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
This article touches upon Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, Leon Battista
Alberti (1404-1472), Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), and 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 as a result. They are widely
known for their architectural quality and pervasive influence on the
discipline of architecture and the city. The purpose of this study is
to take a closer look at the theory and practice of author architects
through their writings and works. They compare relationships
between the orders of buildings to those of towns or cities. Such
theoretical foundations are further re-interpreted as a metaphor
for the human body to architecture and cities, and the emblematic
Corresponding Author: Young Jae Kim
Department of Heritage Conservation and Restoration,
Korea National University of Cultural Heritage, Korea
e-mail:
[email protected]
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©Copyright 2016 Architectural Institute of Korea.
notion is appropriated in their architectural works. In this point
of view, this thesis explores how the author architects understand
architecture and cities discussed in their publications, and how
they represent their building works through such understandings,
and then how they liken their works and discussions to the human
body.
Hence, given these characteristics, this research notes that, as
Vitruvius points out, architecture depends on the six concepts
ordinatio (order), disposition (arrangement), eurythmia
(eurythmy), symmetria (symmetry), décor (propriety) and
distributio (economy) (Vitruvius, 1960: 13) for both the technical
activity and the aesthetic quality that result in the proportional
and beautiful appearance (venustas). The paper also shows that
Vitruvius’s six concepts offer significant influences upon the
Renaissance architects following Vitruvius’s achievements, and that
they are realized through the works of Renaissance architects as
Vitruvius’s successors through the theoretical growth and practical
adaptation, accepting notions between a city as a house and a house
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
the parts of human body from head to foot, which image resonates
deeply with the law of nature and the definition of gods in a really
strong rapport with its separated parts to the whole. It further
indicates that Alberti, Palladio, and other Renaissance architects
Young Jae Kim
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clarify the theoretical and the practical precedents suggested by
Vitruvius.
2. ARCHITECTS WHO COMPARED THE ORDER OF THE
BUILDING TO THAT OF THE CITY
2.1. MARCUS VITRUVIUS POLLIO
Vitruvius says that architecture consists of firmness (firmitas),
commodity (utilitas), and delight (venustas). These qualities pertain
to buildings to be seen as the basic premises of a curriculum not
to a discipline, and they must be viewed as goals of the architect’s
ability because skill must be taught, neither inborn nor acquired.
(Leatherbarrow, 2011: 84-85) He argues that architecture has its
origins in utilitas (utility or commodity) which refer to the use of
buildings and the guarantee of successful functioning. (Vitruvius,
1960: 38-39) Through the relation of venustas and utilitas, in
his own words, between buildings and occupants, a concept is
anticipated in line with the beautiful and proportional expression
(venustas) of utilitas to suit the social status of their occupants
and the expression of its function. The venustas’s classification is
divided into six basic concepts in connection with social tastes;
ordinatio (order), dispositio (arrangement), eurythmia (eurythmy),
symmetria (symmetry), décor (propriety), and distributio
(economy). (Vitruvius, 1960: 13-17) The ordinatio are the result of
aesthetic proportioning applied to a building, while the dispositio
is the suitable arrangement of parts that denotes the design of
a building in plan, elevation and perspective. The eurythmia is
the elegant form proportionally and symmetrically, while the
symmetria is the harmony of the parts in relation to the whole
within the total design by the modular coordination. The décor
is the correct exterior of a building conforming to convention,
while the distributio is the advantageous management of materials
and site, corresponding to building costs. Vitruvius’s six terms are
dependent on architecture and represent its aesthetic properties
and creativity, and they are divided into two groups: the ordinatio,
dispositio, and distributio are regarded as the proportional principle
and design method in the sense of his technical activity, while the
eurythmia, symmetria, and décor as the aesthetic qualities of the
building that is produced as the work of art in correct use.
In the first place, the ordinatio, dispositio, and distributio are
operated as basic design principles to produce a proportional
building. The ordinatio is the adjustment of proper measurement
according to the given function and the detailed proportioning
of each separate part of a building with regard to symmetria. The
dispositio is defined as two folds: the one is as the placing together
and the effect of the object on an observer, and the other is as the
subdivision of ichnographia (a ground plan laid out on site with the
competent use of rules and compasses), orthographia (an elevation
in proportion to the recommended structure), and scaenographia
(a perspective with the delineation of the façade and the receding
sides of the building). The ichnographia and scaenographia are
employed using compass and rule, while the orthographia is served
as an imago and a figua. Thus, the dispositio is the process of
designing something, as distinguished from the completed design.
The former is in addition the distribution of buildings which must
be designed to suit their occupants. In that those with great wealth
or for the high position of the statesman are located in important
sites, the distributio talks about the hierarchic values of the houses
with different classes, and controls the uses of materials and sites.
This point accords with Vitruvius’s words that buildings must
correspond to their special needs. (Vitruvius, 1960, I.i.I: 6, Loeb,
vol. I; IX, vi. 2: 244-246, Loeb, vol. II; Frank E. Brown, 1963: 99107) It means that Vitruvius recognizes an overall frame with the
participatory design’s context of the city planning in the comparison
of a house to a city because he says that the important buildings are
erected for heads of households, for those with great wealth or for
the high position of the statesman. Town houses certainly ask for a
dissimilar kind of construction from those which take the goods of
country estates. In order to show the power that governs the state,
buildings must correspond to their singular demands. Namely, the
distribution of buildings should be arranged to suit the occupants.
(Vitruvius, 1960: 9-10, 17)
In the second place, the eurythmia, symmetria, and décor are
functioned as its felicitous use. The eurythmia is the graceful
appearance in the way in which its separate parts are arranged
proportionally and symmetrically, which mixture applies with
harmony. The symmetria is the correspondence of the individual
elements to the appearance of the building as a whole edifice in a
static proportion, which follows the human body with symmetrical
harmony between forearm (cubitus), foot (pes), palm (palmus) and
finger (digitus). (Vitruvius, 1960: 14) The décor is the propriety of
perfect style. The décor implies three folds: convention, custom,
and nature. First of all, each temple refers to convention such as
Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian style. Temples of Doric have qualities
with virile nature, not ornament, while those of Corinthian style
have buildings of more slender proportions, embellished with
flowers, leaves, and volutes with delicate nature. The Ionic is
appropriate to their immediate position. (Vitruvius, 1960: 14-15)
The attribution of styles answers specific qualities fitting to the
several kinds of divinity. As a fashion, the instances of attainment
embrace the observations that splendid interiors should have grand
vestibules and that the details of the Ionic and Doric orders should
not be mixed. Also, natural décor contains the recommendation
that temples should be in healthy sites, and that interiors should
be provided with the kind of light apt for their use. Accordingly,
the décor implies some kind of pertinent building to function or
tradition.
