What is a pedestal and where can you see it?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

When we see monuments, we think. why they are so big and what such great constructions stand on. In this article you will find information about what a pedestal is and where you can see it.

Description

Plint (from the Latin "pedestal" - "to put") - the architectural basis of the work of sculpture, monument, column, vase.

The pedestal turns into a pedestal (from the French "under the foot", "foot"), when it allows the statue located on it to rise majestically above the surrounding space. Usually this is a monument to a person whose personality the pedestal makes significant, great and inaccessible. All those around are at the feet of the person depicted on it and seem small and insignificant. This is the difference between a pedestal and a pedestal.

History of pedestals

In order to answer the question of what a pedestal is, you need to start with the history of this phenomenon. The custom of installing such structures can be attributed to antique samples, when works of art were installed in squares, in temples, so that everyone could admire them. Not onsculptural group, namely on the pedestal, inscriptions were made out explaining the deeds of a person or people (and sometimes animals or objects) to whom the monument was erected. Such, for example, are the inscriptions on the pedestals: to the fabulist I. A. Krylov with the image of animals in the Summer Garden of St. Petersburg and the monument to Minin and Pozharsky with two bronze reliefs on a granite pedestal on Red Square in Moscow.

In the Middle Ages, when Gothic prevailed, sculptural images, as it were, “entered the walls” in the form of bas-reliefs, semi-bas-reliefs and statues in niches or climbed onto roof decorations, directing them upwards. The pedestals either disappeared completely or were greatly reduced in size.

The Renaissance again revived the fashion for the installation of statues and sculptural groups on powerful pedestals, which made them an adornment and addition to ensembles of buildings, parks, squares in many European cities. As in ancient Rome, each ruler, coming to power, tried to strengthen his power, including by installing his own large statue on a high pedestal.

Such architectural additions were usually made of stone (marble, granite, etc.) or metal (bronze, copper, etc.), wooden pedestals turned out to be fragile and short-lived. To withstand a lot of weight, they were massive, made of very hard rocks. The shape of the pedestals, as a rule, was in harmony with the surrounding space, repeating the shape of the details of structures: steps, cornices, round bases of columns, sometimes repeated the ornament of the capitals of columns, etc.

Sometimes the pedestals were made so highly artistic thatplayed a very significant role in the visual perception of the sculptural group. An example is the pedestal of the monument to Peter the Great - the Bronze Horseman (although it is made of bronze) on one of the squares of St. Petersburg. The monument impresses the viewer. The king - an innovator on a rearing horse was simply elevated to an unattainable height thanks to a pedestal made of a poorly processed huge piece of rock (Thunder-stone) and having dimensions much larger than the monument itself. The inscription on the pedestal fully corresponds to his sublime style and artistic image: "To Peter the Great - Catherine the Second, summer 1872".

Fourth pedestal in Trafalgar Square

On the famous Trafalgar Square in London in 1841, according to the plan of the architect C. Barry, four pedestals for the statues of four famous Britons were installed at the corners. Currently, three of them have monuments to King George IV, as well as General Henry Havelock and General Charles James. The fourth pedestal was empty for a long time, but "a good place is never empty."

Therefore, since 2005, sculptures by contemporary authors have been exhibited on this pedestal: disabled artist Alison Lapper, multi-colored glass installation by sculptor Schütte, model of Admiral Nelson's flagship in artificial glass bottle, author - artist Yinka Shonibare from the UK.