A New Assessment of the Roman architect Vitruvius, and his Treatise, on Architecture

FAIN: FT-61215-13

John Matthew Oksanish
Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC 27109-6000)

My book project, Vitruvian Man, offers a new assessment of the Roman architect Vitruvius and his treatise, On Architecture. Once reviled by scholars as a half-witted proletarian, Vitruvius emerges as well-read and politically able when read alongside literary coevals (e.g., Horace) through an intertextual lens. No building of Vitruvius' name survives from antiquity, but his treatise remains a formidable literary construction that partakes of Rome's vibrant textual culture. Chapter 4 (the stipend project) explores Vitruvius' portrait of the ideal architect as an imposing "Vitruvian man" at the dawn of Augustus' empire. In direct dialogue with his republican model, Cicero's ideal orator, the architect embodies a distinctly imperial civic ethos in which technically skilled partisans supersede old elites as guarantors of Augustan authority. Vitruvius promises to shape not only the emperor's legacy with architecture, but also the notion of a Roman citizen through his ideal architect.

Associated Products

Vitruvian Man: Rome Under Construction (Book)
Title: Vitruvian Man: Rome Under Construction
Author: John Matthew Oksanish
Editor: Stefan Vranka
Abstract: Professionalism is political. This book offers a new assessment of the Roman architect Vitruvius and his treatise, On Architecture, dedicated to Augustus in the 20s BCE. Once reviled by scholars, Vitruvius emerges as an imperial expert par excellence when read alongside literary coevals through an intertextual lens. No building of Vitruvius' name survives from antiquity, but his treatise remains a formidable literary construction that partakes of Rome's vibrant textual culture. The book explores Vitruvius' portrait of the ideal architect as an imposing "Vitruvian man" at the dawn of Augustus' empire. In direct dialogue with his republican model, Cicero's ideal orator, the architect embodies a distinctly imperial civic ethos in which technically skilled partisans supersede old elites as guarantors of Augustan authority. Vitruvius promises to shape not only the emperor's legacy with architecture, but also the notion of a Roman citizen through his ideal architect.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/vitruvian-man-rome-under-construction/oclc/1141919014
Primary URL Description: worldcat.org
Secondary URL: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/vitruvian-man-9780190696986?cc=us&lang=en&
Secondary URL Description: publisher website
Access Model: Subscription/Purchase
Publisher: Oxford
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780190696986
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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