history

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doi: 10.1017/S1359135518000489

An analysis of Colin Rowe’s methodological approaches –

with particular reference to his 1961 essay on La Tourette –
acknowledging dialectic as a creative methodology.

The methodological approaches of

Colin Rowe: the multifaceted, intellectual
connoisseur at La Tourette
Raúl Martínez Martínez

In England, the establishment of art history as a

professional discipline was consolidated by the ‘[…] approaches [to] architectural analysis
foundation of the Courtauld Institute of Art in 1932,
and the Warburg Library’s move from Hamburg
beyond Wittkower’s analytic formalism
to London the following year due to the rise of the that Rowe developed after his departure to
Nazi régime; a political situation that caused the the United States’
emigration of German-speaking scholars such as
Fritz Saxl, Ernst Gombrich and Rudolf Wittkower.
Colin Rowe, an influential member of the second
generation of historians of modern architecture, This article will focus on methodological
was educated as part of this cultural milieu in the approaches for architectural analysis beyond
postwar period, studying at the Warburg Institute Wittkower’s analytic formalism that Rowe
in London. In the ‘Addendum 1973’ to his first developed after his departure to the United States
published article ‘The Mathematics of the Ideal in 1951. In particular, it will pay special attention
1
Villa’ (1947), Rowe acknowledged the Wölfflinian to his critical article, conceived during a three-
origins of his analysis – Saxl and Wittkower had day visit to the recently completed monastery of
studied under Heinrich Wölfflin – and the validity La Tourette in December 1960, the result of which
of his inherited German formal methods. This was published as ‘Dominican Monastery of La
assumption, in the opinion of one of Rowe’s Tourette, Eveux-sur-Arbresle, Lyons’ in the June 1961
7
students, the architectural historian and critic issue of The Architectural Review. The monographic
2
Anthony Vidler, indicated the ‘still pervasive force nature of Rowe’s essay, coupled with the in situ
of the late nineteenth century German school of analysis of the monastery, can be characterised
architectural history in England in the years after as a singular work within his theoretical corpus.
3
the Second World War’. Vidler, who has already written on Rowe’s analysis
The impact that the German scholar of of La Tourette, considered the by-product of
Renaissance and Baroque architecture Rudolf Rowe’s essay to be ‘one of the most difficult he
Wittkower had on Rowe is well known and [Rowe] had attempted’, which resulted in ‘a long
widely acknowledged in the academic work of reflection, or meditation, on the potentials of a
4
architectural historians. Vidler is one of the visual analytic that he had developed since 1947 for
8
contributors who has emphasised Wittkower’s a practical, experiential criticism’. The ambiguity
influence on Rowe’s historical approach to modern and complexity of ‘La Tourette’ leaves room for
architecture, analysing the origin and development interpretation, as evidenced in Vidler’s open
of Rowe’s thought in his written work from 1945 to conclusion, which established parallels between
1950. In his chronological study, Vidler established Erwin Panosfky’s ‘understanding of Scholastic
the numerous intellectual debts Rowe owed to his architecture’ and Rowe’s analogous ‘understanding
9
former mentor – including thematic correlations, of mannerist architecture’. This article argues that
methodological approaches, modes of historical in ‘La Tourette’, Rowe proposed a methodological
interpretation and formal analysis – present in union between two previously mutually exclusive
Rowe’s thesis, The Theoretical Drawings of Inigo Jones: concepts, thought and sensation, opening a new
5
Their Sources and Scope, completed in 1947, and two door to understanding the work of Le Corbusier
articles published in The Architectural Review: ‘The and, more importantly, allowing theorists and
Mathematics of the Ideal Villa’ and ‘Mannerism historians to delve deeper towards the idea of a core
and Modern Architecture’, in 1947 and 1950, of modern architecture.
6
respectively.

