How to Study Architecture by Charles H. Caffin (free reads .txt) 📕

“The Inequality of Conditions” and “The Social Contract” and by Diderot and the other Encyclopædists, who in the form of a dictionary, the first volume of which appeared in 1751, not only disseminated information but sought to guide thought, especially as to the rights and duties of government and the governed. Notwithstanding the effort of Church and State alike to strangle this intellectual and social movement, its influence spread not alone in France but throughout Europe and reached the American Colonies.

Example of Rome.—Gradually the traditions of Roman culture inherent in the French led them to reason that, since the evils of the State had grown out of the autocracy of Louis XIV, who emulated the authority and magnificence of a Cæsar, alleviation was to be sought in a return to the frugal living and high patriotic thinking of the Early Roman Republic. Suddenly, while all thoughts were being directed to this model, the young painter, Jacques Louis David, returned from Rome and exhibited at the Salon of 1785 his “Oath of the Horatii.” The picture marked the beginning of a new epoch. It gave concrete expression to the fluid thought of the time. The austerity of the early Roman ideal became the watchword and the aim of the many as well as of the few intellectuals. Men began to address one another as Citoyens. When the Revolution burst, David was made Minister of the Fine Arts and dictated the style of fashions and furniture, based on Roman models. From their places in the National Assembly the orators, clad in Roman togas, emulated the oratory of Cicero in his attack on the corrupt Catiline.

Then came the victories of Napoleon, and the ideal of a united and powerful France dictating policies to Europe took the place of the ideal of “Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality.” David turning his coat and, vying with the rest in acclaiming Napoleon Emperor, painted pictures of Imperial magnificence and designed the so-called Empire furniture and costumes to suit the new ideas of splendour. Napoleon himself emulated the Roman Emperors by becoming a great constructor; on the one hand, prescribing a codified system of law, based on that of Justinian, and on the other patronising the construction of buildings of Imperial grandeur.

In later years, when after an interregnum of the Bourbon Kings Napoleon III snatched the crown, he too was ambitious to be the patron of great building achievements.

Such, in sketch, was the background of the Classical Revival in France.

Panthéon.—The first notable example is that of the Panthéon, originally dedicated to the patron saint of Paris, S. Geneviève. Erected (1755-81) during the reign of Louis XV, by J. J. Soufflot, its plan is a Greek cross, four halls surrounding a central one which is surmounted by a dome. The latter is composed of three shells, the exterior presenting a rare blend of grace and dignity, though the peristyle of Corinthian columns which forms the drum is somewhat lacking in force because of the absence of bases to attach the columns to the stylobate. The façades are of monumental simplicity, consisting of solid masonry unbroken by windows and crowned with a chaste but emphatic cornice; the sole departure from the severity of design being a magnificent portico of Corinthian columns. The vaulted halls have been decorated in recent years by some of the foremost painters of France; but most of the work is pictorial rather than mural, and serves to accentuate the superior decorative quality of the panels by Puvis de Chavannes, which commemorate incidents in the life of Ste. Geneviève.

Imperial Period.—This example of correct classicalism, designed in protest against the rococo of its time, is also by its originality of treatment in marked contrast to the great production of the imperial period—the Madeleine (1804). Dedicated to Glory, it is a direct imitation of a Roman Corinthian temple of vast size; the only deviation from the antique model being the vaulting of the interior, which, inclining toward the Byzantine method, consists of three flattish pendentive domes, pierced with large eyes, the sole source of light to the interior.

Another imitation of the Roman model is the Arc de Triomphe in the Place du Carrousel, commemorating the victories of 1805 and intended as a principal entrance to the Tuileries Palace. On the other hand, the Arc de l’Etoile, largest of all triumphal arches, being 162 feet high by 147 feet wide, represents a free translation of the antique into an imposing design, sufficiently modern to form a fitting background to the passionate intensity of François Rude’s sculptured group of the Volunteers of 1792, known as La Marseillaise. These, and other classical structures, which were planned by Napoleon, were completed after the restoration of the Bourbons.

Between 1830 and 1850 an echo of the Neo-Greek movement was heard in France, but French logic repudiated the direct imitation of Greek forms and strove to reflect the Greek spirit only in a superior refinement of feeling. Its chief exponents were Duc, Duban, and Labrouste, who are represented, respectively, by the remodelling of the Palais de Justice, the Library of the Ecole des Beaux Arts and the Library of Ste. Geneviève.

Second Empire.—Chief among the architectural memorials of the Second Empire (1852-70) are the completion of the Louvre and the Tuileries by Louis Visconti and Hector Lefuel; and the Paris Opera House by Charles Garnier. The Tuileries was destroyed by the Commune in 1871, but the two wings of the New Louvre, which occupy the western corners of the Place du Carrousel, worthily continue in a modern spirit the character of Pierre Lescot’s Renaissance façade. They represent, in fact, not Classicalism, but rather a reversion to Renaissance inspiration, as also does Garnier’s masterpiece, which is a brilliant adaptation of the Italian style to the sumptuous requirements of a modern ceremonial theatre and to the extravagant ostentation and somewhat meretricious taste of a society of nouveaux riches.

