RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE PART 2

ARC 1424: History of Architecture 3

The Renaissance throughout Europe
To identify Renaissance architecture outside Italy they several features are brought which are:

• Pediments with stone scrolls

• Elaborate Gables
• Cartouches
• Superimposed classical orders
The Renaissance in France

• The Renaissance in France starts at the very end of the 15th century and flourished until the end of the
16th century.
• It is divided into two periods
• Early Renaissance, from the end of the 15th century until about 1530 – centered in Loire Valley
• Mannerism, dating from about 1530 to the end of the 16th century.
• Most of the new architecture was secular, such as the château, which was an offshoot of the medieval
feudal castle combined with the idea of an Italian villa.

Two Leading Architect of the French Renaissance

• Philibert Delorme
• Mindful that French architectural requirements differed from Italian, and respectful of native
materials, he founded his designs on sound engineering principles
• He assimilated the orders of classical architecture and mastered their use by fusing of the orders with
a delicacy of invention, restraint, and harmony characteristic of purest French classicism.
• Jean Bullant
• His works represent the transition from High Renaissance to Mannerist design
 CHÂTEAU DE CHENONCEAUX
Location: Chenonceaux, France
Architect: Philibert De L’orme
Occupancy: Residence
The main part of the chât eau at t he historic Chenonceaux estate was a rectangular block
with four t owers, built on piles in the Cher. River. It was rebuilt between 1513 and 1523, in
a medieval-meets-early-Renaissance manner. De l’Orme’s remarkable contribution was
the building of a slim and graceful new wing over a five-arched bridge across the river.

CHÂTEAU DE CHAMBORD
Location: CHAMBORD, FRANCE
Architect: DOMENICO DA CORTONA
Occupancy: Residence
Brief Description:
The plan of Château de Chambord alludes to medieval castles, complete with deep walls,
gatehouses, and a central keep, and flanked by turrets at each corner capped with conical
roofs. However, the building is adorned with early Renaissance carved stone detailing. the
keep—also known as a “donjon”—features a spectacular double helix stone stair at its heart;

PALAIS DE FONTAINEBLEAU
Location: Near Paris, France
Architect: Gilles Le Breton
Occupancy: Palace
Brief Description:
A rebuilding of an existing palace, it combines Renaissance and French artistic
traditions. The house itself is remarkably sober, given its scale and ambition; inside,
though, there are spectacular Renaissance rooms.
PAVILLON DE L’HORLOGE, LOUVRE
Location: Paris, France
Architect: Jacques Lemercier
Occupancy: Palace
Brief Description:
The old buildings of the Louvre, originally built as a f ortress in 1190
and rebuilt as a palace for Charles V in the 14th century were
demolished by Francois I. Construction of a new royal palace on the
site began under the direction of Pierre Lescot (1500–78) in 1546.
The Pavillon de L’Horloge was a later addition by Jacques Le
Mercier, architect of the Sorbonne, who took over building work at the
Louvre in 1624.

PLACE DES VOSGES

Location: Near Paris, France
Architect: Claude Chastillon
Occupancy: Residence
Brief Description:
An elegant, enclosed square of red-brick, stone-dressed houses built under the
patronage of Henry IV, Place des Vosges (formerly Place Royale) was a
revolution in French urban design: Each well-planned and well-lit house is set
behind, and rises above, a uniform arcade running around all four sides of the
garden square; each, though, has a distinct roofline, creating a sense of
individuality within order.
 The Renaissance in Spain
• Italian Renaissance decorative elements first appeared in Spanish architecture at about the time of the unification of Spain and the
expulsion of the Moors in 1492.
• Three phases of Spanish Renaissance architecture:
• the early Renaissance, or Plateresque, from the late 15th century until about 1560;
• Renaissance Plateresque style is purely one of architectural ornament.
• from platero, “silversmith” - rich ornament resembles silversmith’s work
• a brief Classical period, coexistent with the Plateresque from about 1525 to 1560;
• Evident with the planning of Palace of Charles V
• the Herreran style from 1560 until the end of the 16th century.
• rigid and cold style named after the greatest Spanish architect of the 16th century, Juan de Herrera.

