BRUNELLESCHI
Filippo Brunelleschi’s (1377-1446) participation in the construction of the Florence cathedral was an important step in the rise of the Renaissance architect. The cathedral of Florence, begun in 1296, had advanced by 1420 to the stage at which a dome was needed to cover the huge octagon space at its eastern end. The dome was consecrated in 1436. In collaboration with several colleagues, Brunelleschi designed a complex octagonal dome requiring no central support because the stress was contained within the double-walled dome itself. Inside the inner and outer walls a circular structure of bricks evenly dis-
Handbook to Life in Renaissance Europe
Tributed the weight. Brunelleschi also constructed special hoisting mechanisms that were used to manipulate sections of the dome into position— these, too, were marvels of engineering for the mid-15th century. Although the dome could have been modeled on the ancient Pantheon of Rome, which Brunelleschi may have studied, his accomplishment was praised as revolutionary. No one with eyes who lived in Florence or visited the city could help but notice this imposing feature of the cityscape, and the view into the cupola from the floor of the cathedral was (and is) an uplifting experience. In Alberti’s preface to his treatise Della pittura (On painting, 1435/36) he praises Brunelleschi (“Pippo”): “Who could ever be hard or envious enough to fail to praise Pippo the architect on seeing here such a large structure, rising above the skies, ample to cover with its shadow all the Tuscan people, and constructed without the aid of centering or great quantity of wood? Since this work seems impossible of execution in our own time, if I judge rightly, it was probably unthought of among the Ancients” (Alberti 1966, p. 40).
Although the cathedral’s dome was impressive, it was not a model easily emulated because of its technical complexity and massive scale. Brunelleschi designed another building whose dome did provide a model followed by other architects—the Sacrestia Vecchia (old sacristy) in the Medici parish church of San Lorenzo. Designed in perfectly concentric shapes, the sacristy consists of a hemispherical dome constructed on a cube. Pendentives (bridges from corner to corner) support the circular base of the dome. The geometric details of this harmonious design are highlighted in dark stone against the light stucco background, an effective technique that was copied by other builders. Brunelleschi’s construction of the Ospedale degli Innocenti (hospital or home for orphans) in Florence, begun circa 1419, provided an elegant prototype of a monumental building that influenced other architects during the 15th century. The arcaded portico with its rounded columns, Corinthian-style foliage in the capitals atop the columns, and classical symmetry of design provided an excellent example of the new all’antica (antique) style that would define early Renaissance architecture.
MICHELOZZO
Michelozzo di Bartolommeo (or Michelozzi Michelozzo, 1396-1472)—usually called Michelozzo— worked mainly in Florence. As a gifted sculptor, he was given commissions by members of the Medici family. Brunelleschi was the first to make the transition in his career from sculptor to architect, at a time when the “architect” was only beginning to be recognized as a distinct professional. A generation later Michelozzo could make that same transition with ease. Brunelleschi’s influence was so pervasive that we are only recently learning that some of the buildings attributed to him during past centuries may have been designed by others. The Pazzi Chapel at the Church of Santa Croce in Florence, probably designed by Michelozzo, is one example. Michelozzo was prominent during his lifetime for several noteworthy buildings, such as the Palazzo Medici in Florence. Begun circa 1445, the palace was commissioned as the Florentine residence of Cosimo de’ Medici the Elder (1389-1464, not to be confused with Cosimo I de’ Medici, born in 1519). The building project was ambitious, and no fewer than 20 houses were demolished to make way for the palace. The three-story exterior wall was heavily rusticated, with the stones randomly chiseled to give them the appearance of strength and age. Erected on a large corner where two busy streets converge, this prestigious palace advertising Michelozzo’s genius was the first of several palaces built by Florence’s new ruling class. Containing more than 40 rooms, the building had a garden, a loggia, and a courtyard with a colonnade modeled on Brunelleschi’s Ospedale degli Innocenti. The ornately classical cornice below the edge of the roof helped define the Palazzo Medici as a true Renaissance structure featuring elements of Roman republican style. This building designed by Michelozzo influenced architects commissioned to build other private residences in the city. Michelozzo also introduced Renaissance architecture to Lombardy (north of Tuscany). He designed the
Architecture and Urban Planning
Portinari Chapel in the Church of Sant’ Eustorgio in Milan circa 1462.
