Neo-Classical
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing features of Late Baroque. In its purest form it is a style principally derived from the architecture of Classical Greece and the architecture of Italian Andrea Palladio. In form, Neoclassical architecture emphasizes the wall rather than chiaroscuro and maintains separate identities to each of its parts.
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Commentary
Queen's House - Closer to Jones or Palladio?
In comparison to Woolaton and Longleat for instance the Queen’s House would have seemed very close to the Palladian ideal to Jones' contempories
- •Tripartite with projecting center with façades expressing building internal divisions
- •The classical orders and the symmetry
- •The loggia, recessed porticos porticos and balustrade
- •The rusticated basement
- •The curved stairway
But there are important differences. As others have noted there is an emphasis on the horizontal and not the vertical . Also Jones could have contemplated a pediment that would had a drawn the eye to the center of the building. He avoided this but the rusticated lower floor and the recessed portico does draw you eye up to the first floor. (Is this where the main reception rooms were? ) However, Palladio was not necessarily a slave to what he had designed in the past and displays considerable variation. So there wasn’t just a single Palladian template to draw upon. In fact I see more features in common with the H plan design by Sangallo than many of Palladio's villas, with it's first floor recessed portico albeit with a pediment
The prominence of windows. I also believe Britain’s less sunny climate influenced this and maybe Jones took this in to consideration. A more slavishly followed Palladian villa was designed by Colen Campbell at Mereworth Castle which has fewer windows, square and prominent pedimented portico. I think this looks more severe and somehow less in tune with its enviroment
I'm particularly interested in the staircase of QH as it relates to Jones' practice of incorporating other styles. The curved double staircase does seem a visual "fit," but it's outside of Palladio's architectural vocabulary. Much more Baroque. Is there anything in his work quite like it? Most of his villas seem to favor a direct approach to the entry with broad expanses of steps. The closest analogue to the staircase at QH that I found was Robert Adams' much later Kedleston
Response
By comparison with such 'prodigy houses' as Wollaton or Longleat, the QH must have seemed to English eyes like something from another world!! I think the comparison with the Sangallo example is entirely plausible: we should never imagine that Jones was a slavish follower of Palladio alone: rather he distilled and synthesised elements from a very wide range of Classical and contemporary Italian sources.
As a matter of interest, there is a painting of the Royal Naval Hospital complex (which incorporates the QH) by Canaletto in the collection at Greenwich. Canaletto painted this view from the opposite bank of the Thames, and - given his distance from the QH - he clearly misinterpreted what he saw: he paints the QH with a triangular pediment over the central bays (something which it never in fact possessed)!!
The most obvious point of contrast between the Queen’s House, and Wollaton and Longleat, lies in the consistency with which Classical architectural detailing is applied. In the cases of Longleat and Wollaton Classical elements are used – pilasters and so forth – yet these are used in an ad hoc manner, in free combination with non-Classical elements (turrets, ornate gables, etc.). What this serves to demonstrate is that the Classical details as used by the builders of these so-called ‘prodigy houses’ were in fact derived from imported pattern books – rather than from any first hand experience of European Classical architecture. As Sutton observes: “No Italian architect came to England and no English architect went to Italy…” (P.159). Inigo Jones’ the Queens’ House, by contrast, utilises Classical detailing in a wholly consistent manner – as transmitted through the work of Palladio
Certainly, with regard to such matters as the superposition of orders – Composite atop Ionic – Jones does follow Roman precedent. Similarly, the details of ornamentation which he includes – the frieze of garlands and richly embellished entablatures – do have precedents in some of the more lavish examples of Roman (rather, perhaps, than Greek) architecture. However, it is perhaps truer to say that, in his overall composition, with its central bays emphasised by attached columns, and paired pilasters at either end, owes as much to Palladio as it does to specifically antique precedents.
Although such Baroque features as the central cupola do appear in one or two of Campbell’s images, the overwhelming impression is that of the Palladian villa – complete with central projecting portico, flanking wings, and processional stairway – expanded to the proportions of a grand country house. As far as the comparison with Wren goes, there is a formal linearity and restraint visible here which does not tally with Wren’s flair for Baroque elaboration
Wanstead Devived from Palladio?
Essentially what the 'Palladian' generation of architects take from Palladio is his insistence upon rigorous symmetry, his strict interpretation of the Classical orders, and his belief that architectural styling should be utilised so as to produce an impression of grandeur and monumentality with respect even to domestic dwellings (which, of course, even the largest country houses were, in essence). Thus it is that both Palladio, and Campbell, augment their central entrance portals with columniated triangular pediments: something which niether the ancient Greeks, nor (for the most part) Romans would have countenanced doing (since the triamgular pediment, for them, would have been regarded as public, temple architecture).
Response
The main points of comparison between Wanstead House and Castle Howard lie in the degree to which ornament is allowed to dominate the overall design. Although there are points of similarity – both facades are based around a central projecting section, topped by a pediment, and although both flanking wings are surmounted by a balustrade with decorative urns – the decoration is far more prominent in the case of Castle Howard. Here, the order of monumental pilasters, with round-headed windows with prominent keystones, articulates and enlivens the façade as a whole; whereas at Wanstead House the flanking wings are marked only by modest square-headed windows – the decorative emphasis (as per Palladio) is concentrated on the central pedimented section
