| The Theory of Proportion has always been the core subject in western architecture and history.Since Renaissance,people have put more emphasis on their subjective perception of the world with the rise of Humanism on the one hand;on the other hand,they have begun favoring the logos in the Ancient Greek world thus restoring the traditional mathematics.Under this background,combing optics and geometry with men’s perception,Alberti created the theory of proportion on the basis of Perspective.Prior to his theory,Vitruvius’ theory on the proportion of the human body was an insurmountable one.Later,Alberti’s theory led to the influential “Theory Revolution” in modern western architecture.The academic field pays great attention to this theory;achievements from research have been fruitful.This passage—on the basis of these achievements and architectural philosophy—focuses on the philosophy of Alberti’s theory.This passage points out that Alberti’s theory of proportion is the continuation and development of that of Vitruvius.In terms of continuation,they both agree with the objectivity of architectural proportion.Vitruvius’ human proportion complies with Plato and Pythagoras,who state that the world is formed by mathematics through which they find ways to connect the objectivity of the proportion of the world and human body.In terms of development,under Humanism during the Renaissance,Alberti focuses on the human perception towards architectural proportion quite much,tries to discover the presence of “self” in architectural design,and analyzes means that unifies humans’ subjective perception and objective proportion and the influence that the perfect combination of subjectivity-objectivity brings to architectural design.Aided by optics and geometry,Alberti,along with other architects,invented Perspective,which mathematicises and objectifies subjective perception.Based on Perspective,the Theory of Proportion is not a blind imitation of the world’s objective proportion but a Perspective-Proportion theory,a rational combination of objectivity and subjectivity.This theory has not only provided new opportunities for modern architectural theories,but also has overcome the binary opposition of subjectivity and objectivity;it even paved the way for the formation of modern science that has mathematicised the world. |
