Vitruvius
d. c. 25 B.C.
Roman Architect and Engineer
Vitruvius is best known as the author of De architectura, the first attempt at a comprehensive study of architectural practice. This manual dealt not only with building methods and materials but also sought to place architectural practice within the larger sphere of liberal arts. Though its influence on later Roman architecture was limited, De architectura was widely read during the Renaissance and became the authoritative work on classical architecture.
Few facts of Vitruvius's life are known, and his identity remains in question. Only his family name, Vitruvius, is known with certainty. There is good reason to think that his cognomen was Pollio, and he is often referred to today as Marcus Vitruvius Pollio. He worked in some capacity for Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.) and was later employed as a military engineer by Octavian (63 B.C.-A.D. 14), the future Emperor Augustus. Upon retirement, Vitruvius came under royal patronage. His only known civil engineering project was the basilica at Fanum Fortunae (modern Fano, on the Adriatic coast of Italy).
The 10 books of De architectura cover a wide range of topics. Vitruvius begins with a discussion of the nature of architecture, claiming the province of the architect encompasses all tasks associated with the building of a city. Consequently, the branches of knowledge architects should be familiar with include arithmetic, drawing, geometry, optics, history, philosophy, literature, music, and medicine. He then discusses town planning—the division of land by laying out of streets, the distribution of sites for public and private buildings, the methods and materials appropriate to their design, and techniques for supplying water via conduits and aqueducts. Various matters of practical import are also dealt with in detail, including flooring, stucco-work, painting, and color schemes. The last few books of De architectura deal with a number of subjects that, though seemingly unrelated, fell well within the purview of the architectural engineer of antiquity. These included horology, especially with reference to sundials; and mechanics, particularly concerning the construction of ballista, siege engines, and other machines of war.
Previous practitioners of architecture and the arts had produced manuals of rhetoric. Not only is De architectura the only surviving suchwork, it was also the first to attempt to systematically encompass the entire field of architectural theory and practice. However, instead of an overview and objective analysis of architectural history, Vitruvius drew selectively from the past to define and support his own methodology.
An illustration from Vitruvius's De Architectura. (Archivo Iconigrafico, S.A./Corbis. Reproduced with permission.)The defining characteristic of the Vitruvian method was its quantification of the principles and rules governing the design and construction of buildings. For example, Vitruvius sought to reduce temple planning to the application of rules governing the dimensions of the constituent parts in relation to the whole. Specifically, he developed a typology of rectangular temples. Seven different designs were included, each with rules governing the relationship of columns to walls. He developed other classificatory schemes as well, including one for private residences based on the style of atrium—Tuscan, Corinthian, tetrastyle, displuviate, and testudinate.
The best known and most significant of the Vitruvian classifications dealt with columns. Vitruvius identified three types: Doric, Ionic, and a variant of the Ionic known as the Corinthian. He explained the historical emergence of each before discussing their character. He found the relation of the base to height in the unadorned Doric suggestive of male strength and solidity, while the slenderness of the fluted Ionic, together with the volutes of its capital, was more suggestive of delicate femininity. Thus, the choice of column determined the character of the building—Doric being more appropriate for a temple dedicated to bellicose Mars, Ionic for a temple to Diana.
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