history and theory of architecture

1. • Gothic and Early Renaissance Architecture: The idea of
rebirth and revival of art and architecture.
• Renaissance
• Baroque
• Rococo
• 18th century architecture
• Late 18th century American architecture
• 19th century
ARC 2104
HISTORY & THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE I
2020/2021Year II Semester 1
lecture 3
Credit Units :3
Contact Hours :
3
Total 45 hours
Students will acquire knowledge and understanding of :

2. An outline of the Architecture during the
Early Renaissance,
“Architects trained as humanists helped raise
the status of their profession from skilled
laborer to artist. They hoped to create
structures that would appeal to both emotion
and reason.”

3. remember…
 Renaissance architecture was ignited by the rediscovery of
architectural styles and theories of Ancient Rome/ Classical Antiquity.
 The first depictions of Classical architecture emerged in Italy during
the early 15th century when a copy of De Architectura (Ten Books on
Architecture) by the 1st century Roman architect Vitruvius, was
suddenly discovered in Rome.
 At the same time, the Florentine architect and artist Filippo Brunellesci
(1377-1446) had begun studying ancient Roman designs, and was
convinced that ideal building proportions could be ascertained from
mathematical and geometrical principles.
 It was Brunellesci's magnificent 1418 design for the dome of the
Florence Cathedral (1420-36) that was regarded as the first example
of Renaissance architecture. The Renaissance church possessed
symbolic value which is not contained in the classical pure forms.

4. A Return to Classical Values of Humanism
 There arose in Florence a new desire to cast off the old ways of
thinking - in philosophy, religion and art - and begin anew.
 The model chosen by Florentine artists and intellectuals for this
'new approach' was that of Classical Antiquity because they
believed that Greek and Roman art constituted an absolute
standard of artistic worth.
 This classicism was also consistent with the new mood of
'Humanism' which arose in Italy at this time. Renaissance was
perceived as the architecture of pure form. The application of
the classical apparatus of forms was used equally for sacred,
secular and domestic buildings with gradation.
 Humanism was a way of thinking which attached more
importance to Man and less importance to God.
 Humanism maybe defined as a Renaissance cultural movement
which turned away from medieval scholasticism and revived interest
in ancient Greek and Roman thought.

5. It may also be defined as a rationalist outlook or system of
thought attaching prime importance to human rather than
divine or supernatural matters.
In other words Humanism is viewed as is a positive approach of
life that pivots upon human values and morality more than a
religion and lays emphasis upon life’s experiences.
 Humanists believe that it is humanity that is more important
than all the religions put together.
 Sentiment of sharing and caring for other human beings is at
the heart of humanism.
 There is also a belief at the core of humanism that you, as a
human being, have a responsibility towards the shared future
of all human beings.
 The word "humanism" is ultimately derived from the Latin
concept humanitas.

6.  Although Christianity remained the only religion, Humanism
reinterpreted it so as to give it a human face. For example,
religious figures like Evangelists, Saints, Apostles and the Holy
Family were portrayed as real-life people, rather than
stereotyped and idealized figures.
 Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes
the value and agency of human beings, individually and
collectively, preferring critical thinking and evidence (rationalism
and empiricism) over acceptance of dogma or superstition.
 Secular humanism is a philosophy or life stance that embraces
human reason, ethics, and philosophical naturalism while
specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism,
pseudoscience, and superstition as the basis of morality and
decision making.

7. • A true humanist does not believe in a particular religion, and he
does not believe that there is a God out there to protect human
beings.

8. Renaissance humanism
Humanism, an umbrella term that is applied collectively to a group
of theories or philosophies that emphasize our shared humanity and
a life based upon reason.
Most Renaissance humanists were religious and their primary
concern was to "purify and renew Christianity" and not to eliminate it
all together. Their vision was to return ad fontes ("to the sources"), the
simplicity of the New Testament, bypassing the complex medieval
theology.
By contrast today, the term humanism has come to signify "a
worldview which denies the existence or relevance of God, or which
is committed to a purely secular outlook.“
**Humanists sought to create a citizenry able to speak and write with
eloquence and clarity and thus capable of engaging in the civic life
of their communities and persuading others to virtuous and prudent
actions.

