6. Renaissance Architecture
The Renaissance, a name meaning "rebirth or re-creation" symbolized the rebirth of ancient classical culture, originated in Florence in the early 15th century and thence spread throughout most of the Italian peninsula; by the end of the 16th century the new style pervaded almost all of Europe, gradually replacing the Gothic style of the late Middle Ages. It encouraged a revival of naturalism, seen in Italian 15th-century painting and sculpture, and of classical forms ornament in architecture, such as the column and round arch, the tunnel vault, and the dome. Knowledge of the classical style in architecture was derived during the Renaissance from two sources: the ruins of ancient buildings, particularly in Italy but also in France and Spain, and the treatise De architectura by the Roman architect Vitruvius. For classical antiquity and, therefore, for the Renaissance, the element of architectural design was the order, which was a system of traditional architectural units. During the Renaissance five orders were used, the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite, with various ones prevalent in different periods. For example, the ornate decorative quality of the Corinthian order was embraced during early Renaissance, while the masculine simplicity and strength of the Doric was preferred during the Italian High Renaissance. ancient Roman practice (e.g., the Colosseum or the Theatre of Marcellus), Renaissance architects often superimposed the order--that is, used a different order for each of the several stories of a building--commencing with the heavier, stronger Tuscan or Doric order below and then rising through the lighter, more decorative Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite. For the Renaissance, proportion was the most important predetermining factor of beauty. The great Italian humanist and architect Leon Battista Alberti defined beauty in architecture as
On the authority of Vitruvius, the Renaissance architects found a harmony between the proportions of the human body and those of their architecture. There was even a relationship between proportions and the Renaissance pictorial device of perspective; the Italian painter Piero della Francesca said that perspective represented objects seen from afar "in proportion according to their respective distance." In fact, it was an Italian Renaissance architect, Filippo Brunelleschi, who was the first to formulate perspective. The concern of these architects for proportion caused that clear, measured expression and definition of architectural space and mass that differentiates the Renaissance style from the Gothic and encourages in the spectator an immediate and full comprehension of the building. The Renaissance was the great moment in the history of architecture for the expression of architectural theory. Inspired by the rediscovery or reevaluation of the treatise by Vitruvius, many architects recorded their theories of architecture; some were preserved in manuscript (e.g., those of the 15th-century Italian architects Francesco di Giorgio and Antonio Filarete), but most were published. Alberti's treatise De re aedificatoria (Ten Books on Architecture), modeled on Vitruvius, was written in the middle of the 15th century and published in 1485. But it was during the last three-quarters of the 16th century that architectural theory flourished. The Italians Sebastiano Serlio, Giacomo da Vignola, and Andrea Palladio published famous books on architecture at that time. Elsewhere, works were published by the Frenchmen Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, Philibert Delorme, and Jean Bullant; the Fleming Vredeman de Vries; the German Wendel Dietterlin; and John Shute in England.
Early Renaissance in Italy (1401-95) The Renaissance began in Italy, where there was always a residue of classical feeling in architecture. A Gothic building such as the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence continued to use the large round arch instead of the usual Gothic pointed arch and preserved the simplicity and monumentality of classical architecture. The Renaissance have been expected to appear first in Rome, where there was greatest quantity of ancient Roman ruins; but during the 14th and early 15th centuries, when the Italians were impelled to renew classicism, the political situation in Rome was very unfavorable artistic endeavor. Florence, however, under the leadership of the Medici family, was economically prosperous and politically stable. In 1401 a competition was held among sculptors and goldsmiths to design a pair of doors for the old baptistery at Florence. The sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti won, and a losing goldsmith, Filippo Brunelleschi, resolving to be the leader in one of the arts, then turned to the study of architecture. Brunelleschi spent the period between and 1418 alternately in Florence and Rome. During this time he studied mathematics intensively and formulated linear perspective which was to become a basic element of Renaissance art. At the same time, Brunelleschi investigated ancient Roman architecture and acquired the knowledge of classical architecture and ornament he used as a foundation for Renaissance architecture. He was also influenced by the local Florentine tradition, which had flowered the 11th and 12th centuries in the so-called Tuscan proto-Renaissance style found in churches such as San Miniato Monte. Brunelleschi's great opportunity came