Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of19th-centuryarchitectural revival styles which were neitherGreek Revival norGothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of classicizing Italian modes. Under the broad designationRenaissance architecture 19th-century architects and critics went beyond the architectural style which began inFlorence andCentral Italy in the early 15th century as an expression ofRenaissance humanism; they also included styles that can be identified asMannerist orBaroque. Self-applied style designations were rife in the mid- and later 19th century: "Neo-Renaissance" might be applied by contemporaries to structures that others called "Italianate", or when manyFrench Baroque features are present (Second Empire).
The divergent forms of Renaissance architecture in different parts of Europe, particularly inFrance andItaly, has added to the difficulty of defining and recognizing Neo-Renaissance architecture. A comparison between the breadth of its source material, such as the EnglishWollaton Hall,[1] ItalianPalazzo Pitti, the FrenchChâteau de Chambord, and the RussianPalace of Facets—all deemed "Renaissance"—illustrates the variety of appearances the same architectural label can take.
The origin ofRenaissance architecture is generally accredited toFilippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446).[2]: 243 Brunelleschi and his contemporaries wished to bring greater "order" to architecture, resulting in strong symmetry and careful proportion. The movement grew from scientific observations of nature, in particular, human anatomy.
Neo-Renaissance architecture is formed by not only the original Italian architecture but by the form in whichRenaissance architecture developed in France during the 16th century. During the early years of the 16th century, the French were involved in theItalian Wars, bringing back to France not just theRenaissance art treasures as their warbooty, but also stylistic ideas. In theLoire valley a wave ofchateau building was carried out using traditionalFrench Gothic styles but with ornament in the forms of pediments, arcades, shallow pilasters and entablatures from theItalian Renaissance.
InEngland, the Renaissance tended to manifest itself in large square tall houses such asLongleat House (1568–1580). Often these buildings had symmetrical towers which hint at the evolution from medieval fortified architecture. This is particularly evident atHatfield House (1607–1612), where medieval towers jostle with a largeItalian cupola. This is why so many buildings of the early English Neo-Renaissance style often have more of a "castle air" than theircontinental European contemporaries, which can add again to the confusion with theGothic Revival style.
When the revival of Renaissance style architecture cameen vogue in the mid 19th century, it often materialized not just in its original form first seen in Italy, but as a hybrid of all its forms according to the whims of architects and patrons, an approach typical of the mid and late 19th century. Modern scholarship defines the styles following the Renaissance asMannerist andBaroque, two very different, even opposingstyles of architecture, but the architects of the mid 19th century understood them as part of a continuum, often simply called 'Italian', and freely combined them all, as well as Renaissance as it was first practiced in other countries.
Thus Italian, French and Flemish Renaissance coupled with the amount of borrowing from these later periods can cause great difficulty and argument in correctly identifying various forms of 19th-century architecture. Differentiating some forms of French Neo-Renaissance buildings from those of theGothic revival can at times be especially tricky, as both styles were simultaneously popular during the 19th century.
As a consequence, a self-consciously "Neo-Renaissance" manner first began to appearc. 1840. By 1890 this movement was already in decline.The Hague'sPeace Palace completed in 1913, in a heavy French Neo-Renaissance manner was one of the last notable buildings in this style.
Charles Barry introduced the Neo-Renaissance to England with his design of theTravellers Club,Pall Mall (1829–1832). Other early but typical, domestic examples of the Neo-Renaissance includeMentmore Towers and theChâteau de Ferrières, both designed in the 1850s byJoseph Paxton for members of theRothschild banking family. The style is characterized by original Renaissancemotifs, taken from such Quattrocento architects asAlberti. These motifs includedrusticated masonry andquoins, windows framed byarchitraves and doors crowned bypediments andentablatures. If a building were of several floors, the uppermost floor usually had small square windows representing the minormezzanine floor of the original Renaissance designs. However, the Neo-renaissance style later came to incorporateRomanesque andBaroque features not found in the original Renaissance architecture which was often more severe in its design.John Ruskin's panegyrics to architectural wonders of Venice and Florence in the 1850s contributed to shifting "the attention of scholars and designers, with their awareness heightened by debate and restoration work"[3] fromLate Neoclassicism and Gothic Revival to the Italian Renaissance.
