Neoclassical architecture

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Neoclassical architecture
West facade of Petit Trianon 002.JPG
Berlin-Brandenburg Gate overwiev.jpg
Paris - Jardin des Tuileries - Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel - PA00085992 - 003.jpg
Top: The Petit Trianon (Versailles, France), 1764, by Ange-Jacques Gabriel; Centre: The Brandenburg Gate (Berlin, Germany), 1791, by Carl Gotthard Langhans; Bottom: Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (Paris), 1806–1808, by Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine
Years active18th century–mid-20th century

Neoclassical architecture, sometimes referred to as Classical Revival architecture, is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy, France and Germany. [1] It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. [2] The prevailing styles of architecture in most of Europe for the previous two centuries, Renaissance architecture and Baroque architecture, already represented partial revivals of the Classical architecture of ancient Rome and ancient Greek architecture, but the Neoclassical movement aimed to strip away the excesses of Late Baroque and return to a purer and more authentic classical style, adapted to modern purposes.

Contents

The development of archaeology and published accurate records of surviving classical buildings was crucial in the emergence of Neoclassical architecture. In many countries, there was an initial wave essentially drawing on Roman architecture, followed, from about the start of the 19th century, by a second wave of Greek Revival architecture. This followed increased understanding of Greek survivals. As the 19th century continued, the style tended to lose its original rather austere purity in variants like the French Empire style. The term "neoclassical" is often used very loosely for any building using some of the classical architectural vocabulary.

In form, Neoclassical architecture emphasizes the wall rather than chiaroscuro and maintains separate identities to each of its parts. The style is manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulae as an outgrowth of some classicizing features of the Late Baroque architectural tradition. Therefore, the style is defined by symmetry, simple geometry, and social demands instead of ornament. [3] In the 21st century, a version of the style continues, sometimes called New Classical architecture or New Classicism.

History

Neoclassical architecture is a specific style and moment in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that was specifically associated with the Enlightenment, empiricism, and the study of sites by early archaeologists. [4] Classical architecture after about 1840 must be classified as one of a series of "revival" styles, such as Greek, Renaissance, or Italianate. Various historians of the 19th century have made this clear since the 1970s. Classical architecture during the 20th century is classified less as a revival, and more a return to a style was decelerated with the advent of Modernism. Yet still Neoclassical architecture is beginning to be practiced again in the 21st century more in the form of New Classical Architecture and even in Gentrification and Historicism Architecture, the Neoclassical architecture or its important elements are still being used, even when the Postmodernist architecture is dominant throughout the world.

Palladianism

The Basilica Palladiana at Vicenza in Veneto, Italy Basilica Palladiana (Vicenza) - facade on Piazza dei signori.jpg
The Basilica Palladiana at Vicenza in Veneto, Italy

A return to more classical architectural forms as a reaction to the Rococo style can be detected in some European architecture of the earlier 18th century, most vividly represented in the Palladian architecture of Georgian Britain and Ireland. The name refers to the designs of the 16th-century Venetian architect Andrea Palladio.

The Baroque style had never truly been to the English taste. Four influential books were published in the first quarter of the 18th century which highlighted the simplicity and purity of classical architecture: Vitruvius Britannicus by Colen Campbell (1715), Palladio's I quattro libri dell'architettura (The Four Books of Architecture, 1715), De re aedificatoria by Leon Battista Alberti (first published in 1452) and The Designs of Inigo Jones... with Some Additional Designs (1727). The most popular was the four-volume Vitruvius Britannicus by Colen Campbell. The book contained architectural prints of famous British buildings that had been inspired by the great architects from Vitruvius to Palladio. At first the book mainly featured the work of Inigo Jones, but the later tomes contained drawings and plans by Campbell and other 18th-century architects. Palladian architecture became well established in 18th-century Britain.

At the forefront of the new school of design was the aristocratic "architect earl", Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington; in 1729, he and William Kent designed Chiswick House. This house was a reinterpretation of Palladio's Villa Capra "La Rotonda", but purified of 16th-century elements and ornament. This severe lack of ornamentation was to be a feature of Palladianism. In 1734, William Kent and Lord Burlington designed one of England's finest examples of Palladian architecture, Holkham Hall in Norfolk. The main block of this house followed Palladio's dictates quite closely, but Palladio's low, often detached, wings of farm buildings were elevated in significance.

This classicizing vein was also detectable, to a lesser degree, in the Late Baroque architecture in Paris, such as in the Louvre Colonnade. This shift was even visible in Rome at the redesigned façade for Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.

