Principle and Philosophy of Design - Essay Example

 Principle and Philosophy of Design The modern world has a tendency to place all people within specific categories – he’s an athlete, she’s a writer, etc. For many of these categories, there is generally an impression of a certain level of aptitude required for entry. We’ve even invented a whole series of certificates, degrees and programs designed to indicate who is qualified, who has had the right training and which ones are ‘experts’ or ‘professionals.’ But what does this really mean? When we look at areas such as the medical profession, it means someone has gained specific knowledge about how the body works and the effects of various substances on it. While there is room for speculation, the entire field is considered relatively straight-forward. However, what does it mean when we enter into more subjective fields such as art or architecture? Some people will provide a relatively succinct definition of art that tends to dwell on the academic approach taken in its creation. During the Renaissance, the emphasis was on realistic portrayal: “a new basis to pictorial composition was given through the invention of linear perspective … Depth was suggested by depicting the progressive decrease in the size of objects and figures as their distance from the observer increases – an illusion which in painting becomes truth.”1 Others, such as A.K. Coomaraswamy (1877 – 1947), art critic and curator of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts for many years, suggest it is something more elemental and intrinsically linked with its environment. “[T]hings are made normally for certain purposes and certain places to which they are appropriate, and not simply ‘for exhibition’.”2 The type of art Coomaraswamy describes can be considered to take a traditional approach in that it attempts to make a connection on as many levels as possible, the body, mind and spirit as well as the gross, subtle and pure. Architecture, such as Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers or Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water, illustrates how simple form can be translated into elegant art through the eye of a traditional artist. To understand the more sublime nature of art, Plato offers a helpful allegory. Plato, who was a student of Socrates, pulled together the ideas of his mentor and Pythagoras to combine them with his own response to what he’d seen of the world to develop his Theory of Forms. In this theory, the ultimate goal was to progress through the levels of reality to the highest level, also known as the greatest good. According to Plato, reality is not the world of substance and things that we can see in everyday life, but is something more abstract that can only be obtained through intellectual thought.3 To help explain his Theory of Forms, Plato developed what is today referred to as the Allegory of the Cave. In the dialogue Plato presents in his book The Republic4, Socrates explains how people have been chained since childhood with their vision restricted to a giant screen in front of them. They can see the shadows of marionettes and other things dancing, but the actual colors and nature of these things cannot be perceived from such a perspective. These are the Forms of Plato’s theory and can be compared to art created simply to be hung on a museum wall. Socrates goes on to explain that when one of these individuals is released from the bonds that bind him, “he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows.”5 (388). However, Socrates continues the discussion by explaining that once this individual is forced to live in this newer light, the person will begin to understand their new perception as being the true reality by degrees: “… first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven.”6 As is seen in this allegory, Plato does not view reality as being the world of substance and things that we can see in everyday life, but is something more abstract that can only be obtained through intellectual thought. The Fountain of the Four Rivers, created between 1648 and 1651, commissioned by Pope Innocent X, is Bernini’s largest and most celebrated fountain. He was asked to erect a monument sufficiently large enough to emphasize the center of the square without upsetting its unity. At the same time, he was supposed to create the fountain in such a way that it would accentuate rather than detract from a Baroque church that was planned for the square but not yet constructed.7 The fountain represents the four continents that were recognized in Bernini’s time, which were Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas, via the four major rivers that were associated with each of these continents – the Nile, the Danube, the Ganges and the Rio della Plata respectively. Each figure on the fountain can be identified by the objects he holds and the plants and animals that surround him. The Ganges is shown with an oar in his hand, representing his navigability while the Nile is seen with his head covered, perhaps because the origin of the river was not known at that time. The Danube River is shown holding his arms up towards the coat of arms of Innocent X’s family with doves and lilies above him, while the Rio della Plata is portrayed as a black man holding coins in one hand to indicate the riches of the Americas even as he gapes at the S. Agnese to demonstrate the innocence and naivety of the native peoples.8 Lions, elephants and other creatures join these personifications in the circular tank. The entire fountain works to support a 54-foot Egyptian Obelisk dedicated to the sun placed in the center. This is placed directly above several cutouts in the base rock that were made to afford a view through the fountain of the buildings on the other side. This placement creates an illusion of the obelisk floating in the air, apparently weightless. A large bronze hen pigeon was placed on top of the fountain to symbolize the peaceful