1

Renaissance Architecture De architectura (Ten Books on Architecture)

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

Treatise written by the Roman writer, architect and Engineer - Vitruvius and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus as a guide for building projects The work is one of the most important sources of modern knowledge of Roman building methods as well as the planning and design of structures, both large (aqueducts, buildings, baths, harbours) and small (machines, measuring devices, instruments RENAISSANCE (15th-16th c.)

Renaissance architects rejected the intricacy and verticality of Gothic for the simplicity and

balanced proportions of classicism

The revival of the classical world of Greece and Rome – began in Florence Italy with

architecture playing a major a key role

Spread all over Europe, in the15th and 16th centuries. This includes France, Germany, Holland,

Spain and England.

The rediscovery of Vitruvius during the Renaissance greatly influenced the revival of classicism

in 1414 and subsequent periods.

Numerous architectural treatises were based in part or inspired by Vitruvius, beginning with

Leon Battista Alberti's De re aedificatoria (1485).

• The structure must exhibit the three qualities of firmitas, utilitas, venustas - it must be strong or

durable, useful, and beautiful.

• Architecture is an imitation of nature. As birds and bees built their nests, so humans

constructed housing from natural materials, that gave them shelter against the elements.

• When perfecting the art of building, the ancient Greek invented the architectural orders: Doric,

Ionic and Corinthian - It gave them a sense of proportion, culminating in understanding the

proportions of the greatest work of art: the human body.

2

• Vitruvian Man, by Leonardo da Vinci - the human body inscribed in the circle and the square

(the fundamental geometric patterns of the cosmic order).

•

Development of Renaissance :

1. Renaissance , Early Renaissance, Quattrocento (ca14th-15th )

2. High Renaissance, Proto-Baroque , Cinquecento (1500 – 1525)

3. Late Renaissance (1520-1600)

1. Palladio

2. Baroque

3. Mannerism

4.

GENERAL FEATURES OF RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE:

1. PLANS

• Square, symmetrical, planned appearance in which proportions are usually based on a

module. Within a church the module is often the width of an aisle.

3

Towers are sparingly used while the dome is the predominant feature externally.

• Dome is used frequently, both as a very large structural feature that is visible from the exterior,

and also as a means of roofing smaller spaces where they are only visible internally.

2. FACADE

• Symmetrical around their vertical axis.

• Church facades are generally surmounted by a pediment.

• Columns and windows show a progression towards the center.

• Domestic buildings are often surmounted by a cornice.

There is a regular repetition of openings on each floor, and the centrally placed door is marked by a

feature such as a balcony, or rusticated surround.

• and the centrally placed door is marked by a feature such as a balcony, or rusticated

surround.

• Pediments are low-pitched or semi-circular

4

3. WALLS

External walls were of highly finished ashlar masonry laid in horizontal courses and materials

were in large blocks to give an impression of dignity.

Wall angles or corners were often rusticated to give an appearance of strength.

Quoin

Rusticated Masonry - rough surface and bevelled edges of stone blocks to emphasize the joints between them. Internal walls are smoothly plastered.

Internal surfaces are often decorated with frescoes.

• Skylines are characterized by horizontal cornices which give simplicity of outline

4. OPENINGS

Arches are semi-circular or (in the Mannerist style) segmental.

Arches are often used in arcades, supported on piers or columns with capitals.

Ospedale Degli Innocenti, Florence

• Door usually have square lintels. They may be set within an arch or surmounted by a triangular

or segmental pediment.

Openings that do not have doors are usually arched and frequently have a large or decorative

keystone

5

• Windows may be paired and set within a semi-circular arch.

• They may have square lintels and triangular or segmental pediments, which are often used

alternatively.

• In the Mannerist period the “Palladian” arch was employed, using a motif of a high semi-circular topped opening flanked with two lower square-topped openings.

• Windows are used to bring light into the building. Stained glass are not featured.

5. ROOFS

• Vaulting is developed by means of semi-circular or segmental vaults on a square plan without ribs. Unlike the Gothic vault which is frequently rectangular.

• Timber roofs are no longer left open. • Fitted with flat or coffered ceilings. • They are not left open as in Medieval architecture. • Frequently painted or decorated.

