When we see the monuments, we think. why are they so big and what are such great designs on? In this article you will find information about what a pedestal is and where you can see it.
Description
Pedestal (from the Latin "pedestal" - "put") - the architectural basis of the sculpture, monument, column, vase.
The pedestal turns into a pedestal (from French “under the foot”, “foot”), when it allows you to majestically rise above the surrounding space of the statue on it. Usually this is a monument to a person whose identity makes the pedestal significant, great and inaccessible. All those around are at the feet of the person depicted on it and seem small and insignificant. This is the difference between a pedestal and a pedestal.
History of pedestals
In order to answer the question of what a pedestal is, you need to start with the history of this phenomenon. The custom of installation of such structures can be attributed to antique samples, when works of art were installed in squares, in churches, so that everyone could admire them. Not on the sculptural group, but on the pedestal, inscriptions were made out explaining the acts of a person or people (and sometimes animals or objects), to which a monument was erected. Such, for example, are the inscriptions on the pedestals: fabulist I. A. Krylov with the image of animals in the Summer Garden of St. Petersburg and the monument to Minin and Pozharsky with two bronze reliefs on a granite pedestal on the Red Square in Moscow.
In the Middle Ages, when Gothic dominated, sculptural images seemed to “enter the walls” in the form of bas-reliefs, half-bas-reliefs and statues in niches or climbed onto the roof decorations, directing them upward. The pedestals either disappeared altogether or very diminished in size.
The Renaissance again revived the fashion of installing statues and sculptural groups on powerful pedestals, which made them an adornment and complement of ensembles of buildings, parks, squares in many European cities. As in ancient Rome, each ruler, coming to power, tried to consolidate power, including by installing his own large statue on a high pedestal.
Such architectural additions were usually made of stone (marble, granite, etc.) or metal (bronze, copper, etc.), wooden pedestals were fragile and short-lived. To withstand heavy weight, they were made massive, from very hard rock. The shape of the pedestals, as a rule, was in harmony with the surrounding space, repeating the shape of the details of structures: steps, cornices, round bases of columns, sometimes repeating the ornament of column capitals, etc.
Sometimes the pedestals were made so highly artistic that they played a very significant role in the visual perception of the sculptural group. An example is the pedestal of the monument to Peter the Great - the Bronze Horseman (although it is made of bronze) in one of the squares of St. Petersburg. The monument impresses the viewer. The Tsar - the innovator on a rearing horse, was ascended simply to an unattainable height thanks to a pedestal made of a low-processed huge piece of rock (Thunder-stone) and having dimensions much larger than the monument itself. The inscription on the pedestal is fully consistent with his exalted style and artistic image: "Peter the Great - Catherine the Great, summer of 1872."
The fourth pedestal on Trafalgar Square
On the famous Trafalgar Square in London in 1841, according to the plan of the architect C. Barry, four pedestals were erected on the corners for the statues of four famous British. Currently, three of them have monuments to King George IV, as well as General Henry Havelock and General Charles James. The fourth pedestal was empty for a long time, but "a good place is never empty."
Therefore, since 2005, sculptures by contemporary authors have been exhibited on this pedestal: disabled artist Alison Lapper, a multicolored glass installation by sculptor Schütte, a model of the flagship Admiral Nelson in a bottle of artificial glass, and the author is an artist Jinka Schonibare from Great Britain.