Renaissance architecture is known as European architecture, majorly in between the early 15th and 17th centuries. Renaissance architecture demonstrates a consciousness and development of elements like material culture and classical thoughts, particularly symmetry. Renaissance architecture came after the gothic period and was succeeded by the Baroque. During the high renaissance, architectural concepts were also used to get derived from classical antiquity, which later developed and used with greater surety.
The renaissance architecture revival was important in the literature as well as in the architecture of classical Rome. A study was done on the ancient buildings and their ruins, especially on the colosseum and the pantheon; these were considered the most important thing for an architect’s training. Some architectural elements and classical orders such as pilasters, entablatures, columns, pediments, arches, and domes were the vocabularies of renaissance architecture or buildings. Renaissance is also defined in Vitruvius’s writing who influenced the beauty in architecture. In the classical world, renaissance architecture is characterised by harmony and with a unit of measurement based on the human scale and some mathematical proportion.
1. St Peter’s Basilica | Renaissance Architecture
Location: Vatican city
Status: major papal basilica
Consecrated: 18 November 1626
St Peter’s Basilica was designed by sir Alberti, Raphael, Bramante, Michelangelo, and Berini. The church has the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture. The artistry, architectural grandeur, and sheer mass of the church have cemented the status of Rome as the home of ChristianiMichelangelo designs Michelangelo designs St Peter’s Basilica’s iconic dome; it is the tallest dome globally. Inside St Peter, the church holds some of the most authentic examples of renaissance architecture, it also includes Michelangelo’s Pieta built in the year 1500, and the baldachin by Sir Bernini, which is over the main altar.
2. Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore
Location: Florence, Tuscany
Status: cathedral, minor basilica
Consecrated: 1436
The Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence Cathedral, structurally belongs to the Gothic style. However, the dome was the forerunner of renaissance architecture. The idea of the entire building, and its planning, was conceived in 1293, which was before the renaissance period. The technology of how the dome got completed does not exist yet. The thought was until Sir Fillipo Brunelleschi was who gave the cathedral finally a crown a century later. Brunelleschi also came up with solid ideas to vault the dome space without scaffolding by providing space between using a double shell. More than 4 million bricks were used in construction, with a diameter of 45.52m and a height of 90m. It was the largest dome in the world until 1881.
3. Palazzo Pitti | Renaissance Architecture
Location: Florence, Italy
Status: palace
Consecrated: 1458
The Palazzo Pitti was first built for the Pitti family and it was designed by Brunelleschi and built by his pupil Luca Fancelli. In the year 1549, the Pitti Palace was bought by the Medici family and it became the chief residence for the grand duchies ruling families of Tuscany. Later it was used as a power base by Napoleon in the late 18th century and they briefly served as the principal royal palace of the newly united Italy. The palazzo is now used as the largest museum complex in Florence. The main palazzo block of the building design is known as the corps de logis, it is 32,000 sq.m. The palazzo is divided into several principal galleries or museums.
4. Basilica of Santa Maria Novella
Location: Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Status: minor basilica
Consecrated: 1420
In Florence, Santa Maria Novella was the first great basilica and one of the most known examples of early Renaissance architecture situated in Italy. The basilica was elegant and had a marble facade in the front in a harmonious manner; it was created by sir Leon Battista Alberti, who combined the ideas of humanist architecture with proportion and inspired classical detailing. The church has an adjoining cloister and the chapter house contains a multiplicity of art and treasures with some funerary monuments. Frescoes are very famous by masters of Gothic and early renaissance. They got financed by the most influential families, Florentine, they ensured themselves that funerary chapels on consecrated ground.
5. Tempietto del Bramante | Renaissance Architecture
Location: Rome, Italy
Status: small temple
Consecrated: 1500
Donato brammate is a tiny round temple situated inside the courtyard of the church of San Pietro located in Montorio in Rome, exactly where St Peter was crucified. A small commemorative tomb, the Tempietto also called a small temple is considered a masterpiece of high renaissance Italian architecture. It is thought to be the prototype of St Peter’s Basilica. In the 15th century, the ruins were given to the Amadist friars; it was known as a reform branch of the Franciscans, it was founded by the Blessed Amadeus of Portugal, who served as a confessor to Pope Sixtus IV from the year 1472. Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain commissioned it.
