Why do architects still use the classical orders? Why use forms derived from ancient Greek temples when ancient Greek religion has been dead for centuries and when the way of life they expressed is extinct? And why decorate a contemporary courthouse with the bones, eggs, darts, claws, and garlands that an ancient Greek would recognize as the trappings of animal sacrifice?With these provocative questions George Hersey begins his recovery of the meaning of classical architecture. For the last four centuries, he shows, philology and formalism have drained architecture of its poetry. By analyzing this poetry - the tropes founded on the Greek terms for ornamental detail - he reconstructs a classical theory about the origin and meaning of the orders, one that links them to ancient sacrificial ritual and myth.In doing so, Hersey reinterprets key tales and taboos that were part of the cultural memory of the ancient Greeks. His touchstone is Vitruvius, author of the only surviving classical treatise on architecture, whose stories about Dorus, Ion, and the Corinthian maiden, and about the Caryaean women and Persian soldiers, describe the orders as records or remembrances of sacrifice.Hersey finds revivals of this consciousness in the Italian Renaissance and throws new light on the works of the architectural theorists Francesco di Giorgio and Ceasare Cesariano, and also on Raphael's Disputá, Michelangelo's tomb of Julius 11 and Medici Chapel, and Hugues Sambin's handbook on termini.George Hersey is Professor of Art History at Yale University and the author of many books, including Architecture, Poetry, and Number in the Royal Palace at Caserta (MIT Press 1983).
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"A fascinating demonstration of the savage landscape out of which the over-cultivated language of classical architecture emerged." Alexander Tzonis, Delft University
About the Author
George Hersey is Emeritus Professor of Art History at Yale University. He is the author of numerous books, including The Evolution of Allure: Sexual Selection from the Medici Venus to the Incredible Hulk (MIT Press, 1996) and The Lost Meaning of Classical Architecture: Speculations on Ornament from Vitruvius to Venturi (MIT Press, 1988).
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
blood sport,
By
This review is from: The Lost Meaning of Classical Architecture: Speculations on Ornament from Vitruvius to Venturi (Paperback)
its wonderful to read details regarding the birth of greek architecture, the birth of classicism. the heads above arches, those sorry warriors, beaten. the blood letting flutes, fat dripping thigh bones, guttae from the triglyphs if i remember correctly. no wonder classicism is so haunting - sometimes touching - the echinus shape on the capital of tuscan and doric is also the name for "hedgehog" - its gently sloping butt is the same and also for "little cake" as in the sloping crescendo of a risin cupcake's belly. humane architecture has its birth in death - modernism is only intellectual. a subjective dream of babel. in the study of words are clues to the strength of classical architecture.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extroadinary,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Lost Meaning of Classical Architecture: Speculations on Ornament from Vitruvius to Venturi (Paperback)
A marvelous marriage of language and the language of
Architecture. Finally, someone has had the courage and
talent to take this thing back to the (bloody) beginning.
I have read it a couple of times, and given it to about 6
friends.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hersey at his best!,
By Wildeguy "wildeguy2000" (New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Lost Meaning of Classical Architecture: Speculations on Ornament from Vitruvius to Venturi (Paperback)
I bought this book and finished it the day it arrived. I couldn't put it down. It reads like a detective story for architecture enthusiasts. Hersey begins this work by introducing a cluster of tropes that at first seem disparate items. As he develops his arguments (and there are many) he weaves a beautiful tapestry with these tropes. Hersey brings the roots of Greek architecture alive (literally). If he were a philosopher I would be tempted to compare him to Nietzsche in his ability to uncover the conceptual ruins of ancient art. I also recommend Hersey's other work, but this one is my favorite.
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
5
books
cite this book:
- Innovations in Hospice Architecture by Stephen F. Verdeber in Back Matter
- Fictions of the Pose: Rembrandt Against the Italian Renaissance by Harry Berger Jr. in Back Matter
- Cultural Selection by A. Fog in Back Matter
- Ritual, Routine, and Regime: Repetition in Early Modern British and European Cultures (UCLA Clark Memorial Library Series) by Lorna Clymer on page 179
- Law and the Image: The Authority of Art and the Aesthetics of Law by Costas Douzinas on page 122
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