Like all architectural styles, the Neo-Renaissance did not appear overnight fully formed but evolved slowly. One of the first signs of its emergence was theWürzburg Women's Prison, which was erected in 1809 designed byPeter Speeth. It included a heavily rusticated ground floor, alleviated by one semicircular arch, with a curiousEgyptian style miniatureportico above, high above this were a sequence of six tall arched windows and above these just beneath the slightly projecting roof were the small windows of the upper floor. This building foreshadows similar effects in the work of the American architectHenry Hobson Richardson whose work in the Neo-Renaissance style was popular in the US during the 1880s. Richardson's style at the end or the revival era was a severe mix of both Romanesque and Renaissance features.[2]: 300–318 This was exemplified by his "Marshall Field Warehouse" inChicago (completed in 1887, now demolished). Neo-Renaissance was adopted early inMunich, often based directly on Italian Palazzi, first appearing in thePalais Leuchtenberg (1817–21), byLeo von Klenze, then adopted as a state style under the reign ofLudwig I of Bavaria for such landmarks as theAlte Pinakothek (1826–36), the Konigbau wing of theMunich Residenz (1825–35), and theBavarian State Library (1831–43).
While the beginning of Neo-Renaissance period can be defined by its simplicity and severity, what came later was far more ornate in its design. This period can be defined by some of the greatopera houses of Europe, such asGottfried Semper's Burgtheater in Vienna, and his Opera house inDresden. This ornate form of the Neo-Renaissance, originating from France,[2]: 311 is sometimes known as the "Second Empire" style, by now it also incorporated someBaroque elements. By 1875 it had become the accepted style in Europe for all public and bureaucratic buildings.[2]: p. 311, caption 938 In England, where SirGeorge Gilbert Scott designed the LondonForeign Office in this style between 1860 and 1875, it also incorporated certainPalladian features.
Starting with theorangery ofSanssouci (1851), "the Neo-Renaissance became the obligatory style for university and public buildings, for banks and financial institutions, and for the urban villas" in Germany.[4] Among the most accomplished examples of the style were Villa Meyer in Dresden,Villa Haas inHesse, Palais Borsig inBerlin, Villa Meissner inLeipzig; the German version of Neo-Renaissance culminated in such projects as the Town Hall inHamburg (1886–1897) and theReichstag in Berlin (completed in 1894).
In Austria, it was pioneered by such illustrious names asRudolf Eitelberger, the founder of the Viennese College of Arts and Crafts (today theUniversity of Applied Arts Vienna). The style found particular favour inVienna, where whole streets and blocks were built in the so-called Neo-Renaissance style, in reality, a classicizing conglomeration of elements liberally borrowed from different historical periods.
Neo-Renaissance was also the favourite style inKingdom of Hungary in the 1870s and 1880s. In the fast-growing capital,Budapest many monumental public buildings were built in Neo-Renaissance style likeSaint Stephen's Basilica and theHungarian State Opera House.Andrássy Avenue is an outstanding ensemble of Neo-Renaissance townhouses from the last decades of the 19th century. The most famous Hungarian architect of the age,Miklós Ybl preferred Neo-Renaissance in his works.
In Russia, the style was pioneered byAuguste de Montferrand in theDemidov House (1835), the first inSaint Petersburg to take "a story-by-story approach to façade ornamentation, in contrast to the classical method, where the façade was conceived as a unit."[5]: 44 Konstantin Thon, the most popular Russian architect of the time, used Italianate elements profusely for decorating some interiors of theGrand Kremlin Palace (1837–1851). Another fashionable architect,Andrei Stackenschneider, was responsible forMariinsky Palace (1839–1844), with "the faceted rough-hewn stone of the first floor" reminiscent of 16th-century Italian palazzi.[5]: 45
The style was further elaborated by architects of theVladimir Palace (1867–1872) and culminated in theStieglitz Museum (1885–1896). InMoscow, the Neo-Renaissance was less prevalent than in the Northern capital, although interiors of the neo-MuscoviteCity Duma (1890–1892) were executed with emphasis on Florentine and Venetian décor. While the Neo-Renaissance is associated primarily with secular buildings, PrincesYusupov commissioned the interior of their palace church (1909–1916) nearMoscow to be decorated in strict imitation of the 16th-century Venetian churches.