Neoclassicism

Tur, Villa Boscoreale.jpg
Porte d'entree du palais de Justice de Bruxelles (HDR) - 2043-0077-0.jpg
Comparison between a 1st-century (AD) Roman wall painting of an ornate door, in the Villa Boscoreale (Italy); and a massive 19th-century Neoclassical door of the Palace of Justice (Brussels, Belgium)

By the mid-18th century, the movement broadened to incorporate a greater range of classical influences, including those from Ancient Greece. An early centre of neoclassicism was Italy, especially Naples, where by the 1730s court architects such as Luigi Vanvitelli and Ferdinando Fuga were recovering classical, Palladian and Mannerist forms in their Baroque architecture. Following their lead, Giovanni Antonio Medrano began to build the first truly neoclassical structures in Italy in the 1730s. In the same period, Alessandro Pompei introduced neoclassicism to the Venetian Republic, building one of the first lapidariums in Europe in Verona, in the Doric style (1738). During the same period, neoclassical elements were introduced to Tuscany by architect Jean Nicolas Jadot de Ville-Issey, the court architect of Francis Stephen of Lorraine. On Jadot's lead, an original neoclassical style was developed by Gaspare Maria Paoletti, transforming Florence into the most important centre of neoclassicism in the peninsula. In the second half of the century, Neoclassicism flourished also in Turin, Milan (Giuseppe Piermarini) and Trieste (Matteo Pertsch). In the latter two cities, just as in Tuscany, the sober neoclassical style was linked to the reformism of the ruling Habsburg enlightened monarchs.

The shift to neoclassical architecture is conventionally dated to the 1750s. It first gained influence in England and France; in England, Sir William Hamilton's excavations at Pompeii and other sites, the influence of the Grand Tour, and the work of William Chambers and Robert Adam, were pivotal in this regard. In France, the movement was propelled by a generation of French art students trained in Rome, and was influenced by the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann. The style was also adopted by progressive circles in other countries such as Sweden and Russia.

International neoclassical architecture was exemplified in Karl Friedrich Schinkel's buildings, especially the Altes Museum in Berlin, Sir John Soane's Bank of England in London and the newly built White House and Capitol in Washington, D.C. of the nascent American Republic. The style was international. The Baltimore Basilica, which was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe in 1806, is considered one of the finest examples of neoclassical architecture in the world.

A second neoclassic wave, more severe, more studied and more consciously archaeological, is associated with the height of the First French Empire. In France, the first phase of neoclassicism was expressed in the Louis XVI style, and the second in the styles called Directoire and Empire. Its major proponents were Percier and Fontaine, court architects who specialized in interior decoration. [6]

In the decorative arts, neoclassicism is exemplified in French furniture of the Empire style; the English furniture of Chippendale, George Hepplewhite and Robert Adam, Wedgwood's bas reliefs and "black basaltes" vases, and the Biedermeier furniture of Austria. The Scottish architect Charles Cameron created palatial Italianate interiors for the German-born Catherine II the Great in Saint Petersburg. [7]

Interior design

Chateau de Malmaison, 1800, room for the Empress Josephine, on the cusp between Directoire and Empire style Chateau de Malmaison - Appartement de Josephine 003.jpg
Château de Malmaison, 1800, room for the Empress Joséphine, on the cusp between Directoire and Empire style

Indoors, neoclassicism made a discovery of the genuine classic interior, inspired by the rediscoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum. These had begun in the late 1740s, but only achieved a wide audience in the 1760s, with the first luxurious volumes of tightly controlled distribution of Le Antichità di Ercolano Esposte (The Antiquities of Herculaneum Exposed). The antiquities of Herculaneum showed that even the most classicizing interiors of the Baroque, or the most "Roman" rooms of William Kent were based on basilica and temple exterior architecture turned outside in, hence their often bombastic appearance to modern eyes: pedimented window frames turned into gilded mirrors, fireplaces topped with temple fronts.

The new interiors sought to recreate an authentically Roman and genuinely interior vocabulary. Techniques employed in the style included flatter, lighter motifs, sculpted in low frieze-like relief or painted in monotones en camaïeu ("like cameos"), isolated medallions or vases or busts or bucrania or other motifs, suspended on swags of laurel or ribbon, with slender arabesques against backgrounds, perhaps, of "Pompeiian red" or pale tints, or stone colours. The style in France was initially a Parisian style, the goût grec ("Greek taste"), not a court style; when Louis XVI acceded to the throne in 1774, Marie Antoinette, his fashion-loving Queen, brought the Louis XVI style to court. However, there was no real attempt to employ the basic forms of Roman furniture until around the turn of the century, and furniture-makers were more likely to borrow from ancient architecture, just as silversmiths were more likely to take from ancient pottery and stone-carving than metalwork: "Designers and craftsmen [...] seem to have taken an almost perverse pleasure in transferring motifs from one medium to another". [8]

