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English Neo-Renaissance completed in 1854 , was a copy of Wollaton Hall completed in 1588 .]] "Neo-Renaissance" is an all encompassing style designation that covers many aspects of those ", or when many French Baroque features are present ( Second Empire ). The varying forms in which architecture developed in different parts of Europe, particularly France and Italy, during the Renaissance period has added further to the difficulties in defining and recognising Neo-Renaissance architecture. When one compares the English , the French Château De Chambord , and the Russian Palace Of Facets — all deemed "''Renaissance''" — one can appreciate how divergent the same architectural designation can be. ORIGIN OF THE NEO-RENAISSANCE Main article Renaissance Architecture , Rome 1534 -1545 Designed by Sangallo and Michelangelo . A Patrician family house."''..its dignified opulence later became the accepted style in Europe for clubs and banks''"Cropplestone, Trewin (1963). ''World Architecture''. Hamlyn. Page 245]] The original Renaissance perspective of architecture is generally accredited to Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 - 1446) Cropplestone, Trewin (1963). ''World Architecture''. Hamlyn. Page 243 the underlying feature of the work of Brunelleschi and his contemporaries was "order". From this came a desire for symmetry and careful proportion. A feature which had not been evident in the preceding medieval and Gothic forms of architecture. This movement grew from a study of the anatomy of nature, in particular the human form, a science first studied by the Greeks. Thus in Renaissance architecture for the first time one viewed the composition as a whole, each section in proportion to the next. This new architectural philosophy is best demonstrated in one of its earliest examples the church of "''S. Spirito''" in Florence. Designed by Brunelleschi in 1436 in the shape of a Latin Cross , it has a modular plan, each portion being a multiple of the square bay of the aisle. This same formulae controlled also the vertical dimensions. transepts and chancel are of identical, while the nave is an extended version of these. In 1434 Brunelleschi designed the first Renaissance central plan at "''Santa Maria degli Angioli''", composed of a central Octagon surrounded by a circuit of eight smaller chapels chapels. From this date onwards numerous churches were built in variations of these designs. The style was embraced by the Medici for their palazzi and became firmly established. (1519-1539)]]Renaissance architecture was further stylised by Alberti . In the late 15th century and 16th century under the guidance of such architects as as Leonardo Da Vinci and Bramante the style entered a period known as High Renaissance . In 1499 the French had captured Milan causing Bramante to flee to Rome, where he studied ancient ruins, and with these in mind designed some of the most important buildings of the High Renaissance period Cropplestone, Trewin (1963). ''World Architecture''. Hamlyn. Page 242 During this period Renaissance architecture became more decorated and ornamental, statuary, domes and Cupola s becoming very evident. It is mostly, but not exclusively, this period of Renaissance architecture, together with the Gothic influenced French development of the style, which was to inspire and be very loosely copied during the 19th century Neo-Renaissance period. A further and very popular influence of the Neo-Renaissance era was form in which Renaissance architecture developed in France during the 16th century. During the early years of the 16th century the French were involved in wars in northern Italy, bringing back to France not just the Renaissance art treasures as their war Booty , but also stylistic ideas. In the Loire Valley a wave of Chateau building was carried out using traditional French Gothic styles but with ornament in the forms of pediments, arcades, shallow pilasters and entablatures from the Italian Renaissance. This is particularly obvious at the Chateau De Chambord where the traditional roofscape is so heaped with Italian Renaissance ornament that it has been said "''The delight with which the masons, heaped Italian ornament onto the elaborate roofscape belongs to the late gothic spirit of ornamental largesse''" Cropplestone, Trewin (1963). ''World Architecture''. Hamlyn. Page 254 1590 - 1597. The numerous and large Mullioned windows are typically English Renaissance. While the Loggia is Italian.]] Renaissance architecture arrived in England during the reign of Elizabeth I , having first spread through the Low Countries where among other features it acquired versions of the Dutch Gable , and Flemish Strapwork in geometric designs adorning the walls. Both of these features can be seen on the towers of Wollaton Hall and again at Montacute House . It was also at this time that English houses adopted the Italian concept of a long gallery being the chief reception