The style spread toNorth America, where it became a favourite domestic architectural style of the wealthiest Americans.The Breakers inNewport, Rhode Island, was a residence of theVanderbilt family designed byRichard Morris Hunt in 1892; it and contemporaneousGilded Age mansions exemplify the ambitions of wealthy Americans in equaling and surpassing the ostentatious lifestyles of European aristocrats. During the latter half of the 19th century5th Avenue inNew York City was lined with "Renaissance" French chateaux and Italianpalazzi, all designed in Neo-Renaissance styles. Most of these have since been demolished.
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One of the most widely copied features of Renaissance architecture were the great staircases from the chateaux ofBlois andChambord.[6] Blois had been the favourite residence of theFrench kings throughout the renaissance. TheFrancis I wing, completed in 1524, of which the staircase is an integral part was one of the earliest examples ofFrench Renaissance.[7] French renaissance architecture was a combination of the earlierGothic style coupled with a strong Italian influence represented by arches, arcades, balustrading and, in general, a more flowing line of design than had been apparent in the earlier Gothic. The Chateau de Blois's triumphal staircase was imitated almost from the moment of its completion, and was certainly the predecessor of the "double staircase" (sometimes attributed toLeonardo da Vinci) at theChâteau de Chambord just a few years later.
A Grand Staircase whether based on that of Blois, or theVilla Farnese was to become one of the features of Neo-Renaissance design. It became a common feature for the staircase to be not just a feature of the internal architecture but also the external. But whereas at Blois the stairs had been open to the elements in the 19th century new and innovative use of glass was able to give protection from the weather, giving the staircase the appearance of being in the true renaissance open style, when it was in fact a truly internal feature. Further and more adventurous use of glass also enabled the open and arcaded Renaissance courtyards to be reproduced as lofty halls with glazed roofs. This was a feature at Mentmore Towers and on a far larger scale at theWarsaw University of Technology, where the large glazed court contained a monumental staircase. The "Warsaw University of Technology staircase", though if Renaissance in spirit at all, is more in the lighter, morecolumned style ofOttaviano Nonni's (named il Mascherino) staircase designed forPopeGregory XIII at Rome'sPalazzo Quirinale in 1584, thus demonstrating that architects wherever their location were selecting their Neo-Renaissance styles regardless of geography
Gothic influences on both period and revived Renaissance architecture are readily apparent, first as much building occurred during the period of transition from the Gothic to the Renaissance style; and also as Renaissance−era design took the form of the addition of Renaissance ornamentation to Gothic−era buildings thus creating an accretion of details from disparate sources. Architects who designed in the Renaissance Revival style usually avoided any references toGothic Revival architecture, drawing instead on a variety of other classically based styles.[citation needed] However, there are exceptions and occasionally the two distinct styles are mixed. The sub-variety of Gothic design most frequently employed is floralVenetian Gothic[citation needed], as seen in theDoge's Palace courtyard, built in the 1480s.
A commonBaroque feature introduced into the Renaissance Revival styles was the "imperial staircase" (a single straight flight dividing into two separate flights).
