History of Architecture: Renaissance Architecture

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the key concepts, architectural terminology, major phases, architects, and landmark structures of Renaissance architecture.

Humanism

A central Renaissance architectural philosophy that emphasizes human scale and uses the proportions of the human body as a measure for design.

Vitruvius

The ancient Roman writer and architectural theorist whose rediscovered treatises provided Renaissance architects with principles to interpret Roman ruins.

Purists

The Renaissance design faction led by Andrea Palladio that strictly adhered to classical symmetry, axiality, and proportion.

Proto-Baroque

The stylistic movement initiated by Michelangelo that broke away from rigid classicism through dynamic forms and a visual rather than purely functional approach.

Rustication

A masonry technique of cutting and finishing stone blocks with rough, deeply channeled, or textured outer surfaces.

Dormer

A vertical window structure that projects outward from a sloping roof.

Mullion

A vertical framing element that divides individual lights or panes within a window.

Transom

A horizontal framing member that divides a window into upper and lower sections.

Mansard Roof

A four-sided curb roof with a double slope on all four sides, where the lower pitch is steeper than the upper pitch; also referred to as a gambrel roof.

Papier-Mâché

A composite material made of paper pieces or pulp bound with adhesive, utilized during the Renaissance for decorative work.

Rococo

A late Renaissance decorative style noted for semiabstract ornamentation, light color palettes, and visual delicacy.

Lantern

A small, turret-like structure erected at the crossing above a dome designed to admit light to the space below.

Ambulatory

A covered, semicircular or curving walkway wrapping around the choir and apse of a church.

English Bond

A brickwork pattern laid in alternating courses of all headers and all stretchers.

Flemish Bond

A brickwork pattern where each individual course alternates headers and stretchers.

Bay Window

A projecting window structure that extends outward from an exterior wall at ground level.

Oriel Window

A projecting window structure corbeled out from the exterior wall of an upper floor without extending to the ground.

Dais

A low raised platform located within a room or hall for speakers, lecturers, or dignitaries.

Pinnacle

A small, pointed, turret-like architectural feature used to terminate the top of a buttress or parapet.

Turret

A small, slender tower projecting vertically from the wall of a building, often containing stairs.

Pavilion

A prominent building section distinctive in character, or a light, ornamental standalone structure set in a garden.

Baluster

A short, molded vertical post or spindle supporting a coping or handrail in a parapet or staircase railing.

Donato Bramante

An Italian architect (1444–1514) of the Early and High Renaissance known for perspective works in Santa Maria presso San Satiro and the initial 1506 Greek-cross plan of New Saint Peter's Basilica.

Inigo Jones

A London-born architect (1576–1652) who introduced Italian Renaissance and Palladian architecture to England, designing the Queen's House at Greenwich and the Banqueting House at Whitehall.

Filippo Brunelleschi

A Florentine architect and engineer (1377–1446) who engineered the double-shell dome of Florence Cathedral without centering, studied one-point linear perspective, and received the first patent for an industrial hoist machine.

Leon Battista Alberti

An Italian Renaissance humanist, theorist, and architect (1404–1472) who wrote treatises on painting, sculpture, and architecture, and designed the facade of Santa Maria Novella.

De Re Aedificatoria

The seminal architectural treatise written by Leon Battista Alberti addressing classical proportions, building types, and the theory of design.

Andrea Palladio

The chief architect of the Venetian Republic (1508–1580) whose residential villas, symmetrical axial planning, and tripartite window design heavily influenced Western classical architecture.

Palladian Window

A three-part window opening characterized by a large arched central light flanked by two smaller rectangular openings.

Villa La Rotonda

A residential country villa near Vicenza designed by Andrea Palladio, characterized by perfect four-way symmetry, pedimented ionic porticoes, and a central domed circular hall.

Michelangelo Buonarroti

An Italian master artist and architect (1475–1564) who pioneered Mannerism and proto-Baroque style, painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and supervised the construction and dome design of Saint Peter's Basilica.

Leonardo da Vinci

An Italian Renaissance polymath (1452–1519) celebrated for masterworks like the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, as well as engineering sketches of helicopters, tanks, and double hulls.

Vitruvian Man

A famous drawing by Leonardo da Vinci demonstrating ideal human proportions inscribed within a square and a circle based on the writings of Vitruvius.

Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore

The primary church of Florence begun in the Gothic period and completed in the Renaissance with Filippo Brunelleschi's massive octagonal ribbed dome.

Saint Peter's Basilica

A landmark papal basilica in Vatican City built between 1506 and 1615, evolving from Bramante's centralized plan through Michelangelo's colossal order and dome design.