The principal front of the House, which faces southward, is dominated by the hexastyle Portico, an austere but very pleasing neo-Doric structure with two columns in antis standing behind the outermost columns of the front rank. The Doric design has been deftly simplified throughout. the pediment is shallow, with a blind tympanum, a heavy geison and a strongly-projecting sima; there are no triglyphs or metopes on the entablature; the columns are not fluted; and, though the columns exhibit diminution they do not exhibit
entasis. This absence of the characteristic bulge in the Doric columns, together with the uncanonically small capitals, was intended cunningly to convey an impression that the portico is substantially bigger than it is. The echinus or cushion between each column and the entablature is, however, correctly executed so that the profile of each is an exact mathematical hyperbola.
The soffit of the Portico is of particular interest because - rarely in a British neo-Classical building - its plasterwork is painted. The painting is a stylised representation of roof-joists, decorated with a banding of florets. Scholarly opinions differ as to whether the painting was contemporaneous with the building of the House or was a Victorian addition.
To either side of the portico, a single bay of two storeys (Simpson had originally proposed three bays of a single storey) stands under a robust and prominent parapet which would have concealed the original shallow, plended roof from observers on the ground close to the House. However, the Bannerman family added a substantial attic storey in 1864, almost 40 years after Crimonmogate was built. Family history recounts that the Bannermans extended the House in this way because they expected to have many children. In the event, they only had one child, and the attics have seldom been used. |
