Italian Renaissance Urban Domestic Architecture - Research Paper Example

 Abstract Table of Contents List of Illustrations Chapter 1 – Introduction Introduction Depending on time period and place, the definition of art has meant different things to different people. For example, most people today recognize the term ‘Renaissance’ as meaning a specific time period in Western European culture which happened roughly between the years 1400 and 1600, having its start earlier in the major city-states of Italy and characterized by a tremendous explosion in art and architectural innovation. “The term ‘Renaissance’ might now be defined as a model of cultural history in which the culture of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe is represented as a repudiation of medieval values in favor of the revival of the culture of ancient Greece and Rome” (Campbell, 2004: v-vi). This suggests that the definition of art that emerged during the Renaissance differed significantly from the accepted definitions applied to art during the Middle Ages. However, the word ‘Renaissance’ itself means, literally, “rebirth” and it was applied to the ideas of artistic renewal that took place in this time period as the people of Italy and other nations began rediscovering the skill of the ancient world that represented for them a golden age of shared culture, reason and creativity. This renewal and rebirth is said to have taken place in all the arts, including the ultimate expression of art, architecture. As the structural ruins of the ancient world were being rediscovered and the principles of science were again coming to light heading into the 1400s, the Italian Renaissance was born. The focus provided during the Renaissance did have a quite different approach from the approach of their predecessors, as the art created during the Renaissance reflected ancient myths and legends as well as contemporary thought and Christian ideals. As the church simultaneously underwent a period of Reformation, rejecting the focus on material splendors, such as the gold-plated iconography, and turning instead to its simpler, purer early forms, many artists during the Renaissance found themselves pulled between Christianity and paganism, heaven and earth, and found a way to express this conflict in the magnificent works of art and architecture they produced. The artists of the Italian Renaissance were given greater abilities to communicate with their audiences not only in subject matter and the application of scientific principles, but also in that they were working with a more educated audience capable of understanding the finer nuances of these works. Aims and Objectives The influences of the ancient Greeks and Romans on the development of visual art in the form of paintings and sculpture during the Italian Renaissance have been well-documented. However, the influences that had an affect on the artists were also available to influence the businessmen and others within cities such as Florence and Milan. As the knowledge and scientific concepts of the ancients became disseminated through these communities, it becomes necessary to question the degree to which these innovations were the result of the influence of the past as opposed to the increased awareness of the populace. Perhaps these individuals, the artists and architects, were merely reacting to a greater educated public, the dawning of new scientific ideas rather than old ideas. The process of architectural theory, as we know from modern study, is a continuous process. The concept of architectural theory is not the straight-forward concept one might expect if one were discussing the concept of a triangle or the shape of a box. Simply looking at a single building reveals that there is no one way to approach the topic and no single ‘right’ answer to the idea of what informed a particular piece. There are a number of theories regarding what is architecture and they continue to change with time, material, usage of the structure and so forth. The ideas of architectural theory depend strongly upon who is doing the writing, what their objectives are in writing it and how well they work to illustrate with examples the ideas they are attempting to bring forward. In addition, architectural theory can be seen to rely to a great degree upon the ideas and directions informing artistic movements as they are both affected by and serve to build upon existing theory and conceptions. This suggests many of the architectural developments that took place during the Renaissance may have simply been influenced by the energy of the day rather than the inspirations of the classics. The primary question of this study, then, is what evidence exists that illustrates that antiquity was highly influential on Italian Renaissance architecture? Or to put it another way, what indications exist that suggest the artists and architects of the Renaissance were inspired by the classical examples that were coming to light? Objectives To attempt to determine to what degree antiquity influenced the urban architecture of the Italian Renaissance, I intend to provide a clear definition of the Italian Renaissance period that will be covered by this study and some conceptions of architectural theory as it is understood today as it pertains to the relationship between architects and ideas of the age. To determine the answer to the primary research question, several smaller questions will need to be addressed: 1. What are some of the major architectural theories that might provide some assistance in understanding how to trace influences through the finished designs of Italian Renaissance architects? 