RENAISSANCE AND MANNERISM C. I42O-C, I6OO
Sto. Spirito, or the Palazzo Rucellai, proves this to anyone susceptible
to their specific character.
To illustrate the principle of an all-pervading order which Alberti
postulates in an interior as well, the plan of S. Andrea in Mantua,
Alberti's last work, may be analysed (fig. 50). As in Sto. Spirito the
east parts are a central composition. Alberti had in fact also made a
contribution to the architects* burning problem of the completely
central plan. His S. Sebasriano
in Mantua (fig. 51) is a Greek
cross. It was designed in 1460,
that is just before or just
after the Sforza Temple of
Sperandio's medal. But
Alberta's solution is original
whatever its date, austere and
aloof, with its curiously pagan
facade. No wonder that a
cardinal could write of it in
1473: "I don't see if this is
meant to turn out a church
51. LEONE BATTISTA ALBERTI: S. SEBASTIANO, moSQUC Or a SVna£rOffUe"
MANTUA, BEGUN 1460. or a mosque Or a synagogue .
From the point of view of
practical church functions such central buildings are conspicuously
useless. So we find from the beginning attempts at combining the
traditional longitudinal plan with aesthetically more welcome
central features. Sto. Spirito was one example. The most influential
one, however, is S. Andrea in Mantua which was begun in 1470,
two years only before Alberti's death. Here the architect replaces
the traditional nave and aisles arrangement by a series of side
chapels taking the place of the aisles and connected with the nave
alternately by tall and wide and low and narrow openings. The
aisles thus Cease to be part of the eastward movement and become
a series of minor centres accompanying the spacious tunnel-vaulted
nave. As to the walls enclosing the nave the same intention is
evident in the replacement of the simple basilican sequence of columns
following each other without caesura, by the rhythmical alteration
on the a b a principle of the closed and the open bays. To what extent
the keeping of the same proportions throughout is responsible for
the deeply restful harmony of S. Andrea will be appreciated, if one
realises t£at the same aba rhythm, identical even in details, is used
92