Cesare Cesariano
Cesare di Lorenzo Cesariano (December 10, 1475 – March 30, 1543) was an Italian painter, architect and architectural theorist. He authored the first Italian-language version of Vitruvius' De architectura.
Biography
Cesariano was born in
However, most of his activity was in Milan, where he returned in 1512-1513 as military engineer at
Determined to see at least one notable thing, he proceeded to Milan to visit the Duomo, where there happened to be one Cesare Cesariano, reputed a good geometer and architect, who had written a commentary on Vitruvius. Enraged at not having received the reward which he had expected, Cesare refused to work any more, and, becoming eccentric, he died more like a beast than a man.
In 1528 Cesariano was appointed as ducal engineer by the Spanish governor of Milan. In 1535 he became director of construction in the Duomo.
Works
Cesariano is chiefly remembered as the first translator of Vitruvius' treatise De architectura into a modern language (Italian), with his added commentary. It was published, with copious woodcut illustrations, at Como, 1521. It contained 360 pages and was printed in 1300 copies. It was soon plagiarized in editions published at Venice, but all were superseded by Daniele Barbaro's edition, with illustrations by Andrea Palladio, 1556.
Vitruvius' technical language is fraught with difficulties.
Cesariano's illustrations, though not as influential as Sebastiano Serlio's, had some influence in the picturesque and classicizing vocabulary of the Northern Antwerp Mannerism.
References
- Vitruvius (Cesare Cesariano, Como 1521)
- Cesariano's De architectura on line
- Cesariano's illustrations of the kinds of temples, from Vitruvius, Book III.2 Archived 2015-10-06 at the Wayback Machine
- Yves Pauwels, Université de Lille, 2005. "Cesariano, Sagredo and the Language of Architectural Ornament in the Low Countries from 1530 Onwards"[permanent dead link]: Antwerp Conference (abstract)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
