pediment

pediment. Low-pitched triangular gable following the roof-slopes over a portico or façade in Classical architecture, formed with raked cornices of the same section as that of the horizontal entablature at its base and mitring with it in part. Doric examples often omit the mutules under the sloping cornices. The triangular tympanum framed by the raking and horizontal cornices was the field left plain or embellished with sculpture in high relief. Greek or Greek Revival pediments were lower in pitch than Roman examples. Pediments may crown subordinate features such as door-ways, niches, windows, etc., and in such cases are termed fronton. The triangular pediment is the most usual, but the segmental pediment was evolved in Antique Roman architecture in ad C1, and found on buildings connected with the worship of Isis, a goddess associated with the crescent-moon. Types of pediment include:broken: with gap in the middle of the lower horizontal cornice and with raking cornices stopping before they can meet, so having no apex; broken-apex: with raking sides too short to meet at the apex, also called open or open-topped; broken-base: with the horizontal base lacking a middle section, also called open-bed, often occurring in C18 door-cases with fanlights breaking upwards into the lower cornice; scrolled: open-topped segmental pediment with segmental tops curling inwards as scrolls, or with the tops in the form of two ogees ending in scrolls, called bonnet-scroll, goose-neck, or swan-neck.

Bibliography

J. Curl (2001, 2002a)