history  1
2 history

14
Colin Rowe and the American art historical tradition a different art historical language. These two
Within this framework of methodological unexpected meetings broadened Rowe’s mind and
analysis, another of Rowe’s students, first at the directly exposed him to an art and architectural
University of Texas at Austin and later at Cornell approach that was completely different from the
University, Alexander Caragonne, examined German academic tradition he had learned from
closely the brief but crucial episode in the history Wittkower; a transformative occurrence that made
of architectural education developed at the him feel the need for his own experience in the
15
University of Texas while Rowe was a member United States.
10
of the faculty. In his book, The Texas Rangers: Rowe’s analytical method was expanded in
Notes from an Architectural Underground, Caragonne the United States. His first steps were directed
16
evaluated Rowe’s contribution to the programme by Hitchcock, who initiated the American
at the university from 1953 to 1956, establishing historical tradition of modern architecture with
chronological distinctions within Rowe’s writing. his book Modern Architecture: Romanticism and
The first group of essays, the pre-Texas essays, Reintegration, published in 1929. Rowe considered
illustrated the influence of the Warburg Institute, this to be Hitchcock’s best book and the motive
and particularly Wittkower, on Rowe’s education that persuaded him to study under Hitchcock at
during his academic training in England in the Yale. A year after Hitchcock’s death in 1987, Rowe
late 1940s. This circumstance prompted Rowe to wrote an homage to his American adviser, an essay
choose a theme that closely followed Warburgian simply entitled ‘Henry-Russell Hitchcock’. This text
interests as a thesis subject and to use Wittkower’s began with an encounter between Hitchcock and
analytic methodology in his written work. The Bernard Berenson, the American art historian who
second group of essays, the Texas essays, reflected specialised in the Renaissance, at Vallombrosa in
17
new interests that Rowe developed in the United 1955, recorded by the latter in his diaries. Rowe
States, which Caragonne categorised as the imagined the possible conversation that the two
‘Superstructure’ and ‘Transparency’ articles. Harvard graduates had that day, establishing a
The former category included Rowe’s essays methodological confluence between them. The
‘Chicago Frame’ (1956) and ‘Neo-‘‘Classicism’’ and point of connection, he speculated, was Berenson’s
Modern Architecture, I and II’ (1956–7); the latter friend and Hitchcock’s professor, the American
was characterised by ‘Transparency: Literal and art historian and medievalist, Arthur Kingsley
Phenomenal’ (1955–6). Caragonne’s distinction was Porter. Rowe characterised Porter’s methodological
significant because it exposed the development approach by ‘his excessive attention to facts at the
of Rowe’s architectural discourse during his time expense of generalisations’; an opposition to the
in Texas. Rowe’s departure to the United States German idealism, which was already beginning to
in 1951 was a voluntary emigration motivated fade when Hitchcock was studying at Harvard in the
by his enthusiasm to learn from the American early 1920s. This differentiation between empiricism
architectural historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock and idealism caused Rowe to say, ‘it must have been
who, at the time, was teaching at Yale University. Kingsley Porter who had been responsible for the
Rowe justified the move in 1988 saying, ‘I felt way ultimate mental formation of the Russell Hitchcock
18
back and I still feel today that I came to Yale, as whom I knew at Yale’.
11
they used to say, to sit at his feet.’
Rowe’s interest in the American art historical
tradition was not new. It emerged after two Italian
‘[…] different ways of relating the history
encounters, first in Florence in 1947 and later in of architecture […] represented by […]
Rome in 1950. The former chance encounter was an
Wölfflin’s pupil Sigfried Giedion and [Henry
art historical confrontation between his Canadian
travelling companion, Sydney Key, and an employee Russell] Hitchcock, teaching at Harvard
of a New York art magazine, Libby Tannenbaum and Yale, respectively, when Rowe moved
– an event that, in Rowe’s own words, ‘was
amusing for me because between Syd and Libby
to the States’
there developed a conversation from which I was
completely excluded. […] I felt myself reduced to These different ways of relating the history of
12
utter insignificance’. Even though Rowe described architecture were represented by two of the leading
North America as ‘odd’ following the conversation, historians of the modern movement, Wölfflin’s
this initial encounter planted the seed for his pupil Sigfried Giedion and Hitchcock, teaching at
eventual migration. The second chance encounter Harvard and Yale, respectively, when Rowe moved
was with Arthur Brown, an architect who had to the States.19 Two decades prior, Giedion and
been Georges Gromort’s student at the École des Hitchcock had published works that established
Beaux-Arts in Paris. Rowe described him as a ‘great them as upcoming scholars in the field of modern
connoisseur’ with whom he had an ‘architectural architecture. In 1928, in Bauen in Frankreich, Bauen in
13
revelation’. Through their interactions, Rowe Eisen, Bauen in Eisenbeton, Giedion, the ‘Philosopher
realised that Wittkower was not the sole authority Historian’ as John Summerson labelled him in
20
pertaining to the subject of the Italian architect 1942, clearly guided by ideological objectives,
Carlo Rainaldi but that, in the United States, located the roots of modern architecture in the
the same concern already existed expressed in technological and engineering progress of France

Author name   paper title

 history  3

of the nineteenth century. One year later, in Modern

Architecture, Hitchcock accounted for this same ‘Rowe underwent a methodological change
evolution within the aesthetic realm. Hitchcock’s
analytical approach derived from his own first- due to his rejection of Wittkower’s analytic
hand impressions of the aesthetic expression of tradition.’
21
architecture. He particularly valued one book, The
Architecture of Humanism: A Study in the History of Taste
by Geoffrey Scott. In his opinion, the architecture anything written in the second half of the twentieth
of the ‘New Pioneers’, which rested ‘more centrally century within the theory of architecture that was
26
upon aesthetic’, was ‘the more comprehensible comparable to Scott’s and Wittkower’s books.
critically to those who are familiar with, if not This ambiguous duality in Rowe’s analytical
22
altogether won to, Geoffrey Scott’s theories’. approach to architecture has been highlighted by
Modern Architecture concluded with a revealing Peter Eisenman. He believed that Rowe underwent
late footnote in which Hitchcock acknowledged a methodological change due to his rejection of
his personal affection to this ‘partial study of the Wittkower’s analytic tradition. The key rupture was
physiological aesthetic of architecture’: Rowe’s move ‘from the abstract and conceptual
27
As this book goes to press I have learned of the death of tradition to the empirical tradition’. The
Geoffrey Scott. It is more than sad to think that there greatest sign of this empirical shift was a sudden
may now be no further work on architecture from a attraction to an English architecture that he
pen that set forth the subject more brilliantly than has had, before, refused. The architect Edwin Lutyens
been done since Ruskin. But The Architecture of became a central figure for Rowe. According to the
Humanism will continue to hold its place, reminding architectural historian David Watkin, Lutyens was
us of a time when Humanism had a brighter meaning the personification of Scott’s ideals. He believed
23
than it has today. that The Architecture of Humanism influenced him,
especially after having discovered a copy of that
Rowe’s ambiguous duality: between the conceptual book, belonging to Lutyens, signed and dated from
and the empirical traditions December 1914, when the architect was on board
28
After the Second World War, the standard the ship that took him to India. Vidler categorised
theoretical alternative to The Architecture of Rowe’s use of these two opposite methodological
Humanism was Wittkower’s Architectural Principles attitudes as ‘Rowe’s ambiguous relationship’
in the Age of Humanism, published in 1949. between the professional art history, ‘represented
Wittkower himself clarified this in the first page by Wittkower and the Warburgians’, and the
of the book, refuting Scott’s misinterpretations. gentleman amateur, ‘cultivated by the English
29
These two works, especially influential in the school and championed by Bernard Berenson’.
Anglo-American context after the Second World Rowe gradually alternated Wittkower’s analytic
War, established opposite arguments about formalism with novel methodological approaches
Renaissance architecture. As Alina A. Payne has after his arrival to the United States. Rowe’s essay
argued, Wittkower’s humanism was an ‘intellectual ‘Character and Composition; or Some Vicissitudes
configuration’ based on Platonic philosophy, of Architectural Vocabulary in the Nineteenth
Pythagorean mathematics, and Euclidean geometry. Century’ (1953–4) indicated, for Eisenman, the
In contrast, Scott’s humanism was described as ‘shift in voice from Mathematics to Composition’, in
the ‘body-consciousness of Renaissance artistic other words, the ‘waning influence of Wittkower
30
production’, according supremacy to the ‘physical/ and the passing influence of Hitchcock’. The
perceptual moment over the rational/intellectual chronological significance of this article was
24
one’. Scott’s book was recommended by Rowe evidenced by Eisenman’s effort to determine the
and the Swiss architect Bernhard Hoesli in their time when it was written, which, according to Rowe,
design course at the University of Texas, an was while he was at Yale, fourteen years before
unexpected move considering Rowe’s academic its publication in Oppositions. The article’s shift
training with Wittkower, whose book was not from the more conceptual aspects of theory to the
25
included in the reading list. Rowe’s intellectual perceptual evidenced Hitchcock’s influence and
stance between Wittkower and Scott, between paralleled the publication of his book Early Victorian
science and connoisseurship, or, in other words, Architecture in Britain in 1954. This initial American
between German intellectual objectivity and Anglo- influence on Rowe was palpable during his years
American experiential subjectivity, was indirectly teaching at the University of Texas at Austin. Rowe
expressed in an article published in the magazine was impressed by the new inquiries that were in
Summa+ in 2001. The text reported the reflections vogue at the time at Yale, in particular, in the field
of Argentinian architect Alfonso Corona Martínez of analysis derived from Gestalt psychology. This
on the influence of Rowe’s articles on the field visual approach was introduced in Texas after Rowe
of architecture. It included a valuable confession himself recommended candidates from Yale to teach
derived from his brief, but significant, epistolary new freshman drawing classes, several of whom
exchange before Rowe’s death. In this assessment, were professors who had studied under the tutelage
made at a time when Rowe was arguably most of Josef Albers. One of these professors, Robert
capable of balancing the entirety of his intellectual Slutzky, who was fascinated with the relationship
spectrum, he argued that there had not been between architecture and painting, had applied

