Arcade (architecture)

“ In the next or third arcade—which, remember, is the highest—eight arches, all equal, are given in the space of the nine below, so that there is now a central shaft instead of a central arch, and the span of the arches is increased in proportion to their increased height. Finally, in the uppermost arcade, which is the lowest of all, the arches, the same in number as those below, are narrower than any of the façade; the whole eight going very nearly above the six below them, while the terminal arches of the lower arcade are surmounted by flanking masses of decorated wall with projecting figures. ”

“ The inner arcade of the Clere-story altogether disappears, and in its place is sometimes found a plane of Geometrical Tracery, corresponding with that of the window; but more commonly a single arch spans the entire compartment; and sometimes the gallery is dispensed with altogether.
The Aisle-arcade is often very elegant; the arches are [Pg 31] usually foliated, and covered with a straight-sided canopy. Occasionally this arcade consists of a series of beautiful panels containing geometrical tracery, with mouldings of a very minute and elegant character. ”

“ This age is indicated, in the court, by the prehistoric figure surmounting the piers of the arcade and by the first sculptured group over the entrance to the tower. The repeated arcade figures, which were designed by Albert Weinert, represent alternately Primitive Man and Primitive Woman.
The perfection of the landscape planting and the skill with which it subtly accentuates the meaning of architecture and sculpture are worthy of study. ”

“ This last blind arcade can be given like one of the most complete models of this kind of decoration, and we do not know anything which can be compared to him. It is enriched by sculptures of the greatest beauty, and which have the merit to be laid out perfectly for the place that they occupy. The characters or animal round bump which fill the corner pieces between the arcs, formed like supports under the great figures leaned with columns, formerly upright on this base, and pointed out the martyrdom of the saints or personified them. ”

“ The blind arcade, by its larger apparatus, the firmness of its jambs monoliths, gives solidity to this base by decorating it, it accompanies and crowns this bench which reigns all along the low side. Generally even at that time, the blind arcades are supported by posts isolated decorated from bases and carved capitals ”

“ ENTRANCE TO PUBLIC LIBRARY, MINNEAPOLIS.
design for a similar building at Buffalo. The precedent here is perhaps not so directly in point, seeing that the effectiveness of an arcade increases with its length, and in a much greater ratio, and that the arcade here is not only much shorter than in the projected building, but is still further shortened to the eye by being heightened and carried through two stories. The towers, too, would have been more effective had it been practicable to give greater solidity to their lower stages. ”

“ Thanks to the poverty or the apathy of the commune, three sides have retained all their mediaeval character, the interest of which has been refined and deepened by the artistic touch of time, the sentimental ravisher, the slow and gentle destroyer. A Gothic arcade encloses a wide pavement, and each bay, with its vaulting, forms, as it were, the portico of the house, whose first and higher storeys rest upon it. Here those who are interested in civic architecture can see thirteenth and fourteenth century houses still retaining their wide Gothic doorways. ”

“ The building has but one story over an open arcaded basement. The arcade is in two divisions of four arches each, the arches springing from short columns raised on square pedestals, and the pedestals connected by a balustrade. A central pier and a pier at each end enclose these divisions, and on the face of each pier is a shallow pilaster supporting a narrow entablature which extends across the whole front, with a corbelled capital over the central column of each division to support the entablature in the long intervals between the pilasters. ”

“ But these great stone lintels, massive as they are, indicate a vicious form of construction, many of them being cracked and shattered by the weight of the arches resting upon them. The exterior is of the usual design of such edifices having two arcades superimposed one on the other, with upright pilasters, or engaged columns, between the arcades supporting horizontal entablatures. Each arcade has sixty arches. The pilasters of the ground tier are square, and have no base, while the engaged columns of the upper tier are round and of the Doric order ”

“ Between each pair of arches is a heavy Norman pier, a plain cylinder with fluted capital, and opposite to which are two half-piers, or responds. The arch has been ribbed and worked in bold roll and hollow, varied with the chevron pattern, but the central rib has fallen away. The capitals of this arcade range with the general string-course, and the arches rise into the upper division of the apartment. There is rather more ornament on the north than on the south face. The arcade was filled up with a stone screen, about 10 feet high, of which one division remains and a part of its doorway. ”

“ The intermediate stage is a magnificent arcade supporting very vigorous tracery and divided from the stages above and below it by large and pronounced lines of carved and moulded string-courses.
"It is important to observe that up to the top of the second string-course the whole of the architecture is of the very best kind of Venetian pointed, and is, I believe, the very best and truest specimen of Gothic architecture south of the Alps. ”

“ The earliest example of the Arcade order is the Tabularium in Rome (80 B.C.) where it was employed to light a vaulted corridor running from one end to the other of the structure and raised some 50 ft. from the ground. ”

“ The design of the interior of the choir (Figs. 890 and 891) comprises in each bay a main arcade, resting on simple clustered piers of rather diminutive height, having bases and caps, the mouldings and foliage of which clearly belong to the middle pointed or decorated period. There is no triforium; but the arches of the main arcade being large and lofty, comparatively little plain wall space is left between them and the string course, but the wall space below the clerestory windows is plain and heavy. The latter windows are pointed and filled with simple tracery. ”

“ The ground-story arcade has pointed arches of one order, and the triforium openings consist of a pointed arch in each bay spanning a sub-order of two pointed arches. These are divided by a shaft of unprecedented slenderness, and the tympanum is pierced with a trefoil, an early step in the direction of plate tracery. There can be little question that flying buttresses substantially like those now existing—which probably date from the time of the reconstruction of the vaults in the thirteenth century—abutted against the main piers ”

