Character of Renaissance ArchitectureMoore, Charles Herbert
History
Character of Renaissance Architecture
Moore, Charles Herbert
Architecture, Renaissance
Turning now to the Renaissance leafage of capitals, we may take,
first, any one of the portico of the Pazzi chapel by Brunelleschi. The
obtuseness shown here (Fig. 105) to the fine qualities of natural forms
that may be made effective as architectural ornament is really amazing.
The treatment is of the Roman kind with emphasis on the artificial
conventions of Roman art. The rigid lines and rectangular sections of
the furrows, each ending abruptly in a straight line across the bottom,
and the unmodelled flatness of the intervening surfaces indicate a
surprising lack of appreciation of those elements of beauty which
distinguish really fine ornamental carving. Such leafage is, indeed,
exceptionally poor, yet instances of a kindred sort are not seldom met
with, as in the capitals of the doorway of the sacristy of Santa Croce
in Florence by Michelozzi.
[Illustration: FIG. 105.--Leafage of Brunelleschi.]
The more characteristic Renaissance leafage is, however, sometimes
beautiful, as in the capitals of the municipal palace of Brescia (Fig.
106). Nevertheless, a curious, and singularly artificial, convention is
noticeable here in the fillet-like form, and abrupt angular termination
of the upper end, of the ridges which mark the subdivisions of the leaf
surface. This peculiar detail is of almost constant occurrence in the
acanthus foliation of the Renaissance, and is in marked contrast with
the finely rounded and more natural treatment of the corresponding
parts of the Greek leaf forms as in Figure 103. This unnatural detail
sometimes takes another form, as in a capital by Giuliano da San Gallo
in the Palazzo Gondi, where its edges (Fig. 107) are less angular, its
surface grooved lengthwise, and the upper end is rounded. But whatever
beauty this Italian leafage may have, the design is rarely more than
a recast of Roman models, with little manifestation of that fresh
inspiration from nature that gives such charm to Gothic foliation.
[Illustration: FIG. 106.--Leafage of Brescia.]
[Illustration: FIG. 107.--Leafage of San Gallo.]
[Illustration: FIG. 108.--Relief of the Scala d’Oro.]
[Illustration: FIG. 109.]
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