PALACE OF CHARLES V
Location: Granada, Spain
This ambitious building wit h its sensational central court designed for bullfights was never completed. The central court is ringed around wit h tiers of austere
Doric and Ionic columns, punctuated by deeply recessed doorways, creating starkly defined patterns of light and shadow. The court sits within the square box
of the palace, which is adorned externally with rich marble facades and some wonderfully powerful rustication.
EL REAL MONASTERIO DE SAN LORENZO DE EL ESCORIAL
Location: Bel Escorial, Central Spain
Architect: Juan Bautista De Toledo & Juan De Herrera
Occupancy: Palace
Brief Description:
The massive and austere El Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de
El Escorial, built for King Philip II, from 1562, in the middle of
nowhere, embodies the spirit of its zealous patron as much as it
does a particular era of Spanish architecture. Built at the peak of
Spanish imperial power and at the height of the Inquisition, the
result is one of the most daunting buildings in the world, an
austere religious complex on a gridiron plan.
The Renaissance in Portugal

• tends to parallel the development of Spanish architecture

• The Manueline style of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, like the Plateresque of Spain, was a very
decorative mode in which small motifs of Classical ornament were introduced into a local late Gothic style

MOSTEIRO DOS JERONIMOS

Location Belém, Portugal
Architect: Diogo De Boitaca & Others
Occupancy: Monastery
Brief Description:
Its style is one unique t o Portugal: Manueline, a richly ornate crossover between late Gothic and early
Renaissance design. Here, the style is seen to great effect. The principal f acade of the stone monastery is 985 ft
(300 m) long, and although fundament ally simple, it bursts with gloriously carved doorways and windows
featuring coral, ropes, and other artef acts, natural and man-made, that the Portuguese explorers of the time
encountered on their epic sea voyages.

TORRE DE BELÉM
Location Belém, Portugal
Architect: Diogo De Boitaca & Francisco De Arruda
Occupancy: Fortification
Brief Description:
The tower is decorated with characteristic Manueline det ail, including the thick stone rope that girds its base and ends, often
soaked in water, in elegantly tied knots.
The Renaissance in Netherlands

MAURITSHUIS
Location: The Hague, Netherlands
Architect: Jacob Van Campen
Occupancy: Residence
Brief Description:
The almost square plan, with main reception areas flanked by
privat e suites, is clearly derived from Palladio’s Venetian villas. The
brick facade, dominated by Ionic pilasters and low-relief sculptural
details, is derived from Italy, but the steeply sloping roof, once
dominated by tall chimneys, is conspicuously Dutch.

