Youtube: Victorian Interiors

I liked this video a lot because she went in different Victorian style homes and talked about their different interior styles. She talked about the Industrial Revolution and how that led to them having a lot of ornate furniture since it was all quickly made by machines.They also used tall doorways and grand staircases. They continued to talk about how Victorian style liked to use patterns which was commonly found in wallpapers and stain glass windows. The part I found most interesting was when she talked to someone about how Victorian style houses used a lot of fake materials.

American Period Blog Response

This week I looked at Lindsay and Megan's blogs.

I liked how Lindsay's blog talked about the different countries and styles that inspired American style. I had never thought about this before so it was interesting to read about. I especially like the Spanish inspired homes. The Colonial Spanish house she pictured was my favorite.

Colonial Spanish house from Lindsay's blog.

Megan's blog focused on Colonial American style. I liked how she focused on the specific types of houses from this time such as the plantation houses, French Colonial houses, and Dutch style houses. My favorite were the plantation style houses. I love all of the columns on the front of the building.

This was my favorite of her plantation style house pictures.

American Period: Furniture

What I Learned

Furniture was a huge part of the American period so I decided to focus my blog entry on that aspect.

Some characteristics of Federal American furniture include arm chairs that have curved armrests and straight legs. Daybeds were also popular at this time as were some neoclassical motifs such as lyres, harps, and crowns of laurel leaves. The American eagle was also popular at this time. 

Duncan Phyfe was a popular furniture craftsman. He was a Scotsman who was best known for Regency-Empire style. Daybeds were one of his specialties. He used ornamental fittings on his furniture such as metal claw foot tips on table legs. He was known for creating a simplified Klismos chair and sofas with rolled ends. He liked to use the lyre motif and cornucopia legs. Here are some examples of Duncan Phyfe chairs:

Lambert Hitchcock was another famous furniture maker from this time period. He was one of the first to employ production-line methods. Some of his chair characteristics included: black with gold paint, woven cane or rush seats, and stenciled designs of fruit, leaves, arrows, flowers, and eagles.

Hitchcock Chairs

Shaker style was also popular at this time. They believed in hard work and discipline as well as political and religious freedom. Shaker style had ladderback chairs which hung from rows of pegs 6 feet from floor and followed the principles of honesty, utility, and simplicity.

Ladderback chairs

My Favorites

Modern Applications

 

YouTube: English Renaissance Furniture

I found a short video with some pictures of English Renaissance furniture and some interesting information about them. I especially liked the part that explained how the Farthingale chair was wider in the front to accommodate the ladies of the time's wide skirts.

English Renaissance Blog Response

This week I looked at Yo and Rachael's blogs.

I liked how Yo focused on Robert Adam. It allowed me to learn a lot more about him as a designer specifically. I liked how he focused on a couple of houses he worked on as well as his style. I also liked how he tried to find modern applications that resembled Adam's style.

This is Adam's Lansdowne House which was my favorite picture on Yo's blog.

Rachael's blog focused on the furniture designers Chippendale, Adam, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton. She also talked about William & Mary and Queen Anne. I liked how she went into specific detail about Queen Anne and Chippendale's unique styles.

I liked this picture from Rachael's blog which is a modern day dining table using Chippendale's chinese style chairs.

Late English Renaissance

What I Learned

The late portion of the English Renaissance is from 1750-1830. In the furniture world this includes Middle Georgian, Late Georgian, and Neoclassical styles. Middle Georgian was known as the age of mahogany and is named after the furniture makers George II and George III Chippendale. Late Georgian was known as the age of satinwood and was the end of George III furniture making and included work by Adam Chippendale, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton. Neoclassical was a revival of interest in the arts of Greece and Rome which was brought on and inspired by the excavations of Pompeii. This period was a reaction against the French Rococo period.

Robert Adam was famous at this time. He was an architect, interior designer, and a furniture designer. He studied in Italy and was serious about the revival of classical design. His designs were delicate with fine details and many of his furniture designs are included in his famous book "The Works in Architecture." He worked with a complete integration of all design elements including: furniture, light fixtures, floor coverings, textiles, silver, pottery, and metal work. 

