LITMIR.BIZ

       Figure 8: Photogrammetry point-cloud aerial view of the Capitoline Hill (Piazza del Campidoglio), map data: Google, Landsat/Copernicus.

       Figure 9: Photogrammetry point-cloud aerial view of Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles (built 1668–74) gardens by André le Notre, map data: Google, Landsat/Copernicus.

      With the understanding of perspectival composition technique and the urban design paradigm came an understanding of the importance of the individual spectator’s point of view, raising questions of whether urban composition was for the glory of God or the individual. The French philosopher and mathematician, René Descartes, a prime contributor to developing analytic geometry referred to as the Cartesian coordinate system (1637) suggested that space was the projection of thought where every viewpoint can be deduced, abstracted, from the universal position of a god for whom all viewpoints are instantaneously accessible. As noted by NYU academic Allen S. Weiss, depth is the function of ratiocination; depth exists because man is not God (1995). None the less, the importance of the individual human experience continued to be of interest. Weiss refers to the French philosopher, Merleau-Ponty:

      …every perspectival projection… returns tothe spectator’s point of view, to that zero-degree visibility which is the pure latency ofdepth…. There is a fundamental “narcissismof vision” inherent in all systems ofrepresentation (1995).

      This ‘narcissistic position’ in perspectival representation seemed particularly evident in the picturesque movement of the 1700s. One of the aspirations (urban desires), of the wealthy English ‘leisured class’ was to show off their beautiful estates to colleagues during ‘pleasure rides’ (on horseback) [Figure 10]. English Landscape designers such as Capability Brown and Uvedale Price used the projected perspective views as a compositional tool, which in turn informed their landscape plans (Broglio, 2008). Key moments along a path were chosen as viewing points where one would dismount from the horse and view the perspective composition of the estate.

       In most literal aesthetic observations, wemight note that it is only in the “major”art of architecture and the “minor” art ofgardening that the artist – and the spectator– may literally enter and explore theperspectival projection, taking his body intothe very work of art (Weiss, 1995).

      The picturesque design paradigm was possible because of the discovery and understanding of perspective, but it was also due to advancements in cartography and surveying. The concept of triangulation used for surveying being fully understood at a similar period. This triangulation would have allowed landscapers to sculpt the ground surface to gently roll under the sublime follies and artificial ruins.

      Another example of urban scaled composition would occur over 50 years later in Paris, France between 1853 and 1869 with Baron von Haussmann’s interventions into the Parisian urban fabric, which involved carving great boulevards through the medieval city, creating public squares and grand vistas to civic buildings. This major ‘urban surgery’ work recalled the perspectival interest of the Renaissance and the grandiose Baroque of Versailles.

      The Austrian architect and city planning theoretician Camillo Sitte criticised the boulevards of Haussmann advocating curving or irregular streets for ever-changing vistas in lieu of ‘a monotony of vistas, and an architectural ineffectiveness’ (1986). Sitte argued that the city should be considered art, with a spatial and formal composition that preceded the considerable population explosion of his century. He suggested that the pre-industrial medieval cities had an inherent beauty forged by the intuitive creativity that shaped the irregular streets and public spaces. It would seem that the ‘pack donkey’ was better at urban composition than Haussmann or the modern planners thereafter.