Designing in Real Scale: The Practice and Afterlife of Full-Size Architectural Models from Renaissance to Fascist Italy

Abstract

Full-size models are powerful and expansive tools required in critical constructive situations and contexts. Part of both sculptural and architectural creative processes, they have been privileged by Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo and Bernini, who were architects and sculptors at the same time. Several documented cases of their real-size models reproducing portions of buildings on-site and modified ad libitum (at one’s pleasure) are discussed here. Promoted in major Roman projects, full-size models served many purposes, from testing innovative solutions to public events and political propaganda. In more recent times, they continued to be central to urban, architectural, and artistic works, implicitly intertwined with the production of exhibitions and movies, which were promoted by the fascist party between the 1920s and 1940s in Italy, encouraging and enhancing the media potential of architecture.

Keywords:

• architectural models
• full-size
• Italian architecture
• direct forming

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Micaela Antonucci, Francesca Funis, Federica Goffi, Marzia Marandola, and dedicate this essay to Mary Vaughan Johnson, whose memory will live on. A special thank is owed to Katrin Albrecht for her studies on Angiolo Mazzoni. The article results from the collegial work of the authors. Claudia Conforti edited the first section, Maria Grazia D’Amelio the second section, Lorenzo Grieco the third and fifth section, while Fabio Colonnese edited the fourth.

Notes

1. The subject has been studied in literature, such as: Henry A. Millon, “I modelli architettonici nel Rinascimento,” in Rinascimento da Brunelleschi a Michelangelo. La Rappresentazione dell’Architettura, ed. Henry A. Millon and Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani (Milano: Bompiani, 1994), 19–73; Sabine Frommel, ed., Les maquettes d’architecture fonction et évolution d’un instrument de conception et de réalisation, (Paris: Picard, 2015); Claudia Conforti, “Modelli d’architettura,” in Magnificenze Vaticane: Tesori Inediti dalla Fabbrica di San Pietro, ed. Alfredo Maria Pergolizzi (Roma: De Luca, 2008), 81–87; Claudia Conforti, “Il Modello nelle Vite ‘Vasariane’ e nei Documenti Fiorentini del Cinquecento,” in Giorgio Vasari tra Parola e Immagine, ed. Alessandro Masi and Chiara Barbato (Roma: Aracne, 2014), 199–210.

2. Regarding the categorization of full-size models, see Nick Dunn, Architectural Modelmaking (London: Laurence King, 2010), 142–147; Fabio Colonnese, “Knowing (by) Building: Full-scale Models in Design Space Envisioning,” in Knowing (by) Design, ed. Johan Verbeke and Burak Pak (Gent: KU Press, 2013), 732–741; Fabio Colonnese, “Die Erfahrung mit Lebensgroßen Modellen im Entwurfsprozess,” in Manifestationen im Entwurf: Design - Architektur - Ingenieurwesen, ed. Thomas H. Schmitz, Roger Häußling, Claudia Mareis and Hannah Groninger (Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2016), 287–316; Matthew Mindrup, The Architectural Model: Histories of the Miniature and the Prototype, the Exemplar and the Muse (Cambridge, London: The MIT Press, 2019), 102–120.

3. Aristotle, Poetics, 25, 1460b. English translation from Aristotle’s On Poetics, trans. Seth Bernardete and Michael Davis (South Bend: St. Augustine’s Press, 2002), 64.

4. Joseph Rykwert, The Dancing Column: On Order in Architecture (Cambridge, London: The MIT Press, 1996), 127.

5. Mindrup, The Architectural Model, 78–79.

6. Giorgio Vasari, Le Vite de’ Più Eccellenti Pittori, Scultori e Architettori (Florence: Torrentino, 1550), IX, 89: “When these small models or figures of wax or clay are finished, the artist sets himself to make another model as large as the actual figure intended to be executed in marble;” English translation from Giorgio Vasari, Vasari on Technique, trans. Louisa S. Maclehose and ed. Gerald Baldwin Brown (London: J.M. Dent and Co., 1907), 150.

