RENAISSANCE

DDII DDiKODIUHKl
ARCHITECTURE/DESIGN

RENAISSANCE
)Y TRACY E. COOPER
The Renaissance was hailed as a new style, yet its

name — meaning "rebirth" — shows a historical bent. In

the classical past, fifteenth- and sixteenth-century de-

signers such as Michelangelo, Palladio, and Brunelleschi

found models of ideal form.

But as Tracy E. Cooper explains In this compact guide,

the Renaissance was also a modern age of exploration

and invention. People began to build again, released from

the Dark Ages, and used science and nature to achieve a

cultural rebirth. No Renaissance man exemplified the

spirit of this era more than Leonardo da Vinci — scientist,

innovator, and artist of world-renowned works such as

the Mona Lisa.

From the miraculous domed cathedral of Florence to

urban palaces and rural villas, Renaissance captures the

new world view that spread from Italy throughout Eu-

rope — to English country houses, French chateaux, and

German town halls. It chronicles the achievements of the

period along with its architectural styles, furnishings,

fashions, art, designers, and notable buildings. The book

recreates the full spectrum of Renaissance life — its

churches and courtyards, its Palladian villas and piazzas,

its ideal cities and real gardens, all in an inviting format

that recalls the world of Leonardo and Michelangelo.

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RENAISSANCE

TRACY E. COOPER

ABBEVILLE
STYLE BOOKS

ABBEVILLE PRESS PUBLISHERS

•

NEW YORK • LONDON PARIS

•
IJkLV
 CONTENTS
Introduction 6

THE AGE OF EXPLORATION 8

As global explorers and artists created the Renaissance,

their discoveries overturned old ideas of space and time.

RENAISSANCE STYLE 25
Classical antiquity was the ideal, and nature and sci-

ence the means to recapture it.

OUTSIDE 42
Renaissance buildings transformed the environment

with principles of beauty, harmony, and unity.

INSIDE 53
Building interiors accommodated changing lifestyles in

increased comfort and privacy.

FINISHING TOUCHES 60
From humble tables to those of kings. Renaissance

style was evident in everything from folding chairs to

the saltcellars of Cellini.

IN STYLE 72
At the brink of the modern age, the rebirth of the arts

spread across Europe in a wide variety of building types.

Sources of Information 90

Additional Sites to Visit 91

Recommended Reading 92
Index 93 Credits 95
 INTRODUCTION
This age, like a golden age, has restored to light

the liberal arts that were ahuost extinct: grammar, poetry,

rheloric, painting, scnlptnre, architectm'c, tinisic.

— Marsilio Ficino, letter to a German correspondent, 1492

Both the concept of

Renaissance,
the Renaissance
rinascita, rebirth.

as the period 1400-1600 and the

term itself derive from mid-nineteenth-century
French historians. Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization
of the Renaissance in Italy (i860) associated the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with ItaHan cul-
ture, and the popular image of the Renaissance was born. The valid-
ity of applying the Renaissance label to a historical period continues
to be debated. It may be most meaningfully described as a style,
which is how it was seen in its own time —
a style based on the re-

vival of Italian arts and letters, exemplified by the creations of

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci.
Giorgio Vasari undertook his Lives of the Artists (1550, 1568) after a

dinner conversation at the table of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese in

Rome convinced him that he should provide an account of how the

renaissance in the arts had come about. The modern style was pre-
sented as a corrective to Greek, German, and Gothic styles because of
its superior adherence to the art of classical antiquity. Of course, there
was a political cast to this judgment, for Italy could reasonably claim
itself the native heir to Rome. The great fourteenth-century writer and
scholar Fclrardi had castigated his own da\ as the "dark" age and held
up the shining example of the greatness of the Roman past, admired
for both repubHcan virtues and imperial ambitions. For the arts,

Rome was a visible legacy. In Vasari's mind, the imitation of nature

was key to the enterprise of reclaiming that past.

Renaissance style was indisputably Italian, nourished on the classi-

cal past, although its typical Italian elements were transformed during
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. "Typical" Italian elements in-
cluded an extraordinary richness and diversity of styles, some more or
less recognized, such as Mannerism. Within Italy itself there was great
variety in geography, political organization, and artistic influences. Mi-
lan, because of its proximity to France, had stronger ties to contempo-
rary Gothic style. For Florence and Venice, shaping a republican iden-

tity was an important goal in their cultural politics; independence from

the Gothic and adherence to a new style steeped in the local past fur-

thered the expression of their goals.

The success of the Renaissance style was not confined to Italy but

developed a momentum that carried it to other European centers such

as England and Germany, France and Spain. Outside Italy acquiring
Renaissance style meant becoming Italianate. The style was
initially

adopted at the courts of Francis I in France, Henry VIII and Elizabeth

I in England, Philip II in Spain, and Charles V and Rudolf II in the

Holy Roman Empire, although some time elapsed before this change
occurred on a large scale. Often at first only details of Italian style
mixed with the vernacular, but ultimately an independent classicism
evolved. The widespread assimilation of Renaissance principles
throughout Europe fulfilled the promise of cultural rebirth.
THE AGE OF EXPLORATION

With good reason the Renaissance has

been called the Age of Exploration. The

voyages of Christopher Columbus, Amer-

igo Vespucci, Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand

Magellan, Francisco Pizarro, Hernando

Cortes, and Bartolomeu Dias opened new

routes to the Indies and across the Atlantic

to the Americas. Together with Nicolaus

Copernicus and Galileo Galilei's specula-

tions about the heavens, they forever

changed humans' view of the world.

A Renaissance astronomer in his study is surrounded

by instruments of discovery — globes, compasses,
quadrants, sailing ships, books, and maps.

-. cm-
THF ACE OF FXPLORATION
 A NEW WORLD VIEW: MODERNITY
The distinguishing attribute of the
Renaissance was a changed notion of
history. Awareness of modernity de-

veloped — recognition of the present

as distinct from the classical past. Hu-
manists recouped Petrarch's under-
standing, a century earlier, of his place
in history and reclaimed the modern
for their own. It became an age in
which the stiidia hiujianitatis (hu-

manities) flourished again.

Rather than being viewed as a ran-
dom unfolding of events, history was ac- Nicoiaus Copernicus

corded a classical structure and purpose. Led reexamined theories of

first by a quest for the literary purity of an- the classical astronomer

cient Latin, Greek, and Arabic texts, human- Ptolemy and concluded
ism in turn led to the evaluation of events that the earth revolved

and evidence that became modern history. around the sun.

Giorgio Vasari shared this sense of being a

modern man and based his Lives of the Artists The early moderns
on the idea of progress. took control of how
Modernity was comparative. The present space was represented,

age was a Golden Age, its achievements ^vor- as in map making, even
thy of the ancients. Nostalgia produced the as they looked back

dream of Arcadia, recreated in the pastoral to ancient knowledge.

of the villa. Optimism for

life the future con- These maps are from

structed a vision of Utopia, an ideal society a 1589 atlas compiled

whose buildings would fi^irther its perfection. by Abraham Ortelius.

EXPLORAT 11
 1450 480 1490

I Council of Aragon and Castile are unified Vasco I

Constance ends da Cama

Spanish Inquisition begins
"Great Schism" discovers
Tudor dynasty established route to
India
Dias sails around Cape of Good Hope
Hapsburgs become >
Columbus crosses Atlantic Ocean
Holy Roman Emperors
First terrestrial globe fashioned
Latin and Greek Churches unite
Jews and Moors
Constantinople falls expelled from Spain

Wars of the Roses begin Charles VIII

Invades Italy
Maximilian of Austria marries Mary of Burgundy

• Panygyric of isiation of Plato's Dialogues First printed book

the City of in English (Bruges)
Early printed music I
Florence (Bruni)
Ballet at
Imitation of Christ (Thomas a Kempis) Italian courts

La belle dame ' Emergence of Modern English Josquin des Pres

sans mere! (Chartier) from Middle English choirmaster at
Cambrai Cathedral
Dufay motet in honor of '

Florence Duomo Arcadia (Sannazaro)

' Printing with
Dunstable's compositions metal plates Oration on the
in counterpoint for "42-Line Dignity of Man
Bible" (Mainz) (Pico delta
Mirandola)
e Comedy (Dante) •

> Competition for north doors, Florence Baptistery I

Oav/d(Donatello)

St. John the Baptist (ChiberW) I

Tomb of the Cardinal of Portugal
(Rossellino et al.)
Fonte Gaia (della Querela)
Sistine Chapel walls
Adoration of the
(Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Perugino, et al.)
Magi (da Fabriano)
Doubting of Thomas (Verrochio)
Trinity (Masaccio)
Frari Altarpiece (Giovanni Bellini)
Gattamelata (Donatello)
Durer's visit to Venice
Gates of Paradise, Florence Baptistery (Ghiberti)
Last Supper (Leonardo)
Ovetari Chapel (Mantegna)
Scenes of the Antichrist
Legend of the True Cross (Piero)
(Signorelli)
 League of I Henry VIII declared supreme Turks defeated
Cambrai formed head of church in England at Battle of Lepanto

Luther posts m I Halley's Comet sighted B St. Bartholomew's

95 Theses Day Massacre
Calvin's Institutes published
Spanish Armada w
Jesuit Order confirmed
sails for England

Rome sacked On the Revolutions On Motion m

of Celestial Spheres
(Galileo)
Turks lay siege to Vienna i (Copernicus)
Edict of Nantes i
Pope crowns Charles V French Wars of
proclaimed
Holy Roman Emperor Religion begin

Council of Trent meets in final session i

I In Praise of Folly Galatea (Cervantes)

(Erasmus)
Monteverdi's first
Heptameron m book of madrigals
(Margaret of
Orlando Furioso
Navarre)
Faerie Queen (Spenser)
(Ariosto)
Arcadia (Sidney)
Zarlino's definition
The Courtier m
of modern scales Henry VI
(Castiglione)
(Shakespeare)
Rinaldo (Tasso) i
The Prince m
(Machiavelli) Invention of cello i
Da^e (Peri), i
first opera
in Cremona
Pantagruel and u
Globe I
Cargantua Essays
Theater,
(Rabelais) (Montaigne)
London

I Dav/(/ (Michelangelo) Last Judgment (Michelangelo), Sistine Chapel

Mona Lisa (Leonardo) Autobiography (CeWlni) m The Four Books

of Architecture (Palladio)
Four Apostles (Diirer) Florentine Academy i

of Design Veronese before

m The Tempest {G\org\
Inquisitionfor Feast
m Sistine Chapel ceiling (Michelangelo) in the House of Levi

Pietro Torregiani in England Rape of the Sabines i?