work of the Church watching over the world as well as the family of the Pontiff who commissioned the work.9 One of the agreements Bernini made with the Pope was that the Pope would not look upon the fountain until it was finished. “When the Pope saw the fountain turned on for the first time, he was shocked and overcome by the beauty and natural appearance of the design. This naturalness was conveyed through the use of materials, but more so by the way the water naturally flowed over the sculptures appearing that the overall composition was not man made, and that it could be found in nature.”10 This use of water as an essential ingredient in portraying the natural aspect of the overall design represents one of the fundamental shifts that had occurred distinguishing the Baroque from the Renaissance. The water isn’t organized into orderly jets of thin, carefully directed paths, but is instead allowed to stream in several different directions in gushing torrents that help to reinforce the idea of “pulsating life and real movement,”11 bringing the concept of time into his artwork in a way that had not been accomplished before. Another architect working with water as a part of his art was the more modern Frank Lloyd Wright. Falling Water is a house designed and constructed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) in 1935. The house was commissioned by Edgar and Lillian Kaufmann as a vacation home on some of their favorite property in Bear Run, Pennsylvania, along their favorite stream. Rather than constructing the traditional four-square home that observes nature from without, Wright created a structure that would provide shelter and comfort to the family, but that interacted with nature on a fundamental level. The residence is not so much a house as it is a man-made outgrowth of nature, perfectly in tune with its surroundings, able to take part in the daily occurrences of the river and thoughtful of its natural neighbors. In his work, Wright took his mentor Louis Sullivan’s idea of ‘form follows function’ to another level, asserting that ‘form and function are one’.12 The space of his architecture had to start with consideration of the ground upon which it was to be built. “We start with the ground. In any and every case the character of the site is the beginning of the building that aspires to architecture. All must begin there where they stand … In the stone bonework of the earth, the principles that shaped stone as it lies, or as it rises and remains to be sculpted by winds and tide – there sleep forms enough for all the ages, for all of man.”13 It was this basic belief in the importance of nature to the final design that lay at the core of many of his designs, especially Falling Water. The house itself is built upon the extreme edge of the streambank at Bear Run in Pennsylvania, with a good portion of the house cantilevered over the waterfall to seemingly float in space. Wright himself described the house as “an extension of the cliff.”14 The house is so fully integrated into its natural surroundings that it is almost indistinguishable from them as one drives up its lonely driveway. “As we are introduced to the character and natural features of the landscape during our winding approach, we are not aware of the house ahead … When the house first comes into view, we are somewhat surprised to see across the stream from us a series of horizontal terraces that float without visible means of support.”15 The exterior of the building is such that it tends to melt into its surroundings while also managing to remain separate from them. This shifting nature of the totality of the exterior is in concert with the constantly shifting waters and patterns of the stream and waterfall as well as with the shifting, changing seasons in the Pennsylvania woods even as it stands firm and rooted in place like the trees growing up all around it. Rather than being simply a house, Falling Water is a recognized piece of art because of its ability to transcend simple existence and demonstrate this stronger sublime sense of connection on numerous levels. In both the Renaissance period and the Modern period, the traditional approach to art can be traced through the architect’s final design despite the fact that the emphasis on art was completely different. While the Renaissance remained focused on realistic portrayal and the Modern period was more focused on emotional content, both the Fountain of the Four Rivers and Falling Water demonstrate a multi-faceted approach to the subject that takes every element of the environment and the intended message into account. Asked to build a simple fountain or a vacation house, both of these artists took long strides out of Plato’s cave to move beyond the simple forms and present true art as they conveyed a sense of the sublime through their presentation. To me, this represents the ultimate in natural art because it speaks to all of my senses, whether it is the clean, clear lines of Falling Water or the complicated swirls and symbolism of the Fountain of Four Rivers. References Coomaraswarmy, Ananda Kentish. (1956). Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art. London: Dover. Curtis, William J. R.. (1996). Modern Architecture Since 1900. London: Phaidon Press. Hibbard, Howard.  (1965). Bernini.  Maryland: Penguin Books, Inc. Lemaitre, Alain J. & Lessing, Erich. (1993). Florence and the Renaissance. Paris: Terrail Press. McCarter, Robert. (1997). Frank Lloyd Wright. New York: Phaidon Press. Plato. (360 BC; reprinted 1992). The Republic. A.D. Lindsay (Trans.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. “Rivers Fountain by Bernini.” (2006). Deepenings. Rome Viva. Available October 19, 2008 from Strathern, P. (1996). Plato in 90 Minutes. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. Weston, Richard. (2004). Key Buildings of the 20th Century. New York. Wittkower, Rudolf. (1955). Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque. London: Phaidon. Read More