Renaissance Art in 13th and 14th Century - Italy PDF

## AES305-Lecture Notes Art in 13th and 14th Century- Italy Renaissance Architecture ### Renaissance - The period came to be known by its French name, the Renaissance (First called the rinascimento, Italian for rebirth). - Its original users defined it as the rebirth of classical learning, literat...

## AES305-Lecture Notes Art in 13th and 14th Century- Italy Renaissance Architecture ### Renaissance - The period came to be known by its French name, the Renaissance (First called the rinascimento, Italian for rebirth). - Its original users defined it as the rebirth of classical learning, literature, and art. The activity, spirit, or time of the humanistic revival of classical art, literature, and learning originating in Italy in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world. ### Italian Renaissance Architecture The group or architectural styles that originated in Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an emphasis on symmetry, exact mathematical relationships between parts, and an overall effect of simplicity and repose. ### Renaissance Architecture The various adaptations of Italian Renaissance architecture that occurred throughout Europe until the advent of Mannerism and the Baroque in the 16th and 17th centuries, characterized by the use of Italian Renaissance forms and motifs (emphasis on symmetry, exact mathematical relationships between parts, and an overall effect of simplicity and repose) in more or less traditional buildings. ### Modern historians have divided the Italian Renaissance into stages: 1. **Early Renaissance:** 15th century 2. **High Renaissance:** late 15th and early 16th centuries 3. **Late Renaissance, primarily a chronologicalterm:** 16th century ### The Early Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Italy - A style of Italian Renaissance art and architecture developed during the 15th century. Early Renaissance architecture is characterized by the free and inventive use of classical details. ### Quattrocento architecture The Italian Renaissance architecture of the 15th century. 400 (1400) ### High Renaissance Architecture - (late 15th and early 16th centuries) A style of Italian Renaissance architecture developed in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, characterized by the imitative use of whole orders and compositional arrangements_in the classical style, with great attention to the formulation of compositional rules after the precepts of Vitruvius and the precedents of existing ruins. ### Cinquecento architecture The Italian Renaissance architecture of the 16th century. 500 (1500) ### HUMANIST INFLUENCE ON RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE - Humanist ideas affected artists as well as the patrons who hired them. - As humanists studied ancient texts, architects studied ancient works: 1. to imitate details or motifs 2. to understand the principles by which ancient buildings were designed - Medieval institutions religious orders, guilds, and the Church commissioned church buildings, architectural sculpture, wall paintings, altar furnishings, and other objects as they had in earlier centuries, though secular patronage increased. - The artists earned personal glory along the way, so that by the end of the century the status of the artist had changed. - Many artists in fifteenth-century Italy behaved like intellectuals, investigating the past and solving problems scientifically, so the status of the artist rose as a result. ### Political Conditions-Italy - During this period, there was still no single political entity called Italy. - Regions of different size and political organization competed with each other economically and often on the battlefield. - The Kingdom of Naples in the south was a monarchy. - Dukes, princes, and despots carved up northern Italy into city-states. - The pope returned to Rome to reclaim control of the Papal States which had been lost when the papacy moved to France in 1305. - The major trading cities of Venice and Florence formed republics, where mercantile elites controlled political power. - Though the cultural flowering we call the Renaissance occurred throughout Italy, for many modern scholars the city of Florence was its birthplace. ### The Early Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Italy Florence ### BRUNELLESCHI AND THE DOME OF FLORENCE CATHEDRAL - Soaring hundreds of feet above street level, the dome dwarfs all other structures in Florence. - Resting visually on the smaller Semi-domes that surround the cathedral's eastern end, the ribs of the dome rise upward dramatically, terminating in a marble cupola or lantern. - The cathedral was dedicated on March 25th, 1436. As the basic dimensions and plans for the cathedral of Florence had been established in the fourteenth century, Brunelleschi first determined to lift the dome on a drum above the level of the nave. - He proposed to build the dome in two separate shells, which was a method more common in Islamic than Italian architecture. - The dual shells of the dome lighten the whole mass since their walls are thin relative to their size. - These two shells were supported by a series of ribs, eight of them visible on the exterior_but others hidden; the vertical ribs were themselves linked by rows of horizontal ribs, a system which may have been inspired by the coffred dome of the Pantheon. - Both the use of ribs and the pointed profile reflect Gothic practice. - The use of herringbone- pattern brickwork serves both to resist cracks caused by settling and to lessen the weight as the courses of brick get thinner as they rise. ### Brunelleschi's Dome Design: 1. To lift the dome on a drum above the level of the nave. 2. To build the dome in two separate shells supported by a series of ribs (vertical and horizontal). 