The kenotaph

An empty tomb: a marker raised for someone who is not under it.

It is a naiskos: the little temple front — two antae carrying an architrave and a pediment, acroteria standing on the apex and the corners — that a Greek grave marker is. That frame is what makes the empty field inside it read as a place where something should be standing, because a stele of this shape has the dead carved in that opening. One detail decides whether the rest works, and it is timing: the panel is scored with the guidelines a cutter rules before he begins, and the inscription lands during that draw rather than after it. Ruled lines that fill afterwards are a loading skeleton — identical in a still image, opposite in meaning — and getting it the wrong way round tells every visitor their content is still coming when it never was.

CDIV — not found

See all work

Integration

<link rel="stylesheet" href="anthemion.css">
<script type="module" src="anthemion.js"></script>

<anthemion-kenotaph rules="4" pediment="on">
  <p>CDIV — not found</p>
<a href="/work">See all work</a>
</anthemion-kenotaph>

Slot

The 404 route, and any collection that can come back empty.

Budget

Always give it a way out. A marker with no path away from it is a dead end, which is the one thing an empty state must never be.
Real words, never placeholder. `No projects match these filters` is content; `Nothing here` is a shrug.
Leave the pediment on. `pediment=off` swaps the gable for a plain cornice band, which is the quieter option but gives up the temple front the component is built around.

Restraint is the aesthetic, and it does not survive being applied generously. These limits are the specification, not advice.