Vitruvius integrates both the technical activity by the art of the
architect in the order symmetria, eurythmia, and décor and the
aesthetic qualities for the production of the building in the order
dispositio, ordinatio, and distributio into a combined frame.
He clarifies the integral structure between both establishing
symmetrical buildings with a proportional standard and arranging
rooms and buildings with a strictly defined hierarchy that consider
the nature of the site and the matter of use and beauty. (Vitruvius,
1960: 174-175) The unified frame completes an urban structure,
in which the buildings have proportional and symmetrical
arrangements, and are placed in suitable locations conforming to
social status and convention. The two ideas are immersed into a
well-built human body that influences upon all measurements such
as inch, palm, foot, and cubit, as well as the arrangement of both
the separate parts and the whole design that should be harmonious.
In particular, the close association of the separate parts into the
whole is extended from the private to the public, a house to a city.
The important medium between the both is an atrium which has a
semi-private and a semi-public territory.
Discussing Architecture and the City as a Metaphor for the Human Body
Figure 1. Typical Plan of the Pompeian atrium house
(redrawn after Mau, Pompeii, by Margaret Watson)
Vitruvius’s section on the ancient house is difficult to
understand. But, two points pertaining to the atrium are clear,
addressing that the rules on these points (concerning the house)
will hold not only for houses in town, but also for those in the
country, except that in town atriums are usually next to the
front door, while in country seats peristyles come first, and then
atriums encircled by paved colonnades. (Vitruvius, 1960: 183)
One of them concerns the location of the atrium: it comes first
in the entry sequence in town houses and follows the peristyle in
country residences. The other relates its social significance. The
atrium is one of the public spaces of the house that conveys social
status. Then, the houses are divided into the private and public,
interweaving a law of the Roman people and Greek original
tradition. (Vitruvius, 1960: 182) (Fig. 1, Fig. 2) On the one hand,
the private rooms are those into which nobody has the right to
enter without an invitation, such as bedrooms, dining rooms,
bathrooms and all others used for the same purposes. (Vitruvius,
1960: 181-182) On the other hand, in case public area, he states
that, having laid out the alleys and determined the streets, we
have next to treat the choice of building sites for temples, forums
and all other public places, with a view to general convenience
and utility. In this point, the house atrium particularly is a core to
connect the outside places in the association of a house to a city.
He strives to understand public areas like house atriums, temples,
and urban forums in the house’s view, comparing urban alleys
and streets to corridors and colonnades. The alleys and streets
are defined, and then public spaces like temples and forums are
later distributed as collective consumption that refers to the
many goods and services that are produced and consumed on a
collective level, such as in cities.
Figure 2. Typical Plan of Vitruvius’s Greek house according to Becker
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2.2. VITRUVIUS’S INFLUENCE ON ALBERTI
Alberti, standing in parallel with Vitruvius, believes that
architecture has its origins in utilitas. However, he subdivides
Vitruvius’s concept of utilitas in light of the purpose (possibly
function) of different types of buildings, namely, into buildings
that merely serve necessitas (the needs of life), others that serve
opportunitas (fitness for a given purpose), and others that
serve voluptas (passing enjoyment) (Alberti, 1988, IV, I), all of
which remains to be seen in the desirable expression of human
individuality, and then he points out that the size and ornament of
a building should be apt to utilitas of a building and appropriate to
its users, and that utilitas acquires an influence over the aesthetic
criteria of venustas.1 Alberti also re-arranges Vitruvian concept of
utilitas drawing on the functions of different types of architecture.
Without relation to Vitruvius, Alberti names six fundamental
elements of architecture, “locality, area, compartition, wall, roof, and
opening” (Alberti, 1988: 7-8). They are diametrically opposed to
the six concepts Vitruvius argues, but have the same context in that
Alberti includes the technical activity and the aesthetic quality in
the six elements. The most important part of Alberti’s reproduction
appears on plans, integrating Vitruvian criteria of functionality
and aesthetics. It also contains the analogy of a house and a town,
the town being considered as a great house and the house as a
small town. The two folds are worked together by the organic
concepts that as the members of the body are correspondent to
each other, so it is right that one part should answer to another in
a building. Alberti’s metaphoric comparison of a house to a city
via the measurement of the human body is the same as Vitruvius
does. In particular, of the headings, the similarity takes place in
the interpretation of the compartition, the closest with Vitruvius’s
concepts of venustas, because it merges both the technical activity
and the aesthetic quality. The compartition is the process for
dividing up the site into smaller units, so that the building may be
considered as being made up of close-fitting smaller buildings. The
building which is compared to the overall body and which consists
of numerous components is joined together by several housing
units (Alberti, 1988: 7-8), explaining “the city is a large house and
the house is a small city.” He copes with this house-city or the cityhouse relationship even more specifically than Vitruvius does. The
various parts of the house – atria, xysti (open colonnade spaces for
promenading), repertories, dining rooms, and porticoes (Alberti,
1988: 23, Book I. 9) – can be considered as a city like a miniature.
They are more comparable to a city because rooms, constituents of
houses, may be suitable for family use. Alberti, in the comparison
of a house to a city, states that atriums and salons should be closely
related in the same way to a house, as forums and public squares
are dealt in the same to a city. So, he places emphasis on the role
of stairways and passageways because stairways and passageways
begin and here visitors are greeted and made welcome. (Alberti,
1988: 119, Book V. 2) There should be roofs and colonnades, not
only for humans but also for beasts, to protect them from sun and
rain. A portico, walkway, and promenade are connected by the
vestibule for a playground, throwing quoits and wrestling, and a
space for conversation, and a waiting place from young men who
are waiting for the elders. He continues to argue extending the
territory from a house to a plaza in a city, “the forum may serve
as a marketplace for currency or vegetables, for cattle or wood;
each type of forum should be allocated its own site within the
Young Jae Kim
4
city and have its own distinctive ornament, and should prefer to
make the area of the forum a double square; the portico and other
surrounding buildings must have dimensions that relate strictly to
those of the open space in order to appear neither too extensive and
the surrounding buildings too low, nor too confined if hemmed in
by the buildings stacked up all around.” (Alberti, 1988: 263-4, Book
VIII. 6)2 It suggests the colonnaded urban spaces embodied by the
active roles of public authority in keeping with the location and by
proportional prescriptions extended from the house atrium to the
urban forum, directly originated from Vitruvius. The colonnades
even make a dignified and united scale to the facade, in particular
lineaments. The following serves as a good example. In case Palazzo
Rucellai at Florence, the lines separating the columns from the wall,
the curves of the window arches, and the horizontal and vertical
bands of the façade show a structure following a united proportion
corresponding to the urban scale. (Fig.3)
Figure 3. Palazzo Rucellai, Florence
Figure 4. Sant’Andrea, Mantua
Moreover, the great ornament to the forum or crossroad would be
to have an arch at the mouth of each road, continually open. As the
city increases in size, it is decided to retain the old gates for practical
purposes, one of the reasons being perhaps to provide a further
safeguard against the incursion of the enemy, and continuously
victory for the enemy would be deposited by the gates, standing
as they did in a busy place, where a road meets a square or a
forum, the most suitable place. (Alberti, 1988: 265, Book VIII. 6) It
indicates he recognizes that the gate should be an important part
of the city, as it can be a meaningful part of a house. Thus, it might
be thought that a gate should be preserved, though its aim would
be prevented from animals or invaders, as a symbolic existence.
