Lecture 1: Renaissance -Antiquity’s Legacy
General Context - Return to the practices and ideas of Classical antiquity
● Mainly roman architecture
Context: Why did the Renaissance emerge in Italy?
Why did the Renaissance happen in Italy?
● Rise of European kingdoms: beginning of great explorations (Africa, Asia, Americas).
● Italy's strategic position between Western Europe and the East → boom in trade
● Wealth based on trade and commerce, not on land ownership.
● Patronage extended from religious powers to secular powers and merchants.
Medici family
● Financing of churches, monasteries, and hospitals.
● Accumulation of ancient manuscripts, works of art, literature, painting, and sculpture.
● Thus, the Renaissance first took root in Italy in the early 15th century.
● It gradually spread, to varying degrees, throughout Europe over the next two centuries.
Context: Humanism
● Humanism frames architecture as a rational, measurable, and culturally meaningful
practice grounded in human experience.
● It places the human body, perception, and reason at the center of architectural design,
emphasizing proportion, geometry, and empirical observation as tools for shaping space
● Humanism was promoted in intellectual circles such as the Florentine Platonic Academy
Vitruvius’s De architectura
● Became foundational for Renaissance architects. The treatise links architecture to:
○ Geometry and proportion (ratio) derived from the human body
○ Symmetry as the correspondence of parts to a coherent whole
○ Primary forms (circle and square) as ordering devices
○ Construction knowledge, including materials, tools, and machines
● Renaissance architects extended Vitruvian principles and Roman construction
techniques to develop a modern architectural language, capable of addressing the
programmatic, technical, and representational demands
● Vitruvius defines the human body as a system of measurable proportions governed by a
module
Early Renaissance
● c. 1420 is the beginning of the early renaissance period
● c.1415-1425 is the development of linear perspective by Fillippo Brunelleschi
○
Reading Notes: Chapter 11, p.287-326
, Lecture 2: Late Renaissance and Mannerism
Context: The discovery of the linear perspective,
Flilippo Brunelleschi
● Was an artist, painter, writer etc.
● Was trained by working (hands on)
● Was the son of a goldsmith (Goldsmith made jewelry, doors(cooper))
● In order to see a space with dept, it was important to understand where you stood
● He created was is now called linear
perspective
● This vanishing point is the element
where the lines of the composition
converge: Three elements are
therefore essential to the system of
linear perspective:
○ A horizon line
○ Orthogonals (parallel lines)
○ A vanishing point
● In this type of composition, objects will appear further away from the viewer as they
decrease in size as they approach the vanishing point.
● This effect is regulated by the orthogonal lines that organize the space and dictate the
scale and proportion of the objects
Context: Line Perspective
Leon Battista Alberti
● In his book Della Pittura (1435), he focused on the image and explains how linear
perspective imposes geometric order on the visual world through the geometry of the
cone of vision
● Educated in law, languages, mathematics, philosophy.
● Worked in Papal Chancery.
● Studied ancient texts and ruins.
Early Renaissance: Geometry, proportion, module
Ospedale degli Innocenti, Foundling Hospital (Florence, 1421-1444)
● Was an orphanage
● The idea of the module was incorporated throughout this building
● This building incorporates cantilever (floating ceilings)
● The building features a loggia with a series of round arches supported by slender
columns
● Brunelleschi applied classical proportions and modular design in the façade and arcade
Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore
● Built during the medieval times
● Architect - Filippo Brunelleschi
, ● This building stood for a long time without ceiling or
● Brunelleschi used geometrically precise modules to determine the size of bricks, ribs,
and rings, ensuring structural harmony.
● The octagonal base and ribs were carefully proportioned according to these modules,
allowing the massive dome to be built without traditional centering
● He proposed to use a dome structure to cover the top proportion of the building (dome
over an octagonal base)
● Designed a wood structure first (the skeleton of the dome)
● The bricks were laid in a herring bone pattern
● Brunelleschi applied Renaissance mathematical ratios (similar to those used by Alberti)
to ensure visual harmony and structural stability.
San Lorenzo
● Florence, ca. 1421
● Filippo Brunelleschi
● This building was sponsored by the Medici
Families and Florentine bankers
● Was a Monastery
● The focus of this building was transcending
● The plan is based on the square module: simple
clear, and legible
● Crossing as a repeated module for the choir and
transepts
● Modules divided for side aisles and side chapels
● Interior - Basilican plan (recall of early christian
basilicas)
○ Monolithic columns with corinthian capitals
○ Semi-circular arches
○ Coffered ceilings
● Capitulum: cubic block, often decorated, placed between the capital of a column and
the arch resting on it, serving as an aesthetic and technical transition to distribute the
weight of the arches
● Assimilates the classical language in order to reinterpret it with a Renaissance
framework
Santa Maria Novella
● Leon Battista Alberti, 1456-1470
● Problem with the basilica layout: central nave higher
than the side aisles, which need to be visually unified
● The medieval facade was later transformed into a
harmonious Renaissance-style elevation
● Lateral volutes creating the illusion of a continuous
façade
● Pilasters with bands replace traditional columns.
