Page:Ware - The American Vignola, 1920.djvu/48

38 PEDESTALS—PLATE XVI

As has already been said, a short Pier is called a Post, and, if it supports something, a Pedestal, and the Pedestals that support Columns are generally made one-third the height of the Column. The Cap is one-ninth the height of the Pedestal, and generally consists of a Bed Mold and Corona. There is no Cymatium, a gutter being obviously out of place, but the Corona is often crowned by a fillet and small Cyma Reversa. The Base, which is two-ninths of the height of the Pedestal, or, according to Vignola, only one-ninth, like the Cap, consists of a Plinth and Base Moldings, among which a Cyma Recta is generally conspicuous, with a Torus below it.

The moldings, in both Cap and Base, are fewer and consequently larger and simpler in the Tuscan and Doric Orders than in the Ionic and Corinthian, the Tuscan, according to Vignola, having no Corona, and the Corinthian a Necking and Astragal. The Cap projects less than its own height, in many examples, and the Plinth just as much as the Corona. But Pedestals vary greatly both in their proportions and in their moldings.

PARAPETS

A wall low enough to lean upon is called a Parapet, and whether low or high is often strengthened by occasional Posts or Pedestals, sometimes of the same height, sometimes higher. In either case the wall or parapet has a Cap and Base, which may or may not be like those of the Pedestals or Posts. A similar strip of wall, with the wall continued above the Cap, is called a Continuous Pedestal, Fig. 143. This often occurs between the Pedestals that support Pilasters.

BALUSTRADES In antiquity, Parapets were often pierced by triangular penetrations, apparently in imitation of wooden fences, Fig. 137. But in modern times the openings in Parapets are generally filled with a sort of colonnade of dwarfed columns called Balusters. These frequently occupy the whole space between one Post or Pedestal and the next, forming a Balustrade, Fig. 138. If the distance is great, so that the Cap has to be made of several lengths of stone, a block called an Uncut Baluster is placed under the joint. Not more than a dozen Balusters should occur together without such interruption. Against the Pedestal is often set a Half-Baluster, or, which is better, half of an Uncut Baluster, to support the end of the Upper Rail, Fig. 139.