Classical New York

Classical New York
Author: Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2018-09-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 0823281043

During the rise of New York from the capital of an upstart nation to a global metropolis, the visual language of Greek and Roman antiquity played a formative role in the development of the city’s art and architecture. This compilation of essays offers a survey of diverse reinterpretations of classical forms in some of New York’s most iconic buildings, public monuments, and civic spaces. Classical New York examines the influence of Greco-Roman thought and design from the Greek Revival of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries through the late-nineteenth-century American Renaissance and Beaux Arts period and into the twentieth century’s Art Deco. At every juncture, New Yorkers looked to the classical past for knowledge and inspiration in seeking out new ways to cultivate a civic identity, to design their buildings and monuments, and to structure their public and private spaces. Specialists from a range of disciplines—archaeology, architectural history, art history, classics, and history— focus on how classical art and architecture are repurposed to help shape many of New York City’s most evocative buildings and works of art. Federal Hall evoked the Parthenon as an architectural and democratic model; the Pantheon served as a model for the creation of Libraries at New York University and Columbia University; Pennsylvania Station derived its form from the Baths of Caracalla; and Atlas and Prometheus of Rockefeller Center recast ancient myths in a new light during the Great Depression. Designed to add breadth and depth to the exchange of ideas about the place and meaning of ancient Greece and Rome in our experience of New York City today, this examination of post-Revolutionary art, politics, and philosophy enriches the conversation about how we shape space—be it civic, religious, academic, theatrical, or domestic—and how we make use of that space and the objects in it.

Journal

Journal
Author: United States. Congress. Senate
Publisher:
Total Pages: 962
Release: 1850
Genre: United States
ISBN:

Holland House

Holland House
Author: Linda Kelly
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2013-02-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 0857721550

Situated in the heart of London's Holland Park are the remains of Holland House-the site of what was once England's most celebrated political salon. In the first thirty years of the nineteenth century -when the Whig party were almost constantly out of office-the home of the third Lord Holland became the unofficial centre of the Opposition. Devoted to the ideals of Charles James Fox-the prominent Whig statesman who was also Lord Holland's uncle-and enriched by the progressive views of a new generation of writers,critics and politicians,the influence of Holland House permeated the political climate. Combining politics and the arts,the salon attracted the greatest names of the age-Byron, Thomas Macaulay, Talleyrand and Madame de Stael all dined at Holland House. At a time when revolutions threatened to engulf Europe, the Whig tradition of aristocratic liberalism-avoiding the extremes of radicalism and reaction-proved to be one of the chief factors in the peaceful achievement of parliamentary reform,epitomised by the Great Reform Act of 1832. The embodiment of this tradition was Holland House. The salon was presided over by Lady Holland-a magnetic hostess. Beautiful and clever she had left her much-older husband, Sir Godfrey Webster,to marry Lord Holland and as a result was ostracised in many London drawing rooms. But in Holland House, society would come to her. Lady Holland was in the thick of Whig discussions, occasionally following her own political line.She had a special passion for Napoleon and sent him over a thousand books in St Helena. Occupying a key position in the political and cultural life of the age, Holland House was a unique and important force at a time of great political change. Linda Kelly brings to life the colourful world of Holland House, providing a vivid portrait of London's greatest political salon.