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1. Definition Patronage in scholarship, science, and the arts is the financial support and encouragement offered by individual patrons or institutions to practitioners. The quintessential patron in Greco-Roman antiquity was Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, the friend and advisor to the Emperor Augustus in the 1st century BCE who operated as patron of a circle of poets that included Horace. Maecenas’ name has entered many European languages (but not English) as a common noun with the sense of “patron” or “sponsor” (German  Mäzen; French  mécène; Czech  mecenáš), and in derivatives wit…

1. Definition and concept Triumphal arch is a translation of Latin  arcus triumphalis (compare Italian  arco di trionfo, French  arc de triomphe, German Triumphbogen). The phrase refers to the building type of a monumental arched structure, usually freestanding, modeled on classical Roman examples. In its basic form, it consists of two masonry columns with a passageway between them, overarched by barrel-vaulted arcades. In antiquity, designs with a single passageway predominated (e.g. the Arch of Titus at the edge of …

1. Concept and definitionVitruvianism in architectural historiography denotes an early modern architectural doctrine aligned with the precepts of classical architecture (Antiquity, reception of). The guiding principle of Vitruvianism, besides the obligation to apply the ancient, classical formal repertoire in accordance with rules, was an equilibrium between construction, function, and aesthetic. Its normative implication distinguishes the modern scholarly term “Vitruvianism” from the more neutral …

1. ConceptIn its broadest sense, the word “monument” denotes any vehicle of recollection or preservation across the entire spectrum of historical relics, the documentary or memorial value of which need not have been intended at the time, but may have been declared or bestowed at a later date. Intentionally designed monuments, on the other hand, belong to the artistic form of architectural and sculptural design, employed to preserve the memory or people or events. Typical monuments range from colu…

1. Definition Classical order, a technical term in architecture, denotes the load-bearing system comprising the vertical element of the column and the horizontal entablature above, which together form a colonnade. In terms of structures, the system is found in façades and interior divisions. In early modern architectural theory, the sources use a wider variety of terms, and it is not always exactly clear what is meant.  In addition to the term “order,” which was current from the 16th century on (cf. Latin  ordo, Italian ordine, French ordre, German Ordnung), English had the sy…

The generic architectural term “mausoleum” denotes a representational funerary structure, and the word is still chiefly used in this sense today (Tomb). Other meanings were also current in the early modern period, falling largely into disuse as the phenomenon they described disappeared. A mausoleum, for instance, was also an ephemeral funerary edifice (Latin castrum doloris, “castle of grief”), and the term formed the basis for the literary genre of funerary panegyric. It also referred to reliquaries of saints (Italian arca).The original “Mausoleum” (Latin mausoleum, from the …

1. DefinitionThe term statue (Latin and Italian  statua, French  statue, German Standbild) denotes a special type of monument: a three-dimensional representation of a person, usually of stone or bronze, in the form of a free-standing figure on a pedestal or in the architectural setting of a wall niche (Sculpture [modeling]). In the early modern period, figures from classical mythology and the Christian tradition as well as historical figures were considered suitable subjects. Usually the term denotes a si…

1. Concept 1.1. Broad and strict working definitionThe consideration of architecture, the most general possible definition of the substance and function of architectural theory, was documented throughout the early modern period as an increasingly systematic written and pictorial historical transmission of rationales and doctrines of architecture. Architectural theory seeks to integrate artisanal, technical, political, social, and aesthetic categories of building into a methodical system of principles t…