Exchange: Early Modern Interior Design

Part of: Early Modern European Architecture and Interior Design (6 resources )
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Early Modern European Architecture and Interior Design

Renaissance architecture and interior design was characterized above all by a revival of the architectural features and styles of Imperial Rome. As an interest in the classical world spread northward throughout the learned society of Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, architects and classical scholars studied and eventually began to mimic the remaining ruins of the Roman Empire. Though they “posed as imitators of the ancients,”¹ however, early modern architects were also innovators. They created new types of buildings like urban palaces, theaters, and concert spaces. During this time, the structure of the home also transformed dramatically; middle- and upper-class urban homes developed from one- or two-room dwellings attached to shops into detached properties with separate functional rooms like parlors and individual bedrooms. At almost every socio-economic level, therefore, early modern people were finding new ways to transform the architectural spaces around them.²

The new idealized styles of the 15th and 16th centuries were concerned primarily with proportion, symmetry, geometry, and order.³ These qualities provided more than simple visual appeal. In fact, the greatest architectural projects of the early modern era – the urban palaces of the Medici family, the reconstruction of St. Peter’s Basilica, the re-design of the medieval city of Paris by King Henry IV, the concentric canals of Amsterdam – were all funded by powerful individuals and governments who believed that orderly architecture would foster an orderly population. Geometrically-proportioned architecture, particularly in government buildings and palaces, promoted an image of power which was regulated, methodical, and in harmony with natural law.⁴ By contrast, Renaissance artists were also fascinated by ruins, which indicated precisely the opposite qualities and, where they appeared in Renaissance art, often indicated moral, social, or economic decay.

This series of resources combines architectural renderings, design sketches, stage sets, and drawings of interior spaces, as well as a selection of photographs of Renaissance-era buildings. It represents the broad range of early modern conceptions of architecture and interior design across Western Europe.

Sources:

[1] Georges Gromort. Italian Renaissance Architecture. Translated by George F. Waters. London: J. Tiranti & Co. 1922.

[2] Christopher Friedrichs. The Early Modern City, 1450-1750. London: Longman, 1995.

[3] Jacob Burckhardt. The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance. Chicago: Edited by Peter Murray. University of Chicago Press, 1985.

[4] Josef Konvitz. Cities & the Sea: Port City Planning in Early Modern Europe. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1978.

Copyright

Created by

Haley Elisabeth Bowen

Last Updated

August 3, 2017 1:40 p.m.

6 Items in this Learning Collection

Early Modern European Architectural Designs and Drawings

This small sketch presents a view along a waterway that passes beneath a double-arched bridge. The triangular sail of a small boat is visible just before the bridge, moored to the quai next to some sheds. A tall church with a central steeple rises on the right bank in the foreground, and two other tall buildings punctuate the middle ground and distance. The chimneys and rooflines of humbler dwellings appear on the left bank. Despite the urban setting, only a few figures may be glimpsed, including a man crossing the bridge on horseback.

Resource with 101 media

Early Modern Interior Design

Resource with 79 media

Early Modern Stage Sets

Resource with 8 media

Ruins in the Early Modern European Architectural Imagination

Resource with 30 media

Enrique Chagoya: Flipping Europe on its Head

Resource with 4 media

Albert Kahn's European Travel Drawings

Resource with 139 media

Early Modern Interior Design

Over the course of the early modern period, interior spaces became more and more elaborate for Europe's wealthiest families. The dominant style represented in this collection of images is the European baroque of the 16th and early 17th centuries, which was characterized by the frequent use of foliage motifs, crests or initials, and putti. The style was also strongly influenced by the symmetry and straight lines of classical architecture and decoration. Later in the period, rococo design would dispense with these conventions and embrace asymmetry and increased ornamentation.

Christophe Huet
Trophy with Musical Instruments
black chalk on cream laid paper
13 1/2 in. x 6 5/16 in. ( 34.3 cm x 16 cm )
Museum Purchase

Enea Vico
Ornament Print: Military Trophies
engraving on paper
9 ⅞ in x 7 1/16 in (25.08 cm x 17.94 cm);9 ⅞ in x 7 1/16 in (25.08 cm x 17.94 cm);9 ⅞ in x 7 1/16 in (25.08 cm x 17.94 cm);19 in x 14 in (48.26 cm x 35.56 cm)
Museum Purchase

Etienne de Lavallée-Poussin
Design for a Painted Wall Panel
graphite, crayon, ink and watercolor on paper
11 5/8 in x 7 7/8 in (29.53 cm x 20 cm);19 3/8 in x 14 3/8 in (49.21 cm x 36.51 cm)
Museum Purchase

Etienne de Lavallée-Poussin
Arabesque Corner Motif
graphite, ink and wash
7 3/8 in x 5 5/16 in (18.73 cm x 13.49 cm);7 3/8 in x 5 5/16 in (18.73 cm x 13.49 cm);16 3/8 in x 12 1/8 in (41.59 cm x 30.8 cm)
Museum Purchase

Etienne de Lavallée-Poussin
Four Arabesque Designs with Human Figures and Animals
graphite, pen and brown ink with ink wash
16 15/16 in x 10 3/16 in (43.02 cm x 25.88 cm);22 1/8 in x 18 1/16 in (56.2 cm x 45.88 cm)
Museum Purchase

Daniel Marot
Section of a Plasterwork Ceiling
pen and bistre ink with gray wash
15 9/16 in. x 10 7/16 in. ( 39.6 cm x 26.5 cm )
Museum Purchase

Henri Salembier
Design for a Vertical Panel (1 of a set of 12)
pen and black ink with black and brown wash
11 3/4 in. x 3 3/4 in. ( 29.9 cm x 9.5 cm )
Museum Purchase

Henri Salembier
Design for a Vertical Panel (1 of a set of 12)
pen and black ink with black and brown wash
11 13/16 in. x 3 3/4 in. ( 30 cm x 9.5 cm )
Museum Purchase

Henri Salembier
Design for a Vertical Panel (1 of a set of 12)
pen and black ink with black and brown wash
11 3/4 in. x 3 3/4 in. ( 29.9 cm x 9.5 cm )
Museum Purchase

Henri Salembier
Design for a Vertical Panel (1 of a set of 12)
pen and black ink with black and brown wash
11 13/16 in. x 3 13/16 in. ( 30 cm x 9.7 cm )
Museum Purchase

Henri Salembier
Design for a Vertical Panel (1 of a set of 12)
pen and black ink with black and brown wash
11 13/16 in. x 3 3/4 in. ( 30 cm x 9.5 cm )
Museum Purchase

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Early Modern Interior Design
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Early Modern Stage Sets

Ruins in the Early Modern European Architectural Imagination

Enrique Chagoya: Flipping Europe on its Head

Albert Kahn's European Travel Drawings

3 Collection Object Sources

Corner Decoration of a Painted Ceiling (1959/2.31)

Sketches of Seven Brackets, Two Vases, Two Capitals, a Lectern, Mascaron, Standi (1959/2.40)

Arabesque Panel Decoration (1958/1.76)

1 Link

V&A Museum: Baroque design

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