Leon Battista Alberti was an influential Italian Renaissance architect, artist, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher and cryptographer. He wrote two seminal treatises on architecture - On Painting and On Building, which were influenced by Vitruvius' The Ten Books of Architecture. He designed the upper facade of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, adding elements like pilasters, a round window and volutes. Donato Bramante was an Italian architect and the first High Renaissance architect. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rome. His Tempietto at San Pietro in Montorio marked the beginning of the High Renaissance, being a small circular chapel with a dome symbolizing divine

1. EARLY RENAISSANCE AND HIGH RENAISSANCE
• Leon Battista Alberti
• Donato Bramante

2. Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472)
✓ Leon Battista Alberti was born in Genoa on Feb. 14, 1404.
✓ Alberti was an Italian author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, cryptographer
and general Renaissance humanist polymath.
✓ He wrote Della Pittura (On Painting, 1435) where it included Brunelleschi’s theories of perspective
and De Re Aedificatoria (On Building, 1450), the first architectural treatise of the Renaissance.
The book was influenced by Vitruvius’ The Ten Books of Architecture.

3. Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472)
San Sebastiano, Mantua
(begun 1458)
St. Andrea, Mantua
(begun 1471)
Completion of the facade of Santa
Maria Novella, Florence (1448–70).
Façade of Palazzo Rucellai (1446–51)
S. Francesco, Tempio Malatestiano,
Rimini (1447,1453–60)

4. ✓ Called Novella (New) because it was built on the site of the 9th-century oratory of Santa Maria delle
Vigne.
✓ The site was assigned to Dominican Order in 1221, they decided to build a new church and an
adjoining cloister. The church was designed by two Dominican friars, Fra Sisto Fiorentino and Fra
Ristoro da Campi , with the completion of the Romanesque-Gothic bell tower and sacristy.
✓ Rucellai, a local textile merchant commisioned, Leone Battista Alberti who designed the upper part of
the inlaid black and white marble facade of the church .
Santa Maria Novella, Florence

5. ✓ Alberti added
• Broad frieze decorated with squares.
• Including the four white-green pilasters
• A round window, crowned by a pediment with the Dominican solar emblem, and flanked on both
sides by enormous S-curved volutes
• The four columns with Corinthian capitals on the lower part of the facade were also added. The
pediment and the frieze are clearly inspired by the antiquity, but the Scurved scrolls in the upper part
are new and without precedent in antiquity.
Santa Maria Novella, Florence

6. Santa Maria Novella

7. ✓ The vast interior is based on a basilica plan –
- Designed as a Latin cross
- Divided into a nave
- Two aisles with stained-glass windows
- A short transept
✓ The large nave is 100 metres long and gives an impression of austerity.
✓ There is a trompe l'oeil-effect by which this nave towards the apse seems longer than its actual
length.
✓ The ceiling in the vault consists pointed arches with the four diagonal buttresses in black and
white.
✓ The interior also contains corinthian columns that were inspired by the Classical era of Greek and
Roman times.
✓ The Pulpit, commissioned by the Rucellai family in 1443, was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi and
executed by his adopted child Andrea Calvalcanti. This pulpit has a particular historical significance,
because from this pulpit the first attack came on Galileo Galilei, leading eventually to his
indictment.
Santa Maria Novella

8. Santa Maria Novella
Stained glass window
Cappella Strozzi
Masaccio’s TrinityBrunelleschi’s Crucifixe
The Green Cloister

9. Basilica of St. Andrea, Mantua (1472-94)
✓ The Basilica of St. Andrea is in Mantua,
Lombardy, Italy. It is one of the major works of
15th century Renaissance architecture in
Northern Italy.
✓ It is a renaissance roman catholic church.
✓ Commissioned by Ludovico II Gonzaga, the
church was begun in 1462 according to
designs by Leon Battista Alberti on a site
occupied by a Benedictine monastery, of
which the bell tower (1414) remains. The
building, however, was finished only 328 years
later.

