The Lost Meaning of Classical Architecture, Speculation on Ornament from Vitruvius to

Venturi by George Hersey; Bearers of Meaning. The Classical Orders in Antiquity, the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance by John Onians
Review by: Marco Frascari
Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vol. 43, No. 3 (Spring, 1990), pp. 41-42
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of Collegiate Schools of
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41 41
In his thematic
chapters,
Friedman thor-
oughly explores major
issues. While useful
topically,
this
organization
scatters infor-
mation about the individual towns. The
reader must
piece together
data to
gain
a
complete picture
of
any
one of the five new
towns examined. The thematic
approach
simultaneously
isolates the content of each
chapter
from the others. On the
positive
side,
this
arrangement
establishes a frame-
work for future
investigations.
Friedman's
work
provokes many questions.
What was
the
history
of the other new towns laid out
by
Florence
during
the same
period?
What
form did all these towns take in three-
dimensions? Were there set
proportions
dictating
street
heights
in relation to build-
ing
widths? How did Florentine new towns
visually
interact with the
surrounding
coun-
tryside?
In this dense but readable
book,
Friedman
enlivens the
history
of medieval town
plan-
ning.
His focus on the form and ideas
behind new towns affirms the richness of
Florentine
planning theory
in the late Middle
Ages.
The
designed
settlements of
Tuscany
were at once functional
military
and com-
mercial
centers,
and overt
symbols
of the
state's
unity
and order. Friedman's
insight-
ful
study
give these new towns their
rightful
place in
planning history.
No one can
now
deny
the vital role of late-medieval
Florence in the
theory
and
practice
of
European
urban
planning.
The Lost
Meaning
of Classical Archi-
tecture,
Speculation
on Ornament
from Vitruvius to Venturi
by George Hersey
The MIT
Press,
Cambridge,
1988
201
pp.,
83 illus.
(b&w), $9.95 (cloth)
Bearers of
Meaning.
The Classical
Orders in
Antiquity,
the Middle
Ages
and the Renaissance
by John
Onians
Princeton
University Press, Princeton,
1989
351
pp.,
203 illus.
(b&w), $75.00 (cloth)
The
corporeal
nature of architecture is one of
the
mostfascinating aspects
of the process
by
which
meanings
are
incorporated
in the con-
structed world.
Corporeal signs
are
experien-
tial structures of
meaning
and are essential to
In his thematic
chapters,
Friedman thor-
oughly explores major
issues. While useful
topically,
this
organization
scatters infor-
mation about the individual towns. The
reader must
piece together
data to
gain
a
complete picture
of
any
one of the five new
towns examined. The thematic
approach
simultaneously
isolates the content of each
chapter
from the others. On the
positive
side,
this
arrangement
establishes a frame-
work for future
investigations.
Friedman's
work
provokes many questions.
What was
the
history
of the other new towns laid out
by
Florence
during
the same
period?
What
form did all these towns take in three-
dimensions? Were there set
proportions
dictating
street
heights
in relation to build-
ing
widths? How did Florentine new towns
visually
interact with the
surrounding
coun-
tryside?
In this dense but readable
book,
Friedman
enlivens the
history
of medieval town
plan-
ning.
His focus on the form and ideas
behind new towns affirms the richness of
Florentine
planning theory
in the late Middle
Ages.
The
designed
settlements of
Tuscany
were at once functional
military
and com-
mercial
centers,
and overt
symbols
of the
state's
unity
and order. Friedman's
insight-
ful
study
give these new towns their
rightful
place in
planning history.
No one can
now
deny
the vital role of late-medieval
Florence in the
theory
and
practice
of
European
urban
planning.
The Lost
Meaning
of Classical Archi-
tecture,
Speculation
on Ornament
from Vitruvius to Venturi
by George Hersey
The MIT
Press,
Cambridge,
1988
201
pp.,
83 illus.
