The Tuscan order is the simplest and plainest of the five classical orders of architecture, characterised by an unfluted column with a plain base and a simple, rounded capital, supporting an entablature without triglyphs or carved ornament. It is closely related to the Doric order but is sturdier and less decorated.
The Tuscan order was associated with early Italian building and was described by the Roman architect Vitruvius, then codified by Renaissance theorists such as Serlio, Vignola and Palladio, who placed it first in the sequence of orders as the most robust and rustic. English architects used it for buildings and parts of buildings where strength and restraint were wanted, such as stables, porticoes, market halls, colonnades and the ground floors of grand houses. Inigo Jones famously gave St Paul's Church in Covent Garden a Tuscan portico. In decorative arts, Tuscan columns appear on chimneypieces, furniture, clock cases, lamp bases and garden pedestals, valued for their clean, timeless form. The plainness of the Tuscan order makes it well suited to modern interiors, where it gives classical structure without excessive ornament.
