Renaissance Architecture Essay

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Renaissance is known as the period of the rebirth of classical culture. Renaissance architecture is focused on geometry, proportions and symmetry. The plans of renaissance buildings are square shaped, symmetrical and proportional. The basic design elements were a variety of styles referred to as Architectural Orders. Architectural Orders are different styles, which are distinguished by the type of column used and also by the details and proportions. Architecture went hand in hand with sculpture and painting and also some of the sculptors, among them Michelangelo, later became excellent architects. One of the most important figures in renaissance and humanist architecture was Leonbattista Alberti, who was a great theorist, architect and humanist. …show more content…

On painting Alberti intorduces geometry and mathematics to help painters to solve the basic problems of painting more quickly. In the book is also shown the rules for drawing a picture in a three-dimensional way with the help of one-poin perspective. Previous artist like Giotto already did practice perspective in their works, but Alberti was the first one who formulated. “Vision makes a triangle, and from this it is clear that a very distant quantity seems no larger than a point.” In 1443 Alberti returned in Rome to work for papal court, where he had a chance to carefully study the architecture of Roman empire. The result of his studies on Roman empire architecture and Vitruvius (architect and architectural theorist in Roman times) was book De Re Aedificatoria. In the book there was a restored text of Vitruvius ideas proportions and scale following human body, theory of the use of the five classical orders in greek architecture to make difference between classes of building, theory of architectural beauty, depending upon the harmonic relationship between proportions and decorative element. The main difference between Vitrivus and Alberti’s books is that the ancient writer is telling us how were the building that we see build, on the other hand Alberti is giving us the prescribiton how to construct buildings in the

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