Pediments are a form of

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

classical architecture Classical architecture typically refers to architecture consciously derived from the principles of Ancient Greek architecture, Greek and Ancient Roman architecture, Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or more specifically, from ''De archit ...

, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

(an elaborated lintel), or

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

if supported by

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

s.Summerson, 130 In ancient architecture, a wide and low triangular pediment (the side angles 12.5° to 16°) typically formed the top element of the

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

of a

Greek temple Greek temples (, semantically distinct from Latin , " temple") were structures built to house deity statues within Greek sanctuaries in ancient Greek religion. The temple interiors did not serve as meeting places, since the sacrifices and ritu ...

, a style continued in

Roman temple Ancient Roman temples were among the most important buildings in culture of ancient Rome, Roman culture, and some of the richest buildings in Architecture of ancient Rome, Roman architecture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete ...

s. But large pediments were rare on other types of building before

Renaissance architecture Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...

. For symmetric designs, it provides a center point and is often used to add grandness to entrances. Madeleine collage

The cornice continues round the top of the pediment, as well as below it; the rising sides are often called the "raking cornice". The tympanum is the triangular area within the pediment, which is often decorated with a

pedimental sculpture Pedimental sculpture is a form of architectural sculpture designed for installation in the Tympanum (architecture), tympanum, the space enclosed by the architectural element called the pediment. Originally a feature of Ancient Greek architecture, ...

which may be freestanding or a

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

sculpture. The tympanum may hold an inscription, or in modern times, a clock face. The main variant shapes are the "segmental", "curved", or "arch" pediment, where the straight line triangle of the cornice is replaced by a curve making a segment of a circle, the broken pediment where the cornice has a gap at the apex, and the open pediment, with a gap in the cornice along the base. Both triangular and segmental pediments can have "broken" and "open" forms. Pediments are found in

ancient Greek architecture Ancient Greek architecture came from the Greeks, or Hellenes, whose Ancient Greece, culture flourished on the Greek mainland, the Peloponnese, the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Asia Minor, Anatolia and Italy for a period from about 900 BC ...

as early as 580 BC, in the archaic Temple of Artemis, Corfu, which was probably one of the first. Pediments return in

and are then much used in later styles such as

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

, Neoclassical, and

Beaux-Arts architecture Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorporated Renaissance and ...

, which favoured the segmental variant.

Variant forms

A variant is the "segmental" or "arch" pediment, where the normal angular slopes of the cornice are replaced by one in the form of a segment of a circle, in the manner of a depressed arch. Both traditional and segmental pediments have "broken" and "open" forms. In the broken pediment the raking cornice is left open at the apex. The open pediment is open along the base, with a gap in the cornice for part or all of the space under the pediment. All these forms were used in

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

architecture, especially in

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. The so-called "Treasury" or

Al-Khazneh Al-Khazneh (; , "The Treasury"), also known as Khazneh el-Far'oun (treasury of the pharaoh), is one of the most elaborate rock-cut tombs in Petra, a city of the Nabatean Kingdom inhabited by the Arabs in ancient times. As with most of the other ...

, a 1st-century rock-cut tomb in

Petra Petra (; "Rock"), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu (Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean: or , *''Raqēmō''), is an ancient city and archaeological site in southern Jordan. Famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit systems, P ...

, Jordan, is a famously extreme example, with not merely the pediment, but the whole

, very "broken" and retreating into the cliff face.Furman Broken pediments where the gap is extremely wide in this way are often called "half-pediments". They were adopted in

Mannerist architecture Mannerism is a Style (visual arts), style in Art of Europe, European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the ...

, and applied to

furniture Furniture refers to objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., Stool (seat), stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (table (furniture), tables), storing items, working, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Furnitur ...

Thomas Chippendale Thomas Chippendale (June 1718 – 1779) was an English woodworker in London, designing furniture in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs in a trade catalogue titled ''The Gen ...

