From drawing in the treatises to building in the construction sites: examples in Piemonte

The relationship between "thinking" and sketching out on paper the fortifications and tracing them "on the ground" and building them is as ancient as the demand itself to defend the territories. It is not possible to make a feature of this topic within the bibliographic treatises, even if the most synthetic one: I will just mention the studies on the fortifications of Alessandria, conducted by the present writer with other Authors (Comoli, Viglino, Amoretti, Fara, just to mention a few), begun in the early Nineties of last century and full of documentary and bibliographical information, to which I refer. Francesco Pollone's drawing “Nuovi progetti che si sono fatti ed eseguiti al Forte di Exilles dal Sig. Colonnello dei Ingigneri Conte Pinto” (1709 - AST, Ministero delle Finanze, Tipi, sez. II, N. 177/2) appears as an exemplary expression of the relationship between theories of Representation and constructive practices - with effective and soldierly pragmatism. The composition and visual design are produced with the utmost rigor and formal logic: the graphic layout is perfectly central, with two axes of symmetry, a horizontal one and a vertical one. At the ends of the vertical axis, two coats of arms: one at the bottom is marked in the dedication to "S.A.R le Duc de Savoje". At the top of the emblem, a cherub involved with the construction of geometric figures confirms the "divine" dimension of the discipline. In conclusion to these brief notes, it seems to be confirmed how much it is essential to read and to observe the representations of the project, from the conceived and “sketched out on” architecture to that “traced (and realized) on the ground”, in order to better understand the nature of the fortifications; from the sketch to the reality, the perfection of the geometric rule finds application in the “imperfection” (physical characteristics) of the orography of places: passing through specific cultures and mental models, variable in time and in cultural territories.