ARCHITRAVE OF A DOOR, a collection of members surround ing the aperture, of a section similar to the architraves of the Ionic, Corinthian, and Roman orders. The head or lintel is called the traverse, and the sides the jambs. Vitru vius calls the jambs antepaymenta, and the head or traverse supercilium. In the remains of the edifices at Balbee and Palmyra, and in the palace of Diocletian at Spalatro, the architrave jambs are often flanked with consoles, which gives an apparent support to the cornice, and the cornice frequent ly rests upon the traverse, without the intervention of the frieze ; but the flank pilasters under the consoles are scarce ly to be met with among ancient ruins, though practised by the modern Italians, and represented in their works. This is however an improvement, as it diminishes the apparent weight of the top, by spreading out the lower part. The proportion of the architrave to the aperture, in ancient edi fices, varies greatly : the usual proportions given by the moderns is from one-seventh, to one-sixth part of the open ing. When the architrave jambs are flanked with pilasters and consoles, the breadth may he one-seventh of that of the aperture, and the breadth of the pilasters two-thirds of that of the architrave ; but when it is unaccompanied with these ornaments, it ought not to be less than a sixth part of the breadth of the aperture.
In the ruins of Roman and Grecian buildings the archi trave rests upon the floor, and has no flanking consoles; but in the ruins of Balbcc they are supported by plinths.
AVhen there is too much surface of naked wall on each side of the architrave jambs, the sides of the architrave may be flanked with pilasters and consoles, in order to reduce the naked, and proportion it to the dressings of the front. The
dressing of an aperture may be heightened by adding a cor nice, or a cornice and frieze, as the space above will admit ; and if the space above requires further diminution, the alti tude of the dressing may be still further increased, by sur mounting the cornice with a pediment. When the material of the architrave is stone, the jambs arc either built in heights corresponding to the courses of the naked of the wall, or if stones can be procured, each jamb is made of one entire piece, or sometimes in two or three, according to the difficulty of raising them from the quarry.
When they are coursed with the work every alternate stone should be a bond-stone, and, if the jambs are in one height, or not coursed, every alternate stone in the altitude of the naked, adjoining each architrave jamb, should be a bond-stone : the fewer pieces the architrave jamb consists of; the more beautiful will the work appear, therefore one is preferable to several.
in the arched apertures of ancient buildings, the jambs are seldom or never moulded as an architrave, hut the arch is frequently ornamented with members of an architrave sec tion ; these members are called the archivolt, which always rests upon imposts. The imposts project in most cases from the naked of the wall, and in a few cases form the capital of pilasters upon the jambs.