Chap. I. ARCADES AND ARCHES.

given th(! name of National Gallery. Chambers thus continues:

" Where the portico

is arched, either with a semi-circular or elliptical vault, the backs of the piers and the
inner wall of tlie portico may be decorated with pilasters, as is above described, supporting
a regular continued entablature, from a little above which the arch should take its spring,
tliat no part of it may be hid by the projection of the cornice. The vault may be enriched
with compartments of various regular figures, such as liexagons, octagons, squares, and
the like, of which, and their decorations, several examples are given among the designs
for ceilings." Of these we shall hereafter give figures in the proper place.
"
But when
the vault is groined, or composed of flats, circular or domical coves, sustained on pen-
dentives, the pilasters may be as broad as are the columns in front of the piers, but they
must rise no higher than the top of the impost, the mouldings of which must finish and
serve them instead of a capital, from whence the groins and pendentives are to spring, as
also the bands or arcs-doubleuux which divide the vault."
2636. In the examples of arcades, we have followed those given by Chambers, as ex-
hibiting a variety which may be instructive to the student, and at the same time aflbrd
hints for other combinations. Fig. 908. is one of the compositions of Serlio, and is ar.
Fig. 908.
expedient for arching in cases where columns have been provided, as in places where the
use of old ones may be imposed on the architect. The larger aperture may be from
4i
to 5 diameters of the column in width, and in height double that dimension. The
smaller opening is not to exceed two thirds of the larger one, its height being determined
by that of the columns. Chambers thinks, and we agree with him, that this sort of dis-
position might be considerably improved by adding an architrave cornice or an entablature
to the column, by omitting the rustics and by surrounding the arches with archivolts. It
is not to be inferred, because this example is given, that it is inserted as one to be followed
except under very peculiar circumstances. Where an arrangement of this kind is adopted,
care must be used to secure the angles by artificial means.
2637. Fig. 909. is given from the cortile of the castle at Caprarola by Vignola, a struc-
ture which in the First Book of this work we have (346.
)
already mentioned. Tlie height of
the arches is somewhat more than twice their width. From the under side of the arch to
the top of the cornice is one third of the height of the arch, the breadth of whose pier is
equal to that of the arch, and the aperture in the pier about one tliird of its breadtli.
2638. A composition of Bramante, executed in the garden of the Belvedere at Rome, is
given at
^^.
910. The arch in height is somewhat more than twice its width, and the
Fig. 910.