INTERNATIONAL NEOCLASSICISM IN FRANCE

ECOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS

EST. 1819

Ecole des Beaux-Arts

• Most powerful cultural entity for training of highly skilled architects

• Design Principles– Antiquity, Renaissance, 17th Century France– The building’s ordered scheme– Human movement through building

• Ecole Curriculum– Pyramid structure– Up to 15 years to complete– Prix De Rome – 1 awarded per year

ECOLE PLANNING

• Geometry of plan – modular grid– Modular grid– Biaxial symmetry

• Parti– “Prendre parti” – building’s basic scheme

• Compostion– Details of parti

• Distribution and disposition– Linkages

• Marche– Imaginary experience of moving through the building

FIVE PHASES OF FRENCH 19TH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE

• Napoleonic

• Post – Napoleonic

• Labrouste

• Garnier

• Late Work

Church of the Madeleine, Paris, 1807 – 45 Vignon

Arc De Triomphe De L’Etoile, Paris, Begun 1806

J. I. HITTORF

• Transitionary figure • German immigrant• Studied in Italy to further notion of Greek

temples having been painted bright colors• Thesis – Greek temples coated in yellow first,

then details highlighted in red, blue, green and gold

• Produced controversy

HENRY LABROUSTE

• Prix de Rome winner, 1804• Reconstruction studies of temples Paestum,

including polychomy• Implied that Greek architecture invalid to 19th C.• 19th C. must develop architecture for their needs• Severely punished for his views – built nothing

for ten years

Paestum Sketch

Preparatory Sketch for Agrigentum 1928

HAUSSMANN’S PARIS

• Exploding population in Paris• Rising middle-class demanded new environment

– Shopping, living, social centers

• Napoleon III responded to these needs– Appointed Baron Beorges-Eugene Haussmann to

remodel Paris• Aqueducts and sewers constructed • Streets lighted• Central market and parks constructed• Hospitals, schools and public buildings erected• Opera house constructed

STREET SYSTEM - 1853

• Crossing of main axial streets• Concentric rings – old city walls

– Arterial streets and bypasses

• Extensions between important points• Function

– Freed circulation– Bestowed formal order– East side – discouraged mob fighting– West side – places to promenade, shop and socialize

PARIS OPERA HOUSE 1861 – 75CHARLES GARNIER

• Centerpiece of “new” Paris• Absorbed much of role of church and court• Spectators also actors in social encounter

– “seeing and being seen”

PHYSICAL FORM

• Central location• Massive form• Sculpture covered• Transept plan• Capital image• “New Rome” of Europe

SECOND EMPIRE STYLE (Late ecole)

• New Louvre, Paris 1852 – 57– Mansard roof, vigorous wall articulation

• Palais De Justice, Brussels 1866 – 83– Joseph Poelaert

• Ecole Decline (1860’s)• Challenge of Viollet-Le-Duc

– Structural aesthetic

• Survived for 100 more years• Architects in America

– Richard Morris Hunt• First American at ecole, raised American standards

– McKim, Meade and White

Fayette National Bank BuildingLexington, Kentucky

 

                                                                                                        

    

                           

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