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Verrocchio (Bartolommeo Colleonet Venice): *
Verrocchio based the sculpture on Donatello's statue of Gattamelata, the ancient statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome & St. Mark's Horses in Venice; height of 3.95 m excluding the pedestal; 2nd major equestrian monument of the Italian Renaissance, after Donatello's Gattamelata (1453). The main problem he overcame was representing the horse while moving with a raised leg, which places excessive weight being supported by only 3 thin legs. He captures the magnificent sense of movement. The statue is not a portrait of the man Colleoni but of the idea of a strong & ruthless military commander full of power and energy contrasting Donatello's Gattamelata (Padua) with its air of calm command. The artist’s efforts are devoted to the rendering of movement and of a sense of strain and energy.
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palace courtyards of Florence (Moorish):
Medina Azahara: ruins of a vast, fortified Moorish medieval palace/city built by Abd-ar-Rahman III (912–961), first Umayyad Caliph of Córdoba, on the western outskirts of Córdoba, Spain; capital of al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), the heart of the administration & government. Building started 936 AD; it included ceremonial reception halls, mosques, administrative & government offices, gardens, a mint, workshops, barracks, residences and baths. Water was supplied through aqueducts. It was built for politico-ideological reasons: the dignity of the Caliph required the establishment of a new city, a symbol of his power, imitating other Eastern Caliphates. Córdoba had been the capital of the region in Roman times & this made it easier for the Emirate and Caliphate of Cordoba to rule. It demonstrated his superiority over his rivals, the Fatimids of Ifriqiya (N. Africa) & the Abbasids in Baghdad. Extended during the reign of Al-Hakam II ( 961-976); soon after his death it was abandoned by the Caliphs; in 1010 it was sacked in a civil war & abandoned.
LEFT Medina Azahara RIGHT Palazzo Vecchio.
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round arches on slender pillars of Florence (Syrian origin): * see Endnote <C>
Great Mosque of Kairouan, at Kairouan, Tunisia; established by the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi (670 AD) when the city was founded. It is one of the masterpieces of Islamic architecture, notable for the first Islamic use of the horseshoe arch. The mosque is spread over a surface area of 9,000 square metres, one of the oldest places of worship in the Islamic world & a model for all later mosques in the Maghreb. Its perimeter is 1,328 feet in length; it contains a hypostyle prayer hall, a marble-paved courtyard and a square minaret. The courtyard is a vast trapezoidal area whose interior dimensions are approximately 67 x 52 metres. It is surrounded on all sides by a portico with double rows of arches, opened by slightly horseshoe arches supported by columns in various marbles, in granite or in porphyry, reused from Roman, Early Christian or Byzantine monuments particularly from Carthage.
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LEFT Interior view of the western portico of the courtyard RIGHT round arches from Palazzo Medici
