Architecture
Renaissance-present
Rachel Black
Early Renaissance- Florence
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While still medieval in nature, the Palazzo
Vecchio and Orsansmichele exceeded all other
buildings in Florence in the early 1300’s and
marked the beginning of early renaissance
architecture.
Characteristics: heavily rusticated walls,
crenellated tower.
Orsansmichele
Palazzo Vecchio
Brunelleschi
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Florence Catherdral
Brunelleschi moved European
architecture away from Gothic styles
with his construction of the dome of the
Florence Cathedral, The Pazzi Chapel,
and Ospedale, a children’s hospital
Characteristics: elements of Classicism,
geometric proportions, underlying
religions ideals, simplicity
Pazzi Chapel
Ospedale
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Medici Palace
Following in Brunelleschi’s
footsteps, artchitect Michelozzo
designed the Medici Palace for the
powerful Cosimo de’Medici to
project the right image for his
family.
Characteristics: Roman influences,
rustic exterior
Cosimo de' Medici
Alberti
“I shall define Beauty to be a harmony
of all the parts… fitted together with
such proportion and connection that
nothing cou'd be added, diminished or
altered, but for the worse.”
- Alberti On the Art of Building
• influenced the development of the
later High Renaissance style
• Characteristics: harmonious,
proportional , majestic, functional
St. Peter’s Basilica
Santa Maria Novella
The Malatesta Temple
From Florence to Rome: The High
Renaissance
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With the election of Pope Julius II in 1503 the
focus of architectural advancement moved from
Florence to Rome. The pope’s greatest endeavor
was his decision to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica.
This feat, inquiring some of the greatest minds
of architecture, outlasted Pope Julius II’s life
and reigned into the life of his successor, Pope
Leo X. The constuction required enormous
sums of money and actually helped contribute
to the Protestant Reformation by the sale of
indulgences in Germany to fund it.
Donato d'Agnolo, also know as Bramante, was
the first architect summoned by Pope Julius II.
In fact, Bramante was the Pope’s “chief aid” in
his architectural endeavors (Bleiberg 18).
Bramante was greatly influenced by the work of
Alberti and the architectual drawings of
Leonardo da Vinci.
Characteristics: Classicism- emphasis
on symmetry, proportion, geometry
Interior of St. Peter’s Basilica
Bramante’s Tempietto
Michelangelo: High Renaissance to
Italian Mannerism
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Originally a sculptor famous for
his works of the Pietà and David,
Michelangelo's first architectural
exertion occurred when he was
summoned by Pope Julius II to
work on the Julian Tomb, a
massive project that was never
completed. He was later sent to
work on the Sistine Chapel and
the new façade for the church of
San Lorenzo, Medici's family
church.
While Michelangelo did uphold
classic design, he purposefully
violated some elements of it to
give rise to mannerism, especially
in his design of the Laurentian
Library.
Characteristics: deliberate
distortion, elongated twisting
forms
Dome at Florence Cathedral
Sistine Chapel
The spread of Classicism to the rest of Europe
The spread of Classicism to the rest of
Europe was greatly hindered by the
love of the Gothic style of the medieval
ages resulting in many buildings that
look classic but really resembled more
Gothic styles in nature. Surprisingly
the first countries to open up to
Renaissance classicism were Russia
and Hungary.
Château de Chambord
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Louvre Palace
French capture of the Duchy of Milan
helped spread classicism to France. Da
Vinci designed a new royal château. These
were later built all over France for the
defense of nobility
The greatest achievement of sixteenth
century French architecture was the
rebuilding of the Louvre Palace in Paris. Up
until this point most Renaissance
architecture in France was designed by
Italians however the Louvre Palace was
planned and executed mostly by French.
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In Spain grand architectural projects
were undertaken as to display the
country’s statues and enormous
wealth derived from their colonies
in the new world. One of the first
examples of Renaissance classicism
was the Royal Hospital at Santiago
de Compostela. The greatest
architectural project in sixteenth
centuruy Spain was perhaps was the
construcion of the Escorial near
Madrid.
