THE AGE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT The 18th Century, Ancients vs. Moderns, and Early Neo-Classicism

Transcription

1 THE AGE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT The 18th Century, Ancients vs. Moderns, and Early Neo-Classicism

2 THE MIDDLE AGES World-view based on theological (religious) premises: Religion governs human action. THE RENAISSANCE World-view based on the primacy of man(kind). It was a time of action, creation, discovery, transformation. The rules of Antiquity were re-written, but with reference to Christian doctrines as well. (Example: The significance of the number 3: First real number in Pythagorean teaching; Also, a divine number because of the Christian Holy Trinity )

3 The Primacy of Man(kind) : Leonardo da Vinci, 1487 (left) and Cesare Cesariano, 1521 (right)

4 Francesco di Giorgio (painter, sculptor, architect), Treatise on Architecture, 1482 ideal architectural proportions based on the human body

5 REFORMATION 16 TH CENTURY The Protestant Reformation began as an attempt to reform the Catholic Church, carried out by Western European Catholics who opposed what they perceived as false doctrines that the reformers saw as evidence of the systemic corruption of the Church's Roman hierarchy, which included the Pope.

6 The Age of Discovery 15th 17th century Ferdinand Magellan s expedition was the first documented world circumnavigation Travel Literature and Utopia began to proliferate in 17th century with the discovery of the new worlds, and that proliferatin continued to the 20th century. Woodcut for a 1518 edition of Utopia At the beginning of the 17th Century, almost simultaneously, Europeans were discovering two new worlds: one in the heavens, as detailed by Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton; the other on the earth, as experienced by merchants, slave traders, and missionaries. They started to create imaginary worlds where true enlightenment existed naturally. It became possible to use the imagination unlocked by travel to suggest new systems of social or political organization and to tell of these fictional worlds as if they were fact.

7 COUNTER-REFORMATION 17 TH CENTURY A reform movement within the Roman Catholic Church that arose in 16th-century Europe in response to the Protestant Reformation. Revival of church architecture. Bernini: Churches would reach out to Catholics in order to reaffirm their faith, to heretics to reunite them with the church, and to agnostics to enlighten them with the true faith. Gianlorenzo Bernini, Colonnade of St. Peters,1629 maternal arms of the church that embrace Catholics.

8 The Age of Reason René Descartes Cogito ergo sum I think therefore I am started his line of reasoning by doubting everything, so as to assess the world from a fresh perspective, clear of any preconceived notions, Immanuel Kant (philosopher) in 1784: The Enlightenment is a process that releases us from the state of immaturity. It is a separation of obedience from reason. Jean-Jacques Rousseau His political philosophy heavily influenced the French Revolution, as well as the American Revolution and the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.

9 The French Revolution Themes emerged: democracy, nationalism, human rights

10 The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was approved by the National Constituent Assembly of France, August 26, 1789.

11 The Age of Reason Isaac Newton ( ) Mathematical regularity and laws rule the universe. formed the foundations of the classical mechanics, developed and used mathematical methods now included in the field of calculus, created the foundation of the law of universal gravitation, formulated the physical theories of the nature.

12 Isaac Newton described the movements of the planets, moons, and comets to an extraordinarily fine degree. The universe is still in the image of the supreme work of the Creator which was revealed to mankind through Science. The universe is an infinite void. Only a small part of this void is full of matter and order is maintained by the force of attraction. Attraction and order happens in God.

13 Idealistic Nature / French Garden as a man-made creation of perfection The jardin à la française (French formal garden) is a style of garden based on symmetry and the principle of imposing order over nature. The elements of the French Garden: a geometric plan using the most recent discoveries of perspective and optics. all vegetation is constrained and directed, to demonstrate the mastery of man over nature. Trees are planted in straight lines, and carefully trimmed, and their tops are trimmed at a set height. Vaux-le-Vicomte, André Le Notre,

14 Idealistic Nature Vaux-le-Vicomte, Nicolas Fouquet,

15 From Nature to Organic / Idealistic Nature Versailles, André Le Notre,

16 From Nature to Organic / Idealistic Nature Versailles, André Le Notre, The Italian and the French Garden of the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries was the product of a geometrical arrangement that sought to apply the laws of architecture to the disposition of flower beds and shrubs, and treat an open-air setting as though it were an interior.

17 Maison Carrée, 16 BC Marc Antoine Laugier The Primitive Hut, 1755 Some fallen branches in the forest are the materials suitable for his [man s] design. He chooses four of the strongest, which he erects vertically, disposing them in a square. On these, he places four others horizontally and, above these, he raises some more that are sloped and that come together at a point on two sides. This kind of roof is covered with leaves, thickly enough so that neither sun nor rain can penetrate; and thus man is housed.

18 Charles PERRAULT He was a physician (doctor) devoted to scientific research. He defended modern science based on experimentation. He defined architecture as a process of increasing rationalization. "Learned Antiquity, through all its extent, was never enlightened to equal our times." (1687)

19 Claude Perrault, Five Classical Orders of Architecture, 1683

20 Francois Blondel, Cours d Architecture, 1698

21 The Louvre, 16th-18th centuries originally a palace, today a museum

22 Gian Lorenzo Bernini, East Façade of the Louvre (project), Here the famous Italian architect Bernini presented some designs for the east front of the Louvre. His intensely Baroque, adventurous concave-convex facades were discarded in favor of the more stern and classic proposals of native Claude Perrault. His use of Greek orders were unorthodox. Also, Bernini s design neglected weather conditions in France and was better suited to sunny Italy.

23 Claude Perrault, East Façade of the Louvre, Following the Greek and Roman orders, Perrault s motivation was not simply copy the ancients but to obey the principles on which their work had been based.

24 Palladio, Villa Rotunda, 1556 The 3rd Earl of Burlington and Horace Walpole, Chiswick House, London, ENGLAND,

25 Bramante, Tempietto, 1502 Jacques-Germain Soufflot, Sainte Genevieve Church, (called The Pantheon ) Paris, FRANCE,

26 Jacques-Germain Soufflot, Sainte Genevieve Church, (called The Pantheon ) Paris, FRANCE,

27 Emergence of the Archealogical Thought Rediscovery of Pompeii, 1764 Antiquities of Athens, James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, 1762

28 Jacques Francois Blondel, L'Architecture Française ( ) and Cours d Architecture,

29 Charles de Wailly, Theatre de l Odeon, Paris, FRANCE,

30 VISIONARY ARCHITECTURE Etienne-Louis Boulee and Claude-Nicolas Ledoux Recovering the symbolic connotations of geometry. Ledoux, Theater at Besançon Reflected in an Eye, 1780s

31 Etienne-Louis Boulee, French National Library, 1785

32 Oh Newton, if by the range of your vision and the sublimity of your genius, you have determined the shape of the earth, for my part I have conceived a project to envelop you with your discovery. Etienne-Louis Boulee, Cenotaph for Newton, 1790

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34 Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Ideal City of Chaux, FRANCE, (aerial view)

35 Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, House of the Agricultural Guards, Ideal City of Chaux, FRANCE, 1755

36 Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Cemetery, Ideal City of Chaux, FRANCE, 1766

37 Claude-Nicholas Ledoux, Saltworks of d'arc-et-senans (near Chaux), FRANCE, In the 18th century salt was a very valuable commodity to explore a more mechanised and efficient method of salt extraction, by constructing a purpose-built factory near the forest of Chaux. The saline water was to be brought to the factory by a newly constructed canal.

38 Claude-Nicholas Ledoux, Saltworks of d'arc-et-senans (near Chaux), FRANCE, The entrance building opens into a vast semicircular open air space that is surrounded by buildings, which are arranged on the arc of a semicircle. On the arc is the barrel maker s forge, the forging mill and shelters for the workers. On the straight diameter are the workshops for the extraction of salt alternating with administrative buildings. At the centre is the house of the director, which originally also contained a chapel.

39 Claude-Nicholas Ledoux, Director s House, Saltworks of d'arc-et-senans (near Chaux), FRANCE,

40 Claude-Nicholas Ledoux, Toll Gates, Paris, FRANCE, These were barriers around Paris to limit internal customs duties: six towers (one every 4 kilometers) and sixty tax-collecting offices. Ledoux wanted to give a character of solemnity and magnificence while putting into practice his ideas on the necessary links between form and function.

41 Claude-Nicholas Ledoux, La Villette Toll Gate, Paris, FRANCE,

42 American Revolution The Declaration of Independence, 1776

43 Gentlemen,...Two methods of proceeding presented themselves to my mind. The one was to leave to some architects to draw an external according to his fancy... The other was to take some model already devised and approved by the general suffrage of the world. I had no hesitation in deciding that the latter was best, nor after the decision was there any doubth what model to take. Maison Carrée at Nimes. Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Building Committee of the Virginia State Capital, 1786 Virginia State Capitol, 1788 Maison Carrée, 16 BC

44 The Pantheon, Rome, 120 Thomas Jefferson, Monticello (his own house), Virginia, USA,

45 Thomas Jefferson, University of Virginia Campus Plan, USA,

46 The Pantheon, Rome, 120 Thomas Jefferson, University of Virginia Library, USA,

47 south façade north façade James Hoban, The White House (Residence of USA President), Washington, USA,

48 The United States Capitol Building, Washington, USA, ARCHITECTS: William Thornton ( ), Benjamin Henry Latrobe ( ), Charles Bullfinch ( ), Thomas U. Walter ( )