The Neue Bau is a synthesis of Elias Holl’s reception of the Italian Renaissance architecture visited during his journey to Venice in winter 1600/01 and architectural theory of the Cinquecento. Generally speaking, the two-storied façade design, the block form and the diverse functions of the building, shops below and spaces for habitation above, recall a type of the sixteenth-century Roman High Renaissance palace, which was coined by Bramante’s Palazzo Caprini. Apart from the Caprini- façade, similar palace designs in Venice and on the terraferma, in particular palaces by Jacopo Sansovino and Michele Sanmicheli, are other important sources for the design of the Neue Bau. Alongside with the Italian Renaissance palaces, the shape of the Neue Bau and its varied functions indicate that Holl knew Serlio’s Book VII, and its chapters 25 and 73 in particular, which demonstrate how to design a merchant’s palace in a city’s noble site.
The superimposed orders are the dominant decorative feature of the façade design of the Neue Bau. They derive on the one hand from the Palazzo Caprini and its Venetian replicas. On the other hand, its design can be read against the background of the renovation campaign of Augsburg in the early seventeenth century, as the façades of the adjacent buildings on the Perlachplatz, Bernhard Zwitzel’s Geschlechterstube and Holl’s Bäckerzunfthaus in particular, had already been decorated with superimposed pilasters. With façades in a modern Italian style, the Stadtpfleger wanted to give the city’s central square a representative aspect and, at the same time, underline its political significance and the clear distinction from other city quarters.
Furthermore, the adoption of a classical superposition reveals Holl’s knowledge of the Roman ancient theater architecture, with which he was familiar through Serlio’s and Palladio’s treatises and the vedute of ancient Roman monuments, he had in his own
library. Holl might have known the Theater of Marcellus in Rome from Sadeler’s Vestigi delle antichita di Roma (Prague 1606). Palladio’s courtyard at the Convento della Carità in Venice, an adaptation of the Roman theater system, was likewise within his reach.
The results of Holl’s use of the classical orders can be summed up as follows: the Tuscan order, overlapped by the banded rustication, is a prominent characteristic at the lower story of the Neue Bau and shows the study of Serlio’s treatise (Book IV).
The rusticated orders are rooted in the ancient Roman theater façade and later experimented at the Palazzo Caprini and Giulio Romano’s early palaces in Rome, Sanmicheli’s architectures of the 1530s in Venice and Verona—the Fortezza di Sant’Andrea and the Palazzo Bevilacqua—might be major predecessors of the Neue Bau. However, the points of departure for applying the Tuscan-Doric orders are quite different. Whereas the rough rustication at both buildings in Venice follows Serlio’s idea as kind of architecture parlante to imply the function and characteristic of these buildings, the elegantly altered rustication at the Neue Bau is applied in order to stress its location, the Perlachplatz, as a noble and important center of Augsburg.
On the top story, the double corner pilasters and diagonally shaped Ionic corner volutes are striking characteristics, which indicate Holl’s possible reception of the ancient Roman Temple of Fortuna Virilis. The singular motif of the corner volute proves Holl’s attention for the architectural details of his models. While architectural theory might not be a sufficient root for this element, a visit of Palladio’s buildings as many other northern architects done on their Grand Tour, most probably the Villa Foscari near Venice or relevant locations in Vicenza, seems reasonable to be considered.
Although the present Neue Bau is almost completely restored by Doblhoff, it demonstrates the influence of the Italian Renaissance architecture more clearly than
the original one. By doubling the lateral bays, the Neue Bau becomes a grandiose and voluminous edifice closing the north side of the Perlachplatz. The representative form and its closer location near the Perlachturm, the striking monument of Augsburg, undoubtedly refer to the architectural complex on a city’s main square as seen in Venice, Vicenza and other northern Italian cities. The early sixteenth-century urban renovation in Augsburg was thus aiming at giving the late Gothic city a coherent image of a modern metropolis. Although the idea was not perfectly realized at Holl’s time, it was regenerated in a more impactful and concise form after the post-war restoration.
More than any other building in Augsburg, the Neue Bau reflects the spirit of the Italian Renaissance. Since the Renaissance fountain was erected on the Perlachplatz in ca. 1498, the prelude of a new architectural style was opened in Augsburg. As one of significant edifices built during the square renovation, the Italian style was postulated for the façade design of the Neue Bau at its construction begin, which was shown by two wooden models. The perfection of this new style at the Neue Bau was achieved step by step through Holl’s continuous building practice and his firm appreciation for the modern Italian architectural style, when we saw the series of stylistic development from the Bäckerzunfthaus, Zeughaus, Siegelhaus, and as last, to the Neue Bau. The motto auf welsche Manier, uttered in his Hauschronik, was Holl’s guiding principle throughout his career.
