Architecture: A Review

Gothic versus Romanesque Architecture

Romanesque• The earliest churches were based on Greek temples and Roman basilicas (secular government buildings); essentially there was a substitution of a church plan for a temple plan: colonnades were shifted from the interior to the exterior; an arch was placed directly on a pier instead of placing a lintel directly on a pier (column)•The classic temple is a system of sturdy walls and colonnades all helping to sustain a solid roof. A Romanesque church follows essentially the same principles, except that an arch is placed over the colonnades.•All the parts of a Romanesque building contribute their share to the stability of the whole.•The structure stands through virtue of inertia.

Gothic• In a Gothic church the highly organized framework of piers, arches, and buttresses are organized so that the spaces of the wall and roof between them serve merely as an enclosure.• A Gothic church is a skillfully balanced systems of thrusts and counterthrusts that are concentrated on special points of support.• All the different levels of the church interior are brought into homogenous composition: great vaulting shafts that articulate the massive piers rise from the floor; at the clerestory level these shafts become more decorative than supportive and spring from corbels in order to trace the vaulting that articulates each bay.•Flying buttresses allowed the walls to be dissolved.

Roman barrel vault

The force lines converge at the point where the barrel vault springs from the wall.In order to support a heavy roof—one that is very wide--the walls of the nave would have to be very, very thick.

Flying Buttress

The lines of force created by the weight of the roof and the arches is redirected (or distributed) by the flying buttresses past the walls of the church to external piers (outside the child walls).As a result, windows can larger and the nave can be taller.

floor planAbbey Church of Sainte-FoyConques, France 1125-1135

floor planAmiens CathedralAmiens, France1220-1288

Abbey Church of Sainte-FoyConques, France 1125-1135

Abbey Church of Sainte-FoyConques, France 1125-1135

transept looking into the crossingAmiens CathedralAmiens, France1220-1288

standing on the steps of the choir looking into the apseAmiens CathedralAmiens, France1220-1288

looking down the nave toward the apseAmiens CathedralAmiens, France1220-1288

Gothic Architecture

Please explain:

a. in which direction are you looking

b. through what part of the cathedral you are looking

c. what prominent architectural feature the master builder has used to unify this space

Rheims Cathedralbegun in 1211; almost “complete” by 1285

What is the space delineated by E called?

What is the space delineated by F called?

What is the structural element labeled C called?

What is the structural element labeled D called?

This section of the naveis called?

This section of the naveis called?

This section of the naveis called?

Amiens Cathedralbegun in 1220; almost “complete” by 1375

Please describe what you are looking at.Try to use as many specific technical terms as you can.

Rheims Cathedralbegun in 1211; almost “complete” by 1285

Please describe what you are looking at.Make sure that you explain the structural purpose of this architectural feature.

What is the name of this architectural feature? How are these different from the one shown in the previous slide?

Notre Dame, Paris

You are looking at the exterior of the nave.What language would you use to describe how the surface of the windows and the window frames has been highly decorated?

Amiens Cathedralbegun in 1220; almost “complete” by 1375

You are looking at the west façade.Why do you know that this façade is definitely “Gothic” and not “Romanesque?”

Amiens Cathedralbegun in 1220; almost “complete” by 1375

Why do you know that this west façade is definitely Romanesque?

St Peter's Cathedral Angoulême,

Charente, France

This is a floor plan of a cathedral. Is this a Gothic cathedral? How can you tell?

Cathédrale Saint-Lazare d’ Autun

How can you tell that this plan represents a pilgrimage church?

Plan of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Spain

How can you tell that this plan represents a Gothic cathedral?

Which one?

Florence Duomo

•begun in 1296

•redesigned in 1357 and 1366

•drum and dome by Brunelleschi, 1420-1436

• a tall nave arcade; short clerestory with a single oculus in each bay, and no triforium

•there are no flying buttresses—the wall began to crack in 1366—unsightly iron tie bars were installed

Florence Duomobegun in 1296redesigned in 1357 and 1366drum and dome by Brunelleschi, 1420-1436

Filippo Brunelleschi Dome of Florence Cathedral 1417-36

Pisa Baptistry, Pisa Cathedral, Pisa Campanile

Thinking About Renaissance Ideas

What distinguishes Brunelleschi as an architect? What is the most marked characteristic of his artistic/architectural style?

The Spedale degli Innocenti was a foundling children’s orphanage established in 1419 and designed by Filippo Brunelleschi.

This Foundling Hospital is regarded as a prime example of early Italian Renissance architecture.Why? What do you see?

• Each bay of the arcade encloses a cube of space defined by the 10-braccia (20 foot) height of the columns and the diameter of the arches.

• Hemispherical pendentive domes half as high as the columns cover the cubes

The Guild of the Silk Manufacturers and Goldsmiths in Florence established this orphanage.

Why does this building have a portico?

What type of capital is on this column?

What craftsman made the medallion? Out of what medium?

The nocentini, or “little innocents”, were left at the doors of the hospital in the hopes that they would be able to sustain a better life in a time of severe economic destitution and social hardships. A unique rotating wheel system allowed parents to leave their children at the doors of the hospital without being seen. Parents could depend on this hospital to care for their newborns on either a permanent or a temporary basis.

Many parents, though reluctant to give over their child, knew that they would be properly cared for at the hospital and hoped that one day they would be reunited. This anticipation of reunion can be seen in the many different types of jewelry that were broken in half, one piece left with the mother and the other given to her child, in the hopes that the two separated pieces would one day be

whole again.

What distinguishes Brunelleschi as an architect? What is the most marked characteristic of his artistic/architectural style?

RationalityMathematical ResolutionProportionExtreme Formalism and

Balance--in other words: Classical Form

Filippo Brunelleschi

Dome of Florence Cathedral

1417-36

Leon Battista Alberti

Sant’Andrea, Mantua

façade and interior of Church of Sant’AndreaLeon Battista Alberti

façade of Church of Sant’AndreaLeon Battista Alberti

Reconstruction of the Basilica of Maxentius Interior of Sant’Andrea

Donato Bramante Tempietto 1502-1510

BerniniBaldacchino 1624-1633

Temple of Vesta at Tivoliearly 1st century BCE

St. Paul’s CathedralChristopher Wren1675-1710LondonEnglish Baroque

Palladio and Jefferson and Boyle

Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice 1565-80

PalladioVilla Rotunda

Andrea Palladio•He pursued mathematical clarity in both plan and elevation, stemming from the Renaissance belief that beauty could be attained through the use of geometry and measurement. •His buildings were largely intended as reconstructions of antique architecture, based on his reading of Vitruvius’ De Architectura.•His villas, the most influential part of his work, use the temple front, because Palladio believed that this was also a feature of antique domestic architecture. •Palladio conceived of architecture as something rational, which obeyed rules: if a work is created according to rules, it can be imitated and taught, assuming that the same basic precepts are imparted. •Expect geometrical symmetry

The White House

The Jefferson Memorial

University of Virginia

Monticello

Chiswick House 1724-1729Richard Boyle, the third earl of Burlington

East London, England

Chiswick House 1724-1729Richard Boyle, the third earl of Burlington

East London, England

The Pantheon Jacques-Germain Soufflot1755-1792

The Pantheon Jacques-Germain Soufflot

1755-1792• the portico is modeled directly on Roman temples

• the dome is inspired by Wren’s dome in London (St. Paul’s)

• the central-plan Greek cross was inspired by Chiswick House