📋 Tender Overview
Copying As Common Practice In Early Modern Architecture
Reassessing Early Modern Architecture Through Mechanical Drawingsthe Mechanical Drawings Found In Italian Architecture From The 15Th And 16Th Centuries Are Generally Considered To Lack Artistic Value Due To Their Widespread Presence And Less Refined Subject Matter. While Replicating These Drawings Has Historically Been Viewed As Questionable, There Is A Notable Lack Of Research Concerning The Imitative Methods Employed In Early Modern Architecture. The Erc-Funded Ccpema Project Hypothesises That Mechanical Drawing Techniques, Particularly Those Involving Manual Replication And Direct Tracing, Formed The Foundation Of Early Modern Architectural Education Predating The Establishment Of Formal Architecture Schools. It Will Identify Visually And Technically Interconnected Images, Explore The Intellectual Aspects Of Design Training And Uncover The Collaborative Frameworks Inherent In Architectural Production.
Funded Under
European Research Council (Erc)
Total Cost
€ 1 489 668,00
Eu Contribution
€ 1 489 668,00
Coordinated By
Universiteit Gent
Belgium
Objective
This project advances the hypothesis that techniques of mechanical drawing, and specifically, drawings produced by manual copying and direct tracing, served as the bedrock of early modern architectural education prior to the advent of formal schools of architecture. The normative histories of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italian architecture have relegated drawings of mechanical subject matter (construction machinery, scaffolding systems, structural diagrams, military devices) to a lower, non-artistic status. These drawings are deemed inferior not only due to their subject matter, but also due to their ubiquity; the mechanical drawings used by early modern architects were widely circulated and routinely copied. Indeed, copying drawings and traces have long been considered corrupt. In the foundational discussions of disegno (the practice and product of drawing), Giorgio Vasari explicitly ridiculed copying practices, and the infinite number of substandard artists who employ techniques of tracing. In turn, he celebrated drawings that were demonstratively autograph or individual as the embodiment of their creator’s singular genius. This framework lay the foundation for modern history’s critical assessment of drawings and cemented the idealization of early modern Italy’s great architects. While recent decades have seen a notable increase in research on techniques of copying and tracing in the study of early modern painting, there remains a critical absence of scholarship that examines the derivative practices that underscored early modern architecture. Looking beyond anachronistic conceptions of art, architecture, and engineering and examining a broader corpus of early modern architectural drawings. Identifying images that are formally and technically related in their execution, the project investigates the intelle
