rustication

rustication , in building construction, method of creating textures upon masonry wall surfaces, chiefly upon those of stone, by projecting the blocks beyond the surface of the mortar joints. Each joint thus lies in a channel or in a V-shaped groove, between adjoining stones, and a separating shadow line is produced. The degree of projection, whether slight or bold, permits varying effects. The Romans occasionally built rusticated walls. This device was used by Renaissance architects in the palace facades at Florence, a favorite treatment being that of a ground floor with stones of strong projection and roughly textured surface, surmounted by upper stories in which both forms were more refined. Often columns and pilasters also were rusticated. The basement story of the Pitti Palace (mid-15th cent.) exhibits a celebrated example of rustication, some of its enormous and roughly quarried blocks of stone projecting as much as 2 ft 6 in. (76.2 cm) beyond the surface of the joints. The garden architecture of the Italian baroque villa shows many grotesquely textured examples. Rustications also appeared frequently in the Georgian style and in American Colonial architecture.

rustication. In masonry, stone cut in such a way that the joints are sunk in some sort of channel, the faces of the stones projecting beyond them. In addition, those faces are usually roughened to form a contrast with ordinary dressed ashlar. Rusticated masonry enhances the visual impact of keystones, plinths, quoins, and even entire storeys, while its application to whole façades can suggest power, solidity, and even the Sublime. Rusticating is the carving or creation of rustication, or the making of a texture on a face. Types of rustication include:banded: plain or textured ashlar with the horizontal joints only grooved, giving the impression of a series of bands;chamfered: with each ashlar chamfered to create V-shaped joints, either all round each stone or, if at the tops and bottoms, to create banded rustication with chamfers;channelled: with a rectangular sunken channel at the joints, formed horizontally only or round each stone;congelated: see frosted below;cyclopean: rock-faced or quarry-faced ashlar with dressed projecting rough faces, as though recently taken from the quarry, giving a massive, powerful, impregnable effect particularly useful for plinths, piers of viaducts, etc.;diamond-pointed: with ashlar blocks cut with chamfered faces giving the effect in a wall of a series of small pyramids or hipped roofs set on their sides, also called prismatic or pyramidal rustication;frosted: carved to look like icicles or stalactites, also called congelated rustication, normally found on fountains, in grottoes, or other situations associated with water;reticulated: carved with indentations leaving the surface connected in an irregular net-like pattern;rock-faced: as cyclopean above;smooth: with joints clearly shown by some means (e.g. channels or V-joints) but the faces flat and plain;V-jointed: as chamfered above;vermiculated: with the face carved as though eaten away in parts, with irregular worm-like tracks and holes all over it, reminiscent of wood or sand.