Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

nious design. The Renaissance architect’s concern for proportion led

him to equalize the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the facade,

which left it considerably shorter than the church behind it. Because

of the primary importance of visual appeal, many Renaissance ar-

chitects made this concession not only to the demands of a purely

visual proportionality in the facade but also to the facade’s relation

to the small square in front of it, even at the expense of continuity

with the body of the building. Yet structural correspondences to the

building do exist in Sant’Andrea’s facade. The pilasters are the same

height as those on the nave’s interior walls, and the central barrel

vault over the main exterior entrance, with smaller barrel vaults

branching off at right angles, introduces on a smaller scale the

arrangement of the nave and aisles (FIG. 21-45). The facade pi-

lasters, as part of the wall, run uninterrupted through three stories in

an early application of the colossalor giant orderthat became a fa-

vorite motif of Michelangelo.

The Princely Courts 573

21-44Leon Battista Alberti, west

facade of Sant’Andrea, Mantua, Italy,

designed 1470, begun 1472.

Alberti’s design for Sant’Andrea reflects

his study of ancient Roman architecture.

Employing a colossal order, the architect

locked together a triumphal arch and a

Roman temple front with pediment.

21-45Leon Battista Alberti, plan of Sant’Andrea, Mantua, Italy,

designed 1470, begun 1472.

In his architectural treatise, Alberti criticized the traditional basilican

plan as impractical and designed Sant’Andrea as a single huge hall

with independent chapels branching off at right angles.

N

0 50 1 00 feet

0 10 20 30 meters

Nave

Chapels

Dome

SANT’ANDREA One of the major projects Gonzaga instituted
was the redesigning of the church of Sant’Andrea to replace an 11th-
century church. Gonzaga turned to the renowned architect Leon Bat-
tista Alberti for this important commission. The facade (FIG. 21-44)
Alberti designed locked together two complete ancient Roman ar-
chitectural motifs—the temple front and the triumphal arch. The
combination was already a familiar feature of Roman buildings still
standing in Italy. For example, many triumphal arches incorporated
a pediment over the arcuated passageway and engaged columns, but
there is no close parallel in antiquity for Alberti’s eclectic and inge-