noun
definition
A classical architectural element consisting of a triangular section or gable found above the horizontal superstructure (entablature) which lies immediately upon the columns; fronton.
Examples of pediments in a Sentence
Giovanni e Paolo, which has six semicircular pediments of varying size crowning the six bays, in the upper order of which are four noble Romanesque windows.
In one of the pediments was a gigantomachy, of which some fragments have been recovered.
It is a hexastyle peripteros with fourteen columns on each side, and is remarkably well-preserved, both pediments and the epistyle at the sides being still in situ.
No traces of the decoration of the pediments and metopes have been preserved.
Portions of the pediments of this temple have been found in the excavations; but no sign has been found of the pediments mentioned by Pausanias, representing on the east Apollo and the Muses, and on the west Dionysus and the Thyiades (Bacchantes), and designed by Praxias, the pupil of Calanias.
The original temple was said to have been built by Aleus, the founder of the city; it was superseded by a larger one which was destroyed by fire in 395 B.C. The rebuilding was entrusted to Scopas, the great sculptor; and it is probable that he not only acted as architect, but also provided the sculptural groups which ornamented the pediments.
The statement of Pausanias that the two pediments were made by Paeonius and Alcamenes is now generally supposed to be an error.
Besides numerous fragments of nude and draped figures belonging to pedimental statues, a well-preserved and very beautiful head of a female divinity, probably Hera, as well as a draped female torso of excellent workmanship, both belonging to the pediments, have been discovered.
The facade of San Zaccaria (1457-1515), the stately design of Anton Marco Gambello and Mauro Coducci, offers some slight modifications in the use of the semicircular pediment, the line of the aisle roof being indicated by quarter-circle pediments abutting on the facade of the nave.
The sculptures of the pediments have been completely lost, but their design has been ingeniously reconstructed by Sauer.