Pedestal

Pedestal (from French piédestal, Italian piedistallo, foot of a stall) is a term generally applied to the support of a statue or a vase.

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 revival, 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).

In the imperial China, a stone tortoise called bixi was traditionally used as the pedestal for important stele, especially those associated with emperors. 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.

Read more about Pedestal:  Types of Pedestals, Figure of Speech

Other articles related to "pedestal":

L'Âme De La France - Overview
... Executed from the first of the three models, the newest sculpture is currently located on a pedestal at the entrance to Hell-Bourg on the Heights of the island of Réunion, an overseas département of France in the ... before the town hall, it was quickly dynamited off its pedestal by the priest, then successively kept in pieces behind a hair salon, repaired by welding, and at last moved ... There, it was once again torn off its pedestal by a tropical cyclone, then abandoned, face down on the ground, for twenty years before finally being found by chance during construction work ...
Alexander Column - Pedestal
... The pedestal of the Alexander Column is decorated with symbols of military glory, sculpted by Giovanni Battista Scotti ... On the side of the pedestal facing the Winter Palace is a bas-relief depicting winged figures holding up a plaque bearing the words "To Alexander I from a grateful Russia" ...
Columbus Monument, Barcelona - Description - Pedestal
... column, hung with a device bearing an anchor, stands on an octagonal pedestal from which four bronze winged victories or Phemes take flight towards ... Four buttresses against the octagonal pedestal bear portrait medallions that depict persons related to Columbus Martín Alonzo Pinzón Vicente Yáñez Pinzón Ferdinand II of ... Against the base of the pedestal between the buttresses are four additional statues Jaume Ferrer de Blanes, a Catalan cartographer Luis de Santángel Bessant Captain Pedro Bertran i de Margarit ...
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... Some craters in Tikhonravov are classified as pedestal craters ... A pedestal crater is a crater with its ejecta sitting above the surrounding terrain ... Click on image to see dark slope streaks and layers Tikhonravov Basin Streaks on side of pedestal crater, as seen by HiRISE ...
Pedestal - Figure of Speech
... idea), it is often referred to as "putting them on a pedestal" ... The pejorative phrase "put on a pedestal" is often used to critique celebrity culture, an elected official or position of authority, about someone who is looked up to, held in high regard or revered ...

Famous quotes containing the word pedestal:

    ... the sentimentalist ... exclaims: “Would you have a woman step down from her pedestal in order to enter practical life?” Yes! A thousand times, yes! If we can really find, after a careful search, any women mounted upon pedestals, we should willingly ask them to step down in order that they may meet and help to uplift their sisters. Freedom and justice for all are infinitely more to be desired than pedestals for a few.
    Bertha Honore Potter Palmer (1849–1918)

    A pedestal is as much a prison as any other small space.
    Anonymous Woman (c. mid–1800s)

    Having advanced to the limit of boldness, child, you have stumbled against the lofty pedestal of Justice.
    Sophocles (497–406/5 B.C.)