Book Description
The latest volume in the popular Icons series spans the European continent to present a new look at one of the most exciting periods in architectural history. The European Renaissance produced some of the world’s most stunning architecture. Its classically inspired, precisely constructed arches, domes, pediments, and columns signaled a new appreciation of the human intellect. Following the rise of renaissance architecture from its birthplace in Italy, this volume explores not only the dazzling structures of that country, but also the expansion of renaissance style throughout the continent. More than fifty buildings are presented in two-page spreads featuring brief essays, drawings, plans, and full-color photographs. This volume follows the development of country-specific features in the renaissance styles throughout Europe to illustrate how each culture integrated its unique history with renaissance principles. From the medieval picturesque forms of Germanic cities to the inviting chateaux of the French countryside; from England’s imposing royal edifices to the Moorish Cathedrals of Spain, this delightful European tour examines humanity’s embrace of renaissance ideals while celebrating our ability to synthesize and create anew.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Renaissance was aesthetically one of the most demanding and fascinating periods in the history of architecture. It developed out of Filippo Brunelleschi's Foundllings' Hospital in Florence and subsequently evolved into a pan-European phenomenon, the end of this period being marked by works by Carlo Maderno, Inigo Jones and Elias Holl. The style is based on rationality and clarity, the harmony of proportions and a balanced relationship between the individual and the whole. Influenced by Classical models, there was a growing awareness in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that something new could be created, something new that could be compared to the art of the ancient world.

As opposed to other works on Renaissance architecture, this publication does not focus solely on Italy with its buildings and urban areas in central and northern Italy and the palace architecture of Mantua and Urbino. The inclusion of the 'Italian architectural model' in the buildings of other European countries is also treated in depth. Readers can relish in a delightfully varied and often surprising panorama of Renaissance architecture reaching out from Italy to Germany, France, England, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Russia. This volume captures the rediscovery of harmony in architecture throughout Europe by focusing on the most impressive buildings and describing this development in exquisite photographs, numerous drawings and explanatory texts, placing the buildings in their appropriate architectural, cultural and historical setting. Interesting details about patrons, a building's specific requirements, its function and the impression it was intended to make are also discussed.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal