The architecture of the Renaissance replaced the architecture of the dark Gothic Middle Ages, along with the ideas of emancipation, humanism and the dignity of the human person. At this time, a strong passion for antiquity appeared in society, which penetrated into all spheres of art.
But there was no Renaissance in the literal sense of the word, since the functional requirements and types of buildings, as well as designs, were completely different. There could have been a revival only of architectural and decorative themes and motifs, the order system and a certain range of plastic, decorative details. In addition, the rejection of the Gothic system could only be relative and gradual. Without the perfection of construction and artistic technology brought up by the Middle Ages, Renaissance architecture and the associated synthesis of arts would have been impossible. In addition, in the first half of the 15th century, Byzantine architecture still existed, and its influence on Italian construction was significant Bartenev, I.A. Architecture of the Renaissance / I.A. Bartenev, V.N. Batazhkova // Essays on the history of architectural styles [text]: training manual. - M.: Image. Art, 1983. p. 109-136..
Architecture takes leading place in Renaissance art. During this period, structures are erected, the large-scale measure of which is man. The character of monumental architecture changes significantly, and in contrast to the verticalism of spaces that corresponded to the worldview of the Middle Ages, new forms develop in width. The architecture is characterized by simplicity and tranquility of volumes, forms and rhythm. Renaissance buildings evoke a feeling of staticity due to the layering of horizontal floors on top of each other.
The Renaissance adopted the order system from ancient architecture. Column, pylon, pilaster, architrave, archivolt and vault are the main elements that the Renaissance freely used, creating their various combinations.
Changing the character of space is also very important. Instead of an inspired Gothic space, a rational one with visually clear boundaries appears. Instead of the tension of Gothic broken lines, strict, in most cases rectangular, shapes are used. The main geometric figures and bodies in Renaissance architecture are the square, rectangle, cube and ball. From the very beginning and throughout the entire period of the Renaissance, the principle of artistic individualism and free appeal to ancient forms runs through.
Predominant and fashionable colors: purple, blue, yellow, brown;
Lines: semicircular lines, geometric patterns (circle, square, cross, octagon), predominantly horizontal division of the interior;
Renaissance style: steep or flat roof with tower superstructures, arched galleries, colonnades, round ribbed domes, high and spacious halls, bay windows.
During the Renaissance in the field of arts and architecture, the creative personality of the master artist, master architect, who had a certain creative individuality. The Renaissance architect replaces the Gothic guild master. The Renaissance era inscribed the great names of Brunellesco, Alberti, Bramante, Michelangelo, Delorme, Jones, and Herrera into the world history of architecture.
Mortars are becoming an increasingly important material. Almost the Renaissance is the period of the advent of plaster in architecture. Mortar is used not only in masonry, but also in the form of smooth plaster, sgraffito, rustication and to create some other architectural elements. Brick still remains a familiar material, constructive and decorative.
The Renaissance is characterized by alternating materials and colors; colored materials are widely used: terracotta, majolica and glazed brick. Products made from these materials are easy to shape different shape, which made it possible to create various elements and details of architectural design in series.
In the 16th century More often than wall paintings, stucco decorations are used in interior decoration, initially white, and later tinted and gold. Iron is used in significant quantities, especially as structural parts that provide rigidity with the help of rods and tightening.
Copper, tin and bronze are used for decorative purposes. Rafters, cornices and ceilings, which have caissons of complex shapes, are constructed from wood. In some cases, vaults are also made of wood, for example, cylindrical vaults with lunettes. Renaissance architecture // History of architecture [electronic resource]. // Arhitekto.ru. // Access mode: http://www.arhitekto.ru/txt/5renes01.shtml. Date of access: 02/10/2013.
A new direction in the architecture of Italy in the 15th century. manifested itself earlier and more clearly than anywhere else in Florence. Architects of the early Renaissance inherited many of the techniques of construction techniques from medieval masters. These are, in particular, the laying of brick walls followed by stone cladding; the use of cross, cylindrical and closed vaults made of brick; flat wooden, beam and rafter floors.
The evolution of Italian architecture in the 15th century. often proceeded in complex and contradictory forms. Immaturity and inconsistency in the application of the classical order system and in the mixture of ancient and medieval forms often made itself felt. Bartenev I.A. Architecture of the Renaissance / I.A. Bartenev, V.N. Batazhkova // Essays on the history of architectural styles [text]: textbook. - M.: Image. Art, 1983. p. 109-136.
In no other area of Italian artistic culture has the turn to a new understanding been so associated with the name of one brilliant master as in architecture, where the founder of the new direction was Philippe Brunelleschi (1377-1446) Dmitrieva, N. Brief history arts [text]./ N. Dmitrieva. - M.: AST-Press, Galart, 2008. - 624 p.
Brunelleschi's earliest major work was the dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence (1420-1436). The difficulty of erecting the dome lay not only in the enormous size of the covered span (the diameter of the dome at the base is about 42 m), but also in the need to build it without scaffolding on a high octagonal drum with a relatively thin wall thickness.
Figure 1 - Brunelleschi. Dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. 1420-1436
The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore was designed so that it could accommodate the entire population of the city (at the time of construction - 90,000 people), that is, it was something like a huge covered square. The red dome of the cathedral, which has become a symbol of Florence, seems to float over the entire city.
The second great Italian architect of the early Renaissance after Brunelleschi was Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472). Palazzo Rucellai in Florence (1446-1451) is Alberti's most complete creation in secular architecture, showing the maturity and sharpness of his compositional ideas.
The name Alberti is rightfully considered one of the first among the great cultural creators of the Italian Renaissance. His theoretical writings, his artistic practice, his ideas and, finally, his very personality as a humanist played an extremely important role in the formation and development of the art of the Early Renaissance.
The High Renaissance is a short period of three decades, from the beginning of the 16th century and, in fact, until the invasion of Rome by the troops of the German Emperor Charles V, which suspended the construction and artistic activity of the “eternal city.”
This period is associated with an increase in the political activity of the papacy. Under Popes Julius II and Leo X, the greatest masters worked in Rome - Raphael, Michelangelo, Bramante and others. Rome becomes the architectural capital of Italy, maintaining this role throughout the subsequent centuries, in fact, right up to our present time.
The founder of the High Renaissance in architecture was Donato Angelo Bramante (1444-1514), invited in 1499 from Milan to Rome by Pope Julius II, who gathered the best artists of Italy in the “Eternal City”. The biggest challenge that Bramante had to solve was the design of a grandiose building of the Renaissance - St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome.
After Bramante's death, the construction was headed by his student, the famous artist Raphael Santi (1483-1520), who tried to solve the problem of the mutual relationship between painting, culture and architecture. Construction of the Cathedral of St. Peter after Raphael was continued by Antonio di Sangallo, who also designed the Palazzo Farnese. Finally, in 1546, Michelangelo was entrusted with the management of the work. He returned to the idea of a central-domed structure, but his project included the creation of a multi-columned entrance portico on the eastern side (in the most ancient basilicas of Rome, as in ancient temples, the entrance was on the eastern, not the western side). Michelangelo made all the supporting structures more massive and highlighted the main space.
In the architecture of Venice, the High Renaissance can be characterized by the work of the architect Jacopo Sansovino, who built a number of buildings in the city center, and above all the building of the library of St. Brand. The two-story, extended structure, on the first floor of which there are retail premises behind the gallery, and on the second floor the library itself, is decorated with order arcades. Large arches, sculpture filling their cavities, reliefs on the friezes and, finally, statues on the parapet - all this determines the completely Venetian character of the building. Such a classic motif as the system of the Roman architectural cell is reproduced here in a purely Venetian decorative plan.
The Late Renaissance (1530-1580) is not a time of decline, it is a period of further continuation of the traditions of the High Renaissance, but in a different historical setting, which influenced art and architecture.
The late Italian Renaissance laid the foundations for a completely new movement in art. The architecture of this time combined two different trends, which, intertwined, complemented each other. The first is associated with the further growth of classicist, academic sentiments (Vignola), the second - with the strengthening of signs of decorativeism, proto-Baroque sentiments (Michelangelo).
Outstanding architects of this time were Michelangelo (1475-1564), Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola (1507-1573) and Andrei Palladio (1518-1580).
Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), whose work ends the late Renaissance, limited his activities to his hometown of Vicenza, but his role in the development of Italian and world architecture goes far beyond the borders of Northern Italy. Palladio's works are characterized by perfection in the construction of the order, excellent elaboration of details and special plasticity, softness of all elements of architecture.
Palladio's most famous villa is the Villa Rotunda (founded in 1553)
Figure 4 - Villa Rotunda in Vicenza
One of his significant buildings is the Teatro Olimpico, the construction of which in Vicenza began in 1555 and was completed by the architect Scamozzi in 1585. Palladio's work had a huge impact on world architecture, especially on the architecture of second classicism half of the XVIII and the first half of the 19th century.
Figure 5 - Stage of the Olimpico Theater
Figure 6 - Teatro Olimpico by Andrea Palladio
The new direction in Italian architecture, when it emerged, was associated with the processing of ancient traditions and the order system in relation to local building materials and structures. In the buildings of this time, the plane of the wall and its materiality are again emphasized; the internal space is clearly limited, acquiring unity. The proportionality of the proportions of the supporting and pressing parts is also achieved; a balance of horizontals and verticals is established in the rhythmic division of the building.
Brunelleschi. The founder of Renaissance architecture was Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446), a native of Florence. After completing an apprenticeship in a jewelry workshop, Brunelleschi began his creative activity as a sculptor, taking part in a competition to create a relief for the bronze doors of the Florentine baptistery (baptistery). A multi-talented person who combined an interest in art with the knowledge of an engineer, the mind of an inventor, and a mathematician, he soon devoted himself entirely to architecture. His first major work was the grandiose octagonal dome (1420–1436) erected over the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, built in the 14th century. An elongated dome with a diameter of 42 m at the base covers the altar part of the massive basilica. Its powerful, clear silhouette still reigns over the city, perfectly perceived from a long distance. Using new designs and a frame system, Brunelleschi managed to do without scaffolding, building a hollow dome with two shells. He thus lightened the weight of the vault and reduced the thrust force acting on the walls of the octagonal drum. For the first time in Western European architecture, Brunelleschi gave a clearly defined plastic volume of the dome, rising to the heavens and overshadowing, in the words of the architect Alberti, “all the Tuscan peoples.” The enlarged scale of the dome's shape, its powerful masses articulated by strong ribs, are emphasized by the grace and fine detailing of the decor of the lantern that completes it. In this building, erected to the glory of the city, the triumph of reason was embodied, an idea that determined the main direction of the culture of the Renaissance.
If, during the construction of the dome, Brunelleschi had to take into account the character of the previously built parts of the cathedral, then he gave a completely new understanding of the architectural image in the Orphanage (Ospedale degli Innocenti) in Florence (1419–1444) in Piazza Annunziata - the first civil building of the Renaissance that corresponded to progressive ideas time. The two-story facade of the house is distinguished by simplicity and lightness of proportions, clarity of horizontal and vertical divisions. On the lower floor it is decorated with an elegant loggia, the semi-circular arches of which rest on slender columns. They emphasize the friendly, hospitable character of the building. In the spaces between the arches there are round ceramic medallions by Andrea della Robbia depicting swaddled babies. With their cheerfulness and clarity, the gentle charm of childhood images, these reliefs subtly harmonize with the architecture of the building and its purpose.
The constructive and decorative techniques found in the Foundling House were developed by Brunelleschi in the Pazzi Chapel at the Church of Santa Croce in Florence (begun in 1430). This small chapel, striking in its harmonious integrity, is located in the depths of the narrow monastery courtyard; rectangular in plan, it is completed with a light dome. Its façade is a six-column Corinthian portico with a large middle bay covered by an arch. The slender proportions of the columns, the high attic above them, in combination with new decorative elements, speak of a sense of proportion and the creative use of the ancient order. The interior space of the chapel was also designed using an order system. Its walls, divided by pilasters into equal sections, are decorated with niches and round medallions. The pilasters end with a cornice that carries a vault and semicircular arches. Sculptural decoration and ceramics, graphic elegance of lines, and contrasting colors emphasize the flatness of the walls, imparting integrity and clarity to the bright, spacious interior.
One of the most important problems of Italian architecture of the 15th century was the development of the basic principles for the construction of a palazzo (city palace), which served as a prototype for public buildings of later times. At this time, a type of majestic building was created, rectangular in plan, with a single closed volume, with many rooms located around the courtyard. The name of Brunelleschi is associated with the construction of the central part of Palazzo Pitti (started in 1440) in Florence, laid out from huge, roughly hewn stone blocks (block masonry was called rustication). The roughness of the stone texture enhances the power of architectural forms. Horizontal tie rods emphasize the division of the building into three floors. Huge eight-meter portal windows complete the impression of proud, stern power produced by this palace.
Alberti. The next stage in the development of Renaissance architecture was the work of Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472), an encyclopedist and theorist, author of a number of scientific treatises on art (“Ten Books on Architecture”). In the Palazzo Rucellai he designed in Florence (1446–1451), a three-story Renaissance palace with a courtyard and rooms located around it, Alberti introduced a system of pilasters that divided the wall, entablature and lightweight rustication with a smooth polished surface floor-by-floor.
Rossellino. The ancient heritage (Roman architecture) received new plastic expressiveness in his interpretation. For the first time, the main elements of order architecture were introduced into the composition of the palazzo facade, load-bearing and non-supporting parts were identified, which also help to express the scale of the building and its inclusion in the surrounding ensemble. The execution of Alberti's plan belongs to Bernardo Rossellino.
Benedetto da Maiano. The development of the early Renaissance palace type in the 15th century is completed by the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence (begun in 1489) by Benedetto da Maiano (1442–1497). This majestic palace is characterized by the harmony of the main masses. Clear, correct in composition of plan and volume, with its three rusticated facades it faces the street and passages. Crowning it, magnificent in its classical form, the richly profiled cornice is clearly perceived in contrast to the austere simplicity of the walls. The courtyard, connected to the street, loses its intimate character and becomes one of the ceremonial parts of the palace.
The Renaissance or Renaissance is a time of cultural dawn, a period that replaced the Middle Ages and gave way to modern times.
Originating at the beginning of the 15th century and existing right up to the beginning of the 17th century, the Renaissance gave the world many brilliant creations of painting, architecture, sculpture, literature and music.
The artist Giorgio Vasari first introduced the concept of increased interest in everything ancient only in the 16th century, and a general understanding of the Renaissance came to society even later. So Engels defined this time as a “great progressive revolution.” Indeed, the revival was facilitated by a time of economic development, rapid urban growth, and cultural renewal.
On this basis, the ideas of humanism, the dominant role of man, his creative abilities, intelligence, beauty and greatness of will arose in creative minds.
The art of painting underwent many transformations during the Renaissance. Now, artists are focused not only on capturing, but also on research. The creator was faced with the problem of space and the correct reproduction of man and the world. In this regard, art unites with science, giving rise to artist-scientists, the brightest representative of which was Leonardo da Vinci.
As in the Middle Ages, the basis for the creativity of artists is antiquity.
Architecture was also not spared by the general fascination with antiquity. And buildings now began to be erected according to the principle of symmetry and uniform distribution of elements. Windows, columns and sculptures were distributed harmoniously along the facade, adhering to a certain interval.
Renaissance architecture, depending on the countries in which it existed, has its own characteristics and stages. The Italian Renaissance is the most interesting, because it was there that the first style trends arose. The entire development of the Renaissance in Italy can be divided into three stages.
Early Renaissance architecture
The greatest growth of Renaissance architecture occurred in the 15th century. Then, antiquity began to actively and widely be introduced into the construction of buildings, and this time is usually called the era of the early Renaissance ().
Construction principles have changed, and even at the planning stage of buildings, work was carried out differently. If in the Middle Ages buildings were clearly adapted to the landscape and neighboring buildings, then during the early Renaissance, architects planned strictly rectangular buildings with precise observance of symmetry. Functionality no longer had a dominant role, but the antique character, on the contrary, acquired paramount importance. Public real estate was built with many decorative elements, and private houses were built, as a rule, on two floors with an obligatory courtyard.
High Renaissance architecture
At the beginning of the 16th century, antiquity in architecture acquired the character of absolute dominance, receiving the name -. Now, without exception, customers did not want to see even a drop of the Middle Ages in their homes. The streets of Italy began to be full of not just luxurious mansions, but palaces with extensive plantings. It should be noted that the Renaissance gardens known in history appeared precisely during this period.
Religious and public buildings also no longer smack of the spirit of the past. The temples of the new buildings seem to have risen from the times of Roman paganism. Among the architectural monuments of this period one can find monumental buildings with the obligatory presence of a dome.
Late Renaissance architecture
The final stage of the reign of the Renaissance era occurred in the second half XVI- beginning of the 17th century. In the twilight of its existence, Renaissance architecture became more complex and elegant. This can be seen from the facades and decoration of buildings. The general concept of the projects has remained the same. Just as in previous periods, architects adhered to their persistent principles of symmetry. But this approach probably became boring, and in construction there was a fashion for sophistication and richness of various kinds of decoration.
The functionality and practicality of such elements was absent; columns, half-columns and the main element of the late Renaissance - sculptures - were added to buildings with or without reason.
Development in different countries
Northern Revival architecture
In the countries north of Italy, the revival had its own distinctive features and proper name"Northern Revival".
Here you can observe a combination of antique elements, original ornamentation, intricate lines, as well as an increase in the density of columns. Mannerism here smoothly flows into Baroque and then into Rococo style.
Prominent Representatives
A distinctive feature of the Renaissance is not so much architectural monuments as the recognition of the authors who created these objects. The name of the talented performer did not go unnoticed, as it was immortalized in their works. Even temples have now become named, which was in no way acceptable in the Middle Ages. This gave rise to a special status for houses whose designs belonged to brilliant creators.
Among such architects are:
Filippo Brunelleschi- the architect who gave birth main idea Renaissance architecture. Having become interested in architecture in his youth, Brunelleschi adopted the ancient features of Roman buildings and embodied them in Europe in a new way. Among the author's main works are the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Orphanage and the Pazzi Chapel.
Donato Bramante- an unsurpassed master of his craft, the founder of the main principles of Renaissance architecture. Bramante was personally acquainted with Leonardo da Vinci, which significantly affected his creative views in architecture. The brainchild of the genius is not only elegant secular houses and classical buildings, but also original author's buildings. One of Donato Bramante's most popular buildings is St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Giulio Romano- a bright representative of the late Renaissance, an architect who brought decoration and elegance to the severity and classics of the Renaissance. A unique vision of antiquity gave rise to the creative past of the architect. An artist in his youth, Romano began to break the rules when he came to architecture, using the grace and richness of painting in the symmetrical nature of the buildings of the time. The author's buildings are filled with decorative elements and painted interiors. An interesting example of the author's work will be the Villa of the Duke of Mantua.
Michelangelo- the founder of the Northern Renaissance, who worked in the free embodiment of the general elements of antiquity. The author's portfolio includes such creations as the dome of St. Peter's Basilica, the Medici tomb and the Capitoline Hill in Rome.
Chapter “Art of the 15th century. Architecture”, section “Art of Italy”. General history of art. Volume III. Renaissance art. Author: V.E. Bykov; under the general editorship of Yu.D. Kolpinsky and E.I. Rotenberg (Moscow, State Publishing House "Art", 1962)
The evolution of early Renaissance art in Italy presents a picture of exceptional complexity and diversity. This is the time of the emergence and rise of many territorial art schools, active interaction and struggle of various directions. But in these difficult conditions, the main line of development of early Renaissance art, represented primarily by the remarkable masters of Florence, is clearly outlined.
