Architectural Styles (Owen Hopkins) Flashcards
Styles from “Classical Architecture” (2)
Ancient Greek
Ancient Roman
Six Key Characteristics of
“Ancient Greek Architecture”
Trabeated System
Orders
Peristasis
Isolated Temple
Proportion
Sculpture
name and style
Temple of Hera, Paestum
Ancient Greek
(trabeated system-post and beam)
Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, Athens, Greece
Ancient Greece (orders - eg. Ionic, Doric, Corinthian)
Temple of Zeus, Cyrene, Libya
Ancient Greek
(peristasis-double row of columns)
Temple of Concordia, Agrigento, Sicily
Ancient Greek
(Isolated Temple - sites were away from people)
Parthenon, Athens
Ancient Greek
(Proportions - Scales and Ratios)
Great Altar of Zeus, originally Pergamon (now in Berlin)
Ancient Greek
(Sculpture - see Gigantomachy)
6 Characteristics of Ancient Roman Architecture
Arch
Walls
Orders
Vaults and Dome
Monumentality
New Building Types
Pont Du Gard Aqueduct, Nimes, France
Ancient Roman
(eg. Arch-three span arches)
Maison Carree, Nimes, France
Ancient Roman
(eg. Walls - instead of peristasis, roman used exterior walls)
Temple of Saturn, Rome
Ancient Roman
(eg. Orders - tuscan and composite order, observe how volutes angled)
Pantheon, Rome
Ancient Roman
(eg. Vaults and Dome )
Arch of Constantine, Rome
Ancient Roman
(eg. Monumentality - commemorating victories of Emperors)
Colosseum (Amphitheatrum Flavium), Rome
Ancient Roman
(eg. New Building Types - roman created new building types such as forum, hippodrome, villa and town houses)
Styles from “Early Christian Architecture”
Byzantine Architecture
Romanesque Architecture
Characteristics of Byzantine Architecture
Pendentive Dome
Mosaics
Basilican
Centralized
Stylistic Freedom
Brick and Plaster
Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey (former Byzantium)
Byzantine Architecture
(eg. Pendentive Dome - 4 arches to form square space with Dome above)
Saint Vitale, Ravenna, Italy
Byzantine architecture
(eg. Mosaics - figures of Biblican Scenes, flora and fauna)
Saint Maria Maggiore, Rome, Italy
Byzantine architecture
(eg. Basilican - large hall, rectangular in plan with collonades that created the central space)
Basilica of Saint Vitale, Italy
Byzantine Architecture
(eg. Centralized - radiating from a central core or hall)
Basilica of Saint Appolinaire Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy
Byzantine Architecture
(eg. Stylistic Freedom - Fusion, combined classical with unclassical like basket capital)
Hagia Irene, Istanbul, Turkey
Byzantine Architecture
(e.g Bricks and Plaster - the underlying structure of bricks surfaced with plaster gave reality to mosaic/tesserae making)
Characteristics of “Romanesque Architecture”
West Towers
Round Arch
Apses
Barrel Vault
Thich Piers and Columns
Severity
Saint Trinite, Caen, Normandy, France
Romanesque Architecture
eg. West Towers - The inclusion of twin towers in the west form of a cathedral or abbey was one of the great innovations of Romanesque architecture. Typically the towers flanked a central portal, which was often emphasized by the use of concentric arches and adorned with sculpture. Over time the single portal evolved into a tripartite portal.
Nave, Ely Cathedral, Cambridgeshire
Romanesque Architecture
eg. Round Arch - Ancient Roman architecture made extensive and systematic use of the round arch, which was an essential element of some of its greatest achievements. Its use never died out during the intervening centuries, but it was only in Romanesque architecture that the possibilities of the round arch arcade in both a structural and a spatial sense were once again exploited to the full.
Speyer Cathedral, Speyer, Germany
Romanesque Architecture
eg. Apses - The east end of an early Christian basilican church usually terminated with an apse - a semicircular recession in which the altar was placed. Apses are similarly a standard feature of Romanesque church architecture, appearing not only at the east end by also at the transept arms or even at the west end.