6

6. MOULDINGS

Projecting horizontal cornices

cast deep shadows

7. COLUMNS

• Classic orders were used - Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite and their proportions standardized

• Orders can either be structural, supporting an arcade or architrave, or purely decorative, set against a wall.

• When against walls, the orders often appear as pilasters. • Shafts were varied by rustication.

8. ORNAMENTS

Motifs :

• Classical mythology • Pagan subjects • Fresco painting

Characteristics:

• Carefully executed • Fine craftsmanship

7

Leon Battista Alberti,

Static Symmetry, The Renaissance

Leon Battista Alberti,

• Italian architect, art theorist, and humanist. • After pursuing a literary career as papal secretary, in 1438 Alberti was encouraged to direct his

talents toward the field of architecture.

• Alberti was one of the foremost theorists on Renaissance architecture and art, known for

codifying the principles of linear perspective (in On Painting, 1436).

• A prototype of the Renaissance man, he also made contributions to moral philosophy,

cartography, and cryptography.

• His designs for the Palazzo Rucellai (c. 1445 – 51) and the facade of Santa Maria Novella (1456 –

70), both in Florence, are noted for their harmonic proportions.

• His central-plan church of Sant'Andrea, Mantua (begun 1472), with its triumphal-arch motif, is

an early Renaissance masterpiece.

Filippo Brunelleschi ("Pippo")

• Goldsmith, inventor of the mathematics of perspective in painting, and an architect,

• First Renaissance architect

8

Filippo Brunelleschi made a painting of the Florence Baptistry by delineating a grid at the door

of the Cathedral and reproducing each cell in his grid onto a gridded panel.

To prove the accuracy of his painting, he drilled a hole at his point of view in the painting (the

vanishing-point and horizon line) and provided viewers with a mirror with which they could

view the baptistry through the hole then move the mirror in front of the hole to compare the

baptistry with the painting.

He developed and proved the mathematical theory of linear perspective.

9

RENAISSANCE IN ITALY Renaissance in Italy is best considered geographically under the three great distinctive cities:

1. Florence

2. Rome

3. Venice

FEATURES OF ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

1. Rusticated masonry

2. Columnar arcade

3. Astylar facade

4. Pilaster strips

5. Domes crowned with lanterns

6. Low-pitched roofs hidden by balustrades

7. Projecting columns in tiers

8. Coffered ceilings

Filippo Brunelleschi - • First great architect of the Renaissance.

• His first masterpiece was the octagonal dome he designed for Florence Basilica, an engineering

feat of such difficulty (due to the dome's unprecedented size) that he also had to invent special

machines to hoist its sections into place6.

The nave

• Blending of a Renaissance dome and a Gothic building.

• Designers:

• Cathedral - Arnolfo di Cambio ;

• Dome - Filippo Brunelleschi

• Lantern - Giuliano da Majano.

•

Brick dome, which rests atop an Italian ____ due to its harmonious proportions and majestic simplicity.

Crowned by a cupola: a centralized rooftop structure. (Two specialized forms of cupolas are

the lantern, which has openings for lighting or ventilation, and the belfry, or bell-tower.)

10

• TURIN CATHEDRAL or Chapel of the Holy Shroud Designed by Guarino Guarini.

RENAISSANCE IN ROME, ITALY

• Vatican City, the world centre of the Roman Catholic church, is an independent state that lies

entirely within Rome.

• Many of the city’s buildings were designed and decorated by some of history’s greatest artists.

ST. PETER’S BASILICA ,Vatican City

• Largest house of worship in the world, with space to accommodate 50,000 people. • Most important building of this period and was the outcome of many architects under the

direction of many popes during a period of 120 years. • Basilica of Constantine or the Old St Peter's, built by the Roman Emperor Constantine the

Great, before the demolition in 1506 • Central church of Roman Catholicism stands on the site where Saint Peter is believed to have

been buried in the 1st c. in Caligula’s Circus (race track/arena) that stood in that area at the

time.

• Emperor Constantine erected a large basilica over the site in the 4th c., which had by then

become a shrine.

