Tympanum (architecture)

The late Romanesque tympanum of Vézelay Abbey, Burgundy, France, dating from the 1130s

In architecture, a tympanum (plural, tympana) is the semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance, door or window, bounded by a lintel and arch.^[1] It often contains sculpture or other imagery or ornaments.^[2] Most architectural styles include this element.^[3] In ancient Greek and Roman and in Christian architecture tympana usually contain religious imagery,^[4] when on religious buildings. A tympanum over a doorway is very often the most important, or only, location for monumental sculpture on the outside of a building. In classical architecture, and in classicising styles from the Renaissance onwards, major examples are usually triangular; in Romanesque architecture they have a semi-circular shape, or that of a thinner slice from the top of a circle, and in Gothic architecture they have a more vertical shape, coming to a point at the top. These shapes naturally influence the typical compositions of any sculpture within the tympanum.

Bands of molding surrounding the tympanum are referred to as the archivolt.^[5] In medieval French architecture the tympanum is often supported by a decorated pillar called a trumeau.

Gallery

• 
  Ex Nihilo (Out of Nothing) by Frederick Hart, tympanum over center doors, Washington National Cathedral.
• 
  Tympanum of Kumari-ghar at Basantapur Durbar Square,Kathmandu
• 
  Archivolts surrounding a tympanum of the west façade Strasbourg Cathedral, France
• 
  The three tympana on the main façade of Notre-Dame de Paris, France
• 
  Tympanum of Bhagwati Temple Naksaal, Kathmandu
• 
  Tympanum of Banteay Srei, Cambodia, depicting Sunda and Upasunda fight over the Apsara Tilottama.
• 
  Sculpted tympanum in Stralsund, Germany
• 
  Adoration of the Magi on a tympanum on Saint-Thiébaut Church, Thann, France
• 
  Religious scene in a tympanum, Saint Joseph church, Clermont-Ferrand, France
• 
  Scenes of the lives of Saint Peter and Mary, St Peter's, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
• 
  High-relief bronze tympanum of Writing, Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, DC, USA
• 
  Tympanum (showing the tree of life) and archivolt at Church of St Mary and St David, Kilpeck
• 
  Tympanum showing Christ in Majesty with four attendant angels, Rowlestone, Herefordshire, UK
• 
  Typanum of the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros, Philippines

See also

• Gable
• Pediment
• Portal

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to tympanums.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Tympanum.

• Sculpted tympanums Chartres Cathedral, West Front, Central Portal
• Tympanum of the last Judgment - western portal of the abbey-church of Saint Foy