Week 5, Roman High Renaissance

This week we are based in Rome (with some day trips to Umbria and Montepulciano), where we will see how Bramante has evolved from the Tempietto to St. Peter's ending up at Todi (Sta. Maria della Consolazione) and what kind of impact he has on High Renaissance. Raphael, who continued work on St. Peter's, takes his turn at architecture. We will also learn about Caprarola, Sangallo the Younger and the Elder, and Peruzzi.

Sta. Maria della Consolazione, Todi

This pilgrimage church has been attributed to Bramante, although there is no hard evidence other than stylistic details.
-an elevated platform ( a key Bramantean theory that holy places in which the supreme being is invoked shall be raised up and centralized)
-designed using simple geometric forms, clarity heightened by sparse interior decor and pietra serena
Created in the years 1504-1517, Sta. Maria della Consolazione
-mixes Roman and Tuscan ideas
-shows influence of Sangallo and Brunelleschi
This church is a simplified version of Bramante's original design for St. Peters and involved Cola da Caprarola, a wood worker. Caprarola may have had more involvement than we know, there is still some question as to who actually designed this building.

Villa Farnesina, Peruzzi

Peruzzi (1481-1536) was an architect, a painter, and a draughtsman from Siena. He was an important transitional figure in the move from Early Renaissance to High Renaissance. The Villa Farnesina was built (1509-1521) originally for Agostini Chigi, but was later sold to the Farnese family.

Notice:

-open planning, a shift toward turning outward to landscape

-antique references and motifs

-plain orders (of brick) frame windows with lintels

-plain walls, originally painted with frescoes

-elaborately decorative frieze

-quoining

Villa Madama, Raphael

Commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (who was crowned Pope Clement VII in 1523), Villa Madama is located on the banks of the Tiber just a few miles north of Rome. Built between 1518 and 1527, Villa Madama was designed by Raphael. Because Raphael died before completion, Sangallo the Younger was assigned to oversee construction. There are some similarities in the design of the Belvedere Court in the Vatican palace:

-quadripartite vaulting with three bays
-influenced by the Roman triumphal arch
-courtyard with circular center, monumental rustic columns set in to exterior wall
-open air ampitheatre excavated into the hillside
-shift from simplicity to splendor

Raphael had been inspired by Pliny's descriptions of villas in antiquity; and so he set out to recreate a classical villa.

Domus Aurea

The interior of the Loggia was designed by Raphael and carried out by Giulio Romano. At this time Nero's palace, Domus Aurea, had been discovered. The grotesche decoration was an exciting source of inspiration for Renaissance artists.

Madonna di San Biagio, Antonio Sangallo the Elder

Built by Sangallo the Elder (1455-1534), a Florentine architect from a family of many architects. This pilgrimage church in Montepulciano was worked on from 1518 to 1529, and then again from 1545 to 1564. Sangallo started with the ideas behind Giuliano Sangallo's Sta. Maria Carceri (Prato) and Bramante's St. Peter's. He went with a centralized Greek cross plan with four towers (only one was built). There are no aisles, a pilastered drum and a central hemispherical dome. Sta. Maria di San Biagio is an example in geometric precision.