. Another variant is the swan's neck pediment, a broken pediment with two S-shaped profiles resembling a swan's neck, typically

volute A volute is a spiral, scroll-like ornament that forms the basis of the Ionic order, found in the capital of the Ionic column. It was later incorporated into Corinthian order and Composite column capitals. Four are normally to be found on an ...

s; this is mostly found in furniture rather than buildings. It was popular in American doorways from the 1760s onwards. Very often there is a vase-like ornament in the middle, between the volutes. Non-triangular variations of pediments are often found over doors, windows, niches, and porches. File:Roman fresco from Boscoreale, 43-30 BCE, Metropolitan Museum of Art.jpg, Open pediment in a

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

from

Boscoreale Boscoreale (; ; "Royal Grove") is an Italian (municipality) and town in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania, with a population of 25,939 in 2022. Located in the Vesuvius National Park, under the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, it is known for th ...

, 43-30 BC File:St Giles, Cripplegate, London EC2 - Wall monument - geograph.org.uk - 1209154 (cropped).jpg, Broken pediment on the monument to

John Speed John Speed (1551 or 1552 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer, chronologer and historian of Cheshire origins.; superseding . The son of a citizen and Merchant Taylor in London,"Life of John Speed", ''The Hibernian Magazine, Or, Compe ...

, London, File:Desplats-2.jpg,

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

highly decorated segmental pediment, Hôtel Desplats or de Palaminy,

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

, France File:Mt. Harmon, door (21416293709).jpg, Door with swan's neck pediment,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, File:Alexander Nevsky Cathedral Tallinn.jpg, Russian Revival open pediment with

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Tallinn, Estonia

History

Gorgon at the Archaeological Museum in Corfu

Classical

The pediment is found in classical Greek temples, Etruscan, Roman, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical, and Beaux-Arts architecture. Greek temples, normally rectangular in plan, generally had a pediment at each end, but Roman temples, and subsequent revivals, often had only one, in both cases across the whole width of the main front or facade. The rear of the typical Roman temple was a blank wall, usually without columns, but often a full pediment above. This effectively divorced the pediment from the columns beneath it in the original temple front ensemble, and thereafter it was no longer considered necessary for a pediment to be above columns. The most famous example of the Greek scheme is the

Parthenon The Parthenon (; ; ) is a former Ancient Greek temple, temple on the Acropolis of Athens, Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the Greek gods, goddess Athena. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of c ...

, with two tympanums filled with large groups of sculpted figures. An extreme but very influential example of the Roman style is the Pantheon, Rome, where a portico with pediment fronts a circular temple. Markttor zu Milet-Pergamonmuseum-2018

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

, the

, and later architectural revivals, small pediments are a non-structural element over

window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent ma ...

door A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide securit ...

s, and

aedicula In religion in ancient Rome, ancient Roman religion, an ''aedicula'' (: ''aediculae'') is a small shrine, and in classical architecture refers to a Niche (architecture), niche covered by a pediment or entablature supported by a pair of columns an ...

e, protecting windows and openings from rain, as well as being decorative. From the 5th century pediments also might appear on tombs and later non-architectural objects such as

sarcophagi A sarcophagus (: sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a coffin, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek σάρξ ' meaning "flesh", and φ� ...

. In the Hellenistic period pediments became used for a wider range of buildings, and treated much more freely, especially outside Greece itself. Broken and open pediments are used in a way that is often described as "baroque". The large 2nd-century Market Gate of Miletus, now reconstructed in the

Pergamon Museum The Pergamon Museum (; ) is a Kulturdenkmal , listed building on the Museum Island in the Mitte (locality), historic centre of Berlin, Germany. It was built from 1910 to 1930 by order of Emperor Wilhelm II, German Emperor, Wilhelm II and accordi ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, has a pediment that retreats in the centre, so appears both broken and open, a feature also seen at the

(so-called "Treasury") tomb at

in modern

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

. The broken pediments on each of the four sides of the Arch of Septimius Severus at

Leptis Magna Leptis or Lepcis Magna, also known by #Names, other names in classical antiquity, antiquity, was a prominent city of the Carthaginian Empire and Roman Libya at the mouth of the Wadi Lebda in the Mediterranean. Established as a Punic people, Puni ...

