Character of Renaissance Architecture

by Charles Herbert Moore

Fig. 64.—Portal from Serlio.

In the court of the Farnese we have a frank return to the ancient Roman combination of arch and entablature, with a Doric order in the basement, an Ionic order next above it, and an order of Corinthian pilasters in the top story. Where engaged orders are thus used in the inside of a rectangle it is usual to set a section of a pilaster in the angle, as the architect has done here. But the treatment of the capital in this angle becomes a matter of difficulty which cannot be overcome in an entirely satisfactory manner. This is especially the case where the Ionic order is used, as in the principal story of this court. It is necessary here to have parts of two capitals, on the angle strip of pilaster, in order that there may be a bolster on each side parallel with those of the other capitals in the colonnade to which it belongs, and a volute on each side facing in the same direction as the others in the same series. Thus two volutes have to be mitred together with awkward effect. A further awkwardness arising from this misuse of the orders is that of bringing three supporting members together in the angles, the end column of each adjoining colonnade, and the pilaster set in the angle in which they meet.

An earlier instance of the Roman arch and entablature scheme applied to a continuous arcade occurs in Rome in the cloister of Santa Maria della Pace, the design of which is attributed to Bramante. The upper story of this arcade is worthy of notice as having a rhythmical scheme, such as is common in mediæval design, wrought into the neo-classic composition. This story has no arches, but a simple entablature is carried on square piers rising over the piers of the ground story, with a pilaster on the face of each, and in each interval is a small round column rising over the crown of the arch below. But this alternation of large and small, and compound and simple, members has no meaning apart from that of ornamental effect. In mediæval design, the larger members would have the function of supporting heavier weights, and the rhythmical arrangement would thus have a primarily structural meaning.

After the early part of the sixteenth century Italy, as before remarked, produced few architects of a high order of genius. The later architecture of the Renaissance is the work of men of little genuine artistic inspiration, though many of them had great enthusiasm for what they conceived to be the true principles of the art and unbounded zeal in its practice. A few typical examples of the later forms of palatial design by such men as Sansovino, Sanmichele, Vignola, Palladio, and Scamozzi will be enough for us to consider. All of these men based their practice theoretically, as we have seen, on the writings of Vitruvius and on a rigorous study of the architectural remains of Roman antiquity; and nearly all of them wrote treatises on their art which have formed the basis of most modern practice.

Fig. 65.—Part of façade of the Library of St. Mark.

Jacopo Tatti, called Sansovino, went to Rome early in the sixteenth century in company with Giuliano de San Gallo, and there formed a friendship with Bramante[95] under whose influence he acquired that exclusive predilection for classic forms which we find reflected in his art. Coming to Florence, we are not told in what year, he designed a false front of wood for the cathedral church of Santa Maria del Fiore, which is said to have called forth the admiration of Pope Leo X.[96] This incident is significant of the spirit of the time, and such architectural shams were extensively produced by the architects of the later Renaissance. The most important works of Sansovino are in Venice, where he built the well-known Library of St. Mark, the so-called Loggia of the Campanile, the Palazzo Cornaro, and several other large buildings.

Fig. 66.—Corner of the Parthenon.

The façade of the Library of St. Mark has but two stories including the basement, and these are adorned with a Doric and an Ionic order respectively (Fig. [65]); the first noticeable peculiarity of this design is its very florid character. The reveals are deep, the orders are in high relief, and the friezes and arch spandrels are loaded with showy ornamental carvings. Milizia says[97] that in the Doric order of this façade Sansovino attempted to solve a problem which had troubled all of the Italian architects, namely, how to make exactly half of a metope fall at the end of the frieze. The Greeks had placed a triglyph at the angle, but in so doing they had been obliged to sacrifice uniformity, since this angle triglyph fell over one side of the corner column, instead of over its centre as the other triglyphs of the series did (Fig. [66]). This had made it necessary to lengthen the last metope, and to narrow the last intercolumniation. The Romans had set the last triglyph over the centre of the corner column, and had thus been obliged to give less than half a metope to the corner (Fig. [67]), though they secured uniformity in all the rest of the parts. The frieze, however, had now an appearance of incompleteness at each end, as of a thing cut off arbitrarily through one of its members. The architects of the Renaissance appear to have disliked this narrow section of a metope at the end of the frieze, and to have sought a way to make it exactly half. This, as Milizia tells us, Sansovino did in the Library of St. Mark by lengthening the frieze enough to give the fragment of metope the width that was desired. Turning to the design itself (Fig. [68]), we find that this obliged him to set a square pier with a pilaster on its face at the angle. Of this device Milizia remarks that it was a folly.[98]