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Charles Robert Cockerell's architecture and the language of ornaments

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 14; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13602360903119017

1466-4410

Anne Bordeleau,

Visual Culture and Art Theory

As a defining feature of the architecture of C. R. Cockerell (1788–1863) in an age dominated by historicism, his classical allegiance remains secondary to his conception of ornaments in his attempts to balance the reciprocity of history and human inventiveness. According to Cockerell, ornaments compounded representative and communicative rôles. This dual consideration of ornaments can be traced to two prevailing analogies: the book metaphor and the language metaphor. The analogy between architecture and the book primarily concerned the representative rôle of architecture as a bearer of meaning. In the age of printing, this comparison also brought issues of legibility and accessibility to the fore.