3. Herringbone-pattern brickwork. ### Filippo Brunelleschi - Filippo Brunelleschi is a crucial figure for Renaissance art, especially in architecture. - Originally, he was trained as a goldsmith and sculptor. - His study of ancient buildings drew him to solving architectural problems. - Brunelleschi went to Rome with his friend the sculptor Donatello. - There he studied ancient structures and reportedly took exact measurements of them. - He brought his study of ancient buildings to the service of design problems at the Florentine Duomo, at other churches and chapels in Florence, and other structures. - Other architects working in Florence took inspiration from his example, among them Leon Battista Alberti. The dome had been planned half a century earlier, so at this stage only details could be changed, and its vast size posed a problem of construction. ### The dimensions of the building are enormous: - Building area 8300 m² - Length 153 meters - Width 38 meters - Width at the crossing 90 metres. - The height of the arches in the aisles is 23 meters. - The height of the dome is 114.5 meters. (with the lantern). - It has the fifth tallest dome in the world. ### The Early Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Italy Florence ### SANT ANDREA IN MANTUA-LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI - In 1470, Alberti had designed the church of Sant Andrea in Mantua, his last work. - The majestic façade expresses Alberti's ultimate goal of merging classical temple forms with the traditional basilican church. - Here, he interweaves a triumphal arch motif, now with a huge recessed center niche to serve as the portal, with a classical temple front. - To keep the two competing forms in equilibrium, he uses flat pilasters that stress the primacy of the wall surface. - Two sizes of pilaster achieve this balance: The smaller pilasters support the arch over the huge central niche, and the larger ones support the unbroken architrave and the strongly outlined pediment. - The larger pilasters form what is known as a colossal order, meaning that it is more than one story high. - These tall pilasters balance the horizontal and vertical elements of the design. - To further unify the façade, Alberti inscribed the entire design within a square, even though it made the façade much lower than the height of the nave. (The effect of the west wall protruding above the pediment appears more disturbing in photographs than from street level, where it can hardly be seen.) - While the façade is distinct from the main body of the structure, it offers a preview of the interior, where the same colossal order, the same proportions, and the same triumphal-arch motif reappear on the walls of the nave. - Following the example of the Basilica of Constantine, Alberti replaced the aisles with alternating large and small vaulted chapels and eliminated the clerestory. - Here, Alberti has drawn upon his study of the massive vaulted halls in ancient Roman baths and basilicas, but he interprets these models freely to create a structure that can truly be called a Christian temple. - Such a synthesis of ancient forms and Christian functions was a primary goal of fifteenth-century humanists and their patrician sponsors. - Alberti's accomplishment of this goal at Sant Andrea would inspire many other architects to do the same. ### Palace Architecture - Patrons asked artists to create works of art for their homes as well as for their churches. - As family fortunes rose, palaces needed building or remodeling to provide an appropriate setting for family life and civic display. - Architects such as Michelozzo built family homes endowed with great dignity by their use of classical forms. ### EXAMPLE: PALAZZO MEDICI-RICCARDI Architect: Michelozzo di Bartolomeo- (1396-1472) - Michelozzo di Bartolomeo's design recalls the fortress like Florentine palaces of old. - The windows on the ground floor were added by Michelangelo in 1516-17, and the whole was extended by the Riccardi family in the 17th century. - Michelozzo borrowed the rustication from the Palazzo della Signoria, but he lightened the forms significantly. - The three stories form a graded sequence: - The lowest features rough-hewn, rusticated masonry; - the second has smooth -surfaced blocks; - and the third has an unbroken surface. - The building seems heavier on the bottom and lighter above. - On top of the structure rests, like a lid, a strongly projecting cornice of the sort found on Roman temples. - Inside, the spaces of the palace open to a central courtyard defined by an arcade resting on Brunelleschian classicizing columns. - The arcade supports a frieze with carved medallions. - The double-lancet windows of the façade reappear here. ### Rustication Ashlar masonry having the visible faces of the dressed stones raised or otherwise contrasted with the horizontal and usually the vertical joints, which may be rabbeted, chamfered, or beveled. - Only these are required - **Lantern:** A superstructure crossing a roof or dome and having open or windowed walls to let in light and air. - **cupola:** A light structure on a dome or roof, serving as a bellry, lantem, or belvedere. - **tambour:** The vertical part of a cupola. - **interdome:** The space between the immer and oster shells- of a dome. - **lucarne Also: skylight:** Adormer window in a rool or spire. - **whispering gallery:** A space er gallery bereath a dome or vault in which low sounds produced at any of certain points are clearly audible at certain other distant points. - **Also: Cupola:** a small dome, especially a small dome on a drum on top of a larger dome, adorning a roof or ceiling. - **Belfry:** the part of a bell tower or steeple in which bells are housed. - **Belvedere:** a summerhouse or open-sided gallery, usually at rooftop level, commanding a fine view. - **Lantern** - **Lantern in Architecture** ### Art in 13th and 14th Century- Italy - **AES305-Lecture Notes** - **The Early Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Italy Florence** - **Palace Architecture** - **EXAMPLE: PALAZZO MEDICI-RICCARDI** - **Rustication** - **The Early Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Italy Florence** - **SANT ANDREA IN MANTUA-LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI** - **BRUNELLESCHI AND THE DOME OF FLORENCE CATHEDRAL** ### The Early Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Italy Florence - **SANT ANDREA IN MANTUA-LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI** - **BRUNELLESCHI AND THE DOME OF FLORENCE CATHEDRAL**