What are triangular pediments?
pediment, in architecture, triangular gable forming the end of the roof slope over a portico (the area, with a roof supported by columns, leading to the entrance of a building); or a similar form used decoratively over a doorway or window. The pediment was the crowning feature of the Greek temple front.
What was the purpose of a pediment?
A pediment is an ornamental triangle formed by a typically low-pitched gabled roof, used to adorn a building’s main entrance. The triangular area may be plain, but is often filled with design detail and even sculpture. Pediments are traditionally considered exterior building features, but also have been used inside.
What is the triangle above a window called?
A classic pediment sits above the horizontal moulding (known as an entablature) above a window or door, which is usually supported by columns. You can see pediments even in relatively modern homes too, mainly in the form of a triangle or half-circle shape above a door or window.
What is the triangle in the Greek temples called?
Greek architecture. The pediment is the triangular place under the roof of a Greek temple. Each temple has two pediments, one on the front and one on the back. They’re always isosceles triangles. At first pediments were probably plain, but soon the Greeks began to decorate pediments with stone sculpture.
What is pediment renaissance?
A pediment is a low-pitched triangular gable originally found on temples in ancient Greece and Rome. Pediments were reinvented during the Renaissance and later imitated in Greek Revival and Neoclassical house styles of the 19th and 20th centuries.
What’s a broken pediment?
Definition of broken pediment : a pediment frequent in the baroque style having a gap at the apex (as for a statue or vase)
What is a pediment in geography?
A pediment is a gently sloping erosion surface or plain of low relief formed by running water in arid or semiarid region at the base of a receding mountain front. A pediment is underlain by bedrock that is typically covered by a thin, discontinuous veneer of soil and alluvium derived from upland areas.
Why is it called a pediment?
This architectural element was developed in the architecture of ancient Greece and first appeared as gable ends of Greek temples. These forms were adopted in Mannerist architecture, and applied to furniture designed by Thomas Chippendale. The terms “open pediment” and “broken pediment” are often used interchangeably.
What is a broken pediment?
Who first used the term pediment?
This architectural element was developed in the architecture of ancient Greece. In ancient Rome, the Renaissance, and later architectural revivals, the pediment was used as a non-structural element over windows, doors and aedicules.
What is a cupola in architecture?
cupola, in architecture, small dome, often resembling an overturned cup, placed on a circular, polygonal, or square base or on small pillars or a glassed-in lantern. It is used to crown a turret, roof, or larger dome. The inner vault of a dome is also a cupola.
What does a pediment look like?
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. They are found in ancient Greek architecture as early as 600 BC (e.g. the archaic Temple of Artemis). The tympanum, the triangular area within the pediment, is often decorated with a pedimental sculpture which may be freestanding or a relief sculpture.
What is the meaning of pediment in architecture?
Pediment. Pediment, in architecture, triangular gable forming the end of the roof slope over a portico (the area, with a roof supported by columns, leading to the entrance of a building); or a similar form used decoratively over a doorway or window. The pediment was the crowning feature of the Greek temple front.
What is the pediment of a temple?
In Classical architecture, the pediment is the traditionally triangular section at the top of a temple’s entrance. This form was introduced by the ancient Greeks. For them, the pediment was a gable, a vertical structural element that supported a low-pitched, gabled roof.
What style of architecture uses triangular pediments?
Triangular pediments have also been used in modern, Neoclassical architecture. The pediment for the New York Stock Exchange building, for example, is triangular and features sculptures in a classical style. There are eleven figures, the central of which represents Integrity.
What is a pediment gable?
“pediment: the triangular gable defined by the crown molding at the edge of a gabled roof and the horizontal line between the eaves.” — John Milnes Baker, AIA Antique dealers will often use the word “pediment” to describe an ornate flourish in Chippendale-era furniture.