922 IMlACriCi; OF AUCIllTECTUUE. Book 111.

wliosc inner sides are on a line with the sides of the aperture, and their projection equal to
that of tlie plintli of the base, that is, one fiftli of a diameter of the column. The keystones
incline forwards towards the top, and they are hatelied, only the surface being left rougli,
as are likewise the dies on tlie columns, except at tiieir angles, which are labbed smootli.
The entablature is Ionic, the architrave consisting of only two fasciaj, the frieze swelled,
and the dentil l)and placed immediately on the frieze, without any intervening mouldinjrs,
a jjractice not very unusual witli Palladio. 'I'he pedestals are rather more than one third
the height of the columns. The dies and balusters stand on the platband of the basement,
which was done to diminish the ])rojection.
'-'770.
Fi<i. i)S;}. is a design by Inigo Jones, which has been much used in this countr\.
!t is ratiier higher than a double square. The width of the architrave is one fifth that of
tlie aperture, and the rustics are a trifle less than the third of it. The entablature is two
ninths of the height of the opeiimg, and the height of the iiedestal is -j-g'g, or nearly so, of
the height of the aperture and pedestal taken together.
2771. Fig. 984. is the design of a Venetian window by Colin Campbell, the compiler
of the three first volumes of the Fitruviiis Biitannicus
;
and
2772. Fig. 985. is very similar to the Venetian windows in the west facade of the Horse
Guards, executed by Kent. It is perhaps as favourable an exam])le of this species of
window as can be produced.
Sect. XXI.
NICMES AND STATUES.
27*73. A niche is a recess constructed in the thickness of a wall for the reception of difTerent
objects, such as statues more especially, but occasionally also for that of busts, vases,
and tripods. Vitruvius makes no mention of niches, and but for an inscrijjtion published
by Visconti in the Monumenti Gabini we should not have known that they were by the
ancients called zotheca, or places for the reception of a figure. Our English word niche is
evidently derived from the Italian nicchio, a shell.
2774. In the early Greek temple the niche is not found
;
at a later period, as in the
monument of Philopappus, we find a circular and two quadrangular-headed niches occupied
in the time of Stuart by statues ; and it does not seem improbable that in the Gymnasia,
Agora, Stadia, &c. of the nation mentioned, the use of the niche was not uncommon. But
the different forms of the ancient tomb, and the early methods of sepulture, would soon
suggest to the Greeks and Romans the use of the niche, especially in sucli tombs as were
devoted to the use of a particular family. These sepulchres, whose subdivisions were
called columbaria, had their walls ornamented with small niches for the reception of
cinerary urns, or those containing the ashes of the dead. In these, a large-sized niche
occupies the principal place in the apartment, and in this was deposited the urn or sarco-
phagus of the head of the family.
2''75.
The small temples (fcrf/c!/7a) of the Romans are often found decorated with niches;
and in the small building on the Lake of Albano, generally supposed to have been a
Nympheum, we find each side of the interior dressed with six niches, whose height sufli-
ciently indicates tiiat they were provided for the reception of statues. In the tcrrple of
Diana, at Nismes, in the South of Fiance, which is now considered to have been a portion