Youtube clip that shows detail of Spanish Renaissance and Moorish influence in architecture!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLgplXmxoZU

This video is very short, so I thought it was nice for everyone to watch & learn without wasting precious time.  It shows very good picture with detail of Spanish Renaissance architecture and Moorish influence in their design.

Enjoy!

Reflection #13 Spanish Renaissance

Sammy’s blog;
She talked about how Spanish Renaissance had two different design phases such as “Plateresco” and “Desornamentado”.  She wrote very good summary of each phases with great photos as examples.  Great job!

Katie’s blog;

She did great job on summarizing all the historical background of this time period and the architecture and their key features.  I also enjoyed reading furniture description that she mainly focused on.  I was more focused in writing about architecture on blog so it was nice that I got to learn furniture from her blog. Great job!

Spanish Renaissance

Spanish Renaissance

Historical background;

Italian Renaissance was very influential to other countries during this time period.   Spain was one of the countries that were reacted to the new movement.  The new movement encouraged people to focus in art, literature, and science.  Interestingly, there was influence from Moor in Spain which makes huge difference in design compare to Italian renaissance.  Moors who converted to Christianity is called Mudejar.  It is interesting to see their architectural design before and after the expulsion of Moors in 1607.  Besides Moorish and Italian Renaissance influences, their design elements were also contained Early Christian and medieval design styles.

 

At the time, Spain was very strong nation with wealth.  They conquered Central America and some other countries around that time.  They had many silvers and gold were brought over to their country.  They had many valuable materials that they could apply into their designs.  Also unlimited amount of esthetic materials were locally available such as granite. 

Architecture;

Alhambra; the palace was the very last palace that was completed before the expulsion of the moors.  Exterior of the palace is very plain, simplicity focused compared to Italian Renaissance.  The climate and geography allowed them to have beautiful water wells and pools. 

 

La Mota Castle; Spain is well-known for having the greatest number of castles compared to any other European countries.  I found this building very special because of the shape of the castle.  All the Renaissance period have been introducing more rectilinear shaped buildings but this castle has cylinder shaped towers.

Furniture;

Wooden bench; I think the Spanish Renaissance is the first time period that started producing bench.  It can tell us that people were more socially active and society was more stable at the time.

 

Papelera; We do not find anything new when we think about paper documents today, but printing was introduced during Italian Renaissance, so the cabinet to store the paper documents were very creative invention during this time period.  Beautiful wooden carving works were one of the Spanish's greatest achievement at the time.

 

Current Application;


The motif that were popular during Spanish Renaissance were still available today in many fabric company.

Italian Renaissance helpful video from East Tennessee State University

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i6Gtut5DXc

It is very long video, but I found this very helpful for learning terms for the architecture, design, and this person also gives good inforamtion about the society during the renaissance.

ENJOY!!

Reflection #12 Italian Renaissance

Flor’s blog;

She listed all the elements of design that were used in vertical and horizontal surfaces such as wall, floor, and ceiling and how they were designed in this time period. She did great job on listing all the key features in design as well as the demographic information during this time period.  Great job!

John’s blog;

He focused on the life during Italian Renaissance.  I enjoyed reading his blog, especially the part of  the invention during this time period and also the science or philosophy that were started to value during this time.  I tends to focus on architecture or furniture designs in learning of history of design, but I realized how important to also focus on their life in the past. Great job!

Italian Renaissance

Italian Renaissance (1400 – 1600)

 

Renaissance the period of time, when art, literature, philosophy, and scientific ideas became very important and new art was produced. It began in Florence, Italy.  Many people are likely to think Renaissance as an evolution of design, but actually it is a revolution.  In Italian Renaissance time period, mainly Greek and Roman styles were studied by many designers as precedent study. It was the fusion of revival and the new styles.  Sufficient amount of marble were available at the time and it allowed designers to develop their gorgeous designs.

During this time period, tremendous amount of design with finest quality were introduced in Italy.  All the designers such as architect, painter, furniture designer, sculptor, and many other artists were hired in long-term than previous time periods.  I think it gave them a sufficient time to really focus on what they do for living.  They studied past designs from excavations and applied into their new designs.

Palazzo

Façade of the palazzo shows repetition, alternation, and progression of the design.  The structures and designs are very similar to what we have seen in Greek or Roman classical orders.

Palazzo Davanzati

Interiors were decorated with Frescos, Tapestries, with decorative fireplace. Compared to earlier designs, Renaissance designs are very colorful, rich in materials and quantity of decoration. I realized the interior space of Palazzo was very open concept which is the trends in our society today.  I like how the designers incorporated many windows to allow the daylight to come into interior spaces.  I always enjoy learning history of interior design in a perspective of sustainability.  There are many ideas in the past when they did not even have electricity in their life.  For this particular example, placement of windows and the quantity allows sufficient daylight to light the interior space.

Furniture

Cassone; It was used as Trousseau of a bride.  If you look at the details and the works that has been done to this piece, it tells us that they meant marriage as the important activity in life.  It has large painting on the front of the chest.  It has inlaid panels.  It also has the element of classical orders and moldings.



Saconarola chair; This chair is consist of many X shaped support.  This type of chair was seen in Greek or Roman time period, but Italian Renaissance designers made it more lighter appearance by creating repetition of legs and somehow made it more delicate and sophisticated.

Current application

Style of Italian Renaissance are still admired and satisfying us today.  These are example of current application that I thought they were outstanding. 

Pyramid Castillo, Chichen Itza, Yukatan, Mexico

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7l3UjOfzzo

I found this video very helpful for you to see how beautiful the design of the pyramid Castillo is.  This pyramid was designed by master of astronomy and designer hid some cool art that it can be only seen on the certain day of the year.  You should find out what it is !

Reflection #11 Americas

Katie’s blog;

She wrote about Olmec which I also did on my blog but she did quite differently than I did.  I got to learn some information that were not familiar with such as Olmec artifact, and great example of current application from her blog. It is always great to see others posting information or pictures that were not presented in lecture notes or our book.  Great Job!

Margaret's blog;

She did excellent job on summarizing the information from Olmec and Maya.  I really liked she posted Mesoamerica's geographic and how it related to their culture and religion.  It is always important for us to have the background information to understand their arts and design, how they came up with the ideas.  Great job!