The Italian Renaissance Palace Facade
Structures of Authority, Surfaces of Sense
Published on 30. April 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
312 pages
978-0-521-10973-4 (ISBN)
Description
The architectural facade addresses and enhances the space of the city, while displaying, or dissembling, interior arrangements. In this book, Charles Burroughs tracks the emergence of the facade in late medieval Florence and then follows the sharply diverging reactions of Renaissance architects to new demands and possibilities for representation in both residential and governmental contexts. Understanding the facade as an assemblage of elements of diverse character and origin, Burroughs explores the wide range of formal solutions available to architects and patrons. In the absence of explicit reflection on the facade in Renaissance architectural discourse, Burroughs notes the theoretical implications of certain celebrated designs, implying mediation on the nature of architecture itself and the society it serves and represents, as well as on the relationship between nature and culture.
Reviews / Votes
"The strength of the book is undeniably Burroughs's methodology and sources outside the scope of traditional architectural studies, and to this end Burroughs accomplishes his goal of writing something that will bridge the gap between practical examinations of Renaissance architecture and theory." Michelle Duran-McLure, University of Montevallo, H-Net "...no one who studies the facades of Rome and Florence will have read more widely or pack his notes more intriguingly with the latest in cultural studies and architectural theory [than Burroughs]." Renaissance Quarterly "...a provocative look at secular, mostly domestic, facades as cultural phenomena...at once logical and idiosyncratic, a combination that recalls the speed and serendipity of discourse around a seminar table." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians "...Burrough's interpretive framework offers a welcome and stimulating reconsideration of many subjects." Sixteenth Century Journal, Andrew Hopkins, Villa I Tatti, FlorenceMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
5 Maps; 55 Halftones, unspecified; 13 Line drawings, unspecified
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 170 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
542 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-10973-4 (9780521109734)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Content
Introduction; 1. The forked road to modernity: ambiguities of the Renaissance facade; 2. Domestic architecture and Boccaccian drama: court and city in Florentine culture; 3. Between opacity and rhetoric: the facade in Trecento Florence; 4. The facade in question: Brunelleschi; 5. The bones of grammar and the rhetoric of flesh; 6. Setting and subject: the city of presences and the street as stage; 7. Bramante and the emblematic facade; 8. Facades on parade: architecture between court and city; 9. From street to territory: projections of the urban facade; Notes; Bibliography; Index.