..... Click the link for more information. , or triangular wall surface, enclosed below by the horizontal cornice and above by the raking cornice, which follows the slope of the roof. In Greek architecture the pediment usually contained sculpture when used with the Doric order. In the Roman and Renaissance styles it was used also as a purely decorative motif, chiefly over doors and windows; the upper profile of the pediment was sometimes of segmental shape. In later Renaissance and baroque design the pediment often took on fantastic shapes, notably in the variants of the broken pediment, in which the two sides of the raking cornice do not join. The scrolled broken pediment was a favorite in American Colonial work, especially in doorways and over mantels.
pediment
In Classical architecture, a triangular gable crowning a portico or facade. The pediment was the crowning feature of the Greek temple front. The pediment's triangular wall surface, or tympanum, was often decorated with sculpture. The Romans adapted the pediment as a purely decorative form to finish doors, windows, and niches, sometimes using a series of alternating triangular and segmentally curved pediments, a motif revived in the Italian High Renaissance. Baroque-era designers developed many varieties of broken, scrolled, and reverse-curved pediments.
pediment
In geology, any relatively flat surface of bedrock (exposed or lightly covered with soil or gravel) that occurs at the base of a mountain or as a plain having no associated mountain. Pediments are most conspicuous in basin-and-range-type desert areas throughout the world, but they also occur in humid areas. In the tropics, the surfaces tend to be covered with soil and obscured by vegetation. Many tropical river towns are situated on pediments, which offer easier building sites than the steep hillsides above or the river marshes below.
pediment
pediment [′ped·ə·mənt]
Pediment
a submontane inclined plain underlain by bedrock that is mantled with a thin layer of loose deposits. Pediments form mostly in arid and semiarid regions as a result of surface erosion, the action of running water, and the parallel retreat of steep slopes.
Pediment
an ornamental architectural element. Pediments are cornice-like ledges, sometimes supported by brackets, found over windows or doors on the facade of a building or, less frequently, in the interior.
Pediment
in geomorphology, a zone of unconsolidated deposits formed at the foot of an elevated region by the merging of alluvial fans. The pediment consists of detrital material carried down by rivers, ephemeral streams, and sheetwash or transported by the force of gravity. Depending on the predominant process of transport, various types of pediments are distinguished: alluvial-proluvial, diluvial-proluvial, and diluvial. Pediments sometimes reach a width of 20–25 km, for example, on the southern slope of the Dzungarian Alatau.
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