HOLLAND. Except in the domain of realistic painting, the Dutch have never manifested pre-eminent artistic endowments, and the Renaissance produced in Holland few monuments of consequence. It began there, as in many other places, with minor works in the churches, due largely to Flemish or Italian artists. About the middle of the 16th century two native architects, Sebastian van Noye and William van Noort, first popularized the use of carved pilasters and of gables or steep pediments adorned with carved scallop-shells, in remote imitation of the style of Francis I. The principal monuments of the age were town-halls, and, after the war of independence in which the yoke of Spain was finally broken (1566–79), local administrative buildings—mints, exchanges and the like. The Town Hall of The Hague (1565), with its stepped gable or great dormer, its consoles, statues, and octagonal turrets, may be said to have inaugurated the style generally followed after the war. Owing to the lack of stone, brick was almost universally employed, and stone imported by sea was only used in edifices of exceptional cost and importance. Of these the Town Hall at Amsterdam holds the first place. Its façade is of about the same dimensions as the one at Antwerp, but compares unfavorably with it in its monotony and want of interest. The Leyden Town Hall, by the Fleming, Lieven de Key (1597), the Bourse or Exchange and the Hanse House at Amsterdam, by Hendrik de Keyser, are also worthy of mention, though many lesser buildings, built of brick combined with enamelled terra-cotta and stone, possess quite as much artistic merit.
DENMARK. In Denmark the monuments of the Renaissance may almost be said to be confined to the reign of Christian IV. (1588–1648), and do not include a single church of any importance. The royal castles of the Rosenborg at Copenhagen (1610) and the Fredericksborg (1580–1624), the latter by a Dutch architect, are interesting and picturesque in mass, with their fanciful gables, mullioned windows and numerous turrets, but can hardly lay claim to beauty of detail or purity of style. The Exchange at Copenhagen, built of brick and stone in the same general style (1619–40), is still less interesting both in mass and detail.
The only other important Scandinavian monument deserving of special mention in so brief a sketch as this is the Royal Palace at Stockholm, Sweden (1698–1753), due to a foreign architect, Nicodemus de Tessin. It is of imposing dimensions, and although simple in external treatment, it merits praise for the excellent disposition of its plan, its noble court, imposing entrances, and the general dignity and appropriateness of its architecture.
MONUMENTS (in addition to those mentioned in text). England, Tudor Style: Several palaces by Henry VIII., no longer extant; Westwood, later rebuilt; Gosfield Hall; Harlaxton.—Elizabethan: Buckhurst, 1565; Kirby House, 1570, both by Thorpe; Caius College, 1570–75, by Theodore Have; “The Schools,” Oxford, by Thomas Holt, 1600; Beaupré Castle, 1600.—Jacobean: Tombs of Mary of Scotland and of Elizabeth in Westminster Abbey; Audsley Inn; Bolsover Castle, 1613; Heriot’s Hospital, Edinburgh, 1628.—Classic or Anglo-Italian: St. John’s College, Oxford; Queen’s House, Greenwich; Coleshill; all by Inigo Jones, 1620–51; Amesbury, by Webb; Combe Abbey; Buckingham and Montague Houses; The Monument, London, 1670, by Wren; Temple Bar, by the same; Winchester Palace, 1683; Chelsea College; Towers of Westminster Abbey, 1696; St. Clement Dane’s; St. James’s, Westminster; St. Peter’s, Cornhill, and many others, all by Wren.—18th Century: Seaton Delaval and Grimsthorpe, by Van Brugh; Wanstead House, by Colin Campbell; Treasury Buildings, by Kent.
The most important Renaissance buildings of Belgium and Holland have been mentioned in the text.
[CHAPTER XXIV.]
RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN GERMANY, SPAIN, AND PORTUGAL.
Books Recommended: As before, Fergusson, Palustre Also, von Bezold, Die Baukunst der Renaissance in Deutschland, Holland, Belgien und Dänemark
(in Hdbuch. d. Arch.). Caveda (tr. Kugler), Geschichte der Baukunst in Spanien. Fritsch, Denkmäler der deutschen Renaissance (plates). Junghändel, Die Baukunst Spaniens. Lambert und Stahl, Motive der deutschen Architektur. Lübke, Geschichte der Renaissance in Deutschland. Prentice, Renaissance Architecture and Ornament in Spain. Uhde, Baudenkmäler in Spanien. Verdier et Cattois, Architecture civile et domestique. Villa Amil, Hispania Artistica y Monumental.
AUSTRIA; BOHEMIA. The earliest appearance of the Renaissance in the architecture of the German states was in the eastern provinces. Before the close of the fifteenth century Florentine and Milanese architects were employed in Austria, Bohemia, and the Tyrol, where there are a number of palaces and chapels in an unmixed Italian style. The portal of the castle of Mahrisch-Trübau dates from 1492; while to the early years of the 16th century belong a cruciform chapel at Gran, the remodelling of the castle at Cracow, and the chapel of the Jagellons in the same city—the earliest domical structure of the German Renaissance, though of Italian design. The Schloss Porzia (1510), at Spital in Carinthia, is a fine quadrangular palace, surrounding a court with arcades on three sides, in which the open stairs form a picturesque interruption with their rampant arches. But for the massiveness of the details it might be a Florentine palace. In addition to this, the famous Arsenal at Wiener-Neustadt (1524), the portal of the Imperial Palace (1552), and the Castle Schalaburg on the Danube (1530–1601), are attributed to Italian architects, to whom must also be ascribed a number of important works at Prague. Chief among these the Belvedere (1536, by Paolo della Stella), a rectangular building surrounded by a graceful open arcade, above which it rises with a second story crowned by a curved roof; the Waldstein Palace (1621–29), by Giov. Marini, with its imposing loggia; Schloss Stern, built on the plan of a six-pointed star (1459–1565) and embellished by Italian artists with stucco ornaments and frescoes; and parts of the palace on the Hradschin, by Scamozzi, attest the supremacy of Italian art in Bohemia. The same is true of Styria, Carinthia, and the Tyrol; e.g. Schloss Ambras at Innsbrück (1570).