Five hundred years ago, an
operatic tale of unrequited love and female erotica, launched a more available
and sustaining passion in Renaissance architecture. What has remained
inaccessible, however, is a complete understanding of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, the text and haunting woodcuts
that fascinated European civilization upon its publication in Venice in 1499,
inspiring artists, architects, and patrons ever since. The importance of the
image has always been a fundamental aspect of iconographic, human
communication, and it is the vivid imagery described by the dreamer in search
of his lost love and the introduction of more than 160 beautifully, haunting
illustrations that has made Hypnerotomachia Poliphili as fascinating today as
it was in the late fifteenth century when the Press of Aldus Manutius first
published this graphically exquisite book.
The story of Poliphilus, whose lust for the
indifferent Polia is rivalled only by the carnal pleasures he encounters in the
incredible architecture, gardens, and landscapes of his sleeping imaginations,
has inspired centuries of architects to create similar sensuality in the
real-life buildings and gardens they designed.
The cryptic messages, fantastic architecture,
innovative graphic designs and layouts of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili have
moved and stirred western culture, prompting translators then and now to seek
richer understanding of the author’s (or authors’) intent. In order to have a
better understanding of what this visionary incunabulum contains, I am, with my
project, proposing to use graphical and architectural forms of critical
analysis instead of literary studies traditionally associated with scholarly
work in the past. For this reason, I am proposing: Formas Imaginisque Poliphili, which means
“imaginary models of Poliphilus” revealed.
By utilizing the technology of today with the
history and traditions of the past, the project aims to develop a series of
digital, artist reconstructions of the architecture and landscapes described in
this enigmatic book of the early renaissance. Since I was dealing with building
and environmental design, the passages were quite familiar to those of a basic
design background: research, vignettes, scale-measurement-proportion, practical
simulations, etc., while at the same time, employing experience and methods
developed during my previous work with re-constructing historic Bologna. In
addition to this, literary resources such as the works of Leon Battista
Alberti, as well as the works of contemporary experts, were reconsidered to
arrive at a critical and regional development of architectural vocabulary that
were necessary for these artist reconstructions.
In the end, my artwork of Poliphilus’ architecture
and insight into its significance within the Antiquarian context are presented
here as an attempt to share an added deciphering of this labyrinthine text,
bringing to life and giving significance to its fantastic architecture and
allegorical visions.
A NEW PUBLICATION:
This is a second publication of my work on the
subject. It seems that I have opened a sort of “Pandora’s Box” with this
project. Every time I re-read the Aldine text, I notice that there are always
more details, decorations, archetypes, materials, et cetera, where all these
elements have a significance waiting to be unlocked and shared after centuries
of obscurity.
This book attempts to review almost all of the
models that I have previously developed in my first publication back in 2006.
At the same time, I am also introducing new monuments, which were begun, but
never completed due to a time schedule. Even now with this book, there are
still gardens, monuments, inscriptions, landscapes, and architecture that I
have begun to reconstruct, however still remaining in the form of a sketch or
draft.
Obviously, the natural direction for this project
is moving towards a series of publications, covering the entire
Hypnerotomachia, while hoping to maintain the spirit of the original: that is,
creating an “encyclopaedia” of classical and universal knowledge through the
visualisation of images. Macte animo!
With this in mind, I invite you now to witness the
visions of a 500 year old dream of sublime beauty, ferocity, liberty, grace,
and most important: Love.