AUCTORITAS, DECOR AND RATIO MEDIOCRITATIS: ARCHITECTURE AND PUBLIC ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IN VITRUVIUS AND ALBERTI

ABSTRACT

During the 15^th century, pontiffs, secular lords and men of power from Italy, absorbed in the desire to restore a dignity that long time ago characterized ancient Rome, identified the virtues of liberalitas e magnificentia as instruments of political legitimation. However, they had a territorial and financial disposition so much narrower than that of previous empires. In this context, Leon Battista Alberti, envisioning to incite building’s investments and fruitful patronage relationships with architects, identifies in ancient values the key to this complex issue: the dignification of architecture and the craftsmanship to build everlasting records of ‘good government’. In his De Re Ædficatoria the humanist prescribes the excellence of art based on concinnitas which permeates the ratio mediocritatis and approaches the Vitruvian precepts of decor and symmetria described in De Architectura. Therefore, this paper proposes to understand how both writers, each in their own way, demonstrate that the excellent value of Architecture achieved through sollertia ingenium guided by doctrinal reflection exceeds the vulgar preciousness of sumptuous investments. Thus, conferring auctoritas to constructions that show dignitas and honestas in the visual recognition, even using parsimonious investments.

Keywords:
Decor; Auctoritas; Concinnitas; Mean ratio (ratio mediocritatis). Vitruvius; Leon Battista Alberti.