10. St. Andrea, Mantua
✓ The entrance barrel vault echoes the interior with its huge barrel vault while the loggia vaulting echoes
the barrel vaulting in the chapels inside at right angles to the nave.
✓ Façade is defined by a large central arch, flanked by corinthian pilasters. The height of the façade
equals its width.
✓ Based on the scheme of the ancient arch of titus. The facade pilasters continue through three stories--
the so-called "giant" order. It is largely a brick structure with hardened stucco. The whole is
surmounted by a pediment and above that a vaulted structure.
ENTRANCE FACADE

11. Plan and Section of Sant'Andrea
✓ This church has a single nave without side aisles while three barrel-vaulted chapels are on each side
of the nave. The church is thus very dimly lit. The crossing is marked by a dome.

12. Interior - S. Andrea, Mantua
✓ Barrel vault of the nave reached well above the apex of the pediment, which was also
surmounted by a large canopy over the nave window
✓ The interior of the cathedral boasts a rounded barrel vaulted dome which is covered in frescoes.

13. Donato Barmante (1444-1514)
✓ Born at Monte Asdruvaldo in Urbino, on July 1444
✓ The first High Renaissance architect
✓ He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rome,
where his plan for St. Peter's Basilica formed the basis of design executed by Michelangelo.
✓ His Tempietto (San Pietro in Montorio) marked the beginning of the High Renaissance in Rome
(1502) when Pope Julius II appointed him to build a sanctuary over the spot where Peter was
allegedly crucified

14. Donato Barmante(1444-1514)
Reconstruction of St. Peters Basilica
(Vatican city, Rome) 1503-1506
Santa Maria della Grazie (Milan)
1492-1498
Santa Maria della Pace (Rome) 1504 Cortille del Belvedere
(Vatican City, Rome) 1506
The Tempietto,
Rome, 1502

15. The Tempietto, Rome
✓ The chapel is a domed rotunda, 8m in diameter and 13 high, surrounded by columns. It is composed of
two concentric cylinders--a wide low outer one and a tall narrow inner one. The circular plan symbolizes
divine perfection. Bramante uses the Roman Doric order with emphasis on the harmony of proportions,
the simplicity of volumes and the sobriety of the Doric Order.
✓ Built around c 1499-1506 in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montario,in Rome. The Tempietto was built
to commemorate St. Peter's crucifixion. The construction site is believed to be the site where St.
Peters died.

16. The Tempietto, Rome
✓ The Tempietto has a dominating circularity theme and was originally forty feet tall. The Exterior of
the Tempietto is a colonnade of sixteen Doric columns surrounding an inner cella.
✓ Chapel has two stories : the first story in the center of the colonnade (the cella) and the second story
directly above the first which is surrounded by a circular balcony. uppermost part of the Tempietto
was a semicircular dome.
✓ The external colonnade surrounding the cell whose walls are punctuated by pilasters as a projection
of the columns of the Peristyle.
✓ The dome is made up of concrete. The radius of the dome is equal to the height of the dome. It is
also equal to the height of the drum on which it rests. The dome shows a clear relationship with
domes made in pantheon.
✓ Niches are cut out along the outside walls of the second story which help emphasize the solidity and
strength of the whole structure because they provide a play of light and shadow on the walls.
✓ The Tempietto is also considered to be an imposing monument because it presents the effect of
alienation; it is elevated on a podium and separated by a small distance from the surrounding
environment.

17. The Tempietto, Rome

18. The Tempietto, Rome

19. Assignment
• Trace the evolution of Palazzo in Florence during Renaissance as elements of
Classical composition were readapted in the use of layout .
• The renaissance artist/architect was like a meditative philosopher and not merely a
skilled craftsman. Discuss the relevance of the above statement and illustrate with
examples of work of some leading Renaissance personalities.

20. Thank You.