Just as mutules represent the projection of the principal rafters, so dentils in the Ionic are an imitation of the projections of the common rafters.
Again, if we are to suppose that there were open windows where the triglyphs now stand, it will follow, on the same principle, that the dentils of the Ionic order have likewise taken the places of windows.
For the term "metope" is used of the intervals between dentils as well as of those between triglyphs.
And so in Greek works nobody ever put dentils under mutules, as it is impossible that common rafters should be underneath principal rafters.
The system of triglyphs and mutules was invented for the Doric order, and similarly the scheme of dentils belongs to the Ionic, in which there are proper grounds for its use in buildings.
The sections of all the mouldings are given on the right of each; the part which is constantly solid being shaded, and that which is cut into dentils left.
A reminiscence of primitive wood construction is seen in the dentils over the plain architrave of the entrance, which in other respects recalls the triple entrances to certain mastabas of the Old Empire.
These dentils are imitations of the ends of rafters, and to some archæologists suggest a wooden origin for the whole system of columnar design.
A ramping cornice of shallow arches with dentils above it finishes the wall, the centre portion of which is pierced with a two-light trefoiled window blocked up below, while a chapel to the north is lighted by simple-pointed windows.
Two more chapels open from the south aisle through Venetian slightly ogee arches, with saints at the top emergent from leaves, and a cable moulding within and dentils without.
The octagonal body of the pulpit consists of plain moulded panelling without ornament; the bookboard forms a cornice, which is slightly enriched with dentils and carving.
They still retain in their ornament some trace of Gothic feeling, but the topmost moulding, with the dentils beneath it, is clearly of classic derivation.
The cornice dentils distinctly betray their derivation from the projecting ceiling beams, which, upon the block-house tombs, had still preserved the round form of unhewn timbers.
They are quite similar to the dentils upon the tombs of Beni-hassan, and to those of the still more naive imitations of wooden houses found in Lycia, which will be considered in the following section.
Egyptian and Assyrian architecture, with dentils and the leaved ornaments found above all the doors and windows of Persian remains, and with the decorations upon the borders of staircase buttresses.
In Persia, the proportions of the dentilsand of the distances between them are still characteristic of the original timbered construction--a truthfulness of imitation which was lost as early as the development of the Ionic style.
The dentils appear in the cornice, it being possible for them to take their true position upon the epistyle.
The entablature, from which the dentils are missing, is of the utmost elegance of proportion, the carving of its cyma-mouldings being the most delicate work of architectural carving known.
The most striking result was the transformation of the dentils into the richly carved consoles of doubly spiral profile, which were imitated from the parotides of the Ionic portal coronation, but were placed horizontally instead of vertically.
The use of both dentils and consoles is a barbaric duplication, characteristic of the tasteless architectural magnificence of the Roman decline.
As the Corinthian base had been formed by a combination of the Ionic and Attic mouldings, the consoles of the cornice resulted from a fusion of Ionic dentils and Doric mutules.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "dentils" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
