Books Recommended: As before, Burckhardt, Cicognara, Fergusson, Palustre. Also, Gauthier, Les plus beaux edifices de Gênes. Geymüller, Les projets primitifs pour la basilique de St. Pierre de Rome. Gurlitt, Geschichte des Barockstiles in Italien. Letarouilly, Édifices de Rome Moderne; Le Vatican. Palladio, The Works of A. Palladio.
CHARACTER OF THE ADVANCED RENAISSANCE. It was inevitable that the study and imitation of Roman architecture should lead to an increasingly literal rendering of classic details and a closer copying of antique compositions. Toward the close of the fifteenth century the symptoms began to multiply of the approaching reign of formal classicism. Correctness in the reproduction of old Roman forms came in time to be esteemed as one of the chief of architectural virtues, and in the following period the orders became the principal resource of the architect. During the so-called Cinquecento, that is, from the close of the fifteenth century to nearly or quite 1550, architecture still retained much of the freedom and refinement of the Quattrocento. There was meanwhile a notable advance in dignity and amplitude of design, especially in the internal distribution of buildings. Externally the orders were freely used as subordinate features in the decoration of doors and windows, and in court arcades of the Roman type. The lantern-crowned dome upon a high drum was developed into one of the noblest of architectural forms. Great attention was bestowed upon all subordinate features; doors and windows were treated with frames and pediments of extreme elegance and refinement; all the cornices and mouldings were proportioned and profiled with the utmost care, and the balustrade was elaborated into a feature at once useful and highly ornate. Interior decoration was even more splendid than before, if somewhat less delicate and subtle; relief enrichments in stucco were used with admirable effect, and the greatest artists exercised their talents in the painting of vaults and ceilings, as in P. del Té at Mantua, by Giulio Romano (1492–1546), and the Sistine Chapel at Rome, by Michael Angelo. This period is distinguished by an exceptional number of great architects and buildings. It was ushered in by Bramante Lazzari, of Urbino (1444–1514), and closed during the career of Michael Angelo Buonarotti (1475–1564); two names worthy to rank with that of Brunelleschi. Inferior only to these in architectural genius were Raphael (1483–1520), Baldassare Peruzzi (1481–1536), Antonio da San Gallo the Younger (1485–1546), and G. Barozzi da Vignola (1507–1572), in Rome; Giacopo Tatti Sansovino (1479–1570), in Venice, and others almost equally illustrious. This period witnessed the erection of an extraordinary series of palaces, villas, and churches, the beginning and much of the construction of St. Peter’s at Rome, and a complete transformation in the aspect of that city.
FIG. 166.—FAÇADE OF THE GIRAUD PALACE, ROME.
BRAMANTE’S WORKS. While precise time limits cannot be set to architectural styles, it is not irrational to date this period from the maturing of Bramante’s genius. While his earlier works in Milan belong to the Quattrocento (S. M. delle Grazie, the sacristy of San Satiro, the extension of the Great Hospital), his later designs show the classic tendency very clearly. The charming Tempietto in the court of S. Pietro in Montorio at Rome, a circular temple-like chapel (1502), is composed of purely classic elements. In the P. Giraud (Fig. 166) and the great Cancelleria Palace, pilasters appear in the external composition, and all the details of doors and windows betray the results of classic study, as well as the refined taste of their designer.[24] The beautiful courtyard of the Cancelleria combines the Florentine system of arches on columns with the Roman system of superposed arcades independent of the court wall. In 1506 Bramante began the rebuilding of St. Peter’s for Julius II. (see [p. 294]) and the construction of a new and imposing papal palace adjoining it on the Vatican hill. Of this colossal group of edifices, commonly known as the Vatican, he executed the greater Belvedere court (afterward divided in two by the Library and the Braccio Nuovo), the lesser octagonal court of the Belvedere, and the court of San Damaso, with its arcades afterward frescoed by Raphael and his school. Besides these, the cloister of S. M. della Pace, and many other works in and out of Rome, reveal the impress of Bramante’s genius, alike in their admirable plans and in the harmony and beauty of their details.
FLORENTINE PALACES. The P. Riccardi long remained the accepted type of palace in Florence. As we have seen, it was imitated in the Strozzi palace, as late as 1489, with greater perfection of detail, but with no radical change of conception. In the P. Gondi, however, begun in the following year by Giuliano da San Gallo (1445–1516), a more pronounced classic spirit appears, especially in the court and the interior design. Early in the 16th century classic columns and pediments began to be used as decorations for doors and windows; the rustication was confined to basements and corner-quoins, and niches, loggias, and porches gave variety of light and shade to the façades (P. Bartolini, by Baccio d’Agnolo; P. Larderel, 1515, by Dosio; P. Guadagni, by Cronaca; P. Pandolfini, 1518, attributed to Raphael). In the P. Serristori, by Baccio d’Agnolo (1510), pilasters were applied to the composition of the façade, but this example was not often followed in Florence.
ROMAN PALACES. These followed a different type. They were usually of great size, and built around ample courts with arcades of classic model in two or three stories. The broad street façade in three stories with an attic or mezzanine was crowned with a rich cornice. The orders were sparingly used externally, and effect was sought principally in the careful proportioning of the stories, in the form and distribution of the square-headed and arched openings, and in the design of mouldings, string-courses, cornices, and other details. The piano nobile, or first story above the basement, was given up to suites of sumptuous reception-rooms and halls, with magnificent ceilings and frescoes by the great painters of the day, while antique statues and reliefs adorned the courts, vestibules, and niches of these princely dwellings. The Massimi palace, by Peruzzi, is an interesting example of this type. The Vatican, Cancelleria, and Giraud palaces have already been mentioned; other notable palaces are the Palma (1506) and Sacchetti (1540), by A. da San Gallo the Younger; the Farnesina, by Peruzzi, with celebrated fresco decorations designed by Raphael; and the Lante (1520) and Altemps (1530), by Peruzzi. But the noblest creation of this period was the
