The square checkerboard is not the only frame to be used in combination with mythological images as patterns of recognition. Less geometrical concepts can also give mental access to architectural structures, even those difficult to survey. The serpentine guideline of Ariadne is one example. Yet another conceptual system uses the mythological images itself for a more imaginative organisation both of the mental and architectural space. In modern buidings as well, mythological images often serve to organize architectural functions.
Humanist mythology survives as figuration in modern space.
The three traditional conceptual systems for the organization of mental and physical access to space are the focus of this poster for the XXIXth International Congress of the History of Art. The Renaissance artist or artistic adviser had in his mind a number of such maps, listing, say, Ovidian stories on one side and typical tasks on the other. Just as the letter B on such a map does not indicate one field but a zone which is only narrowed down by consulting the number, so the story of Icons, for instance, does not have one meaning but a whole range of meaning, which in its turn is then determined by the context. The marbles in the Amsterdam Townhall are not just decoration. They are placed over the entrances to specific places to mark the social relevance of these rooms.