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THE RENAISSANCE

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 409 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THE See also:

RENAISSANCE See also:STYLE: INTRODUCTION The causes which led to the See also:evolution of the Renaissance style in See also:Italy in the 15th See also:century were many and diverse. The See also:principal impulse was that derived from the revival of classical literature. Already in the 14th century the coming See also:movement was showing itself in the See also:works of the painters and sculptors, especially the latter, owing to the See also:influence of the classic See also:sculpture which abounded throughout Italy. Thus in, the See also:tomb of St See also:Dominic (1221) at See also:Bologna, the pulpits of See also:Pisa (1260) and See also:Siena (1268), and in the See also:fountain of See also:Perugia (1277—1280) by Niccola See also:Pisano and his son Giovanni, all the figures would seem to have been inspired in their See also:character by those found in See also:Roman sarcophagi. A classic treatment is noticeable in the See also:doorway of the See also:Baptistery of See also:Florence by See also:Andrea Pisano (1330), probably influenced by See also:Giotto, in whose paintings are found the See also:representation of imaginary buildings in which See also:Gothic and Classic details are mixed up together. The See also:time for its full development, how-ever, did not come till the following century, when, with the papal See also:throne again firmly established under See also:Martin V., the amelioration of the See also:city of See also:Rome was commenced, and discoveries were made which awakened an archaeological See also:interest fostered by the See also:Medici at Florence, who not only became enthusiastic collectors of See also:ancient works of See also:art, but promoted the study of the See also:antique figure. In addition to the acquisition of See also:marbles and bronzes, ancient See also:manuscripts of classic writers were sought for and supplied by See also:Greek exiles who seemed to have foreseen the breaking up of the eastern See also:empire; everything, therefore, at the beginning of the 15th century fostered the spread of the new movement. Accordingly, when a See also:great architect like See also:Brunelleschi, who for fifteen years had been making a See also:special study of the ancient monuments in Rome and who possessed in addition great scientific knowledge, brought forward his proposals for the completion of the See also:cathedral built by Arnolfo di Lapo, and showed how the existing substructure, could be covered `over with a See also:dome like the See also:Pantheon at Rome, his designs were accepted by the See also:town See also:council of Florence, and in 1420 he was entrusted with the See also:work. Subsequently he carried out other works, in which pure classic architectural forms are the See also:chief characteristics. There were, however, other causes which not only promoted the encouragement of the revival, but extendedit to other countries, though at a later See also:period; the most important of these was the invention of See also:printing (1453), which in a sense revolutionized art, not so much in its enabling classical literature to be more extensively studied and known, as in its taking away to a certain extent from the painter and sculptor and indirectly the architect one of their principal See also:missions, so far as ecclesiastical See also:architecture is concerned. Henceforth these who had hitherto taught their lessons in sculpture, See also:painting, stained See also:glass and See also:fresco, could, through the printed See also:book, bring them more immediately before and directly to mankind. See also:Victor See also:Hugo's pithy saying, " ceci tuera cela; le livre tuera l'eglise," expressed not only the fall of architecture from the position it occupied as the principal teacher, but to a certain extent the See also:change in the channel by which religious teachers and the writers of the See also:day, the poets and philosophers, could best make their works known.

With the invention of printing came the partial cessation of fresco painting, stained glass and sculpture, which subsequently came to be regarded more as decorative adjuncts than as having educational functions. But this See also:

