Support of a statue or a vase
Various examples of pedestals
A
pedestal
(from
French
piedestal
, from
Italian
piedistallo
'foot of a stall') or
plinth
is a support at the bottom of a
statue
,
vase
,
column
, or certain
altars
. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called
socles
. In
civil engineering
, it is also called
basement
. The minimum height of the plinth is usually kept as 45 cm (for buildings)
[
citation needed
]
. It transmits loads from
superstructure
to the
substructure
and acts as the retaining wall for the filling inside the plinth or raised floor.
In sculpting, the terms base, plinth, and pedestal are defined according to their subtle differences. A base is defined as a large mass that supports the sculpture from below. A plinth is defined as a flat and planar support which separates the sculpture from the environment. A pedestal, on the other hand, is defined as a shaft-like form that raises the sculpture and separates it from the base.
[1]
An elevated pedestal or plinth that bears a statue, and which is raised from the
substructure
supporting it (typically roofs or corniches), is sometimes called an
acropodium
. The term is from
Greek
?κρο?
akros
'topmost' and πο??
pous
(root ποδ-
pod-
) 'foot'.
Architecture
[
edit
]
Although in
Syria
,
Asia Minor
and
Tunisia
the Romans occasionally raised the columns of their temples or
propylaea
on square pedestals, in
Rome
itself they were employed only to give greater importance to isolated columns, such as those of
Trajan
and
Antoninus
, or as a
podium
to the columns employed decoratively in the Roman triumphal arches.
The architects of the
Italian Renaissance
, however, conceived the idea that no order was complete without a pedestal, and as the orders were by them employed to divide up and decorate a building in several stories, the cornice of the pedestal was carried through and formed the sills of their windows, or, in open arcades, round a court, the
balustrade
of the
arcade
. They also would seem to have considered that the height of the pedestal should correspond in its proportion with that of the column or
pilaster
it supported; thus in the church of Saint John Lateran, where the applied order is of considerable dimensions, the pedestal is 13 feet (4.0 m) high instead of the ordinary height of 3 to 5 feet (1.5 m).
Asia
[
edit
]
In Asian art a
lotus throne
is a stylized lotus flower used as the seat or base for a figure. It is the normal pedestal for divine figures in
Buddhist art
and
Hindu art
, and often seen in
Jain art
. Originating in
Indian art
, it followed
Indian religions
to
East Asia
in particular.
In imperial China, a stone tortoise called
bixi
was traditionally used as the pedestal for important stele, especially those associated with emperors.
[2]
According to the 1396 version of the regulations issued by the
Ming Dynasty
founder, the
Hongwu Emperor
, the highest nobility (those of the
gong
and
hou
ranks) and the officials of the top 3 ranks were eligible for
bixi
-based funerary tablets, while lower-level
mandarins
' steles were to stand on simple rectangular pedestals.
[3]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Pedestal
.
Look up
pedestal
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Look up
plynth
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Look up
plinth
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.