Architecture and Culture 201

Histories of Illusion, Power and Imagination

Lecture 6

The Art of Politics

Theodor de Bry
Engraving
Spanish Invaders Hanging Native Captives from Mast of Ship
16th Century

Theodorus de Bry (1528 –

27 March 1598) was an
engraver, goldsmith and editor
who traveled around Europe,
starting from the city of Liège
(where he was born and grew
up), then to Strasbourg,
Antwerp, London and
Frankfurt, where he settled.
Theodorus de Bry created a
large number of engraved
illustrations for his books.
Most of his books were based
on first-hand observations by
explorers, even if De Bry
himself, acting as a recorder
of information, never visited
the Americas. To modern
eyes, many of the illustrations
seem formal but detailed.
 John Vanderlyn
Murder of Jane McCrea
1804

John Vanderlyn (October 18,

1775 – September 23, 1852)
was an American neoclassicist
painter.

Jane McCrea (sometimes

spelled McCrae or MacCrae,
1752 – July 27, 1777) was a
young woman who was
purportedly slain by Native
Americans associated with the
British army of Lieutenant
General John Burgoyne during
the American Revolutionary War.
Affianced to a Loyalist serving in
Burgoyne's army, her slaying led
to expressions of outrage and an
increase in Patriot military
recruiting, especially in the days
following her killing.
The Governor’s Palace
Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
1706
Reconstruction
The College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
1695
Reconstruction
Drayton Hall
Charleston, South Carolina, USA
1738
University Church
University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
Early 19th Century
Benjamin West
Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus
1768
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, USA
 Paul Revere
Boston Massacre
Boston Gazette
March 1770

Boston, the capital of the

Province of Massachusetts Bay
and an important shipping town,
was a major center of resistance
to unpopular acts of taxation by
the British Parliament in the
1760s.

The Boston Massacre, called

The Incident on King Street by
the British, was an incident on
March 5, 1770, in which British
Army soldiers killed five civilian
men.
The Boston Tea party, 1773
Engraving
1800

The Boston Tea Party arose

from two issues confronting
the British Empire in 1773:
the financial problems of the
British East India Company,
and an ongoing dispute
about the extent of
Parliament's authority, if any,
over the British American
colonies without seating any
elected representation. The
North Ministry ‘s attempt to
resolve these issues
produced a showdown that
would eventually result in
revolution.
John Trumbull
The Declaration of Independence 4th July 1776
1776
Yale University Art gallery, New Haven, USA
Thomas Jefferson
Monticello, Charlottesville, USA
1770-1806
Pierre-denis Martin
Chateau de Marly
1679
Engraving 1724
"How is a taste in this beautiful art to be formed in
our countrymen, unless we avail ourselves of every
occasion when public buildings are to be erected, of
presenting to them models for their study and
imitation?...You see, I am an enthusiast on the subject
of the arts. But it is an enthusiasm of which I am not
ashamed, as its object is to improve the taste of my
countrymen, to increase their reputation, to reconcile
them to the rest of the world, and procure them its
praise."

--to James Madison, September 20, 1785

The Papers of Thomas Jefferson; ed. Julian Boyd,
8:535
Jefferson and the Politics of Architecture

Among the many groups which look to Jefferson as

the model of their purpose and embodiment of their
ideals, American architects especially can attribute
the roots of their profession to the "Sage of
Monticello." Although never formally trained in
architecture, Jefferson had studied the structures of
Europe and read extensively on the great architects
of Europe. Possessed by a penchant for Palladio and
a natural ability for design, Jefferson set out to the
wilderness of Piedmont Virginia to create his
architectural masterpieces in a community he would
establish as the ideal American village: The
University of Virginia.
 Jefferson believed that architecture was the
heart of the American cause. In his mind, a
building was not merely a walled structure, but a
metaphor for American ideology, and the
process of construction was equal to the task of
building a nation. The architecture of any
American building should express the American
desire to break cultural--as well as political--ties
to Europe. American architecture, Jefferson
believed, would embody the fulfillment of the
civic life of Americans, and he sought to
establish the standards of a national
architecture, both aesthetically and politically.
 Thomas Jefferson
University of Virginia, Virginia, USA
1826
Engraving, 1856

