Raphael’s Letter to Pope Leo X and Architectural Drawing

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Raphael points out that this instrument could be used when surveying any building “whether circular, rectangular or with many unusual angles”. He explains the instrument he earlier described should be placed on a flat surface so that the magnetic needle would be flat and as “close to the wall you wish to survey” as the “perimeter of the instrument” allowed. Raphael then states how to draw a building using this method. He says that to use the instrument it must be kept still to ensure the needle points towards “tramentana” (North) and to then take note of which wind the wall is parallel to and to how many degrees. Raphael explained that by doing this at the edge of every corner of the building it is possible to make the drawings of any building. He acknowledged that this does not measure the height of the building and a quadrant could be used to “easily” work out the height of the building.[18]Raphael then explains to Pope Leo X how the measurements obtained from surveying the building could be used to make a drawing of the building.[19]

The differentiation between orthogonal drawings and perspective drawings by Raphael was the first time such a separation between the two was made in the artistic representation of Architecture.[20] He felt perspective drawings where good to please patrons with the aesthetic look of the building.[21] What was most exciting was the idea that Raphael insisted that the “three types of representations” be “applied systematically to all ruins” allowing for a consecutive method to be used to record all ruins of Ancient Rome. He wanted to preserve and restore the ancient ruins which had been left “butchered” by people he described as “beasts”. Raphael felt the change in the landscape of Rome had been so drastic that he described it as an “entirely new Rome”.[22]

Raphael believed a method of recording these ruins and comparing them to surviving structures could help to accurately record them and it is this idea of reconstruction, preservation and accuracy that I suggest excited Raphael. Raphael would have been excited by the prospect of being able to “bring back the ruins to life”, by recording them and providing a method in which they could be reconstructed. He felt surveying buildings, taking measurements and an understanding of the orders mainly “Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan and Attic”, would allow him to record all of ancient Rome accurately.[23] His excitement may have also been a result of the idea of simplicity of understanding a building achieved by the methods of drawing he suggested allowing for one to see all parts of a building clearly.

Raphaels excitement could also be as a result of his pleasure in serving the Pope as he says “I can call myself the most happy of all your devoted servants”, he may have derived pleasure from being able to contribute to Rome and the field of architectural drawing.[24] I suggest another reason for Raphael’s excitement to be the idea that he was pleased he had devised a meaningful way that allowed him to make a perfect record of the ruins he felt very passionately about. A universal way of recording the ancient antiquities becoming a possibility using the 3 forms of drawing he suggested; plan, section and elevation, a method that was precise and easy to follow. This may have also caused his excitement. The proposed system of architects using orthogonal projections to portray buildings in a measured way and using perspective drawings to portray a visual representation of what the building would look like rather than as measured drawings could possibly have also excited Raphael.

Bibliography

Brothers.C, Architecture, History, Archaeology: Drawing Ancient Rome in the

letter to Leo X and in the Sixteenth-Century Practice, (Cambridge,2002).

Campbell.I, Baldassar Castliglione and Raphael’s letter to Leo X. c.1519 from

Shearman, John, Raphael in Early Modern sources, (New Haven, 2002).

Hart.V and Hicks.P, Palladio’s Rome, (New Haven and London, 2003).

Holt.E, A Documentary History of Art Volume 1: The middle Ages and the

Renaissance, (Princeton University Press,1982).

Lefaivre.L and Tzonis.A, The Emergence of Modern Architecture: A

Documentary History from 1000 to 1810, (London and New York, 2004).

Penny.N and Jones.R, Raphael, (New Haven, 1983).

Verstagen.I and Ceen.A, Giambattista Nolli and Rome, (Stadium Urbis 2013).

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