paper title    Author name

4 history

Gestalt psychology to the visual perception of ‘spatial mechanics of the monastery’s precinct’,36
twentieth-century art, a topic that inspired Rowe and which, according to Rowe, was Le Corbusier’s subtle
Slutzky to co-write the text ‘Transparency: Literal attempt at a commentary on Athenian material.
31
and Phenomenal’ during their time in Texas. This argument was supported by a paragraph
Rowe’s gradual shift in voice was again exhibited consisting of several quotations, all drawn from
through the comparison between ‘Mathematics of various chapters of Vers une Architecture, in which
the Ideal Villa’ and ‘Transparency’, two articles that Le Corbusier discussed the intrinsic relationship
attempted to unveil the hidden structures behind that existed between the apparent absence of
analysed objects, but from different standpoints; order of the Acropolis’ plan and the surrounding
the first from the conceptual and the second from landscape. Part of Rowe’s excerpt derived from the
the perceptual. Christoph Schnoor, while studying chapter ‘Three Reminders to Architects: III. Plan’.
the role of architectural space in Rowe’s essays, The passage was an adaptation of the caption
stated that ‘since Rowe argues at times with Gestalt that Le Corbusier wrote in regard to a figure from
theories, it may be seen as perceptual, but only Auguste Choisy’s 1899 text, Historie de l’Architecture.
in the abstract sense of an analytical perception, Le Corbusier used this image to illustrate the
an intellectual way of seeing rather than an experiential reading of the processional route of the
32
immediate, sensory perception’. Together with Acropolis, the spatial sequence that the Soviet film
Gestalt psychology-derived analysis, Rowe pursued director Sergei M. Eisenstein labelled ‘the perfect
37
a perceptual approach but from an empirical example of one of the most ancient films’. Choisy’s
standpoint. Rowe’s first attempt to put forward sequential interpretation played a significant role
an experiential analysis of a body in motion was in the elaboration of Le Corbusier’s idea of the
in ‘Transparency’, where he described the spatial promenade architecturale. The idea of movement
stratifications that an observer would experience in was insinuated in Choisy’s image through the
the hypothetical axial approach to the auditorium of discontinuous line that appeared as a central focus,
33
the Palace of the League of the Nations. In his next a notion that was expanded in the original volume
article, ‘Lockhardt, Texas’, written with John Hejduk by figures that revealed the sequential perspectives
in 1957, Rowe included real subjective descriptions of the marked itinerary. In this third ‘reminder’, Le
(urban and architectural) of the promenade Corbusier established a causal relationship between
34
architecturale, started at the central courthouse. the conceptual and the empirical: the plan was
These types of analyses based on experiential the generator of architecture, holding in itself the
descriptions were expanded in his essay on La essence of sensation, but the spectator’s eye, while
Tourette. It is necessary to deconstruct this work in in motion, was responsible for perceiving volume
order to reconfigure a picture of Rowe’s intent. and surface. This idea was graphically reinforced by
Le Corbusier’s axonometric projections extracted
from Choisy’s book, a graphic resource which,
‘Together with Gestalt psychology-derived as Yve-Alain Bois pointed out, was ‘a mode of
38
enunciating virtual movement’, because it stated
analysis, Rowe pursued a perceptual
the temporality of perception without referring to a
approach but from an empirical fixed point of view.
standpoint.’ Rowe’s brief preamble was followed by an
analysis of La Tourette based on an empirical
methodology. This was supported by his
‘La Tourette’: the conscious equilibrium of two subsequent narration of the casual visitor’s sensory
opposing analytic traditions perception as he approached the monastery, the
Rowe began the text on ‘La Tourette’ in the same same critical method applied by his friend and
way that he had begun ‘Mannerism and Modern pupil, James Stirling, in the essay ‘Ronchamp: Le
Architecture’ ten years previously: with reference to Corbusier Chapel and the Crisis of Rationalism’
Le Corbusier’s Villa Schwob at La Chaux-de-Fonds. five years previously, published in 1956. Both
The blank panel of its facade once again assumed authors deliberately selected Le Corbusier’s
the primary role within Rowe’s discourse, becoming most recent building and their analyses were
the element of comparison with the blank wall at based on visual perceptions experienced along
the north side of the church of La Tourette. Both a promenade architecturale, or, in Stirling’s words,
39
buildings possessed planar surfaces that, although ‘the usual procedure in examining buildings’.
they ‘absorbed’ the eye, they were ‘unable to retain This experiential mechanism of analysis had, in
35
its attention’. This initial similarity allowed Rowe Eisenman’s opinion, ‘gradually become one of
to establish a chronological framework between Le Rowe’s favourite devices’, because it was ‘thought
40
Corbusier’s first building of historical importance by Rowe to be free of an ideological content’.
and his more recent works. Furthermore, it The internal logic of the promenade derived
constructed a coherence of composition and from the in situ experience of the observer, an
intellectual unity with the stylistic change that the empirical observation of partiality without any
architect developed after the Second World War. predetermined general purpose. Eisenman’s
In the following paragraph, Rowe proposed a argument coincided with the idea that Rowe
second comparison; this time, between the ‘patterns expounded in his ’Addendum 1973’, where he
of organisation’ of the Athenian Acropolis and the recognised the validity of the Wölfflinian method

