History of architecture III/IV

Architecture as Project

Architects, Theories and Buildings during the 'Long Renaissance'

Professor. Pier Vittorio Aureli

The aim of this course is to introduce students to Western architecture during a decisive and controversial period of its history: the so-called 'long Renaissance.' The term 'long Renaissance' addresses a period that spans between the 15th and the 19th centuries. This era, also referred to as 'Early Modern,' is traditionally divided into smaller historical periods such as Early Renaissance, High Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, Late Baroque, and Neo-Classicism. In this course we will follow Manfredo Tafuri's thesis -- supported by other historians such as Delio Cantimori, Denys Hay and Eugenio Garin -- that the Renaissance should be understood as a long historical cycle that started in the 15th century and reached the shores of the Industrial Revolution. Against the idealization of the Renaissance as 'golden age' this course will approach the long Renaissance as a complex and contradictory period profoundly intertwined with the rise of capitalism and colonialism.

Two issues characterize the long Renaissance: the confrontation with the legacy of classical architecture and the emergence of the project as an activity that distinguishes the architect from the builder. The discovery of classical architecture gave architects and patrons the possibility to use an authoritative language that could break through the customs of medieval builders. The project, which had the possibility to design prior to building, not only empowered the architect's vision over the builders' know-how, but it also defined the intellectual space of architecture. The architectural project became the core of architecture as a discipline, the realm in which architects could design specific buildings and cultivate their idea of architecture. Another important factor that reinforced the idea of architecture as a project was the rise of architectural theory and its diffusion via printed books, which became widespread starting from the early 16thcentury.

Through a selection of relevant cases study -- buildings, urban projects, drawings and books -- the course analyzes the relationship between project and building, idea and construction. Specific attention will be given to both the political and cultural circumstances within which architectural project were produced. The goal of the course is the possibility to analyze specific architectural projects and situate them within their larger historical context. The question posed by the course is to what extent a specific architectural project can shed light on an entire historical period.

- Lecture 1

September 10th

Introduction

What is architecture? What is a Project?

Building-in-Time vs. Building-outside-Time

- Lecture 2

September 17th

Filippo Brunelleschi: The Foundling Hospital and the Old Sacristy

Leon Battista Alberti: Tempio Malatestiano and Palazzo Rucellai

- Lecture 3

September 24th

Francesco di Giorgio Martini: Church of San Bernardino and Church of Santa Maria del Calcinaio.

Giuliano da Sangallo: Villa Medici and the renewal of residential architecture

- Lecture 4

October 1st

Donato Bramante: Tempietto in S. Pietro in Montorio and Belvedere courtyard

Baldassarre Peruzzi: Villa Chigi and Palazzo Massimo

- Lecture 5

October 8th

Sebastiano Serlio: Seven Books on Architecture and Extraordinario Libro

Andrea Palladio: The Villas

- Lecture 6

October 15th

Michelangelo Buonarroti: Laurentian Library and New Sacristy

Giorgio Vasari: The Uffizi Palace

- Lecture 7

October 29th

The Rome of Pope Sixtus V and The Paris of Henry IV and Early Colonial cities and Architecture in the Americas

Architecture and the Protestant Reform

- Lecture 8

November 5th

Gian Lorenzo Bernini: Church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale and Colonnade in St. Peter's Square

Francesco Borromini: Church of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, Church of San Carlino alle Quattro Fontane

Plautilla Bricci, Villa Benedetti

- Lecture 9

November 12th

Inigo Jones: Covent Garden and Banqueting House

Claude Perrault, Louis Le Vau, Charles Le Brun: Colonnade of the Louvre

- Lecture 10

November 19th

Christopher Wren: Cathedral of St. Paul

Nicholas Hawksmoor: churches in London

- Lecture 11

November 26th

J. B. Fischer von Erlach: churches in Salzburg and Karlskirche in Vienna

Christoph and Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer: churches in Prague and Bohemia

- Lecture 12

December 3rd

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Il Campo Marzio dell'Antica Roma

Etienne Louis Boullée, Extension of the Royal library, Metropolitan Church and Museum

Course assistants:

Arch., scientific collaborator, Marson Korbi;

Arch., scientific assistant, Romain Barth.