A new phase in neoclassical design was inaugurated by Robert and James Adam, who travelled in Italy and Dalmatia in the 1750s, observing the ruins of the classical world. On their return to Britain, they published a book entitled The Works in Architecture in installments between 1773 and 1779. This book of engraved designs made the Adam style available throughout Europe. The Adam brothers aimed to simplify the Rococo and Baroque styles which had been fashionable in the preceding decades, to bring what they felt to be a lighter and more elegant feel to Georgian houses. The Works in Architecture illustrated the main buildings the Adam brothers had worked on and crucially documented the interiors, furniture and fittings, designed by the Adams.

Greek Revival

Second Bank of the United States, Philadelphia, 1818-1824, by William Strickland Second Bank of the United States, Philadelphia.jpg
Second Bank of the United States, Philadelphia, 1818-1824, by William Strickland

From about 1800 a fresh influx of Greek architectural examples, seen through the medium of etchings and engravings, gave a new impetus to neoclassicism, the Greek Revival. There was little direct knowledge of surviving Greek buildings before the middle of the 18th century in Western Europe, when an expedition funded by the Society of Dilettanti in 1751 and led by James Stuart and Nicholas Revett began serious archaeological enquiry. Stuart was commissioned after his return from Greece by George Lyttelton to produce the first Greek building in England, the garden temple at Hagley Hall (1758–59). [9] A number of British architects in the second half of the century took up the expressive challenge of the Doric from their aristocratic patrons, including Joseph Bonomi and John Soane, but it was to remain the private enthusiasm of connoisseurs up to the first decade of the 19th century. [10]

Seen in its wider social context, Greek Revival architecture sounded a new note of sobriety and restraint in public buildings in Britain around 1800 as an assertion of nationalism attendant on the Act of Union, the Napoleonic Wars, and the clamour for political reform. It was to be William Wilkins's winning design for the public competition for Downing College, Cambridge, that announced the Greek style was to be the dominant idiom in architecture. Wilkins and Robert Smirke went on to build some of the most important buildings of the era, including the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (1808–1809), the General Post Office (1824–1829) and the British Museum (1823–1848), Wilkins University College London (1826–1830) and the National Gallery (1832–1838). In Scotland, Thomas Hamilton (1784–1858), in collaboration with the artists Andrew Wilson (1780–1848) and Hugh William Williams (1773–1829) created monuments and buildings of international significance; the Burns Monument at Alloway (1818) and the (Royal) High School in Edinburgh (1823–1829).

At the same time the Empire style in France was a more grandiose wave of neoclassicism in architecture and the decorative arts. Mainly based on Imperial Roman styles, it originated in, and took its name from, the rule of Napoleon I in the First French Empire, where it was intended to idealize Napoleon's leadership and the French state. The style corresponds to the more bourgeois Biedermeier style in the German-speaking lands, Federal style in the United States, the Regency style in Britain, and the Napoleonstil in Sweden. According to the art historian Hugh Honour "so far from being, as is sometimes supposed, the culmination of the Neo-classical movement, the Empire marks its rapid decline and transformation back once more into a mere antique revival, drained of all the high-minded ideas and force of conviction that had inspired its masterpieces". [11]

Characteristics

The L'Enfant Plan for Washington, D.C., as revised by Andrew Ellicott in 1792. L'Enfant plan.svg
The L'Enfant Plan for Washington, D.C., as revised by Andrew Ellicott in 1792.

High neoclassicism was an international movement. Architects reacted against the excesses and profuse ornament used in Late Baroque architecture. The new "classical" architecture emphasized planar qualities, rather than elaborate sculptural ornament in both the interior and the exterior. Projections and recessions and their effects of light and shade were more flat; sculptural bas-reliefs were flat and tended to be framed by friezes, tablets or panels. This was the first "stripped down" classical architecture, and appeared to be modern in the context of the Revolutionary period in Europe. At its most elemental, as in the work of Etienne-Louis Boullée, it was highly abstract and geometrically pure. [12]

The neoclassical Helsinki Cathedral from the 19th century, near the Senate Square in Helsinki, Finland. Lutheran Cathedral Helsinki.jpg
The neoclassical Helsinki Cathedral from the 19th century, near the Senate Square in Helsinki, Finland.