roomCropplestone, Trewin (1963). ''World Architecture''. Hamlyn. Page 262. In England the Renaissance tended to manifest itself in large square tall houses such as Longleat House . Often these buildings had symmetrical towers which hint at the evolution from medieval fortified architecture. This is particularly evident at Hatfield House built between 1607 and 1611, where medieval towers jostle the eye with a large Italian cupola. This is why so many buildings of the early English Neo-Renaissance style often have more of a "castle air" than their European contemporaries, which can add again to the confusion with the Gothic revival style. Later the Renaissance style settled into a more uniquely indigenous and domestic style known as Jacobean . In the 19th century the two English Renaissance styles re-emerged in a combined form known as Jacobethan . This style — which could just as accurately be called "British Neo-Renaissance" — was employed not just in England, in such places as Sandringham House , but widely used across the British Empire . Examples can be found in such far flung places as Dunedin , New Zealand where the architect R A Lawson designed the Otago Boys' High School in this style. (1602-1620).]] The Renaissance architecture that found its way to Scandinavia was (like the English) influenced by the Flemish architecture, and included high gables and a castle air as demonstrated in the architecture of Frederiksborg Palace . Consequently much of the Neo-Renaissance to be found in the Scandinavian countries is derived from this source. When in the 19th century Renaissance architecture came once again into vogue, it often materialised not just in its original form according to geography, but as a hybrid of all its earlier forms according to the whims of architects and patrons rather than geography and culture. If this were not confusing enough, the new Neo-Renaissance then frequently borrowed architectural elements from the succeeding Mannerist period, and in many cases the even later Baroque period. Mannerism and Baroque being two very opposing styles of architecture. Mannerism was exemplified by the Palazzo Del Te and Baroque by the Wurzburg Residenz . 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 the Gothic Revival can at times be especially difficult, as both styles were simultaneously popular during the 19th century. BIRTH OF THE NEO-RENAISSANCE : Otago Boys' High School . R A Lawson 's 1885 Neo-Renaissance extravaganza of Turret s and Gable s.]] : The façade of the Vladimir Palace in Saint Petersburg (1867-72) redolent of Alberti 's designs.]] : Prague, National Theatre 1862 .]] : The Breakers , Newport, Rhode Island 1893 ]] . By 1890 this movement was already in decline. The Hague 's Peace Palace completed in 1913, in a heavy french Neo-Renaissance manner was one of the last notable buildings in this style. and the Château De Ferrières , both designed in the 1850s by Joseph Paxton for members of the Rothschild banking family. The style is characterized by original Renaissance Motif s, taken from such Quattrocento architects as Alberti . These motifs included Rusticated masonry and Quoin s, windows framed by Architrave s and doors crowned by Pediment s and Entablature s. If a building were of several floors the uppermost floor usually had small square windows representing the minor mezzanine floor of the original Renaissance designs. However, the Neo-renaissance style later came to incorporate Romanesque and Baroque features not found in the original Renaissance architecture which was often more severe in its design. Like all architectural styles the Neo-Renaissance did not appear overnight fully formed but evolved slowly. One of the very first signs of its emergence was the Wurzburg Women's Prison, which was erected in 1809 designed by Peter Speeth . It included a heavily rusticated ground floor, alleviated by one semicircular arch, with a curious Egypt ian style miniature Portico 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 architect Henry Hobson Richardson whose work in the Neo-Renaissance style was popular in the USA during the 1880 s. Richardson's style at the end or the revival era was a severe mix of both Romanesque and Renaissance features Cropplestone, Trewin (1963). ''World Architecture''. Hamlyn. Pages 300 - 318. This was exemplified by his "Marshall Field Warehouse" in Chicago (completed in 1887, now demolished). However, while the beginning of Neo-Renaissance period can be defined by it's simplicity and severity, what came between was far more ornate in its design. This period can be defined by some of the great opera houses of the Europe, such as Gottfried Semper 's Burgtheater in Vienna, and his Opera house in Dresden . This ornate form of the Neo-renaissance, originating from France Cropplestone, Trewin (1963). ''World Architecture''. Hamlyn. Page 311 is sometimes known as the "Second Empire" style, by now it also incorporated some Baroque elements. By 1875 it had become the accepted style in Europe for all public and bureaucratic buildings Cropplestone, Trewin (1963). ''World Architecture''. Hamlyn. Page 311 - caption 938,. In England where Sir George Gilbert Scott designed the London Foreign Office in this style between 1860 and 1875 it also incorporated certain Palladian features. Starting with the Orangery of Sanssouci (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.''The Cambridge Companion to Modern German Culture''. Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0521568706. Page 283. Among the most accomplished examples of the style were Villa Meyer in Dresden, Palais Borsig in Berlin , Villa Meissner in Leipzig ; it culminated in such turgid projects as the Town Hall in Hamburg (1886-97) and the Reichstag in Berlin (completed in 1894). In Austria, it was pioneered by such illustrious names as Rudolf Eitelberger , the founder of the Viennese College of Arts and Crafts (today known as the University For Applied Arts ). The style found particular favour in Vienna where whole streets and blocks were built in the so-called Neo-Renaissance style, in reality a classisizing conglomeration of elements liberally borrowed from different historical periods. In , the most popular Russian architect of the time, used Italianate elements profusely for decorating some interiors of the Grand Kremlin Palace (1837-51). Another fashionable architect, Andrei Stackensneider, was responsible for Marie Palace (1839-44), with "the faceted rough-hewn stone of the first floor" reminiscent of 16th-century Italian palazzi.Ibidem. Page 45. The style was further elaborated by architects of the (1909-16) near Moscow to be decorated in strict imitataton of the 16th-century Venetian churches. The style spread to North America where as in Europe it was a favourite domestic architectural style of the very wealthy, Breakers in Rhode Island , a residence of the Vanderbilt family, designed by R M Hunt in 1870 being a prime example. During the latter half of the 19th century 5th Avenue in New York was lined with "Renaissance" French chateaux, and Italian Palazzi all in one or the other of the Neo-Renaissance styles. Most of these have since been demolished. FEATURES OF THE NEO-RENAISSANCE staircase at the Château De Chambord completed in 1547. Variations of this design became a popular feature of the Neo-Renaissance.]] modelled in the 1870s on the staircase Turret (''illustrated left'') at the Château De Chambord ]] One of the most widely copied features of Renaissance architecture were the great staircases from the chateaux of style coupled with a strong Italian influence represented by arches, arcades, ballustrading 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 to Leonardo Da Vinci ) at the Château De Chambord just a few years later. A grand staircase whether based on that of Blois, or the Villa 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 the Warsaw 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, more Column ed style of Ottaviano Mascherino 's staircase designed for Pope Gregory XIII at Rome's Palazzo Quirinale in 1584, thus demonstrating that architects wherever their location were selecting their Neo-Renaissance styles reardless of geography NEO-RENAISSANCE AND GOTHIC in Strictly speaking there are no similarities between Renaissance architecture and the Gothic. However, as the French Renaissance evolved from the addition of Renaissance ornament to Gothic based buildings, and also some architecture such as the courtyard of the Doge's Palace were constructed during the period of transition, occasionally some Gothic influences can be discerned. During the Neo-Renaissance period competent architects usually avoided all reference to the Gothic drawing instead on a variety of other classically based styles. However, there are exceptions and on occasions the two divergent styles were mixed. When this happened the chosen form of Gothic was often the floral Venetian Gothic. One example of this is The in Berlin . In the background to the right of the National Museum in the illustration is seen the Nordic Museum (1888-1907), by Isak Gustaf Clason , in a high-gabled Northern Renaissance style reminiscent of the Dutch-influenced Danish Frederiksborg Palace (''c.'' 1600). BAROQUE INFLUENCES IN THE NEO-RENAISSANCE completed circa 1880 in an unequivocal French Neo-Renaissance style.]] with strong Baroque influences]] A common Baroque feature introduced into the Neo-Renaissance was the "imperial staircase" (a single straight flight dividing into two separate flights). Paxton's staircase at Mentmore Towers and that at the Warsaw University of Technology (designed by Bronisław Rogóyski and Stefan Szyller in the late 19th century) both rise from Pastiche s of true Renaissance courtyards, yet both staircases seem more akin to Balthasar Neumann 's great Baroque staircase at the Wurzburg Residenz than anything found in a true Renaissance Palazzo. Yet the apparent Baroque style staircase at Mentmore is not without a