Architecture and Design in Italy

Architects and Styles

• Giovanni Amadeo: Italian architect known for his Proto-Baroque style
• Galeazzo Alessi: Italian architect known for his distinctive style based on ancient architecture
• Guarino Guarini: Italian architect who built the Chapel of The Holy Shroud in Italy, featuring a dome with intersecting arched ribs
• Giacomo da Vignola: Italian Renaissance architect who built an early Italian Renaissance building with the first truly Baroque facade
• Inigo Jones: English architect who adapted Elizabethan style to continental Renaissance influences and used Palladian Motif
• Sir Christopher Wren: English architect who designed many buildings in London, including Saint Paul's Cathedral, and was a disciple of French Renaissance

Architectural Terms

• Retable: an architectural screen or wall above and behind an altar, containing painting, sculpture, carving, or other decorations
• Trompe l'oeil: a form of illusionistic painting that aims to deceive viewers into believing they are seeing real objects
• Quoins: masonry blocks at the corner of a wall, often used to provide actual strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble
• Astylar: architecture with no columns and pilasters, unsupported
• Helm Roof: a feature of German Renaissance architecture, characterized by a bulbous termination of a tower

Architectural Styles

• Norman Architecture: a period in the history of architecture in England, characterized by bold and massive buildings with similarities to architecture in Normandy
• Early English Style: a period in the history of architecture in England, characterized by dog-tooth ornaments, foliaged capitals, and tall and narrow lancet openings
• Decorated Style: a period in the history of architecture in England, characterized by enlarged clerestories, numerous vaulting ribs, and examples such as Westminster Abbey
• Italian Renaissance: characterized by massive blocks of rusticated masonry, general absence of pilasters, sparing use of carved details, and massive cornices
• Romanesque Architecture: characterized by semi-circular arches, massive solidity and strength, and use of piers
• Jacobean Architecture: an English architecture and decorative style of the early 17th century, adapting Elizabethan style to continental Renaissance influences

Building Types and Plans

• Latin Cross Plan: a cross-shaped building plan, incorporating one longer stem (nave) and three arms of equal length, popularized in the Romanesque architectural style
• Greek Cross Plan: a church plan with a square central mass and four arms of equal length, popularized in the Byzantine architectural style
• Monastic Village: a group of buildings designed for all the occupations of the monks, common in the Romanesque era
• Pisa Cathedral: a Romanesque building in Central Italy, featuring a Baptistery, Campanille, and Campo Santo, forming one of the most famous building groups in the world