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The Archaeologyof Section
JacquesGuillermeandHeleneVerin
1. The term "lack"or manque Originally, the Lacanian mythologists tell us, archaeological remains (traces)into the
in Lacanian mythology refers to there was lack,whence arose representation, observance of architecturaldiagrams (traces)
"a presence made of absence." which is the germinal form and precondition
Jacques Lacan, Ecrits:A Selection, of all activity of knowledge and planning.' Of the countless but often unrecognizable
translated by A. Sheridan vestiges of ancient Rome, three stand out
(New York:Norton, 1977), p. 65. In the beginning, as concerns the architec- for the charismatic effect they have on the
tural section, was the ruin, more specifically, minds of archaeologists; these are three
2. CodexAtlanticus(Milan: the Roman ruin: the ensemble of the ruins monuments which have particularlyfostered
Biblioteca Ambrosiana), folio 850, of the Urbswhich displays to the magnetized the objectification of sections. On the one
previously 310 recto, b. gaze of humanist nostalgia all the stages of hand, we have the amphitheater of Flavius,
the vestiges' decline and all the breaches better known as the Coliseum, and the baths
that time has wrought on the outer shells of of Caracalla;on the other, the rotunda of
edifices extolled by scholars. Ruins are, in the Pantheon. All were abundantly contem-
short, the traces of decay'sravages and lack plated, admired, observed and drawn. The
on the resistant mass, and hence the contours first two greeted one's eyes with the gaping
and aspect of structures which constitute the breaks in their structures and with the
very bodies of monuments. It is to the hands semi-preserved arrangement of their vaulting
of time that we owe the bringing to light systems. The Pantheon, on the other hand,
of the frameworksthat architecturaltechne had come down through the centuries nearly
conceived, worked, erected and finally intact, with its interior disposition visible
dissimulated in the temporarily completed and easily represented but its internal
appearanceof perfect construction. structure remaining hidden. Its constructional
apparatusremained hypothetical and pro-
The problem we would like to address here is voked a vast range of divergent conjectures.
that of retracing the steps by which inventive The joining of the orthogonal structure of
citizens, from the reasoning artisan to the the peristyle with the incurvation of the main
curious philologist, were able to translate the body was especially titillating to the imagina-
"natural"images of breaks in ancient ruins tions of archaeologists. Already in Leonardo's
into stable schemata of sectional contours in work a hastily executed sketch poses this
the documents made by the traveler as well question without insisting on one particular
as the projects made by the artist. To put it solution; hesitation is a meaningful symptom
another way, we would like to glimpse the of this "visionary"who nevertheless worked
many stages where the acute and questioning rigorously and carefully at outlining the
gaze of technicians paused to contemplate details of arches (as in the tiburioof the Milan
in order to transform the observation of cathedral).2
226
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~.
.
.
' -'
:
2
1. Attributedto Bramante,sheetof
drawingsof ancientruins.
3. Sangalloil Gobbo,externalstruc-
ture of the amphitheaterof Verona.
227
The fact is that the rotunda is the emblem- means, whether naive or mannered, tend
atic monument on which speculators in to express an encounter between Revelation
matters of architectonics have long and and History. 5
insistently expended their energies. They go
so far as to impose on its form the imaginary But here one must recall one of the most
and vivid breaking up of the outside onto audacious strokes of genius of the Renais-
the inside, and thereby contribute to the sance, that of representing the cosmos
teaching and justification of the art of spaccato, through the double correlation of the con-
or vertical section. One of the most note- cave and the convex by the use of globes.
worthy of such examples is found in the Compared to this, the twofold figuration of
Chlumczansky Codex, which presents side by the Pantheon seems little more than a timid
side two drawings by the same anonymous application of the same principle. Imagining
5
hand, dated circa 1500.3The first is a simple the antipodes was an act of conceptual
and crude elevation; the second one looks like invention that made it possible to represent
3. CodexChlumizanskl(Prague: a primitive spaccato.The positioning and the earth as a distinct object of our sensible,
Library of Czech National Museum), stroke of the spaccatoare rather awkwardcom- immediately intuitive rootedness.6 It was also
folio 71; W Jufen, in the manuscript pared to current standards.Yet its merit, the condition for being able to configure, in
Memoireset monumentsPiot, vol. 68 indeed its purpose, lies in presenting a draw- plastically identical and similarly manipulable
(Paris: 1987), p. 161, points out ing of the mental operation which embraces, ball-shapes, the miniaturization of the two
that "the two views... are copies, all at once, the interior and exterior of the spheres of the natural macrocosm, the globe
probably the only ones, of a lost edifice as well as the thickness that separates of the earth and that of the concave celestial
model that probably dates from the them. Here we have indeed a "tectonic" sphere. Thus one became accustomed to con-
same period as Giuliano's drawings cut-out whose pattern seeks to show the sidering side by side, as it were, simultane-
and comes from his entourage"; he structure or "inner workings." It is thus a ously, the inside and outside of things, within
refers to folios 37 recto and 38 recto diagram (trace)more thought-out and more hand's reach; within the reach of that "instru-
of the odexBarberini,Lat. 4424. elaborate than the traditional images of ment of instruments,"7 the sign and means of
breaches which give a glimpse of scenes a rationality that analyzes and synthesizes,
4. Among the many examples, belonging to such unusual compartments breaks down and reassembles modifications of
see folio F3 recto of the Grant of the universe as Hell or the Empyrean.4 scale. The cosmological artifice of the spheres
Kalendrieret compostdesbegiers The elaborated type exemplified in this of the world was de jure the expression of a
published at Troves in 1529 by drawing from the Chlumczansky Codex also conceptual bravado that henceforth autho-
Nicolas Le Rouge. It is, of course, stands apart from such imagery which rized the enterprising advancement of the
but one example; the artifice of revives mystical fables and whose figurative artifices of architectural graphic figuration.
