The Attic Order in Decline
2013; Volume: 103; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2325-9264
Autores Tópico(s)Historical and Architectural Studies
ResumoBringing this survey to a close there were two notable uses of the Attic capital at midcentury, when the energies of the Greek Revival in America already were dissipating, that appropriately reflect back on several of the major issues and personalities considered previously, notably to Jefferson and Latrobe whose conflicting tastes were central to the order's introduction and fate. Involved were Robert Mills in 1852 at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville and Thomas Ustick Walter in 1855 at the Capitol. Mills already has been identified as a student of Latrobe and a committed Grecian. Walter, who was of the next generation, had studied under Strickland, Mill's contemporary in Latrobe's studio, and shared their common architectural taste.164 But in these two commissions both men, like Latrobe before them, come up against the Roman bias of Thomas Jefferson, whether as the genius responsible for the University of Virginia or as the man so much behind the initial designs of the Capitol. And on both these projects Latrobe also had a visible presence, for besides his work on the Capitol, during the summer of 1817, several months prior to his resignation from his second term as Surveyor of the City of Washington and Superintendent of its Buildings, he also had assisted Jefferson with designs for the newly founded university.165Regardless of their contrasting, even conflicting, tastes there always had been a sufficiently strong affinity between Latrobe and Jefferson to encourage a mutual admiration, even dependency, when it came to matters architectural. Although yielding somewhat to Latrobe's persistence, Jefferson had finally permitted the intrusion of some Greek orders in the Capitol, none were to be included on the ten pavilions that initially constituted his Academical village, several of which Latrobe designed. In the variety of their appearances, as he informed Latrobe in June 1817, Jefferson intended that they would serve as specimens of orders for the architectural lectures. Included were Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian examples, all taken from another Romanist handbook Freart de Chambray's Parallele d'Architecture.166 There was no space for any distinctly Grecian versions, much less the Attic.167 Nor did the authentically Greek orders find any place on the centerpiece of Jefferson's campus, the Rotunda, the classroom and library building he designed as a Palladian rendition of the Roman Pantheon. In July 1817, accompanying a campus plan that included a building very much like the Pantheon, Latrobe had recommended a Center building which ought to exhibit in Mass and details as perfect a specimen of good Architectural taste as can be devised.168 Begun in 1823, well after Latrobe's death, the Rotunda was completed three years later, shortly after his own death. At the north end, looking outward over the lawn and the pavilions and colonnades that frame it on the east and west, the Rotunda's front, its south facade, was marked like the Pantheon by a hexastyle Corinthian portico.By the early 1850s, the university's trustees realized that the Rotunda was no longer adequate for the institution's needs. Additional space was required and the commission for an extension, the Annex as it was dubbed, went to Robert Mills, who noted,The great increase of students in the University and the want of suitable rooms for their exercises have caused the erection of a building in the rear of the Rotunda, 150 feet long including Porticoes, and 50 feet wide, which from the declivity of the ground, will afford 4 large lecture rooms, a large exhibition room and museum above, all accessible from the Rotunda, from which it is separated by a colonnaded space.IWThe Trustees may have selected Mills because of his prominence and reputation as a designer in the classical mode, but doubtless also affecting their decision was a recollection of his personal connection to Jefferson, whom he met around 1801 and with whom he remained in touch until the president's death. …
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