, ● By introducing scrolls above the façades of the lateral aisles to mask their shed roofs
and visually link them to the higher nave.
● By using a pedimented temple form to conceal the gable-roofed nave
● combining two classical motifs: the temple façade and the triumphal arch
Palazzo Rucellai
● Florence, 1446-1451
● Leon Battista Alberti
● The work of Alberti was to give this palace a unified look
● Stacked Orders/Supercolumniation (Like the colosseum)
○ Tuscan order (Rustication - made out big or large blocks), Entablature, Ionic
order, Corinthian order
○ Square windows
○ Post and lintel construction
● Typical Palace with inner courtyard
● Single facade unified seven buildings (1428-1458)
● Building was inspired by Ancient Rome (Reflects Rucellai’s prestige)
● Hierarchy
● Intellectual display of classical knowledge
Palazzo Medici
● Florence, Began in 1444
● Michelozzo Bartolomeo
● Private palace; ground-floor arches originally open for banking (closed 16th c.)
● Three stories, ten bays wide; each story treated differently
● Ground: rusticated stone, fortress-like (Covered family space)
● Second: dressed stone with pronounced joints (Hallway w/ Biforate windows)
● Third: flush joints, lighter effect; stories decrease in height (Open air loggia gallery)
● Lack of symmetry
● Was a courtyard-centered plan (Roman Insula tradition)
High Renaissance
Tempietto,
● Montorio, Rome, 1502
● Donato Bramante
● Was designed with the pantheon in mind
● Marked site where St. Peter was believed to be
crucified
● Considered a perfect Renaissance centralized plan;
no projecting features
● Main geometry: cylinder + hemispherical dome
● First Renaissance use of Roman Doric order with
correct proportions, metopes & triglyphs (cella
(core))
Sant’Andrea
General Context - Return to the practices and ideas of Classical antiquity
● Mainly roman architecture
Context: Why did the Renaissance emerge in Italy?
Why did the Renaissance happen in Italy?
● Rise of European kingdoms: beginning of great explorations (Africa, Asia, Americas).
● Italy's strategic position between Western Europe and the East → boom in trade
● Wealth based on trade and commerce, not on land ownership.
● Patronage extended from religious powers to secular powers and merchants.
Medici family
● Financing of churches, monasteries, and hospitals.
● Accumulation of ancient manuscripts, works of art, literature, painting, and sculpture.
● Thus, the Renaissance first took root in Italy in the early 15th century.
● It gradually spread, to varying degrees, throughout Europe over the next two centuries.
Context: Humanism
● Humanism frames architecture as a rational, measurable, and culturally meaningful
practice grounded in human experience.
● It places the human body, perception, and reason at the center of architectural design,
emphasizing proportion, geometry, and empirical observation as tools for shaping space
● Humanism was promoted in intellectual circles such as the Florentine Platonic Academy
Vitruvius’s De architectura
● Became foundational for Renaissance architects. The treatise links architecture to:
○ Geometry and proportion (ratio) derived from the human body
○ Symmetry as the correspondence of parts to a coherent whole
○ Primary forms (circle and square) as ordering devices
○ Construction knowledge, including materials, tools, and machines
● Renaissance architects extended Vitruvian principles and Roman construction
techniques to develop a modern architectural language, capable of addressing the
programmatic, technical, and representational demands
● Vitruvius defines the human body as a system of measurable proportions governed by a
module
Early Renaissance
● c. 1420 is the beginning of the early renaissance period
● c.1415-1425 is the development of linear perspective by Fillippo Brunelleschi
○
Reading Notes: Chapter 11, p.287-326
, Lecture 2: Late Renaissance and Mannerism
Context: The discovery of the linear perspective,
Flilippo Brunelleschi
● Was an artist, painter, writer etc.
● Was trained by working (hands on)
● Was the son of a goldsmith (Goldsmith made jewelry, doors(cooper))
● In order to see a space with dept, it was important to understand where you stood
● He created was is now called linear
perspective
● This vanishing point is the element
where the lines of the composition
converge: Three elements are
therefore essential to the system of
linear perspective:
○ A horizon line
○ Orthogonals (parallel lines)
○ A vanishing point
● In this type of composition, objects will appear further away from the viewer as they
decrease in size as they approach the vanishing point.
