Venice and the Renaissance

In this study of the process of decision-making about building and urban planning in Venice, the author examines the intersections of Venetian culture from the beginning of the 16th century to the first decades of the 17th to show how that process affected the choice of designers and styles. Influential doges, such as Andrea Gritt and Leonardo Dona, architects and artists like Sansavino, Serlio, Palladio and Scamozzi, and scientists Francesco Barozzi and Galileo, all figure in this account of the development of an architecture understood as metaphor for absolute truth and good government.

In this series of insightful but at times inaccessible essays, Tafuri considers some of the principal architectural projects and proposals of late Renaissance Venice. Armed with a powerful intellect and a profound command of the documentation, the author more often than not successfully explores the complex intellectual and historical context of architectural thought and activity. Arising from this sophisticated contextual approach is a deepened sense of the confluence of religious, civic, political, social, and intellectual programs that may impinge upon the human-made environment. In Tafuri's approach, however, stylistic inflection too often becomes merely a manifestation of external forces manipulating artistic choices. Furthermore, his critical contribution to a contextual methodology of analysis is obscured by an affected critical terminology and a level of abstract assertation not always supported by the work itself.
- Robert Cahn, Fashion Inst. of Technology, New York
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.