in architecture, is the composition of a building, and the disposition of its parts, both with regard to the whole and to one another; or, as Mr Evelyn expresses it, determining the measure of what is assigned to the several apartments. Thus ordonnance is the judicious contrivance of the plan or mould; as when the court, hall, or other building or apartment, is neither too large nor too small, and that the court affords convenient light to the apartments around it, the hall is of a fit capacity to receive company, and the bed-chambers of a proper size. When these divisions are either too great or too small with respect to the whole, as where there is a large court to a little house, or a small hall to a magnificent palace, the fault is in the ordonnance.

Ordonnance, in Painting, is used for the disposition of the parts of a picture, either with regard to the whole piece or to the several parts, as the groups, masses, contrasts, and so forth.