Neoclassicism also influenced city planning. The ancient Romans had used a consolidated scheme for city planning for both defence and civil convenience; however, the roots of this scheme go back to even older civilizations. At its most basic, the grid system of streets, a central forum with city services, two main slightly wider boulevards, and the occasional diagonal street were characteristic of the very logical and orderly Roman design. Ancient façades and building layouts were oriented to these city design patterns and they tended to work in proportion with the importance of public buildings.

Many of these urban planning patterns found their way into the first modern planned cities of the 18th century. Exceptional examples include Karlsruhe, Washington, D.C., Saint Petersburg, Buenos Aires, Havana, and Barcelona. Contrasting models may be found in Modernist designs exemplified by Brasília, the Garden city movement, and levittowns.

France

Parisian apartment building on Rue de Rivoli. The name of the street comes from Napoleon's victory over the Austrians at the Battle of Rivoli (1797) Paris Rue de Rivoli - Rue Cambon.jpg
Parisian apartment building on Rue de Rivoli. The name of the street comes from Napoleon's victory over the Austrians at the Battle of Rivoli (1797)

The first phase of neoclassicism in France is expressed in the Louis XV style of architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel (Petit Trianon, 1762–1768); the second phase, in the styles called Directoire and Empire, might be characterized by Jean Chalgrin's severe astylar Arc de Triomphe (designed in 1806). In England the two phases might be characterized first by the structures of Robert Adam, the second by those of Sir John Soane. The interior style in France was initially a Parisian style, the "Goût grec" ("Greek style") not a court style. Only when the young king acceded to the throne in 1774 did Marie Antoinette, his fashion-loving Queen, bring the Louis XVI style to court.

Many early 19th-century neoclassical architects were influenced by the drawings and projects of Étienne-Louis Boullée and Claude Nicolas Ledoux. The many graphite drawings of Boullée and his students depict spare geometrical architecture that emulates the eternality of the universe. There are links between Boullée's ideas and Edmund Burke's conception of the sublime. Ledoux addressed the concept of architectural character, maintaining that a building should immediately communicate its function to the viewer: taken literally, such ideas give rise to architecture parlante ("speaking architecture").

From about 1800 a fresh influx of Greek architectural examples, seen through the medium of etchings and engravings, gave a new impetus to neoclassicism that is called the Greek Revival. Although several European cities – notably Saint Petersburg, Athens, Berlin and Munich – were transformed into veritable museums of Greek revival architecture, the Greek Revival in France was never popular with either the state or the public.

Germany

Altes Museum in Berlin (finished in 1830) Exterior views of the Altes Museum Berlin.jpg
Altes Museum in Berlin (finished in 1830)

Neoclassical architecture became a symbol of national pride during the 18th century in Germany, in what was then Prussia. Karl Friedrich Schinkel built many notable buildings in this style, including the Altes Museum in Berlin. While the city remained dominated by Baroque city planning, his architecture and functional style provided the city with a distinctly neoclassical center.

Schinkel's work is very comparable to Neoclassical architecture in Britain since he drew much of his inspiration from that country. He made trips to observe the buildings and develop his functional style. [3]

Great Britain and Ireland

From the middle of the 18th century, exploration and publication changed the course of British architecture towards a purer vision of the Ancient Greco-Roman ideal. James 'Athenian' Stuart's work The Antiquities of Athens and Other Monuments of Greece was very influential in this regard, as were Robert Wood's Palmyra and Baalbec. A combination of simple forms and high levels of enrichment was adopted by the majority of contemporary British architects and designers. The revolution begun by Stuart was soon to be eclipsed by the work of the Adam brothers, James Wyatt, Sir William Chambers, George Dance, James Gandon, and provincially based architects such as John Carr and Thomas Harrison of Chester.

In Scotland and the north of England, where the Gothic Revival was less strong, architects continued to develop the neoclassical style of William Henry Playfair. The works of Cuthbert Brodrick and Alexander Thomson show that by the end of the 19th century the results could be powerful and eccentric.

In Ireland, where Gothic Revival was also less popular, a refined, restrained form of the neoclassical developed, and can be seen in the works of James Gandon and other architects working at the time. It is particularly evident in Dublin, which is a largely neoclassical and Georgian city.