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

are very small elements, raking at an extremely steep angle, but not extending beyond the entablature for the columns below. There are two faces to each pediment, both carved, with one lying parallel to the wall of the monument, and the other at right angles to that. The Arch of Augustus in

Rimini Rimini ( , ; or ; ) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. Sprawling along the Adriatic Sea, Rimini is situated at a strategically-important north-south passage along the coast at the southern tip of the Po Valley. It is ...

, Italy (27 BC), an early imperial monument, suggests that at this stage provincial Roman architects were not well practiced in the classical vocabulary; the base of the pediment ends close to, but not over, the capitals of the columns. Here the whole temple front is decoration applied to a very solid wall, but the lack of respect for the conventions of Greek trabeated architecture remains rather disconcerting. Conventional Roman pediments have a slightly steeper pitch than classical Greek ones, perhaps because they ended tiled roofs that received heavier rainfall. Горгона артеміда.jpg,

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

west pediment of the Temple of Artemis in Corfu, 580 BC, probably limestone, Archaeological Museum of Corfu, Kerkyra, Greece File:Paestum Temples (Italy, October 2020) - 19 (50562342776).jpg, Ancient Greek west front of the Temple of Athena, Paestum, unknown architect, 500 BC File:Reconstruction drawing of the Temple of Aphaea, Aegina, Greece (01).jpg, Reconstruction drawing of the facade of the Temple of Aphaia,

Aegina Aegina (; ; ) is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina (mythology), Aegina, the mother of the mythological hero Aeacus, who was born on the island and became its king. ...

, Greece, including its pediment, unknown temple architect or illustrator, 500 BC File:Reconstruction drawing of the Temple of Zeus, Olympia, Greece (01).jpg, Reconstruction drawing of the facade of the Temple of Zeus, Olympia, Greece, including its pediment, unknown architect or illustrator, 472-456 BC Reconstruction drawing of the Temple of Zeus Hellanios Aegina, Greece, by Charles Garnier, 1852 (01).webp, Reconstruction drawing of the facade of the Temple of Hellanius Zeus, Aegina, including its pediment, showing the polychromy all ancient sculptures and buildings had, unknown architect, illustrated by Charles Garnier in 1852, unknown date File:Acròpoli d'Atenes, façana est del Partenó.JPG, One of the few sections of the sculpture of the Ancient Greek pediment of the

still in place; others are the

Elgin Marbles The Elgin Marbles ( ) are a collection of Ancient Greek sculptures from the Parthenon and other structures from the Acropolis of Athens, removed from Ottoman Greece in the early 19th century and shipped to Britain by agents of Thomas Bruce, 7 ...

in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, London File:Pediments of the Parthenon as they were in 1683 - Stuart James & Revett Nicholas - 1816.jpg, Illustrations with the sculptures of the two pediments of the Parthenon, by James Stuart and Nicholas Revett in 1794 File:Arco d´Augusto Rimini.JPG, Roman pediment of the Arch of Augustus, Rimini, 27 BC File:Celsus library in Ephesus (5631574095).jpg, Roman mascaron with rinceaux in a segmental pediment of the

Library of Celsus The Library of Celsus () is an Ancient Roman architecture, ancient Roman building in Ephesus, Anatolia, today located near the modern town of Selçuk, in the İzmir Province of western Turkey. The building was commissioned in the years 110s CE b ...

, Ephesus, Turkey, unknown architect, 110 AD File:DM Tiberius Claudius Chryseros.jpg, Roman pediment on a funerary urn, unknown date, marble, Terme di Diocleziano, Rome Disco de Teodosio.jpg, Late Roman-early

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

pediment on the Missorium of Theodosius I, 388, silver, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain

Medieval

Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty ( ; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid c ...

and

Romanesque architecture Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe that was predominant in the 11th and 12th centuries. The style eventually developed into the Gothic style with the shape of the arches providing a simple distinction: the Ro ...

pediments tended towards the

equilateral triangle An equilateral triangle is a triangle in which all three sides have the same length, and all three angles are equal. Because of these properties, the equilateral triangle is a regular polygon, occasionally known as the regular triangle. It is the ...

