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Comparative Plan Analysis

To me the lesson is not how one plan configuration dominated another, but how skillfully designers were able to blend the two concerns. Most church plans dating to the middle ages, based on Latin cross and human form, already employed a combination of centralized crossing at the end of the nave [Illustration to left]. The plans we are about to compare on the following pages took this concept to the next step.

Following is a comparison of the plans of Sant’Andrea [Mantova] of the original, nave-only design by Alberti; the Church of the Gesú [Rome] by Vignola; San Giorgio Maggiore [Venice]; Il Redentore [Venice]; and concluding, just for fun, with the Tempietto Barbaro [Maser], all by Palladio. The elevations of these church designs have been added to the foldout of the previous paper, “in regalo,” and to the same scale.

The illustration below presents the plans of Sant’Andrea; the Church of the Gesú; San Giorgio Maggiore; and Il Redentore to the same scale, demonstrating another interesting discovery—they are all similar in length and width.

San Salvatore, Venice. Giorgio Spavento 1507. (Furnari)

Transept and nave are deliberately unarticulated to emphasize derivation from Latin cross plan.

San Giorgio Maggiore

Gesú

Sant’Andrea

Il Redentore

Sant’Andrea [Mantova], Alberti, begun 1472

Counterclockwise from upper left:

• Diagram showing primary spatial reading of nave.

• Diagram showing secondary spatial readings of nave and “triumphal arch” chapels.

• Diagram showing tertiary spaces, in the way of smaller chapels.

• Plan of original nave-only scheme by Alberti (Tavernor). The light lines depict the additions by Viani, Torre and Juvarra (Furnari).

• Section of original scheme by Alberti (Tavernor).

[All diagrams same scale]

Church of the Gesú [Rome], Vignola, begun 1568

Counterclockwise from upper left:

• Diagram showing spatial and structural organization based on nave only layout.

• Diagram showing central element as a stand-alone building.

• Diagram showing spatial organization of plan as actually constructed.

• Plan as actually constructed (Lotz).

• Section as actually constructed (Lotz).

[All diagrams same scale]

San Giorgio Maggiore [Venice], Palladio, begun 1565

Counterclockwise from upper left:

• Diagram showing spatial and structural organization based on nave only layout.

• Diagram showing central element with emphasis on rounded chapels.

• Diagram showing spatial organization of plan as actually constructed.

• Plan as actually constructed (Lotz).

• Section as actually constructed (Lotz).

[All diagrams same scale]

Il Redentore [Venice], Palladio, begun 1567

Counterclockwise from upper left:

• Diagram showing spatial and structural organization based on nave only layout.

• Diagram showing central element as a stand-alone building.

• Diagram showing spatial organization of plan as actually constructed.

• Plan as actually constructed (Lotz).

• Section as actually constructed (Lotz).

Center:

• Santa Maria della Conzolazione, Todi. Cola da Caprarola, et. al. (Lotz).

[All diagrams same scale]

Tempietto Barbaro [Maser], Palladio, begun 1580

From left: spatial diagram; plan and section (Furnari). [note scale change from other diagrams]

Conclusion

In this article we have compared the seminal plan designs of five churches that represent a changing position on the issue of nave versus central plan. In seeking an advancement in facade layering, in the design of Andrea Palladio, instead I found it in plan layering.

Based on a comparative analysis of the plans, I feel that Vignola and Palladio both kept the idea of centrality alive, while seeming to address the clerical insistence on nave churches. They accomplished this by creating masterful overlays that provide the best of both worlds, not only to the client-user but also to the architectural critic. The mastery comes from not making the duality of the plans obvious, yet leaving design clues that underscored their intentions.  

Ironically, the architect who professed centrality, Leon Battista Alberti, left us, in his final constructed work, with the most literal, long-nave church design of the Renaissance. Boucher concludes that the program space needed to display the blood-of-Christ relics, in contrast to a liturgical church function, justified the use of this single large hall space. Only subsequently was the form of the space deemed inadequate and a large centralizing element was added by Juvarra.

Similarly, it seems fitting that Palladio, in the design of his final church commission, that of the Tempietto Barbaro at Maser—a mini-Pantheon—should finally have the opportunity to create the perfect centralized church, much as Giuseppe Verdi longed his whole career to produce a [successful] comic opera, and fulfilled that dream in his final work, Falstaff, when he was in his 80s. To me, Palladio's late-in-life Tempietto has a similar buffo feel.

Bibliography

Bruce Boucher, Andrea Palladio: The Architect in His Time, Abbeville Press, New York 1998.

Michele Furnari, Formal Design in Renaissance Architecture, From Brunelleschi to Palladio, Rizzoli, New York 1995.

Wolfgang Lotz, Architettura in Italia 1500–1600, Yale University Press, Milano 1997.

Joseph Rykwert e Anne Engel (a cura), Leon Battista Alberti, Olivetti/Electa 1994.

Robert Tavernor, On Alberti and the Art of Building, Yale University Press, New Haven 1998.

Rudolf Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism, Norton New York 1971.

From top:

• Tempietto Barbaro, Maser, by Andrea Palladio, ca. 1580, a mini-Pantheon, as seen from Via Cornudathere is something comical about the design, reminiscent of Mozart's Musical Joke, or...

• "Sir John" Falstaff in his finest regalia, or...

• The light-hearted "Tempietto" at the Sacro Bosco, Bomarzo, also ca. 1580.

• A detail from a painting by Canaletto, of the Pantheon around 1720, is really revealing: note the two bell towers, designed by Carlo Moderno and Borromini, which were not removed until 1883; and, remnants of the overlapping pediment are still evident, something that other painters seemed to have ignored.

Hans A. Rosbach

Ben Skála, Benfoto Wikipedia

Shakespeare's Staging Berkeley.edu

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