Courtesy : The Spruce

What Is Renaissance Architecture?

St Peter’s Basilica

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Renaissance Architecture is a style of architecture that emerged in early 15th-century Florence, Italy. Ushering in a revival of ancient Greek and Roman Classical architectural forms, it supplanted the prevailing Gothic medieval aesthetic.

The Renaissance (“rebirth”) spanned two centuries, encompassing not only architecture but art and human ideals, producing multi-disciplinary giants including Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. The lasting cultural legacy of the Renaissance makes it one of the most transformative periods in western history.

History of Renaissance Architecture

Renaissance architecture developed as part of the rebirth of classicism in Florence, Italy, circa 1400 that evolved over the next 200 years as it spread throughout Italy and then Europe. Renaissance architects in Italy took inspiration from ancient Greco-Roman ruins and early structures like the Pantheon and the Colosseum in Rome, as well as the writings of Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius (80 BC-15 BC), which were published in 1486. Rather than simply reproducing the past, Renaissance architects sought to use classical elements to innovate new structures that were rooted in history but adapted to a modern world and the development of cities.

Renaissance Architecture is generally broken down into three main periods, starting with the Early Renaissance that began around 1400 when architects began to look to antiquity for inspiration and reintroduce Classical Roman and Greek elements such as arches, columns, and domes into buildings. Early Renaissance buildings had symmetrical facades and clear, streamlined volumes that marked a change from the more complex Gothic proportions that preceded them.

Starting around 1500, the High Renaissance was a period in which the use of Classical elements adapted to contemporary 16th-century building styles was in full bloom. During the Late Renaissance starting around 1520 (also called Mannerism), the use of decorative and ornamental classical elements such as domes and cupolas became more widespread.

Renaissance architecture was followed by the emergence of the Baroque period around 1600. Nevertheless, hundreds of years later the architectural fruits of the Renaissance are considered some of the world’s greatest built structures and its guiding principles continue to influence architects, artists, and thinkers to this day.

Key Characteristics of Renaissance Architecture

• Focus on classical notions of beauty based on proportion and symmetry mixed with a humanist perspective on architecture
• Renaissance architecture strove to create harmony between humans and mathematical proportions by creating a human-scale classical geometry
• Characterized by square, symmetrical building plans
• Exteriors typically featured ashlar masonry
• Employed the use of Classical elements such as domes, columns, pilasters, lintels, arches, and pediments in an orderly and repetitive fashion, adapted to then contemporary purposes
• Use of Roman orders of Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite columns
• Early Renaissance buildings focused on bringing in air and light, which was also a nod to the dawning of Renaissance ideals and thought