buildings; religious buildings; churches; complexes; religious communities; monasteries
Work Type:
church
Description:
The increasing virtuosity of Palladio's late style culminated in the votive church Il Redentore (begun 1576) in Venice, in the façade of which Palladio refined ideas developed in earlier churches, particularly the tightly interlocking, layered series of pediments echoing the structure behind. The functions of Il Redentore as a votive and processional church as well as a monastery church called for a unifying concept. In his plan Palladio developed a sequence of three distinct spaces: a nave with side chapels but without aisles; a square, domed presbytery with side apses; and a longitudinal and brilliantly lit choir that is visually isolated from the rest of the church by an exedra formed by four columns. Despite their conceptual distinction, however, the relationship of the individual architectural zones to one another is clearly specified, forming an effective whole held together and reinforced by the uninterrupted horizontal cornice. (Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.groveart.com/)
