Lecture 4 Palaces and Villas Review Slides

Palazzo Medici

Florence, Italy

Michelozzo di Bartolomeo

mid 1400s

The Renaissance palace type:

Multiple functions:

- Private family residence

- Place of business, politics, hospitality (both private and

public)

- Act of self-fashioning, creating a public image of owner

and family

- Civic display and urban embellishment

Palazzo Medici:

- For Cosimo de’ Medici

- Local stone: pietra forte (compare to Palazzo dei Priori).

- Ground-floor rustication was also an ancient Roman

building technique.

- Increasing refinement of stonework on each floor.

- No columnar order but powerful classical cornice.

- Courtyard recalled ancient Roman atrium, displayed

sculpture in Medici collection.

- Sets new standard for size and magnificence in private

dwellings while still trying to fit within Florentine

tradition.

Palazzo Medici

Florence, Italy

Michelozzo di Bartolomeo

mid 1400s

The Renaissance palace type:

Multiple functions:

- Private family residence

- Place of business, politics, hospitality (both private and

public)

- Act of self-fashioning, creating a public image of owner

and family

- Civic display and urban embellishment

Palazzo Medici:

- For Cosimo de’ Medici

- Local stone: pietra forte (compare to Palazzo dei Priori).

- Ground-floor rustication was also an ancient Roman

building technique.

- Increasing refinement of stonework on each floor.

- No columnar order but powerful classical cornice.

- Courtyard recalled ancient Roman atrium, displayed

sculpture in Medici collection.

- Sets new standard for size and magnificence in private

dwellings while still trying to fit within Florentine

tradition.

Ca’ (Palazzo) Foscari

Venice, Italy

Doge Francesco Foscari

mid 1400s (1450)

Venetian palace typology:

- Narrow, deep lot with rear courtyard

- 3-part plan: central reception hall (portego) flanked by smaller

day rooms

- 4 parallel spine walls are load-bearing, facade not structural,

which allows many windows and a loggia marking the portego on

each floor

- Water and land entrances

Loggias and windows with Venetian Gothic arches and ornament (ogee arches)

• Tracery in loggias is a deliberate reference to Doge’s Palace loggia, i.e. center of Venetian government.

Foscari served as Doge

• New interest in symmetry

• All’antica (antique style) marble relief with putti holding Foscari coat of arms

• Compare to Pal. Medici, demonstrates regional differences in 15th-century Italian architecture: “dialects”

Ca’ (Palazzo) Foscari

Venice, Italy

Doge Francesco Foscari

mid 1400s (1450)

Venetian palace typology:

- Narrow, deep lot with rear courtyard

- 3-part plan: central reception hall (portego) flanked by smaller

day rooms

- 4 parallel spine walls are load-bearing, facade not structural,

which allows many windows and a loggia marking the portego on

each floor

- Water and land entrances

Loggias and windows with Venetian Gothic arches and ornament (ogee arches)

• Tracery in loggias is a deliberate reference to Doge’s Palace loggia, i.e. center of Venetian government.

Foscari served as Doge

• New interest in symmetry

• All’antica (antique style) marble relief with putti holding Foscari coat of arms

• Compare to Pal. Medici, demonstrates regional differences in 15th-century Italian architecture: “dialects”

Hôtel Jacques Coeur

Bourges, France

Jacques Coeur?

mid 1400s (1443-5)

Built into ancient city wall and incorporates old defensive

towers

Asymmetrical entrance pavilion with chapel on upper level

Statue of French king originally in niche. Charles VII ennobled

Coeur in 1441

Irregular rectangular plan around a courtyard

• Innovations in spatial planning:

• Entrance pavilion, low wings, living block on

far side of courtyard anticipates later French

hôtel (town house)

• Rich Gothic ornament, stair-turrets, steep roofs

• Irregularity, asymmetry, and ornament self-

consciously recall medieval châteaux of the local

nobility

• Coeur uses his house to manufacture a noble

ancestry and lineage for himself and his family

Hôtel Jacques Coeur

Bourges, France

Jacques Coeur?

mid 1400s (1443-5)

Built into ancient city wall and incorporates old defensive

towers

Asymmetrical entrance pavilion with chapel on upper level

Statue of French king originally in niche. Charles VII ennobled

Coeur in 1441

Irregular rectangular plan around a courtyard

• Innovations in spatial planning:

• Entrance pavilion, low wings, living block on

far side of courtyard anticipates later French

hôtel (town house)

• Rich Gothic ornament, stair-turrets, steep roofs

• Irregularity, asymmetry, and ornament self-

consciously recall medieval châteaux of the local

nobility

• Coeur uses his house to manufacture a noble

ancestry and lineage for himself and his family

Villa Medici

Giuliano da Sangallo

Poggio a Caiano, Italy,

late 1400s (1485)

What is a villa?

Country house, located outside the city, often associated

with agricultural estate. Medieval country houses were

usually fortified castles, but Renaissance patrons and

designers revived the ancient Roman concept of the villa as

a place of retreat and recreation, as well as land

investment, as described by Roman authors Vitruvius and

Pliny the Younger.

Farm villa and retreat for Lorenzo de’ Medici

- First application of classical temple front to a

house in the entrance portico.

- Ionic columns with glazed terracotta frieze.

- Portico frames and provides place to viewthe

landscape.

- Living spaces elevated on podium, lower level has

service spaces. H-shaped plan with large

transverse hall (see plan on next slide).

- Note: stairs and clock gable are later additions

New relationship to landscape:

- New aesthetic appreciation for natural environment

- Villa becomes a platform for viewing gardens and cultivated landscape under owner’s control

- Architectural features connect building to landscape: loggia, continuous axial view through house

Villa Medici

Giuliano da Sangallo

Poggio a Caiano, Italy,

late 1400s (1485)

What is a villa?

Country house, located outside the city, often associated

with agricultural estate. Medieval country houses were

usually fortified castles, but Renaissance patrons and

designers revived the ancient Roman concept of the villa as

a place of retreat and recreation, as well as land

investment, as described by Roman authors Vitruvius and

Pliny the Younger.

Farm villa and retreat for Lorenzo de’ Medici

- First application of classical temple front to a

house in the entrance portico.

- Ionic columns with glazed terracotta frieze.

- Portico frames and provides place to viewthe

landscape.

- Living spaces elevated on podium, lower level has

service spaces. H-shaped plan with large

transverse hall (see plan on next slide).

- Note: stairs and clock gable are later additions

New relationship to landscape:

- New aesthetic appreciation for natural environment

- Villa becomes a platform for viewing gardens and cultivated landscape under owner’s control

- Architectural features connect building to landscape: loggia, continuous axial view through house