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Early Italian Renaissance Architecture Renaissance Florence Early Italian Renaissance Architecture Brunelleschi di Bartolommeo Alberti • Renaissance Architecture is the architecture of the period beginning between the early 15th and the early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, where there was a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Classical Greek and Roman thought culture. • The Renaissance style places emphasis on: • Symmetry • Proportion • Geometry • The regularity of parts • Demonstrated in the architecture of Classical antiquity and in particular, the architecture of Ancient Rome, of which many visible examples existed. • Orderly arrangements of columns, pilasters and lintels, as well as the use of semicircular arches, hemispherical domes, and niches replaced the more complex proportional systems and irregular profiles of medieval buildings. • Developed first in Florence, with Filippo Brunelleschi as one of its innovators, the Renaissance style quickly spread to other Italian cities and then to France, Germany, England, Russia and elsewhere. Milan Cathedral Florence Cathedral • Italy had never fully adopted the Gothic style of architecture. Apart from the Cathedral of Milan, largely the work of German builders, few Italian churches show the emphasis on vertically, the clustered shafts, ornate tracery and complex ribbed vaulting that characterized Gothic in other parts of Europe. • Italian architects had always preferred forms that were clearly defined and structural members that expressed their purpose. Tempietto di San Pietro, Rome, 1502, Bramante. This small temple marks the place where St Peter was put to death." Tempio di Vesta, Rome, 205 AD. As the most important temple of Ancient Rome, it became the model for Bramante's Tempietto. • The presence, particularly in Rome, of architectural remains showing the ordered Classical style provided an inspiration to artists at a time when philosophy was also turning towards the Classical" Pantheon, 27 CE, Rome • The buildings among the ruins of ancient Rome appeared to respect a simple mathematical order in the way that Gothic buildings did not. • One rule governed all Ancient Roman architecturea semi-circular arch is exactly twice as wide as it is high. A fixed proportion with implications of such magnitude occurred nowhere in Gothic architecture. Bramante • • • • Tempietto di San Pietro Rome 1502 Very Roman looking Filippo Brunelleschi Baptistery of Florence • Credited with bringing about the Renaissance view of architecture. • The underlying feature of the work of Brunelleschi was "order". • In the early 1400s Brunelleschi began to look at the world to see what the rules were that governed ones way of seeing. • His observed that the way one sees regular structures such as the Baptistery of Florence and the tiled pavement surrounding it follows a mathematical order- linear perspective. Filippo Brunellschi and the Florence Cathedral • The cathedral’s long nave ends in an octagonal domed crossing as wide as the nave and side aisles, from which the apse and transept arms extend. • In basic architectural terms this is a central plan church grafted onto a basilica plan church. • It symbolically creates a Dome of Heaven over the crossing, where the main altar is located. • The great ribbed dome, so fundamental to this abstract concept, could not be built when it was planned in 1365. The Italians were certain that somebody would eventually figure out how to build the dome. • In 1420 Filippo Brunelleschi solved the engineering problems involved, and constructed the dome. Remember the problem with the dome? • Brunelleschi, a young architect solved the problem of the dome by studying Roman buildings. • When he lost the competition to design the doors of the Florence Baptistry, he went to Rome, with another sculptor, Donatello and studied the Classics. The Pantheon Dome was Brunelleschi’s Inspiration • Inside the Pantheon's single-shell dome of brick and stone is coffering which greatly decreases the weight, while maintaining the strength of each individual stone. • The vertical partitions of the coffering effectively serve as ribs, although this feature does not dominate visually. • Raised on a drum to increase height • Double dome of two shells, a light exterior shell and a heavier interior dome • There is a walkway between the two domes to allow for maintenance from inside • Surmounted