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56-412: Atlante or Atlantes may refer to: Atlantes, the plural of Atlas (architecture) , an architectural support in the form of a man Atlante San Alejo , a Salvadoran football club Atlante F.C. , a Mexican football club Atlante (private equity fund) Atlante -class tugboat Atlante (keelboat) , a French sailboat design Atlantes (sorcerer) ,

112-586: A praefect architectus armamentarius of the apparitor status group (a branch of the Roman civil service). He is mentioned in Pliny the Elder 's table of contents for Naturalis Historia (Natural History), in the heading for mosaic techniques. Frontinus refers to "Vitruvius the architect" in his late 1st-century work De aquaeductu . Likely born a free Roman citizen, by his own account Vitruvius served in

168-432: A Marcus Vitruvius Mamurra have been suggested as evidence that Vitruvius and Mamurra (who was a military praefectus fabrum under Julius Caesar ) were from the same family; or were even the same individual. Neither association, however, is borne out by De Architectura (which Vitruvius dedicated to Augustus ), nor by the little that is known of Mamurra. Vitruvius was a military engineer ( praefectus fabrum ), or

224-411: A circle be described, it will touch his fingers and toes. It is not alone by a circle, that the human body is thus circumscribed, as may be seen by placing it within a square. For measuring from the feet to the crown of the head, and then across the arms fully extended, we find the latter measure equal to the former; so that lines at right angles to each other, enclosing the figure, will form a square. It

280-439: A fictional character in various chansons de geste and in the poem Orlando Furioso See also [ edit ] Atalante (disambiguation) Atlant (disambiguation) Atlanta (disambiguation) Atlantean (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Atlante . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

336-427: A site will be high, neither misty nor frosty, and in a climate neither hot nor cold, but temperate; further, without marshes in the neighbourhood. For when the morning breezes blow toward the town at sunrise, if they bring with them mists from marshes and, mingled with the mist, the poisonous breath of the creatures of the marshes to be wafted into the bodies of the inhabitants, they will make the site unhealthy. Again, if

392-514: A wide variety of disciplines; in modern terms they would also be described as landscape architects, civil engineers, military engineers, structural engineers, surveyors, artists, and craftsmen combined. Etymologically the word architect derives from Greek words meaning 'master' and 'builder'. The first of the Ten Books deals with many subjects which are now within the scope of landscape architecture . In Book I, Chapter 1, titled The Education of

448-552: Is a matter of conjecture, although various attempts have been made to visualise it. The early Christian practice of converting Roman basilicae (public buildings) into cathedrals implies the basilica may be incorporated into the Romanesque Fano Cathedral . In later years the emperor Augustus, through his sister Octavia Minor , sponsored Vitruvius, entitling him with what may have been a pension to guarantee financial independence. Whether De architectura

504-410: Is established. The topics range across many fields of expertise reflecting that in Roman times as today construction is a diverse field. Vitruvius is clearly a well-read man. In addition to providing his qualification, Vitruvius summarizes a recurring theme throughout the 10 books, a non-trivial and core contribution of his treatise beyond simply being a construction book. Vitruvius makes the point that

560-571: Is famous for asserting in his book De architectura that a structure must exhibit the three qualities of firmitatis, utilitatis, venustatis – that is, stability, utility, and beauty. These are sometimes termed the Vitruvian virtues or the Vitruvian Triad . According to Vitruvius, architecture is an imitation of nature. As birds and bees built their nests, so humans constructed housing from natural materials, that gave them shelter against

616-430: Is often credited as father of architectural acoustics for describing the technique of echeas placement in theaters. The only building, however, that we know Vitruvius to have worked on is one he tells us about, a basilica completed in 19 BC. It was built at Fanum Fortunae, now the modern town of Fano . The Basilica di Fano (to give the building its Italian name) has disappeared so completely that its very site

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672-520: Is sometimes given as "Marcus Vitruvius Pollio", but both the first and last names are uncertain. Marcus Cetius Faventinus writes of "Vitruvius Polio aliique auctores"; this can be read as "Vitruvius Polio, and others" or, less likely, as "Vitruvius, Polio, and others". An inscription in Verona, which names a Lucius Vitruvius Cordo , and an inscription from Thilbilis in North Africa, which names

