Sebastiano Serlio

Sebastiano Serlio ( born September 6, 1475 Bologna; † ca 1554 in Fontainebleau ) was an Italian architect and architectural theorist. He became one of the most influential writers of the 16th century architecture through his treatise seven books on architecture.

Life

Serlio first learned from his father in Bologna painting, which gave him a thorough knowledge of the construction of perspective, and came through his work at Baldassare Peruzzi in Rome ( from 1514) to architecture. After the sack of Rome in 1527 in the Sack of Rome in 1528 he went to Venice in 1541 he moved to France to enter the service of the French king Francis I.. He spent his last years in Lyon.

The Sette Libri d' architettura

Serlio was as a graphic employees of Peruzzi. From this Serlio took over the plan to a work on the five classical orders. At his death Peruzzi inherited his drawings of ancient Roman buildings in Serlio, who had such an important basis for the illustrations of his seven books. This fact meant that Serlio was represented by Giorgio Vasari and his followers as mindless plagiarist, a claim that can be invalidated by a comparison of the manuscripts Peruzzi and Serlio.

In Venice, Serlio in 1528 applied for the Senate to the copyright for the illustrations of the five orders of architecture ( Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and composite), of which only nine stitches were published.

From the preliminary work Peruzzi developed Serlio 's plan for a multi-volume work, which should include all aspects of classical architecture. At the beginning of geometry ( first book ) and perspective are ( second book ). Then architectural models of ancient architecture of Rome ( third book ) and architectural order systems are presented ( fourth book ). The design of temples is the theme of the fifth book. The sixth treated houses for all layers from simple peasant to the king. In the seventh book of the particular circumstances are described, which can meet an architect in his work. These include features of the site, conversions of existing buildings, etc.

However, the books did not appear together and coherent, but at different times in different places in this order:

• The fourth paper on the general rules: Venice 1537.
• The third book with architectural surveys of ancient buildings in Rome and other parts of Italy: Venice, 1540.
• The first and second book on geometry and perspective: Paris to 1545.
• The fifth book of the Temple: Paris 1547.
• A " special book " ( extraordinario libro ) on the design of portals: Lyon 1551st
• The seventh book on special situations and renovation of existing buildings: Frankfurt 1575th

Thus, the seventh book was published by Serlio's death, the sixth and eighth book were edited only in the 20th century, from the manuscripts. Together with the extraordinario libro there are a total of nine books, authored Serlio, but appeared during the 16th century ( including extraordinario libro ) only seven, thus the name Sette Libri.

Serlio worked simultaneously in these books, in Book IV, he mentioned that the other books have already begun. Although the books are undoubtedly intended them to be read as a whole work, there is no evidence that Serlio had ever planned to publish the individual books as a band in an issue. The books, both in their chronological order of publication, ie, IV, read III, I, II and V as well as in numerical order. In Book I mentioned Serlio that he did this so not published first, because the volumes on geometry and perspective would have been possibly not very liked by the majority of people, because the figures are not very attractive and it does not make so much joy these subjects to study how the properties of the architecture.

Serlio wrote two manuscripts for the sixth book, but remained unpublished until the twentieth century. The manuscripts are now in the Columbia University and at the Bavarian State Library in Munich. They were known only by a study of William Bell Dinsmoor in 1942. Whether Serlio had completed the manuscript to an eighth book on military architecture, is uncertain. The special of the unpublished manuscript is that not only have been described as Alberti and Palladio buildings for the top layer, but architecture for the whole of society, from the peasant to the king.

Serlio translations in other languages

The books have been reprinted and translated into the following period in various combinations. The work was still before the end of the 16th century the most widely read treatise on architecture. The first translation was published in Flemish in 1539 in Antwerp. It was followed early as the mid-16th century editions in French ( Antwerp 1542, 1545, 1550 ), German (Basel, 1542, 1558 ), Spanish (Toledo 1552, 1563, 1573). Serlio thus became the most influential architecture writer in Europe and the Spanish colonies in Latin America. At the most influential was the fourth book of the doctrine of the orders of columns. These also appeared adaptations, such as the German Hans Blum.

The new on Serlio's work is that it is not, as in his models Vitruvius and Leon Battista Alberti to be a literary essay. In Serlio graphical illustration is at the center, wherein a brief side explanatory text usually added to an illustration. This was Serlio's work understandable for little preformed readers, in contrast to the complex, theoretical texts of his predecessors.

Pupils and imitators

The concept of Serlio's treatise was included by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, Vincenzo Scamozzi and Palladio and became the dominant concept for communication of architectural ideas to the 20th century.

In the history of architecture derived from the concept of its name Serliana is received. This is understood as a three-piece ensemble, with its center at an arcade is flanked on both sides by two vertical rectangular openings, the upper third of the lower mind (eg Palazzo Grimani a San Luca by Michele Sammicheli on the Grand Canal ).

Buildings

The success of the Regole generali, of Book IV earned him an appointment at the court of the French king Francis I.. Although he was entitled " peintre et architecteur ordinaire " for Fontainebleau with lush annual salary, but was in fact a post of honor. For the King Serlio hardly worked, rather aristocratic authority; his main work in France, for example, Castle of Ancy -le-Franc ( 1541-50 ), he built for the local counts, for Cardinal Ippolito II d' Este, the residence La Grande Ferrare at Fontainebleau castle, for a beautiful draft Jeu de Paume was determined, a tennis court. Some attributed work is controversial, some destroyed. Was he hardly in demand as a painter and architect in France, so he was not used as a reviewer once, as he lamented the end of his life.

Quotes

" Serlio has with his books more [ ... ] wrought into the real architecture architecture than any writer before or after him. "

"It was a new conception in architectural writing though It has since become so general, did we tend to forget what it did to innovation Which We owe to him. Instead of composing at litarary essay Accompanied by illustrations, hey Planned to make the illustrations the main body of the work, each to be providing commentary with a more or less letter as the nature of the case Demanded, the ideal being one page of text opposite or Accompanying each drawing. "

"It was a new concept of Architekturschriftstellerei, but because it has since so common we forget mostly that it was an innovation that we owe him. Instead of a literary essay to submit to, which is accompanied by illustrations, he planned to make the illustrations to the main part of the work, each with a comment that was short, depending on the requirements of the thing more or less, ideally with a page of text opposite or complementary with each drawing. "

Works

• Sette libri dell'architettura, Forni, Sala Bolognese, 1978 Libri I-IV
• Libri V. -VII.
• Vaughan Hart, Peter Hicks, eds: Sebastiano Serlio on Architecture Volume One: Books I - V of ' Tutte L' Opere D' Architettura et Prospetiva '. Yale University Press, New Haven / London, 1996, ISBN 0-300-06286-9
• Vaughan Hart, Peter Hicks, eds: Sebastiano Serlio on Architecture Volume Two: Books VI and VII of ' Tutte L' Opere D' Architettura et Prospetiva ', with ' Castrametation of the Romans ' and ' The Extraordinary Book of Doors'. Yale University Press, New Haven / London, 2001, ISBN 0-300-08503-6