CANOPY, a hood or cover, supported or suspended above an object; a tester. The canopy over an altar, when disconnected from the wall and supported on columns, is known as a baldachino (q.v.), one suspended from the ceiling or bracketed from the eastern wall is usually termed a tester. The word also designates any projecting hood, such as that over choir stalls or niches; also, the embroidered hangings, supported on poles, carried over the officiating priest in religious processions. By extension, the pro jecting arch or gable mouldings over doors or windows are some times known as canopies even when the projection is slight. Dur ing the Gothic period canopies received lavish decoration, usually by means of small architectural features such as buttresses, trac ery, pinnacles, gables, etc., and the under side frequently took the form of a miniature vault. The canopies over thrones sometimes received rich architectural treatment such as that for the throne of Napoleon in the Luxembourg palace in Paris, where caryatides of great delicacy are used as supports. A canopy porch, usually small, is one whose primary purpose is to furnish a hood over a door. In modern usage the term is synonymous with awning.