The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture. Hellenism, as a neoclassical movement distinct from other Roman or Greco-Roman forms of Neoclassicism emerging after the European Renaissance, is most often associated Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century both as a reaction against the Rococo With a new found access to Greece archaeologist-architects of the period studied the Doric and Ionic movement, examples of which can be found in Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and Finland (where the assembly of Greek buildings in Helsinki city centre is particularly notable). The Doric order was one of the three '''orders''' or organizational systems of Ancient Greek or Classical architecture; the other two Canonical The Ionic order column forms one of the three '''orders''' or '''organizational systems''' of Classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Helsinki (in Finnish;) or Helsingfors (in Swedish;) is the Capital and largest city of Finland. Yet in each country it touched, the style was looked on as the expression of local nationalism and civic virtue, especially in Germany and America, where the idiom was regarded as free from any ecclesiastical or aristocratic associations.
The term Greek revival was first used by Charles Robert Cockerell in a lecture he gave as Professor of Architecture to the Royal Academy in 1842. Charles Robert Cockerell (1788–1863 was an English Architect, Archaeologist, and Writer. This article refers to an art institution in London For other meanings of Royal Academy see Royal Academy (disambiguation. The term was indicative of how highly self-conscious these practitioners of the style were who knew that they had created a new mode of architecture. The taste for all things Greek in furniture and interior design was at its peak by the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the designs of Thomas Hope had influenced a number of decorative styles known variously as Neoclassical, Empire, Russian Empire, and Regency. Henry Thomas Hope ( 30 August 1769 &ndash 3 February 1830 /1831 was a British author philosopher and art collector best known for his novel "Anastasius" Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century both as a reaction against the Rococo The Empire Style, sometimes considered the second phase of Neoclassicism, is an early-19th-century Design movement in Architecture, Furniture Greek Revival architecture took a different course in a number of countries, lasting up till the Civil War in America (1860s) and even later in Scotland. Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South The style was also exported to Greece under the first two (German and Danish) kings of the newly independent nation.
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Greek Revival architecture in Britain
Despite the unbounded prestige of ancient Greece amongst the educated elite of Europe, there was little to no direct knowledge of that civilization before the middle of the 18th century. The monuments of Greek antiquity were known chiefly from Pausanias and other literary sources. Pausanias ( Greek:) was a Greek traveller and Geographer of the 2nd century CE, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Visiting Ottoman Greece was a difficult and dangerous business prior to the period of stagnation beginning with the Great Turkish War. The Great Turkish War refers to a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and contemporary European powers then joined into a Holy League Few Grand Tourists called on Athens during the first half of the 18th century, and none made any significant study of the architectural ruins. The Grand Tour was the traditional travel of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means It would take until the expedition funded by the Society of Dilettanti of 1751 by James Stuart and Nicholas Revett before serious archaeological enquiry began in earnest. For a definition of "dilettante" see the Wiktionary entry. James "Athenian" Stuart (1713 - 2 February 1788) was an English Archaeologist, Architect and artist best Nicholas Revett (1720 - 1804 was a Suffolk gentleman and amateur architect and artist Stuart and Revett's findings, published as The Antiquities of Athens (first vol. 1762, vol. 5, 1816), along with Julien-David Le Roy's Ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Grèce (1758) were the first accurate surveys of ancient Greek architecture. Intellectual curiosty quickly led to a desire to emulate, so 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). Hagley Hall ( of Hagley, Worcestershire and its park are among the supreme achievements of eighteenth-century English architecture and landscape gardening 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 nineteenth century. Sir John Soane ( 10 September 1753 &ndash 20 January 1837) was an English Architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical
