Renaissance Revival architecture

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"Neo-Renaissance" redirects here. For the style of jewellery, see Holbeinesque jewellery.

Schwerin Palace in Mecklenburg (Germany), completed in 1857
Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire (England), seat of the Rothschild family, 1874

Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century

Second Empire
).

The divergent forms of Renaissance architecture in different parts of Europe, particularly in France and Italy, has added to the difficulty of defining and recognizing Neo-Renaissance architecture. A comparison between the breadth of its source material, such as the English Wollaton Hall,[1] Italian Palazzo Pitti, the French Château de Chambord, and the Russian Palace of Facets—all deemed "Renaissance"—illustrates the variety of appearances the same architectural label can take.

Origins of Renaissance architecture

Main article: Renaissance architecture

The origin of Renaissance architecture is generally accredited to Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446).[2]: 243  Brunelleschi and his contemporaries wished to bring greater "order" to architecture, resulting in strong symmetry and careful proportion. The movement grew from scientific observations of nature, in particular, human anatomy.

Neo-Renaissance architecture is formed by not only the original Italian architecture but by the form in which

chateau building was carried out using traditional French Gothic styles but with ornament in the forms of pediments, arcades, shallow pilasters and entablatures from the Italian Renaissance
.

In

Longleat House (1568–1580). Often these buildings had symmetrical towers which hint at the evolution from medieval fortified architecture. This is particularly evident at Hatfield House (1607–1612), where medieval towers jostle with a large Italian cupola. This is why so many buildings of the early English Neo-Renaissance style often have more of a "castle air" than their continental European contemporaries, which can add again to the confusion with the Gothic Revival style
.

Birth of the Neo-Renaissance

Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire. English Jacobethan Neo-Renaissance completed in 1854, derives motifs from Wollaton Hall completed in 1588.

When the revival of Renaissance style architecture came en vogue in the mid 19th century, it often materialized not just in its original form first seen in Italy, but as a hybrid of all its forms according to the whims of architects and patrons, an approach typical of the mid and late 19th century. Modern scholarship defines the styles following the Renaissance as

Mannerist and Baroque, two very different, even opposing styles of architecture
, but the architects of the mid 19th century understood them as part of a continuum, often simply called 'Italian', and freely combined them all, as well as Renaissance as it was first practiced in other countries.

Thus Italian, French and Flemish Renaissance coupled with the amount of borrowing from these later periods can cause great difficulty and argument in correctly identifying various forms of 19th-century architecture. Differentiating some forms of French Neo-Renaissance buildings from those of the

Gothic revival
can at times be especially tricky, as both styles were simultaneously popular during the 19th century.

As a consequence, a self-consciously "Neo-Renaissance" manner first began to appear c. 1840. By 1890 this movement was already in decline. The Hague's Peace Palace completed in 1913, in a heavy French Neo-Renaissance manner was one of the last notable buildings in this style.

Prague's National Theatre (Czech Republic), 1862

mezzanine floor of the original Renaissance designs. However, the Neo-renaissance style later came to incorporate Romanesque and Baroque features not found in the original Renaissance architecture which was often more severe in its design. John Ruskin's panegyrics to architectural wonders of Venice and Florence in the 1850s contributed to shifting "the attention of scholars and designers, with their awareness heightened by debate and restoration work"[3] from Late Neoclassicism
and Gothic Revival to the Italian Renaissance.

Like all architectural styles, the Neo-Renaissance did not appear overnight fully formed but evolved slowly. One of the first signs of its emergence was the Würzburg Women's Prison, which was erected in 1809 designed by Peter Speeth. It included a heavily rusticated ground floor, alleviated by one semicircular arch, with a curious Egyptian style miniature portico above, high above this were a sequence of six tall arched windows and above these just beneath the slightly projecting roof were the small windows of the upper floor. This building foreshadows similar effects in the work of the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson whose work in the Neo-Renaissance style was popular in the US during the 1880s. Richardson's style at the end or the revival era was a severe mix of both Romanesque and Renaissance features.[2]: 300–318  This was exemplified by his "Marshall Field Warehouse" in Chicago (completed in 1887, now demolished). Neo-Renaissance was adopted early in Munich, often based directly on Italian Palazzi, first appearing in the Palais Leuchtenberg (1817–21), by Leo von Klenze, then adopted as a state style under the reign of Ludwig I of Bavaria for such landmarks as the Alte Pinakothek (1826–36), the Konigbau wing of the Munich Residenz (1825–35), and the Bavarian State Library (1831–43).

