Mid-19th century to Fin de Siecle Sculpture and Architecture

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Mid-19th century to Fin de Siecle Sculpture and
Architecture
Wonder when that thing will get done?
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Augustus Saint-Gaudens

• Beaux Arts styleblending elements of Greek
  Classical and French Baroque
• American Renaissance ---1876-1917
• U.S. is heir to Greek democracy faith in
  new materials and technology
• Memorial statue in Rock Creek Park, Washington DC
• 1891, Grief (Adams Memorial, Mystery of the
  Hereafter) mysterious, mystical, dedicated to
  wife of Henry Adams who killed herself
• No dates no artist signature
• Arm brings attention to shrouded face

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Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux

• Ugolino and Children, 1867---now at the Met.
  Ugolino is accused of betraying his town by not
  fighting hard enough. He is sent to a tower with
  all sons and grandsons to die, ending his
  lineage. Sons offer their bodies to keep their
  father alive.
• How does it compare to the Classical statue,
  Laocoon Group?
• terror inside vs outside

c. 175-150 BCE, marble
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Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

• French
• Expressed distress and moral weakness as well as
  beauty
• You can see some of his sculptures at the
  Hirshhorn Museum in Washington
• Went away from the heroic and turned to the
  natural in his sculptures

"There is a statue in each block of marble. It
is just a question of divining it and bringing it
out by removing all that is excessive" - Rodin
The Kiss
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Auguste RodinFrench

• Realist sensibility with an interior emotional
  content
• Interested in motion through sculpture as well as
  the effects of light on the surface
• Worked in clay, then cast in bronze
• Burghurs of Calais, bronze 1884-89 6 men offer
  their lives to save their town in 1347, during
  the 100 years war varying expression, not all
  heroicRealism
• Figures sculpted individually, then grouped
• Rejected at first by the town of Calais as not
  noble enough
• Gates of Hell, 1880-1917,
• Gates of Hell,a response to
  Ghilbertis Gates of Paradise in Florence and
  Michaelangelos Last Judgement. Inspired by
  Dantes Inferno, Rodin addresses the inner hell
  of the psyche, not the external hell of the
  devil. Never completednow at Rodin Museum in
  Paris plaster cast into bronze. Sculptures
  include the Thinker, the Ugolino Group, the Kiss
• The Walking Man, 1877
• sketchy, rough, impressionistic. Rodin sought
  to express motion and dynamic pose. Headless,
  armless reminds one of a Classical sculpture, yet
  the attributes (texture, stride, motion) are
  modern.
• Look for it at the Hirshhorn.

Find Carl Sandbergs poem on the Walking Man
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Royal Pavilion at Brighton, England, John Nash,
1815-22
Here is an example of Romantic architecture, to
be compared with later buildings of the 19th
century.

• Indo-Saracenic. Indian Gothic. Indo-Islamic.
  Fantasy India! Asian Exoticismfits in with
  Romantic sensibilities.
• Neo-Gothic meets Mughal.
• Conquest of India by the Muslims leads to Mughal
  style of architecture in the 1500-1600s. Taj
  Mahal (1648) in India is a famous example.
• Cupola built over cast iron
• Interior, cast iron columns used cast iron
  decoration
• Built for the Prince Regent of England (later
  King George IV) who didnt like London
• Brits were on their way to rule all of India
  (mid-century) busy making diplomatic contacts
  and trading connections

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Houses of ParliamentBarry and Pugin, 1835
Mimicking medieval times, granite and masonry
define the construction of Neo-Gothic buildings

• Gothic Revival (Neo-Gothic) cohesiveness with
  other architecture in London
• Romantic return to roots of the
  country---medievalism
• Built after fire destroyed old buildings in 1834
• Tower groupings including Big Ben, built in 1858
• Palladian windows and classical regularity
• Gothic detail and embellishment

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Red HouseWilliam Morris, England, 1859
ARCHITECTURE Some builders had no interest in
modern materials of iron and steel, but favored
a return to all things hand made

• Arts and crafts style
• Anti-industrial Age
• Morris designed fabrics, tiles, furniture, all
  items
• The garden is a room
• Profoundly influenced by essayist and critic
  Ruskin Romantic, Medieval values and hand-made
  craft
• Marx modern man is alienated from his
  workdoomed to a soul-less production line

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Antoni GaudiBarcelona Modernista

• Catalan Spanish art nouveau style
• Organic form, undulating, lyrical, subjective,
  imaginative
• Used elements of nature for design
• Incorporated new techniques for ironwork,
  ceramics, stained glassall disciplines in which
  he was versed
• Made 3-D plans for his work used catenary curve
  (the perfect curve of a naturally hanging line)
• Interior elastic walls of indefinite shape
• Imaginative use of materials trencadisbroken
  ceramic pieces in design

Casa Batllo, 1906 A private residence
Casa Mila, 1906 an apartment building
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first Cast Iron Bridge, 1775-79England, Abraham
Darby, III
But cast iron is a compelling material for
builders and architects

