Mannerist architecture

Mannerist architecture was characterized by visual trickery and unexpected elements that challenged the renaissance norms. Flemish artists, many of whom had traveled to Italy and were influenced by Mannerist developments there, were responsible for the spread of Mannerist trends into Europe north of the Alps, including into the realm of architecture.  During the period, architects experimented with using architectural forms to emphasize solid and spatial relationships. The Renaissance ideal of harmony gave way to freer and more imaginative rhythms. The best known architect associated with the Mannerist style, and a pioneer at the Laurentian Library, was Michelangelo (1475–1564). He is credited with inventing the giant order, a large pilaster that stretches from the bottom to the top of a façade. He used this in his design for the Campidoglio in Rome.

Prior to the 20th century, the term Mannerism had negative connotations, but it is now used to describe the historical period in more general non-judgmental terms. Mannerist architecture has also been used to describe a trend in the 1960s and 1970s that involved breaking the norms of modernist architecture while at the same time recognizing their existence. Defining mannerist in this context, architect and author Robert Venturi wrote "Mannerism for architecture of our time that acknowledges conventional order rather than original expression but breaks the conventional order to accommodate complexity and contradiction and thereby engages ambiguity unambiguously."

Architecture 

The architecture Mannerist born from the tradition established by Renaissance architects such as Alberti , Filippo Brunelleschi and Bramante in the fifteenth century and early sixteenth, which derived their inspiration mainly from ancient treatises as Vitruvius and Roman ruins that remained visible from antiquity and served as memento perennial of the grandiose classical past, whose influence had never been lost to the Italians at all. The perspective developed in the fifteenth century and the growing importance of drawing as an auxiliary of knowledge were fundamental elements for the development of the classicist architectural style, which reached a high point in works such asPazzi Chapel and the Tempietto of Bramante, which consecrated the system of proportions and the organization of the typical spaces of the High Renaissance.

Being classicism established with great homogeneity in the early sixteenth century, its revision introduced by Mannerism also affected the constructive style. The tradition of Treatiseism declines and there arises a new generation of strongly individualistic architects who allowed themselves great formal freedoms and made the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque. Vasari said in his Vitethat earlier architects had brought architecture to a high level of quality, but lacked an element that prevented them from achieving perfection - freedom. Describing architecture as a system of definite rules, he declared that new buildings should follow the example of the ancient classical masters, keeping the whole in order and avoiding a mixture of disparate elements. In this line of ideas he added that creative freedom, while falling short of some rules, was not incompatible with order and correction, and had the advantage of being guided by the judgment of the creator himself. Gradually this position gained resonance, leading to an abandonment of the old orthodoxy and opening space for free experimentation, making coexistence of different points of view acceptable. The example of Michelangelo,considered by Vasari as the only one of the masters of the previous generation to conquer this desired freedom, and whose personal and individualistic engagement in all his activities was unusual at a time when collective labor was the rule, led the new architects to produce more and more works unique and personal. With this the traditional methodology of the high classicism goes into crisis. The dialogue between the various artistic specialties is broken, and architects now seek to solve the problems of construction within the sphere of architecture itself, without the tutelage of the literary and intellectual, and with a new sense of professionalism. This did not, however, prevent the classical elements from continuing to be employed, but in an eclectic and experimental approach, and adapted to the demands of the new society.and whose personal and individualistic engagement in all his activities was unusual at a time when collective labor was the rule, led the new architects to produce ever more unique and personalistic works. With this the traditional methodology of the high classicism goes into crisis. The dialogue between the various artistic specialties is broken, and architects now seek to solve the problems of construction within the sphere of architecture itself, without the tutelage of the literary and intellectual, and with a new sense of professionalism. This did not, however, prevent the classical elements from continuing to be employed, but in an eclectic and experimental approach, and adapted to the demands of the new society.and whose personal and individualistic engagement in all his activities was unusual at a time when collective labor was the rule, led the new architects to produce ever more unique and personalistic works. With this the traditional methodology of the high classicism goes into crisis. The dialogue between the various artistic specialties is broken, and architects now seek to solve the problems of construction within the sphere of architecture itself, without the tutelage of the literary and intellectual, and with a new sense of professionalism. This did not, however, prevent the classical elements from continuing to be employed, but in an eclectic and experimental approach, and adapted to the demands of the new society.led the new architects to produce more and more unique and personal works. With this the traditional methodology of the high classicism goes into crisis. The dialogue between the various artistic specialties is broken, and architects now seek to solve the problems of construction within the sphere of architecture itself, without the tutelage of the literary and intellectual, and with a new sense of professionalism. This did not, however, prevent the classical elements from continuing to be employed, but in an eclectic and experimental approach, and adapted to the demands of the new society.led the new architects to produce more and more unique and personal works. With this the traditional methodology of the high classicism goes into crisis. The dialogue between the various artistic specialties is broken, and architects now seek to solve the problems of construction within the sphere of architecture itself, without the tutelage of the literary and intellectual, and with a new sense of professionalism. This did not, however, prevent the classical elements from continuing to be employed, but in an eclectic and experimental approach, and adapted to the demands of the new society.The dialogue between the various artistic specialties is broken, and architects now seek to solve the problems of construction within the sphere of architecture itself, without the tutelage of the literary and intellectual, and with a new sense of professionalism. This did not, however, prevent the classical elements from continuing to be employed, but in an eclectic and experimental approach, and adapted to the demands of the new society.The dialogue between the various artistic specialties is broken, and architects now seek to solve the problems of construction within the sphere of architecture itself, without the tutelage of the literary and intellectual, and with a new sense of professionalism. This did not, however, prevent the classical elements from continuing to be employed, but in an eclectic and experimental approach, and adapted to the demands of the new society.

