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- Deirdre Caulfield
Deirdre
Caulfield
HER ARCHITECTURE
“By long habit, we do not judge it as a living organism but as a design.”
Vitruvius’ texts have found that the human body is a model for architecture, and emphasises the importance of symmetry and proportion. Alberti’s Ten Books of Architecture states that in doing this, “she (the building) obtains her beauty, dignity, and value”. We judge the aesthetics of a building such as we judge a woman, equivilating symmetry and proportion to female beauty.
Architecture is thus gendered. The structure and bones of a building is considered masculine, and is compared to the male nude – naked and unadorned. While the interior decor and ornamentation of a building is considered feminine, and likened to the way in which a woman decorates herself. It is said that architecture identifies masculinity as ‘genuine’, and womanliness as ‘factitious’. The superficiality of ‘feminine’ ornamentation is juxtaposed against the authenticity and realness of the women featured within these paintings.