Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/646

 588 COMPARATIVE ARCHITECTURE. amount of low-pitched roof covering the building (No. 258). In the smaller works, tiled roofs having a wooden eaves cornice, were often effectively used. Domes, cupolas, and turrets were well designed, those on a large scale being lead covered, while small examples were sometimes entirely of wood. The splendid steeples of the period, in stone and wood, covered with lead, rival mediaeval spires in fanciful and skilful outlines (No. 255). E. Columns. — The orders were used wherever funds. per- mitted (No. 260). Single order porticos of large scale were not possible owing to the small size of stone obtainable, but on the introduction of stucco and iron these could be erected. Pilasters, however, were most often of two or more stories in height (Nos. 258 a and 259). Columns, often purely decorative in function, were employed in interiors with considerable effect. The canons of proportion first laid down by Vitruvius (page 167) were still further insisted on by Sir W. Chambers (Nos. 261, 262), who took various Renaissance architects as his guide. F. Mouldings. — The standard mouldings of the Classic orders became the stock-in-trade of every workman, being applied in every material with small modification (Nos. 260, 262), and design is thus often found of equal standard in very varied classes of building. The large employment of wood, in which material smallness of scale was rendered possible, admitted of much elaboration and refinement in such features as the main external cornices and doorways. G. Ornament (No. 260). — Wall tablets (No. 260 d), tombs (No. 260 j), and chimney-pieces (No. 260 h, k) are among the most pleasing decorative features in the style. Whitewash was usual, but sometimes fresco decorations were employed, artists such as Verrio and Sir James Thornhill being engaged. The orders were executed with facility in wood or plaster, or both, and small buildings resembling Roman Temples (No. 261 e) were most effectively grouped in parks and gardens. Decoration, founded on Roman, or in the later period, on Greek examples, was modelled in stucco with great skill and effect, and French work of the style of Louis XIV. and his successors was also followed, while the Brothers Adam and others imported Italian workmen, who carried the art to a high pitch of technical excellence. 5. REFERENCE BOOKS. LATER ENGLISH RENAISSANCE. (Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.) Adam (R. and J.) — " Works in Architecture." 3 vols., folio. 1773-1822. Adam (R. and J.), "Decorative Work of." (A selection of plates reproduced from the above.) Folio. 1901.