As you watch the video, you can browse by subject using the course outline and timestamps below. As you progress through the units, you can use the below optional (ungraded) questions to help assess your understanding of the material. Please note that these are not the summative assessment questions to be answered at the end of the course. You will also need to complete the summative assessment in order to earn course credit.
Review: Where does the general concept of the Tuscan order come from?
Incorrect. Etruscan temples were built out of wood, which means that unfortunately we do not have clear surviving precedents for the style.
Correct! Because Etruscan temples were built out of wood, we do not have clear surviving precedents and must rely on archaeological findings and the writings of Vitruvius. While Renaissance architects codified the Tuscan order, it is still modeled on this Etruscan idea.
Incorrect. It is true that Renaissance writers had significant creative license in designing what we know as the Tuscan order today. However, they did not come up with a new order out of nowhere – it was based on antiquity.
27:51: Renaissance Adaptations of the Tuscan Order
Review: Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of Vignola’s adaptation of the Tuscan order?
Correct! Vignola used a cyma reversa in the bed molds, which visually supports the heaviness of the corona.
Incorrect. Vignola’s adaptation of the Tuscan order does follow Vignola’s prescription of seven diameters for the height of the Tuscan column.
Incorrect. Vignola did employ a slightly wider capital that did not align with the base of the column shaft. This decision goes against Vitruvius’s prescription for the Tuscan order and lends the order a more Doric character.
40:33: Differences between the Tuscan and Doric Orders
Review: Which of the following is NOT a trait that is sometimes shared between the Doric and Tuscan orders?
Incorrect. The Doric order and Tuscan order cannot always be told apart by their base; the Tuscan base consists of the plinth, followed by a torus, and then frequently a small fillet and conge. Sometimes, but not always, the Doric also uses this base. What might be an instance where you could tell whether a building is using the Doric or Tuscan order based on the base?
Incorrect. This can indeed be a shared trait of both orders. What might be an instance where you could tell whether a building is using the Doric or Tuscan order based on the column shaft?
Correct! This would be a trait seen in the Corinthian and Composite orders, and never in the Doric or Tuscan orders.
51:18: Examples of Precedents
Review: Which of the following is one of the earliest extant examples of the Tuscan order?
Incorrect. While the Temple of Capitoline Jupiter, along with other Etruscan temples, has been reconstructed by archaeologists as having used the Tuscan order, recall that there are no extant examples of the Tuscan order from antiquity.
Correct! Palladio was the first to apply the Tuscan order during the Renaissance, which he used for his villas in the Veneto region of Italy. This makes his work among the earliest examples of the Tuscan order that we are still able to see today.
Incorrect. This church is indeed an important example of the use of the Tuscan order. However, it was completed in 1633, significantly later than the first extant use of the Tuscan order.