Saint Sernin, Toulouse, France
Romanesque Architecture
eg. Barrel Vault - While early Chrstian churches and cathedrals had timber roofs, barrel vaults were frequentl used in Romanesque architecture. Formed by the extrusion of a single semicircular arch along an axis, barrel vaults require thick supporting walls. Thus they contribute indirectly to the apparent heaviness of the Romanesque in contrast to the Gothic.
Durham Cathedral, County Durham, England
Romanesque Architecture
eg. Unlike the pointed arch of the later Gothic, the Romanesque round arch required the support of massive piers or columns. Monolithic piers were usually formed from an ashlar shell filled with rubble masonry. Columns were often composed of multiple shafts, which as well as providing support, visually linked lower and upper arcade levels and helped define indivual bays.
Saint Front, Perigueux, France
Romanesque Architecture
Romanesque architecture can be severe in its austere forms and geometric intensity, features that are especially characteristic of its Norman iterations. The cathedral of St Fron originally an abbey, appears to be based on St marks’ Basilica. Yet rather than being covered in masaics, its pendentive domes are left unadorned giving the interior an architectural foce quite unlike that of its Venetial model.
Styles from “Gothic and Medieval” Architecture (6)
Early Gothic
High Gothic
Late Gothic
Venetian Gothic
Secular Gothic
Castle
Region of “Early Gothic Architecture”
France and England
Period of “Early Gothic Architecture”
12th to mid 13th Century
Characteristics of “Early Gothic Architeture”
Plate Tracery
Pointed Arch
Rib Vault
Flying Buttress
Four-Storey Bay
Sexpartite Vault
Salisbury Cathedral, England
Early Gothic
eg. Plate Tracery - One of the earliest types of Gothic tracery, plate tracery seems to cut through a solid stone wall, creating a robust architectural effect that is usually loosely geometric rather than overtly decorative in appearance. It is far simpler thanlater forms of tracery, whic are used to fill in an already-existing space.
Saint Denis Basilica, France
Early Gothic
eg. Pointed arch - The cenral feature of Gothic architecture, the pointed arch is formed from two or more intersecting curves that meet in a central apex or point. Their main structural advantage over the round arch is to enable greater height and the creation of rectangular bays.
Saint Denis Basilica, France
Early Gothic
eg. Rib Vault - A romanesque groin vault (produced by the perpendicular intersection of two barrel vaults) is a structural whole, no part can be removed without its overall integrity being affected. The structural framework of a rib vault, in contrast is produced by projecting strips of masonry - the ribs - which then support the “web” or infill.
Notre Dame, France
Early Gothic
eg. Flying Buttress - Although they can be found in Romanesque Architecture, the possibilities of flying buttresses were fully realized only with the advent of the Gothic. They consist of “Flying (or open) half arches that help counter the thrust of a high vault, allowing higher buildings but without an increase wall thickness.
Noyon Cathedral, France
Early Gothic
eg. Four Storey Bay - The earliest type of Gothic bay elevation, as seen at Saint Denis, had three storeys,. However, this was essentially an adaptation of the Romanesque and it quickly gave way to the four storey bay, for example at Noyon, which consisted of arcade, gallery, triforium and clerestory.
Notre Dame, France
Early Gothic
eg. Sexpartite Vault - Romanesque architecture made use of simple barrel and groin vaults, The sexpartite vault, in many ways a natural progression from these types of vault, spans a square space and is divided into six parts by two diagonal ribs and one traverse rib.
Region of “Ancient Greek Architecture”
Greece and its Mediterranean Colonies
Period of “Ancient Greek Architecture”
7th to 1st centure BCE
Region of “Ancient Roman Architecture”
Europe esp. Italy, Meditterenean, Noth Africa, Asia Minor
Period of “Ancient Roman Architecture”
1st Century to 4th Century CE
Region of “Byzantine Architecture”
Eastern Meditterenean
Region of “Romanesque Architecture”
Europe
Region of “High Gothic”
Europe, especially France and England
a gallery or arcade above the arches of the nave, choir, and transepts of a church.
