S1502 Art and Architecture in Renaissance Venice (Italy core)

The course intends to explore Venetian and Veneto Architecture from the middle of the Quattrocento to the death of Palladio. It starts with and introduction to the terminology needed with which to speak about architecture; then it passes to a tour around the Venetian Empire ending up at Padova and S. Marco in Venice, intended to show what it was the great Venetian architects used as sources for their architecture: at Pola, the Arco dei Sergi and the Amphitheatre; at Spalato, the palace of Diocletian with its mausoleum and temple; at Verona the Arco dei Gavi, the Arco dei Borsari, the Arco di Giove Ammon and the Amphitheatre. In Venice it starts with the architecture of Bartolomeo Bon (Porta della Carta, porta di SS Zanipaolo, perhaps the Gate of the Arsenal) arriving at the Ca’ del Duca, then passes on to consider the buildings built by and attributed to the Lombardo workshop; the presbytery of S. Giobbe, S. Maria dei Miracoli, Palazzo Gussoni and the Cappella Gussoni in S. Leo; including the question of the atrium of S. Giovanni Evangelista. After which comes an examination of Codussi’s contribution, particularly the palazzo corner Spinelli and Vendramin Calergi, and his most important churches of S. Michele in Isola and S Zaccaria. There will be a discussion of the splendid Scuola Grande di S. Marco built by both Pietro Lombardo and Mauro Codussi. The arrival of Sansovino in Venice marks a break-point in the city with respect to the use of sources deriving strictly from the Venetian Empire and marks the moment when antique Roman and early Cinquecento Roman sources were brought en masse to the city; the effects become immediately obvious with an examination of the spectacular Library of S. Marco, the Loggetta and of the Zecca as well as from his grand palaces on the Canal Grande, Corner, Dolfin and Grimani. Sanmichele’s contribution to Venetian architecture can be studied particularly using the example of the palazzo Corner at S Polo. But a glance at Sanmichele’s Veronese architecture is extremely instructive; an architect saturated in the early Roman Cinquecento styles who then transports them to Verona, his home town, and mixes them with motifs taken from the local Veronese Roman antiquities that he studied all his life (Palazzo Bevilacqua, palazzo Canossa, Pompei, the cappella Pellegrini). Thereafter the course moves away from Venice to the Veneto to Vicenza in particular with a study of Palladio’s villas starting with the villa Pisani and ending up with the villa Rotonda, of his town palaces from the Ca’ Chiavenna, palazzo Thiene and onwards, his civic buildings, particularly the Basilica, then returning to Venice to study his two great churches, S. Giorgio Maggiore and the Redentore.

Learning outcomes
To provide the students with the vocabulary with which to study Renaissance architecture and with a working knowledge of the Renaissance architecture of a particular place and time, in this case, Venetian Renaissance architecture.

Required preliminary knowledge
No preliminary knowledge required. The first lecture will include an introduction to the architectural terminology