John Shannon Hendrix - Art Architecture Theory
On this site is information about books written and edited by John Shannon Hendrix on the subjects of architecture, art, philosophy, aesthetics, psychoanalysis, culture and history, as well as articles, conference papers, and experience as Professor of Art and Architectural History.
John Shannon Hendrix is a professor at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. He has also been a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Lincoln in the UK, the University of Connecticut, and John Cabot University in Rome. He has written several books on architecture, aesthetics, philosophy and psychoanalysis. He earned a PhD in Architecture at Cornell University.
He is an architectural and intellectual historian who has researched and written about a variety of architectures and philosophies, for the purpose of suggesting alternatives to the practice of architecture and philosophy at the beginning of the twenty-first century. He has worked to define a theoretical approach to art and architecture based on philosophy, aesthetics, cosmology, psychoanalysis, and historical precedents which can be applied to contemporary practice. He has worked to establish an intellectual basis for architecture in historiography and practice, means by which architecture can express cultural ideas and epistemologies. He has researched and written about Egyptian, Greek, Roman, medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, early modern, modern, postmodern, and contemporary architectures, and Hermetic, Platonic, Aristotelian, Neoplatonic, Peripatetic, Scholastic, Idealist, Romantic, and Deconstructionist philosophies, and Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis.
Books Written
Unconscious Thought in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015
Unconscious Thought in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis explores concepts throughout the history of philosophy that suggest the possibility of unconscious thought and lay the foundation for ideas of unconscious thought in modern philosophy and psychoanalysis. The book considers the workings of unconscious thought, and the role that unconscious thought plays in thinking, language, perception, and human identity. The focus is on the metaphysical and philosophical concepts of unconscious thought, as opposed to the empirical or scientific phenomenon of "the unconscious," and it is argued that these metaphysical concepts still played an important role in the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. With chapters drawing on a wide range of philosophers from Plotinus to Freud and Lacan, Unconscious Thought in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis casts an original and thought-provoking perspective on the relation between unconscious thought and conscious thought, different kinds of thinking, and the relation between thinking and perceiving.
Chapters: 1. Plotinus: The First Philosopher of the Unconscious; Imagination and unconscious thought; Art and unconscious thought; 2. The Peripatetics and Unconscious Thought; Alexander of Aphrodisias; Themistius; Alfarabi; Avicenna; 3. The Active Intellect of Averroes; Averroes and Plotinus; Averroes and Grosseteste; 4. Robert Grosseteste: Imagination and Unconscious Thought; 5. Unconscious Thought in the Philosophy of Immanuel Kant; The Kantian imagination; Critique of Pure Reason; Critique of Judgment; 6. Unconscious Thought in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Philosophies; Wolff, Baumgarten, Sulzer, Platner; Schelling; Hegel; Herbart; Carus and Fechner; Hartmann and Lipps; 7. Unconscious Thought in Freud; 8. Unconscious Thought in Lacan; Lacan and Plotinus.
The Splendor of English Gothic Architecture, London: Parkstone, 2013 (ebook), 2020
This book explains and celebrates the splendor and variety of English churches and cathedrals, which have a major place in medieval architecture. The English Gothic style developed somewhat later than in France, but rapidly developed its own architectural and ornamental codes. The book classifies English Gothic architecture in four principal stages: the early English Gothic, the decorated, the curvilinear, and the perpendicular Gothic. Several photographs of these architectural testimonies allow us to understand the whole originality of Britain during the Gothic era: in Canterbury, Wells, Lincoln, York, Salisbury, and many more. The English Gothic architecture is a poetic one, speaking both to the senses and spirit. The medieval churches and cathedrals of England collectively provide one of the richest architectural experiences in the world.
The Contradiction Between Form and Function in Architecture, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2013
The purpose of this book is to show how the contradiction between form and function has played an important role in architecture throughout history, allowing architecture to be a form of artistic expression and a communicator of ideas about human identity. Continuing the themes that have been addressed in The Humanities in Architectural Design and The Cultural Role of Architecture, this book stresses the humanistic role of architecture in culture. The role of the terms "form" and "function" are analyzed throughout the history of architecture and architectural theory, from Vitruvius to the present, with particular emphasis on twentieth-century functionalism. Historical examples are given from Ancient, Classical, Islamic, Christian, Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance, Mannerist, and Neoclassical architecture, and from movements in the twentieth century to the present. In addition philosophical issues such as lineamenti, Vorstellung, différance, dream construction, deep structure and surface structure, topology theory, self-generation, and immanence are explored in relation to the compositions and writings of architects throughout history. This book contributes to the project of re-establishing architecture as a humanistic discipline, to re-establish an emphasis on the expression of ideas, and on the ethical role of architecture to engage the intellect of the observer and to represent human identity.
Architecture as Cosmology: Lincoln Cathedral and English Gothic Architecture, New York: Peter Lang, 2011
The purpose of the book is to show how the forms of English Gothic architecture are related to medieval cosmologies, focusing on the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral and the cosmologies of Robert Grosseteste. The book illustrates the extent of the influence of Lincoln Cathedral on the development of English Gothic architecture. The book examines the precedents, interpretations, and influences of the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral. The book analyzes the origin and development of the architectural forms, which were to a great extent unprecedented when they appeared at Lincoln. The architecture is seen as a text of the philosophy, cosmology, and theology of medieval English culture.
