Renaissance Architecture: Between the 14th and the 16th Centuries there was the stirrings of a new cultural movement which came to be known as the Renaissance, literally the “Rebirth, because it revived and developed certain elements of Classical Greek and Roman thought and material culture. The cities of Italy in the early 1400s and Florence in particular were centres of the development of the burgeoning Humanist ideas. This period is also known in Italy as the Quattrocento.

In none of the arts more than Architecture was this “rebirth” more apparent. The elements for the rediscovery of the Classical were visible in the many ancient buildings which over the centuries had been recycled and used as quarries for their materials.

The Renaissance brought a new emphasis on rational clarity and with it a conscious revival of Roman Architecture with its symmetry, its mathematical proportions, geometrically-perfect designs and regularity of parts. Orderly arrangements of columns and lintels, regularly divided surfaces, semicircular arches and hemispherical domes replaced the haphazard proportions and irregular gabled facades which preceded the new style. It was recognised by contemporaries in the term all'Antica, "in the Antique manner".
thumb's town hall, rebuild from gothic style by Giovanni Battista di Quadro in 1550-1560]]

Phases of the Renaissance style in Italy

# the Early Renaissance of Leone Battista Alberti and Filippo Brunelleschi,
# the High Renaissance of Donato Bramante and Raphael,
# the Mannerist style with widely diverging tendencies in the work of Michelangelo and Giulio Romano and Andrea Palladio, that led to the Baroque style in which the same architectural vocabulary was used for very different rhetoric.
thumb.]]

Development of Renaissance Architecture in Italy

Spread of Renaissance Architecture

When the Renaissance spirit was finally exported into France, Spain, Portugal, England, the Low Countries, Germany, Poland, Sweden and Eastern Europe, the style made its appearance fully formed. However, it had to compromise with local traditions and climates, subsequently its phases are not so clearly distinguished in individual buildings.

Renaissance Architecture in France

The Renaissance spread to France in the late 15th century, when Charles VIII returned in 1496 with several Italian artists from his conquest of Naples. Renaissance chateaux were built in the Loire Valley, the earliest example being the Château d'Amboise (c.1495) in which Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years, and the style became dominant under Francis I(1515-47). (See Châteaux of the Loire Valley). The Château de Chambord (1519-36) is a combination of Gothic structure and Italianate ornament, a style which progressed under architects such as Sebastiano Serlio, who was engaged after 1540 in work at the Château de Fontainebleau. At Fontainebleau Italian artists such as Rosso Fiorentino, Francesco Primaticcio, and Niccolo dell' Abbate formed the First School of Fontainebleau.
Architects such as Philibert Delorme, Androuet du Cerceau, Giacomo Vignola, and Pierre Lescot, were inspired by the new ideas. The southwest interior facade of the Cour Carree of the Louvre in Paris was designed by Lescot and covered with exterior carvings by Jean Goujon. Architecture continued to thrive in the reigns of Henry II and Henry III.

Renaissance Architecture in Spain

thumb, in Madrid, by Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herrera]]
In Spain, Renaissance began to be grafted to Gothic forms in the last decades of the 15th century. The style started to spread made mainly by local architects: that is the cause of the creation of a specifically Spanish Renaissance, that brought the influence of South Italian architecture, sometimes from illuminated books and paintings, mixed with gothical tradition and local idiosincrasy. The new style is called Plateresque, because of the extremely decorated facades, that brought to the mind the decorative motifs of the intricately detailed work of silversmiths, the “Plateros”. Classical orders and candelabra motifs (a candelieri) combined freely into symmetrical wholes.

As decades passed, the gothical influence disappeared and the reseach of an orthodox classicism reached high levels. Although Plateresco is a commonly used term to define most of the architectural production of the late XV and first half of XVI, some architects acquired a more sober personal style, like Diego Siloe and Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón. Examples include the facades of the University of Salamanca and of the Convent of San Marcos in León.

From the mid-sixteenth century, under such architects as Pedro Machuca, Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herrera there was a closer adherence to the art of ancient Rome, sometimes anticipating Manierism, examples of which include the unfinished palace of Charles V in Granada and the Escorial.

Renaissance Architecture in Portugal

In Portugal, the Manueline style married Renaissance elements to Gothic structures. Later examples of Renaissance architecture in Portugal include the cathedrals of Leiria and Portalegre, the Jesuit college at Évora and the church of São Roque in Lisbon.

Renaissance Architecture in Hungary

In Hungary, Italianate houses were being built before the middle of the fifteenth century. King Matthias Corvinus encouraged Italian masons and sculptors, one of whom, Aristotile Fioravanti, travelled from Hungary to Moscow where he built the Cathedral of the Dormition.
Under Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia, the renaissance Bakócz Chapel at Esztergom Cathedral in Gran, was built and renaissance features spread.

Renaissance Architecture in England

In England the first great exponent of Renaissance architecture was Inigo Jones (1573–1652), who had studied architecture in Italy where the influence of Palladio was very strong. Jones returned to England full of enthusiasm for the new movement and immediately began to design such buildings as the Queen's House at Greenwich in 1616 and the Banqueting House at Whitehall three years later. These works, with their clean lines, and symmetry were revolutionary in a country still enamoured with mullion windows, crenelations and turrets.

