Section 6

^-^ j ANTEFDC ^♦-THE HAND Cix3JED
AOOMEAMSON BETWEEN Tttt, HAND.CLOJBD AND OPEN.ANDTHEeaEEKANTHPlX.AND SHELL*
89
A CCMEAECCN £BTWIf*J CHOTTO'S CAMEMttLE, AaXUMN lEOMTHB OR THENQN, AND THB. HUMAN JlOOEi--
THEBODILYTEMPLE 67
column like the veins of a leaf
from its midrib (Illustration 39). The relation of these laws of
beauty to the art of architecture
has been shown already. They
are reiterated here only to show
that man is indeed the micro- cosm — a little world fashioned
from the same elements and in
accordance with the same Beauti- ful Necessity as is the greater
world in which he dwells. When
he builds a house or temple he
builds it not literally in his own
image, but according to the laws
of his own being, and there are correspondences not altogether fanciful between the animate body of flesh and the inanimate body of stone. Do we not all of us,, consciously or unconsciously, recognize the fact of char- acter and physiognomy in buildings? Are they not, to our imag- ination, masculine or feminine, winning or forbidding — human, in point of fact— to a greater degree than anything else of man's creating? They are this certainly to a true lover and student of architecture. Seen from a distance the great French cathe- drals appear like crouching monsters, half beast, half human: the two towers stand like a man and a woman, mysterious and gigantic, looking out over city and plain. The campaniles of Italy rise above the churches and houses like the sentinels of a sleeping camp — nor is their strangely human aspect wholly imaginary: these giants of mountain and campagna have eyes and brazen tongues; rising four square, story above story, with a belfry or lookout, like a head, atop, their likeness to a man
68
THE BEAUTIFUL NECESSITY
THE fiODYTHE ARCHETVPE OF SACJJ£D. EDIFICES ^|^
'faqcSTHK.. " kCHUKH
THEKANDARIVA TIMPLE. KHAJUEAHO
•ST.
OUENATBOUEN
is not infrequently enhanced by a certain identity of propor- tion — of ratio, that is, of height to width: Giotto's beautiful tower is an example. The caryatid is a supporting mem- ber in the form of a woman; in the Ionic column we discern her stiffened, like Lot's wife, into a pillar, with nothing to show her feminine but the spirals of her beautiful hair. The columns which uphold the pediment of the Parthenon are unmistakably masculine: the ratio of their breadth to their height is the ratio of the breadth to the height of a man (Illustra- tion 40).
At certain periods of the world's history, periods of mystical enlightenment, men have been wont to use the human figure, the soul's temple, as a sort of archetype for sa- cred edifices (Illus- tration 41). The colossi, with calm in- scrutable faces, which
flank the entrance to Egyptian temples; the great bronze Buddha of Japan, with its dreaming eyes ; the little known colossal fig-
THE BODILY TEMPLE 69
ures of India and China — all these belong scarcely less to the do- main of architecture than of sculpture. The relation above re- ferred to however is a matter more subtle and occult than mere obvious imitation on a large scale, being based upon some corres- pondence of parts, or similarity of proportions, or both. The correspondence between the innermost sanctuary or shrine of a
JIN ivtxfCASs/ma
OPTHE»TWBLFre\
CEMTurac)
rLSN CF OlTHEMtALGF E£Am5MS
^^^^~ I A GCTHIC CATHB-DEAL THE- SYM5(X wmtxj^romiiulCf THL BODY OF JBSUS CHRIST—-
48
temple and the heart of a man, and between the gates of that temple and the organs of sense is sufficiently obvious, and a relation once established, the idea is susceptible of almost infinite development. That the ancients proportioned their temples from the human figure is no new idea, nor is it at all surprising. The sculpture of the Egyptians and the Greeks
ALPHA NDEtTH CB[£niAL EOX
SUN aisBj—EaiT
CEOWNCFTHOKilS HEAD
iK^ MAN') SIDE..
