Influence of the Vitruvian Man in Western Architectural Aesthetics
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The Bulletin of JSSD Vol.x No.xx pp.1-2(2000) Reviews Received October 31, 2013; Accepted March 12, 2015 Review paper INFLUENCE OF THE VITRUVIAN MAN IN WESTERN ARCHITECTURAL AESTHETICS Yu-Fu YANG*, Chin-Yean WU**, Shin-Hung PAN** * Department of Architecture and Interior Design, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, 123 University Rd. Section 3, Douliou, Yunlin 64002, Taiwan (R.O.C) ** Graduate School of Design, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, 123 University Rd. Section 3, Douliou, Yunlin 64002, Taiwan (R.O.C) Abstract: Although knowledge regarding the economic use of space and of building techniques in Vitruvius’ The Ten Books on Architecture may have been phased out over time, Vitruvius’ concept of Beauty alone has kept its status as the unique origin of aesthetic standards in Western architectural culture, even in the broader occidental culture of Western plastic arts in general, not just in architectural culture. Through studying Vitruvius’ The Ten Books on Architecture, Alberti’s The Ten Books of Architecture and Palladio’s The Four Books on Architecture, this research analyses and discusses aesthetic standards in Western architectural culture as an introductory study of Western traditional aesthetics. This research draws the following conclusions on aesthetic views represented in these architectural books: (1) Aesthetic implications came to be gradually obscured; (2) Aesthetic form became more sophisticated step by step; (3) Development of the formal principles of Western aesthetics may be traced back to the Pythagorean theory of numbers. Keywords: Vitruvius, Western Architectural Aesthetics, culture, Vitruvian Man chart, Architectural books 1. Introduction Le Corbusier, a typical master of Western modern As the first treatise written on architecture and passed architecture, published a bundle of articles preaching down from classical antiquity, De Architectura, or today “mechanical aesthetics and new-age aesthetics” during the known as The Ten Books on Architecture, composed by period between the WWI and WWII, but released on the Vitruvius, enjoys an extraordinarily lofty status in the quiet The Modulor, which may be deemed as an studies on the history of Western architectural theory. The interpretation of the “Vitruvian Man chart”, after the WWII. three defining qualities of architecture asserted by Vitruvius Furthermore, the rise of the post-modern architecture in this book, namely, “Firmitas, Utilitas, Venustas” [1], has revived the Western traditional aesthetic standards as well almost become the most extensively discussed topic in the as a variety of Western historical architectural styles, which Western literature on architectural theory written have since been extensively discoursed on and practised in thenceforth. What is more, all the Western books on the Western architecture. architectural theory written since the Roman Empire are We are sufficiently grounded to recognize the lofty titled after this book. status of Vitruvius’ The Ten Books on Architecture in the Although The Ten Books on Architecture may be aesthetics of western architecture, and to consider Vitruvius’ deemed as a repertory of the Hellenic and Roman heritage and influence a significant integral part of the rudimentary architectural knowledge at Vitruvius’ time, and Western traditional aesthetics in probing into the lineage of no doubt part of its content, such as those about the the aesthetic standards of the western architecture. economic use of space and building techniques, have been phased out or substantially advanced with the elapse of time, 2. Outline of the Study the concept of Beauty alone has since stayed put in the From the Ancient Greek times to the Renaissance, the status of the unique Origin of Aesthetic Standards in the Western culture basically developed in a uniform way, from Western architectural culture, or even in the occidental the Hellenic style to the Panhellenic style, then the Roman culture of plastic art (rather than just in the architectural style, then the Romanesque style, then the Gothic style and culture). Copyright © 2012 日本デザイン学会 All Rights Reserved. THE SCIENCE THE SCIENCE OF DESIGN OF DESIGN BULLETIN B U L L E T I N OF OF JSSD JSSD Vol. Vol. 62 No.xx No. 3 x 201520xx 15 1 finally the Renaissant style. After the Enlightenment architectural beauty. Such books set forth not only the Movement, the uniform development pattern was disturbed, Western “Orthodox” architectural techniques but also the but the majority still shared the common traditions. It is the Western “Orthodox” principles or rules for the architectural same with the development of Western art, which, after the beauty, whereby the architects