Items related to The Dancing Column: On Order in Architecture
Synopsis
A deeply erudite, clearly written, and wide-ranging deconstruction of the system of column and beam known as the "orders of architecture," tracing the powerful and persistent analogy between columns and/or buildings and the human body.
Joseph Rykwert is one of the major architectural historians of this century, whose full humanistic understanding of architecture and its historical significance is unrivaled. The Dancing Column is certain to be his most controversial and challenging work to date. A decade in preparation, it is a deeply erudite, clearly written, and wide-ranging deconstruction of the system of column and beam known as the "orders of architecture," tracing the powerful and persistent analogy between columns and/or buildings and the human body.
The body-column metaphor is as old as architectural thought, informing the works of Vitruvius, Alberti, and many later writers; but The Dancing Column is the first comprehensive treatment to do this huge subject full justice. It provides a new critical examination of the way the classical orders, which have dominated Western architecture for nearly three millennia, were first formulated. Rykwert opens with a review of their consequence for the leading architects of the twentieth century, and then traces ideas related to them in accounts of sacred antiquity and in scientific doctrines of humor and character.
The body-column metaphor is traced in archaeological material from Egypt, Asia Minor, and the Levant, as well as from Greece, drawing on recent accounts by historians of Greek religion and society as well as the latest discoveries of archaeologists. Perhaps most important, Rykwert reexamines its significance for the formation of any theoretical view of architecture.
Chapters cover an astonishing breadth of material, including the notions of a set number and a proportional as well as an ornamental rule of the orders; the theological-philosophical interpretation Christiana of antiquity on which the domination of the orders relied; the astrological and geometrical canon of the human figure; gender and column; the body as a constantly refashioned cultural product; the Greek temple building and the nature of cult; and the endurance of ornamental forms and the function of symbols.
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Review
Joseph Rykwert, a professor of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, has contributed to the body of work about architecture a wide-ranging study of the use of the human figure in the discipline, particularly in columns. Rykwert plunges deep into architectural history, tracing the development of the classic orders from Greece to Rome and on through the Renaissance in France and Italy. He says the relationship between the human body and architecture is "deeply ingrained in all recorded architectural thinking." He especially sees a close tie between the body and the column, the essential building block of architectural order.
About the Author
Joseph Rykwert is Paul Philippe Cret Professor of Architecture Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherThe MIT Press
- Publication date1998
- ISBN 10 0262681013
- ISBN 13 9780262681018
- BindingPaperback
- LanguageEnglish
- Number of pages616
- Rating
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The Dancing Column: On Order in Architecture
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The Dancing Column: On Order in Architecture
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Softcover. A matte softcover book with the title in white down a black spine. Pages: (8), ix-xviii, (2), 3-598. Illustrated with black-and-white images. "Joseph Rykwert is one of the major architectural historians of this century, whose full humanistic understanding of architecture and its historical significance is unrivaled. The Dancing Column is certain to be his most controversial and challenging work to date. A decade in preparation, it is a deeply erudite, clearly written, and wide-ranging deconstruction of the system of column and beam known as the "orders of architecture," tracing the powerful and persistent analogy between columns and/or buildings and the human body. The body-column metaphor is as old as architectural thought, informing the works of Vitruvius, Alberti, and many later writers; but The Dancing Column is the first comprehensive treatment to do this huge subject full justice. It provides a new critical examination of the way the classical orders, which have dominated Western architecture for nearly three millennia, were first formulated. Rykwert opens with a review of their consequence for the leading architects of the twentieth century, and then traces ideas related to them in accounts of sacred antiquity and in scientific doctrines of humor and character. The body-column metaphor is traced in archaeological material from Egypt, Asia Minor, and the Levant, as well as from Greece, drawing on recent accounts by hi storians of Greek religion and society as well as the latest discoveries of archaeologists. Perhaps most important, Rykwert reexamines its significance for the formation of any theoretical view of architecture. Chapters cover an astonishing breadth of material, including the notions of a set number and a proportional as well as an ornamental rule of the orders; the theological-philosophical interpretatio Christiana of antiquity on which the domination of the orders relied; the astrological and geometrical canon of the human figure; gender and column; the body as a constantly refashioned cultural product; the Greek temple building and the nature of cult; and the endurance of ornamental forms and the function of symbols." Contents are as follows: List of illustrations -- Preface -- Order in buildings -- Order in the body -- The body and the world -- Gender and column -- The literary commonplace -- The rule and the song -- The hero as a column -- The known and the seen -- The mask, the horns, and the eyes -- The corinthian virgin -- A native column? -- Order or intercourse -- Notes -- Abbreviations and ancient texts -- Bibliography -- Index. VG: Exlibrary book. Stamp on inside front cover. Stamp on last page. Sticker and due date card on inside back cover. Seller Inventory # 203414
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THE DANCING COLUMN: ON ORDER IN ARCHITECTURE
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MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1999
ISBN 10: 0262681013
ISBN 13: 9780262681018
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The Dancing Column: On Order in Architecture
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