RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE

INTRODUCTION

Period between the early

RENAISSANCE
15th and early 16th century.

Revival and development

ARCHITECTURE of certain elements of

Ancient Greek and
Roman
 Style spread throughout

It is followed Gothic architecture and was Spain

succeeded by Baroque architecture. France
Germany
Developed first in Florence, with Filippo England
Brunelleschi as one of its innovators, Russia
other parts of Europe
RENAISSANCE STYLE PLACE EMPHASIS ON

Symmetry
proportion
geometry
Classical antiquity
Orderly arrangements of columns
Pilasters and lintels,
Semicircular arches
Hemispherical domes
Niches
Aediculae (a niche for a statue)
Rise of architectural theory

DE RE AEDIFICATORIA
("On the Subject of Building")

The first treatise on architecture.

by Leon Battista Alberti in 1450.

The first printed book on architecture.

Rise of architectural theory

REGOLE GENERALI
D'ARCHITETTURA
("General Rules of Architecture")

Serlio's "Fourth Book"

by Sebastiano Serlio (1475 – c. 1554).

He describes the five different architectural

orders in which to build and explains which
types of materials and ornaments can be
used within each order.
Rise of architectural theory

I QUATTRO LIBRI
DELL'ARCHITETTURA
("The Four Books of Architecture")

by Andrea Palladio (1508–1580)

This book was widely printed and

responsible to a great degree for spreading
the ideas of the Renaissance through
Europe.
DEVELOPMENT IN ITALY
It is in Florence that the new architectural style had its beginning, not slowly
evolving in the way that Gothic grew out of Romanesque, but consciously brought
to being by particular architects who sought to revive the order of a past "Golden
Age".
 CHARACTERISTICS
OF RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE
PLAN
square
symmetrical appearance in
which proportions are
usually based on a module.
FAÇADE
symmetrical around their
vertical axis
surmounted by a
pediment organised by a
system of pilasters , arches
and entablatures.
FAÇADE
The columns and windows
show a progression towards
the centre.
One of the first true
Renaissance façades was the
Cathedral of Pienza (1459–62)
Pienza Cathedral

by Bernardo
Rossellino
FAÇADE
Domestic buildings are often
surmounted by a cornice .
R egular repetition of
openings on each floor, and
the centrally placed door is
marked by a feature such as
a balcony, or rusticated
surround.
Palazzo Rucellai,
Italy

by Leon Battista
Alberti, Bernardo
Rossellino
COLUMNS AND PILASTERS
Tuscan , Doric , Ionic, Corinthian
and Composite .
The orders can either be
structural, supporting an arcade
or architrave, or purely
decorative, set against a wall in
the form of pilasters.
COLUMNS AND PILASTERS
During the Renaissance,
architects aimed to use columns,
pilasters , and entablatures as an
integrated system. One of the first
buildings to use pilasters as an
integrated system was in the Old
Sacristy (1421–1440) by
Brunelleschi.
ARCHES
Arches are semi-circular or (in the
Mannerist style) segmental.
Arches are often used in arcades,
supported on piers or columns
with capitals. There may be a
section of entablature between
the capital and the springing of
the arch.
St. Andrea in
Mantua

by Leon Battista
Alberti, Filippo
Juvarra
VAULTS
Vaults do not have ribs.

They are semi-circular or

segmental and on a square
plan, unlike the Gothic vault
which is frequently
rectangular.
 St. Andrea in
Mantua
(INTERIOR)

by Leon Battista
Alberti, Filippo
Juvarra
St. PETER
BASILICA
(INTERIOR)

by Michelangelo,
Gian Lorenzo
Bernini, Donato
Bramante, MORE
DOMES
The 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.
DOMES
T he dome became an
indispensable element in
church architecture and later
even for secular architecture,
such as Palladio's Villa Rotonda .
Florence Cathedral/
Basilica di Santa
Maria del Fiore

by Filippo
Brunelleschi,
Arnolfo di Cambio,
Francesco Talenti,
Emilio De Fabris
St. PETER
BASILICA

by Michelangelo,
Gian Lorenzo
Bernini, Donato
Bramante, MORE
CEILINGS
Roofs are fitted with flat or
coffered ceilings. They are not
left open as in Medieval
architecture. They are
frequently painted or
decorated.
Sistine Chapel

The ceiling of the Sistine

Chapel was the
masterpiece of another
Renaissance artist,
Michelangelo.
DOORS
Doors usually have square
lintels.
They may be set with in an arch
or surmounted by a triangular
or segmental pediment.
DOORS
Openings that do not have
doors are usually arched and
frequently have a large or
decorative keystone.
WINDOWS
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 alternately.
Palazzo
Farnese

by Antonio da
Sangallo the
Younger, MORE
WALLS
External walls are generally
constructed of brick, rendered,
or faced with stone in highly
finished ashlar masonry , laid in
straight courses.
Palazzo Medici
Riccardi

by Michelozzo
WALLS
The corners of buildings are
often emphasized by
rusticated quoins
WALLS
For more formal spaces,
internal surfaces are
decorated with frescoes.

Fresco is a technique of mural

painting executed upon
freshly laid ("wet") lime
plaster .
The Creation of Adam , a detail of t he fr esco Sistine Chapel
ceiling by Michelangel o
 THREE MAIN PERIODS
OF RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE
THREE MAIN PERIODS

Quattrocento (c. 1400–1500)

High Renaissance (c. 1500–1525)
Mannerism (c. 1520–1600)
QUATTROCENTO

Sometimes known as the Early

Renaissance.

Architects looked to antiquity for

inspiration.

They reintroduced classical Roman

and Greek elements, such as
arches, columns, and domes into
buildings.
QUATTROCENTO

Space was organized by

proportional logic, its form and
rhythm subject to geometry.