Alberti is very conscious of the status of the triumphal arches, and
he regards them as a building type like main entrances of the city
to absorb all products from the neighboring locales and to enter
the main town of the city like the mouth of humans (Hart, 1998:
39-40), transplanting the symbolic meaning as the old Roman
triumphal arch to the political status of the city, and forming such
an outstanding facade in the front of his buildings, particularly
churches; the front facade of the church is all important as a sort of
“rhetorical arch,” and the church of Sant’Andrea at Mantua shows
an exemplary building of the triumphal arch.(Fig. 4) Thus, the loci
in which the arches are situated turn out to be public places for
market venues. The places in which the triumphal arches and roads
meet overlook buildings that are important for the management
of the city. They are converted into playgrounds for processions,
pilgrimages and pageantries, whether the aims are political or
religious.
Alberti further recommends that the temple or church should be
raised on several steps made accessible by flights of stairs. The altar
for the sacrifice should be established higher than anything else
(Alberti, 1988: 218, Book VII.9). In contrast to medieval practice,
he calls for designing churches as free-standing monuments, some
left their entrance and openings quite free and open, without any
buildings or any intervening section of walls on the sides (Alberti,
1988: 218, Book VII.9). Consequently, a plaza - transmuted from
Greek and Roman plazas - around or in front of the church is
reconstructed surrounded by buildings. He says that the structure
of the church should be monumental, perfect and be centered as the
body of the city, accepting his notion of organic harmony, which in
turn must be represented by means of refined proportions, strict
compositional relationships, and above all symmetry deduced from
the measurements of the human body. (Alberti, 1988: 218, Book
VII.9)
2.3. PREDECESSOR’S RE-INTERPRETATION
BY PALLADIO
Palladio, a remarkable successor of Alberti, follows the
Vitruvian principle that perfection in architecture is best achieved
when buildings perform the principles of beauty, permanence,
and commodity in the architectural tradition of ancient Rome
building types, skillful at reinterpreting the ideas of others,
especially the Greeks. He designs plan, elevation and section in his
own works, many of which appear through a return to antiquity,
and is designed to be in harmony and balance with man and
nature and with a scale that is acceptable for both. In the aesthetic
ideas, Palladio is largely dependent on Vitruvius and Alberti. His
categories of convenience (commodita), durability, and beauty
are, as pre-mentioned, Vitruvian. The convenience indicates
the pertinent position or place to locate each member while the
beauty is a correspondence of the whole to all the parts, of the
parts to each other, and of those parts to the whole. He recognizes
a building as a well-defined and as a fully-balanced body. (Palladio,
2002: 6-7, Book I, Chapter I) However, Palladio’s interest lies in
the perception of a building unlike Vitruvius’s focus in the mental
grasp of it. Palladio’s perception runs toward nature because he
believes that architecture is the imitation of nature as a beautiful
building, which implies a true and good building, and which
contains the Neo-Platonic notion of the unit of the good, the true
and the beautiful on par with the aesthetic harmony of the human
body. Like this, Palladio catches an analogous idea between the
concept of commodita and the human organism. The combined
function and aesthetic consideration show a correspondence of
all individual parts to the whole over and over again.
Palladio likewise considers a house to be a model for a city,
borrowing the significant notion from Vitruvius and Alberti. He
writes, “When choosing a site for a building on the estate, one
must bear in mind all those considerations that relate to select a
site in the city, because the city is nothing more or less than some
great house and, contrariwise, the house is a small city” (Palladio,
2002: 122, Book II, Chapter XII). As he says in the Preface, the
primitive house has been evolved, as society matured, into public
buildings: of several houses, villages are formed, and then of
Discussing Architecture and the City as a Metaphor for the Human Body
many villages, cities, and in these public places, buildings are
made (Palladio, 2002: Preface). The overall shape in the city may
be the outcome traceable to each house in recurrent relationships.
Such decisive assumption can be inferred due to his statement “the
image of the whole is repeated in its parts.” This innovative urban
view is more influential in achieving consistent developments
from the form and type of villas. The basic geometrical forms
of the circle and the square are conceived as the most beautiful
because it is a picture of the circular movement of the cosmos
as well as the cruciform plan whose meaning shows the
iconological reference to the cross of Christ and the soul form the
contemplation of a divine thing.
Figure 5. the Villa Barbaro at Maser
Figure 6. the Villa Serego at Santa Sofia
The elements of the house could be separated out as distinct
forms and be arranged hierarchically, with the principal
accommodation at the center, flanked by dependencies
(kitchens, stables, etc.), of which the Villa Barbaro is a good
model. (Fig. 5) The spaces are arranged as a single large block
around a courtyard, as buildings might be symmetrically and
regularly placed around a forum, with the emphasis on an
enclosed space. Such tendency is shown in the Villa Serego at
Santa Sofia, one of his last. (Fig. 6) The type of the placement,
considerably influential for the House of the Ancients, is
shown in his urban houses with various shapes of rooms
surrounding the larger courtyard, which are suitable for an
urban setting and palace designs. In two types, what has to
be noticed is that the courtyard in Palladio’s architecture
which symb olizes an urban pl aza is taken as t he most
significant part of the house, following Alberti’s comparison
between the forum of a town and the cortile of a house
(Rudolf Wittkower, 1971: 79). (Fig 3, 4) Palladio, conversely,
strives to reinterpret them for his own new use. They exhibit
three goals by following the proportions, rhythm, scale and
symmetry found in nature. Through the illustrations in his
book, Palladio proposes that architecture should make use of
the proportions found in the human body and then should
achieve a divine perfection. Palladio addresses that the foot is
divided into 12 inches and each inch into 4 minutes (minute).
