RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE

The term Renaissance, signifying revival, has been given to the style which succeeded the Gothic. It was, to a great extent, a reversion to classic ideals modified to suit modern requirements. Its leading characteristics are simplicity of plan, symmetry of proportion, and massive grandeur of general effect, a minor peculiarity being the lavish use of plaster, not only for surface decoration, but also in some cases for the actual structure of such details as cornices, &c.

The Renaissance style was inaugurated in Italy, where, as already stated, the Gothic never took root, and spread thence to the other countries of Europe, assuming in each country a certain distinctive character of its own in harmony with its environment. In Italian Renaissance ecclesiastical architecture the old basilican plan was revived, the dome became again, as in ancient Rome, the crowning glory of the building, and was combined with horizontal entablatures upheld by columns, with capitals of one or another of the Greek orders, and porticoes with pédiments. In secular Italian Renaissance a very notable feature is the central cortile or courtyard surrounded by open arcades, above which are the principal apartments, of style corresponding with that of the arcades, the round-headed windows being divided from each other by slender pilasters, and the spandrels above them filled in with sculptured ornamentation. The principal façade of Italian palaces was especially ornate, richly decorated courses of stone dividing the stories from each other, in which the fenestration or grouping of the windows was peculiarly effective.

Whereas in the history of mediaeval architecture few names emerge from the obscurity in which those who planned and erected the great cathedrals, churches, and castles were content to remain, in that of Renaissance the individual architect comes to the front, all the designing having been done by him and the whole work carried on under his personal superintendence. In the new movement Florence took the lead, owing the pre-eminence she quickly won to the gifted and versatile Filippo Brunelleschi, who, like so many of his famous contemporaries, was a skilled goldsmith and sculptor before he became an architect. His first work of importance was the dome he added to the unfinished cathedral of his native city, which was soon succeeded by the Churches of S. Spirito and S. Lorenzo, both of which are typical Renaissance buildings, as is also the Puzzi Chapel, on which the architect displayed his wonderful sense of symmetry, combining domes, arches, and lintels with consummate skill.

Fine examples of Renaissance secular architecture in Florence are the Riccardi and Pitti Palaces, both designed by Brunelleschi, but considerably modified after his death, the Rucellai Palace by Alberti, a worthy successor of Brunelleschi, the Guadagni Palace, designed by Bramante, and the Pandolfini, designed by Raphael, the last very characteristic of the mature phase of Italian Renaissance.

It was in Rome that the style reached its noblest development, and the Cathedral of S. Peter’s, on which all the greatest architects of the 16th and 17th centuries were successively employed, affords a unique opportunity for its study. Built on the site of the old basilica of S. Peter, alluded to in the section on Early Christian architecture, what was to become the largest church in the world was begun by Bramante in 1506. His plan, that of a square with four projecting apses, to be covered in with a central and four supplementary domes, was followed until his death in 1514, when the work was carried on by Giuliano da San Gallo, Fra Giacondo and Raphael, who were in favour of certain modifications of the original design, that if carried out would have converted the square into a Latin cross. The withdrawal of San Gallo, and the deaths of Giacondo and Raphael in 1515, led to Baldasarre Peruzzi being appointed architect, and under his auspices the plan was changed to that of a Greek cross. Before his death in 1536 the present south transept and the vaulting, that was to encircle the central dome were finished, and the massive pendentives that were to uphold the latter were begun. The next architect to take up the vast scheme was Antonio da San Gallo, who, could he have obtained the necessary funds, would have added a long pronaos or corridor of approach, to be entered from a domed porch at the western end. In his model the interior of the central portion of the cathedral, with the notable exception of the dome, appears much as it does now, so that with its aid a good idea can be obtained of the state of the building when, in 1546, Michael Angelo was appointed architect in chief, and set the seal of his genius upon a complex creation which was already a reflection of the highest constructive and aesthetic achievement of the golden age of Italian architecture. Reverencing the noble design of Bramante, Michael Angelo left the interior, of which the symmetry of plan and beauty of the many pilasters with their Corinthian capitals are notable characteristics, much as he found it, but though he introduced on the exterior Corinthian pilasters resembling those of the interior, he greatly modified the general aspect of the former by the removal of the projecting chapels and the aisles round the apses. It was in his design for the dome that Michael Angelo achieved his greatest architectural triumph, for without tampering at all with what had already been done by Bramante, he set upon the cylindrical drum that artist had intended to uphold a dome, which was to be a mere reproduction of that of the Pantheon, a magnificent structure of original design which dominates the capital, producing an absolutely unrivalled impression of combined strength, vastness, and symmetry, the eye being irresistibly led up from drum to dome and from dome to lantern. From within the cathedral the effect is scarcely less grand, a wonderful sense of space being conveyed by the soaring vault, that seems to spring heavenwards of its own volition.

