.jpg)
Greek Revival architecture is astyle that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly innorthern Europe, the United States, and Canada, and Greece following that nation's independence in 1821. It revived many aspects of the forms and styles ofancient Greek architecture, including theGreek temple. A product ofHellenism, Greek Revival architecture is looked upon as the last phase in the development ofNeoclassical architecture, which was drawn fromRoman architecture. The term was first used byCharles Robert Cockerell in a lecture he gave as an architecture professor at theRoyal Academy of Arts inLondon in 1842.[1]
With newfound access to Greece and Turkey, or initially to the books produced by the few who had visited the sites, archaeologist–architects of the period studied theDoric andIonic orders. Despite its universality rooted in ancient Greece, the Greek Revival idiom was considered an expression of local nationalism and civic virtue in each country that adopted it, and freedom from the lax detail and frivolity that then characterized the architecture of France and Italy, two countries where the style never really took architecturally. Greek Revival architecture was embraced in Great Britain, Germany, and the United States, where the idiom was regarded as being free from ecclesiastical and aristocratic associations and was appealed to each country's emerging embrace ofclassical liberalism.
The taste for all things Greek in furniture and interior design, sometimes calledNeo-Grec, reached its peak in the beginning of the 19th century when the designs ofThomas Hope influenced a number of decorative styles known variously as Neoclassical,Empire, Russian Empire, andRegency architecture in Great Britain. Greek Revival architecture took a different course in a number of countries, lasting until the 1860s and theAmerican Civil War and later in Scotland.
Modern-day architects are recreating this design by building houses similar to the Greek Revival.[where?] These houses are characterized by their symmetrical and balanced proportions, typically featuring a bold, pedimented portico with arched openings. The symmetrical façade is divided into two equal halves.
Much Greek Revival architecture used the GreekDoric order in the earlier version found in buildings leading up to theParthenon in Athens. This contrasted significantly with later GreekHellenistic architecture andRoman architecture. Greek Doric columns are typically rather thick, often tapering towards the top, alwaysfluted, and have complicated rules for theentablature above the columns. Additionally, the columns go straight down to the floor (stylobate) with no distinct base - this last aspect was often skipped by architects who followed the other Greek conventions, for example in theBrandenburg Gate.
The understanding of actual Greek architecture was based on ruined buildings, and awareness of the full range of ornamentation, and colour, on ancient Greek temples emerged over the period. Architects were aware of the largepedimental sculptures andmetope reliefs, and copied these expensive elements when funds allowed, but far less often had the full range ofantefixes andakroterions.
Greek temples normally had no windows except perhaps in the roof, posing a problem for modern buildings for most purposes, which was generally brushed aside. Many buildings that needed to fulfill modern functions concentrated on having an impressive temple-style front, giving the other faces of the building a more practical design up to thecornice.
.jpg)
In Germany, Greek Revival architecture is predominantly found in two centres, Berlin andMunich. In both locales, Doric was the court style rather than a popular movement and was heavily patronised byFrederick William II of Prussia andLudwig I of Bavaria as the expression of their desires for their respective seats to become the capital of Germany. The earliest Greek building was theBrandenburg Gate (1788–91) byCarl Gotthard Langhans, who modelled it loosely on thePropylaea in Athens. Ten years after the death ofFrederick the Great, theBerlin Akademie initiated a competition for a monument to the King that would promote "morality and patriotism."
Friedrich Gilly's unexecuted design for a temple raised above theLeipziger Platz caught the tenor of high idealism that the Germans sought in Greek architecture and was enormously influential onKarl Friedrich Schinkel andLeo von Klenze. 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 theAltes Museum,Konzerthaus Berlin, and theNeue Wache transformed that city. Similarly, in Munich von Klenze'sGlyptothek andWalhalla memorial were the fulfilment of Gilly's vision of an orderly and moral German world. The purity and seriousness of the style was intended as an assertion ofGerman national values and partly intended as a deliberate riposte to France, where it never really caught on.