NCKIH-IUXNSEn KlOaTKAND
CHOnOr
lUCEiOFCOHS
MAl£SACEEO HUjAE>"JACH1N"
FEMALE SAOtfO ru.lAKj"5QA2'
wmt-
tEfAD
70 THE BEAUTIFUL NECESSITY
reveals the fact that they studied the body abstract- ly, in its exterior present- ment. It is clear that the rules of its proportions must have been estab- lished for sculpture, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that they became canonical in architec- ture also. Vitruvius and Alberti both lay stress on the fact that all sacred buildings should be founded on the propor- tions of the human body. In France, during the Middle Ages, a Gothic cathedral became, at the *** hands of the secret ma-
sonic guilds, a glorified symbol of the body of Christ. To practical-minded students of architectural history, familiar w^ith the slow and halting evolution of a Gothic cathedral from a Roman basilica, such an idea may seem to be only the maunderings of a mystical imagination, a theory evolved from the inner consciousness, entitled to no more consideration than the familiar fallacy that vaulted nave of a Gothic church was an attempt to imitate the green aisles of a forest. It should be remembered however that the habit of the thought of that time was mystical, as that of our own age is ultilitarian and scientific; and the chosen language of mysticism is always an elaborate and involved symbolism. What could be more natu-
SOOTH CELESTIAL POLE >
SUN SETS-WBST
THE SYMBOLISM CT A GOTHIC CATHE«AL flbCM-THE. BQjICE.UaANSrHAEQE /B JENNINDS
THE BODILY TEMPLE
71
^
TM; GE^METTRIGAL basis op THE/ HUMAN noVRjh
o
n
5TE/I6NUM'
■^
BODY 16 PUBIS
-tHKiH J6 aPEtfOuUA
i/EG y»
THE»,5C5lA]liB>,'rHJ6' OIECLE-.AiqDTHE
THE. moppErrioNj ofthe.
HSUEf- AS RiSTABLI^H&D IV DOCWCRj EiIMMEJlj. ' '
46
ral than that a building devoted to the wor- ship of a crucified Savior should be made a symbol, not of the cross only, but of the body crucified?
The vesica piscis (a figure formed by the developing arcs of two equilateral triangles having a common side) which in so many cases seems to have determined the main proportion of a cathedral plan — the interior length and width across the transepts — appears as an aureole around the figure of Christ in early representations, a fact which certainly points to a relation between the two (Illustrations 42, 43). A curious little book, The Rosicrucians, by Hargrave Jennings, contains an interesting diagram which well illustrates this conception
72
THE BEAUTIFUL NECESSITY
47
of the symbolism of a cathe- dral. A copy of it is here given. The apse is seen to correspond to the head of Christ, the north transept to his right hand, the south tran- sept to the left hand, the nave to the body, and the north and south towers to the right and left feet respectively (Illus- tration 44).
The cathedral builders ex- celled all others in the artfulness with which they established and maintained a relation between their architecture and the stature of a man. This is perhaps one reason why the French and English cathedrals, even those of moderate dimensions are more truly impressive than even the largest of the great Renaissance structures, such as St. Peter's in Rome. A gigantic order furnishes no true measure for the eye: its vastness is revealed only by the accident of some human pres- ence which forms a basis of comparison. That architecture is not necessarily the most awe-inspiring which gives the impres- sion of having been built by giants for the abode of pigmies; like the other arts, architecture is highest when it is most human. The mediaeval builders, true to this dictum, employed stones of a size proportionate to the strength of a man working without unusual mechanical aids; the great piers and columns, built up of many such stones, were commonly subdivided into clusters, and the circumference of each shaft of such a cluster approxi- mated the girth of a man ; by this device the moulding of the base and the foliation of the caps were easily kept in scale. Wherever a balustrade occurred it was proportioned not with
THE BODILY TEMPLE the height of the wall or the
73
AOCOEDTNOIOTffi. EXSYTOAIT CANOK
relation to
column below, as in classic architecture, but
with relation to a man's stature.
It may be stated as a general rule that every
work of architecture, of whatever style,
should have somewhere about it something
fixed and enduring to relate it to the human
figure, if it be only a flight of steps in which
each one is the measure of a stride. In the
Farnese, the Riocardi, the Strozzi, and many
another Italian palace, the stone seat about
the base gives scale to the building because
the beholder knows instinctively that the
height of such a seat must have some relation
to the length of a man's leg. In the Pitti
palace the balustrade which crowns each
story answers a similar purpose: it stands in
no intimate relation to the gigantic arches below, but is of a
height convenient for lounging elbows. The door to Giotto's cam- panile reveals the true size of the tower as nothing else could, because it is so evidently related to the human figure and not to the great windows higher up in the shaft.
The geometrical plane figures which play the most important part in architectural proportion are the square, the circle and the triangle; and the human figure is intimately related to these elementary forms. If a man stand with heels together.
