Architecture Glossary

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R2

Rose window or wheel window – A circular window with foils of patterned tracery arranged like the spokes of a wheel.

St. Denis Cathedrak

Rosette - A rose-shaped patera.

Rostral column or columna rostrata - A column set on a pedestal and decorated with the bows of warships to celebrate naval victories. Originally a Roman form, it was revived in 17th and 18th century decoration.

Rostral Column - San Petersburg

Rotunda - A building, often surrounded by a colonnade, or room circular in plan and usually domed, e.g. the Pantheon.

Roughcast - An external rendering of rough material, usually applied in two coast of cement and sand on to which gravel, crushed stone, or pebbles are thrown before the second coat is dry; also called pebbledash.

Rubble masonry - Rough unhewn building stones or flints, generally not laid in regular courses. Coursed rubble is walling with the stones or flints roughly dressed and laid in deep courses. Snecked or speckled rubble is walling with stones of varying sized with small rectangular fillings or snecks between them.

Running dog - A classical ornament often used in a frieze, similar to the wave ornament. It is sometimes called a Vitruvian scroll.

Vitruvian scroll

Rusticated column - A blocked column whose shaft is interrupted by rusticated square bocks.

Rustication -  Masonry cut in massive blocks, sometimes in its crude, quarry-dressed state, separated from each other by deep joints, employed to give a rich and bold texture to an exterior wall and normally reserved for the lower part of it.

Various types have been used:   Banded, with only the horizontal joints emphasized;   Chamfered, with smooth stones separated by V joints, as in                      smooth rustication described bellowed;   Cyclopean or rock-faced, with very large rough-hewn                    blocks straight from the quarry or artfully carved                    to look as if they were;   Diamond-pointed, with each stone cut in the form of a low                               pyramid;   Frosted, with the surface of the stones carved to simulate                 icicles;   Smooth, with blocks, neatly finished to present a flat face,                and chamfered edges to emphasize the joints;   Vermiculated, with the blocks carved with shallow curly                         channels like worm tracks. Sometimes it is                         simulated in stucco or other compositions,                         e.g. by Palladio.

Rustication banded Blenheim Palace

Rustication diamond-pointed Czernin Palace

Rustication vermiculated

Architecture Glossary

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