Robert Grosseteste: Philosophy of Intellect and Vision, Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag, 2010
The purpose of the book is to illustrate how the philosophies of Grosseteste are rooted in Platonic, Aristotelian, Neoplatonic and Peripatetic philosophies, and to show how Grosseteste made important contributions to theories of intellect and vision. The book aims to contribute to the importance of Grosseteste in the history of philosophy, and to establish groundwork for further development in these two areas of philosophy, to contribute to contemporary philosophy. Emphasis is placed on the relation between Grosseteste's philosophies and previous influences (classical: Plato, Aristotle, Euclid; Greek commentators on Aristotle: Alexander of Aphrodisias, Themistius; Arabic commentators on Aristotle: Alfarabi, Avicenna, Averroes; and the Neoplatonic tradition: Plotinus, Proclus, Pseudo-Dionysius), as well as their relation to subsequent philosophies in the middle ages, and the Renaissance to the twentieth century. The philosophies are also considered in relation to the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral.
Architecture and Psychoanalysis: Peter Eisenman and Jacques Lacan, New York: Peter Lang, 2006
The purpose of the book is to show how the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan can be applied to architecture, focusing on the architecture of Peter Eisenman.There are extended discussions of the thought of figures such as Ferdinand de Saussure and Jacques Derrida, and the work of architects such as Leon Battista Alberti, Francesco Borromini, Giuseppe Terragni, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Concepts analyzed in relation to architecture include the signifier and signified in Structural Linguistics, deep structure and surface structure,differance in Deconstruction; latent content and manifest content in the dream work of Freud, as well as condensation and displacement, picture thinking and image making; Lacanian concepts of the anchoring point and sliding in language, the mirror stage, ego formation, the matrix and mechanisms of language, and primordial perception. Concepts of Eisenman for architecture which are analyzed include apperception, scaling, decomposition, folding, blurring, the figural, the interstitial, and interiority.
Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Spirit: From Plotinus to Schelling and Hegel, New York: Peter Lang, 2005
The purpose of the book is to show the roots of the aesthetics of Hegel and Schelling in the thought of Plotinus, and to show the importance of the aesthetics in artistic production. The book describes the Platonic bases of the aesthetics of Plotinus, and the Plotinian bases of the aesthetics of Schelling and Hegel in the Philosophy of Spirit, Identity Philosophy (the relation between intellect and nature), and Transcendental Idealism. The book explores the concept of art as philosophy, as a product of mind, and as an instrument of intellect in the relation between reason and perception. Particular concepts analyzed include the dialectics of universal and particular, subjective and objective, consciousness and self-consciousness, thought and matter in representation (Darstellung), and being-in-itself (Ansich) and being-for-self (Fursich), as they are manifest in artistic representation.
Chapters: 1. Introduction; 2. The Symposium and the Aesthetics of Plotinus; 3. The Aesthetics of Schelling: The Philosophy of Art; Bruno, or On the Natural and the Divine Principle of Things; System of Transcendental Idealism; 4. Plotinian Hypostases in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit; 5. The Aesthetics of Hegel: Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics; Phenomenology of Spirit; Philosophy of Mind; 6. Architecture and the Philosophy of Spirit.
Platonic Architectonics: Platonic Philosophies and the Visual Arts, New York: Peter Lang, 2004
The purpose of the book is to illustrate the important role that Platonic philosophies have played in a variety of art and architectural production from the fourth to the twentieth centuries. There arechapters on Anaximander, Plato, Plotinus, Proclus, Cusanus, Leon Battista Alberti, Piero della Francesca, Paul Cezanne, the Cubists and Deconstructivists. Interpretations of philosophical texts, artistic treatises, and works of art and architecture in Western culture are presented as they are related to Platonic and Neoplatonic philosophies. Philosophical concepts examined include the apeiron, arche, chora, cosmos, Idea, intellectus divinus, implicato/explicato, coincidentia oppositorum, Intellectual Principle, the Other, the heterogeneous, and deep structure, in relation to artistic concepts such as perspectiva naturalis/artificialis, costruzione leggitima, scenographia, concinnitas, disegno, commensuratio, harmonic proportions, transformational relationships, spacing, and dislocation.
Architectural Forms and Philosophical Structures, New York: Peter Lang, 2003
The purpose of the book is to show how a variety of architectural forms are related to philosophical structures, and how architectural theory is rooted in philosophy. There are chapters on Egypt, Archaic Greece, Francesco Borromini, Guarino Guarini and Bernardo Vittone, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Giambattista Piranesi, the Gothic Romance, Jacques Lacan and Roger Caillois, Sigmund Freud and The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Georges Bataille and Frederick Kiesler, and The Body in the Theory of Making. The book examines such philosophical concepts as the Ennead and the zodiac, numerology and cosmology, Hermeticism and Neoplatonism, the tetractys, circuitus spiritualis, Celestial Hierarchies, complicato/explicato, coincidentia oppositorum, Structural Rationalism, the sublime, the unconscious, dream images, psychophysiological space, psychasthenia, the informe, the gaze, the libido, optical theory, and the heterogeneous, in relation to architectural design.