9. Common attributes of Renaissance
1. Renaissance architects rejected the intricacy and
verticality of the Gothic style for the simplicity and
balanced proportions of classicism.
2. This meant rounded arches, domes, and the classical
orders were revived. This revival was accomplished
through direct observation of Roman ruins, as well as
study of the treatise Ten Books on Architecture written
by Roman architect-engineer Vitruvius.
3. Renaissance architecture tends to feature planar
classicism (i.e. "flat classicism"). Planar classicism
tends to divide a wall into neat sections, using such
elements as columns, pilasters, and stringcourses*.
 A stringcourse is a horizontal strip of material that runs along the exterior of a
building, typically to mark the division between stories. A Baroque façade
wall, on the other hand, is treated as a continuous, undulating whole.

10. Pazzi Chapel Florence,
Filippo Brunelleschi
The walls of a Renaissance
building (both exterior and
interior) are embellished with
classical motifs (columns,
pilasters, pediments, blind arches)
of minor physical depth, such that
they intrude minimally on the two-
dimensional appearance of the
walls (planar surface).
This meant that the walls of a
Renaissance building serve as flat
canvases for a classical veneer
contrastsing sharply with the
Classical Antiquity and Baroque
architecture, in which walls are
deeply curved and sculpted
(resulting in "sculpted classicism").

11. The interior view of the of the dome of the Pazzi Chapel Florence

12.  The foremost Renaissance building types: church, palazzo (urban
mansion), and villa (country mansion). While various great names
are associated with Renaissance church and palazzo design, the
most famous villa architect by far is Palladio.
 Although the Renaissance flourished in Italy around 1400-1600 AD, it
only spread across the rest of Europe during the latter half of this
period. Outside Italy, the transition to the Renaissance was slowed
by devotion to the Gothic style.
 Consequently, much non-Italian Renaissance architecture
embodies a fascinating blend of Gothic intricacy and verticality
(including towers) with Renaissance simplicity and restraint.
 The leading region of Renaissance architecture in northern Europe
was France, where the primary building type was the chateau
(country mansion). The influence of French Renaissance
architecture spread across northern Europe.

13. Renaissance Classical Characteristics
 Even though Classical Roman architectural features were
adopted by Renaissance architects, the forms and purposes
of buildings had changed over time, as had the structure of
cities.
 Among the earliest buildings of the reborn Classicism were
churches of a type that the Romans had never constructed.
Romans built temples.
 Neither were there models for the type of large city dwellings
required by wealthy merchants of the 15th century.
 There was no call for enormous sporting fixtures and public
bath houses such as the Romans had built.
 The ancient orders were analyzed and reconstructed to serve
new purposes.

14. Plan
• Renaissance buildings have a square and symmetrical
plans in which proportions are usually based on a
module. Within a church, the module is often the
width of an aisle.
• The need to integrate the design of the plan with the
façade was introduced as an issue in the work of
Filippo Brunelleschi, but he was never able to realise
this aspect in his work .
• The first building to demonstrate this was St. Andrea in
Mantua by Alberti. The development of the plan in
secular architecture was to take place in the 16th
century and culminated with the work of Palladio.

15. The Basilica of Sant'Andrea is a Roman Catholic co-cathedral and
minor basilica in Mantua, Lombardy (Italy)- Leon Battista Alberti in
1462-1790 AD.

16. Façade
• Façades are symmetrical around a vertical axis. Church
façades are generally surmounted by a pediment and
organised by a system of pilasters, arches and entablatures.
• The columns and windows show a progression towards the
centre. One of the first true Renaissance façades was the
Cathedral of Pienza (1459–62), which has been attributed to
the Florentine architect Bernardo Gambarelli (known as
Rossellino) with Alberti perhaps having some responsibility in its
design as well.
• Domestic buildings are often surmounted by a cornice, a
regular repetition of openings on each floor and the centrally
placed door marked by a balcony or rusticated surround.
• An early and much copied prototype was the façade for the
Palazzo Rucellai (1446 and 1451) in Florence with its three
registers of pilasters

17. Cathedral of Pienza (1459–
62),
By Bernardo Gambarelli
(known as Rossellino)

18. Columns and pilasters
The Renaissance preferred to
use Roman orders of columns
are used:- Tuscan, Doric, Ionic,
Corinthian and Composite.
The orders can either be
structural, supporting an arcade
or architrave, or purely
decorative, set against a wall in
the form of pilasters.
During the Renaissance,
architects aimed to use
columns, pilasters, and
entablatures as an integrated
system. One of the first buildings
to use pilasters as an integrated
system was in the Old Sacristy
(1421–1440) by Brunelleschi.

