High Renaissance Architecture

Abstract

Any attempt to define the style of the High Renaissance should start, I believe, by describing what appear to be differences between the works of art of the fifteenth century and those of the sixteenth. Saying this involves, of course, a belief that there occurred between the one period and the other a change in style. And to speak of a change in style is necessarily to imply a significant change in the attitude of the artist to his work. For a change in style must not be confused with a change of fashion. It must be more than a simple adoption of new forms. If we are to define a style we must be concerned with the way in which the forms are used. We must attempt to characterize the intent of the artist as we find it expressed in the work of art.