A Text-Book of the History of Architecture: Seventh Edition, revisedHamlin, A. D. F. (Alfred Dwight Foster)
History
A Text-Book of the History of Architecture: Seventh Edition, revised
Hamlin, A. D. F. (Alfred Dwight Foster)
Architecture -- History
In Vienna the one notable monument of the Classic Revival is the
+Reichsrathsgebäude+ or Parliament House, by _Th. Hansen_ (1843), an
imposing two-storied composition with a lofty central colonnade and
lower side-wings, harmonious in general proportions and pleasingly
varied in outline and mass.
In general, the Greek Revival in Germany presents the aspect of a
sincere striving after beauty, on the part of a limited number of
artists of great talent, misled by the idea that the forms of a dead
civilization could be galvanized into new life in the service of modern
needs. The result was disappointing, in spite of the excellent planning,
admirable construction and carefully studied detail of these buildings,
and the movement here as elsewhere was foredoomed to failure.
[Illustration: FIG. 202.--PLAN OF PANTHÉON, PARIS.]
+FRANCE.+ In France the Classic Revival, as we have seen, had made its
appearance during the reign of Louis XV. in a number of important
monuments which expressed the protest of their authors against the
caprice of the Rococo style then in vogue. The colonnades of the
Garde-Meuble, the façade of St. Sulpice, and the coldly beautiful
+Panthéon+ (Figs. 202, 203) testified to the conviction in the most
cultured minds of the time that Roman grandeur was to be attained only
by copying the forms of Roman architecture with the closest possible
approach to correctness. In the Panthéon, the greatest ecclesiastical
monument of its time in France (otherwise known as the church of Ste.
Genéviève), the spirit of correct classicism dominates the interior as
well as the exterior. It is a Greek cross, measuring 362 × 267 feet,
with a dome 265 feet high, and internally 69 feet in diameter. The four
arms have domical vaulting and narrow aisles separated by Corinthian
columns. The whole interior is a cold but extremely elegant composition.
The most notable features of the exterior are its imposing portico of
colossal Corinthian columns and the fine peristyle which surrounds the
drum of the dome, giving it great dignity and richness of effect.
[Illustration: FIG. 203.--EXTERIOR OF PANTHÉON, PARIS.]
[Illustration: FIG. 204.--ARC DE L’ÉTOILE, PARIS.]
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