by a LANTERN which anchors the ribs of the dome in place • Brunelleschi was aware that a dome of enormous proportion could in fact be engineered without a keystone. • The dome in Florence is supported by the eight large ribs and sixteen more internal ones holding a brick shell, with the bricks arranged in a herringbone manner. • Although the techniques employed are different, in practice both domes comprise a thick network of ribs supporting very much lighter and thinner infilling. And both have a large opening at the top • Different than the Pantheon dome, Brunelleschi’s dome has 8 oculi around the drum and another at the top right below the lantern Brunelleschi’s Ospedale degli Innocenti" • Balance • Symmetry • Repetition A Canon of Proportion for Architecture • From Brunelleschi’s observation of the architecture of Rome came a desire for symmetry and careful proportion in which the form and composition of the building as a whole and all its subsidiary details have fixed relationships, each section in proportion to the next. • Nave of Basilica of San Lorenzo • Florence • What does this remind you of? • Note the PIETRA SERENA - gray stone common in Brunelleschi’s buildings • Early Christian style wooden ceiling • Rectangular blocks define the spaces • Main aisle twice the side of side aisles • Feeling is light and airey • Minimum stained glass • Cool serene interior with very little decoration • San Lorenzo, 1421-1469 Basilica Ulpia, 2nd century CE • Filippo Brunelleschi • façade of the Pazzi Chapel, Santa Croce • Florence, Italy, begun ca. 1440 • Rectangular chapel attached to the church of Santa Croce, Florence • Two barrel vaults intersect on the interior, small dome over the crossing • Interior has a quiet sense of color, muted tones, punctuated by glazed terra cotta tiles, like the Ospedale degli Innocenti • • • • • • Brunelleschi Interior Pazzi Chapel Santa Croce Florence Italy • Filippo Brunelleschi, interior of the Pazzi Chapel • Pietra Serena and Glazed terra cotta medallions • Santa Croce, Florence, Italy, begun ca. 1440 Palazzo Medici • Brunelleschi’s plan for the Medici palace was rejected because it was too grand; later, Michelozzo di Bartolommeo was hired to design the building. • The design established a tradition for Italian town houses that remained the norm for a century. • The plain exterior was in keeping with political and religious thinking in Florence, which was strongly influenced by Christian ideals of poverty and charity. • Like many other European cities, Florence had sumptuary laws, which forbade ostentatious displays of wealth, but they were often ignored. • Plans and elevations • Michelozzo di Bartolommeo • Medici coat of arms • Cosmo Medici, acquired and demolished twenty small houses to provide the site for his new residence. • The palace was designed not only to provide more living space, but also to provide space for offices, storage rooms, and conducting business affairs. Rusticated Stones on the lower level of the façade expressed the power and fortitude of the Medici family • Michelozzo di Bartolommeo • façade • Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence, Italy, begun 1445 • Note the change in texture of the façade from top to bottom. • Rusticated stones first floor, strongly cut blocks second floor, smooth surface third floor. • Building seems to get lighter as it goes up. • Roman arches at base, support shops and businesses, very Roman. • Strong overhanging cornice on top. • Interior courtyard allows light and air into the interior rooms of the palace, very Roman. Medici Family Crest • Interior court of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi • Florence, Italy, begun 1445. • Interior court • Palazzo MediciRiccardi, Leon Battista Alberti • Santa Maria Novella, Florence • Designed by Alberti, note the symmetry and balance • In 1455, Leon Battista Alberti, a humanist turned architect and author, devised a façade to be the unifying front for a planned merger of eight adjacent houses in Florence. • The design, influenced in its basic approach by the Palazzo Medici, was a simple rectangular front, suggesting a coherent, cubical three-story building, capped with an overhanging cornice. • Palazzo Rucellai • Alberti • Three floors separated by a strongly visible STRING COURSE • Pilasters further divide the façade into square like units • Used cleanly cut beveled stones, unlike the Palazzo Medici • Pilasters – 1st Tuscan – 2nd Alberti’s design – 3rd