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Redentore: Sacrifice

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All around the world, the Black Death was consuming populations quickly and easily. Eventually killing off most of the Venetian city in 1575 to 1577. As the population continued to decline, the people voted to set up an offering to Christ the Redeemer. The Venetian Senate called upon Andrea Palladio, a well-known architect, to design and construct a church, naming it, La Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore (Il Redentore), Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, hoping to save their people. A year later, Venice was disease free. The city saw this church as their savior, dedicating a festival that would celebrate the church. The festival continues to this day with celebrations every third Saturday of July followed by a church mass the next day. The church …show more content…

Specifically, a product of late Renaissance, which expressed a relaxation of severe simplicity. Renaissance architecture is the revival of Greek and Roman architecture in Europe. The Il Redentore is a revival of the Ancient Roman Pantheon well known for its high rise portico and enlarged dome figure along with the Roman baths. Roman and Renaissance architecture emphasize symmetry, geometry, proportion, and singularity. The Il Redentore demonstrates all four of these characteristics. The church is almost identical on both sides with twin towers on either side of the dome, the same amount of buttresses on each side, identical transepts in front of each dome, and identical columns and figures on either side of the front elevation. Each element of the church corresponds to the next part creating a singularity of parts. Inside the church, the procession is laid out as if it was a Roman bath with the nave, choir, and tribune equivalent to the frigidarium, tepidarium, and calidarium. Even though the Il Redentore is considerably Roman, it does not fit this category completely due to the exaggeration of parts and the half columns. What is apparent in the Il Redentore is the alteration of sizes of certain elements seen in mannerist architecture which rose during the Late

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