Europe after the Black Death moved into a period of intense creative revolution and advancement in all creative fields. This Renaissance period moved all aspects art and architecture away from the medieval gothic style and into a time of classical rejuvenation. The architectural side of this movement grew out of Italian cities like Florence, Venice and Rome and would greatly impact architectural design throughout the world for centuries. Among the most influential architects of this period was Leon Battista Alberti, a prodigious writer, thinker and designer from Florence. Alberti was raised during his most formative years, the first part of the 15th century, in the shadow of Brunelleschi. Brunelleschi's successful design for the Duomo in Florence would have been a major inspiration for Alberti to pursue what would be an incredibly successful career in architecture. His influence would be far reaching in the field of architecture and inspire great designs in urban planning and both public and private building designs. In this study of Alberti's architectural theory we will focus primarily on his thoughts about the purpose of private structures and his ideas about the importance of the centralized cortile.
In 1431 Alberti moved to Rome and took holy orders to join the papal court. Because of the great influence the papal court had on building projects around Italy, Alberti took the opportunity to travel and study alongside the most respected designers and thinkers of the Renaissance period. While in Rome Alberti spent a significant amount of time studying the writings of Vitruvius and visiting whatever buildings he could that Vitruvius described in his ten-part treatise on architecture. Though the writings of Vitruvius were h...
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... Alberti describes. It is monumental, classical and beautifully decorated with painted loggias and classical orders. While the Rozzelle Court serves a different purpose than an authentic Italian cortile does, it is a very good illustration of the space that Alberti describes as the most important aspect of an Italian Renaissance home.
Works Cited:
Alberti, Leon Battistia. On The Art of Building in Ten Books. Trans. Robert Tavernor, Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1988. Print.
Heidenreich, Ludwig. Architecture in Italy: 1400-1600. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. Print.
Lotz, Wolfgang. Architecture in Italy: 1500-1600. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974. Print.
Churchman, Michael. High Ideals and Aspirations: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1933-1993. Kansas City: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993. Print.
Q: Use St Peter’s basilica and Donato Bramante’s Tempietto in Rome, in opposition to John Balthasar Neumann’s Pilgrimage Church of Vierzehnheiligen in Bamburg, Germany, to argue that a rational engagement with architecture is a more effective means to comprehend and understand architectural form.
Andrea Palladio was born in 1508A.D. in Italy. At a very young age he became a stone mason, however his journey into architecture began when he met Gian Giorgio Trissino who immediately saw ability in him and decided to mentor Palladio. Trissino combined a study of classical architecture with architecture of the time, all the while allowing Palladio room to develop a style of his own. In time Palladio was constructing villas through out the country side of Italy, in all he constructed 30 villas, 18 of which are still standing today. Perhaps Palladio’s most famous work was the Villa Rotondra or La Rotondra which was started around 1565 and took approximately 4 years to build and was greatly inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. It is interesting to note that la Rotondra is different from Palladio’s other villas in a number of ways, and it is evident that these differences help distinguish it from the rest. The main differences between Palladio’s Rotondra and his other work are, The Rotonda is set on a hilltop, it is located near a...
Castex, Jean. Architecture Of Italy. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 5 Feb. 2012.
...e, a new generation of sculptors who excelled in the treatment of marble surfaces had rose in Florence. With the change in Florentine taste, all of Donatello’s important requests came from outside Florence. They included the bronze group “Judith and Holofernes” which is now standing before the Palazzo Vecchio and a bronze statue of St. John the Baptist for Siena cathedral, also undertook the work of the pair of bronze doors in the late 1450’s. This project, which might have rivalled Ghiberti’s doors for the Florentine baptistery, was abandoned about 1460 for unknown reasons.
