914 PllACTICt: OF ARCIIU'ECTURE.

Book III
gardens, and otliur ])laccs they aru to servo. There are few finer examples in the hii^lic
class of tliis species of design than the celebrated gates at Hampton Conrt.
273r). The evil days on which we have fallen in this country, in respect of the arts, pre
clndes the hope of again seeing the doors of our buildings ornamented with bassi relievi an(
bronze ornaments, a practice connnon among the ancients no less than amon"- the reviver
of the artr,
;
witness the doors of St. Peter's, and, above all, those monuments of the art, thi
doors of the ba|)tistery at Florence by Lorenzo Ghiberti,
wherein art rises by belmr madi
only subservient to tlie holy purpose to which it is the mere handmaid.
In the rnentioi
of doors those of San Giovanni Laterano at Home must not be omitted ; they have the credi
of having lieen the enclosures to the temple of Saturn in the ancient city.
2736. The manuficture of doors has been already sufficiently noticed in the Secon
Book; and it therefo:e only remains for us to subjoin a few examples, which, we thinlc
among many others, deserve the attention of the student.
'J737. Fig. 9.5G. is an external doorway designed and executed by Vignola, at Caprarola
not a great distance north of Rome
;
it must speak for itself: if the reader be of oui
mind, he will see in it a beautiful handling of the subject; but we cannot further answer foi
our opinion, knowing
as we do that some of the reviewers of these days may find out thai
it possesses no msthctic beauties. There are cases where imitation has been permitted; ant
the sanction for our opinion is, that it has been imitated by one whom we and all other
hold in reverence at Greenwich Hospital, though, as we think with Chambers, for tli:
worse. "
The aperture is in the form of an arch, and occupies somewhat more than twt
thirds of tlie whole height. It is adorned with two rusticated Doric pilasters and a re-
gular entablature.
The height of the pilasters is 16 modules, that of the entablature 4,
The width of the aperture is 7 modules, its height
14, and the breath of each pier ii
:{ modules." To the detail of Chambers we have to add that the void in this example,
which has no analogy to that which as a general rule we gave in the commencement ol
the section, is about one third of the area of the whole design, the void beino- to such area
as 7-,57 to 20-88.
27.38. Fig. 957. is a design by the last-mentioned master, in which the void is as nearly
as possible equal to one third of the area, (he supports another, and the weights the othei
third
:
in other terms, the aperture occupies two thirds of the whole height and one ha'l
of the whole breadth, being, in fact, a double square. Its entablature lias an alliance with
the Tuscan order, and the cornice is e(]ual to one fifteenth of the wliole height of the door.
These two examples are especially external; those which follow are from their i ature
applicable in general form to either external or internal doorways.
2739 Fig. 958. is a doorway in the Cancellaria at Rome, and is from the design of
Vignola.
Tlie width is one half
-
-^
._
. .
the height, and the height of the
^'Ifer--^^'
^
e^ntahlature
is equal to one third
of the height of the aperture. Tlie
l>readth of the architrave is one
fifth of
theapertuie's
width, and the
pilasters below the consoles are
half
as broad as tlie arcliilrave.
It is heavy, as might have been
expected from the jiroportion
be-
tween the voids and tlie solids.
2740. Fig.
939. is a design by
Michael Angelo
Buonarotti, and it's
aperture miv be twice its height.
Fig. 9C0.