Dear Eduardo,
I have been wondering why you do not refer at all to Giorgio Vassari's work, On Technique. In the work, which dates back to 1568 Vasari described design as the depiction, through drawing, of concepts and ideas originating in the intellect. The treatise is unique in how it surveys the activities related to art during the late Renaissance from the point of view of a professional practice (e.g. to earn a living). It also introduces a notion of design as enabling the artist to visualize the work as a whole prior to its being carried on.
I am curious...
Best regards,
Lily
On 3.12.2012, at 17.34, Eduardo Corte-Real <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
wrote:
Hi Terry,
"Boy, your words can't excuse the harm you've done to me. So now turn and /draw your sword/ " Romeu and Juliet, Act 3, scene 2, page 3.
I agree partially with your first paragraph but not with the second. At the time Wotton wrote, the noun drawing was already established as a graphic representation of anything. However the word Design (related to the arts and sciences) was starting to be used in English language. Wotton's maxim refers to Painting (Picture) and reflects the Italian conflict between disegno (Tuscan) and colore (Venetian) that he tries to solve by praising both. I have no doubt that it was Wotton and his generation that imported the Italian concept of Disegno. and from then on, Design, from the early 1600's to the early 1800's, meant "drawing for fine arts - Architecture, Painting, Sculpture and Engraving later". At the same time the older uses of words that weren't spelled Design in the 1500's but become to be spelled as Design in 1700's as "things to be done" or "mark out" were used much more often.
The other reason Wotton adopts disegno is because drawing has precisely and emphasis on gesture and not on meaning as disegno has. Another reason for this is that Wotton advocates Italian Classic architecture. The word drawing is simply not enough to give the intellectual and, why not, elegant relevance of disegno. In earlier years Richard Haydocke?s translation of Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo?s (1598) Treatise on Painting, drawing is always used to translate disegno except when disegno is used as "project". Wotton, ambassador in Venice notes therefore that in English there is no word that encompasses the same way as disegno both graphic representation and idea. That's why he uses it mentioning Elegance.
I used this maxim, naturally to poke some of you. Not because of this intimate relation between drawing and design but because of Truth and Grace. Anybody interested in discuss Truth and Grace in contemporary design or for that matter in design research and Design PhD's?
Best,
Eduardo
Em 03-12-2012 12:27, Terence Love escreveu:
Hi Eduardo,
Isn't the origin of the word 'draw' from the physically-based idea meaning
'to pull something toward one' rather that the activity of sketching?Most
meanings of the word going back to the Old English and Old Norse mean to
'pull something towards you' ( as in draw a sled or draw water) rather than
'create a picture' . The application of the term 'draw' to sketching
appears to be a rather later possibly colloquial use outside their original
meanings?.
This suggests, the idea of 'pulling something' towards a solution (as in
'design') may also be independent of the idea of sketching and that the
terms 'design' and 'drawing' (in the sketching sense) are a later
colloquial application of those terms?
I've no formal confirmation of it but apparently a similar difference and
sequence of changes of meaning is found in Persian/Farsi and Arabic from
around 1000 AD.
Perhaps Ken has more details?
Cheers,
Terry
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>] On Behalf Of Eduardo
Corte-Real
Sent: Monday, 3 December 2012 6:32 PM
To: Dr Terence Love
Subject: Re: the first Design maxim
The first design maxim (using the word design) was (maybe) by Sir Henry
Wotton in the early 1600´s:
/Therefore first (to beginne with Picture) we are to observe whether it bee
well *drawne*, (or as more elegant artisans tearme it) well *Design'd; *Then
whether be well Coloured, which bee the two general Heads; and each one of
the hath two principall Requisites; for in well *Designing*, there must bee
Truth and Grace, in well Colouring, Force, and Affection; All other praises,
are but consequences of these.
Remenber friends well drawne and..."Truth and Grace"
Eduardo/
Wotton, Henry 1623, /The Elements of Architecture/, facsimile edition,
Farnborough, Hants. :Gregg International Publishers, 1969
--
Eduardo Côrte-Real
Prof. Doctor
IADE, Lisboa
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