A symmetria vitruviana: interpretação de Francesco di Giorgio Martini em seu tratado e obras construídas

Francesco di Giorgio Martini (c. 1480-98) elabora método para concepção de templos, a partir de esquemas geométrico-proporcionais pautados por círculos e quadrados, alinhado às prescrições vitruvianas sobre symmetria e analogia arquitetura e corpo humano. Henry Millon e Richard Betts iniciaram estudos de cotejamento destes esquemas com obras e desenhos coevos. Interessa, aqui, continuar tais estudos aplicados às igrejas de San Bernardino degli Zoccolanti e Santa Maria delle Grazie al Calcinanio, ambas atribuídas a Martini. Pretende-se responder lacunas apontadas pelos historiadores e demonstrar que, longe da repetição estereotípica, o método formulado por Martini concerne flexibilidade e adequação a diversidade de exigências impostas pela ideação arquitetônica, bem como avanço técnico e compositivo para superação das referências antigas e coetâneas.

Rapporto di ricerca storica sulle superfici architettoniche esterne della fortezza di San Leo

Historical research report on the external architectural surfaces of the fortress of San LeoThe hinterland of Rimini is characterized by the presence of many castles, but the fortress of San Leo is certainly the most representative because of its position and the different constructive contributions that over time have updated its appearance and military functions. Cited by Dante and Machiavelli for the impervious nature on which it stands, its origin dates back to the early Middle Ages. It was rehashed following the imprint of Francesco di Giorgio Martini in the fifteenth century, restored by Giuseppe Valadier at the end of the eighteenth century and converted to a prison in 1631. A peculiarity that makes the studies on the fortress of San Leo absolutely interesting is the treatment of the external architectural surfaces of which there is ample documentation in the historical archives and of which there are multiple uses in the various areas of the factory; the research aims to offer useful knowledge for the subsequent conservation and restoration project. The theme, completely original, arises from indirect investigations of a documentary and iconographic nature, conducted at the State Archives of Pesaro, Florence, Rome, the Central State Archive and the Vatican Secret Archive, which repeatedly refer in the accounting of works, starting from the seventeenth century, the execution of plasters executed outside the monument. The interpretative tension of the archival documents and the drawings continued by looking for a direct comparison between historical information and materiality of the fortress, in order to identify a correspondence between historical data and constructive reality. It emerges clearly that the external surfaces of many parts of the fortress were treated and finished with plaster since its origins, probably due to the exposure to atmospheric agents; therefore a rethinking of what is reported in the literature is necessary both in terms of interpretative profile of the fortress, and about how its image was perceived over the centuries.

Nova Imago Urbis: the transformation of city walls in early Renaissance as a model for the contemporary city image.

The introduction of the artillery in the middle 15th century represented a revolution not only from a strictly military perspective: at the same time that medieval defences become obsolete and were replaced with other kind of fortifications, the cities lost their crenelated walls and slim towers that until then had configured their image and expression. The forced loose of this medieval Imago Urbis and the urgency of finding a new formal expression for this new type of fortifications was quickly understood by the leading Italian Renaissance architects. From Francesco di Giorgio Martini to Baldassarre Peruzzi, from Giuliano da Sangallo to Michelangelo, all of them –aware of the importance of the problem­– worked on developing this new type of fortifications not only from the technical standpoint but also from its symbolic and formal approach. In Albertian terms, the goal was to search a new façade that would represent once again that “great house” that is the City. The contribution will refer to the importance of the contributions made by these architects in this regard and of its exemplary value in facing this problem –that of the image of the city– in our cities, the contemporary ones, increasingly more and more extensive and without a definite limit.

Architectural Representations in the "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili" (Aldus Manutius, 1499)

In December 1499 the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili appeared in Venice under the imprint of Aldus Manutius, in an edition whose woodcuts and typography make it one of the masterpieces of Italian printing. The enigmatic dream recounted in the book describes Poliphilo's struggle to win his love and his final happy union with his beloved Polia. The study focuses on the group of architectural representations in the book. Free from a slavish attempt to illustrate, they follow the course of the love story within the framework of an inner visual logic. A second part analyzes the section of the Temple of Venus Physizoa, an architectural representation that was omitted in Lotz's famous study of 1956. Issues of the history of technology, such as the modern cartographic method introduced by Alberti in the 1450s, are addressed in relation to this section. From a comparison with representations of space from the 1490s, however, one may conclude that, contrary to the thesis proposed by L. Lefaivre, there can have been no direct connection between the author or the artist of the Hypnerotomachia and the architectural theorist. At the same time, the Master of Polifilo appears to belong to the group of painter-architects, along with Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Leonardo, and Raphael.