Neoclassical Architecture

of the 18th Century

Amara Amado & Rowena Disbarro DFR1A

• Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century. In its purest form it is a style principally derived from the architecture of classical antiquity, the Vitruvian principles, and the architecture of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio.

• In form, Neoclassical architecture emphasizes the wall rather than chiaroscuro and maintains separate identities to each of its parts. The style is manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulae as an outgrowth of some classicising features of Late Baroque. Neoclassical architecture is still designed today, but may be labelled New Classical Architecture for contemporary buildings.

*Chiaroscuro is an Italian artistic term used to describe the dramatic effect of contrasting areas of light and dark in an artwork, particularly paintings.

• Neoclassicism was symptomatic of a desire to return to the perceived "purity" of the arts of Rome, to the more vague perception ("ideal") of Ancient Greek arts and, to a lesser extent, 16th-century Renaissance Classicism, which was also a source for academic Late Baroque architecture.

CHARACTERISTICS• grandeur of scale• symmetrical form• dramatic use of columns• triangular pediment• domed roof

People who contributed to Neoclassical Architecture

1. Giovanni Battista Piranesi

2. Claude Perrault

3. Andrea Palladio

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778)

•  was an Italian artist famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric "prisons" (Le Carceri d'Invenzione).

• architect and printmaker who helped to pioneer this rediscovery of Roman remains and he was one of the leading figures in the development of the Neoclassical style

• Piranesi’s etching of the Medici Vase is one of a number he made between 1768 and 1778 that were issued as separate plates. However, in 1778 they were assembled and published as a collection in two volumes under the title Vasi, Candelabri, Cippi, Sarcofagi, Tripodi, Lucerne Ed Ornamenti Antichi. Alongside Piranesi’s other publications, this series of prints served as source material for many architects and designers and had a major influence on the development of Neoclassical style.

Claude Perrault (25 September 1613 – 9 October

1688) • was a French architect, best known

for his participation in the design of the east facade of the Louvre in Paris. He also achieved success as a physician and anatomist, and as an author, who wrote treatises on physics and natural history

• Claude Perrault's Colonnade is the easternmost façade of the Palais du Louvre in Paris. It has been celebrated as the foremost masterpiece of French Architectural Classicism since its construction, mostly between 1667 and 1670. Cast in a restrained classicizing baroque manner, it interprets rules laid down by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, whose works Perrault had translated into French.

Andrea Palladio( 30 November 1508 -19 August

1580)• was an Italian architect active in the Republic of

Venice• inspired Palladian architecture  Palladio's work was strongly based on the

symmetry, perspective and values of the formal classical temple architecture of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.

• 2:3:4; a<b = b<c• Practically, this means taking the

length and adding it to the width, then dividing the result in half, as Palladio described.

•  4:6:9. Or 4:6 = 6:9; a:b = b:c•   In his example we multiply the lesser

extreme, or width, which is 4, by the greater extreme, which is 9, to get 36. The square root of 36, (i.e. the only number which when multiplyed by itself will give 36) is 6. Thus the height of the room is 6.

• b-a = c-b or b= 2ac÷(a+c) a c

École des Beaux-Arts• School that taught Beaux-

Arts architecture which expresses the academic neoclassical architectural style

• The Beaux-Arts training emphasized the mainstream examples of Imperial Roman architecture between Augustus and the Severan emperors, Italian Renaissance, and French and Italian Baroque models especially, but the training could then be applied to a broader range of models: Quattrocento Florentine palace fronts or French late Gothic. 

Beaux-Arts architecture

Characteristics• Beaux-Arts architecture depended on sculptural decoration along conservative

modern lines, employing French and Italian Baroque and Rococo formulas combined with an impressionistic finish and realism. 

• Flat roof• Rusticated and raised first story• Hierarchy of spaces, from "noble spaces"—grand entrances and staircases— to

utilitarian ones• Arched windows• Arched and pedimented doors• Classical details: references to a synthesis of historicist styles and a tendency to 

eclecticism; fluently in a number of "manners"• Symmetry• Statuary, sculpture (bas-relief panels, figural sculptures, sculptural groups), murals,

mosaics, and other artwork, all coordinated in theme to assert the identity of the building

• Classical architectural details: balustrades, pilasters, garlands, cartouches, acroteria, with a prominent display of richly detailed clasps (agrafes), brackets and supporting consoles

• Subtle polychromy

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaux-Arts_architecture

• http://www.aboutscotland.com/harmony/prop5.html

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassical_architecture