Palladio introduced the use of Classical orders from ancient Greece and
ancient Rome. Alberti's theory of architecture was based upon dimensions
that created musical harmony and the physical proportions found in
god's greatest creation: man (see the Vitruvian man). However, not everone
agreed with Alberti's views concerning architecture. Two examples of
architecture that could be in close proximity: one building of a pagan
(ancient Greek) temple in purposeful disrepair in a rustic setting, but nearby,
a church, with garden carefully maintained, the church in perfect condition.
The stark difference was a rhetorical device to show the victory of
Christianity over the pagan religion. However, as time passed, another major
viewpoint emerged, that was based upon the views of Longinus in his book,
"Peri Hypsous" ("On The Sublime"). This new viewpoint allowed for the unity
or combination of divergent "styles"(for example, the architectural
styles of the Renaissance, the Baroque, the Gothic, unities of "male" with
"female": harmony with deliberate disharmony), to create an aesthetic of fear,
horror, and excess: a radical destruction of assumptions. Thus it
should not be surprising that different parts of a building might strongly
clash or appear discordant with each other.
Thus, Renaissance architecture evolved, replacing its original
emphasis on linear perspective with orthogonal views that emphasized
the interplay of light and shadows that naturally occurred at different
times of the day.
The changes in emphasis between different views of rhetoric were quite
obvious. Originally, Aristotle's views emphasized textual (spoken or written)
words, but including guestures. The views of Cicero and Quintilian emphasized
gestures - silent rhetoric or rhetoric tacens. The views of Longinus then
were emphasized, in which discords, extremes such as horror, beauty, humor
become an important element.
Rhetoric tacens, silent rhetoric, a rhetoric without words evolved in
architecture. Gestures remained central, but which gestures evolved
radically.
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