11

• The present cathedral of St. Peter had its origin in the intention of Pope Julius II to erect a tomb house for himself. A competition produced a number of designs. ARCHITECTS OF ST. PETER’S BASILICA, ROME: 1.In 1506, the design of DONATO BRAMANTE was chosen. It had a Greek cross plan. 2.On the death of Pope Julius II, Bramante was superseded by GIULIANO DA SANGALLO the Older, FRA GIACONDO DE VERONA and RAPHAEL SANTI. The two former died in 1575 and Santi proposed a plan in the Latin cross. He died in 1520. 3. BALDASSARE PERRUZZI succeeded and reverted to the Greek cross plan.

4. On the death of Perruzzi, ANTONIO DA SANGALLO the Younger, altered the plan with an

extended vestibule, lofty campanile and an elaborate central dome.

5. On his death, ten years later, MICHAEANGELO BUONAROTTI succeeded him at 72. The present

building owes most of its outstanding features to his genius. He reverted to a Greek cross plan,

strengthened the piers of the dome, redesigned the surrounding chapels and apses and

commenced the construction of the great dome. The drum was completed before his death.

6. GIACOMO DELLA PORTA and DOMENICO FONTANA completed the dome from the model left

by Michaelangelo.

7.GIACOMO DA VIGNOLA added the side cupolas

CARLO MADERNA lengthened the nave to form a Latin cross plan and added the gigantic

façade.

8. CARLO MADERNA lengthened the nave to form a Latin cross plan and added the gigantic

façade.

12

9. GIAN LORENZO BERNINI finally erected the piazza, 650 ft. wide,

surrounded by 284 columns. The Lone Genius : MICHAELANGELO DI LODOVICO BUONAROTTI SIMONI “ I cannot live under pressures from patrons, let alone paint.”

(b. Mar. 6, 1475, Florence; d. Feb. 18, 1564, Rome) Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet who exerted enormous influence in the development of western art. He was universally acknowledged as a supreme artist in his own lifetime. He may have been the first “ artistic genius .“

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

One of the world's best known works of art.

13

• Renaissance master Michelangelo devised an elaborate scheme for the decoration of the ceiling, which he painted between 1508 and 1512. He was 33 years old.

• It features nine scenes from the Biblical Book of Genesis, including the Creation of Adam, the Creation of Eve, the Temptation and Fall of Adam and Eve, and the Flood.

Michelangelo’s “LAST JUDGEMENT” , the large fresco on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, dates from 1536-1541, about 20 years after the famous fresco painting on the ceiling. Christ stands in the centre of the fresco meting out justice, while the saved rise on the left and the damned descend on the right.

His artworks are highly realistic, and are often imbued with a dramatic and emotional intensity.

the rendering of facial features and the handling of light and shadow can clearly be seen.

In Pietà, Michelangelo created from marble the effect of dynamic, flowing

lines. The highly realistic depiction of the limbs, the musculature of the figures, and the folds of fabric

evokes in the viewer a deeply emotional response.

The VATICAN LIBRARY was designed by Italian architectDomenico Fontana between 1587 and 1590.

An impressive example of Renaissance architecture, the library has one of the finest collections of books and manuscripts in the world.

The reconstruction of THE CAPITOL, ROME planned by Michaelangelo about 1546, was his most

successful civic work and a fine town planning achievement. His successors were Girolamo Rainaldiand Giacomo da Vignola.

14

VILLA LANTE by Giacomo da Vignola. Laid out on axial principles on a gently sloping site, this is the first Renaissance garden to make contact with wild nature.

The spectacular decoration of the ceiling of the CHURCH OF IL GESU in Rome was painted between 1672 and 1683 by Giovanni Battista Gaulli Baciccia. The nave’s extraordinary frescoes create the illusion (trompe l’ oeil painting) that the heavens are bursting through the vaulted ceiling in a vortex of light.

RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE PALAIS DE LOUVRE, Paris is one of the most imposing palaces in Europe. It was begun by Pierre

Lescot and finished by later masters.

An exterior view of the LOUVRE, now fronted by a glass pyramid designed (1989) by I. M.Pei,

that acts as the new public entrance to the museum.

PALAIS DE LOUVRE interiors. Many of the world’s greatest works of art are housed in its galleries.

One of them is Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, perhaps the museum’s greatest treasure.

The end……….Good luck!