Development and expansion

Europe

Alberti
's designs, 1867–1872

While the beginning of Neo-Renaissance period can be defined by its simplicity and severity, what came later was far more ornate in its design. This period can be defined by some of the great

Palladian
features.

Starting with the

Reichstag
in Berlin (completed in 1894).

In Austria, it was pioneered by such illustrious names as Rudolf Eitelberger, the founder of the Viennese College of Arts and Crafts (today the University of Applied Arts Vienna). The style found particular favour in Vienna, where whole streets and blocks were built in the so-called Neo-Renaissance style, in reality, a classicizing conglomeration of elements liberally borrowed from different historical periods.

Paris' Hôtel de Ville, completed c. 1880 in an unequivocal French Neo-Renaissance style
Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, 1913. One of the last notable buildings in this style.

Neo-Renaissance was also the favourite style in

Andrássy Avenue is an outstanding ensemble of Neo-Renaissance townhouses from the last decades of the 19th century. The most famous Hungarian architect of the age, Miklós Ybl
preferred Neo-Renaissance in his works.

In Russia, the style was pioneered by Auguste de Montferrand in the Demidov House (1835), the first in Saint Petersburg to take "a story-by-story approach to façade ornamentation, in contrast to the classical method, where the façade was conceived as a unit".[5]: 44  Konstantin Thon, the most popular Russian architect of the time, used Italianate elements profusely for decorating some interiors of the Grand Kremlin Palace (1837–1851). Another fashionable architect, Andrei Stackenschneider, was responsible for Mariinsky Palace (1839–1844), with "the faceted rough-hewn stone of the first floor" reminiscent of 16th-century Italian palazzi.[5]: 45 

The style was further elaborated by architects of the

Stieglitz Museum (1885–1896). In Moscow, the Neo-Renaissance was less prevalent than in the Northern capital, although interiors of the neo-Muscovite City Duma (1890–1892) were executed with emphasis on Florentine and Venetian décor. While the Neo-Renaissance is associated primarily with secular buildings, Princes Yusupov commissioned the interior of their palace church (1909–1916) near Moscow
to be decorated in strict imitation of the 16th-century Venetian churches.

North America

Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina (United States), owned by the Vanderbilt family
, 1888–1895

The style spread to

palazzi
, all designed in Neo-Renaissance styles. Most of these have since been demolished.

Features

A Renaissance staircase at the Château de Chambord completed in 1547. Variations of this design became a popular feature of the Neo-Renaissance.

One of the most widely copied features of Renaissance architecture were the great staircases from the chateaux of

Blois and Chambord.[6] Blois had been the favourite residence of the French Kings throughout the renaissance. The Francis I wing, completed in 1524, of which the staircase is an integral part was one of the earliest examples of French Renaissance.[7] French renaissance architecture was a combination of the earlier Gothic style coupled with a strong Italian influence represented by arches, arcades, balustrading and, in general, a more flowing line of design than had been apparent in the earlier Gothic. The Chateau de Blois's triumphal staircase was imitated almost from the moment of its completion, and was certainly the predecessor of the "double staircase" (sometimes attributed to Leonardo da Vinci) at the Château de Chambord
just a few years later.

A Grand Staircase whether based on that of Blois, or the

Gregory XIII at Rome's Palazzo Quirinale
in 1584, thus demonstrating that architects wherever their location were selecting their Neo-Renaissance styles regardless of geography

Combined historicism

Gothic influences on the Renaissance Revival

See also: Gothic Revival architecture and Scottish baronial architecture
This Renaissance Revival doorway illustrates a Gothic influence on French Renaissance design. A basket-handle portal is surmounted by a floral ogee hood moulding.

