2753. "If you extend the rule to larger rooms, the same methods will be preserved even if the height be continued through two stories, if the upper windows be made square

and to have two tire" (tiers) " of windows. Let us suppose the room (fig. 967.) with two tire of windows in height, to be 50 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 30 feet high, the arithmetical proportion of 5, 4, and 3, the product of those numbers multiplied together will be 60000, the square root of which sum is 245 superfical feet; divide that sum for the tire" (tiers)" of windows into three parts, or take one third of it, and that makes the attic or square windows 81 feet 8 inches superficial light; divide this into 5 windows, and they are 4 feet and half an inch square, and the five lower windows, consisting of 163 feet 4 inches superficial light, being what remains out of the 245 feet, the root, each of these windows is 4 feet and half an inch by 8 feet 1 inch, or two diameters, which 245 feet, the whole sum of the square root of the room, will sufficiently illuminate the same."

2754. The extreme piers should not, if possible, be less than half the width of the principal piers. This cannot always be obtained, but a much less width causes great irregularity, and that more especially when one of such end piers falls opposite a chimney breast, besides causing a great mass of shadow on the other side of the chimney, which has a tendency towards making the room dark and gloomy.

2755. Windows in the same story should be similar. There may be an occasional deviation for a great central window, but such deviation must be used with much caution. Another practice, most properly reprobated by Chambers, is that of intermitting the architrave and frieze of an order in the intervals between the columns to make room for windows and their enrichments, as on the flanks of the Mansion House in the city of London; a practice from which Sir Christopher Wren was, unfortunately, not exempt, as may be noticed in St. Paul's Cathedral.

2756. What are called Venetian windows are occasionally allowable, when so ranged and introduced as not to interfere with the composition, — a task often difficult to effect. They should not be much repeated, as in the front at Holkham, where they become actually disgusting. Though in the examples which follow there be two which are composed with semicircular-headed centres, we do not approve of the general use of examples designed on such principles, and would advise the student rather to study the composition of the Venetian window, when required, as in fig. 968., which we do not present as one of beauty, but rather of propriety, where the want of light to the apartment renders a Venetian window expedient. The method of making sashes, shutters, and the other accessories of windows has been described in a previous section; we therefore proceed to offer a few of the most celebrated examples of windows. It is not necessary, after the investigation relative to the voids and solids of doors, to pursue the inquiry into the relative proportions of windows as respects that part of the subject. They are, in a measure, in regard to windows, subject to the same principles, and this, by trial, will be immediately apparent to the student; and we therefore shall not stop for such investigation.

Fig. 968

2757. Fig. 969. is after the lower story of windows at St. Peter's at Rome, by Michael Angelo, and is rather less than the double square in height. The architrave is one seventh

of the aperture's width, being the same as that of the pilasters. The length of the consoles is one third of the width of the aperture, and the entablature one quarter of its height. 2758. Fig. 970. is from the Mattei palace at Rome, and is the design of Bartolomeo Ammanati. It possesses, though rather heavy, considerable beauty, and well deserves the attention of the student. Chambers, from whom we have selected many of our examples in this and others sections, says, "the parts made somewhat less would succeed better, as would also a pediment instead of the sloped covering at top: " but we entirely disagree with him, and are of opinion that what he proposes would ruin the design.

2759. Figs. 971. and 972. are the compositions of Bernardo Buontalenti. The apertures are a double square, or something less, the architraves a sixth or seventh of the apertures, and the pilasters may be about the same. The height of the entablature should not be more than a quarter that of the aperture, nor much less. The greatest length of the consoles should not exceed half the width of the aperture, nor should their least length be less than one third of it.

2760. Fig. 973. is from the old Louvre at Paris, and is by the selebrated Pierre Lescot,

abbot of Clugny in the reigns of Francis I. and Henry II. Its proportions are not much dissimilar from the two last examples.

Fig. 973.

Fig. 974.

Fig. 975.

