Italian Renaissance

• The Renaissance in Italy geographically includes the cities of Florence, Rome, and Venice
• The main attributes are:

  • Stateliness
  • Classical Horizontality
• Plans are:

  • symmetrical
  • compact
  • rectilinear
  • formal
  • grand
• Walls are rusticated and astylar — a facade without columns.
• Wall stone materials are:

  • Pietra Forte - Limestone (exterior)
  • Pietra Serena - Grey Sandstone (interior)
• Arcades have arches supported on piers faced with columns
• Domes were crowned with lanterns
• Low-pitched roofs are hidden by balustrades
• Pilaster strips are vertical, wall-imbedded, column-like elements that separate openings
• Coffered ceilings are 3D ceilings with a series of small, rectangular, square, or octagonal recesses
• Early Renaissance was the era when wealthy Florentines flaunted their money and power by becoming patrons of artists and intellectuals
• The early Renaissance saw people's appreciation of physical beauty and strong concern for human welfare, values, and dignity forming the principle of "Humanism"
• The Medici family dominated Renaissance Florence's political and cultural life — their patronage of the arts turned Florence into a leading center of the Renaissance and allowed artists to focus on their work without having to worry about money
• The Dome of Florence Cathedral was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi — the lantern completed by Michellozzo Michelozzi — and the Bell Tower by Giotto, Andrea Pisano, and Francesco Talenti
• The Florence Cathedral is a blend of a Gothic building and a Renaissance Dome
• In making the dome of Florence Cathedral, Brunelleschi employed a double shell of sandstone and marble — he built the dome with lightweight bricks and didn't use scaffoldings
• Brunelleschi used a herringbone pattern for the bricks in building the outer dome to give additional solidarity — it is the largest brick dome ever constructed
• Sto. Spirito was started by Brunelleschi — leaving the facade unfinished after his death — Antonio Manetti finished the church afterward. Its interior is Brunelleschi's best version of the Renaissance design, showing a linear space with a perfect sense of proportion
• The Basilica of San Lorenzo is the familial church and burial place of the Medici family, who founded its construction — it was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. Its interior bears his trademark of organized geometry and calculated proportion.
• S. Maria Novella was designed by Leon Battista Alberti — it used flanking scrolls to connect the aisles and nave
• Palazzo Pitti was bought by the Medicis from Luca Pitti, a Florentine banker. It became the chief residence of the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany — it is astylar and is the largest palace in Italy
• Palazzo Pitti has a cortile — an enclosed, typically roofless, and arcaded area within or attached to a building — and its gardens
• Palazzo Medici Riccardi by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo has a Pietra Forte rusticated stone facing — that soon became seen as a status symbol as the materials were costly and rare — artists often left their marks or graffiti on the stones as they took pride in the participation of the building of the structure
• Galleria di Luca Giordano — inside Palazzo Medici Riccardi — is a pompous example of late Baroque art
• Palazzo Strozzi is a piece of civil architecture inspired by the Palazzo Medici — its windows are its most attractive features. It was designed by Benedetto da Majano and Crocana
• Palazzo Rucellai is the first astylar building of the Renaissance — it was designed by Leon Battista Alberti and Bernardo Rosselino
• Villa Mecidi, Poggio a Caiano was designed by Giuliano da Sangallo
• Foundling Hospital (Ospedale Degli Inocenti) was the first of its kind to care for abandoned babies — it has a turnstile door that was constructed to allow people to drop off babies secretly, and still continues to care for abandoned children today. It is a notable example of early Italian Renaissance Architecture by Filippo Brunelleschi
• Palazzo Pandolfini is a Proto-Baroque building that is very roman in style but with a Florentine touch — it was commissioned by Cardinal Nicollo Pandolfini and designed by Raphael Sanzio
• Palazzo Pandolfini has rusticated quoins and high renaissance tabernacle windows
• The Uffizi was designed by Giorgio Vasari for Cosimo de Medici to be used as offices of the Florentine magistrates — the term "Uffizi" means 'offices'
• The Uffizi's top floor was made into a gallery for the family and their guests; it included their collection of Roman sculptures and is one of the best museums in the world — it is home to the world's greatest collection of Italian Renaissance art donated by the Medici family with the agreement that the artifacts do not leave Florence
• The works of Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Fra Angelico, Raphael, El Greco, Durer, and Rubens are among the treasured pieces displayed in the Uffizi's gallery
• Palazzo di Venezia is an early renaissance building by Leon Battista Alberti that has a medieval exterior and a distinctively renaissance interior
• The Ducal Palace, Urbino, was made for Duke Frederico da Montefeltro and involved many artists like Maso di Bartolomeo, Luciano Laurana, among others
• The Studiolo at the Ducal Palace was decorated with over 40 works of art — it has sumptuously decorated cabinets done in wood-inlay technique known as "Intarsia"
• Piazza del Campidoglio is the most successful civic work of Michaelangelo — it was the seat of the Senate and is one of the most perfect examples of Renaissance urban planning — It has influences from the High-Renaissance and Proto-Baroque periods
• Piazza del Campidoglio lay on the summit of Capitoline Hill, the most important of Rome's 7 hills — it is the first modern square to be designed in Rome and is and surrounded by 3 buildings (the Temple of Jupiter, the Temple of Vesta, and the Temple of Concord)
• Piazza del Campidoglio has an oblique arrangement of buildings that creates a trapezoidal space that gives a sense of largeness and perspective — axiality and symmetry govern all parts of the square
• The paving pattern of the Piazza del Campidoglio directs the visitors' eyes to the base of the statue which is the focus and center of the Capitoline disorder