Emulating Antiquity: Renaissance Buildings from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo

摘要

At first sight David Hemsoll's claim that Emulating Antiquity is "the first [book] in any language to be devoted to the unfolding of Renaissance architecture's engagement with antiquity" (13) seems startling. Surely examining that engagement is what most of us in the field do all the time. But, on reflection, it becomes apparent that, although this issue is addressed piecemeal in much Renaissance architectural history, often it is only one aspect among others or is merely taken for granted and not foregrounded. In this book Hemsoll does not attempt a comprehensive overview but instead engages with and challenges Giorgio Vasari's quasi-canonical narrative of the development of Renaissance architecture. Focusing on five key architects-Filippo Brunelleschi, Giuliano da Sangallo, Donato Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo-he relegates figures such as Francesco di Giorgio, Baldassare Peruzzi, and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger to incidental roles. However, what the book may lack in breadth is more than compensated for by the depth of Hemsoll's inquiry, which could have been achieved only by someone whose knowledge of Italian architecture is encyclopedic, reflecting forty years of investigation and thought, especially with regard to Michelangelo. Particularly illuminating is the author's attention to contemporary language debates by scholars such as Angelo Poliziano and Pietro Bembo about the relationship of the vernacular to ancient Latin and how Renaissance authors created their own styles by imitating or emulating classical models. Such questions inform Hemsoll's own close reading of his chosen subjects' key buildings.