Political governance of Florence at the beginning of the 15th century. was concentrated in the hands of large banking families and the signoria subordinate to them, where representatives from various workshops also sat. The democratic nature of this government, which at first acted in the interests of fairly wide circles of citizens, has since the 30s. 15th century underwent changes when, as a result of a coup, one of the representatives of the bourgeois elite, the wealthy banker Cosimo Medici, came to the actual management of Florence. A smart politician and cunning diplomat, Cosimo de' Medici remained in power for almost thirty years. One of the educated people of his time, he was a great connoisseur of art, a generous patron of Florentine artists and sculptors.
Starting from 1434 and almost until the end of the 15th century. Florence remained under the rule of representatives of the House of Medici, who received hereditary rights and skillfully acted to strengthen their political prestige not so much with the sword as with gold. Enlightened patronage of the arts, the traditions of which were continued by Cosimo’s grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent, was also of considerable importance in gaining this prestige. However, already in the 1460s. the character of Medici tyranny loses its disguised character and becomes more open, and the culture of the Medici court itself acquires the features of patrician sophistication.
From the first decades of the 15th century. Florence took a leading position not only in the social and political development of Italy, but also in the field of culture and fine arts.
Overcoming medieval traditions, the greatest Florentine masters carried out a revolutionary artistic reform, which entailed the rapid maturation of new, realistic art. Florence of the 15th century became the center of formation of a secular worldview; Here new creative methods and skills were forged.
One of the clearest expressions of the general spiritual upsurge characteristic of this period was the widespread development of humanistic thought in Florence. Bowing before ancient culture, collecting manuscripts with texts of ancient classics, Florentine humanists of the 15th century. were well-educated people who had an excellent knowledge and appreciation of art. Their main merit was that they contributed to the formation of a secular worldview, thereby undermining the authority of the church. Among the brilliant representatives of various directions of Florentine humanism of the 15th century, we meet such names as Coluccio Salutati, Leonardo Bruni, Piccolo Niccoli, architects and art theorists Filippo Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti, and later - philosophers Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, poet Angelo Poliziano. But the main manifestation of powerful growth new culture there was the greatest flowering of the plastic arts.
A new direction in the architecture of Italy in the 15th century. manifested itself earlier and more clearly than anywhere else in Florence. In its emergence, it was associated not so much with the direct revival of the ancient principles of composition and order system, but with the synthetic processing of the entire heritage of medieval Italian architecture, especially the monuments of Romanesque architecture in Tuscany, and in particular the buildings of the so-called inlaid style in Florence and its environs. These buildings, where ancient traditions were reworked by medieval architects in relation to local requirements, local building materials and structures, turned out to be the most important source of the formation of a new style. The essence of the revival of antiquity in this process lay more in the development of the ancient order system as a school of new architectural thinking, rather than in using it as a model for direct imitation (see Vol. II, Book 1, Art of Tuscany).
Architects of the early Renaissance inherited many of the techniques of construction techniques from medieval masters. These are, in particular, the laying of brick walls followed by stone cladding; the use of cross, cylindrical and closed vaults made of brick; flat wooden, beam and rafter floors.
The evolution of Italian architecture in the 15th century. often proceeded in complex and contradictory forms. Immaturity and inconsistency in the application of the classical order system and in the mixture of ancient and medieval forms often made itself felt. In various centers of the country, separate local trends emerged, sometimes very different from each other. But the general trend in the development of Renaissance architecture manifested itself quite clearly. In the new social conditions, there was a radical renewal of medieval types of buildings - urban residential buildings, monastery complexes, religious buildings; A new image of the city's public center has emerged, connected with its entire planning structure.
Perhaps in no other area of Italian artistic culture was the turn to a new understanding so closely associated with the name of one brilliant master as in architecture, where the founder of the new direction was Philippe Brunelleschi (1377-1446).
Brunelleschi was born and spent almost his entire life in Florence. He began his creative activity as a sculptor, performing in 1401/1402 along with other major artists in a competition for the second bronze doors of the Florentine Baptistery. A trip to Rome with Donatello, where both masters studied monuments of ancient art, was decisive for Brunelleschi in choosing his main vocation.
Brunelleschi's earliest major work was the dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence (1420-1436). The construction of a dome over the altar part of the basilica, begun by the architect Arnolfo di Cambio around 1295 and completed mainly by 1367 by the architects Giotto. Andrea Pisano, Francesco Talenti, proved to be an impossible task for medieval construction technology in Italy. It was allowed only by the master of the Renaissance, an innovator, in whose person an architect, engineer, artist, theoretical scientist and inventor were harmoniously combined.
The difficulty of erecting the dome lay not only in the enormous size of the covered span (the diameter of the dome at the base is about 42 m), but also in the need to build it without scaffolding on a high octagonal drum with a relatively thin wall thickness. Therefore, all Brunelleschi’s efforts were aimed at maximizing the weight of the dome and reducing the thrust forces acting on the walls of the drum. Lightening the weight of the vault was achieved by constructing a hollow dome with two shells, of which the thicker lower one is load-bearing, and the thinner upper one is protective. The rigidity of the structure was ensured by a frame system, the basis of which was made up of eight main load-bearing ribs located at the eight corners of the octahedron and interconnected by stone rings encircling them. This major innovation in Renaissance construction technology was complemented by a characteristic Gothic technique - giving the vault a pointed outline.
The enormous urban planning and ideological and artistic significance of the dome for Florence was already understood by contemporaries. Leon Battista Alberti, in his dedication to Brunelleschi in his treatise on painting, says that this structure, “rising to the heavens,” “overshadows all the Tuscan peoples.” For the first time in Western European architecture, the artistic image of a dome is determined primarily by its pronounced external plastic volume, for the most grandiose domes of the Middle Ages were only vaults that covered the internal space and, as a rule, did not play such a significant role in the volumetric composition of the building. The Florentine dome truly dominated the entire city and its surrounding landscape. The strength of its “long-range action” is determined not only by its gigantic absolute dimensions, not only by the elastic power and at the same time ease of take-off of its forms, but by the highly enlarged scale in which the parts of the building towering above the urban development are constructed - the drum with its huge round windows and red-tiled edges of the vault with powerful ribs separating them. The simplicity of its forms and large scale are contrastingly emphasized by the relatively finer dissection of the forms of the crowning lantern.
The new image of the majestic dome as a monument erected to the glory of the city embodied the idea of the triumph of reason, characteristic of the humanistic aspirations of the era. Thanks to its innovative figurative content, important urban planning role and constructive perfection, the Florentine dome was that outstanding architectural work of the era, without which Michelangelo’s dome over the Roman Cathedral of St. Peter, nor the numerous domed churches dating back to him in Italy and other European countries. Bound by the medieval parts of the cathedral, Brunelleschi naturally could not achieve complete stylistic correspondence between the new and old forms in his dome. Therefore, the firstborn architectural style The early Renaissance was the Foundling House (Ospedale degli Innocenti) in Florence (started in 1419).
In the Foundling House (a home for abandoned infants), the philanthropic function of these institutions, known since the Middle Ages, is for the first time invested in the architectural forms of a large public building occupying a prominent place in the city. It occupies one of the sides created in the 15th century. square in front of the façade of the Church of Santissima Annunziata. The plan of the building, which is designed in the form of a large square courtyard built around the perimeter, framed by light arched porticos, uses techniques that go back to the architecture of medieval residential buildings and monastic complexes with their cozy courtyards protected from the sun. However, in Brunelleschi the entire system of rooms surrounding the center of the composition - the courtyard - acquires a more orderly, regular character. The most important new quality in the spatial composition of the building was the “open plan” principle, in which Brunelleschi’s building includes such environmental elements as a street passage, a passage courtyard, connected by a system of entrances and stairs to all the main rooms. These features are reflected in his appearance. In the composition of the main facade facing the square, Brunelleschi used the motif of a deep open loggia. At its core, it goes back to the old custom of Italian city-republics to erect open pavilions-loggias in squares, intended for public meetings, festivals, and exhibitions of works of art. Brunelleschi gives the ancient motif of the arched colonnade the appearance of a welcoming, hospitable lobby, open to the square and accessible to everyone. This is emphasized by the wide spans of elastic arches of the loggia, supported by thin, slender columns standing on a stepped base raised above the level of the square.
The facade of the building, divided into two floors of unequal height, in contrast to medieval buildings of this type, is distinguished by its exceptional simplicity of form and clarity of proportional structure. Despite the fact that in the entire façade there is not a single Element directly borrowed from ancient monuments, its tectonic logic, expressed in the system of correlation between bearing and load-bearing parts, indicates the prevalence of new architectural trends in it. The magnificent terracotta reliefs depicting swaddled babies, made by the sculptor Andrea della Robbia, located in the tympanums of the arcade, successfully complement the image of this structure.
The amazing lightness and transparency of the loggia, the grace of its elastic and slender forms would be unthinkable without constructive innovation. Covering the deep loggia with a system of sail vaults long forgotten in Italy, thinner and lighter than cross vaults, made it possible to greatly increase the depth of the loggia and the distance between the columns, and to reduce their thickness to an extreme extent. This type of arcade became characteristic of the entire early Renaissance, both in Tuscany and beyond.
The tectonic principles developed in the Orphanage, expressing the originality of Brunelleschi's order thinking, were further developed in the old sacristy (sacristy) of the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence (1421-1428). The interior of the old sacristy is the first example in Renaissance architecture of a centric spatial composition, reviving the system of a dome that covers a square room in plan. The interior space of the sacristy is distinguished by its great simplicity and clarity: the cubic room in proportions is covered with a ribbed dome on sails and on four supporting arches resting on the entablature of pilasters of the full Corinthian order. Darker-colored pilasters, archivolts, arches, edges and ribs of the dome, as well as connecting and framing elements (round medallions, window casings, niches) appear with their clear outlines against the light background of the plastered walls. This combination of orders, arches and vaults with the surfaces of load-bearing walls creates a feeling of great lightness and transparency of architectural forms.
The architectural and constructive techniques of the sacristy of the Church of San Lorenzo found their further improvement and development in the Pazzi Chapel in Florence (begun in 1430). This chapel, commissioned by the Pazzi family as their family chapel and also serving for meetings of clergy from the monastery of Santa Croce, is one of Brunelleschi's most perfect and striking works. It is located in the narrow and long medieval courtyard of the monastery and is a rectangular room in plan, stretched across the courtyard and closing one of its short end sides.
