Vitruvius: Writing the Body of Architecture

by Indra Kagis McEwen

Overview

A historical study of Vitruvius's De architectura, showing that his purpose in writing "the whole body of architecture" was shaped by the imperial Roman project of world domination.

Vitruvius's De architectura is the only major work on architecture to survive from classical antiquity, and until the eighteenth century it was the text to which all other architectural treatises referred. While European classicists have focused on the factual truth of the text itself, English-speaking architects and architectural theorists have viewed it as a timeless source of valuable metaphors. Departing from both perspectives, Indra Kagis McEwen examines the work's meaning and significance in its own time.

Vitruvius dedicated De architectura to his patron Augustus Caesar, the first Roman emperor, whose rise to power inspired its composition near the end of the first century B.C. McEwen argues that the imperial project of world dominion shaped Vitruvius's purpose in writing what he calls "the whole body of architecture." Specifically, Vitruvius's aim was to present his discipline as the means for making the emperor's body congruent with the imagined body of the world he would rule.

Each of the book's four chapters treats a different Vitruvian "body." Chapter 1, "The Angelic Body," deals with the book as a book, in terms of contemporary events and thought, particularly Stoicism and Stoic theories of language. Chapter 2, "The Herculean Body," addresses the book's and its author's relation to Augustus, whose double Vitruvius means the architect to be. Chapter 3, "The Body Beautiful," discusses the relation of proportion and geometry to architectural beauty and the role of beauty in forging the new world order. Finally, Chapter 4, "The Body of the King," explores the nature and unprecedented extent of Augustan building programs. Included is an examination of the famous statue of Augustus from Prima Porta, sculpted soon after the appearance of De architectura.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262633062
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	09/17/2004
Series:	MIT Press Series
Pages:	508
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.05(d)

About the Author

Indra Kagis McEwen is is an architect and affiliate faculty member in the Art History Department at Concordia University in Montreal.

What People are Saying About This

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill

Indra McEwen's book is an elegant and imaginative exploration of Vitruvius's intellectual horizons that allows us to look at *De architectura* with new respect. In her hands it transcends the dimensions of a technical handbook and becomes a window onto the Romans' conceptual construction of their world.

Robert Tavernor

Vitruvius has provided architects with guidance across two millennia. At the beginning of a third, McEwen demonstrates, with the authority of considerable scholarship, the significance of an architectural approach in which form and content are in balance. Here we are presented with the kernel of traditional architecture, not just its shell.

From the Publisher

"Vitruvius has provided architects with guidance across two millennia. At the beginning of a third, McEwen demonstrates, with the authority of considerable scholarship, the significance of an architectural approach in which form and content are in balance. Here we are presented with the kernel of traditional architecture, not just its shell." Robert Tavernor, Professor and Head of Architecture, University of Bath

"With her vast and nuanced knowledge, Indra McEwen is able to restore Vitruvius's oeuvre to its rightful place within the world of the beginning of Augustus's reign. She demonstrates that the intentions and precepts of De architectura conform to the political and religious context of the period to a greater extent than is generally maintained. The continuity she establishes between Vitruvius's 'perfect man,' Polyclitus's Doryphorus, and the idealized statue ofAugustus is bold indeed, but proves its relevance upon reflection and compels us to consider the whole of the Vitruvian project in new terms." Pierre Gros , Université deProvence, France

"With her vast and nuanced knowledge, Indra McEwen is able to restore Vitruvius'oeuvre to its rightful place within the world of the beginning of Augustus' reign. She demonstrates that the intentions and precepts of 'De architectura' conform to the political and religious context of the period to a greater extent than is generally maintained. The continuity she establishes between Vitruvius' 'perfect man,' Polycletus's Doryphorus, and the idealized statue of Augustus is bold indeed, but proves its relevance upon reflection and compels us to consider the whole of theVitruvian project in new terms."—Pierre Gros, Université de Provence, FrancePlease note: Earlier version had author's name misspelled. Apologies.

"Vitruvius has provided architects with guidance across two millennia. At the beginning of a third McEwen demonstrates, with the authority of considerable scholarship, the significance of an architectural approach in which form and content are in balance. Here we are presented with the kernel of traditional architecture, not just its shell."—Robert Tavernor,Professor and Head of Architecture, University of Bath

Endorsement

With her vast and nuanced knowledge, Indra McEwen is able to restore Vitruvius's oeuvre to its rightful place within the world of the beginning of Augustus's reign. She demonstrates that the intentions and precepts of De architectura conform to the political and religious context of the period to a greater extent than is generally maintained. The continuity she establishes between Vitruvius's 'perfect man,' Polyclitus's Doryphorus, and the idealized statue of Augustus is bold indeed, but proves its relevance upon reflection and compels us to consider the whole of the Vitruvian project in new terms.

—Pierre Gros, Université de Provence, France

Pierre Gros

With her vast and nuanced knowledge, Indra McEwen is able to restore Vitruvius's oeuvre to its rightful place within the world of the beginning of Augustus's reign. She demonstrates that the intentions and precepts of De architectura conform to the political and religious context of the period to a greater extent than is generally maintained. The continuity she establishes between Vitruvius's 'perfect man,' Polyclitus's Doryphorus, and the idealized statue of Augustus is bold indeed, but proves its relevance upon reflection and compels us to consider the whole of the Vitruvian project in new terms.

Editorial Reviews

...An exemplar of scholarship in architectural history...recommended.—Choice—

This new, rhetorical Vitruvius deserves to be taken seriously...[a] highly original book.

—TLS—

From the Publisher

This new, rhetorical Vitruvius deserves to be taken seriously...[a] highly original book.

TLS

...An exemplar of scholarship in architectural history...recommended.

Choice

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman architect of marginal success, better known as a theorist and as the author of De Architectura Libri Decem (The Ten Books on Architecture), written between 33 and 14 B.C.E. and the only significant ancient treatise on architecture known to the modern world. The best-remembered words of the treatise are his list of the three requirements in building: strength, utility, and beauty. It is said that, without an understanding of Vitruvius, any discussion of architectural theory based on classical principles is not possible. First printed in 1486, the treatise has appeared in numerous editions since then. McEwen (Socrates' Ancestor: An Essay on Architectural Beginnings) takes a comprehensively historiographic approach to the work, examining the political climate in which Vitruvius worked: under the rule of the emperor Augustus, Rome's governance moved from oligarchic to monarchic. In the first of four main chapters, McEwen explores her fascination with his use of the word corpus (body) and applies it to the transformation of architectural Rome to imperial showplace. Subsequent chapters address Vitruvius's relation to Augustus, his chapter on anthopometric proportion, and the ambitious rebuilding of Rome by Augustus. Based on her own translation, this study is almost hermeneutic in its meticulous and scholarly treatment of the subject. For advanced graduate students in classics and architectural theory only.-Paul Glassman, New York Sch. of Interior Design Lib., New York Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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