Ekphrasis - Tutte’ opera d'architettura et perspectiva at the Harvard Loeb’s Library Special Archive

Ekphrasis of Tutte’ opera d'architettura et perspectiva at the Harvard Loeb’s Library Special Archives October 12th 2019 There are two distinct levels of Ekphrasis narration and abstraction in my encounter with Serlio’s illustration of the Tempietto in a copy of the Tutte’ opera d'architettura et perspectiva. The first level of abstraction occurs within the physical realm of the Frances Lobe library, of my interaction with Serlio’s Tempietto as a drawing among others, printed via woodcuts within the 16th‐century treatise.

Another level of Ekphrasis occurs in the deeper realm when I dive into the open spread containing the tempietto and imagine myself time travelling back to the 16th century and taking up the persona of Serlio or Peruzzi, the engraver of the woodcut for the production of the treatise.

Here I shall begin with my encounter with the Tutte’ opera d'architettura et perspectiva in the special archive of the Frances Lobes library; As I approach the doors of the special archive with the naivety of a child, I get a glimpse of the open spread of the Tutte’ opera d'architettura et perspectiva, of which is mounted carefully on grey foams on top of a wooden surface, alongside the other two objects. If I were to describe the Tempietto at this point of the journey, it would be along the lines of multiple ellipses, one stacked within another and increasing in graphical density towards the centre; the centre of which returns to an emptiness symbolized by the clean canvas upon which the plan of the Tempietto is imprinted. To the right of the spread, lies a phallus‐like object which has an apparent vertical hierarchy and a gradual increase in graphical density in the horizontal direction towards the edges of the page. The phallus‐like object recedes gradually towards the top of the spread, at the point in which my gaze encounters a rectangular block of densely packed imprints.

The imprints that by now has taken a place in my intuition appears intuitively to be text explaining the ellipses and phallus‐like object drawn directly below them. Such a reflexive understanding of the nature of these scribbles arise I presume, from the interaction of my visual sensorium with a pre‐ formed understanding of the concept of a book. Such a concept of a book tells me that when two rectangular stacks of paper are hinged at their common edge, with apparent thickening of the paper at the bottom of both stacks, it is probably a book spread open on a particular page and that the pages are carriers of textual or graphical information. In this case, the Tutte’ opera d'architettura et perspectiva is flipped open carefully to reveal page 67‐68, that which contains both excerpts as well as a graphical representation of a building. Whether the textual information precedes the graphical representation or vice versa is an unknown at this point.

As I close in onto the horizontally inclined surface of the paper media and manoeuvre myself in the appropriate orientation to receive information from the page, my gaze transfixes on the concentric ellipses which gradually deforms into perfect circles. This metamorphosis has failed to behold my attention as a unique phenomenon, for I already possess a visual sensual knowledge of how geometries behave optically when they are viewed in perspective at an oblique angle. The phallus‐ like object on the right can now be interpreted as a 2‐dimensional elevational drawing of a 3‐ dimensional object, that perhaps already exist outside the borders of the page. The 2‐dimensional elevational drawing is a scaled‐down symbolic representation of the Tempietto. I came to this conclusion through my pre‐formed understanding that the doors and windows on the phallus‐like object is supposed to be representing what they are in the real world; functional doors and windows that a man can walk through to enter the premise. The phallus is no longer a phallus but corresponds to something much bigger in scale, that which could contain an entire human body.

Nevertheless, the scale of the object being represented could not be precisely determined, for the doors could either be restrictively narrow or generously wide in actual Euclidean dimensions. The Tempietto remains a relatively highly scalable object in my mind as such. Besides, it is also unclear

whether the plan and elevational drawing depicted here is an illustration of a scaled‐down model or an actual building‐sized structure for there are signs in its visual depiction that could suggest the possibility of either (the perfectly clean removal of the colonnade at the centre proportion of elevational illustration is one of the signs in which will be discussed later) .

At this point of the journey, I can now confirm that the previously described rectangular scribbles above the graphical illustrations of the Tempietto are text written in the Italian language.