The Escorial
While Renaissance architecture spread to Germany as well,
the leading force was religious turbulence characterized by
the disputes of the reformation. Therefore the most
prominent structures of classicism were not churches but
castles, palaces, and civic buildings. In relation to France
and Spain, German projects were on a much smaller scale
due to “political realities” (Bleiberg 44). This can be
attributed to the fact that sixteenth century Germany was
comprised of some 350 individual states rather than a
national monarchy.
Weser Renaissance houses
English architecture did not fully develop
into the classicism of the Renaissance
until the seventeenth century. While some
elements of classicism existed, they were
minute and were elaborated on by more
prominent Gothic elements. The
conversion can be attributed to figures
like Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren.
Jones' Banqueting Hall and Queen's
House in Greenwich still held elements of
English architecture but also incorporated
the classicism of the Renaissance.
The Queen’s House in Greenwich
Wallaton Hall
While many different circumstances led
Renaissance classicism to be spread from its
origin in Italy to the rest of Europe, with time
it became the prominent style all over the
continent. The rise of humanism contributed to
the spread of classicism as people began to
appreciate humans in themselves and what
they could accomplish. Classicism’s golden
age will last for a while but as nothing ever
stays the same it will soon be replaced by the
Baroque style.
The Baroque Style
At no surprise, the Baroque style originated in Italy. The underlying purpose of
Baroque architecture was to attract Christians back to the Catholic church after it
suffered a huge blow during the reformation. Perhaps the best example of the
Catholic church’s extravagant construction was the main alter in St. Peter’s, designed
by Bernini. A canopy that soars almost 140 feet over the church's altar, it was made
of bronze and gold. However the original chief architect, Maderno dominated the
overall spirit of design within the church with the use of three richly covered marbles
and gilded ornamentation.
St. Peter’s Basilica
Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles was
perhaps the best secular example of
the Baroque style. Originally his
father’s hunting lodge, Louis had
lavish gardens added at first, then later
decided to extend the small château
with three large stone wings that
essentially swallowed it. It became the
center of French government in that it
housed most of the government
officials. Louis’s motive behind
building this extravagant palace was
ultimately to tame the unruly French
nobility by totally utilizing the phrase
“keep your friends close and your
enemies closer.”
Gardens at Versailles
Queen’s room at Versailles
Palace of Versailles
Seventeenth century Europe was characterized by
religious wars such as the Thirty Years War that
involved almost every central power. Naturally
destruction, poverty, and famine ensued. While
devastation properly followed, the opportunity for
rebuilding and renovation also occurred. almost
every Catholic parish church in southern Germany,
Austria, and Switzerland were either rebuilt or
redecorated in the Baroque style. With increasing
stability after the wars came the construction of
palaces and cities designed in the Baroque style by
Catholics and Protestants alike. Most Baroque
structures were built to display the power of a
certain person or group. In Germany, the decline of
the Holy Roman Empire led autonomous princes to
create Baroque structures similar to those of France
and England as an attempt to portray their “power.”
Through designers such as Georg Bähr, Daniel
Pöppelmann, Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff,
Dredsen began to rise as an architectural center of
Central Europe. The Hohenzollern capital of
Berlin was also transformed by Andreas Schlüter
and Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff. An
example of this is the Palace of Sansouci that
rivaled Versailles.
Palace of Sansouci
Cloister Melk in Austria
Rococo:
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th
18
century France
Upon the death of Louis XIV, the French
took a turn in their taste from the dark,
detailed style of Baroque to the lighter,
happier Rococo. The new look took
quickly in Paris where Louis XV moved
French government back from Versailles.
Rococo was almost exclusively utilized
by the nobility and today is a symbol of
the frivolity of the aristocracy.
Coinciding with the development of the
Rococo style, salons developed as an
institute of French culture. The salons
provided a meeting place for social elites
and intellectuals alike. The development
of salons would later contribute to the
rise of the enlightenment and the French
Revolution as well as the rising status of
women because women usually
controlled the conversation held at these
displays of prestige and wealth.
