Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1825 edition. Excerpt: ...a comparison with other parts of the composition. Thus, for instance, if the order in which the door, window, or niche is placed, be Composite or Corinthian; the Composite or Corinthian entablature may be used for their dressings, with the omission of either dentils or modillions. The Composite architrave may be used as it is, but the Corinthian should be divested of the lower fascia, with the little astragal by which it is separated from the fascia directly above it. In the Ionic order, the Ionic entablature may on some occasions be used as it is, to dress the doors and windows, provided the dentils be not cut: but in most cases it will be properest to leave out the dentil band, with the astragal above it; and strengthen the fillet, which then will make the separation between the ovolo and the bottom moulding. The profiles of doors, of windows, of niches, and in short the profiles of all subservient parts, must not only be less in the whole, but likewise in each particular member, than those of the orders employed in the same composition, or than the cornice or entablature, which serves as a finishing to the whole design; it being among the grossest of errors, to make any ornaments belonging to the parts more predominant than those which are particularly appropriated to the embellishment of the whole mass, as Pietro da Cortona1 has done at St. Carlo in the Corso at Rome, where the profiles of the great door, on the inside of the church, are considerably larger than those of the order in which that door is contained. The usual proportion given to architraves of outside windows, niches, or doors, is from one-seventh to one-fifth of the width of the aperture. Where the architrave is supported on each side by pilasters, as is frequently the...