19. Facade of the Pazzi Chapel

20. Arches
 Arches are semi-circular or (in the Mannerist style)
segmental. Arches are often used in arcades, supported
on piers or columns with capitals. There may be a section
of entablature between the capital and the springing of
the arch. Alberti was one of the first to use the arch on a
monumental scale at the St. Andrea in Mantua.
Vaults
 Vaults were not ribs. They are semi-circular or segmental
and on a square plan, unlike the Gothic vault which is
frequently rectangular. The barrel vault is returned to
architectural vocabulary as at the St. Andrea in Mantua.
Ceilings
 Roofs are fitted with flat or coffered ceilings. They are not
left open as in Medieval architecture. They are frequently
painted or decorated.

21. Domes
 The dome is used regularly as a very large structural feature,
that is visible from the exterior, and as a means of roofing
smaller spaces where it is visible only internally. After the
success of the dome in Brunelleschi’s design for the Basilica di
Santa Maria del Fiore and its use in Bramante’s plan for St.
Peter's Basilica (1506) in Rome, the dome became an
indispensable element in church architecture and later even
for secular architecture, such as Palladio's Villa Rotonda.
Doors
 Doors usually have square lintels. They may be set within an
arch or surmounted by a triangular or segmental pediment.
Openings that do not have doors are usually arched and
frequently have a large or decorative keystone.
Windows
 Windows may be paired and set within a semi-circular arch.
They may have square lintels and triangular or segmental
pediments, which are often used alternately. Emblematic in
this respect is the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, begun in 1517.

22. St. Peter's Basilica (1506-1626) in the Vatican City, Rome
This particular structure spans two style eras: Renaissance and Baroque.
Observe how the dome resembles Brunellschi’s dome and yet has it its
own character.

23.  In the Mannerist period the “Palladian” arch was
employed, using a motif of a high semi-circular topped
opening flanked with two lower square-topped openings.
 Windows are used to bring light into the building and in
domestic architecture, to give views. Stained glass,
although sometimes present, is not a feature.
Walls
 External walls are generally constructed of brick,
rendered, or faced with stone in highly finished ashlar
masonry, laid in straight courses.
 The corners of buildings are often emphasized by
rusticated quoins.
 Basements and ground floors were often rusticated, as at
the Palazzo Medici Riccardi (1444–1460) in Florence.
Internal walls are smoothly plastered and surfaced with
lime wash. For more formal spaces, internal surfaces are
decorated with frescoes.

24. Palazzo Medici Riccardi (1444–1460) in Florence by
Alberti
is a classic example of the Florentine rustice order. Its
said it was inspired by the super-imposed orders of
the Coloseum.

25. The palace was
designed by
Michelozzo di
Bartolomeo for
Cosimo de'
Medici, head of
the Medici
banking family,
and was built
between 1444
and 1484.
Perfectly
showcases
proportion,
rationality, order
and harmony.

26. Observe how this
very much
reflects how we
see things and
the principles of
linear
perspective.

31. Details
 String-courses, mouldings and all decorative details
were carved with great precision. Studying and
mastering the details of the ancient Romans was one
of the important aspects of Renaissance theory.
 The different orders each required different sets of
details. Some architects were stricter in their use of
classical details than others, but there was also a
good deal of innovation in solving problems,
especially at corners.
 Mouldings stand out around doors and windows
rather than being recessed, as in Gothic
Architecture.
 Sculptured figures may be set in niches or placed on
plinths. They are not integral to the building as in
Medieval architecture.

