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Francesco Borromini and the Crisis of the Humanist Universe , or Manfredo Tafuri on the baroque origins of modern architecture

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 15; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13602365.2010.486569

1466-4410

Andrew Leach,

Architecture and Art History Studies

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgements Versions of this paper were presented to the British School in Rome (January, 2008), the Centre for the History of European Discourses at the University of Queensland (August, 2009) and at Ghent University (October–November, 2009), and it benefits from the criticisms and comments offered on each occasion. Initial work on this material was funded by an Early Career Research Grant from the University of Queensland (2007). This paper documents research funded by the Australian Research Council as Discovery Project 0985834 (2009–2011) under the direction of John Macarthur, in cooperation with Maarten Delbeke. I thank Luca Scappin and Luka Skansi for their assistance in gaining access to the lecture material treated herein and Flavia Marcello and Federico Passi for their assistance with the translation of cited passages. Notes M. Tafuri, Teorie e storia dell'architettura, 4th ed. (Rome, 1968; Rome, Laterza, 1976); Engl. ed., Theories and History of Architecture, trs., G. Verrecchia (London, Granada, 1980). M. Tafuri, Progetto e utopia. Architettura e sviluppo capitalistico (Rome, Laterza, 1973); Engl. ed., Architecture and Utopia: Design and Capitalist Development, trs., B. Luigia la Penta (Cambridge, Mass., The MIT Press, 1976); Ricerca del rinascimento. Principi, città, architettura (Turin, Einaudi, 1992); Engl. ed., Interpreting the Renaissance: Princes, Cities, Architects, trs., D. Sherer (New Haven, Conn., Yale University Press, 2006), pp. xxvii–xxix. For a longer treatment of Tafuri's work as an architectural historian, see my book Manfredo Tafuri: Choosing History (Ghent, A&S Books, 2007), which contains details of Tafuri's courses at IUAV and a bibliography of his published writing. Daniel Sherer and Manuela Morresi have recently offered some useful observations on the limitations of this book. See Sherer's review in the December, 2009, issue of The Journal of Architecture; and M. Morresi, ‘Il Rinascimento di Tafuri’, in, B. Gravagnuolo, ed., Manfredo Tafuri. Oltre la storia (Naples, CLEAN, 2009), pp. 27–51. Two Spanish-language collections document aspects of this work: M. Tafuri, Retórica y experimentalismo. Ensayos sobre la arquitectura de los siglos XVI y XVII, trs, V. P. Escolano and V. L. Cañal (Seville, Universidad, 1978); Borromini/Tafuri (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Universidad Politécnica, Escuéla Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Departimento de Teoría e Historia, 1981). Compare M. Tafuri, L'architettura del manierismo nel cinquecento europeo (Rome, Officina, 1966). Mostra di settanta disegni di F. Borromini dell'Albertina di Vienna, Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, Rome, November 19th, 1958 to January 6th, 1959; L. Steinberg, ‘San Carlo alle quattro Fontane: A Study in Multiple Form and Architectural Symbolism’ (PhD dissertation, New York University, 1960; published New York, Garland, 1977). P. Tournikiotis, Historiography of Modern Architecture (Cambridge, Mass., The MIT Press, 1999); A. Vidler, Histories of the Immediate Present: Inventing Architectural Modernism (Cambridge, Mass., The MIT Press, 2008). M. Tafuri, E. Garroni, P. Portoghesi, et al., ‘Il rapporto tra Borromini e la tradizione’; and M. Tafuri, P. Marconi, P. Portoghesi, et al., ‘Il metodo di progettazione del Borromini’, in, G. De Angelis d'Ossat, ed., Studi sul Borromini. Atti del convegno promosso dall'Accademia nazionale di S. Luca (Rome, De Luca, 1967), vol. 2, pp. 5–34, 35–70, resp. M. Tafuri, ‘L'ampiamento barocco del Comune di S. Gregorio da Sassola’, Quaderni dell'Istituto di storia dell'architettura (hereafter Quaderni), 31–48 (1959–1961), pp. 269–380; ‘Un fuoco urbano della Roma Barocca’, Quaderni, 61 (1964), pp. 1–20; ‘Borromini in Palazzo Carpegna. Documenti inediti e ipotesi critiche’, Quaderni, 79–84 (1967), pp. 85–107. In Paese sera: ‘L'avventura del Barocco a Roma’, review of Roma barocca. Storia di una civilità architettonica, by P. Portoghesi, January 20th, 1967; ‘Bernini e il barocco’, review