A Text-Book of the History of Architecture Part 30

EMPAISTIC, made of, or overlaid with, sheet-metal beaten or hammered into decorative patterns.

EXEDRae, curved seats of stone; niches or recesses, sometimes of considerable size, provided with seats for the public.

FENESTRATION, the whole system or arrangement of windows and openings in an architectural composition.

FOUR-PART. A four-part vault is a groined vault formed by the intersection of two barrel vaults. Its diagonal edges or _groins_ divide it into four sections, triangular in plan, each called a _compartment_.

GIGANTOMACHIA, a group or composition representing the mythical combat between the G.o.ds and the giants.

HALF-TIMBERED, constructed with a timber framework showing externally, and filled in with masonry or brickwork.

IMAUM, imam, a Mohammedan priest.

KAABAH, the sacred shrine at Meccah, a nearly cubical structure hung with black cloth.

KARAFAH, a region in Cairo containing the so-called tombs of the Khalifs.

LACONIc.u.m, the sweat-room in a Roman bath; usually of domical design in the larger thermae.

MEZZANINE, a low, intermediate story.

MUEDDIN, a Mohammedan mosque-official who calls to prayer.

NARTHEX, a porch or vestibule running across the front of a basilica or church.

NEO-GOTHIC, NEO-MEDIaeVAL, in a style which seeks to revive and adapt or apply to modern uses the forms of the Middle Ages.

OCULUS, a circular opening, especially in the crown of a dome.

OGEE ARCH, one composed of two juxtaposed S-shaped or wavy curves, meeting in a point at the top.

PALaeSTRA, an establishment among the ancient Greeks for physical training.

PAVILION (Fr. _pavillon_), ordinarily a light open structure of ornate design. As applied to architectural composition, a projecting section of a facade, usually rectangular in plan, and having its own distinct ma.s.s of roof.

QUARRY ORNAMENT, any ornament covering a surface with two series of reticulated lines enclosing approximately quadrangular s.p.a.ces or meshes.

QUATREFOIL, with four leaves or _foils_; composed of four arcs of circles meeting in cusps pointing inward.

QUOINS, slightly projecting blocks of stone, alternately long and short, decorating or strengthening a corner or angle of a facade.

REVETMENT, a veneering or sheathing.

RUSTICATION, treatment of the masonry with blocks having roughly broken faces, or with deeply grooved or bevelled joints.

SOFFIT, the under-side of an architrave, beam, arch, or corona.

SPANDRIL, the triangular wall-s.p.a.ce between two contiguous arches.

SQUINCH, a bit of conical vaulting filling in the angles of a square so as to provide an octagonal or circular base for a dome or lantern.

STOA, an open colonnade for public resort.

TEPIDARIUM, the hot-water hall or chamber of a Roman bath.

TYMPANUM, the flat s.p.a.ce comprised between the horizontal and raking cornices of a pediment, or between a lintel and the arch over it.

VOUSSOIR, any one of the radial stones composing an arch.