Architecture, Mathematics, and English Culture 1550-1750

It is generally accepted that the introduction of classical architecture in England coincided with a new professional identity for building practitioners. With the spread of Renaissance culture, the task of the architect - as opposed to the simple builder - was increasingly equated with the process of design as a stage separate and superior to that of actual construction. In this view, design is seen as a primarily intellectual process, which prioritizes the inventive and creative faculties of the designer over and above the putatively menial procedures of actual building. This shift brought about a number of changes that were essential to the evolution of the profession. It allowed the architect a greater social standing relative to other artisans and to separate himself professionally from the guild organization of masons, which tended to exercise strict control over membership. Most importantly, it allowed for a closer and more intimate working relationship with the aristocratic patron. To be sure, this process was neither rapid nor uniform, especially in England, where the tradition of the artisan-builder was far more tenacious than elsewhere and where the classical style was often resisted as a foreign import. Nevertheless, by the mid-eighteenth century, the transformation was largely complete.
The exhibition will address an unexplored dimension of this story: the extent to which this professional identity was based on newfound expertise in the mathematical arts and sciences. Mathematics provided a natural paradigm for Renaissance architects. In the first place, the art was almost wholly dependent on geometrical or arithmetic operations of some form or another. The process of design itself - insofar as it required the application of consistent proportional rules - was largely defined by them, as were many other basic tasks. Surveying, cost estimates, bookkeeping, and even the use of routine graphic techniques all entailed a certain amount of mathematical training. Moreover, as practitioners of an art newly identified with a superior realm of 'theory', early modern architects were receptive to advances in contemporary mathematical sciences in a way that was not true of their predecessors. This influence is evident in many areas. As several recent studies have affirmed, Renaissance architects show a newfound awareness of the dynamic properties of structure, a higher regard for geometric precision, a greater familiarity with techniques of arithmetic calculation, and a growing interest in new mathematical sciences, such as trigonometry.
The exhibition will display between seventy and eighty objects on this theme, of which roughly half will come from Oxford collections, with the remainder borrowed from museums and libraries in the UK. These will consist mostly of instruments, models, drawings, paintings and books exhibited over some 560 square feet of gallery space. The emphasis throughout is not on architectural technology as such, but rather the role of mathematics in varying contexts of architectural practice. The exhibition will be organized chronologically to examine three principal moments in the relationship between architecture and mathematics, corresponding respectively to the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.