M10a: The Italian Rennaissance

The events pf the 13th to the 14th centuries

• Catastrophic events causing the shifting of power

• The refugees of Byzantine scholars after the fall of Constantinople 

• Controversies within the Catholic church: The Great Schism

  • The slowly lost of power of church 

• Italian city-states propered

• The rise of the Humanists

• The invention of printing

• Age of exploration 

• Renewed interest in classicaal Greece and Rome

The rise of “Renaissance”

• Humanisms vs. Tradition/ Religion

• Response against Gothic styles

• Art turned back to the principles of classical forms

• Influence of the Grand Tour

The Late Medieval Age 

• corresponds to the West's 13th to the 15th century. 

• This period was marked by a string of unfortunate events, most notably the Black Death

  • which swept in from central Asia and killed a third of Europe's population. 

• Sociopolitical uncertainties and upheavals led to civil wars and religious controversies plaguing (no pun intended) the Catholic church, eventually bringing about its splitting known as The Great Schism. 

• The East was not faring any better with the decline of the Byzantine Empire and Constantinople eventually falling into the hands of the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II, in 1453.

• The 14th century 

  • was, however, a time of great progress in the arts and sciences. 

  • The weakening of the established institutions, particularly of the Catholic church, and the promotion of scientific discoveries that debunked many of the church's explanations of natural phenomena brought about a renewed focus on rational thought. 

  • Humanists

    • A group that formed to investigate and eliminate superstitions and protest the church's authority in secular matters. 

    • This intellectual revolution revived interest in classical philosophy and non-religious pursuits and emphasized observation, critical analysis, and creativity. 

    • This was later termed Humanism. 

• Humanism 

  • focuses on what it means to be human rather than solely on scholastic religious matters. 

  • It emphasizes the individual's importance and potential to learn, discover, and achieve to become virtuous individuals who can fully participate in public life. 

  • This concept highlights the significance of each human being as an individual and their role in society. 

Black Death

which swept in from central Asia and killed a third of Europe's population.

Humanists

• A group that formed to investigate and eliminate superstitions and protest the church's authority in secular matters. 

• This intellectual revolution revived interest in classical philosophy and non-religious pursuits and emphasized observation, critical analysis, and creativity. 

• This was later termed Humanism. 

• Humanism 

• focuses on what it means to be human rather than solely on scholastic religious matters. 

• It emphasizes the individual's importance and potential to learn, discover, and achieve to become virtuous individuals who can fully participate in public life. 

• This concept highlights the significance of each human being as an individual and their role in society. 

Renaissance

• describes a cluster of developments between the 1400s and 1600s

• spurred by the rise of Humanism that gradually pushed medieval ways of thinking aside and made way for changes in human experience as great as those that came with the founding of the first recorded civilizations around 5000 BCE. 

• Although the concept of the Renaissance applies to a wide range of fields, it is best known for its contributions to developing the arts.

• The term derives from the French translation of Rinascimento, about the rebirth (rinascita, first mentioned by Giorgio Vasari) 

  • and progress of 15th-century European culture, which heavily predicated itself on classical ideals, i.e., from Greece and Rome, which was believed to have been lost through the centuries. 

• Contemporaries of the time actually saw this as the ushering of a "modern" age, ending the backward and "dark" nature of the times before. 

• In the field of art and architecture, the Renaissance period is known for consciously reviving and refining certain classical forms, designs, and materials. 

• This movement originated in Italy, particularly in Florence, during the 1500s. 

• However, this widespread belief inaccurately suggests that the classical tradition had been lost or forgotten before this period.

Rinascimento

The term Renaissance derives from the French translation of —- about the rebirth (rinascita, first mentioned by Giorgio Vasari)

Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio

• Known as the fathers of Renaissance Humanism

• Italian scholars

• significantly influenced the new wave of rational thinking sweeping 14th-century Europe at the time. 

• Having carefully studied the philosophies of antiquity, their works helped drive a revival of interest in the classics in Italy. 

