Dwelling and Rule: the Renaissance villa and palazzo Flashcards

1
Q

Key changes created by Renaissance

A
  • Interest in humanism
  • Power of secular society
  • Rising interest in art, literature, music, architecture
  • Patronage system changes to ruling class
  • Revival of VITURVIUS - ideal of proportionality, rationality
  • Treaties written by Alberti, Palladio, Serli
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2
Q

What is the palazzo typolgy

A

Italian word for large scale building, representative of a noble family or for institutional functions

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3
Q

What is the piano nobile?

A

The first floor of the Renaissance where the noble family had their apartments. Usually higher and more decorated, often with a central balcony

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4
Q

What is the technique of rustication?

A

Relief block work used on the facade of the Renaissance palazzo, delineates cornices from doorways

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5
Q

Palazzo Medici

Florence, Italy

Michelozzo di Bartolomeo

1445‐1460

A
  • Classical cornice disguises the shallow hipped roof
  • Use of groin vaults + arcading in courtyard
  • Not symmetrical
  • Displays some formality, but does not achieve rational perfection
  • Round arch - Romanesque pretension
    • Not proportional to/unified with narrow aedicules above
  • Rustication of ground floor - solidity + mass
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6
Q

Palazzo Rucellai

Florence, Italy

Leon Batista Alberti

c. 1446

A
  • More orderly facade
  • Clear correspondence of elements
  • Facade is grid-like and symmetrical
  • Attic story generally smaller in height
  • Trabeated system - understanding of the Classical idiom
  • Still carries sense of Romanesque solidity
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7
Q

Palazzo Pitti

Florence, Italy

Filippo Brunelleschi and Luca Fancelli

1458‐1631 [later garden front Bartolomeo Ammanati]

A
  • Official residence of Pitti family
  • Expansive, massive in scale - also sense of orderliness, sophistication
  • Facade has an almost tiered sort of appearance
  • All the typical aspects of palazzo typology achieved par excellence
  • Rise of a powerful secular class - resounding sense of wealth, restrained sense of luxury
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8
Q

Andrea Palladio, I Quattro libri dell’architettura (The Four Books of Architecture), 1570

A
  • Described a functional, but also a rational, form of architecture
  • One of the most seminal texts produced during the Renaissance
  • Buildings should be built with mathematical integrity
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9
Q

Villa Rotonda

outside Vicenza, Italy

Andrea Palladio, 1565‐70

A
  • Completley symmetrical building
  • Four facades, each with projecting portico
  • Flight of steps leads up to each portico
  • Geometrical rationality - layering of the square and circle in plan
  • Each portico has a Ionic, hexastyle peripteral
  • Columns unfluted, no entasis - emphasis on verticality
  • Triangular pediment above each lintel
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10
Q

Queen’s House

Greenwich, England

Inigo Jones, 1616‐35

A
  • Villa typolgy - relaxed, retreat, opulence
  • Cement and stone material
  • Minimalistic colour scheme, white
  • Square plan
  • Italian, ballustrated flat roof
  • Quoining of the sides
  • Rustication of base
  • Tetrastyle, upper story portico
  • Sense of rhythm - larger rectagle windows on the outside, closer + smaller windows at centre
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11
Q

Palazzo del Tè, Mantua

Italy, Giulio Romano

1526‐1534

*Mannerist

A
  • Extension of the Palace of Mantua - contains no bedrooms
  • Series of elaborate paintings inside - depict destruction, anti-pleasure in a way, non-conformist
  • Clear sense of axiality
  • Assymetrical but rythmical
  • Small irregularities in plan + form
    • Each facade is different
    • Key stone above the aedicule is out of place
    • East + West courtyard, every third triglyph positioned downwards
    • *
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12
Q

What is the difference between a villa and palazzo?

A
  • Villa situated in the country, designed for pleasure and relaxation
  • Asserts its modernity
  • Master builder is usually an architect
  • Fills a need that has not altered - need for escape, pleasure, entertainment, contemplation of nature
  • Escape from the city to rural idyll will elevate mind and soul
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