Page:Ware - The American Vignola, 1920.djvu/56

46 a sequence of Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, Fig. 154. But if the lower Columns are Ionic or Corinthian those above had better be set nearer together, the axis of the Intercolumniatiori only being preserved, Fig. 155.

With this exception, Superposed Columns are set so that their axes are in the same vertical line, when seen in elevation. But in profile, as seen in section, the upper ones are set back, the wall against which they stand generally growing thinner as it goes up, Fig. 156. Since the Columns themselves also grow smaller, it would not do to leave too much space behind them. The slightly pyramidal effect that this gives to a building of several stories is of value, preventing it from looking top-heavy and high-shouldered (Plate XVI II, C).

OTHER CORNICES AND STRING-COURSES The Five Orders worked out by Vignola are generally accepted as a standard, though they are seldom exactly followed in practice, modern as well as ancient examples exhibiting a great variety in the forms and proportions of the parts. But familiarity with them is of great service in designing, since they can safely be employed on all ordinary occasions, and in the earlier stages of architectural composition. Other types of nearly equal merit have been published by Alberti, Palladio, Serlio, Scamozzi, Sir William Chambers, and others, and a great variety of cornices, both with and without friezes and architraves, have been employed in ancient and modern times to crown and protect walls that were not decorated with columns or pilasters.

Many of these show Blocks or Modillions without any Dentil Course below, as on Palladio's Composite Cornice, and in many of them the Dentil Course is plain, forming what is called an Uncut Dentil Course, Fig. 157. In others, the brackets that support the Corona are brought down so as to occxipy the Frieze, Fig. 158. The most important of these is Vignola's so-called Cantilever Cornice used by him at Caprarola, Fig. 159. It seems to have been suggested by the Mutules and Triglyphs of his Mutulary Doric. Cornices, and indeed full Entablatures, are often used as String-Courses to separate stories, as in the Roman Amphitheaters. But it is customary to use, instead, a lighter form, of small projection, somewhat like the cap of a pedestal, in which the Cymatium and Bed Mold are often omitted, and the Corona itself sometimes diminished to a mere fillet, Figs. 160 to 164.