The Renaissance and Florence

• Renaissance is not just an art movement but a full cultural movement

  • Started in literature and philosophy by Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio 

• Florence was rich 

  • Money brought artists

  • People wanted to enjoy

  • Giorgio Vasari

• Renaissance art and Humanism

  • Induvidualism 

  • Rationalism 

  • Inspired virtue

The republic of Florence

• in particular, by the 15th century had an idyllically stable government and great wealth through its success in trade and banking, which created a kind of communal sense of optimism and power. 

Humanism

• a philosophy that had been the foundation for many of the achievements (e.g., democracy) of pagan ancient Greece. 

• it downplayed religious and secular dogma and instead attached the greatest importance to the dignity and worth of the individual. 

• It emphasizes the value of human beings, both individually and collectively, and generally favors critical thinking (rationalism) over traditional doctrine or faith (scholasticism or religious dogma). 

• Supporters of Renaissance humanism typically had great respect for the thinkers of classical antiquity, such as Plato, Aristotle, and Vitruvius. 

• Humanists in Florence aimed to educate the Florentine citizenry through studying the humanities: grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy. 

• In the visual arts, humanism stood for:

1. The emergence of the individual figure in place of stereotyped or symbolic figures. 

2. Greater realism and consequent attention to detail

   • as reflected in the development of linear perspective and the increasing realism of human faces and bodies, this new approach helps to explain why the classical sculptures were so revered and why Byzantine art fell out of fashion. 

3. An emphasis on and promotion of virtuous action: 

   • an approach echoed by the leading art theorist of the Renaissance, Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72). 

   • The promotion of virtuous action reflected the growing idea that man, not fate or God, controlled human destiny and was a key reason why history painting became regarded as the highest form of painting.

Quattrocento

• Early Renaissance 

• A transitioning from Gothic to Classical styles

• Focused mostly on Florence under the patronage of the Medicis 

• an abbreviation for "millequattrocento" 

• Italian for 'fourteen hundred', meaning the 15th century. 

• It, therefore, embraces cultural and artistic activities in painting, sculpture, and architecture from 1400-1500. 

• The term is often used as a synonym for Early Renaissance art in general, particularly in Florence, during the transitional period between Gothic and classical styles. 

• The Florentine Renaissance flourished mainly due to their enlightened patrons, and none were more influential than the Medici Family. 

• The family fortune derived from banking, Cosimo, and eventually, his grandson, Lorenzo (Lorenzo the Magnificent), with their passion for knowledge and the arts, brought artists, philosophers, and scientists to Florence and created a golden age in the history of art to rival even that of ancient Athens.

• 'fourteen hundred'

Quattrocento is an abbreviation for "millequattrocento" 

• Italian for —, meaning the 15th century. 

• Characteristics of Italian Renaissance (Florence)

1. Used symmetrical and squared plans

• The modules were based on the size of the aisle

2. Used symmetrical facades, organized in classical orders (temple front) with planar classicism

3. Used lintel, pedimets, and decorative keystones

4. Used domes, semicircular or segmental arches, and vaults (no ribbing)

5. Plazzos and villas merged. Domestic buildings had:

   1. Rustricaded (bricks/ masonry used to clad the bottom to purposely look rough) and ashlar (higher levels, more defined compared to rustricaded walls) walls

• Lowest level rough, highest level smoothest 

2. Stories divided by string courses

• Placed in between levels to differentiate  

3. Corners defined by quoins

4. Surmounted by a looming cornice 

• Goes beyond the overall footprint of the buildings

• sometimes over a meter, for shade and protection

5. Used Bifora windows

• Arched windows enccased in another arch 

6. Used Florentine Arches

• Decorative arch 

• Fan-like shape

7. Ceilings were either flat, beamed, or coffered

1. planar classicism 

• Motifs intrude minimally on the two-dimensional appearance of the walls

Rustricaded

bricks/ masonry used to clad the bottom to purposely look rough

ashlar

higher levels, more defined compared to rustricaded walls

1. string courses

• Placed in between levels to differentiate  

1. looming cornice 

• Goes beyond the overall footprint of the buildings

• sometimes over a meter, for shade and protection

Bifora windows

• Arched windows enccased in another arch 

1. Florentine Arches

• Decorative arch 

• Fan-like shape

• an arch with a semicircular intrados but whose extrados is not concentric. 

• The keystone was often emphasized as it was larger than other voussoirs.

