ABSTRACT
The High Renaissance was deeply embedded in the cities of the north and centre of Italy in the early sixteenth century, but from the 1530s the classical style of architecture was gradually superseded by Mannerism, while new buildings were often not only larger than hitherto but also more ornamented. Town planning schemes on a scale not seen since antiquity now ensured that whole areas of cities could be developed in an integrated and grandiose manner. In contrast to Venice, and with the major exception of the development of the Strada Nuova in the second half of the cinquecento, public patronage in Genoa was on an altogether smaller scale – possibly the legacy of political instability throughout the earlier part of the 16th century. Fires and other physical disasters in Venice were responsible for much rebuilding in the early sixteenth century.