(Gianbologna)
Stanze (Raphael), Vatican Palace
Paracy/se (Tintoretto) n
Assumption of the Virgin (Titian)
View of Toledo u
Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam (Holbein) (El Greco)

Vision of St. John the Evangelist (Correggio)

1510 1520 1530 1540 1550 1560 1570

 THE EARLY MODERNS
Population Growth, A new awareness of self was accompanied by
1500-1600 a growing sense of individual style. Discrim-
France: 16 to 19 million ination and taste developed, generating
Germany: 12 to 16 among the upper classes and the wealthy an
million appetite for the new fashion.
Castile: 3 to 6 million Standards of living afforded wider access
England: 3 to 6 million to comfort. Urban economies benefited from
Southern Italy: 3 to 6 preindustrial capitalism. Trade and banking
million were forces of prosperity. Hierarchy, a social

principle, was reflected in Renaissance ar-

chitecture, from the ordering of the ideal city

In the fresco Duke to the arrangement of rooms in houses.

Ludovico Gonzaga Merchants and diplomats aided cultural
Seated with His Court cross-fertilization. Political systems and con-
(1474, Andrea Man- stitutional forms varied from communes to

tegna), the duke is city-states, despotic courts to oligarchical re-

shown as pater familias. publics; European monarchies were in tran-

sition from feudal to sovereign, and state bu-

The construction of reaucracies began to emerge. Christendom
ideal buildings and was replaced by the new geographic, secular
ordered worksites, as entity of Fairope, aided by the Protestant
depicted in Building of Reformation in northern Europe and the
a Double Palace (ca. (xumter Reformation in Catholic lands. In
1515, Piero di Cosimo) Italy, despite Rome's acknowledged spiritual
(pages 16-17), offered authority, the city-states' identity inhibited
patrons a metaphor the development of auN' sense of nationality,
for the construction of and they never united to form a nK)dern sov-
an ideal society. ereign nation.

E X P L O R A T
m#i
Wi
m I. Trim i ik
 PERSONAL STYLE
The proper deportment for the new
age was prescribed by several manuals
that disseminated the prescribed deco-
rum for Italian humanist courts. One
of the best known was The Courtier
(1528) by Baldassare Castiglione, who
provided models of dress, manners,
entertainment, and expertise in the
arts, including love and war. Niccolo
Machiavelli's The Prince (1532) pre-
sented another, more sinister face in its

shrewd political observations.

Fashion was the province of the

aristocratic and the wealthy. As an aesthetic The patronage of Duke
based on antiquity fueled a transformation Federico II da Monte-
in the arts in Italy, so too taste changed from feltro, shown in a 1472

the Gothic to a new style that reverberated portrait by Piero della

throughout Europe. The slim, elongated Francesa, made Urbino

Gothic profile gave way to a more sculptured a center of refined taste.

look that emphasized the body.

Clothing of the period was multilayered. Bernardino Luini's Por-

Women wore a chemise and stockings, a trait of a Lady (1520)

simple wool dress, over that a gown of richer displays the ultimate in

material, such as figured velvet or silk, and a jewelry, a zibellino

mantle and some type of headwear for out- (jeweled sable head).

doors. Men wore a shirt and hose, doublet, For men the most pop-

and tunic, plus a mantle for outdoors; a cap ular jewelry was the
replaced the earlier long hood. enseigne (hat badge).

EXPLORATION
 ART WITH A PURPOSE
Michelangelo's David The practice of the arts was bound by strict

(1501) (below) and guild regulations that increasingly conflicted

Leonardo's Mona Lisa with artists' ambitions. Artists sought to sep-
(1503) (opposite) arate their profession from the crafts and
represent a range of raise it to the liberal arts (along with gram-
purposes that art could mar, rhetoric, dialectic, arithmetic, geome-
fulfill, from sculpture on try, astronomy, and music), arguing that
public display to por- their work was an intellectual exercise rather

traits in private homes. than manual labor.

Architecture, by virtue of its mathemati-
cal ratios and harmonies, was easily accepted

as a liberal art. But the idea of the profes-

sional architect as a trained specialist was not
yet the norm; a background in painting or
sculpture was seen as necessary for training
in perspective and drawing. The engineering

and construction processes could be left to

masons and carpenters; the architect was re-

sponsible for a building's design.

Much of Renaissance art was integrated
into specific architectural settings. Art gen-
erally performed a function, whether as a
wall covering in a house or an altarpiece in
a church. Collecting and display, especially
of antiquities, became more purposeful.
The Capitoline (1538-69) in Rome received
the first public gift of such a collection of
classical art.
M
Om^'il.
 A TIME OF INVENTION
The invention of printing with movable type Early print shops

was the most radical change in the arts. Jo- became centers of intel-

hann Gutenberg first produced printed lectual exchange.

books in Mainz around 1450. The technology

spread to Rome by 1467, accompanied by the The design and layout

use of paper and oil-based inks. Books had of early printed books

previously been for the elite, because manu- were derived from

scripts were rare and costly to produce. Now illuminated manu-

a new world of ideas was opened to a scripts. Bernardus Pictor

broader spectrum; literacy rose. The Bible made the border de-

was the first best-seller. By the sixteenth cen- signs and initials for

tury, drawings on paper were in common this volume printed by

use for artists and architects. Fra Giocondo's Erhart Ratdolt.

architectural treatise of Vitruvius

(1511) led to the how-to manual, apio Clmmmo Jiro Mara
:on.oMjuroccno«)u.napudilluftnmrTn
epitomized by Andrea Palladio's BurguiiiitVtnaorxi orator, fcliout'

Four Books of Architecture (1570). Vom pr^fpausmrcm,! iddaf'

profialccrenquam febadl'
fern

mus impcrator Ventto-^

The invention of gunpowder Moccnicus ojnn-a Otbommum
Petnis

Turco^f pniiapeduccbjcuebc
and discovery of propulsion prin- menter regain mcucquicqd in bacexpeduione
gcftumcrtet linens mandarem: iffirmans ea le

Apollinisoraculo uenora babicurum tju? me

ciples affected the design of fort- fcnpu loient. Igic uc tibi moregererem qu; ab
a

imperacoreMocenicD pquadnenniu geftal'unc

resses and cities. Attendant changes annouui.TaiMoenim tempore Scille inipenu
gelTiti & egopr{fe<lura Kinftus I'um.Qua^ptet
in warfare led to new tactics. While opufojlu in quo b{C fcnpu Tunc obi mi[io:quod
at perlegerui no mm us teegrcgias imperatoru
uiiTuces q magniGca iplius gcfta adnuiacui^ cer^
surveying for the infamous Cesare tu babeo : metuoa damnabis eorO lentenai qui
affirmarc folenccrtizameircnaturam: nee pro

Borgia, Leonardo da Vinci pro- ducere tales uifos qualespnrqstemponbusex^

titerut.omiiia<{ mundo leneicente degeneraffe;
mawme
jected a new technique formap- apparet

ping from a bird's-eye view. The re-

sulting angled bulwark shifted
tactics from defense to offense.

E X P L O R A T
RENAISSANCE STYLE

Successive phases of the Renaissance can be

characterized by their relation to the classi-

cal past, nature, and science. The early pe-

riod (1400-1475) saw a dawning awareness

and sense of discovery; the High Renais-

sance (1475-1520) identified with the re-

birth of Rome and mastery of the arts; the

Late Renaissance (1520-1600), also known

as Mannerism, outdid its models and ex-

tended the international impact of the Ren-

aissance style beyond its Italian birthplace.

Filippo Brunelleschi's arcaded Foundling Hospital

(1419-40), Florence, with its della Robbia roundels,

has often been called the first Renaissance building.

 RENAISSANCE GENIUS
A roll call of the formative personalities of
the Renaissance would produce an astound-
4# ingnumber of geniuses in almost every
modern discipline: in religion, Martin Lu-
ther, John Calvin, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and
John Knox; in humanism, Desiderius Eras-
mus, Thomas More, Marsilio Ficino, and
Michel de Montaigne; in literature, William
Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Lodovico Ar-
iosto, and Torquato Tasso; in astronomy,
The features of the aged Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Gal-
Leonardo da Vinci in ileo Galilei; in anatomy, Andreas Vesalius
his 1512 self-portrait and William Harvey; in alchemy, Paracelsus;
(above) were the model in history, Francesco Guicciardini, Flavio
for Plato's in Raphael's Biondo, and Jean Bodin; and in political the-

fresco School of Athens ory, Niccolo Machiavelli.

(1511) (opposite). With his inquiring mind, Leonardo da
The great domed space Vinci exemplifies the spirit of the age. In his
mirrors Donato Bra- voluminous notebooks he recorded his ob-
mante's ambitions for servations of swirling river currents as well
the new St. Peter's. as the human body's inner life force. The
Bramante may have principles he developed propelled his art.
known Leonardo's ideas From the circle, the most perfect platonic
from Milan; both form, he drew plans for centralized churches.
worked at Santa Maria Observing the changes in color over distance
delle Grazie, where and through air, he developed a theory of
Leonardo painted his aerial perspective, visible in the craggy dis-
Last Supper (ca. 1498). tant landscape of the Mona Lisa (1503).

26 RENAISSANCE STYLE
 ARCHITECTS

Caleazzo Alessi (1512-72) Michelangelo Buonarroti Robert Smythson

Santa Maria di Carignano (1475-1564) (ca. 1536-1614)
(1552), Genoa New St. Peter's (1546-64), Wollaton Hall (1588).
Vatican City Nottinghamshire
Bartolomeo Ammannati
(1511-92) Michelozzo Michelozzi Juan Bautista de Toledo
Garden facade (1560), (1396-1472) (d. 1567)
Pitti Palace, Florence Medici Palace (1446-59), Royal Palace (1563-82),
Florence El Escorial, near Madrid

Donate Bramante
(1444-1514) Baldassare Peruzzi
II Tempietto (1503), Rome; (1481-1536)
MILITARY ARCHITECTS
Caprini Palace (1510), Rome Villa Farnesina (1509-21),
Rome Bernardo Buontalenti
Filippo Brunelleschi (ca. 1536-1608)
(1377-1446) Giacomo della Porta Belvedere Fort (1595),
Cathedral dome (1420-34), (ca. 1537-1602) Florence
Florence II Cesu facade (1571-84),
Rome Domenico Fontana
Jean Bullant (ca. 1520-78) (1543-1607)
Valois Chapel (1578), St. Denis Raphael (1483-1520) Obelisk (1585), Vatican City
Villa Madama (1527), Rome
Mauro Codussi Leonardo da Vinci
(ca. 1440-1504) GJulio Romano (1452-1519)
San Michele in Isola (1470s), (ca. 1492-1546) Plan of Imola (1502)
Venice Palazzo del Te (1534), Mantua
Antonio da Sangallo
Peter Flotner (ca. 1485-1546) Biagio Rossetti the Younger (1485-1546)
Hirschvogelsaal (1534), (ca. 1447-1516) Rocca (1542), Castro
Nuremberg Ercolean addition (1490s),
Ferrara Michele Sanmicheli
Juan de Herrera (ca. 1484-1559)
(ca. 1530-97) Antonio da Sangallo the Elder Sant'Andrea a Lido (1535-49).
Royal Church (1580), (1455-1534) Venice
El Escorial, near Madrid Madonna di San Biagio (1526),
Montepulciano
Luciano Laurana (ca. 1420-79)
FOUNTAIN DESIGNERS
Ducal Palace (1468-79), Giuliano da Sangallo
Urbino (1445-1516) Cianbologna (1529-1608)
Santa Maria delle Careen Neptune Fountain (1563),
Pierre Lescot (ca. 1500-1578) (1492), Prato Bologna
Hotel Carnavalet (1550), Paris
Jacopo Sansovino Giovanni Montorsoli
Pirro Ligorio (ca. 1510-83) (1486-1570) (ca.1507-63)
Casino of Pius IV (1562), Proto of St Mark's (1529), Neptune Fountain (1551),
Gardens, Vatican City Venice Messina

