Pluteus (sculpture)

In architecture and sculpture, a pluteus (plural plutei) is a balustrade made up of massive rectangular slabs of wood, stone or metal, which divides part of a building in half; in a church they fulfil the same function as an iconostasis or rood screen, separating the nave from the chancel.[1][2] They are decorated with frames in relief or richly decorated with figures or geometric motifs.

One set of examples is the so-called Plutei of Trajan, discovered between the Comitium and the Column of Phocas in the Roman Forum in 1872 and another is the Plutei of Theodota.

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  Pluteus in Ancona Cathedral
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  Plutei of Trajan

References

1. "Plùteo" (in Italian). Vocabolario Treccani online.
2. Bruno Maria Apollonj Ghetti. "Pluteo". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Enciclopedia Italiana (1935).