Author name   paper title

 history  5

intellectual qualities of architecture prompted

‘This disposition to recognise body images them to analyse both buildings from these two
diverse architectural analytical methodologies,
in concrete forms was in alignment with with the ultimate aim of explaining the domain
Scott’s complementary principles […].’ of influence of each criterion. In ‘La Tourette’, it
was permissible for Rowe to use both methods in
tandem. On the contrary, in ‘Ronchamp’ it was
because it appealed ‘primarily to what is visible’ only possible for Stirling to use the first of these
and thus, ‘making the minimum of pretences to methods due to the ‘entirely visual appeal’ of the
41 49
erudition’. chapel and the ‘lack of intellectual participation’
In his description of the itinerary, or promenade demanded from the visitor.
architecturale, Rowe incorporated material on In this ‘inside out’ section, Rowe returned to
the topographical experience of the place, its his conceptual analyses of the late 1940s. The
architectural experience and visual perceptions, as determining element of the definitive solution for
well as optical impressions of a subjective nature, the building was, he argued, subordinated to Le
qualified by individual feeling and personal Corbusier’s personal style, rejecting the functional
thought. The language used was familiar with programme as a decisive factor. Rowe insisted
physiological aesthetics, including descriptions that the architect’s individual stylistic unity and
such as ‘a bastion supporting gesticulating coherence was reflected in Le Corbusier’s building,
entrails’ and ‘one is obliged to exchange a reliable which maintained a consistency with the style of his
42
womb’. This disposition to recognise body images previous designs. The final result was determined by
in concrete forms was in alignment with Scott’s a formal preference of the architect (Le Corbusier’s
complementary principles, which professed, insistence on volumetric economy) linked to an
‘we have transcribed ourselves into terms of abstract category (the ideal form of a Dominican
architecture’ and ‘we transcribe architecture into establishment). These aprioristic deductions were,
43
terms of ourselves’. A significant insight into Rowe asserted, connected antithetically to the
Scott’s lasting influence on Rowe became evident concrete conditions of location. In other words,
from Rowe’s annotated pages from his copy of a dialogue was established between opposites:
the 1924 edition of The Architecture of Humanism. between architecture and landscape, between a
Schnoor, after examining the Colin Rowe Library ‘statement of presumed universals’ and a contrary
at the University of Texas at Austin, emphasised ‘statement of particulars’, between the ‘idealist
50
one particular sentence which summarised gesture’ and the ‘empiricist veto’. The merging
Scott’s intellectual impact on Rowe: ‘the whole of of these elements constructed his blueprint
architecture is, in fact, unconsciously invested by for understanding La Tourette and its formal
44
us with human movement and human moods’. organisation. Rowe also added another immediate
This body-centred conception of architecture was cause. La Tourette combined, within a single block,
articulated by Robert Maxwell, who highlighted that the structural model of the Maison Domino (a
one of Rowe’s changes in architectural education, sandwich concept) exhibited in the living quarters
since his experience at the University of Texas, and the structural schema of the Maison Citrohan
was that he ‘promoted buildings as people, with (a megaron concept) used in the church: two
fronts and backs’ and he added, with this influence structural systems that had previously been used
‘students began saying things like “my building independently of one another. Rowe deduced
45
addresses the park”’. that this unusual combination was the cause of
For Rowe, this first section of the article the ‘abnormality’ of the experience to which the
represented the ‘normal way of seeing’ a building, visitor had been subjected. La Tourette appeared
an ‘outside in’ discourse that considered La to be a sophisticated construction, able to ‘charge
Tourette as a perceptual structure, exposing depth by surface’, to ‘condense spatial concavities
the complexities of volumes and surfaces while into plane’, and to violate a unity of conception by
approaching this ‘machine à émouvoir’. In the second forcing together opposite elements that instigated
section, Rowe proposed an opposite formula with sensations like those of ‘tension and compression’,
51
conceptual criteria in mind for the purpose of and ‘openness and density’.
understanding La Tourette around what were, In 1976, a second, extended version of this
according to him, criteria for the ‘normal way of article was included in the book, The Mathematics
46
making’ a building. This ‘inside out’ system of
analysis suggested withdrawing ‘attention from
the more sensational aspects of the monastery ‘[…] a dialogue […] between opposites:
and to consider instead what may be presumed
47
between architecture and landscape,
to be its rationale’. The article was a deliberate
combination of two opposing methods: empirical- between a “statement of presumed
sensational judgement, and conceptual-intellectual universals” and a contrary “statement of
judgement, an attitude that Maxwell summarised
as ‘the insistence [of Rowe] on seeing architecture
particulars”, between the “idealist gesture”
48
at the intersection of thought and feeling’. Rowe’s and the “empiricist veto”.’
and Stirling’s consciousness of the sensational and

