Inscribing the architect : the depiction of the attributes of the architect in frontispieces to sixteenth century Italian architectural treatises

摘要

This study investigates the changing understanding of the role of the architect in Italy during the sixteenth century by examining frontispieces to published architectural treatises. From analysis of these illustrations four attributes emerge as important to new societal understandings of the role of architect. The first attribute is the desire to delineate the boundaries of knowledge for architecture as a discipline, relevant to sixteenth-century society. The second is the depiction of the architect, as an intellectual engaged in the resolution of practical, political, economic and philosophical considerations of his practice. The third represents the architect having a specific domain of activity in the design of civic spaces of magnificence not only for patrons but also for the city per se. The fourth represents the architect and society as perceiving a commonality of an architectural role beyond the boundary of individual locations and patrons. Five treatises meet the criteria set for this study: Sebastiano Serlio's Regole generali di architetura sopra le Cinque maniere de gli edifici cioè, Toscano, Dorico, Ionico, Corinthio, et Composito, con gli essempi dell'antiquita, che, per la magior parte concordano con la dottrina di Vitruvio, 1537, his, Il Terzo libro nel qual si figurano, e descrivono le antichita di Roma, 1540, Cosimo Bartoli's translation of Alberti's De re aedificatoria titled L'architettura di Leonbattista Alberti, tradotta in lingua fiorentina da Cossimo Bartoli, Gentilhuomo, & Academico Fiorentino, 1550; Daniele Barbaro's translation and commentary on Vitruvius' De'architetura titled, I dieci libri dell'architettura di M. Vitruvio tradutti et commentati da monsignor Barbaro eletto Patriarca d'Aquileggia, 1556; and Andrea Palladio's I quattro libri dell'architettura, 1570.A second aim for the study was to review the usefulness of frontispieces as an historical archive. It was found that frontispieces visually structure important ideas by providing a narrative with meaning as an integral part of the illustration. In this narrative frontispiece illustrations prioritise concepts found in the accompanying text and impose a hierarchical structure of importance for fundamental ideas.