Cinquecento

• High Renaissance

• Focused moreon Rome and Venice

• Italian for 'five hundred'

• an abbreviation for "millecinquecento" 

• used in the history of art as a description of the 16th century in Italy. 

• Traditionally, it encompasses cultural activities in the fields of Italian architecture, painting, and sculpture during the period 1500-1600. 

• The Cinquecento witnessed the full flowering of High Renaissance art

  • in Rome, Venice, and, to a lesser extent, Florence - and the related Mannerism movement that followed. 

• Thus, it may be said to represent the late Italian Renaissance.

five hundred

Cinquecento is an abbreviation for "millecinquecento" and Italian for —-

Mannerism

• Late Renaissance 

• Mostly in painting and sculpture

• Focused mostly on Rome and Florence

• derived from the Italian word 'maniera' meaning style or stylishness/ by the hand

• refers to a style of painting, sculpture, and (to a lesser extent) architecture that emerged in Rome and Florence between 1510 and 1520, during the later years of the High Renaissance. 

• acts as a bridge between the idealized style of Renaissance art and the dramatic theatricality of the Baroque.

'maniera'

Mannerism is derived from the Italian word —- meaning style or stylishness/ by the hand

Palazzo

• Found within the city proper

• was the many luxurious urban palaces

• are rectangular with square and rectangular rooms that often focus inward to a cortile (see Fig. 10.6.1), a central courtyard. 

• suburban villas 

• Found outside the city

• constructed by the wealthy merchant and ruling families that fully showcased this shift towards more classically inspired design.

• Church façades commonly come in two forms: 

• one with a higher central portion with lower sides, reflecting the interior nave and aisles

• the other resembles ancient temples and is generally surmounted by a pediment and organized by a system of pilasters, arches, and entablatures. 

Quattrocento Architecture, Florence

1. The Dome of the Duomo

2. Ospedale degli Innocenti (Hospital of the Innocents)

3. Palazzo Medici Riccardi

4. Palazzo Rucellai

Cinquecento Architecture, Rome 

1. Tempietto di San Pietro in Montorio (Tempietto) 

2. The Renovation of St. Peter’s Basilica 

3. The Dome of St. Peter’s Basilica

4. Renovation of the Piazza del Campidoglio 

Mannerist Architecture 

1. The Vestibule of the Laurentian Library, Florence

2. The Palazzo del Te, Mantua

1. The Dome of the Duomo (Santa Maria del Flore)

• Still the largest brick dome in the world

• was - for centuries - the largest dome in the world and is still the largest brick dome ever made. 

• Brunelleschi further won commissions to design the four hemispherical exedra, or small half-domes, set against the drum at the base of the main dome and the cupula, the lantern, that sits on top of the dome. 

• The lantern closed the central oculus of the dome and exerted additional downward force, thus reducing the outward thrust at the base.

• The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, or the Florence Cathedral, 

• Designed with a dome to be the largest in the world

• Filippo Brunelleschi built the dome years after the cathedral was finished

• He used a lot of indigenous techniques to build the dome 

• He also designed the exedras and cupula

• was erected on the site of an earlier cathedral. 

• The new structure was designed by Arnolfo di Cambio and was expected to take 140 years to build. 

• The cathedral complex, situated in the Piazza del Duomo ("Cathedral Square"), comprises three buildings: 

  • Cathedral itself

  • Baptistery

  • Giotto's Campanile (bell tower). 

Piazza del Duomo ("Cathedral Square"), comprises three buildings:

• Cathedral itself

• Baptistery

• Giotto's Campanile (bell tower)

Filippo Brunelleschi

• a goldsmith and clockmaker, planned to overcome the building’s inaccuracies with a double-layered construction comprising an inner and outer shell held together with brick arches and interlocking rings of stone and wood. 

• The rings prevented outward expansion. 

• Further innovation allowed the masonry to support itself during construction - Brunelleschi interlaced the bricks in a herringbone pattern as he built the domes from the bottom to the top.

Ospedale degli Innocenti (Hospital of the Innocents)

• Brunellschi designed a beautifully proportioned loggia arcade with composite Roman columns. 

