Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
Longinus - The Sublime


Palladio introduced the use of Classical orders from ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Alberti's theory of architecture was based upon dimensions that created musical harmony and the physical proportions found in god's greatest creation: man (see the Vitruvian man). However, not everone agreed with Alberti's views concerning architecture. Two examples of architecture that could be in close proximity: one building of a pagan (ancient Greek) temple in purposeful disrepair in a rustic setting, but nearby, a church, with garden carefully maintained, the church in perfect condition. The stark difference was a rhetorical device to show the victory of Christianity over the pagan religion. However, as time passed, another major viewpoint emerged, that was based upon the views of Longinus in his book, "Peri Hypsous" ("On The Sublime"). This new viewpoint allowed for the unity or combination of divergent "styles"(for example, the architectural styles of the Renaissance, the Baroque, the Gothic, unities of "male" with "female": harmony with deliberate disharmony), to create an aesthetic of fear, horror, and excess: a radical destruction of assumptions. Thus it should not be surprising that different parts of a building might strongly clash or appear discordant with each other.

Thus, Renaissance architecture evolved, replacing its original emphasis on linear perspective with orthogonal views that emphasized the interplay of light and shadows that naturally occurred at different times of the day.

The changes in emphasis between different views of rhetoric were quite obvious. Originally, Aristotle's views emphasized textual (spoken or written) words, but including guestures. The views of Cicero and Quintilian emphasized gestures - silent rhetoric or rhetoric tacens. The views of Longinus then were emphasized, in which discords, extremes such as horror, beauty, humor become an important element.

Rhetoric tacens, silent rhetoric, a rhetoric without words evolved in architecture. Gestures remained central, but which gestures evolved radically.

Sublime Architecture: An Example
St. Anne Limehouse
Sublime Dissonances
Rhetorical Figures (Compar or Parison) in Architecture

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