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63-427: The castle had a typically Serlian entrance arch and was encircled by moats (up to 17 meters in width). One wing of the building accommodated the arsenal and stables ; another was immediately contiguous to the city wall. In 1606, a garden was laid out next to the hetman 's residence. It contained a menagerie with wisents , deer , and chamois . The palatine chapel was consecrated in 1640. The golden age of

126-713: A commission from Sigismondo Malatesta to transform the Gothic church of San Francesco in Rimini into a memorial chapel, the Tempio Malatestiano . In Florence, he designed the upper parts of the façade for the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella , famously bridging the nave and lower aisles with two ornately inlaid scrolls, solving a visual problem and setting a precedent to be followed by architects of churches for four hundred years. In 1452, he completed De re aedificatoria ,

189-578: A façade to a church with a high vaulted nave flanked by low side aisles, providing a classical face to a Gothic form, that was first seen in Alberti 's Santa Maria Novella in Florence (c. 1458). The idea was in the air in the 1530s: several contemporary churches compete for primacy, but Serlio's woodcut put the concept in every architect's hands. As a civil engineer he designed fortifications. Serlio's publications, rather than any spectacular executed work, attracted

252-498: A fresh context, which fit in well with the contemporary aesthetic discourse. In Rome, Alberti spent considerable time studying its ancient sites, ruins, and arts. His detailed observations, included in his De re aedificatoria (1452, On the Art of Building ), were inspired by the essay De architectura written by the Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius ( fl. 46–30 BC). Alberti's work

315-501: A man of culture... a friend of talented men, open and courteous with everyone. He always lived honourably and like the gentleman he was." Alberti died in Rome on 25 April 1472 at the age of 68. Alberti considered mathematics as the foundation of arts and sciences. "To make clear my exposition in writing this brief commentary on painting," Alberti began his treatise, Della Pittura (On Painting) dedicated to Brunelleschi, "I will take first from

378-491: A manner that includes Classical proportions and elements such as pilasters, cornices, and a pediment in the Classical style, ornamented with a sunburst in tesserae, rather than sculpture. The best known feature of this typically aisled church is the manner in which Alberti has solved the problem of visually bridging the different levels of the central nave and much lower side aisles. He employed two large scrolls, which were to become

441-582: A small Latin work on geography, Descriptio urbis Romae ( The Panorama of the City of Rome ). Just a few years before his death, Alberti completed De iciarchia ( On Ruling the Household ), a dialogue about Florence during the Medici rule. Alberti took holy orders and never married. He loved animals and had a pet dog, a mongrel, about whom he wrote a panegyric ( Canis ). Vasari describes Alberti as "an admirable citizen,

504-467: A standard feature of church façades in the later Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical Revival buildings. Alberti is considered to have been the consultant for the design of the Piazza Pio II, Pienza . The village, previously called Corsignano, was redesigned beginning around 1459. It was the birthplace of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, Pope Pius II , in whose employ Alberti served. Pius II wanted to use

567-485: A treatise on architecture, using as its basis the work of Vitruvius and influenced by the ancient roman buildings. The work was not published until 1485. It was followed in 1464 by his less influential work, De statua , in which he examines sculpture. Alberti's only known sculpture is a self-portrait medallion, sometimes attributed to Pisanello . Alberti was employed to design two churches in Mantua , San Sebastiano , which

630-462: A unique record of Renaissance house types, including up-to-date fortresses for tyrants and mercenaries as well as Serlio's unbuilt design for the Louvre . The seventh book illustrates a range of common design problems ignored by past theorists, including how to remodel, or 'restore', Gothic façades following antique principles of symmetry and proportion . The eighth book, called " Castrametation of

693-520: A visual rather than structural viewpoint. He correctly employed the Classical orders , unlike his contemporary, Brunelleschi , who used the Classical column and pilaster in a free interpretation. Alberti reflected on the social effects of architecture, and was attentive to the urban landscape. This is demonstrated by his inclusion, at the Rucellai Palace, of a continuous bench for seating at the level of