(Andrea Palladio, 2002: 79) It indicates that the 12-inch foot
as a standard module of measurement is selected to aid the
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translation of anthropometric proportions from the human
body to the design plan of a building.
3. COMPARING THE HUMAN BODY TO THE BODY
OF A BUILDING AND CITY
3.1 DISCOURSES FROM VITRUVIUS’S VIEWS
The associations of the body to architecture and the complex
phenomenon of corporeality have always a privileged position
within the history of architectural culture. Vitruvius’s points
germane to the amalgamation of the body to architecture are
composed of three folds: drawing upon the human figure with
anthropometric concepts, first, the proportion and the symmetry,
second, the centrality on it, and third, the application of the number
six and ten measurements, which deeply made an influence upon
the Renaissance architecture.
Figure 7. Vitruvian Man, Trattato
di architettura di Francesco di
Giorgio Martini, c.1470
Figure 9. Vitruvian Man,
Leonardo da Vinci, c.1490
Figure 8. Vitruvian Man, Fra
Giocondo, c.1511, McGill University
Figure 10. Vitruvian Man, De
Architectura, Cesariano Cesare.
The first point to notice is that the architectural and urban
tradition offers the anthropometric Vitruvian disposition via
the proportional measurements by overlapping the circular and
square form. The anthropometric methods are developed by
Vitruvius. He says the method in the proportional application
of the human body as follows, “In the human body the central
point is naturally the navel. For if a man be placed flat on his
back, with his hands and feet extended, and a pair of compasses
centered at his navel, the fingers and toes of his two hands
and feet will touch the circumference of a circle described
therefrom. Just as the human body yields a circular outline, so
too a square figure may be found from it. For if we measure the
distance from the soles of the feet to the top of the head, and
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then apply that measure to the outstretched arms, the breadth
will be found to be the same as the height, as in the case of
plane surfaces which are perfectly square” (Vitruvius, 1960: 7273) In particular, he uses a naked man to make both precise
proportions in interrelatedness of parts to other part and
concrete measurements within them. However, the arresting
image of a naked male body called Vitruvian man afterwards
is not drawn by Vitruvius. The images of the male body appear
by Renaissance architects such as Francesco di Giorgio Martini
(1439-1501, Fig. 7), Fra Giovanni Giocondo (1435-1515, Fig. 8),
Cesare Cesariano (1475-1543, Fig. 10), and Giovanni Battista
Caporali (1476-1560, Fig. 21) during the Renaissance period
after the publication of architectural treatises and the illustrated
editions of Vitruvius. However, the drawings are fundamentally
different from Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings (maybe completed
around 1490), which are more so by far than Vitruvius’s
text because, in Leonardo’s works, a man’s body first stands
inscribed in a square and then with feet and arms outspread
inscribed in a circle. (Fig. 9) At any rate, they are products on
the analogy of Vitruvius’s own words. Vitruvius’s book also
includes the attributes of the perfect number ten in the circle
that bounds the Vitruvian man with the extended fingers and
toes touched by the line the compass makes. The circle allies
him with the highest degree of coherence and indestructibility.
It is in the same view with that Marcus Tullius Cicero says
there are only the heavenly bodies which could maintain the
uniform disposition and regular movements perfectly, and that
Augustan poet Marcus Manilius mentions the universe’s perfect
roundness in the Astronomica. They both believe that the shape
of nature forever most evokes that of the gods in the endless
universe; there is start or end nowhere in it. (McEwen, 2003:
160-162)
Also, Vitruvius fundamentally applies the notion of centrality
to religious buildings, superimposing the human body in the
scared plans. He says that in sacred dwellings there ought
to be the greatest harmony in the symmetrical relations of
the different parts to the general magnitude of the whole,
and then the center of the human body is naturally situated
at the navel. (Vitruvius, 1960: 72-73) In the light of these
facts, he understands the construction method of the temple
architecture. Because the temple is the god’s dwelling, the shape
of the temple rests on the figure of heavenly bodies. Thus, it is a
matter of course that the whole plan of the temple corresponds
to the circular outline the same as nature employed by heavenly
bodies. In the anthropomorphic shape superimposed on the
human body, the central point is naturally the navel. As the
circle is drawn along the distance from the soles of the feet to
the top of the head, so the square figure is found from it. Thus,
the god’s dwelling with a proportional frame coincides with a
perfect square which has same width and height. In this context,
Vitruvius says, “Therefore, since nature has designed the
human body so that its members are duly proportioned to the
frame as a whole, it appears that the ancients had good reason
for their rule that in perfect buildings the different members
must be in exact symmetrical relations to the whole general
scheme.” (Vitruvius, 1960: 73) The perfect scheme builds on the
symmetrical vs. the proportional, and the circle vs. the square
simultaneously.
Young Jae Kim
Likewise, Vitruvius argues a perfect number as a basic
measurement for drawing the human body on the grid plan.
The perfect number is number ten, saying “it was from the
members of the body that they derived the fundamental ideas
of the measures which are obviously necessary in all works, as
the finger, palm, foot and cubit. These are apportioned in an
attempt to form the ‘perfect number,’ called in Greek τἑλειον (full
grown). As the perfect number the ancients fixed upon ten, for
it is from the number of the fingers of the hand that the palm is
found, and the foot from the palm.” (Vitruvius, 1960: 74) With
the scale of the number ten, the main parts such as a navel, feet
and hands above the human body are positioned appropriately.
That is on the whole true of the tradition springing from
Vitruvius, who compares the human body directly to the body
of a building, and then who makes a sequence of claims for this
analogy that far transcend the need to explain the meaning of
proportion, symmetry, and harmony in architecture (Vitruvius,
1960, book III, Chapter 1). He also adds a note that Plato
states the number ten is perfect because it is composed of the
individual units (the Greeks μονἁδες (monad)) made up by
a palm of four fingers or a foot of four palms or a cubit of six
palms. The ten fingers or toes are calculated as the foot unit or
the palm each. Through the measurements, it is possible to make
a man, fixing six as the perfect number. The man’s foot is a sixth
of his height which consists of twenty-four palms. (Vitruvius,
1960: 74) (Fig. 9, Fig. 10) On the contrary, another perfect
number that Vitruvius mentions is number six. Considering
the question of symmetria, Vitruvius shows that eurythmia,
particularly in sacred buildings, takes its symmetrical quality
from the forearm [cubit], foot, palm and finger [inch] traced
from the human body, saying “as the foot is one sixth of a man’s
height, the height of the body as expressed in number of feet
being limited to six, they hold that this is the perfect number
and observed that the cubit consists of six palms or of twentyfour fingers.” (Vitruvius, 1960: 72-73) Like this, the number ten
comes from the cosmos and neo-Platonic idea that rests on the
empirical questions, while the number six comes from basic
units (e.g. cubit, foot, palm, and finger) by the human body.