Greece

After the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece in 1832, the architecture of Greece was mostly influenced by the Neoclassical architecture. For Athens, the first King of Greece, Otto I, commissioned the architects Stamatios Kleanthis and Eduard Schaubert to design a modern city plan. The Old Royal Palace was the first important public building to be built, between 1836 and 1843. Later, in the mid- and late 19th century, Theophil von Hansen and Ernst Ziller took part in the construction of many neoclassical buildings. Theophil von Hansen designed his first building, the National Observatory of Athens, and two of the three contiguous buildings forming the so-called "Athens Classical Trilogy", namely the Academy of Athens (1859) and the National Library of Greece (1888), the third building of the trilogy being the National and Capodistrian University of Athens (1843), which was designed by his brother Christian Hansen. Also he designed the Zappeion Hall (1888). Ernst Ziller also designed many private mansions in the centre of Athens which gradually became public, usually through donations, such the mansion of Heinrich Schliemann, Iliou Melathron (1880). The city of Nauplio is also an important example of Neoclassical architecture along with the islands of Poros and Syros (especially in the capital Ermoupoli).

Hungary

The earliest examples of neoclassical architecture in Hungary may be found in Vác. In this town the triumphal arch and the neoclassical façade of the Baroque Cathedral were designed by the French architect Isidor Marcellus Amandus Ganneval (Isidore Canevale) in the 1760s. Also the work of a French architect, Charles Moreau, is the garden façade of the Esterházy Palace (1797–1805) in Kismarton (today Eisenstadt in Austria).

The two principal architects of Neoclassicism in Hungary were Mihály Pollack and József Hild. Pollack's major work is the Hungarian National Museum (1837–1844). Hild is famous for his designs for the Cathedral of Eger and Esztergom. The Reformed Great Church of Debrecen is an outstanding example of the many Protestant churches that were built in the first half of the 19th century. This was the time of the first iron structures in Hungarian architecture, the most important of which is the Chain Bridge (Budapest) by William Tierney Clark.

Japan

Although not a western country, due to Western influence Japan has had neoclassical architecture produced in it. This includes the unique Hiko Shrine  [ ja ] which is a Shinto shrine based on Greek temples. It later developed into the Imperial Crown Style which contains elements of both Eastern and Western design [13] Roofs are notably distinctly Asian in this style and it was used heavily by the Japanese Empire in its colonies. [14] [15] [16]

Malta

The Rotunda of Mosta, built between 1833 and 1860 Malta - Mosta - Triq il-Kbira + Rotunda 01 ies.jpg
The Rotunda of Mosta, built between 1833 and 1860

Neoclassical architecture was introduced in Malta in the late 18th century, during the final years of Hospitaller rule. Early examples include the Bibliotheca (1786), [17] the De Rohan Arch (1798) [18] and the Hompesch Gate (1801). [19] However, neoclassical architecture only became popular in Malta following the establishment of British rule in the early 19th century. In 1814, a neoclassical portico decorated with the British coat of arms was added to the Main Guard building so as to serve as a symbol of British Malta. Other 19th-century neoclassical buildings include the Monument to Sir Alexander Ball (1810), RNH Bighi (1832), St Paul's Pro-Cathedral (1844), the Rotunda of Mosta (1860) and the now-destroyed Royal Opera House (1866). [20]

Neoclassicism gave way to other architectural styles by the late 19th century. Few buildings were built in the neoclassical style during the 20th century, such as the Domvs Romana museum (1922), [21] and the Courts of Justice building in Valletta (1965–1971). [22]

Mexico

As part of the Spanish Enlightenment's cultural impact on the kingdom of New Spain (Mexico), the crown established the Academy of San Carlos in 1785 to train painters, sculptors, and architects in New Spain, under the direction of the peninsular Gerónimo Antonio Gil. [23] The academy emphasized neoclassicism, which drew on the inspiration of the clean lines of Greek and Roman architecture, but also, for some monuments, from the Aztec and Mayan architectural traditions. [24]

Neoclassicism in Mexican architecture was directly linked to crown policies that sought to rein in the exuberance of the Mexican Baroque, and to create public buildings of "good taste" funded by the crown, such as the Palacio de Minería in Mexico City, the Hospicio Cabañas in Guadalajara, and the Alhóndiga de Granaditas in Guanajuato, all built in the late colonial era. [25]

Rest of Latin America

The Neoclassical style arrived in the American empires of Spain and Portugal through projects designed in Europe or carried out locally by European or Criollo architects trained in the academies of the metropolis. There are also examples of the adaptation to the local architectural language, which during previous centuries had made a synthesis or syncretism of European and pre-Columbian elements in the so-called Colonial Baroque.