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756-464: Is a vaulted stable that had stalls for a hundred horses. The design, which radically transformed the center of the town, included a palace for the pope, a church, a town hall, and a building for the bishops who would accompany the Pope on his trips. Pienza is considered an early example of Renaissance urban planning. The Basilica of Sant'Andrea , Mantua was begun in 1471, the year before Alberti's death. It

819-511: Is as pleasing as it is necessary". The work of art is, according to Alberti, so constructed that it is impossible to take anything away from it or to add anything to it, without impairing the beauty of the whole. Beauty was for Alberti "the harmony of all parts in relation to one another," and subsequently "this concord is realized in a particular number, proportion, and arrangement demanded by harmony". Alberti's thoughts on harmony were not new—they could be traced back to Pythagoras—but he set them in

882-605: Is dark? ( quid tum si fuscus Amyntas? ) Violets are black, and hyacinths are black." Alberti made a variety of contributions to several fields: [1] Archived 2022-04-18 at the Wayback Machine Magda Saura, "Building codes in the architectural treatise De re aedificatoria," [2] Archived 2022-04-18 at the Wayback Machine Third International Congress on Construction History , Cottbus, May 2009. [3] Archived 2022-04-18 at

945-589: Is known mostly as an artist, he was also a mathematician and made significant contributions to that field. Among the most famous buildings he designed are the churches of San Sebastiano (1460) and Sant’Andrea (1472), both in Mantua . Alberti's life was told in Giorgio Vasari 's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects . Leon Battista Alberti was born in 1404 in Genoa . His mother

1008-669: Is not surprising since he devoted himself more to his studies than to draughtsmanship." Jacob Burckhardt portrayed Alberti in The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy as a truly universal genius. "And Leonardo Da Vinci was to Alberti as the finisher to the beginner, as the master to the dilettante. Would only that Vasari's work were here supplemented by a description like that of Alberti! The colossal outlines of Leonardo's nature can never be more than dimly and distantly conceived." Alberti

1071-525: Is said to appear in Mantegna's great frescoes in the Camera degli Sposi , as the older man dressed in dark red clothes, who whispers in the ear of Ludovico Gonzaga , the ruler of Mantua. In Alberti's self-portrait, a large plaquette , he is clothed as a Roman. To the left of his profile is a winged eye. On the reverse side is the question, Quid tum? (what then), taken from Virgil 's Eclogues : "So what, if Amyntas

1134-492: Is similar to Alberti's Palazzo Rucellai in Florence and other later palaces. Noteworthy is the internal court of the palazzo. The back of the palace, to the south, is defined by loggia on all three floors that overlook an enclosed Italian Renaissance garden with Giardino all'italiana era modifications, and spectacular views into the distant landscape of the Val d'Orcia and Pope Pius's beloved Mount Amiata beyond. Below this garden

1197-400: Is surmounted by a heavy cornice. The inner courtyard has Corinthian columns. The palace introduced set the use of classical building elements in civic buildings in Florence, and became very influential. The work was executed by Bernardo Rossellino . At Santa Maria Novella , Florence, between (1448–70) the upper façade was constructed to the design of Alberti. It was a challenging task, as

1260-675: Is the Chateau of Ancy-le-Franc , built about 1546 near Tonnerre in Burgundy. Serlio died around 1554 in the Fontainebleau section of Paris , after spending his last years in Lyon . Tutte l'opere d'architettura et prospetiva ( All the Works of Architecture and Perspective ) is Serlio's practical treatise on architecture. Although Leon Battista Alberti produced the first book-length architectural treatise of

1323-408: Is to imitate nature. Painters and sculptors strive "through by different skills, at the same goal, namely that as nearly as possible the work they have undertaken shall appear to the observer to be similar to the real objects of nature". However, Alberti did not mean that artists should imitate nature objectively, as it is, but the artist should be especially attentive to beauty, "for in painting beauty

