Book Talk: The Architectural Image and Early Modern Science: Wendel Dietterlin and the Rise of Empirical Investigation

Between the eras of Dürer and Rubens, artists, architects, and scientists in northern Europe collaborated to revive the Vitruvian concept of architecture as both art and science. They did so by creating images of architecture in drawing, painting, print, and sculpture that brought techniques of visual research to architectural practice—a phenomenon epitomized in Wendel Dietterlin's 1593-1598 Architectura treatise. I establish that such architectural images made architecture a hotbed of empiricism, or the idea that knowledge derives from experience—rendering the medium indispensable to the advent of modern, empirical science. In so doing, I sketch a new method for investigating the roles of architectural images in the entwined histories of early modern art, architecture, and science. This talk arises from the book, The Architectural Image and Early Modern Science: Wendel Dietterlin and the Rise of Empirical Investigation (Cambridge, 2024), which has received support from the Graham Foundation.


Elizabeth J. Petcu is a Senior Lecturer in Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh. Her research and teaching examine the intersections of visual and scientific inquiry in the art and architectural culture of the early modern world.

Please note that registration for this session will close 24 hours in advance and a meeting link will be distributed on the morning of the session.