Cornice

Rules that use the word

The giant order. To unify a façade of two or more storeys, run a single order of pilasters or columns through all of them, from the base to the main cornice.

Muqarnas: a vault of small niches. Fill a half-dome, squinch or cornice with tiers of small concave cells, each tier corbelled forward from the one below and each cell set over the junction of two cells beneath.

The height of the pediment. Divide the whole front of the cornice into nine parts; give one of them to the height of the tympanum, measured at its centre.

The three parts of an order. An order consists of a column (base, shaft and capital) carrying an entablature (architrave, frieze and cornice), optionally raised on a pedestal (plinth, die and cap). Each part is proportioned to the lower diameter of the column.

Ears on a lintel over sloping jambs. When a window or door narrows towards the top and has no cornice, let the ends of the lintel run out beyond the jambs as ‘ears’ (crossettes), so that the head is firmly marked.

The street as a tragic scene. Line the principal street with the houses of great persons (palaces with regular fronts, cornices and pediments) receding to a monument, as in the stage set for tragedy; leave the humbler houses, shops and taverns of the comic scene to the side streets.

Where it appears in the book

In the chapters Walls and Openings, Domes, The Roof, The Anatomy of an Order, The Tuscan Order, The Doric Order, The Ionic Order, The Corinthian Order.

A feature of Ancient Egyptian, Achaemenid Persian, Renaissance, Georgian and Colonial, Chicago School, Art Nouveau architecture.

Nearby in the glossary

Corbel · Corbelled dome · Corbelled vault · Corinthian · Corona · Cortile · Cottage orné · Crepidoma