Character of Renaissance ArchitectureMoore, Charles Herbert
History
Character of Renaissance Architecture
Moore, Charles Herbert
Architecture, Renaissance
of members of the same kind, but of many different magnitudes,
is proper to the organic mediæval architectural systems, under the
influence of which these designers were unconsciously working; but
it is foreign to the principles of the classic art. The beauty of
the Corner palace, is, however, quite independent of the neo-classic
details which are sparingly ingrafted upon it, and belongs to the
larger forms and proportions of the mediæval Venetian style.
[Illustration:
Plate VII
PALAZZO CORNER-SPINELLI
Venice]
Other Venetian palaces of the early Renaissance exhibit other
peculiarities which it would be tedious to describe at length, but
it may be well to notice a few of them. The Palazzo Contarini, for
instance, has its three principal interior divisions marked by
superimposed pilasters in addition to the pilasters on the angles. The
basement order is raised on a podium, and both the basement and the
principal story have an entablature, while the top story is crowned
with a low cornice with modillions and no complete entablature. The
arched portal is flanked with pilasters in two orders, both crowned
with entablature blocks, but no entablature spans the opening under the
arch, and the spandrels are framed with mouldings and crowned with a
cornice. The windows are narrow and round arched, and have no dividing
members. Four of these are grouped together in the central bay of each
upper story, and those of the principal story are framed in with a
Corinthian order of five columns surmounted by a pediment, the whole
composition having exactly the form of a diminutive temple front. Each
lateral bay above the basement has two single windows, those of the
principal floor being each framed with a Corinthian order like that of
the central group, and crowned with a pediment. The windows of the top
story are flanked by very slender pilasters of equal height with those
of the main order, and smaller pilasters carry the archivolts. The end
windows of the central group and the inner ones of the lateral bays
come close to the pilasters of the main order, thus giving on each side
a group of pilasters of three different proportions and magnitudes,
as in Figure 93. The front as a whole is good in its proportions, and
quiet in effect. The neo-classic details add nothing to it of value,
and the composition would be better without them.
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