32. Quattrocento/ Early or Italian Renaissance (1400–1500 AD)
 In the Quattrocento, concepts of architectural order were
explored and rules were formulated. The leading architects of the
Early Renaissance were Brunelleschi, Michelozzo and Alberti.
 The study of classical antiquity led in particular to the adoption of
Classical detail and ornamentation.
 Space, as an element of architecture, was utilised differently from
the way it had been used in the Middle Ages. Space was
organised by proportional logic, its form and rhythm subject to
geometry, rather than by intuition as in Medieval buildings. The
prime example of this is the Basilica di San Lorenzo in Florence by
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446).
 Filippo Brunelleschi, pioneer of Renaissance architectural style,
was primarily a designer of churches. His most famous work is the
octagonal brick dome of Florence Basilica (an Italian Gothic
church).

33.  It was recognized as an engineering achievement of such
difficulty (given the dome's unprecedented size) that he also
had to invent special machines to hoist each section into place.
 Brunelleschi's dome was the largest the pre-industrial world
would ever see. Brunelleschi's dome is crowned by a lantern: a
rooftop structure with openings for lighting and/or ventilation.
Another common type of rooftop structure is the belfry, aka bell-
tower.
 This dome is not considered a Renaissance work; its style is firmly
Gothic. The emergence of Renaissance architecture is rather
seen in Brunelleschi's designs for complete buildings, of which the
Basilica of San Lorenzo (Florence) may be the most famous.
 The plain exterior of this building includes a series of blind arches,
while the interior is graced with crisp grey-and-white planar
classicism; only the columns prevent this interior from being
composed entirely of flat surfaces. In many Renaissance
churches, broad rectangular piers are used instead of columns,
thus maximizing the surface space for planar classicism.

34. Brunelleschi’s theories
 Brunelleschi was thought generally to be the founding father of
the Renaissance and its incorporation in architecture.
Brunelleschi’s underlying signature feature was "order".
 Filippo Brunelleschi was an Italian architect and designer, and
is now recognized as being the first modern engineer, planner,
and sole construction supervisor.
 He is most famous for designing the dome of the Florence
Cathedral, a feat of engineering that had not been
accomplished since antiquity, as well as the development of
the mathematical technique of linear perspective in art which
governed pictorial depictions of space until the late 19th
century and influenced the rise of modern science.
 Mathematics gave him an insight into Classical methods of
proportion and structure which he applied to pioneering
technical achievements, such as his design for the dome of
Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria Del Fiore), which was the
highest of any church in Tuscany.

35.  Brunelleschi's cupola design was considered one of the
finest engineering feats since Roman times. He is also
credited with the revival of the classical columnar system,
which he studied and mastered in Rome.
 In the early 15th century, Brunelleschi began to look at the world
to see what the rules were that governed one's way of seeing
objects in space.
 He observed that the way one sees regular structures such as the
Baptistery of Florence and the tiled pavement surrounding it
follows a mathematical order; linear perspective.
 The buildings remaining among the ruins of ancient Rome
appeared to respect a simple mathematical order in the way
that Gothic buildings did not.
 One incontestable rule governed all Ancient Roman
architecture; a semi-circular arch is exactly twice as wide as it is
high.

36.  This fixed proportion was not observed anywhere in Gothic
architecture. A Gothic pointed arch could be extended
upwards or flattened to any proportion that suited the location.
 Arches of differing angles frequently occurred within the same
structure. No set rules of proportion applied.
 He observed that symmetry and proportions dominated the
form and composition of a whole building and its subsidiary
details creating fixed relationships; each section in proportion
to the next, and the architectural features serving to define the
rules of proportion.
 Brunelleschi gained the support of a number of wealthy
Florentine patrons, including the Silk Guild and Cosimo de'
Medici.
 His accomplishments also include other architectural works,
sculpture, mathematics, engineering, and ship design. His
principal surviving works can be found in Florence, Italy.

37. Linear Perspective
 Brunelleschi rediscovered the principles of linear-perspective
construction known to the Greeks and Romans but buried along
with many other aspects of ancient civilization during the
European Middle Ages.
 It is believed to have been devised about 1415 by Italian
Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi and later documented
by architect and writer Leon Battista Alberti in 1435 (Della Pittura).
 Brunelleschi demonstrated his findings with two painted panels,
now lost, depicting Florentine streets and buildings.
 Linear perspective, may be defined as a system of creating an
illusion of depth on a flat surface. All parallel lines (orthogonals) in
a painting or drawing using this system converge in a single
vanishing point on the composition’s horizon line.
 Linear perspective plays an important part in presentations of
ideas for works by architects, engineers, landscape architects,
and industrial designers, furnishing an opportunity to view the
finished product before it is begun.

