Architecture

Renaissance-present

Rachel Black

• 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.

Early Renaissance- Florence

Orsansmichele

Palazzo Vecchio

Brunelleschi• 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

Florence Catherdral

Pazzi Chapel

Ospedale

• 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' MediciMedici Palace

“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

Alberti

Santa Maria Novella

St. Peter’s Basilica

The Malatesta Temple

• 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

From Florence to Rome: The High Renaissance

Bramante’s Tempietto

Interior of St. Peter’s Basilica

• 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

Michelangelo: High Renaissance to Italian Mannerism

Dome at Florence Cathedral

Sistine Chapel

• 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.

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

Louvre Palace

• 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.

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 Queen’s House in Greenwich

Wallaton Hall

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.

The Baroque Style

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.”

Palace of Versailles

Queen’s room at Versailles

Gardens at 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

• 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

Rococo: 18th century France

Residence Theater

Residence Theatre

• 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.

Rococo to Central EuropeChurch of the Wies

Pleasure villa

• 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

Neoclassicism

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.

Panthéon

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.

Blenheim Palace

• Romanticism promoted a revival of Gothic architecture, reflecting the fascination with the Middle Ages just 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.

Romanticism

Strawberry Hill

• 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

Expressionism

Babelsberg Einsteinturm

Goetheanum

• 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, Anglo-Dutch, Warehouse, Queen Anne, Free Style, Arts and Crafts and Bungalow. Architecture.

• Characteristics: widespread use of red brick and terracotta, patterns, less clutter

Edwardian

German Cathedral

• 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.

Modernism

Tour Total

Bibliography

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Bleiberg, et al. Vol. 4: Renaissance Europe 1300-1600. Detroit: Gale, 2005. 6-17. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.

"Topics in Architecture and Design." Arts and Humanities Through the Eras. Ed. Edward I. Bleiberg, et al. Vol. 5: The Age of the Baroque and Enlightenment 1600-1800. Detroit: Gale, 2005. 7. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.

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Viault, Birdsall S. Modern European History. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990. Print.