By comparison, Greek Revival architecture in France was never popular with either the state or the public. What little there is started withCharles de Wailly's crypt inSaint-Leu-Saint-Gilles de Paris (1773–80), andClaude Nicolas Ledoux's Barriere des Bonshommes (1785–89). First-hand evidence of Greek architecture was of very little importance to the French, due to the influence ofMarc-Antoine Laugier's doctrines that sought to discern the principles of the Greeks instead of their mere practices. It would take untilHenri Labrouste'sNeo-Grec of theSecond Empire for Greek Revival architecture to flower briefly in France.
Following the travels to Greece,Nicholas Revett, a Suffolk architect, and the better rememberedJames "Athenian" Stuart in the early 1750s, intellectual curiosity quickly led to a desire among the elite to emulate the style. Stuart was commissioned after his return from Greece byGeorge Lyttelton to produce the first Greek building in England, the garden temple atHagley Hall (1758–59).[2] A number of British architects in the second half of the century took up the expressive challenge of the Doric from their aristocratic patrons, includingBenjamin Henry Latrobe (notably atHammerwood Park andAshdown House) and SirJohn Soane, but it remained the private enthusiasm of connoisseurs up to the first decade of the 19th century.
An early example of Greek Doric architecture married with a morePalladian interior, is the façade of the Revett-designed rural church ofAyot St Lawrence in Hertfordshire, commissioned in 1775 bySir Lyonel Lyde, 1st Baronet of the eponymous manor. The Doric columns of this church, with their "pie-crust crimped" details, are taken from drawings that Revett made of theTemple of Apollo on the Cycladic island ofDelos, in the collection of books that he (and Stuart in some cases) produced, largely funded by special subscription by theSociety of Dilettanti. See more inTerry Friedman's bookThe Georgian Parish Church, Spire Books, 2004.
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 ofnationalism attendant on theAct of Union, theNapoleonic Wars, and the clamour for political reform.William Wilkins's winning design for the public competition forDowning College, Cambridge announced the Greek style was to become a dominant idiom in architecture, especially for public buildings of this sort. Wilkins andRobert Smirke went on to build some of the most important buildings of the era, including theTheatre Royal,Covent Garden (1808–1809), theGeneral Post Office (1824–1829) and theBritish Museum (1823–1848), the Wilkins Building ofUniversity College London (1826–1830), and theNational Gallery (1832–1838).
One of the greatest British proponents of the style wasDecimus Burton.
InLondon, twenty three Greek RevivalCommissioners' churches were built between 1817 and 1829, the most notable beingSt.Pancras church byWilliam andHenry William Inwood. In Scotland the style was avidly adopted byWilliam Henry Playfair,Thomas Hamilton andCharles Robert Cockerell, who severally and jointly contributed to the massive expansion ofEdinburgh'sNew Town, including theCalton Hill development and theMoray Estate. 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".
WithinRegency architecture the style already competed withGothic Revival and the continuation of the less stringent Palladian and Neoclassical styles ofGeorgian architecture, the other two remaining more common for houses, both in towns andEnglish country houses. 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 theBattle of the Styles, dramatically symbolized by the selection ofCharles Barry's Gothic design for thePalace of Westminster in 1836. Nevertheless, Greek continued to be in favour in Scotland well into the 1870s in the singular figure ofAlexander Thomson, known as Greek Thomson.
Following theGreek War of Independence,Romantic Nationalist ideology encouraged the use of historically Greek architectural styles in place ofOttoman or pan-European ones. Classical architecture was used for secular public buildings, whileByzantine architecture was preferred for churches.
Examples of Greek Revival architecture in Greece include theOld Royal Palace (now the home of theParliament of Greece), theAcademy andUniversity of Athens, theZappeion, and theNational Library of Greece. The most prominent architects in this style were northern Europeans such asChristian andTheophil Hansen andErnst Ziller and German-trained Greeks such asStamatios Kleanthis andPanagis Kalkos.
