Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
Writing during a time of great change in the profession of architecture, Renaissance architect L.B. Alberti wrote in his treatise on architecture, The Art of Building in Ten Books: .avoid using the same color or shape too frequently, or too close together, or in a disorderly composition; gaps between pieces should also be avoided; everything should be composed and fitted exactly [ad unguem], so that all parts of the work appear equally perfect.1 Alberti’s Latin describing a perfectly fitting joint, ad unguem, translates literally as ‘to the fingernail’. Ad unguem was a common phrase employed by Roman sculptors and stonemasons for judging correct fit, testing the work through the tip of the fingernail by gliding unhindered across a well-fitting joint. Presumably, parts which fit together poorly, which have ‘gaps’, cannot be identified by the sculptor with the eyes alone. Rather, the fingernail must be employed as a means for probing the work for proper fit. In this way the sense of touch, extended from the outermost point of the body, is employed as the best and final instrument for refinement. Alberti, by invoking ad unguem, is not only speaking about the physical gaps between the parts of a building, he is also cautioning against intellectual ‘gaps’ as well – those places in the work which are manifest in “disorderly composition”. The continuity between mind and material implied in ad unguem is indicative of Alberti’s carefully constructed theory of architecture. In the prologue of Unhindered Touch Francesco Colonna, Hypnertotomachia Poliphili, (1499) the Ten Books, for example, Alberti explains that the “building is a form of a body [corpus]”, consisting of “lineaments and matter [lineamenta et materia]”, yet depends on the “hand of the skilled workman to fashion the material according to the lineaments”, as supplied by the mind of the architect. Consistently within Alberti’s treatise, formal correctness has a reciprocal relationship with material correctness, as is emphasized in the recurring theme of the building as a body. This is well stated early in the treatise in the book on lineaments: .each member should therefore be in the correct zone and position; it should be no larger than utility requires, no smaller than dignity demands, nor should it be strange and unsuitable, but right and proper, so that none could be better.
Writing during a time of great change in the profession of architecture, Renaissance architect L.B. Alberti wrote in his treatise on architecture, The Art of Building in Ten Books: .avoid using the same color or shape too frequently, or too close together, or in a disorderly composition; gaps between pieces should also be avoided; everything should be composed and fitted exactly [ad unguem], so that all parts of the work appear equally perfect.1 Alberti’s Latin describing a perfectly fitting joint, ad unguem, translates literally as ‘to the fingernail’. Ad unguem was a common phrase employed by Roman sculptors and stonemasons for judging correct fit, testing the work through the tip of the fingernail by gliding unhindered across a well-fitting joint. Presumably, parts which fit together poorly, which have ‘gaps’, cannot be identified by the sculptor with the eyes alone. Rather, the fingernail must be employed as a means for probing the work for proper fit. In this way the sense of touch, extended from the outermost point of the body, is employed as the best and final instrument for refinement. Alberti, by invoking ad unguem, is not only speaking about the physical gaps between the parts of a building, he is also cautioning against intellectual ‘gaps’ as well – those places in the work which are manifest in “disorderly composition”. The continuity between mind and material implied in ad unguem is indicative of Alberti’s carefully constructed theory of architecture. In the prologue of Unhindered Touch Francesco Colonna, Hypnertotomachia Poliphili, (1499) the Ten Books, for example, Alberti explains that the “building is a form of a body [corpus]”, consisting of “lineaments and matter [lineamenta et materia]”, yet depends on the “hand of the skilled workman to fashion the material according to the lineaments”, as supplied by the mind of the architect. Consistently within Alberti’s treatise, formal correctness has a reciprocal relationship with material correctness, as is emphasized in the recurring theme of the building as a body. This is well stated early in the treatise in the book on lineaments: .each member should therefore be in the correct zone and position; it should be no larger than utility requires, no smaller than dignity demands, nor should it be strange and unsuitable, but right and proper, so that none could be better.
L.B. Alberti’s ad unguem:
Foote, Jonathan (Autor:in)
19.06.2019
ARCC Conference Repository; 2008: Changes of Paradigms | The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
DDC:
720
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