Brunelleschi arranged the chapel building in such a way that it combines the transverse development of the interior space with a centric composition, and the façade design of the building with its domed completion is emphasized from the outside. The main spatial elements of the interior are distributed along two mutually perpendicular axes, resulting in a balanced building system with a dome on sails in the center and three unequal width branches of the cross on its sides. The absence of the fourth is made up for by a portico, the middle part of which is highlighted by a flat dome. The portico includes six columns of the Corinthian order with a large middle bay covered by an arch embedded in the second attic floor. The high attic, which would be too heavy for the slender columns supporting it, is visually lightened by paired pilasters that break it up with light paneled inserts between them and the crowning entablature.
The interior of the Pazzi Chapel provides one of the most characteristic and perfect examples of the peculiar use of the order for art organization walls, which constitutes one of the most important features of early Italian Renaissance architecture. Using the order of pilasters, the architects divided the wall into load-bearing and non-supporting parts, revealing the forces of the vaulted ceiling acting on it and giving the structure the necessary scale and rhythm. Brunelleschi was the first who was able to truthfully show the load-bearing functions of walls and the conventionality of order forms. This explains his use in the Pazzi Chapel, the sacristy of San Lorenzo and the Orphanage of such unusual motifs from the point of view of the classical canon of orders, such as corner pilasters moving from one wall to another, regular consoles or in the form of capitals, which, along with the pilasters, seem to serve as a support for architrave or vault.
The architectural features of the decoration of the interior and the space under the portico in the Pazzi Chapel include the widespread use of sculptural and ornamental painted ceramics made by sculptors Desiderio da Settignano and Luca della Robbia, as well as the polychrome of walls and details, which gives the light and spacious interior a special elegance and attractiveness. Such are, for example, the round medallions inside the building, the round majolica cassettes of the dome under the portico, the painted terracotta frieze with the heads of angels and the reliefs with images of the apostles, attributed to Brunelleschi himself.
Along with the centric domed buildings, the innovative tendencies of Brunelleschi's work were also manifested in the design of the basilica, consecrated by centuries of tradition, which is represented by his two Florentine churches - San Lorenzo (begun in 1421) and San Spirito (begun in 1436).
The plan of both churches is based on the traditional form of a three-nave basilica in the form of a Latin cross with a transept, choir and dome on the middle cross. In the Church of San Lorenzo this traditional plan scheme received significant modifications. They reflected the social requirements characteristic of the Renaissance in the construction of religious buildings. The transept, which in the Middle Ages usually served as a place of residence during church service senior clergy and representatives of the feudal nobility, is now surrounded by the premises of family chapels, built at the expense of wealthy citizens. Personalized chapels of wealthy Florentine families were also built along the side naves. Thus, the church building loses its social isolation, its functions become more complex and diverse. In accordance with this, the interior of the church turns out to be more dissected and complex. The naves and transepts, along with their main function as places of concentration for worshipers, seem to turn into antechambers or vestibules of private chapels, which is quite consistent with the more secular perception of religion and church rituals in the Renaissance.
The Basilica of San Spirito has a unique plan: the side naves with the adjacent semicircular chapels form a single continuous row of equal cells, going around the entire perimeter of the church, with the exception of the western façade. Such a construction of chapels in the form of semicircular niches has significant structural significance: the folded wall could be extremely thin and at the same time well accommodate the thrust of the sail vaults of the side naves.
The interiors of both basilicas with their slender rows of Corinthian columns and arches, as if “hovering” above the capitals (which is facilitated by the order impost introduced between the capital and the fifth arch), flat cassette ceilings, light ribbed domes and sail vaults, give the impression of ceremonial interiors of a secular building. Thus, the traditional type of Christian basilica with a transept received a new artistic expression here.
Brunelleschi's last religious building, in which there was a synthesis of all his quests, was the oratorio (chapel) of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence (begun in 1434). This building was not finished. In 1436 it was brought almost to the capitals of the internal order; An idea of it is given by the surviving drawings and drawings. This is the earliest Renaissance centric domed structure, octagonal on the inside and hexagonal on the outside. The chapels surrounding the central octagonal space of the chapel and formed by a system of radial and transverse walls have the important structural significance of buttresses that absorb the expansion of the dome. The main supports of the octagon with two corner pilasters were supposed to support a fairly high octagonal drum in the form of an attic with a round window on each side, and above it a spherical dome, covered on the outside with a tent. Thus, the volumetric composition of the building was conceived as stepped and two-tiered; with a gradual increase in volume in height towards the center. This also corresponded to the structure of its internal space, the development of which proceeds from a large octagonal core to smaller and more complex forms of chapels. The classical simplicity, clarity and completeness of the composition turned out to be in clear contradiction with the cult purpose of the building, which did not have a choir room (place for the altar). The contradiction of the centric plan conceived by Brunelleschi with the requirements of the cult led to the fact that, according to Vasari, it was planned to house a school for painters and sculptors in this building after its completion.
The question of Brunelleschi's role in the creation of a new type of city palace is extremely complicated by the fact that the only work of this kind for which the authorship of the master is documented remains the unfinished and badly damaged Palazzo di Parte of Guelph. However, here too Brunelleschi clearly demonstrated himself as an innovator, breaking with medieval tradition much more decisively than most of his contemporaries and successors. In the composition of the building's façade, Brunelleschi uses an order of pilasters spanning the entire height of the walls of the second floor with two tiers of windows. The large hall located on the second floor (rebuilt by Vasari in the 50s of the 16th century) is also divided by pilasters in the window walls and in the corners of the room. The architect also used the order forms of the complete entablature to divide the building into two floors. Thus, the proportions of the building, its division and form are determined by the system of the classical order, which constitutes the most remarkable feature of this building, which provides the earliest example of the use of the order in the composition of an urban Renaissance palazzo.
A number of works have been preserved in Florence that reveal, if not Brunelleschi’s direct participation, then, in any case, his direct influence. These most important buildings of Brunelleschi's circle include Palazzo Pazzi, Palazzo Pitti and Badia (Abbey) in Fiesole.
The exceptional architectural skill and maturity of the composition of the Palazzo Pazzi (finished before 1445) and at the same time the youthful charm of the artistic image characteristic of Brunelleschi suggest that the palazzo was built according to his design. Next to the austere and majestic Palazzo di Parte of Guelph, the Palazzo Pazzi is a more intimate, lyrical version of a new type of city house of a rich and eminent Florentine. The main façade of the palazzo is composed extremely simply: above the rusticated first floor, two upper smoothly plastered floors with finely and richly decorated window casings (the round windows of the third floor are of later origin.) are completed with a light wooden cornice. The cantilevered rafters, decorated with exceptionally beautiful carvings, are one of the few surviving and therefore most precious examples of wooden carving in the external architecture of the 15th century.
The Palazzo Pitti (finished in its original form around 1460) in Florence has a completely different character (Initially, the building had only seven window axes along the facade and three large arched entrances on the ground floor. Windows in the laid side arches were made later; the side wings and the courtyard added in the 16th century). The titanic power of the artistic image is manifested here in the giant rusticated masonry of three floors of uniform size and shape and in the huge (about 8 m high) portal windows. The squares of stone masonry, which do not lighten upward and do not change their relief and shape, form, as it were, three identical giant block-floors, erected one above the other. With such a composition, a reduction in floor divisions from bottom to top, typical of other Florentine palazzos of the early Renaissance, as well as crowning the entire building with a single cornice, would be unjustified and would contradict the character of the giant wall.
The small monastery complex of Badia in Fiesole (1450-1460s) was built only ten years after Brunelleschi's death. This architectural ensemble, combining the features of a monastery and a country villa, is located in a picturesque hilly area near Florence. The ensemble consists of a church surrounded by arcaded enclosed courtyards, a large vaulted refectory and a group of living quarters.
By the arrangement of the main premises around an open courtyard with loggias, by the craftsmanship with which individual elements of the building are combined, by the clear identification of the front courtyard as the compositional center of the ensemble, the kinship of this building with Brunelleschi’s Orphanage is clearly felt.
The new direction in architecture, approved by Brunelleschi in the first half of the 15th century, was continued by his contemporary Florentine Michelozzo di Bartolomeo (1396-1472).
Working with Donatello on the architectural design of the tombs, Michelozzo early mastered the forms of classical architectural decoration, achieving great perfection and sophistication in this area. This feature of Michelozzo's creative path can explain the creative originality of his decorative works, while his early buildings reveal a dependence on the architectural and constructive techniques of Brunelleschi. Together with Donatello, he created the outer pulpit of the Cathedral in Prato (1430s), remarkable in composition and architectural details of decoration, surprising in its early maturity of classical forms.
Of the religious buildings of Michelozzo, the most significant are the Medici Chapel in the Monastery of Santa Croce in Florence (finished in 1445) and especially the Portinari Chapel in the Church of San Eustorgio in Milan (1462 -1468). Among buildings of another type, noteworthy is the three-nave basilica hall of the library of the Monastery of San Marco in Florence (1440-1450s) with its wide colonnades, reminiscent of the portico of the Orphanage, supporting the ceiling vaults, as well as the courtyard of the same monastery surrounded by archivolt-free arches on columns.
Michelozzo's major contribution to Renaissance architecture was the creation of completed examples of the city palace and country villa, which had a huge influence on all subsequent development of these types of buildings.
Michelozzo's most significant work is the magnificent Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence (begun in 1444).
In the composition of the palazzo, for the first time, the courtyard, connected to the street by a large vaulted passage, acquires extremely important importance. This courtyard serves as the main distribution room, a kind of open vestibule. Beneath the surrounding galleries are the entrances to the ground floor rooms, the garden and the staircases leading to the second and third floors. In the warm climate of Italy, a shady courtyard was of great practical importance.
On the first floor, mainly service rooms were grouped, on the second floor - the ceremonial halls of the Medici family, intended for celebrations and receptions, and a richly decorated chapel. The third floor housed the sleeping quarters of family members and employees. This traditional and, in all likelihood, practical arrangement of rooms explains the division of most Florentine city palaces into three floors.