persuade the owners to grant the business to them or the publishers to publish their ideas Renaissance, was gradually divided into such specialties as into books for circulation, and the books may also serve as architecture, painting, sculpture, design and manual craft, the textbooks for the guild (such guild usually includes all all of which were then further divided but still share a the craftsmen of plastic art) to uphold the authors’ majority of the common traditions, namely, “Vitruvian Man understanding of the western canonical values, etc. Cosmographic Chart”, and the “Architectural books". Therefore, through analysis of the architectural books, we may find a direct access to comprehension of the principles 2.1. Vitruvian Man Chart or rules for the Western aesthetic creations. The “Vitruvian Man” (or “illustration of Vitruvius”) originally referred to the illustration of the proportions of 3. Analysis of the Lineage of the Vitruvian Man the human body (Figure 1) in the Italian version of 3.1. Development of the Vitruvian Man Chart Vitruvius’ The Ten Books on Architecture, translated by Mark Gelernter indicates in Sources of Architectural Francesco di Giorgio Martini. Since this Italian translation Form that the institutionalized rules for architectural of the book existed in the form of a manuscript, of which aesthetics in the Greek times originated in the adoption of there were numerous handwritten copies, a majority of the radius of the Doric column as the module (Figure 3) [4] them with the “Vitruvian Man” drawn by the respective and the necessary visual adjustments. Pursuant to the copiers, the “Vitruvian Man” thus became the important cosmology in the early Roman times, the aesthetic information for the subsequent studies on Vitruvius’ principles lie in the fitness and the truth of Nature, and the aesthetic pattern, and even for the studies on the aesthetic aesthetic rules in the symmetry and proportions of patterns in the Western architectural and visual arts. intercolumniation. In The Ten Books on Architecture, The “Vitruvian Man chart” is a drawing method, a type Vitruvius explicitly set forth these aesthetic principles and of imagination (Figure 2) and a set of values. Therefore, the rules as the timeless principles and as an analogy for the “Vitruvian Man” referred to herein means all the drawings “Human Body” (Figure 4), comparing them to a “Well of “Vitruvian Man”, an illustration of the “aesthetic theory”, Shaped Man”, and turned them into a set of invariable the institutionalized rules for architectural aesthetics since proportions (Figure 5) [4]. This “Well Shaped Man” is the Ancient Greek times, and moreover, a type of aesthetic where the subsequent “Vitruvian Man” originated. imagination and the expression of a set of values. Figure 1. Vitruvian Man chart Figure 2. Thirteenth-century [2]. cosmographic chart [3]. Figure 3. Parthenon. Figure 4. Body of the town [5]. 2.2. Architectural Books or a System of Architectural Books In the middle ages, the cosmology, epistemology and art The system of architectural books refers to a system of the Greek times were gradually on the wane, with only built up from Vitruvius’ The Ten Books on Architecture Neo-Platonism remaining in coexistence with written in the early Roman times and composed of all the Neo-Mysticism. The practitioners of architectural and books written by the western architectural craftsmen on visual arts were only interested in the symbolic worship of building categories, structures, construction methods, the divinities, and used only simple regular circles, column orders and the principles that lead to the creation of equilateral triangles, squares, etc. in limited combinations to 162 BTHE U LL SCIENCE E T I N O F JSSD Vol.OF DESIGN 62 No. BULLETIN 3 2015 OFTHE JSSD SCIENCE Vol. OF xx DESIGN No. x 20xx generate complex geometric forms in organization of the After the Baroque (Figure 9), since the architects grew plans and facades of the buildings. In the middle ages, unsatisfied with the “two-dimensional compositional although there were cosmographic charts extremely similar technique” of the Renaissance and owing to the rise of to the “Vitruvian Man”, such charts were meant to express rationalism, they believed that there were not only clear the cosmology (Figure 6) and were not associated with the reasons for everything but also a rational structure for the organization of the plans and facades of the buildings. This real world, a “three-dimensional compositional technique”, argument considers that the most beautiful (ideally beautiful) which was based on geometry, mathematics (progression face is the combination of the most beautiful facial features and organized sequence of numbers in particular) and (realistic beauty) in the real world and thus the perspective techniques (Figure 10),