Classical Revival Architecture

CHU SIN CHUNG Adrian 332874 Formative Histories of Architecture 702386 Final Essay Libby Richardson Architecture 210, Thursday 10a.m

4. Discuss the various motivations behind the adoption of one mode of Classical Revival (either Greek, Roman or Renaissance) in different contexts, and the reason for their popularity as a revival style. Discuss its role within broader socio‐political concepts of Nationalism or religious doctrine and include at least one Australian example.

Greek revival was a movement mainly occurring in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. There are several motivations behind the adoption of the Greek revival style of architecture, namely the rediscovery of Greece through archaeology and the desire to reapply Hellenistic principles and values to modern society. The style was mainly used in public, civic and institutional buildings, but was also used by the anti‐conformist church as a symbol of detachment from the Anglican Church in Britain and a return to the basic principles of Christianity. This essay will focus on a specific building type, the museum of art, by comparing two European examples, The British Museum by Sir Robert Smirke in London and the Altes Museum in Berlin by Schinkel, and discuss a 20th century example from Australia, the Shrine of Remembrance.

Michael Herzfeld described Greece as being the cradle of Western civilisation1. Indeed, it is in Athens that ideals of democracy were born, where Plato founded the Academy through which he taught values of democracy2. Moreover, Greeks embodied ideas of freedom, patriotism and nationalism – these ideals were probably started after the Battle of Thermopylae where, for the first time, men willingly sacrificed themselves for their country, and where for the first time, Greeks were starting to feel a strong sense of Hellenic identity3. It was specifically towards these values that the 18th and 19th century western society was turning to. In the 1820s, the Greek War of Independence and the liberation of

1. John Davis, ‘Michael Herzfeld and Greece’, Anthropology Today, Vol.5, No.1, Feb 1989, pp18‐ 19. p. 18 2. Sarah Pomroy et al., Ancient Greece – A Political, Social, and Cultural History, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999. p359 1 3. Sarah Pomroy et al., Ancient Greece – A Political, Social, and Cultural History, p201

CHU SIN CHUNG Adrian 332874 Formative Histories of Architecture 702386 Final Essay Libby Richardson Architecture 210, Thursday 10a.m

Greece spurred a romantic feeling in Western Europe4. At the same time the rediscovery of ancient Greece was made possible by archaeological expeditions, like the ones organised by the Society of the Dilettanti(Fig.1)5. With the arrival of James Stuart and Nicholas Revett in 1751, the Dilettanti assumed a more important role as publishers6.

With the publication of ‘Antiquities of Athens’ Stuart and Revett produced a combined architectural treatise and an archaeological record about the Greek style7. From then, there have been several attempts to compare the Greek Classical architecture to Roman Classical architecture, which was until then, the primary source of classicism – James Wyatt was said to have preferred ‘the purest style of the Greeks’8, Lord Aberdeen regarded the ‘Athenian temples as the full perfection of art’9 and Payne Knight insisted that Roman restorations of Greek antiques were ‘comparatively worthless.’10 This shows a new trend towards, and a new interest in the Greek revival, and the main motivation behind was probably the simplicity of the architecture and the truth contained in the forms11. Crook describes classicism as being ‘concerned with the abstract rather than the concrete, the conceptual rather than the specific. And above all classicism was a moral principle, didactic not indulgent.12’ Laugier’s principle of the Primitive Hut(Fig.2) was an important element of the Greek Revival. Greek orders were thought to symbolise nature in architecture, and Laugier was a keen advocate of architectural purity13. This idea of primitivism was an important force driving 18th and 19th century architects in Europe to favour the simplicity of the Greek style over the Roman as a revival style. The romantic movement associated

4. Peter Collins, Changing Ideas in Modern Architecture, 1750‐1950, Montreal, McGill University Press, 1965. p.87 5. Michael McArthy, ‘Documents on the Greek Revival’ The Burlington Magazine, Vol.114,

No.836, Nov. 1972, pp.760‐767. p.760 6. Mordaunt Crook, The Greek Revival, Feltham, Country Life Books, 1968. p.14

