Influential Renaissance Architecture Essay

When Pope Julius II heard about the artist’s accomplishments, he commissioned Michelangelo to create his tomb. However, Pope Julius turns his focus in funding to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica. Rome was overpassing a difficult time, and the Pope wanted to return it to its powerful roots. Michelangelo unhappy about the Pope not paying back for the stone, returned to Florence. Yet, the Pope

The Sistine chapel was built between the years of 1475 and 1483 in Vatican City and is named after the pope who had the chapel built, Sixtus IV. One of the most impressive things about the Sistine chapel and one of the most famous works of art in history is Michelangelo’s painting on the ceiling of the chapel. The project was completed using fresco. In 1508 Michelangelo was requested by Pope Julius II to repaint the chapel. The Chapel at the time was painted with a blue sky and gold stars. Pope Julius II original request was to have the chapel painted with the twelve Christian Apostles and when the project was completed Michelangelo had created more than 3,000 figures. The ceiling was created depicting nine stories from the bible’s book of genesis, including the “The Creation of Adam”, the most famous panel of any.

During all of this Brunelleschi not only built the dome in the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral (what today is still the biggest dome in the world), but mechanical marvels of worker platforms and lifts that managed to carry workers and hundreds pounds of materials hundreds feet in the air over the course of 28 years with only a single death. This showed how Brunelleschi was a mastermind in architecture and how he revived it.

The renaissance was a thriving time for the fine arts and architecture, and this allowed Donato Bramante to thrive. Born in 1444 Bramante had a quite childhood and went to the college of Mautana to study the art of perspective (Sarti). Bramante’s first architectural achievement was collaborating with other architects to build the Church of Sandra in Lombardy. By 1477 Bramante was doing smaller jobs for little cost trying to go

In the years to come, Raphael painted an additional fresco cycle for the Vatican, located in the stanza d’Eliodoro (“Room of Heliodorus, The miracle of bolsena, The Repulse pf Attila from Rome and the liberation of saint peter. During the same time, the ambitious painter produced a successful series of “Madonna” paintings in his own art studio. The famed Madonna of the chair and Sistine Madonna were among them. By 1514, Raphael had achieved fame for his work at the Vatican and was able to hire a crew of assistants to help him finish painting frescoes in the Stanza dell’Incendio, freeing him up to focus on other projects. While Raphael continued to accept commissions – including portraits of Popes Julius II and Leo X – and his largest painting on canvas, The Transfiguration (commissioned in 1517), he had by this time begun to work on architecture. After architect Donato Bramante died in 1514, the pope hired Raphael as his chief architect. Under this appointment, Raphael created the design for a chapel and an area within Saint Peters new basilica. Raphael’s architectural work was not limited to religious buildings. It also extended to designing

He completed the ceiling all by himself after firing all of his assistants after his work had to be removed because of an infectious fungus in the plaster. He guarded the ceiling keeping anyone from seeing it until he revealed it on October 31, 1512. "Although he continued to sculpt and paint throughout his life, the physical rigor of painting the a chapel had taken it's toll on Michelangelo, and he soon turned his focus toward architecture. He continued to work on the tomb of Pope Julius II for the next several

The Florence cathedral was lacking an enclosed ceiling. A contest was held awarding 200 gold florins and eternal fame to the architect who could successfully design a beautiful domed ceiling. The ceiling had to be 150 feet across and start 180 feet in the air without collapsing. The dome needed to fit onto the octagonal walls already in place and the design also had to exclude the popular gothic styled flying buttresses used in Milan, Florence’s archenemy.

It took me awhile to find the right article, but after some research, I found “Brunelleschi’s Dome” in National Geographic. The first question that I looked to answer was the motivation that led to the discovery of the dome. To paraphrase what I learned from the quoted article of National Geographic, there was a hole that was the sore sight of the cathedral in Florence. The name was “Santa Maria”. In order to cover up this eyesore, the leaders of the Catholic Church held a competition in which 200 gold florins were offered to the winner that could best cover up the hole. After listening to many contestants, the Church finally chose Filipo Brunelleschi. He was a young and irate genius, but he promised that he could build an inner and outer dome-and eventually he did. There were several questions that had to be asked; among them were how to cover the whole and what techniques to use so that the dome would not collapse on itself. It was not a task that was done in a day or even a decade. From the time that Brunelleschi was little, he had tinkered around with gears and gadgets. Because of this tinkering around and his learning from being a gold smith and studying architecture, he used his knowledge of the past and came up with the idea of an inner and outer dome. It was supported by solid brick at the base and hoop ring support at the top.