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. Thomas Hamilton, ( 11 January 1784 &ndash 24 February 1858) was a Scottish Architect, based in Edinburgh. The Royal High School (RHS of Edinburgh can trace its roots back to 1128 and is one of the oldest schools in Scotland. The term nationalism can refer to an Ideology, a sentiment, a form of Culture, or a Social movement that focuses on the Nation The phrase Act of Union 1800 (or sometimes Act of Union 1801) (Acht an Aontais 1800 is used to describe two complementary Acts whose official United Kingdom titles are It was to be William Wilkins's winning design for the public competition for Downing College that announced the Greek style was to be the dominant idiom in architecture. William Wilkins may refer to William Wilkins (architect, (1778&ndash1839 British architect and archaeologist William Wilkins (U Downing College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Wilkins and Robert Smirke went on to build some of the most important buildings of the era, including the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (1808-9), the General Post Office (1824-9), and the British Museum (1823-48), Wilkins University College London (1826-30), and the National Gallery (1832-8). People called Robert Smirke include An 18th/19th century English painter Robert Smirke (painter A 19th century English architect Robert Smirke Covent Garden (Pronunciation kɒvʌnt is a district in London, England, located on the easternmost parts of the City of Westminster and the southwest The British Museum is a Museum of human history and culture in London. University College London ( UCL) is a multi-faculty university institution based in the United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London In Scotland the style was avidly adopted by William Henry Playfair, Thomas Hamilton, and Charles Robert Cockerell, who severally and jointly contributed to the massive expansion of Edinburgh's New Town, including the Calton Hill development and the Moray estate. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. William Henry Playfair (1790-1857 was one of the greatest Scottish architects of the 19th Century Thomas Hamilton, ( 11 January 1784 &ndash 24 February 1858) was a Scottish Architect, based in Edinburgh. Edinburgh ( ˈɛdɪnb(ərə Dùn Èideann) is the Capital of Scotland and is its second largest city after Glasgow. The New Town, a central area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is often considered to be a masterpiece of city planning and is a UNESCO Such was the popularity of the Doric in Edinburgh that the city now enjoys a striking visual uniformity, and as such is sometimes whimsically referred to as the Athens of the North.
If it is tempting to see the Greek revival as the expression of Regency authoritarianism, then the changing conditions of life in Britain made Doric the loser of the Battle of the Styles, dramatically symbolized by the selection of Barry's Gothic design for the Palace of Westminster in 1836. The Battle of the Styles is a term used to refer to the conflict between supporters of the Gothic style and the Classical style in architecture Nevertheless, Greek continued to be in favour in Scotland well into the 1870s in the singular figure of Alexander Thomson. Alexander “Greek” Thomson ( April 9 1817 – March 22 1875) was an eminent Glaswegian Architect and architectural
Greek Revival in Germany and France
In Germany the Greek revival is predominantly found in two centres, Berlin and Munich. Leo von Klenze ( Franz Karl Leopold von Klenze, February 29 1784 - January 27 1864) was a German neoclassicist Architect In both locales, Doric was the court style rather than a popular movement, and was heavily patronized by Frederick William II and Ludwig I as the expression of their desires for their respective seats to become the capital of Germany. The earliest Greek building was the Brandenburg Gate (1788-91) by Carl Gotthard Langhans, who modelled it on the Propylaea. The Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor is a former City gate and one of the main symbols of Berlin and Germany. Carl Gotthard Langhans ( December 15, 1732 &ndash October 1, 1808) was a Prussian builder and Architect. A Propylaea, Propylea or Propylaia (in Greek &mdash Προπυλαια is any monumental Gateway based on the original Propylaea that serves Ten years after the death of Frederick the Great, the Berlin Akademie initiated a competition for a monument to the king that would promote “morality and patriotism. Frederick II (Friedrich II January 24 1712 August 17 1786) was a King of Prussia (1740&ndash1786 from the " Friedrich Gilly’s unexecuted design for a temple raised above the Leipziger Platz caught the tenor of high idealism that the Germans sought in Greek architecture and was enormously influential on Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Leo von Klenze. Friedrich David Gilly ( February 16, 1772 – August 3, 1800) was a German Architect, the son of the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel ( March 13, 1781 – October 9, 1841) was a German Architect Leo von Klenze ( Franz Karl Leopold von Klenze, February 29 1784 - January 27 1864) was a German neoclassicist Architect Schinkel was in a position to stamp his mark on Berlin after the catastrophe of the French occupation ended in 1813; his work on what is now the Altes Museum, Schauspielhaus, and the Neue Wache transformed that city. The Altes Museum ( German: Old Museum) is one of several internationally renowned museums on Berlin 's Museum Island in Berlin The Gendarmenmarkt is a square in Berlin, and the site of the Konzerthaus and the French and German Cathedrals. The Neue Wache ( New Guard House) is a building in central Berlin, the capital of Germany. Similarly, in Munich von Klenze’s Glyptothek and Walhalla were the fulfillment of Gilly’s vision of an orderly and moral German world. The Glyptothek is a museum in Munich, Germany, which was commissioned by the Bavarian King Ludwig I to house his collection of Greek and The Walhalla Hall of Fame and Honor is a neo-classical Hall of fame located on the Danube River 10 km east of Regensburg, in Bavaria
By comparison, the Greek revival in France was never popular with either the State or the public. Leo von Klenze ( Franz Karl Leopold von Klenze, February 29 1784 - January 27 1864) was a German neoclassicist Architect What little there is started with Charles de Wailly’s crypt in the church of St Leu-St Gilles (1773-80), and Claude Nicolas Ledoux’s Barriere des Bonshommes (1785-9). Charles De Wailly ( Paris November 9 1730 — Paris November 2 1798) was a French Architect and Urbanist Claude Ledoux redirects here For the Belgian composer see Claude Ledoux (composer. First-hand evidence of Greek architecture was of very little importance to the French, due to the influence of Marc-Antoine Laugier’s doctrines that sought to discern the principles of the Greeks instead of their mere practices. Marc-Antoine (Abbe Laugier ( January 22, 1713, Manosque, Provence - April 5, 1769, Paris) was a Jesuit It would take until Laboustre’s Neo-Grec of the second Empire for the Greek revival to flower briefly in France. Neo-Grec is a term referring to late manifestations of Neoclassicism, early Neo-Renaissance now called the Greek Revival style which was
Greek Revival in North America
Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of the first volume of The Antiquities of Athens[1], and though he never practiced in the style Jefferson was to prove instrumental in introducing Greek Revival architecture to the United States. Lauderdale County is a County of the US state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of Colonel James Lauderdale, of Tennessee. This page is a glossary of architecture. A Aisle - subsidiary space alongside the body of a building separated from it by columns piers or Thomas Jefferson (April 13 1743 – July 4 1826 was the third President of the United States (1801–1809 the principal author of the Declaration of Independence In 1803, Benjamin Latrobe was appointed by Jefferson as surveyor of public building in the United States, Latrobe went on to design a number of important public buildings in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, including work on the United States Capitol and the Bank of Pennsylvania. Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe ( May 1, 1764 - September 3, 1820) was a British-born American Architect best known for his design of Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə [2] Latrobe's design for the Capitol was an imaginative interpretation of the classical orders not constrained by historical precedent, incorporating American motifs such as corncobs and tobacco leaves into his capitals. A classical order is one of the ancient styles of building design in the classical tradition, distinguished by their proportions and their characteristic profiles and details This idiosyncratic approach was to become typical of the American attitude to Greek detailing. His overall plan for the Capitol did not survive, though much of his interiors do. He also did notable work on the Supreme Court interior (1806-7) and his masterpiece, the Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Baltimore (1805-21). The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, also called Baltimore Basilica or Baltimore Cathedral, was the first Roman Catholic Even as he claimed that “I am a bigoted Greek in the condemnation of the Roman architecture…,” he did not seek to rigidly impose Greek forms, stating that “[o]ur religion requires a church wholly different from the temple, our legislative assemblies and our courts of justice, buildings of entirely different principles from their basilicas; and our amusements could not possibly be performed in their theatres or amphitheatres. ”[3] Latrobe’s circle of junior colleagues would prove to be an informal school of Greek revivalists, and it was his influence that was to shape the next generation of American architects.