The influence of Italian Renaissance architecture is a significant issue in the study of the Neue Bau and Holl’s architecture. In the future, following aspects can be further developed.
First, the buildings erected in Renaissance style were long existed in Augsburg before Holl’s appointment as Stadtwerkmeister. The sixteenth-century edifices around
the Perlachplatz and many other local merchant family palaces were also frescoed with architectural orders.371 For a vernacular architect as Holl, these frescoes could function as reference for learning the Italian-inspired façade designs. However, their influences on the Neue Bau and Holl’s buildings are not yet sufficiently researched.
Second, orders and rustication were already applied as decoration at many sixteenth-century Renaissance palaces in the Southern Germany as observed on the court architecture of Bavarian Duchy in Landshut,372 Munich373 and Ingolstadt.374 Among them, the ducal residences in Landshut (1536–43) and Munich (1568–ca.
1590) are significant examples, which Holl might have known.375 The influence of the Bavarian court architectures on Holl’s buildings has been indicated in the study,376
371 The Fugger palace (Fuggerpalast), the family palace of the Böckensteins (now the Maximilianmuseum) and the Rehlingers (Haus Rehlinger) are prominent examples frescoed in architectural motifs at Holl’s time. The façade of the Böckenstein palace is painted in diamanted rustication and its upper stories are decorated with superimposed orders, which demonstrate similar façade decorations as buildings around the Perlachplatz, while the façades at the Haus Rehlinger are painted by Giulio Licinio (1527–93), a Venetian artist active in Augsburg. For façade frescoes at the sixteenth-century family palaces in Augsburg, see Robert Pfaud, Das Bürgerhaus in Augsburg, Tübingen 21985, pp. 110-113; Doris Hascher, “Die Auftragslage für Fassadenmalerei in Augsburg im 16. Jahrhundert,” in: Klaus Bergdolt and Jochen Brüning (eds), Kunst und ihre Auftraggeber im 16.
Jahrhundert. Venedig und Augsburg im Vergleich, Berlin 1997, pp. 95-110, here pp. 109-110.
372 The City Residence (Stadtresidenz, 1536–43) and the so-called Trausnitz Arcade (1578) at the Trausnitz Castle (Burg Trausnitz) are prominent architectures in Italian Renaissance style built under the Dukes of Bavaria. Their façades are all decorated with Doric pilasters in banded rustication. The so-called Italian Building (Italienischer Bau) at the Stadtresidenz is built, in particular, by an Italian master in similar design as Giulio Romano’s Palazzo del Te (1524–34) in Mantua and becomes the first Renaissance palace in Italian style in the German Territory. For Stadtresidenz and Burg Trausnitz in Landshut, see Christoph Luitpold Frommel, “Zur Struktur des Italienischen Baus der Residenz in Landshut: Funktion, Typus, Stil,” in: Iris Lauterbach, Klaus Endemann and Christoph Luitpold Frommel (eds), Die Landshuter Stadtresidenz. Architektur und Ausstattung, Munich 1998, pp. 77-84;
Peter O. Brückmann, The Wittelsbach Palaces. From Landshut and Höchstädt to Munich, Munich, Berlin and New York 22006, pp. 4-11.
373 The Renaissance façades (1568–90) in the fountain courtyard (Brunnenhof) of the residence (Residenz in München) are frescoed by the rusticated and superimposed pilasters. For the Residenz in Munich, see Brückmann (as note 372), pp. 19-29.
374 The main portal to the New Castle (Neues Schloss) in Ingolstadt, built in ca. 1580, is decorated with Doric half columns in banded rustication, which present similar design as the ground story at the Neue Bau. This portal design is clearly derived from Serlio’s illustration in his Book VIII (fol. 19v).
For the Neue Schloss in Ingolstadt, see Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, Ingolstadt, Neues Schloss http://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/artikel/artikel_45859 (accessed on 24 October 2013).
375 The architect of the so-called German Wing (Deutscher Bau, begun in 1536) in the residence of Landshut, Bernhard Zwitzel, was Holl’s predecessor as Stadtwekmeister in Augsburg. For the Stadt- residenz in Landshut, see Frommel 1998 (as note 372), pp.77-84; Elisabeth Wünsche-Werdehausen and Klaus Kratzsch, Italien in Bayern. Kunst und Künstler, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2010, pp. 57-62.
376 Josef Engl, Der deutsche Bau der Landshuter Stadtresidenz und ausgewählte Bauten der Augsburger Architektur des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, Munich 1989, pp. 150-167.
a precise relation between them is though not well researched. Since the Bavarian Dukes were the most influential territorial leaders at Holl’s time, their Italianized architectures might be valuable for Holl’s transformation of the Perlachplatz into a modern and representative city center auf welsche Manier.