Wednesday Wisdom

WHO?

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman architect, author, and civil and military engineer who lived during the 1st century BC. Despite scant information about his life, it is believed he was born in Verona around 75 BC. He served Julius Caesar as an army engineer and architect and later Augustus in city planning. Despite there being limited information about his life, including his full name, Vitruvius is known for two things: a manuscript that was republished in 1486 AD and a sketch named in his honor.

What?

The 10-book manuscript De Architecture was written by Vitruvius in 25 BC and is divided into sections about city planning and architecture. Construction of temples, building materials, and public buildings (theatres, baths) were among the topics he examined in great detail.

In De Architectura, Vitruvius identifies the three principles of good architecture: beauty (venustas), quality (firmitas), utility (utilitas). "The built environment must fulfill all three; to pass the test of time is the measure of good design." He drew on Greek principles from the architectural orders of Doric, Ionic, and Corthinian describing the sense of proportion, utility, and the ability to the test of time.

This manuscript is considered the bible of architecture and was the centerpiece for the building of ancient Rome. Using mathematical aspects like the circle and square, he recalls the Ancient Greek use of symmetry.

His philosophy is that architecture should be stable, beautiful, and purposeful, Aesthetics matters as much as utility. Vitruvius's manuscript also reflects on the human body and particularly the sense of proportion. Book Three reflects on how parts of a temple, as with the human body, must correspond and be in harmony with one another. He describes the proportion of the human body head to toe forming a square while arms and legs move within a circle, signaling that the human body and its relationship to the circle and square, are the fundamental geometric forms of the cosmos. His manuscript's revival during the "Renaissance" not only brought to light neoclassical Greek and Roman architecture but inspired a host of artists who brought the human form to life.

Leonardi Da Vinci's fame as a painter, sculptor, architect, and writer is well-known and often chronicled. Born in outside of Florence Italy, he moved to the city as paid patron of the arts of the Medici ruling family. One of his enduring sketches that seemingly makes its way into many aspects of culture is the "Vitruvian Man". Inspired by symmetry and proportionality ascribed by Vitruvius, Da Vinci's sketch highlights proportionality while locked among the mathematical images of a circle and a square.

2022 - Why do we care?

The word Renaissance" is a French word literally meaning rebirth. Following the gothic era, which was dominated by the church, Renaissance artists brought humanity back into the fold. Artists of the Renaissance like Michelangelo, DaVinci, and Raphael, inspired by Vitruvius, revived the human form as an art form. Architecture began a rebirth also with the shapes and symmetry of Greek and Roman architecture. The Venetian Villas built by Palladio and the magnificent domes of Florentine built by Brunelleschi were inspired by Vitruvian's design principles. We can still see his influence in the beautiful and symmetrical architecture of the White House, the New York Stock Exchange, and the British Museum. Across the globe, countless structures, museums, and statehouses can be traced back to this lost and later revived manuscript.

According to Walter Isaacson, who penned a biography on Da Vinci, " his ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history's most creative genius." While Da Vinci's genius is undeniable, perhaps we need to acknowledge "The Vitruvian Man" and his influence over art and architecture.

And now you know ;

Philosophy is the art of thinking, the building block of progress that shapes critical thinking across economics, ethics, religion, and science.

METAPHYSICS: Literally, the term metaphysics means ‘beyond the physical.’ Typically, this is the branch that most people think of when they picture philosophy. In metaphysics, the goal is to answer the what and how questions in life. Who are we, and what are time and space?

LOGIC: The study of reasoning. Much like metaphysics, understanding logic helps to understand and appreciate how we perceive the rest of our world. More than that, it provides a foundation for which to build and interpret arguments and analyses.

ETHICS: The study of morality, right and wrong, good and evil. Ethics tackles difficult conversations by adding weight to actions and decisions. Politics takes ethics to a larger scale, applying it to a group (or groups) of people. Political philosophers study political governments, laws, justice, authority, rights, liberty, ethics, and much more.

AESTHETICS: What is beautiful? Philosophers try to understand, qualify, and quantify what makes art what it is. Aesthetics also takes a deeper look at the artwork itself, trying to understand the meaning behind it, both art as a whole and art on an individual level. A question an aesthetics philosopher would seek to address is whether or not beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

EPISTEMOLOGY: This is the study and understanding of knowledge. The main question is how do we know? We can question the limitations of logic, how comprehension works, and the ability (or perception) to be certain.