Formkanon i förändring - från antiken till postmodernismen

Abstract

In western cultural circles, concepts such as balance, harmony and beauty have always played a central part in how the world is interpreted. These fall under the designation form canons and have varied from antiquity to the present day. In antiquity, two types of form canon dominated. The first is called “human-based” form canon and built upon conceived ideal relationships between the parts of the hu-man body. The second is called “formal” form canon and built upon Pythagorean numerical mysticism and was expressed in terms of geometric and stereometric concepts such as the “Golden Section”. The study begins by tracing the two types of canon,from when they first mentions to modern times. There are some clear signs of these in the ionic nature philosophers and the Pythago-rean numerical mysticism of the sixth century BC. The first specific signs of canon forming the basis for sculpture and architecture can be found in the classic Greek cultural circles (400-300 BC). This is exemplified in Ictinus and Callicrate’s Parthenon temple on Acropolis and sculptures of classic sculptors such as Myron, Polycleitus and Praxiteles. Canon is then transferred to Roman cultural circles (particularly in the centuries before and after the birth of Christ), with Vitruvius as a central theorist and the Pantheon in Rome as a concrete example. The next major movement in history was the renaissance (the period 1350-1550). Here, we analyse architectural theorists such as Alberti and his Palazzo Ruccelai in Florence and Palladio with his Villa Rotonda in Vincenza. The last historical movement is during neoclassicism in the 1800s. Here, one sees how "human-based" and "formal" form canon begin to lose their influence, but that that the architects still retain a free manner of using antique form elements in their architecture. In the 1900s there is a major shift, where an entirely new way of viewing ideally shaped architecture begins to dominate. The change is so important that one might go so far as to call it a paradigmatic shift. A new type of personal form canon arises, which builds upon cognitive-perceptual functions. At the start of the 21st century, the new type of form canon assumes a dominant position among the most famous architects.