The Planning of Open Spaces in the City 
SI E N A 
FIG. 17 
S. Pietro alle scale 
FIG. 15 
S. Vigilio 
FIG. 19 
V. d. Abadia 
FIG. 20 
S. Maria di 
Provenzano 
in interminable right lines and squares of faultless 
regularity. Here are four squares in Siena [figs. 17, 
18, 19, 20]. Yet these departures from our modern 
ideas of symmetry do not distress us in execution; 
they appear natural. 1 here are sound optical 
reasons why these deviations from regular form, so 
obvious upon paper, escape our attention on the spot. 
The eye is disposed to disregard irregularities which 
are not forced upon it, and does not, even in the 
trained observer, calculate angles with exactitude. 
It is thus disposed to regard forms as more 
regular than they really are. 1 he old plans were 
FIG. 
23 
FIG. l 6 —MODENA 
Piazzas Reale and San Domenico 
FIG. 21—FLORENCE 
Piazza S. Maria Novella 
not conceived with drawing hoards and tee-squares; 
the builders did not, therefore, trouble about 
theoretical symmetry, but they realised in practice 
what actually caught the eye. 
Let us examine two well-known “places” and 
note the difference between their graphic rep¬ 
resentation and their real appearance. In the 
Piazza Santa-Maria Novella at Florence [Hg. 
21] the square has really five sides; hut as we 
see but three sides at once in reality and the 
angle formed by the other two is always at 
our hack, we conceive of it as having hut four 
sides. 1 he effects of perspective and the dif¬ 
ficulty of judging the actual angle formed by the 
sides render it difficult to estimate the true 
form. The Piazza dell’ Erbe at Verona [figs. 
22 and 23] is another example of unnoticed 
irregularity. Nothing is really more difficult 
than to reconstruct in memory the plan of an 
open space from a perspective view. 
1 will not trouble you with a disquisition on the 
laws of symmetry, and the reference of Vitruvius to 
the “ proportio quae Gnece avakoy'ia dicitur ” 
(III. i.). Sitte says bitterly, “The idea of symmetry 
is spreading in our time with the rapidity of an epi¬ 
demic. It is familiar to the least cultivated folk, 
and each thinks himself qualified to say his word in 
such nice questions of art as that of laying out cities. 
mm. 
t*+H—1—1—1—1—1—1— 1 —H-+- 
FIG. 22—VERONA 
Piazzas Erbe and Signoria 
FIG. 24 —MODENA 
I—Piazza Grande. II — Piazza della 
Torre. Ill—Piazza della 
Legua 
FIG. 26 
l — Piazza dei Signori. II—Pescheria. 
Ill — Piazza della Biava 
285 
