Beaux Arts architecture

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Cultural center in Argentina

Beaux-Arts architecture describes the architecture of historicism as it was represented in the 19th century by the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Its architects erected numerous representative buildings of this style, particularly between 1850 and 1914, primarily in France and very extensively in the United States, Canada and Australia. In the German-speaking area, Beaux-Arts architecture was particularly well received in Prussia, with Ernst von Ihne (Bode Museum) being an outstanding representative .

history

Bodemuseum in Berlin
Bodemuseum large domed hall

Going back to the Académie royale d'architecture , founded in 1671, the subsequent architecture department of the École des Beaux-Arts was a state institution with the highest standards from the start.

In exchange with the Academie de France a Rome and through the competitions for the Grand Prix ​​de Rome , the education of architecture students was based essentially on models from Roman antiquity and the Italian Renaissance . Later, people also considered their own Renaissance and Baroque heritage .

In the Second Empire, it was still more classically oriented and with a very large influence on the cityscape of Paris in the course of Haussmann's plans , the style in the Belle Époque changed to an eclecticism with neo-baroque influences.

The medieval architectural styles of Romanesque and Gothic were completely neglected and the revolutionary architecture was not pursued any further, while modern iron constructions were used quite naturally from an early age and always in a highly formalized manner (e.g. Gare d'Orsay , Grand Palais ).

The close proximity to the state of the École, the high level of academic work and the special competence in matters of aesthetics very often led to commissions for important public building projects from architects of the Beaux Arts School. It was not only formative for French historicism in general, such as B. also the villa and commercial building, but famous far beyond the borders of France for the craftsmanship and formal quality of their buildings.

In the United States, it became so popular through the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, the exhibition halls of which were all built in the Beaux Arts style, that numerous architecture faculties based their training on the model of the Ecole, and in 1916 in New York the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design was founded.

This fame certainly contributed to the fact that the École held on to its traditional and retrospective architecture concept almost undeterred until 1968, although historicism had long since been superseded by classical modernism worldwide since the 1920s .

Beaux Arts style

The Beaux-Arts architecture in the broader sense describes the historicism of the graduates and epigones of the École des Beaux-Arts. It ranges from strong references to the Italian Renaissance (e.g. the Sainte-Geneviève Library ) to magnificent neo-baroque buildings (e.g. Opera Garnier ) to neoclassical buildings, especially in the United States (e.g. San Francisco City Hall ), and later too in France (e.g. Palais de Chaillot ).

In a narrower and more real sense, Beaux Arts architecture is the style of the large public buildings of this school in the Belle Époque in France. These are theaters, museums, town halls, etc., but also train stations and exhibition halls.

What they all have in common is their stylistic origins from the Renaissance ( Fontainebleau , Chambord ) and the classicist Baroque ( Vaux-le-Vicomte , Versailles ), as they had developed particularly in modern French palace construction.

The Beaux Arts buildings were conditioned according to their “ bourgeois ” functions, but held on to the aristocratic display of splendor both inside and outside and enhanced it in baroque style. The emphasis on form and effect as well as a slight oversizing in the proportions and the rich and first-class execution aimed at the Prestige and were accordingly powerful.

Picture gallery

Well-known architects

See also

literature

  • Arthur Drexler (Ed.): The architecture of the École des Beaux-Arts. Secker & Warburg, London 1977, ISBN 0-436-13710-0 .
  • Jörn Garleff: The Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. A built architectural treatise from the 19th century. Wasmuth, Tübingen et al. 2003, ISBN 3-8030-4025-6 (also: Bonn, Univ., Diss.).
  • Julien Guadet: Éléments et théorie de l'architecture. Cours professé à l'École nationale et spéciale des beaux-arts. Nouvelle édition revue et augmentée. Librairie de la Construction modern, Paris 1907.

Web links

Commons : Beaux-Arts architecture  - collection of images, videos and audio files