ITALY...GREECE...Only In My Dreams, But Not For Long.

Finally, finally after all these years of learning and looking from afar:

I'M GOING TO SEE IT ALL. 

RENAISSANCE: Masaccio's Trinity, 1427, Sta Maria Novella, Florence.

RENAISSANCE: Masaccio's Expulsion, 1426, Brancacci Chapel, Sta Maria del Carmine, Florence.

PROTO-RENAISSANCE! Giotto, Virgin and Child Enthroned, 14th c., The Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

BRONZE AGE, MINOAN: Knossos Palace, 1800 BCE, Crete.

MINOAN: Knossos Palace, 1800 BCE, Crete.

RENAISSANCE: Alberti's Sant'Andrea, 15th c., Mantua.

Commitments have been made and for 30 days and 30 nights I will travel back in time to:

Rome...Florence...Ravenna...Mantua...Padua...Venice
Athens...Mykonos...Delos...Thera...Crete

This includes works (most in situ!) from the Bronze Age, Antiquity, Byzantium, the Medieval era, the Proto-Renaissance and of course the Renaissance and even more and more! The Vatican, the Uffizi, the monastery at San Marco, the Pantheon, the Parthenon, Knossos Palace, Palladian architecture in Venice, maybe the lady in a red coat! Ah! I hope not!

I'm putting my lists together and planning to have several Stendhal experiences. Is there medicine for that? I need a suitcase full.

RENAISSANCE: Palladio's Redentore, 16th c., Venice.

BYZANTINE: San Vitale, 6th c., Ravenna.

Mosaics! Ravenna.

I can't even express how excited and overwhelmed and thankful I am. To my homeland!

Palazzo del Te, 1526-34

Designed by Giulio Romano in Mantua for his patron, Federigo Gonzaga. The Palazzo del Te is a square building with 4 wings.On the textured facade, there are pilasters reaching from top to bottom.


In the entrance vestibule, Romano is making a reference to the origins of architecture via the rustic columns developed out of the unrefined materials of nature. Notice the contrast of the rough columns and the more polished coffering.
The entablature of the courtyard shows Giulio's less conventional way of looking at antiquities. He has used a doric triglyph pattern, but every so often one set is dropped, extended through the entablature. This might seem to be an arbitrary choice, but in fact it shows that the architect was looking at models which may not have been as well known. It is another example of the exploration common in Mannerist architecture.

Sant'Andrea, Mantua

As the other structure Alberti was able to design entirely, Sant'Andrea was fortunately more consistent with the original plan. Started in 1470, in Mantua, it would not be finished until the mid 18th century. The facade combines a pedimented temple front with a triumphal arch. There are major and minor pilasters, note that Alberti has not been using columns. This marks a progressive transition in the representation of antiquity. The integration of exterior and interior is more refined and in general the structure is described as monumental.

There are no side aisles here, only three barrel vaulted chapels on each side of the nave. There is a central barrel vault at the entrance and lower barrel vaults in the loggia. The interior is different from the other churches we have been looking at. Instead of arches supported on columns or elegant piers, we now have heavy, blocklike piers and coffered barrel vaults. Similar to Brunelleschi's dell Angeli, the space seems carved out. Proportions are carefully planned using ratios and ornamentation.