728-437: Is speculated that Vitruvius served with Caesar's chief engineer Lucius Cornelius Balbus . The locations where he served can be reconstructed from, for example, descriptions of the building methods of various "foreign tribes". Although he describes places throughout De Architectura , he does not say he was present. His service likely included north Africa , Hispania , Gaul (including Aquitaine ), and Pontus . To place

784-507: Is the Naturalis Historia compiled by Pliny the Elder much later in c.  75 AD . The work is important for its descriptions of the many different machines used for engineering structures such as hoists , cranes and pulleys , as well as war machines such as catapults , ballistae , and siege engines . As a practising engineer, Vitruvius must be speaking from personal experience rather than simply describing

840-653: Is the only source for the siege of Larignum in 56 BC. Of the battlegrounds of the Gallic War there are references to: These are all sieges of large Gallic oppida . Of the sites involved in Caesar's civil war , we find the Siege of Massilia in 49 BC (modern France), the Battle of Dyrrhachium of 48 BC (modern Albania), the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC (Hellas – Greece), the Battle of Zela of 47 BC (modern Turkey), and

896-723: The Battle of Thapsus in 46 BC in Caesar's African campaign. A legion that fits the same sequence of locations is the Legio VI Ferrata , of which ballista would be an auxiliary unit. Mainly known for his writings, Vitruvius was himself an architect. In Roman times architecture was a broader subject than at present including the modern fields of architecture, construction management , construction engineering , chemical engineering , civil engineering, materials engineering , mechanical engineering, military engineering and urban planning ; architectural engineers consider him

952-538: The Erechtheion on the Acropolis at Athens for Athene. They usually are in an Ionic context and represented a ritual association with the goddesses worshiped within. The Atlante is typically life-size or larger; smaller similar figures in the decorative arts are called terms . The body of many Atlantes turns into a rectangular pillar or other architectural feature around the waist level, a feature borrowed from

1008-491: The Pont du Gard . The use of the inverted siphon is described in detail, together with the problems of high pressures developed in the pipe at the base of the siphon, a practical problem with which he seems to be acquainted. He describes many different construction materials used for a wide variety of different structures, as well as such details as stucco painting. Concrete and lime receive in-depth descriptions. Vitruvius

1064-530: The Roman Forum , temples, theatres, triumphal arches and their reliefs and statues offered visual examples of the descriptions in the Vitruvian text. Printed and illustrated editions of De Architectura inspired Renaissance , Baroque and Neoclassical architecture . Filippo Brunelleschi , for example, invented a new type of hoist to lift the large stones for the dome of the cathedral in Florence and

1120-601: The Roman army under Caesar with the otherwise poorly identified Marcus Aurelius, Publius Minidius, and Gnaeus Cornelius. These names vary depending on the edition of De architectura . Publius Minidius is also written as Publius Numidicus and Publius Numidius, speculated as the same Publius Numisius inscribed on the Roman Theatre at Heraclea . As an army engineer he specialized in the construction of ballista and scorpio artillery war machines for sieges . It

1176-456: The Architect, Vitruvius instructs... 1. Architecture is a science arising out of many other sciences, and adorned with much and varied learning; by the help of which a judgment is formed of those works which are the result of other arts. Practice and theory are its parents. Practice is the frequent and continued contemplation of the mode of executing any given work, or of the mere operation of

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1232-857: The Caryatids precede them, but similar architectural figures already had been made in ancient Egypt out of monoliths . Atlantes originated in Greek Sicily and in Magna Graecia , Southern Italy . The earliest surviving atlantes are fallen ones from the Early Classical Greek temple of Zeus, the Olympeion , in Agrigento , Sicily. Atlantes also played a significant role in Mannerist and Baroque architecture . During

