Università Roma Tre

In 2023-2024 the course proposes an examination of the history of ancient, medieval and Renaissance architecture with particular reference to the Mediterranean and European areas.
The course is chronological, from the most ancient architecture to the architecture of the early modern age, and will include some thematic and seminar lessons, focusing on specific aspects, which may also be treated from a diachronic perspective.

PART I. COMPARED ANTIQUITIES: Architectural orders and origin of the temple; Greece and the East. From the Parthenon to the Dydimaion; ancient building techniques; the Etruscans; Roman architecture: tempio and foro; theatres and amphitheatres; domus, villa, palace.
PART II. CULTURES AND CONNECTIONS. FROM THE DECLINE OF ROME TO THE BIRTH OF EUROPE: Rome, Milan, Constantinople, Ravenna; Longobards and Carolingians in Europe; "Proto-Romanesque" and "Romanesque" in Italy and Europe; Gothic in Europe and Italy.
PART III. ARCHITECTURE IN THE HUMANISTIC AND RENAISSANCE AGES: Filippo Brunelleschi; Leon Battista Alberti; Giuliano da Sangallo; Bramante Raphael and his workshop; Michelangelo in Florence and Rome; Giulio Romano in Rome and Mantua, Andrea Palladio; tools of architect: drawings and treatises.

- A. Bruschi et al., Lineamenti di storia dell'architettura per i corsi di storia dell'architettura: introduzione e premessa di Arnaldo Bruschi e Gaetano Miarelli Mariani, Roma, Sovera, 1994

The course aims at providing analytical and interpretative frameworks for the study of the history of architecture in Italy and the Mediterranean region in a chronological journey from ancient Rome to the end of the sixteenth century. It includes in-depth historical and critical examinations of buildings and cities, architects and patrons, materials and techniques. Special attention will be given to drawing techniques, design tools, and graphic conventions used over time.

CLASS TOPICS

PART 1: Antiquity (3rd Cent. B.C.–7th Cent. A.D.

Roman Architecture
Roman constructions and the art of building. Concrete and cast vaults. Architectural orders. Vitruvius’De architectura. Military architecture and the castrum. Public and residential buildings. The Republican-era sanctuaries in the Lazio region. The "Forma Urbis Romae" and the topography of Rome from Augustus to Diocletian. The anthropized landscape of the Romans and the territorial infrastructures. Ancient Roman cities in Italy and the Mediterranean. Marbles quarries across the Mediterranean. Focus: Apollodorus of Damascus and the Forum and Markets of Trajan.
Late Antiquity, Early Christian, and Byzantine architecture
Procopius of Caesarea and De aedificiis. Byzantine domed systems. Ecclesiastical and residential construction. Military and defensive architecture. The new Christian capitals. The birth of major Western Christian sanctuaries. Focus: Anthemius of Tralles, Isidore of Miletus, and the construction of Hagia Sophia

PART 2: Middle Ages (8th–14th Cent.)

Early Medieval and Lombard Architecture
The idea of Rome and the persistence of Roman architecture. The Carolingian "renaissance." Cities and regions of early medieval architecture. Monastic architecture between East and West. Lombard and Basilian architecture. Focus: Charlemagne's Palatine Chapel in Aachen and the plan of St Gall.
Romanesque Architecture in Europe and Italy
Local characteristics of European and Mediterranean Romanesque architecture. The rounded arch, load-bearing walls, and groin vaults. Pilgrimage churches and hospices. The Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem and the architecture ad instar. Crusader architecture. Focus: Cluny III Abbey.
Specific characteristics of Romanesque architecture in Italy. Civil and religious power buildings; itinerant craftsmen. Key figures and buildings of Romanesque Italy. Focus: Sant'Ambrogio in Milan.
Islamic Architecture
Regions, caliphates, and periodization of Islamic architecture. The Quran and the rejection of images. Pointed arches, domes, and muqarnas. Religious, residential, public, and defensive buildings. Sanctuaries in the holy cities of Islam. Garden architecture. The legacy of Islam in Western architecture: Sicily and Spain. Focus: the minaret of the Great Mosque of Samarra.
Gothic Architecture in Europe and Italy
Origin and spread of Gothic architecture. Regions and styles of Gothic architecture. The pointed arch, clustered pillars, ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, stained glass windows. Villard de Honnecour's Notebook. The circulation of Gothic craftsmen and guilds. Cathedrals and churches in the Île-de-France. Cities and construction sites of Gothic Europe. The architecture of the Benedictine Cistercian congregation and new mendicant orders. Focus: the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.
Origins of Italian Architecture
Elements of Italian urban space between the 12th and 13th centuries. The Cathedral square and the Town Hall square. Monasteries and convents in cities and their surroundings. Mercantile and bourgeois residential architecture. The Italian countryside between the 13th and 14th centuries, territorial commonwealth. The urbanization of rural areas. Key figures and buildings of Italian Gothic. Focus: San Francesco in Assisi, the Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa and Piazza San Marco in Venice.

PART 3: Renaissance (15th–16th Cent.)

Renaissance Architecture in Italy
Humanism and the memory of antiquity. Vitruvius and the rediscovery of architectural orders. The evolving role of architects and new strategies for project communication: drawings and models. Architectural treatises and the birth of perspective space. Key figures: Filippo Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti, Francesco di Giorgio, Leonardo, Bramante, Raphael. The construction of St. Peter's Basilica and Raphael's circle: Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Baldassarre Peruzzi, Giulio Romano. The architecture of Michelangelo Buonarroti. Identity of Venetian architecture: Jacopo Sansovino, Andrea Falconetto, Michele Sanmicheli. The architecture of Andrea Palladio. Focus: Humanist patronage and the prince as an architect, Pius II in Pienza and Federico da Montefeltro in Urbino.
Renaissance architecture in Europe and the Mediterranean
The international fortune of Sebastiano Serlio’s and Jacopo Vignola’s treatises. France and French classicism. The impact of Italian Renaissance in Spain, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, and Russia. The architecture of Mi'mār Sinān and the Ottoman buildings. Focus: Süleymaniye camii in Istanbul.

Site visits and excursions
Thursday classes primarily consist of site visits to archaeological sites and architectural complexes in Rome.
In conjunction with the course in History of Architecture 1 - Channel I, Professor Francesca Mattei, on Saturday, November 11, and Saturday, November 25, from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, two excursions are scheduled to Tivoli (including visits to Villa Adriana, Villa d'Este, and the Temples of Vesta and Sibyl) and to Rome (a list of specific locations to be determined).

Specific learning outcomes
The specific learning outcomes of the course will include the provision of appropriate methodologies for analyzing buildings, while considering their historical contexts and the associated economic factors, technological, socio-cultural, and aesthetic dynamics of the time. It also aims to develop adequate interpretative skills for architectural phenomena with independent judgment, linguistic proficiency, and communicative effectiveness.

1. Critically analyze architectural artifacts within their urban and spatial contexts.
2. Learn about construction techniques and the use of materials in relation to geographical and historical contexts
3. Understand the nature of space, the characteristics of the territory, and the construction of the landscape over time.
4. Critically examine sources on the history of architecture and problematize their definitions, concepts, and reference categories.
5. Recognize drawing conventions and various project communication tools according to different cultures and times.

David Watkin, "A History of Western Architecture", Lawrence King Publ. Ltd. London, 2015 or previous editions.

Owen Hopkins, "Reading Architecture. A Visual Lexicon", London, Lawrence King Publ. Ltd., 2012.