- Recognize Palladian arches, Syrian pediments, paterae, entasis, and classical minimalism from their stated characteristics.
- Explain how selected classical forms were transmitted, adapted, and applied in later architecture.
- Apply stated rules for column profiles, architectural alignment, and window-frame proportions.
- Evaluate classical invention and reduction using the stated principles of precedent, proficiency, and informed interpretation.
Palladian Arches and Syrian Pediments
Begin by learning the composition and historical transmission of two related architectural motifs.
The Palladian arch is often called the Venetian arch in Britain and a serliana elsewhere in Europe.
The name serliana refers to Sebastiano Serlio, who published Venetian palace designs incorporating the motif. The form already existed in Roman architecture before Serlio and Palladio.
Palladio's publication of the Vicenza Basilica arcades made the motif famous and popular.
The name Syrian pediment reflects the concentration of the few known ancient examples in the Middle East.
How does a Syrian pediment incorporate a Palladian arch?
It shelters the Palladian arch beneath a pediment, with the arch projecting into the tympanum.
The Gibbs Church and Protestant Design
Next, connect a church arrangement and exterior composition with worship, civic features, and architectural influence.
James Gibbs designed St Martin-in-the-Fields, which was completed in 1726 in London. It was among the first English parish churches specifically planned for eighteenth-century Anglican Protestant worship.
Eighteenth-century Anglican worship centered on the sermon rather than the mass.
St Martin's temple-form main body is fronted by a Corinthian portico and dominated by a classically ornamented steeple.
Published illustrations of St Martin-in-the-Fields directly and indirectly influenced many American houses of worship.
Which spatial features characterized Gibbs's auditory church arrangement, and what did the arrangement enable congregants to do?
It used a large rectangular space without transepts, a deep chancel, or a chancel screen, and it enabled congregants to see and hear the preacher easily.
The Patera: From Ritual Object to Ornament
Follow a circular ritual object from its ancient function into architectural ornament and joinery.
Ancient paterae share a central indentation or button despite variation in their decoration.
The central indentation provides a place for the thumb to stabilize the dish.
The patera became a decorative motif on ancient buildings and objects. Palladio and Vignola applied it in their representations of the classical orders.
The motif was most commonly used to ornament metopes in Doric entablatures.
A circular motif appears on a window corner block. Which stated pattern-book use could identify it as a patera, and what framing advantage did such corner blocks provide?
Asher Benjamin popularized paterae on window and door corner blocks through his pattern books. Such blocks made framing easier than joining the trim with miter joints.
Column Shaping and Classical Alignment
Move from recognition to application by examining shaft profiles, support alignment, and a proportional rule for window frames.
A perfectly cylindrical column shaft can appear to taper downward toward its base.
- Palladio's method leaves the lower third vertical and curves the shaft above it toward the reduced diameter at the top.
- Vignola's method keeps the shaft cylindrical for approximately its lower third, then follows a gently tapering convex curve to the capital.
- Vignola varied the degree of entasis among the orders because their shaft heights differed.
Some scholars have proposed that conspicuous entasis on thick Greek columns may visually suggest strength under a heavy roof.
Gibbs prescribed aligning the narrowest edge of the entablature with the narrowest edge of the column. This alignment visually conveys that the column supports the entablature.
Under Gibbs's rule, what architrave frame width corresponds to an opening 18 units wide?
The frame should be one sixth of 18 units, which is 3 units.
Informed Creativity and Design Judgment
Use precedent and proficiency to distinguish informed invention from risky manipulation of classical forms.
According to Jefferson's stated design method, he preferred basing a design on a model already approved over time rather than inventing an exterior freely.
Jefferson based the Virginia State Capitol's temple form on the Maison Carrée. The Capitol employs that temple form without copying the ancient building.
- Palladio's San Giorgio Maggiore facade overlaps temple fronts formed from two orders at different scales.
- A Charleston civic auditorium uses a concave portico and invented capitals made from local symbols to create an individualized classical facade.
- Michelangelo's Porta Pia deliberately manipulates classical details to create a provocative, sculpture-like composition.
According to Palladio's stated view, temple columns should be placed directly on the floor, since pedestals hinder access and reduce the columns' grandeur.
Mixing classical orders can be visually acceptable when done in an informed way.
How does the Virginia State Capitol demonstrate the stated relationship between precedent and invention?
Jefferson based its temple form on the Maison Carrée, but the Capitol employs that form without copying the ancient building.
Minimalism, Wit, and Architectural Poetry
Conclude by comparing reduction, humorous adaptation, and exceptional expression within the classical language.
- Ledoux's Rotonde de la Villette reduces a Greek Doric portico to basic forms, including squared column shafts.
- Adolf Loos's minimally ornamented Vienna building retains classical proportions and simplified classical entrance elements.
- Paul Cret's Federal Reserve headquarters uses complex massing and simplified classical detail to convey control, security, and permanence.
Classical minimalism's reputation has suffered from its association with the regimes of Hitler and Mussolini. It was also adopted by the architectural establishments of Western Europe and America.
In the lecturer's interpretation, the toothbrush-shaped columns of a dentist's office use humorous architecture to help reduce children's anxiety.
Within the lecturer's analogy, architectural prose denotes competent classical design, while architectural poetry denotes exceptional, expressive mastery.
The Banqueting House facade gains rhythm from alternating triangular and segmental window pediments.
Where does classical minimalism primarily locate classical character, and what does architectural poetry mean within the lecturer's analogy?
Classical minimalism locates classical character primarily in proportion, form, and massing rather than ornament. Within the lecturer's analogy, architectural poetry means exceptional, expressive mastery.
Common misconceptions
Watch out: The serliana first appeared in Serlio's architecture.
Instead: The serliana existed in Roman architecture before Serlio and Palladio.
Watch out: A patera was only an architectural ornament.
Instead: A patera was a shallow circular dish used for sacred libations in Roman sacrificial ceremonies, and it later became a decorative motif on buildings and objects.
Watch out: All classical columns use the same degree of entasis.
Instead: Vignola varied the degree of entasis among the orders, and early Greek Doric swelling varies from temple to temple.
Watch out: Successful classical invention requires no understanding of classical forms.
Instead: Manipulating classical forms without understanding them risks an unsuccessful result, and effective free interpretation requires proficiency in the classical language.
Watch out: Reducing ornament removes classical character from a building.
Instead: Classical minimalism locates classical character primarily in proportion, form, and massing rather than ornament.
Lesson recap
A Palladian arch combines a semicircular central opening with narrower flat-topped side openings; a Syrian pediment shelters that composition beneath a pediment while the arch projects into the tympanum.
Gibbs's auditory church arrangement used a large rectangular space and enabled congregants to see and hear the preacher easily.
The patera moved from a Roman libation dish to a decorative motif used on buildings, objects, Doric metopes, and window and door corner blocks.
Entasis is a slight convex curve or swelling in a column shaft, while Gibbs's alignment and one-sixth rules address the relationship of entablatures, columns, window openings, and frames.
Effective free interpretation and reduction of classical forms require knowledge or proficiency in the classical language.