paper title    Author name

6 history

planes made the building a sort of ‘dice’, allowing

‘Rowe sought to bridge the dilemma it to free itself again from the limitations to which
the idealist and empirical methodology had been
enclosed by vision and intellect by denying
subjected. This multifaceted methodological stance
the opposition between these two different assumed by Rowe was not accidental, but rather, a
ways of seeing the world […].’ deliberate response to the personal attributes of the
architect who had designed La Tourette. In Rowe’s
opinion:
of the Villa Ideal and Other Essays. With the newly [Le Corbusier] is one of the few architects who
abbreviated title of ‘La Tourette’, this piece began have suppressed the demands of neither sensation
with a note extracted from the first book published nor thought. Between thought and sensation, he has
by the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, always maintained a balance; […] This is the obvious
Meditaciones del Quijote (1914), an ‘author whose message; and thus, with Le Corbusier, the conceptual
newly translated works [Rowe] had consumed argument never really provides a sufficient pretext but
52
with a passion’. The quotation dealt with the has always to be reinterpreted in terms of perceptual
54
problem between depth and surface, placing the compulsions.
idea of ‘​​foreshortening’ as the ultimate situation Rowe’s article on La Tourette is presented as the
where vision merged with intellect. From this text where he intended to clarify a fundamental
perspective, ‘La Tourette’ was not only an analysis dilemma that had emerged in his reading of Vers
of Le Corbusier’s building, it also expressed Rowe’s une Architecture and that he had denounced a decade
theoretical position regarding the methodology of earlier in ‘Mannerism and Modern Architecture’:
55
architectural analysis. Like Ortega, Rowe sought to ‘the incapacity to define an attitude to sensation’.
bridge the dilemma enclosed by vision and intellect The enormous importance that Le Corbusier
by denying the opposition between these two attributed to the intellectual content of architecture
different ways of seeing the world and, therefore, was in direct juxtaposition with the value that
of understanding architecture. The inseparable he placed on sensory perception in his book.
terms, ‘impression’ and ‘concept’, became a formula Although the business of architecture, as a plastic
for exploring the reality of architecture. The invention, was to establish invaluable emotional
proposed collaboration of these two antagonistic relationships, it was also an intellectual speculation
methodological approaches provided Rowe with that reflected thought. Le Corbusier’s ambiguity
an integrative point of view that enriched the between sensation and thought made it impossible
discipline of architectural criticism by uniting for Rowe to provide an adequate answer to the
Wittkower’s and Scott’s postulates as well as meaning of words like ‘comforting’ (‘comforting
facilitating the interpretation of this singular work truths’) or ‘correct’ (architecture is ‘the masterly,
by Le Corbusier. correct and magnificent play of volumes brought
together to light’), which could be interpreted
Dialectic as a creative methodological philosophy indistinctly from an idealistic perspective (‘the
The core of Rowe’s methodological philosophy was theory of the Renaissance’) or from a sensorial
56
located in Vers une Architecture. This second extended point of view (‘the theory of 1900’). This unresolved
version of ‘La Tourette’ included additional new dilemma from 1950 was interpreted in 1978 as an
content extracted from Le Corbusier’s book. Rowe attitude of balance between the two concepts that
added material from the chapter ‘Architecture: II. were inherent to the architect himself. For Rowe,
The Illusion of Plans’ to complement his initial the truly great artistic personalities were capable
paragraph, which included information from of reaching this balance in the design process
‘Three Reminders to Architects: III. Plan’ and and, ironically Rowe himself achieved a similar
‘Architecture: III. Pure Creation of the Mind’. These equilibrium between empiricism and idealism in
three chapters all centred on aesthetic matters, his analysis of La Tourette. In the same way that
the phenomenon of the promenade architecturale, Le Corbusier understood architecture as a ‘total
and Le Corbusier’s idea that architecture was invention, which depends exclusively on who
57
both sensation and thought. The added quotation designs it’, the insightful Rowe proposed that the
refocused the discussion towards a more conceptual tools of architectural analysis used to understand
discourse that took precedence over the previous the complexities of La Tourette were those that gave
sensational one regarding the approach behind an answer to the absolutely personal ‘style’ of Le
La Tourette. Le Corbusier’s passion for walls Corbusier. As Ortega pointed out:
became the key generator of the building, with his real things are made of matter or energy; but artistic
consideration of the floor as a horizontal wall and things – like the character of Don Quixote – are
the wall as a vertical floor. This equivalence between of a substance called style. Each aesthetic object
horizontal and vertical planes enabled Rowe to is individuation of a protoplasm-style. Thus the
apply both methodologies of analysis to the ‘vertical individual Don Quixote is an individual of the species
58
floors’ and ‘horizontal walls’ of the monastery. At of Cervantes.
La Tourette, all elements could be ‘referred to two
53
distinct structures of argument’. They could be The architecture of good intentions
related to optical desiderata as well as to conceptual The great importance that Rowe attributed to
requirements. This theory about the parity of artistic personalities was due to his progressive

