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The Virtù of Architectural Invention

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The Virtù of Architectural Invention THE VIRTÙ OF ARCHITECTURAL INVENTION: RHETORIC, INGEGNO, AND IMAGINATION IN FILARETE’S LIBRO ARCHITETTONICO Jonathan Powers School of Architecture McGill University, Montreal, Canada January 2014 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Jonathan Powers 2014 i All human creation occurs through the offices of love. This dissertation came to be under the aegis of the generosity, compassion, and encouragement of my wife, Heather Lee Mitchell Powers. I dedicate this work to her. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................................... iii Abstract ....................................................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures .............................................................................................................................................. x Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................... xi Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................................ xv Introduction: Architectural Excellence .................................................................................................... 1 Better Architecture through Better Patronage ........................................................................................... 1 Architecture as an Art of Invention........................................................................................................... 4 The Spirit of Polemic .............................................................................................................................. 11 Overall Task, Principal Subject, and Primary Method ........................................................................... 13 Notes on Rhetorical Terms ..................................................................................................................... 18 Notes on Texts and Translations ............................................................................................................. 22 Roadmap through the Dissertation .......................................................................................................... 24 Chapter 1: Antonio di Piero “Il Filarete” Averlino (1400 – c. 1469) and His Libro Architettonico . 30 Four Centuries of Oblivion ..................................................................................................................... 30 Summary of the Contents of Filarete’s Libro Architettonico .................................................................. 35 Il Filarete ................................................................................................................................................. 47 Biographical Sketch of Filarete............................................................................................................... 52 The Problem of Genre: Trattato or Libro ............................................................................................... 54 The Problem of Priority: Urban Fabric or Fabricating Buildings ........................................................... 59 Creativity and the Lens of Rhetoric ........................................................................................................ 75 Chapter 2: Princely Voluntà .................................................................................................................... 81 Two Conditions for Building .................................................................................................................. 81 Princely Voluntà...................................................................................................................................... 82 iii Table of Contents The Genesis of Architecture ................................................................................................................... 85 The Patron’s Voluntary Pleasure ............................................................................................................ 93 Seeing as Loving ................................................................................................................................... 102 Chapter 3: Common Intendere .............................................................................................................. 104 The Rubric of Understanding ................................................................................................................ 104 Brute Persuasion and Mere Pedagogy .................................................................................................. 107 The Lens of Rhetoric ............................................................................................................................ 113 Moving Hearts and Hands .................................................................................................................... 119 Architecture and the Constraints of Communication ............................................................................ 123 Chapter 4: Between Ideas and Architecture ........................................................................................ 128 Architectural Ideas in Filarete’s Libro .................................................................................................. 128 The Limits of Literary Imitation ........................................................................................................... 134 Renaissance Idealism ............................................................................................................................ 137 Architectural Imitation .......................................................................................................................... 142 Poesis and Platonic Mimesis ................................................................................................................ 146 Creating Variety .................................................................................................................................... 153 Renaissance Idealism and Invention ..................................................................................................... 158 Res, Verba, and Kairos ......................................................................................................................... 162 Chapter 5: Misura and Disegno ............................................................................................................. 173 Scienza in the Libro .............................................................................................................................. 173 Misura as Number and Qualità ............................................................................................................. 179 Seeing and Drawing Misure .................................................................................................................. 185 Disegno between Hand and Mind ......................................................................................................... 194 Making as Learning .............................................................................................................................. 198 Inventive Disegno ................................................................................................................................. 204 Drawing Commonplaces ....................................................................................................................... 208 Chapter 6: Architectural Invention ....................................................................................................... 218 To Delight and Instruct ......................................................................................................................... 218 The Forest, the Quest, and the Hunt...................................................................................................... 222 The Hunt for Architectural Knowledge ................................................................................................ 226 Venatic Thinking .................................................................................................................................. 232 Hunting for Novelty .............................................................................................................................. 236 iv Table of Contents To Invent, Hunt ..................................................................................................................................... 241 The Topoi of Invention in the Tradition of Rhetoric............................................................................. 244 Making Places, Making Order .............................................................................................................. 254 Imagination as the Faculty of Invention ............................................................................................... 258 Chapter 7: Architectural Virtù .............................................................................................................. 264 Sources of Virtù ...................................................................................................................................
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