Tuscan order as an element that gives buildings a majestic look

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

An integral part of the art of urban planning or “frozen music”, as architecture is often called, is an architectural order. The word comes from the Latin expression "ordo", which means "order, order". This is an ordered, perfected, post-and-beam structure based on strict calculations and rules.

The emergence of the Tuscan order as an architectural form

From the time of the ancient Mediterranean civilizations to the present day, there are 5 architectural orders. There were later attempts to create French and American orders, but they failed to be on a par with the classic five, whose representatives differ from each other in size and proportions, artistic interpretation of the elements, and place of origin. Along with Hellas, there was Ancient Etruria (modern Tuscany). Hence the name - Tuscan order, but sometimes it is also called Etruscan. It is believed that ancient Greece gave the world threearchitectural types - Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, and later two more appeared - Tuscan, or simple, and complex, which appeared in ancient Rome. Other researchers, such as the ancient Roman architect and mechanic Vitruvius, argue that the Tuscan order is an older, or archaic, form of the Doric column. In any case, a certain similarity in the structures and layouts of the temples speaks of their kinship, both are stable. The very second name - “simple” - indicates that the Tuscan order stands out from all with its unpretentiousness and reliability.

Order proportions and ratios

What is an order in general? This is an architectural structure, which is a complex consisting of a pedestal, a column, load-bearing parts and an entablature - a carried part. All five orders are characterized by this construction, in each of which all parts are commensurate with each other. In addition, there is a division into complete and incomplete orders, in which the total height of the architectural structure consists of 19 architectural breaks in the first case and five in the second. They are distributed as follows:

- the pedestal gets 4 parts of the total length;

- column gets 12 parts;

- entablature, respectively, three parts.

As for the incomplete version, in which there is no pedestal, the distribution goes as four and one parts. The components of the entablature itself are also interesting, which includes three parts: architrave, frieze and cornice. OrderTuscan differs from its counterparts in the fact that its upper supporting structure lacks a frieze, the middle recessed part.

Construction features

The apparent external simplicity of the full version is somewhat misleading. This architectural form from the plinth to the attic has 32 details. Such specific concepts as entasis or thinning, module, desk, are used in order to calculate the Tuscan order, the construction of which is justified in the work “On Architecture” of the above-mentioned Vitruvius. Both calculation and construction are relatively simple, because all the quantities used for this are multiples of each other. So, the module is the radius of the base of the column, and its height has (for the Tuscan order) 7 diameters, each of which contains 24 desks. At 1/3 of the height, the cylindrical body of the column takes on a conical shape. This is called entasis.

The meaning of ancient orders in the architecture of later times

All ancient Greek and Roman orders were widely used in ancient architecture. Facades of temples and government buildings were trimmed with them, rotundas and open galleries were erected with their help. Actually, it is only by them that one can judge the architecture and decorative art of antiquity. Then, for a long time, interest in them was lost and again began to appear in the 15th century, during the Renaissance. Baroque and classicism did not remain indifferent to these architectural forms. In a word, interest in them began to fade only towards the end of the 19th century. Tuscan order inRussian Empire architecture occupied a prominent place. Many Orthodox churches were finished with columns. A prominent representative of the Empire style in Russia was Karl Rossi. And on the street named after him in St. Petersburg, on the facades of other buildings in Moscow, Sevastopol (Count's Quay) there are architectural elements from the times of Ancient Greece and Rome. They, according to tradition, symbolize the greatness of the spirit and the military glory of the nation.