• The height and intercolumnar distances were beautifully proportioned

• The facade used tabernacle windows and pietra serena 

• was a children’s orphanage and was Brunelleschi’s first commission by the Silk Guild of Florence.

loggia

• covered gallery

• bore an arcade of semicircular arches surmounted by round composite Roman columns. 

• The loggia façade comprises nine semicircular arches springing from columns of the Composite order. 

• In the spandrels of the arches, there are glazed blue terracotta roundels (tondi) with reliefs of babies designed by Andrea della Robbia, suggesting the function of the building. 

Above each semicircular arch is a tabernacle window

tabernacle window

a rectangular window with a triangular pediment on the top

Pietra serena

• Italian: serene stone

• The architectural elements were also all articulated in grey stone, 

• set off against the white stucco of the walls.

Palazzo Medici Riccardi

• Designed by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo for Cosimo de' Medici, head of the Medici banking family

• was well known for its use of stone masonry, which includes rusticated blocks on the ground floor and the ashlar face of the top stories, and the cornice. 

• The noble families of the Early Renaissance in Italy built several magnificent urban palaces, many designed to look imposing and even intimidating. 

power

The façade often bears a huge central door, suggesting —

strength the fortifications of a castle

rusticated stonework suggests —

• wealth

• precious marbles and/or relief sculpture indicates —

nobility

a cartouche accompanied by a family coat-of-arms is an emphatic symbol of —

• importance

• many-layered cornice, sitting on top of the facade like a weighty crown further emphasizes its —

• String courses 

• Stories are divided from the outside by horizontal bands of stonework

• Piano nobile

The grandest rooms are located on the second level

Kneeling windows

• The ground level used to carry monumental archways, which were later walled up and presently contain large windows with corbels supporting the sills. 

• Michelangelo designed these for the Medicis, his patrons.

Palazzo Rucellai

• Leon Battista-Alberti 

  • designed the palace for the wool-merchant family of Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai. 

  • An architect, painter, sculptor, and writer

  • was the most important art theorist of the Early Renaissance. 

  • The Palazzo Rucellai’s facade was one of the first to proclaim the new ideas of Renaissance architecture based on using pilasters and entablatures in proportional relationship to each other.

• Hierarchy of orders 

  • comprises the Tuscan order at the base, the Ionic order at the second level, and a very simplified Corinthian order at the top level. 

  • Twin-lit, round-arched windows in the two upper stories are set within arches with highly pronounced voussoirs that spring from pilaster to pilaster. 

  • A boldly projecting cornice tops the facade. 

  • Ground floor 

    • was for business. 

  • Second story 

    • the piano nobile

    • was the main formal reception floor, and the third story was the private family and sleeping quarters. 

  • fourth "hidden" floor 

    • under the roof was for servants; with almost no windows, it was quite dark inside.

Leon Battista-Alberti

• designed the palace for the wool-merchant family of Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai. 

• An architect, painter, sculptor, and writer

• was the most important art theorist of the Early Renaissance. 

• The Palazzo Rucellai’s facade was one of the first to proclaim the new ideas of Renaissance architecture based on using pilasters and entablatures in proportional relationship to each other.

Hierarchy of orders

• comprises the Tuscan order at the base, the Ionic order at the second level, and a very simplified Corinthian order at the top level. 

• Twin-lit, round-arched windows in the two upper stories are set within arches with highly pronounced voussoirs that spring from pilaster to pilaster. 

• A boldly projecting cornice tops the facade.

Ground floor

was for business.

Second story

• the piano nobile

• was the main formal reception floor, and the third story was the private family and sleeping quarters. 

fourth "hidden" floor

under the roof was for servants; with almost no windows, it was quite dark inside.

1. Tempietto di San Pietro in Montorio (Tempietto)

• Considered to be a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture

• Donato Bramante was commissioned in 1502 by Ferdinand V and Isabella of Spain to design a small shrine over the spot where the apostle Peter was believed to have been crucified.

• is one of the most harmonious buildings of the Renaissance. 

• The circular temple supports a classical entablature and is framed in the shadowy arch of the cloister. 

• It is the earliest example of the Tuscan order in the Renaissance. 

  • The Tuscan is a form of the Doric order, well suited for strong male gods (such as Hercules), so Tuscan was well suited for St. Peter's. 