Triforium
Amien Cathedral, France
High Gothic Architecture
eg. Three Storey Bay - By excluding the gallery from the four-storey bay elevation, a far clearer and unencumbered progression upwards could be created. The triforium arcade became a consistent horizontal band between arcade and clerestory uniting adjacent bays along the internal elevation.
Beauvais Cathedral, France
High Gothic
eg. Height - High gothic cathedrals were considerably higher, and the ratio of nave width to height larger, than those of the Early Gothic period. The nave at Noyon stood 26 meters high, while at Notre Dame Paris it rose to 35 meters, at Reims 38 meters, at Amiens 43 meters, and at Beauvais a massive 48 meters.
Chartres Cathedral, France
High Gothic
eg. Quadripartite Vault - The quadripartite vault, which omitted the transverse ribs across the nave, was simpler and more dynamic than the earlier sexpartite vault. Bays no longer had to be square, and could thereby nearly double in number in an equiavalent space
West Front, York Minster, England
High Gothic
eg. Bar Tracery - Unlike earlier plate tracery, which appearred to cut through a solid wall, bar tracery filled in an open space in the wall. This allowed the designer far more freedom in the choice of geometric pattern. Recurring forms appearing in bar-traceried windows included foils, daggers and mouchettes all arranged in a variety of patterns.
South Rose Window, Notre Dame, France
High Gothic
eg. Rose Window - Circular windows had existed in Romanesque and Early Gothic architecture. There they tended to be relatively simple “wheel” windows, formed by a number of thick bars radiating from a small central aperture. The adveent of bar tracery resulted in more intricate, petal-like designs at Chartres and Laon, and later at Notre Dame.
Reims Cathedral, France
High Gothic
eg. Decoration - High Gothic was, on the whole, far more decorated than Early Gothic. Piers consisted of composite columns and had deeper mouldings. Bar Tracery included such features as crockets, ball flowers, diaper pattern and intricate foliation, and combined with figurative sculptures, created a far more ornate architectural effect - which in England is known as the Decorative Style.
Region of “Late Gothic Architecture”
Europe esp. Spain, Germany and England
San Pablo Cathedral, Spain
Late Gothic
eg. Intense Ornamentation - While high gothic turned towards greater spatial rationalism. Late Gothic was marked by a concern for surface with thinner, lighter and more intricate tracery. Iberian Gothic featured the most intense surfrace ornamentation, while the hardly less ornate German iteration retained a more spacious character.
Glouchester Cathedral, England
Late Gothic
eg. Complex Vaults - The quadripartite vault of the High Gothic phase was developed in a number of ways. Tierceron vaults featured additional ribs emanating from the main supports to abut on to the transverse ribs, sometimes with lierne ribs between them. In England this evolved into the fan vault, one of the main characteristics of the Perpendicular.
Saint Ouen, France
Late Gothic
eg. Lanterns - The form and proportions of Early and High Gothic cathedrals were essentially defined by the right angle. The late Gothic was characterized by attempts at more complex spatial configurations, often realized in octagonal lanterns, for example at Ely, Cambridgeshire and St Ouen, which gave dynamism to the traditionally static crossing.
Santa Maria Temple, Spain
Late Gothic
eg. Ogee Arch - The ogee arch is a pointe arch, each side of which is composed of a lower concave curve intersecting a higher convex one. It is probably Moorish in origin but became a feature of the Late Gothic. It first appears at St Urbain in Troyes, France, in the 1260’s but is most prevalent in the 14th century, particularly Spain
Saint Lawrence Cathedral, Germany
Late Gothic
eg. Spatial Unity - Early and High Gothic cathedrals retained the Romanesque basilican form with high nave and lower aisles. Perhaps inspired by the churches of Dominican and Franciscan friars. Late Gothic cathedrals tended towards more unified spaces with nave and aisles of similar height, for example at Albi, France, or St. Catherine in Barcelona.