7. Real-size models of architectural fragments have an evocative power since the mind can complete the rest through imagination. On the perception of models, see João Miguel Couto Duarte, “Despite Resemblance. Scale Models and the Representation of Architectural Objects,” Athens Journal of Architecture 5, no. 1 (2019): 77–98; João Miguel Couto Duarte, “Body Challenges. Between Architectural Scale Models and Architectural Objects,” Athens Journal of Architecture 5, no. 4 (2019): 391–408.

8. Giangiorgio Zorzi, Le Opere Pubbliche e i Palazzi Privati di Andrea Palladio (Venezia: Neri Pozza, 1965), 46.

9. Ludwig von Pastor, Storia dei papi dalla fine del Medioevo (Roma: Desclée & c. Editori Pontifici, 1955), X, I, VIII, 450–453.

10. The picture of the first model is in the private archive of Piero Lorenzo Ponzi.

11. Maria Grazia D’Amelio, “Massa e Individuo: il ‘Progetto’ Sacrari,” in Per non Dimenticare: Sacrari del Novecento, ed. Maria Grazia D’Amelio (Roma: Palombi, 2017), 28–30.

12. Mario Paniconi, “Cimitero del Grappa”, Architettura XIV, 12 (1935): 666.

13. On Michelangelo’s use of real-scale models see also Mauro Mussolin, “Forme in fieri. I modelli architettonici nella progettazione di Michelangelo,” in Michelangelo e il Disegno di Architettura, ed. Caroline Elam (Venezia: Marsilio, 2006).

14. Paul Fréart de Chantelou, Journal de Voyage du Cavalier Bernin en France, ed. Ludovic Lalanne (Aix-en-Provence: Pandora éditions, 1981, [1885]), 18f, also cited in Rykwert, The Dancing Column, 29–30.

15. Parigi, BnF, m.s. it., 2084, cc. 130-131. It is not unlikely that the second wooden model for the coronation of the Baldachin was incorporated in the final solution, testifying an extensive use of the art of toreutics in the cladding of the structures. On the design process of the Baldachin, see Maria Grazia D’Amelio, “Quatuor Columnis Non Plus Ultra: Giovan Lorenzo Bernini e i Disegni per il Baldacchino di San Pietro a Roma (1624–1633),” in Bernini Disegnatore: Nuove Prospettive di Ricerca, ed. Sybille Ebert-Schifferer, Tod A. Marder and Sebastian Schütze (Roma: Campisano, 2017).

16. Maria Grazia D’Amelio, “Il bello, il proprio, il necessario nel colonnato di San Pietro a Roma: Architettura, economia, cantiere,” Mefrim 119, no. 2 (2007): 375–385.

17. Roma, Archivio di Stato, Cartari-Febei, busta 77, c. 286r.

18. BAV, Codice Chigi H II 22, ff. 107r-109v. Authors’ translation.

19. Ibid. Authors’ translation. The Pope’s request demonstrated the diffusion of the practice of real size models. See also George Bauer, “From Architecture to Scenography: The Full-scale Model in the Baroque Tradition,” in La scenografia barocca, ed. Antoine Schnapper (Bologna: Clueb, 1982); George Bauer, “Bernini e i ‘modelli in grande’” in Gian Lorenzo Bernini Architetto e l’Architettura Europea del Sei-Settecento, I, ed. Gianfranco Spagnesi and Marcello Fagiolo dell’Arco (Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1983).

20. Daniela Del Pesco, Colonnato di San Pietro. ‘Dei Portici Antichi e la Loro Diversità’. Con un’Ipotesi di Cronologia (Roma: Università degli studi di Roma, 1988), 53–54.

21. Ibid., 60.

22. Giovanni Sacheri, “Il modello al vero per il monumento al gran Re V. E. II in Roma,” L’ingegneria civile e le arti industriali 5, XVIII (1892): 75–77; Primo Acciaresi, Giuseppe Sacconi e l'opera sua massima; cronaca dei lavori del monumento nazionale a Vittorio Emmanuele II, illustrata da 330 incisioni (Roma: Tipografia dell' Unione editrice, 1911), 169.

23. On the model see also Colonnese, “Die Erfahrun,” 301–302.

24. See Pippo Ciorra, Ludovico Quaroni 1911–1987 (Milano: Electa, 1989); Antonella Greco and Gaia Remiddi, eds., Il Moderno Attraverso Roma: Guida alle Opere Romane di Ludovico Quaroni (Roma: Palombi, 2003); Marcello Villani, I Palazzi delle Esedre (Roma: Gangemi, 2012).

