Proportion (architecture) - Renaissance Orders

Renaissance Orders

The Renaissance tried to extract and codify the system of proportions in the orders as used by the ancients, believing that with analysis a mathematically absolute ideal of beauty would emerge. Brunelleschi in particular studied interactions of perspective with the perception of proportion (as understood by the ancients). This focus on the perception of harmony was somewhat of a break from the Pythagorean ideal of numbers controlling all things.

The work of de Chambray, Desgodetz and Perrault eventually demonstrated that classical buildings had reference to standards of proportion that came directly from the original sense of the word geometry, the measure of the earth and its division into degrees, miles, stadia, cords, rods, paces, yards, feet, hands, palms and fingers