48
TIB :ft©Ty«THEHEIflHr
•scassou
THS MEDIAEVAL METHCD Of DE^fiXTNQ THE FraOEB
49
&r^.=;..i=^.r..^^^
■SSBBBB^BBBBgC^.r^i'ViilSSiaBa'nBBBBeiB flBeBHflp3^§|i>^|^/i^ipl||BBBSBB
/ \ l^f tSfflF ^ '^
/ \ JvfdK / s
/ kT I mJk
^ KjajflffM s
/ w KHflPnl s
i-----,^-! JB|l-i>-..-^2
^£- J*M.-_-^S-
._.^2-._-,^:Sa¥£-!^,----3-_--
_.l/\ ^>® y^'SSSiS.
|lll|lll|lll|lll|
50
74 THE BEAUTIFUL, NECESSITY
and arms outstretched horizon- tally in opposite directions, he will be inscribed, as it were, within a square; and his arms will mark, with fair accuracy, the base of an inverted equilateral triangle, the apex of which will touch the ground at his feet. If the arms be extended upward at an angle, and the legs correspond- ingly separated, the extremities will touch the circumferences of a circle having its center in the navel (Illustrations 45, 46). The figure has been variously analyzed with a view to establishing numerical ratios between its parts (Illustrations 47, 48, 49). Some of these are so simple and easily remembered that they have obtained a certain popular currency; such as that the length of the hand equals the length of the face ; that the span of the horizontally extended arms equals the height; and the well known rule that twice around the wrist is once around the neck, and twice around the nefck is once around the waist. The Roman architect Vitruvius, writing in the age of Augustus Caesar, formulated the important proportions of the statues of classical antiquity, and except that he makes the head smaller than the normal (as it should be in heroic statuary), the ratios which he gives are those to which the ideally perfect male figure should conform. Among the ancients the foot was probably the standard of all large measurements, being a more determinate length than that of the head or face, and the height was six lengths of the foot. If the head be taken as a unit, the ratio becomes i : 8, and if the face — i : 10.
THE BODILY TEMPLE 75
Doctor Rimmer, in his Art Anatomy, divides the figure into four parts, three of which are equal, and correspond to the lengths of the leg, the thigh and the trunk; while the fourth part, which is two-thirds of one of these thirds, extends from the sternum to the crown of the head. One excellence of such a division aside from its simplicity, consists in the fact that it may be applied to the face as well. The lowest of the three major divisions extends from the tip of the chin to the base of the nose, the next coincides with the height of the nose (its top being level with the eyebrows), and the last with the height of the forehead, while the remaining two-thirds of one of these thirds represents the horizontal projection from the beginning of the hair on the forehead to the crown of the head. The middle of the three larger divisions locates the ears, which are the same height as the nose (Illustrations 45, 47).
Such analyses of the figure, however conducted, reveals an all- pervasive harmony of parts, between which definite numerical relations are traceable, and an apprehension of these should assist the architectural designer to arrive at beauty of pro- portion by methods of his own, not perhaps in the shape of rigid formula^, but present in the consciousness as a restrain- ing influence, acting and reacting upon the mind with a con- scious intention toward rhythm and harmony. By means of such exercises, he will approach nearer to an understanding of that great mystery, the beauty and significance of numbers, of which mystery music, architecture, and the human figure are equally presentments — considered, that is, from the standpoint of the occultist.
V
LATENT GEOMETRY
IT is a well known fact that in the microscopically minute of nature, units everywhere tend to arrange themselves with relation to certain simple geometrical solids, among which are the tetrahedron, the cube, and the sphere. This process gives rise to harmony, which may be defined as the relation between parts and unity, the simplicity latent in the infinitely complex.
THE HEXAGRAM AND EQUILATERAL TR,IANQLL IN NATURE
5NOW CBXTEMS
HONEY COM6
THEEACE,
FLE5H FLY
the potential complexity of that which is simple. Proceeding to things visible and tangible, this indwelling harmony, rhythm, proportion, which has its basis in geometry and number, is seen to exist in crystals, flower forms, leaf groups, and the like, where it is obvious; and in the more highly organized world of
76
LATENT GEOMETRY
the animal kingdom also; though here the geometry is latent rather than patent, eluding though not quite defying analysis, and thus augmenting beauty, which like a woman is alluring in proportion as she eludes (Illustrations 51, 52,
S3)-
By the true artist, in the crystal mirror of whose mind the uni- versal harmony is focused and re- flected, this secret of the cause and
source of rhythm — that it dwells in a corre- lation of parts based on an ultimate simplic- ity — is instinctively'apprehended. A knowl- edge of it formed part of the equipment of the painters who made glorious the golden noon of pictorial art in Italy during the Renaissance. The problem which preoc- cupied them was, as Symonds says of Leonardo, "to submit the freest play of form 'to simple figures
lof geometry in grouping." Alberti held that the painter should above all things have mastered geometry, and it is known that the study of perspective and kindred subjects was widespread and popular.
