After successful completion of the course, students are able to read and interpret historical architectural drawings from the Renaissance and, compare them with the – if preserved – building fabric.
ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE IN THE RENAISSANCE DRAWINGS OF THE ALBERTINA, Vienna
The architectural drawings of the Renaissance mark the beginning of the precise documentation and analysis of historical buildings. They illustrate the development of methods of both measuring and representing buildings that are still valid today.
In addition to the skills for interpreting these historical drawings, insights into the genesis and practice of the thinking and working methods of important architects such as Raphael, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Vignola or Palladio are conveyed. This semester's lectures, however, will focus on anonymous, hitherto hardly noticed or only little studied drawings from their circle, which are now kept in the collections of the "Albertina".
In handling the original drawings, which of course may only be touched with gloves, the students will learn on site how to deal with these precious historical visual and written sources.
They will be familiarised with the various stages in the production of the depictions, from the sketch created on site, to the fair drawing, to the printing copy. At the same time, basic knowledge about building elements (e.g. column orders and decorative forms) and building types of ancient Roman architecture (temples, thermae, triumphal arches, etc.) is imparted.
On the basis of selected drawings from the holdings of the Vienna "Albertina", the ancient buildings depicted will be studied as well as the methods of their recording and representation.
In comparison with later surveys and representations including photographs, these drawings are examined for their information content and the beginnings of the methods of investigation, documentation and representation of architecture, some of which are still valid today, are learned.
Since the drawings to be dealt with have been "neglected" by art historical and archaeological research so far, numerous "new" observations and findings are still to be expected. Not least because the draughtsmen documented the buildings at a time when they were still far better preserved or even undestroyed.
The list of buildings is based on the inventory of the "Albertina", e.g.:
Rome:
- Colosseum: ground plan of a quadrant of the ground floor (Albertina, Az Rome 25), section (Albertina, Az Rome 27) and orders of columns (Albertina, Az Rome 30).
- Triumphal arch of Septimius Severus (Albertina, Az Rome 42, 43, 44)
- Basilica of Constantine and Maxentius (Albertina, Az Rome 55, 56, 57, 58)
- Column of Trajan (Albertina, Az Rome 83)
- Santo Stefano Rotondo (Albertina, Az Rome 98, 99)
- Hadrian's Mausoleum (Castel Sant'Angelo): ground plan (Albertina, Az Rome 105 + print Labaccos)
- Porticus of Octavia (Albertina, Az Rome 142, 143)
- Baths of Caracalla: Sections (Az Rome 172, 173, 174)
- Baths of Diocletian: Ground plans, elevations, details (Az Rome 179, 180)
outside Rome:
- 2 funerary buildings/mausoleuamon the Via Appia antica (Az Rome 202)
- Tomb, so-called "Tempio di Marte" (Temple of Mars): ground plan, elevation, section, details (Az Rome 205)
- Ancona: Arch of Trajan (precise, rich in detail) (Az Rome 227, 228)
- Tivoli: round temple (survey sketch) (Az Rome 284, 285, 286, 287)