in 1418 with competition for the completion of the duomo, or cathedral, Florence. The medieval architects had intended a great dome the crossing of the cathedral, but it had never been created, and no one knew how to accomplish it. Winning the competition, Brunelleschi began the great dome in 1420 (the finishing touches were not applied until 1467, after his death). The Florentine dome still belongs within the Gothic tradition, as it was built with rib construction and a pointed arch form, but the introduction of a drum, which made the dome more prominent, was to become characteristic of the Renaissance dome. Brunelleschi also produced in Florence other notable examples of the Renaissance style. The loggia of the Ospedale degli Innocenti (1419-51) was the first building in the Renaissance manner; a very graceful arcade was designed with Composite columns, and windows with classical pediments were regularly spaced above each of the arches. This style was more fully exploited in the church of San Lorenzo (c. 1421 to c. 1460). Using the traditional basilica plan the plan and elevations were organized on a system of proportions with the height of the nave equal to twice its width. All the ornament is classical, with Corinthian columns, pilasters, and classical moldings. Brunelleschi used almost exclusively the Corinthian order. All the moldings, door and window frames, and orders are of a soft blue-gray stone (piètra serena) contrasted against a light stucco wall. The ornamental features have very little projection, being rather lines on a surface. Colour was used in Florentine architecture to stress the linear relationship rather than for overall patternistic uses (as in northern Italian architecture). The traditional plan for medieval churches was the Latin cross plan, as at San Lorenzo; the longer arm of the cross formed the nave of the church. During the Middle Ages this plan was considered a symbolic reference to the cross of Christ. During the Renaissance the ideal church plan tended to be centralized; that is, it was symmetrical about a central point, as is a circle, a square, or a Greek cross (which has four equal arms). Many Renaissance architects came to believe that the circle was the most perfect geometric form and, therefore, most appropriate in dedication to a perfect God. Brunelleschi also worked with the central plan. In the Pazzi Chapel (1429-60), constructed in the medieval cloister of Santa Croce at Florence, the plan approaches the central type. On the inside it is actually a rectangle, slightly wider than it is deep; at its rear is a square bay for the sanctuary, and at the front is a porch. There are three domes, a large one over the center of the chapel and small ones over the sanctuary and over the center of the porch on the exterior. Its plan, but not its interior space, resembles a Greek cross. On the exterior the large dome is covered by a conical roof with a lantern at the top. The porch has a horizontal entablature supported by six Corinthian columns but broken in the center by a semicircular arch that centralizes the composition, repeats the shape of the dome in the porch behind it, and gives a lift to the horizontal facade. Soon after the commencement of the Pazzi Chapel, Brunelleschi began a central-plan church, that of Santa Maria degli Angeli (begun 1434) at Florence, which was never completed. It was very important because it was the first central-plan church of the Renaissance, the type of plan which dominates Renaissance thinking. The plan is an octagon on the interior and 16-sided on the exterior, with a domical vault probably intended to cover the center. An outstanding example of secular architecture was the Medici Palace (1444-59; now called the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi) at Florence by Michelozzo, a follower of Brunelleschi. Created for Cosimo de' Medici, a great political leader and art patron of Florence, the palace was arranged around a central court, the traditional Florentine palace plan. Medieval Florentine palaces were built of great rusticated blocks of stone, as if they had just been hacked out of the quarry, giving the impression of fortification. With the Renaissance, some fundamental changes appeared. Michelozzo crowned his palace with a massive horizontal cornice in the classical style and regularized the window and entrance openings. Even the rustication of the stonework was differentiated in each of the three stories. The ground floor has the usual heavy rustication; the second story is marked by drafted stonework with smooth blocks outlined by incised lines; and the third story has ashlar stonework with no indications of the blocks. Unlike medieval patternistic rustication, that of the Renaissance, which carefully distinguished between the stories, set up a logical relationship among them. This Renaissance treatment of a palace facade was carried further in the Palazzo Rucellai (1452?