The Depiction of the Attributes of the Architect in Frontispieces to Sixteenth Century Italian Architectural Treatises

Inscribing the Architect: The Depiction of the Attributes of the Architect in Frontispieces to Sixteenth Century Italian Architectural Treatises. Desley Luscombe Thesis submitted for award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2004 Inscribing the Architect: The Depiction of the Attributes of the Architect in Frontispieces to Sixteenth Century Italian Architectural Treatises. Desley Luscombe Abstract This study investigates the changing understanding of the role of the ‘architect’ in Italy during the sixteenth century by examining frontispieces to published architectural treatises. From analysis of these illustrations four attributes emerge as important to new societal understandings of the role of ‘architect.’ The first attribute is the desire to delineate the boundaries of knowledge for architecture as a discipline, relevant to sixteenth-century society. The second is the depiction of the ‘architect,’ as an intellectual engaged in the resolution of practical, political, economic and philosophical considerations of his practice. The third represents the ‘architect’ having a specific domain of activity in the design of civic spaces of magnificence not only for patrons but also for the city per se. The fourth represents the ‘architect’ and society as perceiving a commonality of an architectural role beyond the boundary of individual locations and patrons. Five treatises meet the criteria set for this study: Sebastiano Serlio’s Regole generali di architetura sopra le Cinque maniere de gli edifici cioè, Toscano, Dorico, Ionico, Corinthio, et Composito, con gli essempi dell’antiquita, che, per la magior parte concordano con la dottrina di Vitruvio, 1537, his, Il Terzo libro nel qual si figurano, e descrivono le antichita di Roma, 1540, Cosimo Bartoli’s translation of Alberti’s De re aedificatoria titled L’architettura di Leonbattista Alberti, tradotta in lingua fiorentina da Cossimo Bartoli, Gentilhuomo, & Academico Fiorentino, 1550; Daniele Barbaro’s translation and commentary on Vitruvius’ De’architetura titled, I dieci libri dell’architettura di M. Vitruvio tradutti et commentati da monsignor Barbaro eletto Patriarca d’Aquileggia, 1556; and Andrea Palladio’s I quattro libri dell’architettura, 1570. A second aim for the study was to review the usefulness of frontispieces as an historical archive. It was found that frontispieces visually structure important ideas by providing a narrative with meaning as an integral part of the illustration. In this narrative frontispiece illustrations prioritise concepts found in the accompanying text and impose a hierarchical structure of importance for fundamental ideas. Acknowledgements: A work such as this relies to a great extent on the help, advice and criticism of those collaborating in the development of thoughts and arguments. Firstly I would like to thank Dr. Flavia Marcello for her help with many of the translations from Italian and Latin in this thesis. Her work with Professor Martha Fattori encouraged me to tangle with languages outside of my own. I would also like to thank my supervisors Professors John Gascoigne and Martyn Lyons of the School of History at the University of New South Wales who guided and encouraged my thesis. Equally I would like to thank Phyllis Lambert and the librarians and staff from the Canadian Centre for Architecture including, Nicholas Olsberg, Gerald Beasley, Mario Carpo and Francoise Roux who were always available for comment, help with translation, encouragement and insightful directions to original texts. Lastly I would like to thank those scholars who heard my thoughts, read my text and were encouraged by the difficulty of my topic to give guidance. These include Myra Nan Rosenfeld, Christof Thoenes, Branko Mitrovi, Alberto Pérez Gómez, Christy Anderson and Marco Frascari. Without their help this project would not have succeeded. In the end no project can happen without the loving support of family and friends as well. My husband Leo Campbell and children Catherine and Edward gave me the time and support to write and travel, my mother Ivy Luscombe gave enormous encouragement, debate and editing skills, my friend Jeff Mueller freely gave of his encouragement and support with questioning my readings of the illustrations and Pamela Adamson facilitated my trips to Canada by offering accommodation. Inscribing the Architect: The Depiction of the Attributes of the Architect in Frontispieces to Sixteenth Century Italian Architectural Treatises. Desley Luscombe Abstract i Acknowledgements ii Contents iii Introduction 1 0.1 Introducing the notion of ‘change’ in attributes of the ‘architect’ 1 0.1.1 Reappearance and transformations in application of the term ‘architect’ during the fifteenth century 2 0.1.2 Characteristics of the ‘architect’ in treatises of the late fifteenth century 5 0.2 Frontispieces as the source of data for this study 11 0.2.1 Defining the frontispiece 12 0.3 The structure of the report: the chapters 17 Chapter 1: Interpreting the ‘architect’ in the iconography of frontispieces. 