How to Study Architecture by Charles H. Caffin (reading the story of the .TXT) 📖

Bead: a small convex moulding; often decorated with Bead and Spool ornament.

Bead and Spool: an ornamental device of small halved spheres, alternating with halved spools; used on small convex mouldings.

Beauty: as applied to Architecture, those qualities in a building that stimulate and gratify the æsthetic sense. They result from the architect having created an Organic structure according to the principles of Fitness, Unity, Proportion, Harmony, and Rhythm (see these terms).

Bel Étage: French term for the principal story of a building. Compare Italian, Piano Nobile.

Belfry: specifically, the part of a tower in which the bells are hung; hence, sometimes, the whole tower.

Bema: a raised platform, reserved for the clergy in Early Christian churches.

Blind Arcades: See Arcade.

Bond: the method of laying bricks or stones to bind the masonry. In English Bond, the courses are composed alternately of Headers and Stretchers (which see); in Flemish Bond the Headers and Stretchers are laid alternately in each Course (which see).

Boss: ornamental projection at the intersection of the ribs of vaults and ceilings.

Bow-window: See Bay-window.

Branch Tracery: See Tracery.

Broken Entablature: one that projects over each column or pilaster instead of maintaining a single straight plane.

Broken Pediment: where the triangular or curved form is broken into in the centre; an ornamental device adopted in the Renaissance.

Buttress: a mass of masonry, projecting from the face of the wall to resist the thrust of an arch or vault. When the mass is separated from the wall and connected with it by an arch, the arch and mass form a Flying Buttress.

Byzantine: the style evolved in Byzantium (Constantinople) in the fifth century, A.D.

Cairn: an artificial heap of stones, sometimes piled about a corpse-chamber, which served as a prehistoric sepulchre and monument.

Campanile (cam-pah-neé-la): Italian term for bell-tower.

Canopy: specifically, the carved ornamentation that surmounts a niche, altar or tomb.

Capella Major: the space in a Spanish cathedral, enclosed with screens or Rejas (which see) and containing the High Altar.

Capital: the upper member of a column, pier, pillar or pilaster.

Carillon: a set of stationary bells, played upon by a mechanical contrivance, regulated from a keyboard.

Caryatid: plural Caryatides: sculptured female figures, used instead of columns or pilasters to support an entablature or cornice. Said to be so called after the women of Caria, who aided the Persians and were made slaves. Male figures, so used, are called Atlantes.

Caulicoli: the eight stalks of the acanthus ornament, supporting the volutes of a Corinthian capital.

Cavetto: a simple concave moulding.

Cavetto Cornice: the hollow member that crowns a wall or door in Egyptian architecture.

Cella: the portion of a temple enclosed by walls.

Cerce: a mechanical supporting device used in the construction of vault ribs and light arches. Shaped like a bow, in sections that work telescopically, so that it can be adjusted to the width of the span.

Chamfer: the edge produced by chamfering; that is to say cutting a square edge or corner to a flattened or grooved surface.

Chancel (Lat. cancellus, a screen): See Choir.

Chapter-house: originally the assembly place of the Chapter or fraternity of abbot and monks of a monastery, for the transaction of business. Now attached to English cathedrals for the transactions of the Chapter of bishop and canons.

Chevêt (pr. shev-ay): term applied to the east end of a Romanesque or Gothic church, when it takes the form of a circular or polygonal apse, surrounded by an aisle which opens into chapels.

Chevron: a decorative device, like a V, repeated either vertically or horizontally; forming in the latter case a zig-zag.

Chryselephantine (Gk. “gold-ivory”): applied to a sculptured figure of wood, when the nude parts are covered with gold and the draperies with ivory.

Choir or Chancel: the portion of the church or cathedral east of the nave, screened off for the use of the choir. See Coro.

Cimborio: See Lantern.

Cinquecento: Italian term for the period called in English the sixteenth century.

