BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE
Published at the
end of Androuet du Cerceau's life, this small treatise is devoted solely
to the five orders. The are first presented in a brief descriptive text;
next, the author illustrates each one in a first plate, very didactic,
schematically demonstrating the construction of the different members
making up the column and the entablature. A second plate proposes versions
whose ornamental abundance contrasts with the grammatical rigor of the
first. From the morphological viewpoint, the model is the Quarto
libro by Serlio; shapes and proportions are closely inspired by
those perfected and disseminated by the man from Bologna in 1537. Moreover,
one notices that Serlio's influence was still decisive in France during
the last quarter of the 16th century, yet at a time when the most recent
treatises of Vignola (1562) and Palladio (1570) appeared in Italy. But
Bullant, in his Règle (1564) and Philibert De l'Orme
in his Premier tome (1567) still used the Serlian paradigms,
as did Julien Mauclerc at the dawn of the 17th century. Yves Pauwels (Centre d’études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours) – 2004 Critical bibliographyJ. Androuet du Cerceau, Les plus excellents bastiments de France..., D. Thomson (ed), Paris, Sand & Conti, 1988 (Documentary chronology and general bibliography, pp. 310-316.). H. von Geymüller, Les Du Cerceau. Leur vie et leur œuvre d’après les nouvelles recherches, Paris/London, Rouam/Wood & Co, 1887. Y. Pauwels, L’architecture au temps de la Pléiade, Paris, Monfort, 2002. Y. Pauwels, "Entre France et Espagne : du Cerceau et Vandelvira", proceedings of the colloquium Vandelvira en la historia de la arquitectura del Renacimiento, Jaén, February 9-12, 2006, to be published. D. Thomson, Renaissance Architecture. Critics Patrons Luxury,
Manchester/New York, Manchester UP, 1993.
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