Renaissance church floor plans such as Filippo Brunelleschi’s Church of Santo Spirito in Florence were based off of the system originating off of a Roman Basilica. Capturing monumentality through the use of arches, massive scaled Corinthian columns and pilasters were developed by the mathematical proportions, using a great deal of care to achieve such spectacular results. The commissioning of these great buildings was a form of cultural representation often times depicting a show of human accomplishment. New building types became more prevalent opposed to the churches and palaces that reigned over architectural commission in the past. The Ospidale Innocent was a founding hospital, which took on a different “riff” of old forms. Throughout the Renaissance we can see a marriage of past principals given new light such as the basic stacking and layering of arches and columns to develop new ways of thinking about old ideals. Overall, Renaissance architecture was a simple arrangement of, circle, square, and rectilinear forms used in ancient times expressed in mathematical proportion. This concept can conceivably be seen the easiest in the examples of Andrea Palladio.
(photo credit)This celebration of human knowledge though, would soon be transformed into dramatic Baroque theatricality, and later, Rococo embellishments as new ways of stimulating human emotions through interiors were approached. In an effort to drag citizens back to the church, buildings took classical forms such as columns, vaulting, arches, and pilasters and teemed them up with chaotic ornament, changing the rules of classism. The visual complexity of structures like Bernini’s Cornano Chapel in Rome depicted a heavy use of art in the form of frescos which created the optical illusion of three dimensions, showing perspective on a two dimensional plane. In Bernini’s churches, the central plan that had been mimicked over and over, transformed into a longitudinal direction, molding the Basilica template in a new exploration. Concepts such as axial arrangement became embedded in French architecture through examples like the extravagant Versailles. In England, excessive ornamentation brought theatricality again in Blenheim Palace, which took classical forms on a dramatic skew once again. The last step away from the heavy architectural elements and rich colors of Baroque interiors was the Rococo movement that began in Paris in the 1720’s as elites moved out of the city and into the county to only spread across many regions of Europe. This response to the heaviness of Baroque style took a lighter approach in its ornamentation through narrower swags, shells, and other nature-inspired décor became curvilinear and delicate. Femininity reigned as a focus on light seen in the light pallets and focus on manipulating natural light itself though cleverly positioned windows mirrors and filigree reflected the idea of bringing the outside in. The regeneration of Architecture is seen throughout this chunk of history, however, this “regeneration: is a concept applied daily in modern times as much as the past. In order to start designing, I often look a past precedents. This is not to replicate these forms, but rather, improve them on my own terms, distorting inspirations into something completely new. Architecture throughout the Alternatives unit used this same approach with classical precedents to develop new styles for changing environments and times. “…These avant-garde architects now sought to create a rational modern architecture reformulated structurally from the ground up in the light of a new understanding of ancient architecture”. (Roth, 435)I Choose the image below as my description of the Alternatives unit because of the changing adaptation of old forms throughout this bit of time. Mimes adapt to new situations as well, contorting their human form to mimic different characters observed in the past.
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Pretty cool, I like your writing.
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