Neoclassical architecture
also: Classical Revival
Neoclassical architecture arose in the mid-eighteenth century in Italy, France, and Germany as a deliberate return to the sources of classical building. Where Renaissance and Baroque architects had only partly revived Greece and Rome, the new movement stripped away Late Baroque excess in pursuit of a purer, more authentic classicism adapted to modern use. The rise of archaeology and accurate published records of ancient buildings drove the change: the first wave drew chiefly on Roman models, and from about 1800 a second, Greek Revival wave followed as knowledge of Greek survivals grew. For a century the style dominated the Western world, shaping churches, museums, banks, and capitals - and, loosened and ornamented, flowed into variants such as the French Empire style.
Defining characteristics
- Columned porticos crowned with pedimented gables
- Symmetrical plans and elevations governed by classical proportion
- Plain wall surfaces with restrained relief and crisp moldings
- Greek and Roman orders used with archaeological accuracy
- Domes, round arches, and grand stair halls at the center of the plan
- Statuary, inscriptions, and colonnades animating civic facades
Key figures
- Ange-Jacques Gabriel (1710-1782) — Premier architect to Louis XV whose Petit Trianon set the early neoclassical tone
- Jacques-Germain Soufflot (1713-1780) — Designed the Panthéon in Paris, fusing Roman structure with Gothic lightness
- Robert Adam (1728-1792) — British architect who made Roman classicism elegant and decorative
- Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841) — Prussia's master of Greek Revival public architecture
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) — American statesman-architect who made classicism the language of the young republic
Example works
- Petit Trianon — Ange-Jacques Gabriel (1762-1768)
- Panthéon — Jacques-Germain Soufflot (1758-1790)
- British Museum — Robert Smirke (1823-1852)
Sources
- Neoclassical architecture - Wikipedia encyclopedia