Human Proportions in Architecture
‘After having considered the right arrangement of the human body, the ancients proportioned all their work, particularly the temples, in accordance with it’.
To what extent does the human body influence architectural forms and writing from antiquity to 1600?
The study of the human body has spanned centuries, from the mathematicians of antiquity to the humanist scholars of the High Renaissance, and parallels between the bodily proportions and architecture have played their part in some of the most celebrated architectural feats. Writers and architects throughout this period never ceased in exploring the various ways in which the ‘arrangement of the human body’ could be applied to architecture, from associations with the Golden Section, to the
Roman perfect numbers, and the creation of the square and the circle as ‘ideal’ forms derived from the Vitruvian man. Yet, whilst all these issues were significant to the architects and writers of this period, many other factors were just as important in determining the architecture produced. It is important to take into account not only alternative systems of proportion other than those derived from the human body, but also the historical and social context in which buildings were being designed.
Furthermore, whilst writers and architects were influenced by the use of the human body in previous works, they were often equally influenced by the mere ‘authorities’ of the past, and whilst human proportions may have been passed on through the centuries, the meaning behind its involvement was frequently lost, so that it was not a conscious reference to the human body, but a keeping with tradition.
The theory which exists as the basis of this discussion is notion established by
Aristotle, who described the relationship between the human body and the rest of reality: “the body carries in it a representation of all the most glorious and perfect works of God as being an epitome or compendium of the whole
To what extent does the human body influence architectural forms and writing from antiquity to 1600?
The study of the human body has spanned centuries, from the mathematicians of antiquity to the humanist scholars of the High Renaissance, and parallels between the bodily proportions and architecture have played their part in some of the most celebrated architectural feats. Writers and architects throughout this period never ceased in exploring the various ways in which the ‘arrangement of the human body’ could be applied to architecture, from associations with the Golden Section, to the
Roman perfect numbers, and the creation of the square and the circle as ‘ideal’ forms derived from the Vitruvian man. Yet, whilst all these issues were significant to the architects and writers of this period, many other factors were just as important in determining the architecture produced. It is important to take into account not only alternative systems of proportion other than those derived from the human body, but also the historical and social context in which buildings were being designed.
Furthermore, whilst writers and architects were influenced by the use of the human body in previous works, they were often equally influenced by the mere ‘authorities’ of the past, and whilst human proportions may have been passed on through the centuries, the meaning behind its involvement was frequently lost, so that it was not a conscious reference to the human body, but a keeping with tradition.
The theory which exists as the basis of this discussion is notion established by
Aristotle, who described the relationship between the human body and the rest of reality: “the body carries in it a representation of all the most glorious and perfect works of God as being an epitome or compendium of the whole
Bibliography: J. Onians, Bearers of Meaning : The Classical orders in Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance (Cambridge University Press, 1988) R. Tavernor, On Alberti and the Art of Building (New Haven, London : Yale University Press, c1998) Ed. by V. Hart, Paper Palaces : The Rise of the Renaissance Architectural Treatise (New Haven, London : Yale University Press, c1998) J. Rykwert, The Dancing Column : On Order of Architecture (Cambridge,MIT Press, c1996) R. Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanisn, (London : Academy Editions, 1973) Ed. by G. Dodds and R. Tavernor, Body and Building : Essays on the Changing Relation of Body and Architecture, (Cambridge, London : MIT, 2002) R. Padovan, Proportion : Science, Philosophy, Architecture (London : E & FN Spon, 1999) (London, 1987)