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TheTuscan order (LatinOrdo Tuscanicus orOrdo Tuscanus, with the meaning ofEtruscan order) is one of the twoclassical orders developed by the Romans, the other being thecomposite order. It is influenced by theDoric order, but with un-fluted columns and a simplerentablature with notriglyphs orguttae. While relatively simple columns with round capitals had been part of thevernacular architecture of Italy and much of Europe since at leastEtruscan architecture, the Romans did not consider this style to be a distinctarchitectural order (for example, the Roman architectVitruvius did not include it alongside his descriptions of the Greek Doric,Ionic, andCorinthian orders). Its classification as a separate formal order is first mentioned inIsidore of Seville's 6th-centuryEtymologiae and refined during theItalian Renaissance.[1]
Sebastiano Serlio described five orders including a "Tuscan order", "the solidest and least ornate", in his fourth book[2] ofRegole generali di architettura sopra le cinque maniere de gli edifici (1537). ThoughFra Giocondo had attempted a first illustration of a Tuscan capital in his printed edition of Vitruvius (1511), he showed the capital with anegg and dart enrichment that belonged to the Ionic. The "most rustic" Tuscan order of Serlio was later carefully delineated byAndrea Palladio.
In its simplicity, the Tuscan order is seen as similar to the Doric order, and yet in its overall proportions, intercolumniation and simpler entablature, it follows the ratios of the Ionic. This strong order was considered most appropriate in military architecture and in docks and warehouses when they were dignified by architectural treatment. Serlio found it "suitable to fortified places, such as city gates, fortresses, castles, treasuries, or where artillery and ammunition are kept, prisons, seaports and other similar structures used in war."
From the perspective of these writers, the Tuscan order was an older primitive Italic architectural form, predating the GreekDoric andIonic, associated by Serlio with the practice ofrustication and the architectural practice ofTuscany.[3]Giorgio Vasari made a valid argument for this claim by reference toIl Cronaca's graduated rustication on the facade ofPalazzo Strozzi, Florence.[4] Like allarchitectural theory of the Renaissance, precedents for a Tuscan order were sought for inVitruvius, who does not include it among the three canonic orders, but peripherally, in his discussion of theEtruscan temple (book iv, 7.2–3). Later Roman practice ignored the Tuscan order,[5] and so didLeon Battista Alberti inDe re aedificatoria (shortly before 1452).
Following Serlio's interpretation of Vitruvius (who gives no indication of the column's capital), in the Tuscan order the column had a simpler base—circular rather than squared as in the other orders, where Vitruvius was being followed—and with a simple torus and collar, and the column was unfluted, while both capital and entablature were without adornments. Themodular proportion of the column was 1:7 in Vitruvius, and in Palladio's illustration forDaniele Barbaro's commentary on Vitruvius), inVignola'sCinque ordini d'architettura (1562), and in Palladio'sI quattro libri dell'architettura (1570).[6] Serlio alone gives a stockier proportion of 1:6.[7] A plain astragal or taenia ringed the column beneath its plain cap.
Palladio agreed in essence with Serlio:
The Tuscan, being rough, is rarely used above ground except in one-storey buildings like villa barns or in huge structures likeAmphitheatres and the like which, having many orders, can take this one in place of the Doric, under the Ionic.[8]
Unlike the other authors Palladio found Roman precedents, of which he named thearena of Verona and thePula Arena, both of which,James Ackerman points out,[9] arearcuated buildings that did not present columns and entablatures. A striking feature is his rusticated frieze resting upon a perfectly plain entablature[10]
Examples of the use of the order are thePalazzo Massimo alle Colonne in Rome, by Baldassarre Peruzzi, 1532–1536, and thepronaos portico toSanta Maria della Pace added byPietro da Cortona (1656–1667).
A relatively rare church in the Tuscan order isSt Paul's, Covent Garden byInigo Jones (1633). According to an often repeated story, recorded byHorace Walpole, Lord Bedford gave Jones a very low budget and asked him for a simple church "not much better than a barn", to which the architect replied "Then you shall have the handsomest barn in England".[11]Christ Church, Spitalfields in London (1714–29) byNicholas Hawksmoor, uses it outside, and Corinthian within.
In a typical usage, at the very grandPalladian house ofWentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire, which is mainly Corinthian, the stable court of 1768 uses Tuscan. Another English house,West Wycombe Park, has aloggia facade in two storeys with Tuscan on the ground floor and Corinthian above. This recalls Palladio'sPalazzo Chiericati, which uses Ionic over Doric.
TheNeue Wache is a Greek Revival guardhouse inBerlin, byKarl Friedrich Schinkel (1816). Though in most respects the Greek temple frontage is a careful exercise in revivalism, there are minimal plain bases to the thick fluted columns and, despite havingmetope reliefs and a large group of sculpture in the pediment, there are no triglyphs or guttae. Nonetheless, despite these "Tuscan" aspects, the overall impression is strongly Greek and it is rightly always described as "Doric".
Tuscan is often used for doorways and other entrances where only a pair of columns are required, and using another order might seem pretentious. Because the Tuscan mode is easily worked up by a carpenter with a few planing tools, it became part of thevernacularGeorgian style that lingered in places likeNew England andOhio deep into the 19th century. In gardening, "carpenter's Doric" which is Tuscan, provides simple elegance to gate posts and fences in many traditional garden contexts.
![Baroque Solomonic Tuscan columns of the Monastery of San Francisco, Antigua, Guatemala, unknown architect, early 17th century[12]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3a2010.05.13.173939_Iglesia_San_Francisco_Antigua_Guatemala.jpg)
![Neoclassical Tuscan columns of the Hôtel du Châtelet (Rue de Grenelle no. 127), Paris, by Mathurin Cherpitel, 1776[13]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aParis_-_H%25C3%25B4tel_du_Ch%25C3%25A2telet_-_127_rue_de_Grenelle_-_001.jpg)
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![Neoclassical Tuscan columns of the Chapelle expiatoire du Champ-des-Martyrs, Brech, France, by Auguste Caristie, 1824[14]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aMorbihan_Auray_Champs_Martyrs_-_panoramio.jpg)
![Neoclassical Tuscan columns in the Neues Museum, Berlin, by Friedrich August Stüler, 1845–1850[15]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aInterior_of_the_Neues_Museum_(13).jpg)
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![Neoclassical Tuscan columns of the Abingdon War Memorial, Abingdon-on-Thames, UK, by John George Timothy West, 1921[16]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aThe_war_memorial_in_Abingdon_-_geograph.org.uk_-_4262210.jpg)