Two more Classical criteria belong, in Chile, the Palacio de La Moneda (1784–1805) and the Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago (1748–1899), both works by the Italian architect Joaquín Toesca. In Ecuador, the Quito's Palacio de Carondelet (Ecuador's Government Palace) built between 1611–1801 by Antonio García. At the dawn of the independence of Hispanic America, constructive programs were developed in the new republics. Neoclassicism was introduced in New Granada by Marcelino Pérez de Arroyo. Later, in Colombia, the Capitolio Nacional was built in Bogotá between 1848–1926 by Thomas Reed, trained at the Berlin Bauakademie; the Primatial Cathedral of Bogotá (1807–1823), designed by Friar Domingo de Petrés; and in Peru the Basilica Cathedral of Arequipa built between 1540–1844 by Lucas Poblete.

Brazil, which became the seat of the court of the Portuguese monarchy, gaining independence from its metropolis as the Empire of Brazil, also used the resources of architecture for the glorification of political power, and it was decided to resort to architects trained in the Académie royale d'architecture. To this period belong the portal of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro made in 1826 and the Imperial Palace of Petrópolis built between 1845–1862.

Argentina is another of the countries that seeks to shed its colonial past, but in the context of the reorganization of the country after independence in 1810, an aspect of power is sought that transmits the presence of the State, inspiring respect and devotion, including of course the architecture. However, an image of its own is not conceived, but the Classical canon is introduced, not in the form of a replica of buildings from Antiquity, but with a classical predominance and a lot of influence from French Classicism; which will last until the 20th century.

Philippines

Like most western tradition, it arrived in the Pacific Archipelagos via rule from New Spain (Mexico) during the period of governance by Mexico City as one of the best preferred architecture in the Spanish east indies, manifested in Churches, Civic buildings and one of the popular architectural ornament for newer styled Bahay na bato and Bahay kubo. When the power over the archipelago was transferred from Spain to the United States of America, the style became more popular and developed from slightly simple approach during the Spanish era, to a more ornamented style of the Beaux-Arts architecture sparked by the return of massive number of architectural students to the islands from the western schools. It also became a symbol of democracy and the approaching republic during the commonwealth.

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

St. Anne's Church, Warsaw Kosciol Akademicki sw. Anny.jpg
St. Anne's Church, Warsaw

The centre of Polish Neoclassicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king, Stanislaus Augustus. The University of Vilnius was another important centre of the Neoclassical architecture in Europe, led by the notable professors of architecture Marcin Knackfus, Laurynas Gucevicius and Karol Podczaszyński. The style was expressed in the shape of main public buildings, such as the University's Observatory, Vilnius Cathedral and the town hall.

The best-known architects and artists, who worked in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were Dominik Merlini, Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer, Szymon Bogumił Zug, Jakub Kubicki, Antonio Corazzi, Efraim Szreger, Chrystian Piotr Aigner and Bertel Thorvaldsen.

Russia

In the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century, neoclassical architecture was equal to Saint Petersburg architecture because this style was specific for a huge number of buildings in the city. Catherine the Great adopted the style during her reign by allowing the architect Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe to build the Old Hermitage and the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg. [3]

Spain

Spanish Neoclassicism was exemplified by the work of Juan de Villanueva, who adapted Burke's theories of beauty and the sublime to the requirements of Spanish climate and history. He built the Museo del Prado, which combined three functions: an academy, an auditorium, and a museum in one building with three separate entrances.

This was part of the ambitious program of Charles III, who intended to make Madrid the Capital of the Arts and Sciences. Very close to the museum, Villanueva built the Royal Observatory of Madrid. He also designed several summer houses for the kings in El Escorial and Aranjuez and reconstructed the Plaza Mayor, Madrid, among other important works. Villanueva's pupils expanded the Neoclassical style in Spain.

United States

In the new republic, Robert Adam's neoclassical manner was adapted for the local late 18th- and early 19th-century style, called Federal architecture. One of the pioneers of this style was the English-born Benjamin Henry Latrobe, who is often noted as one of America's first formally trained professional architects and the father of American architecture. The Baltimore Basilica, the first Roman Catholic cathedral in the United States, is considered by many experts to be Latrobe's masterpiece.

Another notable American architect who identified with Federal architecture was Thomas Jefferson. He built many neoclassical buildings including his personal estate Monticello, the Virginia State Capitol, and the University of Virginia. [3]

A second neoclassical manner found in the United States during the 19th century was called Greek Revival architecture. It differs from Federal architecture as it strictly follows the Greek idiom, however it was used to describe all buildings of the Neoclassicism period that display classical orders. [27]

See also

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Neoclassicism was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was born in Rome largely thanks to the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, at the time of the rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum, but its popularity spread across Europe as a generation of European art students finished their Grand Tour and returned from Italy to their home countries with newly rediscovered Greco-Roman ideals. The main Neoclassical movement coincided with the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th century, latterly competing with Romanticism. In architecture, the style continued throughout the 19th, 20th and up to the 21st century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caryatid</span> Load-bearing pillar in the figure of a female, Ancient Greece and later

