A pedestal (from French piédestal , from Italian piedistallo 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue , vase , column , or certain altars . Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles . In civil engineering , it is also called basement . The minimum height of the plinth is usually kept as 45 cm (for buildings) . It transmits loads from superstructure to the substructure and acts as the retaining wall for the filling inside the plinth or raised floor.
16-522: The fourth plinth is the northwest plinth in Trafalgar Square in central London . It was originally intended to hold an equestrian statue of William IV , but remained empty due to lack of funds. For over 150 years, its use was debated; in 1998, the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) commissioned three contemporary sculptures to be displayed temporarily on
32-599: 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 , it followed Indian religions 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. According to
48-520: A podium to the columns employed decoratively in the Roman triumphal arches. The architects of the Italian Renaissance , 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
64-580: A competition that encourages creative thinking around past and present artworks displayed on the Fourth Plinth. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel The Lost World , the narrator speculates that Professor Challenger "in his fancy, may ... see himself sometimes, gracing the vacant pedestal in Trafalgar Square". 51°30′30″N 0°07′43″W / 51.5082°N 0.12871°W / 51.5082; -0.12871 Plinth In sculpting,
80-416: 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 Asian art
96-575: A statue of Moby-Dick , which would then be called the " Plinth of Whales ". A television ident for the British TV station Channel 4 shows a CGI Channel 4 logo on top of the fourth plinth. The annual Fourth Plinth Schools Award is the education project within the Mayor of London's Fourth Plinth Programme. The award uses the Fourth Plinth as an inspiration to engage primary and secondary schools in London to enter
112-654: 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'. 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
128-433: The load of the building to the ground and isolates it horizontally from the ground. This includes foundations and basement retaining walls . It is differentiated from the superstructure . It safeguards the building against the forces of wind, uplift, soil pressure etc. It provides a level and firm surface for the construction of superstructure . It also prevents unequal or differential settlement and ensures stability of
144-517: 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. Substructure (engineering) The substructure of a building transfers
160-461: The following artworks have been commissioned: The best use of the fourth plinth remains the subject of debate and discussion. Proposals for permanent statues have included: Commercial companies have used the plinth, usually without permission, as a platform for publicity stunts, including a model of David Beckham by Madame Tussauds during the 2002 FIFA World Cup . The London-based American harmonica player Larry Adler jokingly suggested erecting
176-452: The ownership of Trafalgar Square was transferred from Westminster City Council to the Mayor of London and this marked the beginning of the Mayor of London's Fourth Plinth Commission as it is now known. There is a plinth at each of the four corners of the square. The two southern plinths carry sculptures of Henry Havelock and Charles James Napier . The northern plinths are larger than those in
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#1732844416515192-512: The plinth stood empty, the new Greater London Authority assumed responsibility for Trafalgar Square and the fourth plinth. The Fourth Plinth Commission is led by the Mayor of London's Culture Team, under the guidance of the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group. The group is made up of specialist advisers appointed to guide and monitor the commissions for the plinth. Under the stewardship of the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group,
208-540: The plinth with a succession of works commissioned and established by the Cass Sculpture Foundation . These were: A committee convened to consider the RSA's late-1990s project concluded that it had been a success and "unanimously recommended that the plinth should continue to be used for an ongoing series of temporary works of art commissioned from leading national and international artists". After several years in which
224-413: The plinth. Shortly afterwards, Chris Smith , Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport , commissioned Sir John Mortimer to seek opinions from public art commissioners, critics and members of the public as to its future. Mortimer's final report recommended that there continue to be a rolling programme of commissioned temporary artworks rather than settle permanently on one figure or idea. In 2003,
240-477: The southern corners, as they were designed to have equestrian statues , and indeed the northeastern plinth has one of George IV . The fourth plinth on the northwest corner, designed by Sir Charles Barry and built in 1841, was intended to hold an equestrian statue of William IV but remained empty due to insufficient funds. In 1998, the RSA conceived the Fourth Plinth Project, which temporarily occupied
256-428: 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
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