RENAISSANCE

ARCHITECTURE IN
FRANCE
(15th-19th Century)
PREPARED BY:
IRISH MAE A. LASAY
B.S. ARCHITECTURE 2A
 French Renaissance Architecture
A style which was prominent between the late 15th and early 17th centuries in the
Kingdom of France.

It succeeded French Gothic architecture.

The style was originally imported from Italy after the Hundred Years' War by the French
kings Charles VII, Louis XI, Charles VIII, Louis XII and François I.

Several notable royal châteaux in this style were built in the Loire Valley, notably the
Château de Montsoreau, the Château de Langeais, the Château d'Amboise, the Château de
Blois, the Château de Gaillon and the Château de Chambord, as well as, closer to Paris, the
Château de Fontainebleau.
INFLUENCES
Geographical
•France had become one Kingdom,
with Paris as its center, from which
the new Renaissance influence
radiated to all parts of the country.
•The distance of Paris from the center
of the Renaissance movement in Italy
helped to delay its adoption in France
but Italian influences, long powerful in
the Southern commercial capital of
lyons, grew rapidly from 1500.
INFLUENCES
Geological
•Paris is built in a quarry of a
fine-grained building stone
•Paris is a stone city and London is a
brick city.
•Iron, wrought and cast, came into
use as a building materials shortly
after 1780.
INFLUENCES
Climate
•The climate asserted its influence on
architecture which differentiated
Renaissance architecture in France
from that in Italy.
- large windows
- high-pitched roofs
- lofty chimneys
 ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
The Renaissance style in France took 75 years to take root than Italy. It may be divided into
three periods:
1. The EARLY PERIOD- (1494-15891 or 16th century)
In France there was a period of transition, during which Renaissance details were grafted
on to such Gothic features as flying buttresses and pinnacles.
The principal buildings in France were castles in the country round Paris and on the Loire for
the King and his courties.
The influence of traditional Gothic craftsmanship was more pronounced in France.
In France the salient features are picturesqueness and a tendency to Gothic verticality.
In France the chateaux for the nobility are the early buildings are sufficient churches of the
middle ages already existed.
St. Eustache
 ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
The Renaissance style in France took 75 years to take root than Italy. It may be divided
into three periods:
2. The CLASSICAL Period (1589-1715 or 17th century)
The period is notable for the dignity, sobriety and masculine quality of its foremost
buildings, resulting from the subordination of plan, composition and detail of the unity of the
whole, and the charity and simplicity with which the elements were used. Ornament, though
somewhat course, is vigorous and reasonably restrained.
In the earlier part of the period, brick is much favoured as a building material.
Windows grew increasingly large, and ride up into the steep roofs as dormers, while
stone mullions and transoms tend to give place to wood.
PLACE DES VOSGES
 ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
The Renaissance style in France took 75 years to take root than Italy. It may be
divided into three periods:
3. The Late Period - 18th century
Architecturally, three stylistic phases may be distinguished.
1. Sovereign Louis XV
2. Sovereign Louis XVI
3. Empire - 1790-1830
 EXAMPLES
A. SECULAR ARCHITECTURE

1. The Chateau de Blois (1498-1524)

The buildings belonging to these
successive periods are grouped around
an irregular quadrangle with central
entrance enriched with statuary.
The pilaster treatment of the facade,
the mullioned windows showing the
preference for the square section of
mullion, and the rich crowning cornice
and carved roof dormers, are notable.
 EXAMPLES
A. SECULAR ARCHITECTURE
2. The Chateau de Maisons, (1642-6)
One of the most pleasantly' harmonious of all
the chateaux. It was designed by Francois Mansart
on a symmetrical E-plan with central entrance and
twin oval-shaped side vestibules.
It is notable externally for the effective use of the
classic orders and the high roofs with prominent
chimney stacks, of the three pavilions, and
internally for the refinement of detail of the
balustrade stairs, carved chimney pieces an
ornamental ceilings.
 EXAMPLES
A. SECULAR ARCHITECTURE

3. Petit Trianon, Versailles (1762-8)

It was erected by J.A. Gabriel for Louis
XV, is one of the most superb pieces of
domestic architecture of the century.
It has a gracious air, resulting from the
clarity of its ordonnance and the sedate
proportions.
The building is related to an exquisite
formal garden setting by quadrant
wing-walls and terraced staircases.
 EXAMPLES
A. SECULAR ARCHITECTURE

