Character of Renaissance Architecture — Key Ideas to Explore

Medieval Forms Beneath Classic Dress

Moore repeatedly identifies buildings where Renaissance ornament overlays a fundamentally medieval structure. The Palazzo del Consiglio in Verona, he notes, is a 'mediæval broletto scheme dressed out in Renaissance details which it would be better without.' Its open arcaded basement and plain-walled superstructure are medieval in form; the neo-classic pilasters and entablatures, he argues, are 'inappropriate and meaningless' additions. Similarly, the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan, designed by the Florentine architect Filarete, features a blind arcade with round arches and stumpy columns that Moore describes as 'mixed and debased mediæval character with no application of classic orders.' The building's brick and terra-cotta ornament, including pointed arches and foliate reliefs, further distances it from pure Renaissance ideals. Moore's point is clear: many Renaissance buildings are not new creations but medieval types re-clad in classicizing detail, often with awkward results.

The Venetian Palace: Unequal Divisions and Column Pairs

Moore devotes careful attention to Venetian palace facades, noting a persistent feature: the unequal spacing of openings derived from medieval prototypes. In the Palazzo Grimani by Sanmichele, columns are set in pairs only in the lateral bays, while the central bays remain wider. Even the later, 'heavy rococo' Palazzo Pesaro by Longhena preserves these unequal main divisions. Moore observes that the general effect of evenly spaced columns in the upper stories masks the narrower proportions of the three middle openings—a subtlety that only close examination reveals. This tension between apparent regularity and actual asymmetry is a recurring pattern Moore highlights. He contrasts this with the more rigid symmetry of Roman-inspired designs, suggesting that Venetian architects retained a medieval sense of rhythm even as they adopted classic orders. The result, in Moore's view, is a hybrid that often lacks the coherence of either pure Gothic or pure classic architecture.

Filarete's Milan: Terra-Cotta and Pointed Arches

Moore's analysis of the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan offers a detailed case study of Renaissance architecture's mixed character. Designed by the Florentine Filarete around 1450, the building is of brick with elaborate terra-cotta ornaments. Its basement has a 'blind arcade of round arches on stumpy columns with Corinthianesque capitals,' but within each bay is a compound opening of two pointed arches under a larger pointed arch—a distinctly Gothic motif. Moore points out the 'heavy and inelegant' corbels supporting window-sills, and the medallions with busts set in tympanums and spandrels. The upper story arcade has 'more simple neo-classic profiling' and 'more refined and conventional foliate ornamentation,' yet the overall composition remains eclectic. Moore's description is precise: he notes the 'ressauts' (projections) under columns, the 'wide frieze somewhat like an entablature,' and the way the building mixes medieval and classic elements without fully integrating them. For Moore, this exemplifies the Renaissance tendency to apply classic details as surface decoration rather than as a coherent structural system.

Moore's book is not a survey but an argument, and readers will benefit from following his critical eye. He expects you to look closely at the relationship between structure and ornament, and to question whether classic details serve the building or merely decorate it. His judgments are sharp and sometimes dismissive, but they are grounded in specific observations of proportion, material, and historical precedent. Whether you agree or disagree, Moore forces a reexamination of familiar monuments.

The rain kept drumming on the window as I finished Moore’s chapter on the Palazzo del Consiglio, struck by how its classical columns felt like borrowed costumes on a Gothic frame. That sense of surface meaning masking deeper currents stayed with me, and I found myself reaching for Greek Tragedy in the Light of Vase Paintings — Reading Notes, wondering if those painted figures, too, wore gestures that signified something entirely other.