Paris Re-planned.—A memorable feature of this period is the extensive replanning of Paris, projected under Baron Haussmann. It involved the widening of streets, creation of new boulevards, and general improvements of sanitation, as well as increased magnificence—a scheme of such magnitude that it has been but recently completed. Meanwhile, this gradual development of an organised plan, regulated in its progress so as to reconcile the rights of private ownership with the interests of the community, has been an object lesson in the proper course of city reconstruction.

UNITED STATES CLASSICAL REVIVAL

The United States of America having won their independence as a nation, there was an immediate need for Government buildings. That they should be designed in the classical style naturally followed from the intimate relations which had grown up between the New Republic and France. When Washington had been selected as the seat of the National Government, it was a Frenchman, Major Pierre Charles l’Enfant, who laid out the city on a plan so convenient and ornamental, that it is strange no other city of America, with a similar chance of starting forth from the beginning, has emulated it. Instead, the general practice both with new cities and the extension of older ones, has been to adopt the gridiron plan of a repetition of parallel streets, cut at right angles by another repetition of parallels; a deadly monotonous system and far from convenient. For it makes no adequate provision for the gravitation of government, finance, and so forth to certain centres, which in consequence become inconveniently congested.

Plan of Washington.—The Washington plan, on the contrary, is logically designed about two foci: the Legislative centre, the Capitol, and the Executive centre, the Mansion of the President, The White House.

From these radiate broad avenues, called after the names of States, which in turn are cut by a repetition of streets, running east and west, and by another series, running north and south; the odd-shaped spaces, formed by the intersection of these streets with the avenues, being utilised as little public gardens. Thus Washington is a city of beautiful breathing spaces, its gardens, parks, and tree-bordered avenues comprising one-half of its total area.

The first official building was the Treasury, which was commenced in 1781 by Robert Mills, who held the position of United States Architect. The design, as completed, presents an imposing rectangular mass, the east side of which is masked with a colonnade of 38 Ionic columns, while Ionic porticoes decorate the other three façades. In 1792 work was started on the White House and a year later on the Capitol.

White House.—The Executive mansion, designed by James Hoban after the model, it is said, of a seat of the Duke of Leinster near Dublin, consisted of a two story house, surmounted by a balustrade and fronted by an Ionic portico. Even with the additions, made in recent years to serve as Executive offices, it is characterised by a dignified simplicity, befitting the residence of “the first gentleman of the land.”

The Capitol.—The Capitol is finely placed on a hill some 100 feet above the level of the Potomac River. Its central portion was designed by William Thornton with some modifications suggested by his collaborators, B. H. Latrobe and Charles Bulfinch. The wings and dome were added 1851 to 1865. The main façade is on the east, where three imposing flights of steps lead up to three Corinthian porticoes which indicate the special functions of the building. That on the left, with allegorical sculpture in the pediment by Thomas Crawford, forms the main entrance to the wing occupied by the Senate Chamber, while that on the right, to which sculpture by Paul W. Bartlett has just been added, distinguishes the Hall of Representatives.

The curtain building that connects this south wing with the central block, was formerly occupied by the Hall of Representatives, but now contains the National Hall of Statuary, to which each State may contribute two statues of her “chosen sons.” The corresponding building on the north, which until 1859 housed the Senate, is now devoted to the Supreme Court. The Central Portico is the ceremonial entrance to the whole and here the outgoing President hands over his functions to his successor. It leads into a rotunda which is decorated with the following historical paintings: “Landing of Columbus” by John Vanderlyn; “De Sota Discovering the Mississippi” by William Henry Powell; “Baptism of Pocahontas” by John Gadsby Chapman; “Embarkation of the Pilgrims from Delft Haven” by Robert Walter Weir; “Signing of the Declaration of Independence” by John Trumbull, who also painted the remainder: “Surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga,” “Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown” and “Washington resigning his Commission at Annapolis.”

The dome which forms a stately climax to the dignity of the whole design was erected in iron by Thomas Ustic Walter. It rises to a height of 268½ feet and is crowned by a statue of Liberty, nearly 20 feet high, the work of Thomas Crawford.

The organic fitness of the Capitol to the functions of Government has been supplemented in recent years by additional buildings, connected by subways: on the east, by the Congressional Library, primarily for the use of the Legislature, but virtually a national library; and on the northeast and southeast, by office-buildings, respectively, for the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Bulfinch.—Mention has been already made of Charles Bulfinch (1763-1844). The son of a wealthy physician in Boston, he graduated from Harvard and spent some five years travelling and studying in Europe, after which he settled in Boston and practised as an architect. He built the old Federal Street Theatre (1793), the first playhouse erected in New England, and in 1798 completed the work with which his name is most associated, the State House on Beacon Hill. It has been overgrown with additions but the original part, surmounted by a small, well-proportioned dome, still testifies to its designer’s refinement of taste and constructive sincerity.

An exception to the use at this time of the Classical style is the New York City Hall, built 1803-12 by the