The Body as Principle-

An essay on how the human form inspires and corresponds to art, life, architecture and more. Brian Keeler

The relation of the parts to the whole and their successful interaction could sum up the ideal of visual virtue as expressed in the work of the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius and the authors of the Renaissance who rediscovered his work.   I found these ideas intriguing and useful in how they applied to painting today as well as to many other areas of life. The human body serving as a principle that informs other art forms and life in general is explored here.

In a new book that I just finished,  "All the King's Horses-Vitruvius in the Age of Princes" by Indra Kagis McEwen, these developments and revelations in Italy in the 13th and 14th century were applied to architecture mostly but with relevance to the politics of the day.   These correlations are the exciting takeaways and lessons to be gleaned.

The political aspect was expressed in a wonderful fresco painting by the Italian Renaissance artist, Ambrogio Lorenzetti titled, The Allegory of Good Government. The painting shows various aspects of medieval life in Siena -- with a group of women dancing to express the harmony of life-- through music, dance and social conviviality.

Above- "The Forge of Vulcan" a large-scale (30" x 40") charcoal drawing by the author. The theme is a renactment of the ancient myth depicting Apollo, on the left, revealing the infidelity of Vulcan's wife, Venus to Vulcan. The poses are inspired by a painting by Diego Velzquez, The 17th century Spanish painter. T he human figure as the underpinning of other art forms is discussed in this essay.

A rebirth- inspired by antiquity and the classics-

For starters let's take Francesco Petrarch, (1304-1374) the Italian poet and humanist who is credited with initiating the Renaissance.  He hated his times, at the end of the so-called dark ages, and therefore, embraced the rebirth concept (the Renaissance) through the work of Cicero and Vitruvius whose works he is credited with finding and bringing back to light. How Petrarch was supported by despots of the era is part of the contradictions if not moral ambiguities that are presented in McEwen's book.  We might think of modern day actors, film makers, even artists like Lucien Freud and Edgar Degas whose personal lives and political views are understandably reprehensible to modern sensibilities.   Can or should we separate the art from the artist?  Petrarch was in the employ as a spin doctor of sorts for some of the most reprehensible despots of the day including the Visconti in Milan,  Petrarch's friend and younger protege, Giovanni Boccaccio thought the elder poet to have lost his mind for being an advocate of tyrants.  

But it is the aesthetic principles of Vitruvius that I want to focus on here, as they are the essence of the art, architecture, sculpture and city planning that are relevant and rewarding.  I find these ideas of integral interaction and the concept of corporeal underpinning quite amazing.  The corporeal aspect has to do with how the human body (the male form more than the feminine) as the structural armature and aesthetic foundation of buildings and statues.  We may look at the basilicas and temples of ancient Rome and later Renaissance and baroque works in a new way now.  The man who furthered Petrarch's mission was the Florentine polymath Leon Battista Alberti, 1404-1472.   

Above- A figure painting by the author- relating the human figure to the landscape is part of the concept of this oil painting depicting a view of Umbria, near Todi in central Italy. This 26" x 30" oil on linen is compositionally based on a self portrait by Vermeer.

We may think of the other more famous Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci and his iconic drawing of the Vitruvian Man as illustrating this idea of the harmony and geometric nature of the human male.  Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian man, the splayed figure within a circle and a square, shows the proportional thinking of Vitruvius. It is also almost a visual summation or credo of the Renaissance; to bring back the wisdom and knowledge of the ancients. 

Here is a quote from Alberti's book "On the Art of Building in Ten Books"

"Beauty is the reasoned harmony of all the parts with a whole, so that nothing may be added, taken away, or altered, but for the worse."

Above- Leonardo's iconic Vitruvian Man from his notebooks. The drawing illustrates the human body as proportional and related to the cosmos. Further, it indicates a spiritual aspect of man as the intermediary of the divine and earthly. At one time a three dimensional Vitruvian Man, a wood sculpture, greeted travelers at the Fiumicino airport in Rome.

Dante on the Sacred Geometry

Apparently there were others considering the nature of balance and complimentary qualities in the cosmos during medieval times that could have influenced Alberti, Leonardo and others. In Dante's Divine Comedy, in the Circle of Sun, the definition of wisdom is is mentioned as being the right relation of the parts to the whole. The delicate balance of the earth is used as an illustration by noting the 23 degree tilt that is the determining aspect to the seasons and a necessity to a conducive temperature on our planet.

Further, the aspect of the Vitruvian man comes up up in Dante's work as well. It turns out the Dante prophesized that the squaring of the circle could not be done. But the compatablity of the divine and human is still pertinant-as the circle indicates the divine and the sqaure the human, as in the illustration above.