Thestaircase atMentmore Towers designed by Joseph Paxton, and the one at theWarsaw University of Technology designed by Bronisław Rogóyski andStefan Szyller (late 19th century), both rise frompastiches of true Renaissance courtyards. Both staircases seem more akin toBalthasar Neumann's great Baroque staircase at theWürzburg Residenz than anything found in a true Renaissance Palazzo. The apparent Baroque style staircase at Mentmore is not without a Renaissance influence, its first flight is similar to "The staircase of the Giants" rises from the Doge's Palace Courtyard, designed when the Venetian Gothic was being uncomfortably merged with Renaissance style. Similarly to that at Mentmore, the Staircase of the Giant's terminates on to an arcaded loggia. Perhaps not ironically the Hall and Staircase at Mentmore were designed by Paxton to display furniture formerly housed in the Doge's Palace.
Paris is home to many historicist buildings that partake equally from Renaissance and Baroque source material, such as theOpera Garnier. However, the ParisianHôtel de Ville faithfully replicates the trueFrench Renaissance style, complete with the steeply pitched roofs and towers, as it was a reconstruction, completedc. 1880, of the previousHôtel de Ville.[8]
In theBritish Raj in 1880, thefaçades of the 1777Writers' building inKolkata were redesigned in the Renaissance Revival style then popular in colonial India, though this version was remarkable in its unique design. Loggias ofSerlian arches deceptively form an almost Indian appearance, yet they sit beneath amansard roof. In what at first glance appears to be an Indian building, on closer examination shows a Historicist example of ClassicalPalladianism combined with the French Renaissance, a uniquely distinctive interpretation of the Renaissance Revival style.
As mentioned above, the Neo-Renaissance style was in reality an eclectic blending of past styles, which the architect selected on the whims of his patrons. In the true Renaissance era there was adivision of labour between the architect, who designed the exterior highly visible shell, and others—the artisans—who decorated and arranged the interior.[9] The original Italian mannerist house was a place for relaxation and entertaining, convenience and comfort of the interior being a priority; in the later Baroque designs, comfort andinterior design were secondary to outward appearance. This was followed by theNeoclassical period, which gave importance to the proportions and dignity of interiors, but still lost the comfort and internal convenience of the mannerist period. It was during the Neo-Renaissance period of the 19th century that the mannerist comforts were re-discovered and taken a step further. Not only did the improved building techniques of the 1850s allow theglazing of formerly openloggias andarches with the newly invented sheets of plate glass, providing the first "picture windows", but also the blending of architectural styles allowed interiors and exteriors to be treated differently. It was at this time that the concept of "furnishing styles" manifested itself, allowing distinctions to be made between interior rooms and external appearances, and indeed between the various rooms themselves.[9] Thus the modern concept of treating a room individually, and differently from its setting and neighbours, came into its infancy. Classic examples of this are the greatRothschild house in Buckinghamshire,hybrids of various Renaissancechateaux, and 16th centuryEnglish country houses, all with interiors ranging from "Versailles" to "Medici", and in the case of Mentmore Towers a huge central hall, resembling the arcaded courtyard of a Renaissance villa, conveniently glazed over, furnished inVenetian style and heated by a fireplace designed byRubens for his house in Antwerp[10]
By the beginning of the 20th century, Neo-Renaissance was a commonplace sight on the main streets of thousands of towns, large and small, around the world. Insouthern Europe the Neo-Renaissance style began to fall from favourc. 1900. However, it was still extensively practiced in the 1910s inSaint Petersburg andBuenos Aires by such architects asLeon Benois,Marian Peretyatkovich, orFrancisco Tamburini (picture).
In England it was so common that today one finds "Renaissance Italian Palazzi" serving as banks or municipal buildings in the centres of even the smallest towns. It has been said "It is a well-known fact that the nineteenth century had no art style of its own."[11] While to an extent this may be true, the same could be said of most eras until the early 20th century, the Neo-Renaissance in the hands of provincial architects did develop into a style not always instantly recognisable as a derivative of the Renaissance. In this less obvious guise the Neo-Renaissance was to provide an important undercurrent in totalitarian architecture of various countries, notably inStalinist architecture of theSoviet Union, as seen in some pavilions of theAll-Soviet Exhibition Centre.
Neo-Renaissance architecture, because of its diversity, is perhaps the only style of architecture to have existed in so many forms, yet still common to so many countries.
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