Choir at Gloucester Cathedral, England
Late Gothic
eg. Perpendicular - From about 1350 English Gothic began to forego the complex tracery of the Decorated phase in favour of an emphasis on vertical and horizontal lines - ence the name Perpendicular given to this phase. The east window at Goucester Cathedral is one of the first instances of the style, a wall of glass defined by transoms and mullions.
Region of “Venetian Gothic Architecture”
Venice, Italy
Ca d Oro, Venice
Venetian Gothic
eg. Polychromy - The most famous secular building in Venice, other than the Doge’s Palace, is probably the Ca d Oro (House of Gold), with its lustrous marble facing., delicate mosaics and of course, profusion of gold. Though rarely as sumptuous as in this example, this type of surface decoration was a key characteristic of Venetian Gothic.
Ca Foscari, Venice
Venetian Gothic
eg. Arcades and Balconies - With flooding a yearly occurence, almost all Venetian palazzi are built on tall arcades supporting the principal apartments. The arcade motif is usually carried through the storeys above, often with intricate openwork (unglazed tracery) for example at the Ca Foscari.
Saint Mark’s Campanile, Venice
Venetian Gothic
eg. Campanile - A general feature of Italian architecture, campaniles (freestanding bell-towers) stand alongside most Venetian churches, the most famous being that in St. Mark’s Square, originally medieval but rebuilt after its collapse in 1902. Another distinctive component of Venice’s skyline is the flared chimney pots, the shape of which was intended to prevent the spread of fire.
Palazzo Contarini-Fasan, Venice
Venetian Gothic
eg. Ogee Arch - While usually only seen in Western Europe in Late Gothic architecture, the ogee arch appears frequently in Venetian Gothic buildings. Because of its probable origin in Islamic architecture, it was rarely used in ecclesiastical buildings, but instead was reserved for palazzi, such as Palazzo Contarini-Fasan
Frari, Venice
Venetian Gothic
eg. Brick and Stucco - Constructed on marshy lagoon islands, most Venetian buildings tand on wooden piles sunk into the mud. Stone was, therefore, rarely xtensively used. Local red brick is the most common material as it is relatively light and more tolerant of movement. It is often stuccoed and sometimes dressed with Istrian stone.
Saint Mark’s Basilica, Venice
Venetian Gothic
eg. Byzantine Influence - Venice’s relative proximity to and strong trading links with the East, especially the Byzantine Empire, resulted in an important transfer of architectural ideas. The pendentive dome, for example, defines St. Mark’s Basilica, which in essence is a Byzantine church. Frequent spoliation from the east also occured, backed by the mighty Venetian navy.
Middle Temple Hall, London
Secular Gothic
eg. Wooden-Framed Ceilings - While the Gothic cathedral was characterized by its almost exclusively masonry vaulted eilings, these are rarer in secular Gothic architecture, which tended to incorporate highly ornate timber framed ceilings. One of the most famous in England is the great hammer-beamed ceiling of Middle Temple Hall, London.
Cloth hall, Ypres, Belgium
Secular Gothic
eg. Arcades - The cloth hall in Ypres is notable especially for its great arcade. The arcade is tailored to the requirements of this new commerce oriented building type, yet maintains a symbolic link to the great cathedrals and their associations of power.
Town Hall, Bruges, Belgium
Secular Gothic
eg. Towers and Turrets - Many secular Gothic buildings had important civic functions and were often the symbolic architectural manifestation of a town’s status and ambition. Towers and turrets, housing clocks, bells or staircases, ensured that the building they adorned was highly visible and dominated its surrounding area.
Pernshurst Place, England
Secular Gothic
eg. Irregular Plans - The symmetry of the cruciform Gothic cathedral plan was derived from particular liturgical requirements, and also the obvious symbolic significance of the obvious Latin cross form. Without such need for symmetry, the designers of many Secular Gothic buildings paid little attention to it; scale and decoration were of greater importance to them.
