A study of the development of architectural illustration from the era of treatises to the era of handbooks, through the analysis of two Italian cases.

Abstract

Between the 18th and 19th centuries, the architectural treatise, a source of universal theoretical knowledge and considered an indispensable instrument for any architectural activity, ceased to exist. Its place was taken by the handbook, an equally universal publication that focused only on technical contents. In both books, illustrations played a role more important than text in the transmission of content. The transition from treatises to handbooks has always been regarded as a crucial moment in the history of Western architecture. Nevertheless, no study has analyzed this phenomenon from the peculiar point of view of illustrations. Moving from the belief that the study of images can provide enlightening hints for the reconstruction of historical facts, this research set out to analyze the relationship between content and illustrations in treatises and handbooks and investigate the changes in image style in the transition from one publication to the other. The analysis of two relevant case studies, Andrea Palladio’s The Four Books of Architecture (treatise) and Carlo Formenti’s Building Practices (handbook), has highlighted meaningful similarities between the two types of books. In particular, the permanence of a perceivable aesthetic concern in the 19th century handbooks shows that while the transition from “artistic” to “technical” content was rapid and clear, the transformation of illustration style was not equally fast and defined. This suggests that an important part of the cultural world of the 19th century, usually depicted as pragmatist and objective, was still, to a certain degree, “contaminated” by issues that had been the prerogatives of architecture for centuries: aesthetics and beauty. If this issue would be confirmed, this would provide hints for a partial re-reading of an epic moment of the development of architecture/construction culture.