Term (architecture)

: terms or termini) is a human head and bust that continues down as a square tapering pillar-like form.

The god Terminus was the Etruscan and Roman deity of boundaries, and classical sources say that boundary markers often took the form of a half-figure of the god on a pillar, though ancient survivals in this form are extremely rare.

Often they represent minor deities associated with fields and vineyards and the edges of woodland, Pan and fauns and Bacchantes especially, and they may be draped with garlands of fruit and flowers.

Term figures were a particularly characteristic feature of the 16th-century style in furniture and carved interior decoration that is called Antwerp Mannerism.

Ornament prints, such as a set of 20 School of Fontainebleau etchings from the 1540s usually given to Jean Mignon, disseminated the style through Germany and England.