Selected topics on the ecclesiastical and domestic architecture and urbanism of the Italian peninsula from ca. 1350 to ca.1575 focusing on the work of Brunelleschi, Alberti, Bramante, Michelangelo and Palladio.
Texts:
Available at the Reed Bookstore:
Wolfgang Lotz, Architecture in Italy: 1550-1600, ed. D.
Howard (1995, slightly
revised edition of the Lotz text in L. Heydenreich & W. Lotz,
Architecture in Italy: 1400-1600 (1974)).
We were also scheduled to use: Ludwig Heydenreich, Architecture in Italy:
1400-1500, ed. Paul Davies (1996, a slightly revised edition of
Heydenreich text in L. Heydenreich & W. Lotz, Architecture in Italy:
1400-1600 (1974)). This, however, has yet to appear.
The lack of the new edition of the Heydenreich text causes some problems, which
I have tried to resolve by using the older edition of it, passages from Peter
Murray's Renaissance Architecture (1985 edition) and passages from
Marvin Trachtenberg and Isablle Hyman, Architecture: Pre-History to
Post-Modernism (1986). There is still a chance that the Heydenreich will
arrive, but don't hold your breath.
We will also be reading large chunks from:
James Ackerman, Palladio (1966).
James Ackerman, The Architecture of Mic helangelo
(2nd edtn).
Vitruvius Pollio, The Ten Books on Architecture
(1960).
Rudolf Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism
(1971).
You might be able to a locate a copy of these or the Murray, mentioned above,
downtown at Powell's or perhaps Border's.
PLEASE NOTE: You are to have read all of Vitruvius before the class on 13 February. You are responsible for knowing the treatise's contents and are expected to discuss it in relation to Alberti's treatise (which we will be considering during that class and the next) and in relation to later Renaissance theory as it comes up in the course. There are two copies on the regular art reserve and my personal copy on 2 hour reserve at the reserve desk.
Reserve: There is substantial reading from a variety of texts, all on open art reserve in the basement of the library (i.e. on north wall, east side, Lower Level of the Library). There is a box located on the desk facing the north wall with photocopies filed alphabetically.
Other texts that you may find helpful: Frederick Hartt, History of Italian Renaissance Art (many editions);Trachtenberg and Hyman, pp. 261-64, 270-77 & 281-326; entries on individual architects can be found in the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects (in North Reference Room). For the intellectually intrepid I suggest the chapters on the Renaissance in John Onians' Bearers of Meaning; though I found him stimulating, it is possible that he is mad; questions about writing on architecture may be answered by Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art. Please ask me for additional bibliography on any related subject that you would like to investigate in greater depth.
ASSIGNMENTS:
ALL WORK MUST BE COMPLETED SATISFACTORILY TO PASS THIS COURSE.
Late work will be read, evaluated and returned at my convenience and without any written comments.
Concerning both the readings and the lectures: there may be times when I am distinctly unclear or have assumed, wrongly, that you know something that you do not and probably cannot possibly know. As well the terminology may seem arcane and overwhelming. If you have a question, seem lost or for whatever reason, stop me, seek me out or whatever for an explanation. Remember, the only dumb question is the one you do not ask. I ask that you engage yourself seriously in the topic, that is take an interest in the material outside of class; peruse the plates of the books on reserve; track down additional readings. Finally, I urge you to see me on a regular basis to keep in touch about your progress, interests and paper topic.
Finally, please note that, sad to say, I am only on a visiting appointment here at Reed and on the job market trying to find employment for next year. This means that I may have to cancel and re-schedule classes in the event that I actually get an on-campus interview at another school. Please bear with me. Votive candles would be appreciated.
TENTATIVE CLASS TOPICS AND READING (may be changed at my discretion to accommodate the pace of the class):
23 Jan. Introductions
Further: Hazel Conway and Rowan Roenisch, Understanding Architecture
(1994); Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman, Architecture, from
Prehistory ....; S. Kostof, A History of Architecture
(1985).
Tim Benton, "The Three Cities Compared," in Diana Norman, ed. Siena, Florence and Padua, (vol. II, Case Studies): 7-9 and 23-27.
