week 11

Villa Rotonda, begun 1551
-Palladio, Vincenza
-it is built out of stone with stucco on top
-it is a villa surbana and so in Palladio's mind was a more formal building
-this pedimented temple front becomes a system to identify patrons as having nobility
-it is completely symmetrical on all four sides
-has four entrances
-is the most famous villa in the four books of architecture
-he uses the pantheon for inspiration
-the principle room of the villa is at the center and is lit by a dome, this is seen in many of Palladio's villas
-there are at least three copies of this villa that were built in England one of which is Lord Burlington's villa at Chiswick

Villa Pisani 1552-55
Palladio, Montagnana 
-built for Cardinal Francesco Pisani
-combines an urban front and on the other side a rural frontage extending into gardens
-there is no obviously visible piano nobile
-has ionic over doric columns
-a doric frieze runs uninterrupted around the building
-there is a loggia on the garden facing side



Il Gesu, Rome 1568-84
-by far the most influential of Vignolas churches
-original plans of 1554 were made by michelangelo, but church was not begun until 1568
-Vignola recieved a letter from patron: Cardinal Farnese to Vignola stressing the importance of the preaching in the church and telling him to provide a wide nave and barrel-vault for acoustic reasons
-the church with its side chapels instead of aisles seems derived from the type of church by Alberti in S. Andrea in Mantua
-but, Gesu has a wider and shorter nave as well as shallow transepts
-shape is designed for audibility this is significant because a new importance was based on the acoustics of the building
-it also has a great dome located at the east end over the crossing this allows for a flood of light to fall on the high alter and on the alters of the transepts
-the facade was not how Vignola had wanted it, it was done by Giacomo della Porta
-Giacomo's design is much like the facade of Sta Maria Novella in Florence by Alberti
-it has a two-storey design with scrolls on the side (tabernacle)
-the influence of the Gesu almost became the standard type of church plan and facade

Santa Susanna, Facade 1597-1603
-Carlo Maderno, Rome
-similar design to Il Gesu
-following new type of double tabernacle facade which is tighter more integrated and more dynamic
-there are pilasters above pairing with columns below
-use of scrolls to transition
-there is a use of a monumental order and an attic story much like michelangelos ideas at st. peters


Farnese Villa, 1556-73
Vignola, Jacopo de Giacomo, Caprarola

Farnese Villa, Caprarola 1556-73 

-Jacopo de Vignola

-a summer home for the Farnese family

-patterns are created in the gardens as if being seen from above

-shape is based on an old fort

-has a carriage house with pialsters of rusticated stone

-it is a transformation of a carriagehouse into a renaissance palace 

Villa Emo, 1564

Palladio, Fanzlo

-from the four books of architecture 

-designed for the Emo family of Venice
-showing domestic architecture
-house is framed by two colonnaded wings
-wings are very long which symbolic of prosperity
-the structure has a geometric rhythm
-has a temple front

Villa Barbaro, 1557-58
-Palladio, Maser

-a country villa which Palladio collaborated with the Barbaro brothers
-it is a well preserved example of the simple farm type of villa
-inside the building are illusionistic frescoes by Veronese, showing some of the earliest examples of landscape painting on a large scale
-the main idea of the villa is a main body with wings that go out to endings
-the front is a temple composition
-this combination of great painting and great architecture is a feature of Baroque style

Tempietta Villa Barbaro, 1580
-Palladio, Maser
-it is the realization of a classical Renaissance church
-centrally planned
-it references the pantheon
-it is a chapel attached to the Barbaro estate so it did not need to be large




The Teatro Olimpico, 1580
-Palladio, Vicenza
-an attempt to reconstruct the antique Roman theater as described by Vitruvius
-based on the ancient Roman principle of a fixed and elaborate architectural backdrop or proscenium with the stage in front of it
-the auditorium is half-elliptical
-the seats rise sharply to the level of a colonnade which runs round to the back of the theater
-the stage setting gains the effect of perspective in the streets with a small space by sloping the backstage upwards and narrowing the passageways

