This paper undertakes to develop an in-depth interpretation of Piranesi's Il Campo Marzio. While drawing heavily from specific details in both the text and images, the study retains a contextual outlook, speculating that Vico's New Science can lend meaning to Piranesi's work. / Based primarily on Vico's concept of the Ideal Eternal History, parallels are drawn between the two works. While this provides the key to entering into Piranesi's work, it reveals only its inner horizon, merely describing in different terms what is already there. / The insights provided by this exercise, however, demonstrate that the making of architecture as promoted by the Campo Marzio is not unlicensed Romantic freedom, but a fundamental, culturally-bound human activity. The paper concludes, moreover, that the making of the Campo Marzio interpretively re-enacts the original imaginative founding of the Eternal City and, as such, constitutes an attempt to re-found Heroic Rome.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.23196 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Aitken, R. James (Robert James), 1955- |
| Contributors | Perez-Gomez, Alberto (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Architecture (School of Architecture.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001476580, proquestno: MM07904, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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