Alberti vs. Perrault: Beauty and Order in Architecture

Introduction: Two Visions of Architectural Order

Leon Battista Alberti and Claude Perrault viewed the beauty and order of architecture in fundamentally different terms. Alberti's perspective represented the High Renaissance's love of classicism and mathematical precision; he viewed architectural order and beauty as rooted in mathematical symmetry and harmony. Perrault, on the other hand, represented a worldview formed two centuries later, after Europe had been reshaped by the Protestant Reformation and the Scientific Revolution, and as the continent embarked upon the Age of Enlightenment. Perrault's perspective was shaped less by the mathematical discipline that Alberti associated with architectural order and more by the perception of beauty and the impression of spatial dimension. Perrault understood how the Greeks played perceptual tricks with the eye by adhering not to a formulaic structure but rather to a consideration for the viewer—placing columns, for instance, in precisely the right position to please the eye.

In this sense, while both architects regarded classicism fondly, each approached it uniquely and with different results. This paper examines the works of these two architects and shows how each brought beauty and order to their method of construction. It also examines the eastern facade of the Palais du Louvre, designed by Perrault, and Palladio's Basilica, whose structure is inspired by Alberti's method.

Alberti's Mathematical Theory of Beauty

Alberti drew upon the instruction of Marcus Vitruvius, the ancient Roman architect of the first century BC, who asserted that the basis of proportionality and architectural beauty was to be found in the form of the human body. Alberti wrote in On the Art of Building that sound architectural achievements should be rooted in Vitruvius's sense of fundamentals (Watkin, 2011, p. 216). Alberti emphasized that a building's aesthetic value lay in its ornamental beauty, based on mathematical formulations and certainties. He stressed that true beauty was a result of objective and skillful calculation—of harmony based on symmetrical alignment rather than subjective whimsy—and in Ten Books on Architecture he made this claim apparent (Alberti & Rykwert, 1955). It was Alberti's view that classicism held all the instruction a modern architect could possibly want (Wittkower, 1971). Thus, Alberti took the lessons of the classicists and extrapolated them for his contemporaries, writing many books and treatises on how to achieve harmony and order in architecture based on the classical wisdom of the ancients.

According to historian Paul Johnson, Alberti achieved even what Vitruvius himself failed to do: he put into orderly and coherent writing a theory and practical approach for architecture: "To be honest, Vitruvius's book, though important historically and endlessly referred to, is a fairly hopeless undertaking, and not of much practical use. By contrast, Alberti's is well written, orderly and systematic, clear about theory and helpful about practice" (Johnson, 2003, p. 214). Alberti took the academic principles and theories of the classicists and distilled them for his own generation.

Alberti's sense of order was directly associated with his sense of purpose and structure. He viewed the column as the most important ornament in architectural design and incorporated it into the facades of his works even when it served no structural purpose. Alberti wrote about the proportionality of arches and columns, the placement of supports, and the differences between Greek and Roman style. More importantly, Alberti expressed a theoretical association through architecture—namely that construction should represent one's worldview, which in his day was decidedly Christian. Thus, in his architectural concept one can see the hierarchical standards of the Renaissance and a firm belief in discipline, dignity, and purity.

Alberti believed, however, that sacred and secular architecture achieve separate aims: the former is for the purpose of worshipping God, while the latter serves human aims such as commerce. Therefore, the two should not look the same aesthetically. Sacred architecture should be more dignified and ornamental, while secular buildings need not be quite as elaborate, though they should still retain some dignity and ornament (Alberti, 1980).

Alberti commented on many aspects of architecture throughout his extensive fifteenth-century writings. For example, he discussed how the portico of a theater should be constructed and why, and he understood how sound waves traveled and why the circular construction used by the ancient Greeks produced the best acoustics, as the surviving remains of their theaters still demonstrate.

Palladio's Basilica and Alberti's Influence

Alberti's contributions to architectural literature in the Renaissance proved to be a great resource for future architects. Palladio used Alberti's instruction in his own work, and this can be seen clearly in Palladio's Basilica. Palladio saw art and architecture as integrated and whole in terms of form and function. His sense of architectural order was arrived at by adhering to Alberti's classicism, which regarded beauty as a result of the ordered arrangement of lines and ratios (Kristeller, 1980).

Like Alberti, Palladio was also a writer. He published The Four Books of Architecture, which served as an exposition of classical Roman buildings. Palladio viewed all the parts of construction as harmonious and congruent to the whole, each part serving the others so that nothing was extraneous and nothing was built that did not contribute to the overall effect, whether structurally or aesthetically. Just as the Greeks based music on harmonious ratios, Palladio based his architecture on visual harmonies possessing a spatial ratio analogous to that of music (Kostof, 2002).

Palladio designed the facade of Vicenza's Basilica in the middle of the sixteenth century, modeling it on the buildings of antiquity found in Rome out of his great love and respect for classicism. Just as ancient Roman buildings stood at ground level, so too did Palladio's. He admired Roman architecture because the buildings stood with their legs "firmly on the ground" (Palladio, 1997, p. 203). Modern basilicas, however, had places of business on the ground floor with the main hall raised above. Palladio's challenge was to fuse the two styles together—integrating the old with the new while remaining true to the form of order and beauty that Alberti had extolled in his numerous writings.

Palladio adjusted the ancient method to meet the parameters of the modern construct. To do so he invented a new device, later called the Palladian motif: a lintel-arch-lintel arrangement that allowed Palladio to conceal the spatial irregularities of his Basilica and give the facade the appearance of consistency through the alternation of piers and columns (Varriano, 2004). Essentially, Palladio crafted a brand new style of portico that used symmetry and harmony to revitalize the ancient concepts of antiquity for a new era. The goal was to harmonize the structure with its surroundings so that there was no inconsistency or incongruity between the building and its natural landscape (Copplestone, 1963).

Conclusion: Classical Tradition and Individual Innovation

Both Alberti and Perrault based their sense of proportional order and architectural beauty on the ancient teachings of the Romans and Greeks, especially those of Vitruvius. Both wrote substantially about the art of architecture and developed and formulated their own distinctive ideas. However, Alberti emphasized the symmetrical and mathematical harmony of Vitruvius—that which Perrault would later call the arbitrary beauty of the ancients. Perrault, for his part, emphasized the positive beauty latent in ancient order and argued that it need not rely on a rigorous ratio or formula but could instead appeal to the natural instincts of the eye.

Furthermore, the work and ideas of Alberti can be seen in the order composed by Palladio in his Basilica, and the work and ideas of Perrault can be seen in the eastern facade of the Louvre in Paris. These two respective works embody the visions of order and beauty that each architect devised for his own age, while keeping an eye on what came before and what was likely to come ahead. Perrault especially considered the future aspect of his work, ensuring that what he created would be admired by contemporaries and future generations alike. To that end, he created a facade that was neither wholly modern nor wholly antiquated but a unique combination of both—perpetually fresh. In this sense, he achieved what Alberti recommended: an order that was fit for the ages. Together, the architectural legacies of Alberti and Perrault demonstrate how deeply the classical tradition can be transformed by the intellectual climate of each successive era.

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