7. Mordaunt Crook, The Greek Revival. p. 17 8. Peter Collins, Changing Ideas in Modern Architecture, 1750‐1950. p.86 9. Peter Collins, Changing Ideas in Modern Architecture, 1750‐1950. p.86 10. Peter Collins, Changing Ideas in Modern Architecture, 1750‐1950. p.87 11. John Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture, London, Thames and Hudson, 1980. p.90 12. Mordaunt Crook, The Greek Revival. p. 68 2 13. Mordaunt Crook, The Greek Revival. p. 82

CHU SIN CHUNG Adrian 332874 Formative Histories of Architecture 702386 Final Essay Libby Richardson Architecture 210, Thursday 10a.m

to the rediscovery of Ancient Greece also spurred ideas of nationalism which would then be translated into the architecture and the building typologies.

The 18th century museum of the art can be traced back to the classical idea of a museum – Crook describes the latter ‘a shrine of the muses, then a repository for gifts, then a temple of the arts and finally a collection of tangible memorials to mankind’s genius’14. So there is this notion of drawing upon the collective memory of the society15. This symbolism combined with the Greek ideals of education and culture, dictated that the architectural style that would logically need to be applied to the nineteenth century museum of the art was the Greek Revival. The first publicly funded museum of art was the British Museum (fig.3), built in 175316. Although it was essentially English, with influences of English Palladianism, Sir Robert Smirke’s contribution in the Greek Revival style in 1823 demonstrates the translation of the Greek values into the architecture.

Indeed, the expeditions funded by the Dilettanti were gathering large amounts of antique, and England was one of these countries considering itself as a protector of these antique values17. As a result, the British Museum became a haven for both storing and displaying these antiques(fig.4). The building existed as ‘a reverence for the creative achievements of antiquity and to display those achievements for the education of mankind18.’ Smirke’s strong connection to the Greek is visible in its use of the Greek Ionic Order for the columns on the portico of the museum ‐ the inspiration is from the temple of Athena Polias at Priene19.(Fig.5)

14. Mordaunt Crook, The British Museum, London, Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1972. p.19 15. Mordaunt Crook, The British Museum. p.19 16. David Wilson, The British Museum, A History, London, The British Museum Press, 2002. p.8

17. Francis Ching et al., A Global History of Architecture, New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007. p.635 18. Mordaunt Crook, The Greek Revival. p. 108 19. Mordaunt Crook, The Greek Revival. p. 120

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CHU SIN CHUNG Adrian 332874 Formative Histories of Architecture 702386 Final Essay Libby Richardson Architecture 210, Thursday 10a.m

Germany was one of the other European countries which considered itself a guardian of antique values20. Schinkel had similar ideas about the Greek Revival when he designed the Altes Museum in 1823(Fig.6). The purpose of this museum according to him was to educate the public21. His choice of the Greek temple form as the architectural style for his museum laid in the fact that the Temple of the Art as a display of painting was then already a prevalent notion in German culture. The analogy to the religious temple is emphasised in Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder’s description of the museum as a place where ‘in still and silent humility and in heartstirring solitude one admires the great artists as the loftiest among mortals and basks through long, undisturbed contemplation of the works in the solar radiance of the most delightful thoughts and sensations22’. In the Altes Museum, Schinkel concretised this perspective in the function of the front staircase (Fig.7) and double stairway(Fig.8)– it translated the idea that people needed to be elevated from a worldly state to experience the majesty of the art. Also, he wanted the rotunda(Fig.9) to represent a sanctuary where the precious antiques would be stored23. It is important, however, to note that the rotunda is not a Greek space, but a Roman one.

The possible reason behind such a choice is that Greek temples did not really have a distinctive interior space. Schinkel’s intentions were nevertheless still to create a sacred space, comparing it to the Pantheon, to house works of art. In these two examples, the main motivation discussed behind the adoption of the Greek Revival was the symbol of the museum as a representation of the Temple of the Art, a way of reminiscing the past and its values, and preserving it for purposes of culture and education.

However, other very strong influences translated in the architecture of both examples are the ideas of freedom, democracy and national identity. As mentioned previously, the

20. Francis Ching et al., A Global History of Architecture. p.635

21. Theodore Ziolkowski, ‘Schinkel’s Museum: The Romantic Temple of the Art’,

Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol.131, No.4, Dec. 1987, pp.367‐ 377. p.376 22. Theodore Ziolkowski, ‘Schinkel’s Museum: The Romantic Temple of the Art’. p.373 23. Theodore Ziolkowski, ‘Schinkel’s Museum: The Romantic Temple of the Art’ p.370

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CHU SIN CHUNG Adrian 332874 Formative Histories of Architecture 702386 Final Essay Libby Richardson Architecture 210, Thursday 10a.m

liberation of Greece from the Ottoman Empire spurred the same romantic feeling of nationalism in 19th century Europe as did the Battle of Thermopylae in the Greek city‐ states of 4th century BC24. The Germans could particularly relate to this since Prussia was at the time the battlefield of the Napoleonic Wars, and Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm III saw the museum as a sign of revolt against the French25. The Altes Museum was seen as an opportunity to recover the ‘scattered Prussian collections of art’. Moreover, the purchase of several pieces of art after 1815 and a recollection of national treasures once looted by the French demonstrated the need for a museum as a symbol of National Identity – a romantic response to the French persecution26. Also, the possession of art was gradually being transferred from the monarchy to the public, democratizing art 27and thus suggesting the urge to build a public museum. In a way, the Germans were trying to associate the German Nationalism to the Greek ideas of freedom, democracy and self‐ cultivation. The Altes Museum being one of the first public museums in Europe built in the Greek style, was the flagship of the Greek ideals of national pride through the display of national pieces of art. However, this idea of national pride was not limited to collecting only national pieces of art and antiques – with the increasing number of archaeological expeditions led by several countries, collecting antiques and ruins from different parts of the world became a competition among different countries, and their display in museums and exhibitions was closely linked to the concept of a nation and an empire28. The Elgin Marbles (Fig.10) embody quite well this idea, when their purchase showed the need for the expansion of the British Museum. Sir Christopher Wren’s views on architecture were that it was meant to aim at eternity29. By preserving the friezes of the Pantheon, the British Museum was possibly intending to protect and immortalise the Greek ideals, and by extension promote the British cultural superiority in Europe at that time.

24. Peter Collins, Changing Ideas in Modern Architecture, 1750‐1950. p.88 25.

Francis Ching et al., A Global History of Architecture. p.609 26. Theodore Ziolkowski, ‘Schinkel’s Museum: The Romantic Temple of the Art’ p.370

27.

Brandon Taylor, ‘Display of Power with Foucault in the Museum’, Circa, No.59, Art in the Museum, Sep. ‐ Oct. 1991, pp.22‐27. p.23 28. Francis Ching et al., A Global History of Architecture. p.609 29. Mordaunt Crook, The Greek Revival. p. 92 5

CHU SIN CHUNG Adrian 332874 Formative Histories of Architecture 702386 Final Essay Libby Richardson Architecture 210, Thursday 10a.m

The British and German views of Romanticism were different, but the dialogue that existed between what any of these examples wanted to symbolise through their museums, and the form that these museums adopted was clear. The Greek Revival was so successful as the architectural language for museums that same were continually being built in this style for another 150 years30, and even 20th century architects found it hard to challenge such a tradition31.