Early Renaissance buildings had

symmetrical facades and clear,
streamlined volumes that marked
a change from the more complex
Gothic proportions that preceded
them.
QUATTROCENTO

The leading architects:

Brunelleschi
Michelozzo
Alberti
BRUNELLESCHI

he underlying feature of the work

of Brunelleschi was "order".
Florence Cathedral

by Filippo
Brunelleschi,
Arnolfo di Cambio,
Francesco Talenti,
Emilio De Fabris
Basilica of San
Lorenzo, Florence

by Filippo
Brunelleschi
(1377–1446)
MICHELOZZO

He was one of the first architects

to work in the Renaissance style
outside Italy.
Palazzo Medici
Riccardi

by Michelozzo
ALBERTI

Leon Battista Alberti, born in

Genoa (1402–1472), was an
important Humanist theoretician
and designer whose book on
architecture De re Aedificatoria
was to have lasting effect.
St. Andrea in
Mantua

by Leon Battista
Alberti, Filippo
Juvarra
Santa Maria
Novella

by Leon Battista
Alberti, Filippo
Brunelleschi
HIGH RENAISSANCE

The High Renaissance was a period

in which the use of classical
elements adapted to
contemporary 16th-century
building styles was in full bloom.

The most representative architect

is Donato Bramante (1444–1514),
who expanded the applicability of
classical architecture to
contemporary buildings.
San Pietro in
Montorio, Italy

by Donato Bramante

Directly inspired by
circular Roman
temples
SANGALLO

Antonio da Sangallo also

submitted a plan for St Peter's and
became the chief architect after
the death of Raphael, to be
succeeded himself by
Michelangelo.

His fame does not rest upon his

association with St Peter's but in
his building of the Farnese Palace,
"the grandest palace of this
period", started in 1530.
The Palazzo Farnese,
Rome (1534–1545).

Designed by Sangallo
and Michelangelo.
RAPHAEL

Raphael (1483–1520, was for a time

the chief architect for St. Peter's,
working in conjunction with
Antonio Sangallo.

His single most influential work is

the Palazzo Pandolfini in Florence
with its two stories of strongly
articulated windows of a
"tabernacle" type, each set around
with ordered pilasters, cornice and
alternate arched and triangular
pediments.
Pandolfini Palace, Italy

Designed by Raphael
MANNERISM

Late Renaissance

Use of decorative and ornamental

classical elements, such as domes
and cupolas, became more
widespread.

The best known architect

associated with the Mannerist style
was Michelangelo (1475–1564)
MANNERISM

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico
Buonarroti Simoni, known as
Michelangelo, was an Italian
sculptor, painter, architect, and
poet.
MICHELANGELO

He frequently used the giant order

in his architecture, a large pilaster
that stretches from the bottom to
the top of a façade.

He used this in his design for the

Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome.
Piazza del
Campidoglio, Rome

by Michelangelo
MICHELANGELO

St. Peter's was "the greatest

creation of the Renaissance",
and a great number of architects
contributed their skills to it.

But at its completion, there was

more of Michelangelo's design
than of any other architect, before
or after him.
MICHELANGELO

The plan at the laying of the

foundation stone in 1506 was that
by Bramante.

Michelangelo, reverted to
Bramante's Greek-cross plan and
redesigned the piers, the walls and
the dome.
MICHELANGELO

For the exterior of the building he

designed a giant order which
defines every external bay, the
whole lot being held together by a
wide cornice which runs
unbroken like a rippling ribbon
around the entire building.
MICHELANGELO

For the exterior of the building he

designed a giant order which
defines every external bay, the
whole lot being held together by a
wide cornice which runs
unbroken like a rippling ribbon
around the entire building.

The architect who succeeded

Michelangelo was Giacomo della
Porta.
St. PETER
BASILICA

by Michelangelo,
Gian Lorenzo
Bernini, Donato
Bramante, MORE
GIACOMO DELLA PORTA

Della Porta spent nearly all his

working life in Rome, designing
villas, palazzi and churches in the
Mannerist style.

One of his most famous works is

the façade of the Church of the
Gesù, a project that he inherited
from his teacher Jacopo Barozzi da
Vignola.
GIACOMO DELLA PORTA

Della Porta spent nearly all his

working life in Rome, designing
villas, palazzi and churches in the
Mannerist style.

One of his most famous works is

the façade of the Church of the
Gesù, a project that he inherited
from his teacher Jacopo Barozzi da
Vignola.
PERUZZI

Peruzzi's most famous work is the

Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne in
Rome.

Its façade curves gently around a

curving street. In its ground floor a
dark central portico running
parallel to the street,
Palazzo Massimo alle
Colonne, Italy

by Baldassare Peruzzi
GIULIO ROMANO

Palazzo Te is one of the most

extraordinary examples of a
Mannerist Renaissance Villa,
designed and constructed by
Giulio Romano (1499 – 1546)
between 1525 and 1535 – known as
‘The abode of the Gods’.
Features include open
walkways looking over vast
gardens and green spaces
to emulate Roman Villas.

The architectural structure

and external façade of the
building is characterized by
ashlar stone-masonry work
punctuated with large,
Doric columns.
ANDREA PALLADIO

The best known of Palladio's

domestic buildings is Villa Capra,
otherwise known as "La Rotonda",

A centrally planned house with a

domed central hall and four
identical façades, each with a
temple-like portico like that of the
Pantheon in Rome.
ANDREA PALLADIO

The church of San Giorgio

Maggiore in Venice he overlays a
tall temple, its columns raised on
high plinths, over another low wide
temple façade, its columns rising
from the basements and its narrow
lintel and pilasters appearing
behind the giant order of the
central nave.