Giorgio Maggiore

Giorgio Maggiore

Image by www.annahwarhol.edu

Giorgio Maggiore represents one of the best buildings built in the 16th Century; the building is a worshiping Centre for many Christians in the island of Venice. History indicates that Andrea Palladio designed the building between the 1565 and 1600. Palladio, incorporated a lot of creative and great expertise architecture in designing the building; the architecture work is still relevant to the contemporary world (Perry 2014). There lies Biennale garden past the building that showcases all major new contribution of other architects involved in the construction of the building, but great emphasis is on Palladio works.

The Interior of Giorgio Maggiore.

The building captures the traditional Italic style of building embraced in the ancient times.  The building captures the classical style of the Rome and Greece architecture especially by the use of marble columns and arches, with undecorated white walls. The essence of designing the building this way is to create a sense of order, balance, and logic when reflected by the light after the opening of the windows.  The building capture the divine Christianity believe by adopting the shape of the cross. In designing the building, Palladio used a lot of formula and mathematical calculations to create a sense of creative work (Perry 2014).

            

      Image by www.oberlin.edu

The building further houses other artistic works such as the “Last Supper” on the undecorated interior side. Jacopo Tintoretto was the main artist who crafted the last supper decoration in the interior of the building.  Besides, the building demonstrates great expertise in incorporating dark and light to illustrate an attractive outline (Perry 2014).  Tintoretto also designed other works present in the building demonstrating a great use of colors to make attractive images.

The Exterior of San Giorgio Maggiore

The building is noticeable from a far due to the great expertise demonstrated in incorporating the red and white colors. The white marbles reflect the ancient Roman Temple, in particular, styled by the marble facade. Just like in the inside, Palladio demonstrated great mastery in the calculation and geometrical ratios to capture Christianity and still maintain an attractive appealing (Perry 2014). There are also four gardens and courtyards that take resemblance from the Pompeii-a style adopted in Rome for designing courtyards.

Moreover, the building houses a library that contains all the information regarding the building. The library houses major works of individuals involved in the building and adding renovations to the building.  The archival material present in this library demonstrates great creativity used in the construction of the building. The creative outlet of the structure is what gathers the attention and environmental value of the building. The building is a large conclusion of what it means to define modern architecture and its adopted style and variation of building.

                                                            Work Cited:

Perry, D. M. (2014). The Material Culture of Medieval Venetian Identity1. Mediterranean Identities in the Premodern Era: Entrepôts, Islands, Empires, 15.

Paintings, Author: Department of European. "Architecture in Renaissance Italy | Essay | Heilbrunn      Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of                Art History. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.

Villa Farnesia, Rome, Italy, 1511

To see an  excellent example of Renaissance architecture in Italy, one should visit the Villa Farnesina. It can be found in the green Trastevere area of Rome on the Via della Lungara along the Tiber River. The rectangular structure represents the concept of the Renaissance perfectly which is why it is so important to architecture even today. 

Exterior view of the villa

The villa was built for a wealthy Sienese banker, Agostino Chigi, and went by the name Villa Chigi. Construction for the building began in 1509 by Baldassarre Peruzzi, an architect and painter, who was responsible for the design and construction. While the exterior was finished in 1511, the interior decorating lasted until 1519. This was because Chigi was an active patron and lover of the arts and wanted the villa to reflect that as much as possible. The location of the villa also worked to Chigi’s advantage as it was not too far from the city center and as a result, he was able to entertain high prelates, noblemen and cardinals. In fact, even the pope himself visited the villa. 5

Plan of Villa Farnesina

One of the things that Chigi made sure to include in the villa is a large garden. The large garden helps the theme of “clean architecture” one sees when looking at the Villa Farnesina. The design of the building is fairly similar and symmetrical as it just a rectangle. The cross section of the building is a square and the main section shows the large rectangle that is essentially two squares. This two square proportion is repeated in the dimensions of the doors and windows throughout the villa except in the mezzanine. 3

Decorating the exterior of the building can be found monochrome frescos that were done by Raphael who was a good friend of Peruzzi. In fact, Raphael was commissioned to decorate the loggia and other things in the villa in 1517. He also had his pupils Giulio Romano, Francesco Renni, Raffaellino del Colle and Giovanni de Udine help him in decorating the villa. The frescos help support the nature theme throughout the exterior of the building. The painting sale can be seen to imitate Roman marble reliefs to give the feel of an ancient monument which is an interesting touch. 1

Triumph of Galatea

One of the main features of Villa Farnesina is the Loggia of Galatea that was done by Raphael. The loggia can be found on the ground floor of the villa through an entrance hall. It depicts the classical and secular myths of Cupid and Psyche and the Triumph of Galatea. The nymph Galatea is on a shell being pulled by dolphins and inspiration for this scene came from a poem by Angelo Poliziano. 1

Hall of Galatea

The Loggia of Psyche is also filled with great artwork. The frescoed images of the groups of collective gods and individual gods have been done by Raphael’s pupils. Mythology was important to these individuals and as a result, the fresco reflects that. 

After Chigi’s death in 1520, the villa was bought by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, from whom the villa takes it’s present name. In 1714, it became property of the bourbon family and then was bought by the Spanish Ambassador Bermudez de Castro not long after that. In 1928, it was bought back from the Duke’s heirs by the Italian state and then became open to the public for viewing. 2

While a plan or section of Villa Farnesina might not look like much because of the simple geometry, there is a great amount of art work that is decorating the exterior as well as the interior. It also serves as a collection of great paintings seeing that so many different painters and artists contributed, each adding their own style. 

Works Cited

1 D’Ancona, Paolo. The Farnesina Frescoes at Rome. Italy: Edizioni Del Milione, 1956.

2 Hibbert, Christopher. "Rome: Biography of a City." London: Penguin Books, 1985.
3 Hunt, Patrick. "Villa Farnesina, Jewel of Renaissance Rome." Electrum Magazine RSS. N.p., 14 June 2012. Web. 03 Dec. 2016.
4 Millard, George. "Rome." New York: Oxford University Press, 1961.
5 Johnston, David E. "Roman Villas." London: Shire Publications, 1988.