of Bernini, by H. Hibbard and Una introduzione al gran teatro del Barocco, by M. Fagiolo dell'Arco, June 2nd, 1967; ‘Il barocco in Boemia’, review of K. I. Dietzenhifer e il Barocco boemo, by C. Norberg-Schulz, June 22nd, 1968; ‘È il momento del barocco’, review of Le metamorfosi del barocco, by A. Griseri, July 22nd, 1968. M. Tafuri, ‘Borromini e l'esperienza della storia’, Comunità, 129 (1965), pp. 42–63; ‘La poetica borrominiana. Mito, simbolo e ragione’, Palatino 10, 3–4 (1966), pp. 184–93; ‘Inediti borromiani’, Palatino 11, 3 (1967), pp. 255–62. Compare the scope of positions in E. Castelli, ed., Retorica e barocco. Atti del III congresso internazionale di studi umanistici (Rome, Fratelli Bocca, 1955), esp. G. Carlo Argan, ‘La ‘rettorica’ e l'arte barocca,’ pp. 9–14. Marco Gallo has more recently spoken on this theme: ‘Argan, la retorica e il problema del Barocco’, Convegno di Studi Giuio Carlo Argan. Progetto e destino dell'arte, Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, Rome, February 26th, 2003. On the early modern emergence of an historical consciousness, see A. Grafton, What was History? The Art of History in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007). M. Tafuri, L'Architettura dell'Umanesimo (Rome, Laterza, 1969); and ‘Per una critica dell'ideologia architettonica’, Contropiano, 1 (1969), pp. 31–79 (this essay formed the basis of Tafuri's later book, Progetto e utopia). For a contemporary elaboration of this theme in post-war Italian cultural and architectural debate, see P. V. Aureli, The Project of Autonomy: Architecture and Politics Within and Against Capitalism (New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 2008). E. Levy, Propaganda and the Jesuit Baroque (Los Angeles & Berkeley, University of California Press, 2005). A. Leach, Manfredo Tafuri, op. cit., pp. 311–13. W. Benjamin, Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels (1928; Frankfurt-am-Main, Suhrkamp Verlag, 1963); Ital. ed., Il dramma barocco tedesco, trs., E. Filippini (Turin, Einaudi, 1971); Engl. ed., The Origin of German Tragic Drama, trs., J. Osborne (London, New Left Books, 1977). For a gauge of the discussion on Benjamin during the 1970s at IUAV, see M. Cacciari, ‘Di alcuni motivi in Walter Benjamin (Da Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels a Der Autor als Produzent)’, Nuova corrente, 67 (1975), pp. 209–43; and F. Rella, ed., Critica e storia (Venice, Cluva, 1980). Benjamin's writing had been widely translated into Italian by the end of the 1970s. Although many of Tafuri's direct quotations of Benjamin may be found in Cacciari's essay, Tafuri does not follow Cacciari's argument with any obvious loyalty. Compare E. Garin, History of Italian Philosophy, ed. & trs., G. Pinton (Amsterdam, Editions Rodopi, 2008), vol. 1, pp. 216–18; Ital ed., Storia della filosofia italiana (Turin, Einaudi, 1966). Massimo Cacciari connects Tafuri to the figure of Alberti in his funeral oration, published as ‘Quid Tum?’, Domus, 762 (July–August, 1994), p. 38. Dirk De Meyer, elsewhere in this issue, usefully recalls Garin's first book, which elaborates on this theme: Der italienische Humanismus (Berne, Francke, 1947); Engl. ed., Italian Humanism: Philosophy and Civic Life in the Renaissance, trs., P. Munz (New York, Harper & Row, 1965). Typed and copied transcripts of the lectures are in wide circulation among (principally) Tafuri's former students. I have relied on the collection of Tafuri's teaching materials held privately by Luca Scappin. Recordings of the lectures are held by the Archivio Progetti at the Università di Venezia, IUAV. English translations of lecture content quoted here were made with the assistance of Flavia Marcello and Federico Passi. Pagination of quotations refers, in each instance, to the page number of the individual lecture transcript (ie, each lecture begins on page 1 for referencing purposes). Alternate pagination is noted in square brackets. H. Sedlmayr, Die Architektur Borrominis (Berlin, Frankfurter Verlags-Anstalt, 1930); R. