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Cant (architecture)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Chiesa del Purgatorio, Ragusa: the facade are angled (canted) back from the centre.
County Hall, Aylesbury with canted recesses

A cant in architecture is an angled (oblique-angled) line or surface that cuts off a corner.[1][2] Something with a cant is canted.

Canted facades are a typical of, but not exclusive to, Baroque architecture. The angle breaking the facade is less than a right angle, thus enabling a canted facade to be viewed as, and remain, one composition. Bay windows frequently have canted sides.[2]

A cant is sometimes synonymous with chamfer and bevel.[3]

References

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  1. ^ "cant" def. 5 and 10. Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press 2009
  2. ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cant" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  3. ^ Harris, Cyril (2013). Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Architecture. Courier. ISBN 978-0-486-13211-2. chamfer: 1. A bevel or cant, such as a small splay at the external angle of a masonry wall