, and the enclosing cornice has little emphasis; they are often merely gable ends with some ornament. In

Gothic architecture Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High Middle Ages, High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved f ...

pediments with a much more

acute angle In Euclidean geometry, an angle can refer to a number of concepts relating to the intersection of two straight lines at a point. Formally, an angle is a figure lying in a plane formed by two rays, called the '' sides'' of the angle, sharing ...

at the top were used, especially over doorways and windows, but while the rising sides of the cornice is elaborate, the horizontal bottom element was typically not very distinct. Often there is a pointed arch underneath, and no bottom element at all. "Pediment" is typically not used for these; they are often called a "canopy". From the Renaissance onwards, some pediments no longer fitted the steeply pitched roofs and became freestanding, sometimes sloping in the opposite direction to the roof behind. File:F06.St.-Jouin.1912.jpg, Romanesque pediment of the Abbaye Saint-Jouin de Marnes, Saint-Jouin-de-Marnes, Deux-Sèvres, France, started in 1095 File:Castel del monte-entrance.jpg, Entrance of the Castel del Monte, Apulia, Italy, 1240s File:Orvieto, cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta (017).jpg, Gothic pediment of Orvieto Cathedral, Orvieto, Italy, 1290-1591

Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo

When classical-style low triangular pediments returned in

Italian Renaissance architecture Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought ...

, they were initially mostly used to top a relatively flat facade, with engaged elements rather than freestanding porticos supported by columns.

Leon Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, Catholic priest, priest, linguistics, linguist, philosopher, and cryptography, cryptographer; he epitomised the natu ...

used them in this way in his churches: the

Tempio Malatestiano The Tempio Malatestiano () is the Unfinished building, unfinished cathedral church of Rimini, Italy. Officially named for Francis of Assisi, St. Francis, it takes the popular name from Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, who commissioned its reconstr ...

(1450s, incomplete), Santa Maria Novella (to 1470), San Sebastiano in Mantua (unfinished by the 1470s), Sant'Andrea, Mantua (begun 1472), and Pienza Cathedral ), where the design was probably his. Here the cornice comes out and then retreats back, forming the top of

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s with no capitals, a very unclassical note, which was to become much used. In most of these, Alberti followed classical precedent by having the pediment occupy the whole width of the facade, or at least that part that projects outwards. Santa Maria Novella and Sant'Agostino, Rome (1483, by Giacomo di Pietrasanta, perhaps designed by Alberti) were early examples of what was to become a very common scheme, where the pediment at the top of the facade was much less wide, forming a third zone above a middle zone that transitioned the width from that of the bottom. The giant curving

scroll A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. Structure A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papyru ...

used at the sides of the middle zone at Sant'Agostino was to be a very common feature over the next two centuries. As in Gothic architecture, this often reflected the shapes of the roofs behind, where the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

was higher than the side-aisles. Sant'Agostino also has a low, squashed down pediment at the top of the full-width section. This theme was developed by

Andrea Palladio Andrea Palladio ( , ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be on ...

in the next century. The main facade of his San Giorgio Maggiore in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

(begun 1566) has "two interpenetrating temple fronts", a wider one being overlaid with a narrower and higher one, respectively following the roof lines of the aisles and nave. Several of Palladio's villas also introduced the pediment to country house architecture, which was to be become extremely common in English

Palladian architecture Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

. In cities, Palladio reserved the temple front for churches, but in the Baroque, and especially outside Italy, this distinction was abandoned. The first use of pediments over windows in the Renaissance was on the Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni in Florence, completed in 1523 by Baccio d'Agnolo.