In my studies, I decided to research Brunelleschi’s Dome in Florence, Italy, its beginning and inspiration, and how it was constructed. I was amazed by the building of this structure and how the idea of such a structure came about. It all started in 1418 when the Florentine Fathers noticed that their Cathedral had been an open to the sky throughout its existence. They decided to cover this big hole but had no idea how to do it. They were inspired by the Parthenon and its infrastructure, and wanted to build a dome to represent their power and spiritual aspiration. They didn’t know if their cathedral could hold the weight of a dome (since the Parthenon was made of concrete), and it it would have to have major support. None of them knew where to start, so they had a contest to see who could come up with the best plan and idea to execute

Many have theorized that he found a way to use what is called radial methodology. It is still debated over to this day. In the article Massimo Ricci details how he built a 1/5 scale model to demonstrate how Brunelleschi designed the dome. His work defines through thorough diagrams and his model possibly how Brunelleschi built the dome

As earlier stated, Filippo's took inspiration from his trip to Rome in order to design his ideal Dome, more specifically in fact he took motivation from the magnificent dome of the Pantheon in Rome for solutions. Pantheon’s dome consisted of a single shell of concrete the formula which had long been ignored. The dome needed his engineering skills as well as his vision; Filippo invented and patented a new hoisting machine for raising the masonry required for the dome, the cathedral dome still dominates the sky line of Florence, a lasting vision of his greatest work.

In this essay, I will not only be discussing at the connections between Renaissance architecture and cosmology as well as music, but also the what Renaissance architecture is and how it played a key part in architectural design today. The Renaissance period took place during the early 15th century to early 17th century, the age of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Architects of the time took inspiration from classical Roman architecture. This means it is an analysis of architecture in the ancient world, especially ancient Greece and Rome. What the Renaissance learnt from the Romans has how they used the space, looked at the form and had somewhat accurate measurements. And so, they copied elements and modified it, for example, many columns having a slightly intruded appearance on walls to give decoration to the building. They loved looking at the design and proportions and the mainly thrived in Italy during the early semester. It wasn’t until the latter years where Renaissance architecture started to spread throughout Europe, where many architects were fading from the gothic style previously used. However, large numbers of buildings incorporated a mixture of Renaissance and Gothic styles. A famous building built during the Renaissance period is St Peter’s Basilica, made in Rome, which was designed by many

Beginning in Florence, Italy, as with much of the other aspects of the Renaissance, the variety of structures and layout would be spread through much of Europe and is still seen even today. Architecture in the revival age mimicked Gothic architecture that was once very popular and was eventually succeeded by Baroque architecture later on in the period. Emphasis was placed on the properties of symmetry, proportion, geometry, and many others that had been largely observed in Greek and Roman buildings that demonstrated such equality, such as the Parthenon. Many buildings came to completely resemble such famous sites, complete with the innovations of earlier periods (especially that of the Romans) like domes, arches with voussoirs, or columns of Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian structure, Several periods formed to characterize architecture in this time such as the Quattrocento that focused on solid rules and regulations for buildings and design. Another period was that of Mannerism which, alternatively, gave way to more experimentation and the architect’s own discretion for a project. All saw large-scale figures of Classical architecture throughout Europe. Some of the most notable architects were Filippo Brunelleschi, a forefront leader in Italy known for his invention of linear perspective with such designs as the Dome of Santa Maria

By the time Michelangelo returned to Florence, he had become somewhat of an art star. He had taken over commissions for a statue of “David”, and several other commissions, including a important project for the tomb of Pope Julis II, but this project was interrupted due to a request for Michelangelo to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo continued the work on the tomb of Julis II after the Sistine Chapel was completed, and even designed the Medici Chapel and the Laurentian Library.

With the continuous growth of paintings and artists, prestige for art increased dramatically to the point in which religious aspects were shown through landscapes, portraits, and temperas. This then allowed the creation of new styles and mathematical input that manifested everyday life with religious aspects. One such artist was Giovanni Bellini who introduced bright, rich, strong colors into his palette and landscapes that expressed the happiness, calmness, and prosperity that Italy carried throughout the Renaissance. These characteristics and styles of paintings subsequently became a popular Venetian cornerstone. Other important figures in the Italian Renaissance that demonstrated the movement?s ideas through their ingenious paintings and architectural methods were Pier Della Francesca and Leon Battista Alberti. Francesca, who was and expert in mathematics, developed the art form of perspective. Alberti, on the other hand, as an architect developed the pediment which became popular throughout the entire Renaissance. His monasteries and churches depicted many of the religious ideas, as evident in one of his famous works, the Santa Maria Novella. All in all, the use of the common religious themes such as the annunciation, adoration, Crucifixion, and the popular Madonna