Pedro Machuca (d. 1550) Vincenzo ScamozzI Jacopo della Querela

Royal Palace (1539-68), (1552-1616) (ca. 1380-1438)
Granada Rocca Pisana (ca. 1576), Lonigo Fonte Gaia (1419), Siena
 THEORISTS PUBLIC LEADERS

Leon Battista Albert! Alfonso II, Naples (1448-95) Donatello (ca. 1386-1466)
(1404-72) Poggioreale (1489), Naples David (ca. 1446-60);
Ten Books of Architecture Gattamelata (1453)
(1452, pub, 1485) Charles V, Holy Roman Empire
(1500-1558) Albrecht DiJrer (1471-1528)
Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) Royal Palace (1539-68), Four Apostles (1504)
Autobicgraphy (1562) Granada
Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455)
Philibert de i'Orme Federico da Montefeltro,
II St.John the Baptist (1405-17);
(ca. 1515-70) Duke (1422-82)
of Urbino Gates of Paradise (1425-52),
First Book of Architecture (1568) Ducal Palace (1468-79), Urbino Baptistery, Florence

Jacques Androuet du Cerceau Francis France (1494-1547)

I, Leonardo da Vinci
(ca. 1520-ca. 1585) Fontalnebleau additions (1452-1519)
The Most Excellent Buildings (1528-40S) Last Supper (ca. 1498);
of France (1576. 1579) Mona Lisa (1503)
Henry II, France (1519-59)

Antonio Filarete Louvre Palace, Square Court Masaccio(1401-ca. 1428)

(ca. 1400-1469) (1551), Paris Trinity (ca. 1426)
Ms. Treatise on Architecture
(1460-64) Henry VIII, England Michelangelo Buonarroti
(1491-1547) (1475-1564)
Francesco di Giorgio Martini Hampton Court additions Pieta (1500);
(1439-ca. 1501) (1532-37), London Sistine Ceiling (1512)
Ms. Treatise on Architecture
(1456) Cosimo ("the Elder") de' Raphael (1483-1520)
Medici, Florence (1389-1464) Galatea (1513); Stanze(1514)
Fra Giocondo (ca. 1433-1515) San Lorenzo (Old Sacristry,
First illustrated Vitruvius, Ten 1428), Florence; Titian (ca. 1489-1576)
Books of Architecture (1511) Medici Palace (1446-59), Assumption of the Virgin (1518)
Florence
Andrea Palladio (1508-80)
The Four Books of Architecture Philip II, Spain (1527-98)
(1570) El Escorial (1563-82), near
Madrid Baldassare Castiglione
Sebastlano Serlio (1475-1554) (1478-1529)
General Rules of Architecture Pope Julius (1443-1513)
II The Courtier (^528)
(in seven bool<s, 1537-75) New St. Peter's (1506-1614),
Vatican City Miguel de Cervantes
JohnShute(d. 1563) (1547-1616)
The First and Chief Groundes Pope Leo X (1475-1521) Galatea (1585)
of Architecture (1563) Medici Chapel and Library
(1519-34), Florence Michel de Montaigne
Giorgio Vasari (1511-74) (1533-92)
Lives of the Artists Pope Paul 111(1468-1549) Essays (1580)
(1550, rev. ed. 1568) Farnese Palace (1517-64),
Rome William Shakespeare
Giacomo da Vignola (1564-1616)
(1507-73) Pope SixtusV (1525-90) Two Gentlemen of Verona
Rules for the Five Orders (1562) Via Sistina (1590), Rome (1594)
 EARLY RENAISSANCE
In trying to recover the classical past, Early In the Corner-Spinelli

Renaissance style became an amalgam of local Palace (1490s, Mauro

building traditions and classical architecture. Codussi), Venice, exu-

Adaptations of older medieval styles — such berant colored marbles

as a local version of Tuscan Romanesque or, and Veneto-Byzantine

as in the Ca d'Oro (1421-36) in Venice, the arched windows have
Byzantine mode — provided a patrimony to given way to a more
be marshalled against contemporary Gothic sober tripartite facade
style; the latter was associated with northern of Istrian stone. It re-

Europe, especially the courts of France and flects the interior plan

Burgundy. and allows light to pen-

Abundant remains of ancient architec- etrate the long salon.

ture and sculpture were indiscriminately

mined for examples. The development of
different period styles within classical art it- The reason round
self was not yet well understood, however. arches are more
Extant classical buildings often seemed to beautiful than
contradict the major architectural treatise to pointed ones is

survive from antiquity, Vitruvius's Ten Books plain, for everything

of Architecture, written in the late first cen- that impedes the

tury B.C. Greek architecture was not com- vision . . . is not as
prehended as a distinct phenomenon be- beautiful as the line
cause so little of it was known firsthand. that the vision
Early in the Renaissance, the pedigree of follows and thus the
antiquity was even applied to important eye has nothing to
medieval buildings. The Florence Baptis- hinder />.— Antonio
tery, for example, was incorrectly thought to Filarete, Treatise on
have originally been a temple of Mars. Architecture (1460-64)

R E N A 5 S A N C E STYLE
 Raking cornice

Colonette

£
Ashlar masonry

Stemma (coat-of-arms)

Bifora window

Stringcourse

Bugnato (heavy rustication)

Loggia

Hitching rings

Benches —

RENAISSANCE STYLE
 EARLY RENAISSANCE FEATURES
Plans and massing: Roofs: Flat tile, capped Doors and windows:
Typical Mediterranean by a large cornice, a Doors placed centrally
arrangement of classical molding whose or symmetrically.

horizontal block with proportions varied, tied Double-light (bifora)

central courtyard. either to the top story or windows in transition

Ground floor (piano to the whole building. from a medieval type

terreno), often arcaded, to semicircular profiles

used for shops, with Materials and colors: divided by a slender

benches for seating. Rusticated surface in colonette, surrounded

The floor above ground rough stone (bugnato) by voussoirs.

level (piano nobile), at ground level re-

the primary living area, taining elements of Ornament: Classical

sometimes duplicated medieval fortified family elements in stringcourses

by another floor towers; upper levels between stories and

above. Attic story of more refined drafted cornice molding, exterior

housed servants. stone or plaster, with colonettes, interior

increasingly elegant colonnade with Compos-

Courtyards: Arcaded handling. Colors dis- ite capitals. Friezes with

portico (loggia) forming tinctive to locale: in classical motifs in glazed

interior courtyard. Florence a gray-brown terra-cotta medallions.

Columns carried on limestone (pietra forte)

semicircular arches; used for exteriors, a The Medici Palace

corners terminating in a blue-gray stone (pietra (1446-59, Michelozzo
single column. Staircases Serena) used for con- Michelozzi), Florence,

moving from their typical trast in white stucco set the standard for the

place outdoors in the interiors. Use of colored successful merchant's

medieval era to within marbles for decorative residence and Florentine

the arcade shelter. insets less common. domestic architecture.

R E N A S S A N C E STYLE 33
 HIGH RENAISSANCE
But the man whose Artistic activity coalesced in a revitalized

work transcends Rome. The city of the popes attracted an in-

and eclipses that of ternational population — pilgrims and cardi-
every other artist, nals, diplomats and artists. It expanded to in-

living or dead, is the clude a fine Renaissance quarter, including

inspired Michelan- the Farnese Palace. A profound understand-
gelo Buonarroti, ing of classical architecture and principles un-
who is supreme not derlaid the desire to correctly interpret and
in one art alone but recreate the antique domicile and the Christ-
in all three. He sur- ian temple.
passes not only all Ideal form and monumentalitv character-
those whose work
can be said to

be superior to

nature but also

the artists of the
ancient world whose
superiority is beyond
doubt. Michelangelo
has triumphed
over later artists,

over the artists of

the ancient world,
over nature itself

— Giorgio Vasari,
Lives of the Artists,
.ff^pp
1550, 1568
ize High Renaissance architecture. A renewed Centralized Church Plans

grandeur permeated design, inspired by Santa Maria delle

proximity to ancient structures. Roman Careen (1492
baths and amphitheaters profoundly influ- Giuliano da Sangallo),
enced the conception of architectural space. Prato
The wall was no longer simply a planar sur- Santa Maria della Con
face but the expression of massed solids and solazione (1508 -

voids. Plan and facade achieved symmetry in 1617. Cola da

centralized form. Donato Bramante's Tempi- Caprarola). Todi

etto (1503) embodied this form and was im- Madonna di San Biagio
mediately considered a classic. (152b Antonio
da Sangallo

the hldei),

Montepulciano

The Farnese Palace

(1517-46, Antonio da
angallo the Younger;

1546-64, Michel-
angelo), Rome, became
the model for the future

Roman palace: massive

scale, a balanced

horizontal block with

central emphasis,

rusticated doorways,

and quoins to frame

the composition.

WM Biff in
 HIGH RENAISSANCE FEATURES
Plans and massing: Roofs: Flat; masked Ornament: Paired
Horizontal block with by heightened cornice orders; aedicules; string-

symmetry along a central in proportion to courses; balconies; clas-

axis. Often reads as two classical order. sical motifs; statuaiy.

stories plus a base;

disguises intermediate Materials and colors:

levels such as mezzanine Travertine, a limestone,

and attic. Piano terreno typical of Roman

in rusticated stone with building; its pale gold

voussoirs, openings for hues sometimes covered

shops from the tradition with stucco for contrast-

of the Roman apartment ing texture and color;

building (insula). Piano could be carved for

nobile dignified by ornament. Stuccoed

use of orders or taber- brick, less expensive

nacle windows. and lighter, sometimes

substituted.