2. What are some of the common characteristics, new innovations or social advances that were made during this period in time? By identifying these, perhaps the influences behind these ideas and innovations might be traced to determine whether they were simply practical developments made over time or developments as a direct result of studying the ancients. 3. What were some of the influential ideas of antiquity that were rediscovered in the Renaissance? 4. What was the influence of the contemporary wealthy or contemporary attitudes toward wealth? Were the wealthy overly influential on the final designs of the artists? What influences were at work on the patrons of artists and architects? 5. Who were some of the major architects of the period and what are some examples of their work? Structure The study will be divided into chapters that each attempt to answer one of the sub-questions listed above. Chapter two will be devoted to architectural theory. It will introduce basic theory that helps to inform further discussion regarding how one might begin tracing influences upon architectural design. The relationships between architectural features, architectural design and the prevalent ideas of the culture in which it is designed will comprise a great deal of the study and these concepts must be clearly understood from the outset. Chapter three will more clearly define what is meant by the term Italian Renaissance as it is used within the study. As a part of this definition, a brief history of the period, beginning in approximately 1300 with the earliest traces of the Italian Renaissance and moving into the 1600s and the end of the period, will be included. Major characteristics of the period, new innovations and social elements will also be included as necessary elements in attempting to answer the research question. Chapter four will turn its attention to the major influential ideas of antiquity that are traced into the Renaissance. These are primarily evident in concepts of mathematics and geometry, symmetry and functional simplicity. With a clear understanding of the ideas of the Renaissance as compared with the ideas of antiquity, it is then possible to turn attention over to the people. Chapter five will investigate the influence the wealthy had on the ultimate design of the structures erected. Art and architecture in the Renaissance was necessarily influenced to a great deal by the wealthy members of society. The importance of this concept is better understood when comparing the influences of the Middle Ages, mostly coming from the church, with those of the Renaissance, coming from more secular sources and begins to enlighten understanding of changes in design over time. This understanding may facilitate more accurate assessment of influences. This will necessarily include an understanding of the patrons in general, the influence or influence upon the Pope and a case study of the Palazzo de Medici as an example of how patrons might influence final design. Chapter six will investigate several of the Renaissance’s most influential architects and their projects. These include Brunelleschi and the Ospedale degli Innocenti, Alberti and the façade of the Santa Maria Novella, Bramante and the San Satiro and da Sangallo the younger with his design of the Farnese Palace. The findings of the above chapters will be brought together in chapter seven. Having discovered answers to the various sub-questions posted above, this chapter will pull these answers together in a conclusion that attempts to answer the primary research question as to how much the knowledge and skills of antiquity influenced Renaissance architectural design. Evidence of increased mathematical application to design, symmetrical structures and a decrease in embellishment simply for appearance sake may be more confidently stated with historical perspective. Chapter 2 – Architectural Theory Whether we wish to acknowledge it or not, there is a great deal of truth in the statement, “architecture is the unavoidable art” (Roth, 1993: 3) as we continue to exist and grow within a constructed space. Not surprisingly, then, the process of architectural theory is a continuous process. As Roth explains, “architecture is the chambered nautilus shell of the human species; it is the environment we build for ourselves, and which, as we grow in experience and knowledge, we change and adapt to our expanded condition. If we wish to understand ourselves, we must take care not to eliminate the ‘shell’ of our past, for it is the physical record of our aspirations and achievements” (Roth, 1993: 3). This is a particularly apt analogy as the oldest segment of the nautilus shell can be found in its central core. Thus, Roth suggests architectural knowledge of any type necessarily builds on the work of the past which remains forever embedded within the framework of the present. While this suggests the antiquities must have had an influence on the Renaissance architects, it does not necessarily follow that the theories of antiquity were the profound influence bringing about the explosion of design that occurred during the Renaissance period. An understanding of the difficulty of attempting to trace the theory of the period might be better understood by looking more at the contemporary example. Today, there are a number of theories regarding what is architecture and they continue to change with time, material, usage of the structure and so forth. As a result, architectural theory is difficult to pin down. “The majority of programs that purport to be theories of architecture seek to combine