• It is meant to mark the traditional exact spot of St. Peter's martyrdom and is an important precursor to Bramante's rebuilding of St. Peter's.

• Bramante designed the shrine, only 15 feet in diameter, with a stepped base and a Tuscan peristyle. 

• The first story of the shrine is topped by a tall drum supporting a hemispheric dome. 

• Especially notable is the sculptural effect of the building's exterior, with its deep wall niches creating contrasts of light and shadow, its Doric frieze of carved papal emblems, and its elegant balustrade.

The Renovation of St. Peter’s Basilica

• Spearheaded by Pope Julius II

• Bramante won the commission to renovate the old Constantine basilica and replace it with a Greek Cross plan with a dome over the crossing, inspired by the Pantheon. 

• The new dome, however, will be supported only on four large piers.

• The deaths of Julius II and Bramante had the original designs of St. Peter’s taken over, augmented, and executed by different architects, expressing different designs and styles, all still maintaining the huge dome. 

• The final design of the dome fell into the hands of Michelangelo Buonarroti. 

The Dome of St. Peter’s Basilica

• Based on Bramante's designs and other designers who took over the work, Michelangelo’s dome was also a Brunalleschian double-shelled with an outer ovoid dome and an inner hemispheric dome. 

• It is a segmented dome with regularly spaced openings, resting on a high drum with pedimented windows between paired columns and surmounted by a tall lantern reminiscent of Bramante's Tempietto. 

• Michelangelo died before the dome was completed in 1590. 

• Today, the dome is the tallest dome in the world and the greatest in Christendom. 

Renovation of the Piazza del Campidoglio

• The Campidoglio (Capitol) 

  • is a public square atop the Capitoline Hill, once the citadel of Republican Rome. 

• The buildings covering the irregular site had fallen into disrepair, and then Pope Paul III saw its renovation as a symbol of both his spiritual and secular power. 

• Pope Paul III had two specific goals in mind. 

  • First, he wanted the space to serve as an appropriately grand representation of Rome’s symbolic importance as the caput mundi or center of the world. 

  • Second, he wanted to clearly delineate the Church's role in this longstanding secular government seat. 

• All of which were in expectation of Emperor Charles V’s visit to Rome. The monumental task was given to Michelangelo.

• Pope Paul III had two specific goals in mind. 

• First, he wanted the space to serve as an appropriately grand representation of Rome’s symbolic importance as the caput mundi or center of the world. 

• Second, he wanted to clearly delineate the Church's role in this longstanding secular government seat.

The Vestibule of the Laurentian Library, Florence

• Windows are only for decoration 

  • With pediments with alternating design 

• Corbels purely for decoration 

• Scalloped shaped steps

• Giant order

  • Two levels of columns 

• Visual trickery and unexpected elements, a reaction against the classical perfection of High Renaissance architecture characterize mannerist architecture. 

• Architects experimented deliberately playing with symmetry, order, and harmony, either with a rigorous application of classical rules and motifs or flaunting Classical convention in terms of shape and scale. 

• Mannerism became a relaxed nonconformist style, using unnatural proportions and stylistic contradictions.

The Palazzo del Te, Mantua

• Michelangelo designed the vestibule and showed his playfulness and willful disregard for the more conventional Brunelleschian style. 

• The entrance vestibule (called the "ricetto") was built in the characteristic Florentine two-one combination of grey sandstone elements on white plaster. 

• Here, Michelangelo's energetic and powerfully modeled architectural vocabulary emerges in the tabernacle niches, the paired columns, and the portal, all imbued with a feeling of solid strength. 

• Concentrating on the vestibule's walls, this dynamism downflows in the fantastical staircase. 

• It consists of three flights of steps; the outer ones are quadrangular shaped, the central ones are convex, and the bottom three steps are completely elliptical. 

• The staircase is an explosion of originality that fits perfectly with the fanciful character of the Mannerist style of architecture. 

Andrea Palladio

• Author, architect, and one of the most influential figures of the Renaissance by placing his own personal stamp on the execution of Renaissance classicsm 

• Known for his Palladian Villas:

  • Bore a central block, flanked with identical wings and symmetrical interiors

  • Built on a podium with a tall major story and short attic story 

  • Used covered arcades and walkways

  • Used “Palladian Arches”, Venetian windows, and Palladian windows

• Designed the Villa Carpa (La Rotunda)

  • Inspired by the Pantheon, it is known for its symmetry and identical facade on all 4 sides

• is one of the most influential figures of Renaissance architecture by placing his own personal stamp on the execution of Renaissance classicism. 