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1386-558: The Villa Medici in Fiesole might have been designed by Alberti, rather than by Michelozzo . This hilltop residence commissioned by Giovanni de' Medici , Cosimo il Vecchio 's second son, with its view over the city, is sometimes considered the first example of a Renaissance villa: it reflects the writing by Alberti about country residential buildings as "villa suburbana". The building later inspired numerous other similar projects buildings from

1449-403: The ancient ruins , which excited his interest in architecture and strongly influenced the form of the buildings that he designed. Leon Battista Alberti was gifted in many ways. He was tall, strong, and a fine athlete who could ride the wildest horse and jump over a person's head. He distinguished himself as a writer while still a child at school, and by the age of twenty had written a play that

1512-460: The 20th century. He composed two additional books, which can be thought of as appendices: the Extraordinary Book of Doors , the last book he saw through the press; and On Polybius' Castrametation , a discussion of ancient Roman military camp design, whose state of completion and intended relation to the other books are both uncertain. It is not certain what title, if any, Serlio intended for

1575-547: The Arab polymath Alhazen ( Ibn al-Haytham , d. c.  1041 ), which was transmitted by Franciscan optical workshops of the thirteenth-century Perspectivae traditions of scholars such as Roger Bacon , John Peckham , and Witelo (similar influences are also traceable in the third commentary of Lorenzo Ghiberti , Commentario terzo ). In both Della pittura and De statua , Alberti stressed that "all steps of learning should be sought from nature". The ultimate aim of an artist

1638-598: The Euclidean 'heaven' composed of the definitions of geometry comprising point, line and perfect (square) planes; second, the underlying, three-dimensional forms of Nature represented through the theory of perspective; third, the architectural embodiment of perfect form reflected in the Pantheon and the 'idealised' monuments of antiquity; fourth, the rules of the Orders, progressing from Tuscan to Composite, as evidenced in antique ruins and

1701-533: The Greek word for blame or criticism. After being expelled from heaven, Momus , the god of mockery, is eventually castrated. Jupiter and the other deities come down to earth also, but they return to heaven after Jupiter breaks his nose in a great storm. Alberti did not concern himself with engineering, and very few of his major projects were built . As a designer and a student of Vitruvius and of ancient Roman architecture, he studied column and lintel based architecture, from

1764-769: The Netherlands and England as a conveyor of the Italian Renaissance style, and quickly became available in a variety of languages. His plans and elevations of many Roman buildings provided useful repertory of classical images, often reprinted. Within five years of its original publication, the Flemish scholar Pieter Coecke van Aelst published, in Antwerp, adaptations of Book IV in Flemish, German, and French; Serlio considered these unauthorized versions of his work to be inferior forgeries; nevertheless they served as significant vectors in

1827-501: The Renaissance (c. 1450, published in 1486), it was unillustrated, written in Latin, and designed to appeal as much to learned humanists and potential patrons as to architects and builders. Serlio pioneered the use of high quality illustrations to supplement the text. He wrote in Italian, some of his books being published with parallel texts in Italian and French. His treatise catered explicitly to

1890-547: The Romans ", reconstructs a Roman encampment after the description by Polybius , followed by a military city and monumental bridge supposedly built by the Emperor Trajan . With its forum , consul 's palace and baths , the book is part-fantasy and part- archaeology , quite unlike Serlio's other more practical works. In the introduction to Book IV, Serlio credits his recently deceased mentor for much of its content: "As for all

1953-568: The Tuscan dialect. The work was not printed until 1843. Like Erasmus decades later, Alberti stressed the need for a reform in education. He noted that "the care of very young children is women's work, for nurses or the mother", and that at the earliest possible age children should be taught the alphabet. With great hopes, he gave the work to his family to read, but in his autobiography Alberti confesses that "he could hardly avoid feeling rage, moreover, when he saw some of his relatives openly ridiculing both

