Neoclassical Architecture

Neoclassical architecture, arising in the later eighteenth century, sought a return to the purity and gravity of ancient Greek and Roman building, informed by new archaeological discovery.

Definition

The study of the late-eighteenth- and nineteenth-century revival of ancient Greek and Roman architecture, grounded in Enlightenment archaeology and ideals of reason.

Scope

This topic covers the Neoclassical movement from the mid-eighteenth into the nineteenth century, including the reaction against Rococo excess, the impact of excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii and of new knowledge of Greek architecture, the visionary projects of Boullée and Ledoux, and the spread of Greek and Roman Revival styles across Europe and the Americas for civic and national buildings.

Core questions

• What prompted the Neoclassical turn against the Baroque and Rococo?
• How did archaeology reshape ideas of the classical?
• What did 'Greek Revival' add to earlier classicism?
• Why did civic and national institutions favor Neoclassical forms?

Key theories

Return to antique purity

Hugh Honour's characterization of Neoclassicism as a quest for the simplicity, gravity, and moral seriousness believed to belong to ancient art, in reaction against Rococo frivolity.

Architecture parlante

The idea, associated with visionary architects such as Boullée and Ledoux, that pure geometric forms could 'speak' their purpose and embody Enlightenment ideals of reason and order.

History

Fueled by the excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii and by the rediscovery of Greek architecture, Neoclassicism arose around the mid-eighteenth century; it produced the visionary designs of Boullée and Ledoux, the public monuments of Schinkel in Berlin and Soane in London, and Greek and Roman Revival civic architecture across Europe and the United States into the nineteenth century.

Debates

Greek versus Roman models

Architects and theorists debated whether the purer source of classicism lay in Greek or Roman architecture, a dispute sharpened by new archaeological knowledge of Greek buildings.

Key figures

• Étienne-Louis Boullée
• Claude-Nicolas Ledoux
• Hugh Honour
• Karl Friedrich Schinkel

Seminal works

• honour1968
• kostof1995
• summerson1963

Frequently asked questions

What is the Greek Revival?

The Greek Revival was a phase of Neoclassicism that drew directly on ancient Greek temple architecture, popular in the early nineteenth century for public buildings in Europe and America.

Who were Boullée and Ledoux?

Étienne-Louis Boullée and Claude-Nicolas Ledoux were French architects whose visionary, geometrically pure designs expressed Enlightenment ideals, even though many were never built.