The Greek Revival was not only an important movement in England and in Germany – It also spread to Scotland, the United States and Australia. A famous Australian example is Melbourne’s Shrine of Memorial (Fig.11). Even though it is a 20th century building (compared to the 19th century European examples), has a mixture of styles and is not a museum, there were similar reasons behind the adoption of the dominating Greek Revival style. The Shrine of Remembrance was built in 1927 by Phillip Hudson and James Wardrop as a war memorial. The building is a tribute to those who gave their lives during World War I, and the different elements of the building symbolises different values32. The Greek references represent the sacrifice of those who died – there is a direct reference to those Greeks who gave their lives in the Battle of Thermopylae, thus setting the foundations of patriotism. William Binns Russel writes about the Shrine: ‘a nobler side of our human race: its willingness to accept sacrifice for a worthwhile cause; to accept that the life of a comrade, the safety and welfare of loved ones, the preservation of the freedom so dearly won by our forefathers can be set to a higher price than health or sight or life itself.33’ The use of the Greek style was therefore to glorify the defence of democracy and the

30. Jayne Merckel, ‘The Museum as Artefact’ The Wilson Quarterly, Vol.26, No.1, Winter 2002, pp.66‐79. p.69 31. Francis Ching et al., A Global History of Architecture. p.635 32. Philip Goad, Melbourne Architecture, Sydney, The Watermark Press, 1999. p.124.

33. William Binns Russel, We Will Remember Them: The Story of the Shrine of Remembrance, Victoria, The National Library of Australia, 1980. p.1 6

CHU SIN CHUNG Adrian 332874 Formative Histories of Architecture 702386 Final Essay Libby Richardson Architecture 210, Thursday 10a.m

effort to maintain freedom34. The theme of remembrance can also be seen in the Greek Revival architecture of the memorial – similar to Crook’s abovementioned definition of a classical museum, the Shrine of Remembrance uses the Greek culture as an ideal way of preserving memories. Similarly, Wren’s view of the museum as aiming at eternity also has parallels with the desire to forever remember the Australians who died in the Great War, to ‘symbolise the eternal preservation of honoured and precious memory’35. And just like the museum tried to assume a role as a temple of the art, this memorial wanted to assume a role as a temple where the memory of those who gave their lives would be forever revered36 (Fig.12). So there are many similarities between the museum and the Shrine of Remembrance. Greek represented ideals which were observed and reinterpreted by 18th‐19th century architects, but it is difficult to determine which one of the antique Greek temple or the 18th‐19th century museum which was the primal and distal sources of inspiration for the Shrine of Remembrance. This memorial gets its inspiration from the ancient Greeks, and possibly also from the reinterpreted Greek Revival of the 18th and 19th century. But in a more general sense, the Greek style was used because Ancient Greece has bequeathed western society with the legacies of freedom and democracy amongst others, and the Shrine of Remembrance was particularly built to celebrate these values.

The use of the Greek Revival architecture in 18th and 19th century Europe had a very strong symbolical importance. Whether it was used in civic, institutional, cultural or religious buildings, the reason behind its adoption was intrinsically linked to the antique values that these buildings wanted to translate. In the case of the museum of art, the Greek Revival wanted to symbolise several things – reminiscing the cultural achievements of ancestors, Greek ideals of education and culture, and the celebration of national pride

34. William Binns Russel, We Will Remember Them: The Story of the Shrine of Remembrance. p.2 35. William Binns Russel, We Will Remember Them: The Story of the Shrine of Remembrance. p.18 36. William Binns Russel, We Will Remember Them: The Story of the Shrine of Remembrance. p.22 7

CHU SIN CHUNG Adrian 332874 Formative Histories of Architecture 702386 Final Essay Libby Richardson Architecture 210, Thursday 10a.m

through the display of national treasures or through the superior number of discoveries, while the rediscovery of Greek ruins was also a powerful driving force into the adoption of such a style. The sense of nationalism and reminiscence also travelled to Melbourne, where the Shrine of Remembrance tried to assume similar semiotics through similar forms. To conclude, the Greek revival was used more for what it represented than for how it looked, and it represented values and ideals that the institutions adopting it wanted to translate in the architecture of their buildings, an architecture that would further preserve the ideals and carry them through time.

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CHU SIN CHUNG Adrian 332874 Formative Histories of Architecture 702386 Final Essay Libby Richardson Architecture 210, Thursday 10a.m

Bibliography             

Francis Ching et al., A Global History of Architecture, New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007.

Peter Collins, Changing Ideas in Modern Architecture, 1750‐1950, Montreal, McGill University Press, 1965.