Chapters: 1. Introduction; 2. Architecture and Cosmology in Ancient Egypt; 3. Architecture and Cosmology in Ancient Greece; 4. Francesco Borromini and the Construction of Meaning; 5. Guarino Guarini and Bernardo Vittone; 6. Leibniz and the Baroque; 7. The Psychological Architecture of Piranesi; 8. Architecture of the Unconscious in the Gothic Romance; 9. The Structure of Psychophysiological Space; 10. Sigmund Freud and The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari; 11. Georges Bataille and Frederick Kiesler; 12. The Laceration of the Body
The Relation Between Architectural Forms and Philosophical Structures in the Work of Francesco Borromini in Seventeenth-Century Rome
Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2002
The purpose of the book is to show how Borromini's architectural forms are related to philosophical structures, and how Borromini's architecture is a catechism of the philosophies of its culture, in a culmination of classical and renaissance ideas. The analysis includes a historical reconstruction of the setting of seventeenth-century Rome and an examination of drawings and built work in relation to published diagrams and essays, which were translated by Borromini into geometries and architectural forms. Buildings examined include San Carlo alle Fontane, Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, and the Oratorio di San Filippo Neri. Philosophies include those of Nicolas Cusanus, Marsilio Ficino, and Athanasius Kircher.
Chapters: 1. Renaissance Precedent: Leon Battista Alberti; 2. The Structure of the Cosmos in the Baroque; 3. The Neoplatonic Idea at the Accademia di San Luca; 4. Syncretism and Architectural Syntax; 5. The Structuring of the Conceptual Process; 6. Athanasius Kircher and Hermeticism; 7. Esoteric Symbols of Hermetic and Neoplatonic Philosophy; 8. Light, Vision and Numerology; 9. The Transmutation of Geometries; 10. Neoplatonic Philosophy; 11. Presocratic Origins
History and Culture in Italy, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2003
An introductory survey of history and culture in Italy, based on classes, lectures and tours in Italy over the course of four years. The survey includes personal experience, and descriptions of significant figures in politics, literature, philosophy and the arts.
Chapters: 1. Giordano Bruno and Intellectual Rebellion; 2. Venice, Vicenza and Milan; 3. Paolo Portoghesi: Borromini and Postmodernism; 4. Mythological Origins in Crete and the Peloponnese; 5. Giuseppe Mazzini and the Risorgimento; 6. Baroque Architecture in Turin; 7. Primo Levi and Post-Holocaust Identity; 8. Antonio Gramsci and Marxist Cultural Theory; 9. Vienna and the Origins of Modernism; 10. Prague: Creativity and the Subconscious; 11. Giovanni Macchia: Sensuality and Modern Life; 12. Futurism and the Obsession with Speed; 13. Calcio and Astrology in Modern Italy; 14. Silvio Berlusconi and Capitalist Politics; 15. Life as Spectacle; 16. Calcata: A Bohemian Alternative; 17. Franco Archibugi and the Italian Language; 18. Campo Marzio: The Heart of Rome; 19. Genoa and the French Riviera; 20. Capri and Anacapri; 21. Thomas Aquinas and the Great Synthesis; 22. Lorenzo Valla: Philology and Textual Criticism; 23. Tommaso Campanella: Political Revolt and Utopia; 24. Giambattista Vico and the Social Sciences; 25. Benedetto Croce and the Philosophy of Spirit; 26. Archetypes for Mythology and Christianity in Egypt; 27. Olympia: The Greek Arcadia; 28. The Art Scene in Rome; 29. The Villa Farnesina; 30. Seneca and Stoicism; 31. Constantine and Christianity; 32. Cicero and the Art of Oration; 33. Piazza San Pietro and the Arms of the Church; 34. Classical Philosophy in the Vatican; 35. Borromini: Humanism and Neoplatonism; 36. The Cornaro Chapel: Spiritual and Physical Ecstasy; 37. Pompeii and the Villa of the Mysteries; 38. Plotinus: Plato and the Ennead; 39. Saint Francis of Assisi and the Universal Spirit; 40. Siena: The Renaissance that Might Have Been; 41. Saint Augustine and the Christian Community; 42. Leon Battista Alberti and the Modern Architect; 43. The City of Florence; 44. Michelangelo: Expression and Rebellion; 45. The Platonic Academy; 46. Sandro Botticelli and Classical Mythology; 47. Pisa: Monuments to an Empire; 48. Galileo and the Birth of Science; 49. Umberto Eco and the Importance of Semiotics; 50. Andrea Palladio and Humanist Architecture; 51. Byzantine Mosaics in Ravenna; 52. Giuseppe Terragni: Architecture and Politics; 53. Athens and Aix-en-Provence
Books Edited
Lacan + Architecture, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024 (with Francesco Proto)
This book seeks to revise and revive architectural theory through psychoanalysis as well as to apply psychoanalytic theory to architecture. Its authors argue for Lacan’s central importance for a comprehensive theory of building and suggest how architectural theory might offer new resources for psychoanalytic theorists. They address both the perceived crisis in the contemporary state of architecture and architectural theory and crises in society at large, including political and economic fracture and instability and threats to mental health and well-being. It offers fresh insights to architects, architectural educators and practitioners, scholars of psychoanalysis, and anyone interested in the human condition in relation to the built environment. Edited with Francesco Proto, with essays by Don Kunze, Lorens Holm, Tim Martin, Angie Voela, Andrew Payne, and John Shannon Hendrix
Architecture and the Unconscious, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2016 (with Lorens Holm)
There are a number of recent texts that draw on psychoanalytic theory as an interpretative approach for understanding architecture, or that use the formal and social logics of architecture for understanding the psyche. But there remains work to be done in bringing what largely amounts to a series of independent voices, into a discourse that is greater than the sum of its parts, in the way that, say, the architect Peter Eisenman was able to do with the architecture of deconstruction or that the historian Manfredo Tafuri was able to do with the Marxist critique of architecture. The discourse of the present volume focuses specifically for the first time on the subject of the unconscious in relation to the design, perception, and understanding of architecture. It brings together an international group of contributors, who provide informed and varied points of view on the role of the unconscious in architectural design and theory and, in doing so, expand architectural theory to unexplored areas, enriching architecture in relation to the humanities. The book explores how architecture engages dreams, desires, imagination, memory, and emotions, how architecture can appeal to a broader scope of human experience and identity. Beginning by examining the historical development of the engagement of the unconscious in architectural discourse, and the current and historical, theoretical and practical, intersections of architecture and psychoanalysis, the volume also analyses the city and the urban condition. Edited with Lorens Holm, with essays by Andrew Ballantyne, Kati Blom, Hugh Campbell, Emma Cheatle, Gordana Korolija Fontana-Giusti, John Shannon Hendrix, Lorens Holm, Stephen Kite, Christina Malathouni, Timothy D. Martin, Francesco Proto, Jane Rendell, Nikos Sideris, and Alla G. Vronskaya.