The city ofNafplio in the Peloponnese is also an important example of Neoclassical architecture along with the island towns ofPoros, Syros (in the capitalErmoupoli) andSymi.
Despite the prestige ofancient Greece among Europe's educated elite, most people had minimal direct knowledge of the ancient Greek civilization before the middle of the 18th century. The monuments of Greek antiquity were known chiefly fromPausanias and other literary sources. VisitingOttoman Greece was difficult and dangerous business prior to the period of stagnation beginning with theGreat Turkish War. Few tourists visitedAthens during the first half of the 18th century, and none made any significant study of the architectural ruins.[3]
It was not until the expedition to Greece funded by theSociety of Dilettanti of 1751 byJames "Athenian" Stuart andNicholas Revett that serious archaeological inquiry began in earnest. Stuart and Revett's findings, published in 1762 (first volume) asThe Antiquities of Athens,[4] along with Julien-David Le Roy'sRuines des plus beaux monuments de la Grèce (1758) were the first accurate surveys of ancient Greek architecture.[5]
The rediscovery of the three relatively easily accessible Greek temples atPaestum inSouthern Italy created huge interest throughout Europe, and prints byGiovanni Battista Piranesi and others were widely circulated. TheNapoleonic Wars denied access to France and Italy to traditional Grand Tourists, especially from Britain. Aided by close diplomatic relations between Britain and thePorte, British travellers, artists and architects went to Greece and Turkey in ever larger numbers to study ancient Greek monuments and excavate or collect antiquities. The Greek War of Independence ended in 1832;Lord Byron's participation and death during this had brought it additional prominence.
The style was attractive inRussia because they shared theEastern Orthodox faith with the Greeks. The historic centre ofSaint Petersburg was rebuilt byAlexander I of Russia, with many buildings giving the Greek Revival a Russian debut. TheSaint Petersburg Bourse onVasilievsky Island has a temple front with 44 Doric columns.Giacomo Quarenghi's design for theSaint Petersburg Manege "mimics a5th-century BC Athenian temple with aportico of eightDoric columns bearing apediment and bas reliefs".[6]
Leo von Klenze's expansion of the palace that is now theHermitage Museum is another example of the style.
During the late period of the Ottoman Empire, Greek Revival architecture had its examples in the empire. The prominent examples areIstanbul Archaeology Museums (1891)
.jpg)
The style was generally popular in northern Europe, and not in the south (except for Greece itself), at least during the main period. Examples can be found in Poland, Lithuania, and Finland, where the assembly of Greek buildings inHelsinki city centre is particularly notable. At the cultural edges of Europe, in the Swedish region of western Finland, Greek Revival motifs might be grafted on a purelyBaroque design, as in the design forOravais Church by Jacob Rijf, 1792. A Greek Doric order, rendered in the anomalous form ofpilasters, contrasts with the hipped roof and boldly scaled cupola and lantern, of wholly traditional Baroque inspiration.
In Austria, one of the best examples of this style is theParliament Building designed byTheophil Hansen.
InCanada,Montreal architectJohn Ostell designed a number of prominent Greek Revival buildings, including the first building on theMcGill University campus and Montreal's original Custom House, now part of thePointe-à-Callière Museum. TheToronto Street Post Office, completed in 1853, is another Canadian example.
While some 18th-century Americans had feared Greek democracy, sometimes calledmobocracy, the appeal of ancient Greece rose in the 19th century along with the growing acceptance of democracy. This made Greek architecture suddenly more attractive in both the North and the South, for differing ideological purposes: for the North, Greek architecture symbolized the freedom of the Greeks; in the South it symbolized the cultural glories enabled by a slave society.[7]Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of the first volume ofThe Antiquities of Athens.[8] He never practiced in the style, but he played an important role in introducing Greek Revival architecture to the United States.