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600–1750 (London, Pelican, 1958); Ital. ed., Arte e architettura in Italia, 1600–1750, trs, L. M. Nardini & M. V. Malvano (Turin, Einaudi, 1972); G. C. Argan, L'Europa delle capitali, 1600–1700 (Geneva, Skira, 1964) and Borromini (Milan, Mondadori, 1978); P. Portoghesi, Roma barocca. Storia di una civiltà architettonica (Rome, C. Bestetti edizioni d'arte, 1966) and Borromini. Architettura come linguaggio (Milan, Electa, 1967); A. Bruschi, Borromini. Manierismo spaziale oltre il barocco (Bari, Dedalo, 1978). See notes 7 and 8 above. F. Rella, ‘Il paradosso della ragione’, aut aut, 60 (1977), pp. 107–11; M. Tafuri, ‘Il “progetto” storico’, Casabella, 429 (1977), pp. 11–18. W. Benjamin, ‘Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit‘, first published in the French edition of Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung as ‘L’œuvre d'art à l’époque de sa reproduction mécanisée’, in Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung, 5, 1 (1936), pp. 40–68; Ital. ed. in L'opera d'arte nell'epoca della sua riproducibilità tecnica, trs., E. Filippini (Turin, Einaudi, 1966); Engl. ed., ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, in, Hannah Arendt, ed., Illuminations, trs., Harry Zohn (New York, Pimlico, 1970), pp. 211–44. Compare Leach, Manfredo Tafuri, op. cit., pp. 91–113. W. Benjamin, Origin of German Tragic Drama, op. cit., p. 27; cited in Tafuri, Francesco Borromini e la crisi dell'universo umanistico, lecture 1, November 22nd, 1978, p. 2. W. Benjamin, ibid., p. 49. Tafuri, Francesco Borromini e la crisi dell'universo umanistico, lecture 1, coda [p. 14]. Ibid., p. 3. Ibid., p. 4. Ibid., pp. 4–5. Ibid., p. 5. W. Benjamin, Origin of German Tragic Drama, op. cit., p. 79. Compare M. Weber, Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus (1904–1905; Tübingen, J. C. B. Mohr, 1934); Engl. ed., The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trs., T. Parsons (New York, Scribner, 1958). Tafuri, Francesco Borromini e la crisi dell'universo umanistico, lecture 1, op. cit., p. 7. Ibid., p. 8: Tafuri is paraphrasing Benjamin, Origin of German Tragic Drama, op. cit., p. 166. Ibid., p. 8. Ibid., p. 10. Ibid., p. 11. Compare a contemporaneous article that distils the theoretical position of this lecture course and the subsequent course on Piranesi: M. Tafuri, ‘Borromini e Piranesi. La città come “ordine infranto” ’, paper presented to the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, October 13th, 1978, and published in A. Bettagno, ed., Piranesi tra Venezia e l'Europa. Atti del convegno internazionale di stio promoso dall'Istituto di storia di arte della Fondazione Giorgio Cini per il secondo centennario della morte di Giovan Battista Piranesi, Venezie, 13–15 ottobre 1978 (Florence, Leo S. Olschki, 1983), pp. 89–101. R. Wittkower, ‘F. Borromini: Personalità e destino’, in, De Angelis d'Ossat, ed., Studi sul Borromini, vol. 1, op. cit., pp. 17–48. Tafuri, Francesco Borromini e la crisi dell'universo umanistico, lecture 1, op. cit., p. 12. Ibid., p. 16. Ibid. Ibid., p. 17. Ibid. Tafuri, Francesco Borromini e la crisi dell'universo umanistico, lecture 2, January 15th, 1979, pp. 1–2 [18–19]. Ibid., p. 3 [20]. Ibid., p. 6 [23]. Ibid. Ibid., p. 9 [26]. Ibid. Ibid., p. 11 [28]. Ibid. Ibid., pp. 12–13 [29–30]. Ibid,, p. 13 [30]. Ibid. Ibid., p. 14 [31]. Ibid., p. 15 [32]. Ibid., p. 18 [35]. Ibid., p. 15 [32]. Ibid., p. 16 [33]. Compare Benjamin, Origin of German Tragic Drama, op. cit., p. 66 and J. Macarthur's discussion of this point in his essay elsewhere in this issue of The Journal of Architecture. Ibid. Ibid., p. 18 [35]. Ibid. Ibid., p. 20 [37]. Ibid., p. 21 [38]. Ibid., p. 23 [40]. Again, compare Tafuri's 1978 paper ‘Piranesi e Borormini’, op. cit. K. Borinsky in W. Benjamin, Origin of German Tragic Drama, op. cit., p. 235; Tafuri, Francesco Borromini e la crisi dell'universo umanistico, lecture 2, pp. 23–24 [40–41]. Benjamin refers to Borinsky's book, Die Antike in Poetik und Kunsttheorie von Ausgang des klassischen Altertums bis auf Goethe und Wilhem von Humbolt (Leipzig, Richard Newald, 1924). W. Benjamin, Origin of German Tragic Drama, op. cit., p. 235. W. Benjamin, ‘Über den Begriff der Geschichte’ (1940), Neue Rundschau, 61, 3 (1950); Engl. ed., ‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’, in Hannah Arendt, ed., Illuminations, op. cit., pp. 244–55. W. Benjamin, ‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’, ibid., p. 249. Tafuri, Francesco Borromini e la crisi dell'universo umanistico, lecture 2, op. cit., pp. 24–25 [41–42]. Ibid., p. 25 [42]. Ibid. Ibid., pp. 25–26 [42–43]. Tafuri, Francesco Borromini e la crisi dell'universo umanistico, lecture 3, January 16th, 1979. Tafuri, Francesco Borromini e la crisi dell'universo umanistico, lecture 5, January 29th, 1979.