Cinque-foil: See Foil.

Clerestory or Clearstory (Fr. clair = light): the highest story of a nave immediately above the Triforium (which see), containing windows overlooking the roof of the aisles.

Cloison: a partition; specifically, the metal bands dividing the pattern in cloisonné enamel.

Cloisters (lit. enclosed space): the covered ambulatory around the open court of a monastery; still retained as an adjunct of many English and Spanish cathedrals.

Close: the precinct of an English cathedral; survival of the “Garth” or grassy enclosure of a monastery.

Coffer: one of the sunken panels of geometrical design, used in the ornamentation of a ceiling, vault or dome.

Colonnade: a system or range of columns, surmounted by an entablature. When it entirely surrounds a temple or court it is called a Peristyle. When it is attached to the front of a building it is known as a Portico (which see).

Column: a vertical member, consisting of a Shaft, surmounted by a Capital and resting, usually, on a Base. Its function is to support, in Classic architecture, an entablature, and in Gothic, an arch.

Composite: a Roman Order in which the capital is composed of the upper part of an Ionian Capital and the lower part of a Corinthian.

Concave: curving, like the segment of a circle, inward, forming a hollow to the eye of the spectator.

Concentric: having a common centre.

Console: a supporting block, projecting from a wall, generally decorated; specifically the supports of the cornice over a door or window. See Modillion.

Conventionalisation: the representing of something in a formal way, generally prescribed by custom. For example, it was neither ignorance nor lack of skill, but a custom, prescribed by the priesthood, that caused Egyptian artists to represent the human figure with head and legs in profile and trunk full front. In decorative design, based on natural objects, the best usage avoids naturalistic representation, and translates the form into a convention, which, however, reproduces and even emphasises the salient features of structure and of growth or movement. Thus, the Greek acanthus ornament actually suggests more energy of growth and more expressiveness of form than the natural plant.

Convex: curving, like a segment of a circle, outward or toward the spectator.

Corbel: a block of stone, often elaborately carved, which projects from a wall to sustain a weight, especially that of roof-beams, or vaulting shafts. See Console.

Corinthian: latest order of Hellenic architecture, commenced by the Hellenic architects and fully developed by the Romans.

Cornice: specifically, in Classic architecture, the crowning or uppermost member of an entablature; generally, the crowning feature of any wall construction, or doors and windows.

Coro: the space screened off for the use of the choir in a Spanish cathedral, situated in the nave, west of the Crossing.

Corridor: a wide gallery or passage within a building, usually with rooms opening into it.

Cortile: Italian term for interior court, open to the sky and surrounded by arcades.

Course: a continuous horizontal layer of stones or bricks. See Bond.

Cove: specifically, the concave surface that may occur between the top of an interior wall and the flat of the ceiling.

Crenellated: fortified with battlements.

Cromlech: a prehistoric memorial, composed of stones of huge size, disposed in one or more circles; e.g., Stonehenge.

Cross: adopted by the Church in the fourth century as the symbol of Christianity. The separation of the Eastern or Greek Church from the Western or Latin Church, was reflected in the shape of the Cross; the Greek having all its four members equal, while the lower member of the Latin is lengthened.

Crossing: the space about the intersection of the two Axes (which see) of a church or cathedral, on which the nave, transepts, and chancel abut. Often surmounted by a dome or tower.

Cruciform: used of the plan of a church that is based on the form of a cross. Where a Greek cross is followed the nave, choir, and transepts are of about equal length; while if the Roman is the model, the nave is lengthened. See Cross.

Crypt: vaulted chambers beneath a building, especially beneath the chancel of a church, in which case often used for burial.

Cupola: See Dome.

Cusps (lit. points): one of the points forming the feathering or foliation of Gothic Tracery. Frequently ornamented with a carved termination.

Custodia: See Tabernacle.

Cyclopean: of colossal size; derived from Cyclops, a giant of Greek myth.

