The Architectural Drawings of Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and His Circle, Vol. 1 - Fortifications, Machines, and Festive Architecture [Hardcover]

Christoph L. Frommel (Editor), Nicholas Adams (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262061554 | ISBN-13: 978-0262061551 | Publication Date: February 4, 1994

The first of three volumes of the drawings by the Italian architect Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (1484-1546) and his circle brings to light the archive of one of the most productive architectural teams in early modem Europe. These drawings (some 1,200 in all) reveal more about the planning process in this extraordinary period of architectural invention than any other source. Moreover, they demonstrate the full range of interests of the Sangallo circle, from machinery and construction technology to the ruins of ancient Rome.

Antonio da Sangallo the Younger is a key figure in the history of Italian sixteenth-century architecture. Active on the major building sites of his day, he and his workshop were involved in major church projects (St. Peter's, Rome), palaces (Palzzazo Farnese Rome), and villas (Villa Madama, Rome). They were also responsible for fortification projects (Castro, Florence, Perugia, Rome) as well as dozens of other secular and religious buildings throughout Italy. Their drawing archive is now located in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe of the Uffizi in Florence.

Volume II will cover churches, and Volume III will cover palaces and the antique. Foremost scholars in the field have written complete catalogue entries for each drawing.

Christoph L. Frommel is Co-director of the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome. Nicholas Adams is Professor of Architectural History at Vassar College.

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About the Author

Christoph L. Frommel is Co-Director of the Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome. Nicholas Adams is Mary Conover Mellon Professor of Architectural History at Vassar College. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 532 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (February 4, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262061554
• ISBN-13: 978-0262061551
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,439,359 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Seeing an important Renaissance architect at work, May 24, 2000

By 

Bernd Kulawik (Berlin, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Architectural Drawings of Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and His Circle, Vol. 1 - Fortifications, Machines, and Festive Architecture (Hardcover)

Antonio da Sangallo the Younger was one of the most important architects of the Renaissance during the first half of the 16th century in Italy. A few of his buildings belong to the guiding examples of public and private architecture. Overshadowed by better known artists like Bramante or Michelangelo, his reputation among his contemporaries was as least as high as that of those. But he is also the one architect by whom survived more drawings than of any other one of that time (and even of later times). The long-prepaired edition of these drawings - from the collection of the Florentine Uffizi - is a milestone not only in architectural history, but also in editing important art historical material at all. A group of famous and highly-skilled architectural historians made this work available with a lot of deep-going contributions to the analysis of the drawings. So, reading comments about fortresses, machines and other buildings normally not thought of to be of great interest at all, lets one understand how an architect with great skill and experience (and a large group of collaborators) managed "his job". In fact, Sangallo seems to be the first architect in European history, who organized his work in a way very close to the one still used today: the architect gives ideas to further development to his collaborators, corrects their contributions and organizes the whole work of the "studio" rather than doing everything himself - as others did at the same time. I think, one can not only learn a lot about a special architect in a special time from this book, but also, how architectural invention and execution was organized in the renaissance (and from then on). The detailed analytic descriptions of the drawings sometimes even read like a step-by-step solution of complicated riddles, and it's interesting to follow the discussion of such a complicated matter. If you are interested in architecture or art history, this book is a must!