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2016-529: The Zolkiew Castle was the late 17th century when it passed through inheritance to Jakub Sobieski and then to his son King Jan III Sobieski , a native of Zhovkva. It was there that the king celebrated his victory at Vienna . In the 18th century the castle's facade was decorated with the statues of its owners from the Zolkiewski, Daniłowicz, Sobieski , and Radziwill families. After the partition of Poland

2079-494: The atelier of Baldassare Peruzzi , where he stayed until the Sack of Rome in 1527 put all architectural projects on hold for a time. Like Peruzzi, he began as a painter. He lived in Venice from about 1527 to the early 1540s but left little mark on the city. Serlio's model of a church façade was a regularized version, cleaned up and made more classical, of the innovative method of providing

2142-450: The attention of François I . Serlio's career took off when the king invited him to France, to advise on the construction and decoration of the Château of Fontainebleau , where a team of Italian designers and craftsmen were assembled (including Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Benvenuto Cellini ). Serlio took several private commissions, but the only one that has survived in any recognizable way

2205-530: The basement. Alberti anticipated the principle of street hierarchy, with wide main streets connected to secondary streets, and buildings of equal height. In Rome he was employed by Pope Nicholas V for the restoration of the Roman aqueduct of Acqua Vergine , which debouched into a simple basin designed by Alberti, which was later replaced by the Baroque Trevi Fountain . Some researchers suggested that

2268-676: The castle fell into disuse and was auctioned off. During the 19th century the chapel and some other structures were dismantled or rebuilt to accommodate a local school. The castle sustained further damage during the First World War . Some restoration was undertaken just before the Second World War , but much more was required following the end of hostilities. 50°03′16″N 23°58′08″E  /  50.0544°N 23.9689°E  / 50.0544; 23.9689 Sebastiano Serlio Sebastiano Serlio (6 September 1475 – c. 1554)

2331-533: The end of the fifteenth century. The Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini (1447, 1453–60) is the rebuilding of a Gothic church. The façade, with its dynamic play of forms, was left incomplete. The design of the façade of the Palazzo Rucellai (1446–51) was one of several commissioned by the Rucellai family. The design overlays a grid of shallow pilasters and cornices in classical style onto rusticated masonry, and

2394-591: The first Italian edition came out in 1546. and the standard Italian edition by Cosimo Bartoli was published in 1550. Pope Nicholas V , to whom Alberti dedicated the whole work, dreamed of rebuilding the city of Rome, but he managed to realize only a fragment of his visionary plans. Through his book, Alberti opened up his theories and ideals of the Florentine Renaissance to architects, scholars, and others. Alberti wrote I Libri della famiglia —which discussed education, marriage, household management, and money—in

2457-403: The founder of Western cryptography, a claim he shares with Johannes Trithemius . He is often considered primarily an architect. However, according to James Beck, "to single out one of Leon Battista's 'fields' over others as somehow functionally independent and self-sufficient is of no help at all to any effort to characterize Alberti's extensive explorations in the fine arts". Although Alberti

2520-452: The lower level already had three doorways and six Gothic niches containing tombs and employing the polychrome marble typical of Florentine churches, such as San Miniato al Monte and the Baptistery of Florence . The design also incorporates an ocular window that was already in place. Alberti introduced Classical features around the portico and spread the polychromy over the entire façade in

2583-462: The mathematicians those things with which my subject is concerned." Della pittura (also known in Latin as De Pictura ) relied on the study classical optics to approach the perspective in artistic and architectural representations. Alberti was well-versed in the sciences of his age. His knowledge of optics was connected to the tradition of the Kitab al-manazir ( The Optics ; De aspectibus ) of