Oriel College Entrance, Oxford, England
Secular Gothic
eg. Oriel Windows - The oriel window (named after Oriel College, Oxford) is one that projects from one or more upper storeys but does not extend to the ground floor. Along with the bay window (a projecting window that does reach the ground floor), it was a frequent feature in secular Gothic, especially buildings in the English Perpendicular Style.
Chateau Loire Valley, France
Secular Gothic
eg. (Pseudo) Battlements - The new building types of the English manor-house, the French chateau and te German schloss emerged from the reduced need for defence. However, the symbolic power and historic significance of defensive features such as battlements was not forgotten and they frequently appear as decorative elements.
Region of “Castle Architecture”
Europe
Sirmione Castle, Italy
Castle Architecture
eg. Battlements - Castles were equipped with various forms of battlement. Crenellations, regularly spaced teeth-like projections on a wall, were the most characteristic. They were often combined with machicolations: holes in the floor between corbels that allowed defenders to drop objets and liquids on attackers below.
Kidwelly Castle, Wales
Castle Architecture
eg. Gatehouse - Entry into and out of the castle was regulated through the gatehouse. As an obvious point of weakness in the castle’s defences, a gatehouse was usually heavily fortified with battlements as well as one or more portcullises and often a drawbridge. Some castles also included a barbican, a secondary gatehouse in which attackers could be trapped.
Portcullis
Castel del Monte, Italy
Castle Architecture
eg. Towers - While the keep was essentially a squat tower, towers became significant in concentric castles, as they strengthened potential defensive weak spots. They afforded castle occupants wide views of the surrounding area and oncoming attackers - who would soon be faced by hails of arrows and other missiles.
Ramparts of Aigues-Mortes, France
Castle Architecture
eg. Bastions - Long curtain walls could be potentially vulnerable to attack or undermining from close range because an attacker knew that he could only be repelled from front on. Curtain walls were therefore often punctuated by bastions, tower-like structures projecting from the wall plane that allowed defenders to repel attackers from the side too.
Norwich Castle, Norfolk
Castle Architecture
eg. Keep or donjon - In motte-and-bailey castles and early concentric castles, the keep or donjon was most heavily fortified part of the casstle. The keep contained the lord’s residence and was the administrative center of the building and its surrounding area.
Krak des Chevaliers, Syria
Castle Architecture
eg. Concentric curtain walls - Originating in Crusader castles such as the famous Krak des Chevaliers, Syria, concentric castles removed the focus on the keep and allowed a more tactical form of defence. Defensive troops could move around the castle far more easily, while attackers who breached the outer ring would have to counter a second, higher ring before being able to overrun the castle.
Region of “Early Renaissance”
Italy esp. Florence
S. Maria delle Carceri, Prato
Early Renaissance
eg. Centralized Plan - The Early Renaissance saw the first experiments wit hthe Neoplatonic edial of the centralized plan. Brunelleschi’s S. Maria degli Angeli was behun in 1434, is a complete example, but Giuliano da Sangallo the Elder’s S. Maria delle Carceri is the most perfect of the early iterations.
Leon Battista, Mantua
Early Renaissance
eg. Emulation of the Antique - In his incomplete Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini, Alberti attempte to employ the Roman triumphal arch motif in curch architecture. He succeeded in doing so at the slightly later S. Andrea Mantua, in which he used various Roman features, notably the conffered barrel vault, to reconcile its essentially longitudinal space with his preferred centralized ideal.
Santa Maria del Fiore (Florence Cathedral), Florence
Early Renaissance
eg. Invention - Brunelleschi’s dome is symbolic of Florence as the birthplace of the Renaissance. The spirit of creative invention in early fifth-century Florence was born from the coalescence of its poltical and social systems, finance, and most importantly patrons such as the famous Cosimo de’ Medici, whose Humanist interest led him to commission some of the period’s greatest works of art.