aesthetic, social and practical considerations in an integrated whole; the emphasis being either theoretical or practical, according to whether the author is an architect himself, and on whom he is writing for” (Kruft, 1994: 14). This suggests that there are as many theories today as there are architects and that this rule of thumb is as applicable to the past as it is to today. If they were fewer in number in antiquity, this is perhaps more attributable to the more limited number of architects and materials than any other factor. With increasing regularity beginning in the Renaissance, architects began recording their theory for future generations of builders, continuing to contribute to developing thought long after physical death. These discussions necessarily reveal their own influences. Most of these turn, as do many architects today, to the wisdom of the ancients, particularly one Roman architect who went by the name of Vitruvius. Vitruvius was an artillery engineer working during the reign of the first Roman emperor Augustus. However, his importance to history was as an architect and an author. “His ten books on architecture, De Architectura (trans. 1914), are the oldest surviving work on the subject. They consist of dissertations on a wide variety of subjects relating to architecture, engineering, sanitation, practical hydraulics, acoustic vases, and the like. Much of the material appears to have been taken from earlier extinct treatises by Greek architects” (Calter, 1998). In these volumes, Vitruvius provides us with three basic elements of design that must be considered when attempting to understand architecture. These same basic elements have been used since the Renaissance as a means of understanding architecture, but seem to have been unknown during the Middle Ages. These elements include utility, flexibility and beauty. “By utility, Vitruvius means the functional arrangement of rooms and spaces so that there is no hindrance to use and so that a building is perfectly adjusted to its site. Firmness referred to foundations that were solid and to building materials being used wisely to do their required work. Beauty meant that ‘the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste, and [that] its members are in due proportion according to correct principles of symmetry” (Roth, 1993: 11). These definitions have within them tremendous flexibility and shifting emphasis. What comprises the ‘functional arrangement of rooms and spaces’ changes as a result of structural purposes, uses, social customs in engaging in these types of activities and a host of other variables. Building materials have also changed over the years with advances in technology and the creation of processes that accommodate new ideas. Beauty is defined as something ‘pleasing and in good taste’ yet these concepts also shift from one population to another and from one individual to another. What this discussion should make clear is that part of the reason for the shifting definition of architectural theory is not only due to changes in materials, social thought, structure purpose and other practical considerations, but is also based upon the shifting ideas and innovations of new architects entering the field, building upon these ideas and contributing their own voice to the concept. This suggests that while the ideas of antiquity may have had influence upon the architects of the Renaissance, they were undoubtedly building off of each other as much as they were building on the ideas of the past. This theory was able to find expression and development to greater degrees as a result of the greater education available to the general public during this period. As Thoenes (2003) illustrates, it is primarily through the architect’s ability to translate his ideas into written arguments for a specific design element or spatial allocation that the various individuals involved in the planning were able to participate in the design. Those actually participating in the construction had to understand which columns were load-bearing and which were merely decorative, for instance, while financiers needed to understand the functional element of extraneous decorative elements before handing over money for higher grade materials or other elements. As the necessity for writing about architecture became more and more developed, new architects of the succeeding generation were able to learn from these examples and discussions and develop their own ideas regarding what worked, what didn’t and how various elements of the architectural thought worked in with the elements of art history and political-social needs. Chapter 3 – Italian Renaissance The Renaissance was a time of tremendous change and growth. The long-dusty ideas of the past, grounded in tradition and defying attempts at progressive thought, were being shaken out, dusted off examined and, in many cases, thrown out with the rest of the garbage. The great societal shifts that were taking place during this period in history saw a tremendous shift in the economic base from one based upon agriculture and its products to one based on the town market and produced consumer goods. It was also a time when a shift was started in the long-held class systems from that of feudal organization made up of the traditionally wealthy and the barely recognized desperately poor to one consisting of a greater stratification of wealth and prestige, in which social mobility was possible with little more than a ready mind and a willingness to make the attempt. According to Stephen Greenblatt (1997), “This is a world in which outward appearance is everything