Vasari Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work '' Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ide ...

says the innovation caused ridicule initially, but later came to be admired and widely adopted. Baccio was accused of turning a '' palazzo'' into a church. Three windows on each of three storeys (and the door) alternate regular and segmental pediments; there is no pediment at the top of the facade, just a large cornice, as was usual. In St Peter's Basilica there is a conventional pediment over the main entrance, but the complicated facade stretches beyond it to both sides and above, and though large in absolute terms it makes a relatively small impression. Many later buildings used a temple front with pediment as a highlight of a much wider building. The St Peter's facade also has many small pedimented windows and aedicular niches, using a mixture of segmental, broken, and open pediments. Variations using multiple pediments became very popular in

Baroque architecture Baroque architecture is a highly decorative and theatrical style which appeared in Italy in the late 16th century and gradually spread across Europe. It was originally introduced by the Catholic Church, particularly by the Jesuits, as a means to ...

, and the central vertical line of church facades often ascended through several pediments of different sizes and shapes, in Rome five at the

Church of the Gesù The Church of the Gesù (, ), officially named (), is a church located at Piazza del Gesù in the Pigna (rione of Rome), Pigna ''Rioni of Rome, rione'' of Rome, Italy. It is the mother church of the Society of Jesus (best known as Jesuits). Wi ...

(

Giacomo della Porta Giacomo della Porta (1533–1602) was an Italian architect and sculptor. Most likely born in Genoa or Porlezza, Italy, his work was inspired by famous Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo and Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola. He started in his car ...

1584) and six at Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio a Trevi ( Martino Longhi the Younger, 1646), the top three folding into each other, using the same base line. This facade has been described as "a veritable symphony in repetitious pedimentry, bringing together a superimposed array of broken pediments, open pediments and arched pediments". The Gesù is the home church of the Jesuit order, who favoured this style, which was first seen in many cities around Europe in a new main Jesuit church. File:Historic Centre of the City of Pienza-111586.jpg, Pienza Cathedral, Italy, with the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

Pope Pius II Pope Pius II (, ), born Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini (; 18 October 1405 – 14 August 1464), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 August 1458 to his death in 1464. Aeneas Silvius was an author, diplomat, ...

, 1459-1462 File:Venezia Blick vom Campanile der Basilica di San Marco auf die Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore 6.jpg, San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, by

, begun 1566 File:Church of the Gesù, Rome.jpg,

, Rome, by

, 1584 File:Église Santi Vincenzo Anastasio Fontana Trevi - Rome (IT62) - 2021-08-30 - 1.jpg, Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio a Trevi, Italy, by Martino Longhi the Younger, 1646 File:Roma - Basilica di Santa Maria del Popolo - Facade.jpg, The facade of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, 1470s, with half-pediments at the mid-level by

Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, ; ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor ...

, replacing

s File:Palazzo_bartolini_salimbeni2.JPG, Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni, 1523, the first pedimented windows of the Renaissance File:Pediment of the West facade of the Pavillon Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois (PA00085992 1560).jpg,

pediment of the Pavillon Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, part of the

Palais du Louvre The Louvre Palace (, ), often referred to simply as the Louvre, is an iconic French palace located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, occupying a vast expanse of land between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Ger ...

, Paris, unknown architect and sculptor, 17th century Dijon Palais des Ducs de Bourgogne 02 détail 01.jpg, Baroque pediment of the

Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy The Palace of the Dukes and Estates of Burgundy or ''Palais des ducs et des États de Bourgogne'' is a remarkably well-preserved architectural assemblage in Dijon. The oldest part is the 14th and 15th century Gothic architecture, Gothic ducal pa ...

, Dijon, France, by Daniel Gittard after

Jules Hardouin-Mansart Jules Hardouin-Mansart (; 16 April 1646 – 11 May 1708) was a French Baroque architect and builder whose major work included the Place des Victoires (1684–1690); Place Vendôme (1690); the domed chapel of Les Invalides (1690), and the Gra ...

, 1682-1689 File:Pierre legros, gloria di san luigi gonzaga, 1697-99, 01, altare con colonne di verde antico (cropped pediments and cartouche).jpg, Baroque cartouche and pediments on the Altar of Saint

Aloysius Gonzaga Aloysius de Gonzaga, SJ (; 9 March 156821 June 1591) was an Italian people, Italian aristocracy (class), aristocrat who became a member of the Society of Jesus. While still a student at the Roman College, he died as a result of caring for the v ...