● This effect is regulated by the orthogonal lines that organize the space and dictate the
scale and proportion of the objects
Context: Line Perspective
Leon Battista Alberti
● In his book Della Pittura (1435), he focused on the image and explains how linear
perspective imposes geometric order on the visual world through the geometry of the
cone of vision
● Educated in law, languages, mathematics, philosophy.
● Worked in Papal Chancery.
● Studied ancient texts and ruins.
Early Renaissance: Geometry, proportion, module
Ospedale degli Innocenti, Foundling Hospital (Florence, 1421-1444)
● Was an orphanage
● The idea of the module was incorporated throughout this building
● This building incorporates cantilever (floating ceilings)
● The building features a loggia with a series of round arches supported by slender
columns
● Brunelleschi applied classical proportions and modular design in the façade and arcade
Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore
● Built during the medieval times
● Architect - Filippo Brunelleschi
, ● This building stood for a long time without ceiling or
● Brunelleschi used geometrically precise modules to determine the size of bricks, ribs,
and rings, ensuring structural harmony.
● The octagonal base and ribs were carefully proportioned according to these modules,
allowing the massive dome to be built without traditional centering
● He proposed to use a dome structure to cover the top proportion of the building (dome
over an octagonal base)
● Designed a wood structure first (the skeleton of the dome)
● The bricks were laid in a herring bone pattern
● Brunelleschi applied Renaissance mathematical ratios (similar to those used by Alberti)
to ensure visual harmony and structural stability.
San Lorenzo
● Florence, ca. 1421
● Filippo Brunelleschi
● This building was sponsored by the Medici
Families and Florentine bankers
● Was a Monastery
● The focus of this building was transcending
● The plan is based on the square module: simple
clear, and legible
● Crossing as a repeated module for the choir and
transepts
● Modules divided for side aisles and side chapels
● Interior - Basilican plan (recall of early christian
basilicas)
○ Monolithic columns with corinthian capitals
○ Semi-circular arches
○ Coffered ceilings
● Capitulum: cubic block, often decorated, placed between the capital of a column and
the arch resting on it, serving as an aesthetic and technical transition to distribute the
weight of the arches
● Assimilates the classical language in order to reinterpret it with a Renaissance
framework
Santa Maria Novella
● Leon Battista Alberti, 1456-1470
● Problem with the basilica layout: central nave higher
than the side aisles, which need to be visually unified
● The medieval facade was later transformed into a
harmonious Renaissance-style elevation
● Lateral volutes creating the illusion of a continuous
façade
● Pilasters with bands replace traditional columns.
, ● By introducing scrolls above the façades of the lateral aisles to mask their shed roofs
and visually link them to the higher nave.
● By using a pedimented temple form to conceal the gable-roofed nave
● combining two classical motifs: the temple façade and the triumphal arch
Palazzo Rucellai
● Florence, 1446-1451
● Leon Battista Alberti
● The work of Alberti was to give this palace a unified look
● Stacked Orders/Supercolumniation (Like the colosseum)
○ Tuscan order (Rustication - made out big or large blocks), Entablature, Ionic
order, Corinthian order
○ Square windows
○ Post and lintel construction
● Typical Palace with inner courtyard
● Single facade unified seven buildings (1428-1458)
● Building was inspired by Ancient Rome (Reflects Rucellai’s prestige)
● Hierarchy
● Intellectual display of classical knowledge
Palazzo Medici
● Florence, Began in 1444
● Michelozzo Bartolomeo
● Private palace; ground-floor arches originally open for banking (closed 16th c.)
● Three stories, ten bays wide; each story treated differently
● Ground: rusticated stone, fortress-like (Covered family space)
● Second: dressed stone with pronounced joints (Hallway w/ Biforate windows)
● Third: flush joints, lighter effect; stories decrease in height (Open air loggia gallery)
● Lack of symmetry
● Was a courtyard-centered plan (Roman Insula tradition)
High Renaissance
Tempietto,
● Montorio, Rome, 1502
● Donato Bramante
● Was designed with the pantheon in mind
● Marked site where St. Peter was believed to be
crucified
● Considered a perfect Renaissance centralized plan;
no projecting features
● Main geometry: cylinder + hemispherical dome
● First Renaissance use of Roman Doric order with
correct proportions, metopes & triglyphs (cella
(core))
Sant’Andrea
