Rudolf Wittkower versus Le Corbusier: A Matter of Proportion

Abstract

This article focuses on the origins of Rudolf Wittkower’s theory of proportion and the ways in which Wittkower uses this theory in analyzing Leon Battista Alberti’s and Palladio’s architecture in his essays of the 1940s, which eventually formed the body of 'Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism'. The article examines a number of Wittkower’s sketches of plans, sections and elevations. It explores these themes in relation to a previously unopened box of documents in the Wittkower Archive of Avery Library, Columbia University, pertaining to the preparation for the 1951 Milan conference on proportion.