Europe’s Mazes - On Labyrinthine Thought in Architectural Design by Rubén Wengiel.pdf - Labirynty - bibliofil1

Europe’s Mazes: On Labyrinthine Thought in Architectural Design

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

1. Precedents of the Idea of Labyrinth in the Italian Imagery of the Fourteenth and

Fifteenth enturies

2. The Mazes of the Sixteenth Century: The Questioning of the Center and the

Election of a Path

2.1 Labyrinth and Maze

2.2 The Two San Pietros

2.3 The Villa Giulia

3. Borromini and Bernini: Two Different Labyrinths for the Seventeenth Century

3.1 Teoria versus Praxis

3.2 Michelangelo: The Same Model under Two Different Gazes. The Path or the

Center?

3.3 The Proportions: Module and Geometry, Classic versus Gothic, the Hero and

the Monster

4. Borromini’s Labyrinth

4.1 San Carlino

4.2 San Ivo alla Sapienza

5. Bernini’s Labyrinth

5.1 The Scala Regia

5.2 The Piazza San Pietro

6. San Pietro’s Façade as Bernini’s Monster

Epilogue: Rome as a Maze

Bibliography

Illustration redits

Illustrations

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.

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.

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

(Inferno I, 1-12) 6

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