The First Moderns

Piranesi's spectral etchings combine precarious angles of view, changing vanishing points and the manipulation of representational truth. He defies the laws of perspective1 allegorizing to the function of 'Carceri'. Boull'ee argued, "the laws of optics and the effects of perspective give an impression of immensity"2. This is certainly conveyed in his 'Newton's Cenotaph', where the specks3 - that are the human beings are overpowered by the sheer volume created by the light and shade emulating a romantic belief in the power of simple geometric shapes.

The Cenotaphs's unwieldy character in absence of an urban sprawl evokes the majestic emptiness of nature which Boull'ee believed Newton had discovered4. Humanity is shown to have no sense of place in his domain, evoking a 'sublime grandeur' at odds with the unnerving and disturbing disposition5.

Considering the scale of the human figures an euphemism for the insignificance of the actual human body, it is also a critical observation a contrast rather than an analogy of the human body - a compositional strategy that eviscerates the classical theories. This contrast enhances the evolution of these sublime geometric forms, which Boull'ee implied could be found in nature.

Like his subjects Piranesi defied the law, of perspectives, which ironically provided freedom of expression. The overshadowed illustrations of human figures accentuate the impression of the theatrical maneuvering through the prison. Boull'ee creates a dramatic irony between his unassuming subjects and his megalomaniac structure. Posing the question of the actual relevance of their bodies being used as the analogy of the building itself. Their size is at odds with the gravity that has been ascribed to their archaic ideology.

Were they inadvertently creating parodies essaying to emulate the ancients? Where rhetoric is lost? There is no evident pathos between the human figures and the architecture as intended by Vitruvius or Michelangelo. Liberating ideas an allegory in context of the French Revolution where "the space of liberty pacified the revolutionary body"6.

1. J. Rykwert, The first moderns: the architects of the eighteenth century, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1980, p.375.

2-6. R. Sennet, Flesh and stone: the body and the city in Western civilization, New York: W.W. Norton, c1994, p293-296.

Image 1. Marksor, 'Boiteaoutils Architecture early-warning radar'

http://boiteaoutils.blogspot.com/2007/11/piranesi

'Carceri'

Image 2. Jide, 'Yesterday was not dull'

http://yesterdaywasnotdull.wordpress.com/2009/09

'Newton's Cenotaph'