DOORWAY, in architecture, the entrance of a building, room or enclosure, especially the framing of such an opening. In prim itive construction with brick or rubble, opening frames were usually of wood, and consisted of uprights or jambs on each side, and lintels or heads at the top. Such doorways occurred in the archaic work in Greece, and evidences of wooden frames exist in Tiryns from about the 12th century B.c. and in the Heraeum at Olympia, where the early, crude arrangement was preserved all through. In wooden framed buildings the lintel is usually framed between the uprights which continue up beyond it. Exam ples of this arrangement are represented in certain Egyptian mastaba tombs of the second, third and fourth dynasties. Where building is all in cut stone, no separate door frame is necessary, but decorative lines are, nevertheless, frequently carried around the opening, as a legacy from other and earlier types of building.
In Egyptian work, although the doorway jambs are not indi cated, and the banding of the cut stone wall is frequently carried, unbroken, straight to the opening, the head was expressed by means of a projecting cornice. This cornice was of the usual cavetto or concave type, and of ten carried a decoration in the centre, formed of the winged globe symbolizing the sun. In some of the doorways in the stone screen walls of later Egyptian temples it was necessary for the door opening to be carried up higher than the height of the screen, to allow banners and the sacred boats to be carried through in processions. In order to accomplish this and still preserve the doorway form, the head was not complete and was formed merely by stones with small projections inward from the jambs, ornamented, however, like the complete lintels, as in the famous Ptolemaic temple at Edfu (237 to 57 B.c.) .
In archaic Etruria as well as in Greece doorways were fre quently smaller at the top than at the bottom, in order to lessen the length of the lintel, and apparently in both countries, at nearly the same time, the idea occurred of decorating the jambs and lintel by means of a continuous moulding, running up the sides and across the top. As the lintel was frequently longer than the combined width of opening and jamb stones, and the moulding was cut round the outside, projections in the architrave or mould ing were formed at the level of the lintel. These are called keys or croisettes. Examples of this occur in the Beule gateway of the Acropolis at Athens, in many Etruscan tombs from the 7th to the 5th century B.C., and in the temple of Hercules at Cori (72 B.C.) . In the Etruscan examples the lintel keys are sometimes further decorated by down-curving pendants. In the developed classic treatment the moulding around the jamb and heads is treated as an architrave, usually with two or three bands and a raised mould ing on the outside. Frequently a frieze and cornice are added, sometimes with consoles (q.v.), which are always set on the out side of the architrave moulding, as in the doorway of the Erech theum (q.v.) at Athens, completed 408 B.C., and in the colossal doorway of the temple of Jupiter at Baalbek (c. A.D. 120) which is 2oft. wide and 45ft. high. The doorway of the Pantheon at Rome (A.D. 110-125), of the same width, still possesses the origi nal Roman bronze door frame, door and transom screen.
In both the Romanesque and Gothic periods church doorways were among the most characteristic features of the styles. They were formed by means of an elaborate series of recesses in the thickness of the wall, usually in steps or orders, which ran not only up the sides, but also in an arch over the top, leaving a lunette (q.v.) or tympanum (a section of vertical wall) between the under side of the arch and the horizontal head of the door opening. These steps or orders were ornamented with mouldings, carvings and sculpture ; occasionally columns were placed at the side. In Gothic work statues of ten take the place of columns, and bands of angels, under little canopies (q.v.), encircle the arch between the mouldings. The tympanum and door lintel are also richly sculptured, and there is of ten a central pier dividing the door opening in two, frequently carrying a statue, especially in the Gothic. A moulding projecting from the wall surface and called a drip or hood mould frequently surrounds the entire arch.
In the Renaissance period doorway design returned to generally classic lines. In the early Renaissance, however, classic motives of great complexity were used for doorway decoration in a man ner far different from the usual Roman or Greek precedent. Col onnettes, gaines (half figures used as supports), pediments and arches with decorated lunettes are common ; especially fantastic are the examples found in the transitional Renaissance of Ger many, France and England. With increasing knowledge of classic detail more sober treatments prevailed. The use of columns and pilasters with pediments remained general. During the baroque period these basically classic motives received the typical fan tastic and imaginary treatment. Noteworthy among these later Renaissance doorways are those of England and America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, in which side-lights at each side of the door and a fanlight above, often with rich decorative leading, are all enclosed in a single doorway frame.
In Muslim countries doorways achieve enormous importance, the door itself being often merely an incident in a rich compo sition running the entire height of the wall. This usually takes the form of an arched niche or recess, sometimes crowned with a stalactite vault, sometimes simply a high pointed arch, as in the magnificent tile-lined mosque doorways of Persia.
Chinese and Japanese doorways are commonly simple, their type of timber framing allowing little decorative treatment. Occa sional arched doorways with ornamented lunettes are found in city gates, temples or palaces, especially in northern China.
Although the art nouveau movement of the '9os gave rise to Many fantastic doorway schemes, the general modernist treat ment is a return to simplicity. Exceptions are, however, frequent, and certain modernist doorways, particularly of commercial build ings, are rich with carved ornament. (See ARCHITRAVE, BYZAN TINE AND ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE, CONSOLE, DOOR and articles on architecture.) (T. F. H.)