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Visceral Space: Dissection And Michelangelo's Architecture, Chloe Costello

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on the architectural work of Renaissance master Michelangelo Buonarroti, who, perhaps, is better known for his painting and sculpture than for his architecture. Nevertheless, his buildings are revered by architectural historians, such as James Ackerman, for their mimicry of bodily motion and emotion. Under the influence of Renaissance humanism, it was not uncommon for architects to validate their designs by reference to the human body, for example, basing the dimensions of a basilica on ideal bodily proportions. But, Michelangelo's approach in his earliest architectural designs, such as the Medici Chapel (1521-1524) and the Laurentian Library (1523-1525) in …