38. Florence Cathedral
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.
While often described as the
first building of the
Renaissance, Brunelleschi's
daring design utilizes the
pointed Gothic arch and
Gothic ribs that were
apparently planned by
Arnolfio.

39.  The dome, while stylistically Gothic, in keeping with the building
it surmounts is in fact structurally influenced by the great dome
of Ancient Rome, which Brunelleschi could hardly have ignored
in seeking a solution. This is the dome of the Pantheon, a circular
temple, now a church.
 Inside the Pantheon's single-shell concrete dome is coffering
which greatly decreases the weight. The vertical partitions of
the coffering effectively serve as ribs, although this feature does
not dominate visually. At the apex of the Pantheon's dome is an
opening, 8 meters across.
 Brunelleschi was aware that a dome of enormous proportion
could in fact be engineered without a keystone.

40. The dome in Florence is
supported by the eight large
ribs and sixteen more internal
ones holding a brick shell, with
the bricks arranged in a
herringbone manner.
Although the techniques
employed are different, in
practice both domes comprise
a thick network of ribs
supporting very much lighter
and thinner infilling. And both
have a large opening at the
top.

42. San Lorenzo
 The new architectural philosophy of the Renaissance is best
demonstrated in the churches of San Lorenzo, and Santo Spirito in
Florence.
 Designed by Brunelleschi in about 1425 and 1428 respectively,
both have the shape of the Latin cross. Each has a modular plan,
each portion being a multiple of the square bay of the aisle. This
same formula controlled also the vertical dimensions.
 In the case of Santo Spirito, which is entirely regular in plan,
transepts and chancel are identical, while the nave is an
extended version of these. This means it is a Greek cross plan that
either started off as a square plan that underwent transformation.
 In 1434 Brunelleschi designed the first Renaissance centrally
planned building, Santa Maria degli Angeli of Florence.
 It is composed of a central octagon surrounded by a circuit of
eight smaller chapels. From this date onwards numerous
churches were built in variations of these designs.

43. Santa Maria degli Angeli of Florence

44. Michelozzo (1396–1472)
 Michelozzo Michelozzi was another architect under patronage of
the Medici family. His most famous work being the Palazzo Medici
Riccardi, which he was commissioned to design for Cosimo de'
Medici in 1444. He finishes it in the rusticated stone, as was
preferred by the Florentine society. This popularized rustication.
 A decade later he built the Villa Medici at Fiesole. Among his
other works for Cosimo are the library at the Convent of San
Marco, Florence.
 He went into exile in Venice for a time with his patron. He was
one of the first architects to work in the Renaissance style outside
Italy, building a palace at Dubrovnik.
 The Palazzo Medici Riccardi is classical in the details of its
pedimented windows and recessed doors, but, unlike the works
of Brunelleschi and Alberti, there are no orders of columns in
evidence.

45. Palazzo Medici Riccardi

46.  Instead, Michelozzo respected the Florentine liking for
rusticated stone. He has seemingly created three orders
out of the three defined rusticated levels, the whole being
surmounted by an enormous Roman-style cornice which
juts out over the street by 2.5 meters.
 The three part elevation expresses the renaissance spirit of
rationality, order and human scale. Micholozzo was greatily
influenced by Roman Antiquity and Brunelleschian
principles.
 This is observed in the transition of heavily rusticated
masonry of the ground level to the delicately refined
stone work of the middle level to the seemingly lighter
looking top level, defined by a heavy cornice. The cornice
caps defines the building’s contour and character.