Michael Angelo died before his masterpiece was completed, but so far as the dome was concerned his design was carried out, with certain slight modifications, by Giacomo della Porta and Domenico Fontana. Unfortunately, however, the rest of the great architect’s scheme was departed from and its effectiveness destroyed by additions which he would most certainly have condemned. At the suggestion of Pope Pius IV the façade built under Michael Angelo was pulled down and replaced by Maderno with that still in situ, whilst the nave was lengthened out of all proportion to the rest of the building.

In spite of this lamentable mistake, the general effect of the interior is remarkably fine, and is greatly enhanced by the rich colouring of the lavish decoration of every portion, the massive piers and vast arches spanning them, and the vaulted coffered ceilings, all harmonising with and supplementing each other. Moreover, the unhappy result of the substitution of Maderno’s for Michael Angelo’s façade was to some extent neutralised in 1666 by the erection under Bernini of the lofty colonnade encircling the piazza of S. Peter in the simple and dignified Doric style, that forms an appropriate approach to the cathedral.

In the Renaissance palaces of Rome classic details were more closely copied than in Florence, pilasters and arcades forming, in almost every case, the chief decorations of the exteriors. Notable examples are the so-called Venetian Palaces, the Cancellaria designed by Bramante, the Sacchetti by Antonio San Gallo, and, above all, the Farnese, the grandest in the capital, begun by San Gallo and completed by Michael Angelo, with portions of the Vatican, including the Hall of the Belvedere, designed by Bramante.

In Venice, where the Renaissance style was necessarily modified by the peculiar conditions of the lagoon city, good examples of it are the Churches S. Maria dei Miracoli, S. Zaccaria, and S. Maria della Salute, with the palaces of Vendramini, Calergo, Trevisano, and Cornaro, all, however, excelled by the beautiful Palazzo Grimani designed by San Michele and the Library of S. Mark of Sansovino.

At Vicenza the famous architect Palladio erected many noble Renaissance churches, including the Redentore, enclosed the ancient Basilica in grand classic arcades, and designed a great number of fine palaces. In Milan the finest Renaissance structures are the sacristy of S. Maria Presso S. Sabino, the apse of S. Maria della Grazie and the arcaded court of the great Hospital, all designed by Bramante. Near Pavia is the fine Certosa, the façade of which is the work of Ambrogio Borgognoni; Genoa is rich in effective groups of Renaissance palaces after the designs of Alessio, and owns a late Renaissance church ascribed to Puget, and at Verona is the typical Palazzo del Conseglio, built by Fra Giocondo.

It was not until the beginning of the 16th century that the Renaissance style gained a footing in France, and even for some time after that French architects, whilst adopting its main features, clung to certain characteristic Gothic details. This is very notably the case in some of the royal chateaux on the Loire, justly considered the finest secular Renaissance buildings in the country, especially in that of Chambord, which, with a typical Renaissance façade, has a highly pitched roof with soaring pinnacles and pointed-headed dormer windows.

Other fine Early Renaissance French buildings are the wing added by Frances I to the old castle of Blois, famous for its beautiful external spiral staircase, the chateaux of Chenonceaux, Chateaudun, and Azay-lé-Rideau, the Hotel de Ville at Beaugency, the Church of S. Eustache, the Hotel des Invalides, the western portion of the Louvre, and the Luxembourg, all in Paris. To the latest phase of what eventually became almost a national style, belong the Pantheon, the Palais Royal, the College and Church of the Sorbonne, all in Paris; the relics of the noble Chateau built for Richelieu on the site of the great minister’s native village by Lemercier, the Chateau of Ballery in Normandy, the additions to the castle of Blois, the Chateau des Maisons near, and the Church of Val de Grace in Paris, all by Francois Mansard, whose name is associated with a picturesque form of roof invented by him.

In the chateau of Versailles, designed by Jules Mansard, a distant connection of the greater Francois, the first note of the decadence of the Renaissance style was sounded, for well-built and richly decorated though it is, the huge structure is lacking in the dignified grandeur, so distinctive of the buildings enumerated above.

Although it was in Italy and France that European Renaissance architecture achieved its greatest triumphs, some few fine examples of it remain in other countries, including in Spain the great Monastery and Palace of the Escurial near Madrid, the central church of which is especially fine, the Cathedrals of Burgos, Malaga, and Granada, the town halls of Saragossa and Seville, and portions of the Alcazar of Toledo, the convent of Mafra in Portugal, the Town Hall of Antwerp, the Council Halls of Leipzig and Rothenburg, the Cloth Hall of Brunswick, the Castle of Schallenburg, and the Hall of the Belvedere at Prague.

It is unnecessary to refer in detail to the many buildings in Europe in what is known as the Rococo style, of which grotesque and meaningless ornamentation is the chief characteristic, but it must be added that in the early 19th century something like a new classic revival took place on the Continent. The Church of La Madeleine and the Opera House in Paris, the Arco della Pace at Milan, the Royal Theatre at Berlin, the Glyptothex and Pinacothex of Munich, the Walhalla at Ratisbon, the Museum of Dresden, and the Church of S. Isaac at St. Petersburg being notable instances of the skilful way in which Greek details of structure were combined by the best architects with modern requirements.