Renaissance architecture

Orderly arrangements of columns, pilasters and lintels, as well as the use of semicircular arches, hemispherical domes, niches and aediculae replaced the more complex proportional systems and irregular profiles of medieval buildings.

It is in Florence that the new architectural style had its beginning, not slowly evolving in the way that Gothic grew out of Romanesque, but consciously brought to being by particular architects who sought to revive the order of a past "Golden Age".

However, as the technology and finance were found to complete it, the rising dome did credit not only to the Virgin Mary, its architect and the Church but also to the Signoria, the Guilds and the sectors of the city from which the manpower to construct it was drawn.

The development of printed books, the rediscovery of ancient writings, the expanding of political and trade contacts and the exploration of the world all increased knowledge and the desire for education.

To this end, wealthy families—the Medici of Florence, the Gonzaga of Mantua, the Farnese in Rome, the Sforzas in Milan—gathered around them people of learning and ability, promoting the skills and creating employment for the most talented artists and architects of their day.

[note 6] While the obvious distinguishing features of Classical Roman architecture were adopted by Renaissance architects, the forms and purposes of buildings had changed over time, as had the structure of cities.

Brunelleschi's first major architectural commission was for the enormous brick dome which covers the central space of Florence's cathedral, designed by Arnolfo di Cambio in the 14th century but left unroofed.

The decoration, being mainly polychrome marble, is mostly very flat in nature, but a sort of order is established by the regular compartments and the circular motifs which repeat the shape of the round window.

Donato Bramante, (1444–1514), was born in Urbino and turned from painting to architecture, finding his first important patronage under Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, for whom he produced a number of buildings over 20 years.

From 1488 to 1492 he worked for Ascanio Sforza on Pavia Cathedral, on which he imposed a central plan scheme and built some apses and the crypt, inspired by the thermal baths of the Roman age.

Against the smooth pink-washed walls the stone quoins of the corners, the massive rusticated portal and the repetition of finely detailed windows produce an elegant effect.

[8] Raphael (1483–1520), born in Urbino, trained under Perugino in Perugia before moving to Florence, was for a time the chief architect for St. Peter's, working in conjunction with Antonio Sangallo.

His single most influential work is the Palazzo Pandolfini in Florence with its two stories of strongly articulated windows of a "tabernacle" type, each set around with ordered pilasters, cornice and alternate arched and triangular pediments.

Above this rise three undifferentiated floors, the upper two with identical small horizontal windows in thin flat frames which contrast strangely with the deep porch, which has served, from the time of its construction, as a refuge to the city's poor.

Romano was also a highly inventive designer, working for Federico II Gonzaga at Mantua on the Palazzo Te (1524–1534), a project which combined his skills as architect, sculptor and painter.

In this work, incorporating garden grottoes and extensive frescoes, he uses illusionistic effects, surprising combinations of architectural form and texture, and the frequent use of features that seem somewhat disproportionate or out of alignment.

His architectural fame lies chiefly in two buildings: the interiors of the Laurentian Library and its lobby at the monastery of San Lorenzo in Florence, and St Peter's Basilica in Rome.

The vestibule, on the other hand, is tall, taller than it is wide and is crowded by a large staircase that pours out of the library in what Nikolaus Pevsner refers to as a "flow of lava", and bursts in three directions when it meets the balustrade of the landing.

Most characteristics of the original design are maintained, subtly transformed to give more weight to the central section, where della Porta uses, among other motifs, a low triangular pediment overlaid on a segmental one above the main door.

The problem of linking the aisles to the nave is solved using Alberti's scrolls, in contrast to Vignola's solution which provided much smaller brackets and four statues to stand above the paired pilasters, visually weighing down the corners of the building.

[26] Like Alberti, della Porta and others, in the designing of a church façade, Palladio was confronted by the problem of visually linking the aisles to the nave while maintaining and defining the structure of the building.

Indeed, as Pope Julius II was having the Old St. Peter's Basilica demolished to make way for the new, Henry VII of England was adding a glorious new chapel in the Perpendicular Gothic style to Westminster Abbey.

In a similar way, in many parts of Europe that had few purely classical and ordered buildings like Brunelleschi's Santo Spirito and Michelozzo's Medici Riccardi Palace, Baroque architecture appeared almost unheralded, on the heels of a sort of Proto-Renaissance local style.

The prime example of Renaissance architecture in Latvia is the heavily decorated House of the Blackheads, rebuilt from an earlier Medieval structure into its present Mannerist forms as late as 1619–25 by the architects A. and L. Jansen.

During the reign of Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor and Bohemian king, the city of Prague became one of the most important European centers of the late Renaissance art (so-called Mannerism).

In the Loire Valley a wave of building was carried and many Renaissance châteaux appeared at this time, the earliest example being the Château d'Amboise (c. 1495) in which Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years.

Important early examples of this period are especially the Landshut Residence, Heidelberg Castle, Johannisburg Palace in Aschaffenburg, Schloss Weilburg, the City Hall and Fugger Houses in Augsburg and St. Michael's Church, Munich.

Notable German Renaissance architects include Friedrich Sustris, Benedikt Rejt, Abraham van den Blocke, Elias Holl and Hans Krumpper.

In 1505, an Italian known in Russia as Aleviz Novyi built twelve churches for Ivan III, including the Cathedral of the Archangel, a building remarkable for the successful blending of Russian tradition, Orthodox requirements and Renaissance style.

There are few examples of Renaissance architecture in Norway, the most prominent being renovations to the medieval Rosenkrantz Tower in Bergen, Barony Rosendal in Hardanger, and the contemporary Austrat manor near Trondheim, and parts of Akershus Fortress.