Vitruvius ultimately wants to combine the number six to the
number ten into such a number system as a module; the sum of
the two perfect numbers, ten plus six, is sixteen. The number
sixteen is the perfect number as well. In particular, Vitruvius tells
that temples to the immortal gods should be suitable with the
perfect number, and that the temple should follow a harmonious
correspondence between the varied parts of the body and its
whole form in fixed proportion, because he believes that the
human body is stemmed from a divine model. But, Vitruvius
deals with experiential values only focused on columns, not
absolute and systematic values in describing the human body.
He divides temple types into five classes, and provides concrete
proportional numbers substantiated by the analogy of columns
with the human body; the Doric order is considered as the male
body while the Ionic order is the female. It follows from what has
been said that he does not take account of individual building
types, even doing not apply his criteria to specific buildings or
types. (Vitruvius, 1960: 69-74) Yet, Renaissance architects try to
categorize building types afterwards, as Alberti does for example
sacred, public, and private buildings.
Discussing Architecture and the City as a Metaphor for the Human Body
3.2 VITRUVIUS’S INFLUENCES UPON ALBERTI
Alberti, much influenced by Vitruvius, accepts that a building
is a “kind of body.” Like Vitruvius, Alberti argues that architecture
has its origins in utilitas (Alberti, 1988: 92, Book IV. 1). It is one
of huge imperative principles for the constructions in Alberti’s
views. In defining the ultimate aim of the sculpture in De statua
(perhaps written in 1464 to educate the sculptor.), 3 Alberti’s
method is to adopt the imitation of nature, as seen in his treatise,
“the convenient and necessary means are that nature lets sculptors
execute their works perfectly.” (Alberti, 1972: 121, 123) The
convenient and the necessary means Alberti calls dimensio and
finitio. The dimensio (size) is “the process whereby the sculptor
takes precise planar measurements of height and width with
an exempeda (literally out of feet based on human feet (pedes),
idealistic proportion) ruler and records the diameter of threedimensional forms with a tool constructed of two movable rightangles called normae (calipers),” (Alberti, 1972: 125, 127, 129)
whereas the finitio (definition) is ostensibly intended to locate
the position of any anatomical or sculpted parts relative to the
central or internal axis of the figure being measured. (Alberti,
1972:129,131,133) The finitio requires an elaborate machine
called a finitorium, similar in appearance to a mariner’s astrolabe.
It is possible to make a map with the device as Alberti uses to map
the city of Rome. They both provide the specific and the generic
characteristics of a figure as it is mapped for future reproduction
drawing on the human body. (Fig. 11)
Figure 11. Il definitor, the left figure shows a machine called a finitorium,
while the right figure shows a tool called normae, Alberti(1804)
Alberti also starts with an assumption that a building is “a kind
of body,” consisting of lines and materials, in which the lines are
produced by mind, the material obtained from nature. (Alberti,
1988, Book I. Chapter 2, 10) His ideas are initially developed
from an intuitive response to nature, and intend to prove that
the parts of the human body relate harmoniously and rationally
to each other. In De statua he thus talks about human anatomy,
and lets the sculptor instruct the human body with an organically
structured whole. But, in De statua Alberti discloses little
information concerning the number of bones and the projections
of muscles and sinews. He discusses shipbuilding to let the
sculptors know what the parts of the body are composed of,
how they fit together, and how they relate to each other. (Alberti,
7
1979, para 13, 8) In fact, Alberti has a fondness for maritime
imagery and a lively interest in the practical arts of navigation,
naval and aquatic construction.4 (Pérez-Gómez & Parcell, 2007:
50-51) Likewise, Alberti has more to deal with human anatomy
in De pictura.5 In the book ii (Alberti, 1979, para. 43), in terms
of an architectural metaphor he portrays a solid rapport with
body weight, body structure, and position change. Alberti
then indicates the complex inter-dependence of body parts by
applying the principle of the level to the movements of the body.
The metaphorical use of the column in this context alludes to
the anthropometric Vitruvian tradition, dependent on De statua
by devising human proportions. Through the procedures, he
finds a series of optima numbers, nearer to nature such as four,
five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten, which present an equivalent
significance for architecture while irrational numbers only
based on geometrical means play a smaller part on account of
their incommensurability. His notion on numbers resorts to the
relativity of beauty; the numbers belong to his three criteria of
beauty; the beauty arises from the conjunction of the numbers.
Hence, the beauty means the agreement of the parts of a whole,
employing harmony (concinnitas) that is the absolute and
supreme law of nature. It shows the neo-Platonic view with the
succession of Vitruvian tradition, dwelling on the empirical
questions.
By contrast, discussing the key definitions of beauty and
ornament in Book IX, Alberti sets out from an organic way of
architecture in terms of the human body. (Alberti, 1988: 301,
Book IX, Chapter 5) He studies Roman architecture through
the research of several geometrical patterns, and recognizes the
centralized plan, which is dated back to the late style of Roman
temple and which is suggested as an idealized shape for the
divinity and the perfection of nature. As to the dovetailed relation
between gods and buildings (dwellings), Alberti sees eye to eye
with Vitruvian views. As stated previously, though there are many
mentions about the city and architecture in his books, actually his
works can be disclosed only with a few parts, the façades dwelling
on the human proportions of buildings such as the triumphal arch
within the plaza. The ideas of the human body are also employed
by such other architects as Filarete (1400–1469), Francesco di
Giorgio Martini (1439–1502), and Luca Pacioli (1446/7–1517),
who work with Alberti (1404 –1472) in the contemporaneous
period.
3.3 VITRUVIUS’S IMPACTS UPON
RENAISSANCES ARCHITECTS
In case Filarete’s works, the proportions of the human figure
are converted into the important scale of reference, and the first
representative of pure anthropometry into the design of the
first hut, establishing a linkage between body parts and building
parts. The head as the noblest part of the human body suits the
standard unit of measurement as a module. (Kruft, 1994: 54)
In Filarete’s treatise, he recognizes that the body itself provides
a model for the first architectural construction. His drawing of
Adam achieved through decoding of the Eden’s Garden shows
Adam’s hands raised in anguish to protect himself from the rain,
shaping a roof over his head. Filarete supposes that “it must
be believed that when Adam was driven out of Paradise, it was
raining. Since he had no readier shelter, he puts his hands up
Young Jae Kim
8
to his head, to defend himself from the water.” (Rykwert, 1972:
118) This shows that the human body or its gesture had an
impact upon architecture and its primitive roof form through
an equilateral triangle because his two hands consider the need
for making a living. (Fig. 12) Filarete’s anthropomorphic ideas,
in conjunction with human proportions, actually resemble the
human organism as a part of the body. The representation links
all geometric shapes on the human proportion, whether they are
round or square.