Author name   paper title

 history  7

rejection of the spirit of the age initiated in the impulse towards symbolic meaning. In order to
United States, an echo that traces back to ‘Character substantiate the idea that modern architecture
and Composition’, which Eisenman considered a was not symbolically neutral, Rowe focused on one
premonition of the Rowe who rejected ‘modern architect: Le Corbusier. Using Wittkower’s text as
architecture, the zeitgeist, and all that is purported a model, Rowe placed Le Corbusier into the role of
59
to be rational and scientific’. The zenith of this Leon Battista Alberti and established comparisons
position was exemplified in the last book that that revealed the diverse symbolic content between
he wrote as a sole author, The Architecture of Good the fifteenth and twentieth centuries. While Alberti
Intentions: Towards a Possible Retrospect, published searched for the recovery of antiquity, Le Corbusier
in 1994. This ultimate contribution to the life searched for a discovery, a standpoint that invoked
of ideas, written following Rowe’s characteristic a ‘dialectic between a highly elevated conception
oblique approach, subtly maintains ties to both of mechanism and a highly edited conception
62
Wittkower and Scott. Divided into five chapters, it is of antiquity’. As in ‘La Tourette’, where Rowe
characterised by a destructive-constructive structure represented Le Corbusier as the result of a dialogue
comparable to Scott’s The Architecture of Humanism. between thought and sensation, in ‘Iconography’,
Though similar to Scott’s framework, Rowe’s layout Le Corbusier remained a product of these two
was more balanced, where the destructive chapters approaches: the ideology of French positivism
60
(‘Epistemology’, ‘Eschatology’) did not ‘overweigh’ (engineering) and the influence of Vienna with its
the constructive ones (‘Iconography’, ‘Mechanism’, theories of pure visibility (aesthetics).
‘Organism’). Rowe ended the chapter by alluding to two
drawings of ‘opposition’ by Le Corbusier: ‘the face
of Medusa and the sun’ (published on the cover of
‘[…] fantasies that had, according to him, the book) and ‘The Tasks of the Engineer/The Tasks
of the Architect’. These images revealed Rowe’s
become devoid of meaning, held together
deep-rooted fascination with establishing a dialectic
by prejudice and blind passion.’ between non-compatible elements, speculating
on the product that emerged from their union.
It appeared to be the resolution of the last two
In the ‘destructive’ portion, Rowe attempted chapters, ‘Mechanism’ and ‘Organism’, where Rowe
to display and dismantle what he considered defined the lineage of these two title concepts
to be the constellation of ideas that gave rise to within the French mechanicist tradition and its
the emergence of a new architecture after 1919, counterpart, the German and Anglo-American
a collection of fantasies that had, according to organicist tradition, deducing that modern
him, become devoid of meaning, held together architecture was a composite of both.
by prejudice and blind passion. In ‘Epistemology’, The same approach to placing opposing entities
Rowe scrutinised the paradox of two doctrines that side-by-side recurs in several of Rowe’s own texts but,
remained invisible within the roots of modern in ‘La Tourette’, this duality is more pronounced
architecture: the architect seen as the ‘dedicated because it is interwoven on different levels. First,
servant of technology’ (a positivist argument about within the structure of the article, the empirical
the architect as a scientist) and also the ‘executive methodology professed by Scott was complemented
of the Zeitgeist’ (a historicist argument about the by the conceptual methodology supported by
architect as a protagonist of the will of the epoch). Wittkower, equipping architectural criticism with
In ‘Eschatology’, Rowe discussed the fallacy of a multifaceted lens that enriched the discipline.
the modern architect assuming a prophetic role, Second, through the interpretation of this singular
responsible for the salvation of the twentieth work, Rowe revealed that the Dominican monastery
century while severing from the visual chaos of itself was a combination of two opposed structural
the ‘diseased’ nineteenth century. The objectives systems represented by the Maison Domino (which
of these two chapters paralleled those pursued by emphasised horizontal planes) and the Maison
Scott through his fallacies: to demonstrate how Citrohan (which emphasised vertical planes). Third,
untenable these misconceptions were, to trace through the intimate analysis of the building, Rowe
how they arose, and to reveal why they were still offered insights into the nuances of Le Corbusier’s
accepted. It appears that Rowe concurred with ambiguous personality. This recurring interest in
Scott’s observation, that ‘in these matters, it is not the expression of dialectics was one of the reasons
enough to argue against an opinion: the opinion why Rowe experienced such an attraction to Le
61
will remain unless the roots of it are exposed’. Corbusier and his architectural work. Through his
The third chapter, ‘Iconography’, introduced the in-depth analysis, La Tourette became central to
‘constructive’ part of the text. Just as Wittkower Rowe’s stimuli, and forged a new way of thinking
had made a decisive contribution by connecting and understanding into the folds of modern
63
the problem of form and meaning of Renaissance architecture.
architecture, in Architectural Principles in the Age This fixation on dialectics comprised the
of Humanism, Rowe sought to forge a similar foundation of Rowe’s academic philosophy,
path with reference to the earlier twentieth as evidenced when he defined the duty of the
century, unravelling the supposed opposition of educator within these same parameters: first, ‘to
modern architecture to the nineteenth-century encourage the student to believe in architecture

paper title    Author name

8 history

and Modern architecture’, second, ‘to encourage

the student to be sceptical about architecture ‘interaction between conflicting ideas as a
and Modern architecture’, and third, ‘to cause
the student to manipulate, with passion and creative method […], a continuous
intelligence, the subjects or objects of his conviction exchange in which both entities retain their
64
and doubt’. Rowe envisioned this interaction
between conflicting ideas as a creative method
individualism but are constantly enriched
capable of innovation, a continuous exchange in by their reciprocity.’
which both entities retain their individualism
but are constantly enriched by their reciprocity,
a fluctuation that triggers the creation of new the conceptual and productive veins of architects,
realities. Through this exchange, Rowe unlocked urban designers, critics and theorists of the second
the potential to open innovative pathways within half of the twentieth century.

