Cant (architecture)

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]

^ "cant" def. 5 and 10. Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press 2009
^ ^a ^b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cant" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
^ 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

[1] "cant" def. 5 and 10. Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press 2009

[EB1911-2] 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

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