Above- A small (12" x 12") plein air study by the author of the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. The facade was designed by Leon Battista Alberti. Architecture of this era utilizes the human element in the conception and proportional integrety. All the parts relate to the whole.

We painters of today could easily take this sage advice as credo to be a guiding principle for the art of picture making.  

It is an intriguing part of the ideals of Vitruvius, Alberti, and later day Renaissance artists and architects that the bricks and mortar of Renaissance Italy could have a salubrious effect on the citizenry.  How much could this be said of the buildings in the 20th or 21st centuries?   Would the strip mall qualify as an elevating spiritual entity?

In Patrick Murray's book "Renaissance Architecture" he elaborates on the proportional aspect of architecture in regards to the human form-

" The most important part of Vitruvius from Alberti's point of view was undoubtedly his theory of proportion, particularly the passage in Book III in which Vitruvius equates human and architectural proportions: 'The planning of temples depends on symmetry... It arises from proportion...Proportion consists in taking a fixed module, in each case for the parts of the building and for the whole, by which the method of symmetry is put into practice. For without symmetry the proportions no temple can have a regular plan; that is, it must have an exact proportion worked out after a fashion of the members of a finely-shaped human body."

   Above- This painting by the author titled "The Anatomy Lesson" shows how the study of proportion from a model in a studio can inform contemporary artists' work. The setting for this is the Philadelphia Sketch Club with a sculptor showing how the clavical on the model and the skeleton related.

According to McEwen there is a term that embodies these principles of interrelated functionality, it is concinnitas, translated as harmony. It can be thought of as well-arranged and congruent.  Here is a quote from All the King's Horses-

"Concinnitas, translated as harmony is the key term of Alberti's aesthetic.  It has  been said to correspond, roughly, to a combination of Vitruvian symmetria and dispositio- the proportional correspondence of parts combined with their proper arrangement- while at the same time transcending both. Spouse both of the soul and reason."

Well said! Harmony being wedded to our souls and our reason is indeed elevating.  And we can glean applications to painting if not life in general from these sage observations.  

And to further elaborate, here is another passage-

"Beauty is a form of sympathy and consonance of the parts to the whole in which it is found according to definite number, outline, and position as dictated by concinnitas, the absolute and fundamental rule in Nature.  Concinnitas is the main object of the art of building, and the source of her dignity, charm, authority and worth."

Above- A pastel study of a model by the author titled "Judi in North Light." This pastel on white paper is from circa 1988. The ideas of Leonardo and Vitruvius on proportion can inspire and inform our work.

We artists could apply this to our paintings, but it is encouraging to note that another ancient Roman, the orator Cicero, found applications of this aesthetic to his work.  Cicero was revered by Alberti and Petrarch so it is not surprising that  he also applied concinnitas to writing.  Further, Cicero relates a well-formed essay or speech to that of a well-formed body.  Hence, the corporeal underpinnings of concinnitas to literature.  

Here is another excerpt from McEwen's book to underscore the above-

"Concinnitas governs the perfect correspondence of parts that constitute any whole or "body." Cicero, who topped the list of writers Alberti most admired, was one of the very few Latin authors to use the term.  And well-formed speech Cicero writes, following Pato in this, is like the figure of man, or indeed of any living creature (animans), whoe "body" has no part added to its structure that is superfluous and whose whole shape has the perfection of art, not accident."

The bookby McEwen points out that it was not only the human body that inspired artists and theorists. The structure and integrity of the horse  was also plumbed for its aspects of form to functional integrity.  We think of Leonardo's fascination with horses, specifically, in his  mural plans known as the Battle of Anghiari. 

The exhilarating if not intoxicating ideas of these Renaissance theorists and artists are brought to light by scholars like McEwen that benefit and inspire us all.  We can be thankful for her work.

The nuts and bolts-

How do we actually apply or view these principles of the human in varioius forms of art? Is there a comensurate and easily applied formula, that can be transferred from the human form to an edifice? Well, I have not found it yet. One certainly would reserve such a a contemplative exercise to say, viewing the Parthenon and not the front of Home Depot. But basic principles like the golden mean or the divsion of thirds could offer a starting point. Perhaps it is better understood as not being a ready chart but more of an intuitive sensing. If there is a concise and simple method incorporating human proportions into a song or poem or into a landscape painting- I have not seen it. Suffice it to say, for now, it is enough to feel it and appreciate the interrelatedness of a work of art. Walking around with a yardstick and taking measurements or using geometric theorems seems misguided too. As Michelangelo advised, we should have a gyroscope within us.

Above- A painting by the author that makes a visual homage to antiquity, which is what Petrarch, Alberti, and Leonardo were engaged in during the Italian Renaissance-- plumbing the classics for lost knowledge. This 38" x 42" oil on linen is titled "Classical Allusions." It shows the model contemplating an ancient statute of an Amazon warrior from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.