2761. Fig. 974. is a window constantly used by Palladio. The opening is a double square, the breadth of the architrave equal to one sixth of the aperture, and the frieze and cornice together equal to double the height of the architrave. The breadth of the cousoles equal to two thirds the width of the architrave. The breaks over the consoles in the bed mouldings of the cornice are perhaps not strictly correct, but are deviations from propriety which may be tolerated. The breaks in the upper vertical parts of the architrave would perhaps be better omitted. The practice generally should be avoided, except in cases where a greater length of cornice is wanted for the purpose of filling the bare walls to which the windows are applied.

2762. Fig. 975. is from the Banqueting House at Whitehall, by Inigo Jones. The aperture is a double square, the entablature one fourth of its

height, and the architrave somewhat more than one sixth of its

width.

2763. Fig. 976. is by Michael Angelo, and executed at the Farnese palace at Rome. It possesses all the wildness and fancy of the master, and though abounding with faults, is redeemed by its grandeur and originality.

2764. In fig. 977. is given the design by Ludovico da Cigoli of a window from the ground floor of the Renuccini palace in Florence. It can scarcely be properly estimated without its connection with the façade, to the character whereof it is in every respect suitable.

2765. Fig. 978. is a design of Palladio, nearly resembling that executed in the Barbarano palace at Vicenza. It has been imitated by Inigo Jones, and perhaps improved on by him, in the flanks at Greenwich Hospital.

2766. Fig. 979. is also by Palladio, and executed by him in the Porto palace at Vicenza. 2767. Fig. 980. is the design of Raffaelle Sanzio, and worthy of the reputation of that

great painter and architect. It is executed in the Pandolfini palace at Florence, on the principal floor. The height of the aperture is a very little more than twice its width, the architrave is one seventh the width of the aperture. The columns, which are Ionic, are

9 diameters high, and should be as much detached from the wall as possible. The distance of them from the architrave of the window is a quarter of a diameter, which is also the distance of the entablature from the top of the same architrave. The total height of the entablature is two ninths of that of the column, and the height of the pediment is one quarter of its base or somewhat less. The pedestals are one quarter of the height of the whole order.

2768. Fig. 981. is one of the windows of the Bracciano palace at Rome, by Bernini. The aperture is more than a double square, and the architrave about one sixth the width of the aperture. The entablature is only one fifth of the height of the columns, including their sub-plinths, and the pediment is less in height than one quarter of its extent.

2769. Fig. 982. is from the principal floor of the Palazzo Thiene at Vicenza. The aperture is two and two tenths of its width in height; the columns are nine diameters hign, and one quarter engaged in the wall. The under sides of the Ionic capitals are level with the top of the aperture, having angular volutes with an astragal and fillet below the volute. The bases are Tuscan, and there are on each shaft five rustic dies of an equal breadth

whose inner sides are on a line with the sides of the aperture, and their projection equal to that of the plinth of the base, that is, one fifth of a diameter of the column. The keystones incline forwards towards the top, and they are hatched, only the surface being left rough, as are likewise the dies on the columns, except at their angles, which are rubbed smooth, The entablature is Ionic, the architrave consisting of only two fascia, the frieze swelled and the dentil band placed immediately on the frieze, without any intervening mouldings a practice not very unusual with Palladio. The 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 projection.

2770. Fig. 983. is a design by Inigo Jones, which has been much used in this country. It is rather higher than a double square. The width of the architrave is one fifth that of the aperture, and the rustics are a trifle less than the third of it. The entablature is two ninths of the height of the opening, and the height of the pedestal is 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 Vitruvius Britannicus; and

2772. Fig. 985. is very similar to the Venetian windows in the west façade of the Horse Guards, executed by Kent. It is perhaps as favourable an example of this species of window as can be produced.

SECT. XXI.

NICHES AND STATUES.

2773. A niche is a recess constructed in the thickness of a wall for the reception of different 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 inscription published by Visconti in the Monumenti Gabini we should not have known that they were by the ancients called zothecæ, 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 such 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 sarcophagus of the head of the family.

2775. The small temples (adicula) 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 sufficiently indicates that they were provided for the reception of statues. In the temple of Diana, at Nismes, in the South of France, which is now considered to have been a portion