1288-607: The Florentine humanist Poggio Bracciolini in the library of Saint Gall Abbey . Leon Battista Alberti published it in his seminal treatise on architecture, De re aedificatoria ( c.  1450 ). The first known Latin printed edition was by Fra Giovanni Sulpitius in Rome in 1486. Translations followed in Italian, French, English, German, Spanish, and several other languages. Though any original illustrations have been lost,

1344-454: The care of furnishing the troops with wood and straw, as well as the rams, onagri , balistae and all the other engines of war under his direction. This post was always conferred on an officer of great skill, experience and long service, and who consequently was capable of instructing others in those branches of the profession in which he had distinguished himself. At various locations described by Vitruvius, battles and sieges occurred. He

1400-482: The construction of sundials and water clocks ; and the design and use of machines in construction and warfare. He further divides building into public and private. Public building includes city planning, public security structures such as walls, gates and towers; the convenient placing of public facilities such as theatres, forums and markets, baths, roads and pavings; and the construction and position of shrines and temples for religious use. Later books are devoted to

1456-426: The cosmic order). In this book series, Vitruvius also wrote about climate in relation to housing architecture and how to choose locations for cities. Vitruvius is the first Roman architect to have written surviving records of his field. He himself cites older but less complete works. He was less an original thinker or creative intellect than a codifier of existing architectural practice. Roman architects practised

1512-638: The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the designs of many buildings featured glorious atlantes that looked much like Greek originals. Their inclusion in the final design for the portico of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg that was built for Tsar Nicholas I of Russia in the 1840’s made the use of atlantes especially fashionable. The Hermitage portico incorporates ten enormous atlantes, approximately three times life-size, carved from Serdobol granite , which were designed by Johann Halbig and executed by

1568-495: The elements. When perfecting this art of building, the Greeks invented the architectural orders: Doric , Ionic and Corinthian . It gave them a sense of proportion, culminating in understanding the proportions of the greatest work of art: the human body. This led Vitruvius in defining his Vitruvian Man , as drawn later by Leonardo da Vinci : the human body inscribed in the circle and the square (the fundamental geometric patterns of

1624-575: The first illustrated edition was published in Venice in 1511 by Fra Giovanni Giocondo , with woodcut illustrations based on descriptions in the text. Bramante , Michelangelo , Palladio , Vignola and earlier architects are known to have studied the work of Vitruvius, and consequently it has had a significant impact on the architecture of many European countries. Little is known about Vitruvius' life. Most inferences about him are extracted from his only surviving work De Architectura . His full name

1680-426: The first illustrated edition was published in Venice in 1511 by Fra Giovanni Giocondo , with woodcut illustrations based on descriptions in the text. Later in the 16th-century Andrea Palladio provided illustrations for Daniele Barbaro 's commentary on Vitruvius, published in Italian and Latin versions. The most famous illustration is probably Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man . The surviving ruins of Roman antiquity,

1736-406: The first of their discipline, a specialization previously known as technical architecture. In his work describing the construction of military installations, he also commented on the miasma theory – the idea that unhealthy air from wetlands was the cause of illness, saying: For fortified towns the following general principles are to be observed. First comes the choice of a very healthy site. Such

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1792-405: The hands, for the conversion of the material in the best and readiest way. Theory is the result of that reasoning which demonstrates and explains that the material wrought has been so converted as to answer the end proposed. 2. Wherefore the mere practical architect is not able to assign sufficient reasons for the forms he adopts; and the theoretic architect also fails, grasping the shadow instead of

1848-465: The human body led to the famous Renaissance drawing of the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci . Little is known about Vitruvius' life, but by his own description he served as an artilleryman, the third class of arms in the Roman military offices. He probably served as a senior officer of artillery in charge of doctores ballistarum (artillery experts) and libratores who actually operated

1904-409: The human body, and by extension, of the universe as a whole. In the introduction to book seven, Vitruvius goes to great lengths to present why he is qualified to write De Architectura . This is the only location in the work where Vitruvius specifically addresses his personal breadth of knowledge. Similar to a modern reference section, the author's position as one who is knowledgeable and educated