TOWN HALL, ENKHUIZEN

Location: Ijsselmeer, Netherlands
Architect: Steven Vennekool
Occupancy: Civic Building
Brief Description
The new Town Hall—begun in 1686 and designed by Steven Vennekool, from
Amsterdam—reflected the town’s stature while demonstrating a freedom of
spirit in design often associated with port cities, where ideas flow freely from
different parts of the world. A student of the important Dutch architect
The Renaissance in Belgium
GUILD HOUSES, BRUSSELS
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Architect: Willem De Bruyn
Occupancy: Residence
Brief Description:
Erected by various city guilds and
privat e owners, these delicious houses
gathered around Brussels’ Grand Place
were built in the 1690s after the French
bombardment of August 1695. Though
highly individualistic and a riot of
Renaissance decoration, the houses
form a cohesive group.
ONZE LIEVE VROUWEKERK
Location: Scherpenheuvel, Belgium
Architect: Wenceslas Coberger
Occupancy: Place Of Worship
Brief Description:
The seven-sided pilgrim church of
Our Lady was built to house a
supposedly miraculous statue of
the Virgin Mary discovered in a
nearby oak tree in around 1300,
but it is best known for its
magnificent dome, t he very first of
this scale and quality built in the
Low Countries.
TOWN HALL, ANTWERP
Location: Antwerp, Belgium
Architect: Cornelis Floris
Occupancy: Civic Building
Brief Description:
Floris, who was much influenced by
illustrations in Sebastiano Serlio’s l’Architettura
(published from 1537), mixed the latest Italian
styles with those of Flemish and Netherlandish
tradition.
The Renaissance in England
• a very original fusion of the Tudor Gothic and Classical styles
• Period of Renaissance Architecture
• Early Renaissance
• Elizabethan Period (1558 -1603)
• During the reign of Elizabeth I of England
• Establishment of renaissance architecture in England HARDWICK HALL
after tudor. Location Derbyshire, England
• Transition style between gothic and renaissance Architect: Robert Smythson
• Jacobean Period (1603 – 1625) Occupancy: Residence
• During the reign of King James I of England Brief Description:
• Blended medieval and renaissance style Hardwick Hall, a striking late
• Transition stage from Elizabethan to pure renaissance Elizabet han country house
style built for “Bess of Hardwick”
• Designs are more unified and consistent (Elizabeth, Countess of
• Late Renaissance Shrewsbury).
• Stuart Period (1625 – 1702)
• First phase was influenced by Italian Renaissance
• Architect: Inigo Jones QUEEN’S HOUSE, GREENWICH
Location: London, England
• Second Phase was influenced by French Renaissance
Architect: Inigo Jones
• Architect: Sir Christopher Wren
Occupancy: Palace
• Gregorian Period (1702 – 1830)
Brief Description:
• During the reign of Anne, George I, II, III and IV
Typically Palladian, the tripartite facade has a central projecting portion, wit h
plain walls crowned by a balustrade surmounting a rusticated first story.
WOLLATON HALL
Location: Nottinghamshire, England
Architect: Robert Smythson
Occupancy: Residence
Brief Description:
Its gloriously elaborate design, though
castle like, is outward-looking: there is no
inner courtyard. Its most remarkable
feature is the great turreted banqueting hall
with its huge lat e Gothic windows rising
from the clerest ory of the centrally placed
hall. The facades of the house below are
decorated with pairs of Doric, Ionic, and
Corinthian pilasters.
BANQUETING HOUSE, WHITEHALL BURGHLEY HOUSE
Location: London, England Location: Lincolnshire, England
Architect: Inigo Jones Architect: William Cecil
Occupancy: Civic Building Occupancy: Residence
Brief Description: Brief Description:
The first truly Classical building completed in England was The exterior has remained largely untouched, but
a ground-breaking addition to the medieval palace of the interior was radically remodeled in the 17th
Whitehall. century by brilliant craftsmen, including Grinling
Gibbons.
 Other Notable Renaissance Architecture outside of Italy
LOGGIA, WALLENSTEIN PALACE
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Architect: Andrea Spezza
Occupancy: Palace
Brief Description:
The highly theatrical loggia, facing an avenue
replete with writhing statuary, is more purely
Italian. Monumental in scale, it consists of t hree
giant arches rising from double columns and
appears to belong to an even bigger palace than
Wallenstein.
METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL
Location Mexico City, Mexico
Architect: Claudio De Arciniega
Occupancy: Place Of Worship
FREDERIKSBORG CASTLE
Brief Description:
Location: Hillard, Near Copenhagen, Denmark
The first Spanish church here, itself built on the site of an
Architect: Hans Van Steenwinckel The
old Aztec temple, was torn down in 1628 while t he
Younger
ambitious new cat hedral rose in its place, constructed, in
Occupancy: Fortification
part, from stones ransacked from the last surviving Aztec
Brief Description:
buildings.
the palace took on the extravagant form we
see today: three brick and stone buildings on
three islands set in a lake and linked by a
sequence of elegant bridges
Other Notable Renaissance Architecture outside of Italy

IGLESIA DE LA MERCED
Location Quito, Peru
Architect: Unknown
Occupancy: Place Of Worship
Brief Description:
The entrance feat ures carvings of the sun and moon that would be familiar t o Inca worshipers.
The foundations were laid in 1701, the tower completed in 1736, and the church dedicated in
1747. The main cloister of the adjoining monastery—a lovely t hing— is all dazzling white
archways supported by stone pillars and with a fountain with a figure of Nept une playing at its
center.

THE EXCHANGE, COPENHAGEN

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Architect: Hans Van Steenwinckel The Younger
Occupancy: Civic Building
Brief Description:
Today t he headquarters of the Copenhagen Chamber of Commerce, the
otherwise solid Exchange is topped by the thinnest of needlelike spires.