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.
Gregorio Dati, Diary, in Gene Brucker (ed), Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence (Waveland Press, 1991) p. 107
By giving the biographies of architects Richard Neutra and Robert Alexander, Hines does nothing to remedy his aimless writing. He writes that Neutra had a variety of experience as an archi...
Paolucci, Antonio. The origins of Renaissance art: the Baptistery doors, Florence. New York: George Braziller, 1996.
...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.
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.
In this paper I'm focusing mainly on Renaissance art work, since that was the assignment, but I feel it's important to also mention the other important parts of the Renaissance, architecture, science, politics and religion.
(Image taken from Tranchtenberg, Marvin, Isabelle Hyman. Architecture: From Prehistory to Postmodernity. Second Edition. Prentice Hall, Inc. New Jersey: 2002.)
James F. O'Gorman, Dennis E. McGrath. ABC of Architecture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. Document. October 2013.
As someone with a passion for writing, my final project will be an extended expository essay about the history of homebuilding from ancient to modern times. It will discuss the different types of dwellings throughout recorded human history from the perspective of how art and culture influences building design. This will fulfill my own curiosity to understand the different influences on homebuilding and design over the years and how people have dealt with these changes.
Partridge, Loren. The Art of Renaissance Rome 1400-1600. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1996.
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...
Q: Use St. Peter’s Basilica and Donato Bramante’s Tempietto in Rome, in opposition to John Balthasar Neumann’s Pilgrimage Church of Vier(7) in Bamburg, Germany, to argue that a rational engagement with architecture is a more effective means to comprehend and understand architectural form. During the period of Renaissance, human’s thought and intelligence has reached its highest and its effect on the architectural form, it became clear and its engagement of rational aspect on the building. Mainly geometrical forms are the characteristics which can be identified. Not so long after the Renaissance period of Baroque architecture was introduced, rather than logic and reasoning they wanted to capture the emotional atmosphere by using the architectural elements such as light, height, crafted art, costly materials and so on as mentioned by(Scotti 2007, 5-10).
During the Italian renaissance there were many inventions, creations, and art, but some of the things still affect our lifestyle today. Some of these things are well known by people, where some are just artwork that has lots of exposure in the modern world. There are people who devote their lives to study these works of art. There must be some information on how this outburst of art and other works began, as before the Renaissance Italy was in a depression. This is a complete turnaround from a depression. In this report I am going to review and go over how the Renaissance started and who kept it alive, by studying the life of rich patrons. There is also going to be sections on specific inventions and artwork that shows renaissance lifestyle, using a book of Art History and information about popular inventions.
"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.
...ed in the discovery and eventual colonization of North and South America. Painters, sculptors, and architects exhibited a similar sense of adventure and the desire for greater knowledge and new solutions; Leonardo da Vinci, like Christopher Columbus, discovered whole new worlds. With a new emphasis on the science, people like Philippo Brunelleschi were accomplishing great feats of artistic and architectural design. The new Renaissance “style” that emerged during this period called upon the classical roots of ancient Greece and Rome but new scientific understanding and a stronger emphasis on the individual also influenced the works created during this period.Bibliography Rice Jr., Eugene F.; Anthony Grafton. The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559. W. W. Norton & Company. New York, NY, 1993. Helton, Tinsley. World Book Encyclopedia, v16. “Renaissance”, pp. 222-224. World Book–Childcraft International Inc. Chicago, IL, 1979. Vasari, Gorgio. Lives of the Artists. Penguin Books Ltd. London, England, 1987