Among the architects who stood out in Italy are Andrea Palladio , Giulio Romano , Antonio da Sangallo , Giacomo della Porta and Jacopo Vignola . Of all of them, Palladio, the most influential architect of Mannerism and what has been studied most in the history of Western architecture,  was perhaps also the most classicist among the Mannerists, as can be seen in his masterpiece Villa Rotonda , but nevertheless introduced significant variations in the classic canon , and its large series of villasaristocratic displays of an extraordinary variety of schemes of distribution of elements and organization of space. He and his contemporaries deconstruct the canon by playing with illusions of perspective, alteration in structural rhythms, distortion of the functionality of certain elements, and sensitive flexibility in the proportions of volumetry, and his interpretation of classicism was compared to the evolution of Platonic idealism to the artistotelic empiricism .

In other European countries the classical tradition was mixed with local roots, derived from the Gothic and the Romanesque , giving rise to Portugal , for example, the Manueline , with its maximum monument in the Jeronimos Monastery , where Gothic remains the most influential important, and leaving marks also in its colonies of Brazil and India . In Spain he created the Plateresque , a unique case of a mixture between classical, Gothic and Moorish influences ,  with significant examples at the University of Salamanca , inChurch of Santo Estêvão also in Salamanca , in the University of Alcalá de Henares and in several buildings in the American colonies of Mexico and Peru . The end of the century would see in Spain a resumption of classicism , with abandonment of decorative excesses and adoption of greater austerity.

In France, the classicism was immediately welcomed with enthusiasm from the fifteenth century, producing many architectural monuments of great value as the Castle of Chambord , the Chateau de Fontainebleau , and parts of the Louvre Palace , which perform a Mannerist fact summary, associating medieval features to those of the Renaissance. Likewise in the Netherlands a very peculiar palatial style of architecture was formed, compact, very decorated and with a high frontispiece, where the City Hall of Antwerp is a typical example.  In other countries the Frederiksborg Palace in Denmark is significant; in Poland the City Hall of Poznań and Zamość ; parts of Heidelberg Castle in Germany; the Wollaton Hall , the Hardwick Hall , the Burghley House and Longleat in England, just to name a handful. Finally some additional names of Mannerist architects: Bernardo Morando , Michele Sanmichele , Philibert Delorme , Cornelis Floris de Vriendt , Bernardo Buontalenti , Giovanni Battista di Quadro and Robert Smythson .

Michele Sanmichele: Palazzo Grimani

Giovanni Battista di Quadro: Poznań prefecture

Robert Smythson; Wollaton Hall

Cornelis Floris de Vriendt: Antwerp City Hall.

Renaissance examples

An example of mannerist architecture is the Villa Farnese at Caprarola. in the rugged country side outside of Rome. The proliferation of engravers during the 16th century spread Mannerist styles more quickly than any previous styles.

Dense with ornament of "Roman" detailing, the display doorway at Colditz Castle exemplifies this northern style, characteristically applied as an isolated "set piece" against unpretentious vernacular walling.

From the late 1560s onwards, many buildings in Valletta, the new capital city of Malta, were designed by the architect Girolamo Cassar in the Mannerist style. Such buildings include St. John's Co-Cathedral, the Grandmaster's Palace and the seven original auberges. Many of Cassar's buildings were modified over the years, especially in the Baroque period. However, a few buildings, such as Auberge d'Aragon and the exterior of St. John's Co-Cathedral, still retain most of Cassar's original Mannerist design.

One of the best examples of Mannerist architecture - Palazzo Te in Mantova, designed by Giulio Romano

Giulio Romano, Pallazo Ducale in Mantova

Own house of Giulio Romano in Mantova

Baldassare Peruzzi, Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne in Rome

Michelangelo, vestibule of Laurentian Library

St. John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta, Malta

Source From Wikipedia