SCREEN, in architecture, a partition dividing off some portion of an interior or room from the rest, without similarly contracting or shut ting up the space over head ; a screen being a partition carried up only to a certain height, so as to admit a view beyond it. Screens are ex ceedingly beautiful internal features in the Pointed Gothic style, in which they were employed for a variety of purposes, not in churches alone, but in halls and other buildin.ss.
In our larger churches the was separated from the nave by a screen on which was placed the rood. [RooD LOFT.] From the use to which it was subsequently applied this screen is, in our cathedrals, commonly known as the organ screen ; it differs from others in being a double screen, so as to form a gallery above, and to admit of stairs leading up to it, in the space between two partitions.
The altar screen serves as a back wall to the choir, separating that division of the church from the presbytery or Lady-chapel behind it. [ Rerente.] That erected by Bishop Fox in Winchester cathedral is a splendid stone screen decorated with several tiers of canopied niches ; and strikingly similar to it in design is the one by Abbot Wheteham stede at St. Alban's. Though not so designated, the stalls, &c., form lateral screens enclosing the lower part of the choir from the side aisles. Chartres cathedral contains a no less remarkable than fine example of such screen continued round the apaia of the choir, showing itself as a wall carried up to some height above the stalls, and divided into large compartments filled with sculpture. The fronts of chantries, small chapels, Ice., in churches, may also be described as screens, most of which are pierced or open-work and tracery. The examples of this class are so numerous, that to particularise any of them would be almost superfluous; • we may, however, mention that enclosing the monumental chapel of Prince Arthur, son of Henry VIII., in Wor cester cathedral. The tomb of Henry VII., in his chapel at West minster, is a gorgeous piece of screen-work, executed entirely in metal, and forming an insulated shrine on a very large scale. Westminster
Abbey itself contains many fine studies of screens in its chapels and ehantnes. Of timber screens separating the chancel and altar end from the body of the building, many specimens are to be met with in country churches, and not a few of them are worthy of being studied for the beauty of their design.
Screens of a different character were employed in the halls of domestic and collegiate buildings, for the purpose of cutting off a passage leading to the butteries and offices. Such screens were almost invariably of oak or other wood, and the apace over them and the passage behind served as a music gallery. Open-work was rarely if ever introduced into them, but they had generally two open arches, or sometimes square-headed doorways. Several specimens of this class of screens may be seen in Naah's Mansions of England in the Olden Times,' some of them, as that in the Hall at Audley-end, profusely adorned with carved panelling and other sculpture ; and the one just mentioned is further remarkable for the centre compartment being carried up higher than the rest, though not quite to the ceiling. Other instances occur where the screen is carried up two stories, so as to form either a passage on the chamber floor, or a closed gallery with glazed or latticed apertures. Of this kind are those in the balls at Knowle and at Hatfield.
Screen is also employed to signify a colonnade or wall architecturally decorated, enclosing a court-yard in front of a building, as that for instance of the Admiralty, London. Screens of this kind are some times had recourse to in order to connect the advancing parts of a plan together, and prevent a facade being cut up into gaps. It is by this means that the buildings forming the river front of Somerset House have been connected together into a continuous facade by screens assuming the appearance of open Corinthian loggias above spacious bridge-like arches. Eminently picturesque in themselves, those features serve to relieve all the rest, and to prevent the monotony that would otherwise take place in so extended a front.