• In 1556, he illustrated Daniele Barbaro’s edition of Vitruvius’s De Architecture. 

• He later wrote his own treatise on architecture, his I Quattro Libri dell’ Architettura (The Four Books of Architecture), published in 1570. 

• It is a thorough text on classical design, including translations from Vitruvius and illustrative woodcut plates of ancient examples and his own Renaissance work. 

• That work had a wide-ranging influence on succeeding generations of architects throughout Europe. 

• Palladio’s influence outside Italy, most significantly in England and in colonial America, was stronger and more lasting than any other architect’s.

• accrued his significant reputation from his many designs for villas. 

Palladian Villas

• Bore a central block, flanked with identical wings and symmetrical interiors

• Built on a podium with a tall major story and short attic story 

• Used covered arcades and walkways

• Used “Palladian Arches”, Venetian windows, and Palladian windows

Villa Capra (La Rotonda)

• Inspired by the Pantheon, it is known for its symmetry and identical facade on all 4 sides

• Vicenza Palladio designed the villa for Count Paolo Almerico. 

• Upon its completion, the villa was dubbed the Villa Rotonda because it had been inspired by the rotunda of the Roman Pantheon. 

• After its purchase in 1591 by the Capra family, it became known as the Villa Capra.

• The villa plan displays the geometrical clarity of a circle inscribed in a small square inside a larger square, with symmetrical rectangular compartments and identical rectangular porticos from each of its faces. 

• Using a central dome on a domestic building was a daring innovation that effectively secularized the dome.

The Villa Rotonda

• was the first of what was to become a long tradition of domedcountry houses, particularly in England and the United States. 

• was to be one of Palladio's best-known legacies to the architectural world. 

Villa Capra may have inspired a thousand subsequent buildings, but the villa was itself inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.

Palladian Style

• The overall plan is a central block flanked with identical wings which ensure perfect symmetry; 

  • the central block is faced with a temple front. 

  • The interior plan is also symmetrical, with a great hall at the center. 

• The centralized block is raised on an elevated podium accessed by grand steps and flanked by lower service wings. 

  • The building has a tall major story and a short attic story.

• The villas very often had loggias, covered arcades, or walkways on the outside of upper levels, which gave a view of the scenery or city below and also gave variety to the facade. 

• They bear Palladian arches, a configuration associated with Palladio due to his use of the motif, 

Serlian windows, or Venetian windows

• consist of a central arched window symmetrically flanked by two shorter sidelights. 

• Each sidelight is flanked by two columns or pilasters and topped by a small entablature. 

• The entablatures serve as imposts supporting the semicircular arch that tops the central window.

Palladian window

• elaborates the Venetian window with the "Palladian motif." 

• It places a giant order in between each window and doubles the small columns supporting the side lintels, placing the second column behind rather than beside the first.

Oculus

The spandrel is sometimes pierced by a small circular window or hole

Italian Renaissance Interior Design

• Bore gothic features with classical elements such as pilasters, columns, and moldings

• Doors and windows bore architraves or flanked with pilasters, surounted by pediments

• Used florentine arches 

• Walls were treated with tapestries and frescos, as well as paneling bearing intarsia 

• Ceilings were either flat, beamed, or coffered 

• Floors were either brick in herringbone; wooden parquetry; or terrazzo

• Preferred bright primary colors accenting neutral walls

  • Mannerist preferred softer tones 

• Used bolection moldings

gunpowder

The use of —- during the 15th century made medieval fortresses increasingly obsolete.

Characteristics of Typical Renaissance Interiors

• Older structures maintained Gothic features, although newer buildings began to incorporate classical architectural elements. 

• Interior unity was observed as artisans and craftsmen all worked with the same design vocabulary, classicism. 

• Classical features such as columns, pilasters, and paneling were applied to rooms of greater importance. 

• Doors and windows are left plain, but some are decorated with aedicula, architraves flanked with pilasters, and surmounted by pediments. 