ALBERTI
Leon Battista Alberti was known during his lifetime as a prodigiously gifted Renaissance personality. In his preface to Alberti’s treatise on architecture first published in 1485/86, the humanist scholar and poet Angelo Polizano (1454-94) wrote: “He was able to grasp every principle of ancient architecture and renew it by example. .. . He had moreover the highest reputation as both painter and sculptor, and. . . he achieved a greater mastery in all these different arts than only a few can manage in any single one” (Alberti 1997, p. [1]). In addition to his architectural treatise, Alberti wrote other books, including a treatise on painting discussed in chapter 3. He enhanced his status as an artist in several fields by these writings, especially the presentation of beautifully crafted manuscripts to important patrons such as Pope Nicholas V (1397-1455). Rather than a handbook of rules, Alberti’s treatise is an inspirational humanistic text meant to celebrate great architecture and great architects (not forgetting himself), and to encourage creative solutions for buildings and renovations initiated in Alberti’s own time.
Alberti’s first and last major commissions exemplify his rise to prominence as an architect. They are the Tempio Malatestiano circa 1450 in Rimini (a new facade for the medieval Church of San Francesco) and the Church of Sant’ Andrea in Mantua begun in 1470. Alberti’s humanistic design for San Francesco hailed a new age for architecture, and the parts of Sant’ Andrea that were finished had an important influence on other Renaissance churches. Although neither structure was completed according to Alberti’s plan, and both have passed through renovation and reconstruction, the evidence that remains is a remarkable witness to Alberti’s creativity and to the ingenuity of his builders. The Tempio’s very name, from the Latin templum, associates the structure with classical antiquity. The facade of the entrance alludes to an actual Roman triumphal arch in Rimini, the Arch of Augustus. Commissioned by the lord of Rimini, Sigismondo Malatesta, the Tempio was a tribute to him and his mistress, Isotta degli Atti, meant to unite them for eternity though they were not then united in the eyes of the church. This Tempio would be their joint tomb; Alberti believed that sepulchres were an effective means of preserving a name for posterity. The building’s harmonious, balanced facade and antique-style ornamentation proved to be a monument not only to his patron, but also to Alberti’s genius as an architect—even though he was not present at the building site. Letters extant from Alberti give instructions to the sculptor Matteo de’ Pasti (c. 1420-67) for building the Tempio. Pasti was working on the site, supervising workers, while Alberti was in Rome directing the project. There is even an extant letter (now in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York) in which Alberti drew an ornamental detail for the roof, but evidently he did not journey to Rimini, far away on the Adriatic coast, to inspect the Tempio’s progress. Pasti followed Alberti’s modular design, which created precisely proportioned surfaces derived from ratios in painting and mathematics.
The Church of Sant’ Andrea was commissioned by Lodovico Gonzaga (1412-78), marquis of Mantua, a soldier and humanist who as a young man studied with none other than Vittorino da Feltre (1378-46) in his famous Casa Giocosa (discussed in chapter 11, Education). Lodovico fought for both Venice and Milan and married Barbara of Brandenburg, niece of the emperor Sigismund. After the Peace of Lodi settled Italian conflicts in 1454, Lodovico was able to rule peacefully for more than two decades, during which his patronage extended to numerous artists and humanists. He also became one of Alberti’s major patrons. When Alberti wrote to Lodovico in 1470 about his proposal for Sant’ Andrea, the architect had been involved with Gonzaga projects for nearly a decade (however, his precise degree of involvement is debated by scholars). Sant’ Andrea’s plan had to be worthy of a church whose main relic was supposedly the actual blood of Christ, and it had to be large enough to contain safely the vast crowds who thronged to the church whenever the relic was displayed. The Sant’ Andrea commission presented Alberti with the opportunity to design an entire church at the culmination of his career as an architect. The building was his crowning achievement, the largest structure built from his designs. The design of Sant’ Andrea’s interior was based on Rome’s ancient Basilica of Maxentius with its gigantic nave and wide
Handbook to Life in Renaissance Europe
Openings into lateral spaces. The width of the facade of Sant’ Andrea equals its height: perfectly proportioned according to Alberti’s theoretical system of ratios and definitively recognizable as his design.
