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Is there an architectural term for a window centered directly within the triangle that forms the pediment of a building?

Question #88230. Asked by Zap_Rowsdower.
Last updated Jun 15 2021.

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McGruff star
Answer has 6 votes
Currently Best Answer
McGruff star
Moderator
24 year member
3694 replies avatar

Answer has 6 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
There are several terms for this:

Bull's-eye
Oculus
Oeil-de-boeuf
Oxeye
Roundel

And a good illustration of a pediment with window here:
link https://www.shutterstock.com/search/pedimented+windows

oeil-de-boeuf window

also called bull's-eye window; in architecture, a small circular or oval window, usually resembling a wheel, with glazing bars (bars framing the panes of glass) as spokes radiating outward from an empty hub, or circular centre. In French, oeil-de-boeuf means “eye of the steer.”
link http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9056796/oeil-de-boeuf-window

Oculus (pl. oculi) is the Latin word for eye, and the word remains in use in certain contexts, most commonly as the name of the round opening in the top of the dome of the Pantheon in Rome, Italy, and less often in reference to other round windows. The Oculus in the Pantheon is and has always been open to the weather, allowing rain to enter and fall to the floor, from where it is carried away through drains.
link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oculus

Response last updated by CmdrK on Jun 15 2021.
Nov 07 2007, 9:43 PM
davejacobs
Answer has 3 votes
davejacobs
22 year member
956 replies

Answer has 3 votes.
McGruff gives examples which are all circular windows, and many pediments do indeed contain such shaped windows.
But a window in a pediment does not have to be circular. The illustration for the definition of pediment shows a a semicircular one for instance.
link http://historicbuildingsct.com/?page_id=731
What is asked for is a word for a window in a certain position, ie within a pediment, rather than a certain shape. I confess I have failed to find such a word, unless it be a tympanum window.

Response last updated by satguru on Dec 29 2016.
Nov 08 2007, 2:05 AM
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McGruff star
Answer has 5 votes
McGruff star
Moderator
24 year member
3694 replies avatar

Answer has 5 votes.
Tympanum is the term for the flat, triangular or semi-circular surface of a pediment, so I suppose any shape of window placed there could be called a "tympanum window."
link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tympanum_%28architecture%29

Nov 08 2007, 8:56 AM
Zap_Rowsdower
Answer has 3 votes
Zap_Rowsdower
16 year member
65 replies

Answer has 3 votes.
I thought that perhaps it had a specific name since it's a fairly common architectural feature-- around my part of the world, anyway-- and it bears a resemblance to the Eye of Providence ("deioculus," perhaps?):

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_providence

Guess it just goes by "tympanum window" or gable-window. Thanks for the help!

Nov 08 2007, 4:53 PM
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