and nothing, in which individuation is at once sharply etched and continually blurred, in which the victims of fate are haunted by the ghosts of the possible, in which everything is simultaneously as it must be and as it need not have been” (60). The Renaissance period is characterized primarily by a philosophical focus on humanism. As the church began to lose its stranglehold on society and learning, a new philosophy was gaining ground. Humanism is basically a secular worldview which holds that nature is all there is. In its strictest interpretation, this worldview does not allow for the existence of God, therefore man is left to construct morality for himself in order to establish civilized, ethical culture and society. However, during the Renaissance, giving up the idea of God was perhaps beyond the realm of the possible for a society still so closely related to the church. Instead, the role of God has shifted in emphasis nearly from the beginning of the period. Petrarch’s humanism held that all people were essentially equal in God-given graces and that these graces were best explored through the arts, philosophy and the works of the ancient Greeks and Romans (de Bracton, 1994). Under this vision, this entailed the provision of public services to bring these arts to the common people and worked somewhat against the teachings of the church in that it assumed that people were provided with certain rights regardless of whether they had promised themselves to God through the church. Throughout this entire period, Humanism as an ideology was being developed and promoted through a variety of thinkers. “Renaissance Humanists placed great emphasis upon the dignity of man and upon the expanded possibility of human life in this world” (“General Characteristics”, 2000). The values of this movement held that men should be involved in the world they lived in. “Individual achievement, breadth of knowledge and personal aspirations were valued” (“General Characteristics”, 2000). Desiderius Erasmus was a Dutch humanist who wrote during this period about the essential humanistic element of true Christian worship, that blind faith or simply following the outward expressions of the church was not sufficient for a true faith. He urged for a sincere approach to study and religion based on sound principles and a desire for righteousness. “The chief evil of the day, he says, is formalism, a respect for traditions, a regard for what other people think essential, but never a thought of what the true teaching of Christ may be” (“Erasmus”, 2003). Within this philosophy can be seen the emphasis on individualism as each person was asked to define the world for himself as well as the reasons why definitions were blurred as these various opinions were compared and contrasted, yet all held to have equal validity. As the artists and designers of the Renaissance looked around at their surroundings for examples of naturalism and a focus on the human element, they had to notice the ancient ruins that stood all around them representing a completely different approach to life than that which they had grown accustomed to under the church. Artists of Renaissance Florence quickly linked the mathematical focus of the ancient Greeks and Romans to the geometric and arithmetic, or proportional, focus of their own world as a common factor in both creating great works of art as well as communicating to their audience on an immediate basis. “In an age of non-standard shipping units, one had to be able to calculate contents and quantities of shipments fairly rapidly” (Lemaitre & Lessing, 1993: 15). Painters and other artists used this foundational knowledge in geometry to present objects and elements in their work that would be familiar to the average viewer and immediately underscore the message being portrayed. “In the same way that a painter could reduce the human form or settings to a play of geometrical figures, so could the merchant simplify all things to geometrical configurations” (Lemaitre & Lessing, 1993: 15). In combining mathematics with artistic expression, artists were able to incorporate a new degree of weight and volume to their figures, which made them take a more direct examination of the world around them. This, in turn, led to the systematic development of the naturalism and realism that emerged during this period, mostly in the area of paintings. Henceforth, the surrounding world was to be represented as it appeared to the eye. To this end, a new basis to pictorial composition was given through the invention of linear perspective, a system according to which vision was organized along straight lines, such that parallel lines running in the same direction in space seem to converge at a single point on the horizon. … Depth was suggested by depicting the progressive decrease in the size of objects and figures as their distance from the observer increases – an illusion which in painting becomes truth. (Lemaitre & Lessing, 1993: 17). This new approach to pictorial representation led to an explosion in artists under the support and direction of wealthy merchants and bankers as patrons. Just as in painting, the ways in which the Italians went about developing their talents in the molding of stone and other hard materials were based on the knowledge of the ancients, but modified significantly by their own world view. Growing naturally out of the fascination with ancient artifacts and using these as study guides, it was perhaps also natural that sculpture was the first of the art forms to begin displaying characteristics of the Renaissance period, often influencing painting more