Hatfield House built in its entirety by Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, between 1607 and 1611, is a perfect example of the transition period from the gabled turreted style of the previous era. One can clearly see the turreted Tudor style wings at each end with their mullioned windows, however, the whole is achieving a symmetry and the two wings are linked by an Italianate Renaissance facade. This central facade, originally an open loggia, has been attributed to Inigo Jones himself, however, the central porch carries a heavier Jacobean influence than Jones would have used, so the attribution is probably false. Inside the house the elaborately carved staircase demonstrates the Italian renaissance impression on English ornament.

Jones's work was followed later by such master architects as Christopher Wren with his designs for St. Paul's Cathedral and many other public buildings and churches in London following the Great Fire of London in 1666. The Great Fire created an opportunity for the new generation of architects to promote the classical traditions on a scale probably unequalled in one city anywhere else in the world. However, the original renaissance style imported by Inigo Jones was now merging with the baroque.

Later architects such as the Venetian Giacomo Leoni in the following century adapted and modified the style to suit the English landscape and the tastes of his country-loving clients, while still remaining true to the Italian influence of design. Lyme Hall in Cheshire is a superb example of this.

The influence of Renaissance architecture can still be seen in many of the modern styles and rules of architecture today. During the 19th century there was large Renaissance revival movement across Europe and North America.

List of notable Renaissance structures

Italy

* Florence
** Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore (by Filippo Brunelleschi)
** Spedale degli Innocenti (by Filippo Brunelleschi)
** Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze (by Filippo Brunelleschi)
** Santo Spirito (by Filippo Brunelleschi)
** Pazzi Chapel at Basilica di Santa Croce (by Filippo Brunelleschi)
** Palazzo Medici, (by Michelozzo)
** Palazzo Pitti (unknown architect)
** Palazzo Strozzi
** Façade of Santa Maria Novella (by L.B. Alberti)
** Palazzo Rucellai (by L.B. Alberti)
* Rimini, Tempio Malatestiano (by Leone Battista Alberti)
* Mantua
** Sant'Andrea (by Leone Battista Alberti)
** Palazzo Te (by Giulio Romano)
* Urbino, Palazzo Ducale (by Luciano Laurana)
* Milan
** Santa Maria presso San Satiro (by Bramante)
** Santa Maria delle Grazie (by Bramante)
* Rome
** San Pietro in Montorio (by Bramante)
** Cloister of Santa Maria della Pace (by Bramante)
** Villa Farnesina
* Villa Capra "La Rotonda" (by A. Palladio)
* Villa Farnese, Caprarola (by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola)

Czech Republic

* Villa Belvedere in Prague
* Castle of Český Krumlov
* Telč

Denmark

* Kronborg Castle
* Rosenborg Castle
* Børsen
* Frederiksborg Palace

England

* Longleat, Wiltshire (1567-1580)
* Banqueting House, London (1619-1622)
* St. Paul's Cathedral, London (1675-1710)
* Canterbury Quadrangle, St John's College, Oxford

France

*Château d'Amboise
*Château de Blois
*Château de Chambord
*Château de Fontainebleau
*Louvre
*Château de Chenonceau

Germany

* Michaelskirche, München

Hungary

* Bishop Bakócz Chapel in Esztergom

Lithuania

* The Royal Palace of Lithuania (or the Lower Castle) in Vilnius
* St. Micael's Church in Vilnius
* St. Steven's Church in Vilnius
* Biržai Castle
* Siesikai Church

Poland

* Wawel Castle, Kraków
* Sigismund Chapel at Wawel Cathedral, Kraków
* Cloth Hall in Kraków
* Town Hall in Poznań
* Town Hall in Chełmno
* Renaissance town of Zamość
* Castle in Baranów Sandomierski
* Castle in Krasiczyn
* Firlej Chapel in Bejsce
* Loitz house (Kamienica Łoziców) in Szczecin
* Houses and parish church in Kazimierz Dolny
* Great Arsenal in Gdańsk

Russia

* Cathedral of the Dormition

Spain

* El Escorial (by Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herrera)
* University of Salamanca (unknown architect)
* New Cathedral of Salamanca (by Juan de Álava and others)
* Palace of Monterrey in Salamanca (by Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón)
* Arzobispo Fonseca College in Salamanca (by Diego de Siloé, Juan de Álava and R. G. de Hontañón)
* Convent of San Esteban in Salamanca, (by Juan de Álava and R. G. de Hontañón)
* Palace of Guzmanes in León (by R. G. de Hontañón)
* Hospital de la Santa Cruz in Toledo (by Enrique Egas and Alonso de Covarrubias)
* Hospital Tavera, in Toledo (by Bartolomé Bustamante)
* Hospital Real, in Granada (by Enrique Egas)
* Palace of Charles V in Granada (by Pedro Machuca)
* Cathedral of Granada (by Juan Gil de Hontañón, Enrigue Egas and Diego de Siloé)
* Cathedral of Jaén (by Andrés de Vandelvira)
* Cathedral of Baeza (by Vandelvira)
* Town Hall in Sevilla (by Diego de Riaño)
* University of Alcalá de Henares (by Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón and others)
* Hostal de los Reyes Católicos of Santiago de Compostela (by Enrique Egas)

External links

*Renaissance Architecture in Great Buildings Online

Category:Architectural history
Category:Italian architecture
Category:Renaissance