From Etruscans and Romans to Modern Times - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 64

is built around a vanishing point. Renaissance architects used this technique to plan cities
so that vistas become real-world vanishing points. The technology of bronze casting also
created a three-dimensional “reality.” A noteworthy example is Lorenzo Ghiberti's doors
for the Baptistery in Florence. Renaissance technology also created soaring domes that
cover vast interior spaces. Witness the dome of St. Peter's in Rome and the dome of the
Cathedral or Duomo in Florence.
Whereas life in the Middle Ages revolved around feudal lords and their agricultural
estates, life in the Renaissance revolved around cities. The feudal castle was replaced by
palaces, such as the Strozzi in Florence and the Farnese in Rome. Italy was the center
of Renaissance change, and Rome, Florence, Ferrara, Venice, Urbino, Milan, and Mantua
were the most powerful and dynamic urban centers. Their princes, dukes, and Popes vied
to beautify their cities and used their wealth to hire the best and most imaginative crafts-
men of their time. Architects and craftsmen created buildings in a new style that was and
is the crowning achievement of Renaissance cities—the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, the
Duomo in Florence, and the urban domiciles of the rich and powerful, such as the Medici
Palace in Florence, the Farnese Palace in Rome, and the Vendramini Palace in Venice.
RENAISSANCE STYLES
“Restless” and “profuse” are words that describe the several Renaissance styles. Facades
curve, sculptures twist and bend, and rococo is the term applied to the most ornate Renais-
sance style. The word comes from the French rocaille , meaning rock and shell. The style
is exuberant: a profusion of rocks, flowers, and shells adorned with angels and putti , or
cherubs, sleeping, climbing, gazing. Historians sometimes classify Renaissance architec-
ture into time-related styles: early, high, Baroque, and rococo. They also divide the Renais-
sance into divisions marked by centuries: Duecento (thirteenth century); Trecento (four-
teenth century); Quattrocento (fifteenth century); and Cinquecento (sixteenth century). But
names and stylistic divisions are less important than the achievements of Renaissance art
and architecture, especially in Rome, a city and a state ruled by its Popes.
ROME OF THE RENAISSANCE POPES
A succession of Renaissance Popes endowed Rome with a stunning array of masterpieces,
an endowment that would probably not be possible today. The Pope's secular authority is
now confined to a small area inside the larger city of Rome. When the war for Italian uni-
fication ended in 1870, the new civil government made Rome the national capital. The Pap-
al State was squeezed into its present boundaries: Vatican City, a sovereign state inside the
city of Rome and ruled by Europe's last absolute “monarch.” The city-state's population
is about 1,000. Triangular in shape and lying on the west bank of the Tiber River, the size
of this independent country is about 109 acres. It has its own “army,” the Swiss Guards,