Courtyards: Vitruvian

sequence of atrium, Doors and windows:

vestibule, and peristyle Central portal promi-

courtyard now the nent. Tabernacle-framed

model. Classical prin- windows standard,

ciples reflected in super- sometimes with a

imposed arcades of straight lintel, a tri-

engaged columns or angular pediment, or The Farnese Palace

pilasters carried on semicircular (segmental) (1517-64), Rome,

piers and reinforced pediment; symmetiy combined a Florentine

at corners. and repetition. plan with Roman scale.

R E N A S S A N C E STYLE
 Round-headed Alternating Piano

windows with triangular and secondo

Crowning triangular String- segmental Doric (second

cornice pediments course pediments columns story) Quoins

Balcony Androne Rusticated Piano terreno Piano nobile Rectangular

with (entrance central (ground (main story) windows with

balustrade vestibule) portal story) straight lintels

RENAISSANCE STYLE 37
 LATE RENAISSANCE

The Late Renaissance has been called Man- The wave of Italianate

nerist, after maniera (manner or style). Once style washed over

characterized as a willful departure ft'om the England during the reign

classical, the style is now seen as a search for of the Tudors, as seen

rarer classical prototypes and more novel in Hardwick Hall (1597,

motifs. Models remained the antique as well Robert Smythson),

as the work of Raphael and Michelangelo. Derbyshire, England.

Artistic license within the bounds of deco-

rum was sanctioned: a villa portal could be
same motif
intentionally rustic, whereas the Renaissance features

would be inappropriate for an urban palace. enliven Longleat (1580,

An outward flow of Italian artists helped Robert Smythson), Wilts

satisfy the appetites of other markets. In County, England.

France, Francis embraced the

I

Italianate, beginning his reign by

remodeling his chateau at Blois

(1515). His most prestigious import

was the aging Leonardo da Vinci,
who designed an ingenious dou-
ble-ramp stairway and ended his
days in a chateau by the Loire.
Most influential, however, was the
arrival in France in the early i54()s

of the architect and theorist Sebas

tiano Serlio. More than his built ar-

chitecture, Serlio's books served as

primers of the latest classical style

for native practitioners.

S S A N C E STYLE
 LATE RENAISSANCE FEATURES

Plans and massing: Roofs: Irregular, steeply Ornament: Integration

French Renaissance pitched roofs (often of ornament and design,
chateau and English slate in northern Europe), resulting in an indepen-

country house. Overall sometimes masked by dent classicism.

horizontal massing balustrades. Protruding

and symmetry. Vestiges chimneys and pavilions

of corner towers in ornamented with

slightly projecting pavil- small domes.
ions with setbacks for

rhythmic framing of Materials and colors:

central bay (French Emulation of Italian

avants-corps) of main materials achieved

block (French corps-de- in local or imported

logis). New symmetry materials — stuccoed

of rooms in relation brick, timber and

to traditional central plaster, fine local stone.

hall. Interior stairway Restrained palettes.

a central feature.

Doors and windows:

Courtyards: Originally Central entry empha-
symmetrical; some oval. sized by projecting

Development of a new masses. Increased fen-

interior feature: the long estration subordinates

gallery (first at Fontaine- decoration. Glazed

bleau), later taken up rectangular-paned win- In the Louvre's Squaie

in Italy as an enclosed dows. Variations on Court (1551, Pierre

loggia in the upper-floor tabernacle, semicircular, Lescot), ornament dom-

apartments. and dormer windows. inates monumentality.

R E N A S S A N C E STYLE
Pitched Relief Attic Alternating pediments Composite

roof sculpture story (straight, triangular, segmental) Niches order

i
,
/ \ i

Rez-de-chaussee Frontispiece Corinthian Tripartite Interrupted Pavilion

(ground story) (central order bays in 5-part entablature

pavilion) composition

RENAISSANCE STYLE
 u

Renaissance principles imposed order on

haphazard environments. Landscape archi-

tecture on a large scale was introduced. In-

creased prosperity led to the repopulation ,.>

of cities, whose growth revolved around the

market, government, and church. Public ar-

eas reflected civic pride and expressed

magnificent intentions. Classical principles

were applied to individual buildings and the II h

existing urban fabric. Straight streets began

to link important parts of the city.

As shown in Presentation in the Temple (1467, Fra

Carnevale), classically embellished loggias, temples,

and palaces dominated open spaces in urban areas.

 MATERIALS AND COLORS
Renaissance materials and colors are
identified with particular locales. From the
exotic terra-cotta decoration of Lombardy,
the Istrian stone of Venice, and the cool
pietra serena of Tuscany to the travertine of
Rome, the classical ideal of purity gradually
triumphed over the inset colored marbles
that had enlivened Gothic and Early Renais-
sance facades. The architect Leon Battista Al-
berti demonstrated a theorist's preferences

for austerity. Roman concrete was not re-

Leon Battista Alberti,
shown in a self-portrait
medal (1432), advo-
cated purity and sim-
plicity of color, such as
white for temples.
vived as a building material in the Renais-
sance, so lighter- weight brick was often used
in place of stone for construction; its surface
was generally faced with stucco.
One compelling aspect of the Renaissance
environment that has deteriorated over time
was the painted exterior. Sgraffito work, in

Late Renaissance col- which a layer of tinted or white plaster was

oration depended not etched through with classical motifs, often
on materials but on grotesques, was a prized decorative tech-
chiaroscuro, the play of nique. Rome's Ricci Palace (ca. 1525-50, Po-
light and dark over the lidoro da Caravaggio) is one survivor of city

rich facade ornament, pollution. Sometimes facades were embell-

as in the Istrian stone of ished with elaborate fresco paintings. This
the Library of St. Mark fashion pervaded even Venice's inhospitable
(1537-91. Jacopo environment, but more examples survive on
Sansovino), Venice. the mainland.

OUTS
OUTSIDE
 DOORS AND WINDOWS
Bilateral symmetry governed the placement In Sebastiano Serlio's

of doors and windows. Entrances were often Book IV {^537, 1611

elaborate, such as Bernardo Buontalenti's ed.), the central

broken, reverse pediment of the Porta delle windows on the upper

Suppliche (1574) at the Uffizi in Florence or stories illustrate Serlian

the Zuccaro brothers' garden portal (1593) at or Venetian windows,

their house in Rome. Gateways, although now called Palladian

more like independent architectural struc- windows.

tures, expanded this vocabulary, which was
promulgated by Sebastiano Serlio's Libro Es-

traordinario (1551) and exemplified by Mi- In my opinion,

chelangelo's Porta Pia (1565) in Rome. the most important
In Early Renaissance architecture the me- error is that of
dieval bifora window with its pointed arches making the front-
was given The cross-mul-
a classical profile. ispieces of doors,
lion window (or Guelph window) was pop- windows, and log-

ular inRome. Even simpler was a semicircu- gia's broken in the

lar stone molding often found even on middle, since these
modest buildings. In the High Renaissance, were made to keep
the aedicule (tabernacle) frame, either with the rain from the
a straight lintel or with triangular or seg- fabricks, and which

mental pediments, was preferred. In the Late the antient builders,

Renaissance the thermal window, a large instructed by neces-
semicircular lunette inspired by the ancient sity itself, made to

Roman baths, was developed. The strict ap- close and swell in the

plication of classical ornament relaxed later middle.— Andrea

in the century, leading to more elaborate en- Palladio, The Four Books

framements, such as strapwork. of Architecture, 1570

 COURTYARDS TO ROOFS
In the mid-1500s The incorporation of exterior space into
Giacomo da Vignola Mediterranean houses was both natural and
transformed Antonio da functional. An internal courtyard with an ar-

Sangallo the Younger's caded portico could shelter the stairway, al-

pentagonal plan for low viewing of theater and ceremonies per-

Caprarola from a hilltop formed in the open space, and provide access
fortress to a villa for the to working areas for tradesmen or stabling
Farnese, with a circular for horses. The courtyard was a public cross-

courtyard cut into rock. roads to otherwise segregated spaces. Even in

monasteries, some recreation (such as read-
Visiting Caprarola ing or talking) was admitted in the cloister.
1. From the town below, A ground-floor loggia facilitated the ar-
a street was cut on axis chitectural transition between the structure
to the villa. and the grounds. An upper-floor loggia (en-
2. Carriages drove to closed as a gallery in northern climates) or
the lower terrace, even a single window balcony offered superb
entered a rustic portal, views. Balustrades, often topped with sculp-
and crossed a moat into tures tocrown the orders used in the ele-
the basement of the vation,muted the transition between stories
courtyard. and between building and sky.
3. Visitors alighted Livelier rooflines were popular in north-
in the entrance atrium ern pAirope, where more steeply pitched roofs

and ascended by a and chimney stacks intruded on the classical

spiral stair. outline. Country houses of the English Ren-

4. Carriages continued aissance afforded inhabitants a roofwalk,
around the excavated reached through pavilions and internal stair-

ring of the courtyard and ways. Prominent buildings were roofed in

exited to the stables. lead or copper rather than terra cotta.

48
OUTSIDE
OUTSIDE
 ORNAMENT
Ornament was seen not as extrane-
ous embellishment but as the expres-
sive component of a structure. Accord-
ing to Vitruvius, a harmonious design
was one that required that nothing be
added or taken away.
The classical orders and the rules of
proportion that governed them were fun-
damental to Renaissance architectural
language. Each order was associated with
a particular personality that had to be ap-
propriate to a building's function; from the Drawing after the

heroic, muscular Doric to the slim, decora- antique was indispen-

tive Ionic, expressive analogies to the human able training for archi-

body were observed. The Renaissance archi- tect and artist ahke.

tect was often first a painter or sculptor be- This example is from
cause the belief was that only one who had Sebastiano Serho's

mastered the figure could understand the Book 111^540).

anatomy of the orders. Ornament became the
architect's true signature.

Competitions challenged architects to ap- The orders at a glance:

ply the classical orders to Renaissance struc- Sebastiano Serlio

tures. Sometimes a classical Renaissance fa- presented the five clas-

cade masked a medieval interior, as with sical orders (Tuscan,

Leon Battista Alberti's Tempio Malatestiano Doric, Ionic, Corinthian,

(1450) in Rimini. Renaissance style often first and Composite) in his

appeared in other countries as a new face for Book IV i^537). pub-

town halls, palaces, and cathedrals. lished before Book III.

OUTSIDE
%*l vr^rn^ STLil ii
 I N

Ideal plans were found mainly in drawings

and treatises. In actual buildings circum-

stances often forced a compromise, leading

to harmoniously proportioned exteriors

that did not reflect interior divisions. The

classical ideal of symmetry and correspond-

ence of architectural parts was difficult to

achieve and somewhat contrary to the ex-

pression of function. Inside, sequences of

rooms were arranged according to level of

access, from public to private.

U
Strapwork scroll decoration such as Rosso Fioren-

tino's in the Gallery (1540) of Francis I at Fontaine-

bleau in France became a Mannerist hallmark.

