CEILING (from the Laths, o/tor the sky, or (Ware, to cover), the inside of 1 he roof, or top of an apartment, opposed to the surthee of the floor. Ceilings may be either flat, or coved, or both. Coved ceilings are sometimes concave round the margin and flat in the middle. or otherwise they are vaulted. VAULT. The fmmtier occupy k0111 to one-fiturth of the height of the roan. The principal sections of vaulted ceilings may be of various segments, equal to, or less than seinieircles as Italy be must suitable to the height of the room.
Flat ceilings are adorned with large compartments, or foliages and other ornaments, or with both.
Onnpartment eeilings are either formed by raising mould ings on the su•fhee, or by depressing the panels within a moulded enclosure, which may be partly raised upon, and 'tartly recessed within the framing, or entirely recessed. The figures of the panels may be either polygonal, circular, or elliptical. The veilings of the porticos, and of the interior of ancient temples, were comported, and the panels recessed ; the prominent parts between thetn representing, it is .aid, the ancient manner of framing the beams of wood which composed the floors. The mouldings on the sides of the panels are stink in one, two, or several degrees, like inverted steps; :111(1 the 1),)t tertIS iIt vane15 are most t'requently decorated NI ill! roses. The figures of these compartments are mostly equilateral and equiangular. Triangles were seldom used ; but we find squares, hexagons, and octagons in great abundance. The framing mound the panels. in Grecian and 1Zoinan examples, is constantly parallel, or of equal breadth; therefore, when sipuires are introduced, there is no other ; hexagons will join in contiguity with one another, or form the interstices into lozenges, or equilateral triangles. f)ctagons naturally form two varieties, that of its own figure. and squares in the interstices; this kind of compartment is called coft•iny, and the recessed parts cofii.rs, w Ilia arc used not only in plain ceilings, but also in cylin drical vaults.
The borders of the colferi»g are generally terminated With belts, charged most frequently with foliage; and sometimes, again, the foliage is bordered with guilloches, as in the Tem ple of Peace, at Rome.
In the ceiling of the entire temple at Balbcc, coffers are disposed around the cylindrical vault in one row, rising over each intereolumn, and between every row of coffers is a pro jecting belt, ornamented with a gnilloehe, corresponding tw 11 semi-attached eolunms, in the same vertical plane; one column, supporting each springing of the belt.
The ceilings of the ancients were commonly relieved by colour and gilding in various designs, which must have greatly added to the edict of the whole edifice; this practice has been adopted in the new entraneedmIl of the British 1\1 useutn with very great success.
The moderns follow the practice of the ancients in their cupolas and cylindrical vaults, ornamenting them with coffers and belts ; au l the belts again with frets, guilloehes, or foliages.
panels are ornamented with roses, and large ones with fOliage historical subjects. The grounds 'nay be gilt, and the ornaments white. partly coloured. or streaked with 0.41 ; or the ornaments may be gilt, and the grounds white, pearl, straw.colour, or any tint that may agree best with the ornaments.
ceilings are painted, either wholly or in various com partments only. When a ceiling is painted to represent the sky, it ought to be upon a plane or spheric surthee, without being coved at the edges.
Ceilings plane and coved are much employed in modern apartments; they seem to be a kind of medium between the horizontal and the various arched forms practised by the :melons: they do not require so much height as the latter ; but they are neither so graceful nor vet so grand.
Vaulted ceilings are more expensive than plane ones; but they are also susceptible of a greater variety of embel lishments.
When a ceiling is made on the under side of the rafters of a roof, it is said to be camp-ceiled, or tent-ceiled.
The timbers of ceilings in Gothic edifices are seldom plas although examples are occasionally found, as at _Rochester Cathedral, of the Decorated period, which is divided by moulded ribs of wood. The timber ceilings are either flat, concave, circular, or ranging with the principal timbers of the roof; sometimes, however, we have vaulted ceilings of timber, as at Winchester Cathedral. When fiat, the ceilings are divided into panels by moulded ribs. which at their intersection are enriched with bosses, pendants, or such like ornaments; sometimes large panels are subdivided by mouldings of a smaller section. The concave which present the form of a barrel vault, have most frequently only a single rib running along the top; when others are introdueed, it is but sparingly. In all eases, ceilings were enriched with gilding and colours of the most brilliant kind, examples of which are constantly being brought to light during the restoration of old churches.
Plaster was very much used in the ceilings of Elizabeth's time and the succeeding reigns, in \111411 period the ceilings were generally flat, divided into panels by ribs, which. as well as the panels themselves, Were often adorned with on exube rance of decoration moulded in the plaster, of which we have many beautiful specimen:.
Sodit amounts to nearly the same thing as a ceiling, except that the thriller is applied to the under sides of apertures and and the latter to a more extended space, as the top or side of an apartment opposite to the floor. The under sul film of an arch is also called the soffit, or intrados, whether it be the head of an aperture, or extended over an apartment.
Arphed Ceilings: are described under the article VAULT.