The second phase in the development of American Greek revival saw the pupils of Latrobe create a monumental national style under the patronage of banker and hellenophile Nicholas Biddle, including such works as the Second Bank of the United States by William Strickland (1824), Biddle’s home "Andalusia" by Thomas U. Walter (1835-6), and Girard College also by Walter (1833-47). Nicholas Biddle ( January 8 1786 – February 27 1844) was an American Financier who served as the president of the The Second Bank of the United States was a bank chartered in 1816 five years after the expiration of the First Bank of the United States. William Strickland ( Navesink New Jersey, November 1788 - Nashville Tennessee, April 6 1854) was a noted architect in nineteenth-century Thomas Ustick Walter ( September 4, 1804 &ndash October 30, 1887) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was the dean Girard College is a private philanthropic Boarding school on a 43 acre (170000 m² campus in Philadelphia Pennsylvania in the United States. At the same time, the popular appetite for the Greek was sustained by architectural pattern books, the most important of which was Asher Benjamin’s The Practical House Carpenter (1830). This guide helped create the proliferation of Greek homes seen especially in northern New York State and the Western Reserves of Ohio. From the period of about 1820 to 1850, the Greek Revival style dominated the United States and could be found as far west as Springfield, Illinois.
Other notable American architects to use Greek Revival designs included Latrobe's student, Robert Mills who designed the Washington Monument, as well as George Hadfield, and Gabriel Manigault. Robert Mills may mean Robert Mills (architect (1781-1855 an American architect Robert Mills (physicist (1927-1999 an American physicist The Washington Monument is a large tall sand-colored Obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington D George Hadfield (1763 February 6 1826 was born in Livorno Italy of English parents who were hotel-keepers Gabriel Manigault was an American Architect. He was in Charleston South Carolina, went to study in Geneva, Switzerland, and [2]
In Canada, Montreal architect John Ostell designed a number of prominent Greek Revival Buildings, including the first building on the McGill University campus and Montreal's original Custom House, now part of the Pointe-à-Callière Museum. Montreal, or Montréal in French ( pronounced in French, in English) is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec John Ostell ( 7 August 1813 &ndash 6 April 1892) architect surveyor and manufacturer was born in London England and emigrated to Pointe-à-Callière Museum is the Montreal museum of archaeology and history located in Old Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Toronto Street Post Office, completed in 1853, is another Canadian example. The Toronto Street Post Office was also called Seventh Toronto Post Office and was built by Frederic Cumberland and Thomas Ridout from 1851 to 1853.
Polychromy
- See also: Polychrome
The discovery that the Greeks had painted their temples had a profound influence on the later development of the style. Jacques Ignace Hittorff ( Cologne, August 20, 1792 &ndash March 25, 1867) was a German-born French Architect For the character from the Oz series see Polychrome (fictional character. The archaeological dig at Aegina and Bassae in 1811-12 by Cockerell, Otto Magnus von Stackelberg, and Karl Haller von Hallerstein had disinterred painted fragments of masonry daubed with impermanent colours. Aegina ( Greek: Αίγινα ( Egina) is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, 17 miles (30 km from Bassae (Latin or Bassai, Vassai or Vasses ( Greek, Modern Βάσσες, Ancient Βάσσαι) meaning "little Count Otto Magnus Baron von Stackelberg ( Tallinn, 25 July 1786 - St Petersburg, 27 March 1837) was one of the first This revelation was a direct contradiction of Winckelmann’s notion of the Greek temple as timeless, fixed, and pure. Johann Joachim Winckelmann ( December 9, 1717 - June 8, 1768) a German Art historian and Archaeologist, In 1823, Samuel Angell discovered the coloured metopes of Temple C at Selinunte, Sicily and published them in 1826. Selinunte ( Greek:; Latin: Selinus) is an ancient Greek archaeological site situated on the south coast of Sicily between The French architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff witnessed the exhibition of Angell’s find and endeavoured to excavate Temple B at Selinus. Jacques Ignace Hittorff ( Cologne, August 20, 1792 &ndash March 25, 1867) was a German-born French Architect His imaginative reconstructions of this temple were exhibited in Rome and Paris in 1824 and he went on to publish these as Architecture polychrome chez les Grecs (1830) and later in Restitution du Temple d'Empedocle a Selinote (1851). The controversy was to inspire von Klenze’s Aegina room at the Munich Glyptothek of 1830, the first of his many speculative reconstructions of Greek colour. The Glyptothek is a museum in Munich, Germany, which was commissioned by the Bavarian King Ludwig I to house his collection of Greek and
Hittorff lectured in Paris in 1829-30, that Greek temples had originally been painted yellow, with the moulding and sculptural details in red, blue, green, and gold. Similarlly, Henri Labrouste proposed a reconstruction of the temples at Paestum to the Academie des Beaux-Arts in 1829, decked out in startling colour, inverting the accepted chronology of the three Doric temples, thereby implying that the development of the Greek orders did not increase in formal complexity over time, i. (Pierre François Henri Labrouste ( 11 May 1801 &ndash 24 June 1875) was a French Architect from the famous École The Académie des Beaux-Arts (Academy of Fine Arts is a French Learned society. e. , the evolution from Doric to Corinthian was not inexorable. Both events were to cause a minor scandal. The emerging understanding that Greek art was subject to changing forces of environment and culture was a direct assault on the architectural rationalism of the day.
Influence
With the rise of architectural historicism in the mid-nineteenth century it is no longer possible to speak of a Greek revival movement, where the Doric is employed it is as another self-consciously anachronizing style. The San Francisco mint (completed 1874) is a case in point. Yet Greek culture and Greek design motifs continued to exert a powerful hold on late Victorian imagination and beyond. Peter Behrens’s Haus Wiegund (1911-12), for example, echos the austere classicism of Gilly and Schinkel. For the Canadian writer see Peter Behrens (writer. For the German musician and member of Trio, see Peter Behrens (musician Further north we find a resurgent interest in rationalism dressed in the neoclassical style; Nordic Classicism. Nordic Classicism was a style of architecture that briefly blossomed in the Nordic countries ( Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland If the idiom has fallen out of favour since World War II it is thanks to its association, rightly or wrongly, with the pastiche classicism of Albert Speer which still provokes controversy as witnessed in Léon Krier’s provocative essay “Krier on Speer"[4]. Nazi architecture was an architectural plan and integral part of the Nazi party 's plans to create a Cultural and Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, commonly known as Albert Speer ( 19 March 1905 - 1 September 1981 was an Architect, author and for part of World Léon Krier (born 7 April 1946 in Luxembourg City) is an Architect, architectural theorist and Urban planner.
Notes
- ^ Hamlin op. cit. p. 339
- ^ a b Federal Writers' Project (1937). Washington, City and Capital: Federal Writers' Project. Works Progress Administration / United States Government Printing Office, p. The Government Printing Office (GPO is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States federal government. 126.
- ^ The Journal of Latrobe quoted in Hamlin, Greek Revival. . , p36. Dover edition.
- ^ Krier on Speer, Architectural Review, vol. 173, 1983, p 33-38.
Primary sources
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References
- Greek Revival Architecture in America, Talbot Hamlin, OUP, 1944
- Greek Revival America, Roger G. Kennedy, 1989
- Greek Revival America? Reflections on uses and functions of antique architectural patterns in American architecture between 1760-1860, Christoph Hoecker, in: Hephaistos - New approaches in Classical Archaeology and related fields vol. 15, 1997, pp. 197-241.
- The Greek Revival, J. Mordaunt Cook, 1972
- The Sources of Greek Revival Architecture, Dora Wiebenson, 1969.
- Study of Greek Revival Architecture in the Seneca and Cayuga Lake Regions, by Clifford H. Ruffner, Jr
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