Bishop Robert Grosseteste and Lincoln Cathedral: Tracing Relationships between Medieval Concepts of Order and Built Form, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2014
The purpose of the book is to understand medieval architecture in relation to medieval society, values, philosophy and religion, focusing on Robert Grosseteste and Lincoln Cathedral. The architecture and topography of Lincoln Cathedral are examined in their cultural contexts, in relation to scholastic philosophy, science and cosmology, and medieval ideas about light and geometry, as highlighted in the writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln Cathedral in the thirteenth century. The book explores Grosseteste's ideas in the broader context of medieval and renaissance cosmologies, optics and perspective, natural philosophy and experimental science, along with issues such as the policies of the bishop in governance and education. The book contributes to the broader understanding of the relations between architecture and cultural issues. Edited with Nicholas Temple and Christian Frost, with essays by Nicholas Bennett, Nicholas Temple, Cecilia Panti, Jack Cunningham, John Shannon Hendrix, Noe Badillo, Dalibor Vesely, Christian Frost and Allan Doig.
The Cultural Role of Architecture, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2012
The purpose of the book is to demonstrate the important role that architecture plays in cultural expression and identity, and to show the extent to which architecture is a humanistic discipline. The book examines the historical role of the cultural in architectural production and expression, looking at meaning and communication, tracing the formations of cultural identities. Chapters written by international academics in history, theory and philosophy of architecture, examine how different modes of representation throughout history have drawn profound meanings from cultural practices and beliefs. Edited with Paul Emmons and Jane Lomholt, essays by Nicholas Temple, Dagmar Weston, Chris Siwicki, Liana De Girolami Cheney, Noé Badillo, Jane Lomholt, Louise Pelletier, Cristina Gonzalez-Longo, Paul Emmons, Marco Frascari, Chris Hay, Harry Charrington, Jan Frohburg, Alexandra Stara, Gerald Adler, John Hendrix, Alberto Pérez-Gómez, Nikolaos-Ion Terzoglou, Ashraf Salama, Jason Crow, Mark Cannata, Nader El-Bizri.
Renaissance Theories of Vision, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2010
The purpose of the book is to show how renaissance works of art were based on aesthetic theories focusing on theories of vision, which were derived from classical, medieval, and renaissance philosophies. How are processes of vision, perception, and sensation conceived in the Renaissance? How are those conceptions made manifest in the arts? The essays in this volume address these and similar questions to establish important theoretical and philosophical bases for artistic production in the Renaissance and beyond. The essays also attend to the views of historically significant writers from the classical period to the eighteenth century, including Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, St. Augustine, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), Ibn Sahl, Marsilio Ficino, Nicholas of Cusa, Leon Battista Alberti, Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Gregorio Comanini, John Davies, Rene Descartes, Samuel van Hoogstraten, and George Berkeley. Contributors scrutinize and illustrate the effect of changing and evolving ideas of intellectual and physical vision on artistic practice in Florence, Rome, Venice, England, Austria, and the Netherlands. The artists whose works and practices are discussed include Fra Angelico, Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, Filippino Lippi, Giovanni Bellini, Raphael, Parmigianino, Titian, Bronzino, Johannes Gumpp, and Rembrandt van Rijn. Taken together, the essays provide the reader with a fresh perspective on the intellectual confluence between art, science, philosophy, and literature across Renaissance Europe. Edited with Charles H. Carman, essays by Nader El-Bizri, Charles H. Carman, Allie Terry, Amy R. Bloch, John Hendrix, Liana De Girolami Cheney, Christian Kleinbub, Nicholas Temple, Thijs Weststeijn, Faye Tudor, Alice Crawford Berghof.
Neoplatonic Aesthetics: Music, Literature and the Visual Arts, New York: Peter Lang, 2004
The purpose of the book is to show that there is such a thing as Neoplatonic aesthetics, and that it plays an important role in a variety of artforms in the history of Western culture. The essays are from a conference organized in Florence with Liana De Girolami Cheney, examining the role of Neoplatonic aesthetics in the arts. There are chapters by contributors on Sufism, Proclus, Gioseffe Zarlino, Platonic Forms, Plotinus, Stephen MacKenna, Iris Murdoch, Fra Angelico, Leon Battista Alberti, Sandro Botticelli, Michelangelo, Giorgio Vasari, Denman Ross, and Postmodern theory.