representing the break in a wall
can be found as early as in the deco-
rations adorning Greek vases when
they illustrate an episode taking
place inside a dwelling or cave.
i ?. ??
.. FromLthe
5.Grant Crlur 5. From Le Grant
Kaleon Kalendrieransk
in Rome,
T ~ ~~~~~~~~8. Anonymous, exploded section of
; _ _ q b. etompost
viwca. s
7a,de bergiers,
.j .1500.
Lequeu, elevation and
C1
4;
11 12
,0
14
15 14
18. Although we know that two However, around the same time one In these drawings the designer plays, in
programs had been given for a witnesses the development of the equally more or less accelerated perspectives, with a
GranidPrix in 1701. See the ingenious practice of juxtaposing flat or capricious variety of architectonic milieus.
excellent study ofJ.-M. Perouse diminished semi-elevations with perspective This formal effervescence, however, so
de Monclos on the Concoursde views of the corresponding interiors, or typical of the Renaissance, would gradually be
l'Academieroyaled'architecture even with actual sections from which issues sobered under the weight of scholastic
au XYlIIe siecle(Paris: Berger- the entire perspective disposed in the back- conventions in the so-called "classical"and
Leuorault, 1984). ground. Such is the case with the famous "baroque"eras. The collections of the
"Desseing du dedans de la chappelle dans le Academie d'architecture de Paris, founded in
19. See the two imposing logis" of Anet, engraved for the Premier 1671 but not regularly holding competitions
volumes of Disegmidi architettlra volumedesplus excellentsbastimentsde France until 1720, 8 as well as those of the renderings
storicodell'Accademia
dell'A7chizvio byJacques-Androuet du Cerceau of 1579. To of the competitions of the Accademia di
di San Luca, edited bv P. Marconi, him we are indebted for his great cleverness S. Luca in Rome beginning in 1677, 9 show
A. Cipriani, and E. Valeriani in the graphic representation of complex the canonical usage of section/elevation
(Rome: De Luca, 1974). edifices, and it is no accident that to him drawings in the exercises given to students.
have been attributed the astonishing archi- The programs most often prescribed a cross
tectural fantasies of the Fitzwilliam Museum. section or longitudinal section, but
1 7. C. Schriver,"Triumphalis
\? ;
FlorentinorumPorticus. '"fro
La tr6s admirable, tr6s magnifique
et triomphante enre 1550,
sectionperspective/lelevation.
18
18. J. Cousin,"Paysage,"from
Livre de Perspective, 1560.
19
20
r?*
.?r ;--???
.--.
:.?:??*? -*e
.,1??
?_''
i
'c ??
;??? crJ --..p.. -1
i? .7
I--
??
-: ??
Y :Z I
-?
S-" 1:??-
"' ;;;;.
ir
???-
P-'
???;: ?
Ir
21
23. C. de Wailly,perspective
sectionofprojectfor a performance
hall, 1771.
24. J. J. Lequeu,
fromDifferents
projetspour terminer les deux
escaliersde 1'eglisede la Madeleine
de Rouen, 1779, section/elevations.
H. Labrouste,projectfor the
Laperouemausoleum,1829.
25. Frontalsection
26. Sagittal section
26
*t
:-~,i.' ; r t
'
?
t
? b'
t. '
. ..
?
?
I
L''";''''> ' . ?'/ , i, i . a x:
'?.
'.." 1;
z. :I ii
ii i, 1
ii
ii
- ? 1
!*p?m
cl P ;r
":..'
