45the ceiling is important in particular for the gestural character
of a space. It elevates a space or presses it down, orients or
centres it, unifies or articulates it. While a room with a flat
roof extends uniformly and horizontally, one contained by
the concave shell of a cupola rises upwards. The tranquil, con-
taining effect of a rectilinear tunnel vault contrasts with the
expressive, soaring > gesture of a Gothic vault with pointed
arches. A concave ceiling form holds the space together, while
the ceiling beneath a curving roof allows it to flow towards
the outside, as in the Stazione Termini in Rome.
Under an open sky, the > light comes from above; when
an opening in the ceiling admits light from above, it suggests,
as an opaion, either the supernatural origins of the zenithal
light, or else it admits daylight to open up the room. In con-
trast, the ceiling seems to rise when light enters between the
walls and ceiling, first, because the connecting support seem
absent, and second because the raking light makes it appear
lightweight; otherwise, ceilings nearly always lie in the shad-
ow of the window lintels. A ceiling may also appear lighter
and somewhat further away as a result of being painted pale
blue, being given a textile ‘tent sky’, or through a demate-
rializing ceiling painting, especially when the heavens are
depicted. Evoking associations with the nighttime or stormy
skies, by contrast, are dark > colours, which make a ceiling
seem heavy, generating effects that may seem either protective
or oppressive. Between the roof as the building’s uppermost
delimitation and the ceiling below is often an > intermediate
space that may have quite minimal dimensions, or may take
the form of a large attic space, or anything in between. If the
ceiling opens upwards towards it, then this dark attic space,
with its open roof construction, becomes a > space of reso-
nance. If it remains concealed, visitors nonetheless sense the
presence of the space between ceiling and roof, about which
they however know very little.