Lessons of Scale: Transformations of the Giant Order from Michelangelo to Piranesi, 1536- 1750. I, From Sixteenth-Century Italy to Seventeenth-Century France

Against all academic theorization, which prescribes specific proportional schemes for each order, the giant order was codified by Michelangelo around 1540. It played a pivotal role in his new design for the Capitoline Hill, enabling him to reorganize the façades of pre-existing medieval structures. The order did not carry its own measure within itself but utilized a flexible scale for the shaft, unifying the vertical supports of façades that needed to be adjusted to buildings of different dimensions. This motif, which has left a scant theoretical footprint, drew a sharply negative response from Claude Perrault and was a point of contention in Perrault’s debate with Bernini regarding the latter’s Louvre of 1664 proposal where it was a key factor in his defeat in the competition for that building. Despite this setback, due to the effects of grandeur and sublimity that became closely associated with it (and especially with the idea of the sublime invoked in the period from 1543 onwards), it spread rapidly throughout Europe, becoming a signature of Baroque architecture, particularly in lavish palaces and large-scale churches.