-1470?) at Florence, following the design of the great architect Alberti. Classical orders were applied to the palace elevation by Alberti, using pilasters of the different orders superimposed on the three stories, so that there was another relationship established among the differentiated stories, from the short, strong Tuscan pilaster on the ground floor to the tall, decorative Corinthian at the top. For Alberti the beauty of architecture consisted of a harmonious relationship among the parts, with ornament, including the classical orders, being auxiliary to the proportional relationships. The culmination of Alberti's style is seen at Mantua in the church of Sant'Andrea (begun 1472, completed in the 18th century), an early Renaissance masterpiece that was to exert much influence on later religious architecture. It is important as a brilliant application of the ancient Roman triumphal arch motif both to the facade of a church and to its interior articulation. The plan, as completed, is a Latin cross with one long arm for the nave flanked by side chapels, but the crossing at the sanctuary end was treated as a central plan with the nave added to it. It is unknown whether this plan corresponds to Alberti's intention, for only the nave portion was erected in the 15th century. The facade is of square proportion, with a wide bay at the center twice the width of each of the side bays. The interior elevation was organized on this same alternating system, the so-called rhythmic bay that was to be popularized in the early 16th century by Bramante. As a result of this system, there is a close correspondence between the interior and exterior composition of Sant'Andrea. From Florence the early Renaissance style spread gradually over Italy, becoming prevalent in the second half of the 15th century. In the architecture of northern Italy there was a greater interest in pattern and color. Color was emphasized by the use of variegated marble inlays, as in the facade of the church of the Certosa di Pavia (begun 1491) or in most Venetian architecture. The favorite building material of northern Italy was brick with terra-cotta trim and decoration, a combination by means of which a pattern of light and dark was created over the entire building. On occasions when stone was used, as at the Palazzo Bevilacqua in Bologna (c. 1479-84), the blocks were cut with facets forming a diamond pattern on the facade. This was actually a decorative treatment of rustication. Even the classical orders were affected by this decorative approach. Classical pilasters often had panels of candelabra and arabesque decoration in delicate relief on the surfaces of their shafts; the lower third of a column was frequently carved with relief sculpture. Florentine artists, such as Filarete with his project for the Ospedale Maggiore at Milan (begun 1457), brought classical decoration and a slight knowledge of Renaissance architecture to the region of Lombardy. The style was transferred to Venice by such Lombard architects as Pietro Lombardo and Mauro Coducci. The church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli (1481-89) at Venice, with its facade faced with coloured marble, is typical of Lombardo's work. The Venetian palace, as exemplified by the Palazzo Corner-Spinelli (late 15th century) and the Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi (c. 1500-09), both of which are the work of Coducci and both with large and numerous windows, was more open than the palaces found in central Italy. In Rome in the second half of the 15th century, there were several notable Renaissance palaces, principally derived from the style of Alberti, who spent extensive periods in Rome as a member of the papal court. The Palazzo Venezia (1455-1503) has a rather medieval exterior, but set within the palace is a characteristically Renaissance court (1468-71), of which only two sides forming an angle were completed. It has been suggested without definite proof that Alberti may have furnished the design for this court; it at least reveals his influence in its full understanding of the classical style. The court consists of two stories of semicircular arches supported by piers, on which are attached superimposed classical half columns, Tuscan below and Ionic above. The model for this arcade is the ancient Colosseum of Rome. The sense of mass created by the heavy piers contrasted with the lighter effect of the early Renaissance court typical of Florence, which has arches supported on columns. The Palazzo della Cancelleria (1495) shows its dependence upon Alberti's style in its facade, which resembles in part his Palazzo Rucellai in Florence. The lower story simply has drafted or leveled and squared stonework, but the two upper stories have rather flat Corinthian pilasters as well as the drafted stone. Unlike the Rucellai palace, the bays composed by the pilasters alternate wide and narrow, but this alternation had been used by Alberti already in Sant'Andrea at Mantua. Alberti's influence is also visible in the facades of the churches of Sant'Agostino (1479-83) and Santa Maria del Popolo (rebuilt 1472-77) in Rome. These examples of the early Renaissance in Rome were rapidly approaching the simplicity, monumentality, and massiveness of the High Renaissance of the early 16th century. Donato Bramante, who was to create this new style, was active in Lombardy in northern Italy, but his work in Milan, as at Santa Maria presso San Satiro (about 1480-86), was still in the Lombard early Renaissance manner. He was in contact at this time, however, with the great Florentine Leonardo da Vinci, who was active at the Milanese court. Leonardo was then considering the concept of the central-plan church and filling his notebooks with sketches of such plans, which Bramante must have studied. When Bramante moved to Rome at the very end of the 15th century, his study of ancient ruins--combined with the ideas of Leonardo and the growing classicism of Roman early Renaissance architecture--resulted in the flourishing of the High Renaissance.