?& .
an ensembleof instrumentsconceivedto
designthe templatesof differentkindsof
ships.Once one knowsthe maindimensions L Ii'f- 'QZ D
customarilyused,it is a matterhere of l, _
adjustingthe proportionsandformsof all
the chief frames.Fourinstrumentsmakethis
possible:two tables,one of principalmea-
sures,the otherof proportions;a compass
to relatethe formerto the latterat full scale after the instruments that are supposed to
on the templates,whichis done with the make their realization possible. This is 30
port."4 Blaise, a carpenter, constructs a the "manner"is always the same. This single r6le des inspecteurs de construction."
demountable model of a vessel that is dis- "manner"ensures the regularity of the forms
patched to the court where it will serve, at a engendered and confirms the geometric 40. Letter from Seignelay to Tour-
colloquium including Tourville, Duquesne, - hence universal - characterof his method, ville, September 1, 1680, Clement,
Renau, Blaise and Hoste, "to regulate once which replaces the "depression of the line Lettres... de Colbert,p. 198. In 1681,
and for all the proportions of all the ribs of vaults" of which Hobier spoke, and which Renau went about studying, gathering
of every vessel."41Renau there presented his he claimed was traced by rough estimation. and comparing instruments used to
machine and a manuscript, "Memoire sur la To read Dudley, or the Livre de construction by design vessels, in order to make copies
construction des vaisseaux dans lequel il y a Coulomb, whom Renau had seen working in of them. "Do not forget," writes
une methode pour en conduire les faqons" Toulon, one realizes that these "depressions" Seignelay, "to have the master carpen-
("Memoir on the Building of Vessels: In were in fact rigorously regulated with the ters of Le Havre make the same
Which is Contained a Method for Managing help of a number of instruments of various models that you made from the one
the Sweeps").42The "machine"tried out sorts, manufacturedwith the help of dimen- from Brest." Letter of September 22,
during 1680 is sent to the ports in January sions obtained in the course of construction 1681, Bibliotheque Nationale,
of 1681. In the meantime Seignelay tempers and above all regulated according to different Manuscrits, nouvelles acquisitions
Renau's geometrical ardor because his dimensions. The regularity of the forms francaises, ms 9481.
instrument cannot determine sections: depended on a number of maneuvers and
"Youmust not delude yourself that you have calculations that allowed for a margin of 41. Clement, Lettres... de Colbert,
already reached such a level of perfection," error. This multitude of different operations p. 198.
but only rectify profiles and, he writes, and this fragmentation of calculations are,
"above all, you should remember that it is like the "reductions"of one series of shapes 42. Bibliotheque Nationale,
not up to you to determine the proportions, to another, properly the work of the crafts- Manuscrits, nouvelles acquisitions
but to follow with your machine those man. With Renau'smachine every vertical francaises, ms 9481.
determined by the master carpenters."43 section outlines an ellipse and every hori-
zontal section (that is, plan), outlines a 43. Letter from Seignelay to Renau,
Renau'smethod eliminates the traditional parabola.The mechanical generation of June 26, 1681, Bibliotheque
combination of circle arcs, arithmetic lines obeys the principles of geometry. The Nationale, Manuscrits, nouvelles
progressions and reductions. It creates vessel should therefore be a geometric figure. acquisitions francaises, ms 9481.
an ellipse, with the aid of a single mechanism It is nothing of the sort, Vial du Clairbois
made up only of a square, over which one would declare one century later.45Once the 44. Letter from Seignelay to Renau,
moves a ruler. It is the extremity of this ruler initial enthusiasm for geometry had subsided, June 26, 1681.
which, by its movement, describes the Renau'smachine was hardly used again,
elliptical line. In his memoir, Renau proceeds and ellipses and parabolascontinued to be 45. The practice of shipbuilding is
at first to a "demonstration"of his machine, created from triangles and circle arcs. "based on geometric operations,
even though the body of the vessel is
not a geometric figure," in "L'artde
la construction. Discours prelimi-
naire," in Encyclopedie
methodique,
Marine, vol. 1, (Paris: 1784), p. iv.
H. Pitot, La theoriede la manoeuvredes
vaisseaux(Paris: 1731), preface, n.p.
31. P R Hoste,Theorie de la
construction des vaisseaux, 1697,
plan in perpendicularsection.
32. P P Hoste,Theorie de la
construction des vaisseaux, 1697,
the image of vesselsrelativeto
their rollingand pitching.
32
;'~
,.
34
33. Salinoc,Plan representant
l'avant du vaisseau l'Orox ...,
1734, comparisonof two modesof
connection.
.,.,... S
57. Proceedings of the building ,!._.! . .......... , ~?~ ,,
~ ?.%.,.~ , . . .....r : , ..... ;: . -.i X
council of Toulon (1678), in
the Archives of the port of Toulon 3
Al 1.
6_BL~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_
'L~~~~~~~40. Forfait, Traite de la mature des
vaisseaux . . ., 1788, sectionsdescribing
,p~~.39--
structureof mast.
40
~ "'1 lt~i6
iY
{I
........
~~~~~~~~~~~~~:i:I?
?'??/:i..'I
?~.-.:~
,?;;i;;;;?*~~~~~~~~~~~f.i~~~~~~~~~
~ r.F~??~
~~~~~~~~~~:i
~,,,~..,,,,~ . . .,. ~. . ...
'? ....- ...~ ,.
l...?i:. *-..-:
,...,*., ..... .
,.~-
...-L:
41
*
**^ sa E
C- .'..'
42
41. Anonymous,Fascicolo di
Medicina, 1494, anatomyclassat
Padua, theprofessorreadshis
textfrom the chairwhile a prosecutor
performsthe cut directedbya
demonstrator.
Translated
from the Frenchby StephenSartarelli