The Henry Clay Frick Fine Arts Building is a landmark

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became ...

and a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

to the Schenley Farms-Oakland Civic Historic District on the campus of the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

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. The Frick Fine Arts Building sits on the southern edge of

Schenley Plaza Schenley Plaza is a public park serving as the grand entrance into Schenley Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The plaza, located on Forbes Avenue and Schenley Drive in the city's Oakland district, includes multiple gardens, food kiosks, public m ...

, opposite The Carnegie Institute, and is the home of Pitt's History of Art and Architecture Department, Studio Arts Department, and the Frick Fine Arts Library. Before its front steps is

Mary Schenley Memorial Fountain The Mary Schenley Memorial Fountain, also known as ''A Song to Nature'', is a 1918 landmark public sculpture in bronze and granite by Victor David Brenner. It sits in Schenley Plaza at the entrance to Schenley Park and directly in front of the ...

History

Frick Fine Arts Building - Pitt - IMG 0762

The Frick Fine Arts Building sits on the site of the former Schenley Park Casino, Pittsburgh's first multi-purpose arena with an indoor ice skating rink, sat on the location of the building before burning down in December 1896. The building itself is a gift of Helen Clay Frick (1888–1984), daughter of the Pittsburgh industrialist and art patron

Henry Clay Frick Henry Clay Frick (December 19, 1849 – December 2, 1919) was an American industrialist, financier, and art patron. He founded the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturing company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, and played a maj ...

(1849–1919). She established the

Fine Arts In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

Department at the University of Pittsburgh in 1926 and continued to fund it through the 1950s, when she first made a commitment to create a separate structure to house it. Land for the project was donated to the university by the City of Pittsburgh. In early negotiations with the University of Pittsburgh, Miss Frick asked that successors to the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

architects

Carrère and Hastings Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère ( ; November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (March 11, 1860 – October 22, 1929), was one of the outstanding American Beaux-Arts architecture firms. Located in New York City ...

design the new facility after the Italian

palazzo A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

its firm had built in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

for her father some fifty years earlier. Eventually, however, both parties agreed to Burton Kenneth Johnstone Associates as the architects. Its design is modeled after

Pope Julius III Pope Julius III ( la, Iulius PP. III; it, Giulio III; 10 September 1487 – 23 March 1555), born Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 February 1550 to his death in March 155 ...

's (1487–1555) Villa Giulia in

Rome, Italy , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. The building is constructed of white limestone and marble with a terracotta tile roof around a central courtyard. An octagonal cupola, which caps the central rotunda, rises 45 feet above the ground. The building houses the University of Pittsburgh's Department of History of Art and Architecture, and contains classrooms, an open cloister, an art gallery, a 200-seat auditorium, as well as a research library. Construction began in 1962 and the building was opened in May 1965. By the late 1960s Miss Frick, unhappy that the university did not conform to her restrictions on management of both the department and the new building, severed her ties with the University of Pittsburgh. She responded by creating a new venture, The Frick Art Museum, on the property of her ancestral home, Clayton, a few miles east in Pittsburgh's Point Breeze neighborhood. That museum operates today as a part of the

Frick Art & Historical Center The Frick Pittsburgh is a cluster of museums and historical buildings located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States and formed around the Frick family's nineteenth-century residence known as "Clayton". It focuses on the interpretation of t ...

complex.

Building use and features

Art gallery at the Frick Fine Arts Building 2

The Frick Fine Arts Building consists of classrooms, a library, and art galleries around an open cloister and contains a high octagon capped by a pyramidal roof. A noted 1965 low relief portrait of Henry Clay Frick by Malvina Hoffman in limestone sits above the entrance to the building. Hoffman was 79 years old when she accepted the commission. She could not sculpt it herself because union rules prevented sculptors from working on a relief attached to a building. However, she climbed up on the scaffolding to oversee the completion of the work. Inside the main entrance, a neon work by contemporary Chinese artist

Gu Wenda Gu Wenda () (born 1955, Shanghai) is a contemporary artist from China who lives and works in New York City. Much of his works are themed around traditional Chinese calligraphy and poetry. His works also often use human hair. Gu lives in Broo ...

is installed in the lobby. The building also contains a 200-seat auditorium that is used for lectures, performances, and special events.

Nicholas Lochoff Cloister

The Nicholas Lochoff Cloister is a main feature of the Frick Fine Arts Building. Its large paintings of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

masterpieces are scale reproductions that were commissioned in 1911 from Nicholas Lochoff by the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts (now the

Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (russian: Музей изобразительных искусств имени А. С. Пушкина, abbreviated as ) is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, located in Volkhonka street, just oppo ...

). Lochoff worked slowly and carefully. Only a few paintings were completed and sent back to

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by the

Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...