47. Alberti (1404–1472)
 Leon Battista Alberti worked as an architect from the 1450s onward,
principally in Florence, Rimini, and Mantua. A trained humanist and true
Renaissance man, Alberti was an accomplished architect and humanist,
musician, and art theorist.
 Alberti's many treatises on art include Della Pittura (On Painting), De
Sculptura (On Sculpture), and De re Aedificatoria (On Architecture). Della
Pittura, was a fundamental handbook for artists, explaining the principles
behind linear perspective, which were first developed by Brunelleschi.
 Alberti shared Brunelleschi's reverence for Roman architecture and was
inspired by the example of Vitruvius, the only Roman architectural theorist
whose writings are existent. Alberti aspired to recreate the glory of ancient
times through architecture. His facades of the Tempio Malatestiano (Rimini,
1450) and the Church of Santa Maria Novella (Florence, 1470) are based
on Roman temple fronts.
 His deep understanding of the principles of classical architecture are also
seen in the Church of Sant'Andrea (Mantua, 1470). The columns here are
not used decoratively, but retain their classical function as load-bearing
supports. For Alberti, architecture was not merely a means of constructing
buildings; it was a way to create meaning.

48. the Tempio Malatestiano (Rimini, 1450)

49. the Church of Santa Maria Novella (Florence, 1470)

50. Church of Sant'Andrea (Mantua, 1470) showcases Alberti’s
deep understanding of classical principles

51. Theories of Leon Battista Alberti
 By the middle of the fifteenth century, more artists had become students
of the past, and a few humanists had ventured into the field of art theory
and design. Leon Battista Alberti , a humanist-turned-architect, wrote
about his classical theories on art before he ever designed a building.
 Alberti studied at the universities of Padua and Bologna, then worked as
a Latin scribe for Pope Eugene IV. This position, which involved diplomatic
travel and thus put Alberti in contact with the best potential patrons in
Italy, was critical to his later career as an architect.
 Alberti's various writings present the first coherent exposition of early
Italian Renaissance aesthetics, including the Italian mathematical
perspective system credited to Brunelleschi and ideal proportions of the
human body derived from Greek art.
 Alberti began the gradual change in the status of the architect from a
hands-on builder - and thus a manual labourer - to an intellectual
expected to know philosophy, history, and the classics as well as
mathematics and engineering.

52. The Palazzo Rucellai (Alberti)
 The relationship of the facade to the body of the building behind
it was a continuing challenge for Italian Renaissance architects.
 Early in his architectural career, Alberti devised a facade -
begun in 1455 but never finished - to be the unifying front for a
planned merger of eight adjacent houses in Florence acquired
by Giovanni Rucellai.
 Alberti's design, influenced in its basic approach by the Palazzo
Medici, was a simple rectangular front suggesting a coherent,
cubical three-story building capped with an overhanging
cornice, a heavy, projecting horizontal molding at the top of the
wall. The double windows under round arches were a feature of
Michelozzo's Palazzo Medici, but other aspects of the facade
were entirely new.
 Inspired by the ancient Colosseum in Rome, Alberti articulated
the surface of the lightly rusticated wall with a horizontal-vertical
pattern of pilasters and architraves that superimposed the
Classical orders: Doric on the ground floor, Ionic on the second,
and Corinthian on the third.

53. Palazzo Rucellai
The Palazzo Rucellai
provided a visual lesson
for local architects in the
use of classical elements
and mathematical
proportions, and Alberti's
enthusiasm for classicism
and his architectural
projects in other cities
were catalysts for the
spread of the
Renaissance movement.
Alberti’s version of the
florentine rustic order.

54. Centrally Planned Church as the ideal Church
 Abandoning the traditional cruciform church layout, Alberti strongly
advocated for a system of ideal proportions arguing that the central
plan should be adapted as the ideal form for Christian Churches. He
argued that the Early Christian introduced the habit by using the private
Roman basilica as their places of worship. DO YOU AGREE WITH ALBERTI??
 He argued that the arch should be supported by piers and not columns,
disposing of the century old medieval arcade.
 Alberti applied Classical elements to contemporary buildings. Alberti
attempted to mimic the coliseum’s use of different orders on each storey
and employing his own version of the rusticated order introduced by
Micholozzo.
 Alberti was in the frontline of the cultural life of early Renaissance Italy. He
has been admired for his multi-faceted nature, much like Leonardo da
Vinci, who was born half a century after and resembles him in this
respect.