Colin Cunningham, "For the Honour and Beauty of the City," in Norman, vol. II: 29-33 and 42-48.
Further: Marvin Trachtenberg, "What Brunelleschi Saw: Monument and Site at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, JSAH 47 (1988): 14-44 (photocopy).
1 Feb. "all'antica": New Architecture or Old?
Trachtenberg and Hyman: 284-290
Heydenreich and Lotz: 6-17
Murray: 17-25
David Thompson (ed.), The Idea of Rome: From Antiquity to the Renaissance (1971):175-82 (photocopy)
Further: Howard Burns, "Quattrocento Architecture and the Antique: Some Problems," Classical Influences on European Culture A. D. 500-1500, ed. R. R. Bolgar (1971): 269-81; John Onians, Bearers of Meaning (1988): 130-46 (Ch. IX).
Week III
6 Feb. The Duomo's Dome I: Technology & Construction
Heydenreich and Lotz: 3-6
Roland Mainstone, "Brunelleschi's Dome," Architectural Review 162:2 (1977):
155-66 (photocopy).
Marvin Trachtenberg, book review of H. Saalman, Filippo Brunelleschi: The Cupola of S. Maria del Fiore (1980) JSAH 42 (1983): 292-97 66 (photocopy).
8 Feb. The Duomo's Dome II: Reception
Leon Battista Alberti, On painting, Trans. John R. Spencer (1956): 39-40.
Christine Smith, Architecture in the Culture of Early Humanism : Ethics, Aesthetics, and Eloquence, 1400-1470 (1992): 19-39 and 221-28.
Week IV
13 Feb. and 15 Feb. Alberti's De re aedificatoria
NB: You are to have read all of Vitruvius, The Ten Books of Architecture for this class. You are responsible for knowing the treatise's contents and are expected to discuss in relation to Alberti's book in this class and in relation to later Renaissance theory as it comes up on the syllabus.
Leon Battista Alberti, On the Art of Building, trans. Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, and Robert Tavernor (1988): Prologue and Bk I (pp. 2-32); Bk VI, ch. 1-5 and 11-12 (pp. 154-64) and 179-88); Bk VII, ch. 5-9 (pp. 197-218).
Richard Krautheimer, "Alberti and Vitruvius," Studies in Early Christian, Medieval and Renaissance Art (1969): 323-332.
Rudolf Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism (1971): Parts I and II (pp. 3-56).
Heydenreich and Lotz: 27-38.
Murray: 27-38.
Trachtenberg and Hyman: 292-96.
Further: Smith
Week V
20 Feb. The Palace
Murray: 25-26.
Heydenreich and Lotz: 21-23, 33-34.
Trachtenberg and Hyman: 289-92.
Richard Goldthwaite, "The Florentine Palace as Domestic Architecture," American
Historical Review 77 (1972): 977-1012 (photocopy).
Kurt Forster, "The Palazzo Rucellai and the Question of Typology...." Art Bulletin 58(1976): 109-13.
Further: Richard Goldthwaite, The Building of Renaissance Florence (1980); Frommel, "Living 'alla antica': Palaces and Villas from Brunelleschi to Bramante," The Renaissance from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo, exhibition catalogue, eds. H. Millon and V. Lampugnani (1994): 183-203, esp. 183-86.
22 Feb. Building Quiz
Week VI
27 Feb. The City: Pienza
Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II), Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope, trans. F. Gragg and L. Gabel (1966): 102-03 and 280-92 (Book and photocopy).
Smith: 98-129 (Book and photocopy).
Heydenreich and Lotz: 43-45 & 97-100
Murray: 38-42, and 54.
Further: C. R. Mack, Pienza: The Creation of a Renaissance City (1987); Antonio Averlino (a.k.a. Filarete), Filarete's Treatise on Architecture, trans. J. Spencer (1965): Vol. I, Bk I-II (pp. 4-27), Bk IV (pp. 38-52), Bk VI (pp. 74-80), Bk VIII (pp. 94-108), Bk X (pp. 123-34), Bk XXV (pp. 318-29) and consult the corresponding pages and illus. in the Facsimile (Vol. II); Onians:158-70 and 185-89.