Neoplatonism and the Arts, Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2002
The purpose of the book is to illustrate the important role that Neoplatonism has played in artistic production in a variety of art forms. The essays are from a conference organized in Rome with Liana De Girolami Cheney, examining the role that Neoplatonism has played in artistic production in Italy. There are chapters by contributors on Georges Gemistos-Plethon, Marsilio Ficino, Plato, Michelangelo, El Greco, Francesco Borromini and Athanasius Kircher, The Myth of Hercules, Sandro Botticelli, Dante, Giorgio Vasari, Francesco Clemente and Giovanni Maccia.
Articles
“Plotinus and the Artistic Imagination,” in The Legacy of Neoplatonic Philosophy: From Ancient Aesthetics to 20th-Century Film, ed. Gina Zavota, London: Bloomsbury, 2024.
“The Timaeus and Durham Cathedral,” in The Legacy of Plato’s Timaeus: Cosmology, Music, Medicine, and Architecture from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century,
ed. Jacomien Prins and Edmund Thomas, Leiden: Brill, 2024.
"A Subjectless Architecture," in Lacan + Architecture, ed. John Shannon Hendrix and Francesco Proto, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024.
"The Philosophical Unconscious," in Vestigia, Online Journal of the International Network of Psychoanalytic Practices," Volume 3, Issue 2, December 2022.
"The Vorstellungsreprasentanz," in Vestigia, Online Journal of the International Network of Psychoanalytic Practices, " Volume 3, Issue 1, December 2021.
"The Architectural Other," in Architecture and Culture, London: Routledge, 2020.
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ZHCQHP4YGXZY8IIWDCBX/full?target=10.1080/20507828.2020.1789942
"Apophatic theology in baroque iconography," in Metabasis, Online International Journal of Philosophy, Vol. XIV, No. 28, November 2019.
http://www.metabasis.it/articoli/28/28_Hendrix.pdf
"The deep structure of San Carlino," in Adil Mansure and Skender Luarasi (eds.), Finding San Carlino: Collected Perspectives on the Geometry of the Baroque, London and
New York: Routledge, 2019.
"The persistence of the natura naturans from classical architecture," in Nicholas Temple, Andrzej Piotrowski and Juan Manuel Heredia (eds.), The Routledge Handbook on the
Reception of Classical Architecture, New York and London: Routledge, 2019.
"Renaissance Aesthetics and Mathematics," in Ingrid Alexander-Skipnes, ed., Visual Culture and Mathematics in the Early Modern Period, New York: Routledge, 2017.
"Celestial Vaults in English Gothic Architecture," in Nicholas Campion, ed., Heavenly Discourses, Lampeter, Wales: Sophia Centre Press, 2016.
"Architecture and the Kantian Unconscious," in John Shannon Hendrix and Lorens Eyan Holm (eds), Architecture and the Unconscious, Ashgate/Routledge, 2016.
"The dialectics of form and function in architectural aesthetics," in Rivista di Estetica 58 (1, 2015), ed. Elisabetta Di Stefano and Francesco Vitale, Turin: Labont, 2015.
"Architecture and Intellectual Development," in Kyriaki Tsoukala, Nikolaos-Ion Terzoglou, Charikleia Pantelidou (eds), Intersections of Space and Ethos, London and New York:
Routledge, 2015.
"The Enflamed Heart: Architecture and Iconology," in Giuseppe Cascione, ed., Iconocrazia, No. 6, Bari: Universita di Bari "Aldo Moro," 2014.
"The Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral and the Cosmologies of Bishop Grosseteste," in Nicholas Temple, John Shannon Hendrix, and Christian Frost (eds.), Bishop Robert
Grosseteste and Lincoln Cathedral: Tracing Relationships between Medieval Concepts of Order and Built Form, Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2014.
"Palimpsest," in Angela Bartram, Nader El-Bizri and Douglas Gittens (eds.), Recto Verso: Redefining the Sketchbook, Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2014.
"Psychoanalysis and Identity in Architecture," in Soumyen Bandyopadhyay and Guillermo Garma Montiel (eds.), The Territories of Identity: Architecture in the Age of Evolving
Globalisation, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2013.
“The Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral and the Institution of Justice,” in Jonathan Simon, Nicholas Temple, and Renée Tobe (eds.), Architecture and Justice: Judicial Meanings in the
Public Realm, Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2013.
“Architecture and Dream Construction,” in Elizabeth Danze and Stephen Sonnenberg (eds.), Space and Psyche, Austin: Center for American Architecture and Design, 2013.
“Theorizing a Contradiction Between Form and Function in Architecture,” in Raymond Quek, ed., The Expertise of Architecture and Its History, Pretoria: South African Journal of Art
History, Vol. 27, No. 1, 2012.
"Architecture and Intellectual Development," Intersections of Ethos and Space, Nikolaos-Ion Terzoglou ed., Thessaloniki: Epikendro Editions, 2012 (in Greek)
"The Necessity of Architecture," The Cultural Role of Architecture, Routledge, 2012.
"Architecture as the Psyche of a Culture," The Cultural Role of Architecture, Routledge, 2012.
"Neoplatonic Influence in the Writings of Robert Grosseteste," Conversations Platonic and Neoplatonic: Intellect, Soul, and Nature, Academia Verlag, 2011.
"Perception as a Function of Desire in the Renaissance," Renaissance Theories of Vision, Ashgate, 2011.
"Neoplatonism at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome," The Humanities in Architectural Design, Routledge, 2010.
"The Return of Allegory to Architecture," Changing Territories, New Cartographies, ACSA Conference Proceedings, 2004.
