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@PHDTHESIS{Niethammer:667470,
author = {Niethammer, Bernhard},
othercontributors = {Pieper, Jan and Raabe, Christian},
title = {{D}ie {A}rchitekturoberflächen der {V}illa {I}mperiale zu
{P}esaro : {B}emerkungen über die {B}edeutung von {P}utz
und {F}arbe in der italienischen {V}illen- und
{P}alastarchitektur der {R}enaissance},
school = {Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen},
type = {Dissertation},
address = {Aachen},
reportid = {RWTH-2016-06250},
pages = {1 Online-Ressource (388 Seiten) : Illustrationen,
Diagramme},
year = {2015},
note = {Veröffentlicht auf dem Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen
University 2016; Dissertation, Rheinisch-Westfälische
Technische Hochschule Aachen, 2015},
abstract = {Architectural surfaces of the Villa Imperiale in PesaroThe
present study addresses the importance of plaster and colour
in Renaissance architecture. The starting point of
examination is the Villa Imperiale in Pesaro, which belongs
to the incunabula of the Italian High Renaissance and which
is still preserving a variety of architectural features
until this day due to its history of owners and
restorations. Especially the architect Girolamo Genga stands
for the examined topic. Therefore, his career as well as his
work will be presented exemplarily in this study.The Villa
Imperiale is well known for its sophisticated fresco
structures in relevant art historical literature. According
to unanimous opinion of historical research, these
structures are referring to the eventful life of Francesco
Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino. In this context mostly
the question of authorship was discussed without regarding
the exterior appearance in form of the architectural
surfaces and their effect on the viewer. These simply
don’t exist for the science of art until now. From this
very narrowed point of view, the villa is seen as an ideal
example of material shown architecture how it is often
claimed for the Renaissance. However, can this claim really
be sustained? To firstly examine this question, the existing
theoretical knowledge of that time was examined under the
viewpoint of plaster and colour in architecture. Hereby it
was found that primarily G. A. Rusconi made some more than
vague comments regarding this topic, even though especially
plaster and colour were used as means of architectural
design in the Renaissance. Besides Rusconi, it was S. Serlio
who surprisingly made the usage of plaster and colour as a
means of designing architectural frontages his subject of
discussion. For him both materials either used individually
or combined, were an effective instrument in architecture to
standardise frontages and on the other side to individualise
them. Regarding architectural treatises, it can be
ascertained that a majority of them refused to interpret the
different levels of meaning of plaster and colour in
architecture and thus deny their relevance for the exterior
appearance. Only the very precise information about
production and application of plaster and colour highlight
their unexpressed artistic and iconographic importance in
former times. This information must also be known by the
architect of the Villa Imperiale, Girolame Genga. He was
born in 1476 in the little town Urbino in the Markes, which
experienced the first period of political and artistic
prosperity under the rule of Federico da Montefeltros. At
that time whole areas of the town were built from anew and
remodelled in the style of that time. Simultaneously, Urbino
became one of the leading centres of Humanism in Italy. In
this cosmopolitan environment the young Genga learned the
art of pictorial design. Hereby especially multi-figured
paintings belonged to his strengths whereas his attempts in
architecture oftentimes appear weak and flat.However, over
the years he changed over to produce stage- and festival
decorations. The emphasis of his work was laid on creating
illusionistic pictures as before. His paintings of sceneries
and decorations should later shape his architectural work.
Similar to his illusionistic paintings, his buildings have
no plastic depth. This becomes only clear for the observers
by viewing the interaction of light and shadow on the planar
and large building surfaces.Remaining faithful to his
formation, also the Villa Imperiale, his major work, got
only weakly textured reliefs, which can only unfold their
full potential in the interaction of light and shadow
similar to a large stage. The integral part of this staging
is the still rudimentary existing and very differentiated
handling of architectural surfaces of the villa, which shows
the artist’s background as a painter.The weakly textured
relief of the villa Nuova is only perceivable by a
monochrome, harmonised suspender beam in the play of the sun
on its frontage. It marks a contrast to the older Villa
Sforza, which was transformed into a “medieval estate”
as Renovatio of an already existing Casa Rurale. Outwardly
it looks like a well-fortified castell, inside like a
valuable precious item, which tells the history of the owner
to its visitors. For this, Genga used his education as an
artist and created a connection between illusion and
reality.Observing both buildings, various traces of former
plaster can be detected. However as the covering plaster has
diminished today it has mostly been ignored by art science.
The plaster’s existence can alone be perceived by the mere
size of the building, as for its construction millions of
bricks would have to be produced on site. Since a process as
such would have cost several years, demolition material was
used, which can be clearly seen by observing the masonry
bond. To create a uniform and cohesive surface - material
was only means to an end - the façades got a light plaster
that let the building appear like a large, prismatic body
from nearby and far off. This picture again appears like a
view of one of the various paintings of their master, like a
piece of staffage architecture in a magnificent
landscape.Now the question has to be raised whether this was
a mere coincidence or whether it can be seen as a specific
selection of designed surfaces. As it can be derived from
the above mentioned literature, during the whole renaissance
period the topic was not part of any theoretical
consideration. Instead the impression is created as if the
usage of plaster and colour was taken for granted and not
being worth to discuss. Only in Alberti’s references
evidence can be found indicating a preferred application of
these materials. Primarily, the brick limited the production
of certain forms of design due to its small formats. With
the aid of plaster and colour remedy could be provided
despite this deficit and even larger stone formats could be
imitated in a deceptively real looking way. And the fact
that Genga made use of these means goes without saying
considering his education. Changing the focus away from his
person, it can be stated that the application of plaster and
colour has become one of the essential forms of design media
in architecture of the Renaissance. Virtually all great
architects of that time made use of them for an effective
and simultaneously economic design of their buildings. By
this, they gained independence from certain, only regionally
available construction materials and were able to bring
themselves more into line with antique architecture, which
itself aimed to create effects with plastered or stuccoed
surfaces it would never have achieved with mere material.On
the scale of things it can be justifiably claimed that
plaster and colour represent the actual exterior of a
building and contribute essentially to the appearance of its
architecture. They determine perception of the building’s
architecture as well as its perspective. For this reason
plaster and colour inseperably belong to the architectural
plan and are in no sense exchangeable surfaces how modern
architectural theory likes to proclaim.},
cin = {217110 / 217220},
ddc = {720},
cid = {$I:(DE-82)217110_20140620$ / $I:(DE-82)217220_20170801$},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)11},
urn = {urn:nbn:de:hbz:82-rwth-2016-062501},
url = {https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/667470},
}
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