55.  Alberti believed the character of the ideal church should set it apart from
the city’s landscape. He proposed the church should be the noblest
ornament of the city whose beauty should surpass imagination. Its beauty
should awake sublime sensations and emotions of piety in the observer
and user to produce an effect of innocence that is pleasing to God.
 Alberti believed that this was hidden in the rational integration of
proportions of all parts of the building that are so perfectly fixed in size and
shape it was complete and nothing could be added or subtracted
without destroying the harmony of the whole.
 This was based on Vitruvius definition of beauty. This later became the
basis of Alberti’s famous theory of mathematical definition of beauty. This
organic geometry of all parts should be seen in all buildings and the
perfect geometrical form is the circle.
 In a centralized plan the pattern will appear complete, unchangeable,
static and articulate, without which divinity can not reveal itself.

56.  With encouragement from Alberti, builders in 15th C turned away
from the Latin Cross layout to embrace the centrally planned
church, regarded as the climax of Renaissance churches.
 These plans are perceived as more inclined to paganism and
worldliness in their desire to satisfy artistic aesthetics rather than
functionality that would serve the Christian liturgical point of view.
 While Alberti’s work, theories and accomplishments are
characterized by unity and versatility, Leonardo’s genius carried
him further than Alberti: he saw more and more deeply.
 But Leonardo’s vision was perceived as a “modern,”
fragmentary character, whereas Alberti attained a completeness
in thought and life that fulfilled the Renaissance ideals of measure
and harmony.
 Alberti struck a unique balance between theory and practice,
realizing this dominant aspiration of the age at the very moment
social and political events had begun to cause it to fade.

58. Alberti's legacy
 De Statua (On Sculpture)
This undated thesis on sculpture is probably Alberti’s first essay in
this field recommending the sculptor to be guided both by
observation of nature and by academic study. This entails a
knowledge of proportional theory. It also contains the first known
definition of sculpture as an additive process, as in clay modeling,
or a subtractive one, as in carving.
Della Pittura (On Painting)
 This is the first authoritative thesis on Early Renaissance painting,
first written in Latin in 1435 and translated into Italian the
following year.
 It is divided into three books dealing with the technicalities of
"one-point" linear perspective, the theory of human proportions,
composition, and the use of colour, and considers the nature of
beauty and art as well as the behavior appropriate to an artist.

59. Codification of Florentine Artistic Practice
 The book was a codification of current Florentine artistic practice.
In certain respects, particularly in his observations on aerial
perspective, Alberti's theory went further and was actually in
advance of contemporary practice.
De Re Aedificatoria (On Architecture)
 Aberti treatise De Re Aedificatoria (On Architecture) was
completed in 1452. De Architectura is inspired by critical reading
the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius and a first-hand antiquarian
knowledge of Classical remains, he put forward the first coherent
theory of the use of the five Classical orders of Roman architecture
since Antiquity, relating their use to different classes of building.
 He also expounded an articulate theory of architectural beauty,
dependent upon the harmonic relationship between certain fixed
proportions, mitigated by ornamental forms.

60. Summary
1. Renaissance architects and artists were inspired by humanism
philosophy as an approach to life; design, craft and planning
2. They were also inspired by Classical antiquity predominant in Rome;
symmetry, harmony, proportions and orders. The invented modular
systems, used mathematics to obtain proportions and principles to
one point and linear perspectives.
3. Renaissance architects were inspired by the Roman engineer
Vitruvius through studying his treatise the Ten Books of Architecture.
4. By drawing their inspiration from nature, they strove to make their
works especially sculpture and paintings as realistic as is possible.
Drawing from creation, they observed that nature was round and
curvilinear rather than pointed and angular. They insisted that nature
was proportional with a hidden mathematical system.
5. Through studying anatomy they tried to impart human proportions to
the structures they built.

61. Aerial view of Neuf-Brisach (Alsace)
with walls and fortifications built by
Vauban after 1697.

65. REFERENCES
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_humanism
3. http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/early-
renaissance.htm#arts
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filippo_Brunelleschi
5. https://www.biography.com/artist/filippo-brunelleschi
6. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Filippo-
Brunelleschi#ref198071
7. https://www.britannica.com/art/perspective-art
8. https://www.britannica.com/art/foreshortening
9. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leon-Battista-Alberti
10. http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/old-masters/alberti-leon-
battista.htm
Bibliography
1. Wittkower, R., (1998) Architectural Principles in the Age of
Humanism. ACADEMY EDITIONS. London