 FLOORS, WALLS, AND CEILINGS
The most common flooring in Italy was ter- The Sistine Chapel

razzo (brick tile), which varied according to (1481, Baccio Pontelli),

location, local craftsmanship, and economic Vatican City, combines

status. Inlaid patterns of rich marbles ap- real marble floors

peared only in the houses of the very wealthy. and screens as well as

Colored marble floors were more common in fictive frescoes of gold

churches, often set in elaborate checker- brocade wall hangings

boards or spiral wheels. Another colorful and a marble ceiling.

flooring in limited use was majoUca (painted

ceramic tile). Generally floors reflected the
rich, burnished hues of terra cotta, whether
set as tiles or crushed to form a composite
surface laid in artful patterns and rolled to a
lustrous finish.
Stone, brick, and plaster were common
materials for walls. Majolica was found as
well on walls and ceilings, often featuring

the heraldic devices of the patron.

Ceilings could be vaulted but were usu-
ally exposed beams, with painted or carved Michelangelo, depicted

decoration, or dropped soffits with framed in this 1564 bust by

compartments. The most imitated classical Daniele da Volterra,

motif was coffering, which could be treated served many popes.

in recessed perspectival squares or octagons, Julius II commissioned

carved in stone or wood,

and gilded, the ceiling painting of

adorned with rosettes. Roman vaulting and the Sistine Chapel, and

domes were used in churches and in Andrea Paul III commissioned the

Palladio's domestic architecture. Last Judgment nSA-l).

 HEATING AND COOLING
The association of form When architects had the opportunity, they
and function allowed enhanced the cHmate's natural qualities by a
the fireplace to make judicious choice of building site — prizing
a statement. This good air circulation, avoiding damp ground,
Corinthian fireplace, and regulating orientation to the sun. Fire-
shown in Sebastiano places, beginning with the kitchen hearth,
Serlio's Book IV {^537), were the main source of heat, along with
displays a flaming small portable charcoal braziers and warm-
globe — a fantasy of fire. ing pans for personal comfort; tiled stoves
were in demand in northern Europe. The
fireplace used the same expensive building
Public Fountains materials, mainly stone and marble, as other
Fonte Gaia (1419, decorative areas, although it was usually ren-
Jacopo della Querela), dered with classical ornament in beautifully

Siena carved details. A prominent sloping hood

Neptune Fountain over the mantel was gradually reduced as the
(1551, Giovanni Mon- fireplace became more flush with the wall,
torsoli), Messina further emphasizing a classical profile.
Neptune Fountain Bathrooms in elite residences were among
(1563, Gianbologna), the few rooms to be served by a system of
Bologna piped heat, or stoves, although such systems
Neptune Fountain were well known from Roman baths and
(1575, Bartolomeo their descriptions in Vitruvius. Andrea Fal-

AmmannatI), Florence ladio admired a similar system used for air

Mercury and Hercules conditioning, describing how cool air was

Fountains (1596, vented through subterranean ducts. The ma-
Adrlaen de Vries), jority of households obtained water from
Augsburg public fountains.

56
INSIDE
 STAIRS AND CIRCULATION

During the Renaissance stairs

changed considerably: the ex-

Michelangelo's organic
approach to architecture
terior staircase was gradually
brought into the shelter of the
courtyard and eventually into the
interior. One problem the Ren-
aissance architect faced was the
correct superimposition of clas-
sical orders, especially with the
typical winding, or spiral, stairs.
Donato Bramante's solution in
the Vatican Palace (1512) was
much admired. The period also favored dou-
ble-flight stairs with a dog-leg turn.

is seen in his stairway The social unit of the family was super-
(1524-34, installed seding that of the larger clan, with the ac-
1559) for the Laurentian companying impulse toward domestic pri-
Library, Florence, cas- vacy. Access to specific rooms was carefully
cading from the reading controlled. One planning development was
room to the vestibule. a series of rooms cti suite, the most public
hall at the perimeter and the most private at

the core, leading to the idea of the apart-

ment. The work of Andrea Palladio provided
With the spiral staircase architects of the Late Renaissance and be-
(1515) at the chateau yond with ''blueprints" for the ideal layout:
of Blois, Francis I intro- geometric [ilans based on haimonic ratios, a

duced Renaissance symmetrical arrangenient of rooms around

architecture to France. a central hall.

58 INSIDE
FINISHING TOUCHES

The Renaissance interior was functionally

furnished, often focused on insulating the

predominantly stone buildings against

winter's cold and summer's heat. Even so,

fresco decorations often substituted for

more costly furnishings such as tapestries

or paneling. Paintings were part of the fur-

niture, from small devotional images of the

Madonna and Child to family portraits

and sculptured busts. Decoration usually

reflected the room's purpose.

Wood paneling with motifs all'antica warms the

interior of this chamber in Domenico Ghirlandaio's

Florentine fresco Birth of the Virgin (1490).
rsiim
wM

^Mj^'''MigBH>jiw^fi!y '^ y^lpw

 FURNITURE
The setting for the During the Renaissance most furniture was
Dream of St. Ursula set around the perimeter of a room. A typi-

(1495, Vittore Carpac- cal type of seating was the X chair, which
cio), a detail of which could be folded and moved, although long
is shown here, is an tables set on trestles for dining might take
elegant bed with a advantage of built-in benches. Decorative
tester, canopy, head- motifs often included the family's heraldic
board, and the luxuri- devices as well as classical molding and
ous comfort of pillows. grotesques.
A common type of furniture associated
This chair, said to be with the bedroom and other rooms was a cas-
owned by Petrarch, was sone, a large, low chest that was often part of
typical of the portable a dowry. In the Early Renaissance these
furniture of the Renais- tended to be painted with iconographically
sance period. apt scenes from mythology and ancient his-
tory, such as the marriage of Peleus
and Thetis or the love of Venus and
Mars. In the sixteenth century
painted scenes were supplanted by
carved sculptural decoration.
Beds were substantial. The clas-

sicizing touch could be applied to

the wood framework, especially a
headboard, which might have an
intricately carved molding and be
built into the wall. Sometimes the
bed enclosure practically consti-
tuted a room within a room.

TOUCHES
 .lAJ.i:
'T

t
 nt^^;

^2^?Zi^'~

»^^'

ill

^
1^^ V.

'^^^?yj|
 WALL COVERINGS
Some of the great masterworks of Western The garden was a
art are wall hangings and paneHng. Valued typical Renaissance

for their decorative qualities, they could also motif, here used to

provide insulation. Tapestries were among enliven the painted

the costliest, and the High Renaissance in interior (ca. 1400)

Italy saw a revival of figurative subjects. Wall of the Davanzati

decoration tended to be divided into hori- Palace, Florence.

zontal layers: at the lower level, rich, bro-

caded wall hangings for special occasions or Others decorate their
frescoes of these; then, large horizontal halls with hangings
bands of decoration; next, the room's archi- of Arras and Flan-
tectural framework, with spaces for further ders . .
.
; rugs and
decoration; and finally the ceiling. moquettes from
Perhaps the most influential tapestries Turkey or Syria, Bar-
were Raphael's for the Sistine Chapel. Full- baresque carpets and
size colored cartoons (1516) executed in re- tapestries; painted
verse were sent to Brussels to be woven. Sets hangings by good
were acquired by England's Henry VIII and masters, Spanish
France's Francis I. Flanders was preeminent leather ingeniously
in the production of woven textiles, but the wrought I favor

Medici dukes in Florence established their and praise all these

own center of manufacture to make tapes- ornaments too,

tries for their splendid palaces. because they are a

In sixteenth-century Venice frescoes were sign ofjudgement,
supplanted by large oil paintings on canvas, culture, education

both in churches and palaces. Another ex- and distinction.

pensive wall covering was leather, which was — Sabba di Castiglione,

stamped, gilded, or painted. Ricordi, 1546

TOUCHES
 FLOOR COVERINGS
Renaissance Centers During the Renaissance flooring was com-
for Crafts and Trades monly exposed. For this reason it might be
Florence: Wool highly decorated. Oriental carpets were not
Lucca: Silk only placed on the floor but also used as wall
Brussels: Tapestries hangings and table draperies. Like tapestries,
Genoa: Cut velvets such carpets were highly valued. Being
Nuremberg: Clocks portable, they could accompany the patrons
Venice: Glass as they moved between residences or be
Milan: Armor brought out for different seasons or special
events. Public festivals were marked by the
colorful display of brightly patterned carpets
hung from windows. They were imported as
part of the luxury trade in silk and spices
with the East. In this way many motifs from
Eastern lands were incorporated into the
decorative vocabulary of Italy.

From floor carpets Woven rush mats, some decoratively pat-

to bed hangings, fine terned, would be used on terrazzo tile floors

wool cloth to sheer to keep the chill ofl'and the dirt out. Furni-
silk veils, the cloth ture might be set on a low wooden platform
industry dominated the to elevate it from the floor. For festivities

Renaissance economy. flowers were Strewn over the floor in the

Such accoutrements
grace the Virgin's
chamber in this detail
from an early fifteenth-
century Annunciation
(anonymous).
banqueting room.
In poorer dwellings the floor often con-
sisted only of beaten earth. Rushes strewn
over the dirt frequently constituted the sole
floor covering; for hygiene sweet-smelling
herbs were mixed with the rushes.

66 TOUCHES
imfrmo Japori J
 .

LIGHTING AND LAMPS

In its reliance on candles, oil lamps, and ISatigalUys design
fires for lighting, the Renaissance was not for St. Peter's] . .

significantly different from the classical pe- has not provided any
riod. Household and workplace were bound fresh means of
by farmers' hours — dawn to dusk. Light lighting, while there

was a luxury. are so many gloomy

Large, high-quality wax candles, carried lurking holes both
ceremonially in processions, were an impor- above and below
tant element of church and public ritual. that any sort of

Even in the most sumptuous households, the knavery could easily

building and immediate grounds were illu- be practiced, such
minated in the evening only for special as the hiding of
events, as the cost of such candlepower could banished persons,
be enormous. the coining offalse
In the interior, reflective surfaces magni- money, the rape of
fied the effects of light, glinting off gold- nuns, and other
ground paintings and metallic threads in misdemeanors.
hangings, as well as the increasingly popular — Michelangelo,
mirror. Natural light was maximized. Glass- letter to Bartolomeo

paned windows could be found even in some Ammannati, 1555

moderate households, but more common
were oil-lined linen panels (impannate) Important household

stretched over a frame and set into the em- furnishings included

brasure. Shutters were ingeniously hinged to lighting fixtures

moderate light and drafts. Varied wall brack- such as the tall candle-

ets, sconces, chandeliers, and hanging lamps holder shown at left

were executed in a range of materials, from in Bartolomeo Scappi's

iron and bronze to gold and silver. Opera (1570).