From the outside, the building is perceived as an impressive volume located at the intersection of two streets. The cornice with a large projection and large, clearly profiled breaks is contrasted with the surface of the flat, rusticated walls. It seems to stop the strong movement of the divisions of floors decreasing from bottom to top, crowning the entire building. But Michelozzo's building still retains some medieval features. These are, for example, windows with a central impost and two arches inscribed in the general arch of the opening, a powerful first floor with small window openings raised high above the ground.
Significantly new in the architecture of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi is the unique tectonic interpretation of the facades, based on the principles of order construction, but without the use of columns or pilasters. It is reflected in the gradual lightening of the wall from bottom to top by reducing the height of its floor divisions, in the different widths and nature of the profiling of window casings, as well as in changing the texture of the rustication on the floors - from a large relief rustication on the first floor to a flat rustication made on a smaller scale with barely a noticeable seam - in the third.
In decorating the interiors of the palace and especially the chapel, painted by Benozzo Gozzoli, various means of architectural and pictorial decoration were used. Such is the complex profiling of caissons and cornices, decorated with molded and painted details - ions, beads, rosettes and various forms of geometric and floral patterns, the widespread use of multi-colored marbles for finishing walls and floors.
Another major work of Michelozzo, which laid the foundation for the development of a country residential building - the residence of a wealthy patrician or large nobleman, was the Villa Careggi near Florence, which he rebuilt for Cosimo de' Medici. To the existing medieval building, Michelozzo added two symmetrically located loggias from the garden side with large arches on the first floor and a slender airy colonnade of the Ionic order on the second, supporting a light cornice with wooden brackets. Light and transparent architectural forms of the loggia, permeated with sun and air, are in perfect harmony with the natural environment, merging the interior space of the building with the park landscape. The monumental forms of the old medieval villa with battlements and rare openings in the thickness of the massive wall, combined with the openwork and lightness of Michelozzo’s loggias, seem to embody in this work the features of the worldview of two eras - the inertia and isolation of medieval thinking and the humanistic essence of the worldview of the Renaissance, addressed to man and nature.
The second great Italian architect of the early Renaissance after Brunelleschi was Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472). Alberti was not only the largest architect of the mid-15th century, but also the first encyclopedist and theorist in Italian art, who wrote a number of outstanding scientific treatises on art (treatises on painting, sculpture and architecture, including his famous work “Ten Books on Architecture” ). Alberti had a significant influence on contemporary architectural practice not only with his buildings, unusual and deeply original in compositional design and sharpness of artistic image, but also with his scientific works in the field of architecture, which, along with the works of ancient theorists, were based on the construction experience of the Renaissance masters . Unlike other masters of the Renaissance, Alberti, as a theoretical scientist, could not pay enough attention direct activities on the construction of the structures he conceived, entrusting their implementation to his assistants. The not always successful choice of construction assistants led to the fact that Alberti’s buildings had a number of architectural errors, and the quality of construction work, architectural details and ornamentation was sometimes low. However, the great merit of Alberti the architect lies in the fact that his constant innovative quests prepared the ground for the formation and flowering of the monumental style of the High Renaissance.
Palazzo Rucellai in Florence (1446-1451) is Alberti's most complete creation in secular architecture, showing the maturity and sharpness of his compositional ideas. In the overall composition of the three-story palace with a courtyard and in the arrangement of its premises, Alberti strictly followed established traditions. In the façade of the palazzo, the theme of pilasters, which later became one of the most common, was used for the first time, dividing the rusticated wall into floors. Starting from Roman classical examples with an order arcade (the Colosseum), Alberti deeply reworked this theme, giving it a different artistic meaning and new plastic expressiveness. The structure of the wall is well revealed by the light decorative nature of the rustication in the intercolumns, large semi-circular window openings and the smooth texture of the pilasters, as if extending into the thickness of the less durable wall. For the first time in the composition of the façade of the palazzo, a kind of ideal scheme was developed, reproducing its load-bearing and non-supporting elements. The orderly interpretation of the building's facade destroyed the sharp contrast between the street facade and the lighter and more elegant architecture of the courtyard, characteristic of earlier Florentine palazzos, also contributing to the correct expression of the scale of the building when included in the ensemble of a narrow street.
The general system of the order facade required Alberti to correspondingly rework the medieval architectural details found in the facades of Florentine palaces: in the window opening between the column and the two arches above it, an architrave was introduced, supported on the sides by two small pilasters; vaulted passages to the courtyard were replaced by rectangular door portals framed by wide architraves; the small windows on the first floor have lost their serf-like character.
One of the main religious buildings of Alberti - the Church of San Francesco in Rimini (begun in 1446; reconstruction of a previously existing Gothic monastery church) - was conceived in the form of a majestic domed structure - a mausoleum for the tyrant of Rimini Sigismondo Malatesta, his relatives and associates. Alberti's project was only partially implemented; he owns the western and southern facades. His plan and the methods of composition and form he chose fully corresponded to the memorial significance of this church building as a monument to the military and civil virtues of its founder. The main and side facades, made of large squares of smooth-cut stone, are arranged based on the processing of architectural forms of ancient Rome. A low dome spanning the entire width of the building was supposed to complete the volume of the building with a heavy hemisphere.
The composition of the main facade is based on a uniquely interpreted theme of a three-span Roman triumphal arch with large central and side arched spans and a monumental wall, dissected to its entire height by an order of semi-columns placed on a pedestal. The high plinth, as in ancient Roman temples, raising the building above the ground, gives it special impressiveness and grandeur. Unfinished upper part The main façade above the loose entablature was conceived with original curved semi-pediments above the side niches and a high niche window with a semicircular ending in the center.
Side facade, arranged in the form of a heavy Roman arcade on pillars, forming seven niches for sarcophagi famous people, is distinguished by its exceptional nobility and simplicity of form. Successfully found proportions of the facade, deep niches revealing the monumental thickness of the wall, the smooth stone surface of the pylons and walls above the arches with simplified profiles of cornices and rods show Alberti’s great compositional skill and his deep mastery of the principles of monumental Roman architecture.
In the Church of San Francesco, an attempt was made for the first time to solve the façade of a Renaissance basilica in new forms. The creation of a church façade was one of the most difficult problems of early Renaissance architecture, reflecting the severity of the contradictions between secular and ecclesiastical worldviews in the work of architects and artists. Alberti returns to it during the reconstruction of the facade of the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.
The Albertian façade of the Church of Santa Maria Novella (1456 - 1470) is a re-facing of the previously existing façade of the medieval basilica. Its unique feature should be recognized as an attempt to combine new classical forms with polychrome marble inlay of facades in the spirit of the Florentine inlay style of the 12-13th centuries. The principles of constructing a two-tiered church facade with order divisions of the first and second tiers, topped with a pediment, with an original combination of a high center and lower wings using decorative volutes formed the basis for the construction of numerous church facades of the late Renaissance and Baroque.
Among Alberti's architectural experiments to create a new type of church building, the Church of San Sebastiano in Mantua, built according to his design (begun in 1459, subsequently extensively rebuilt), occupies a prominent place. In this building, Alberti was the first of the Renaissance masters to base the composition of the church building on the shape of an equilateral Greek cross. The interior of the church with a dome on sails and barrel vaults above the ends of the cross is conceived as a spectacular centric composition with a gradual complication of spatial divisions from the center to the periphery. Here, a more complex stepwise differentiation of the internal space and volume of the Building emerged, which was further developed at the end of the 15th and 16th centuries. in the buildings of Bramante and in the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci.
Alberti's building activity in Mantua is characterized by another, perhaps the most mature and consistent attempt to create a new church building and church façade in accordance with the secular ideals of the Renaissance. We are talking about the church of Sant'Andrea in Mantua (begun in 1472), which in its size and design represents Alberti's most significant work. The traditional composition of the basilica with a transept, choir and dome over the middle cross, having the shape of a Latin cross in plan, received a new spatial interpretation here for the first time in the history of architecture. The side naves were replaced by chapels, the main nave was expanded and turned into a large main hall, covered, like the choir and branches of the transept, not with a flat ceiling, like Brunelleschi, but with coffered barrel vaults.
Alberti's desire to maximize the unification of space was caused by the desire to create the most majestic interior possible. For the first time in Renaissance architecture, the Byzantine cross-domed system was used in the altar part of the basilica in combination with the Roman-antique character of architectural forms and decor.
A feature of the composition of the church, which gives it an open public character, is the presence of a large vestibule, almost the entire width of the building, which forms the main entrance and facade from the square. This façade, with its large entrance arch and gigantic pilasters running the entire height of the wall (a prototype of the so-called grand or colossal order spanning several Floors) to the triangular pediment crowning it, is composed on the basis of the same motif of the three-bay Roman triumphal arch as the Church of San Francesco in Rimini. However, here this technique is more organic and more closely related to the compositional structure of the entire building. The system of division of the main facade is repeated many times in the interior, in the division of the side walls of the nave with the chapels. The three-part system of divisions of the facade is at the same time the basis for the rhythmic alternation in the interior of large and small chapels, forming a three-part spatial cell similar to the vestibule. Thus, Alberti implements one of the theoretical provisions of his treatise, which requires unity of composition techniques for external architecture and interior. In the same building, another provision of the treatise was implemented: that arches should not rest on columns, since this contradicts the meaning of the architectural structures of the ancient order.
By reworking the basilica type of church, Alberti created a new type of temple, which had a significant influence on all later church architecture not only in Italy, but also in other European countries. The principles of composition of the façade of the Church of Site Andrea were further developed in the works of Palladio and Vignola.
In general, Alberti’s work and the architectural direction that was emerging by the mid-15th century are characterized by the predominance of ancient, mainly Roman principles of composition and forms. This is reflected in the more consistent and widespread use of the ancient order system, in the desire to generalize and enlarge the volumetric-spatial structure of buildings and the emphasized monumentalization of their appearance. Dignity (dignitas) as an expression of greatness was Alberti's motto and the most characteristic feature of his architectural works.