Adam went though a couple different design phases throughout his career. The first (1756-1770) was bold, masculine, and large in scale. It was classical rather than Rococo in style. His second phase (1770-1792) was more delicate and feminine. This influenced French designers at the end of Louis XVI's reign. Mirrors played an important role in his designs. Fabric patterns he was famous for using included: moire, brocade, satin, stripes, and toile. He also created the sideboard which is a wide table with drawers that was created to be placed in the dining room for serving.

Sideboard

Another famous person from this time period was George Hepplewhite. He brought Neoclassic style to the masses and it is still being used today. Neoclassic devices he used included: urns, reeding, oval paterae, ribbons, vases, fluting, and festoons. He didn't use glass in doors and he made satinwood popular. He also invented the washstand.

Washstand

George Hepplewhite's chairs included these characteristics:

• Straight, slender, and slightly tapered legs usually ending in a spade foot.
• Some have stretchers.
• The backs are either oval, shield, or heart shaped with a variety of back splats and pierced designs. Also some backs were upholstered.

The last famous furniture designer I'm going to talk about from this time is Thomas Sheraton. He used satinwood or mahogany for his chairs and their legs were similar to Hepplewhite's chairs' legs. His style was elegant, crisp, and light. Sheraton's furniture didn't use complicated curves and ornament was restricted to the inlay, marquetry, or painted designs. His chairs had square back legs which is mirrored in the seat design. His furniture also included an ornate top rail. Fabrics he used included: satin, silk, chintz, damask, toile, and brocade. He also created the kidney-shaped pedestal desk.

Kidney-shaped pedestal desk

My Favorites

Modern Applications

French Renaissance Blog Response

This week I looked at Katrina and Ariana's blogs.

I liked all of the details Katrina went into about the Rococo style. I specifically liked how she talked about how the Regency and Rococo styles were both very feminine styles and that their furniture was made to support the contours of the human body. She also and showed the characteristics of a cabriole leg and talked about how it brought a feminine quality to the furniture.

Katrina's picture detailing the cabriole leg.

I liked how Ariana talked specifically about the Chateau de Chambord. I also liked how she mentioned its history of being a hunting lodge that was left abandoned and unfurnished before Louis XII came into the picture and gave it to his brother to restore.

Ariana's picture of the Chateau.

French Renaissance - Baroque

What I Learned

Louis XIII died in 1643 and Louis XIV was proclaimed king at only 5 years old. He became known as the "Sun King." Louis XIV created a national style of art and established a school for 60 children where they became "masters" of their craft under the King's protection. 

Louis's Superintendent of Finances was a man by the name of Nicolas Fouquet who was arrested for embezzlement. This led to his craftsmen coming under the employment of Louis XIV. From this Louis gained Louis Le Vau (architect), Andre Le Notre (garden designer), Charles LeBrun (painter for the interiors, decorator and architect), and Puget (sculptor) who all worked on the rooms at Vaux-le-Vicomte and Palais de Versailles. The Palais de Versailles used classical architecture and decoration. It also used regal dimensions (15' ceilings and 11' doors) and had a symmetrical design. The gardens were an attempt to recreate ancient Roman villas.

Louis XIV considered himself the most powerful ruler in the world. Versailles and the Grand Trianon were built to show his power as well as to pull the branches of governmental power from Paris to Versailles where he could have more control over them.

Baroque furniture used a marquetry process. Andre Charles Boulle is the master of this method and a chief cabinetmaker. He worked at Versailles and made marquetry furniture for it. Materials for marquetry included: tortoiseshell, metal (brass or silver), and ebony. Andre also used pewter, copper, and mother of pearl.

My Favorites

Façade of the Church of the Gesù, the first truly baroque façade.

Versailles's chapel.

Chapel of the Church of Santo Domingo.

Modern Applications

Baroque-style home theater.

Baroque-style bathroom.

