MANNERISM unconventional ways in order to heighten

tension, power, emotion, or elegance.

Mannerism, style in art and architecture of the 16th century, characterized by the distortion of elements such as proportion and space

The term Mannerism derives from the Italian word maniera, meaning “style” or “way of working.”

Stylistically, Mannerist architecture was marked by widely diverging tendencies from Renaissance and Medieval styles that eventually led to the Baroque style

During the Mannerist period, architects experimented with using architectural forms to emphasize solid and spatial relationships.

Renaissance ideal of harmony gave way to free and more imaginative rhythms.

Introduction

o The best known architect associated with the Mannerist style was Michelangelo (1475–1564).

o o He is credited with inventing the giant order, a

large pilaster that stretches from the bottom to the top of a façade which used this in his design for the Campidoglio in Rome.

Introduction

Andrea Palladio, "the most influential architect of the whole Renaissance", transformed the architectural style of both palaces and churches by taking a different perspective on the notion of Classicism.

Other inventive Mannerists were Raphael, Giorgio Vasari and Giulio Romano

Introduction

Palazzo Del Te by

Giulio Romano

Palazzo Del Te

The Palazzo Del Te by Giulio Romano is a true classic among the Mannerist style of architecture from the Renaissance period in Italy.

The principal features of the Palazzo Del Te, in their deliberate breaking of classical rules, increase the aesthetic appreciation of the building by even the amateur viewer.

Introduction

The Palazzo was the pleasure palace or “Villa Suburbana” of Federico II Gonzaga, then Marquess of Mantua who later became the Duke.

It was constructed in Mantua, Italy in 1524-34.

The whole palace was built with a theme of horses and horseback riding, the great love of the Gonzaga family.

Introduction

Plan of Palazzo Del Te

The building appears to be a straightforward classical building; but close scrutiny shows great sophistication.

In the North Façade, the features at first glance appear evenly spaced, they are actually quite irregularly spaced.

Also the strange way the building seems to be halfway between one and two stories, so the observer can not be quite sure if there is a second story or not. It is as if the second story has been compressed down.

Principle Features

The Northeast part of the building, there on the left is a “secret garden” containing a grotto. There is a fake door on this grotto.

On the right is the hemispherical exedra, through which the Marquess would have had a grand view on horseback.

Apartment Of The Secret Garden

The columns that have been given a very rough surface treatment that perhaps seems out of place, common throughout.

The beam above has a keystone shape that might be functional in another place, but certainly is not here and is therefore perplexing or humorous.

The passageway on the axis of symmetry is covered by a barrel vault with octagonal coffering, but the vault is carried on a heavy entablature supported by Tuscan columns with heavily rusticated shafts.

There are fake windows all over, mirroring the dummy doors. The dropped triglyphs at the top that seem to be falling out of the entablature.

This was done on purpose as well as the keystone is slightly raised out of place, pushing the joint above open.

Courtyard Of Honour

Like the exterior, the four faces of the courtyard are all different, no pair identical to one another.

Like the exterior, the four faces of the courtyard are all different, no pair identical to one another.

Chamber Of Ovid Or The Metamorphoses

Chamber of the Giants

Hall of the Horses

The Hall of the Horses in which the Duke of Mantua had not only himself but his favourite horses painted in portrait in the midst of an illusionistic architecture.

This must have been a shock for unsuspecting guests and a great delight on the part of the duke.

Chamber of the Sun and the Moon

Loggia of the Muses

The Hall of Psyche shows the classical mythological scene of the wedding banquet of Cupid and Psyche

These attempts were, in fact, meant to appeal to educated people who were already fully aware of the rules and effects of orthodox classicism and could therefore enjoy the idea of breaking rules for effect.

St Peters Basilica, Rome

By Michelangelo

St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican is probably the world’s largest church and it is far and away the largest Renaissance building.

Built between 1506and 1626, it stands over the original basilica built on the site of Nero’s Circus by Emperor Constantine in the 4th century.

The church is approached through St. Peter’s Square, the architectural masterpiece of GianLorenzo Bernini.

Introduction

The present basilica was started in 1506 under Julius II (by Donato Bramante, to the top of the piers) and completed in 1626.

Michelangelo is the most significant artist and architect associated with St. Peter’s

Introduction

Plan

Floor Plan

It was Michelangelo who abandoned the concept of corner towers, and changed the shape for the design of the dome to that which we see today.

Quite a bit of the work had been done by Bramante and Sangallo, which was squelched by Michelangelo, and he simplified the interior by reducing it from multiple components to a single congruous part.

Introduction

Michelangelo designed the famous dome, and it was intended to rival Brunelleschi’s dome in Florence.

The dome is the tallest in the world at 448 ft.

It is just slightly smaller in diameter than the Pantheon and Brunelleschi’s dome.

The design, as executed by Michelangelo, is quite similar to that of the dome in Florence, as he also used two shells of brick, the outer having 16 stone ribs (twice the number used by Brunelleschi).

The Dome

The Dome Michelangelo prepared the

dome with double support columns to act as buttresses when he was thinking of creating a hemispherical dome.

When the design was changed (as he often did) to make the dome more ovoid, it was decided that the support was not needed, as the buttresses were barely stressed by the more vertical shape.

