Tuscan order
Vitruvius, Book IV, Chapter 7
Let the site on which the temple is to be built be six parts in length; five parts are to be assigned to the breadth. Now the length is to be divided in two. The interior half is to be marked out by the dimensions of the sanctuary; the part on the front is to be left for the portico with its columns.
Further let the width be divided into 10 parts. Of these let three parts each on the right and left be given to the lesser sanctuaries, or alternately to the wings; the remaining four parts are to be given to the central shrine. Let the space which is before the sanctuaries in the forecourt be planned for the columns, in such a way that the corner columns are put opposite the pilasters, in line with the ends of the walls. The two middle columns are to be in line with the walls which are between the wings and the middle shrine. Between the pilasters and the columns in front, additional columns are to be put half way in with them. At the bottom these are to have a diameter of 1/7 of the height. The height is to be one third of the width of the temple. The top of the column is to be diminished ¼ of the diameter at the bottom.
The bases are to be made half the diameter high. Let the bases have their plinths circular and half the height of the base, with a torus and apophysis as deep as the plinth. The height of the capital is to be half a diameter. The width of the abacus is as great as the diameter of the columns at the base. The height of the capital is to be divided into three parts, of which one is to be given to the plinth or abacus, one to the echinus or ovolo, the third to the hypotrachelium with the apophysis.
Above the columns, beams are to be placed bolted together, of such proportionate depth as shall be demanded by the magnitude of the work. And these coupled beams are to have a thickness equal to the hypotrachelium at the top of the column, and they are to be so coupled with dowels and mortices that the coupling allows an interval of two inches between the joists. For when they touch one another and do not admit a breathing space and passage of air, they are heated and quickly decay.
Above the beams and walls the mutules are to project ¼ of the height of the column. On the front of these, casings are to be fixed and above them the tympanum of the gable either of stone or wood. Above this the ridge-piece, rafters, and purlins, are to be so placed that the pitch of the roof is one in three.
Evolution and typology of the Etruscan temple
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Temples with a single cella
The oldest examples of Etruscan temples have a very simple ground plan. A quadrangular cella is preceeded by a pronaos only formed by two columns placed in the axis of the side walls of the cella. We find this type of temple in many terracotta models from 500 B.C. onwards.
This type gave birth to a great and important group of Roman temples. These temples had a cella without alae and with four columns or more in the pronaos. The pronaos tends to occupy the front half of the building. This type occurs in our Roman material from ± 200 B.C. The earliest examples are temples B and D and the Port temple at Cosa, the larger temple on the acropolis of Norba.
From these temples, with a single cella, we can deduce that the tripartition of the cella, which is mostly described as typical for Etruscan temples, is not at all the typical arrangement. This tripartition was later necessitated by the fact that several deities were worshipped in the same temple: each deity got his own cella.
In his more elaborate form this type evolved to the two types described by Vitruvius: a building plot with a ratio of 6 to 5 of which the length is divided in two. The rear part is given to the cella(s), while the front part is reserved for the pronaos. From the proportions of the ground plan Vitruvius passes on to the inner arrangement, giving the first place to the three-cella temples and merely mentioning the possibility of temples with one cella and (open) alae.
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Temples with three cellae
A good example of the three-cella temple with pronaos and temenos is the so called Belvedere temple at Orvieto, build in the fifth century B.C. He has a tripartite cella which occupies nearly half the ground surface, proceeded by a deep pronaos with two rows of columns placed in the axes of the walls. This disposition accords completely to the codification of Vitruvius. Another old example of this type is a temple at Pyrgi (the actual Santa Severa), the harbor of Caere, build around 450 B.C. Here again we find a tripartite cella with columns placed in the axis of the walls, but this temple has elongated antae. Between these antae two rows of two columns are placed, in front of this four additional columns form a front colonnade. This type is described by Vitruvius in the following chapter of this book: he calls it a mixture of Tuscan and Greek style: Vitruvius, IV, 8, 5 (For some taking the arrangement of the columns from the Tuscan style, transfer them to the design of Corinthian and Ionic buildings. And where the pilasters run forward in the forecourt, they place <B>two columns in line with the walls of the cella</B> and produce a system common to Tuscan and Greek forms of building.
An interesting group of this type are the so called "Capitolia
The oldest example, of course, is the temple of Iupiter Optimus Capitolinus at Rome, dedicated in 509 B.C. We find the typical Tuscan features: nearly square ground plan with a ratio of 7:6 (Vitruvius prescribes 6:5), closed rear wall, columns placed in the axis of the walls. In addition alae were added, which resulted in a hexastyle front. The tripartite cella was necessitated by the worship of the capitoline triad: Jupiter, Juno, Minerva.
The earliest example of this type outside Rome is the so called capitolium temple of Cosa, build around 150 B.C. Here the pronaos was half enclosed by long antae, which take the place of the outer columns of the inner row.
Other examples can be seen in the capitolium of Firenze, discovered near the actual Piazza della Repubblica and in the capitolium of Signia.
All these temples come close to the proportions given by Vitruvius and it is even possible that Vitruvius had these temples in mind when describing the Tuscanicae dispositiones.But none of these temples has the exact measures and proportions as given by Vitruvius. Therefore it is assumed that Vitruvius intended to give the ideal proportions for this kind of temple.
In reality it is impossible to find a building in which these proportions are realized.
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Temples with a single cella and open alae
This is the second type described by Vitruvius. A single cella is placed against the rear wall. The rear wall has extensions to the right and to the left. From this extensions start the alae formed by a colonnade.
That this type was typically Etruscan is proven by the Tomba Ildebranda at Sovana, where this kind of temple was imitated in the façade of a tomb.
A good example of this kind of temple in Roman context can be seen in temple C of the Largo Argentina at Rome. This temple was dedicated to the goddess Feronia and build around the beginning of the third century B.C.
Towards the Late Republic and the beginning of the Empire this type was hellenized and used e.g. as base for the groundplan of the temple of Augustus on his forum. Here we see a combination of the single cella with alae, and hellenistic columns close to each other, just as we already saw in the Tempio della Pace at Paestum.
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Temples with a single cella and closed alae
This type is not mentioned by Vitruvius. Here the alae are changed to lateral corridors with closed side walls along the entire length of the temple. Columns are placed on the front between the ends of these side walls, which formed elongated antae.
A good example of this type can be seen in Fiesole, near Firenze, where a third century B.C. temple was found under the rests of a republican temple of the first century B.C.
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