Glossary · T
Tuscan
The plainest of the five orders: unfluted, with a simple base and capital; described by Vitruvius as Etruscan and codified by Serlio.
See also: Order
Rules that use the word
The Tuscan column. Make the Tuscan column seven diameters high, diminish it by a quarter at the top, and give its base and capital each half a diameter.
Column heights in modules. Make the Tuscan column 14 modules high, the Doric 16, the Ionic 18, and the Corinthian and Composite 20, the module being half the lower diameter.
The five orders as a series. Rank the orders in a sequence from the plainest and strongest to the richest and most slender (Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite), each one diameter taller than the last.
Palladio’s orders. Make the Tuscan column 7 diameters high, the Doric 8 with its base, the Ionic 9, the Corinthian 9½ and the Composite 10; give Tuscan and Doric an entablature of about a quarter of the column, the richer orders a fifth.
Scamozzi’s hierarchy. Grade the orders by slenderness (Tuscan 7½ diameters, Doric 8½, Ionic 8¾, Composite 9¾ and Corinthian 10), placing the Composite, the “Roman” order, below the Corinthian.
The gate in rustic work. Build the gates of a fortress in rustication (rough, heavy blocks bound into a Tuscan or Doric order) so that the gate shows the strength of the walls it pierces.
Where it appears in the book
In the chapters The Anatomy of an Order, The Tuscan Order, The Authorities Compared, Columns in Company, Renaissance and Baroque.
Nearby in the glossary
Trilithon · Triumphal arch · Trompe-l’oeil · Truss · Tympanum · Universal space · Urushringa · Usonian house