The largest of Alberti's students and followers was Bernardo Rossellino (1409-1464). The most significant of his works is the ensemble of the city square he created in the small town of Pienza (begun in 1460) (The buildings surrounding the square were erected by order of Pope Pius II (Enea Silvio Piccolomini) in his hometown Corsignano, later named after Pope Pienza.), which is the only one in 15th century architecture. an example of a simultaneously conceived and, moreover, completely completed ensemble. In the space of a small trapezoidal square adjacent to the main thoroughfare of the city, there are four buildings: the palace of the pope (Palazzo Piccolomini) and the bishop's house, forming the lateral inclined sides of the trapezoid; the cathedral, occupying almost the entire space of its wide base, and on the opposite side is the town hall. The main public buildings of the city, representing the city authorities - spiritual and secular - are concentrated on the square.
The town and square are located above the river, overlooking a vast valley. Through the open areas on the sides of the cathedral one can see a distant perspective of the landscape spreading around Pienza. Thanks to this, the square does not seem closed: a person located on it always feels connected to the natural environment of the city. This effect makes us recall the paintings of the Quattrocentists, in which in interior scenes the surrounding landscape is visible through window openings, an open door or a portico.
The ensemble of the square seems symmetrical only in plan. Each side has its own architectural appearance, and in general the principle of a picturesque, asymmetrical combination of buildings of different compositions prevails here. But if in the ensembles of medieval squares the picturesqueness and freedom in the arrangement of buildings were most often the result of historical strata or the chaotic development of the city, then in Rossellino these features are determined by a single architectural design. The individuality of each building here is determined both by its purpose and its interaction with other buildings of the ensemble, requiring subordination of the secondary to the main: the majestic cathedral with a bell tower is monumental, the pope's palace is solemn and elegant, the town hall building is restrained and stern, the palace of the church minister is modest and simple. The composition of any of these buildings, taken in isolation, would be incomprehensible and unjustified, but on the whole they form a single ensemble, the merits of which are generally higher than each of the buildings included in it, taken separately.
Of all these buildings, the most interesting is the Palazzo Piccolomini (1460 -1464), in which the traditional scheme of a Florentine palazzo with a courtyard was implemented by Rossellino with greater scope and completeness of all parts and details than in previous buildings. Here for the first time in the 15th century. There was a desire for a symmetrical construction of the entire palace complex, when the main entrance, courtyard, garden loggia and garden with its alleys were located along a single compositional axis. As for the external appearance of the building, unlike earlier Florentine examples, Palazzo Piccolomini is perceived not by one or two facades facing narrow streets, but by the entire volume of the Building. The facade of the palace is reminiscent of the Albertian facade of Palazzo Rucellai, but, unlike the latter, the same theme of pilasters dividing the rusticated wall by floors is used here with a sharper decrease in the floor divisions from bottom to top and a wider arrangement of pilasters. Therefore, if Alberti found a kind of balance between the wall and the order elements dividing it, then in Rossellino the wall prevails over the order.
A major work of Florentine palace architecture of the second half of the 15th century, the creation of which is associated with the name of Benedetto da Maiano (1442-1497), is the Strozzi Palazzo in Florence (begun in 1489). Giuliano da Sangallo and Simone Pollaiolo (Cronaca) (1457-1508) also took part in its design and construction.
Similar in composition to other earlier Florentine palaces, the prototype of which was the Palazzo Medici, Palazzo Strozzi differs from them in its emphatically monumentalized interpretation of the facades. Its location on a free site, limited on three sides by streets and driveways, and on the fourth side by a garden, allowed the builders to create an exceptionally clear, correct and harmonious composition of plan and volume. Conveniently connected to the street highways, the courtyard of the palazzo lost its significance as an intimate courtyard intended mainly for the inhabitants of the house, becoming an accessible front room of the palace. The strictly symmetrical axial grouping of entrances, entrances, staircases, loggias, main rooms and reception halls is designed for a spectacular alternation of various rooms in the interior, which indicates a desire for greater pomp and ostentatious grandeur than in early palaces. These features, the homes of major dignitaries, magnates and princes of the church, would become a hallmark of the palace architecture of papal Rome in the 16th century.
The external appearance of Palazzo Strozzi is distinguished by more traditional compositional techniques and architectural forms, which manifested a desire to preserve the stylistic unity and artistic integrity of the city of Florence. Hence, somewhat archaic for the end of the 15th century. the appearance of the palace with the stern splendor of stone walls, composed of convex rustications, as if compressed by enormous weight, with relatively sparsely spaced window openings and a heavy stone attic crowning the bulk of the wall. A magnificent, classically shaped cornice is the only elegant detail contrasted with the harsh mass of the walls.
In another interesting building by Benedetto da Maiano, the portico of the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Arezzo (c. 1490) showed his commitment to forms dating back to Brunelleschi and his extraordinary decorative skill. The small building adjacent to the previously built church is configured as a transparent loggia, open on all sides, serving as an entrance portico and porch. As the main supporting system, the master uses a light arched colonnade with an order impost between the heels of the arches and the capital, first used by Brunelleschi in the interior of the Basilicas of San Lorenzo and San Spirito. In the elegant and light appearance of the building, a well-found combination of building materials is of no small importance: a light stone frame with a dark wooden top, as well as skillfully executed fine ornamental carvings on stone, wood and polychrome painting. But, unlike Brunelleschi, in this lightness of the “floating” arcades there is more sophistication, external sophistication and elegance, which reflected some trends in Florentine artistic culture of the second half of the 15th century.
The most striking exponent of new architectural trends in Florentine architecture of the second half of the 15th century. was Giuliano da Sangallo (1445 - 1516). Summarizing the searches of his predecessors, he was one of the first who realized the dream of creating a central-dome building that was perfect in its forms and gave it a complete architectural form. Such is his church of the Madonna delle Carceri in Prato (1485 - 1491). This small building has the shape of an equilateral Greek cross in plan, the branches of which are covered with cylindrical vaults, and the middle cross is covered with an umbrella dome on sails with strippings, lunettes and round windows cut into a low drum.
The volumetric composition of the church and the system of its facades are organically connected with the structure of the internal space and the divisions of its surfaces. Forming an equal-facade centric composition, the clear rectangular volumes of the arms of the cross are divided into two parts unequal in height, corresponding to the division of the interior: into a lower order tier and a cylindrical vault hidden behind the upper part of the facade crowned with a pediment. The facades are faced with multi-colored marble. The clear rectangular pattern of the panels emphasizes the severity of the double pilasters located in the corners and the frames framing the portals and windows. The combination of the architectural traditions of the masters of Brunelleschi’s circle with the trends of modern times is also characteristic of other buildings of Giuliano da Sangallo. Such, for example, is the sacristy of the Church of San Spirito (1488-1492) in Fldrencia, made by him in collaboration with the architect Cronac - a centric octagonal structure topped with an umbrella dome.
An important work of Sangallo is the Villa Medici in Poggio a Caiano (1480 - 1485). Built near Florence, on the one hand, it completes the development of the type of country estate of a Florentine trading magnate, and on the other, it marks the beginning of the formation of a new type of country palace residence of a wealthy nobleman, characteristic of the 16th century.
The square plan underlying the composition of the building is built on two mutually perpendicular axes. Along the main one - from the entrance - a magnificent enfilade of the most significant rooms is revealed: the loggia of the main entrance, the vestibule and two state rooms intended for balls and receptions. The large central hall, located at the intersection of the compositional axes, has rich decorative decoration and is covered with a coffered cylindrical vault of remarkable proportions, ornamentation and architectural details. The successful combination of the enfilade principle of composition with the centric one (going back to the layout of ancient Roman baths) and the compact construction of the plan in the form of a square determined the monumental expressiveness and integrity of the volume of the building, which is especially emphasized by its placement on a powerful stylobate, forming an open terrace along the perimeter of the building. The architecturally magnificent semicircular entrance staircases and the main entrance loggia with a six-column Ionic portico, classical in proportions and details, topped with a decorative pediment, as well as an open terrace raised high above the ground, supported by powerful arched substructures, testify to the aspirations of the architects of the late 15th century. connect the building with its surrounding nature.
Giuliano da Sangallo can be considered the last of the masters of the early Renaissance, in whose work the two most significant trends in 15th-century architecture, dating back to Brunelleschi and Alberti, merge. His characteristic desire for monumental unity of form, for maturity and generalization foreshadows the onset of a new stage in the evolution of Italian architecture - the architecture of the High Renaissance.
A special place in the history of Italian architecture of the 15th century. occupies the architecture of urban centers on the western coast of the Adriatic Sea - Ancona and Urbino. Their strong economic and cultural ties with northern Italian cities (Venice) and Slavic cities on the eastern coast of the Adriatic largely predetermined the unique development of local architecture and the participation of Slavic masters from Dalmatia in the creation of the best architectural monuments of this period. Thus, one of the first Dalmatian masters known to us who worked in Ancona was the builder of the cathedral in Sibenik, Yuri Dalmatian, who received the local name Giorgio da Sebeniko (George of Sibenik) in Italy. But the most important architect from among the Dalmatians was Luciano da Laurana (1420/25 -1479). His name in the history of Italian architecture of the 15th century. should be placed after the names of Brunelleschi and Alberti. But while the surviving monuments and documents make it possible to trace the life and work of the famous Florentines, much remains unclear in the life and work of Laurana. It is still obvious that if the roots of Brunelleschi’s work can be found in the previous Tuscan architecture, and the starting point of Alberti’s work was the ancient Roman architecture of the imperial era, then the roots of Laurana’s work have to be sought not only in Italy, but also outside it, in ancient monuments, which are so rich in eastern coast of the Adriatic. He undoubtedly carefully studied Diocletian's palace in Split, and he was well acquainted with the Roman ancient monuments of Pula and Istria.
The largest and most reliable work of Luciano da Laurana is the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino (c. 1468-1483). The originality of the composition of the complex in Urbino is due not only to its dual purpose - a fortified princely residence and at the same time a luxurious palace of a humanist and philanthropist - but also to the presence of old medieval buildings and fortifications that needed to be included in the new ensemble, as well as its location on an elevated terrain.
