An Alternate Order: The Asymmetrical Façades of Hieronymous Lotter (1497–1580)

• In Event: Artifice and Anti-Naturalism in Renaissance Architecture II

Abstract

For Vitruvius and Alberti, architectural symmetry expressed natural proportions based on the human figure. Serlio agreed with this principle, but also gave symmetry its present meaning–the balance of elements on each side of a design—and made it a hallmark of Renaissance architecture. However, Central European architects often eschewed these norms. This paper examines alternative concepts of symmetry in Central European Renaissance façades via the architecture of Hieronymous Lotter and his contemporaries in the 1550s and 1560s. In these works, pilasters are misaligned in different registers, staircase towers appear on only one side of a façade, and gables bear no relationship with the position of the windows below them. Lotter’s designs exploit offset elements to create a sense of movement, which he and his colleagues valued over Serlio’s discrete bays. By producing rhythm from apparent chaos, Lotter and his peers instilled an alternative symmetry in their designs.

Author

• Sarah W. Lynch, Princeton University