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2646-651: The most complete English edition of Serlio for almost four centuries. Its example countered the influence of the engravings of Antwerp Mannerism that were the main inspiration for Jacobean architecture . Later Serlio's book was in the libraries of Sir Christopher Wren and John Wood, the Elder the architect and entrepreneur who laid out Bath . Inigo Jones possessed Italian editions, which he annotated. Books III & IV were published in Spanish in 1552 in Toledo by Juan de Ayala with

2709-499: The needs of architects, builders, and craftsmen. The treatise is composed of eight books , the sixth of which was lost for some centuries and the eighth of which was not published until relatively recently. The eighth book is not always considered to be part of the treatise. The first five books cover Serlio's works on geometry , perspective , Roman antiquity, the orders and church design. The sixth illustrates domestic designs ranging from peasant huts to royal palaces, providing

2772-461: The pleasant things which you will find in this book, you should give the credit not to me but to my teacher, Baldassare Peruzzi from Siena..." The extent of Peruzzi's contribution to the treatise is unknown. "Peruzzi had been the guiding spirit in the detailed study of the remains of antiquity, and he had left his drawings to Serlio. Vasari and Cellini would give most of the credit for the book to Peruzzi, but more recent writers defend Serlio's part in

2835-409: The same illustrations as the original Italian editions. Leon Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti ( Italian: [leˈom batˈtista alˈbɛrti] ; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest , linguist , philosopher, and cryptographer ; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths . He is considered

2898-458: The second book, "On Perspective", contain three theatrical scenes (comic, tragic, and satiric) and a stage plan and cross section which were highly influential in Renaissance theater. In Aesthetics point of view Serlio is one of the first that use the expression fine arts : "and lately Leo X father and patron of all fine arts and all good artists". Serlio's volumes were highly influential in France,

2961-744: The spread of his influence. Coecke van Aelst's pupil the Dutch architect and engineer Hans Vredeman de Vries propagated Serlio's style and ornaments north of the Alps. And a Dutch version of Books I-V -- published in Amsterdam in 1606 and based largely on Coecke van Aelst's work in Flemish—served as the basis for the English translation of Books I-V published by Robert Peake in London in 1611. Fourth-hand though it was, it remained

3024-399: The study and his good faith in completing the work of his companion." By 1537, when the earliest of his books was published, Serlio had been working on the treatise for at least a decade and had already organized it as a work in seven books. Although Serlio completed all seven projected books, only the first five books were published during his lifetime. The sixth remained in manuscript until

3087-419: The text of Vitruvius, and the universality of the Orders in composing doors, fireplaces and palace façades; fifth, the use of the Orders in temples of Serlio's invention; sixth, the use of the Orders in house designs (again graded, ascending from hut to palace); concluding at the lowest, seventh stage with 'accidents' or practical problems which the architect might encounter. Significantly, the last few pages of

3150-453: The village as a retreat, but needed for it to reflect the dignity of his position. The piazza is a trapezoid shape defined by four buildings, with a focus on Pienza Cathedral and passages on either side opening onto a landscape view. The principal residence, Palazzo Piccolomini , is on the western side. It has three stories, articulated by pilasters and entablature courses, with a twin-lighted cross window set within each bay. This structure

3213-460: The whole work and the author's futile enterprise along it". Momus , written between 1443 and 1450, was a notable comedy about the Olympian deities. It has been considered as a roman à clef — Jupiter has been identified in some sources as Pope Eugenius IV and Pope Nicholas V. Alberti borrowed many of its characters from Lucian , one of his favorite Greek writers. The name of its hero, Momus, refers to

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3276-471: The work as a whole—possibly General Rules of Architecture , as is given on the first-published book, but this soon became attached specifically to that book. Various collections were known as the Five or Seven Books on Architecture , depending on their content. Often it is referred to simply as Serlio's Architettura , and several significant editions take the title Tutte l'opere d'architettura et prospetiva ("All

