Classical Architecture An Introduction to Its Vocabulary and Essentials, with a Select Glossary of Terms

by Curl, James Stevens

• ISBN13: 9780393731194
• ISBN10: 0393731197
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-05-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

Professor James Stevens Curl discusses in clear, straightforward language the origins of classical architecture in Greek and Roman antiquity and outlines its continuous development, through its various manifestations during the Renaissance, its transformations in Baroque and Rococo phases, its reemergence in eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century Neoclassicism, and its survival into the modern era. The text and illustrations celebrate the richness of the classical architectural vocabulary, grammar, and language, and demonstrate the enormous range of themes and motifs found in the subject. All those who wish to look at buildings old and new with an informed eye will find in this book a rich fund of material, and the basis for an understanding of a fecund source of architectural design that has been at the heart of western culture for over two and a half millennia.

Author Biography

James Stevens Curl is Professor of Architectural History at The Queen's University, Belfast.

Table of Contents

Illustration Sources	6	(1)
Preface to the Second Edition	7	(2)
Preface to the First Edition	9	(2)
Introduction
What is Classical Architecture? A few definitions	11	(4)
The Orders of Architecture and Their Application
Introduction; the Greek Orders; the Greek Doric Order; the Greek Ionic Order; the Greek Corinthian Order; the Roman Orders; the Tuscan Order; the Roman Doric Order; the Roman Ionic Order; the Roman Corinthian Order; the Roman Composite Order; application of the Orders	15	(40)
The Graeco-Roman Roots of Classical Architecture
The main sources of Classicism: Greek Architecture; Roman Architecture; concluding comparative remarks	55	(10)
The Renaissance Period
Columns, pilasters, antae, and piers; key buildings of the Early Renaissance; later Palazzi; Venetian Palazzi, Sansovino, and Alberti; centralized and circular plans; Michelangelo; Serlio and Vignola; Palladio	65	(80)
Baroque, Rococo, and Palladianism
Introduction; Bernini, Borromini, ellipses, and western facades; some French examples; Classical Architecture in England; some German buildings; Palladianism
Neoclassicism and After
Neoclassicism and Rome; Cordemoy and Laugier; the rediscovery of Greece; the Greek Revival; the move away from Neoclassicism	145	(24)
Epilogue	169	(2)
Glossary	171	(52)
Select Bibliography	223	(3)
Index	226