than the other way around. Sculptors worked diligently to ensure that they had reached the correct mathematical proportions within their figures, such as in representing the human body, but they didn’t stick to just a straightforward rendition of the perfect form as the Greeks and Romans had. Although these artists were keenly observant of natural phenomena, they also tended to extrapolate general rules from specific appearances. Similarly, they made an effort to go beyond straightforward transcription of nature, to instill the work of art with ideal, intangible qualities, endowing it with a beauty and significance greater and more permanent than that actually found in nature. These characteristics – the rendering of ideal forms rather than literal appearance and the concept of the physical world as the vehicle or imperfect embodiment of monumental spiritual beauty – were to remain fundamental to the nature and development of Italian Renaissance art. (Pioch, 2002). This desire to make the sculpture speak on this alternate level led to the gradual development of more sophisticated approaches to sculpture, including the creation of more classical subjects which led to explorations into contrapposto and the eventual elimination of architectural supports. Contrapposto refers to the artistic technique of representing the natural balance of the human body by bending the hips in one direction while the legs are bent in another direction and the body’s weight is balanced on one foot (Campbell, 2004, p. 62). The emerging ideals of art and architecture in 15th century Italy led to the acceptance of the knowledge contained in remnants of classical antiquity, such as the concept that mankind was a measurable component of the universe. This idea and return to classical architecture put an end to the gothic styles that preceded the Renaissance. The city’s major architectural landmarks were built during the 14th century, or Trecento … Florence was graced then with two new churches of the mendicant orders – Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella – the proud and severe fortified Palazzo Vecchio, and the Podesta Palace, or Bargello, all of which were built according to the same principle. … The cathedral – ‘the finest and noblest church in Tuscany’ – built under the direction of Arnolfo di Cambio, already towered above the rooftops, yet remained without a dome (Lemaitre & Lessing, 1993: 10). As has been traced in the paintings and sculptures coming out of the Renaissance, the classical ideals were given a modern twist with the resurgence of interest in Renaissance Italy. The houses built in this time are marked by a certain commonsense simplicity, but they are also marked with an attention to beautiful details that serve to hide the bulk of the structure itself (“Renaissance Art”, 2005). The particular characteristics of Renaissance architecture include an attention given to the regularity and clarity of the various parts, the inclusion of specific yet simple mathematical proportions and a deliberate emphasis on a renewal of old Roman architectural styles in the form of columns, hemispherical domes, geometrically flawless designs and symmetry. While many of these innovations can be found in other countries throughout Europe, they appear in Italy first, perhaps not coincidentally the land with the greatest number of surviving Greek and Roman ruins. This becomes clearer through an investigation into the more influential ideas that were passed down to the scholars of the Renaissance through resurrected writings of the ancients as well as through the remainders of what they constructed. Chapter 4 – Influential ideas of antiquity Much of the progress of the Renaissance is attributed to the mathematical advances reached by the ancients and only brought back into the general educated public with the advance of humanistic thought and learning. As more and more individuals began studying the ancient buildings, it was noticed that they presented almost perfect symmetry in their design and construction and that they offered a functional simplicity that remained focused on the expected use of the structure. Each of these elements will be examined individually. Mathematics and geometry The particular characteristics of Renaissance architecture include an attention given to the regularity and clarity of the various parts, the inclusion of specific yet simple mathematical proportions and a deliberate emphasis on a renewal of old Roman architectural styles in the form of columns, hemispherical domes, geometrically flawless designs and symmetry. Much of this style of architecture is based upon the discovery of the Golden Means, also called the Golden Standard, used throughout antiquity. Symmetry Symmetry in design is especially emphasized throughout the ancient structures of Greece and Rome. Within this segment, several ancient buildings will be examined for their symmetry as well as an examination of whether these principles were truly removed from common practice during the middle periods to be ‘reborn’ in the Renaissance. Functional simplicity In structures such as the Parthenon, which will provide a strong example of ancient architecture, there is a strong emphasis on functional simplicity. The structure is balanced based on careful mathematical principles that take into account the weight of the roof as well as the aesthetics and uses of the final structure. In this design, there seems to be very little evidence for architectural features installed simply for appearance as emerges during the Gothic period. 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