Laurana bases the layout of the Urbino palace on the composition of a Florentine city palazzo with a large internal front courtyard, around which the front, residential and utility rooms are grouped. This main core of the composition is complemented by an internal (hanging) garden and a courtyard open towards the city, formed by two protruding southern buildings. Due to the difference in relief, the palace complex has massive enclosing and retaining walls with highly raised window openings.
The appearance of the main facade of the palace with its towers, machicolations, fortress Battlements, on the one hand, and a multi-tiered loggia, as if breaking the heavy shell of a medieval fortress, with large window openings decorated with order platbands, on the other, reflects the influence of two trends - feudal-medieval and Renaissance.
The classical tendencies of Quattrocento architecture were most fully and vividly manifested in Laurana’s interior architecture and mainly the front courtyard, which forms a striking contrast with the external facades. The composition of the courtyard is basically the same as in the Florentine palaces of the 15th century: an arcade on columns in the lower floor and a wall with window openings in the second floor. But the differences introduced by the architect to this traditional scheme gave the courtyard great originality. Strict architectural forms, few decorations, fine profiling of the entablature, platbands and archivolts of the arches, rare beauty of the capitals of the columns and pilasters of the second floor and the inscription from Roman letters that glorifies the owner of Urbino, running around the friezes of both entablatures, are full of classical purity and clarity. The courtyard is also decorated with delicate polychrome - a combination of white stone of the order with pale yellow brick of the walls of the second tier.
The interior decoration of the Urbino palace is especially remarkable. The halls of the palace with their white smooth ceilings and walls, with strict ceiling rosettes, finely traced carved console capitals at the base of the vaults, with magnificently graceful profiles and carvings of windows and doors and marble fireplaces belong to the best examples of Renaissance architecture. The state rooms were decorated with paintings by Laurana himself, Piero della Francesca and other first-class masters.
Among other buildings, the original Palazzo Prefettizie in Pesaro, the former residence of Sforza, is considered to belong to Laurana. It is also impossible not to note, due to their important historical and architectural significance, the paintings attributed to Laurana with images of ideal cities in which the author embodied his architectural fantasies. They not only give a fairly clear idea of the urban planning ideas of their time, but are documents of enormous historical importance, which seem to sum up the compositional techniques and forms developed by the early Renaissance in the field of palace architecture and partly memorial and religious buildings. Many of the architectural motifs recorded in these paintings anticipate the practice of the High and Late Renaissance, testifying to the enormous knowledge and innovative thinking of their creator.
The significance of Laurana’s work for the further development of Italian architecture is also important because the construction of the Urbino palace took place before the eyes of the young Bramante and certainly influenced the development of his taste and skill. The immediate result of this was the court of the Roman Cancelleria, representing a further development of the court at Urbino. Another native of this city, young Rafael Santi, also received his first artistic impressions in the Urbino palace. It is not an unreasonable conjecture to assume that both Bramante and Raphael carefully studied not only architecture, but also the paintings of Laurana - it is not without reason that in his Urbino architectural paintings one can find prototypes of Roman palazzos, which played a huge role in the further development of not only Italian, but also the entire European architecture.
Lombardy stood out from other regions of Italy with the originality of its architectural traditions. Here, more than anywhere else, the legacy of medieval architecture was felt. This was facilitated by the persistence of feudal remnants and associated guild traditions among the numerous artisan builders in Lombardy. No wonder it was in Milan at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. The construction of the most grandiose of the Gothic cathedrals in Italy began. Its construction was carried out with the help of craftsmen invited from the north, whose influx did not stop for a long time. Common to all of Italy in the 15th century. changes in worldview and tastes were reflected in Lombardy not so much in a decisive change in the fundamental architectural principles, but in an indomitable desire for festive polychrome and wasteful abundance of decoration. This desire, which pushed the Lombard masters to a free combination of Byzantine, Romanesque and, finally, ancient architectural forms, led to the creation of a cheerful, motley, sometimes atectonic, but captivating in its picturesque northern version of Italian Quattrocento architecture and reached its apogee in such works as the Colleoni Chapel in Bergamo (1475) by the architect Amadeo, or in the facade of the Church of Pavia Certosa, which he also began (in 1491) (the church was built in 1453 by the architect Guiniforte Solari and others).
The sprouts of a new, Tuscan manner were accepted here slowly, and by the last quarter of the 15th century. in Milan there were only a few buildings of this kind, erected by visiting Florentines: the Ospedale Maggiore by the architect Filarete, a branch of the Medici bank built by Michelozzo, and the Portinari Chapel attributed to him at the medieval church of Sapt Eustorgio.
Far from being a typical representative of Florentine art, the architect and sculptor Antonio Averlino (c. 1400-1467), known under the humanistic pseudonym Filarete, came to Milan at the invitation of the Duke of Sforza and from 1456. built here the Ospedale Maggiore - a huge hospital that had no equal in Europe both in size and in its architecture: this is the first example of a strictly symmetrical composition with many courtyards, which became widely used only in the 16-17 centuries. in palace complexes such as Escorial and Versailles. Finished (with many changes in local taste) much later by the architect G. Solari, the Ospedale Maggiore now surprises the visitor with the scope and beauty of its courtyards surrounded by two-tiered arcades, which were the first example in Milan of this characteristic architectural motif of Florence. In addition to Filarete’s buildings (which include the main tower of the Milanese castle; 1451 -1454), his treatise “Sforzinda” also had a significant influence on his contemporaries, where projects of ideal cities and numerous variants of compositions of centric structures occupy a special place.
In Venice, Renaissance architecture proper began its development only at the end of the 15th century. Accordingly, the evolution of Venetian architecture in this century is divided into two stages. The period until the last quarter of the 15th century. is called Venetian Gothic, and the last quarter of a century is called the early Venetian Renaissance.
A distinctive feature of public and rich private buildings in Venice of the 15th century. - palaces of patricians and trade magnates, large religious and public buildings (churches, scuolas, procuracies, libraries) - extraordinary picturesqueness, decorative richness, variety of forms, colorful splendor, the use of expensive finishing materials (marble, smalt, gilding). Located in the best, most comfortable parts of the city, facing its main waterway - the Grand Canal or the sea, these buildings with their splendor represented the ceremonial appearance of patrician Venice. Since Venice and the adjacent areas of Italy were poor in stone, especially finishing rocks, buildings were erected from brick, followed by cladding with expensive types of stone brought by sea from other countries. Hence the desire for such a combination and processing of these materials that would reveal all their most expressive natural qualities.
Exceptionally large impact on addition characteristic features Venetian architecture was influenced by the urban planning conditions of Venice. The construction of Buildings was only possible on islands or shallow parts of the lagoon on stilts. This greatly limited the overall development area and the size of individual construction sites. The houses were placed close to each other and faced the streets or canals only with narrow facades. This had a significant impact on the desire of architects for an increased decorative effect, for almost jewelry-like elaboration of architectural details of facades, the widespread use of polychrome marble cladding and fine dissection of architectural forms.
By the cheerful, deeply optimistic artistic image of architectural works, by the picturesqueness and richness of imagination with which Venetian architects created new forms and used the classical and medieval heritage, as well as the ability to connect architecture with the surrounding landscape, Venetian architecture, like Venetian painting and sculpture, represents an extremely unique phenomenon.
The urban planning and economic conditions of commercial Venice - an international city with its huge army of port workers, longshoremen, sailors and artisans - explain the formation of new types of residential buildings: blocked residential buildings, residential buildings with floor-by-floor occupancy and with shops on the ground floor, dormitory houses. These residential buildings with minimal amenities, limited floor space, modest appearance and simple decoration constituted the main development of the city.
The natural and reliable natural protection of Venice, located on the islands, the economic prosperity of the republic and the absence of civil strife affected residential architecture, primarily in the fact that the latter did not acquire a closed, serf-like character. In Venetian palazzos, the courtyard was usually very small and could not perform representative functions, as in Tuscan palaces, but on the ground floor of the building there was usually a large front vestibule, and a number of spacious halls on subsequent floors opened towards the main facade with large tripartite openings and loggias. This compositional center of the building is usually clearly highlighted on the facade and is plastically enriched with pilasters, columns, arcades and wide balconies with balustrades.
As for the construction of residential buildings and dormitories, it was carried out at the expense of the state, charitable societies and private philanthropic citizens and, as the study of surviving buildings shows, was carried out on the basis of the same type of premises layout. The main type of such buildings was a two- or three-story residential building, interlocked from identical residential sections, with an independent entrance from the street and an internal staircase that connected the upper rooms with the lower ones. The apartment was usually located on two floors. The first floor housed a kitchen, pantry and common room (dining room), while the second floor contained two or three living rooms. If the house had three floors, then the third floor most often housed an independent apartment, to which a separate staircase led.
Among Venetian residential buildings, there was also a fairly common type of residential building, unknown in Tuscany, with shops on the ground floor and with staircases arranged in such a way that indicates the separate use of each floor.
The Lombardi family, led by Pietro Lombardi (1435 - 1515), an outstanding sculptor and architect, played a large role in the formation of early Renaissance architecture in Venice. An example of a fully formed Venetian palace of the early Renaissance is the Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi built by Pietro Lombardi in Venice (1481 - 1509). The plan of the palazzo with an entrance loggia and a vestibule on the ground floor, with large state rooms on the two upper floors located in the center of the building and surrounded by smaller residential and utility rooms, basically repeats the previously established type of palace. But the halls are highlighted on the façade of the building not by a loggia, as was the case in many Gothic palaces of the first half of the 15th century, but by large arched openings and balconies with a balustrade.
Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi is the earliest palace building in Italian Renaissance architecture, the walls of which are divided by semi-columns rather than pilasters. Starting from the principles of composition of a Florentine palazzo with walls divided by floor order, Pietro Lombardi combines them with the traditional scheme of a Venetian palace facade. At the same time, the rational tectonic system of Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi, with its elegant transparency, colorfulness and variety of forms, is in complete harmony with early Venetian buildings, without violating their stylistic unity.