. Lochoff, unable to return because of new communist regime, felt compelled to sell off the paintings. Buyers included

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

and the Frick Art Reference Library in New York. Miss Frick acquired the entire collection, however, after Lochoff's death, with the help of art critic

Bernard Berenson Bernard Berenson (June 26, 1865 – October 6, 1959) was an American art historian specializing in the Renaissance. His book ''The Drawings of the Florentine Painters'' was an international success. His wife Mary is thought to have had a large ...

. In 2003, the paintings were cleaned and restored by Christine Daulton. Also in the gallery are noted

Carrara Carrara ( , ; , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some west-northwest of Florence. Its mot ...

marble reproductions of 14th century

Annunciation The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ang ...

figures by sculptor

Alceo Dossena Alceo Dossena (1878–1937) was an Italian sculptor. His dealers marketed his creations as originals by other sculptors. Biography Dossena was born in 1878 in Cremona, Italy. He was a talented stonemason and sculptor, and was so skilled at dupl ...

Frick Fine Arts Library

Located in Frick Fine Arts Building, this two-story library houses a circulating research collection serving the Department of the History of Art and Architecture. The Collection contains over 90,000 volumes and subscribes to more than 350 journals in relevant fields and is ranked among the top 10 fine art libraries in the country. The library's reading room is constructed of fruit wood paneling and cabinetwork with gold leaf trim designed by Italian craftsmen. The library is further appointed by wrought iron balcony railings, terracotta tile flooring, maple tables with matching Windsor chairs, and ceiling-high windows furnishing views of

Schenley Park Schenley Park () is a large municipal park located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, between the neighborhoods of Oakland, Greenfield, and Squirrel Hill. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district. In 2011, th ...

. An inscription on the wall facing the entrance indicates the libraries dedication to

University Arts Gallery

Frick Fine Arts Building - Pitt - IMG 0767

The permanent collection contains a collection of prints and graphic works dating from the 16th through 20th centuries and regularly hosts changing exhibitions sponsored by the Department of the History of Art and Architecture and the Friends organization. Some of the more prominent pieces in the permanent collection include a large collection of

Jacques Callot Jacques Callot (; – 1635) was a baroque printmaker and draftsman from the Duchy of Lorraine (an independent state on the north-eastern border of France, southwestern border of Germany and overlapping the southern Netherlands). He is an impor ...

and Gertrude Quastler prints; 16th-18th century drawings from the Clapp and Denny families; a collection of 19th and 20th century photography; the Gimbel collection of American art; and various Japanese prints, Asian ceramics, portraits, and Pittsburgh-related paintings by Hetzel, Gorson, and Kane.

Popular culture

The Frick Fine Arts Building appeared in scenes set at the University of Pittsburgh on an episode of ''

As the World Turns ''As the World Turns'' (often abbreviated as ''ATWT'') is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created ''As the World Turns'' as a sister show to her other s ...

'' that aired on November 12, 2002.

Gallery

File:FrickFineArtsBuildinginWinter.jpg File:Frick Fine Arts Building - Pitt - IMG 0766.jpg File:FrickFineArtsCourtyard.jpg File:FrickFineArtsBuildingfromCloister.jpg File:Auditorium in the Frick Fine Arts Building.jpg, Frick Fine Arts Auditorium FrickFineArtsLobby.jpg, Frick Fine Arts main entrance lobby File:CathedralofLearningFrickFineArts.jpg File:FrickFineArtsCloisterDetail.jpg, Nicholas Lochoff Gallery File:LochoffFrickFineArts2.jpg, Nicholas Lochoff Gallery File:Frick Fine Arts Building - back.JPG, The back of the Frick Fine Arts Building File:Statue next to the Frick Fine Arts Building 02.JPG, The Spanish War memorial is a copy of ''The Hiker'' (1925) by Allen Newman and sits on the left side of Frick Fine Arts

References

* * Marylynne Pitz (2003)
''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'': Rare murals being restored in Pitt fine arts building
Retrieved May 23, 2007. *

External links

Frick Fine Arts Building on Pitt's virtual Campus Tour

Frick Fine Arts Building photos
Art Gallery
University Art Gallery

Departments
Department of History of Art & Architecture

Department of Studio Arts

Panorama
Frick Fine Arts Library Panoramic
Video
WQED OnQ: Lochoff's Replicas
{{authority control University of Pittsburgh academic buildings University and college academic libraries in the United States Libraries in Pennsylvania Art schools in Pennsylvania Museums in Pittsburgh Art museums and galleries in Pennsylvania University and college academic buildings in the United States University museums in Pennsylvania Renaissance Revival architecture in Pennsylvania Tourist attractions in Pittsburgh Historic district contributing properties in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Pittsburgh