February 2, 2020

Dear St. Martin of Tours Parishioners,

Most of the interior of the church has been painted . . . and . . . lots of comments!  So let me explain why I chose these colors.

Now, most of you know that during the Renaissance (which began in Florence, Italy in the 1400s and continued into the 1500s), artists became intrigued with the Classical style of Ancient Rome, with its balanced proportions and well-established system of columns, arches and so on. 

In the domain of architecture, the leading figures were Leon Battisa Alberti, Filippo Brunelleschi, and Michelangelo Buonarroti.

These men did a brilliant job of reviving the Classical style.  But what to do about color? They knew for certain that they didn’t want the bright colors of frescoes and stained glass that characterized Gothic churches.  They desired purity.  Their solution, which was universally adopted, is what you see in these two photos: The structural elements such as columns, lintels, and arches were to be painted to imitate dark stone.  By contrast, the walls were to be painted an off-white, with a bit of color in it, so the interior space would remain bright but not boring.  Here are two prime examples: The Florentine church by Brunelleschi, Santo Spiritu above, and Michelangelo’s New Sacristy to the right.

At St. Martin’s, I took the same approach.  This is why the beams and columns are “so dark”; but since the lights are more intense and the walls lighter than before, the interior of the church is objectively brighter. 

In Christ,