Ratio Venustatis: ratios and reasons of beauty in books I and III of Vitruvius' De Architectura.

• Grant number: 13/12007-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: October 01, 2013
• End date: May 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Mário Henrique Simão D'Agostino
• Grantee: Clovis Antonio Benedini Lima
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The six central concepts consisting in the fundamentals of architecture - ordinatio, dispositio, eurythmia, symmetria, decor and distributio - which have been presented in the Book I of the De Architectura as pointed out by the most recent studies keep connections among themselves that operates in the Treatise's scheme. The consideration of these notions becomes indispensible in the examination of Book III, the apex of edificatory prescription that sets symmetria as the most important element. Furthermore, according to the prescription, the excellent composition requires the exact proportions found in the members of a finely-shaped human body given by nature. His metrical ratios are similarly described in Polykleito's and Lysippos' Canons. Also the verbal image bequeathed puts the man into the circunference and the square referring to pythagorical and platonic doctrines. Nevertheless the Treatise holds in high steem and do not neglect the vision of the building as well as the observer's reception so that certains optical adjustments prescripted (adiectiones, detractiones) alter the previous mathematical order. It's well known that Rhetoric is dedicated to persuasion and it has its prescriptions directed to the receivers of the message, in other words, the audience. Considering that there are convergences with De Architectura - specially about its fundamentals - and the doctrines of the ars dicendi, as analogue models largely spread in that period and with substantial acceptance among arts doctrines, the rhetoric model will be used in the investigation of the adjustments related to eurythmia, of their relations with the notion of symmetria and the place of the Ratio Venustatis inside the triad Firmitas, Utilitas and Venustas.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

LIMA, Clovis Antonio Benedini. Ratio Venvstatis: reasons for beauty in books I and III of Vitruvius Architectvra. 2015. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU/SBI) São Paulo.