Rules · Pediments · Ornament · Doors & windows
Mark the main door by setting a segmental pediment inside a larger triangular one, or by breaking the pediment open to hold a cartouche or statue.
Michelangelo and his successors treated the pediment not as the gable of a roof but as a free element of composition that could be curved, broken, doubled or split. The nested pediments over the door of the Gesù (a segment inside a triangle) concentrate attention on the entrance and repeat on a small scale the crowning pediment above. Laugier would later single out such pediments as a characteristic abuse (Licences to avoid).
Front a basilican church with two storeys of the order: the lower as wide as nave and chapels, the upper as wide as the nave alone, joined by scrolls and crowned by a pediment.
Il Gesù (reconstructed): lower ≈ 34 m wide, upper ≈ 20 m; scrolls fill the difference
Divide the inside of a dome into coffers that shrink in step with the meridians as they rise, so that their perspective deepens the dome and draws the eye to the light of the lantern.
Avoid the ornaments that have no model in the hut: broken or curved pediments, pediments on the long side of a roof, orders piled storey upon storey on a church front, arches carried on columns, and twisted or cabled shafts.
Where a church has a tall nave and low aisles, give the front a lower storey as wide as the whole church and an upper storey as wide as the nave, and join the two with great scrolls.
Build the gates of a fortress in rustication (rough, heavy blocks bound into a Tuscan or Doric order) so that the gate shows the strength of the walls it pierces.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “A pediment within a pediment”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/nested-pediments. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.