Renaissance architecture was inspired by architecture of classical Greece and Rome. Earlier Gothic architecture was asymmetrical and complex. Renaissance architecture was highly symmetrical and carefully proportioned.
Features of Renaissance Buildings:
- Symmetrical arrangement of windows and doors
- Extensive use of Classical columns and pilasters
- Triangular pediments
- Square lintels
- Arches
- Domes
- Niches with sculptures
Phases of the Renaissance:
The Renaissance did not arrive overnight - For more than five centuries, artists in Northern Italy were exploring new ideas. During the early 1500s, Italy saw an explosion of talent and innovation. This period is called the High Renaissance.
Over the next century, Renaissance ideas crept north through Europe, gradually replacing the earlier Gothic approaches to art and architecture.
During the 1600s, Renaissance ideas evolved into the more heavily ornamented Baroque style.
Long after the Renaissance period ended, architects were inspired by Renaissance ideas. In the 1700s and early 1800s, fashionable architects designed stately Neoclassical buildings. A century later, American architects like Richard Morris Hunt designed grand Renaissance Revival style homes that resembled palaces and villas from Renaissance Italy.
