Classical Revivals

The Enlightenment’s own tradition of questioning everything undermined the 18th century sense of optimism, and developments in society and also encouraged a retreat from unbridled confidence. Thus a new element of doubt arose concerning the ability of reason to solve all new problems. Romantic thinking tended to challenge the establishment.

The increased knowledge of history, geography and culture, combined with colonisation generated multiple influences, which encouraged stylistic revivalism.

In 19th century Europe it was constantly asked what the style of the century was. This gave rise to the Battle of Styles, which was the battle for supremacy between the classical and the Gothic.

Classical revival styles are often associated with Enlightenment thinking and the Gothic Revival with Roman thinking.

This is where one building has multiple styles.

This is where one architect has different styles for different building types.

Ancient Greek Architecture gave rise to Greek Revival Architecture, Ancient Roman Architecture gave rise to Roman Revival Architecture, Renaissance Architecture gave rise to Renaissance revival, or Italianate Architecture, and Baroque Architecture gave rise to Baroque Revival Architecture.

Greek Doric, Ionic and Corinthian.

Roman Doric, Tuscan and Corinthian.

A Doric column has a simple disk at the top, nothing decorative.

An Ionic column is thinner than the other columns and has two scrolls called a volute at the top.

The Corinthian column has a leaf design at the top.

They are quite like the Greek Doric, but not fluted.

The Composite order is a combination of the Ionic and Corinthian orders.

The architrave at the bottom, the frieze in the middle, and the cornice at the top.

It has a series of columns that supports the structural load of the roof. The pediment has a decorated frieze. One thing that’s different of the Doric order is the alternating pattern along the frieze. This basic form has been taken up for many other building designs, e.g. temple fronts.

It has a temple front with a series of columns at the front. It has a round arch, and a dome with a coffered ceiling (each of the squares in the ceiling is called a coffer). The coffers get smaller as the dome gets smaller. It has an oculus at the top of the dome.

They developed the use of the round arch, which enabled them to span larger distances than the Greeks. Putting arches next to each other allowed them to create aqueducts and to create domes.

During the 15th and 16th century in century.

They used pilasters, round arches, had lines of symmetry and really strong axes. They did not really use the temple front.

This looks like columns, but squashed against the building so they are flat.

This was a building type developed during the Renaissance. It is a large house for merchants with a courtyard in the middle.

Inigo Jones was one of Britain’s main Renaissance architects and designed Queen’s House, which sits behind Baroque architecture designed by Christopher Wren. British Renaissance buildings are simpler than Italian ones. On Queen’s House, there is one arched window in the centre of the building, which is symmetrical.

This was a reaction against the regularity of classical architecture. They wanted passion and decoration. Curved walls were introduced.

Francesco Borromini designed this building, which has a real theatricality to it. It has lots of curving, both inside and out. The dome has its own intricate ceiling that is kind of derived from a coffered ceiling, but using oval shapes instead. The dome also includes an oculus.

Christopher Wren, one of Britain’s best-known Baroque architects, build Greenwich hospital, London, England, 1692-1752 in a baroque style. The Greenwich hospital includes elements such as domes and columns, but put together in a different way.

Jean-François Thérèse Chalgrin was the architect. The Arc de Triumph celebrated the new French Empire. The typology of a triumphal arch came from the ancient Roman world. It has a round arch, or a barrel vault (many arches put together so that you get a thick arch) and is heavily carved an ornamented, something that was associated with the Roman world, as the Romans tried to make a statement with their architecture, rather than the Greeks, who simply tried to be elegant.

Pierre Vignon designed the building, which has a giant Corinthian order: a series of columns running around it. We know it’s Roman revival not Greek revival because it’s massive- showing off, not understated. It is raised on a base, and was built as a secular building- a temple to the glory of the French Empire.

The particular Roman Revival undertaken by Napoléon.

Thomas Jefferson designed the main university building, which is basically an imitation of the Roman Pantheon. However, although it is a large building, it is only 2/3rd the size of the original. The professors’ houses also had round arches and temple fronts.

From the middle part of the 19th century.

Robert Smirke designed the British Museum, which is one of the key examples of Greek revival architecture. When you go through the main door of the British Museum you come out into a courtyard space. It’s considered to be more restrained and understated than something like the Madeleine. It follows the Ionic order with volutes.

Sydney Smirke, Robert Smirke’s brother, designed the Reading Room, which sits in the courtyard of the British Museum.

Leo von Klenze designed the Glyptothek, which has a triangular pediment, ionic columns, a line of symmetry (with a bay on either side) and niches with sculptures in them, with a miniature pediment above each of the niches. The interior is very creative with more of a Roman revival inspiration, as it has round, domed ceilings.

Leo von Klenze and Karl Schinkel (whose work is mostly situated in the north of Germany) were in competition with each other and both started being inventive when they created with revival architecture, using some unconventional elements.

Walhalla, designed by Leo von Klenze, is a kind of recreation of the Parthenon. It celebrates the German Empire and German culture, as well as all of the German Empire’s heroes. It doesn’t have the round arches of the Glyptothek and is more restrained, more Greek in its revival style.

This may be to do with colonisation; there were many things from different parts of the word to display.

Karl Friedrich Schinkle designed the Altes Museum, which takes elements of Greek architecture and uses them in conjunction with Roman architecture. It appears like the Pantheon within a Greek revival setting, and has a Pantheon type coffered ceiling leading up to an oculus. It also has a classical porch, making it two-storey. The portico was the classical element, but Schinkel uses a mezzanine.

It has a giant, tall dome that dwarves the temple front.

The Renaissance Revival was not concerned with temple fronts, but with revivng the kind of merchant housing of the 15th century and adorning them with classical elements like pilasters. Planning was important, with the most important part of the building being larger and the least important part being smaller.

Renaissance architecture became freer and freer, and more asymmetric, until it became known as Italianate architecture instead.

The Paris Opera House, Paris, France, 1861-1875, designed by Charles Garnier, was elaborate and huge. The Grand Staircase is a significant part of its design, as going to the Opera was all about parading and seeing whom else was there.