(b&w), $9.95 (cloth)
Bearers of
Meaning.
The Classical
Orders in
Antiquity,
the Middle
Ages
and the Renaissance
by John
Onians
Princeton
University Press, Princeton,
1989
351
pp.,
203 illus.
(b&w), $75.00 (cloth)
The
corporeal
nature of architecture is one of
the
mostfascinating aspects
of the process
by
which
meanings
are
incorporated
in the con-
structed world.
Corporeal signs
are
experien-
tial structures of
meaning
and are essential to
abstract
understanding
and
reasoning.
The
memory
embodied in edifices is the carrier of
these
experiential
structures and the Orders
are vital
signs
of this
corporeal process.
Buildings
are
passive
structures, in which the
quotidian
art of
living
well finds infinite
expres-
sion. In them the lineaments of construction
and the
harmony
of
building
elements trace
the tropes of human habits which are elicited
by
a
figurative
imagination.
The
process
of
signification,
or
semiosis,
is the
process by
which
meanings
are attached to to signs.
Buildings
are
impressive agglomerates
of
signs;
they
are rhizomes of
processes
of
signification. These
aggregates
of
signs
should
be studied
by
means of a
quasi-doctrine,
the
semiotics of architecture. Based on a naive
generalization
of the
relationships
between
the
signifier
and the
signified,
i.e. the Vitruvian
diad of
quod significat
and
quod signifaca-
tur,
this
quasi-doctrine,
after
being
in the
spot-
light during
the late sixties and
early
seventies
-
at that
time, every
architectural school had
at least a
young faculty
member
teaching
a
course on the semiotics of architecture- is
by
now in the
periphery
of architectural educa-
tion and of the
profession. Nevertheless,
the
question
of how
meanings
are carried
by
buildings
is still one of the most
challenging
questions
asked in the realm of architectural
theory.
In the two books which are the sub-
jects
of this
review,
the formulation of that
question
has
outgrown
the naive
design
approach
of the
quasi-doctrine, verging
on
an elemental
understanding
of the architec-
tural
process
of
signification.
Both Onians
and
Hersey
address a tradition in which the
processes
of
signification
in architecture take
place through incorporation.
The authors inter-
pret
the
corporeal metamorphosis
of the
per-
sonification of Classical Orders to
develop
their
investigations
within the
processes
of
architecturarsignification. They
are not inter-
ested in the
orders
as a
design solution;
rather
they
are concerned with
pointing
out the
union between
practice
and
theory:
the
individuation of the
relationship
between
fabulation,
the theoretical
talking about,
and
the
patterns
of
usage
in construction and the
consequent
transformations of those in
digni-
fying
decorations.
In his
book,
Onians trace the
patterns
of
usage
of the
Doric, Ionic, Corinthian,
Com-
posite
and Tuscan Orders from their
mytho-
logical beginnings, through
the Classicaland
abstract
understanding
and
reasoning.
The
memory
embodied in edifices is the carrier of
these
experiential
structures and the Orders
are vital
signs
of this
corporeal process.
Buildings
are
passive
structures, in which the
quotidian
art of
living
well finds infinite
expres-
sion. In them the lineaments of construction
and the
harmony
of
building
elements trace
the tropes of human habits which are elicited
by
a
figurative
imagination.
The
process
of
signification,
or
semiosis,
is the
process by
which
meanings
are attached to to signs.
Buildings
are
impressive agglomerates
of
signs;
they
are rhizomes of
processes
of
signification. These
aggregates
of
signs
should
be studied
by
means of a
quasi-doctrine,
the
semiotics of architecture. Based on a naive
generalization
of the
relationships
between
the
signifier
and the
signified,
i.e. the Vitruvian
diad of
quod significat
and
quod signifaca-
tur,
this
quasi-doctrine,
after
being
in the
spot-
light during
the late sixties and
early
seventies
-
at that
time, every
architectural school had
at least a
young faculty
member
teaching
a
course on the semiotics of architecture- is
by
now in the
periphery
of architectural educa-
tion and of the
profession. Nevertheless,
the
question
of how
meanings
are carried
by
buildings
is still one of the most
challenging
questions
asked in the realm of architectural
theory.
