GERMANY: PERIODS. The earliest manifestation of the Renaissance in what is now the German Empire, appeared in the works of painters like Dürer and Burkmair, and in occasional buildings previous to 1525. The real transformation of German architecture, however, hardly began until after the Peace of Augsburg, in 1555. From that time on its progress was rapid, its achievements being almost wholly in the domain of secular architecture—princely and ducal castles, town halls or Rathhäuser,
and houses of wealthy burghers or corporations. It is somewhat singular that the German emperors should not have undertaken the construction of a new imperial residence on a worthy scale, the palaces of Munich and Berlin being aggregations of buildings of various dates about a nucleus of mediæval origin, and with no single portion to compare with the stately châteaux of the French kings. Church architecture was neglected, owing to the Reformation, which turned to its own uses the existing churches, while the Roman Catholics were too impoverished to replace the edifices they had lost.
The periods of the German Renaissance are less well marked than those of the French; but its successive developments follow the same general progression, divided into three stages:
I. The Early Renaissance, 1525–1600, in which the orders were infrequently used, mainly for porches and for gable decoration. The conceptions and spirit of most monuments were still strongly tinged with Gothic feeling.
II. The Late Renaissance, 1600–1675, characterized by a dry, heavy treatment, in which too often neither the fanciful gayety of the previous period nor the simple and monumental dignity of classic design appears. Broken curves, large scrolls, obelisks, and a style of flat relief carving resembling the Elizabethan are common. Occasional monuments exhibit a more correct and classic treatment after Italian models.
III. The Decline or Baroque Period, 1675–1800, employing the orders in a style of composition oscillating between the extremes of bareness and of Rococo over-decoration. The ornament partakes of the character of the Louis XV. and Italian Jesuit styles, being most successful in interior decoration, but externally running to the extreme of unrestrained fancy.
FIG. 191.—SCHLOSS HÄMELSCHENBURG.
CHARACTERISTICS. In none of these periods do we meet with the sober, monumental treatment of the Florentine or Roman schools. A love of picturesque variety in masses and sky-lines, inherited from mediæval times, appears in the high roofs, stepped gables and lofty dormers which are universal. The roofs often comprise several stories, and are lighted by lofty gables at either end, and by dormers carried up from the side walls through two or three stories. Gables and dormers alike are built in diminishing stages, each step adorned with a console or scroll, and the whole treated with pilasters or colonnettes and entablatures breaking over each support (Fig. 191). These roofs, dormers, and gables contribute the most noticeable element to the general effect of most German Renaissance buildings, and are commonly the best-designed features in them. The orders are scantily used and usually treated with utter disregard of classic canons, being generally far too massive and overloaded with ornament. Oriels, bay-windows, and turrets, starting from corbels or colonnettes, or rarely from the ground, diversify the façade, and spires of curious bulbous patterns give added piquancy to the picturesque sky-line. The plans seldom had the monumental symmetry and largeness of Italian and French models; courtyards were often irregular in shape and diversified with balconies and spiral staircase-turrets. The national leaning was always toward the quaint and fantastic, as well in the decoration as in the composition. Grotesques, caryatids, gaînes (half-figures terminating below in sheath-like supports), fanciful rustication, and many other details give a touch of the Baroque even to works of early date. The same principles were applied with better success to interior decoration, especially in the large halls of the castles and town-halls, and many of their ceilings were sumptuous and well-considered designs, deeply panelled, painted and gilded in wood or plaster.