RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE

‘Renaissance’ refers to a “re-birth” or revival of ancient classical values. From the 15th century on, these ideas evolved into an intellectual movement known as Humanism. Transcendental thought gave way to autonomy; a shift was made from the theological to the secular readings shared by the Gutenberg printing press. Originating in literature, humanism became influential in philosophy, politics, and the arts. Leon Battista Alberti, a humanist and architect (1404-1472), argued that the architecture of the ancient Greeks and Romans was inherently better than all other styles and should be imitated. In 1442, his De Re Aedificatoria (Four Books on Architecture) united Vitruvian information with Christian architectural ideals. In 1472 Alberti designed Sant’ Andrea in Mantua. The immense volume of the Latin cross (without aisles) borrowed a coffered barrel vault from Roman Architecture. The monumental façade was part temple and part triumphal arch. In 1485, Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture became the first printed book on Architecture, starting the lineage of architectural treatises that continues today.

Perhaps the most famous individual and most closely associated with the Renaissance is Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1516). Offering his services as an engineer, a painter, an architect, a sculptor, and a master of weaponry, da Vinci epitomized the Uomo Universal, or universal man, of the Renaissance. His drawing of the male figure, inscribed in the pure geometries of the circle and the square, epitomizes man as the center of the universe. His painting of the Mona Lisa, now in the Louvre in Paris, is one of the most famous portraits in the world. He also painted The Last Supper, the Sistine Chapel, and sculpted the

The purest example of Renaissance ideals in architecture is found in the Tempietto of S. Pietro al Montorio (1502) by Donato Bramante (1444-1514). His design reintroduced classical members, exclusive use of pure geometries, and strong emphasis on a central plan; the Tempietto, an honorable monument to the passing of ST. Peter is also a revival of Classical Antiquities. Pope Julius II then initiated a vast building program unlike any since the days of the Roman Empire. He commissioned the Sistine Chapel from Michelangelo, the Stanza in the Vatican from Raphael, the painter, and the plan for the new Basilica of St. Peter’s from Bramante. Renaissance popes determined to replace the old Basilica of St. Peter’s from the 4th century with a more meaningful and celebratory architecture. As new popes were elected, papal architects for the major effort rotated; by 1626, when St. Peter’s was completed, Rosselino, da Sangallo, Bramante, Raphael, Peruzzi, Michelangelo, and Maderno had all been consulted. The result is the largest church in Christendom pronouncing the majesty of the house of God as a centered cosmos, a new free field of vision, and the pursuit of absolute beauty. The dome, completed by Giacomo della Porta after Michelangelo died in 1564, rises 452 feet and is supported by four sixty- foot square piers and a series of apsidal forms. Stone ribs rise to support the majestic lantern that overlooks the monumental colonnaded plaza designed by Bernini.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) dominated European Art with his accomplishments well into the 20th century. In his own time, he was the subject of legends and easily became the most famous man in Europe. He was a sculptor, but was involved in architectural projects from his first commission in 1516. The façade at San Lorenzo in Florence, followed by the new Sacristy at the Medici Chapel and the Medici Library at San Lorenzo, helped to develop the Renaissance language of Architecture. The manipulations of the classical language exemplified Michelangelo’s search for invention over imitation. In his design for the library, he subdivided the whole into three pure geometrical parts: a square, a rectangle, and a triangle. The tension of kinetic human energy is separated in the dramatic entry stair hall, the rhythm of the meditative reading room, and the highest power of divine wisdom in the planned, but not realized, triangular rare book room.

Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) had a profound and enduring impact on architectural history. He illustrated a version of Vitruvius, included plates of known Roman buildings, and featured his public and private work in his Four Books on Architecture. Palladio’s direct academic approach and clear illustrations made this volume the most circulated architectural text of the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe, and later, in the United States. His villas were designed as practical working farms that attracted Venetian families to summer retreats. These private country estates brought new sophistication to the idea of the house by building simple symmetric harmonies, pure geometries, hierarchical massing, codified proportions, and the classical orders. The masterpiece of his extensive career is the Villa Rotunda (Capra), from 1566, set on a hill just outside Vicenza. Temple porticoes, a symmetrical plan, and a low central dome marked the inspiration of Ancient Rome. Palladian villas provided a model for country homes of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries; a preoccupation with an idealized form contrasting surrounding nature provided a secular architecture that continued to influence the work of Inigo Jones in England, J. A. Gabriel in France, K. F. Schinkel in Germany and Thomas Jefferson in the United States.