Abu Dhabi University

College of Engineering

Architectural History I
Renaissance Architecture & Interior Design
(1450 A.D. – 1660 A.D.)

1
Renaissance meaning rebirth in French represents freedom of art and
architecture from the power of the religious State in Europe. The
discovery of perspective drawing in 1425 possibly by Brunelleschi led to
major changes in architecture. The design of the Florence Cathedral
begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and
completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo
Brunelleschi. The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble
panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white and has
an elaborate 19th-century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris.

Leon Battista Alberti created the first publication on architecture

“architectural treatises” in 1452. He set principle elements of architecture
in relation to geometry, mathematical proportions and the idealized
human body. Painting was for him a window on canvas through which
the image is seen. In the Palazzo Ducale, Urbino possibly by Piero
della Francesca a painting “The ideal City” shows how new architecture
might look in an ideal setting.

Andrea Palladio 1508-80 is considered by many to be the first modern

architect. He designed everyday farmhouses in Vento in the 1550’s.
The Villa Capra with its four Roman temple facades and dome based on
the Pantheon was a new kind of house all together. Gardens leading to
the grand palaces were also an essential part of the composition.
Florence Cathedral
From Roman to Renaissance

• Roman Temple Renaissance Villa

Ideal City: Palazzo Ducale Urbino
Palladio was born in Padua, then part of the Republic of
Venice, to Pietro della gondola. Apprenticed as a
stonecutter in Padua, soon he became an assistant in the
leading workshop of stonecutters and masons. He
frequented the workshop of Bartolomeo Cavazza, from
whom he learned some of his skills. The most important
influence was by the noble Gian Giorgio Trissino, who
invented the classical name of Palladio for his friend and
pupil Andrea. In 1541 Palladio went to Rome to study the
ancient monuments. His style became fashionable all over
Europe. In Britain, Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren
embraced the Palladian style. Another admirer was the
architect Richard Boyle, 4th Earl of York, also known as
Lord Burlington, who, with William Kent, designed
Chiswick House. Later exponents of his work who helped
to popularize Palladio's concepts included the 18th century
Venetian architect Giacomo Leoni who published an
authoritative four volume work on Palladio and his
architectural concepts. Palladio’s academic work survived
through his manuscript titled “The Four Books on
Architecture
Andrea Palladio’s-
Villa Rotanda
Villa Poiana
Villa Poiana
Color: Glare calls for soft cool tones, bright colors of
flowers are not missed, response was found in delicate
contrasts of green and grey used in a variety of shades.
Shade: The most practical need for enjoyment of a
garden is shade, and this was the reason for the
treatment of trees and hedges.
Sculpture, the part played by architectural sculpture in
the garden was to support the house and give an
enlivening interest, catching something of the spirit of
its surroundings. Hugh earthen lemon pots were almost
a universal feature.
Water: was essential to the garden to suggest coolness
both by sight and sound.
Parterre: A carpet of low clipped box lacking the varied
interest of colored flowers was designed in pattern form,
and generally placed to be looked upon from above.
Framed Views, Limiting the lateral vision in view
greatly increases the effect, of which the simplest
example is the cypress approach to the house.
Perspective the effect in 3D naturally governs the plan
of every garden, but often advantage was deliberately
taken of perspective to increase the dramatic qualities of
view.
The elements formed the essential elements of
Renaissance landscape.
Renaissance Landscape
Michelozzo Michelozzi o the other hand. Built many of the Medici villas that sprang up in
consequence of the sudden rise of his family to power. The country villa was namely designed for
recreation activities and renaissance landscape contributed through its design to these activities.

Villandry
Palace
Gardens
Antonio Gambello’s arsenal entrance Venice 1460, Stepped Garden Villa Lante Bagnaia 1566
Spanish Steps, Rome, Francesco de
Sanctis
Lord Burlington (1694-1753) put together a group of architects
who took the work of Palladio as a model. Lord Burlington
and William Kent built a villa near London—The Chiswick
House.
The statues are attributed to the Flemish sculptor John Michael Rysbrack
(1694-1770); Burlington's two favorite architects stand on either side of the
portico--Andrea Palladio on the left and Inigo Jones on the right. Hewlings
comments that "they are there to guide the visitor, as Virgil guided Dante. At
Chiswick, however, it is not the underworld to which they are the guide, but
the ancient world" (3). Hewlings himself provides an exhaustive catalog of
Chiswick's numerous potential borrowings and quotations from ancient
buildings, his thesis being that Burlington is much more indebted to ancient
architecture than he is to Palladio's practice.
Holkham Hall

