Metaphors in Action: Early Modern Church Buildings as Spaces of Knowledge

Abstract

When a building copies or references a model, it becomes an analogous space. Regardless of how exactly the model is invoked, or whether the model ever existed, elements of the new building stand for an original that is not present, yet can be read, understood or remembered by means of these elements, their arrangement or use. If it is quite easy to accept that analogies of this kind exist, it is harder to determine how they are established. What defines the connexion between the building and its analogue? How is this connexion recognized or activated? On what does it depend — on the design of a building, its use, its descriptions or its context?