Chap. I. PILASTERS.

890
height of the rustic itself, nor narrower than one-tenth, their depth not exceeding their
width. When the joints are chamfered, the chamfer should be at an angle of forty-five
degrees, and the whole width of the joint from one third to one fourth of the height of the
rustic.
2667. The courses are sometimes (often on the Continent) laid without showing vertical
joints ; hut, as Chambers says, this
"
has in general a bad appearance, and strikes as if the
building were composed of boards rather than of stone. Palladio's method seems far pre-
ferable, who, in imitation of the ancients, always marked both the vertical and the hori-
zontal joints ;
and whenever the former of these are regularly and artfully disposed, the
rustic work has a very beautiful appearance." We shall presently make a few remarks on
the subject of rustics ; but here, to continue and finish that more immediately under con-
sideration, have to add, that when a high basement is used, it is not uncommon to crown it
with a cornice, as may be seen in
Jig.
909. ;
but the more common practice is to use a plat-
band only (as mjig. 911.), whose height should not be greater than that of a rustic exclu-
sive of the joint. Of a similar height should be made the zoccolo or plinth ; but this may,
and ought, perhaps, to be somewhat higher. When arches occur in basements, the plat-
band, which serves for the impost, should be as high as a course of rustics, exclusive of the
joint ; and if the basement be finished with a cornice, such basement shoidd have a i-egularly
moulded base at its foot
;
the former to be about one thirteenth of the whole height of the
basement, and the base about one eighteenth, without the plinth.
2668. The Attic which is used instead of a second order where limits are prescribed
to the height of a building, examples whereof may be seen at Greenwich Hospital, and in
the Valmarano palace, by the great Palladio, at Vicenza shoidd not exceed in height
one-third of the order whereon they are placed, neither ought they to be less than one
quarter. Bearing some resemblance to a pedestal, the base, die, and cornice whereof they
are composed may be proportioned much in the same way as the respective divisions of
their prototypes. They are sometimes continued without, and sometimes with, breaks
over the column or pilaster of the order which they crown. If they are formed with
pilasters, such ought to be of the same width as the upper diameter of the order under
them, never more. In projection they should be one quarter of their width at most.
They may be decorated with sunk moulded panels if necessary
; but this is a practice
rather to be avoided, as is most especially that of using capitals to them
a practice much
in vogue in France under Louis XV.
2669. We now return to the subject of the rock-worked rustic, whereof, above, some
notice was promised. The practice, though occasionally used by the Romans, seems to have
had its chief origin in Florence, where, as we have in a former Book
(329.) observed, each
palace resembled rather a fortification than a private dwelling. Here it was used to excess
;
and if variety in the practice is the desire of the student, the buildings of that city will
furnish him with an almost infinite number of examples. The introduction of it gives a
boldness and an expression of solidity to the rustics of a basement which no other
means afford. In the other parts of Italy it was sparingly applied, but with more
taste. Vignola and Palladio seem to have treated it as an accident productive of great
variety rather than as a means of decoration. The last-named architect has in the Palazzo
Thiene carried it to the utmost extent whereof it is susceptible. Yet, with this extreme
extent of application, the design falls from his hands full of grace and feeling. To imitate
it would be a dangerous experiment. De Brosse failed at tlie Luxembourg, and produced
an example of clumsiness which in the Palazzo Pitti does not strike the spectator.
2670. Rustics and rockwork on columns are rarely justifiable except for the purpose of
some particular picturesque effect which demands their prominence in the scene, or street
view, as in the gateway at Burlington House in Piccadilly,of which a good view, with
the house itself, is to he seen in the
"
Builder" for ISj'l,
p.
559. It was pulled down
about 1867.
Sect. XIV.
PILASTERS.
2671. Pilasters, or square columns, were by the Romans termed antte, by the Greeks
parastatce. This last word implies the placing one object standing against another, a suffi-
ciently good definition of the word, inasmuch as in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred they
are engao-ed in or backed against a wall, or, in other words, are portions of square columns
projecting from a wall.
2672. It is usual to call a square column, when altogether disengaged from the wall,
a pillar or pier ; and we are inclined to think, notwithstanding the alleged type of trees,
that the primitive supports of stcne buildings were quite as likely to have been square
3 .M 'J