pendant

or pendent

In architecture, a sculpted ornament suspended from a vault or ceiling, especially an elongated boss (carved keystone) at the junction of the intersecting ribs of the fan vaulting associated with the English Perpendicular style. In stone ceilings, the use of pendant vaulting was a solution to the difficulty of adapting fan vaulting to very wide church naves. Strong transverse arches were made to span the area, and these in turn supported the elongated keystones. Intermediate rib and panel vaults sprang from these pendants.

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