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.<ref>The Columbia Encyclopedia, sixth edition</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In masonry the pendentives thus receive the weight of the dome, concentrating it at the four corners where it can be received by the piers beneath.
Prior to the pendentive's development, builders used the device of corbelling or squinches in the corners of a room. Pendentives commonly occurred in Orthodox, Renaissance, and Baroque churches, with a drum with windows often inserted between the pendentives and the dome. The first experimentation with pendentives began with Roman dome construction in the 2nd–3rd century AD,<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> while full development of the form came in the 6th-century Eastern Roman cathedral, Hagia Sophia, in Constantinople (Istanbul).<ref> Template:Harvnb </ref>
GalleryEdit
- Pendentif.eglise.Nantua.png
A pendentive, labelled A. Illustration of a church in Nantua.
- Schema.pendentif.medieval.png
Formation of a pendentive. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, 1856
- Pendentives.jpg
Pendentive structure
- Moskau erloeserkathedrale innen.jpg
Arches (left and right), dome (top) and pendentive (centre) in Moscow Cathedral
- Kostel Nejsvětější Trojice (Fulnek) – frs-002.jpg
- Crkva Sveti Kliment - Skopje (2).jpg
- Haga Sofia RB3.jpg
One pendentive of the Hagia Sophia main dome
- Saint Sava Naos leg P.Cikovac.jpg
Pendentive of the Church of Saint Sava main dome, Belgrade, Serbia
- San Giovanni Evangelista (Parma) - Dome.jpg
Vision of St. John on Patmos (1520–1522, Correggio, San Giovanni Evangelista, Parma), part of which is painted on the pendentives
- Çamlıca Mosque, Istanbul Interiror.jpg
The attributes of Allah (God) in intrinsic Islamic calligraphy on the pendentives of Çamlıca Mosque, Istanbul