Gothic influences on both period and revived Renaissance architecture are readily apparent, first as much building occurred during the period of transition from the Gothic to the Renaissance style; and also as Renaissance−era design took the form of the addition of Renaissance ornamentation to Gothic−era buildings thus creating an accretion of details from disparate sources. Architects who designed in the Renaissance Revival style usually avoided any references to

Gothic Revival architecture, drawing instead on a variety of other classically based styles. [citation needed] However, there are exceptions and occasionally the two distinct styles are mixed. The sub-variety of Gothic design most frequently employed is floral Venetian Gothic[citation needed], as seen in the Doge's Palace
courtyard, built in the 1480s.

Baroque influences on the Renaissance Revival

The staircase at the Warsaw University of Technology, with strong Baroque Revival influences.
See also: Baroque Revival architecture

A common Baroque feature introduced into the Renaissance Revival styles was the "imperial staircase" (a single straight flight dividing into two separate flights).

The

Würzburg Residenz
than anything found in a true Renaissance Palazzo. The apparent Baroque style staircase at Mentmore is not without a Renaissance influence, its first flight is similar to "The staircase of the Giants" rises from the Doge's Palace Courtyard, designed when the Venetian Gothic was being uncomfortably merged with Renaissance style. Similarly to that at Mentmore, the Staircase of the Giant's terminates on to an arcaded loggia. Perhaps not ironically the Hall and Staircase at Mentmore were designed by Paxton to display furniture formerly housed in the Doge's Palace.

Paris is home to many historicist buildings that partake equally from Renaissance and Baroque source material, such as the

Opera Garnier. However, the Parisian Hôtel de Ville faithfully replicates the true French Renaissance style, complete with the steeply pitched roofs and towers, as it was a reconstruction, completed c. 1880, of the previous Hôtel de Ville.[8]

In the

mansard roof. In what at first glance appears an Indian building, on closer examination shows a Historicist example of Classical Palladianism
combined with the French Renaissance, a uniquely distinctive interpretation of the Renaissance Revival style.

Renaissance Revival interiors

True Renaissance: The Villa Farnese: the curved staircase, tall segmented windows, and marble balustrading were all features frequently reproduced in the 19th century revival.

As mentioned above, the Neo-Renaissance style was in reality an eclectic blending of past styles, which the architect selected on the whims of his patrons. In the true Renaissance era there was a

Medici", and in the case of Mentmore Towers a huge central hall, resembling the arcaded courtyard of a Renaissance villa, conveniently glazed over, furnished in Venetian style and heated by a fireplace designed by Rubens for his house in Antwerp[10]

Legacy

By the beginning of the 20th century, Neo-Renaissance was a commonplace sight on the main streets of thousands of towns, large and small, around the world. In

Francisco Tamburini (picture
).

In England it was so common that today one finds "Renaissance Italian Palazzi" serving as banks or municipal buildings in the centres of even the smallest towns. It has been said "It is a well-known fact that the nineteenth century had no art style of its own."

All-Soviet Exhibition Centre
.

Neo-Renaissance architecture, because of its diversity, is perhaps the only style of architecture to have existed in so many forms, yet still common to so many countries.

References

  1. ^ "Wollaton Hall". Greatbuildings.com. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d Copplestone, Trewin (1963). World Architecture. Hamlyn.
  3. ISBN 0-521-48151-1
    . Page 73.
  4. ISBN 0-521-56870-6
    . Page 283.
  5. ^
    ISBN 0-691-11349-1
    .
  6. ^ Chateau de Chambord retrieved 19 April 2006
  7. ^ "Chateau de Blois". Castles.org. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  8. ^ "Hôtel de Ville". Aviewoncities.com. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  9. ^ a b Dal Lago, Adalbert (1966). Ville Antiche. Milan: Fratelli Fabbri.
  10. ^ Sotheby's. Mentmore
  11. ^ Lessenich, Rolf P. "Ideals Versus Realities: Nineteenth-Century Decadent Identity and the Renaissance". 2004-01. Accessed 10 November 2013.

External links

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