• As woodlands were disappearing in England,
  mineral fuels such as coal, were in demand. New
  coal furnace technology made cast iron melting
  more affordable. Darby leased a large coal
  furnace and experimented with improved, low-cost
  methods for melting iron
• 1767, first iron rails were cast
• 1775-79 first cast iron bridge constructed in
  Coalbrookedale, England
• Spanned about 100 feet, erected over the river
  Severn

IRON ALLOYS Wrought iron more pliable pounded
into shape, not melted cannot be broken with a
hammer Cast ironbrittle, but melts at low
temperature for pouring in molds Steel
combination of iron, carbon, nickel and other
minerals to make it very strong and durable
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St. Genevieve Library, ParisHenri LaBrouste,
1845-51

• Contemporary interior with iron arches, barrel
  vaulting and columns support roof--- independent
  of masonry walls
• Italian Renn. Revival on exteriorRomantic
  Rationalism
• Felt that buildings should reflect the rational
  and technical effects of modern
  societyarchitecture is a form of communication
• Large expanse monumental long vaulted reading
  room stacks constructed with open girders
  allowing natural light to come in
• Importance of book storage due to increase of
  book production in the 19th centurychanged focus
  of libraries from reading rooms to stacks (in
  National Library, constructed by LaBrouste a few
  years later)

Cast Iron
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Crystal Palace, LondonJoseph Paxton, 1851

• First major building to reveal modern exterior
  structure
• Iron skeleton framework and glass panels
• Paxton was a gardener and designed it as a giant
  greenhouse hall for the Great International
  Exhibition of 1851 (Industrial Age Exhibition )
• First located in Hyde Park, London, then
  relocated to a suburb
• burned in 1930s
• Included pre-fab parts and largest spans of glass
  possible at the time---4 feet long
• Length of building is almost 2,000 feet ground
  area is _at_ 800,000 square feet. Completed in 6
  months!

Wrought and Cast Iron
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Eiffel TowerGustave Eiffel, 1889

• puddle iron lattice tower
• Built as entrance to 1889 Worlds Fair in Paris
• Criticized as an eyesore
• Tallest building in the world when constructed,
  comparable to 81 stories
• Cables cut during Nazi occupation so that Hitler
  would have to walk up to the top

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Hotel Tassel, 1893, BrusselsVictor Horta
Even elaborate art nouveau designers incorporated
cast iron into their modern creations

• Considered the first true
• Art Nouveau buildinggraceful lines and
  natural elements
• Exposed cast iron as a structural
  materialcolumns and girders. Decorative iron
  elements include stair banister
• Brussels townhouse, affordable only by the rich
  bourgeoisie
• Hortas grandfather owned one of the first cast
  iron factories in England, enabling the
  Industrial Revolution
• Horta designs all elements of house, including
  light fixtures and mosaic flooring---
• Gesamtkunstwerk

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1st skyscraper--Home Insurance Company,
ChicagoWilliam LeBaron Jenny, 1883-85
CHICAGO-birthplace of the skyscraper

• The first steel-frame skyscraper ( of 10 stories
  )
• Weight of building is held by interior skeleton
  of steelenabling exterior to be a glass curtain
• Also built with wrought and cast iron
• Weighed only 1/3 as much as a stone building
• Great Chicago fire of 1871 created a blank slate
  for architects to develop buildings with the
  newest techniques and materials
• Jenny considered the father of the Chicago School

• Important innovations enabling skyscrapers to be
  built
• inexpensive methods for creating steel had been
  developed by the 1880s
• the Otis elevator (American) was perfected to
  include a brake system

Destroyed in 1931 to make way for a larger
building
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Marshall Field Wholesale Building, ChicagoHenry
Hodson Richardson, 1885

• Flat treatment of exterior wallsItalian
  Romanesque Revival
• Interiorlarge open loft spaces iron columns for
  interior supports
• Exteriormasonry exterior walls support the
  building slow gradation of masonry from heavy to
  light
• Rounded Romanesque window arches give appearance
  of 4 floors, but really 7
• Sunken basement provides more strength for
  building
• Large scale form with little ornamentation
  masculine to counter feminine department stores
• Did not include cast iron skeleton--- frame
  consisted of plaster walls for support,
  reinforced with wood, concrete and iron beams

Torn down shortly after 1930 for larger building
The Boathouse is Richardsonian style!
Anti-Victorian
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The Reliance Building, ChicagoBurnham and Root,
1894

• CHICAGO STYLE
• Chicago window horizontal, with large fixed
  central pane and two openable side panels
  developed for office buildings to create more
  light and ventilation. Glass curtain.
• Load-bearing iron skeleton
• Floating foundation of reinforced concrete to
  bear heavy weight of structure

• 14 floors
• Steel frame clad with terra cotta
• Still stands currently a hotel
• Proto-modernAnticipates modern development of
  architecture

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Carson Pierre Scott, ChicagoLouis Sullivan, 1899

• Steel-frame structure with Chicago
  windowsexterior non-supportive
• Art-Nouveau bronze cast-iron ornamental work
• Piers emphasize verticality windows horizontal
  emphasis
• Sullivan also built the Guaranty Building,
  Buffalo, in 1894..prototype of modern office
  building

Sullivan Form Follows Function in that
everyone was attracted to the beautiful detail
and wanted to shop in the store!