Characteristics: lighter colors such as
white and ivory, feministic, dainty,
elaborate, decorative style
Residence Theater
Residence Theatre
Rococo to Central Europe
Church of the Wies
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Pleasure villa
Unpopular in England, Rococo design
spread mainly the Austria and Germany
where François de Cuvilliés, working
under the Bavarian duke Maximilian II
Emmanuel, greatly encouraged the
popularity of the style. His biggest
accomplishments included a series of
pleasure villas in the gardens of the
Nymphenburg Palace, rooms designed
in the palace at Schleissheim, and the
Residence Theater in Munich. Two of
Germany’s most accomplished
designers were Dominikus
Zimmermann and Johann Michael
Fischer. Zimmermann‘s best known
work was the Church of the Wies in the
Bavarian Alps
The light hearted style of Rococo
design acts as a backlash to the dark
and grandiose of the Baroque.
Neoclassicism
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In response to the negative
reactions against the frivolity of the
Rococo, neoclassicism formed.
The Grand Tour, a circuit that
intellectuals and wealthy cultivated
men and women often made
through Europe's main cities,
contributed to the shift to
neoclassicism along with a
fascination with Antiquity and the
uncovering of Pompeii.
The rise of neoclassicism was
coincided by a celebration of
Renaissance ideals secularism and
humanism.
Characteristics: logic, orderliness,
simplicity
The Arch of Septimus Severus
Ajuda National Palace
Ange-Jacques Gabriel, a French
architect, helped Louis XV remodel
Versailles with Renaissance ideals,
such as his great masterpiece, the Petit
Trainon. Germain Soufflot designed
the Panthéon in celebration of Louis
XV’s recovery of an illness.
Blenheim Palace
England, never having embraced Rococo
architecture, was quick to jump to neoclassicism.
The country’s good economic status and the
metropolis of London made England one of the
most influential places in reference to Neoclassical
architecture.
Panthéon
Romanticism
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Romanticism promoted a revival of
Gothic architecture, reflecting the
fascination with the Middle Ages just Strawberry Hill
as neoclassicism promoted the revival
of the classicism of the Renaissance.
However some romantic architects
drew their inspiration from the more
exotic styles of China and the Middle
East.
Intertwined with an emphasis on
intuition, emotion, and imagination.
One of the most notable of the many
Gothic houses constructed in England
at the time was Horace Walpole's
Strawberry Hill, which he began
outside London in Middlesex in 1748.
Walpole was the son of Britain's
longest-serving prime minister.
Expressionism
• Characteristics: distortion of form,
realistic elements, architecture as a
work of art
• World War I acted as a catalyst for
architects as they felt the need to pursue
different forms after the devastation of
the war.
• Many expressionist architects fought in
World War I and their experiences,
combined with the political turmoil and
social upheaval that followed
the German Revolution of 1919,
resulted in a combination of
romanticism and social aspects.
• Due to economic difficulties, many of
the greatest expressionistic designs
remained as projects on paper
Babelsberg Einsteinturm
Goetheanum
Edwardian
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Edwardian architecture came
about when King Edward VII of
the United Kingdom was in
power. His reign was marked by
a period of social mobility, the
rise of socialism, plight of the
poor and the status of women,
and increased economic
opportunities as a result of rapid
industrialization.
Edwardian architecture is really a
blanket term that covers
Edwardian Baroque, AngloDutch, Warehouse, Queen Anne,
Free Style, Arts and Crafts and
Bungalow. Architecture.
Characteristics: widespread use
of red brick and terracotta,
patterns, less clutter
German Cathedral
Modernism
• Characteristics: simplicity, visual
expression of structure, use of
industrially produced materials
• While an exact definition of modernism
in relation to architecture does not exist,
modernism was a product of the
enlightenment, social and political
revolutions, and industrialization.
Modernism integrated tradition
elements of architecture with new
technology.
Tour Total
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