25 1.1 Evidence used in presentation of recent historical interpretations of the role of the ‘architect’ in sixteenth-century Italy 26 1.2 Investigating the allegorical narrative of frontispieces 30 1.2.1 Development of conventions for understanding architectural frontispiece allegory 33 1.2.2 The sixteenth-century source of conventions in frontispiece images 36 1.2.3 Prior analyses of frontispieces 42 1.3 Section 2: The case study 44 1.3.1 Interpreting a visual allegory of the ‘architect’ 44 1.3.2 Reading an illustration with the ‘architect’ as the subject of allegorical representation 45 1.3.3 Describing the emblems and symbols of the allegorical representation 46 1.3.4 Analysing the emblems iconographically and establishing a narrative in the frontispiece 52 1.3.5 Analysing initial interpretations in the illustration’s historical context 56 1.4 Interpreting frontispieces – concluding comments on method 62 Chapter 2: The ‘Architect’ and the acquisition of the status of a professional class in the act of delineating their discipline: the frontispiece of Sebastiano Serlio’s Regole generali di architettura 7 6 2.1 Attribution of the frontispiece 78 2.2 Describing the frontispiece to Serlio’s Regole generali di architettura and analysing its component images 81 2.2.1 The classicised aedicule with pilastered columns and pediment 83 2.2.2 The Herms and Mascaron 89 2.2.3 The surround of bunches of picked fruit and flowers tied by ribbons and the cornucopia of fruit and flowers on the pediment 96 2.2.4 The cartouche of classical fragments 98 2.2.5 The Greek meanders 102 2.3 Interpreting the portrayal of the ‘architect’ of sixteenth-century Italy in Serlio’s frontispiece 105 Chapter 3: The ‘Architect’ perceives architecture as the resolution of the ‘Natural’: Sebastian Serlio’s frontispiece to Book III, Il Terzo libro nel qual si figurano, e descrivono le antichita di Roma. 125 3.1 Investigating changes in Serlio’s context between 1537 and 1540 during the interval between the printing of Book IV and Book III 126 3.2 Describing the frontispiece to Serlio’s Il terzo libro and analysing its component Images 129 3.2.1 The Lemma 130 3.2.2 The classical portico setting 139 3.2.3 The perspectival construction of the colonnade 143 3.2.4 The collection of classical fragments 146 3.2.5 The allegorical figure of Architettura 151 3.2.6. The Inscription found on the classical fragments 156 3.3 Interpreting Serlio’s sixteenth-century ‘architect’ in the frontispiece to Il terzo libro and comparing this with his architect of Regole generali di architettura 158 Chapter 4: The ‘Architect’ representing a Court politics with his practice based on talent and intellect to conceive and direct his transformations of stone into architecture: the Frontispiece of L’architettura di Leonbattista Alberti, Cosimo Bartoli’s translation of L. B. Alberti’s De re aedificatoria. 171 4.1 Cosimo Bartoli, Giorgio Vasari and the Medici court of Florence: The glorification of the Tuscan 173 4.2 Describing the frontispiece to Bartoli’s L’Architettura and analysing its component images 177 4.2.1 The Tuscan aedicule and setting 180 4.2.2 The imprese and the allegorical figures on the pilasters 182 4.2.3 The allegorical figures on the pediment 189 4.2.4 The river god and emblems in the foreground and the Roma antica 195 4.3 Interpreting the allegorical narrative of the ‘architect’ in the Bartoli and Vasari frontispiece to L’architettura di Leonbattista Alberti 198 Chapter 5: The term ‘architect’ as a social functionary in command of collectively understood structured intellectual processes: the frontispiece to Daniele Barbaro’s Vitruvian Commentari. 212 5.1 Daniele Barbaro’s context during preparation of his Vitruvian Commentari 213 5.2 Description of the frontispiece to Daniele Barbaro’s Vitruvian Commentari and analysing its component images 217 5.2.1 The triumphal arch of the frontispiece 221 5.2.2 The personifications 229 5.2.2.i The figures on the attic level 231 5.2.2.ii The figures in the niches 241 5.2.3 The central figure of Architettura 250 5.3 Interpreting the ‘architect’ in Daniele Barbaro’s Commentari 253 Chapter 6: The term ‘architect’ separating from notions of patronage and locale: the frontispiece to Andrea Palladio’s 1570 treatise I quattro libri dell’architettura. 277 6.1 The context for Palladio’s preparation of his books 278 6.2 Describing the frontispiece to Palladio’s I quattro libri and analysing its component images 284 6.2.1 The pedimental aedicule and its perspectival context 286 6.2.2

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