61perception endows this form with continuity, Leon Battista
Alberti referred to it as a dissolved > wall. As closed off as
it may seem when viewed at an angle, it opens up when we
draw close; as a wall, it is unapproachable. In contrast to
the closed wall, a row of columns functions like a > filter,
one that not only subdivides, but also expresses accessibility
(> arcade). Its further dynamic impact is based on the
repeated striving of each individual column. Their > row also
suggests continuous forward momentum; the alternation
between column and intercolumnar spacing accompanies and
rhythmicizes a processional route in a basilica, for example,
providing it with both stability and directionality. Despite
their immobility, the arrayed columns seem to respond to our
steps, ‘it seems as though they move with us, as though we
had awakened them to life’ (Boullée 1987, 74). This dynamic
effect is reinforced by the rhythm of light and shadow, by the
gradual increase and reduction of brightness that is a func-
tion of the roundness of the columns, and which produces the
effect of an undulating relief. Long rows of columns with
many units and the narrowest intervals between them lead
deep into the space and seem to increase its > size.
- When a room is densely filled with columns, moreover,
it seems unbounded, limitless. The impression of impenetrable
density is produced by the minimal intervals between col-
umns, especially when they are configured in staggered rows
(quincunx), and our gaze is unable to reach the boundaries
of the space. This arrangement, reinforced by the roundness
of the columns, invites us to penetrate the space in a curving
trajectory that leads around the columns. Generally speaking,
the type of movement adopted in a peristyle is a free, direc-
tionless > roaming even more so with larger intervals between
the columns, which offer a sense of > expansiveness in place
of impenetrability.
Alongside the columned porch (portico), the row of col-
umns that forms a ring around a building (peristasis), and the
framing of an interior courtyard by columns (peristyle), the