1960-410: The late 1st century AD to administer the many aqueducts of Rome), writing a century later, gives much more detail of the practical problems involved in their construction and maintenance. Surely Vitruvius' book would have been of great assistance in this. Vitruvius was writing in the 1st century BC when many of the finest Roman aqueducts were built, and survive to this day, such as those at Segovia and

2016-464: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Atlante&oldid=1224793401 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Atlas (architecture) The term atlantes is the Greek plural of

2072-477: The machines. As an army engineer he specialized in the construction of ballista and scorpio artillery war machines for sieges . It is possible that Vitruvius served with Julius Caesar 's chief engineer Lucius Cornelius Balbus . Vitruvius' De architectura was well-known and widely copied in the Middle Ages and survives in many dozens of manuscripts, though in 1414 it was "rediscovered" by

2128-588: The name Atlas —the Titan who was forced to hold the sky on his shoulders for eternity. The alternative term, telamones , also is derived from a later mythological hero, Telamon , one of the Argonauts , who was the father of Ajax . The caryatid is the female precursor of this architectural form in Greece, a woman standing in the place of each column or pillar. Caryatids are found at the treasuries at Delphi and

2184-704: The preface of Book I, Vitruvius dedicates his writings to giving personal knowledge of the quality of buildings to the emperor. Likely Vitruvius is referring to Marcus Agrippa 's campaign of public repairs and improvements. This work is the only surviving major book on architecture from classical antiquity . According to Petri Liukkonen, this text "influenced deeply from the Early Renaissance onwards artists, thinkers, and architects, among them Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472), Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), and Michelangelo (1475–1564)." The next major book on architecture, Alberti's reformulation of Ten Books ,

2240-530: The role of Vitruvius the military engineer in context, a description of "The Prefect of the camp" or army engineer is quoted here as given by Flavius Vegetius Renatus in The Military Institutions of the Romans : The Prefect of the camp, though inferior in rank to the [Prefect], had a post of no small importance. The position of the camp, the direction of the entrenchments, the inspection of

2296-466: The sculptor Alexander Terebenev . Similar carved stone columns or pillars in the shape of fierce men at some sites of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica are typically called Atlantean figures . These figures are considered to be "massive statues of Toltec warriors". Vitruvius Vitruvius ( / v ɪ ˈ t r uː v i ə s / vi- TROO -vee-əs , Latin: [wɪˈtruːwi.ʊs] ; c.  80 –70 BC – after c.  15 BC )

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2352-461: The substance. He who is theoretic as well as practical, is therefore doubly armed; able not only to prove the propriety of his design, but equally so to carry it into execution. He goes on to say that the architect should be versed in drawing, geometry, optics (lighting), history, philosophy, music, theatre, medicine, and law. In Book I, Chapter 3 ( The Departments of Architecture ), Vitruvius divides architecture into three branches, namely; building;

2408-418: The tents or huts of the soldiers and the baggage were comprehended in his province. His authority extended over the sick, and the physicians who had the care of them; and he regulated the expenses relative thereto. He had the charge of providing carriages, bathhouses and the proper tools for sawing and cutting wood, digging trenches, raising parapets, sinking wells and bringing water into the camp. He likewise had

2464-538: The term. The pose and expression of Atlantes very often show their effort to bear the heavy load of the building, which is rarely the case with terms and caryatids. The herma or herm is a classical boundary marker or wayside monument to a god which is usually a square pillar with only a carved head on top, about life-size, and male genitals at the appropriate mid-point. Figures that are rightly called Atlantes may sometimes be described as herms. Atlantes express extreme effort in their function, heads bent forward to support

2520-414: The town is on the coast with southern or western exposure, it will not be healthy, because in summer the southern sky grows hot at sunrise and is fiery at noon, while a western exposure grows warm after sunrise, is hot at noon, and at evening all aglow. Frontinus mentions Vitruvius in connection with the standard sizes of pipes : probably the role for which he was most widely respected in Roman times. He

2576-406: The understanding, design and construction of each of these. In Book III, Chapter 1, Paragraph 3, Vitruvius writes about the proportions of man: 3. Just so the parts of Temples should correspond with each other, and with the whole. The navel is naturally placed in the centre of the human body, and, if in a man lying with his face upward, and his hands and feet extended, from his navel as the centre,