"Architecture and the Philosophy of Spirit," Spirit, ACSA Conference Proceedings, 2004.
"Introduction," "The Neoplatonic Aesthetics of Leon Battista Alberti," Neoplatonic Aesthetics: Music, Literature, and the Visual Arts, Peter Lang, 2004.
"Gae Aulenti," "Leonardo Benevolo," "Vittorio Gregotti," "Pier Luigi Nervi," "Paolo Portoghesi," Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture, New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004.
"Introduction," "Francesco Borromini and Athanasius Kircher," "Francesco Clemente and Giovanni Macchia," Neoplatonism and the Arts, Edwin Mellen, 2002.
"Neoplatonism in the Design of Baroque Architecture," Neoplatonism and Western Aesthetics, Aphrodite Alexandrakis ed., Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001.
"Symbols in the Designs of Francesco Borromini," Imaging Humanity, John Casey ed., Lafayette, IN: Bordighera Press, 2001.
"Ascesa attraverso gerarchie neoplatoniche in San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane," Francesco Borromini, Atti del convegno internazionale, Milano: Electa, 2000.
"Neoplatonic Philosophy and Roman Baroque Architecture," European Studies Journal, 1999.
"The Body in the Theory of Making," Triangulating the Bodies of Architecture, ACSA Conference Proceedings, 1996.
Reviews
Ludwig Volkmann, Hieroglyph, Emblem, and Renaissance Pictography, in Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 75, No. 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
Joost Keiser, The Realism of Piero della Francesca, in Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 72, No. 4, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Charles H. Carman, Leon Battista Alberti and Nicholas Cusanus: Towards an Epistemology of Vision for Italian Renaissance Art and Culture, in History of Humanities, Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2017.
Karl Giehlow, The Humanist Interpretation of Hieroglyphs in the Allegorical Studies of the Renaissance: With a Focus on the Triumphal Arch of Maximilian I, in Renaissance
Quarterly, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016.
James R. Banker, Documenti fondamentali per la conoscenza della vita e dell’arte di Piero della Francesca, in Renaissance Quarterly, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014.
Keith Christiansen, ed., Piero della Francesca: Personal Encounters, in Renaissance Quarterly, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014.
Presentations
"Piero della Francesca: Geometry and Optics," International society for Neoplatonic Studies, Trinity College Dublin, 2024.
"Plotinus and the Transcendental Aesthetic of Kant," Foro di Studi Avanzati, Rome, 2023.
"Metapsychology and Metaphysics of the Self," Foro di Studi Avanzati, Rome, 2022.
"The Architectural Other," Architectural Humanities Research Association," University of Dundee, 2019.
"Apophatic Theology in Baroque Iconography," Foro di Studi Avanzati, Rome, 2019.
"The Unconscious in Architecture," A Arquitetura e o Inconsciente, Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon, 2018.
"Perceptions and Forms: Neoplatonism and Renaissance Architecture," Foro di Studi Avanzati, Rome, 2018.
"The Timaeus and Durham Cathedral," Conference on Fundamental Structures, Durham University, 2018.
"Plotinus and the Artistic Imagination," Foro di Studi Avanzati, Rome, 2017.
"Mannerist Details in Borromini's San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane," Renaissance Society of America Conference, Chicago, 2017.
"The Philosophical Unconscious," International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, Seattle University, 2016.
"Tropic Architecture," Renaissance Society of America, Humboldt University, Berlin, 2015.
"Architecture and Cosmology," Symposium on Lincoln Cathedral and Architectural Theory, University of Lincoln, 2015.
"Unconscious Thought in Peripatetic Philosophy," Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Fordham University, 2014.
"Plotinus: The First Philosopher of the Unconscious," International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, University of Lisbon, 2014.
"The Enflamed Heart: Architecture and Iconology," Renaissance Society of America, New York, 2014.
"Neoplatonism and English Gothic Architecture," International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, Cardiff, 2013.
"Philosophy of Intellect in the Long Commentary on the De anima of Averroes," Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Fordham University, 2012.
"Intellect and the Structuring of Reality in Plotinus and Averroes," International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, University of Cagliari, Sardinia, 2012.
"Topological Theory in Bioconstructivism," Theoretical Currents II: Architecture and Its Geographical Horizons, University of Lincoln, 2012.
"Alberti and Ficino," Renaissance Society of America, Washington DC, 2012.
"The Cosmology of Grosseteste and the Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral," Symposium on Architecture as Cosmology: Lincoln Cathedral and Bishop Robert Grosseteste (1235-53),
Lincoln Cathedral Conference Centre, 2012.
"Neoplatonism in the Liber Naturalis and Shifa: De anima or Metaphysica of Avicenna (Ibn Sina)," Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Fordham, 2011.
"Celestial Vaults in English Gothic Architecture," Conference on Heavenly Discourses, University of Bristol, 2011.
"Leon Battista Alberti and the Concept of Lineament," Conference on Iconology, University of Vienna, 2011.
"Neoplatonism in the Risala (De intellectu) of Alfarabi," International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, Atlanta, 2011.
"Palimpsest," Conference on the Sketchbook, University of Lincoln, 2011.
"Lincoln Cathedral: A Work of Art," Artistic Manifestations in Architecture, University of Massachusetts at Lowell, 2010.
"The Geometries of Robert Grosseteste and the Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral," Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Fordham University, 2010.
"Architecture as the Psyche of a Culture," The Cultural Role of Architecture, University of Lincoln, 2010.