High Renaissance in Italy (1495-1520) High Renaissance architecture first appeared at Rome in the work of Bramante at the beginning of the 16th century. The period was a very brief one, centered almost exclusively in the city of Rome; it ended with the political and religious tensions that shook Europe during the third decade of the century, culminating in the disastrous sack of Rome in 1527 and the siege of Florence in 1529. The High Renaissance was a period of harmony and balance in all the arts, perhaps the most classic moment in this respect since the 5th century BC in Greece. Political and cultural leadership shifted from Florence to Rome particularly because of a succession of powerful popes who wanted to develop the papacy as a secular power. The greatest of all was Julius II (1503-13), who was likewise a fabulous patron of the arts. Almost all the leading Italian artists were attracted to Rome. With the exception of Giulio Romano, none of the important artists active in Rome at this time was Roman by birth. Bramante, the leader of this new manner, had already acquired an architectural reputation at Milan. Almost immediately after his arrival in Rome, in 1499, there was an amazing change in Bramante's work, as he became the exemplar of the High Renaissance style and lost his Lombard early Renaissance qualities. The Tempietto (1502), or small chapel, next to San Pietro in Montorio, typifies the new style. Erected on the supposed site of the martyrdom of St. Peter, the Tempietto is circular in plan, with a colonnade of 16 columns surrounding a small cella, or enclosed interior sanctuary. The chapel was meant to stand in the center of a circular court, which was likewise to be surrounded by a colonnade, so that the whole structure was to be self-contained and centralized. The enclosing circular court was never erected. The ultimate inspiration of the Tempietto was a Roman circular temple, like the temples of Vesta at Rome or Tivoli, but so many notable changes were made that the Renaissance chapel was an original creation. On the exterior it was organized in two stories, the Doric colonnade forming the first story. Above is a semicircular dome raised high on a drum. The present large finial, or crowning ornament, on the dome is of a later date and destroys some of the simplicity of the massing. Niches cut into the wall of the drum help to emphasize the solidity and strength of the whole, as does the heavy Doric order that Bramante was so fond of--in contrast to Brunelleschi, who had a predilection for the ornate Corinthian. The monument is very simple, harmonious, and comprehensible. Several churches present the same qualities as the Tempietto on a larger physical scale. The church of Santa Maria della Consolazione (1504-1617) at Todi, probably by Bramante, is likewise centralized in plan, being square with a semicircular or polygonal apse opening off each side. The mass is built up of simple geometric forms capped by the cylinder of a drum and a slightly pointed dome. On the interior the outstanding quality is a sense of quiet, harmonious spaciousness. The Florentine architect Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, influenced by Bramante, created his church of San Biagio at Montepulciano (1518-29) on a Greek cross plan. On the facade in the two recesses of the arms of the cross were to rise two towers, the right one never completed. Otherwise the massing is similar to that of Todi, with dome and drum above. All the moldings and ornamental elements were carved with strong projection, so that on the interior heavy Roman arches, with deep coffers containing rosettes, define the tunnel vaults rising over the arms of the church. The churches at Todi and Montepulciano are pilgrimage churches or shrines and thus have the centralized planning characteristic of the martyrium or church built over the tomb of a martyr or saint. Sangallo's church at Montepulciano reflects Bramante's greatest undertaking, the rebuilding of S Peter's in Rome. Early in 1505 Pope Julius II began to consider the question of a tomb for himself that would be appropriate to his idea of the power and nobility of his position. The sculptor Michelangelo soon presented a great project for a freestanding tomb, but such a monument required a proper setting. The Renaissance artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari claimed that the question of an appropriate location for this projected tomb brought to the Pope's mind the idea of rebuilding St. Peter's, which was in very poor condition. Bramante, therefore, prepared plans for a monumental church late in 1505, and in April 1506 the foundation stone was laid. Bramante's first design was a Greek cross in plan, with towers at the four corners and a tremendous dome over the crossing, inspired by that of the ancient Roman Pantheon but in this case raised on a drum. The Greek cross plan being unacceptable, Bramante finally planned to lengthen one arm to form a nave with a centralized crossing. At his death in 1514 Bramante had completed only the four main piers that were to support the dome, but these piers determined the manner in which later architects attempted the completion of the church. The largest palace of the High Renaissance is the Palazzo Farnese (1517-89) at Rome, designed and commenced by a follower of Bramante, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, nephew of the older