In the architecture of Venice, a major role was played by public buildings erected by civil charitable fraternities, the so-called scuola, intended for public meetings, philanthropic and educational purposes. The Scuola di San Marco in Venice (1485-1495), built next to the Church of San Giovanni e Paolo by the architects Pietro Lombardi and Moro Coducci (c. 1440-1504), is one of the largest buildings of this type. Together with the medieval church, the scuola building forms a small square. The elevated part of the façade of the scuola, located closer to the canal, completes the composition of the square, while the lower part, adjacent to the church, serves as a connecting link between the scuola and the church.
The two-story rectangular building of the scuola was intended for educational purposes, as well as a shelter and a hospital. On the ground floor it had a large front entrance hall with adjoining halls, study rooms and service rooms. On the top floor there was a large reception hall and other smaller rooms grouped asymmetrically along one of the long sides of the hall. This composition affected the asymmetrical two-axis system of constructing the main façade, consisting of two parts: the main one with the main vestibule and hall above and the secondary one with work spaces and small halls. The elements and details of the facade, renaissance in nature, dissected by a two-tier order of pilasters and topped with an attic with semicircular endings typical of Venice, as well as its cladding with slabs and inserts of green, red and white marble, are interpreted as a kind of decoration, like the elegant clothing of the building. Like the Gothic buildings of Venice, the Scuola di San Marco reveals the same principle of decorative use of architectural and, in particular, order forms. The almost theatrical effect of the façade of the scuola is emphasized by the perspective reliefs placed between the pilasters of the first floor.
The building, completed by the architect Antonio Rizzo (1430 - c. 1500) at the end of the 15th century, is distinguished by its exceptional decorative richness. the courtyard façade of the Doge's Palace and the adjacent Staircase of the Giants (the statues on this staircase were installed in the 16th century).
Both of the most prominent architects of the early Renaissance in Venice - Pietro Lombardi and Moro Coducci - created a number of religious buildings. Most church buildings date from the late 15th century. The same principles were used as in palace and public buildings. This greatly contributed to the penetration of secular features into religious architecture.
The Church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli (1481-1489), built and richly decorated by Pietro Lombardi and his sons, is the first religious building of the early Venetian Renaissance. This is a small, rectangular, single-nave building with a square altar covered with a dome on sails. The only nave of the church, arranged as a large ceremonial hall with walls richly decorated with marble inlays, is covered with a light suspended wooden barrel vault with painted coffers. The solemn interior of the church resembles the halls of Venetian palaces. The facades of the building, lined with slabs of white, black, and red marble, are elegant, colorful and unexpected in the juxtaposition of various architectural forms. For example, Corinthian pilasters are placed on the ground floor, and Ionic ones on the upper floor, which does not correspond to the sequence in the combination of orders accepted in the Renaissance architecture of Tuscany. The architrave of the second tier of the facade is separated from the arcades located underneath and does not rest on them, which once again emphasizes the decorative nature of the order forms used in this structure.
The Church of San Zaccaria (begun 1483), built by Moro Coducci, provides an example of a more restrained and architectural style. Its plan goes back to the three-nave Gothic basilicas with a circle around the altar and a crown of semicircular chapels adjacent to the circle. But, unlike them, the church does not have a transept, and its chapels, circular walkway, altar niche and the central part of the pre-altar trave have domed ceilings. The introduction of domed ceilings, semicircular arches and order pillars into the Gothic system of the basilica gives its interior a Renaissance appearance, close to Tuscan buildings. In the interior, this similarity is reflected in the highlighting of dark order details, archivolt arches, cornices, drafts against the light background of the wall, and in the general restraint of the decoration without the use of marble inlay on the walls, which is usual for Venice.
Unlike the buildings of Pietro Lombardi, the main façade of the church with its multi-tiered system of orders in the form of pilasters, semi-columns and a full order placed against the wall with strong horizontal divisions is plastic and monumental. The orders of the facade, despite their rather dry elaboration, have quite mature canonical forms. If in the work of Pietro Lombardi the principle of planar processing of the volume and interiors of the building prevailed, bringing his work closer to the decorative trends of architecture of the Tuscan Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, then in the appearance and composition of the church of San Zaccaria one can feel the influence of that monumental trend in the architecture of the early Renaissance, the origins of which were associated with Alberti's creativity.
RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE
The term "Renaissance" belongs to George Vasari, an Italian painter, sculptor, and architect. He believed that the main achievement of the era was the revival of the ancient heritage. At this time, there was an orientation towards Roman traditions, since it was in Italy that many examples of ancient architecture were preserved.
The process of development of Renaissance architecture in Italy can be divided into four stages:
Early Renaissance 420 - until the end of the 15th century;
High Renaissance late 15th century – 1st half of the 16th century;
Late Renaissance, the emergence of classicism, 2nd half of the 16th century;
Baroque 17th century.
EARLY RENAISSANCE IN ITALY
New trends actively interact with the Gothic, overcoming and creatively transforming it. At the beginning of the 15th century, the city-republic of Florence, located at the intersection of trade routes, became the leading cultural center, which contributed to the rapid development of trade, and with it science and culture.
FEATURES OF EARLY RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE
Realistic life-affirming character (use of the ancient order system, expression of earthly feelings in buildings);
Secular content (The main thing in construction is the construction of civil structures: palazzos - city mansions of the nobility, country villas, shelters, libraries and other cultural buildings);
Based on the study of ancient examples, the flowering of the theory of architecture begins;
The emergence of new construction equipment; Technology and mechanization are developing (a crane with a block system was invented);
Pointed structures give way to cylindrical and cross-domed vaults;
Creation of new architectural ensembles that emphasize the earthly feelings of man, in the composition of which centric and perspective-organized horizontals predominate, rather than Gothic vertical aspiration upward.
WORK OF FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI (1377-1446)
F. Brunelleschi is a Florentine architect and artist, a typical representative of the early Renaissance. Since 1403 he has been studying the ancient monuments of Rome. Brunelleschi's first work, which subsequently began the “report” of the time of Renaissance architecture, was the construction in 1420 of the dome of the church of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence.
The most elegant piece Early Renaissance, executed by the famous Brunelleschi - Pazzi Chapel. Another work of Brunelleschi is the Palazzo Pitti. Palazzo is the city palace of the nobility. He played the role of a family fortress. Construction of the palazzo took place in the 15th century until the end of the Renaissance.
CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF THE PALAZZO:
Clear horizontal division of facades, according to the number of floors;
Wide cornice extension;
Formation of a plan composition around a courtyard framed by arched galleries;
Processing of facades with rustication (rust is a stone with a roughly chipped or convex front surface).
One of the most striking examples of a palazzo is the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi.
HIGH RENAISSANCE
At the end of the 15th century, Italy remained outside the new world paths. The necessary conditions for the development of construction were available only in Rome, the capital of the Catholic Church.
The papal court sought to raise its importance through ostentatious pomp. The construction of religious buildings is becoming the leading trend, while the architecture of parks, gardens and country villas is developing. Architects from different cities of Italy are involved in the construction.
By the end of the 15th century, only about 70 thousand inhabitants remained in Rome. Between the populated parts of the city there are large wastelands with ancient ruins. This is exactly how Donato Bramante, invited from Milan in 1499, found Rome.
D. Bramante's first Roman building was the courtyard of the church of Santa Maria della Pace. One of Bramante's most magnificent Roman works was the small temple of Tempietto, located in the courtyard of the church of San Pietro in Montorio.
In 1503, by order of Pope JuliusIIBramante, like many outstanding architects, painters and sculptors of that time, took part in the construction of the Vatican Palaces.
Main building palace square The Vatican is St. Peter's Basilica. The design of the cathedral took place in 6 stages:
1452-1454 – project by Bernando Rossellino;
1505 – Bramante project;
1514 – project by Raphael Santi;
1536 - project by Antonio da Sangallo;
1547 - Michelangelo's project;
1607 – project by D. Fontano, C. Moderna.
LATE RENAISSANCE
There is a departure from the calm harmony of the High Renaissance, Gothic motifs come to life, and the expressiveness of forms increases.
Religious construction is once again receiving widespread development. Architects are abandoning the centric type of religious buildings and are returning to the basilica; a desire for verticality again appears in the external appearance.
There is disappointment in human abilities, in the power of knowledge and science. An essential feature of the new is the search for increased expressiveness and “sculptural” architecture. This was especially evident in the work of the great sculptor and architect Michelangelo Buanorotti.
In general, late Renaissance architecture is characterized by a struggle between two directions:
One laid the creative foundations of the future Baroque;
Another, developing the line of the High Renaissance, prepared the formation of the era of classicism.
The new line of development of architecture in Italy in the second half of the 16th century, when Baroque features began to appear, received its most vivid expression in the work of Michelangelo.
At the end of the 16th century, several theoretical architects appeared: Giacomo Borozzi da Vignola, Andrea Palladio, Lion Battista Alberti.
In addition to his works on the theory of architecture, Andrea Palladio was also successfully engaged in practical design. He built palaces and villas in different cities of Italy. Its buildings are distinguished by their splendor, but not by the congestion characteristic of the Baroque. The results of his work are the Palazzo Vendramina in Vicenza and the Villa Rotonda.
Giacomo da Vignola was a theorist and practitioner of architecture, gravitating towards the Baroque style, although his work also contained classical elements. He became Michelangelo's successor at the construction of Peter's Cathedral in Rome. According to Vignola's design, two smaller domes of the cathedral were built.
Vignola built several palazzos and villas, but they are insignificant in their architecture. In religious construction, the Church of Il Gesu in Rome is interesting. Giacomo da Vignola owns such buildings as the Farnese Palace in Caprarola, the Villa of Pope JuliusIIIin Rome.
CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF THE LATE RENAISSANCE
Villas and palacios continue to be built;
In religious construction there is a partial return to basilicas;
Palaces change: from a castle-fortress to beautiful urban comfortable housing;
Theoretical works on architecture are being created;
The Renaissance prepared the transition to Baroque and Classicism styles.