Notes Histories of the Immediate Present, Hitchcock’, in As I was Saying:

1. Published in Colin Rowe, The p. 66. Volume 1: Texas, Pre-Texas, Cambridge,
Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and 6. Rowe had been influenced by ed. by Alexander Caragonne
Other Essays (Cambridge, MA: MIT Wittkower’s previous articles, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996),
Press, 1976), p. 16. including ‘Michelangelo’s p. 21.
2. For more information regarding Biblioteca Laurenziana’, The Art 12. Colin Rowe, ‘Two Italian
Vidler’s interactions with Rowe, Bulletin, 16 (1934), 123–218; ‘Pseudo- Encounters’, in As I was Saying:
see Anthony Vidler, ‘Two or Three Palladian Elements in English Volume 1: Texas, Pre-Texas, Cambridge,
Things I Know about Him’, ANY, Neoclassicism’, Journal of the ed. by Alexander Caragonne
7/8 (1994), 44–7. Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 6 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996),
3. Anthony Vidler, Histories of the (1943), 154–64; ‘Principles of p. 5.
Immediate Present: Inventing Palladio’s Architecture – I’, Journal 13. Ibid., pp. 9–10.
Architectural Modernism (Cambridge, of the Warburg and Courtauld 14. Rowe thought that Wittkower’s
MA: MIT Press, 2008), p. 61. Institutes, 7 (1944), 102–22; article ‘Carlo Rainaldi and the
4. Some of the historians that have ‘Principles of Palladio’s Architecture of the High Barroque
discussed Wittkower’s impact on Architecture – II’, Journal of the in Rome’, Art Bulletin, 19 (1937),
Rowe are Alina A. Payne, ‘Rudolf Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 8 242–313, was the pre-eminent
Wittkower and Architectural (1945), 68–106; ‘Inigo Jones, source regarding Rainaldi.
Principles in the Age of Architect and Man of Letters’, RIBA 15. Rowe’s perception of American
Modernism’, Journal of the Society of Journal, 60 (1953), 83–90. culture can be traced through the
Architectural Historians, 53 (1994), 7. Colin Rowe was not the only letters he wrote to his parents
322–42; Monica Centanni, ‘Per una architect who was interested in La during his time in the States. See
iconologia dell’intervalo: Tourette at this time. Alison The Letters of Colin Rowe: Five Decades
Tradizione dell’antico e visione Smithson and Aldo Rossi also of Correspondence, ed. by Daniel
retrospettiva in Aby Warburg’, in wrote articles referring to this Naegele (London: Artifice Books,
L’architettura come testo e la figura di building: ‘Couvent de la Tourette, 2015).
Colin Rowe, ed. by Mauro Marzo Eveux-sur-l’Arbresle, Nr. Lyon, 16. Rowe won a Fulbright scholarship
(Venezia: Marsilio, 2010), pp. 59–72; France’, Architectural Design, 28 to study with Henry-Russell
Katia Mazzuco, ‘L’incontro di Colin (November 1958), 462; ‘Il convento Hitchcock at Yale.
Rowe con Rudolf Wittkower e de La Tourette di Le Corbusier’, 17. Bernard Berenson, Sunset and
un’imagine del cosiddetto Casabella, 246 (December 1960), Twilight: From the Diaries of 1947–
“metodo warbugiano”’, in 4–19, respectively. 1958 (London: Hamish Hamilton,
L’architettura come testo, ed. by 8. Anthony Vidler, ‘Reckoning with 1963), p. 399.
Marzo, pp. 73–96; Francesco Art History: Colin Rowe’s Critical 18. Rowe, ‘Henry-Russell Hitchcock’,
Benelli, ‘Rudolf Wittkower e Colin Vision’, in Reckoning with Colin Rowe: p. 13.
Rowe: continuità e frattura’, in Ten Architects Take Position, ed. by 19. Wittkower had advised Rowe in
L’architettura come testo, ed. by Emmanuel Petit (New York: favour of Harvard, but he instead
Marzo, pp. 97–112; Mollie Routledge, 2015), p. 48. This essay decided upon Yale due to
Claypool, ‘The Consequences of was a revised and expanded Hitchcock’s position on the
Dialogue and the Virgilian version of his article, ‘Up Against faculty.
Nostalgia of Colin Rowe’, the Wall: Colin Rowe at La 20. John Summerson, ‘The
Architecture and Culture, 4:3 (2016), Tourette’, Log, 24 (2012), 7–17. Philosopher Historian’,
359–67; and Vidler in Histories of the 9. Vidier, Reckoning with Art Architectural Review, 91 (1942), 126.
Immediate Present, pp. 61–104 History’, p. 52. This text corresponds to the review
5. Rowe began his thesis in 1945 10. Branden R. Engel, ‘Ambichronous that Summerson wrote for
when he was Wittkower’s only Historiography: Colin Rowe and Giedion’s book Space, Time and
Master’s student at the University the Teaching of Architectural Architecture.
of London. The thesis was, in History’, Journal of Art 21. A comparison of the types of
Vidler’s words, ‘an extraordinary Historiography, 14 (2016), 1–22. This illustrations that both authors
synthesis of historical article investigates and brings new used to explain the same building
interpretation derived from light to Rowe’s approach to confirmed their different
Wittkower and formal analysis teaching at Texas. proposed analyses. Giedion
derived from Wölfflin’. Vidler, 11. Colin Rowe, ‘Henry-Russell emphasised the construction and

Author name   paper title

 history  9

engineering aspects related to the Journal of Art Historiography, 5 Tourette’, 410.