The first painter who deliberately rather than instinctively based his compositions on geometrical principles
TElANqUWA/JYNOnOf CFTHff
64
78
THE BEAUTIFUL NECESSITY
seems to have been
THE, EAAPLOVMENT OF THS EOUILATBRAL.N, TlilANGLL IN R£-NAISSANCL PAINTINOn.
THE LATTiUPPtR.. CE/hrrSL THE, MADONNA DEL. SACCO. BY OHM (K£rrOR£0) BV OWINCI ANDIUA DE>b SABSrO
£5
Fra Bartolommeo, in his Last Judgment, in the church of St. Maria Nuova, in Florence. Symonds says of this pic- ture, "Simple fig- ures — the pyramid and triangle, up- right, inverted, and interwoven like the rhymes of a son- net — form the basis of the composition. This system was ad- hered to by the Fratre in all his sub- sequent vs^orks" (II-
GEOMETRICAL bASlS OF THE 515TINE CEILINO PAlNTlNQy
66
LATENT GEOMETRY
lustration 54). Raphael, with that power of assimilation which distin- guishes him among men of genius, learned from Fra Bartolommeo this method of disposing figures and com- bining them in masses with almost mathematical precision. It would have been indeed surprising if Leonar- do da Vinci, in whom the artist and the man of science were so wonderfully united, had not been greatly preoc- cupied with the mathematics of the art
r
"THE QBCMETEJCAL BASI^ CP THE PLAN IN MCHIT£CTUEAL DESIGN
KfAMAKTfiSItAN
TfiMrlfiofzeus'
5TBA.UtS
"THE DUOKlO
"MKHfiLAnnP.rn'?
FUNFQK,i.I>?l£liS.
WESN'-J riEjT PlANfCHLJIWUlS
r\
1 t
THE CBEID£ AMKVTA.
NOTS£tvNM ATPAIUS
a L-^
HCttANO HOUW
£8
CATHEDRAt. >AtKeBAH
:=]
SAUitUEY CATHEDIUL,
D
INIQOJONEJ'ruCM K3tt,WHlTeWMl,
j!i£m]eiM
8o
THE BEAUTIFUL NECESSITY
PAUADIAN VltLA NEAIO VTCENZA
of painting. His Madonna of the Rocks, and Virgin on the Lap of Saint Anne, in the Louvre, exhibit the very per- fection of pyramidal com- position. It is however in his masterpiece. The Last Supper, that he combines geometrical symmetry and precision vi^ith perfect naturalness and free- dom in the grouping of in- dividually interesting and dramatic figures. Michael Angelo, Andrea del Sarto, and the great Venetians, in vi^hose work the art of painting may be said to have culmi- nated, recognized and obeyed those mathematical laws of composition known to their immediate predecessors, and the decadence of the art in the ensuing period may be traced not alone to the false sentiment and affectation of the times, but also in the abandonment by the artists of those obscurely geometrical arrangements and groupings which in the works of the greatest masters so satisfy the eye and haunt the memory of the beholder (Illustrations 55, 56).
Sculpture, even more than painting, is based on geometry. The colossi of Egypt, the bas-reliefs of Assyria, the figured pedi- ments and metopes of the temples of Greece, the carved tombs of Revenna, the Delia Robbia lunettes, the sculptured tympani of
arjc m nMDMPHE wr paras
69
LATENT GEOMETRY
8l
EQYTTIAN
GR£EP^
Gothic church por- tals, all alike lend themselves in greater or less degree to a geometrical synopsis (Illustration 57). Whenever sculpture suffered divorce from architecture the geo- metrical element became less promi- nent, doubtless be- cause of all the arts architecture is the most clearly and closely related to geometry. Indeed, it may be said that architecture is ge- ometry made visible, eo in the same sense that music is number made audible. A building is an aggregation of the commonest geometrical