A caryatid is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term karyatides literally means "maidens of Karyai", an ancient town on the Peloponnese. Karyai had a temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis in her aspect of Artemis Karyatis: "As Karyatis she rejoiced in the dances of the nut-tree village of Karyai, those Karyatides, who in their ecstatic round-dance carried on their heads baskets of live reeds, as if they were dancing plants".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of classical architecture</span> Overview of and topical guide to classical architecture

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to classical architecture:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polychrome</span> Art terminology and color method

Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery, or sculpture in multiple colors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam style</span> Neoclassical style of interior design and architecture

The Adam style is an 18th-century neoclassical style of interior design and architecture, as practised by Scottish architect William Adam and his sons, of whom Robert (1728–1792) and James (1732–1794) were the most widely known.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neo-Byzantine architecture</span> Late-19th-century architectural revival movement

Neo-Byzantine architecture was a revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine style associated with Eastern and Orthodox Christian architecture dating from the 5th through 11th centuries, notably that of Constantinople and the Exarchate of Ravenna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renaissance Revival architecture</span> Group of 19th-century architectural revival styles

Renaissance Revival architecture is a group of 19th-century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of classicizing Italian modes. Under the broad designation Renaissance architecture 19th-century architects and critics went beyond the architectural style which began in Florence and Central Italy in the early 15th century as an expression of Renaissance humanism; they also included styles that can be identified as Mannerist or Baroque. Self-applied style designations were rife in the mid- and later 19th century: "Neo-Renaissance" might be applied by contemporaries to structures that others called "Italianate", or when many French Baroque features are present.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architecture of London</span> Overview of the architecture in London

London's architectural heritage involves many architectural styles from different historical periods. London's architectural eclecticism stems from its long history, continual redevelopment, destruction by the Great Fire of London and The Blitz, and state recognition of private property rights which have limited large-scale state planning. This sets London apart from other European capitals such as Paris and Rome which are more architecturally homogeneous. London's architecture ranges from the Romanesque central keep of The Tower of London, the great Gothic church of Westminster Abbey, the Palladian royal residence Queen's House, Christopher Wren's Baroque masterpiece St Paul's Cathedral, the High Victorian Gothic of The Palace of Westminster, the industrial Art Deco of Battersea Power Station, the post-war Modernism of The Barbican Estate and the Postmodern skyscraper 30 St Mary Axe 'The Gherkin'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish architecture</span> Architecture of buildings in Spain

Spanish architecture refers to architecture in any area of what is now Spain, and by Spanish architects worldwide. The term includes buildings which were constructed within the current borders of Spain prior to its existence as a nation, when the land was called Iberia, Hispania, or was divided between several Christian and Muslim kingdoms. Spanish architecture demonstrates great historical and geographical diversity, depending on the historical period. It developed along similar lines as other architectural styles around the Mediterranean and from Central and Northern Europe, although some Spanish constructions are unique.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portuguese architecture</span> Overview of the architecture of Portugal

Portuguese architecture refers to both the architecture of Portugal's modern-day territory in Continental Portugal, the Azores and Madeira, as well as the architectural heritage/patrimony of Portuguese architects and styles throughout the world, particularly in countries formerly part of the Portuguese Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architecture of Italy</span> Overview of the architecture in Italy

Italy has a very broad and diverse architectural style, which cannot be simply classified by period or region, due to Italy's division into various small states until 1861. This has created a highly diverse and eclectic range in architectural designs. Italy is known for its considerable architectural achievements, such as the construction of aqueducts, temples and similar structures during ancient Rome, the founding of the Renaissance architectural movement in the late-14th to 16th century, and being the homeland of Palladianism, a style of construction which inspired movements such as that of Neoclassical architecture, and influenced the designs which noblemen built their country houses all over the world, notably in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States of America during the late-17th to early 20th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French architecture</span> Overview of the architecture in France

French architecture consists of architectural styles that either originated in France or elsewhere and were developed within the territories of France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mascaron (architecture)</span> Ornament depicting a face

In architecture and the decorative arts, a mascaron ornament is a face, usually human, sometimes frightening or chimeric, whose alleged function was originally to frighten away evil spirits so that they would not enter the building. The concept was subsequently adapted to become a purely decorative element. The most recent architectural styles to extensively employ mascarons were Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau. In addition to architecture, mascarons are used in the other applied arts.

