ARCHITECTURE IN THE AGE OF REASON

by Emil Kaufman ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A thorough study of English, Italian and French architecture in the 18th century traces the converging influences from the Baroque period and the culmination of the centuries' long battle for a new order of constituent parts- which came to a climax at the time of the French Revolution. England was first to harbor a critical attitude towards well established forms. The beginnings of revolt came in such architects as Colin Campbell and Vanbrugh, though building was to pass through periods of reversal. In Italy, where the age of the architect-sculptor and the accord between theory and practice had preceded the baroque, new elements made themselves felt through the work of Lodoli who began to produce about 1715. Though Piranesi followed him to become more flowery than ever, the trend was basically towards a new and simpler order of elements underneath the classicizing. Likewise in France, the architects who matured at the period of the Revolution composed in bold masses, broke from Baroque formalism, and added to the legacy of simplicity the 19th century received even though it did not fully profit from it. For students especially, this scrutiny of an important architectural century should be advantageously enlightening.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1955

Categories: NONFICTION