19th CENTURY NEOCLASSICISM

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE - V

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AR. GYANENDER GREWAL NISHANT | PREETI
NEO CLASSICISM WHAT IT MEANS?
~ Neo Classical – NEW Classical

Classical

Renaissance – 14th Century

Baroque – 15th Century

Rococo – 18th Century

Neoclassic 18th Century

al
 BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE
 Baroque architecture describes the
style developed out from the late
renaissance mannerism by the turn
of the 16th century in Italy and
diffused later on into other parts of
Europe.
Saint Peter‟s Square

ROCOCO ARCHITECTURE
It combined the delicacy of French
rocaille with Italian barocco -
Baroque. It is most often found in
Germany, Austria, Eastern Europe,
and Russia. While there are many
similarities between the Baroque and
the Rococo styles, Rococo buildings
tend to be softer and more graceful.
Amalienburg palace ,Munich,
Colors are pale and curving shapes
Germany
dominate
NEO CLASSICISM REVIVAL OF THE CLASSICAL

REVIVAL OF THE CLASSIC

Renaissance Neoclassical

Antiquity Archaeology
NEOCLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE
•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 style of anti-tectonic naturalistic
ornament, and an outgrowth of some
classicizing features of Late Baroque. In its The Cathedral of Vilnius by Laurynas Gucevičius
purest form it is a style principally derived from
the architecture of Classical Greece and the
architecture of Italian Andrea Palladio.

•Neoclassical architecture describes buildings

that are inspired by the classical architecture of
ancient Greece and Rome.

•Architects and artists adopted Neoclassicism for

aesthetic and political reasons, and the style
flourished during the revolutionary periods in
France and the United States. (Approx. 1750-
1900)
Pulteney Bridge, Bath, England, by Robert Adam
NEOCLASSICISM
By the mid 18th century, the movement broadened to incorporate a greater range
of Classical influences, including those from Ancient Greece. 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, was pivotal in this regard.

Monumental Architecture
•For most of history, temples and palaces served as
the leading forms of monumental architecture.

•During the Neoclassical era, these building types were

gradually replaced by government buildings (e.g.
courts, public service buildings, schools) and
commercial buildings (e.g. office and apartment
buildings, performing arts centers, transportation
terminals).
The Cathedral of Vilnius
•Today, government and commercial buildings dominate
cityscapes all over the world.
TYPES OF NEOCLASSICAL BUILDINGS
Neoclassical buildings can be divided into three main types:

 Temple: features a design based on an ancient

temple. Many temple style buildings feature a peristyle
(a continuous line of columns around a building).
 Palladian: Andrea Palladio was an Italian architect who
admired ancient Roman architecture. His influence is
still seen today and he is the best known neo-classical
architect in the western world. A well known Palladian
detail is a large window consisting of a central arched
section flanked by two narrow rectangular sections.

 Classical block: features a vast rectangular (or

square) plan, with a flat roof and an exterior rich in
classical detail. The exterior is divided into multiple
levels, each of which features a repeated classical
pattern, often a series of arches and/or columns. The
overall impression of such a building is an enormous,
classically-decorated rectangular block.
F E A T U R E S O F C L A S S I CA L A R C H I T E C T U R E
FOUND IN NEOCLASSICALDESIGN

On a columned building, the

section between the top of the
columns and the roof is called
the entablature. The three
parts, cornice, frieze, and
architrave, were designed to
complement different types of
columns.
F E A T U R E S O F C L A S S I CA L A R C H I T E C T U R E
FOUND IN NEOCLASSICALDESIGN
Capital
Ancient Greek and Roman builders
developed the Five Orders, or rules,
for the design and proportion of
buildings. These classical orders are
prominent in Neoclassical Architecture.
Column
Shaft

Column
Base

Plinth
F E A T U R E S O F C L A S S I CA L A R C H I T E C T U R E
FOUND IN NEOCLASSICALDESIGN

Architectural Pediment
An architectural element developed in ancient Greece, pediments were
historically embellishments over doors and windows that were both structural
(supported by columns) and decorative (with sculpture reliefs). Beginning with
Roman architecture, pediments became primarily decorative.
A FEW NEOCLASSICAL WINDOW STYLES:

Palladian Window Norman Wheel

NEOCLASSICAL BUILDING CHARACTERISTICS

• 1 - 2 1/2 stories in height – generally low buildings

• Symmetrical: balance and symmetry are the most predominant
characteristic of neoclassicism
• Porticos (porches) featuring Doric or Ionic columns
• Building’s facade is flat and long, often having a screen of free-standing
columns.
• May feature domes or towers
• Dentil molding and frieze band beneath the cornice are common
• Decorative pediments on doorways and windows
• Multiple windows; upper and lower levels
• Wide variety of different window configurations including basic, arched,
Palladian and Norman Wheel
• Ornamental detail includes broken or unbroken pediments and side lights
(windows) surrounding the entry
NEO CLASSICISM AMERICA

United States of America

In American architecture, neoclassicism was one expression of the
American Renaissance movement, ca 1880-1917. One of the pioneers of this style
was English-born Benjamin Henry Latrobe, who is often noted as America's first
professional architect 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.
The widespread use of neoclassicism in American architecture, as well as by French
revolutionary regimes, and the general tenor of rationalism associated with the
movement, all created a link between neoclassicism and republicanism and radicalism
in much of Europe. The Gothic Revival can be seen as an attempt to present a
monarchist and conservative alternative to neoclassicism.
AMERICAN NEOCLASSICAL BUILDINGS

•Perhaps the single greatest example of

Neoclassical style in the U.S. is the
United States Capitol Building, for
which construction began in 1793.

