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Architecture and Sexuality in the Words of Filarete

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Architecture and Sexuality in the Words of Filarete 01 Mark Jarzombek Architecture and Sexuality in the Words of Filarete Trattato di architettura (“Treatise on Architecture”) was written by Antonio di Pietro Averlino, known as Filarete (c. 1400—c. 1469), sometime around 1464. Unlike the treatise written by Leon Battista Alberti, De re aedificatoria (“On the Art of Building,” 1443-1452), which is more scholarly in tone, this book has at the core of its narration an ideal city, Sforzinda, named after Francesco Sforza, the Duke of Milan, and Filarete’s patron. The city was never built, but described in great detail in the treatise. We do not know all that much about Filarete’s life except that he was born in Florence, where he probably trained as a craftsman. He then worked in Rome under the Italian painter and architect, Lorenzo Ghiberti. It was during this time that 6 he adopted the name “Filarete” which means “a lover of virtue.” In the mid 15th century, he moved to Milan where he became a ducal engineer and worked on a variety of architectural projects for the next fifteen years. Like Alberti, Filarete was a champion of the classical world arguing against the Gothic manner of Northern Italy, which he calls the “barbarous modern style.” Unlike Alberti, however, who lists and discusses the various skills that the architect needs, including a relationship with the patron that we might today term as professional, Filarete, who adopts a story-telling mode for much of the treatise, argues that the relationship between patron and architect is much more intimate. First the architect, like a wife, bears the patron’s building. Once the building is born, the architect then becomes “the mother” in charge of its development. And finally, once the building is finished, he becomes “its lover,” visiting it as often as possible. This astonishing set of similes, from wife, to mother, to lover, highlights a complex, triangulated relationship between patron, architecture and building. “Treatise on Architecture,” Filarete, ca. 1464, (Book II, page 7 verso—8 recto)1 The building is conceived in this manner. Since no one can You perhaps could say, “You have told me that the building conceive by himself without a woman, by another simile, a is similar to a man. Therefore, if this is so, it needs to be con- building cannot be conceived by one man alone. As it cannot ceived and then born.” As [it is] with man himself so [it is] with be done without a woman, so he who wishes to build needs the building. First it is conceived, using a simile such as you an architect. He conceives it with him and then the architect can understand and then it is born. The mother delivers her carries it. When the architect has given birth, he becomes the child at the term of nine months or sometimes seven. By care mother of the building. Before the architect gives birth, he and in good order she makes him grow. “Tell me, how is this should dream about his conception, think about it, and turn conception achieved?” it over in his mind in many ways for seven to nine months, just Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00187 by guest on 23 September 2021 as a woman carries her child in her body for seven to nine The architect ought to be experienced in many things, but at months. He should also make various drawings of his con- present I do not wish to state what he ought to know because ception that he has made with the patron, according to his I intend to treat of this elsewhere. At present I wish to discuss own desires. As the woman can do nothing without the man, only his duty in the preparation of the building after it has so the architect is the mother who carried this conception. been conceived and determined in the manner stated above. When he has pondered and considered and thought [about We shall also state what ought to be done for him by the man it] in many ways, he then ought to choose, [according to his who has chosen him as the organizer and executor of the thing own desires], what seems most suitable and most beautiful he loves. to him according to the terms of the patron. When this birth is accomplished, that is when he has made, in wood, a small Building is nothing more than a voluptuous pleasure, like that relief design of its final form, measured and proportioned to of a man in love. Anyone who has experienced it knows that the finished building, then he shows it to the father. there is so much pleasure and desire in building that how- ever much a man does, he wants to do more. Sometimes he is 7 As I have compared the architect to the mother, he also needs never concerned with the expense; examples of this are seen to be the nurse. He is thus both nurse and mother. As the every day. When a man is in love, he gladly goes to see his mother is full of love for her son, so he will rear it with love beloved. When she is in a place where he can see her, he is and diligence, cause it to grow and bring it to completion if it not sorry for the time spent, nor is he bored. So he who builds is possible; if it is not, he will leave it ordered in such as way goes gladly to see his building and as often as he sees it, the that it will not perish because of its incompleteness. A good more he wants to see it and the more his heart swells. Time mother loves her son and with the aid and knowledge of the passes and he is never reluctant to look at it or to talk about father tries to make him good and beautiful, and with a good it exactly as a man in love talking about his beloved. He is master to make him valiant and praiseworthy. So the good ar- pleased when it is praised, and his heart swells even more. chitect should strive to make his building good and beautiful. When he is absent and someone comes to talk about it to him, As the mother makes every effort to find good masters for her he is greatly pleased and desires to see it. His soul it drawn son, so the architect ought to find good masters, masons and to it and he always desires the things that he thinks are best the others who are needed for the work, if the patron does for it, exactly as a man in love [would] do. There is no half way not prevent him. Without the good will of the patron he would for him; he loves it. He makes it useful and honorable for only be like a woman who can do nothing against the will of her two ends. The first [is] for utility and the second for fame, so husband; the architect is exactly the same. We shall state that they will say it was he who made such a beautiful build- here some things that the architect ought to do and also what ing to rise. ought to be done to him. Endnotes 1 Antonio di Pietro Averlino [Filarete], Treatise on Architecture, Translated by John R. Spencer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965), 15–16. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00187 by guest on 23 September 2021.
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