Renaissance influence, its first flight is similar to "The staircase of the Giants" at the Venetian Doge's Palace which rises from a courtyard constructed 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 has many buildings in a combined style of Neo-Renaissance and Baroque, such as the in Kolkata was refaced according to the latest fashion in 1880. This building is amazing in its design. Loggias of Serlian Arches form deceptively an almost Indian appearance, yet they sit beneath a Mansard roof. In what at first glance appears an Eastern building, yet on closere examination is a classic example of Palladianism combined with French Renaissance, an almost unique example of this style of Neo-Renaissance. NEO-RENAISSANCE INTERIORS this short flight, immitates the summit of the spiral stairs at the Villa Farnese (''below'')]] Contrasting styles: The first flight of an Imperial Staircase rises from a glass roofed courtyard. The lower Baroque arch mirrors that of the Vladimir Palace (''right''). While the coloured marble Balustrading and upper arches and Arcade s are Italian Renaissance .The Plate Glass window visible in the background, manufactured 1855 was the largest single pane produced]] : The Villa Farnese , the curved staircase, tall segmented windows and marble Balustrading ]] 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 a division of labour between the architect who designed the exterior highly visible shell, and others - the artisans - who then came and decorated and arranged the interior Dal Lago, Adalbert (1966). ''Ville Antiche''. Milan: Fratelli Fabbri. The original Italian mannerist house was a place for relaxation and entertaining, convenience and comfort of the interior were a priority, in the later Baroque designs, comfort and interior design were secondary to outward appearance, this was followed by the Hybrid s of various Renaissance Chateau x, and 16th Century English Country House , all with interiors ranging from "Versailles" to " Medici " and in the case of Mentmore Towers a huge central hall, resembling the arcaded courtyard of Renaissance villa, conveniently glazed over, furnished in Venetian style and heated by a fireplace designed by Rubens for his house in AntwerpSotheby's. ''Mentmore'' LEGACY Bank at Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire , England is an example of the provincial and unaccomplished manner in which Neo-Renaissance architecture evolved as it gained in popularity. Like thousands of other Neo-Renaissance buildings it sits unremarkably in a small provincial market town.]] 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. In southern Europe the Neo-Renaissance style began to fall from favour circa 1900. However, it was still extensively practiced in the 1910s in Moscow and Buenos Aires by such architects as Leon Benois , Marian Peretyatkovich , or Francisco Tamburini . 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 and most obscure towns. Often these buildings now have an air of neglect, or been thoughtlessly altered and extended in a variety of incongruous styles. It has been said "''It is a well-known fact that the nineteenth century had no art style of its own''" Rolf P. Lessenich (Bonn) '' Ideals Versus Realities: Nineteenth-Century Decadent Identity and the Renaissance'' . While to an extent this may be true, the same could be said if 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 in Stalinist Architecture of the Soviet Union , as seen in some pavilions of the All-Soviet Exhibition Centre . and Rococo influences in Yaroslavl , Russia]] However, on the western side of the Iron Curtain , the style, by now, a commonplace sight in most towns, was little built after 1900. In the small relatively obscure market town of Leighton Buzzard in England, a 19th century building sits almost unnoticed, its windows rotting, still used as a bank. Few passerbys realise it is a provincial 19th century re-incarnation of the much photographed and architecturally appreciated "Palazzo Farnese" in Rome. It is a testament to the provincial architecture of England that this "Italian Renaissance Palazzo" is sited directly opposite another Victorian bank. This bank is a high roofed and gabled French renaissance style, by one of the country's greatest Victorian architects Alfred Waterhouse , that two such diverse buildings, at opposing ends of the same architectural style can sit, unremarkably, sandwiched between a collection of Georgian and Palladian buildings in the same small street. This is evidence indeed of the popularity and acceptance that the Neo-Renaissance style achieved. This wide-spread pattern and acceptance can be found in towns, wherever western culture has pervaded - from places as diverse and far afield as Yaroslavl to Dunedin . 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. 's Dresden Semper Opera House of 1870 , incorporating both Baroque and Renaissance architectural features. EXTERNAL LINKS
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