Meanwhile, in Urbino, the Della Rovere family was laying the groundwork for the High Renaissance when their son Giuliano became Pope Julius II, bringing along the architect Donato Bramante and painter Raphael with him to Rome.

Their ducal palace in Urbino, which I’ve looked at before, was a center of Humanist learning, focusing on ancient culture, including architecture, best memorialized in Baldassare Castiglione’s The Courtier, which was written about the Della Rovere court.

Bramante, who had been working in Milan (we looked at his work at Santa Maria Presso San Satiro), built the Tempietto, the site of St. Peter’s martyrdom, creating the first Renaissance building in Rome. The Tempietto revives ancient theories on proportions, design and order.

Meanwhile, much as Brunelleschi and Alberti had carefully studied ancient Roman ruins, such examination continued with Bramante and Michelangelo.

The Basilica of Constantine and Maxentius, a late Roman Imperial masterpiece of vaulting, proved to be of great importance, having already inspiring the Church of Sant’ Andrea in Mantua by Alberti.

Even in ruins it never ceases to impress.

This all leads up to the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica, commenced on the orders of Pope Julius II. Michelangelo, only one of several architects put in charge of the architecture, followed Bramante and Raphael. His use of the “Colossal Order” revolutionized the basilica’s design, which he also utilized at the Campidoglio, alternating colossal pilasters and columns with smaller counterparts of the same, as you can see below.

“Magnificent is his work.”

The other greatest contribution, of course, is Michelangelo’s design for the dome, which is slightly altered and sadly scarred by mosaics of a lesser artist afterwards.

Michelangelo and others were inspired by the monumental ruins of Imperial Rome such as the Baths of Caracalla, where he also salvaged famous sculpture which still influences sculptors to this day.

The Renaissance would continue in Florence, though political power had long shifted away from that city. The Pitti Palace, built in Fifteenth Century with some nice rusticated masonry, would receive the Boboli Gardens as the Medici became first the Dukes and then the Grand Dukes of Tuscany.

If you remember the Luxembourg Palace in Paris built for Marie de Medici, you can see the influence of the courtyard facing the gardens.

Michelangelo was designing palaces, as well, and the Palazzo Farnese was one of his commissions. Gone are the rough stones of the past and a more refined stone and brickwork take its place. The same tripartite facade remains. Note the alternating pedimented and half lunette lintels on the windows, everywhere from the White House to dozens of mansions use those motifs in their exterior decoration.

The Renaissance would continue to evolve into a Late period, and we see more elaborate and contorted architecture in gardens such as the Villa d’Este, which I visited in 2009 and 2018. I hope this gives readers a better understanding of what Renaissance architecture is, and what it isn’t!