Figure 12. Vitruvio Adam,
Filarete, c.1461-4.
them to architecture and its branches, because Filarete prefers the
Christian myth relevant to the origin of architecture, the Doric
column represents the oldest and most important type of column
equated with nobility, as it is modelled on Adam’s proportions and
on God himself, while the Ionic is the lowest order of column which
carries the whole burden of the building. Whereas, Francesco is in
abundance of excessive analogies in that the capitals become faces
and the entablatures become busts in profile at the same time. Even,
the columns are brought to life as the bodies of men and women
and as the ramparts and fortifications, or even the entire plans of
towns are supposed to resemble human figures. (Kruft, 1994: 5758) (Fig. 14)
Figure 14. Anthropomorphic
Entablature, Francesco
di Giorgio Martini, c.1470
Figure 15. Plan of Sforzinda,
Filarete
Figure 16. The City of the Sun,
Tommaso Campanella
Figure 17. Christianopolis:
The Lutheran Utopia, Johannes
Valentin Andreae
Figure 13. Trattato di
architettura, Francesco di
Giorgio Martini, c.1470
Conversely, Francesco di Giorgio Martini in the same period
illustrates this association at a great range. In his works, the
arrangement of buildings in city plans and the decorations of facades
are carried out following the images of human body (Anderson,
2002: 238-246). In an illustration of his treatise, he adds a town plan
with a male human figure and with a fortress placed upon his head.
It seems to reinterpret the notion of the Vitruvian man. The fortress
as the headquarters of the town is attached to his head like a hat.
Both the circle and the square are retained as the most important
shapes together with a church on his breast. He puts his hands up to
the fortress or his head. The square becomes the navel of the town,
and foods are distributed therefrom. (Fig. 13) The gesture looks like
a primitive roof, and his two hands consider the need for protecting
a town, rather than for making a living seen in Filarete’s figure.
(Fig. 12) His analogy is expressed not only between man and the
city or architecture, but between man and the cosmos. Francesco
di Giorgio further evolves a theory of the origins of architecture in
connection with the orders, yet in contrast to Filarete, Francesco
claims to have achieved his own proportions for columns and
capitals, superimposing human and architectural measurements.
Nevertheless, they all are fully at odds with Vitruvius’s column
proportions. As for Filarete, unlike Vitruvius who derives rational
numerical relationships from the human body and who applies
Also, to the Renaissance architects, the plaza is a small body
of the city, and buildings with the façade of a triumphal arch are
created as a public and symbolic gate of the house in the center of
the world and the plaza. To take simple examples, the Florentine
facades are functionalized as public spaces they address, rather
than buildings they clothe (Hart, 1998: 50). His inspired concept
influences the whole shape of ideal cities with an open space at the
center, particularly those of Filarete (Antonio di Pietro Averlino,
1400-1470),6 Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639) and Johannes
Valentin Andreae (1586-1654). In particular, Sforzinda, the first
planned ideal town of the Renaissance, is a town with a centralized
octagonal layout and a radial street pattern as well. A central square
flanked by markets, a palace, and a cathedral is in the heart of the
town. The street pattern is in tune with Vitruvius’s city plan that
agrees with the orientation of winds. Along with the regions of
the winds, the orientation of streets should be rotated obliquely.
Discussing Architecture and the City as a Metaphor for the Human Body
9
(Vitruvius, 1960:29-30) Likewise, Alberti’s teaching and designing
are concerned with centralized plazas and towns embedded in a
hilly landscape with dams and aqueducts. Thus, his overall treatise
also should be read as a guideline for a new urban fabric, as the true
ancestor of urbanism (Hart, 1998: 50). As a result, from Vitruvius to
Renaissance architects, the urban context with a harmonious and
balanced scale tallies with the human proportion and the situation
of the centralized plaza. It equates with the Vitruvian man. (Fig. 15,
Fig. 16, Fig. 17)
3.4 PALLADIO’S VITRUVIAN REINTERPRETATION
Palladio is immeasurably influenced by both Alberti and Vitruvius,
comparing a city to a building, and a human body with a building as
well. Palladio believes the human form is the key to perfect harmony
since humans are molded in the image of gods.7 Founding the human
body as a divine model, Renaissance architects attempts to achieve
a balance and perfection in their buildings. (Wittkower, 1945: 68)
Encounters with Francesco di Giorgio Martini are much more
significant through his own works.8 Francesco attempts the application
of the choir and nave to the human head and body respectively,
superimposing the Latin cross plan (Kruft, 1994: 87), whereas Pietro
Cantaneo (1510-1571) also describes longitudinal and centrally planned
buildings. Unlike Palladio who praises the Greek cross style, both
Francesco and Cantaneo plead much more emphatically for the Latin
cross form as the ideal ground plan. Be that as it may, Palladio might
refer to Francesco di Giorgio’s works and use the anthropomorphic ways
for his own tasks. It is especially noteworthy that Vitruvius’s human
figure set within a circle and a square no longer forms the starting
point for his deliberations; rather his proportional figure slots into the
longitudinal plan for the Basilica with the transept to underline the
Christian symbolism. Palladio observes an analogical sign for his own
works. Francesco creates a similar proportional figure in connection
with a longitudinal ecclesiastical building, while Cantaneo follows an
older Renaissance theory with a Basilica form. (Fig. 18, 19)
In Palladio’s own words, he points out “Rooms (stanza) must be
distributed at either side of the entrance and the hall, and one must
ensure that those on the right correspond and are equal to those on
the left so that the building will be the same on one side as on the
other and the walls will take the weight of the roof equally (Palladio,
2002: 57) For instance, Palladio’s houses such as the Villa Barbaro,
Figure 18. Anthropomorphic
proportional scheme of temple
plan, Francesco di Giorgio
Martini, c.1470
Figure 19. Anthropometric church
plan, Pietro Cantaneo, c.1567
Figure 20. The Villa Rotunda
at Vicenza
Figure 21. Vitruvian Man,
Giovanni Caporali, c.1536
the Villa Rotunda, and the Villa Trissino have a square plan. The
facades of the villas are all of nearly equal length and importance. To
put it more precisely, they are foregrounded on geometric properties
independently of a situated observer such as symmetry, rhythm,
alignment, congruence, and repetition. (Fig. 5, Fig. 6, Fig. 20, Fig.
