JACQUES ALIAMET, French, 1726-1788;
after CHARLES EISEN, French, 1720-1778
Frontispiece in Marc-Antoine Laugier’s
Essai sur l’architecture, Paris
engraving, 1755
Lent by UNC-CH's Rare Book Collection,

In this striking image architecture is personified as a young woman seated among ornate ruins. She directs the attention of an angelic child to the origins of her craft, the primitive shelter made from tree trunks with a gable roof of tree limbs.

Laugier advocated a return to a purified architecture that omitted all ornament. He asserted that only the column, lintel and gable roof were essential, and that perfection in architecture had been achieved by the ancient Greeks. The essay was initially controversial, but Laugier ultimately exerted a great influence on Neoclassical architecture. This image is a clever visual distillation of his ideas and one of the most celebrated icons in the history of architecture.

Art McLendon