CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 



613 



Vedimrnt? 



Practice, formed a parapet for railing the base of the order suffi- 



v > ~ ""' ciently high as to be seen on a near approach to the 



building, and for the spectators to lean over ; but they 



never exceeded the height necessary for the prevention 



of accident. 



When pedestals were continued with breaks under the 

 columns, or pilasters, in ancient buildings ; the breaks 

 were termed slylaliata:, and the recess between every two 

 Ety'.obarz, the podium ; and both had the same parts 

 disposed at the same levels. 



Pediments. These ornaments probably owe their ori- 

 gin to the inclined roofs of the primitive huts. They 

 consist of a horizontal cornice, representing a tie-beam, 

 and two others of equal inclination over it, indicative of 

 rafters, or the latter are exchanged for an arched one. 

 The surface included within these cornices is called a 

 tympanum ; which, of course, is either a triangle or 

 the segment of a circle. This definition does not in- 

 clude all those species of pediments which have been in- 

 troduced, perhaps with more fancy than genuine taste, 

 into modern buildings, but only those of the ancients, 

 who, in most things, were close imitators of the proto- 

 types from which they borrowed their designs. In the 

 true pediment, therefore, we only see a representation 

 of the end of a roof whose purpi se was to discharge 

 the rain from the the centre of the building, by leading 

 down to the extremities, there to be discharged over the 

 flanks, and not over the front, as must be the case in 

 every figure that can be introduced, except those of a 

 polygonal form, which present their interior angles to 

 the horizontal cornice, or upwards to those of the ex- 

 terior. 



ID the antient buildings of Greece,(see PlatesCLVII. 

 and CLVI 1 1.), we find only the triangular pediment ; 

 but in those ol Rome, both triangular and circular are to 

 be met with ; and in rows of openings, or niches, both 

 kinds are employed in alternate succession. Though 

 they seem to have preferred the triangular form for 

 doors, windows, and gates, and to have applied the 

 circular pediment to the covering of large or small bo- 

 dies promiscuously. 



Pediments, among the Romans, were exclusively ap- 

 propriated to sacred edifices, till Csesar obtained leave 

 of the senate to cover his house with a pointed roof, af- 

 ter the manner of the temples. 



The ancients introduced but few pediments into their 

 buildings ; even thr Romans, usually contenting them- 

 selves with a single one to adorn the middle or principal 

 part. But some of the moderns, and the Italians in 

 particular, have become so immoderately fond of them, 

 that sometimes their buildings can hardly be said to con- 

 lilt of any thing betides. 



Vilruvtus has given the following direction for finding 

 the pitch of a pediment : " Divide the space between 

 the extremities of the cymatium of the corona into 

 nine equal parts, and take one for the height of the 

 tympanum." This rule, however, is incorrect ; because 

 the tympanum will vary its angle according as there are 

 more or lets mouldings of the inclined cornices within 

 the extremities of the cymatium of the corona ; and 

 since, by this rule, the middle part is invariable, and the 

 broader the parts are of the inclined cornice* within each 

 extremity of the cymatium of the corona, (or rather 

 within the under edge of the fillet of the sima upon each 

 inclined cornice), trie less will be the base of the tym- 

 panum; consequently, the three angles will be less acute. 

 But were thin height extended to the meeting of the two 

 under tide* of the fillets of the sima, or crowning mould- 



tfor 



nt( 

 i Vi- 



ing, the figure of the tympanum would be invariably Practice, 

 the same. S^Y^ 



The foregoing rule of Vitruvius has been considered 

 as too low ; but it must be recollected, that that of the 

 octostyle portico of the Parthenon at Athens, is nearly 

 of the proportion there described ; that of the hexastyle 

 portico of the temple of Theseus, is about an eighth ; 

 that of the Ionic temple on the Ilyssus, and of the 

 Doric portico, which are both tetrastyle, are about one 

 seventh ; and the tympanum of the pediment over the 

 door of the tower of the Winds, is about one-fifth of 

 the span ; all which edifices are Athenian. 



From this comparison, a kind of reciprocal ratio seems 

 to exist between the extension of the base of the tym- 

 panum and its height ; and, indeed, were a fixed ratio 

 applied to windows, the pediment would frequently con- 

 sist of a cornice only, without any tympanum. It is, 

 therefore, with good reason, that the pitch of pediment 

 windows is frequently made greater than of such as 

 crown porticos or the fronts of buildings. 



Ptdimentg are sometimes decorated with plinths, cal- 

 led acroterions, or acroters ; of which, Vitruvius ob- 

 serves, the two presenting triangular faces at the extre- 

 mities, each in height half that of the tympanum, and 

 the middle one, saddled on the summit, is one-eighth 

 higher than the others. 



It is an observation of Vitruvius, that " the Greeks 

 never used mutules, modillions, or dentils, in the front, 

 wherein the end of the roof or fastigium appears ; 

 because the ends of the rafters, and of the laths which 

 support the tiles, only appear at the eaves of the build- 

 ing ; and as mutules and dentils originated from the pro- 

 jecting ends of the rafters and laths, it would have been 

 absurd to introduce them into the pediment, where the 

 exemplars are themselves to be seen." But, just as this 

 argument is, we find in the Grecian remains, that though 

 neither mutules, dentils, nor modillions, are employed 

 in the sloping sides, mutules are constantly used in the 

 horizontal cornice. In edifices of the period of Roman 

 domination in Greece, indeed, we sometimes may ob- 

 serve them in the sloping cornices, but they must be 

 considered as innovations. At Rome, we have examples 

 of modillions in the Pantheon, and in the frontispiece of 

 Nero ; and in the temple of Fortune, dentils are used. 

 In the inclined cornices, the sides of the modillions and 

 dentils are planes perpendicular to the horizon and to the 

 front of the edifice, and in the same vertical planes of 

 those of the horizontal cornice. 



Attic*. Among the Athenians, it was a rule to con- Attic?, 

 ceal the roofs of their buildings, for which purpose they 

 crowned their cornices with low square pillars, of a form 

 nearly approaching that of a pedestal, which have ob- 

 tained the appellation of attics, from the country in which 

 they were first, or chiefly employed, though no remains 

 are now to be discovered among the ruins of the ancient 

 city of Athens. 



Roman attics are to be seen in the remains of the 

 triumphal arches, and in the piazza of Nerva. In the 

 arch of Constantine, the columns are surmounted with 

 pedestals, as high as the base of the attic, upon which are 

 placed insulated statues. At Thessalonica, there ia an 

 attic over a Corinthian colonnade, witli breaks forming 

 dwarf pilasters over the columns, as in the arch of Con- 

 stantine. The attic which is carried round the two 

 courts of the great temple of Balbec, is also broken into 

 dwarf pilasters over the columns and pilasters of the or* 

 der ; which dwarf pilasters arc surmounted with block- 

 ing courics, wherein statues are supposed to have stood. 