transfer from the See also:Church to the Book, the extinction of the one by the other, led to another important change. Henceforth the architect or See also:master-See also:mason, as he was then known, could no longer See also:count on the co-operation of the various craftsmen, men often of greater culture than himself ; and the individuality of the See also:man, which has sometimes been put forward as a gain to humanity, was a loss so far as architecture is concerned, since it was scarcely possible that the See also:imagination and conceptions of a single individual, however brilliant they might be, could ever reach to the high level of the See also:joint product of many minds, or that there could be the same natural expression in what had hitherto been the traditional work of centuries. In See also:France the introduction of the Revival resulted at first in a transitional period during which classic details gradually crept in, displacing the Gothic. In Italy this does not seem to have been the See also:case to the same extent. It is true that in Florence and See also:Venice, where an See also:independent style existed, the new buildings in their See also:general principles of See also:design were, copied from the old, but with no mixture of details as in France; in Brunelleschi's church, Santo Spirito at Florence, the capitals and details are all pure See also:Italian, as pure as if they had been carried out in the 3rd or 4th century, the fact being that already before the 15th century the craftsman's work was approaching the new movement, and this was facilitated by the numerous remains still existing of Roman architecture. In the four or five years Brunelleschi spent in Rome, he had the opportunity of studying a far larger number of Roman buildings than are preserved at the See also:present day, so that the purity of style in the work which he carried out in Florence was due to his previous training; the same is found in See also:Alberti's work, and with these two great men leading the way it is not surprising that throughout the earlier Renaissance period in Italy we find a classic perfection of detail which it took See also:half a century to develop in other countries. It is difficult to say what might have been its ultimate development if another See also:discovery had not been made about 1452, that of the See also:manuscript of See also:Vitruvius, a Roman architect who lived in the time of the See also:emperor See also:Augustus; his work on architecture gives an admirable description of the See also:building materials employed in his day (c. 25 B.c.), and among other subjects, a See also:series of rules regulating the employment of the various orders and their correct proportions. These rules were based on the descriptions which Vitruvius had studied of Greek temples, but as he was not acquainted with the examples quoted, never having been in See also:Greece or even in See also:south Italy at See also:Paestum, his knowledge was confined to the architectural monuments then existing in Rome. Vitruvius's manuscript, entitled De re aedificatoria, was illustrated by drawings, none. of which have however been preserved; when therefore in subsequent years See also:translations of the architectural portion'of the manuscript were printed and published by various Italian architects, among whom Vignola and See also:Palladio were the more important, they were accompanied by woodcuts representing their See also:interpretation of the lost illustrations, and thus copybooks of the orders were published, with more or less fidelity to those of existing Roman monuments, in which attempts were made to adhere to the rules laid down by Vitruvius. In Rome and other parts of Italy, where ancient monuments or portions of them still remained in situ, architects could study their details and See also:base their designs on them, but in other countries they were See also:bound to follow the copybook, and thus they lost that originality and freedom of design which characterizes the earlier work of the Renaissance.

On the other See also:

hand, there is no doubt that the publications of Vignola and Palladio, based as they were on the remains of ancient Rome, then much better preserved than at the present day, tended to maintain a high See also:standard in the employment of the Classic orders, with correct proportions and details; so much so, that in referring to the influence which those works exerted from the See also:middle of the 16th century in France and See also:Spain, and during the 17th and 18th centuries in See also:England and to a certain extent in Spain, See also:Germany and the See also:Netherlands, it is generally spoken of as the introduction of the pure Italian style. The tendency, however, of such hard and fast rules leads eventually to an excess in the opposite direction, and the works of See also:Borromini in Italy and Churriguera in Spain in the middle of the 17th century resulted in the See also:production of what is generally referred to as the See also:Rococo style. This style was fostered in France by the attempts to reproduce, externally and in See also:stone, ornamental decoration of a type which is only fitted for See also:internal work in See also:stucco, and in Germany and the Netherlands by reproductions of fantastic designs published in copybooks, which led to the See also:bastard style of the Zwinger See also:palace in See also:Dresden and the Dutch architecture of the 18th century. Vignola's work on the five orders was published in 1563, and Palladio's in 1570; they were preceded by a publication of Serlio's in 1540, giving examples of various architectural compositions, and to him is probably due the introduction of the pure Italian style in the Louvre in 1546. They were followed by other authors, as Scamozzi in Italy, Philibert de 1'See also:Orme in France, and, at a later date, See also:Sir See also:William See also:Chambers in England. The See also:term given to the earlier Renaissance or transition work in Italy is the Cinque-See also:cento style, though sometimes that See also:title is given to buildings erected in the 16th century; in France it is known as the See also:Francois L style, in Spain as the Plateresque or Silversmiths' style, and in England as the Elizabethan and Jacobean styles. There is still another and very important difference to be noted between the styles of the middle ages and those of the Renaissance. Although the names of the designers in the former are occasion-ally known and have been handed down to us, they were only partially responsible, as the works were carried out by other crafts-men working on traditional lines, whereas in the latter they are of much more importance because of the independent thought and study of the individual; and though to a certain extent the development of each man's work may have been influenced by others working in the same direction, his special See also:object was to acquire See also:personal fame and by his own See also:fancy or predilection to produce what he conceived to be an See also:original work See also:peculiar to himself. Consequently in our description the name of the architect who designed a particular building, as well as the date of its erection, are necessarily given to show the progress made in his studies or otherwise. (R. P.

End of Article: THE RENAISSANCE

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