ATTIC, is a part of a building standing on the cornice, similar ill form to that of a pedestal, and is either broken or continued. It is so named from its being supposed to have been first used in Attica. The use of an attic is to conceal the roof, and give greater dignity to the design. The Romans employed attics in their edifices, as may be seen in the remains of the trimnphal arches, and in the forum of Nerva. In the arch of Constantine, pedestals are raised over the columns as high as the base of the attic, and these pedestals are again surmounted With insulated statues. In the ruins of Athens there arc no attics to he fiaind ; except one over a Corinthian colonnade at Thessaloniea, with breaks forming dwarf pilasters over the columns, and with statues placed in front of the pilasters, as in the arch of Constantine. The attic carried round the two courts of the great temple of Balbee, is also broken into dwarf over the columns and pilasters of the order ; and the dwarf pilasters have blocking courses over them, on which statues are supposed to have been placed. Attics are very dispro
portional in the ruins of these ancient edifices, some of them being nearly one half of the height of the order. The moderns make their height equal to that of the entablature: as to the proportion of the height of the members, it inay be the same as that for pedestals.
The pilasters employed in tittles are sometimes plain, and at other times panelled ; they have no diminution, nor any regular base and capital. Attics are much used by the moderns, particularly by Italian architects ; and when applied to modern houses, they have frequently windows in the podium or dado.
Amongst the best examples of the use of the attic in modern public buildings, may be adduced Somerset House, in the view towards the street.