Renaissance Architecture Analysis

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To evaluate the structure presented for this assignment within the wider context of sixteenth Century church design, there are several important factors that must be taken into consideration. Firstly, on what principles of renaissance architecture does it appear to be built. Secondly, does this facade stand out as markedly similar or dissimilar to its contemporary counterparts and thirdly, if we are to date the work, what is indicative within its design of position within the chronological development of church design in the sixteenth Century. Finally, using the previous assessments, how does the quality of the facade hold up to scrutiny when compared to contemporary works. Within this assignment, I shall endeavour to interpret and evaluate…show more content…
What will strike a viewer immediately is that facade follows the Albertian principle of church design. While Leon Battista Alberti himself was a pioneer of quattrocento architecture, living from 1404 to 1472, his impact on architecture was to have a far greater impact than the boundaries of his own century. The reason I feel this facade follows an Albertian model is the devotion it appears to have to the hallmarks of Albertian principles relating to harmonious design, or Concinnitas, and classicism. Alberti himself was indebted to the work of Vitruvius, who had said “no building may be said to be well composed unless it has symmetry and proportion, like the members of a well formed human body”. Alberti preached that symmetry and connicintas in design is one of the most essential elements in the design and construction of architecture, if not the ultimate purpose of “design and harmonious order”. To that end, the building presented here clearly follows this principle, the facade is into an upper and lower storey, although presumably this does not reflect the internal delineation of space which would be one centrally planned basilica. If we deal with the lower…show more content…
The central bay features a monumental doorway complete with ionic engaged columns in the aedicule, this carries an entablature block with a complete ionic frieze. Above the central portal is a statue within a niche complete with an open and broken pediment which rests above an arch that is pushing up through its aedicule. The upper story is similarly symmetrical, the paired columns are reduced in scale to keep with Alberti’s demands for proportions and maintain a seamless facade. On proportion, Alberti had said “the building cannot be beautiful in only one of its parts while the others are neglected; all must harmonise in order to appear as a single, well articulated body, not a jumble of unrelated fragments.” The upper story is much thinner than its base and it is tied to its lower storey through elegantly curved volute-like structures, a characteristic of Albertian design

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