oa Rhythm and Architecture in Prague around 1400: Changing Architectural Paradigms at St. Vitus’s Lodge

In this contribution I focus on the relationship between rhythm, architecture, and music, especially around 1400. Medieval architecture and music are both grounded in the classical theory of proportion. In the sequence of the seven artes liberals, arithmetic and geometry-the arts associated with architecture-are placed just before music, forming the quadrivium along with astronomy. Proportion, order, and harmony play an essential role in both music and architecture. In medieval architecture, rhythm was the consequence of the use of classical theories of proportion with the application of constructive geometry, and is seen most clearly in monumental longitudinal spaces of basilicas where rows of piers or columns and vaulting shafts corresponding to bays form regular rhythm in the interior to which the same rhythm of windows and buttresses or flying buttresses corresponds on the exterior. The paradigm changes only when this regular rhythm is loosened and connected with a less rigid treatment of the existing tradition of cathedral construction as can be seen in St. Vitus’ Lodge in Prague, a project led by Peter Parler. In the article I visually present this moment of radically changed rhythm and order at the end of the fourteenth century in Prague and compare it to musical developments at that time.