In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a weight, a type of bracket.Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0). Oxford University Press, 2009. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the structure. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger" in England. The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or parapet, has been used since Neolithic (New Stone Age) times. It is common in medieval architecture and in the Scottish baronial style as well as in the vocabulary of classical architecture, such as the of a Corinthian order. The corbel arch and corbel vault use the technique systematically to make openings in walls and to form ceilings. These are found in the early architecture of most cultures, from Eurasia to Pre-Columbian architecture.
A console is more specifically an S-shaped scroll bracket in the classical tradition, with the upper or inner part larger than the lower (as in the first illustration) or outer. Keystones are also often in the form of consoles.John Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture, p. 124, 1980 edition, Thames and Hudson World of Art series, Whereas "corbel" is rarely used outside architecture, "console" is widely used for furniture, as in console table, and other decorative arts where the motif appears.
The word corbel comes from Old French and derives from the Latin corbellus, a diminutive of corvus ("raven"), which refers to the beak-like appearance. Similarly, the French refer to a bracket-corbel, usually a load-bearing internal feature, as a corbeau ("crow").
Similarly, in the Early English period corbels were sometimes elaborately carved, as at Lincoln Cathedral, and sometimes more simply so.
Corbels sometimes end with a point apparently growing into the wall, or forming a knot, and often are supported by angels and other figures. In the later periods the carved foliage and other ornaments used on corbels resemble those used in the capitals of .
Throughout England, in Timber framing work, wooden corbels ("tassels" or "braggers") abound, carrying window-sills or in wood, which also are often carved.
The corbels carrying the arches of the corbel tables in Italy and France were often elaborately moulded, sometimes in two or three courses projecting over one another; those carrying the of English and French castles had four courses.
In modern chimney construction, a corbel table is constructed on the inside of a flue in the form of a concrete ring beam supported by a range of corbels. The corbels can be either in-situ or pre-cast concrete. The corbel tables described here are built at approximately ten-metre intervals to ensure stability of the barrel of refractory bricks constructed thereon.
Corbelled vaults are very common in early architecture around the world. Different types may be called the beehive house (ancient Britain and elsewhere), the Irish clochán, the pre-Roman nuraghe of Sardinia, and the (or "beehive tombs") of Late Bronze Age Greece and other parts of the Mediterranean.
In medieval architecture the technique was used to support upper storeys or a parapet projecting forward from the wall plane, often to form machicolation (openings between corbels could be used to drop things onto attackers). This later became a decorative feature, without the openings. Corbelling supporting upper stories and particularly supporting projecting corner turrets subsequently became a characteristic of the Scottish baronial style.
Medieval timber-framed buildings often employ jettying, where upper stories are out on projecting wooden beams in a similar manner to corbelling.
010218 campidoglio Tabularium 02 a.png|Roman corbels of a modillon cornice from the Temple of Concord (Rome), in the Tabularium (Rome)
Elephant-shaped column brackets at Lahore Fort.jpg|Indian corbels of the Lahore Fort (Lahore, Pakistan)
Angoulême 16 Cathédrale modillons chapelle S 2013.jpg|Romanesque corbels of the Angoulême Cathedral (Angoulême, France)
Bad Tölz Mariä Himmelfahrt Konsole 311.jpg|Gothic corbel in the Mariä Himmelfahrt (Bad Tölz, Germany)
RomaChiostroBramante-OrdineSuperioreTrabeazione.jpg|Renaissance corbels of the Santa Maria della Pace (Rome)
P1020923 (5015160701).jpg|Baroque corbels with mascarons in the Salon d'Hercule (Palace of Versailles, France)
Paris Hôtel Jeanne d'Albret 94.JPG|Rococo corbel with a mascaron, on the Hôtel Jeanne d'Albret (Paris)
Kina slott detalj 2011b.jpg|Chinoiserie of the Chinese Pavilion at Drottningholm (Ekerö Municipality, Sweden)
Périgueux palais Justice corbeau.JPG|Neoclassical corbel of the Palais de Justice de Périgueux (Périgueux, France)
Konsolsteine Potsdam-Mangerstr25.jpg|Gothic Revival corbel supported balcony in Potsdam (Germany)
5, Strada Mămulari, Bucharest (Romania) 4.jpg|Romanian Revival corbels of house no. 5 on Strada Mămulari in Bucharest (Romania)
Rue des Saints-Pères Lions ornaments on an eclectic building, 28 April 2015.jpg|19th century Eclectic Classicist corbels on Rue des Saints-Pères (Paris)
Lambot console Jubilé 1.JPG|Art Nouveau corbel in Brussels (Belgium)
|
|