SKETCHES, PHOTOS, THEORY AND RANDOM ARCHITECTURAL THOUGHTS BY AN EDUCATOR (AND WANNA-BE GLOBETREKKING) ARCHITECT.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Santa Maria Novella


Photo of the Day: Santa Maria Novella (Leon Battista Alberti, 1456-70)
Speaking of Alberti (in the previous post), here is a façade that is definitely designed by him. 

Leon Battista Alberti was a humanist and a philosopher, who saw architecture as a means to address societal order.  For Alberti, a renaissance architect should be a universalist, an intellectual, and a man of genius.  (no pressure there!)

Alberti designed this façade at Santa Maria Novella onto an existing medieval church.  His design is based on whole number proportional relationships driven by the circle and the square, the idealized mathematical forms of the renaissance.

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