What is Renaissance

Architecture?
Renaissance architecture is a style of architecture
that emerged in early 15th-century Florence,
Italy. Marked by a revival of ancient Greek and
Roman classical architectural forms, it supplanted
the prevailing Gothic medieval aesthetic.

Features of Renaissance buildings include the

¬ use of the classical orders and
¬ mathematically precise ratios
¬ symmetry, proportion and harmony
Renaissance Architecture
 History of Renaissance
Architecture
Renaissance architecture developed
as part of the rebirth of classicism in
Florence, Italy, circa 1400. It evolved
over the next 200 years as it spread
throughout Italy and then Europe.
Renaissance architects in Italy took
inspiration from ancient Greco-Roman
ruins and early structures, such as
the Pantheon and the Colosseum in
Rome, as well as the writings of
Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius
Pollio (80 BC-15 BC), which were
published in 1486.
 History of Renaissance
Architecture
Renaissance architecture is generally broken down into
three main periods.
¬ Early Renaissance that began around 1400 when
architects looked to antiquity for inspiration.
¬ High Renaissance that began around 1500, in which
the use of classical elements adapted to
contemporary 16th-century building styles was in full
bloom
¬  Late Renaissance starting around 1520 (also called
Mannerism), the use of decorative and ornamental
classical elements, such as domes and cupolas,
became more widespread. 
Characteristics of Renaissance
Architecture
Renaissance architecture marked all of Europe with its
straight and sober lines crowned with intricate
decorations. It represented the rediscovery of ancient
beauty in a medieval setting.
The Key List Of Elements To Look For In
Renaissance Architecture
¬ Building features
Renaissance buildings feature
flat classicism, meaning that
the building’s walls do not have
many physical depths in their
decorations
Characteristics of Renaissance
Architecture
¬ Use of column
Although most people tend to associate columns with
ancient Greek or Roman temples, they are also an
important characteristic of Renaissance architecture
¬ Use of geometrical shapes
Most building plans from the Renaissance make use of
geometrical shapes in plans which is also visible on the
façades because most of them are an interplay of
Circles
Squares
Triangles
Characteristics of Renaissance
Architecture

VILLA MADAMA in ITALY

Characteristics of Renaissance
Architecture
¬ Vibrant interiors
Due to the betterment of both materials and techniques,
frescoes are often highly associated with Renaissance
art.
¬ Return of Domes

¬ Importance of Linear perspective

Another important discovery of the
Renaissance was linear perspective.
This discovery was made by artists
who employed it mainly in painting and
drawing
Characteristics of Renaissance
Architecture
¬ Symmetry
Renaissance architecture has
proportion, harmony, and
linearity, symmetry seems to be
a natural requirement that
completes this picture. 
¬ Air and light
Early Renaissance buildings
focused on bringing in air and
light to the space. This was a nod
to the dawning of Renaissance
ideals and thought.
 Background
¬ Late Renaissance [Pre-Baroque].
¬ Art was at an impasse after the perfection
and harmony of the Renaissance.
¬ Antithetical to the principles of the High
Renaissance.
¬ From the Italian de maneria.
´ A work of art done in the artist’s
characteristic “touch” or recognizable
“manner.”
¬ First used by the German art historian,
Heinrich Wölfflin in the early 20c.
¬ Influenced by Michelangelo’s later works.
 Characteristics of Mannerist
Architecture
¬ Stylishness in design could be applied to a
building as well as to a painting.

¬ Showed extensive knowledge of Roman

architectural style.

¬ Complex, out of step style  taking “liberties”

with classical architecture.

¬ Architecture, sculpture, and walled gardens

were seen as a complex, but not necessary
unified whole.
¬ Villa Capra
[or Villa
Rotunda]

¬ By Andrea
Palladio

¬ 1566-1571

¬ “Palladian” architectural style [popular in England]

 Villa Capra [or Villa
Rotunda]
¬ At the center of the plan, the two story
circular hall with overlooking balconies was
intended by Palladio to be roofed by a
semicircular dome.
¬ However, after his death, a lower dome was
built, designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi and
modeled after the Pantheon with a central
oculus originally open to the sky.
 PLAN
¬ The design reflected the humanist values of
Renaissance architecture.The proportions of
the rooms are mathematically precise,
according to the rules Palladio describes in
the Quatro Libri.
 VILLA ROTONDA
¬ The building is rotated 45 degrees to south
on the hilltop, enabling all rooms to receive
some sunshine.
¬ The villa is asymmetrically sited in the
topography, and each loggia, although
identical in design, relates to the landscape
it enfronts differently through variations of
wide steps, retaining walls and
embankments.
¬ Entrance to
the Villa
Farnese at
Caprarola

¬ By Giacomo
Vignola

¬ 1560
 Villa Farnese at Caprarola
¬ "Villa Farnese,
Caprarola, (is) based on
a regular polygon.
Austere at the level of
the 'podium' on which
the building rests, the
façades become lighter
in the upper storeys,
particularly in the
circular courtyard with
its alternate rhythms
of pairs of engaged
columns and semi-
circular bays."
Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne,
Rome, by Peruzzi
¬ Peruzzi's most famous work is the Palazzo Massimo
alle Colonne in Rome.
¬ The unusual features of this building are that its
façade curves gently to follow a curving street.
¬ It has, in its ground floor, a dark central portico
running parallel to the street, but as a semi-enclosed
space, rather than an open loggia .
¬ Above this, three undifferentiated floors rise, the
upper two with identical small horizontal windows in
thin flat frames that contrast strangely with the deep
porch, which has served, from the time of its
construction, as a refuge to the city's poor.
Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne,
Rome, by Peruzzi
¬ All of these architectural features are
unexpected and disrupt the ideas of
harmonious proportions, making it a Mannerist
building.
 Characteristics
¬ Stylistically, Mannerist architecture was
marked by widely diverging tendencies from
Renaissance and Medieval styles that
eventually led to the Baroque style, in which
the same architectural vocabulary was used
for very different rhetoric.
¬ Instead of harmony, clarity, and repose it was
characterized by extreme sophistication,
complexity, and novelty.
 The Fontainebleau School
¬ French Mannerism  flourished from
1531 to the
early 17c.
¬ Characteristics:
´ Extensive use of stucco in moldings &
picture frames.
´ Frescoes.
´ An elaborate [often mysterious]
system of allegories and mythical
iconography.
¬ Centered around the Royal Chateau of
Fontainebleau.
 The Royal Chateau at
Fontainebleau

¬ Gallery [right] by Rosso

Fiorentino & Francesco
Primaticcio

¬ 1528-1537