Renaissance architecture

Rosette motif Motivo a rosetta

Façade (symmetrical around its vertical axis)

Classical columns inspired by Greek and Roman architecture.

Pilasters in the shape of ancient style columns (inspired by Greek and Roman architecture)

Rosette motif Motivo a rosetta

Triangular pediment Frontone triangolare

Doorway Portone Most doors and windows were arranged symmetrically.

Arch Arco

Niche Nicchia They usually included detailed sculptures.

Scroll Voluta

Rosette window Rosone

Pilaster Pilastro Pilasters resemble a flat column, and are a rectangular support. Unlike normal columns, they only come out of the wall slightly.

Coffered rounded arch Arco a cassettoni

Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, by Leon Battista Alberti

Dome Cupola This dome was built above the cathedral of Florence. Brunelleschi's work was a brilliant masterpiece, with four million bricks used and a gold ball at the top of nearly two tons of weight, uplifted with an extraordinary new technique.

Geometrical patterns Elementi geometrici

Renaissance buildings:

• Church of Santa Maria Novella (Florence)
• Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and Brunelleschi's dome (Florence)
• Palazzo Pitti (Florence)
• Saint Peter's Basilica (Rome)

Villa Capra is famous for its central plan and its four façades that are identical from any point of view.

Villa Almerico Capra (known as "La Rotonda") in Vicenza by Andrea Palladio, 1605.

Andrea Palladio advocated a return to a cool, refined architecture designed according to the laws of nature and the order of the universe as embodied in mathematical proportions.

Andrea Palladio's idea of the buildings reflected the elements of the human body:

• vertical axis as the spine
• the most important elements are in the middle as the head, brain, eyes, etc.
• elements on the the outside should reflect the structure inside as the skin over bones.

Palladio designed a series of country villas for the Venetian gentry, especially along the Brenta river in Vicenza, as their 'holiday estates'. According to Palladio, his Roman-style villas had to be like small temples, so he attached temple fronts to the traditional rural farmhouse model.

Queen's House, Greenwich, London (see your book for more information).

Queen's House, Greenwich, London, by Inigo Jones (1635), the first building in England designed in a pure classical style See your book for more info. Look at Palladio's villa Capra and look at the following features:

Both the Queen's house and Villa Capra have a basement, but Villa Capra has got porticos while Queen's house has got a terrace.

The Queen's house is divided into three blocks: The upper floor is plastered (intonacato) and lime washed (intonacato a calce) The first floor was built with rusticated stones (pietre stile bugnato) The basement

KEYWORDS: Balance Proportion Symmetry Simplicity