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| Italian Design, Tuscan Decor | Italian Architecture, Tuscan Home |
Tuscan Home Style, Italian Style |
In the medieval Italian city, life took place amid a wilderness of brick towers and stone fortresses. High heavy walls, narrow winding passes, blind alleys and hidden alcoves acted all as impediments to those who might think to attack or invade the city. At the last decade of the 15th century, northern Italy was divided into some four hundred autonomous and warring city states.
The maritime republics of Pisa, Amalfi, Genoa, and Venice prospered by direct access to overseas trade, while the more centrally located towns of Bologna, Verona, and Milan grew wealthy as a result of positioning alongside major trade routes. Florence and Siena acquired riches through merchant banking and textiles. Independent and decidedly lacking in centralized government, communes were managed by the strongest and most prominent families who took civil charge of law and order.
The result was an ever escalating degree of internal dissent and continuous rivalry amongst the families of neighboring communes. The architecture of the period reflects this atmosphere of fear and suspect, an atmosphere which for a while did a great deal to influence the fundamental grain of Italian cities. Medieval architecture remains a conspicuous characteristic of the Italian landscape.
The competitive spirit of the middle-ages was forerunner to Renaissance vigor. The desire to outdo one’s neighbor led the Italian to look for that certain qualcosa di speciale in art and in architecture as well. A revival of Roman classical engineering was fundamental. But at this period, inspiration was found in both local and foreign sources. Clearly many Renaissance structures move beyond purely Roman styles into something unique to the period. Venice’s palazzo Ca D’Oro and Brunelleschi’s Duomo in Florence speak eloquently of a Moorish inspiration.
Rising out of the waters of the Grand Canal, the sprite, cake-and-icing Ca D’Oro is a wondrous sight with its finely ornamented façade of pointed Eastern arches and interlacing filigree stonework. Similarly striking is the view of the Duomo on close approach, standing striped and spectacular through the mists of a Florentine morning. Pointed, eight-sectioned, and ribbed, the inspired dome of the Florentine cathedral was unlike any other before it in Italy. Both the style of dome and the candy striping of its foundation, however, had been highly visible features of Syrian and Moorish architecture, making their presence in Italy all the more fascinating.
Of the many peoples who have tread over Italian peninsula, some left their mark, others their influence. A collection of irregularly shaped rocks, dust, and marble litter are often all that is left of the ancient stone fortifications of the Greeks, the Etruscans, and the Romans – though thankfully enough of these structures have arrived intact at present day so that we get a lively picture of the ancient world. Where found (mainly in the south), the scattered monuments of the Byzantines, the Franks, and the Arabs likewise continue to hold all the magic of their spirited artistry.
| Italian Style, Tuscan Decor | Italian Home, Tuscan Interior Decor | Italy Travel, Tour Italy |
From the grand palazzo and majestic villa to the small yet cozy apartment condominium overlooking alleyway or avenue, the use of stone brick as primary building material is much of what makes the Italian home so beautiful. In Italy, however, beauty is not a thing that happens perhaps by chance. As one of life’s great pleasures, beauty for the Italians is also a number one priority. The pursuit of pretty ideal reached its highest - and most appealing - expression during the Renaissance, a time of intense interest in harmony, balance, and symmetry.
Quintessentially Italian, the communes of Bologna, Florence, Sienna, and Venice took on much of their characteristic appearances during the middle ages. But while Bologna and Florence are Roman towns built on a grid, Sienna and Venice are almost entirely medieval in origin. Florence and Sienna also share a common artistic heritage in addition to common political experiences as merchant republics. Rivalries between them affected town aesthetics - both towns mandated the use of stone brick for in edicts specifically intended to bring about greatest communal beauty. In Sienna, such ordinates unified the appearance of an entire city.
Bologna is remarkable for its covered walkways, or porticoes, products of the oldest known urban statutes in Italy. The statutes were designed to increase living space for an expanding population, while at the same time allowing for ample public passage. Although private homes were individually constructed according the scale and design specifications of the owner, all were required to align the overhang with adjacent houses. An extraordinary show of individualism in collectivity, the porticoes of Bologna, centuries on, remain a poetic definition of urban beauty.
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