All' Antica

   An Italian term used to indicate the use of an ancient vocabulary to create a painting, sculpture, or building. In the Renaissance, Filippo Brunelleschi was the first to reintroduce the Greco-Roman vocabulary to architecture. Not only are the repetitive arches and columns in his Ospedale degli Innocenti (1419-1424) based on ancient Roman examples, but so is his approach to architecture. The order, balance, and mathematical symmetry he applied to the structure are the principles the Romans also used. His designs inspired Masaccio's architecture in the fresco of the Holy Trinity at Santa Maria Novella, Florence (1427). In sculpture, it was Nicola Pisano who first experimented with the all'antica vocabulary. Some of the reliefs in the pulpit he created for the Baptistery of Pisa (1255-1260) reflect his careful examination of ancient sarcophagi.