R E N A I S S A N C E A R C H I T E C T U R E

THE ARCHITECURE OF THE RENAISSANCE AND POST ARCHITECTURES IN EUROPE AND RUSSIA

I. ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER IN ITALY
Coarse arenaceous limestone from Florence and grey
sandstone from Fiesole and Settignano were used in
monolithic columns as well as carved in the fine detail
required by the new architecture.
High Renaissance period was marked by greater
understanding of the principles and physical remains of
ancient architecture.
Milan - the center of an area of brick building.
Wood, red marble, stone.
White and colored marbles were still pillaged from
ancient ruins
Brunelleschis invention of linear perspective.
Alberti observed in his De Re Aedificatora (1452) the
need for plans, elevations and section.
S. Peters evidence of a three-fold system of
orthogonal drawings on the same scale.
Use of wooden models.

A. CHURCHES
Planning was influenced by symbolism, liturgical
change, reforming movements and the new
religious orders as well as by the aesthetics
preferences of architect and patron.
Decorum was a fundamental rule of renaissance
culture, and the function of the church was
crucial to its plan.
Centralized plans based on circle, square and
Greek cross.
On the 15
th
century, the choir was removed to a
chapel behind the altar.
The new religious orders on the second half of
the 16
th
century, the Jesuits, Barnabites, and
Oratorians, tended to adopt single-nave plans
often with interconnecting side chapels,
abbreviated transepts and clear divisions of the
parts.

B. LARGE URBAN DWELLINGS (palazzi)
Rectangular block of three storeys:
(i) First floor central colonnaded courtyard and
the pacing of the main apartments. Facing on
the street.
(ii) Vaulted ground floor house shops, summer
apartments and by the 16
th
century, stables.
(iii) Second floor childrens and servants room.
(iv) Basement wine, oil and fuel storage.
C. PALACES
Ground floor shops tended to disappear from
palace facades in the 14
th
century in Florence.
Continuous stone bench for public use.
Large pedimented windows supported on
volutes (kneeling windows) appeared on the
ground floor.
In 1581, oiled linen or paper used in the
windows instead of glass.
In Rome cardinals palaces were larger, more
loosely planned, and had loggias at upper levels
for maximum air and shades.
Corner towers and cross-mullioned (Guelph)
windows were common until the end of 16
th

century.
Grandeur of facade staircase ad courtyard was
given precedence over size.
Courtyards are often replaced by gardens in
Venetian palaces.
D. VILLAS
Agricultural center, hunting lodge, suburban
retreat.
Villas vary so enormously according to function,
region, patron, and architect that only a few
common features, such as external loggias, can
be discerned.
Vistas giving long perspectives, staircase ramps,
niched exedrae and grottoes, influenced by
Bramantes Cortile Del Belvedere and Raphaels
Villa Madama, became features of garden
planning. Water played an increasing part,
feeding fountains, cooing dining tables, and
powering elaborate automata.

II. ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER IN FRANCE
Versailles is the supreme example of the garden as an
adjunct to the house laid out on its axes, continuing its
lines across large areas of the surrounding country. The
garden is an integral part of an architectural
conception.
The second half of the 18
th
century saw the emergence
of new types of public buildings: for instance, markets,
which often provided opportunities for novel structural
techniques and theaters.
U-shaped auditoria with portico-fonts.
Return to basilican plan
Napoleonic era saw a brief preference for the antique
temple form in Madeleine, Paris
Napoleon initiated a major programme of public
buildings such as the Paris Bourse, General Post Office,
and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Large windows, high-pitched roof, and tall chimneys,
developed in France in response to climate.
Rich in building stone and slate which could be
transported by river.
The use of wood and plaster was widespread in
vernacular architecture.
Gothic survived until nearly 1700 as a living form.

A. CHATEAU and HOTELS
Charles VII returned from Italy to the Chteau
dAmboise on the Loire, the first royal
residence in France. He brought Italian artists
and craftsmen with him and initiated the early
period of chteau building.
Chteau remained a prime building type until
the court was finally centralized in Versailles.
Paris saw the construction of large number of
rich private residences hotels which became
a characteristics building type exercising
influence on domestic planning throughout the
whole of Europe.
Most striking example was Antoine Le Putres
Hotel de Beauvais.
French fashion sought to create a number of
small rooms for private social activities.
Antichambre a chamber in which formal
receiving normally took place, with the host
reclining on the bed; a more intimate cabinet
where special friends would be received and if
space permitted, a garderobe.
Stables were, if possible, banished to a separate
service court, servants quarters communicated
with the principal apartments by hidden
passages and stairs.
Architects were obliged to chow great ingenuity
in fitting the necessary rooms into confined and
irregular spaces.
B. CHURCHES
The new Counter Reformation had an
important impact on Roman Catholic church
buildings, especially in the first half of the 17
th

century
Aisleless nave and two- or three storey
facades were initially predominant, but in the
later 17
th
and 18
th
centuries there was a return
to basilican plan, which continued around the
apse as a semicircular screen.
Napoleonic era saw a brief preference for the
antique temple form, as it was in the
Madeleine, Paris (begun 1806).

