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From Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, Leon Battista Alberti, Andrea Palladio to Other Renaissance Architects

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From Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, Leon Battista Alberti, Andrea Palladio to Other Renaissance Architects ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCH, Vol. 18, No. 1(March 2016). pp. 1-12 pISSN 1229-6163 eISSN 2383-5575 Discussing Architecture and the City as a Metaphor for the Human Body : From Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, Leon Battista Alberti, Andrea Palladio to Other Renaissance Architects Young Jae Kim Department of Heritage Conservation and Restoration, Korea National University of Cultural Heritage, Korea http://dx.doi.org/10.5659/AIKAR.2016.18.1.1 Abstract This thesis explores Vitruvius and his impact upon other Renaissance architects who compare a city to a building or a building to a city, who match the city and the building into a human body, and who develop their own works. The objective of this study is to furnish an interpretation of their theory and practice through their literature and designs. In this point of view, this article takes notice of Vitruvius’s six concepts coined from venustas and divides them into two parts: i.e. aesthetic quality (ordinatio, dispositio, and distributio) and technical activity (eurythmia, symmetria, and décor) each. This thesis indicates that Vitruvius’s successive impacts from the concepts bring about concrete design principles through proportional measurements, placing together, and hierarchic values for the former, as well as appropriate use through beautiful look, symmetrical harmony, and appropriate uses for the latter, tracking notions between a city as a house and vice versa, and either the ideas of the house or the city in the synthesis of the human body, which follows the perfect number and module based on the human body. The thesis shows that the representations of architecture and the city take place with the form of a circle and a square that express the religious belief and the cosmos, substantiating the connection between the proportions of the human body and numbers, and ultimately satisfying a concept of centrality, which is slowly extended to the enclosed plaza at the urban level from chambers, atrium, and corridors at the residence level. Keywords: Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, Leon Battista Alberti, Andrea Palladio, Vitruvian Man, Human Body, Architecture and the City 1. INTRODUCTION notion is appropriated in their architectural works. In this point of view, this thesis explores how the author architects understand This article touches upon Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, Leon Battista architecture and cities discussed in their publications, and how Alberti (1404-1472), Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), and other they represent their building works through such understandings, Renaissance architects who compare a city to a building or a and then how they liken their works and discussions to the human building to a city, who match the city and the building into a human body. body, and who develop their own works as a result. They are widely Hence, given these characteristics, this research notes that, as known for their architectural quality and pervasive influence on the Vitruvius points out, architecture depends on the six concepts discipline of architecture and the city. The purpose of this study is ordinatio (order), disposition (arrangement), eurythmia to take a closer look at the theory and practice of author architects (eurythmy), symmetria (symmetry), décor (propriety) and through their writings and works. They compare relationships distributio (economy) (Vitruvius, 1960: 13) for both the technical between the orders of buildings to those of towns or cities. Such activity and the aesthetic quality that result in the proportional theoretical foundations are further re-interpreted as a metaphor and beautiful appearance (venustas). The paper also shows that for the human body to architecture and cities, and the emblematic Vitruvius’s six concepts offer significant influences upon the Renaissance architects following Vitruvius’s achievements, and that Corresponding Author: Young Jae Kim they are realized through the works of Renaissance architects as Department of Heritage Conservation and Restoration, Vitruvius’s successors through the theoretical growth and practical Korea National University of Cultural Heritage, Korea adaptation, accepting notions between a city as a house and a house e-mail: [email protected] as a city in the synthesis of the human body. It likewise points out that they are represented through the centrality accompanied by the square/circular diagram through the metaphorical association with This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons. the parts of human body from head to foot, which image resonates org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, deeply with the law of nature and the definition of gods in a really distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is strong rapport with its separated parts to the whole. It further properly cited. indicates that Alberti, Palladio, and other Renaissance architects ©Copyright 2016 Architectural Institute of Korea. 2 Young Jae Kim clarify the theoretical and the practical precedents suggested by with different classes, and controls the uses of materials and sites. Vitruvius. This point accords with Vitruvius’s words that buildings must correspond to their special needs. (Vitruvius, 1960, I.i.I: 6, Loeb, 2. ARCHITECTS WHO COMPARED THE ORDER OF THE vol. I; IX, vi. 2: 244-246, Loeb, vol. II; Frank E. Brown, 1963: 99- BUILDING TO THAT OF THE CITY 107) It means that Vitruvius recognizes an overall frame with the participatory design’s context of the city planning in the comparison 2.1. MARCUS VITRUVIUS POLLIO of a house to a city because he says that the important buildings are Vitruvius says that architecture consists of firmness (firmitas), erected for heads of households, for those with great wealth or for commodity (utilitas), and delight (venustas). These qualities pertain the high position of the statesman. Town houses certainly ask for a to buildings to be seen as the basic premises of a curriculum not dissimilar kind of construction from those which take the goods of to a discipline, and they must be viewed as goals of the architect’s country estates. In order to show the power that governs the state, ability because skill must be taught, neither inborn nor acquired. buildings must correspond to their singular demands. Namely, the (Leatherbarrow, 2011: 84-85) He argues that architecture has its distribution of buildings should be arranged to suit the occupants. origins in utilitas (utility or commodity) which refer to the use of (Vitruvius, 1960: 9-10, 17) buildings and the guarantee of successful functioning. (Vitruvius, In the second place, the eurythmia, symmetria, and décor are 1960: 38-39) Through the relation of venustas and utilitas, in functioned as its felicitous use. The eurythmia is the graceful his own words, between buildings and occupants, a concept is appearance in the way in which its separate parts are arranged anticipated in line with the beautiful and proportional expression proportionally and symmetrically, which mixture applies with (venustas) of utilitas to suit the social status of their occupants harmony. The symmetria is the correspondence of the individual and the expression of its function. The venustas’s classification is elements to the appearance of the building as a whole edifice in a divided into six basic concepts in connection with social tastes; static proportion, which follows the human body with symmetrical ordinatio (order), dispositio (arrangement), eurythmia (eurythmy), harmony between forearm (cubitus), foot (pes), palm (palmus) and symmetria (symmetry), décor (propriety), and distributio finger (digitus). (Vitruvius, 1960: 14) The décor is the propriety of (economy). (Vitruvius, 1960: 13-17) The ordinatio are the result of perfect style. The décor implies three folds: convention, custom, aesthetic proportioning applied to a building, while the dispositio and nature. First of all, each temple refers to convention such as is the suitable arrangement of parts that denotes the design of Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian style. Temples of Doric have qualities a building in plan, elevation and perspective. The eurythmia is with virile nature, not ornament, while those of Corinthian style the elegant form proportionally and symmetrically, while the have buildings of more slender proportions, embellished with symmetria is the harmony of the parts in relation to the whole flowers, leaves, and volutes with delicate nature. The Ionic is within the total design by the modular coordination. The décor appropriate to their immediate position. (Vitruvius, 1960: 14-15) is the correct exterior of a building conforming to convention, The attribution of styles answers specific qualities fitting to the while the distributio is the advantageous management of materials several kinds of divinity. As a fashion, the instances of attainment and site, corresponding to building costs. Vitruvius’s six terms are embrace the observations that splendid interiors should have grand dependent on architecture and represent its aesthetic properties vestibules and that the details of the Ionic and Doric orders should and creativity, and they are divided into two groups: the ordinatio, not be mixed. Also, natural décor contains the recommendation dispositio, and distributio are regarded as the proportional principle that temples should be in healthy sites, and that interiors should and design method in the sense of his technical activity, while the be provided with the kind of light
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