A guide to Venetian architecture that covers all the major architects of the period 1460-1525, with special attention to the work of Pietro Lombardo and Mauro Codussi.

This book brings to life the story of the construction of some of the most outstanding early Renaissance buildings in Venice. Through a series of individual case studies, Richard J. Goy explores how and why great buildings came to be built. He addresses the practical issues of constructing such buildings as the Torre dell’Orologio in Piazza San Marco, the Arsenale Gate, and the churches of Santa Maria della Carita and San Zaccaria, focusing particular attention on the process of patronage. The book is the first to trace the complete process of creating important buildings, from the earliest conception in the minds of the patrons--the Venetian state or other institutional patrons--through the choice of architect, the employment of craftsmen, and the selection of materials. In an interesting analysis of the participants’ roles, Goy highlights the emerging importance of the superintending master, the protomaestro.

The floating city of Venice has enchanted visitors for centuries with its maze of scenic canals. For this pioneering book, Daniel Savoy set out by boat to explore the built environment of these waterways, gaining new insights into the architectural history of this major early modern Italian center. By viewing the architecture and experience of the canals in relation to the production of Venetian civic mythology, the author found that the waterways of Venice and its lagoon were integral areas of the city's pre-modern urban space, and that their flanking buildings were constructed in an intimate dialogue with the water's visual, spatial, and metaphorical properties. Enhancing the natural wonder of their aquatic setting, the builders of Venice used illusory aesthetic and scenographic practices to create waterfront buildings that appear to float, blend into the water, and glide into view around bends in the canals--transporting visitors into a seemingly otherworldly realm. This book's striking photographs of Venice, as seen from its waterways, will likewise transport readers with breathtaking views of this captivating city.

Overzicht van de Venetiaanse architectuur, vanaf de stichting in de Romeinse tijd tot nu.

Art and architecture have always been central to Venice but in the Renaissance period, between c.1440 and 1600, they reached a kind of apotheosis when many of the city's new buildings, sculpture, and paintings took on distinctive and original qualities. The spread of Renaissance values provided leading artists such as Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Palladio, Titian, and Tintoretto with a licence for artistic invention. This inventiveness however also needs to be understood in relation to the artists and artworks that still conformed to the more traditional, corporate, and public values of "Venetianness"' (Venezianità). By adopting a chronological approach, with each chapter covering a successive twenty-five year period, and focusing attention on the artists, Tom Nichols presents a vivid and easily navigable study of Venetian Renaissance art. Through close visual analyses of specific works from architecture to illuminated manuscripts, he puts the formative power of art back at the heart of this remarkable story.

This is the first study of Renaissance architecture as an immersive, multisensory experience that combines historical analysis with the evidence of first-hand accounts. Questioning the universalizing claims of contemporary architectural phenomenologists, David Karmon emphasizes the infinite variety of meanings produced through human interactions with the built environment. His book draws upon the close study of literary and visual sources to prove that early modern audiences paid sustained attention to the multisensory experience of the buildings and cities in which they lived. Through reconstructing the Renaissance understanding of the senses, we can better gauge how constant interaction with the built environment shaped daily practices and contributed to new forms of understanding. Architecture and the Senses in the Italian Renaissance offers a stimulating new approach to the study of Renaissance architecture and urbanism as a kind of 'experiential trigger' that shaped ways of both thinking and being in the world.