Portico (pronounced pawr-ti-koh
or pohr-ti-koh)
(1) In
architecture, a covered (but not enclosed) entrance to a building, the structure
consisting of a roof supported by columns or piers, usually attached to the building
as a porch.
(2) The
Stoic philosophy, named after the public porch on the agora of Athens where
Zeno taught (now obscure and used only in the history or teaching of academic
philosophy).
1595–1605:
An Italian borrowing from the Latin porticus
(gate; entrance), the construct being porta
+ -icus. Porta
is from the primitive Indo-European root per-
(to pass through or over), probably as a feminine nominalization of pr-tó- (passed through; crossed) and
related to the Ancient Greek πόρος (póros)
(means of passage). The –icus suffix is from the i-stem + -cus, occurring in some original cases
and later used freely. It was cognate
with the Ancient Greek -ικός (-ikós), the Proto-Germanic –igaz, the Old High German and Old
English -ig, the Gothic -𐌴𐌹𐌲𐍃 (-eigs) and
the Proto-Slavic –ьcь. The Slavic form fossilized into a nominal agent suffix, but probably
originally also served adjectival functions. The Latin porticus was a doublet of porche and both plural forms, porticoes & porticos, are
acceptable.
First widely used as a formalised style in Ancient Greece, a portico is a porch which provides cover over the entrance to a building. Until recently, historians of architecture insisted on a portico being a structure supported by columns or pillars but without walls, variations of the theme usually called colonnades or ante rooms. Now, the more general term "porch" seems often extended to what used to be a portico.
Drayton Hall, Charleston, South Carolina.
Drayton Hall, a fine example of Palladian architecture, is thought to have been completed in the early 1750s. On the west façade, it features an unusual, recessed, double projecting portico, one striking aspect of which is the twinned staircases. Symmetrically paired staircases leading up to porticos were a common feature in antebellum architecture but it’s rare to see them attached at right angles, the style of the plantation era tending to favour sweeping curves.
Villa Cornaro, Venice.
Drayton Hall’s double-layer portico is said to be the first of its kind in North America and influenced by similar constructions in Italy by Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580) who lent his name to this style. His Villa Cornaro, a country estate in Piombino Dese, near Venice, he designed in 1551-1552, leaving an interesting discussion of the building in the second volume of I quattro libri dell'architettura (The Four Books on Architecture (1570)).
Lindsay Lohan approaching the portico of the "London house" in Parent Trap (1998). The house is 23 Egerton Terrace, Knightsbridge London, SW3 although in the film it's labelled Number 7.
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