Architectural Beauty
The architectural debate about symmetry and proportion
As Vitruvius said, there are three principles of assessing an architecture, which are “durability, convenience, and beauty ”. Another renowned architect Albertii also defined three main factors: firmitas, utilitas and venustas (robustness, utility and beauty). So we could confirm that the beauty is a widely accepted requisite element of architecture.
In terms of the beauty, most of the time it is related to visual appearance consist of symmetry, proportion, material, and execution of the construction. There was a long-term debate about symmetry and proportion among architects. The representatives are Francois Blondel and Claude Perrault in 17th contrary. Blondel believes the beauty …show more content…
On the contrary, the opponents consider that proportion of beauty is from man’s mind, so it is alterable.
Vitruvius considers proportion is the essential cause of the beauty, and he wrote that “…and beauty, when the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste, and created from when its members are in due proportion according to correct principles of symmetry.”
Another proponent, Alberti, had again an independent definition of architectural beauty, the concinnitas. He wrote, “I shall define beauty to be a concinnitas of all the parts within a body, so that nothing can be added, removed or altered but for the worse” . Here, he define concinnitas as using such a manner to conspire all the different members and finally form the synthesized body which obtains beauty. To judge beauty, he also said: “the judgment which you make that a thing is beautiful, does not proceed from mere opinion, but from the spirit and ratio that are innate” .
So Alberti believes that beauty definitely comes from “innate” parts of the architecture, not from “opinion”, in another word, from man’s
The architectural debate about symmetry and proportion
As Vitruvius said, there are three principles of assessing an architecture, which are “durability, convenience, and beauty ”. Another renowned architect Albertii also defined three main factors: firmitas, utilitas and venustas (robustness, utility and beauty). So we could confirm that the beauty is a widely accepted requisite element of architecture.
In terms of the beauty, most of the time it is related to visual appearance consist of symmetry, proportion, material, and execution of the construction. There was a long-term debate about symmetry and proportion among architects. The representatives are Francois Blondel and Claude Perrault in 17th contrary. Blondel believes the beauty …show more content…
On the contrary, the opponents consider that proportion of beauty is from man’s mind, so it is alterable.
Vitruvius considers proportion is the essential cause of the beauty, and he wrote that “…and beauty, when the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste, and created from when its members are in due proportion according to correct principles of symmetry.”
Another proponent, Alberti, had again an independent definition of architectural beauty, the concinnitas. He wrote, “I shall define beauty to be a concinnitas of all the parts within a body, so that nothing can be added, removed or altered but for the worse” . Here, he define concinnitas as using such a manner to conspire all the different members and finally form the synthesized body which obtains beauty. To judge beauty, he also said: “the judgment which you make that a thing is beautiful, does not proceed from mere opinion, but from the spirit and ratio that are innate” .
So Alberti believes that beauty definitely comes from “innate” parts of the architecture, not from “opinion”, in another word, from man’s