In support of the revival of

Classicism Thomas Coke, the
Earl of Leicester
commissioned Burlington
and Kent to built Holkham
Hall in Norfolk in 1734. The
house was fashioned after
antique Roman Brick. The
house was planned with a
central rectangular block,
which represented a
Palladian portico entrance.
On either side of the main
block to the front and back,
connected by a short low
recessed links, stand four
rectangular blocks. As a plan,
it represents a valid extension
of Palladio’s service wings.
Simply repeated so as to face
the back as well as the front.
Yet the entrance hall is almost
Baroque in its spaces.
The house had been commissioned to
exhibit Coke’s collection of antiquities.
The hall is on two levels with an apse like
gallery round the inner end. This is
reached by a staircase of white marble, a
red carpet like a velvet train leads the way.
Brown on white Derbyshire alabaster
pillars based on the Temple of Fortuna
Virilis in Rome rise from this gallery level
to support an extra ordinary coved ceiling
which because it turns into the apse in a
half cup shape, reflects to some extent the
curious form of the staircase.
After the 1770’s there was scarcely an Adam house
that did not have an Etruscan room. His Roman
rooms show deeper color gilt and marbles on pillars
and flooring in black, dark green and terracotta. The
marble columns around the walls of the ante-room
in Syon house London remodeled in 1762 were
Roman originals dredged out of the River Tiber to
support a decorated cornice carrying golden Greek
Figures. By the end of the 18th century Edinburgh
had become home to Greek revival.
Leonardo Da Vinci 1452-1519
His proportions of the idealized body became a measure of the
Renaissance. Da Vinci was involved in many disciplines
therefore much of his work was never completed. Many of
his sketches have been duplicated due to their value for
visitors to see in different museums. Among his painting
works are the Last Super 1513-6, Virgin and Child, Mona
Lisa, war machines, flying machines, bicycles and anatomy.
Michelangelo Buonarroti 1475-1564
Best known for his Last Judgment Day painting Michelangelo
had the ability to bring life to his art figures. His work on the
Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel displays superb
human beauty, dynamic energy and fantasy. His ability to
envision and depict new shapes and creatures within a
sense of reason and civility rather than fear and religious
domination brought him strong criticism from religious
figures who accused him of Paganism. St. Peters dome in
1546 spanned 42m designed by Michelangelo, built by
Giacomo della Porta marks the pinnacle of High
Renaissance architecture.
Da Vinci’s Sketches and Battle of Anghiari
The last Super-Da Vinci --The Sistine Chapel Michelangelo
Michael
Angelo’s
Pieta
 Louvre Version London Version

Leonardo da Vinci Virgin of the Rocks.

Raffael School of
Athens and La
Disputa
Michelangelo’s Dome St. Peter’s
Rome 1506-1629
Plans
• Plan /symmetry proportions, based on modeling
The plans of Renaissance buildings have a square, symmetrical appearance in which
proportions are usually based on a module.

Basilica Palace Villa

Pilasters
• A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column
built into or applied to the face of a wall.

• Most commonly flattened or rectangular

in form, pilasters can also take a half-
round form or the shape of any type of
column.
Furniture
Furniture
• Renaissance gardens formed utopias allowed freedom from conventions and sense of return
to origins. In the late 18th century these spaces were also explored as territories of practical
exploration of human nature, Chinese pagodas and Turkish tents, primitive huts reacted to
studies of human psychology in its request for an exotic ‘Other’. Studies between physical
objects and mental status opened new horizons on how architecture conveyed meaning,
construction of the human subject and cumulative experiences in relation to the capacity of
memory. Irregular gardens formed sites of exploration between the natural realm and inner
mental states. The picturesque pioneered in garden design.
The winding path introduced sequence and
thus delay, expectation and revelation,
enhancing narrative qualities and self
discovery. Pope’s houses at
Twickenham (1719-20) and Walpoles at
Strawberry hill (1749). Reciprocal views
allowed the building to appear from
different views and to be juxtaposed with
new objects and settings. With the
growing spectrum of historical styles in
pavilions or follies the garden became
place of cultural relativism and
exploration of the truths of nature. For
Jean Marie Morel (1728-94) who worked
at Ermenonville ‘Water is to the
landscape as the soul is to the body’
(Theory of Gardens of 1776) The three
most famous and best preserved
landscape gardens are

Stourhead in England (1744-56)

Ermenonville in France (1766-70)
Worlitz in Germany (1728-1810)