Used for buildings of c. 1900 which eschew the use of any particular historical style, drawing instead on a mixture of (usually) late Gothic, Renaissance and Art Nouveau motifs.
Fresco
Painting on plaster. Al fresco: painting on wet plaster. Fresco secco: painting on dry plaster.
Fret
A geometrical ornament composed of a repeating pattern of horizontal and vertical lines or strips.
Frieze
Tiled frieze
The middle member of the classical entablature, sometimes ornamented. Pulvinated frieze (lit. cushioned): of bold convex profile. Also a horizontal band of ornament.
Frontal
Covering for the front of an altar.
Frontispiece
In 16th- and 17th-century buildings, the central feature of doorway and windows above linked in one composition.
Frost-work
A form of rustication (the exaggerated treatment of masonry to give an effect of strength), treated like icicles or stalactites; also called glaciation.
Full cruck
A type of timber construction in which curving paired members (blades) rise from ground level to the apex of the roof, serving as the main elements of a roof truss.
Gable
Peaked external wall at the end of a double-pitch roof. Types include: Dutch gable, with curved sides crowned by a pediment (also called a Flemish gable); kneelered gable, with sides rising from projecting stones (kneelers); pedimental gable, with classical mouldings along the top; shaped gable, with curved sides; tumbled gable, with courses or brick or stonework laid at right-angles to the slope. Also (Scots) a whole end wall, of whatever shape.