Essay On Renaissance Architecture

Renaissance architecture evolved in the beginning of the 15th century, succeeding Gothic Architecture and lasted till the early 17th century. Renaissance architecture can also be defined as a restoration of Greek and Roman Architecture and its principles. As aforementioned, Greek and Roman architectural as well as artistic knowledge was lost due to the dark ages, and Renaissance sought to bring back that lost precious knowledge. Naturally Renaissance architecture saw use of architectural elements from Ancient Greece and Rome, like Roman arches, post and lintel, capitals and classical orders. It also gave significant importance to harmony, symmetry and repetitiveness of these same design elements. This architectural style was also quite representational
Because of the lost knowledge of the Roman architecture, these architects carefully studied every nook and corner of the Roman building to revive that knowledge and apply it in their architecture. For example, the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, also known as the Florence Cathedral in Italy, built by Renaissance architect, Filippo Brunelleschi, owes its construction to The Pantheon in Rome. Brunelleschi was intrigued by the Pantheon and studied its dome in detail. Hence, the knowledge acquired by this practice, contributed in the building process of Florence Cathedral and its famous dome. However they were lucky to have the transcripts of Vitruvius, an architect during the Ancient Roman period, available to them. His writings had somehow outlived the decline of Roman Empire, and were revived in the form of a book called De Architectura, that was accessible to the architects of the Renaissance period. This period was also a period, when the status of architects started advancing. The concept of the ‘Renaissance man’, i.e a person adept in numerous areas, was taking over and as a result, training of architecture became more diversified and progressive. People were beginning to regard them as not just skilful workers, but artists as architects were getting trained from a humanism approach. Brunelleschi is also regarded as the one who