Column/Pillar

History

Column typically denoted a support element in architecture, but the column was also used as an independent element in American landscape design, most often as a commemorative monument and sometimes as a support for climbing vines and other vegetation [Fig. 1]. The column was generally understood to be a tall, cylindrical shaft situated on a base and crowned with a capital. Columns could be treated in a number of formulaic styles or orders, the most popular being the classically derived Doric [Fig. 2], Ionic, and Corinthian. Variations on the classical orders were also described in architectural treatises available in the colonies, such as the Toscana and Romana orders noted in Scamozzi’s The Mirror of Architecture (1615) [Fig. 3] and the “Gothick” manner detailed in Batty and Thomas Langley’s Gothic Architecture (1747) [Fig. 4]. Other variations included fluted and “Rustic” versions, as depicted in James Gibbs’ A Book of Architecture (1728) [Fig. 5]. In the colonial and federal context, columns typically were made of wood or stone, but other materials were used, as in the case of brick and mortar employed for the Revolutionary War monument at the residence of Thomas Hancock on Boston’s Beacon Hill. For important public works of art, however, stone was often regarded as the most appropriate material because of its relative permanence.

In his definition of 1828, Noah Webster alluded to the confusion that sometimes arose between the terms column and pillar. He insisted that a pillar was made of multiple sections or drums, while a column possessed a single, undivided shaft. This distinction, however, did not hold up in practice. John Lambert, for example, referred to the monument at Beacon Hill as both a pillar and a column. From the citations collected, the term “column” was used more frequently than “pillar” in treatises and descriptive discourses.

Like his lexicographical predecessor Ephraim Chambers, Webster pointed to the use of columns in public settings as commemorations of venerated events such as military victories. This tradition, which extended back to antiquity, was revived in the eighteenth century. Ruined columns, signifying both a classical past and a

recognition of the passage of time, were erected in many well-known eighteenth- century gardens such as Stowe in Great Britain and Ermenonville in France. Hence, when deciding how to commemorate the American Revolution and Gen. George Washington, several designers chose the form of the column. Often executed on a grand scale and placed in public spaces, these monuments dominated their surroundings and served as visual foci. Beacon Hill, for example, was marked by a column crowned by an eagle, symbol of the United States. Robert Mills proposed various designs for a monument to George Washington in Baltimore, each of which featured a column [Figs. 6 and 7]. Maximilian Godefoy’s Baltimore Battle Monument [Fig. 8] and Pierre-Charles L’Enfant’s ideal plan for Washington, D.C., proposed the use of columns, obelisks, and statues to inscribe the nation’s history into the public landscape. The venerable associations of columns made them suitable as grave markers; Mount Auburn Cemetery, in Cambridge, Mass., for example, included both intact and ruined or broken columns [Fig. 9].

N ot a bl y, the comme m o r at i ve functions of c olumns were (andst i llare)most oftenassoc iated with publ ic sites, where columns fu n ct i o n ed as signifiers of sha r ed history or cul t u r al i de nt i t y. In cont r a st, in private landsc ap e

designs columns typic ally served a purely orname nt alfunction.At the home of Benjamin Henry Lat ro beinNew Or l eans, forexa m p l e, a w h i te - p ai nted column (presumably made of wood) cap p edbya ballsupported inte r t w i n ed jasmine and roses. Ga rden writer Geo r g e J aques (1852) adv i s ed homeowners to wreat he c olumns with wo o d bi n e, honeys u c k l e, and c l i mbingroses as ameansto dome st ic ate this feat u r e, but he ignored the symbol ic, triu m p hal, and monume nt alassoc i ations emphas i z edby ei g hte e nt h - c e ntury lexic o g r ap he r s . T he form of the column was often the same as i n d ic ated by the de sc r i ption of James Gib b s ’ s (1728) ill u st r ation: “Three Designs for Col u m n s , p roper for publ ick Places or private Ga rde n s . ” In an unusual inst a n c e, Al e xa n der Walsh for the New England Fa r m e r in 1841 ill u st r ated fo u r c olumns connected to serve as a fr a me work fo r supporting a lamp or bird cage in an unnamed ga rden, with ve g et ation trai n ed over the supporting eleme nts [Fi g. 10].

ALH