“ Where the arcade which, on the second floor, takes the place of the cross-wall, joins the east and west walls, the floor of the gallery is raised by a few steps, to provide the adjacent arch with a solid abutment. The arrangement of the mural galleries at Bamburgh, which, owing to the modern alterations of the interior of the tower, is rather obscure, seems to have been very like that at Dover, with a passage through the cross-wall between two divided rooms upon the second floor. ”

“ The unsymmetrical plan of the impost (Fig. 31) , where one of the lateral vaulting shafts advances forward of the other, is caused by the thickening of the arcade spandrel on that side in order to reinforce the great piers of the western tower. The adjustment of this compound abacus to its load could hardly be improved; there is even less unoccupied space here than in the square abacus of the choir already noticed. ”

“ The Vaulting-shaft usually terminates in an elegant capital, just below the Clerestory-string, the mouldings of which form in that case the impost mouldings of the capital. The Arcade generally corresponds with the windows, and consists either of a row of continuous arches, of equal height, or, as is commonly the case, of three tall arches carried on a triple shaft, of which the centre one is the loftiest: the mouldings and ornaments being similar to those of the rest of the building. ”

“ Entering the Vestibule we notice the exact place where the Early English builders finished their work, and the Decorated style begins. The difference between the styles in the chapter-house and vestibule shows that the former was erected first. It has a wall arcade, and above are windows of curious tracery, filled with beautiful old glass. The shafts of the arcade support trefoiled arches, with a cinquefoil ornamented with a sculptured boss. Each boss and capital is beautifully carved with foliage, amidst which the heads of men and dragons appear. ”

“ The whole work is rude. There are no drips or hood mouldings, and a mere attempt at an incised ornament. The arcade is recessed about a foot. In the east wall, near its south end, are two square-headed doors of 2 feet opening and 7 feet 6 inches apart. Each opens into a passage 3 feet 7 inches long and 2 feet 7 inches broad, and these end in, and are connected by, a cross gallery 12 feet long and 2 feet 6 inches broad. These passages are lined with ashlar and are 6 feet 7 inches high, and flat-topped. The roof is formed of rubble, wedged tight and plastered. ”

“ BURGHLEY HOUSE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
GENERAL VIEW.
At Charlton, in Wiltshire (Fig. 80) , there is an example of the open arcade, which became rather fashionable, but which later generations have, in many houses, found unsuitable to our climate, and of which the arches have in consequence been filled up. The gables here are ornamented with a kind of filigree, which is more curious than beautiful. At Aston Hall, [99] near Birmingham, the south front presents another instance of an open arcade (Fig. 81) , and a good deal of picturesqueness is imparted by the broken outline of the gables. ”

“ Blind Arcade or Blind Arch Word by which one indicates a series of arcades of a small dimension, which are rather intended to decorate the parts, smooth of the walls under the supports of the windows or the cornices, rather than to answer a need for construction. ”

“ The western dome arch is filled in with a triple arcade resting on two marble columns with finely carved cubical capitals. Above the arcade is a group of three windows whose heads are circular on the inside, but pointed on the outside. To the west of this arcade is an oblong passage corresponding to the 'inner narthex' of S. Theodosia. It is in three bays. The central long bay is barrel-vaulted; the two outer bays open into the north and south 'aisles'; the bay to the north is covered by a Turkish dome, while that to the south has a cross-groined vault which seems to be original. ”

“ The roof is modern. There is a central pillar, from which the vaulting springs. On each side there is a large window, resembling in tracery those in the cloisters. Below the windows is an arcade, and beneath this a stone bench, and at the east end a raised seat for the bishop and his officials. There is a remarkable series of sculptures above the [122] arcade, which are extremely interesting and merit close study. The following are the subjects represented:—
In the vestibule the doorway is remarkable for its great beauty. ”

“ The window recess is slightly pointed, that of the door more decidedly so, but the exterior facing of both door and window is late Perpendicular, four-centred in a flat head. In the side walls, at their north end, on each side is a Norman arcade of two arches, plain and shallow, springing from plain detached columns with fluted and278 cushion capitals, the whole resting on a low bench. The arcades begin a foot from the north wall, and the arches are full centred, but of unequal span, 4 feet 3 inches and 5 feet 11 inches. The western arcade has been walled up and is only partially seen. ”

“ Webster defines an arcade as "A long, arched building or gallery lined on each side with shops." May the reader not be misled by this definition; for the arcades of Paris do not have shops on both sides. They are a uniform system of porticoes generally from twenty to thirty feet in width. ”

“ The imperfect arcade, which dates from the beginning of the sixteenth century (I know nothing of it but what is related in Mrs. Pattison's "Renaissance in France") , is a truly enchanting piece of work; the cornice and the angles of the arches being covered with the daintiest sculpture of arabesques, flowers, fruit, medallions, cherubs, griffins, all in the finest and most attenuated relief. It is like the chasing of a bracelet in stone. The taste, the fancy, the elegance, the refinement, are of the order that straightens up again our drooping standard of distinction. ”

“ But the most exquisite arcades are those of the Geometrical period, where each arch is often surmounted by a crocketted pediment, and the higher efforts of sculpture are tasked for their enrichment, as in the glorious chapter-house of Salisbury, Southwell, and York; these are, however, usually confined to the interior. In the Decorated period partially, and in the Perpendicular entirely, the arcade gave place to panelling, greatly to the loss of effect, for no delicacy or intricacy of pattern can compensate for the bright light and deep shadows of the Norman and Early English arcades. ”

“ All round this quadrangle ran a covered arcade, whose roof, leaning against the high walls, was supported on the inner side by an open trellis work in stone--often exhibiting great beauty of design and workmanship--through which light and air was admitted into the arcade. ”