22) Also, the synthesis of the circle with the square are drawn on
the plans of Palladio’s villas shows a geometric concept with a
cross-shaped style. It is comparable to the diagram of the Vitruvian
man, in that the circle and square are marked by the Vitruvian
man’s key geometrical attributes such as centrality, symmetry, and
interrelatedness, which rely on the proportions of the human body
which conjure up the shape of gods. (Fig. 20, Fig. 21)
On the other hand, Palladio indicates “a correspondence of the
whole to all the parts, of the parts to each other, and of those parts
to the whole,” closely following Vitruvius’s definition. (Wittkower,
1945: 72, Vitruvius, 1960: 13-14) The types of Palladian villas are
presented in a twofold manner: the one is planned for an open
space surrounded by rooms and colonnades like Greek or Roman
atriums, while the other is for a symmetric and axial structure
with centrality. The both concepts are gradually combined in his
later works, in particular the Villa Trissino. (Fig. 22) The concepts
are structurized by the sequences of spaces and events and by
the configurations such as en suite, enfilades and spaces aligned
by common axis, implying the movement of an observer. The
enfilades and axial alignments of doorways create the secondary
and lateral axes that typically extend left and right towards both
halls and rooms, in tandem with the balanced suites of rooms on
either side. The axial sequences of doorways lead through a series
of hierarchically ordered rooms of decreasing size but increasing
social exclusivity. Also, either an atrium or a courtyard is placed
along colonnades or neighboring rooms split in half along the axis.
Palladio’s villas further serve a set of social relations in interior
spaces. As well as the aesthetic value, the existence of the
programme is expected through symmetries, alignments, and
repetitions by the homogenized and enclosed rooms at each regular
distance. (Fig. 22) The axis, symmetry, harmony, proportion, and
centrality are more embodied through the movement of users,
uncovering social and symbolic connotations, similar to the
sequential motion of perception through language. They could
be shaped as a set of relationships among things, all of which
interdepend in an overall structure. (Hiller, 1996: 23) The notions,
dwelling upon the notions of interrelated parts to other part, are
intimately coupled with those of the structural system of a house
to a city and with those of the figurative expression to the whole of
human body.
Young Jae Kim
10
4. AUTHOR ARCHITECT’S DESIGN
CHARACTERISTICS OVER TIME
or place. The convenience includes the proportional harmony
and aesthetic consideration between the whole and all of the
parts. Further, Alberti and Palladio do not only establish urban
expansion, but attracts natural environments into the context. As
the expression of the universal principle and the emblem of respect
for gods, they prefer a square and circular plan. This is congruent
with the Vitruvian principle. So, the combination of the residence
and the urban expansion with the human body is clarified with
the symmetrical and proportional building form. This tendency
is applied to the Renaissance architects without discrimination.
As seen in the chronological changes of the Vitruvian man,
architectural concepts are more embodied over time. In Francesco’s
and Giocondo’s drawings, a man stands stretching out his arms and
legs, superimposing him in a circle and a square, while Leonardo’s
drawing displays the application as a module unit. It confirms that
Leonardo attempt to comprehend the human measurement with
more correct notion. Moreover, Cesariano’s and Caporali’s drawing,
through the cognitive enlargement of Vitruvius’s argument prove
that the human body is employed as a module by covering the
Vitruvian man on the grid lines. They as a result attempt to clarify
Vitruvius’s intention which touches the human measurement in the
square and circular shape.
4.1 CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNICAL
ACTIVITY AND AESTHETIC QUALITY OVER TIME
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio talks about six concepts of the venustas
with aesthetic and proportional notion. The elements, as has
been noted above, are classified into two folds. Looking from the
point of view of the technical activity, the ordinatio, dispositio and
distributio are concentrated on proper measurements, disposition
of rooms, hierarchical paths from courtyards to plazas via streets,
building materials, and relationship between location and social
status, whereas, from the point of view of the aesthetic qualities,
the eurythmia, symmetria and décor are articulate on symmetrical
harmony, proportionally aesthetic appearance, and reasonable
decorations to building function engaged by convention and
custom, drawing on human measurement. Vitruvius defines
measurements as values that estimate the real dimensions of
individual body parts that rely heavily on ancient building practices
and Greek metrology. The definition of the concepts is more
embodied by the Renaissance architects through the expansion
toward urban scale, the metaphorical overlapping he human body.
In extending the use of urban scale, the comparison of a house
to a city becomes a tendency that is consistently used by such
Renaissance architects as Alberti and Palladio. In case Alberti,
unlike Vitruvius, suggests six concepts: locality, area, compartition,
wall, roof, and opening, which include aesthetic qualities and
technical activity, and similarity between architecture and the city.
Of them, the compartition is a medium distributing the site into
proper smaller units by expanding from the residence to the city,
atriums/vestibules to plazas, and colonnades to streets. Alberti
regards the place or the building as close-fitting smaller places or
buildings in comparison with the human body because he tells
that the great ornament to the forum should have arches as the
mouth of each road. It means that he recognizes the urban space
as the human body in addition to the modular space dwelling
upon it. On the contrary, Palladio expresses the notion of the
compartition as that of the convenience for the correct position
4.2 PROPORTION AND SYMMETRY THROUGH
THE ANTHROPOMORPHISM
Vitruvius initially makes statements about anthropomorphism
with the example of Dinocrates and with a study of the Doric
column. The most comprehensive and prominent remarks on
harmonious measurements to suit the human scale universally
applicable to architecture are found at the beginning of his third
book. There he writes that the design of religious architecture
has recourse to symmetry and proportion, and that this design
corresponds to the right organization of the human body. As
suggested above, he even derives the individual measurements,
along with the two geometric figures of the circle and the square,
from a well-formed body stretching out its arms and legs, while the
navel forms the body’ center. As the size of the circle and the square
matches that of the man, so the man stretches out its arms and legs.
The notion is on the surface echoed in the cosmos and the world for
gods, while the human body more to immediate point calls forth
the anthropocentric thought and the measurement of all things.
The use of the human body by the Renaissance architects further
blows its cover to represent the idealistic values of the Renaissance
period. Namely, Francesco, Giocondo and Leonardo strive to
combine the human body covering the square and the circle by
dividing palm, cubit, foot and finger into the units of the human
measurement. The diagram is itself emblematic of the proportional
system of all things that rests on the human body.
