architecture. 
plans with regard to their size ; however, 
to keep the best possible proportions, the 
principal rooms may have flat ceilings, and 
the middle-sized ones may be reduced by 
coving the. ceilings with a flat in the middle ; 
or by groins, or domes, as may answer their 
heights : but if the loftiest of these coved 
figures leaves still too great a height, re- 
course must be had to mezzanines ; which 
are not only necessary for this purpose, but 
may always be employed with advantage, 
as they afford servants lodgings, baths, 
powdering-rooms, wardrobes, and other 
conveniences. All rooms of inferior classes 
snay have mezzanines or intersoles. 
In buildings where beauty and magnifi- 
cence are preferred to economy, the halls, 
and galleries may be raised, making them 
occupy two stories. Saloons are frequently 
raised three stories, or the whole height of 
the building, and have galleries around 
their interior at the height of the floors, for 
communicating with the various parts of 
the building. 
When rooms are adorned with an entire 
order, the entablature may occupy in height 
from one-sixth, to one-seventh of that of 
the room; if the entablature be without 
columns, it may have from one-seventh to 
one-eighth. If a cornice, frize, and astragal 
are executed, its height may be equal to a 
tenth ; and if only a cornice, its height may 
be from a twentieth to a thirtieth part of 
that of the room. In general, all interior 
proportions and decorations must be less, 
and more delicate than those of the exte- 
rior. Architraves in most cases, should not 
be above one-seventh of the width. 
Ceilings. The figures of ceilings are 
either flat or coved : coved ceilings either 
have a concavity around the margins, and are 
flat in the middle, or have a vaulted sur- 
face. (See Vaults). Ceilings that are coved 
and flat, may occupy from one-fifth, to a 
fourth part of the height of the room : the 
principal sections of vaulted ceilings may 
be of various segments, equal to, or less 
than semicircles, as may be most suitable 
to the height of the room . Flat ceilings are 
adorned with large compartments, or fo- 
liages, and other ornaments, or with both. 
Compartment ceilings are either formed by 
raising mouldings on the surface, or by de- 
pressing the pannels within a moulded in- 
closure, which may be partly raised upon, 
and partly recessed within the framing, or 
entirely recessed : the figures of the pan- 
nels may either be polygonal, circular, or 
elliptical. The ceilings of the porticos and 
of the interior of ancient temples are com- 
parted, and the pannels deeply recessed ; 
the prominent parts between them repre- 
senting the ancient manner of framing the 
beams of wood which composed the floors ; 
the mouldings on the sides of the pannels 
are sunk, by one, two, or several degrees, 
like inverted steps, and the bottoms of pan- 
nels are most frequently decorated with 
roses; the figures of these compartments 
are mostly equilateral, and equiangular. 
Triangles were seldom used, but we find 
squares, hexagons, and octagons in great 
abundance. The framing around the pan- 
nels in Roman antiquity is constantly pa- 
rallel, or of equal breadth, therefore when 
squares are introduced, there is no other va- 
riety ; but hexagons will join in contiguity 
with one another, or form the interstices 
into lozenges, or equilateral triangles. Oc- 
tagons naturally form two varieties, viz. that 
of their own figure, and squares in the inters- 
tices : this kind of compartment is called 
coffering, and the recessed parts coffers, 
which are used not Only in plain ceilings, 
but also in cylindrical vaults. The borders 
of the coffering are generally terminated 
with belts, charged most frequently with 
foliage ; and sometimes again the foliage 
is bordered with guillochis, as in the tem- 
ple of Peace at Rome. In the ceiling of 
the entire temple at Balbec, coffers are 
disposed around the cylindrical vault, in 
one row rising over each intercolumn ; and 
between every row of coffers is a projecting 
belt, ornamented with a guillochi, corres- 
ponding with two semi-attached columns in 
the same vertical plane, one column sup- 
porting each springing of the belt. The 
moderns also follow the same practice in 
their cupolas and cradle vaults, ornament- 
ing them with coffers and belts : the belts 
are ornamented with frets guillochis, or 
foliages ,; small pannels are ornamented with 
•roses, and large ones with foliage, or histori- 
cal subjects, in a variety of different man- 
ners. 
The grounds may be gilt and the orna- 
ments white, partly coloured, or streaked 
with gold ; or the ornaments may be gilt 
and the grounds white, pearl, straw-colour, 
light-blue, or any tint that may agree best 
with the ornaments. Some ceilings are 
painted either wholly, or in various com- 
partments only : when a ceiling is painted 
in representation of a sky, it ought either 
to be upon a plane or spheric surface. A 
ceiling coved and flat, with the plane 
painted to represent the sky, is extremely 