2632-459: The weight of the structure above them across their shoulders, forearms often lifted to provide additional support, providing an architectural motif. Atlantes and caryatids were noted by the Roman late Republican architect Vitruvius , whose description of the structures, rather than surviving examples, transmitted the idea of atlantes to the Renaissance architectural vocabulary. Not only did

2688-698: The work of some of the most talented is unknown, while many of those of lesser talent but greater political position are famous. This theme runs through Vitruvius's ten books repeatedly – echoing an implicit prediction that he and his works will also be forgotten. Vitruvius illustrates this point by naming what he considers the most talented individuals in history. Implicitly challenging the reader that they have never heard of some of these people, Vitruvius goes on and predicts that some of these individuals will be forgotten and their works lost , while other, less deserving political characters of history will be forever remembered with pageantry. Vitruvius' De architectura

2744-404: The works of others. He also describes the construction of sundials and water clocks , and the use of an aeolipile (the first steam engine ) as an experiment to demonstrate the nature of atmospheric air movements (wind). His description of aqueduct construction includes the way they are surveyed, and the careful choice of materials needed, although Frontinus (a general who was appointed in

2800-555: Was "rediscovered" in 1414 by the Florentine humanist Poggio Bracciolini in the library of Saint Gall Abbey . Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) publicised it in his seminal treatise on architecture, De re aedificatoria ( c.  1450 ). The first known Latin printed edition was by Fra Giovanni Sulpitius in Rome, 1486. Translations followed in Italian ( Cesare Cesariano , 1521), French (Jean Martin, 1547 ), English, German ( Walther H. Ryff , 1543) and Spanish and several other languages. The original illustrations had been lost and

2856-706: Was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work titled De architectura . As the only treatise on architecture to survive from antiquity, it has been regarded since the Renaissance as the first book on architectural theory , as well as a major source on the canon of classical architecture . It is not clear to what extent his contemporaries regarded his book as original or important. He states that all buildings should have three attributes: firmitas , utilitas , and venustas ("strength", "utility", and "beauty"), principles reflected in much Ancient Roman architecture . His discussion of perfect proportion in architecture and

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2912-639: Was clear that he had set down his own discoveries. James Anderson's "The Constitutions of the Free-Masons" (1734), reprinted by Benjamin Franklin, describes Vitruvius as "the Father of all true Architects to this Day." Vitruvius is the author of De architectura, libri decem , known today as The Ten Books on Architecture , a treatise written in Latin on architecture, dedicated to the emperor Augustus. In

2968-650: Was inspired by De Architectura as well as surviving Roman monuments such as the Pantheon and the Baths of Diocletian . Latin Italian French English Books VIII, IX and X form the basis of much of what we know about Roman technology, now augmented by archaeological studies of extant remains, such as the water mills at Barbegal in France. The other major source of information

3024-480: Was not written until 1452. However, we know there was a significant body of writing about architecture in Greek, where "architects habitually wrote books about their work", including two we know of about the Parthenon alone. To A. W. Lawrence , Vitruvius "has recorded a most elaborate set of rules taken from Greek authors, who must have compiled them gradually in the course of the preceding centuries". Vitruvius

3080-417: Was upon these writings that Renaissance engineers, architects and artists like Mariano di Jacopo Taccola , Pellegrino Prisciani and Francesco di Giorgio Martini and finally Leonardo da Vinci based the illustration of the Vitruvian Man . Vitruvius described the human figure as being the principal source of proportion. The drawing itself is often used as an implied symbol of the essential symmetry of

3136-463: Was written by one author or is a compilation completed by subsequent librarians and copyists, remains an open question. The date of his death is unknown, which suggests that he had enjoyed only a little popularity during his lifetime. Gerolamo Cardano , in his 1552 book De subtilitate rerum , ranks Vitruvius as one of the 12 persons whom he supposes to have excelled all men in the force of genius and invention; and might have given him first place if it

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