Mordaunt Crook, The British Museum, London, Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1972.

Mordaunt Crook, The Greek Revival, Feltham, Country Life Books, 1968.

John Davis, ‘Michael Herzfeld and Greece’, Anthropology Today, Vol.5, No.1, Feb 1989, pp18‐19.

Philip Goad, Melbourne Architecture, Sydney, The Watermark Press, 1999.

Michael McArthy, ‘Documents on the Greek Revival’ The Burlington Magazine, Vol.114, No.836, Nov. 1972, pp.760‐767.

Sarah Pomroy et al., Ancient Greece – A Political, Social, and Cultural History, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999.

William Binns Russel, We Will Remember Them: The Story of the Shrine of Remembrance, Victoria, The National Library of Australia, 1980.

John Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture, London, Thames and Hudson, 1980.

Brandon Taylor, ‘Display of Power with Foucault in the Museum’, Circa, No.59, Art in the Museum, Sep. ‐ Oct. 1991, pp.22‐27.

David Wilson, The British Museum, A History, London, The British Museum Press, 2002.

Theodore Ziolkowski, ‘Schinkel’s Museum: The Romantic Temple of the Art’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol.131, No.4, Dec. 1987, pp.367‐377.

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CHU SIN CHUNG Adrian 332874 Formative Histories of Architecture 702386 Final Essay Libby Richardson Architecture 210, Thursday 10a.m

Illustrations Figure 1

‘The Dilettanti Society’ (1777‐1778), painting by Joshua Reynolds depicting the Dilettanti Society

Source: http://www.abcgallery.com/R/reynolds/reynolds222. html

Figure 2

Depiction of Laugier’s Primitive Hut in ‘Essay sur l’Architecture’ (1755)

Source: http://intranet.arc.miami.edu/rjohn/ARC%20268%20 ‐%202003/Laugier,%20Soufflot.htm

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CHU SIN CHUNG Adrian 332874 Formative Histories of Architecture 702386 Final Essay Libby Richardson Architecture 210, Thursday 10a.m

Figure 3 The British Museum, London

Source: http://two.archiseek.com/2009/1823‐53‐british‐ museum‐london/

Figure 4

Greek antiques stored at the British Museum:

Black‐figured amphora signed by Exekias (540‐530BC)

Red‐figured water jar signed by Meidias (420‐400BC) Caryatid from Erechtheion (420BC)

Source: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/galleries.asp x

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CHU SIN CHUNG Adrian 332874 Formative Histories of Architecture 702386 Final Essay Libby Richardson Architecture 210, Thursday 10a.m

Figure 5 Detail of the portico of the British Museum

Source: Mordaunt Crook, The British Museum, London, Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1972.

Figure 6

The Altes Museum, Berlin

Source:

http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi‐ bin/gbi.cgi/Altes_Museum.html/cid_altes_jag_002.ht ml

Figure 7 The front stairs of the Altes Museum

Source:

http://www.photographersdirect.com/buyers/stockp hoto.asp?imageid=974289

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CHU SIN CHUNG Adrian 332874 Formative Histories of Architecture 702386 Final Essay Libby Richardson Architecture 210, Thursday 10a.m

Figure 8 Staircase under the portico of the Altes Museum

Source: http://www.essential‐architecture.com/G‐BER/BER‐ 003.htm

Figure 9 Rotunda of the Altes Museum

Source: http://www.cityscouter.com/travelguides/berlin/Alte s‐Museum.html

Figure 10 Elgin Marbles exposed in the British Museum, in Room 18.

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elgin_Marbl es_British_Museum.jpg

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CHU SIN CHUNG Adrian 332874 Formative Histories of Architecture 702386 Final Essay Libby Richardson Architecture 210, Thursday 10a.m

Figure 11 The Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne

Source:

http://www.australia‐ pictures.net/melbourne_shrine_of_remembrance.ht ml

Figure 12 One of the Books of Remembrance, containing the names of every Victorian who served their country during World War 1.

Source:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/manarh/2473766932/

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