The Renaissance was a diverse phenomenon, marked by innovation and economic expansion, the rise of powerful rulers, religious reforms, and social change. Encompassing the entire continent, Renaissance Architecture examines the rich variety of buildings that emerged during these seminal centuries
of European history.
Although marked by the rise of powerful individuals, both patrons and architects, the Renaissance was equally a time of growing group identities and communities - and architecture provided the public face to these new identities . Religious reforms in northern
Europe, spurred on by Martin Luther, rejected traditional church function and decoration, and proposed new models. Political ambitions required new buildings to satisfy court rituals. Territory, nature, and art intersected to shape new landscapes and building types. Classicism came to be the
international language of an educated architect and an ambitious patron, drawing on the legacy of ancient Rome. Yet the richness of the medieval tradition continued to be used throughout Europe, often alongside classical buildings.
Examining each of these areas by turn, this book offers
a broad cultural history of the period as well as a completely new approach to the history of Renaissance architecture. The work of well-known architects such as Michelangelo and Andrea Palladio is examined alongside lesser known though no less innovative designers such as Juan Guas in Portugal and
Benedikt Ried in Prague and Eastern Europe. Drawing on the latest research, it also covers more recent areas of interest such as the story of women as patrons and the emotional effect of Renaissance buildings, as well as the impact of architectural publications and travel on the emerging new
architectural culture across Europe. As such, it provides a compelling introduction to the subject for all those interested in the history of architecture, society, and culture in the Renaissance, and European culture in general.
1. Introduction
2. The Voluptuous Pleasure of Building
3. The House of God
4. Theories and Practices: The Case of St. Peter's, Rome
5. The Architecture of Ascendency: Buildings and Power
6. Corporate Identity
7. Shaping the Renaissance City
8. Living in the
Country
9. Distant Shores
Timeline
Further Reading
Index
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Christy Anderson is an architectural historian with a special interest in the buildings of Renaissance and Baroque Europe. She has taught at Yale University, the Courtauld Institute, MIT, and currently the University of Toronto. As a Kress Fellow at the Courtauld Institute of Art and later as
a Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford, she studied the annotations made by the English architect Inigo Jones (1573-1652) in his collection of treatises and humanist literature. This work on literacy, architectural language, and the construction of the professional architect appeared in her
book Inigo Jones and the Classical Tradition (Cambridge, 2006). Her new work, supported by a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, explores the meanings of architectural materials in early modern Europe.