In the two books which are the sub-
jects
of this
review,
the formulation of that
question
has
outgrown
the naive
design
approach
of the
quasi-doctrine, verging
on
an elemental
understanding
of the architec-
tural
process
of
signification.
Both Onians
and
Hersey
address a tradition in which the
processes
of
signification
in architecture take
place through incorporation.
The authors inter-
pret
the
corporeal metamorphosis
of the
per-
sonification of Classical Orders to
develop
their
investigations
within the
processes
of
architecturarsignification. They
are not inter-
ested in the
orders
as a
design solution;
rather
they
are concerned with
pointing
out the
union between
practice
and
theory:
the
individuation of the
relationship
between
fabulation,
the theoretical
talking about,
and
the
patterns
of
usage
in construction and the
consequent
transformations of those in
digni-
fying
decorations.
In his
book,
Onians trace the
patterns
of
usage
of the
Doric, Ionic, Corinthian,
Com-
posite
and Tuscan Orders from their
mytho-
logical beginnings, through
the Classicaland
Medieval
periods
to the
sophisticated
ma-
nipulation
of
meanings
which took
place
during
the late Renaissance. He sees the
orders as a human institution which has ceased
to be
meaningful
in its essence.
Hersey's
book
deals with the Greek and
bloody origin
of the
Orders. We are told that the
trigliph origi-
nated from the
placing
of three
pieces
of
sacrificial bones on a tablet and the
guttae
under the tablet are a
representation
of the fat
dripping
from them. The entablature, as the
name in itself
says,
is
just
an indication of the
temple as a huge sacrificial table.
Heresy
also
discusses the Renaissance's rhetorical ma-
nipulation
of those
building
elements. He
concludes his critical evaluation of the Orders
with an assessment of their use in
contempo-
rary
architecture. Both the authors use the
semiotic
paradigm
of the hunter, but with
different
purposes.
Onians uses the
paradigm
to
suggest
a
way
of
reading
the architectural
signs
which has been
lost, whereas
Hersey
reminds us of a forgotten
way
of
producing
meaningful
architectural
signs.
Onians' concern with the semiotic
knowledge
developed by
hunters is based on their
"ability
to
process
visual stimuli in such a
way
that
significantvariations in the environment would
be
immediately
noted." Our ancestors
pos-
sessed the same
ability
to read their architec-
tural environment. In the same
way that hunt-
ers in the forest can read from the forest clues
to learn what nature is
preparing
for
them, the
architectural hunters can identify the nature of
a
building by reading
the clues
personified
in
elements of the Orders in the
building
forest of
columns and
capitals.
The different use of the
Order's elements in a
building
tell the hunter
which
parts
of the
building
are the most and
the less
significant,
which
political
alliance
predominated
or was
sought by
the
original
inhabitants;
or which
morality
or emotions
dominated the culture of the builders.
Columns and
capitals
are "a hard
spine
through
the soft flesh of
European history."
Onians
argues
that
they
are a lost human
institution. Columns carried culture. The
changes
in
shape
and
placement
constituted
a
system
for
finding
a
way
of
life,
and
expressing
it in a memorable medium. Col-
umns and
capitals
are
extraordinary
means of
representation; they
are aniconical
images.
Twelve of them can
represent
the Apostles or
the
signs
of the
zodiac,
or a
pillar
between
Medieval
periods
to the
sophisticated
ma-
nipulation
of
meanings
which took
place
during
the late Renaissance. He sees the
orders as a human institution which has ceased
to be
meaningful
in its essence.
