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"... architects like Inigo Jones and the Stuart kings themselves
believed that the harmony of the body politic was based on the
divine harmony with which God had endowed His creation, and that
this harmony should be represented and proclaimed in architecture
as well. The king was often compared to the keystone of the
political edifice; but the architect was compared to God, because
he too was a creator, who presented tangible and visible models
of harmony and proportion. Architecture thus became more than a
useful art; it aimed to be the persuasive embodiment of current
ideas about what the state should be, and how its citizens should
behave." ... "Classical architecture and
the pomp of court ceremonial were both agents in the service of
that vision." 1
The symbology encoded in cyma, use of triglyphs, dentils, cornices, architraves, etc. in classical architecture are based on the idea of emblems, heraldic symbols and hieroglyphs, including gestures understood as a universal language in the sense of the mystics Horapollo Nilus and John Dee. This universal language would in our day be understood as the search for a universal language of nature, or science (as we now believe that mathematics is such a universal language). 2 However, is the visual, gestural language of the architecture of Europe a private European code of conventions (acquired by the persuasions of education and training), or are these gestures of rhetoric tacens innate universals among all humanity? 3 Francis Bacon was of the opinion that gestures, like hieroglyphs and emblems were not universal constants, and thus held a view that was more anthropologically based. 4 The visual at right is not complete. Elements are omitted. Furthermore, some of the elements combine aspects of different classical orders (Doric, Corinthian, etc.). Yet the major idea that Classical architecture as found in the orders, clearly displays a hierarchy, and this hierarchical structure is planned and is repeatedly used (is not by coincidence). Classical hierarchy in architecture was supposed to reflect the hierarchy of aristocratic society, that in turn relecting the hierarchy found in god's heaven. Thus architecture supports the political structure of aristocratic society, justified by the political ideology of aristocratic society. Germain Bofferand questioned if a grammar based language adequate to support a language of classical architecture was possible, that could explain a personality expressed in "caractère". However, he does point out that "...architecture transcend[s] its inanimate, material nature, and connects it to the other arts." 5 While the image to the right makes it clear that a language based upon a grammar for architecture is a reality, the authority Cammy Brothers says that it would be inappropriate to "suggest the existence of a rigid grammar and vocabulary" 6 for Renaissance architecture. This is the view held on this website, as well. |
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