"perhaps even more instructive, grammatically, than the theatres were the triumphal arches of rome and other parts of italy ... now look at this arch. what does it consist of? it is a massive rectangular slab of masonry with three holes in it--the centre hole is the main arch, the other two are lower and narrower subsidiary arches.
"an interesting, compact and harmonious arrangement admirably fulfilling its symbolic function. in the fifteenth century this arch and the other roman arches had an enormous imaginative appeal both for painters and for architects ( who, of course, were often painters ) and, as a consequence, we find, over and over again, features and combinations of features which originated in the triumphal arches, being used in totally different sorts of buildings, all sorts of buildings, and used, once again, as grammatical expressions controlling the structure.
"there is much more I could say about triumphal arches and their contribution to the classical language. the most elementary fact of all about them--the division of a space by columns into three parts: narrow, wide, narrow--is perhaps also the most important."
john summerson, the classical language of architecture.
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