CHAPTER VII

PALACE ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMAN RENAISSANCE

The Cancellaria--Its attribution to Bramante--Exhibits features in further conformity with the Roman antique--Its pilasters in pairs--Its projecting bays--Its portals--Arcades of its court--The Palazzo Massimi--The functional order of its portico--Treatment of the upper façade--The Palazzo Farnese--Application of orders and pediments to the windows--The broken entablatures of these windows--An ancient example of similar treatment--Orders of the court--Awkward result in the angles--Rhythmical scheme of the cloister of Santa Maria della Pace--Lack of reason for this scheme--The architect Sansovino--His design for the Library of St. Mark at Venice--Treatment of the angles of the Doric order--Free-standing column in the order of the upper story--Sansovino’s design for the Loggetta of the Campanile--His design for the Palazzo Cornaro--Sanmichele--His design for the Porta del Palio at Verona--His design for the Palazzo Canossa--The Palazzo Pompei alla Vittoria--The Palazzo Bevilacqua--Its singular aberrations of design--Vignola’s design for the Palazzo Caprarola--Influence of its circular court on De l’Orme and Inigo Jones--The civic and domestic architecture of Palladio--The Portico of Vicenza--Its derivation from the town hall of Padua and from the Library of St. Mark--Syrian instance of the free-standing column in connection with the arch--Palladio’s own estimate of the merits of this design--Use of poor materials by Palladio--His versatility in meaningless composition--His palace fronts--Palladio a grammatical formalist--The art of Scamozzi--His use of an entablature broken by an arch 112