Alberti vs. Perrault: Columns in Renaissance Architecture

Introduction: Two Approaches to the Column

Alberti and Perrault thought differently about the role of the column in architecture. Alberti was a Renaissance architect — and like many others of the Renaissance era, he was inspired by the symmetrical beauty, mathematical precision, and classical guidelines of the ancients. Alberti used the column in architecture to give a sense of harmony and wholeness. Perrault, who designed architecture some two centuries after Alberti in the 17th century, was standing on different shoulders. Whereas Alberti had been operating in a world of wholeness prior to the devastation of the Protestant Reformation — which tore the Continent apart — Perrault grew up in an age where Christian nations were divided. Thus, the same love of wholeness and harmony that Alberti displayed in his use of columns was not felt by Perrault.

Perrault focused less on mathematical precision and more on the concept of beauty and how space could be used to give a maximum impression of order. Just as the ancient Greeks performed optical illusions with their spacing of columns, Perrault too employed this concept to create an effect on the viewer that was rich, rewarding, and romantic — in short, architecture that was Baroque. This paper uses Alberti's S. Maria Novella (1457–70) and Perrault's East Façade of the Louvre, Paris (1667–74) to examine their different positions and to answer the question: How does the column relate to the composition of the façade in each case, and what meaning does it carry? The argument advanced here is that Alberti used mathematical harmony to create a sense of order, symmetry, and overall cohesion, while Perrault used spatial dimensions to create impressions of depth and richness with his use of columns.

Alberti's Column in S. Maria Novella

In On the Art of Building, Alberti stated that ornament and beauty could produce a "graceful and pleasant appearance," which is certainly applicable to the façade of S. Maria Novella.² Alberti noted that Vitruvius was the sole survivor of the ancient world in terms of an architect who had written on both theory and practice — yet Alberti also pointed out that Vitruvius's works were not very efficient in conveying a clear application of theory to practice. Alberti addressed that issue with his own On the Art of Building. Like Sullivan, who quipped that "form must ever follow function," Alberti stressed that function and ornament should be united as one in any structure, for the two were part of the same essence of architectural construction.

In S. Maria Novella, this principle is most apparent: the church is patterned with a repeating motif of squares in the Roman classical tradition, and columns embellish the façade without overwhelming it or creating an illusory impression of depth. The columns are there to serve the grandeur of the building's function — not to act as an end in themselves, nor as the sole endpoint of beauty. Perrault, with his East Façade of the Louvre, uses the column to do just the opposite — to draw the eye and hold it. Alberti's columns help to direct the eye upward along the façade of the church, which is meant to lift men's minds and hearts toward God. Thus, the column in Alberti's church facilitates the purpose and function of the building. Perrault's columns do not so much direct the eye as capture it and hold it, the columns acting like sentries along the colonnade. Perrault's columns create a sense of drama — an epic grandeur perfectly suited to the Baroque.

Alberti's use of the column relates to the composition of the façade in S. Maria Novella by supporting the façade rather than overwhelming it or serving as its main highlight. The columns are humble participants in an ordered whole — present to sustain the message of the building rather than to announce themselves.

Perrault's Colonnade at the East Façade of the Louvre

Perrault's column is the main attraction: the columns in his colonnade of the East Façade of the Louvre do not support the façade structurally or mathematically. Instead, they serve as a kind of loud trumpet announcing the importance of the structure they stand before. Perrault's columns relate to the composition of the façade of the Louvre by acting as a herald — a messenger communicating the grand, eloquent, and mysterious aura of the Louvre's interior.

Perrault's façade does not primarily reflect the proportionate balance of parts that Alberti and Vitruvius admired in nature, though proportionality is certainly present. Perrault's use of columns reflects his belief that beauty exists in the balance of variation with proportion, with variation serving as the most important element of design. Perrault wrote: "the beauty of a building, like that of the human body, lies less in the exactitude of unvarying proportion and the relative size of constituent parts than in the grace of its form, wherein nothing other than a pleasing variation can sometimes give rise to a perfect and matchless beauty without strict adherence to any proportional rule."³ By giving variation to the façade of the Louvre, Perrault broke up the monotony of the building's exterior and produced a tantalizing effect capable of mesmerizing the viewer.

Perrault provided proportion and variation to the East Façade through his use of columns down the length of the colonnade. The columns stand out triumphantly above all, supported by a base — whereas in Alberti's church, the columns support the rest of the façade and are there to serve it, just as man is meant to serve the church and the church is there to serve God. Instead of using the column as a structural support, Perrault used it to visually effect a sense of grace: his façade achieves its graceful appearance primarily because of the colonnade.⁴

Conclusion: Two Architects, Two Eras

The two works by Alberti and Perrault from two different eras of architecture help to tell the story of the West — the story of how two great architects viewed themselves and their role in the field of architecture. They show how one took solace and refuge in the order and balance of proportion, and how another took comfort in liberty and in the conviction that beauty is not strictly relegated to the boundaries imposed by rules and dictums. Alberti's columns relate to the overall façade of S. Maria Novella by supporting the order and symmetry contained therein, giving their support to the greater tale of God's natural order in the world. Perrault's columns relate to the overall façade of the Louvre by declaring themselves the main attraction — the reason for coming to see what there is to see. They announce their majesty and suggest that inside these walls is a similar majesty — and they do not mind standing alone to tell it.

Bibliography

Alberti, Leon Battista. "Book Six" and "Book Eight." In On the Art of Building, 154–188 and 244–290. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1980.

Allais, Lucia. "Ordering the Orders." Future Anterior 2, no. 2 (2005): 53–74.

Damisch, Hubert. "The Column and the Wall." In Architectural Design Profile 21: Leonis Baptiste Alberti 49, no. 5–6 (1979): 18–25.

Durand, Jean-Nicolas-Louis. Precis of the Lectures on Architecture. Los Angeles: Getty, 2000, 73–88.

Laugier, Marc-Antoine. An Essay on Architecture. Translated by Wolfgang Herrmann and Anni Herrmann. Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, 1977.

Perrault, Claude. "Preface." In Ordonnance, 47–63. Santa Monica: Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1993.

Rykwert, Joseph. "Positive and Arbitrary." In The First Moderns, 23–53. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1980.

Rykwert, Joseph, ed. Architectural Design Profile 21: Leonis Baptiste Alberti. Vol. 49, no. 5–6. London: Dr. A. C. Papadakis, 1979.