Unfortunately, with my limited capability in the Italian language, they remain as symbols trapped on the page, waiting to be deciphered and liberated as speech. The word “Tempietto” which is recognizable in every other sentence of the paragraphs suggest though, that the Italian writing must possess certain correspondence to the illustrations below.

It is important to remember before we leave the Frances lobes library and enter the next level of Ekphrasis that this copy of the Tutte’ opera d'architettura et perspectiva I encountered in the special archive it itself a copy of the ideal. For its through the original 16th‐century woodcuts and engravings, that such a copy, among innumerable other copies, are being produced. This Tutte’ opera d'architettura et perspectiva in the Frances lobes library is a manifestation of an ideal treatise, perhaps existing genuinely, only in Serlio’s consciousness.

Lets now dive even deeper into the next layer of abstraction of my encounter with the Tutte’ opera d'architettura et perspectiva. By this I mean, liberating the Tempietto from the limitations of the four edges of the spread on page 67‐68 of the Tutte’ opera d'architettura et perspectiva. By this process, I intend to uncover the ideals that Serlios have superimposed on the real physical Tempietto while he illustrating it in 2D orthogonal projection to educate his contemporary builders on the ideal church model.

Begin with imagining that the canvas on which page 67 and 68 is imprinted upon, can be infinitely expanded beyond its rectilinear edges. To realise that the pages in Tutte’ opera d'architettura et perspectiva are probably cut according to the dimensions of the woodcut and for the practical consideration of portability of the book, reveals that Serlio’s illustration of the Tempietto is fundamentally restricted by its medium. Before we even discuss the graphical styles and shading through which Serlio depicts the Tempietto, its important to realise his ideal of the Tempietto has to adapt to the

With the intention to include the illustration of the Tempietto in a treatise that convey the ideal church to contemporary amateur builders, my reading of the Tempietto is heavily influenced by Alberti’s ideals of the perfect church. My documentation of the Tempietto would first and foremost adhere to orthogonal projection for as a Renaissance humanist architect, as I recognize the inaccuracy of the perspective projection due to foreshortening. The plan would be where I begin my Ekphrasis of the Tempietto. The perfectly round circle would be the dominant geometry on which my plan of the Tempietto is built upon. I first outline the circular footprint of the Tempietto for I believe Bramante designed the Tempietto with the ideal of the circle as an embodiment of God’s perfection, in mind. Every part of the circle is of equal distance from its imagined geometrical centre and the planar outline of the portico or colonnade would be shown as such. Next is the illustration of the footprints of the 16 periphery columns arranged in a perfect circle. The columns are to be

shaded in to further emphasize the geometric perfection of the circular plan. At this point, me as Serlio deliberately omitted the square footprint of the capitals or the base of the columns to avoid complication on the part of the builders; The most ideal geometry of the church is always the circle.

Next, an ideal church like the Tempietto would also have a thick and continuous cellar wall. To illustrate such an ideal, the planar cut of the Tempietto is to avoid the open windows for the ideal church, for according to Alberti, the ideal church would have high windows that forbid contact with the fleeing everyday life of the outside world. However, this would create a problem in the expression of the niches, which are at the same level as the windows. To avoid the dilemma, my plan of the Tempietto would take on a small discrepancy just so that the ideals of a perfect church could be fully conveyed to the builders. The door on the rear and the sides are to be omitted to emphasize the frontal entrance through which worshippers of Saint Peter’s shrine enters.

At the end of this Ekphrasis here, I realise perhaps my textual description of my encounter with either the Tempietto or the Tutte’ opera d'architettura et perspectiva is itself, not a genuine neutral copy to my actual experience in the Frances lobes library, for many of which I have articulated above is synthesized only upon my re‐engagement of my memories through the production of this Ekphrasis. It is with the coming to consciousness of this new layer of abstraction that I shall I conclude my encounter with the Temietto and Tutte’ opera d'architettura et perspectiva, only for the while being.