Europe’s Mazes - On Labyrinthine Thought in Architectural Design by Rubén Wengiel.pdf
(
9972 KB
)
Pobierz
Europe’s Mazes: On Labyrinthine Thought in Architectural Design
Europe’s Mazes: On Labyrinthine Thought in Architectural Design
by
Rubén Wengiel
I wish to thank the European Forum at the Hebrew University and the Corinaldi Fund for
their generous support.
I am also indebted to five women: Prof. Bianca Kühnel for her kind professional
assistance; Prof. Luba Freedman for her invaluable contribution to the genesis of this
paper and precious advice; Dr. Lola Kantor-Kazovsky for renewing my love for
architecture; Dr. Lily Arad for her essential support both at the personal and intellectual
levels; and, not least, to my wife Martina Weisz for being the Ariadna of my life.
Contents
Introduction
3
1. Precedents of the Idea of Labyrinth in the Italian Imagery of the Fourteenth
and
Fifteenth enturies
5
2. The Mazes of the Sixteenth Century: The Questioning of the Center and the
Election of a Path
2.1 Labyrinth and Maze
9
2.2 The Two San Pietros
10
2.3 The Villa Giulia
12
3. Borromini and Bernini: Two Different Labyrinths for the Seventeenth Century
3.1
Teoria
versus
Praxis
15
3.2 Michelangelo: The Same Model under Two Different Gazes. The Path or the
Center?
18
3.3 The Proportions: Module and Geometry, Classic versus Gothic, the Hero and
the Monster
19
4. Borromini’s Labyrinth
4.1 San Carlino
22
4.2 San Ivo alla Sapienza
24
5. Bernini’s Labyrinth
27
5.1 The Scala Regia
28
5.2 The Piazza San Pietro
30
6. San Pietro’s Façade as Bernini’s Monster
33
Epilogue: Rome as a Maze
38
Bibliography
40
Illustration redits
47
Illustrations
48
2
Introduction
This paper had its genesis in Prof. Luba Freedman’s course on “Bernini and Europe” at
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem during 2004-05. Although the idea of labyrinth had
been haunting me for a while (perhaps because of my condition as new immigrant – a
sui
generis
kind of pilgrim – in Jerusalem), during this course I had the opportunity to make
a systematic analysis of the subject. During my research, I reached the conclusion that the
idea of labyrinth traverses most of European history, and that it constitutes an extremely
valuable lens for the study of social and cultural developments in the continent.
The purpose of this work is therefore to unveil the central role played by the idea
of labyrinth in the shaping of Italian – and consequently also European – identity. To
that end, I assume that the labyrinth transcends the visual representation with which the
concept is generally associated. Instead, I approached it in its character of representing
human life and experience. More specifically, I identified the core elements of the idea of
labyrinth in the works, writings, and acts of the artists under study so as to delve into
some important issues concerning not only themselves but also the society in which they
flourished.
This paper is a first attempt at applying the idea of labyrinth to the study of the
history of art and architecture through the case-study methodology. I focused on Rome of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a period in which the city underwent certain
important political and cultural processes that produced competing worldviews –
Weltanschauung
– and ideas concerning the place of human beings in the universe.
Despite the existence of a wide variety of labyrinths along the timeline, some
elements can clearly be identified as fundamental in their constitution.
1
The core element
1
For an in-depth analysis of the various forms and types of labyrinth and its definitions, see Santarcangeli
1997, pp. 49-55.
3
is the Center, which is the necessary point of reference for human beings to make the rest
of the world comprehensible, and at the same time find some orientation in that world.
2
Another basic element is the difficult Path – long or paved with many obstacles,
whose
raison d’être
lies in the existence of a Center. This arduous path, full of challenges
and unexpected hardships, can be considered as a
passage initiatique
allowing human
beings to achieve a better understanding of their own selves. Actually, there is a dialectic
process through which the Center gives the Path its significance, and, in a second,
complementary movement, the Path forces the human being walking through it to
undergo the essential transformation enabling him to reach the Center. Once the journey
is over, the traveler or searcher is ready for self-awareness, a state usually depicted
through the metaphor of a Mirror, or another element with similar characteristics. The
looking glass or its substitute can therefore be considered as the third important element
of every labyrinth.
