frieze, in architecture, the member of an entablature between the architrave and the cornice or any horizontal band used for decorative purposes. In the first type the Doric frieze alternates the metope and the triglyph; that of the other orders is plain or sculptured. The 5th-century B.C. treasury of the Cnidians at Delphi shows figures in the frieze. Roman and Renaissance examples, a notable one being on the 1st-century B.C. temple of Vesta at Tivoli, display acanthus leaves and other ornamentation.

Any long, narrow, horizontal panel or ornamental band used for decorative purposes around the walls of a room or exterior walls of a building. In Greco-Roman architecture it is a horizontal band, often decorated with relief sculpture, between the architrave and cornice of a building. The most famous decorative frieze is on the outer wall of the Parthenon in Athens, a 525-ft (160-m) representation of the ritual procession of the Panathenaic festival.

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