29 Feb. Perspective and the Ideal City
Richard Krautheimer, "The Panels in Berlin, Urbino and Baltimore Reconsidered," The Renaissance from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo, exhibition catalogue, eds. H. Millon and V. Lampugnani (1994): 233-257 (Book and photocopy).
Week VII
5 Mar. Francesco di Giorgio
Lawrence Lowic, "The Meaning and Significance of the Human Analogy in Francesco di Giorgio's Trattato," JSAH 42 (1983): 360-70 (photocopy).
Henry Millon, "The Architectural Theory of Francesco di Giorgio," Art Bulletin 40 (1958): 257-61(photocopy).
John Onians, Bearers of Meaning (1988): 171-81.
Heydenreich and Lotz: 130-32.
7 Mar. Experimentation in Northern Italy: Bramante and Leonardo in Milan
Arnaldo Bruschi, Bramante (1977) 27-69 (photocopy).
Arnaldo Bruschi, "Religious Architecture in Renaissance Italy ...," The Renaissance from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo, exhibition catalogue, eds. H. Millon and V. Lampugnani (1994): 150-63 (Book and photocopy). (More on following page)
Murray: 54-65.
Heydenreich and Lotz: 103-110, 143-46.
Further: Jean Guillaume, "Leonardo & Architecture, Leonardo da Vinci, Engineer & Architect, exhibition catalogue, eds. J. Guillaume and P. Galluzzi (1987): 207-86 (on order).
9 Mar.-17 Mar. Spring Break
Week VIII
19 Mar. Antiquarians
Hubertus Günther, "The Renaissance of Antiquity," The Renaissance from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo, exhibition catalogue, eds. H. Millon and V. Lampugnani (1994): 150-63 (Book and photocopy).
Antonio Manetti, "Brunellschi in Rome" (David Thompson (ed.), The Idea of Rome: From Antiquity to the Renaissance (1971): 174-78).
Raphael: Letter to Leo X (E. Holt, Early Medieval Art: Sources & Documents (1971): 289-96).
Further: Arnaldo Momigliano, "Ancient History and the Antiquarian," Journal of the Warburg & Courtauld Institutes 13 (1950): 285-315; Philip Jacks, The Antiquarian and the Myth of Antiquity (1993); Roberto Weiss, The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity (1969): 30-104.
21 Mar. Bramante in Rome: The Classical Language of Architecture
John Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture (1966) 7-26.
Lotz: 11-17.
Further: Deborah Howard, "Bramante's Tempietto:..," Apollo 136 (October 1992): 211-17.
Week IX
26 Mar. The Practice of Architecture: Drawings and Models
James Ackerman, "Architectural Practice in the Italian Renaissance," JSAH 13 (October 1954): 3-11, reprinted with a postscript in J. Ackerman, Distance Points (1991): 361-84 (Book and photocopy).
Henry Millon, "Models in Renaissance Architecture," The Renaissance from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo, exhibition catalogue, eds. H. Millon and V. Lampugnani (1994): 19-73 (46 pp. of this are plates).
Christoph Frommel, "Reflections on the Early Architectural Drawings, "The Renaissance from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo, exhibition catalogue, eds. H. Millon and V. Lampugnani (1994): 101-21 (Book and photocopy).
Further: Wolfgang Lotz, "The Rendering of the Interior in Architectural Drawings of the Renaissance," Studies in Italian Renaissance Architecture, ed. J. Ackerman (1977):1- 65. Individual sketchbooks: TBA.
28 Mar. The Rebuilding of St. Peter's
Lotz: 17-20, 23-25, 31-33, 54-57.
Christoph Frommel, "St. Peter's the Early History," The Renaissance from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo, exhibition catalogue, eds. H. Millon and V. Lampugnani (1994): 399-423 (Book and photocopy).
lan Campbell, "The New St. Peter's: Basilica or Temple?" Oxford Art Journal 4 (1981): 3-8 (photocopy)
Further: George Hersey, High Renaissance art in St. Peter's and the Vatican (1993). Charles McClendon, "The History of the Site of St. Peter's, Rome" Perspecta 25 (1989): 33-65 (photocopy).