• The Florentine arch was also introduced. 

• As most Italian Renaissance interiors are rarely left in their original state, most information about their design is gleaned from paintings dating back to the era

Rooms

were often rectangular or square and inward facing into the central courtyard.

Sala

• The most important rooms are located in the piano nobile

• the main reception room.

Studiolo

Cameras, or the owner's room, a more private studio where the most treasured possessions are kept.

Madornale

a large audience hall, dining rooms, bedrooms with ensuite "agiamenti" (toilets), a rarity in elegant houses of the period

bright primary

Italians enjoyed using — colors in their interiors, with discretion in their distribution.

softer tones

Mannerists preferred —

Ceilings

• were kept relatively high and treated with elaborate decorations in wood, plaster, or both, making them feel heavy. 

• were spanned with either painted beams, coffers, or vaults.

Dwellings

located in the warmer parts of Italy preferred tile, brick, and marble floors, often in checkerboard and scroll patterns.

Fireplaces

• are a focal point for decoration. 

• They bore pyramidal hoods or had mantles that bore classical ornaments and a bolection molding as trims.

Intarsia

• Decorative motive used by craftsmen by putting different colors inlays of different species of wood 

• Used to decorate furniture 

• Similar feel to a mosaic (not really)

• is the art of creating a mosaic-like picture from pieces of wood. 

• Colors, values, and an illusion of depth can be achieved by the woodworker carefully choosing the right wood species, grain pattern, and grain directions and cutting them to size.

• Terrazzo floors 

are made from small pieces of marble or granite set in a concrete mixture.

Parquetry

is an inlaid work of blocks of various kinds of wood arranged in a geometric pattern, especially seen in flooring.

Bolection

• is a decorative molding that projects beyond the face of a panel or frame in raised panel walls, doors, and fireplaces. 

• It is commonly used when the meeting surfaces are at different levels.

Italian Renaissance Furniture and Furnishings

• Unlike their gothic predecessors, furniture design became less architectural and became more complementary to its structure. 

• Greater emphasis was also placed on comfort as social habits leaned more towards hosting gatherings and entertainment. 

• The furniture was often arranged against walls and incorporated into the wall decoration program. 

• Chairs appeared in increasing variety as alternatives to benches and stools. 

• As they were gradually introduced into the basically simple living spaces of the Renaissance, all of these things began the movement toward the increasingly cluttered “fully furnished” interiors of the modern world. 

• The new fashions were mostly limited to wealthy homes; average interiors remained unchanged.

• Cassone

• the most important piece of Italian furniture was the cassone, given to the bride as part of her dowry. 

• It can be a small jewel box or a chest or trunk used as a piece of traveling luggage.

•  It has a hinged lid and is very often beautifully decorated, with carvings of classical motifs or intarsia. 

• With the lid closed, it could be used as a seat or a table.

Cassapanca

A cassone with added arms and back, coupled with cushions forms a sofa,

Credenza

• is a cabinet with doors and drawers intended to store linens, dishes, and cutlery.

Letto

• The bed was a massive structure with a paneled headboard and footboard. 

• often placed on a base, it occasionally has a tester above. 

• Drapery was added in the latter periods.

Refectory Tables

• Likely originating in monasteries, these tables typically had an oval top supported by carved trestle legs, dwarf Doric columns, or turned baluster legs. 

• Both plain and carved stretchers were used

• Trestle table

Sedia

• a square, straight armchair with low stretchers. 

• The back legs often continue up as the supports of the backrest, which terminates into finials. 

Sgabello

• a light, wooden dining chair. 

• Earlier designs had three legs, small octagonal seats, and a stiff back. 

• Later models bore trestle or slat supports and backs.

1. Savonarola 

named after the infamous monk, is an xshaped chair with interlacing curved wooden slats attached to solid arms and a carved back panel.

Dante

is also an x-shaped chair, bearing heavily ornamented arms and legs and an upholstered seat and back panel.

Mirrors

a development of Venetian glass production, remained small but were also often elaborately framed.

Lighting

came from candles placed in many varieties of table, wall-mounted, or floor-standing holders.

Burning torches

were also used for light out of doors and in large interior spaces, giving the name Torchere