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04 · Classical & Gothic Revivals

Neoclassical

c. 1750–1850

Buildings modeled closely on Greek and Roman temples: grand columned porches, domes, and plain, symmetrical walls.

Look for

Portico Classical column Dome
Panthéon, Paris, France: an example of Neoclassical architecture
Panthéon, Paris, France. Photo: Moonik, CC BY-SA 3.0
Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany
Brandenburg Gate Berlin, Germany · Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de, CC BY-SA 3.0
British Museum, London, England
British Museum London, England · Luke Massey & the Greater London National Park City Initiative, CC BY 2.0
United States Capitol, Washington, D.C.
United States Capitol Washington, D.C. · Noclip, Public domain
La Madeleine, Paris, France
La Madeleine Paris, France · Callaway Kosine – de Suzannet, CC BY 3.0

what it is

Neoclassical architecture copies ancient Greek and Roman buildings more directly than the Renaissance and Baroque styles before it. Typical features are a portico (a porch of columns) carrying a triangular pediment, columns in the Doric, Ionic or Corinthian orders, domes modeled on the Pantheon in Rome, and flat, symmetrical walls with little surface ornament. Plans are built from simple shapes such as rectangles, squares and circles.

In Paris, Jacques-Germain Soufflot's Panthéon (1758-1790) combines a Corinthian portico with a large dome. Carl Gotthard Langhans's Brandenburg Gate in Berlin (1791) and Karl Friedrich Schinkel's Altes Museum there (1825-1830), with a front of 18 Ionic columns, are German examples. In the United States, Thomas Jefferson modeled the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond (begun 1785) on the Maison Carrée, a Roman temple in Nîmes, France, and designed the Rotunda at the University of Virginia (completed 1826). Baroque buildings use the same orders on curved walls with heavy ornament; Neoclassical walls are straight and plain.

how to spot one

Portico A porch at a building's main entrance with a roof carried on columns, often topped by a pediment (a low triangle). It is common on Neoclassical, Greek Revival and Palladian buildings. Classical column A column based on Greek and Roman designs, with a base, shaft, and decorative capital. It is often used to frame windows or entrances. Dome A rounded roof shaped as half a sphere, often raised on a drum (a circular wall). Domes cover large central spaces on Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Renaissance and Neoclassical buildings.

Also look for

PedimentSymmetrical facadeBalustradeMonumental stairway

history

Neoclassicism began in the mid-18th century in Italy, France and Germany, as architects turned against Late Baroque and Rococo decoration. Excavations at Herculaneum (from 1738) and Pompeii (from 1748), and the illustrated volumes on the finds that circulated in the 1760s, gave architects accurate records of Roman buildings and ornament. The German scholar Johann Joachim Winckelmann's writings on Greek art, beginning in 1755, argued for Greek models. Soufflot's Panthéon, begun in 1758 as the church of Sainte-Geneviève, applied the new approach at large scale.

The style spread across Europe and to the United States in the following decades. Jefferson used it for Virginia's capitol and university, and construction of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, to a design by William Thornton, began in 1793. From about 1800 a phase based on Greek rather than Roman models, the Greek Revival, became dominant. By 1840 other historical revivals had replaced Neoclassicism for many building types, but governments, banks and museums kept using it into the 20th century, as in Henry Bacon's Lincoln Memorial in Washington (1914-1922).

where to find it

The Panthéon in Paris, the Altes Museum in Berlin, the U.S. Capitol, and Jefferson's University of Virginia.

architects

Karl Friedrich Schinkel

easy to confuse with

Second Bank of the United States, an example of Greek Revival Greek Revival The Greek temple front reborn: full-height columns, a wide plain band above them, and a low triangular gable. Palais Garnier, an example of Beaux-Arts Beaux-Arts Gilded Age grandeur: paired giant columns, rough-cut stone bases, rooftop sculpture, and monumental stairs. Villa La Rotonda, an example of High Renaissance / Palladian High Renaissance / Palladian Temple fronts applied to villas and civic buildings, strict symmetry, and triple windows with an arched center.