S. Andrea in Mantua

S. Andrea in Mantua
Author: Eugene J. Johnson
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Total Pages: 214
Release: 1975
Genre: Architecture
ISBN:

S. Andrea in Mantua is the final architectural work and the masterpiece of Leon Battista Alberti, the great 15th-century Italian humanist. As a key monument of Renaissance architecture and a seminal work for later developments including the work of Bramante and endless repetitions in Baroque Europe, the novelty of the spatial creation in S. Andrea has long been recognized. What has been obscured by the long period of construction--over 300 years--is the extent to which the existing building reflects Alberti's plan. This book, through a careful investigation of the church fabric and a sound interpretation of all relevant documents, demonstrates the fidelity of the current building to Alberti's original design. The author publishes all known documents relating to the building, including previously unpublished material, and presents new photographic documentation. The book also discusses the place of the church in Alberti's work, sources for its design in ancient, medieval and Renaissance architecture, and its role in the dynastic and civic ambitions of the ruling family of Mantua, the Gonzaga. The changes made in Alberti's plan, particularly those of the 18th century, Juvarra's dome, and Pozzo's neo-quattrocento restoration of the interior, are re-evaluated. This is the first extensive treatment of the building in English, and the first serious monograph on S. Andrea since the 19th century.

Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism

Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism
Author: Rudolf Wittkower
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 244
Release: 1971
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780393005998

Sir Kenneth Clark wrote in the Architectural Review, that the first result of this book was "to dispose, once and for all, of the hedonist, or purely aesthetic, theory of Renaissance architecture, ' and this defines Wittkower's intention in a nutshell.

Classical Architecture

Classical Architecture
Author: Curl James Stevens
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2003-04-29
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780393731194

This well-illustrated book describes the fundamental principles and various aspects of classical architecture, including a detailed, illustrated glossary that is almost a dictionary of classical architecture in itself. Professor James Stevens Curl discusses in clear, straightforward language the origins of classical architecture in Greek and Roman antiquity and outlines its continuous development, through its various manifestations during the Renaissance, its transformations in Baroque and Rococo phases, its reemergence in eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century Neoclassicism, and its survival into the modern era. The text and illustrations celebrate the richness of the classical architectural vocabulary, grammar, and language, and demonstrate the enormous range of themes and motifs found in the subject. All those who wish to look at buildings old and new with an informed eye will find in this book a rich fund of material, and the basis for an understanding of a fecund source of architectural design that has been at the heart of western culture for over two and a half millennia.

A World History of Architecture

A World History of Architecture
Author: Marian Moffett
Publisher: Laurence King Publishing
Total Pages: 608
Release: 2003
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9781856693714

The Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius declared firmitas, utilitas, and venustas-firmness, commodity, and delight- to be the three essential attributes of architecture. These qualities are brilliantly explored in this book, which uniquely comprises both a detailed survey of Western architecture, including Pre-Columbian America, and an introduction to architecture from the Middle East, India, Russia, China, and Japan. The text encourages readers to examine closely the pragmatic, innovative, and aesthetic attributes of buildings, and to imagine how these would have been praised or criticized by contemporary observers. Artistic, economic, environmental, political, social, and technological contexts are discussed so as to determine the extent to which buildings met the needs of clients, society at large, and future generations.

On Alberti and the Art of Building

On Alberti and the Art of Building
Author: Robert Tavernor
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 302
Release: 1998-01-01
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780300076158

Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72) - writer, painter and sculptor, mathematician and, most famously, architectural theorist and architect - came closer than anyone to the Renaissance ideal of the 'complete man'. Recognised by his contemporaries as an extraordinary person, he helped to shape, through his writings and his practical example in the arts, the way in which the natural and artificial world was perceived and represented during the Renaissance.

On the Art of Building in Ten Books

On the Art of Building in Ten Books
Author: Leon Battista Alberti
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 484
Release: 1991-07-01
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780262510608

De Re Aedificatoria, by Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), was the first modern treatise on the theory and practice of architecture. Its importance for the subsequent history of architecture is incalculable, yet this is the first English translation based on the original, exceptionally eloquent Latin text on which Alberti's reputation as a theorist is founded.

A History of Interior Design

A History of Interior Design
Author: John F. Pile
Publisher: Laurence King Publishing
Total Pages: 476
Release: 2005
Genre: Design
ISBN: 1856694186

Delivers the inside story on 6,000 years of personal and public space. John Pile acknowledges that interior design is a field with unclear boundaries, in which construction, architecture, the arts and crafts, technology and product design all overlap.

Music and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Mantua: Volume 1

Music and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Mantua: Volume 1
Author: Iain Fenlon
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2008-10-30
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780521088336

Viewed traditionally, the history of sixteenth-century Mantuan music is almost a catalogue of some of the most distinguished composers of the age, from Tromboncino and Cara, via Jacquet of Mantua, to Wert, Palestrina, Marenzio, Pallavicino, Gastoldi, Rossi and Monteverdi. The remarkable achievements of composers under Gonzaga patronage, practically synonymous with Mantuan patronage during this period, are treated here in their social context. The arguments proceed not just from the music itself, but from detailed examination of archival sources, from which Dr Fenlon reconstructs employment patterns and describes the social structure and institutional life of the city. The aim of the book is to show how the patterns of patronage, and music and musicians, reflect and illuminate the temperaments and prime preoccupations of successive rulers. The book contains a substantial appendix of unpublished archival documents, a small proportion only of the scholarly and comparative sources on which the study is based.