TOUCHES 69
FINISHING TOUCHES
 DECORATIVE OBJECTS
From sconces to andirons, no object was too
mean to be treated as a work of art. Perhaps
no salt and pepper shaker has ever rivaled
Benvenuto Cellini's, with its allegorical sub-

ject of Neptune and Ceres and its elegant

form (1540s), no drinking cup the Tazza
Barovier (1460s), a product of the develop-
ing Venetian industry of glasswork. Of
course, these were extraordinary objects for
the most exquisite appetites, but they shared
with other objects that graced humbler ta-

bles and were used daily similar precepts of

Renaissance style, particularly the recovery
of antique themes such as winged putti.
Another industry that flourished was ma-
jolica. Quantities of tableware were pro-
duced in colored glazes and decorative styles still-life objects exalt

particular to centers such as Gubbio, Faenza humanist activities and

(which gave its name io faience), and Urbino. demonstrate artistic

Widespread distribution meant the trans- perspective in the

mission of Renaissance painting styles, clas- trompe I'oeii intarsia

sical subjects, and decorative vocabulary. (marquetry) paneling

Collectors proudly displayed acquisitions (ca. 1480, Baccio Pon-

of ancient busts, coins, metals, and gems or telli) in the Duke of

commissioned artists to recreate works after Urbino's study (above)

the ancient manner, especially small bronze and in Hans Holbein's

sculptures and plaquettes by such artists as French Ambassadors

Andrea Riccio and Antico. (1533) (opposite).

TOUCHES
I N

The notion of progress propelled the Ren-

aissance. In his Lives of the Artists Giorgio

Vasari praised artists' progression from a

decadent to a good modern style and

defined the five qualities "that made mod-

ern art even more glorious than that of the

ancient world" — rule, order, proportion,

drawing, and the ideal. Their universal ap-

plication helped bring about the triumph of

Renaissance style, transforming European

culture on the brink of the modern era.

The chateau (1519-50s, Domenico da Cortona) of

Chambord, France, embraced Renaissance planning

in its bilateral symmetry and Greek-cross form.

72
 m t

"^^YTf
*
m !!

bTTTT
•• '
 PALACES AND APARTMENTS
•-; The concept of home was a far

more public one than it is today.

Rulers, nobles, and merchants
carried out their transactions
with the outside world in the
great halls or more intimate
apartments of their fine palaces.

Such grand residences required

staffs to run them — administra-
tors to cope with the affairs of
state or commerce, the housing
of dependents, and visits of
friends. One of the more private

rooms in the Renaissance house-

The High Renaissance- hold was the study. Famous men and women
style Roman palace furnished these rooms in the latest style, ea-

was exemplified by the ger to demonstrate their learning. Humanist

Caprini Palace (1510, accoutrements cluttered the cupboards.
Donate Bramante), which In the city, descending the scale of the so-
served as Raphael's cial order, public and private were still mixed
residence and studio. as business and domestic purposes were
combined in the same building. The tradi-
In the Massimo alle tion of shops on the ground floor extended
Colonne Palace (1532), back to the Roman insula, thereby granting
Rome, Baldassare this arrangement the imprimatur of classical
Peruzzi balanced two architecture. Commodious elements of Ren-
adjacent facades to cope new degree of comft^rt
aissance style lent a to

with an irregular site. more domestic environments.

74 STYLE
 ..,^^^^=,
I ^^
Inn Vi
i^f f t W
W'
jj^jjai^jijl^

niTjiii — WTTCroii

; m^

i
 VILLAS AND FARMHOUSES

The nobility of the The renewed vigor concentrated in the Ren-

central wing of the Villa aissance city bred an equally strong desire to
Barbaro(1557-ca. 1570, escape it at times — through an evening's re-

Andrea Palladio), Maser, treat to the suburbs or a day's hunting in the

flanked on either side country.

by farm buildings, In central Italy imperial pleasure villas

is proclaimed by the predominated. Those built in the suburbs of

application of a classical Rome were used for relaxation, entertain-
temple front to the ment, or ceremonial purposes such as the

facade, an uncommon formal entry of important visitors; others in

motif in domestic archi- the outlying hills provided respites from the
tecture until Palladio. city during the summer and times of plague.
 In northern Italy Roman republican vil- The agreeablcy
las, possibly more palatable to the Venetian pleasant, com-
republic's political identity or more attuned modious, and
to economic life there, prevailed. The ideal healthy situation
was a combination of the villa and the farm- being found,
house, including practical, vernacular-style attention is to be
buildings refurbished w^ith Renaissance ele- given to [the villa s]

ments for agriculture. Using the tenets of elegant and con-

Renaissance style, Andrea Palladio devised a venient disposition.
formula for the country estate, where the —Andrea Palladio,

owner could manage his agricultural inter- The Four Books of

ests and pursue the good life. Architecture, 1570

"
if iiIMM
 PUBLIC BUILDINGS
Modernized Town Halls Iwo important areas of public life were the
Seville (1527, Diego market and the city hall. The open nature of
de Riano) markets made them adaptable to the classi-

Leipzig (1556) cizing of the arcaded portico. The thriving

Attenburg (1562), communes of the medieval period left a

Germany legacy of town halls in Italian cities. One task

Antwerp (1565, Cornells that fell to the Renaissance architect was to
Floris) modernize these buildings in a style that

Cologne (1569, Wilhelm befitted a seat of government. Stylistic retro-

Vermucken) fitting was difficult, especially because the
classical system of proportions was too rigid
to apply easily. The town hall of Vicenza,
known as the Basilica (1549) because of its

shape, posed such a problem; Andrea Palla-

dio finally decided instead to create a screen
around the building using the motif now
known as the Palladian window.
Michelangelo chose a The public complex with the most potent
monumental order to reminders of the classical past was the Capi-
unify the elevations of toline Hill of Rome, once the center of the
the Capitoline palaces world and still the site of public ceremony.
(1538-ca. 1660), Rome, The Hapsburg emperor Charles V's visit in
a feat captured in a 1536 spurred a commission to Michelangelo
1755 painting by to create a new civic center in the Renais-
Antonio Canaletto. sance style. Michelangelo's trapezoidal plan
Michelangelo's design regularized building relationships, harmo-
for St. Peter's used the nized facades, and formalized the entry with
same colossal order. a ramp (conionata) to the city below.

78 STYLE
N STYLE
 CHURCHES
If perfection could be a shape, it would be The dome of St. Peter's

the circle. This idea was given weight by the was finally constructed

emergence of Neoplatonic philosophy influ- in the I590s by

enced by Euclid and Pythagoras. Architects Giacomo della Porta,

and theorists alike believed the centralized who adapted the model

plan to be the ideal church plan. It exhibited by Michelangelo

a symbolic congruence between form and designed in 1558-61.

spirituality, a similarity shared by the most
impressive extant building from ancient
Rome — the Pantheon.
The paradigm of a domed, central-
\) ^>'^-^.
ized building conflicted with most
liturgical practices, which required a

particular placement for the altar, cel-

ebrant, and audience. Liturgical con-

siderations dominated development

of the Counter Reformation church,
including removal of the choir screen
blocking a view of the altar. Reformation
churches began by removing images.
When Pope Julius II decided to rebuild the
premier church of Christendom in 1506, he This medal (ca. 1466,

initiated a campaign whose transformations Sperandio) commemo-

mirror the changes in Renaissance ideals and rates Francesco Sforza,

style. The new St. Peter's reflected a desire to duke of Milan. Possibly

compromise, retaining the practical advan- a proposal for his mau-

tages of the basilica while integrating the ex- soleum, it documents

pressive quality of the centralized form. interest in domed plans.

STYLE 81

The sound of water
was essential to the
conception of the
garden. The ingenuity
of Renaissance
hydraulic engineers
created the magnificent
tones that could issue
GARDENS
The Italian garden was designed according to
the same formal principles that governed ar-
chitecture. Plantings were arranged in sym-
metrical and geometrical forms. Typical gar-
den elements included terracing, parterres,
pergolas, quincunx groves, and grottoes. A
garden frequently contained iconographical
content that could be displayed through a

from a water organ, a program of sculpture and choice of plant-

central feature of the ings. An apple tree might be an allusion to
garden at the Villa the Gardens of the Hesperides as well as the
d'Este in Tivoll. Garden of Eden, as at the Villa d'Este garden
(1550-72, Pirro Ligorio)in Tivoli.
Fountains were especially favored as con-
veyors of meaning, particularly as reminders
Grand Gardens of the Font of Parnassus, as at Villa Lante (af-

Villa Medici (1537-90s, ter 1568, Giacomo da Vignola) in Bagnaia.

Niccolo Tribolo), Small, autonomous buildings were placed in
Castello gardens to take advantage of the views and
Boboli Garden (1549-88, prevailing winds and often used for dining al

Niccolo Tribolo), Pitti fresco. For example, the Villa Belvedere was
Palace, Florence connected to the X'atican Palace h\' Donato
Sacred Wood (1552-85, Bramante's monumental courtyard (1505-
Pier Francesco Orsini), 60s), the first essay in Renaissance landscape
Bomarzo architecture. Formal gardens particularly in

Villa Medici (1569-ca. the villas of church dignitaries around Rome

1600, Bernardo Buon- grew in ambition and changed in scale trom
talenti), Pratolino gardens to parks.

82 STYLE
^•.
 THEATERS
Ainofi{i all I he things In the Early Renaissance the sacra rappresen-

that may bee made tazione, a form of sacred drama performed

by wens hatidsy in pubHc spaces, became popular. Saints'
thereby to yield days and biblical narratives were celebrated
admiration, pleasure by reenactment. Demand grew for convinc-

to sight, and to ing stage scenery. In the church of the San-

content the fantasies tissima Annunziata (1439) in Florence, Fil-

of men; I thinke it ippo Brunelleschi used perspective to stage

is the placing of a the illusion of flight along a trajectory.
Scene, . . . built by A desire to revive classical drama was
Carpenters or matched by an interest in recreating the an-

Masons, skillful in cient theater. Most theaters were temporary

Perspective worke, structures erected where there was insufficient

great Palaces, large interior or exterior space to house the scenery,

Temples, and divers the primary architectural feature. A garden
Houses, both neere loggia in a palace or villa also might be used
and farre off. for performances, as at the Villa Harnesina in

--Sebastiano Serlio, Rome. One private theater complex with a

Bool<li. 1545, 1611 central building for music was built for Alvise

Cornaro in Padua beginning in 1524. Only in

For a learned academy the late sixteenth century did the idea of per-
in Vicenza, Palladio de- manent theaters take hold, such as Bernardo
signed the Teatro Olim- Buontalenti's Medici Theater (1586) in the
pico (1584) after the Uffizi Palace in Florence.

antique. Permanent fixed The sixteenth century also was the turn-
perspective flats repre- ing point for a new musical form, the opera.
sented the city behind As grander spectacles took the stage, sets and
a proscenium arch. machinery became increasingly elaborate.

STYLE
 PIAZZAS
All the world was indeed a stage, as Shake- Notable Piazzas

speare said, and the Renaissance city itself Piazza Ducale

was the largest theater for public ritual. From (1494), Vigevano

mundane trips to the local fountain for wa- Piazza del Popolo

ter and a chat with neighbors to sermons and (1509), Ascoli Piceno

plays performed in church squares, from Piazza Santissima

grand spectacles of mock sea battles staged Annunziata (1516-

in flooded courtyards to public processions ca. 1600), Florence

and carnival events — much of Italian public Piazza Maggiore

Hfe was conducted outdoors. (ca. 1560, Giacomo

Civic life often revolved around market, da Vignola), Bologna

government, and ecclesiastical centers in

which exterior space was part of a building or
was created by a complex of buildings. These
centers, which had grown up more or less With his idealized per-

naturally in the medieval city, began to be or- spective drawings, Jan

ganized according to the principles of Renais- Vredeman de Vries of

sance style. The Italian city of Corsignano the Netherlands helped

was transformed along such ideals and its carry the Renaissance

name changed to Pienza, after Pope Pius II, style to northern Europe

who had envisioned its new plan (1459-64, in the late sixteenth

Bernardo Rossellino). Within an established century. His last work,

urban fabric little more than a symmetrical Perspective {^604),

realignment of arcaded facades in the new mixed architectural fan-

style could be achieved, although substantial tasies with lessons in

transformations were made to city centers perspective, which he

such as Venice's Piazza of St. Mark (from called the "most fa-

1513) and Rome's Capitoline Hill (from 1536). mous art of eyesight."

STYLE 87
 THE IDEAL CITY
Piero di Cataneo The ideal city in Renaissance thought sym-
devised this scheme for bolized the replication of the cosmos and so-
a nine-sided city with a cial order and was functional in design and
citadel. Throughout the classical in style. It was realized far more fre-

Renaissance Albertian quently on canvas and panel than in stone

geometry defined the and brick. Utopian and humanist concerns
ideal city. still outweighed new science and engineer-
ing. From the single building to the whole
The principal entity, the composition of the ideal city ra-

ornament to any city diated harmony and rationality.

lies in the siting, Some military towns were built according
'layout, composition to an ideal plan. Palmanova, in northern
and arrangement of Italy, was designed on a star-shaped radial

its roads, squares plan with angled bastions (1593, Giulio Sa-
and individual vorgnan), a type that later spread throughout
works; each must be Europe through the projects of Sebastien de
properly planned Vauban. The logical outcome of such spe-
and distributed cialized professions as military architect and
according to use, engineer was a change in the face of the fu-
importance and ture city according to criteria other than ide-
convenience. For alistic ones. A later age would oversee this
v^ithout order there transition, when architecture was no longer
can be nothing dominated by painter-sculptors whose train-

commodious, ing prepared them to apply principles of de-

graceful and noble. sign, perspective, thehuman body, and the

— Leon Battista Alberti, anatomy of the orders —
although this Ren-
Ten Books of aissance knowledge became absorbed into
Architecture. 1485 the profession of architecture.

STYLE
IN STYLE 89
 SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Association des Centro Internazionale Renaissance Society of

Amis de la Fondation di Studi d'Architettura America

du Patrimoine Andrea Palladio 24 West 12th Street

Palais de Chaillot Domus Comestabilis New York, NY 10011

1, place du Trocadero piazza dei Signori

75116 Paris, France Casella Postale 769 Shakespeare Centre

36100 Vicenza, Henly Street

Association des Vieilles Italy Stratford-on-Avon

Maisons Fran^aises Warwickshire

93, rue de I'Universite Centro per la CV37 6QW, England

75343 Paris, France Conservazione dei
Giardini Storici Society for

Centre Canadian villa II Ventaglio Renaissance Studies

d'Architecture/ via delle Forbici 24-26 Royal Holloway and

Canadian Centre 50133 Florence, Italy Bedford New College

for Architecture University of London

1920, rue Baile Garden History Society Egham Hill

Montreal, Quebec 5 The Knoll Egham. Surrey

H3H 2S6, Canada Hereford HR1 1RU. TW20 0FX, England

England

Centro di Studi per la Society of Architectural

Storia dell' Architettura Istituto Nazionale di Historians

via Teatro Marcelio 54 Studi sul Rinascimento Charnley House

00186 Rome, Italy Palazzo Strozzi 1365 Astor Street

piazza Strozzi Chicago. III. 60610

1-50123 Florence. Italy
 ADDITIONAL SITES TO VISIT
See additional places El Greco's House Michelangelo's House

cited in the text. and Museum (16th c.) (1508)

Toledo, Spain Florence, Italy

Albrecht DiJrer's House

(15th c.) Erasmus's House (1515) Museum of the Middle

Nuremberg, Germany Brussels, Belgium Ages and Renaissance
(15th c.)

Ariosto's House House of Jacques Coeur Bologna, Italy

(ca. 1500) (1440-50)

Ferrara, Italy Bourges, France Petrarch's House
(14th-16th c.)

Avoncroft Museum Joachim du Bellay Arqua Petrarca, Italy

of Building (15th- Museum (16th c.)

16th c.) Lire, France Raphael's Birthplace

Bromsgrove, England (15th c.)

Landshut Museum Urbino, Italy

Botanical Garden (1545) (1536-43)

Padua, Italy Landshut, Germany Royal Monastery

of San Lorenzo (1584)

Cervantes's Birthplace Leonardo da Vinci Madrid, Spain

(early 16th c.) Museum of Science

Madrid, Spain and Technology Shakespeare's Birthplace

(16th-18th c.) (16th c.)

Davanzati Palace Milan, Italy Stratford-on-Avon,

and Museum of Historic England

Florentine Houses Lope de Vega House

(late 14th-15th c.) (1587) Vasari's House (1548)

Florence, Italy Madrid, Spain Arezzo, Italy
 RECOMMENDED READING
Ackerman, James. Encyclopaedia of the Millon, Henry, and
Distance Points: Renaissance. Thomas Vittorio Lampugnani.
Essays in Theory and Bergin, consulting ed.; The Renaissance
Renaissance Art and Jennifer Speake, gen. from Brunelleschi

Architecture. Cam- ed. London: B. T. to Michaelangelo:

bridge, Mass.: MIT Batsford, 1987. The Representation

Press, 1991. Gilbert, Creighton. of Architecture. Milan:

Argan, Giulio Carlo The History of Renaissance Bompiani, 1994.

Renaissance City. New Art Throughout Murray, Peter. The

York: Braziller, 1969. Europe. Englewood Architecture of the

Burckhardt, Jacob. Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice- Italian Renaissance.

The Civilization of Hall and Abrams, 1963. Rev. ed.

the Renaissance in 1973. London: Thames and

Italy 1860. Reprint. Hale, John. The Civiliza- Hudson, 1986

New York: Viking tion of Europe in Shearman, John. Man-

Penguin, 1990. the Renaissance. nerism. 1967. Reprint.

Burke, Peter. The Italian New York: Atheneum, New York: Viking

Renaissance: Culture 1994. Penguin, 1978.

and Society in Renais- Lazzaro, Claudia. The Thornton, Peter. The

sance Italy. 1972. Italian Renaissance Italian Renaissance

Rev. ed. Princeton: Garden. New Haven: Interior. 1400-1600.

Princeton University Yale University Press, New York: Abrams,

Press, 1986. 1990. 1991.

Coffin, David. The Villa Levenson, Jay, ed. Circa Wittkower. Rudolf.

in the Life of Renais- 1492: Art in the Age Architectural Princi-

sance Rome. Prince- of Exploration. New ples in the Age of

ton: Princeton Univer- Haven: Yale University Humanism. 1949. New
sity Press, 1979. Press, 1991. York: Norton. 1971.

92
 INDEX
Civilization of the Renaissance Fontainebleau, 29, 52-55
in Italy. 6 Fontana, Domenico, 28
classicism, 6-7, 11, 25, 31, Foundling Hospital, 24-25
Alberti, Leon Battista, 29, 44. 34-35, 40, 42, 44, 47, 50, fountains, 56
51, 88 51, 58, 72, 84 The Four Books of Architecture,
Alessi,Galeazzo, 28 Codussi, Mauro, 28, 31 23,29,47, 77
Alfonso II, 29 colors, 33, 34, 36, 40, 44-45 Francesco di Giorgio Martini, 29
Ammannati, Bartolomeo, 28, Columbus, Christopher, 8 Francis I, 7, 29, 39, 58, 65
56. 69 Copernicus, Nicolaus, 8, 77, 26 French Ambassadors. 70
Annunciation, 67 Cornaro, Alvise, 84 frescoes, 75, 27, 44, 60-67, 65
architectural features, 32-33, Corner-Spinelli Palace, 30 furnishings, 60-71, 74
36-37,40-41 Cortes, Hernando, 8 furniture, 62-63
Ariosto, Lodovico, 26 Cortona, Domenico da, 72
Cosimo, Piero di, 16 26
Galileo Galilei, 8,
Baptistery (Florence), 29, 31 The Courtier, 19, 29 Gama, Vasco da, 8
Basilica (Vicenza), 78 courtyards, 33, 36, 40, 48, 49, gardens, 82-83, 84
Biondo, Flavio, 26 58,82 General Rules of Architecture
Birth of the Virgin, 60-61 (Serlio), 29, 47, 50, 57, 57, 84
Blois, 39, 59 Davanzati Palace, 64 Ghiberti, Lorenzo, 29
Boboli Garden, 82 David (Donatello), 29 Ghirlandaio, Domenico, 60
Bodin. Jean, 26 David (Michelangelo), 20 Gianbologna, 28, 56
books, 8, 23, 26, 39 de I'Orme, Philibert, 29 Giocondo, Fra, 23, 29
Borgia, Cesare, 23 Dias, Bartolomeu, 8 Gothic style, 6, 7, 19, 31, 44
Brahe, Tycho, 26 Donatello, 29 Guicciardini, Francesco, 26
Bramante, Donato, 26, 28, 35, doors, 33, 36, 40, 46-47 Gutenberg, Johann, 23
58, 74, 82, 96 Dream of St. Ursula. 63
Brunelleschi, Filippo, 25, 28, 84 du Cerceau, Jacques Androuet, 29 Hardwick Hall, 38
Building of a Double Palace, Duke Ludovico Conzaga Seated Harvey, William, 26
14, 76-77 with His Court, 75 Henry II, 29
Bullant, Jean, 28 Durer, Albrecht, 29 Henry VIM, 7, 29, 65
BuontalentI, Bernardo, 28, 47, Herrera, Juan de, 28
82.84 Early Renaissance, 25, 30-33, High Renaissance, 25, 34-37,
Burckhardt, Jacob, 6 47, 62, 84 47, 65, 74
El Escorial, 28, 29 history, 11
Ca' d'Oro, 31 Elizabeth I, 7 Holbein, Hans, 71
Calvin, John, 26 Erasmus, Desiderius, 26 Holy Roman Empire, 7
Canaletto, Antonio, 78 exploration, 8, 70 House of Raphael, 74
Capitoline Hill, 20, 78, 79, 87 houses, 14, 74-77
Caprarola, 48, 49 Farnese family, 6, 48 humanism, 11, 19, 26, 71, 74,
Caprini Palace, 28, 74 Farnese Palace, 29, 34-35,
Caravaggio, Polidoro da, 44 36-37
Carnevale, Fra, 42 fashions, 19 ideal architecture, 4-5, 14,
Carpaccio, Vittore, 62 Federico da Montefeltro,
II 76-77, 53,86, 88,89, 96
Castiglione, Baldassare, 19, 29 79, 29, 74 Ignatius of Loyola, Saint, 26
Cataneo, Piero di, 88 •