•The central section was topped by a low

dome and was flanked by two
rectangular wings, one for the House of
Representatives and one for the Senate. UNITED STATES CAPITOL BUILDING

• This original plan can still be seen

today but in a much grander scale than
the original concept.
The building has evolved over
hundreds of years but still retains its
original Neoclassical style.
AMERICAN NEOCLASSICAL BUILDINGS

University of Virginia Low Library – Columbia

University

Baltimore
Cathedral

White House
 AMERICAN NEOCLASSICAL BUILDINGS

LATROBE. By 1800 the Gothic was a

fully acceptable alternative to the Greek
revival as a style for major churches.
Benjamin Latrobe (1764-1820), an
Anglo-American who under Jefferson
became the most influential architect of
"Federal" Neoclassicism, submitted a
design in each style for the Cathedral in
Baltimore. In this he may be called a
disciple of the English architect John
Soane (1753-1837), who also worked
in a variety of revival styles.

The Neoclassic one was chosen, but it

might well have been the Neo-Gothic. Baltimore Cathedral
The exterior of the present building has
walls that resemble Soufflot's Pantheon a
dome of more severe design, a temple front, and bell towers of disguised Gothic-
Baroque ancestry. (The bulbous crowns are not his work.)
NEO CLASSICISM EUROPE
England

THE PALLADIAN REVIVAL. England was the birthplace of Neoclassicism in architecture, as it

had been in the forefront of painting and sculpture.
What distinguishes this style from earlier classicisms is less its external appearance than its
motivation. Instead of merely reasserting the superior authority of the ancients, it claimed to
satisfy the demands of reason, and thus to be more "natural" than the Baroque, which at the time
was identified with Tory policies by the Whig opposition, thus beginning an association between
Neoclassicism and liberal politics that was to continue through the French Revolution.
This rationalism helps to explain the abstract, segmented look of Chiswick House. The surfaces are
flat and unbroken, the ornament is meager, and the temple portico juts out abruptly from the
block-like body of the structure.

Chiswick House

Plan of Chiswick House

near London
NEO CLASSICISM EUROPE
Britain

From the middle of the 18th century, exploration and

publication changed the course of British architecture
to- wards 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
Baal- bec. A combination of simple forms and high levels of
enrichment was adopted by the majority of contemporary
British architects and designers.
IMPACT
In the British Raj in India, Sir Edwin Lutyens' mon- umental
city planning for New Delhi marked the sunset of neoclassicism.
In Scotland and the north of England, where the Gothic
Revival was less strong, architects con- tinued to develop the
neoclassical style of William Henry Playfair. The works of
Cuthbert Brodrick and Alexander Thomson show that by the Château de Montmusard by Charles de Wailly

end of the 19th century the results could be powerful and

eccentric.
NEO CLASSICISM EUROPE
Spain
Spanish Neoclassicism counted with the
figure of Juan de Villanueva, who adapted
Burke's achievements about the sublime
and the beauty to the requirements of
Spanish clime and history. He built the
Prado Museum, that combined three
programs- an academy, an auditorium and
a museum- in one building with three
separated entrances. Prado Museum in Madrid, by Juan de Villanueva

This was part of the ambitious program of Charles III, who intended to make Madrid
the Capital of Art and Science. Very close to the museum, Villanueva built the
Astronomical Observatory. He also designed several summer houses for the kings in
El Escorial and Aranjuez and reconstructed the Major Square of Madrid, among other
important works. Villanuevas´ pupils expanded the Neoclassical style in Spain.
NEO CLASSICISM EUROPE

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 in Kismarton (today
Eisenstadt in Austria). The two principal
architect of Neoclassicism in Hungary was
Mihály Pollack and József Hild. Pollack’s
major work is the
Hungarian National Museum (1837-1844).
Cathedral of Vác by Isidor Marcellus Amandus Ganneval
NEO CLASSICISM EUROPE
Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth
The center of Polish classicism was
Warsaw under the rule of the last
Polish king
Stanisław August Poniatowski.
Vilnius University was another
important center of the Neoclassical
architecture in the Eastern Europe, lead
by notable professors of architecture Marynka's Palace in Puławy by Christian Piotr Aigner

Marcin Knackfus,
Late phase
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. Neoclassicism continued to be a major force in academic art through the 19th century
and beyond— a constant antithesis to Romanticism or Gothic revivals— although from the late
19th century on it had often been considered anti-modern, or even reactionary, in influential
critical circles. By the mid-19th century, several European cities - notably St Petersburg, Athens,
Berlin and Munich - were transformed into veritable museums of Neoclassical architecture.
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