views of mediatorship; the Redeemer
being represented as presiding over the central door only, and the
lateral entrances being under the protection of saints, while the
Madonna almost always has one or both of the transepts. But it would
be wrong to press this, for, in nine cases out of ten, the architect
has been merely influenced in his placing of the statues by an
artist's desire of variety in their forms and dress; and very
naturally prefers putting a canonisation over one door, a martyrdom
over another, and an assumption over a third, to repeating a
crucifixion or a judgment above all. The architect's doctrine is
only, therefore, to be noted with indisputable reprobation when the
Madonna gets possession of the main door.

[56] The arch heading is indeed the best where there is much
incumbent weight, but a window frequently has very little weight
above it, especially when placed high, and the arched form loses
light in a low room: therefore the square-headed window is
admissible where the square-headed door is not.

[57] I do not like the sound of the word "splayed;" I always shall
use "bevelled" instead.

CHAPTER XVII.

FILLING OF APERTURE.

Sec. I. Thus far we have been concerned with the outline only of the
aperture: we were next, it will be remembered, to consider the necessary
modes of filling it with valves in the case of the door, or with glass
or tracery in that of the window.

1. Fillings of doors. We concluded, in the previous Chapter, that doors
in buildings of any importance or size should have headings in the form
of an arch. This is, however, the most inconvenient form we could
choose, as respects the fitting of the valves of the doorway; for the
arch-shaped head of the valves not only requires considerable nicety in
fitting to the arch, but adds largely to the weight of the door,--a
double disadvantage, straining the hinges and making it cumbersome in
opening. And this inconvenience is so much perceived by the eye, that a
door valve with a pointed head is always a disagreeable object. It
becomes, therefore, a matter of true necessity so to arrange the doorway
as to admit of its being fitted with rectangular valves.

Sec. II. Now, in determining the form of the aperture, we supposed the
jamb of the door to be of the utmost height required for entrance. The
extra height of the arch is unnecessary as an opening, the ar