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LARCH 060
Tuesday, February, 1999
Announcements: Exam #1 is on
Thursday, February 11th in class
Lecture notes:
ITALIAN RENAISSANCE (C.15C.):
Land/Environment:
- Urban setting
- Intellectual grasp of nature and love
- Starting to be human centered as opposed to god centered
- The increase in wealth, travel and technology in the late
Middle Ages caused the Renaissance
Socio-cultural milieu:
- Plague: about 50% died, those who lived acquired the
wealth, therefore there was a rebirth of the population
- Florence---democratic city, money center, age of the
enterpreneur
- Wealth boomed the arts (Michelangelo)
- Large scale dome (from Romans) built in Florence
- Laws of Perspective were applied in architecture (opposed
to in the Middle Ages where they had flat drawings), #
dimensional, math, rationality, better ability to measure
space
- Belief that Mathematics was key to understand the
universe --- Man is the measure of all things
- Botanical (plant) explorations
Design Expression:
- Order, balance and harmony of design, used the axis and
circle for design
- Piazzas: Medieval piazzas had open space carved out for
idea of organic growth-----Renaissance piazzas had
transitional spaces (called porticoes)
instead of flat walls. Also used colonnades and arcades
in design
- Examples of Renaissance piazzas include the Uffizi in
Florence and the Vigevano in the Port Ducale
- Porticoes provide a humanistic feeling as opposed to a
large scale space
- Pure geometry was used to create order, balance, and
reason
- Gained knowledge on plants and gardens also had much
order
BAROQUE ROME (C.16C.):
Land/Environment:
- Urban setting
- Humans and church take control
Socio-cultural milieu:
- Church dynamics----- popes were powerful and reshaped
Rome into church center
- Reformation: the churches were thrown off balance and
challenged
- Italy was in transition
Design Expression:
- Dynamic (showing movement)
- Stairways and multi-level spaces were used for dynamic
purposes along with longer axis
- Examples using these expressions were the Belvedare
(Vatican), which was the Pope's home. It had stairs
showing the upward mobility from the courtyard
- Minicenters were established using obelisks,
shich were tall, narrow, pointy columns intended to be
focal points and orientation centers
- Churches and piazzas consisted of elliptical/oval or
trapezoidal formations. Examples include the P. San
Pietro (St. Peters), the P. del Popolo, and Campodoglio
- The Campodoglio was a dome-like design which had 3
streets connecting it to the city
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