S. Spirito, Florence
Early Renaissance
eg. Spatial Harmony - The flat roof and round windows of Brunelleschi’s S Spirito are vaguely Romanesque in derivation. Yet its arcade and volumes are the result of a deep understanding of the spatial harmony of classical architecture. The nae is twice as high as it wide, while in its entirety it is exactly four and a half cubes. The ground floor and clerestory are exactly equal in height.
Leon Battista, Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai, Florence
Early Renaissance
eg. Proportional Facade - The coherent proportional system of Alberti’s Palazzo Rucellai emerges from its arrangement of the orders. Doric pilasters at ground level, Ionic on the first floor and Corinthian above frame the repeating series of windows to give the whole facade a sense of order, a principle Alberti also deployed in the facade of S maria Novella in Florence
Palazzo Medici, Florence, Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi
Early Renaissance
eg. Delicacy - In contrast to its heavily rusticated, almost fortress-like exterior - security was a necessity for such a rich and controversial figure as Cosimo de’ Medici - the inner courtyard of Michelozzo’s Plazzo Medici is light and airy. Its sleder columns, characteristic of the Early Renaissance, recall those of Brunelleschi’s Ospedale degli Innocenty, as well as much earlier Florentine examples such as the Romanesque S. Miniato (1062-90 and later).
Donato Bramante, Saint Pietro, Rome
High Renaissance
Centralized Plan - although the centralized plan appeared in the Early Renaissance, when artists and architects such as Leonardo experimented with it both on paper and in practice, it was perfected in the High Renaissance in Bramante’s famous Tempietto of S Pietro in Montorio which marks the precise location of St Peter’s Crucifixion. Bramante devised a proportional system that defines the whole structure and volume, a principle he developed in his designs for St. Peter’s.
Raphael, Palazzo Vidoni Caffarelli, Rome
High Renaissance
Plastic facade - Unlike in earlier palazzi in which the facade, despite its architectural articulation, was treated essentially as a flat surface or in low relief, in the Palazzo Vidoni Caffarelli the wall becomes plastic. Pilasters are replaced by columns pushed tohether to operate as pair, their bases alternatin with window balconettes, while the ground floor rustication takes on a sculptural dimension.
Donato Bramante, S. Maria Presso S. Satiro, Milan
High Renaissance
Mastery of Perspective - Bramante’s early S. maria presso S Satiro in Milan was clearly inspired by Albertis S Andrea in Mantua, which Bramante must have studied in plan form as its construction was then still in its early stages. As there was no space for a chancel, Bramante used his deep knowledge of linear perspective to create one in illusion, complete with painted, coffered ceiling and columns diminishing in scale.
Begun by Raphael, Villa Madama, Rome
High Renaissance
Emulation of the Antique - Commissioned from Raphael by Cardinal Giulio de medici, later Pope Clement VII the villa madama and its circular courtyard were inspired by ancientt Roman baths, notably those of Caracalla. Its interior decoration, created by Guilio Romano, Baldassare Peruzzi and Giovanni da Udine was based on surviving framents from the ruins of the Emperor Neros first Ccentury Domus Aurea. (Golden House)
Michaelangelo, new sacristy, S lorenzo, Florence
High Renaissance
Monumentality - One of Michaelangelo;s first architectural works, the new sacristy at S lorenzo was commisioned by the Medici family as their mortuary chapel. Michaelangelo acreated a highly architectectonic space topped by a coffered pendentive dome. For the tombs which he also designed he sculpted monumentality allegorical figures, the combined effect of which was designed to suggest the eternal power of the Medici dynasty,
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Palazzo Farnese, Rome
High Renaissance
Grandeur - The palazzo farnese symbolizes the grandeur of the Roman High Renaissance. The facade eschews the usual ground-floor rustication apart from thich quoins, while its first floor windows are topped by alternating triangular and segmental pediments, a Roman motif, its heavy cornice and upper courtyard storey were added later in a Mannerist spirit by Michaelangelo