Hersey's
book
deals with the Greek and
bloody origin
of the
Orders. We are told that the
trigliph origi-
nated from the
placing
of three
pieces
of
sacrificial bones on a tablet and the
guttae
under the tablet are a
representation
of the fat
dripping
from them. The entablature, as the
name in itself
says,
is
just
an indication of the
temple as a huge sacrificial table.
Heresy
also
discusses the Renaissance's rhetorical ma-
nipulation
of those
building
elements. He
concludes his critical evaluation of the Orders
with an assessment of their use in
contempo-
rary
architecture. Both the authors use the
semiotic
paradigm
of the hunter, but with
different
purposes.
Onians uses the
paradigm
to
suggest
a
way
of
reading
the architectural
signs
which has been
lost, whereas
Hersey
reminds us of a forgotten
way
of
producing
meaningful
architectural
signs.
Onians' concern with the semiotic
knowledge
developed by
hunters is based on their
"ability
to
process
visual stimuli in such a
way
that
significantvariations in the environment would
be
immediately
noted." Our ancestors
pos-
sessed the same
ability
to read their architec-
tural environment. In the same
way that hunt-
ers in the forest can read from the forest clues
to learn what nature is
preparing
for
them, the
architectural hunters can identify the nature of
a
building by reading
the clues
personified
in
elements of the Orders in the
building
forest of
columns and
capitals.
The different use of the
Order's elements in a
building
tell the hunter
which
parts
of the
building
are the most and
the less
significant,
which
political
alliance
predominated
or was
sought by
the
original
inhabitants;
or which
morality
or emotions
dominated the culture of the builders.
Columns and
capitals
are "a hard
spine
through
the soft flesh of
European history."
Onians
argues
that
they
are a lost human
institution. Columns carried culture. The
changes
in
shape
and
placement
constituted
a
system
for
finding
a
way
of
life,
and
expressing
it in a memorable medium. Col-
umns and
capitals
are
extraordinary
means of
representation; they
are aniconical
images.
Twelve of them can
represent
the Apostles or
the
signs
of the
zodiac,
or a
pillar
between
Winter 1990 JAE 43/2 Winter 1990 JAE 43/2
This content downloaded from 157.193.5.158 on Fri, 2 May 2014 09:44:21 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
42
two
pairs
of columns can
depict
the
figure
of
Christ
among
the four
Evangelists,
and the use
of the
composite
order in a Greek
temple
can
indicate a new alliance between the Atheni-
ans and the inhabitants of the Ionic colonies.
In
reading
Onians'
narrative,
we discover that
in San Marco in
Venice,
a
huge
architectural
trophy,
the
change
of the
capitals
from Ionic
to Corinthian has nothing to do with an odd
selection of
building spoils
done
by
the builder
to allow architectural tourists to
speculate
that
it would have been better to use
only
one kind
of Order.
However, looking
at San Marco
with a hunter's
eye
reveals that the consistent
use of the Ionic order in the inner wall of the
narthex and in the outer walls of the nave is
intended to
convey
the inferior
position
held
by
these areas in the
planned
uses of sacred
space.
The alternate
positioning
of Corinthian
and
Composite
Orders in the choir and
transept
gives
them
equal importance
in the
eye
of the
beholder,
the visual chiasm
postu-
Jacket illustration (Beorers
of
Meaning):
The
transcript
of Old St.
Peter's, Rome
(eary
fourth century)
with Bramante's 'altor house' en-
closing
the tomb of Saint Peter.
Drawing by
Maarten van Heemsk-
erck
(National Library, Stockholm).
lating
the
possibility
of a
potential
transforma-
tion from a worldly to a
spiritual
status. This
conversion takes place
through
the functions
performed
within this
specific
and sacred
part
of the church. For
Onians,
human bodies
consubstantiate in the stone of
buildings.
The
architectural hunter can detect them in the
"forest" of the constructed world and
through
them understand the
story
of human institu-
tions.
