Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/194

 166 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builder's Journal. [Sept., pie of continuous lines, ramifying from the vertical into the circular, without horizontal impediment. " At all events, his mind had some insuperable impedi- ment to the use of the pediment. Whether entire or broken, he eschewed this altogether, save where it spanned the whole edifice, as in the classic temples of Greece and Rome. His sur- faces, frequently very simple, are some- times characterized by sunken fretting and channelled work; and again by zig-zag groves and guilloches. The Anglo-Italian roofs, while not, in any degree, to be termed elevated, are yet not so depressed as the Italian, there being presumably a more copious rain-fall to turn, and a much greater weight of snow to resist ; but as the general Italian is universally held to be the most appropriate for lofty situations, a high l-oof might be stripped of its covering by the fierce winds. The roof commonly chosen is Tuscan, which, while its gable is a low pediment, pro- jects well beyond the walls, upon pur- lins, often converted into cantilevers, and thus protects them, and shelters the family. The doors and windows are, variously, either square or Grecian ; semi-circular with columns and pilasters, or Roman ; semi-circular with continu- ous mouldings, or Soanean ; or struck in arcs, which we may entitle modern at large. Balconies, colonnades, open gal- leries, porches and balustraded terraces, or esplanades, well-advanced, make up the contour. The bed-room windows, shielded by the overhanging roof, de- mand no caps to the architraves. The lower windows, except those within the colonnades and porticos, are guarded with console caps or with cornices. The square tower is derived from the Italian campanile or bell-tower — formerly in Italy, where, not ecclesiastical, attached to villas as a token of nobility ; often used, in the troublous times, as a watch- tower, provided with a great bell for alarming feudal retainers ; and, in its native clime, sometimes covered by a flat hip roof, which being square, and terminating in a point, we will also des- ignate as an obelisk roof. This tower, elevated at least one story above the main building — frequently two, and oc- casionally three — is partly closed in X>y a Tuscan roof of four projecting pediments or depressed gablets. The whole is sur- mounted by an open colonnaded and domed cupola or belviclere. The portico can readily be so managed as to avert the stress of weather from persons leaving the main entrance and stepping into a carriage. The roof of the portico is the floor of the loggia, or large, open, balustraded gallery connected with the principal bed-chamber. Here, then, are all the requisites for winter and summer comfort, in a climate not very inclement, like that of England. Yet most of these very points have arisen from the balmy air and brilliant moon of Italy, and are not quite at home among' the less-violent changes of tem- perature, but more prevalent fresh breezes, mists and clouds of the sea-girt land. The Americo-Italtan Style, as dif- fering distinctively from any of the others herein discriminated, is rather unsettled as j^et, and indeed, for the United States, must vary indefinitely, as we pass from the centre of the Middle States towards any part of the great border. The New England States — with the deep snows of their long and searching winters, their northeasters and balmy airs, their intense suns and brilliant moons, their late springs, fierce summers and ororoeous autumns — would seem to need a commingling of the domestic pointed Gothic for the main body of the house, with Italian salient appendages, because one extreme of climate demands security, and the other insists upon plenty of light and the open air. The terrace, the folding canopy, the portico, the gallery, both covered and open, the ' balcony, the loggia, the campanile and the belvidere all seem to be needed ; and,