Sant. Andrea 1470-76
Battista, Mantua

S. Andrea was designed just two years before Alberti died. Much of the church was not completed until the eighteenth century. The plan of this church is a Latin Cross type. In S. Andrea there are no aisles but a series of alternating large and small spaces opening off the nave at right angles to it. The larger spaces are used as chapels. The nave has a tunnel-like character. Alberti was modeling off of roman prototypes in hi interior. The nave of S. Andrea has a barrel-vault with painted coffers. It is by far the largest and heaviest nave since classical times. Due to this weight enormous abutments(solid masonry placed to resist the lateral pressure of a vault) carry the weight of the vaulting. This type of Latin cross plan was very widely copied in the later sixteenth century. The facade has an interlocking of a classical triumphal arch with a classical temple front. You can see in this building and other later building designed by Alberti that he was much more dependent on Roman prototypes.

San Giorgio Maggiore, 1560-80
-Palladio, Venice
-a church for the monks of Santori
-has a marble facade and the transept is in brick
-in the plan you can see a development of a new spatial area for the alter
-it has an extended apse with a choir in it
-the dome of the church is framing the pediment
-Palladio tries to include Roman architecture in the transept and he is interested in the sense of mass and volume seen in Roman remains
-the church has a palladian window and a triumphal arch with a temple front like in Manchua
-the chapels of the church are not deep but are embedded in the wall giving an open and spacious effect

The Redentore, 1577-92
-Palladio, Venice
-after the terrible plague of 1576 Palladio was commisioned to build this church
-it was decided that the church would be longitudinal although palladio would have liked it to be centrally planned
-the space to build was constricted by buildings already there and it was built up on a platform
-it has a spacious transept where the doge and main members of the government would sit
-it has an apsidal shape much like Christian churches
-at Rendentore has three pediments, the large central one is set against a high, rectangular attic-- this builds up the composition towards the great dome and gives a compact total effect
-the side parts at Redentore are not true aisles but merely the end walls of the side chapels
-the way they are seperated is similar to how the Roman baths were seperated from each other

The Rendentore and S. Giorgio Maggiore
-both churches were visited in state by the Doge once a year a Venetian custom
-another factor that determined the design of these churches was that there was the splitting up of the choir into two choirs and the design of the church is for this reason
*perhaps the most striking feature about both churches is the invention of the open screen through which the spectator in the nave gets a glimpse of the monastic choir
-both have peculiarities in plan
-the facades of the churches are new solutions to the old problem of designing a classical facade for a basilica type of building
-the first step to solving the problem by combining the antique temple with the christian church
-Palladio used the interlocking of two separate temple fronts
-the nave at both is treated as a high but narrow temple with four large columns on high bases supporting a strongly marked pediment

Barberini Palace, 1628-38
-Maderno, Bernini, and Borromini, Rome
-Pope urban VIII
-has a winged plan, u-shaped unusual among Italian city palaces
-may be based on the famous villa farnesina in Rome which also consists of superimposed arched loggias
-The fact that it is three stories reminds us of an urban palazzo, but the arcade on the ground floor and the U shape of the building call to mind suburban villas. So what we have is a villa plan and portico, but with an urban scale and three story urban palace feeling.

The perspectival feeling on the third story is given to Borromini, even though Bernini is credited with much of the building. Borromini is also credited with the monumental interior staircase. Borromini was often left in charge of areas of Bernini's work as he got more busy.
In the plan we can see that the portico, which seems simple at first, from the outside, runs deeply into the ground floor of the building. The use of double vaulting can be seen in the plan, as can the fact that hallways are still not present in the design of the palazzi. The rooms are still moved through by the use of interior doors.

Fountain of Moses
-The Acqua Felice is located on the Via dell'Acqua Felice, in Rome
- Constructed in such a way as to echo the Triumphal arches of antiquity, the attic level of the fountain features a prominent Triumphal inscription
-The statue of Moses below in the middle niche is meant to draw a connection between the patron, Sixtus V, and the prophet as both being bringers of water
-Sixtus V would undertake several projects such as this one during his reign as Pope. His projects for urban transformation would reset the patterns of the city, creating new focal points for the population with piazzas
-Sixtus V would also employ Domenico Fontana to make use of the obelisks that were lying around Rome at the time. He would have them placed in front of major monuments around Rome in order to guide people to important sites.