History of EUROPE architecture~~

RENAISSANCE

RENAISSANCE

RENAISSANCE

About 1400 a great change took place in society and culture in Italy. As it evolved it came to be called the Renaissance, the "rebirth," because of the rediscovery of ancient Roman literature and art in the period. This was, however, only one of its aspects, and many would say only a minor one. First of all, it was the moment of the discovery of individuality, of people able to think and act for themselves. The medieval worker had been an anonymous toiler for the glory of God. On the medieval facade of the church of St. Hubert in Troyes, one reads non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam--"Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name be glory." But one reads across the front of the Renaissance church of San Francesco in Rimini simply the name of the ruler who built it, Sigismondo Malatesta, and the date. The building came to be called Tempio Malatestiano, the Temple of Malatesta.

The Renaissance individual, freed from medieval superstition, cynically experimented in politics (as can be seen in Machiavelli's book 'Il Principe' [The Prince] of 1513), explored new areas of science and nature (as did Galileo), conceived a new philosophy--Neoplatonism--that combined Christian and ancient thought, reintroduced realism into painting and sculpture, and created a new style in architecture. The Renaissance architect was a new and different sort. In place of the medieval craftsman-architect, there were now men skilled in all artistic media, men who understood theory as well as practice and who pretended to personal worth and even genius. Among the leading architects of the period were two sculptors--Filippo Brunelleschi and Michelangelo--and three painters--Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Giulio Romano. Leonardo was a scientist, Michelangelo a philosopher and poet. Leon Battista Alberti and Andrea Palladio wrote treatises on architecture. To these men architecture was not a mechanical art pursued by traditional craft rules but a liberal art controlled by abstract intellectual speculation.