QUATTROCENTO • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Quattrocento

... the following period the orders became the principal resource of the architect. During the so-called Cinquecento, that is, from the close of the fifteenth century to nearly or quite 1550, architecture still retained much of the freedom and refinement of the Quattrocento. There was meanwhile a notable advance in dignity and amplitude of design, especially in the internal distribution of buildings. Externally the orders were freely used as subordinate features in the decoration of doors and windows, ...

— A Text-Book of the History of Architecture - Seventh Edition, revised • Alfred D. F. Hamlin