Annotated Mona Lisa, The - Strickland, Carol [29]
THE FOUR R’S OF RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE
The four R’s of Renaissance architecture are Rome, Rules, Reason, and ‘Rithmetic.
ROME In keeping with their passion for the classics, Renaissance architects systematically measured Roman ruins to copy their style and proportion. They revived elements like the rounded arch, concrete construction, domed rotunda, portico, barrel vault, and column.
RULES Since architects considered themselves scholars rather than mere builders, they based their work on theories, as expressed in various treatises. Alberti formulated aesthetic rules that were widely followed.
REASON Theories emphasized architecture’s rational basis, grounded in science, math, and engineering. Cool reason replaced the mystical approach of the Middle Ages.
‘RITHMETIC Architects depended on arithmetic to produce beauty and harmony. A system of ideal proportions related parts of a building to each other in numerical ratios, such as the 2:1 ratio of a nave twice as high as the width of a church. Layouts relied on geometric shapes, especially the circle and square.
In 1502, Bramante (pronounced brah MAHN tee; 1444- 1514) built the Tempietto (“Little Temple”) in Rome on the site where St. Peter was crucified. Although tiny, it was the perfect prototype of the domed central plan church. It expressed the Renaissance ideals of order, simplicity, and harmonious proportions.
Known for his villas and palaces, Palladio (pronounced pah LAY dee oh; 1508-80) was enormously influential in later centuries through his treatise, Four Books on Architecture. Neoclassical revivalists like Thomas Jefferson and Christopher Wren, architect of St. Paul’s in London, used Palladio’s rule book as a guide. The Villa Rotonda incorporated Greek and Roman details like porticos with Ionic columns, a flattened dome like the Pantheon, and rooms arranged symmetrically around a central rotunda.
Brunelleschi, Pazzi Chapel, 1440-61, Florence.
Bramante, Tempietto, 1444-1514, Rome.
Palladio, Villa Rotonda, begun 1550, Vicenza.
THE NORTHERN RENAISSANCE
In the Netherlands as well as in Florence, new developments in art began about 1420. But what was called the Northern Renaissance was not a rebirth in the Italian sense. Artists in the Netherlands — modern Belgium (then called Flanders) and Holland — lacked Roman ruins to rediscover. Still, their break with the Gothic style produced a brilliant flowering of the arts.
As the Renaissance spread north from Italy, it took different forms.
While the Italians looked to Classical antiquity for inspiration, northern Europeans looked to nature. Without Classical sculpture to teach them ideal proportions, they painted reality exactly as it appeared, in a detailed, realistic style. Portraits were such faithful likenesses that Charles VI of France sent a painter to three different royal courts to paint prospective brides, basing his decision solely on the portraits.
This precision was made possible by the new oil medium, which Northern Renaissance painters first perfected. Since oil took longer to dry than tempera, they could blend colors. Subtle variations in light and shade heightened the illusion of three-dimensional form. They also used “atmospheric perspective” — the increasingly hazy appearance of objects farthest from the viewer — to suggest depth.
THE RENAISSANCE IN THE LOW COUNTRIES
In Holland and Flanders, cities like Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, Louvain, and Haarlem rivaled Florence, Rome, and Venice as centers of artistic excellence. The trademark of these northern European artists was their incredible ability to portray nature realistically, down to the most minute detail.
Van Eyck, “Arnolfini Wedding,” 1434, NG, London. A master of realism, van Eyck recreated the marriage scene, in miniature in the mirror. Virtually every object symbolizes the painting’s theme — the sanctity