Sangallo. At Sangallo's death, in 1546, Michelangelo carried the palace toward completion, making important changes in the third story. On the exterior Sangallo gave up the use of the classical orders as a means of dividing the facade into a number of equal bays; he used instead a facade more like those of the Florentines, but with quoins, or rough-cut blocks of stone at the edges of the building, to confine the composition in a High Renaissance fashion. The facade is composed in proportions as a double square. On the interior the central square court is more classical, using superimposed orders. Based on the ancient Roman Theatre of Marcellus or the Colosseum, the two first floors have an arcade supported by rectangular piers against which are half columns. On the third story Michelangelo eliminated the arcade and used pilasters flanked by half pilasters, which destroyed the High Renaissance idea of the careful separation and definition of parts. One of the most charming buildings of the period is the villa Farnesina (1509-11) at Rome by Baldassarre Peruzzi from Siena. Designed for the fabulously wealthy Sienese banker Agostino Chigi, the villa was the scene of numerous elaborate banquets for the pope and cardinals. A suburban villa, the Farnesina was planned in relation to the gardens around it with two small wings projecting from the central block to flank the entrance loggia. Originally, another loggia opened at the side upon the gardens stretching to the bank of the Tiber, but this loggia was later walled in. The elevation appears as two stories comparted into equal bays by Tuscan pilasters. The neat, reserved quality of the present building was originally lightened by painted fresco decoration over all the exterior wall surfaces. Other important buildings were designed by the painter Raphael, such as the Villa Madama (begun 1518) at Rome or the Palazzo Pandolfini (begun c. 1516) at Florence.
Italian Mannerism or Late Renaissance (1520-1600) Mannerism is the term applied to certain aspects of artistic style, mainly Italian, in the period between the High Renaissance of the early 16th century and the beginnings of Baroque art in the early 17th. From the third decade of the 16th century, political and religious tensions erupted violently in Italy, particularly in Rome, which was sacked in 1527 by the imperial troops of Charles V. school of Bramante and Raphael, which had produced the Renaissance style, was dispersed throughout Italy as the artists fled from devastated Rome. Mannerism appeared and prevailed in some regions until the end of the 16th century, when the Baroque style developed. Mannerism was antithetical to many of the principles of the High Renaissance. In place of harmony, clarity, and repose it was characterized by extreme sophistication, complexity, and novelty. Mannerist architects were no less interested in ancient classical architecture than were their predecessors, but they found other qualities in ancient Roman architecture to exploit. In fact, they often displayed an even greater knowledge of antiquity than did earlier artists. For Vasari, as a practicing Mannerist architect, the same criteria of stylishness in design could be applied to a building as to a work of painting or sculpture. Vasari designed and built for an educated elite, one that would appreciate both his understanding of the rules of Roman architecture and the ingenious liberties that he took with these rules. Florentine and Roman 16th-century architecture is characterized by a secular cleverness--a building was judged on elegance, ingenuity, and variety of form. The change in style between the High Renaissance and Mannerism can be seen in the work of Baldassarre Peruzzi, who was active in both periods. Unlike his High Renaissance Villa Farnesina, Peruzzi's design for the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne (about 1535) in Rome shows indications of Mannerism. The facade of the palace was curved to fit the site on which it was erected; instead of remaining the passive form it had been in the earlier phases of Renaissance architecture, the wall surface was beginning to assert itself. The classical order is limited to the ground floor of the palace; the upper three stories have imitation drafted stonework made of brick covered with stucco, inscribed to feign stone coursing. Under these three stories in the center of the facade is a loggia or colonnade, which seems of questionable adequacy as a support for the apparent load. The second story has rectangular windows crowned by Peruzzi's usual neat lintel supported on volutes, but the windows of the upper two stories are set horizontally with rather elaborate curvilinear moldings about them. There is, therefore, no longer a harmonious balance among the various stories. The architecture shows a greater emphasis on decorative qualities than on the expression of structural relationships. After the resolved classical order and measured harmony of Bramante's High Renaissance buildings, two main, though interwoven, directions of Mannerist development become apparent. One of these, emanating largely from Peruzzi, relied upon a detailed study of antique decorative motifs--grotesques, classical gems, coins, and the like--which were used in a pictorial fashion to decorate the plane of the facade. This tendency was crystallized in Raphael's Palazzo Branconio dell'Aquila (destroyed) at Rome, where