Ficino, Marsilio, 6, 26 Italianate style, 7, 39

Cellini, Benvenuto, 29, 71 Filarete, Antonio, 29, 31
Cervantes, Miguel de, 29 fine arts, 20-21, 60, 65, 71 Julius II, Pope, 29, 55, 81
Chambord, 72-73 Fiorentino, Rosso, 53
Charles V. 7, 29, 78 fireplaces, 56, 57 Knox, John, 26
churches, 20, 26, 28-29, 35, floors, 54-55, 66-67
80-81 Florence Cathedral, 28 Last Judgment. 55
city plans, 86-89 Flotner, Peter, 28 Last Supper. 26. 29
Late Renaissance. 25, 38-41. 44, Periizzi, Baldassare, 28, 74 Sforza, Francesco. 81
47, 58 Petrarch, 6-7, 11. 62 Shakespeare. William. 26. 29, 87
Iaurana, Luciano, 28 Philip 11. 7,29 Shute, John. 29
Laurentian Library, 58 piazzas, 86-87 Sistine Chapel, 29. 54. 65. 96
Leo X, Pope, 29 Pienza, 87 29
Sixtus V. Pope.
Leonardo da Vinci, 6, 20, 23, 26. Piero della Francesca, 19 Smythson. Robert, 28. 39
28, 29, 39, 96 Pitti Palace, 28, 82 stairs. 39. 48. 58-59
Lescot, Pierre, 28, 40 Pius II, Pope. 87 St. Marks. 28. 45. 87
lighting, 68-69 Pizarro. Francisco, 8 St Peters. 26. 28. 29. 78. 80. 81
Ligorio, Pirro, 28, 82 Plato, 26
Lives of the Artists, 6,11. 29, political systems, 7. 14 Tasso. Tarquato. 26
34, 72 Pontclli. Baccio. 55, 71 Teatro Olimpico. 85
Longleat, 39 Porta, Giacomo della. 28, 81 Tempietto (Rome). 2. 28. 35. 96
Louvre Palace, 29, 40-47 Porta Pia (Rome), 47 Tempio Malatestiano. 51
Luini, Bernardino, 19 Portrait of a Lady. 18 Ten Books of Architecture. 29
Luther, Martin. 26 Presentation in Ifie Temple, 31. 88
42-43 textiles. 55. 60. 65. 66
Machiavelli, Niccolo, 19, 26 The Prince, 19 theaters. 84-85
Machuca, Pedro, 28 Ptolemy, 11 timeline. 12-13
Madonna San Biagio, 28. 35
di Titian. 29
Magellan, Ferdinand, 8 Querela, Jacopo della, 28, 56 Toledo. Juan Bautista de. 28
Mannerism, 7. 25, 38-41, 53 town halls. 78
Mantegna, Andrea, 14 Raphael, 6, 26, 28, 29. 39. 65, 74
Massimo alle Colonne Palace, 75 religion. 14, 26, 81 Uffizi Palace. 47, 84
materials, 33, 34, 36, 40, 44-45, Riccio, Andrea, 71 Urbino, ducal palace. 28, 29, 71
54-55 Ricci Palace, 44 Urbino, duke of, 79, 29
mechanical systems. 56-57 Robbia. Andrea della, 25
Medici family, 29, 65 Romano, Giulio. 28 Vasari, Giorgio. 6, 7, 11, 29,
Medici Palace (Florence), 28. Rome. 6-7, 14, 23, 25. 44 34, 72
29, 32 roofs. 33. 36, 40, 48 Vatican Palace, 58, 82
Michelangelo Buonarroti, 6, 20, Rossellino, Bernardo, 87 Vauban, Sebastien de, 88
28, 29, 34, 35, 39,47, 55, 58, Rossetti, Biagio, 28 Vega. Lope de. 26
69, 78, 81 Rudolf II, 7 Vesalius. Andreas, 26
Michelozzi, Michelozzo. 28. 33 Vespucci. Amerigo. 8
military engineering. 23. 88 Sacred Wood
(Bomarzo), 82 Vignola. Giacomo da, 29. 48.
Mona Lisa, 21, 26. 29 Sangallo, Antonio da (the Elder), 82. 87
Montaigne, Michel de, 26. 29 28, 35 Villa Barbaro, 76-77
Montorsoli, Giovanni, 28, 56 Sangallo. Antonio da (the Villa Belvedere. 82
More, Thomas, 26 Younger), 28, 35 Villa dEste. 82. 83
Sangallo, Giuliano da. 28. 35 Villa Farnesina. 28. 84
ornament, 33, 40. 44, 50-51 Sanmicheli. Michele, 28 Villa Lante. 82
Ortelius, Abraham, 11 Sansovino. Jacopo. 28, 44 Villa Medici (Castello). 82
Santa Maria delle Careen, 28, 35 Villa Medici (Pratolmo). 82
palaces, 14, 76-77.28-29. Santa Maria delle Grazie, 26 villas. 76-77, 82, 84
28, 39,
30-41. 74-75.82. 84 Santissima Annunziata, 84 Vitruvian Man. 1. 96
Palazzo del Te. 28 Savorgnan. Giulio. 88 Vitruvius, 23. 31, 51, 56
Palladio. Andrea. 23. 29. 47. 54. Scamozzi. Vmcenzo. 28 Volterra. Daniele da. 55
56. 58. 76. 77. 78, 84 Scappi. Bartolomeo, 69 Vries. Jan Vredeman de. 87
Palmanova. 88 School of Athens, 27
Pantheon, 81 sculpture. 20. 55. 71. 82 walls. 54-55. 64-65. 71
Paracelsus, 26 Serlio, Sebastiano. 29. 39. 47, warfare, 23
Paul III, Pope, 29, 55 51.56.84 windows, 33, 36. 40, 46-47. 78
 CREDITS
Alinari/Art Resource, New York: Edifices de Rome Moderne National Monuments Record,
endpapers, 15, 30, 45, 58, Letaroullly (1849-66): 36-37 © RCHME Crown copyright:
60-61,63,64,67, 71,75,85 38, 39
Epitome Theatri Orteliani,
The Architecture of the Renais- Ortehus (1589): 10 National Portrait Gallery,
sance in Tuscany, von London, reproduced courtesy
Stegmann and von GeymiJller, The Five Books of Architecture, of the Trustees: 70
(1924): 33 Serlio, 1611 ed. (Dover,
1982). 46, 50, 51,57 Opera. Scappi (1574): 68
Bettmann Archive; 1, 8-9, 11,
19, 20, 21. 26, 55 John and Mable Rlnglmg Perspective,Vredeman de Vrles,
Museum of Art, Sarasota, 1604 (Dover, 1968). 86
Boston Public Library, courtesy Fla.: 14-15
Trustees of the Boston Public Roger-Viollet: 52-53, 59, 72-73
Library: 40-41 (Androuet du
Cerceau, Les Plus Excellents Gabinetto Disegni e
Uffizi,

Batiments de France, Stampe: 2

1576-79) MonumentI Musei e Callerle
Pontificle: 27, 54 Giuseppe VasI, 1746: 49
British Architectural Library,
Royal Institute of British Museum of Fine Arts, Boston:
Architects, London: 74, 89 42-43 (Charles Potter
Kilng Fund)
British Library: 62 (G. K
TomasinI, Petrarcha Redi- National Gallery of Art,
vivus, no. C81 621) Washington, © Board of
Trustees: 18 (Andrew W.
Christie's Images. London: 79 Mellon Collection); 44
(Samuel H. Kress Collection);
Decorative Ornaments and 80 (Mark J. Millard Archi-
Alphabets of the Renaissance tectural Collection); 81
(Dover, 1991): 22,23 (Samuel H. Kress Collection)
Endpapers; Detail Copyright © 1995 Archetype Press, Inc., and Abbeville
from Creation of Press. Compilation — including selection of text and
Adam (1512, Michel- images — © 1995 Archetype Press, Inc., and Abbeville
angelo), Sistine Chapel, Press. Text © 1995 Tracy E. Cooper. All rights reserved

Vatican City. under international copyright conventions. No part

of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form

or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including

photocopying, recording, or by any information stor-

Page 1 : Vitruvian
age and retrieval system, without permission in writ-
Man (1485, Leonardo
ing from the publisher. Inquiries should be addressed
da Vinci).
to Abbeville Publishing Group, 488 Madison Avenue,
Page 2: Study of
New York, N.Y. 10022. Pnnted and bound in China.
Bramante's Tempietto
(1588, Federico
10
Barocci).

Pages 4-5: Baltimore

Other titles in the Abbeville StyleBooks^^ series in-
panel of the Ideal
clude Art Deco (ISBN 1-55859-824-3); Art Nouveau
City (anonymous,
(ISBN 0-7892-0024-4); Arts & Crafts (ISBN 0-7892-
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0010-4); Early Victorian (ISBN 0-7892-0011-2);
and Gothic Revival (ISBN 1-55859-823-5).

Produced by Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Archetype Press, Inc. Cooper, Tracy Elizabeth

Project Director: Renaissance / Tracy E. Cooper.
Diane Maddex p. cm. — (Abbeville stylebooks)

Editor: Includes bibliographical references and index.

Gretchen Smith Mui ISBN 0-7892-0023-6

Editorial Assistant: 1. Art, Renaissance— Italy. 2. Art, Italian 3. Art,

Kristi Flis Renaissance — Influence. I. Title. II. Series.

Art Director: N6915.C66 1995 95-20978

Robert L. Wiser 709'.45'09024-dc20 CIP
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tracy E. Cooper teaches Renaissance and Baroque art and
architecture at Temple University in Philadelphia. Her
publications include works on Andrea Palladio and archi-

tectural models of the Renaissance.

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