How to Study ArchitectureCaffin, Charles H. (Charles Henry)
History
How to Study Architecture
Caffin, Charles H. (Charles Henry)
Architecture -- History
It is to be noted that the design of the Ca d’Oro is incomplete. One has
to imagine on the left a wing similar to that on the right. The massing
of the openings in the centre of the façade, instead of their even
distribution along the whole front, was peculiar to Venetian palaces. It
is apparent, although in a less pronounced manner, in the spacing of the
façade of the Vendramini. Another Venetian peculiarity is the limiting
of the beauty of the design to the main façade. Even when a side abutted
on another canal or a garden, the walls were finished in stucco instead
of marble; embellishments were omitted and, worst of all, not even was
the cornice continued. These limitations impair the integrity of the
design and seriously diminish its dignity. The fact is even more
apparent in the case of the Vendramini, for by this time the horizontal
members of the façade had acquired a definite constructive meaning, and
the failure to continue them around the sides betrays an indifference to
the logic of design.
The façade of the Vendramini is no longer _astylar_ (columnless), as,
with the exception of the window columns, is that of the Riccardi. The
adaptation of classic details has proceeded so far that pilasters are
introduced as decorative features in the ground story, and engaged
columns in the upper ones; an excuse for their appearance being
suggested by attaching their capitals to the string courses and cornice.
This device was drawn from the example of the Roman buildings, in which
the Greek relation of upright and horizontal members was diverted from
an element of construction into an element purely of design. Further,
while the windows of the Vendramini recall the character of the _arcade_
type, they have advanced to the _order_ type, the openings being framed
by pilasters or columns. Thus, this design embodies more or less all the
changes which the Early Renaissance brought about in secular buildings.
=Vendramini--Cancellaria.=--Comparing the =Vendramini=, however, with
Bramante’s adaptation of classic details as illustrated, for example, in
the =Palazzo della Cancellaria=, we can see how far removed it is in
feeling from the productions of the fully developed Renaissance. By the
latter time (1505) the nutriment derived from the antique had been
digested and assimilated. The antique not only contributed to, but, in
its revived form, was becoming a part of the spirit of the time.
Architecture was becoming identified with a culture that was fast losing
its fresh, Italian inspiration in an unqualified admiration and
imitation of what was antique and pagan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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