Sant'Ignazio The Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola at Campus Martius (, ) is a Latin Catholic titular church, of deaconry rank, dedicated to Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, located in Rome, Italy. Built in Baroque style between 1626 and ...

, Rome, by Pierre Le Gros the Younger, 1697-1699 File:Münster, Erbdrostenhof -- 2014 -- 4011.jpg, Curving

Rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

pediment of the Erbdrostenhof, Münster, Germany, by Johann Conrad Schlaun, 1753-1757

From 1750 to Art Deco

Pediments became extremely common on the main facades of

English country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

s, and many across northern Europe; these might be placed over a porch with columns, or simply decorations to an essentially flat facade. In England, if there was any sculpture within the tympanum, it was often restricted to a

Neoclassical architecture Neoclassical architecture, sometimes referred to as Classical Revival architecture, is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy, France and Germany. It became one of t ...

returned to "purer" classical models mostly using conventional triangular pediments, often over a portico with columns. Large schemes of

were used where the budget allowed. In 19th-century styles, freer treatments returned, and large segmental pediments were especially popular in eclectic styles such as

, often overwhelmed by sculpture within, above, and to the sides. Large pediments with columns, often called the "temple front", became widely used for important public buildings such as

stock exchange A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for ...

s, reserve banks, law courts, legislatures, and museums, where an impression of solidity, reliability, and respectability was desired. File:Petit Trianon, théâtre de la Reine, entrée.jpg,

Louis XVI style Louis XVI style, also called ''Louis Seize'', is a style of architecture, furniture, decoration and art which developed in France during the 19-year reign of Louis XVI (1774–1792), just before the French Revolution. It saw the final phase of t ...

pediment with a putto of the Théâtre de la reine, part of the

Petit Trianon The Petit Trianon (; French for 'small Trianon') is a Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical style château located on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, France. It was built between 1762 and 1768 ...

, France, by

Richard Mique Richard Mique () (18 September 1728 – 8 July 1794) was a Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical French architect born in Lorraine. He is most remembered for his picturesque hamlet, the hameau de la Reine — not particularly characteristic of h ...

, 1780 File:Petit Trianon - Belvédère 2012.jpg, Louis XVI style pediment of the

Belvédère Belvédère (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Vésubie valley north of Nice in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in southeastern France. The village of Belvédère is located at the entrance of the Gordolasque val ...

, part of the Petit Trianon, by Richard Mique, completed in 1781 File:Église St Vincent Paul Paris 6.jpg, Neoclassical pediment of the Church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, Paris, by Jacques Ignace Hittorff, 1830–1846 File:Fontaine St Michel Paris 2.jpg, Baroque Revival pediment of the , Paris, by Gabriel Davioud, 1858 File:Détail façade principale Palais Garnier Paris 13.jpg, Beaux-Arts pediment with sculptures on the facade of the , Paris, by Charles Garnier, 1861–1874 File:Berlín, Antigua Galería Nacional 1.jpg, Neoclassical pediment of the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany, by Friedrich August Stüler and Heinrich Strack, 1865–1869 File:Lyon 6e - Boulevard des Belges, entrée du musée Guimet.jpg, Neoclassical pediment with acroteria of a door of the Musée d'histoire naturelle - Guimet, Lyon, France, by Jules Chatron, 1879 Hôtel Caisse Épargne - Dijon (FR21) - 2022-04-16 - 6.jpg, Renaissance Revival pediment of the Hôtel de la Caisse d'épargne de Dijon (Rue des Bons-Enfants no. 8),

Dijon Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eas ...

, France, by Arthur Chaudouet, 1889–1890 File:3-5, Strada Icoanei, Bucharest (Romania) 1.jpg, Romanian Revival door pediment of the Școala Centrală National College, Bucharest, Romania, by

Ion Mincu Ion Mincu (; December 20, 1852 – December 6, 1912 in Bucharest) was a Romanian architect known for having a leading role in the development of the Romanian Revival style. Most of his projects are located in Bucharest, including his main work ...

