United Kingdom
England became familiar with the architecture of Andrea Palladio at the beginning of the century, thanks to the dissemination work of Inigo Jones.[Pe. 1] Since then, the fortune of Palladian architecture was so great that it dominated English architecture until it was modified in a more elegant way by Robert Adam (1728-1792), whose works vary between picturesque Neoclassicism and a neo-Gothic and classifying version.[Pe. 2].
The entire century saw the construction of numerous residences marked solely by the "Italian style", such as Holkham Hall and Chiswick House, designed by William Kent and Lord Burlington. From the collaboration between the two emerged the entrance hall of Holkham Hall (c. 1734), defined as "one of the most spectacular interiors of the century."[Mi. 1] To the base model, derived from an unrealized project by Palladio, an apse was added once again inspired by the Venetian churches of the same Italian architect; Several details, such as the coffered vault, are inspired by the archaeological reconstructions published in the volume Edifices antiques de Rome since 1682. The final effect is decidedly classical, for a room that reveals a dramatic conception of baroque inspiration.[My. 1].
The first English neoclassical interior space is commonly located in the room that James Stuart&action=edit&redlink=1 "James Stuart (1713-1788) (not yet written)") (1713-1788), an archaeological architect who has been called the Athenian, created at Spencer House") in London in 1758.[Wed 2] Stuart built very little during his career, but is best known for having rediscovered Greek taste: its temple in the park of Hagley Hall") is the first example of Doric neo-Greek in all of Europe[Pe. 3] in which he reproduced the choragic monument of Lysicrates of Athens in his monument to Lysicrates in Staffordshire.
On the other hand, in urban planning the transformations of classizing tendencies promoted in the spa city of Bath are significant, where, from the first half of the century, John Wood the Elder made a series of interventions inspired by models of the past (such as the Roman Forum); The work was completed by his son John Wood the Younger with the addition of the Crescent&action=edit&redlink=1 "Crescent (architettura) (not yet drafted)"), a curved body characterized by a continuous report and defined by a giant order of columns. The transformations of Bath will influence, as will be seen later, many urban projects in England and the United States.[Fu. 1].
At the same time, starting in 1740, with the affirmation of Pittoresque, a passion for ruins spread in architecture, so much so that many architects began to design their buildings in decay, reduced to ruin by the action of time. The first English project that fully enters into neoclassicism is inserted in this current, the mausoleum of the Prince of Wales (1751), by the Scot William Chambers "William Chambers (architect)"); However, the neoclassical character of this project dissolves in the romantic conception of the mausoleum, which was presented in the form it would have when it was left in ruins.[My. 3].
The picturesque originated in garden art rather than architecture; The English park was in turn derived from the Italian Renaissance gardens, well praised by Alexander Pope and the aforementioned William Kent.[My. 4] The first English-style garden worth mentioning was just what Alexander Pope wanted to achieve at Twickenham, begun in 1719 and featuring a jungle area, a grotto and a small temple with a shell-shaped semi-dome. Later, in the so-called Elysian Field [Elysian field] (Buckinghamshire), William Kent designed the circular temple of Ancient Virtue (1734), inspired by Palladio's scheme for the Temple of Vesta "Temple of Vesta (Tivoli)") in Tivoli. Kent himself designed the garden of Rousham"), in Oxfordshire, analogous to the previous one, but at the same time more varied and unitary. Between the two, Kent's work which is the term of comparison for the garden made between 1740 and 1760 in Stourhead"), in Wiltshire. The park, which was born from the fusion of architecture, archaeology, poetry, gardening, topography and esotericism, was built a short distance from Salisbury and Glastonbury, in a lake valley, with lush vegetation; Numerous sanctuaries of classical imitation were established here, such as the Pantheon of Claudius and Virgil, completed in 1754 and adorned on the interior with statues of Hercules, Flora and Livia Augusta in the guise of Ceres, the latter coming from the archaeological excavations of Herculaneum.[My. 5].
Robert Adam is credited with making a synthesis between English tradition and European tastes. Born in Scotland in 1728, he visited France and Italy, where he became a friend of personalities such as Piranesi. And typical of Piranesi is the rhetorical style in which he reproduces his public buildings in the book The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam. His style is a combination that starts from classical art until arriving at Palladianism and the picturesque. In its interiors there are many references to Roman baths, and also elements of compromise between Greek and Roman architecture, such as the antechamber of the Syon House, where Adam took the decorations of the entablature taken from the Erechtheion, columns coming directly from Rome and a Palladian mold ceiling: in retrospect, Adam created a synthesis not so much of intellectual origin, but of scenographic and picturesque.[My. 6] Another representative work of the Adam brothers is Osterley Park, with a notable Etruscan room and a classic entrance hall (1775-1780).
At the end of the century the activities of Joseph Bonomi the Elder, James Wyatt and Henry Holland are also recorded. The first, born in Italy, moved to England in 1767. Among his works, in which precise archaeological reminiscences converge, the church of Packington Park, in Warwickshire, is remembered, which shows affinity with the contemporary revolutionary architecture of Ledoux in France and Gilly in Germany, and is unique on the English scene.[Pe. 4] Of austere shapes and remains, the exterior is made of pure clay and is lightened by large windows with a semicircular thermal bypass bezel; The interior seems to be inspired by the temple of Neptune "Temple of Neptune (Paestum)") in Paestum, with Doric columns supporting the covering vault. This internal layout probably influenced many architects, including James Wyatt.[My. 7].
