Transcript Architecture for a New Nation: Classicism

Architecture for a New Nation: Classicism
Why does it seem that every entrance to a building on the Mary
Washington campus has a classical portico and at the campus center
there is a bell tower taller than anything else with arches, moldings,
and pilasters?
Why did colonial churches adapt this style? (We'll leave for another
class why many churches would later abandon this style.)
Why did Thomas Jefferson emphasize classical building
references for his University?
So perhaps the short answer for why the buildings of the University of
Mary Washington has classical forms is because the University of
Virginia has classical forms. This is referential architecture.
Why were Roman and Greek forms compelling to northern
Europeans who controlled access to power and authority?
Which of the following played a role in achieving the new status for Roman
architecture?
Surviving Roman (and Greek) buildings were monumental.
Buildings were more durable (emphasized stone over wood)
Renaissance builders saw physical connection to advanced thinking.
Italian trade was expansive, exporting both rare and exotic goods, and ideas.
Architectural discovery followed path of cultural transfer in art, medicine,
critical thinking.
How did this surge in interest in ancient world serve political systems?
The history of the past was controllable.
Using ancient models represented a move to orthodoxy from a diversity of
value systems.
* Remember. The discourse on the value of the mechanical arts of the ancient world
occurs in Europe, not in the immigrant communities in North and South America.
THE ANCIENT PAST OF WESTERN
CIVILIZATION
Between the 17th and the 19th century there existed a fondness
for building in the Classical orders---those styles whose
relationships and details were taken from Greece and Rome.
These architectural forms were known through surviving
buildings, surviving copies of a treatise by a Roman architect,
and the writings of Renaissance writers such as Andrea
Palladio, a 16th century architect who had published a four
volume work on classical architecture.
When do classical forms begin to be used in America?
What were the forms?
The architecture of Greece and Rome supported their roofs through the
combination of two elements, beams and columns.
A beam that spans the space between two walls, columns, or piers is
called an architrave. Above the beam is usually a small bit of wall--called
the frieze, which in Greek and Roman times was often decorated and
caping the wall is either a low wall, called a parapet, a projecting cap-called a cornice, or if the rafters overhang the wall the space is called --the
eaves. This portion of the building between the topmost element of a
column and the roof is called the entablature.
The posts that support the roof can be a square pier or a round column.
Columns have three distinct parts, the base, shaft, and the capital.
Columns themselves may in turn rest on pedestals, or a plinth.
How the parts fit together
The Classical styles of Greece and Rome then are
varieties of columns and entablature--These styles are
called “the Classical orders.”
Renaissance architects
recognized that the parts
of the classical orders
were proportional to one
another so that a given
order could be designed
consistently at any size.
All the proportions of
each classical order were
determined from the
diameter of the column
shaft. Each classical
order had its own
proportional
measurements
The images included in this page are from William
Ware's, The American Vignola first printed in 1902
The five classical orders
Greek Doric
Greek Ionic
Corinthian
Tuscan (simplified Roman Doric)
Roman Doric
Roman Ionic
Composite (a 16th century modification of Corinthian)
Temple of the Winds (a cost effective substitute)
Greek Doric principally copied from the
Grecian, Italian and Sicilian temples
1. The Doric order have features in the frieze and in the bed
mold called triglyphs and Mutules which are derived from the
ends of beams and rafters in wooden construction with large
beams. Below the triglyphs and a fillet, called the Regula are
six triangular or circular wedges called guttae. Guttae appear
to be the remnants of wooden pins.
2. The Greek Doric column has no base, but stands on three large
steps. Doric columns are fluted and have twenty channels
without vertical filets between. The shaft does not have an
astragal, but a sinkage in its place with necking above.
Greek Doric
no base
Greek Ionic principally copied from the Grecian
temples of Asia Minor
1. The Ionic style is most recognizable for the scrolls that form
the middle element in the capital of the column.
2. The Greek Ionic columns are more slender than Doric, being
between 7-10 diameters in height. The base is an Attic base
but the upper torus is often larger than the lower torus and
there is no plinth. The shaft is fluted with filets between the
channels.
3. The cushion between the abacus and the echinus is very wide
in comparison to the Roman scroll and its lower outline curves
down, but do not cover the egg and darts motif.
Greek Ionic
Cushion
droops
Attic base
plinth
Roman Doric
Roman Doric is easiest to separate from Greek by its base,
consisting of a plinth and torus. If the entablature have
triglyphs, metopes, and guttae, but the columns have a base,
then it is Roman Doric.
Two versions of Roman Doric occur, mutulary and denticulated.
They are distinguished by either having dentils in the fascia
above the triglyphs or mutules, each centered and exactly
equal to the width of the triglyphs below.
Roman Doric
Tuscan a Roman order of
simplified Doric
Characterized by
extreme simplicity.
Columns are not
fluted, capitals are
unadorned.
Look for simple forms
with the astragal
forming the only
molding on the shaft.
Roman Ionic.
The most prominent feature
are the scrolls in the
capital.
Greek scrolls have a droop
in their center while
Roman scrolls are
straight with egg and
darts.
The sides of the capital
show the scrolls as
balusters or bolsters.
Corinthian
Small volute
An elaborated form with
brackets [modillions] in the
cornice
Tall bell shaped capital, a series
of small brackets called
modillions that support the
cornice in addition to the
dentils and a general richness
of detail which is enhanced by
the use of the acanthus leaf in
both capitals and modillions.
3 ranks of
acanthus
leaves
Composite Order
A Renaissance
combination of the
large volutes of Ionic
order and the reduction
from 3 ranks to 2 of the
acanthus leaves and
bell shape of the
Corinthian column.
Blocks in place
of modillions
Large
volutes
2 ranks of
achanthus
leaves
What did the Romans invent?
Superimposition
The arch
Coliseum, also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, Rome AD 80
Tower of the Winds
James Stuart and Nicholas Revett measured ancient ruins in Athens, Greece from 1751 to 1754.
They published their findings in The Antiquities of Athens in 1762.
Tower of the Winds
VA Governor’s
Mansion, 1813
Asher Benjamin first published theTower of the Winds capital
in his third edition, published in April 1816. [Plate 22, No. 5].