Cyma (pr. Si-mah) (lit. “wave”): the rising and falling curve; a moulding, perfected by the Hellenic sculptors, whose profile combines a convex and a concave curve. When the curve begins in convex and flows into concave, it is known as Cyma Recta (Hogarth’s “Line of Beauty”). When the concave precedes the convex, the profile is called Cyma Reversa. The latter is also called Ogee.

Cymatium: the crowning member of a Classic cornice, so called because its profile is a Cyma Recta (which see).

Dado: the surface of an interior wall, between the base moulding and an upper moulding, placed some distance from the ceiling.

Decastyle: See Portico.

Decorated: used to distinguish the second period of English Gothic (fourteenth century), owing to increased richness of window traceries and other ornamentation. Compare Rayonnant.

Dentil: one of a series of square, so-called tooth-like, blocks that ornament the cornice in the Ionic and Corinthian Orders.

Diagonal: specifically applied to the arches or ribs of a vaulting that are diagonal to the main axis. Compare Longitudinal, Transverse.

Dipteral (lit. “double-winged”): designating a temple that has a double range of columns on each side of the cella. Compare Pseudo-dipteral.

Dolmen: a prehistoric megalithic monument, composed of single stones set on end or on edge and crowned with a single slab; forming a sepulchral chamber, often embedded in a mound. See Mastaba.

Dome: a spherical roof, over a circular, square or polygonal space rising like an inverted cup. Hence, when the structure is small, called a Cupola.

Doric: the earliest and simplest Order (which see) of architecture developed on the mainland of Hellas.

Dormer (lit. “sleeping”): a window in a roof, usually of a bedroom, often projecting with a gable end.

Drum: specifically a cylindrical wall, supporting a dome; used also of a section of the shaft of a column.

Early English: first period of English Gothic, evolved during the thirteenth century.

Eaves: the edge of a roof projecting beyond the wall.

Eclecticism: the practice of combining various elements of style, derived from various sources.

Echinus: the cushion-shaped member of the Doric capital, just beneath the Abacus (which see). It has an ovolo or egg-shaped profile. Also used of the Egg and Dart moulding (which see).

Egg and Dart: an ornamental device, composed of an alternate repetition of an egg-shaped form, halved vertically, and a spear head. Used especially on mouldings that have an ovolo or egg-shaped profile.

Embrasure: the sloping or bevelling of an opening in a wall, so as to enlarge its interior profile. See also Battlements.

Enamel: a material composed of pigment and glass, fused and applied in melted state to surfaces of metal, porcelain or pottery, for decorative purposes. See Mosaics.

Encaustic: a process of painting in which the pigments are dissolved in melted bees-wax and applied hot.

Engaged Column: a column that does not stand clear of the wall at the back of it.

Entablature: the horizontal member of a classic or columnar order. It rests upon the Abacus of the column and consists of a lower, middle, and upper member—the Architrave, Frieze, and Cornice.

Entasis (Gk. “Stretching”): a curved deviation from the straight line; specifically, the swell in the profile of the shaft of a Classic column.

Epinaos: See Naos.

Exhedra: a curved recess, usually containing a seat; hence a curved seat of marble or stone.

Façade: the outside view or elevation of a building that faces the spectator.

Fan Vaulting: See Rib.

Fascia: one of the flat, vertical faces into which the Architrave of an Ionic or Corinthian Entablature is divided.

Fenestration (lat. fenestra, window): the distribution of windows and openings in an architectural composition.

Fillet: a small flat band, used especially to separate one moulding from another.

Finial: the finishing part or top, frequently decorated, of a spire, pinnacle or bench-end. See Pinnacle.

Fitness: a principle of beauty; that the design of a work of art shall conform to the necessary requirements of its purpose, material and method of making.

Flamboyant (“flaming”): used to distinguish the third period of French Gothic (fifteenth century), from the encreased elaboration of the window