the regular logic of a Bramante facade was abandoned in favor of complex, out-of-step rhythms and encrusted surface decorations of medallions and swags. The detailed archaizing elements of this manner were taken up later by Pirro Ligorio, by the architects of the Palazzo Spada in Rome, and by Giovanni Antonio Dosio. The second trend exploited the calculated breaking of rules, the taking of sophisticated liberties with classical architectural vocabulary. Two very different buildings of the 1520s were responsible for initiating this taste, Michelangelo's Laurentian Library in Florence and the Palazzo del Te by Giulio Romano in Mantua. Michelangelo's composition relies upon a novel re-assembly of classical motifs for plastically expressive purposes, while Giulio's weird distortion of classical forms is of a more consciously bizarre and entertaining kind. The various exterior aspects of the Palazzo del Te provide a succession of changing moods, which are contrived so as to retain the surprised attention of the spectator rather than to present him with a building that can be comprehended at a glance. In the courtyard the oddly fractured cornice sections create an air of ponderous tension, whereas the loggia is lightly elegant. Similarly, the illusionistic decoration of the interior runs the full gamut from heavy (if self-parodying) tragedy to pretty delicacy. Giulio also created a series of contrived vistas, through arches and doors, much like that later projected by Michelangelo for the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. Such management of scenic effects became one of the hallmarks of later Mannerist architecture. Increasingly, architecture, sculpture, and walled gardens came to be regarded as part of a complex (but not unified) whole. In the Villa Giulia (c. 1550-55), the most significant secular project of its time, Vasari appears to have been in charge of the scenic integration of the various elements; Giacomo da Vignola designed part of the actual building, while the Mannerist sculptor Bartolommeo Ammanati was largely responsible for the sculptural decoration. In spite of the continuous stepped vista, the building makes its impact through a succession of diverse effects rather than by mounting up to a unified climax. There, and in Vasari's design for the Uffizi Palace (1560), the vista seems to have been based upon the supposed style of antique stage sets, as interpreted by Peruzzi. It is not surprising that the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio came closest to achieving a fully Mannerist style in his Teatro Olimpico at Vicenza, where the receding vistas and rich sculptural details create an effect of extraordinary complexity. Similarly, it is not surprising that the greatest of the later Mannerist architects in Florence, Bernardo Buontalenti, should have been an acknowledged master of stage design. He was employed at the Medici court as a designer of grandly fantastic ephemera--mock river battles and stage intermezzi (interval entertainments) in which elaborate stage machinery effected miraculous transformations, figures descending from the clouds to slay dragons that spouted realistic blood, followed by music and dance all'antica. As a garden designer, Buontalenti enriched the traditional formal schemes with entertaining diversions, in which water often played a prominent role--either in fountains or in wetting booby traps for the strolling visitor. Buontalenti's buildings possess much of this capricious spirit in addition to his brilliantly inventive command of fluently plastic detailing. In their treatment of detail, 16th-century Florentine architects inevitably looked toward Michelangelo as their example of innovative genius. Michelangelo's Medici Chapel in San Lorenzo was executed, in Vasari's opinion, "in a style more varied and novel than that of any other master," and "thus all artists are under a great and eternal obligation to Michelangelo, seeing that he broke the fetters and chains that had earlier confined them to the creation of traditional forms." By Vasari's time the Mannerist quest for novelty had reached a thoroughly self-conscious level. Michelangelo's later architecture in Rome was more restrained than his Florentine works. In 1546 he was commissioned to complete St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, succeeding Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. During the next 18 years he was able to complete most of his design for the church, except the facade and great dome above. In plan he returned to a central-plan church reminiscent of Bramante's first project but with fewer parts. Michelangelo's elevation, still visible at the rear or sides of the church, is composed of gigantic pilasters and a rather high attic story. Between the pilasters are several stories of windows or niches. Unlike the harmonious orders and openings of the High Renaissance, these are constricted by the pilasters so that a tension is created in the wall surface. Michelangelo planned a tremendous semicircular dome on a drum as the climax of the composition. Engravings of his original project suggest that this dome would have been overwhelming in relation to the rest of the design. The great central dome was executed toward the end of the 16th century by Michelangelo's follower, Giacomo della Porta, who gave a more vertical expression to the dome by raising it about 25 