"Lincoln Cathedral and the Development of English Gothic Architecture," Lincoln Academy, 2009.
"The Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral and the Institution of Justice," University of Lincoln, 2009.
"The Philosophy of Vision of Robert Grosseteste," Fordham University, 2009.
"Psychoanalysis and Identity in Architecture," Nottingham Trent University, 2009.
"Origins of English Gothic Architecture at Lincoln," University of Lincoln, 2008.
"The Philosophy of Intellect of Robert Grosseteste," Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Fordham University, 2008.
"Neoplatonic Influence in the Writings of Robert Grosseteste," International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, New Orleans, 2008.
"Perception as a Function of Desire in the Renaissance," Renaissance Society of America, Chicago, 2008.
"Humanism and Disegno: Neoplatonism at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome," Humanities in Design Creativity, University of Lincoln, UK, 2007.
"Perception and Language in Plotinus," Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Fordham University, 2007.
"Architecture and Dream Construction," Space and Mind, University of Texas, Austin, 2007.
"Architecture and Psychoanalysis in the Seventeenth Century," Imaginary Cities, Penn State University, 2007.
"Neoplatonism and Perspectival Construction," Renaissance Society of America, Miami, 2007.
"Neoplatonism and Psychoanalysis: Plotinus and Lacan," Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Fordham University, 2006.
"Architecture and Psychoanalysis," ACSA, Laval University, Quebec, 2006.
"Neoplatonic Bases of Hegelian Aesthetics," International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, Laval University, Quebec, 2006.
"Plato and Deconstruction: The Chora and In-Between," Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Fordham University, 2005.
"The Symposium and the Aesthetics of Plotinus," International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, New Orleans, 2005.
"Piero della Francesca's Theory of Perception," Renaissance Society of America, University of Cambridge, UK, 2005.
"The Return of Allegory to Architecture," ACSA, Syracuse University, 2004.
"Architecture and the Philosophy of Spirit," ACSA, Judson College, 2004.
"The Plan of Borromini's San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane," Panel on Baroque Architecture, CUNY Graduate Center, 2004.
"The Intellectual Principle of Plotinus and Hegelian Self-Consciousness," Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Fordham University, 2004.
"Platonic Architectonics: Platonic Philosophy and Architecture," Architecture and Philosophy, University of Leeds, UK, 2004.
"Plotinian Hypostases in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit," International Society of Neoplatonic Studies, University of Liverpool, UK, 2004.
"Anaximander and Plotinus," Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Fordham University, 2003.
"The Neoplatonic Aesthetics of Leon Battista Alberti," Neoplatonic Aesthetics, Institute of Fine and Liberal Arts, Florence, 2003.
"Anaximander and Plato," Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York, 2003.
"Greek Revival Architecture in Rhode Island," Styles in New England Architecture, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, 2002.
"Nicolas Cusanus and the Transmutation of Geometries," International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, University of Maine, 2002.
"The Platonic Geometries of Cezanne," Mediterranean Studies Association, Aix-en-Provence, France, 2001.
"Plato and Natural Law," Plato and Law, University of Athens, Greece, 2001.
"Ascesa attraverso gerarchie neoplatoniche in San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane," Borromini and the Baroque Universe, Rome, 2000.
"Francesco Borromini and Athanasius Kircher," Neoplatonism and the Arts in Italy, American University in Rome, 2000.
"Philosophical Traditions in Contemporary Italian Painting," Neoplatonism and the Arts in Italy, American University in Rome, 2000.
"The Construction of an Ethical Rationality in Plato's Laws," Olympic Center, Olympia, Greece,1999.
"Designs of Francesco Borromini," Imaging Humanites, Loyola University in Rome,1999.
"Baroque Aesthetics," Neoplatonism and Western Aesthetics, University of Crete,1998.
"Baroque Architecture and Neoplatonic Philosophy," Renaissance Studies, University of Miami, 1998.
"The Ethics of Transgression in Aesthetic Ideologies," Mythology and Ethics, Cornell University, 1997.
"Philosophical Structures in Architecture," Architectural Theory and Practice, University of Pennsylvania, 1997.
"Psychoanalysis and Spatial Construction," Psychoanalysis and Cultural Studies, University of Rochester, 1997.
"Social Construction and the Unconscious," Transporting Cultures, Binghamton University, 1997.
"The Body in the Theory of Making," ACSA, Buffalo, 1996.