In the Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, there is a cathedral church whose octagonal dome, built without the aid of scaffolding, was considered the greatest engineering feat of the early Renaissance. Dedicated to Santa Maria del Fiore, Our Lady of the Flower, it is also known as the Duomo, after the Italian word for cathedral. Created by many great Early Modern artists, this piece of architecture is a perfect example the Renaissance style. We can come to a better understanding of why this is so by exploring what the characteristics of the Renaissance “style”. To understand the properties of the Florence Cathedral that fit the Early Modern style, I will begin with a description and its history. The cathedral's architectural style, although greatly influenced by French Gothic elements remained distinctively Florentine, especially the geometric patterns of red, green, and white marble on the building's exterior. Construction of the cathedral began in 1294 on the site of a Christian church founded in the 6th or 7th century and continued until 1436. Several celebrated Italian architects were involved in the project, including Giotto, Arnolfo di Cambio, Andrea Orcagna, and, most notably, Filippo Brunelleschi, who was responsible for designing and building the dome. The cathedral's exterior is ornamented with sculpture and mosaics by Italian artists Donatello, Nanni di Banco, and Domenico Ghirlandaio, among others. The building's stained-glass windows are the work of the Italian architect and artist Lorenzo Ghiberti, and the interior is decorated with sculpture and fresco paintings by several Renaissance masters. Construction of the campanile (bell tower), situated to the right of the entrance to the Duomo, was begun by Giotto and completed according to his plans in 1359, after his death. Nearly 278 ft high, the campanile is embellished with red, green, and white marble panels of relief sculpture by Italian artists Andrea Pisano and Luca della Robbia, and niches with sculpted figures by Donatello and other masters. Facing the cathedral and campanile is a smaller, octagonal structure, the Baptistery of San Giovanni, noted for its gilt-bronze doors, elaborately worked in high relief by Andrea Pisano and Lorenzo Ghiberti. With that background information about the cathedral, one question comes to mind: what is it that makes the Renaissance style distinct? Renaissa...
"Ornament serves strength with strength. It is not an afterthought as is decoration. It is not merely applied but becomes one with the object it helps create". Leon Alberti was an Italian architect, artist, rationist and renaissance humanist in the early 1400's (1404 -1472AD). He wrote variety of books on paintings, sculpture and about family and society but his most important book was when he decided to renew Vitruvius book.
Gregorio Dati, Diary, in Gene Brucker (ed), Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence (Waveland Press, 1991) p. 107
Brown, Patricia Fortini. Art and Life In Renaissance Venice. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1997.
The Italian Architects of the seventeenth century faced a huge volume of orders to carry out. The most required orders were churches. (Bazin 15) When Urban VIII became pope he asked Bernini to design a baldachino, also known as a canopy, to define the altar area. Bernini built something that was half sculpture and half architecture that had four columns that were very detailed. The columns were designed with spiraling grooves and vines made of bronze. The spiraling and decorative effects were made to symbolize the union of the new and Old Testaments, the vine of the Eucharist climbing the columns of the temple of Solomon. The Eucharist was the Christian ceremony commemorating the Last Supper. The elements of the Ionic and Corinthian orders are at the top of the columns. Angels are along the entablatu...
Pile, J. F., 2005. A History of Interior Design. 4th ed. Toronto: Laurence King Publishing.
Lorenzo De Medici can be considered as one of the most influential men of the 13th century. His work in political affairs and administration were renowned in all Italy and his family could count on him in every aspect. Lorenzo was also a promoter of a new period called Renaissance. He was one of the first “mecenate” to explore this new way of art. In this project, I will concentrate how he developed art in Florence, giving a clear example through an Artist of that period that was working for him: Sandro Botticelli. His work “The Spring” is a well-defined example of what we can call “art in the Renaissance”, in particular for the Italian Renaissance.
However, the success of the building schemes relied on the construction methods and innovations that are now attributed as bei...
The reason for this piece is to attempt a comparison between two architectural examples that employ classical design from different stylistic eras of architectural history. The two styles I've chosen to discuss are the Renaissance and Baroque periods. An understanding of classical architecture needs to be made, as it is the fundamental style of any period that developed architecturally
10. Kruft, Hanno-Walter. A History of Architectural Theory From Vitruvius to the Present. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1994. p. 180-1.
The book as a description of modern architecture, its styles and influence succeeds but falls short as a prescriptive methodology. His work is still recalled for the need by modernists to categorize everything into neat little boxes, not necessarily for the sake of uniformity, but for sake of some ambiguity. The ambiguity may be the triumph of this book as post modern architecture era is supposed to create more questions than the answers.