25. Roma, Archivio Centrale di Stato, E42, Busta 415, Fascicolo 6573.

26. “Professori Paolo e Roberto Bucci, Arti Decorative – plastici, Via Luisa Sanfelice 27, Roma.”

27. This was also the case of the temporary Monument to the Discoveries of Lisbon (1940), substituted with a durable version in 1958–1960.

28. The definitive project was approved in 1939. Pictures of the model are at MART, Archivio del ’900, Fondo Mazzoni. See Arthur Weststeijn and Frederick Whitling, Termini. Cornerstone of Modern Rome (Roma: Quasar, 2017); Katrin Albrecht, Angiolo Mazzoni: Architekt der Italienischen Moderne (Berlin, Hamburg: Reimer, 2017).

29. Silvio Negro, “Il più alto colonnato di Roma,” in Corriere della Sera, 27–28 June 1941: 3.

30. Barbara Anselmi, “Il fondo Forti-Mazzoni dell’Archivio di Stato di Firenze,” in Angiolo Mazzoni (1894–1979). Architetto Ingegnere del Ministero delle Comunicazioni (Milano: Skira, 2003), 353.

31. Dante Cappellani, Il Palazzo delle Poste di Palermo (Palermo: Guida, 1993); Domenica Sutera, Una Pietra per l’Architettura e la Città. L’Uso del Grigio di Billemi nella Sicilia d’Età Moderna e Contemporanea (Palermo: Caracol, 2015), 9.

32. Fabrizio Gay, “Particolari dalle conseguenze generali: il disegno di una pensilina e il destino della stazione di Venezia nei progetti di Angiolo Mazzoni,” in A Regola d’Arte, ed. Giancarlo Carnevale (Roma: Officina, 2006), 119–144.

33. Claudia Conforti, Roberto Dulio, Marzia Marandola, Nadia Musumeci and Paola Ricco, La Stazione di Firenze di Giovanni Michelucci e del Gruppo Toscano 1932–1935 (Milano: Electa, 2016), 11.

34. On the prototype of the Orbetello Hangar: Giulio Barazzetta, “Il modello e la costruzione degli hangar di Pier Luigi Nervi,” in Pier Luigi Nervi: Il Modello Come Strumento di Progetto e Costruzione, ed. Giulio Barazzetta (Roma: Quodlibet, 2017), 22, f8.

35. Other well-known full-size structural prototypes are those realized by the German company Dyckerhoff and Widmann, the engineers Eduardo Torroja and Felix Candela as well as the model that Frank Lloyd Wright commissioned to test the resistance of the Johnson Wax Administration Building’s “dendriforms” pillar in 1937.

36. Raffaella Tarozzi and Giuseppe Pezzotti, “L’Arco Imperiale/The Imperial Arch,” in L’Alluminio nell’E42: L’Arco Imperiale, ed. Cristiano Rasponi, Raffaella Tarozzi and Giuseppe Pezzotti (Roma: CE.S.A.R., 2007).

37. Pictures in Archivio Luce, A00123136, A00123137, A00123138.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Claudia Conforti

Claudia Conforti is a Full Professor in History of Architecture at the Department of Business Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata. She is a member of the National Academy of San Luca, Perugia Academy of Fine Arts, and several international magazines’ scientific committees. Her works focus on Renaissance and contemporary architecture in relation to construction, city, and society.

Fabio Colonnese

Fabio Colonnese holds a PhD in Drawing and Survey of Architectural Heritage at the Sapienza University, Rome. His research focuses on architectural representation tools and procedures, and the relationship between image, text, and the experience of space.

Maria Grazia D’Amelio

Maria Grazia D’Amelio is a Professor in History of Architecture at the Department of Business Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata. Her studies span from the architecture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to that of the first twentieth century. Among others, she studied Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Baldachin in St. Peter, Vatican, and the obelisk of the Foro Italico, Rome.

Lorenzo Grieco

Lorenzo Grieco is a PhD candidate in Civil Engineering and Architecture at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and the University of Kent in Canterbury. His research focuses on Renaissance and postwar church architecture.