Besides, the human body has the symmetrical figure in the center
of arms and legs on the both sides. The primitive motive of the
proportional and the symmetrical figure that rests on the human
measurement is derivative of the human body, and the conception
is more reified through newer definition by Renaissance architects
on the metaphorical level. As Alberti says, it is more extended
responding to the urban context and to the proportion and
harmony with the correspondence of the whole and the parts. As
a result, Palladio’s buildings have the circular and square plan built
in the equal-armed Greek cross form that relies on the human
Figure 22. Villa Trissino at Meledo
Discussing Architecture and the City as a Metaphor for the Human Body
measurement and that resounds with the cosmos and the image
of gods at the same time. Additionally, Vitruvius deals with the
number ten and six. The number ten is an emblem of the cosmos
and neo-Platonic idea, while the number six proceeds from the
basic units of the human body. By contrast, Palladio says the
12-inch foot as a standard module as a divine perfection. Here
twelve is a multiple of six. Vitruvius’s influence upon Palladio
might be considered through such correspondence. Given
these interpretations, the principles bound up with the human
measurement are consistently changed among the Renaissance
architects.
Accordingly, both the body and the building are in a metaphorical
sense transcribed with the help of measurements, numbers,
proportions and geometric figures. From all this, admittedly,
Vitruvian principles must be more deployed in the analysis of
Renaissance architects about architecture and cities.
4.3 CENTRALITY
Vitruvius’s centrality should be considered in religious facilities
with a proportional and a symmetrical frame and with a square
and a circular plan that brings to mind gods and all sorts of things.
The center of the Vitruvius man covered above the square and the
circle is looked upon as the resonance of the cosmos, but also is
echoed as anthropocentric thought colligated with Humanism and
Christianity spread throughout Europe in the medieval times. The
anthropocentric idea considered, the same is true of that a plaza
is in the center of the ideal city in the Renaissance era and that
Roman forums and Greek agoras are in the center as the public
place of discourse. In this regard, the plaza captures the spirit of
the age in a combination of human rights and divine rights led
to the Renaissance architects at that time. To begin with, in case
Francesco, the town plaza is situated at the human body’s navel in
the anthropomorphic analogy. In case Filarete’s Sforzinda, a church,
a palace, and a market are located in the center of the town plaza.
It indicates that the plaza is very significant in the town because
it is flanked by main facilities relevant to political and economic
parts. In case Palladio, his designs are focused on the symmetrical
distribution in the center of the Greek cross hall flanked by rooms
founded upon the square and the circle plan, as well as the human
measurement overlapped on the Vitruvian man.
By contrast, the concept of the centrality is employed in concert
with Francesco’s and Cantaneo’s Latin cross plans. It shows
Vitruvius’s notion regarding the cross. Also, it indicate the image
of Rome, the center of the world, whose position Vitruvius claims
as the natural source of its power because Rome is in fact precisely
located by the crossing of this meridian. Squaring is fundamental
in augury. It has the division into four lines with two lines
crossing at right angles. Moreover, both Francesco and Cantaneo
regard the choir and apse as a human head, the nave as a human
body. In particular, Francesco decides the scale of the nave aisles
and the transepts on both sides by applying the human head as a
basic unit to the church plan. What is unique about the religious
plans is that the center of the human body is not the navel,
but the breast. It shows that there are different interpretations
about the centrality that is somewhat distinct from Vitruvius’s
understanding. Consequently, Vitruvian centrality is gradually
evolved as time goes by, and becomes an important concept,
taking proportion and symmetry into account.
11
5. CONCLUSION
Vitruvius mentions significant concepts with regard to theory
and practice in the comparison of architecture to the city grounded
in the human body. He first focuses on six elements composed of
aesthetic proportion, proper arrangement, elegant form, fitting
harmony, correct appearance and advantageous management,
which are divided into technical activity and aesthetic quality
each. In conjunction with them, he lays stress on the proportion,
the symmetry and the centrality that reflect the structure of
anthropomorphic analogies. Also, the proportion and the
symmetry are exhibited in the square and circular form, which
are founded upon Vitruvius’s analysis of the human body and the
appropriate harmony that rest on the absolute law of nature and
the supreme order of the cosmos because the humans are strongly
reminiscent of the image of gods. Furthermore, his ideas provide a
driving force in regarding a public area, an urban forum and plaza
as the extension of a house atrium, and even a temple as a perfect
dwelling. The house atrium with colonnades, as the semi-private
and semi-public area, is a principal venue to link streets with
squares (plazas) in the understanding of a residence compared to
a town. Hence, proceeding from such findings, one could logically
assume that in the existence of cosmic ratios there is a parallelism
between the proportions of the body and those of the building like
the application of a module. The integrated system even completes
an urban structure, in which buildings are placed in suitable
locations conforming to social status.
Taking into account the above evidence, there are two conclusions
to be drawn. First, as Vitruvius’s successors but with their own
critic perspectives, Leon Battista Alberti, Andrea Palladio, and
other Renaissance architects such as Filarete, Francesco di Giorgio
Martini, Tommaso Campanella and Johannes Valentin Andreae
give one clue as to common approaches in recognizing architecture
and the city in a metaphorical sense as the human body. Second,
Vitruvius’s influence on the Renaissance architects is vital in
grasping the diverse and sophisticated spectrum because such
access methods are more embodied and exploited by the late
Renaissance architects.
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ENDNOTES
1
But, it does not mean that venustas are immersed in the utilitas.
2
The ideal roof height would be between one third and a minimum of two
sevenths the width of the forum. He also states that the portico is a base one
fifth its width high; the depth should be equal to the height of the columns.
3
I refer to this book, On Painting and On Sculpture: The Latin Texts of De
pictura and De statua. Unless otherwise noted, all quotations from De statua
and De picture are from this edition.
4
He notes that he is fond of questioning shipbuilders and other craftsmen to
learn what rare and hidden special knowledge they hold.
5
In book ii, para. 36, he says that bones bend very little, indeed they
always occupy a certain position . . . and in the same passage, the correct
arrangement of the bones is linked to the proportionate relationship of the
parts.
6
He is employed by the ruler Francesco Sforza and produces a large volume
of plans and drawings for an ideal city called Sforzinda.
7
The words suffice in the Palladio’s circle, addressing “As man is the image
of gods and the proportions of his body are produced by divine will, so the
proportions in architecture have to embrace and express the cosmic order.”
8
Palladio would be aware of Francesco di Giorgio’s innovations in the field
of architecture both in Serlio’s adaptation and almost certainly through the
direct consultation of copies of his manuscripts.
(Received August 24, 2015/Accepted March 11, 2016)
Young Jae KIM