feet higher than a semicircle. In the early 17th century, the Baroque architect Carlo Maderno added a large nave and facade to the front of the church, converting it into a Latin cross plan and destroying the dominating quality of the dome, at least from the exterior front. Early Mannerism in northern Italy developed out of the dissolution of the school of Bramante after 1527. Giulio Romano, the chief assistant of Raphael, became court artist and architect in the city of Mantua. With the works of Galeazzo Alessi of Genoa, Leone Leoni of Milan, and Sebastiano Serlio of Bologna, Mannerist architecture gained a firm hold. In 1537 Serlio began to publish his series of books on architecture, in which antiquity was examined through Mannerist eyes and a series of pattern-book Mannerist designs was provided. Three years later, Serlio joined the Italian Mannerist painter Francesco Primaticcio at Fontainebleau, where he helped to consolidate the early acceptance of Mannerist ideals in France. In the work of Alessandro Vittoria, the influence of central Italy was pronounced. His heavy ceiling moldings are composed of classical motifs and bold strap work. The north's taste for bizarre fancies--such as Vittoria's fireplace for the Palazzo Thiene--was often in advance of that in Rome and Florence. Even Venice proved to be quickly susceptible to the clever tricks of Mannerist license. Michele Sanmicheli, a pupil of Bramante and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, returned after the sack of Rome to his native town of Verona and later went to Venice, where his architecture shows a clear awareness of Giulio Romano's Mantuan experiments. Another prominent architect in Venice was the Florentine sculptor Jacopo Sansovino, who also had fled to the north from Rome after the sack. Sansovino's architecture, as represented by the Loggetta (1537-40) at the foot of St. Mark's campanile or by the Old Library of St. Mark's (Libreria Vecchia [1536-88]), is rich in surface decorative qualities. The library has two stories of arcades; it has no basement but merely three low steps, so as to match the Gothic Palazzo Ducale opposite it. The upper entablature is extremely heavy, equaling half the height of the Ionic columns on which it rests. The rich application of relief sculpture with no unadorned wall surfaces creates this decorative quality, which has only superficial affinities with Florentine Mannerism. This period of free and decorative Mannerism was followed by a more restrained classical architecture seen to perfection in the work of one of the greatest architects of the Renaissance, Andrea Palladio. The city of Vicenza, not far from Venice, was almost completely rebuilt with edifices after his design, including the basilica or town hall (1549) and the Loggia del Capitaniato (1571), as well as many private palaces. In the varied design of these buildings and in numerous villas in the Venetian mainland around Vicenza, Palladio brilliantly demonstrated the versatility of a range of neo-antique formulas. The Villa Capra or Rotonda (1550-51; with later changes) is magnificent in its simplicity and massing. In the center of a cube like block (typical of most Palladian villas) is a circular hall, and on all four sides are projecting classical temple fronts as porticoes, resulting in an absolute classical symmetry in the plan. In Venice, Palladio built several churches, all with the Latin-cross plan and rather similar facades. San Giorgio Maggiore (1566-1610) has a Roman temple front, on four giant half columns, applied to the center of the facade; abutting the sides are two half temple fronts with smaller coupled pilasters. The resulting composition suggests the inter penetration of two complete temple fronts in a Mannerist way, since the elements of the composition are less independent than they would be in High Renaissance architecture. Also typical of Mannerism is the way in which the interior space, instead of being classically confined, is permitted to escape through a colonnaded screen behind the sanctuary into a large choir at the rear. Palladio's greatest fame rests on his treatise I quattro libri dell'architettura (1570; Four Books on Architecture). The most important architect of this period in Rome is Giacomo da Vignola, who wrote a treatise, Regola delli cinque ordini d'architettura (1562; "Rule of the Five Orders of Architecture"), devoted solely to a consideration of the architectural orders and their proportions. Like Palladio's book, Vignola's Regola became a textbook for later classical architecture. Of his many buildings the project for the church of Il Gesù (1568) at Rome, the central church of the Jesuit Order, was very influential on the later history of architecture. The plan is a Latin cross with side chapels flanking the nave, but the eastern end is a central plan, capped by a dome. Il Gesù's plan was imitated throughout Europe, but especially in Italy, during the early Baroque period of the 17th century. Vignola built the church except for its facade, which was executed by Giacomo della Porta. Della Porta, inspired by Vignola's original design, created a facade concentrated toward its center, which, like the plan, was the prototype for most early Baroque facades of the late 16th and 17th century.
Source: http://www.archpedia.com/Styles_Renaissance.html Links: Peter Gillgren
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