Neoclassical furniture........................Illustrated Architecture Dictionary ........................ Greek temples
Neoclassical furniture........................Illustrated
Architecture Dictionary ........................ Greek temples
Neoclassicism / Classical Revival
1750-1900
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Immediately after excavations began in 1750 at Herculaneum and Pompeii, Europeans flocked to southern Italy to witness and record the event. Significant stylistic changes ensued as numerous artifacts were removed and documented in widely published treatises on ancient Roman life.
Artists, architects, and scholars witnessed with great awe the removal of furnishings, household objects, and architectural elements that had been buried beneath tons of volcanic ash and debris for nearly 1,800 years. What seemed apparent in the discovery of these ancient Roman cities was that,previously, the European idea of classicism had been based on the still-standing structures of the Italian Renaissance and the writings of Palladio.Now, classicism in its purest form could be studied, modified, and incorporated into eighteenth-century living. Several books were published at this time and, with precise line drawings, documented the artifacts removed from the excavations.
Neoclassicism marked a return to rectilinear (straight line) forms, defiantly rejecting the serpentine curves and undulations (waves) typical of the Rococo period (1840-1860) that preceded it.
Interiors were designed using purely geometrical shapes; arcs, rectangles, and circles were incorporated into wall panels, mirror frames, and floor patterns in strict symmetrical arrangements.Ceilings, door frames, and mantle-piece moldings duplicated Roman prototypes taken from the excavations; gilded swags, urns, laurel wreaths, and egg-and-dart design motifs were superimposed over either white, gray, or softly tinted walls.
In Britain, the style is known as Georgian (King George I, II, and III) or Adamesque.
In France, the style became established during the reign of Louis XVI; Napoleon also supported the style for new buildings in his imperial state.
AmericaThe first competing American versions of European Neoclassicism were Federal, 1790-1830, and the temple front Classical Revival /Jeffersonian Classicism / Roman Classicism, 1790-1830.
Greek Revival 1820-1860 became the first national style in the US.
The later, more refined stage of the Beaux-Arts tradition (1880-1920) influenced the last phase of the classical revival in the United States.
Neoclassical features:
- Symmetrically arranged buildings
- Simple geometric forms
- Monumental proportions
- Colossal pedimented porticos flanked by a series of pilasters
- Arch was not used
- Enriched moldings are rare
- Smooth surfaces
- When windows are employed, they are large single-light sashes
- Attic stories and parapets are popular
- Statuary along the roof lines is never employed
Examples from Buffalo architecture:
- Right illustration above: Albright-Knox Art Gallery Temple Front
- Dickinson Jewelry Store
- Grover Cleveland HS
- Tracy Monument, Forest Lawn
- Forest Lawn Cemetery Administration Building
- M&T Branch Bank , 133 Grant St.
- Photo: 1036 Broadway
- Federal style examples
- Adamesque examples
Other examples:
- Supreme Court Building, Washington, DC
- Photo: Capitol Building, Washington, D.C.
- Left illustration above: England: Georgian/Adamesque - Portland Place, London
- Britain: Georgian/Adamesque - Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, Scotland
- France - Fontainebleau
- Switzerland - Cathédral St. Pierre, Geneva
- Germany: Residence Museum, Munich
- Poland: Church of St. Anne, Warsaw
- Poland: 32 Krakowskie, Warsaw
