The Architecture of the Eighteenth Century (World of Art)

John Summerson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0500202028 ISBN 13: 9780500202029

Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1986

The architecture produced between 1700 and 1800 represents a classic perfection which no later age has equaled. The first half of the eighteenth century was pervaded by the spirit of the Baroque, epitomized most completely in palaces and churches: Schonbrunn in Vienna, the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, the dazzling theatrical churches and Residenzes of Germany and Central Europe. After 1750 architecture turned away from Baroque toward Neo-classicism, whose most characteristic types included private houses, institutional buildings and planned towns--Bath, Philadelphia and Washington, with their theaters, museums, hospitals and banks. Summerson provides a succinct and elegant summary of the entire period, bringing into focus not only the stunning beauty of these buildings, but also the background of ideas from which they sprang.

Synopsis:

Looks at eighteenth-century palaces, churches, theaters, libraries, museums, prisons, hospitals, and banks, discusses their various styles, and discusses the development of urban planning.