3
There is a fourth important component awaiting the searcher when he (or she)
gains access to the Center: the Monster. Although not always visible, the Monster
counterbalances the Mirror. Whereas the looking glass shows the traveler the image of
what he wishes to be (and to some extent
is
), the Monster represents all that he fears and
aims at defeating in his own self.
Through the analogy or metaphor of labyrinth, it is therefore possible to gain
some important clues concerning which were the central issues at stake in a specific
European society, which paths were socially or individually constructed toward them,
and which mirror-images in Monsters’ and Heroes’ shape the people had to face so as to
reach their commonly or individually defined aim.
2
See the concept of Center in Revilla 1999, p. 101.
3
See Santarcangeli 1997, p. 181.
4
1. Precedents of the Idea of Labyrinth in the Italian Imagery of the Fourteenth
and
Fifteenth Centuries
Although we do find some labyrinths in Italy before the fourteenth century, I decided to
focus on the two centuries immediately preceding the specific period under study in this
paper so as to understand the most relevant antecedents of the developments of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The adoption of the idea of labyrinth by the Christians constitutes an important
landmark in the history of this concept. Indeed, the Church Fathers used this idea as a
metaphor of the path toward redemption by replacing Theseus with Jesus, the Church, or
Jerusalem. In other cases, the Christ fulfilled Ariadna’s role as a guiding light in the
midst of darkness.
4
The labyrinthine thought can also be detected in the worldview of one of the most
important pillars of Italian classic literature: Dante Alighieri (figs. 1-4).
5
The idea of
labyrinth appears clearly from the very beginning of
La Divina Commedia
:
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
Mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
Chè la diritta via era smarrita.
Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura
Questa selva selvaggia ed aspera e forte,
Che nel pensier rinnova la paura!
Tanto è amara, che poco è più morte:
Ma per trattar del ben ch’i’vi trovai,
Dirò dell’altre cose, ch’io v’ ho scorte.
I’ non so ben ridir com’io v’entrai;
Tant’era pien di sonno in su quel punto,
Che la verace via abbandonai.
4
See Wright 2001, pp. 73-76.
5
For further information on the relevance of the idea of labyrinth in the work of another pillar of Italian
literature, Petrarca, see Cipolla 1977, pp. 263-289.
6
Dante Alighieri,
Commedia
, con il commento di Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi (Milano: Arnoldo
Mondatori Editrice, 1994). English translation by Singleton 1970, Vol. 1, p. 3: “Midway in the journey of
our life I found myself in a dark wood, for the straight way was lost. Ah, how hard it is to tell what that
wood was, wild, rugged, harsh; the very thought of it renews the fear! It is so bitter that death is hardly
more so. But, to treat of the good that I found in it, I will tell of the other things I saw there./ I cannot
5
(Inferno I, 1-12)
6
Plik z chomika:
SaZbyszek
Inne pliki z tego folderu:
Paul de Saint-Hilaire - Tajemny świat labiryntów (1994).pdf
(44402 KB)
Paolo Santarcangeli - Księga Labiryntu (1982).pdf
(87848 KB)
The Great Conjunction - The Symbols of a College the Death of a King and the Maze on the Hill - A report by the London Psychogeographical Association and Archaeogeodetic Association (1992).pdf
(1115 KB)
Understanding the Labyrinth as Transformative Site Symbol and Technology by Vanessa Compton (2007).pdf
(6529 KB)
Paolo Santarcangeli - Il Libro dei Labirinti - Storia di un mito e di un simbolo - prefazione di Umberto Eco (2005).pdf
(69163 KB)
Inne foldery tego chomika:
!!! Opracowanie zbiorowe - Życiorysy historyczne, literackie i legendarne
!!!! Literacka Nagroda Nobla 2012
!!!Sagi
!!!Trylogie___Trylogia!!!
♥ Erotycznie
Zgłoś jeśli
naruszono regulamin