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An oculus (from Latin oculus 'eye'; pl.: oculi) is a circular opening in the center of a dome or in a wall. Originating in classical architecture, it is a feature of Byzantine and Neoclassical architecture. A horizontal oculus in the center of a dome is also called opaion (from Ancient Greek ὀπαῖον '(smoke) hole'; pl.: opaia).
[112] [113] There are two theories about the shape of this dome: a Byzantine-style dome on spherical pendentives with a ring of windows similar to domes of the later Justinian era, or an octagonal cloister vault following Roman trends and like the vaulting over the site's contemporary chapel of Saint Aquiline, possibly built with vaulting tubes ...
Byzantine workmen built the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus and its hemispherical dome for al Walid in 705. The dome rests upon an octagonal base formed by squinches. [16] The dome, called the "Dome of the Eagle" or "Dome of the Gable", was originally made of wood but nothing remains of it. It is supposed to have rested upon large cross beams. [17]
The dome chamber in the Palace of Ardashir, the Sassanid king, in Firuzabad, Iran, is the earliest surviving example of the use of the squinch. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] After the rise of Islam, it remained a feature of Islamic architecture , especially in Iran , and was often covered by corbelled stalactite-like structures known as muqarnas .
Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, or Eastern Roman Empire, usually dated from 330 AD, when Constantine the Great established a new Roman capital in Byzantium, which became Constantinople, until the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453.
In architecture, a pendentive is a constructional device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or of an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. [1] The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to points at the bottom and spread at the top to establish the continuous circular or elliptical base needed for a dome. [2]
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The muqarnas structure originated from the squinch. Its purpose is to create a smooth, decorative zone of transition in an otherwise bare, structural space. This structure gives the ability to distinguish between the main parts of a building and serves as a transition from the walls of a square or rectangular room to a round dome or vault above it.