SERLIO
Although one chateau and one doorway are the only remainders of Sebastian Serlio’s (1475-c. 1554) buildings, his illustrated books on architecture were enormously influential in the rise of the architect. Trained as a painter by his father in Bologna, Serlio began his architectural career in Rome. In 1527 he fled to Venice after Rome was sacked; he worked in the northern republic until 1541 when he moved to France by invitation of the king to work on Fontainebleau (see page 13). His Archittetura (Archi
Tecture) was published in several books between 1537 and 1547. Because of Serlio’s years in Rome, the treatise used architectural examples from such noteworthy sources as Raphael (1483-1520) and Bramante, disseminating their classicizing style throughout western Europe. During the Renaissance, Serlio’s books were translated into French, Spanish, Dutch, and English. His work was the first published Renaissance documentation of the five “orders” of architecture—including the system by which columns and their capitals, and so on, were designed, as described in his fourth book. Although Renaissance editions of Vitruvius as well as Alberti’s treatise discussed the orders, Serlio was the first to publish detailed illustrations. The five orders of columns (somewhat sim-plifed) are Tuscan (the plain Italic style), Doric (the plain ancient style), Ionic (an inverted scroll at each
4.1 Part of the 16th-century cloister of the Monastery of San Giovanni Evangelista in Parma, Italy. The rondel ornamentation is typical of the Renaissance, and the arches have the proportions of classical style. (Photograph by the author, 2003)
Architecture and Urban Planning
End of the capital), Corinthian (ornamental acanthus leaves), and Composite (a combination, usually of Ionic and Corinthian). Each order was thought to have its own unique character. Here Serlio describes the Tuscan order: “the greatest and rusticke order of Building, that is, the Thuscan, being the playnest, rudest, and strongest, and of least grace and seemeli-ness” (Holt 1982, p. 45). Architects were taught that each order of architecture was appropriate for specific types of buildings, and that columns on a facade should be arranged with plain capitals for the first floor, Ionic for the second, and Corinthian or Composite for the third. Architects who followed this classical model demonstrated that they were well educated and working within classical precedents.
PALLADIO
Andrea Palladio (1508-80), more than any other architect of the 16th century, adhered to the classical rules of building as stipulated by the Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius (fl. 46-30 B. C.E.). Palladio worked in Venice and the Veneto. His buildings had coherence and dignity, often centrally designed and with porticoes like those of ancient temples. These porticoes usually have several columns surmounted by a decorative flat entablature (comparable to a tabletop) across their capitals that supports a decorative frieze and triangular pediment, with small statues (acroteria) at the point of the pediment and at each end. Such buildings were re-creations of classical designs, down to the smallest details. Palladio owed his rise to fame as an architect to the patronage of Gian Giorgio Trissino (1478-1550), a poet and dramatist (whose work is discussed in chapter 5, Literature and Language). Trissino befriended Palladio, who grew up in the poet’s hometown of Vicenza in northern Italy, working as a stonemason and architect. Having served in Rome as a papal diplomat, Trissino subsequently enjoyed the support of the Vatican. In 1545 he took his friend to Rome, where Palladio studied ruins of ancient buildings. With this firsthand knowledge, Palladio won an important competition in Vicenza in 1547 to renovate a palazzo that came to be known as the Basilica Palladiana. His career as an architect flourished after that accomplishment; several of Palladio’s other projects are described in the following.
World History
