBN 0-19-860678-8.