Page 228 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

architecture 113

Houses are built to live in, not to look on; therefore, let use be preferred before
uniformity, except where both may be had. • Francis Bacon (1561–1626)

evident in the contemporary architecture of Rome. The Rikyu’s intentionally rustic Taian teahouse (c. 1582) to
first grand scheme by Donato Bramante (1505) for the impressive Imperial Katsura Palace (largely c. 1615–
rebuilding the Basilica of St. Peter affirmed the humanist 1663), both in Kyoto.
interest in the idealized centralized church plan. Under
Michelangelo’s guidance the design of the basilica’s Baroque Vitality
cupola (1546–1564) was largely resolved, producing a In the seventeenth-century West, Renaissance priorities
cohesive and influential scheme that was the last of the blended with the dynamic growth of science, national-
great purely masonry domes. Michelangelo also designed ism, and religious fervor. Designs, often structurally and
a monumental civic center, the Campidoglio (begun spatially complex and characterized by illusionistic
1538), its complexity organized by a strong central axis, effects, were best appreciated by a person moving
colossal pilasters on the building facades, and the view through them, for example, Gianlorenzo Bernini’s Piazza
over the city. (1656–1667) at St. Peter’s in Rome. Intense ornamen-
Renaissance ideas spread from Florence and Rome. tation was common during the period and spread to
Near Venice,Andrea Palladio combined his experience as Spanish and Portuguese colonies in Latin America. The
a stonemason and his humanist education to become an monumental enlargement of the Château at Versailles
important architect and to inspire his influential archi- (1667–1710), for France’s autocratic “Sun-King” Louis
tectural treatise. In his design for a suburban residence, XIV, had an axial network that climaxed at the king’s cen-
the Villa Rotonda (begun 1566), near Vicenza, Italy, he tral bedchamber. In the château’s Hall of Mirrors, inno-
appropriated the portico (four, actually) and central vative large mirrors created infinitely reflecting vistas of
domed hall formerly associated with religious buildings. the vast gardens. Scientist Christopher Wren reworked
The building is famous for its idealized siting, harmonic continental influences in his redesign for St. Paul’s Cathe-
proportions, simple geometries, and clear axial relation- dral (1675–1711) in London, where the cupola com-
ships. Venice’s powerful nemesis, the Ottoman empire, bined an inner masonry shell with a lightweight outer
produced Palladio’s counterpart, the architect Sinan, dome and lantern. In Bavaria structural experimentation,
whose skillful designs for central-domed mosques with illusionism, and spatial complexity climaxed in works
stunning tile work was represented by his Mosque of such as the Residence of the Prince-Bishops (1719–
Selim II (1568–1575) in Edirne,Turkey. 1753) in Würzburg, by Johann Balthasar Neumann.
Idealized masonry monuments of the West contrasted
with the idealized wooden trabeated structures of the Historical Revivals
East, climaxing in Ming Dynasty China.The focal point Eighteenth-century architectural influences included the
of Beijing’s monumental Forbidden City was the Enlightenment, which emphasized the individual person;
emperor’s principal throne room, the Hall of Supreme increased historical scholarship, especially archaeology;
Harmony (begun 1627). Though grander in size and and the Industrial Revolution. Giambattista Piranesi’s
ornament than other Chinese halls, its arrangement of widely disseminated, imaginative views and reconstruc-
standardized interchangeable parts was similar.A grid of tions of ancient Roman ruins aroused awe. In England,
wooden columns supported fingerlike brackets, which in Robert Adam’s renovation of Syon House (1760–1769)
turn held boxlike truss beams (or stepped roof trusses) in Middlesex sought to authentically re-create the architec-
that produced the characteristic curve of the tiled roof. ture of classical Rome.Yet with Horace Walpole, Adam
Japanese builders transformed the Chinese architectural also created the mysterious, picturesquely asymmetrical
system by favoring more subtle asymmetrical arrange- Gothic Revival Strawberry Hill (1749–1763) at Twick-
ments and indirect paths of circulation, from Sen no enham, its different parts appearing to be centuries-old