Michelangelo died before the dome was completed, but he left some drawings and a wooden model, and it was completed by Giacomo della Porta and Domenico Fontana in 1590, although they did not execute the massive sculptures Michelangelo intended to stand upon the buttresses of the drum to stabilize the mass.

The Dome

The facade was designed by Carlo Maderno. He was bound to the already existing Michelangelo's wings. He put the attic all around the building, as planned by

Michelangelo. That creation looks mighty and dynamic along the west

side of the Basilica but is disharmonious in the facade.

The Facade

The eight gigantic columns of the facade are almost 10ft wide and 90 feet high.

For this reason, at the far sides of the facade, Maderno planned two bell towers which lightened and soared the building. In 1621, at the death of Paul V, the ground subsided and the building of the two bell towers had to be stopped.

The Facade

In 1646, Bernini tried to erect the bell towers again, but had to demolish the left-hand side bell tower because of cracks in the facade.

Only the bases of the bell

towers remain, two archways at the sides of the facade that seem to form part of it while they should have been separated.

This was remedied in 1790 by the installation of two clocks designed by Giuseppe Valadier.

The Facade

The SquarePiazza San Pietro This monumental

elliptical space (240m wide), is the masterpiece of Gian Lorenzo Bernini,

Colonnades & 140 Statues  The Colonnades consist of 284 Doric columns and

88 pilasters of travertine marble. These columns, 13m. tall, are arranged in four rows. With the trabeation surmounted by a balustrade,

the overall height is 21m.

The Square

Bernini built two straight covered wings (Charlemagne left, Constantine right) 120 m. long, to link with the basilica's façade.

This is probably the world's most famous and controversial sculpture of a religious subject.

Michelangelo carved it when he was 24 years old, and it is the only one he ever signed.

The beauty of its lines and expression leaves a lasting impression on everyone.

Chapel of the Pieta

Villa Rotonda by

Andrea Palladio

Villa Rotonda

Andrea Palladio, "the most influential architect of the whole Renaissance" transformed the architectural style of both palaces and churches by taking a different perspective on the notion of Classicism.

While the architects of Florence and Rome were influenced by structures like the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine, Palladio looked to classical temples with their simple peristyle form.

When he used the “triumphal arch” motif of a large arched opening

with a lower square-topped opening on either side, he invariably applied it on a small scale, such as windows, rather than on a large scale.

This Ancient Roman motif is often referred to as the Palladian Arch.

Andrea palladio

The best known of Palladio’s domestic buildings is Villa Capra, otherwise known as "la Rotonda", a centrally planned house with a domed central hall and four identical façades, each with a temple-like portico like that of the Pantheon in Rome.

At the Villa Cornaro, the projecting portico of the north façade and recessed loggia of the garden façade are of two ordered stories, the upper forming a balcony.

In designing church façades, Palladio was confronted by the problem of visually linking the aisles to the nave while maintaining and defining the structure of the building.

Palladio’s solution was entirely different from that employed by della Porta.

At the church of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, he overlays a tall temple, with its columns raised on high plinths, over another low wide temple façade, which has its columns rising from the basements and its narrow lintel and pilasters appearing behind the giant order of the central nave.

Andrea Palladio

Situated on the top of a hill just outside the town of Vicenza, Italy the Villa Capra is called the Villa Rotonda, because of its completely symmetrical plan with a central circular hall.

building has a square plan with loggias on all four sides, which connect to terraces and the landscape.

Duration-1566 to 1571

Villa Almerico Capra or Villa La Rotonda

At the center of the plan, the two story circular hall with overlooking balconies was intended by Palladio to be roofed by a semicircular dome.

However, after his death, a lower dome was built, designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi and modeled after the Pantheon with a central oculus originally open to the sky.

Villa Rotonda

Villa Rotonda

The proportions of the rooms are mathematically precise, according to the rules Palladio describes in the Quatro Libri.

Villa Rotonda

The design reflected the humanist values of Renaissance architecture.

The building is rotated 45 degrees to south on the hilltop, enabling all rooms to receive some sunshine.

The villa is asymmetrically sited in the topography, and each loggia, although identical in design, relates to the landscape it enfronts differently through variations of wide steps, retaining walls and embankments.

Villa Rotonda

Each of the four porticos has pediments graced by statues of classical deities. The pediments were each supported by six Ionic columns. Each portico was flanked by a single window. All principal rooms were on the second floor

Thus, the symmetrical architecture in asymmetrical relationship to the landscape intensifies the experience of the hilltop.

The northwest loggia is set recessed into the hill above an axial entry from the front gate.

This axis is flanked by a service building and continues visually to a chapel at the edge of the town, thus connecting villa and town.

Villa Rotonda

The interior design of the Villa was to be as wonderful, if not more so, than the exterior.

Alessandro and Giovanni Battista Maganza and Anselmo Canera were commissioned to paint frescoes in the principal salons.

Villa Rotonda

The highlight of the interior is the central, circular hall, surrounded by a balcony and covered by the domed ceiling; it soars the full height of the main house up to the cupola, with walls decorated in trompe l'oeil.

Villa Rotonda

http://saintpetersbasilica.org/index.htm http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Vill

a_Capra.html

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