Week X
2 Apr. The City under Julius II and Leo X: Palace and Planning
Christoph Frommel, "Papal Policy: The Planning of Rome during the Renaissance," Art & History: Images & Their Meaning, eds. R. Rotberg and T. Rabb (1988): 39-65.
Lotz: 13-17, 22-23, 27-29, 35-37, 49-51, and 57-60
4 Apr. Giulio Romano, The Palazzo del Tè and the Question of "Mannerism"
Lotz: 76-82.
Kurt Foster and Richard Tuttle, "The Palazzo del Tè," JSAH 30 (1971): 267-93
Ernst Gombrich, "'That Rare Italian Master...'" and "Art and Rhetoric in Giulio Palazzo del Tè," New Light on Old Masters (1986): 147-70.
Further: John Shearman, Mannerism (1967).
Week XI
9 Apr. Michelangelo: The Medici Chapel and San Lorenzo
Lotz: 89-94.
James Ackerman, The Architecture of Michelangelo (1971 edtn: 37-52, 71-122); (1961 edtn: VOL. I: 1-10, 21-44, plus plates in Vol. II).
Further: William Wallace, ed., Michelangelo, selected scholarship in English, Vol. III: San Lorenzo (1995).
11 Apr. Michelangelo: The Capitoline
Lotz: 94-106, esp. 94-97.
James Ackerman, "The Capitoline Hill," (1971 edtn: 139-73); (1961 edtn: VOL. I: 54- 74, plus plates in Vol. II), also reprinted in Distance Points.
Fritz Saxl, "The Capitol During the Renaissance --A Symbol of the Imperial Idea" Lectures (1957): vol. I: 200-214, plus plates 133-42 in vol. II.
Charles Stinger, "The Campidoglio as the Locus of Renovatio Imperii in Renaissance Rome," Art and Politics in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy: 1250-1500, ed. C. Rosenberg (1990):135-56.
Week XII
16 Apr. & 18 Apr. Villas: Rome and the Veneto
Lotz: TBA
James Ackerman, The Villa: Form and Ideology of Country Houses (1990): 9-34
Pliny, Letters describing his villas at Laurentum and Tusculum, The Letters of the Younger Pliny: Bk 2, Letter 6 (to Gallus, pp. 75-79), Bk 5, Letter 6 (to Domitius Apollinaris, pp. 139-44) (Hum 110 Spring Reserve).
David Coffin, The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome (1979): 9-18, 23-26.
James Ackerman, Palladio (1966) 36-80.
Further: Christoph Frommel, "Living 'alla antica': Palaces and Villas from Brunelleschi to Bramante," The Renaissance from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo, exhibition catalogue, eds. H. Millon and V. Lampugnani (1994): 183-203. Individual villas TBA to each student.
Week XIII
23 Apr. And Now for Something Rather Different: Venice
Wolfgang Lotz, "Sansovino's Roman Legacy," Studies in Italian Renaissance Architecture, ed. J. Ackerman (1977): 140-51.
Rudolf Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism (1971):55-100.
Lotz: 83-88
Further: Manfredo Tafuri, Venice and the Renaissance (1988): 1-50.
25 Apr. The Counter Reformation and Architectural Reform
James Ackerman, "The Gesù in Light of Contemporary Church Design," Distance Points (1991): 417-51
James Ackerman, "Ecclesiastical Architecture "Palladio (1966): 126-59 (ch. 4).
Lotz: 148-52 and 116-20
Conclusions and Review Session During Reading Week: Wednesday May 1, 7-9 PM in Lib. 41
Alina Paine, "Rudolf Wittkower and Architectural Principles in the Age of Modernism," JSAH 53 (1994): 322-42. (Obviously to make sense of the article you need to have read Wittkower's Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism.)
Reading for Final Exam:
Deborah Howard introduction to 1995 edition of Lotz: 1-7.
Paul Davies introduction to 1996 edition of Heydenreich: TBA
George Hersey, review of Heydenreich and Lotz, JSAH 36 (1977): 256-58.
Last date to hand in all written work: noon Monday 6 May.
Final Exam: 9 AM to Noon Thursday 9 May