3. Petit Trianon, Versailles (1762-8)

The salon also is typical of the
period, with its paneled walls, large
mirrors, double doors, chimney pieces,
caved ceiling and elaborate chandelier,
while the chairs and the table with its
Hermes legs complete this interesting
interior.
 EXAMPLES
B. ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE

1. St. Etienne du Mont, Paris ( 1517-601)

It has a famous rood-screen, with double
staircases and carved balustrading in Renaissance
detail, illustrating the highly developed technical
ability of the masons of the period.
 EXAMPLES
B. ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE

2. St. Eustache, Paris (1532-891)

It was planned like a five-aisled mediaeval
church with apsidal end, high roofs, window
tracery, flying buttress, pinnacles and deeply
recessed portals, all clothed with Renaissance
details.
The church is, in fact, laid out on Gothic
lines, but clothed with detail inspired from
Italian sources.
 EXAMPLES
B. ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE

3. St. Germain, Paris (1616-21 )

The earliest wholly classical church facade
of importance of the French renaissance.
It has three tiers of coupled columns of
the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders
arranged to give direct straight forward
expression which is typical of architect,
Salomon de Brosse's work.
 CHARACTERISTICS
PLANS WALLS
- The castles of the previous period influenced both - The gables and prominent stone dormers
plan and design of the early chateaux, some of
which were on the site of, or additions to, such of the early period gradually gave place to
castles. pediment and balustrade elevations.
- The typical house plan in the towns has a main - Stone was the chief material, but red brick
block, with two lower wings in closing a courtyard was sometimes combined with it.
cut off from the street by a screen wall.
MOULDINGS ROOFS
- Gothic influence pervaded the early work, and - High roofs are special features, with
combinations of methods, Classic and Mediaeval, elaborately carved dormer windows and
in the profiling of moldings were tried. chimneys, which give skyline and
picturesqueness to the design when viewed
from a distance.
 CHARACTERISTICS
OPENINGS COLUMNS
- Pilasters were decorative adjuncts to Gothic
- Vertical coupling of windows was features, rusticated or paneled in star - shaped
effectively practiced, but as the orders, patterns, but sometimes treated with foliage.
usually one for each story, came
increasingly into use, the horizontal lines of - An " order " or column was usually given each story.
their entablatures prevailed.
Columns usually do not run through two stories.
- Mezzanine floors were much used in large
mansions, with circular windows, the main
apartments then having an upper row of
windows, to preserve the range of openings
externally.
- The attic was a special feature, and circular
windows often occur in it.
 CHARACTERISTICS
ORNAMENTS
- The wood paneling of Gothic times continued in the
early period, often splendidly carved with arabesque
designs, as at Blois.
- The tapestry and hangings of the early period were
superseded by the universal Louis XIV style of internal
wood, papier mache, and stucco decoration in white
and gold.
- Sculpture acquired an increasing importance, and the
best available figure sculpture has been used in
connection with modern French architecture.

PANEL FROM THE PALACE AT FONTAINEBLEAU

 RENAISSANCE
ARCHITECTURE IN
GERMANY
(16th-19th Century)
PREPARED BY:
IRISH MAE A. LASAY
B.S. ARCHITECTURE 2A
 German Renaissance Architecture
A cultural and artistic movement that spread among German thinkers in the
15th and 16th centuries, which developed from the Italian Renaissance.

Renaissance architecture in Germany was inspired first by German

philosophers and artists such as Albrecht Dürer and Johannes Reuchlin who
visited Italy.

Important early examples of this period are especially the Landshut Residence,
the Castle in Heidelberg, Johannisburg Palace in Aschaffenburg, Schloss
Weilburg, the City Hall and Fugger Houses in Augsburg and St. Michael in
Munich, the largest Renaissance church north of the Alps.
 INFLUENCES
Geographical

• By reason of their central position in Europe

the Teutonic peoples absorbed Renaissance
art from Italy to the South and from France
to the west, but the distance from the
center of the movement deferred its arrival
until some 125 years after its emergence in
Italy. The states were distinguished by
different geographical conditions, and these
differences were reflected in the
architecture.
INFLUENCES
Geological
• The absence of stone, in the great alluvial plains of North Germany, influenced
largely the architecture of that district ; moulded and cut brickwork was used
in every variety, the general scale of the detail being small, and surface
ornamentation being formed in raised patterns.

