Character of Renaissance ArchitectureMoore, Charles Herbert
History
Character of Renaissance Architecture
Moore, Charles Herbert
Architecture, Renaissance
An earlier instance of the Roman arch and entablature scheme applied to
a continuous arcade occurs in Rome in the cloister of Santa Maria della
Pace, the design of which is attributed to Bramante. The upper story of
this arcade is worthy of notice as having a rhythmical scheme, such as
is common in mediæval design, wrought into the neo-classic composition.
This story has no arches, but a simple entablature is carried on square
piers rising over the piers of the ground story, with a pilaster on
the face of each, and in each interval is a small round column rising
over the crown of the arch below. But this alternation of large and
small, and compound and simple, members has no meaning apart from that
of ornamental effect. In mediæval design, the larger members would
have the function of supporting heavier weights, and the rhythmical
arrangement would thus have a primarily structural meaning.
After the early part of the sixteenth century Italy, as before
remarked, produced few architects of a high order of genius. The later
architecture of the Renaissance is the work of men of little genuine
artistic inspiration, though many of them had great enthusiasm for what
they conceived to be the true principles of the art and unbounded zeal
in its practice. A few typical examples of the later forms of palatial
design by such men as Sansovino, Sanmichele, Vignola, Palladio, and
Scamozzi will be enough for us to consider. All of these men based
their practice theoretically, as we have seen, on the writings of
Vitruvius and on a rigorous study of the architectural remains of Roman
antiquity; and nearly all of them wrote treatises on their art which
have formed the basis of most modern practice.
[Illustration: FIG. 65.--Part of façade of the Library
of St. Mark.]
Jacopo Tatti, called Sansovino, went to Rome early in the sixteenth
century in company with Giuliano de San Gallo, and there formed a
friendship with Bramante[95] under whose influence he acquired that
exclusive predilection for classic forms which we find reflected in
his art. Coming to Florence, we are not told in what year, he designed
a false front of wood for the cathedral church of Santa Maria del
Fiore, which is said to have called forth the admiration of Pope Leo
X.[96] This incident is significant of the spirit of the time, and such
architectural shams were extensively produced by the architects of the
later Renaissance. The most important works of Sansovino are in Venice,
where he built the well-known Library of St. Mark, the so-called
Loggia of the Campanile, the Palazzo Cornaro, and several other large
buildings.
[Illustration: FIG. 66.--Corner of the Parthenon.]
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