Page:Ware - The American Vignola, 1920.djvu/19

Rh THE TUSCAN ORDER—PLATES III AND IV

distinguishing characteristics of the Tuscan Order is simplicity. Any forms of Pedestal, Column, and Entablature that show but few moldings, and those plain, are considered to be Tuscan. Such are, in antiquity, those of the Temple of Piety in Rome, Fig. 51, and the lower order of the Amphitheater at Aries. Vignola's Tuscan Order, Fig. 52, is marked by the use of the Ovolo in Cymatium, and by the frequent, employment of the Congé. The height of the Column is seven Diameters and that of the Entablature accordingly seven-quarters, or a Diameter and three-quarters. The Base, Capital, Architrave, and Frieze are each half a Diameter high, and the Cornice three-quarters. But this measurement includes not only the Base itself, but the Cincture at the foot of the Shaft. Dividing the Cornice into four parts, the Capitals into three, and the Base into two, gives the principal horizontal divisions. The Bed Mold is a large Cyma Reversa. The Abacus is seven sixths of a Diameter across, not including the Fillet at the top, and it projects its own height from the face of the Architrave above, which is in line with the Necking below.

All the principal dimensions can be expressed in terms of fourths and sixths of the lower Diameter of the Shaft.

Vignola makes the width of the Plinth a little greater than this, and sets the Bed Mold up one-twelfth, making the Frieze wider and the Corona narrower.