In 1803, Jefferson appointedBenjamin Henry Latrobe as surveyor of public building, and Latrobe designed a number of important public buildings inWashington, D.C. andPhiladelphia, including work on theUnited States Capitol and theBank of Pennsylvania.[9]
Latrobe's design for the U.S. Capitol was an imaginative interpretation of the classical orders not constrained by historical precedent, incorporating American motifs such as corncobs and tobacco leaves. This idiosyncratic approach became typical of the American attitude to Greek detailing. His overall plan for the Capitol did not survive, though many of his interiors did. He also did notable work on the Supreme Court chamber interior in the Capitol (1806–1807), and his masterpiece was theBasilica of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary inBaltimore (1805–1821).
Latrobe claimed, "I am a bigoted Greek in the condemnation of the Roman architecture", but he did not rigidly impose Greek forms. "Our religion," he said, "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."[10] His circle of junior colleagues became an informal school of Greek revivalists, and his influence shaped the next generation of American architects.
Greek revival architecture in the United States also included attention to interior decoration. The role of American women was critical for introducing a wholistic style of Greek-inspired design to American interiors. Innovations such as the Greek-inspired "sofa" and the "klismos chair" allowed both American women and men to pose as Greeks in their homes, and also in the numerous portraits of the period that show them lounging in Greek-inspired furniture.[11]
The second phase in American Greek Revival saw the pupils of Latrobe create a monumental national style under the patronage of banker andphilhelleneNicholas Biddle, including such works as theSecond Bank of the United States byWilliam Strickland (1824), Biddle's home "Andalusia" byThomas U. Walter (1835–1836), andGirard College, also by Walter (1833–1847). New York saw the construction (1833) of the row of Greek temples atSailors' Snug Harbor onStaten Island. These had varied functions within a home for retired sailors.
From 1820 to 1850, the Greek Revival style dominated the United States, such as theBenjamin F. Clough House inWaltham, Massachusetts. It could also be found as far west asSpringfield, Illinois. Examples of vernacular Greek Revival continued to be built even farther west, such as inCharles City, Iowa.[12]
This style was very popular in the south of the US, where thePalladiancolonnade was already popular in façades, and many mansions and houses were built for the merchants and rich plantation owners;Millford Plantation is regarded as one of the finest Greek Revival residential examples in the country.[13]
Other notable American architects to use Greek Revival designs included Latrobe's studentRobert Mills, who designed theMonumental Church and theWashington Monument, as well asGeorge Hadfield andGabriel Manigault.[9]
At the same time, the popular appetite for the Greek was sustained by architectural pattern books, the most important of which was Asher Benjamin'sThe Practical House Carpenter (1830). This guide helped create the proliferation of Greek homes seen especially in northern New York State and in Connecticut's former Western Reserve in northeasternOhio.
The discovery that the Greeks had painted their temples influenced the later development of the style. The archaeological dig atAegina andBassae in 1811–1812 by Cockerell,Otto Magnus von Stackelberg, andCarl Haller von Hallerstein had disinterred painted fragments of masonry daubed with impermanent colours. This revelation was a direct contradiction ofJohann Joachim Winckelmann's notion of the Greek temple as timeless, fixed, and pure in its whiteness.
In 1823,Samuel Angell discovered the coloured metopes of Temple C atSelinunte,Sicily and published them in 1826. The French architectJacques Ignace Hittorff witnessed the exhibition of Angell's find and endeavoured to excavate Temple B at Selinus. His imaginative reconstructions of this temple were exhibited in Rome and Paris in 1824 and he went on to publish these asArchitecture polychrome chez les Grecs (1830) and later inRestitution du Temple d'Empedocle a Selinote (1851). The controversy was to inspire von Klenze's "Aegina" room at the MunichGlyptothek of 1830, the first of his many speculative reconstructions of Greek colour.
Hittorff lectured inParis in 1829–1830 that Greek temples had originally been paintedochre yellow, with the moulding and sculptural details in red, blue, green and gold. While this may or may not have been the case with older wooden or plain stone temples, it was definitely not the case with the more luxuriousmarble temples, where colour was used sparingly to accentuate architectural highlights.
Henri Labrouste also proposed a reconstruction of the temples at Paestum to theAcadémie 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.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.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