Cornitian • Right: Leon Battista Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai, Florence • Left: comparison with the Colosseum, Rome. Mantua, Prato, and Urbino In the second half of the 15th century the classicizing ideas of artists like Brunelleschi began to expand from Florence to the rest of Italy, combining with local styles to form the distinctive Italian Renaissance. • The spread of Renaissance architectural style beyond Florence was due in significant part to Leon Battista Alberti, who traveled widely, wrote on architecture, and shared his views with potential patrons. • In 1470 the ruler of Mantua, • Ludovico Gonzaga commissioned Alberti to enlarge the small church Saint' Andréa, which housed a sacred relic believed to be the actual blood of Jesus. • Wanting to accommodate the many visitors to the church, Alberti proposed an Etruscan style temple design. • Sant’ Andrea, Mantua • Alberti • Combination of Roman triumphal arch and ancient temple façade. • Giant pilasters flank the arch and support the pediment. • Large barrel vault canopy hangs above the façade, limiting sunlight. • Alberti thought churches should be dimly lit. • Neither the simplicity of the plan nor the complexity of the façade hints at the grandeur of Sant’Andrea’s interior. • An immense barrelvaulted nave is extended on each side by tall chapels • Interior was inspired by such ancient ruins as the Basilica of Maxentius and the Baths of Caracalla. • Leon Battista Alberti, Church of Sant’Andrea, Interior, Mantua, Designed 1470 Reconstruction Drawing of Basilica Maxentius, Rome • Interior, Church of Sant’Andrea, Mantua Giuliano da Sangallo • After completing a country villa for Lorenzo Medici, Giuliano da Sangallo submitted a plan for a votive church, a church built as a special offering to a particular saint, in Prato. • In this case, the church was to house a painting of the Virgin that a child in 1484 claimed had come to life. • The painting was to be relocated from the town prison to the new church, named Saint Mary of the Prisons. • Because this was a votive church, there wasn’t the usual need for a long nave to accommodate a large congregation. So instead, Giuliano designed a central plan church. • The central plan church design extended back to the Early Christian Martyrium, and perhaps all the way back to the classical round temple called a tholos. The Ducal Palace at Urbino • East of Florence lay another outstanding artistic center, the court of Urbino, which under the patronage of Federico da Montefeltro attracted the finest artists. • In 1468, construction of Federico’s Ducal Palace came under the direction of Luciano Laurana. • Among his major contributions were closing the courtyard with a fourth wing, and redesigning the courtyard façades. The Ducal Palace, Urbino • The interior of the Ducal Palace reflected its patron’s embrace of New Renaissance ideas and interest in Classical antiquity. • Under Federico’s patronage, Italian craft artists found freedom to experiment with new subjects, treatments, and techniques. • Among these was the creation of trompe l’oeil, fool the eye effects. • Commonly used in painting, it was carried to its ultimate expression in intarsia, wood inlay decoration. • This technique is exemplified by the walls of Federico’s studiolo, a room used for his private collection of fine books and art objects. • • • • • Studiolo from the Ducal Palace in Gubbio, 15th century Designed by Francesco di Giorgio Martini Executed by Giuliano da Magana Made in Gubbio, Italy. Metropolitan Museum, New York Intarsia • The technique that is employed here is intarsia, the Italian word for wood inlay. • This technique was used to create intricate pictorial images like these set into paneling, doors, or furniture. • Everything in the studiolo looks three-dimensional, as if intended to fool us into thinking these objects are real. • This device is called trompe l'oeil (French for "fool the eye"). • The designer of the studiolo enhanced this illusion of three-dimensionality by using a system of linear perspective that had only recently been formulated by the great Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi.! • Works referenced: • Marilyn Stockstad’s Art History: Second Edition (Volumes one and two) • Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Timeline of Art History.” Available online at <http:// www.metmuseum.org/toah/splash.htm> • “The Web Gallery of Art.” Available online at <http:// www.wga.hu>