III. ARCHITECTURAL HARACTER IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
Turkish domination of the eastern Mediterranean trade
routes encouraged in Spain Portugal the spirit of more
broadly based maritime enterprise, which is powerfully
reflected in the architectural symbolism of the buildings
of the Convent of Christ at Tomar.
Territorial expansion heralded the dissemination of
Spanish and Portuguese architectural styles in the New
World.
Philip II, during whose reign the Escorial, one of
Europes greatest palaces was built, inherited the
problems of this vast empire.
Muslims and Jews had been converted or expelled,
resulting to the loss of many architectural craftsmen.
Its architecture generally seems to be best suited to hot
climes.
Low-pitched roofs and small windows pre-dominate, as
do open staircases and courtyards (patio) for internal
circulation.
Granite principal material. Dark color, grey in Spain
and grey green in Portugal. Limestone and sandstone on
the south. Bricks from the Muslims. Iron ore and woods
were also used.

IV. AUSTRIA, GERMANY AND CENTRAL EUROPE
The area considered here is present-day Germany,
Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic with parts
of Poland and Hungary.
Uniform alluvial plain, where moulded brickwork
continued to be used in great variety.
Large windows, steep roofs, and prominent chimneys.
Baroque period is characterized by family teams often
of brothers, working together to produce a church
complete with its decorations.

V. THE LOW COUNTRIES
Calvinist Protestantism became the basis of the Dutch
Reformed Church, while Belgian provinces remained
catholic.
Followed Lutheran pattern established in Germany.
Dutch churches make use of galleries and give a
prominent role to the baptismal front.
Experimentation with central plans.
Religious tolerance in Amsterdam is found in the
Portuguese-Israeli Synagogue, an interesting structure
with a plastered exterior and three equal barrel vaulted
spaces internally.
The Palladian style of Jacob Van Campen became a
symbol of Dutchness.
Holland is the lowest part of the low-lying region
around the mouths of the Rhine, Maas and Scheldt.
The work of drainage and reclamation, enclosing land
(polders) in networks of dykes and canals helped of the
rotating turret windmill to operate water pumps.
Shifting foundations made lightweight open structures
advisable.
Lacked of building stone led to expertise in brick work.
Flemish Bond method of brick-coursing is well known.
Wood construction.
Freestone, limestone, slate and timber from flat lads of
Flanders in Belgium.

VI. BRITAIN
Workshop of the World.
Henry VIIIs deliberate important of Italian, French and
Flemish craftsmen for work on the royal palaces largely
brought about the introduction of Renaissance style.
The break of Rome and the adoption of Protestantism
were less important in church planning.
Elizabeth I encouraged the construction of country
houses by her courtiers as an indirect expression of
sovereignty.
Auld alliance meant strongly French architectural
characteristics in castle building which were still
functionally necessary.
Restoration of Charles II emphasized architecture as an
expression of centralized monarchical power in French
style.
The glorious Revolution reinforced the Dutch influences
already present in English architecture.
Prosperity produced greater demand for houses, and a
ready market for a speculative building.
England followed France and Italy in formal planning for
much of the period, in the middle of the eighteenth
century English country houses pioneered the
informality that marked a new sensibility.
The apartment system broken up for the first time, and
the reception rooms were arranged around a central
staircase.
More time was spent in the common areas of the house
and the private apartments shrank in size.
Greater rapport between houses and countryside
brought about looser plan arrangements.
The main rooms were placed asymmetrically at ground
level to obtain views of landscape features of better
sunlight penetration.

A. HOUSES
1. PLAN
Influence of Palladios centralized house plans
The hall and parlour were placed centrally on
the ground floor and the saloon replaced the
great chamber on the floor above.
Symmetrical group of rooms of diminishing size
- with-drawing chamber, chamber, closet-
cabinet - opened of central rooms.
1. FAADE
The symmetrical faade of Elizabethan houses
frequently mask an internal asymmetry where
the great hall is set off to one side
2. GALLERY
Became important features of Elizabethan
houses and began to be used to display painting
and sculpture as in France and Italy.
3. STAIRCASE
Began to be made of wood rather than stone.

B. CHURCHES
Screens were not destroyed.
Stone altars replaced by wooden tables.
Emphasis in prayer brought the lectern and
pulpit into the nave and made good acoustics a
prime requirement.
Communion rail was introduced to protect the
altar.
Lutheran invention became a lasting feature of
church design until the Gothic revival.
Interiors had high box pews, multi-level pulpits
and Classical screens. Almost all of which were
removed and lost during the Gothic Revival.

VII. ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER IN RUSSIA
Ivan the Greats ambition led to the employment of
Italian architects.
Italian architects were imported to design buildings.
Church planning followed Byzantine models
Primitive Orthodox native Russian architectural
elements such as the tent roof, an attitude reflected
both in the simplicity of the Church of the Twelve
Apostles in Moscow and the use of the Holy Sepulchre
Church as a model for the monastery of the New
Jerusalem, Istra.
S. Petersburg, the first modern capital built to a
predetermined plan.
Dependent on wood
Timber was used for monumental buildings
Tent roof in masonry
Sateri (manor-house or Italian) roof two roofs with a
small break or a clerestory between, the lower part
being usually curved in section.

VIII. ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER IN SCANDINAVIA
Country houses replaced the castle-like dwellings.
Wood construction.
Copenhagen and Stockholm (two capitals) reflect
centralization of court life.
Neo-Classical Character.