Renaissance architecture

High school (ages 12+)
Art & Creativity

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/renaissance-architecture

1. What is the primary geographic centers?
2. What is the key theoretical texts?
3. What is Renaissance architecture and how is it different from Gothic architecture?
4. Why did architects during the Renaissance look back to ancient Greece and Rome?

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the primary geographic centers?Florence, Rome, Venice, and other Italian city-states
2. What is the key theoretical texts?Alberti's 'De re aedificatoria', Serlio's 'Tutte l'opere d'architettura et prospettiva'
3. What is Renaissance architecture and how is it different from Gothic architecture?Renaissance architecture, built from the 1400s to the 1600s, uses balanced shapes, straight lines, and ideas from ancient Greece and Rome. It is less tall and more orderly than the tall, pointed Gothic buildings.
4. Why did architects during the Renaissance look back to ancient Greece and Rome?They believed the ancient buildings showed the best examples of order, clarity, and beauty, and they wanted to bring those ideas into new buildings.

Classical Orders: Distinct styles of columns and entablatures (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian) revived from ancient Greece and Rome.
Codification: The process of arranging and systematizing rules, principles, or laws into a coherent code.
Humanism: An intellectual movement emphasizing human potential, reason, and classical learning, influencing art, philosophy, and architecture.