Beautiful types of the Renascence decorative art were the Venetian well-heads, situated as they were in most of the public squares of Venice, and in many of the court-yards of her princely palaces. Designed with details of the most varied and beautiful character by such artists as Andrea Sansovino, Pietro Lombardo, and his sons Tullio and Antonio, the Venetian well-head became a type of beauty, diversified in its treatment, but never losing its characteristics or its usefulness. Venetian well-heads display a great variety of form and decoration. The earlier examples are square or circular, with enrichments of Byzantine character, consisting largely of interlacing, circular, and angular lines, enclosing quaint bird and animal forms. In the later examples the Renascence treatment is used with singular richness and appropriateness, the grace, delicacy and diversity of detail being a tribute to the vivacity and artistic feeling of the Venetian Republic. These well-heads, worked mostly in white marble and evincing good judgment in the quality of relief, now show comparatively little injury after centuries of usefulness. Occasionally they were of bronze, of which two fine examples are still in position in the court-yard of the Doge’s Palace. Many of these well-heads are carefully treasured in our European Museums, teaching us that beauty of form, and perfection and delicacy of ornament are quite compatible with usefulness, when used by an artistic people.
The Renascence in Italy was remarkable for the many magnificent secular buildings erected during the 15th and 16th centuries in the chief cities in Italy.
In Florence the palaces have a severe dignity of treatment, with bold rusticated courses of stone-work, circular-headed windows, and finely-proportioned cornices. The first Renascence palace was the Riccardi (1430) by Michelozzi (1370-1440); and it was followed by the Pitti (1435), by Brunelleschi (1377-1444), the Rucellai (1460), by Leon Battista Alberti (1389-1472), the Strozzi (1489), by Cronaca (1454-1509), the Gondi (1490), by Giuliano Sangallo (1443-1507), the Guadagni and the Nicolini, by Bramante (1444-1514), the Pandolfini (1520), by Raphael (1483-1520), and the Bartolini (1520), by Baccio d’Agnolo (1460-1543).
In Rome the palaces were characterised by largeness of scale and the frequent use of Ionic and Corinthian pilasters or columns, and square-headed windows with triangular or curved pediments. The chief palaces in Rome are the Cancelleria (1495) and the Giraud (1506) by Bramante (1444-1514), the Farnesina (1506), the Massimi (1510), and the Villa Ossoli (1525), by Baldassare Peruzzi (1481-1536), the Palma and the Farnese, by Antonio Sangallo (1476-1546), the Borghese (1590), by Martino Lunghi, the Laterano, by Fontana (1543-1610), and the Barberini, by Carlo Maderno (1556-1629), Borromini (1599-1667), and Bernini (1598-1680).
In Venice the palaces were rich and varied; with the frequent use of pilasters, semi-columns and circular-headed mullioned windows suggested by the earlier Gothic palaces. The Renascence period commenced here with the re-building of the court-yard of the Doge’s Palace (1486) by Antonio Bregno, and completed in 1550 by Scarpagnino. Then came a beautiful series of buildings, the chief being:—the Vendramini, the Trevisani, and the Gradenigo Palaces, by Sante Lombardo (1504-1560); the Cornaro Palace and the Library of St. Mark’s, by Sansovino (1479-1570), and the Grimani Palace by San Michele (1484-1559).
FRENCH
RENASCENCE.
Towards the close of the 15th century, the vigorous and beautiful Gothic architecture of France, with its rich traceried and mullioned windows, its niches and canopies, its crocketed spires and varied treatment of floral enrichment, lost its vitality; and was succeeded by the Renascence style, which at first was purely Italian, but afterwards, with the intermingling of Gothic traditions and craftsmanship, became a distinct phase of the Renascence.
French Renascence may be broadly divided into distinctive periods: 1st. The earlier or transitional, 1453-1515, when the influence of the Renascence began to be felt. 2nd. 1515-47, François Premier. This period is remarkable for the number of Italians engaged by Francis I. for the embellishment of the Château Fontainbleau, the principal being Rosso, painter; Serlio and Vignola, architects; Primaticcio and Penni, ornamentists, Benvenuto Cellini, with his beautiful goldsmiths’ art; and Girolamo della Robbia, who produced enamelled Terra Cotta. The work of these renowned craftsmen necessarily had a marked influence upon the traditional French art. Of the architecture of this period, there is the south-west angle of the Louvre, commenced in 1548 by Pierre Lescot (1510-78), and enriched with sculpture by Jean Goujon (1515-72), who also executed the sculptures that embellished the beautiful Château Ecouen, by Jean Bullant (1515-60), and the beautiful fountain of the Innocents at Paris, of which an illustration of one of the panels is here given. The tomb of Louis XII., at St. Denis, by Jean Juste (1518), is remarkable for the purity of its enrichments.