Baldassare Peruzzi

A prominent architect of the high Renaissance in Rome, Baldassare Peruzzi’s approach was influenced by the work of Bramante and Raphael. His peers respected him for his revival of the art of stage

design, and for his expertise in the art of perspective drawing. Peruzzi arrived in Rome in 1503 from Siena. He began as a painter under Pinturicchio, and was commissioned in 1509 by the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi to design the Palace Farnesina. The palazzo reflects his strong sense of proportion and his interest in the principles of mathematics as set down by Alberti. Different in plan than other Roman palaces of the time, Villa Farnesina has two wings flanking a central loggia, containing frescos by Raphael.

Much of Peruzzi’s experience was obtained in the Vatican Workshop assisting Donato Bramante, and, later, collaborating with Raphael until 1527 when he fled to Siena precipitated by the Sack of Rome. Bramante had envisioned a rebuilding of St. Peter’s based on a Greek cross plan, and Peruzzi’s plan suggested a variation (Allsopp, 1959). Other projects designed by Peruzzi individually or in collaboration, in addition to St. Peter’s, include: fortifications near Porta Laterina and Porta S. Viene, Palazzo Pollini, San Nicolò in Carpi, and the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne in Rome. He died in Rome in 1536, and Serlio, who included Peruzzi’s  rawings prominently in his treatise, heralded his influence on architecture.

This ink and wash sketch demonstrates a three-dimensional study of what seems to be a sepulcher, or tomb chest, with an apsidiole form. This small projecting chapel structure consists of a self-contained entity, possibly planned for an interior wall of a cathedral side aisle. Drawn freehand in perspective, or a version of an elevation oblique, the sketch appears somewhat distorted, obviously not calculated or measured. Because this view employs washes for shadows and a completed composition, Peruzzi was able to interpret and evaluate the proposed solution. The sketch, then, suggests the importance for Peruzzi to quickly comprehend three-dimensional relationships. The sketch acted as a method of evaluation to represent either an image from his mind’s eye or an emerging design solution. Although the ink techniques are minimal and scratchy, the sketch contains enough information to visualize the form as a whole.

Peruzzi must have understood the sketch as part of a process. Although showing the aedicule as a whole, the technique of the lines are quick and loosely constructed, suggesting not a solution, but a momentary snapshot of a thought in the process. The columns are straightened by additional lines in a method of ‘making and matching,’ numbers are sprinkled over the top and other façades, and pentesting lines appear in the background (Gombrich, 1969, p. 29). These elements, which appear on and around the sketch, suggest the little value given the image by Peruzzi after the information was conveyed in a dialogue of the design process. Even though the columns are not straight and the distances between the columns are irregular, the sketch conveys a compositional whole, displaying proportions, relationships and symmetry. The ink wash provides depth that enhances the three-dimensional illusion, helping to judge the final effects of the whole. Being both a definitive view and a design in process, the sarcophagus/tomb-chest stand has been drawn and redrawn in a search for its relationship to the columns and figures. This reveals how the design was still fluid and could be reevaluated when seen in conjunction with other elements.

This sketch gave a quick proportional and compositional view to Peruzzi, allowing him to see the whole at a decision point in his thinking.

Leonardo da Vinci

It is impossible to discuss a history of architectural sketches without an example from Leonardo da Vinci, whose numerous sketchbooks reveal the genius of an architect, painter, sculptor, and inventor.
Although he built or finished very little architectural work, he proposed designs for domed, centrally planned churches, fortifications, numerous mechanical inventions, and buildings in various scales from chapels to palaces to cities. At an early age he started in the workshop of painter Andrea del Verrochio. Throughout his career, Leonardo worked as a military engineer in Milan, in his own studio in Florence, and later in his life, on projects for King Louis XII in France. It was in Amboise, France, where he died in 1519. His works that remain include extensive sketchbooks, some sculpture, and paintings such as the Mona Lisa, Virgin of the Rocks and the fresco The Last Supper in San Maria delle Grazie, Milan.

A consummate observer, Leonardo took an empirical approach to satisfy his curiosity about the nature of the world, giving him the ability of ‘sight and insight’ ( Janson, 1970). He felt that experience is acquired by the senses and, subsequently, that seeing involved an active process. Feeling a need to represent nature as he viewed it, his approach was opposed to that of universal beauty as discussed by Alberti. He viewed vision as the source of scientific truth (Barasch, 1999).
In 1487 Leonardo produced a model for the design of the dome of the Milan Cathedral. This page from his ketchbook, Codex Atlanticus (Figure 1.2), presents some of the design process for the tiburio of this cathedral. It shows the stacking of bricks or blocks to structure the light arches and buttresses. Typical of Leonardo’s sketches, it is possible to view details of construction and connection, as the blocks are rendered with interlocking notches. As a design study, the sketch also displays
rough beginnings and alterations, showing a centerline and horizontals to guide proportions. Only half of the construction has been detailed; Leonardo understood enough to move on to another drawing or a model. Perhaps he rejected how the proposal was progressing, or the sketch had simply served its purpose and  ould be set aside.
This page has numerous identical stippling marks as the  recto. These marks were  resumably used as guidelines and also acted as identical templates to explore multiple variations for assembly and construction. The marks are in fact pinpricks that resemble the pounced guidelines of a cartoon used to transfer a design onto a fresco. Leonardo was well aware of the transfer techniques of cartoons using bilateral symmetry. It is evident that on other sheets from the Codex Atlanticus, he folded the paper to prick guidelines through both sides of the paper to perceive a symmetrical whole (Bambach, 1999). Evidence of a similar technique can be viewed on this page; a prominent crease down the center. The irregular spacing of the marks coincides exactly, strongly suggesting that at least part of each sketch was pricked simultaneously, or possibly, the pages were first folded and then pricked through all layers.1 This points to an economy, in that Leonardo would not need to recalculate the tiburio, but make minor alterations to the structural form or the stacking of the blocks on identical sheets. In this way, one can view the architect/builder concerned with the solidity of the structure as well as the artist, utilizing known transfer techniques.