An architectural style is a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of
style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in
architecture relate closely to a wider contemporary artistic style. A style may include such elements as
form, method of
construction,
building materials, and regional character. Most
architecture can be classified within a chronology of styles which changes over time, reflecting changing fashions, beliefs and religions, or the emergence of new ideas, technology, or materials which make new styles possible.
Styles therefore emerge from the history of a society. They are documented in the subject of
architectural history. At any time several styles may be fashionable, and when a style changes it usually does so gradually, as architects learn and adapt to new ideas. The new style is sometimes only a rebellion against an existing style, such as
post-modernism (meaning "after modernism"), which in 21st century has found its own language and split into a number of styles which have acquired other names.
Architectural styles often spread to other places, so that the style at its source continues to develop in new ways while other countries follow with their own twist. For instance,
Renaissance ideas emerged in Italy around 1425 and spread to all of Europe over the next 200 years, with the French, German, English, and Spanish Renaissances showing recognisably the same style, but with unique characteristics. An architectural style may also spread through
colonialism, either by foreign colonies learning from their home country, or by settlers moving to a new land. One example is the
Spanish missions in California, brought by Spanish priests in the late 18th century and built in
a unique style.
After an architectural style has gone out of fashion, revivals and re-interpretations may occur. For instance,
classicism has been revived many times and found new life as
neoclassicism
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...
. Each time it is revived, it is different. The Spanish mission style was revived 100 years later as the
Mission Revival, and that soon evolved into the
Spanish Colonial Revival.
Vernacular architecture is listed separately. As vernacular architecture is better understood as suggestive of culture, writ broadly (as well as a theory and a process rather than a thing-in-itself), it technically can encompass every architectural style--or none at all. In and of itself, vernacular architecture is not a style.
History of the concept of architectural style
Constructing schemes of the period styles of historic art and architecture was a major concern of 19th century scholars in the new and initially mostly German-speaking field of
art history. Important writers on the broad theory of style including
Carl Friedrich von Rumohr,
Gottfried Semper
Gottfried Semper (; 29 November 1803 – 15 May 1879) was a German architect, art critic, and professor of architecture who designed and built the Semper Opera House in Dresden between 1838 and 1841. In 1849 he took part in the May Uprising in ...
, and
Alois Riegl in his ''
Stilfragen'' of 1893, with
Heinrich Wölfflin and
Paul Frankl continued the debate into the 20th century.
Paul Jacobsthal and
Josef Strzygowski are among the art historians who followed Riegl in proposing grand schemes tracing the transmission of elements of styles across great ranges in time and space. This type of art history is also known as
formalism, or the study of forms or shapes in art.
Semper, Wölfflin, and Frankl, and later Ackerman, had backgrounds in the history of architecture, and like many other terms for period styles, "Romanesque" and "Gothic" were initially coined to describe architectural styles, where major changes between styles can be clearer and more easy to define, not least because style in architecture is easier to replicate by following a set of rules than style in figurative art such as painting. Terms originated to describe architectural periods were often subsequently applied to other areas of the visual arts, and then more widely still to music, literature and the general culture. In architecture stylistic change often follows, and is made possible by, the discovery of new techniques or materials, from the Gothic
rib vault
A rib vault or ribbed vault is an architectural feature for covering a wide space, such as a church nave, composed of a framework of crossed or diagonal arched ribs. Variations were used in Roman architecture, Byzantine architecture, Islamic ...
to modern metal and
reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...
construction. A major area of debate in both art history and archaeology has been the extent to which stylistic change in other fields like painting or pottery is also a response to new technical possibilities, or has its own impetus to develop (the ''kunstwollen'' of Riegl), or changes in response to social and economic factors affecting patronage and the conditions of the artist, as current thinking tends to emphasize, using less rigid versions of
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
art history.
Although style was well-established as a central component of art historical analysis, seeing it as the over-riding factor in art history had fallen out of fashion by World War II, as other ways of looking at art were developing, and a reaction against the emphasis on style developing; for
Svetlana Alpers, "the normal invocation of style in art history is a depressing affair indeed". According to
James Elkins "In the later 20th century criticisms of style were aimed at further reducing the Hegelian elements of the concept while retaining it in a form that could be more easily controlled".
Mannerism
While many architectural styles explore harmonious ideals,
Mannerism
Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...
wants to take style a step further and explores the
aesthetics of hyperbole and exaggeration.
[Gombrich, E H. The Story of Art London:Phaidon Press Ltd, ] Mannerism is notable for its intellectual sophistication as well as its artificial (as opposed to naturalistic) qualities. Mannerism favours compositional tension and instability rather than balance and clarity.
[Art and Illusion, E. H. Gombrich, ] The definition of Mannerism, and the phases within it, continues to be the subject of debate among art historians.
An example of Mannerist architecture is the
Villa Farnese at
Caprarola in the rugged country side outside of
Rome. The proliferation of engravers during the 16th century spread Mannerist styles more quickly than any previous styles. A centre of Mannerist design was
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, during its 16th-century boom. Through Antwerp, Renaissance and Mannerist styles were widely introduced in England, Germany, and northern and eastern Europe in general. Dense with ornaments of "Roman" detailing, the display doorway at Colditz Castle exemplifies this northern style, characteristically applied as an isolated "set piece" against unpretentious vernacular walling.
During the Mannerist Renaissance period, architects experimented with using architectural forms to emphasize solid and spatial relationships.
The Renaissance ideal of harmony gave way to freer and more imaginative rhythms. The best known architect associated with the Mannerist style was
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
(1475–1564), who is credited with inventing the
giant order, a large pilaster that stretches from the bottom to the top of a façade. He used this in his design for the
Campidoglio in Rome.
Prior to the 20th century, the term ''Mannerism'' had negative connotations, but it is now used to describe the historical period in more general non-judgmental terms.
[Arnold Hauser. ''Mannerism: The Crisis of the Renaissance and the Origins of Modern Art''. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,1965).]
See also
*
Historicism (architecture)
Historicism or historism (german: Historismus) comprises artistic styles that draw their inspiration from recreating historic styles or imitating the work of historic artisans. Lucie-Smith, Edward. ''The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Art Ter ...
*
History of architecture
*
List of architectural styles
*
Revivalism (architecture)
Notes
References
*"Alpers in Lang":
Alpers, Svetlana, "Style is What You Make It", in ''The Concept of Style'', ed. Berel Lang, (Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1987), 137–162
google books
*
Elkins, James, "Style" in
Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online, Oxford University Press, accessed March 6, 2013
subscriber link*
Elsner, Jas, "Style" in ''Critical Terms for Art History'', Nelson, Robert S. and Shiff, Richard, 2nd Edn. 2010, University of Chicago Press, , 9780226571690
google books*
Gombrich, E. "Style" (1968), orig. ''International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences'', ed. D. L. Sills, xv (New York, 1968), reprinted in Preziosi, D. (ed.) ''The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology'' (see below), whose page numbers are used.
*"Kubler in Lang":
Kubler, George, ''Towards a Reductive Theory of Style'', in Lang
*Lang, Berel (ed.), ''The Concept of Style'', 1987, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, , 9780801494390
google books includes essays by Alpers and Kubler
*Preziosi, D. (ed.) ''The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998,
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Architectural design
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