RENISSANCE

ARCHITECTURE
Renaissance
1300-1850

• The term has been derived from Italian word

“rinaseimento” meaning rebirth. Therefore, the term
Renaissance implies the rebirth, renewal of
something that had disappeared. It was the
rediscovery of classical art and architecture of
ancient Greek and Roman.
• The style was carried to France, Germany, England,
Russia and other parts of Europe at different dates
and with varying degrees of impact.
INTRODUCTION:
• Renaissance architecture is the architecture
of the period between the early 15th and early
17th centuries in different regions of Europe, in
which there was a conscious revival and
development of certain elements of ancient
Greek and Roman thought and material culture.
Stylistically, Renaissance architecture followed
Gothic architecture and was succeeded by
Baroque architecture.
SYMMETRY AND
PROPORTION:
• The Renaissance style places emphasis on
symmetry, proportion, geometry and the
regularity of parts as they are demonstrated in
the architecture of classical antiquity and in
particular ancient Roman architecture, of which
many examples remained.
• Orderly arrangements of columns, pilasters and
lintels, as well as the use of semicircular arches,
hemispherical domes, and niches replaced the
more complex proportional systems and
irregular profiles of medieval buildings.
THEORY OF FREEDOM:
• By contrast, Renaissance movement was the
discovery of man, glorification of human.
• Freedom of individual in the political as well as
in the spiritual sense became the important
aspect.
• Cultural, political and even religious renewal
and an impressive record of new achievement in
art, literature, science, philosophy, politics and
education etc.
Factors of the classical revival

• Sack of Constantinople in 1453 AD, when it was

conquered by Sultan Muhammad II, the Greek
scholar migrated to Athens. But when Athens
was fallen to Turks the scholar then migrated to
Rome, Florence and Bologna. They brought with
them books containing knowledge which had
been partly forgotten in Italy.
Trade era: ( innovation)

• Feudal era(Byzantine, Romanesque, gothic)

Simple
• Trade era (Renaissance) Innovation, new
technologies

• Development of flourishing commerce

• Growth of naturalism in literature and art.
• Development of a spirit of scientific inquiry. Age
of reason and learning
CHARACTERISTICS
• During the 15th century, great churches of the
earlier centuries seemed old fashioned and
crude in their forms.
• This was because classical ruins were
increasingly admired. The classical proportions
and standards were determined and applied.
• The head of city state of Italy patronized
classical scholars and artists.
RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTS:
Early High
Donato Bramante
Filippo Brunellschi
1444 – 1514
1377 – 1446

Raphael
Leon Batlista Alberti
1483 – 1536
1404 – 1472

Baldassare Peruzzi
Michellozzo-di-Bartolorneo
1481 – 1536
1396 – 1472

S Forzinoa
Michelangelo
1455 – 60
1475 – 1564

Leonardo Da Vinci
Andrea Palladio
1452 – 1519(Mona lisa, Last supper)
 Renaissance architect’s Inspiration
Roman Architect Vitruvius
• Vitruvius (Roman military engineer of the
1st B.C) writings content was eagerly
absorbed he based his architectural theories
on the human figure, the circle and the
sphere. He was the inspiration for most of
the renaissance architects.
• His dictum was that good architecture
consists of three parts.
• (Function)
• (Structure)
• (design or beauty)
• Beauty in an individual depends on the
combination of three qualities
• (number)
• (proportion)
• (location / arrangement)
• Alberti’s idea and philosophy produced
concinnitas (a well adjusted whole, or the
harmony, beauty and proportion followed
in).
RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTS
Filippo Brunelleschi
• Developed first in Florence, with Filippo
Brunelleschi as one of its innovators.
• Developed linear perspective
• Designer of remarkable dome of the Florence
Cathedral
• Other architectural works to be highlighted are
sculpture, mathematics, engineering
Andrea Palladio
• Andrea Palladio (30 November 1508 – 19 August
1580) was an Italian architect active in the Republic of
Venice.
• Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture,
primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most
influential individual in the history of Western
architecture.
• All of his buildings are located in what was the Venetian
Republic.
• The Four Books of Architecture, gained him wide
recognition.
• He was the man who developed Palladian style villas.
Alberti:
• Alberti was painter, poet, musician and
architect.
• To him architecture is not rooted in crafts but an
intellectual discipline and a social art.
• He relied wholly upon the majestic effort of
arches, pillar, in the true roman spirit.
• Alberti regarded mathematics as the common
ground of art and the sciences.
Typical building Examples

Early

Florence Cathedral Dome

1420 – 1434

A. Andrea Mantua A. Spirito Florence

1470 1436
S Maria Novella,
Florence Pazzi Chapel, Florence
1456 1430
High

The Temietto , Rome 1500 AD Gesu Rome Vignola and Porta 1573 AD

S. Peter Rome 1506 – 1626

Architecture
• In constructing churches, Renaissance architects no
longer used the shape of a cross as a basis for their
structures.
• Instead, they based them on the circle. Believing
that ancient mathematicians equated circles with
geometric perfection, architects used the circle to
represent the perfection of God.
• In constructing their homes, wealthy people of the
Renaissance often adopted a Roman style, building
the four sides of their homes around a courtyard.
Simple, symmetrical decorations--imitations of
classical ones--were applied to the facades of
buildings.
Painting
• The Renaissance painter depicted the human figure
as realistically as possible, often with backgrounds
of the natural world.
• Science had taught the artist how to show linear
perspective-that is, how to size the objects from
distance.
• Careful use of light and shadow, made figures
appear full and real.
• Renaissance painters portrayed objects with realism
and objects were carefully and accurately depicted.
 ARTCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
FEATURES
• LOGGIA: A gallery be behind an open arcade or colonnade.
Podium: A continuous base/plinth supporting column.
• Vestibule: an entrance room or lobby to a building.
• Stucco: a fine quality of pilaster for ornamental purposes.
• Cortile: Italian name for the internal court surrounded by an
arcade in a palace or other great building
• Rustication: a method of forming stonework with
roughened surfaces and recessed joints
• Crowning Cornice: a huge ,giant overhanging running the
length of the roof line.
• Serliana window: an archway or window with 3 openings.
The central one arched and wider than the others on either
side named after Serlio (architect, painter) commonly known
as Venetian or Palladian window.
• Plan
• The plans of Renaissance
buildings have a square,
symmetrical appearance
in which proportions are
usually based on a
module. Within a church,
the module is often the
width of an aisle.
• Facade
• symmetrical around their Columns and Pilasters
vertical axis. The Roman orders of columns are used:-
• surmounted by a pediment and Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and
organized by a system of Composite.
pilasters, arches and
entablatures.
• Centrally focused
• Arches Vaults
• Semi-circular or •Highly decorated
segmental. •Floral appearance
• Arcades •Complex patterns
• Part of entablature •Paintings
Ceilings • Domes
•Fan Vault in palaces and • A very large structural
cathedrals feature that is visible from
the exterior, and also as a
•Residential were flat or means of roofing smaller
coffered ceilings. spaces where they are only
•Frequently painted or visible internally. After the
decorated success of the dome in
Brunelleschi’s design.
• Doors
Windows
• Doors usually have square
lintels. They may be set Windows may be paired and set
within an arch or within a semi-circular arch.
surmounted by a triangular They may have square lintels
or segmental pediment. and triangular or segmental
• Had a large or decorative pediments.
keystone.
Walls
External walls are generally of highly finished ashlars masonry, laid in
straight courses. The corners of buildings are often emphasized by
rusticated quoins. Basements and ground floors were often rusticated.