Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism

by Wittkower, Rudolf

• ISBN13: 9780471977636
• ISBN10: 0471977632
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-11-18
• Publisher: Academy Press

Summary

"Professor Wittkower's....studies of humanist architecture are masterpieces of scholarship."-Sir Kenneth Clark, Architectural Review. A fourth edition of the forty-year-old classic. Focusing on the principal architects of that time-from Alberti to Palladio-this bestselling classic explains the true significance of certain architectural forms, bringing to light the connections between the architecture and culture of the period. With publication scheduled to coincide with that of Architectonics of Humanism, this important reference is superbly reproduced in a new, large square format. The late RUDOLF WITTKOWER was a college professor and eminent scholar residing in London, England.

Author Biography

Rudolf Wittkower was born in Berlin in 1901. Leaving Germany when the Nazis came to power, he was one of the animators of the Warburg Institute of London. In 1941 he organized, with Fritz Saxl, the exhibition British Art and the Mediterranean, the publication of which (1948) forms an important document of the aims and methods of the Warburg Institute. A great scholar of Italian Renaissance and Baroque art, Wittkower taught at both the University of London and Columbia University. His books, all important works of scholarship, include Die Zeichnungen des Gian Lorenzo Bernini (with H. Bruer, 1931), The Drawings of the Carracci at Windsor Castle (1952), Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the Sculptor of Roman Baroque (1955), Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600–1750 (1958), Born under Saturn (with Margot Wittkower, 1963), and Divine Michelangelo: The Florentine Academy’s Homage on His Death in 1564 (with Margot Wittkower, 1964). In addition, he was a frequent contributor to the Journal of the Warbung and Courtauld Institute, the Art Bulletin, Burlington Magazine and the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, among others.

Table of Contents

PART I THE CENTRALLY PLANNED CHURCH AND THE RENAISSANCE	16	(25)
1. Alberti's Programme of the Ideal Church	16	(6)
2. Centralized Churches in Later Architectural Theory	22	(7)
3. Building Practice: S. Maria delle Carceri	29	(2)
4. Bramante and Palladio	31	(7)
5. The Religious Symbolism of Centrally Planned Churches	38	(3)
PART II ALBERTI'S APPROACH TO ANTIQUITY IN ARCHITECTURE	41	(19)
1. The Column in Alberti's Theory and Practice	41	(2)
2. S.Francesco at Rimini	43	(4)
3. S.Maria Novella	47	(4)
4. S. Sebastiano and S. Andrea at Mantua	51	(8)
5. The Change in Alberti's Interpretation of Classical Architecture	59	(1)
PART III PRINCIPLES OF PALLADIO'S ARCHITECTURE	60	(44)
1. The Architect as `uomo universale': Palladio, Trissino and Barbaro	60	(7)
2. Palladio's Geometry: The Villas	67	(8)
3. Palladio and Classical Architecture: Palaces and Public Buildings	75	(14)
4. The Genesis of an Idea: Palladio's Church Facades	89	(8)
5. Palladio's Optical and Psychological Concepts: Il Redentore	97	(7)
PART IV THE PROBLEM OF HARMONIC PROPORTION IN ARCHITECTURE	104	(34)
1. Francesco Giorgi's Platonic Programme for S. Francesco della Vigna	104	(3)
2. The Mean Proportionals and Architecture	107	(4)
3. Alberti's `Generation' of Ratios	111	(2)
4. Musical Consonances and the Visual Arts	113	(6)
5. Palladio's `fugal' System of Proportion	119	(4)
6. Palladio's Ratios and the Development of Sixteenth-Century Musical Theory	123	(7)
7. The Break-away from the Laws of Harmonic Proportion in Architecture	130	(8)
APPENDIX I Francesco Giorgi's Memorandum for S. Francesco della Vigna	138	(2)
APPENDIX II The Problem of the Commensurability of Ratios in the Renaissance	140	(2)
APPENDIX III Bibliographical Notes on the Theory of Proportion	142	(3)
APPENDIX IV Proportion in Art and Architecture: an amalgamation of previously unpublished lectures by Professor Wittkower	145	(11)
Part I: The Need for Order	145	(2)
Part II: Origins of Western Proportional Systems	147	(3)
Part III: Geometry and Mediaeval Proportions	150	(2)
Part IV: Renaissance Proportions and Commensurability	152	(2)
Part V: Post-Renaissance Proportioning-Dilemmas and Possibilities	154	(2)
INDEX	156