3339-476: The works on architecture and perspective"); though the first time that all nine existing books (or even all seven numbered books) were in fact published in a single edition was in the 2-volume English translation of 1996–2001. Although the books apparently appeared more or less in Serlio's desired publication order, his nominal order provides a distinct flow from general to specific: Serlio's reader moves from: first,

3402-437: The world and studying the proportions of antiquities; but above all, following his natural genius, he concentrated on writing rather than on applied work." In On Painting , Alberti uses the expression "We Painters", but as a painter, or sculptor, he was a dilettante. "In painting Alberti achieved nothing of any great importance or beauty", wrote Vasari. "The very few paintings of his that are extant are far from perfect, but this

3465-501: Was Bianca Fieschi. His father, Lorenzo di Benedetto Alberti, was a wealthy Florentine who had been exiled from his own city, but allowed to return in 1428. Alberti was sent to boarding school in Padua, then studied law at Bologna . He lived for a time in Florence , then in 1431 travelled to Rome, where he took holy orders and entered the service of the papal court. During this time he studied

3528-583: Was a humanist who studied Aristotle and Plotinus . He was among the rapidly growing group of intellectuals and artists who at that time were supported by the courts of nobility. As a member of a noble family and as part of the Roman curia , Alberti enjoyed special status. He was a welcomed guest at the Este court in Ferrara , and spent time with the soldier-prince Federico III da Montefeltro in Urbino. The Duke of Urbino

3591-465: Was a shrewd military commander, who generously funded artists. Alberti planned to dedicate his treatise on architecture to him. Among Alberti's minor but pioneering studies, were an essay on cryptography , De componendis cifris , and the first Italian grammar . He collaborated with the Florentine cosmographer Paolo Toscanelli in astronomy, a science close to geography at that time. He also wrote

3654-547: Was an Italian Mannerist architect , who was part of the Italian team building the Palace of Fontainebleau . Serlio helped canonize the classical orders of architecture in his influential treatise variously known as I sette libri dell'architettura ("Seven Books of Architecture") or Tutte l'opere d'architettura et prospetiva ("All the works on architecture and perspective"). Born in Bologna , Serlio went to Rome in 1514, and worked in

3717-625: Was brought to completion and is his most significant work employing the triumphal arch motif, both for its façade and interior, and influencing many works that were to follow. Alberti perceived the role of architect as designer. Unlike Brunelleschi , he had no interest in the construction, leaving the practicalities to builders and the oversight to others. Giorgio Vasari , who argued that historical progress in art reached its peak in Michelangelo , emphasized Alberti's scholarly achievements, not his artistic talents: "He spent his time finding out about

3780-583: Was encouraged by the Marchese Leonello d'Este of Ferrara, for whom he built a small triumphal arch to support an equestrian statue of Leonello's father. In 1447 Alberti became architectural advisor to Pope Nicholas V and was involved in several projects at the Vatican . His first major architectural commission was in 1446 for the façade of the Rucellai Palace in Florence. This was followed in 1450 by

3843-463: Was never completed and for which Alberti's intention can only be speculated upon, and the Basilica of Sant'Andrea . The design for the latter church was completed in 1471, a year before Alberti's death: the construction was completed after his death and is considered as his most significant work. As an artist, Alberti distinguished himself from the contemporary ordinary craftsmen educated in workshops. He

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3906-402: Was successfully passed off as a genuine piece of Classical literature. In 1435 he began his first major written work, Della pittura , which was inspired by the burgeoning pictorial art in Florence in the early fifteenth century. In this work he analysed the nature of painting and explored the elements of perspective, composition, and colour. In 1438 he began to focus more on architecture and

3969-459: Was the first architectural treatise of the Renaissance. It covered a wide range of subjects, from history to town planning, from engineering to the aesthetics . De re aedificatoria , a large and expensive book, was not published until 1485, after which it became a major reference for architects. However, the book was written "not only for craftsmen but also for anyone interested in the noble arts", as Alberti put it. Originally published in Latin,

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