Architecture in the Renaissance

Medieval
characteristics

Gothic architecture:

very tall (emphasized height), large arches, flying

buttresses, stained glass, spikes, northern
origin, large windows, vast open spaces
 Medieval characteristics
• Romanesque: thick walls, small windows
(slits), round arches, columns, low to the
ground

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 Renaissance architecture
In the late 15th century and early 16th century
there was a conscious revival and
development of certain elements of Classical
Greek and Roman thought and culture.
The architectural period known as “High
Renaissance" coincides with the age of
Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael.
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Renaissance style places emphasis
On symmetry, proportion, geometry and the
regularity of parts from the architecture of
Classical antiquity (Ancient Rome) of which
many examples remained.
Orderly arrangements of columns and lintels, as
well as the use of semicircular arches, domes,
replacing the complex and irregular profiles of
medieval buildings.
 Temple of Vesta, Rome, 205 AD .
One of he most important temples of Ancient Rome
It became the model for Renaissance
architecture. 6
 Columns and
Pilasters
The Roman orders of
columns were used
i.e. Tuscan, Doric
(male), and Ionic
(female), Corinthian
& Composite.

They can either be

structural or purely
decorative, set
against a wall in the
form of pilasters.
Compiled by:
Arch Maria Mynn 7
Porciuncula-Alfonso
 Domes
Domes were rarely used in
the Middle Ages, but after
the success of the dome
St. Peter's Basilica (1506)
it became an
indispensable element in
church architecture and
later in secular
architecture.
The Dome of St Peter's
Basilica, Rome.
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St. Peter's
Basilica
the Sistine Chapel

The front entrance to

St. Peter's Basilica is
an enormous piazza
framed by two long,
curving colonnades
-- a design that
symbolizes the arms
of the Roman
Catholic Church
reaching out to
embrace the faithful.
The piazza can hold
some 300,000
people with room to
spare. 9
 Dome Comparisons
Il Duomo St. Peter’s St. Paul’s US capital
(Florence) (Rome) (London) (Washington)
Michelangelo

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 Michelangelo

• Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), was one of the

creative giants whose achievements mark the High
Renaissance. He excelled in each of the fields of painting,
sculpture and architecture and his achievements brought
about significant changes in each area. His architectural fame
lies chiefly in two buildings:- the interiors of the
Laurentian Library and its lobby at the monastery of San
Lorenzo in Florence, and the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome.

• St Peter's was "the greatest creation of the Renaissance", and

a great number of architects contributed their skills to it. But
at its completion, there was more of Michelangelo’s design
than of any other architect, before or after him.
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• Michelangelo

• St Peter's was "the greatest creation of the

Renaissance” and a great number of architects
contributed their skills to it. But at its
completion, there was more of Michelangelo’s
design than of any other architect, before or
after him.

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Compiled by:
Arch Maria Mynn 14
Porciuncula-Alfonso
 St. Peter's Basilica
from Castel Sant'Angelo showing the dome rising behind Maderna's facade
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 St Peter’s Piazza
Compiled by:
Arch Maria Mynn 16
Porciuncula-Alfonso
Kirby Hall, Northampton shire

This great Elizabethan mansion was transformed into a Regency

home for the 1999 film 'Mansfield Park' . 17
 Kirby Hall,
• Kirby Hall, built in 1570, was used as the great
house during the filming of Patricia Rozema's
1999 film version of of Mansfield Park the
book. Rozema explained that in her gritty
adaption, Mansfield is imagined as a “cold,
remote place, not this cuddly, glittery, warm,
lush environment that you see in a lot of
adaptations".

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Ideal city of the
Renaissance

Built
following
the
ideals of
a utopia.

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The Shakespearean Stage
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