Renaissance and
Baroque Architecture
Architectural History
ACT 322
Doris Kemp
Topics
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Early Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
Michelozzo di Bartolomeo
Late Renaissance
Giulio Romano
Michelangelo
Andrea Palladio
The Early Renaissance
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Florence, Italy
The birthplace of a new artistic movement called the
Renaissance
 Led by rich merchants and leading trade guilds
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Not by religious figures as in medieval art
A time of cultural excitement and discovery
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Creative talents of a group of young artists
developed into a new artistic style
The Early Renaissance
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Filippo Brunelleschi
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A great friend of Donatello
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Invented what is now called one- and two-point
perspective
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A famous Italian sculptor
The most realistic drawing technique used in design
Responsible for many Italian Early Renaissance
architecture designs
The Early Renaissance
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Brunelleschi
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Cathedral of Florence
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Italian Gothic in style but absent of a flying buttress
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Used a ribbed structure to build a dome of some 150-ft at
the diagonal
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Absent because local Italians believed this was of German
decent and they wanted a pure Italian structure
Larger than the Roman Pantheon, a great achievement for the
time
Brunelleschi had observed diagonal bonding in Roman
ruins and used it to create the ribbed structure of the
dome
The Early Renaissance
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The Early Renaissance
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/wdpt1.html
The Early Renaissance
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/wdpt1.html
The Early Renaissance
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/wdpt1.html
The Early Renaissance
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Brunelleschi
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Ospedale degli Innocenti (Founders Hospital)
Expressed his empathy with ancient Rome with great
detail in this structure
 Considered the first building of the Renaissance by many
architectural historians
 Designed in 1419 and built from 1421 – 1444
 Features a continuous arcade, carried on Corinthian
columns across its main facade
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The Early Renaissance
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The Early Renaissance
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/wdpt1.html
The Early Renaissance
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/wdpt1.html
The Early Renaissance
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Brunelleschi
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S. Lorenzo and S. Spirito, Florence
Two of his larger structures in Florence
 Both featured a square bay aisle that defines a module
repeated throughout the churches
 Both feature Roman elements within their interiors
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Semicircular arches
Corinthian columns
The Early Renaissance
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The Early Renaissance
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The Early Renaissance
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The Early Renaissance
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Michelozzo di Bartolomeo
A student of Brunelleschi
 A capable architect and was awarded several
commissions
 Palazzo Medici
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One of his most notable designs
 Plan consists of a square with a central courtyard to serve
as a circulation core for the perimeter rooms
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The Early Renaissance
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The Early Renaissance
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The Early Renaissance
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The Early Renaissance
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Leone Battista Alberti
A classical theorist who approached architecture as a
way to express his philosophy of design
 Revised the De architectura libri decem (Ten Books on
Architecture)
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Original manuscript written by the great Roman architect
Marcus Vitruvius
 Completed his first version by 1452
 Was circulated around Florence in 1485, after Alberti’s
death
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The Early Renaissance
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Leone Battista Alberti
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S. Maria Novella, Florence
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Alberti designed the façade
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The first completed design for a church façade of the
Renaissance
Attempted to unify the façade by linking lower aisle roofs
to the pedimented higher nave with flanking scrolls
The Early Renaissance
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The Early Renaissance
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The Late Renaissance
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The Late Renaissance was not a stylistic period
of concerted effort toward a definite goal
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Was a period of personal artistic expression
Characteristics
Disharmony
 Discord
 Imbalance
 Distortion
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The Late Renaissance
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Greatest designers of the period
Michelangelo Buinarroti (1475 – 1564)
 Giulio Romano (1510 – 1580)
 Andrea Palladio (1508 – 1580)
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The Late Renaissance
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Giulio Romano
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Born in Rome
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Understood antiquity from a personal, intimate
perspective rather than through education
Most important structure
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Palazzo del Te
The Late Renaissance
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Palazzo del Te
Designed for Federigo II Gonzaga
 A honeymoon villa on an island at the edge of
Mantua
 Originally conceived as an enormous stable complex
 Features
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Large, square courtyard enclosed on all four sides by a
series of rooms
 Entrances centered on the north and east sides
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The Late Renaissance
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The Late Renaissance
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The Late Renaissance
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Michelangelo
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Widely regarded as one of the most creative
geniuses in Western art
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Made important contributions to the fields of sculpture,
painting, and architecture
Important structures
Capitoline Hill, Rome
 St. Peters, Rome
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The Late Renaissance
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Capitoline Hill
Located in Rome
 Provided Michelangelo the opportunity to build a
monumental civic plaza for a major city
 Located on the ancient seat of the Roman
government
 Michelangelo redesigned most of the buildings in
the site and continued working on it until his death
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The Late Renaissance
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/wdpt1.html
The Late Renaissance
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/wdpt1.html
The Late Renaissance
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St. Peters
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Michelangelo redesigned the church for a modern
age
Modified the dome to a hemispherical form
 Raised the exterior walls of the ambulatories
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Michelangelo died before much of the
reconstruction was completed
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His design was followed until its completion in the 17th
century
The Late Renaissance
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/wdpt1.html
The Late Renaissance
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/wdpt1.html
The Late Renaissance
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Andrea Palladio
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Widely considered to be the most influential
architects in western history
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Has had an impact on architecture in every century since
his death (1580)
Notable structures
Villa Barbaro, Maser
 Teatro Olimpico
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The Late Renaissance
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Villa Barbaro
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Palladio designed this structure for a pair of
aristocrats
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A vacation home
Symmetrical scheme
A center living structure balanced by end pavilions
connected by flanking arcades
 Arcade’s openings provide space for farm equipment and
animals
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The Late Renaissance
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/wdpt1.html
The Late Renaissance
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Teatro Olimpico
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Located in Vicenza
Theatre
Inspired by Roman
theatres
Roofed with a ceiling
painted to depict the
open sky
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/wdpt1.html
The Late Renaissance
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References
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Sullivan, Mary; http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/wdpt1.html
Trachtenburg/Hyman; Architecture: From Prehistory to
Postmodernity
Wodehouse/Moffett; A History of Western Architecture
Renaissance and
Baroque Architecture
Architectural History
ACT 322
Doris Kemp