, 1890 File:Masonic Temple, Crown Street, Aberdeen, first floor detail main facade, Harbourne Maclennan, Jenkins and Marr, 1910.jpg, Open pediment above an arch; Masonic Temple,

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

, 1910 44 Calea Călărașilor, Bucharest (12).jpg,

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

pediment of the Mihai Zisman House ( Calea Călărașilor no. 44), Bucharest, by architect Soru, 1920 File:Louisiana State Capitol - Ad Astra (33297407125).jpg, Art Deco near-pediment of the Louisiana State Capitol, 1930-1932 File:Bâtiment à l'angle du Quai Conti et de la rue Dauphine (détail).JPG, Art Deco pediment of the Carrefour Curie (Quai de Conti no. 1-3), Paris, by Joseph Marrast and Charles Letrosne, 1932

Postmodern reinterpretations

Postmodernism Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, Culture, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting ...

, a movement that questioned

Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

(the

status quo is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social, economic, legal, environmental, political, religious, scientific or military issues. In the sociological sense, the ''status quo'' refers to the curren ...

after WW2), promoted the inclusion of elements of historic styles in new designs. An early text questioning Modernism was by architect

Robert Venturi Robert Charles Venturi Jr. (June 25, 1925 – September 18, 2018) was an American architect, founding principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates. Together with his wife and partner, Denise Scott Brown, he helped shape the way that ...

, ''Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture'' (1966), in which he recommended a revival of the 'presence of the past' in architectural design. He tried to include in his own buildings qualities that he described as 'inclusion, inconsistency, compromise, accommodation, adaptation, superadjacency, equivalence, multiple focus, juxtaposition, or good and bad space.' Venturi encouraged 'quotation', which means reusing elements of the past in new designs. Part manifesto, part architectural scrapbook accumulated over the previous decade, the book represented the vision for a new generation of architects and designers who had grown up with Modernism but who felt increasingly constrained by its perceived rigidities. Multiple Postmodern architects and designers put simplified reinterpretations of the pediment found in Classical decoration at the top of their creations. As with other elements and ornaments taken from styles of the pre-Modern past, they were in most cases highly simplified. Especially when it comes to office architecture, Postmodernism was only skin deep; the underlying structure was usually very similar, if not identical, to that of Modernist buildings. In 1984 Philip Johnson designed what is now called 550 Madison Avenue in New York City (formerly known as the Sony Tower, Sony Plaza, and AT&T Building), a famous work of Post-Modern architecture, where a broken pediment at the top of a typical

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

wittily evokes a

-style tallboy at a massive scale. Marco Polo House in London (1989, now demolished) was similar. File:Schullin Kohlmarkt 2.JPG, Schullin II jewelry boutique,

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Austria, by Hans Hollein, 1982 Amoreiras - Lisboa - Portugal (51248936123) (cropped pediments).jpg, Torres das Amoreiras, Lisbon, Portugal, by Tomás Taveira, 1986 Pumping station, Stewart Street (geograph 4678320).jpg, The Isle of Dogs Pumping Station, London, John Outram, 1988 Marco Polo House (brighter cropped version).jpg, Marco Polo House, London, by Ian Pollard, 1987-1989

Notes

References

* * Furman, Adam Nathaniel
"Seven broken pediments"
14 July 2014, ''The

RIBA ''Riba'' (, or , ) is an Arabic word used in Islamic law and roughly translated as " usury": unjust, exploitative gains made in trade or business. ''Riba'' is mentioned and condemned in several different verses in the Qur'an3:130

Journal'' blog * * Lawrence, A. W., ''Greek Architecture'', 1957, Penguin, Pelican history of art * . * Summerson, John, '' The Classical Language of Architecture'', 1980 edition, Thames and Hudson ''World of Art'' series, * Yarwood, Doreen, ''The Architecture of Europe'', 1987 (first edn. 1974), Spring Books, {{ISBN, 0600554309 Ancient Roman architectural elements Architectural elements Columns and entablature