Bedroom done in French Renaissance style. This is in a house done for the show Big Brother.

To see more pictures of the house go here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2524597/Celebrity-Big-Brother-2014-house-Renaissance-inspired-makeover.html

Spanish Renaissance

What I Learned

This period was a fusion of Christian Spain with Moorish art that was called Mudejar. This term denotes a style of Iberian architecture and decoration, of the 12th to 16th centuries, strongly influenced by Moorish taste and workmanship. (This term is also used to describe Moors who converted to Christianity.) This style incorporated Islamic elements into the Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance style buildings that were being created. It is a symbiosis of techniques and ways of understanding architecture resulting from Muslim and Christian cultures living side by side. This style is characterized by the used of brick as the main material. These are some buildings done in Mudejar style:

Teruel Cathedral

Mudéjar Tower of El Salvador

Castle of La Mota

These two different religious groups created two different schools of art in Spain. One was the Moors from Africa and the other was the Spanish Christian groups. The final expulsion of the Moors occurred in 1607. This was a great lost to the handicrafts and commerce of southern Spain.

This is Alhambra which is the last of the Spanish palaces completed before the expulsion of the Moors. (1354)

The Court of Lions found inside Alhambra.

Court of Pools found inside Alhambra.

  

The Cathedral of Seville is located in Seville-Andalusia, Spain. It was the largest cathedral in the world in the 15th century and was even larger than the Hagia Sophia, which was the former holder of this title for nearly a thousand years. (Today it is the largest Gothic cathedral and the third-largest church in the world.) This cathedral contained 80 chapels and held 500 masses daily. It was built to demonstrate the wealth of the city. According to local lore, the members of the cathedral chapter said: "Let us build a church so beautiful and so grand that those who see it finished will think we are mad." Construction began in 1402 and continued until 1506. Five years after construction ended, in 1511, the dome collapsed and work on the cathedral recommenced. The dome collapsed again in 1888, and work was still being performed on the dome until at least 1903. The 1888 collapse occurred due to an earthquake and resulted in the destruction of "every precious object below" the dome at that time.

Cathedral of Seville Exterior

 Here are some pictures from inside the cathedral: 

 

                     




                           


The last picture is of the tomb of Christopher Columbus who is buried inside the cathedral.

There were several different design phase's in this period including Plateresco and Desornamentado. Plateresco had minute and delicate ornament that resembled the work of a silversmith. This is probably where the name was derived from seeing as platero is Spanish for silversmith. Here are some pictures exhibiting this style:

Desornamentado was a reaction to Plateresco style. It was a powerful style that was characterized by austerity and it used carefully defined proportions. Since it was a reaction to an ornamental style, this style was a much more simplistic style. It was applied to court, ecclesiastical, and public buildings. El Escorial, which is shown in the next three pictures, is an example of a building done in this style.

 My Favorite Spanish Renaissance Architecture

I talked about and showed some pictures of Alhambra earlier, but it is still one of my favorites of the Spanish Renaissance. There are just so many beautiful pictures of this place. Here are some more:

Another one of my favorite buildings from this time is Jaén Cathedral by Andrés de Vandelvira who also had some other beautiful buildings from this time including Cathedral of Baeza and Vázquez de Molina Square .

Jaén Cathedral facade

Jaén Cathedral

Cathedral of Baeza exterior

Cathedral of Baeza interior

Vázquez de Molina Square

Vázquez de Molina Square

Modern Applications

This is the Casa del Prado Theater in San Diego's Balboa Park. It was constructed for the Panama-California Exposition in 1915-16 that commemorated the opening of the Panama Canal. As you can see it was created to emulate Spanish Renaissance style.

This is Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL. It was built on the grounds of an old luxury hotel built in 1988 with the Ponce de Leon hotel remaining as the centerpiece.

Flagler College Lobby

Lobby inside Flagler College Ceiling

Dining hall

Flagler room

Here are some pictures of modern luxury residential homes  designed in Spanish and Italian Renaissance styles: