Alberti, Leone Battista, Architecture, 1755

Page concordance

< >
< >
page |< < of 320 > >|
1not have their Minds any Ways diverted by fo­
reign
Objects.
That Horror with which a
ſolemn
Gloom is apt to ſill the Mind naturally
raiſes
our Veneration, and there is always ſome­
what
of an Auſterity in Majeſty: Beſides that
thoſe
Lights which ſhould be always burning
in
Temples, and than which nothing is more
awful
for the Honour and Ornament of Re­
ligion
, look faint and languiſh, unleſs favoured
by
ſome Obſcurity.
For this Reaſon the Ancients
were
very often contented without any other
Aperture
beſides the Gate.
For my own Part,
I
am for having the Entrance into the Temple
thoroughly
well lighted, and thoſe Parts with­
in
, where People are to walk, not melan­
choly
; but the Place where the Altar is to be
ſeated
, I think ſhould have more of Majeſty
than
Beauty.
But to return to the Apertures
themſelves
.
Let us here remember what has
formerly
been ſaid, namely, that Apertures
conſiſt
of three Parts, the Void, the Jambs
and
the Lintel, which two laſt we may call
the
Frame of the Door or Window.
The An­
cients
never uſed to make either Doors or Win­
dows
otherwiſe than ſquare.
We ſhall treat
firſt
of Doors.
All the beſt Architects, whe­
ther
Dorians, Ionians or Corinthians, always
made
their Doors narrower at the Top than
at
the Bottom by one fourteenth Part.
To
the
Lintel they gave the ſame Thickneſs as
they
found at the Top of the Jamb, making
the
Lines of their Ornaments anſwer exactly
to
one another, and meet together in juſt
Angles
: And they raiſed the Cornice over the
Door
equal in Height to the Capital of the
Columns
in the Portico.
Thus far they all
agreed
, but in other Particulars they differed

very
much.
And firſt the Dorians divided this
whole
Height, that is to ſay, from the Level of
the
Pavement up to the Roof, into ſixteen
Parts
, whereof they gave ten to the Height of
the
Void, which the Ancients uſed to call the
Light
; five to its Breadth, and one to the
Breadth
of the Frame.
This was the Doric

Diviſion
; but the Ionians divided the whole
Height
to the Top of the Columns, as afore­
mentioned
, into nineteen Parts, whereof they
gave
twelve to the Height of the Light, ſix to
its
Breadth, and one to the Frame.
The Co­
rinthians
divided it into one-and-twenty Parts,
aſſigning
ſeven to the Breadth of the Light,
and
doubling that Breadth for its Length, and
allowing
for the Breadth of the Frame one
ſeventh
Part of the Breadth of the Light.
In
all
theſe Doors the Frame was an Architrave.
And, unleſs I am much miſtaken, the Ionians
made
uſe of their own Architrave, adorned
with
three Faſcias, as did the Dorians too of
theirs
, only leaving out the Reglets and
Drops
; and all adorned their Lintels with
moſt
of the Delicacies of their Cornice; only
the
Dorians left out their Triglyphs, and in­
ſtead
of them made uſe of a Freze as broad as
the
Jamb or Frame of the Door.
Over the
Freze
they added an upright Cymatium; and
over
that a plain Dentil, and next an Ovolo;
above
that ran the Mutules with their Cymaiſe,
and
over them an inverted Cymatium; ob­
ſerving
in all theſe Members the ſame Pro­
portions
as we have already ſet down for the
Doric Entablature. The Ionians, on the con­
trary
, did not make uſe of a plain Freze, as
in
their common Entablature; but inſtead of
it
made a ſwelling Freze, one third Part of
the
Breadth of the Architrave, adorned with
Leaves
bound about with a Kind of Swathes.
Over this they made their Cymaſe, Dentil,
Ovolo
, Mutules, with their Cymaiſe, and above
all
the Drip and inverted Cymatium.
Beſides
this
, at each End of the Entablature, on the
Outſide
of the Jamb, under the Drip, they
made
a Sort of Ears, as we may call them,
from
their Reſemblance to the handſome Ears
of
a fine Spaniel, by Architects called, Conſoles.
Theſe
Conſoles were turned like a great S.
The Ends winding round in this Manner, <29>,
and
the Thickneſs of the Conſole at the Top
was
equal to the Breadth of the ſwelling Freze,
and
one fourth Part leſs at Bottom.
The
Length
reached down to the Top of the Void

or
Light.
The Corinthians applied to their
Doors
all the Embelliſhments of a Collonade.
And to avoid further Repetitions, we adorn a
Door
, eſpecially when it is to ſtand under the
open
Air with a Sort of little Portico, attached
againſt
the Wall, in this Manner.
Having made
the
Frame of the Door, we place on each Side
an
entire Column, or if you will only an half
Column
, with their Baſes at ſuch a Diſtance
from
each other, as to leave the Jambs, or
whole
Antipagment clear.
The Length of
the
whole Columns with their Capitals, muſt
be
equal to the Diſtance between the outward
Edge
of the left Baſe to the outward Edge of
the
Right.
Over theſe Columns you make a
regular
Architrave, Freze, Cornice and Pedi­
ment
, according to all the ſame Proportions as
as
we have above laid down for a Portico.
Some on each Side of the Door, inſtead of a
plain
Jamb, made uſe of all the Ornaments of a

Text layer

  • Dictionary
  • Places

Text normalization

  • Original
  • Regularized
  • Normalized

Search


  • Exact
  • All forms
  • Fulltext index
  • Morphological index