ABSTRACT
A fundamental prerequisite for the consideration of spirited architecture is the Renaissance theory of animate painting and sculpture, propelled by the paragone between poetry and the visual arts. From the early Quattrocento, it is hardly possible to find any poetic description of a visual work that does not highlight its “life-like” qualities: epigrams on portraits which seem to speak or ekphrases about statues filled with life bridged the gap between words and images, putting them into direct competition. In these contexts, the revelation of anima (soul) and spirit is the common aspiration of the poet and the visual artist. To the credit of the artists, life-sized figural sculpture, in particular, seemed to be a remarkably “animate” man-made work.