Wyatt was a rival of Adam and became famous with the Oxford Street Pantheon in London (1770, now destroyed), an entertainment building that was a unique neoclassical version of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. He built a lot, although he is remembered for his contributions in the neo-Gothic field and for the great restorations of English cathedrals; However, he built several country houses in the neoclassical style, such as that of Dodington, in Gloucestershire, in which there are details from the Greek and Roman worlds.[My. 8].
In close relationship with the language of Wyatt and Adam is Henry Holland, who in his first important commission, the Brooks's Club in London (1776), designed, behind a Palladian façade, rooms with sober and measured decorations. Two years later he began working on a mansion in Herefordshire, which was followed by the extensive transformations of Carlton House, where French influences are found,[Mi. 9] since French were the craftsmen who took care of the decoration and the furniture design.
Even in the century notable results were produced: important examples are the British Museum in London, St George's Hall in Liverpool and works by John Soane (1753-1837).[Fu. 2] The British Museum is a monumental building built since the 1820s and protected by an elegant Ionic colonnade: the articulated complex takes up the theme of classical temples and is concentrated inside in a large cast iron dome above the reading room.
A little later is St. George's Hall in Liverpool, a severe construction intended to house the civic life of the city. This type of civil basilica is nothing more than a set of different volumes adjacent to each other and united by an entablature that runs on all the facades of the building. The complex was designed by Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, but upon his death the work was continued by Charles Robert Cockerell, who added the volume of the concert hall, whose rich classical decoration contrasts with the sobriety of the exterior.[My. 10].
John Soane is considered almost the exclusive representative of English revolutionary Neoclassicism.[24] Influenced by George Dance (1741-1825) and especially by Ledoux, he rose to fame at the end of the century for his work on the construction of the Bank of England in London, a vast complex characterized by lowered domes and extreme structural simplicity. Among his creations, the house that the architect designed for himself in London (now the Soane Museum) deserves to be highlighted: the original design, which was not executed in its entirety, was created with the utmost simplicity, with large open arches on the façade and therefore very close to Ledoux's revolutionary architecture.[Pe. 5] In contrast, the interior, very congested, claustrophobic, nullifies the classicism of the exterior, revealing a very personal language, and more in line with the picturesque tradition: numerous mirrors (more than 90 in one of the smallest rooms) simulate larger rooms, the lighting comes from above, while gothic arches highlight the soffit of the walls.
Among the urban transformations we must highlight Regent's Park and Regent Street in London, designed by John Nash "John Nash (architect)"). The architect, influenced by the systematization carried out in Bath, made a series of unions in the urban fabric of the city, designing rooms with columns, lintels and pediments, in accordance with the dictates of neoclassicism; However, the sinuous route abandons the staticity seen in the transformations of Paris, offering ever new perspective views, also combining in itself the romantic taste for continuous discovery and for the picturesque.[Fu. 3]
In any case, the best English designers of the time were fascinated by the Gothic revival, often associated with a religious, architectural and intellectual tradition that emerged in the center of Oxford, Cambridge and London. On the other hand, from the middle of the century, an intense neoclassical season flourished in Scotland and the north of the country, recognizable for example in the Leeds Town Hall (1853), in the Picton Reading Room in Liverpool (1875) or in the churches that Alexander Thomson built in Glasgow under the influence of Schinkel and Cockerell.[Mi. 11].
Greece
Paradoxically, the neoclassical style developed in Greece somewhat late, only in the middle of the century, when it was presented for the renovation of Athens.[My. 19] After the independence of the Kingdom of Greece from the Ottoman Empire in 1832, the architecture of Greece was mainly influenced by neoclassical architecture. For Athens, the first king, Otto I, commissioned architects Stamatios Kleanthis") and Eduard Schaubert") to design a modern urban plan. The Old Royal Palace "Old Royal Palace (Athens)") (1836-1843), the work of the German architect Friedrich von Gärtner, was the first major public building to be built in the new style for King Otto I and his wife Queen Amalia, with funds donated by Otto's father, King Ludwig I of Bavaria.
Later, in the middle and end of the century, the Dane Theophil von Hansen (1813-1891) and the Saxon Ernst Ziller (1837-1923) were involved in the construction of many neoclassical buildings. Hansen, who had moved to Athens in 1837 where his older brother Christian Hansen (1803-1883) had been court architect since 1834, designed his first building, the National Observatory of Athens, and two of the three adjoining buildings that form the so-called "Classical Trilogy of Athens", namely the Academy of Athens "Academy of Athens (modern)") (1859) and the National Library of Greece (1888). The third building in the trilogy is the National and Capodistrian University of Athens (1843), which was designed by his brother Christian. Theophil left for Vienna in 1846, although he later built the Zappeion (1874-1888), the first building built for the 1896 Athens Olympic Games used for meetings and ceremonies.
In turn Ziller, who had worked for Theophil, traveled throughout the country and made important archaeological observations. He also designed many and varied buildings, private mansions in the center of Athens that gradually became public, usually through donations, such as the mansion for the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, the Iliou Melathron (now, Athens Numismatic Museum) (1878-1881) or the Presidential Mansion of Athens. He also designed the town hall of Syros and Ermoupoli, the Apollo Theater in Patras, the Olympia railway station and the church of St. Gregory Palamas in Thessaloniki.
The most characteristic features of the Greek neoclassical style, as throughout the world, are the symmetrical shape, the high columns rising to the entire height of the building, the triangular pediment and the vaulted roof.