After the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans and the following trends of Greek migration to the Diaspora, Greek architecture was concentrated mainly on the Greek Orthodox churches of the Diaspora. These churches, such as other intellectual centres built by Greeks, were used also as a meeting-place. The architectural style of these buildings was heavily influenced by the western European architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of Italian architecture</span>

This timeline shows the periods of various architectural styles in the architecture of Italy. Italy's architecture spans almost 3,500 years, from Etruscan and Ancient Roman architecture to Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical, Art Nouveau, Fascist, and Italian modern and contemporary architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maltese Baroque architecture</span> A form of Baroque architecture

Maltese Baroque architecture is the form of Baroque architecture that developed in Malta during the 17th and 18th centuries, when the islands were under the rule of the Order of St. John. The Baroque style was introduced in Malta in the early 17th century, possibly by the Bolognese engineer Bontadino de Bontadini during the construction of the Wignacourt Aqueduct. The style became popular in the mid to late 17th century, and it reached its peak during the 18th century, when monumental Baroque structures such as Auberge de Castille were constructed.

References

  1. "Western architecture - German Gothic, Baroque, Renaissance | Britannica".
  2. "Neoclassical architecture". Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved 7 July 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Middleton, Robin. (1993). Neoclassical and 19th century architecture. Electa. ISBN   0-8478-0850-5. OCLC   444534819.
  4. See, for instance, Joseph Rykwert, The First Moderns: the architects of the eighteenth century (Cambridge, MIT Press: 1980) and Alberto Perez Gomez, Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science, (Cambridge, MIT Press: 1983)
  5. "Andrea Palladio 1508–1580". Irish Architectural Archive. 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
  6. Barry Bergdoll, Ed., The Complete Works of Percier and Fontaine, (New York, Princeton Architectural Press: 2018)
  7. "Neoclassical Architecture (1640–1850)". www.visual-arts-cork.com. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
  8. Honour, 110–111, 110 quoted
  9. Though Giles Worsley detects the first Grecian influenced architectural element in the windows of Nuneham Park from 1756, see Giles Worsley, "The First Greek Revival Architecture", The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 127, No. 985 (April 1985), pp. 226–229.
  10. Joseph Mordant Crook, The Greek Revival: neoclassical attitudes in British architecture, 1760–1870 (London, John Murray: 1972)
  11. Honour, 171–184, 171 quoted
  12. Robin Middleton and David Watkin, NeoClassical and Nineteenth Century Architecture2 vols. (New York, Electa/Rizzoli: 1987)
  13. Francis Chia-Hui Lin (9 January 2015). Heteroglossic Asia: The Transformation of Urban Taiwan. Taylor & Francis. pp. 85–. ISBN   978-1-317-62637-4.
  14. Yukiko Koga (28 November 2016). Inheritance of Loss: China, Japan, and the Political Economy of Redemption after Empire. University of Chicago Press. pp. 290–. ISBN   978-0-226-41227-6.
  15. Satō, Yoshiaki (2006). "Chapter 5 Appendix: 帝冠様式について" [About Imperial Crown Style]. 神奈川県庁本庁舎と大正昭和初期の神奈川県技術者に関する建築史的研究[Architecture Historical Research of the Kanagawa Prefecture Main Office Building and the early Taishō Shōwa Kanagawa Prefecture Engineers] (in Japanese).
  16. Morohashi, Kaz (Winter 2015). "Museums in Japan". e-magazine. Norwich,UK: Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Culture. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  17. "Bibliotheca" (PDF). National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands. 28 December 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 December 2015.
  18. "Rohan Gate, Żebbuġ". Times of Malta . 11 December 2012. Archived from the original on 4 December 2015.
  19. Bötig, Klaus (2011). Malta, Gozo. Con atlante stradale (in Italian). EDT srl. p. 54. ISBN   9788860407818.
  20. "Architecture in Malta under the British". culturemalta.org. Archived from the original on 7 October 2015.
  21. "Domvs Romana". Heritage Malta . Archived from the original on 5 January 2015.
  22. "The Courts". The Judiciary – Malta. Archived from the original on 6 January 2015.
  23. Jean Charlot, Mexican Art and the Academy of San Carlos, 1785–1915. Austin: University of Texas Press 1962, p. 25
  24. https://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article/54/3/525/151178/Los-origenes-del-nacionalismo-mexicano
  25. James Oles, Art and Architecture in Mexico. London: Thames and Hudson 2013, pp.132–33, 150.
  26. "Datos curiosos de la Parroquia de San José Iturbide". iturbide.travel (in Spanish). 10 July 2019.
  27. Pierson, William Harvey (1976). American buildings and their architects. Anchor Press/Doubleday. OCLC   605187550.

Further reading