Climate
• The revived classic forms were modified from those of Italy to sait a more
northern temperature. Thus windows continued to be large, roofs to be steep
to throw off snow, and chimneys, necessary for heating, to be prominent
features.
 ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
This style as in other countries may be roughly divided into three periods
corresponding to the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The Renaissance style in Germany is chiefly remarkable for picturesqueness
and variety of grouping, and quaintness and grotesqueness of ornament, due
in a large measure to the traditions of the preceding style.
German Renaissance differs from French in lack of refinement, and in a
general heaviness and whimsicality of treatment, while it resembles in some
respects our own Elizabethan. It forms, in fact, a connecting link between
Elizabethan architecture and French Renaissance of the time of Henri IV.
The later period, which commenced at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, has been called the "Revival“, and was chiefly confined to Munich,
Berlin, and Dresden. It consisted in the adoption of Classic forms in toto,
without reference to their applicability, or appropriateness.
 EXAMPLES
A. SECULAR ARCHITECTURE

1. Heidelberg Castle (1531-1612)

It has interesting examples of the style,
especially the facade of the Heinrichsbau
The Heinrichsbau, has superimposed tonic
and Corinthian pilasters and half columns, two
light windows showing venetian affinities, and
symbolic statues in 'niches'.
Symbolical statuary was prominently
introduced, but the design suffers much from
over ornamentation.
 EXAMPLES
A. SECULAR ARCHITECTURE

2. The Zeughaus, Gdansk, Poland (1605)

A good example of the brick architecture
of the north, showing kinship with Belgian
Early Renaissance.
The tall, mullioned and transomed
windows are of the plain early type. Ornament
being confined to doorways and to local
features, except on the third storey; broken
into scrolled and pinnacled gables and
enlivened with strap work decoration.
 EXAMPLES
B. ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE

The new churches were few and insignificant, an abundant supply for all practical
needs remaining from the mediaeval period as in France.
S. Michael, Munich (A.D. 1582) and the Frauenkirche, Dresden (1726-1745) are
among the best known buildings, and exhibit a desire for wide, open spaces.
The latter especially is notable, being 140 feet square on plan, and having a dome 75
feet in diameter, resting on eight piers. It is constructed internally and externally of stone.
 EXAMPLES
B. ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE
S. Michael, Frauenkirche,
Munich Dresden
 CHARACTERISTICS
PLANS
- The French method of an internal courtyard was
adopted. In towns, many-storied houses were
erected with great roofs, continuing the practice of
the mediaeval period.
COLUMNS
- The orders were employed in a free-
manner, as decorative adjuncts
- The columns and pilasters were richly
carved, and are often supported on corbels.
WALLS
- Gables assume fantastic shapes, and richness was
produced by the application of columnar features as
ornament.
- Brick and stone were used singly and in
combination.
MOLDINGS
- Boldness and vigor must be set against the lack of
refinement and purity in detail. Though Renaissance
details were affected in the preceding style, the
worst features of the last age of the Gothic style,
such as interpenetration of moldings and other
vagaries, were given up.
 CHARACTERISTICS
ROOFS
OPENINGS
- The large roofs in the town houses, containing many stories
- Oriel windows of various"1 shapes and are prominent features in this, as in the Gothic, period.
design were plentifully used, both in the
- Such roofs served a useful purpose, being used as
facade itself and on the angles of buildings. drying-rooms during the periodical wash.
Such features did not appear at Rome,
Florence, or Venice during Renaissance - The Pellerhaus, Nuremberg shows a combination of the two
times. methods.

- Windows are large, mullioned and

crowned by grotesque, or scrolly
pediments, and in the later periods, the
usual Classic features were adopted.
 CHARACTERISTICS
ORNAMENTS
- Sculpture is best seen in the native
grotesques, wherein much fancy is
displayed, there being some fine specimens
at Heidelberg. The imitations of Italian
carved pilasters as at Heidelberg are
inferior. The late glasswork is interesting,
but the art soon died out. Fresco work was
attempted during the revival at the
beginning of the century by the Munich
school.
THANK YOU!
PREPARED BY:

IRISH MAE A. LASAY

BS ARCHITECTURE 2A