Renaissance Architecture

00- Early Renaissance Chateaux-The Château of Bury, 1525, Loire valley (dem. 17th. century). "Around mid-sixteenth century, in the Loire Valley, a number of Renaissance chateaux were built. The early French Renaissance chateau, were evolved from the feudal castle of the Middle Ages. The plan of the feudal castles were generally irregular and shaped inward looking with defensive towers, and often with high-pitched roofs, because of the climate."

01-Early Renaissance Chateaux-The Château of Azay le Rideau (1518-24), Loire valle. It is a fine example of French Renaissance design. This building was an entirely new structure. There was no need of defense in this mediaeval form Château, but the windows are flanked by classic pilasters and crowned with entablatures.

01- Early Renaissance Chateaux- The ornamental bay of the main portal of the Château of Azay le Rideau (1518-24), Loire valle.

02- Early Renaissance Chateaux-The Château of Blois (1519–1524), Loire valle. " At the Château of Bloi, Francois I constructed a new wing on medieval foundations with an old-fashioned plan, but sporting a three-storeyed open arcaded loggia on its outer facade. This inspired by the contemporary logge of the Vatican. The most remarkable feature of the court facade is the great polygonal staircase tower that rises through it."

02- Early Renaissance Chateaux- The staircase tower of Château of Blois, Loire valley.

02- Early Renaissance Chateaux- The staircase tower of Château of Blois, Loire valle.

03-Early Renaissance Chateaux-The Château de Chambord, 1519-1536. "The Château de Chambord was designed by Italian architect, Domenico da Cortona, a pupile of Giuliano da Sangallo."

03- Early Renaissance Chateaux-The Château de Chambord, 1519-1536, by Cortona, Loire valle. At the Chambord, Flamboyant Gothic combined with classical details.

03- Early Renaissance Chateaux- Plan of the Château de Chambord, 1519-1536, by Cortona, Loire valle. "The internal layout is an early example of the French and Italian style of grouping rooms into self-contained suites, a departure from the medieval style of corridor rooms. The massive château is composed of a central keep with four immense bastion towers at the corners. The keep also forms part of the front wall of a larger compound with two more large towers."

03-Early Renaissance Chateaux- The spiral staircase of Château de Chambord, 1519-1536, by Cortona.

RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE, FRANCE; Francois I (Reign; 1515–1547). After the invasions of Italy by France, in 1500-25, Francois I introduced Frenchmen to the Italian Renaissance.

RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE, FRANCE, Fontainebleau; Cour d'Honneur at Fontainebleau (16th cen), "During the first half of the 16th century, Francis I established his court at Fontainebleau outside Paris, where he employed numerous Italian architects and artists, including Sebastiano Serlio, Il Rosso, and Francesco Primaticcio. At the same time native architects, such as Pierre Lescot and Philibert Delorme, who had visited Rome, became the driving force behind the Renaissance movement in…

04- Fountainebleau; Site plan of The Châteaue of Fontainebleau, near Paris. "The Châteaue of Fontainebleau was built by Francois I. The older château on this site was already used in the latter part of the 12th century by King Louis VII. The additions at Fontainebleau was begun in 1528 with a plan inspired by Poggio a Caiano.

04-, Fountainebleau; Porte Dorée. "The architect Gilles le Breton (d. 1553) extended the medieval buildings of which the principal survivals are the Porte Dorée, with superimposed logge."

04- Fountainebleau; the Galerie Francois I at The Châteaue of Fontainebleau. "The Long Gallery at Fountainebleau, is the earliest example of a type of room which became popular, though its architectural origin and even its function remain unclear. Its interior decoration of c. 1533-40 is by Giovanni Battista Rosso (1494-1540- a Florentine artist).

04- Fountainebleau; Francois I gallery. "The French Mannerist style of interior decoration is known as the "Fontainebleau style": it combined sculpture, metalwork, painting, stucco and woodwork, and outdoors introduced the patterned garden parterre. The Fontainebleau style combined allegorical paintings in moulded plasterwork .

04- Fountainebleau; Plan of the Grand Ferrare, 1541-8, by Serlio. "The course of French architecture was further influenced by the arrival at Fontainebleau in 1540 from Venice of Sebastiano Serlio (1475-1554), who had worked under Peruzzi from 1514 until the Sack of Rome. At Fontainebleau he built the now demolished Grand Ferrare. A town house or hôtel runed three sides of a courtyard, this established the typical French plan for such houses for over a century."

05- Fountainebleau; courtyard view of Chateau of Ancy-le-Franc, Burgundy, (1544-1550), by Serlio. "Serlio principal building in France is the Château of Ancy-le-Franc in Burgundy (c. 1541-50).

05- Fountainebleau; plan of Chateau of Ancy-le-Franc, Burgundy(1544-1550), by Serlio

07- Site plan of Louvre, Paris. "The early part of the new Louvre, begun about 1546 on the site of the old castle of Philippe Auguste which Francis I had demolished in order to rebuild in the new style.

The Square Court of the Louvre, Paris, begun 1546, by Lescot. "The building which established French classicism was the Square Court of the Louvre for Francois I by Pierre Lescot(1510-15-1578). Lescot knowledge of ancient art very likely in great part through Serlio's book which had been published in 1537."

06- Lescot Wing, 1546-1551, The Square Court of the Louvre, Paris, by Lescot. The "Lescot Wing" is the oldest portion existing above ground level of the Louvre Palace. The mediaeval features were replaced with Italian Mannerism, though the rectangular pavilions reflecting the mediaeval French traditional forms.

Fontaine des Innocents, 1547-50, by Lescot, Paris. "The architecture of the fountain was inspired by the nymphaeum of ancient Rome. It was constructed by Lescot and sculptor Jean Goujon."

Philibert de l'Orme (Lyon,1505/10-1570, Paris). "Philibert de l'Orme was One of the most distinguished architects of early French classicism. He studied the antique in Rome (c. 1533–36). Most of his work has been destroyed. In his two architectural treatises, Nouvelles Inventions pour bien bastir et à petits fraiz (1561) and Le Premier Tome de l’architecture (1568), he explained the theories behind his practices."

Courtyard and terrace of château de Saint-Maur. In c. 1540, Philibert de l'Orme designed the château at St-Maur-les-Fossés near Charenton. It was an echo of the Palazzo del Té.