Many examples might be given of buildings with pillars and lintels
on the façade, which have no visible modifications of central or end
columns to give balance or symmetry to the whole, and yet which are
perfectly satisfactory as repeated series and do not demand either
such treatment or further continuation, but are complete and finished:
London, Trafalgar Square; Rome, Pantheon; Vienna, St. Karl, Barrome
Kirche; Berlin, Schillerplatz, etc. These have the centre accented by
the superstructure, but there is no discernible modification of the
series itself.
Examples might be multiplied, but there are sufficient to illustrate
the essential stability of repeated vertical units and to contract them
with the outward-tending, run-on effect of arches which need various
kinds of treatments to finish a series.
165 _Arch Series._
A. 45 Go completely around exteriors: Colosseum, arenas, baptisteries,
towers, cloisters, courts, basilicas, tombs.
59 _Series that end:_
B. I. 30 Central arch largest: triumphal arches, doors and windows on
façades of churches.
II. 1 Central arch smallest: doors on Peterborough Cathedral.
III. 4 End arches larger: windows or decorative arches on the walls
of buildings.
IV. 6 End arches smaller: windows, decorative arches, or arches
halfway around a court.
V. 6 Arches go obliquely into higher central point and back:
decorative arches running into the pointed roof on
Romanesque façades.
VI. 6 Central arch accented by decoration: windows and gates.
VII. 6 End arches in different planes: doors on façades of
buildings or in gates.
C. 20 Arches go around interiors: up naves and across the apse of
churches, halls, and loggias.
D. 27 Around the outside of porches, apses, etc.; diminish in size
at ends; are carried on in the transepts; motif is carried on,
although whole arch is not; end arches are closed, or centres
decorated.
7 _Good_
E. 14 Other arrangements: Roman aqueducts (endless); interlacing
arches; filled with statues; finished by gables or turrets;
bridges (land on each side a sufficient embankment); arches
included in large ones.
7 _Poor_
Series not sufficiently finished at the ends; only two arches
in series; three arches, with first arch different from the
others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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