new building materials with (2011), 22. 52. Vidler, ‘Reckoning with Art
plans, sections, exterior and 33. Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky, History’, p. 48.
interior photographs, while ‘Transparency: Literal and 53. Rowe, ‘La Tourette’, in The
Hitchcock, exclusively focused on Phenomenal’, Perspecta, 8 (1963), Mathematics of the Ideal Villa, p. 196.
aesthetic considerations with 53–4. 54. Ibid.
exterior photographs (of fifty- 34. Colin Rowe and John Hejduk, 55. Rowe, ‘Mannerism and Modern
eight images, only three showed ‘Lockhardt, Texas’, Architectural Architecture’, in The Mathematics of
the interior of the building and Record, 121 (March 1957), 202–04. the Ideal Villa, p. 295.
the rest displayed facades or 35. Colin Rowe, ‘Dominican 56. Ibid., p. 296.
volumes in isolation). Monastery of La Tourette, Eveux- 57. Hugues Desalle, ‘Le Corbusier: El
22. Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Modern sur-Arbresle, Lyons’, The mensaje en una botella’, Pasajes de
Architecture: Romanticism and Architectural Review, 129 (June Arquitectura y Crítica, 9 (1999), 71.
Reintegration (New York: Da Capo 1961), 401. 58. José Ortega y Gasset, Meditaciones
Press, 1993), p .236. 36. Ibid. del Quijote (Madrid: Ediciones
23. Ibid. 37. Sergei M. Eisenstein, Yve-Alain Bois Cátedra, 1984), p. 87.
24. Payne, ‘Rudolf Wittkower and and Michael Glenny, ‘Montage and 59. Eisenman, ‘The Rowe Synthesis’,
Architectural Principles’, 333. Architecture’, Assemblage, 10 (1989), p. 50.
25. Scott’s book was included in the 117. 60. Scott, The Architecture of Humanism,
reading list for the courses Arc. 525 38. Ibid., 114. p .259. In the epilogue of his 1924
and 526, 1954–5. See Alexander 39. James Stirling, ‘Ronchamp: Le edition, Scott responded to
Caragonne, The Texas Rangers: Notes Corbusier Chapel and the Crisis of criticism on The Architecture of
from an Architectural Underground Rationalism’, The Architectural Humanism and agreed that ‘the
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994), Review, 119 (March 1956), 156. destructive portion of the book
p. 428. 40. Eisenman, ‘The Intellectual Sheik’, overweighs the constructive’.
26. Alfonso Corona Martínez, ‘Respe(c) 69. 61. Scott, The Architecture of Humanism,
to a Colin Rowe’, Summa+, 47 (2001), 41. Rowe, ‘The Mathematics of the pp. 259–60.
132. Ideal Villa’, in The Mathematics of the 62. Colin Rowe, The Architecture of Good
27. Peter Eisenman, ‘Not the Last Ideal Villa, p. 16. Intentions: Towards a Possible
Word: The Intellectual Sheik’, ANY, 42. Rowe, ‘Dominican Monastery of La Retrospect (London: Academy
7/8 (1994), 68. Tourette’, 402. Editions, 1994), p. 53.
28. David Watkin, ‘Sir Edwin Lutyens 43. Geoffrey Scott, The Architecture of 63. For further evidence, see Colin
(1869–1944): The Greatest British Humanism: A Study in the History of Rowe, ‘The Provocative Facade:
Architect?’, in Maestros de la Taste (London: Constable, 1924), p. Frontality and Contrapposto’, in As I
arquitectura moderna en la Residencia 213. was Saying: Volume 2: Cornelliana, ed.
de Estudiantes, ed. by Salvador 44. Schnoor, ‘Colin Rowe: Space as by Alexander Caragonne
Guerrero (Madrid: Residencia de Well-Composed Illusion’, 15. Quote (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996),
Estudiantes, 2009), pp. 236–41. extracted from Scott, The pp. 174–203.
29. Vidler, Histories of the Immediate Architecture of Humanism, p. 213. 64. Colin Rowe, ‘Colin Rowe: On
Present, p. 63. 45. Robert Maxwell, ‘Mannerism and Architectural Education’, ANY, 7/8
30. Peter Eisenman, ‘The Rowe Modernism: The Importance of (1994), 48.
Synthesis’, in L’architettura come Irony’, in Reckoning with Colin Rowe,
testo, ed. by Marzo, pp. 49–50. ed. by Petit, pp. 30–1. Author’s biography
31. This connection between modern 46. Rowe changed the word ‘making’ Raúl Martínez Martínez is an adjunct
painting and modern architecture to ‘conceiving’ in the 1976 edition. lecturer at the Department of
had already been expounded by 47. Rowe, ‘Dominican Monastery of La History and Theory of Architecture
Hitchcock in Painting Toward Tourette’, 407. and Communication Techniques
Architecture (1948). The practical 48. Maxwell, ‘Mannerism and at the Universitat Politècnica de
and experimental character of the Modernism’, p. 30. Catalunya-BarcelonaTech. He was
book was received with open arms 49. Stirling, ‘Ronchamp’, 161. a guest lecturer at the Poznan
by the new academic staff of the 50. These two concepts were similar University of Technology in 2017 and
University of Texas. Furthermore, to the two types of forms, the a visiting professor at the University
Hoesli and Rowe, stimulated by its ‘generic form’ and the ‘specific of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
contents, included the book in form’, developed by Eisenman in in 2014–16. He specialises in the
the reading list for the courses Arc. his doctoral dissertation two years historiography of architecture after
525 and 526, 1954–5. See later at the University of the Second World War.
Caragonne, The Texas Rangers, Cambridge, ‘The Formal Basis of
p. 428. Modern Architecture’. A facsimile Author’s address
32. Christoph Schnoor, ‘Colin Rowe: edition was published in 2006. Raúl Martínez Martínez
Space as Well-Composed Illusion’, 51. Rowe, ‘Dominican Monastery of La [email protected]

paper title    Author name