Classes Taught
Roger Williams University
Fall 2024: Special Topics: Borromini, History of Art and Architecture I (2)
Summer 2024: Modern Architecture, Theory of Architecture
Spring 2024: Modern Architecture, Classical Art and Architecture,
History of Art and Architecture I (3 sections)
Fall 2023: Medieval Art and Architecture, History of Art and Architecture I & II
Summer 2023: Theory of Architecture, History of Art and Architecture II,
Modern Architecture, History of Art and Architecture I
Spring 2023: Special Topics: Borromini, Medieval Art and Architecture,
History of Art and Architecture I
Fall 2022: Special Topics: Art, Architecture, and Philosophy, Classical
Art and Architecture, History of Art and Architecture I
Spring 2022: Modern Architecture, Medieval Art and Architecture,
History of Art and Architecture II
Fall 2021: Theory of Architecture (2), Baroque Art and Architecture
Summer 2021: Theory of Architecture, Modern Architecture,
History of Art and Architecture II
Spring 2021: Modern Architecture, Medieval Art and Architecture,
Special Topics: Borromini
Fall 2020: Theory of Architecture, Classical Art and Architecture,
History of Art and Architecture I
Summer 2020: Theory of Architecture, Modern Architecture
Spring 2020: Special Topics: Art, Architecture, and Philosophy, History of
Art and Architecture II (2)
Fall 2019: History of American Architecture, Medieval Art and Architecture,
History of Art and Architecture I
Spring 2019: Theory of Architecture, Special Topics: Borromini,
History of Art and Architecture I
Fall 2018: Baroque Art and Architecture, Classical Art and Architecture,
History of Art and Architecture I
Summer 2018: Theory of Architecture
Spring 2018: Theory of Architecture, Modern Architecture, Classical Art and
Architecture
Fall 2017: Medieval Art and Architecture, History of Art and Architecture I (2)
Summer 2017: Theory of Architecture
Spring 2017: Modern Architecture, American Vernacular Architecture,
History of Art and Architecture II
Fall 2016: Modern Architecture, Classical Art and Architecture, History
of Art and Architecture I
Summer 2016: Theory of Architecture, History of Art and Architecture I & II
Spring 2016: Modern Architecture, Medieval Art and Architecture
Fall 2015: Modern Architecture, History of Art and Architecture I & II
Summer 2015: Theory of Architecture, Special Topics:
Borromini
Spring 2015: Theory of Architecture, Modern Architecture,
Special Topics: Borromini
Fall 2014: Modern Architecture, Aesthetics
Summer 2014: Theory of Architecture, Modern Architecture,
History of Art and Architecture I & II
Spring 2014: Theory of Architecture, Renaissance Architecture,
Theory and Methods of Art and Architectural History
Fall 2013: History of Art and Architecture I, Aesthetics,
Special Topics: Art, Architecture and Philosophy
Summer 2013: Theory of Architecture, Modern Architecture,
History of Art and Architecture I & II
Spring 2013: Theory of Architecture, Modern Architecture,
Medieval Art and Architecture
Fall 2012: Theory of Architecture, Modern Architecture,
History of Art and Architecture I
Summer 2012: Theory of Architecture
Spring 2012: Theory of Architecture, Medieval Art and Architecture,
Aesthetics
Fall 2011: History of Art and Architecture I, Aesthetics
Summer 2011: Modern Architecture I (18th-19th c.), History of Art
and Architecture II
Spring 2011: Classical Art and Architecture, Aesthetics
Fall 2010: Modern Art, History of Art and Architecture I
Spring 2010: Modern Architecture II, Classical Art and Architecture,
Aesthetics
Fall 2009: History of Art and Architecture I & II, Aesthetics
Fall 2008: History of Art and Architecture I, Aesthetics
Spring 2008: Theory of Architecture, History of Art and Architecture II
Fall 2007: History of Art and Architecture I, Aesthetics
Spring 2007: Theory of Architecture, History of Art and Architecture I,
Aesthetics
Summer 2006: History of Art and Architecture I & II
Spring 2006: Modern Architecture I (18th-19th c.), Architecture Theory
Seminar, Aesthetics
Fall 2005: Modern Architecture I (18th-19th c.), Classical Art and
Architecture, Aesthetics
Summer 2005: History of Art and Architecture I & II
Spring 2005: Theory of Architecture, Modern Architecture II (20th c.),
Medieval Art and Architecture, Aesthetics
Fall 2004: Second Year Architecture Design Studio
Summer 2004: History of Art and Architecture I & II
Spring 2004: Second Year Architecture Design Studio
Fall 2003: Second Year Architecture Design Studio, Thesis Preparation
Seminar, Classical Art and Architecture
Summer 2003: History of Art and Architecture I & II
Spring 2003: Theory of Architecture, Aesthetics, History of Art and
Architecture II
Fall 2002: Renaissance Architecture, Aesthetics, History of Art and
Architecture I
Summer 2002: Aesthetics, History of Art and Architecture I & II
Spring 2002: Modern Architecture II (20th c.), Classical Art and
Architecture, Renaissance Art and Architecture, Aesthetics,
History of Art and Architecture II
Fall 2001: Renaissance Architecture, Aesthetics, History of Art and
Architecture I
Summer 2001: History of Art and Architecture I & II
Summer 2000: History of Art and Architecture I & II
Providence College
Spring 2020: ARH 106 Art History Survey
Rhode Island School of Design
Spring 2010: Classical Art and Architecture
Spring 2009: Theory of Architecture, European Art
Spring 2008: Renaissance Architecture, European Art
Wintersession 2008-2010: Architecture and Psychoanalysis
Spring 2006: Modern Architecture (20th c.)
Wintersession 2004-2007: Renaissance Architecture
University of Connecticut
Fall 2007: Baroque Art, Modern Art
Fall 2006: Northern Renaissance Art, Italian Renaissance Art and
Architecture, Writing Seminar
Rhode Island College
Spring 2007: Baroque Art
Roger Williams University Rome Program
Spring 2001: History of the Architecture of Rome, History and Culture in Italy,
Theory of Architecture
Fall 2000: History of the Architecture of Rome, History and Culture in Italy,
Italian Rationalism
Spring 2000: History of the Architecture of Rome, Theory of Architecture
Fall 1999: History of the Architecture of Rome
University of Massachusetts Lowell in Rome
Winter Session 2001: Introduction to the Art and Architecture of Rome
John Cabot University (Rome)
Spring 2001: History of the Architecture of Rome
Fall 2000: History of the Architecture of Rome
Cl