For
Hersey,
the
practice
of the hunter's semiot-
ics is based on the
recognition
of hunting
as
the
primeval
form of
sacrifice,
a ritual which
can
give meaning
to one's life. Architecture is
then a
personified expression
of sacrifice. In
Classical
architecture,
"a
house,
a
bridge,
a
dam,
was only valid from the moment that a
sacrificed life
lay
beneath it." The
building
is
then a
personification
of that life. In
making
this
remark, Hersey
is
quoting
from one of the
most fascinating books on ancient Greek
rituals and
myths,
Walter Burkert's Homo
Necans.
Another recurrent and
intellectually
dominant
reference in
Hersey's writing
is a
masterpiece
of
anthropological
and
philological analysis
of the C assical
world,
The
Origin
of Euro-
pean Thought
about the
Body,
the
Mind,
the
Soul,
the World, Time and
Fate,
by
R. B.
Onians,
who
isJohn
Onians' father. This book
is the
scholarly
source of
many
of Hersey's
architectural
tropes.
Architecture is seen by
Hersey
as an embodiment of the
tropes
of
sacrifice,
and the
powerful
mental associa-
tions carried
by
the Orders are
predicated
on
this
topical thinking
a
knowledge
based on
images
and
figures.
A
powerful conceptual
tool,
a
trope
is a
playful interpretation
which
relates forms that would otherwise never be
associated. A
trope
is
always
based on
rhetorical
figures
of
signification. Achieving
meanings
tirough
the translation of formal
characteristics,
a
trope
is a form of
thinking
which,
with the
help
of cross-referenced
images, generates
an elemental architecture
that establishes an
eloquent
and
intelligible
constructed environment for human life. Build-
ing
elements then become like Leibniz's
monads,
through
which it is
possible
to see the
totality
of an architectural
reality
by
looking
at
a detail.
Horns,
hairs and the decoration of
capitals
become
meaningful
monads of archi-
tectural
imagination.
Theyare powerful tropes,
embodied
trophies.
These
trophies,
trans-
muted into
supports
and
expressing
human
feelings,
then become
meaningful
elements.
Through
the
tropes,
the bodies of the victims
of wars or sacrifices transubstantiate in the
stones of which the
building consists,
revers-
ing
the direction of
causality
in
time,
like the
hunters,
who in their ritual reconstructions of
the bodies of their
victims,
sought
to annul
casualty.
The use of the
paradigm
of the hunter's
eye
classes both books under the
heading
of the
category
of wonder. Both authors are
point-
ing
out that wonder
may
be elicited not only
by the bare notion of
intelligible structure,
but
also
by
means of subtle
perceptions.
Never-
theless,
in the two
books,
the
way
of produc-
ing
wonder is described
differently.
Hersey's
book,
with its conclusion on the use of orders
in
contemporary
architecture -a bewilder-
ing
discussion of Venturi's use of an
enlarged
Palladian window - reduces architectural
wonder to
astonishment, something
which
fades when the sense of
novelty
diminishes.
To stimulate this sort of wonder demands an
intentional breaking of established rules. On
the other
hand,
Onians
argues
that the
proper
use of the
building elements
of an
Order
generated
a sense of
wonderment,
giving
to
building
elements the sense of a
steady
and
unthreatening
nature which also
guides
the
changes
in their use. These
changes
are achieved
through
deliberate
transformation and
metamorphosis.
Hersey's
book is a short narrative which
reveals the
bodily
nature of Classical orders
through
an
engaging
use of
anthropological
narrative,
and the reader must do a
great
deal of additional
reading
of
primary
sources
to understand
fully
the importance and the
implications of the
argument.
Onians' book
is a less
engaging
and
lengthy narration,
but
presents
an excellent and sensible review of
architectural
treatises,
which can benefit the
reader who is
approaching
the
topic
for the
first time.
Marco Frascari
University
of
Pennsylvania
Winterl 990 JAE
43/2
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