Measuring the bones: on Francesco di Giorgio Martini's Saluzzianus skeleton

• Autores: Emanuele Lugli
• Localización: Art history: journal of the Association of Art Historians, ISSN 0141-6790, Vol. 38, Nº. 2, 2015 (Ejemplar dedicado a: To Scale / coord. por Joan Kee, Emanuele Lugli), págs. 346-363
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Any dimensional reading of a building focuses on either proportional modules or technical measurements. Such opposition is usually thought to have emerged during the eighteenth century, when the training and practice of architects and engineers began to diverge. Yet, as this essay shows, it can be dated to much earlier. By focusing on a single sketch, the skeleton that Francesco di Giorgio penned in one of his architectural treatises, the so-called Saluzzianus Codex, this essay challenges the monolithic view of Renaissance architecture as dominated by modular design. At the same time, it complicates our notion of measurements. Far from being perceived as straightforward, technical tools, in fifteenth-century Siena, measurement standards were often approached as corporeal entities, thus calling into question the traditional división between the objetive appraisal of dimensions (size) and their subjetive perception (scale).