dosseret

English

Etymology

From French dosseret.

Noun

dosseret (plural dosserets)

1. A cubical block of stone above the capitals in a Byzantine church.
   • 1895, Transactions of the St. Paul’s Ecclesiological Society, volume III, London: Alabaster, Passmore, and Sons, page 122:

     A larger seat was required, however, for the base of the arches, and, therefore they introduced the abacus, which is simply a moulded dosseret, square, and of much less height than the Byzantine example. I think it is inferior to the dosseret, and the Corinthian examples of the nave will, I think, support my view. They have no connection with the capital which does not lead up to it. / Now, with the Ionic capital it was different, it was so small and of such slight height, comparatively, that they made it part of the dosseret.

   • 1916, The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, volume 28, page 214:

     Over the duke’s head is a daïs or “dosseret” of state. “As for the fashion of a dosseret”, says our lady, “seeing that many people don’t know what one is, a dosseret should be as wide as three widths of cloth of gold and made just like the canopy of a bed. A dosseret behind and above a dresser must not rise above it more than a quarter or half an ell, and it has flounce and fringe like the canopy of a bed. The part behind the dresser is bordered from top to bottom on both sides with a different material from the centre, and the border should be about a quarter of the whole width, and the same for the canopy.” The dosseret in the Countess of Charolois’s chamber was of cloth of gold “cramoisy”, bordered with black velvet, and the velvet was embroidered in fine gold with the device of Duke Philip the Good, which was a flint and steel.

   • 1984, R. Allen Brown, editor, Anglo-Norman Studies VI: Proceedings of the Battle Conference, The Boydell Press, published 1990, →ISBN, page 236:

     The most important feature of Clayton is the Early Romanesque chancel arch, the jambs of which are decorated on their reveal with a half column against a dosseret, while a further half-column on each face bridges the difference in thickness between the dosseret and the wall: the same elements are repeated in the arch itself.

   • 2012, Myrto Veikou, Byzantine Epirus: A Topography of Transformation. Settlements of the Seventh-Twelfth Centuries in Southern Epirus and Aetoloacarnania, Greece, Brill, →ISBN, page 193:

     Yet the piece at Ag. Vassileios is far less close to these early examples in technique: the relief is lower and the stylization of the patterns brings us closer to eleventh-century dosserets from Daphni or Antalya in Asia Minor. […] With the exception of the Ionic capital and the pyramidal dosseret, the sculptures are decorated with Latin crosses in relief with flaring terminals. The pyramidal dosseret (Sc15, fig. 123) is decorated with a Greek cross whose execution and design is identical that of the Latin cross on the mullion-dosseret (Sc3) from Panagia Trimitou (fig. 116); both pieces could very well be contemporary and works of the same hand.

Translations

block of stone

• French: dosseret (fr) m

Further reading

• dosseret on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• oersteds, retossed

French

Etymology

From dossier +‎ -et.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

dosseret m (plural dosserets)

1. dosseret
   • 1864, Charles Texier, Richard Popplewell Pullan, L’Architecture byzantine ou recueil de monuments des premiers temps du christianisme en Orient: précédé de recherches historiques et archéologiques, London: Day & Fils, page 139:

     Les chapiteaux des colonnes du rez-de-chaussée sont tous des variantes de l’ordre corinthien, exécutés avec une grande finesse de ciseau. Ils sont surmontés d’un dé de marbre, ou dosseret, sur lequel repose la retombée de l’archivolte, caractère inhérent à tout monument de l’art byzantin. Les colonnes du premier étage sont d’ordre ionique; les chapiteaux sont surmontés d’un dosseret très-élevé. Les colonnes sont séparées par des balustrades de marbre blanc, toutes décorées de monogrammes portant des croix ou le signe du labarum. Les dosserets, sans exception, sont tous décorés de croix sculptées au milieu de rinceaux de feuillage.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1912, Bulletin monumental, ou, recueil de documents et de mémoires relatifs aux différentes branches de l’archéologie, volume 75, page 15:

     Toutefois, mème dans tout le bas de ce pilier, tel qu’il est représenté (Fig. 2), les joints horizontaux du massif rectangulaire et ceux des colonnes sur dosseret présentent plusieurs discordances, tout comme dans les autres piliers de l’église. C’est le motif qui a poussé M. Bouet et ceux qui partagent son opinion, à croire que les colonnes sur dosseret sont une adjonction faite postérieurement aux piliers rectangulaires.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2007, Isabelle Isnard, L’Abbatiale de la Trinité de Vendôme, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, →ISBN, page 93:

     11. Colonne d’un diamètre de 65 cm engagée dans un dosseret saillant de 23 cm sur le nu intérieur du mur. / 12. Supports formés d’un dosseret saillant d’environ 20 cm sur le nu intérieur du mur et d’une colonne engagée appareillée d’un diamètre de 43 cm.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Further reading

• “dosseret”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• dosseret on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr