The Textbook of Architecture

The Cabinet of Models

The Serliana

An arch on small columns flanked by two flat-headed openings, shown as a single window or as the bay of Palladio’s Basilica loggia in Vicenza.

The Serliana Open in Models ↗

Illustrates: Renaissance · Palladian · Mannerism

The rules it illustrates

The Serliana. Combine a central arched opening with two narrower flat-headed openings on either side, the arch springing from the entablature of the side openings.

Keep the arch, vary the sides. Where an old structure fixes bays of unequal width, keep the central arch of every Serliana the same and let the flat-headed side openings take up the differences.

Where it appears in the book

In the styles Mannerism, Palladian.

In the chapters Renaissance and Baroque.