A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or
plinth is a support at the bottom of a
statue
A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...
,
vase,
column, or certain
altar
An altar is a Table (furniture), table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of wo ...
s. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called
socles. In
civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...
, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height of the plinth is usually kept as 45 cm (for buildings). It transmits loads from
superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships.
Aboard ships and large boats
On water craft, the superstruct ...
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.
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 ἄκρος ''ákros'' 'topmost' and πούς ''poús'' (root ποδ- ''pod-'') 'foot'.
Architecture
Although in
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
,
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
and
Tunisia the Romans occasionally raised the columns of their temples or
propylaea
In ancient Greek architecture, a propylaea, propylea or propylaia (; Greek: προπύλαια) is a monumental gateway. They are seen as a partition, specifically for separating the secular and religious pieces of a city. The prototypical Gree ...
on square pedestals, in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
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
The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the tra ...
, 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 high instead of the ordinary height of 3 to .
Asia
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
Indian art consists of a variety of art forms, including painting, sculpture, pottery, and textile arts such as woven silk. Geographically, it spans the entire Indian subcontinent, including what is now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, N ...
, it followed
Indian religions
Indian religions, sometimes also termed Dharmic religions or Indic religions, are the religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent. These religions, which include Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism,Adams, C. J."Classification of ...
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.
Stele on the Back of Stone Tortoise
(an overview of the ''Bixi'' tradition) According to the 1396 version of the regulations issued by the Ming Dynasty founder, the Hongwu Emperor
The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang (), courtesy name Guorui (), was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398.
As famine, plagues and peasant revolts in ...
, 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.[.]
See also
* Pedestal desk
* Pedestal table, a table with a single central leg
* Tray
* Ozen
* An (Shinto)
Notes
References
*
{{Authority control
Architectural elements
Sculpture terms