The University of Virginia was to become

the physical model of Jefferson's cultural
and educational ideals. In the design of
his "academical village," Jefferson
envisioned a democratic community of
scholars and students coexisting in a
single village which united the living and
learning spaces in one undifferentiated
area. In the plan at right, Jefferson
organized the space around the open
expanse of "The Lawn," surrounded it
with student rooms and central pavillions
which housed faculty members and
offered common rooms for the
community, and crowned the space with
the Rotunda, his monument to
Classicism. The effect of this design was
intended to represent Jefferson's plan for
American education: progressive, yet
rooted in classical disciplines; broad-
based and elective, but still centralized;
and accessible, but still reserved for the
privileged elite.
Thomas Jefferson
Pavilion VI
University of Virginia, Virginia, USA
1826
Thomas Jefferson
Rotunda and Pavilions
University of Virginia, Virginia, USA
1826
 The Maison Carrée is an example of Vitruvian architecture.
Raised on a 2.85 m high podium, the temple dominated the
forum of the Roman city, forming a rectangle almost twice as
Maison Caree, Nimes, France
long as it is wide, measuring 26.42 m by 13.54 m. The
Roman Temple, 16 BCE façade is dominated by a deep portico or pronaos almost a
third of the building's length. It is a hexastyle design with six
Corinthian columns under the Pediment at either end
Thomas Jefferson
Design, Virginia State Capitol, Virginia, USA
1790
Thomas Jefferson
Virginia State Capitol, Virginia, USA
1791
Benjamin Latrobe
Design for the US Capitol, Washington DC, USA
1817
Benjamin Latrobe
Design for the US Capitol, Washington DC, USA
1811
Charles Bullfinch, 1829
Thomas U Walter et al, 1865
US Capitol, Washington DC, USA
Charles Bullfinch, 1829
Thomas U Walter et al, 1865
US Capitol, Washington DC, USA
Charles Bullfinch, 1829
Thomas U Walter et al, 1865
Dome Interior
US Capitol, Washington DC, USA
Charles Bullfinch, 1829
Thomas U Walter et al, 1865
Dome Sculptural Relief: Daniel Boon Struggling with the Indian
US Capitol, Washington DC, USA
Description of a Slave Ship
1789
The Slave Traders
1807
The Rape of a Negress
19th Century
Gordon Riots
1780
Newgate Jail Burns
Peasant Crushed by the Levies Imposed by the Monarchy and Privileged Orders
18th Century
Jacques-Louis David (French pronunciation: ) (30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was
a French) (30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the
Neoclassical) (30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the
Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s his
cerebral brand of history painting) (30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French
painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the
1780s his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away from Rococo
frivolity toward a classical austerity and severity, heightened feeling1 chiming with the
moral climate of the final years of the Ancien Régime.

David later became an active supporter of the French Revolution

Jacque-Louis David
Oath of the Horatii
1784

In this piece, the artist references

Enlightenment values while alluding
to Rousseau’s social contract. The
republican ideal of the general will
becomes the focus of the painting
with all three sons positioned in
compliance with the father. The
Oath between the characters can
be read as an act of unification of
men to the binding of the state. The
issue of gender roles also becomes
apparent in this piece, as the
women in Horatii greatly contrast
the group of brothers. David depicts
the father with his back to the
women, shutting them out of the
oath making ritual; they also appear
to be smaller in scale than the male
figures
 While Oath of the Horatii and Oath of the Tennis
Court stress the importance of masculine self-
Jacque-Louis David
The Tennis Court Oath sacrifice for one's country and patriotism, the
1791 Distribution of Eagles would ask for self-sacrifice
for one's Emperor (Napoleon) and the
importance of battlefield glory.
David’s Studio, Paris
1798
Jacque-Louis David
Madame Recamier
1800
Jacque-Louis David
The Death of Marat
1793
Jacque-Louis David
Napoleon’s Coronation
1804
Jacque-Louis David
Return of the Son’s of Brutus
1789

The painting depicts Lucius Junius

Brutus, the Roman leader, grieving for
his sons. Brutus's sons had attempted to
overthrow the government and restore
the monarchy, so the father ordered their
death to maintain the republic. Thus,
Brutus was the heroic defender of the
republic, at the cost of his own family.
On the right, the Mother holds her two
daughters, and the grandmother is seen
on the far right, in anguish. Brutus sits
on the left, alone, brooding, seemingly
dismissing the dead bodies of his sons.
Knowing what he did was best for his
country, but the tense posture of his feet
and toes reveals his inner turmoil. The
whole painting was a Republican
symbol, and obviously had immense
meaning during these times in France.
Jacque-Louis David
Bonaparte Crossing the Alps
1801
Opening Ceremony of Estates general at Versailles on 5th May 1789
J Bertaux
Taking the Tuileries Palace
1789
Lauros Giraudon
Storming the Bastille 14th July 1789
1789
Invented Prisoners of the Bastille
1789
Motto of the Republic Carved on Foyer of Ecole de Medecins, Paris
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite
Funeral of the Clergy
1790
Public Burning of Royalist Symbols, Place de la Revolution (Place de la Concorde)
1793
The Terror
Condemned Led out to the Tumbrils
The Terror
Victims of Execution
Guillotine
The National Razor
Contemporary English Cartoon on the French Revolution
J Ingres
Emperor
1806
Icons of Caesar
Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine
Napoleon’s Study at Malmaison
1800
Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine
Josephine’s Bedroom at Malmaison
1800
Francois Gerard
Madam Laetitia
1800
Antoine-Jean Gros
Napoleon in the Plague House at Jaffa
1804
Place de la Concorde, Paris
1899
Sketch
 Together with the Arc de Triomphe (1806–08) and the
Vendôme Column, the Madeleine is one of the
monuments with which Napoleon sought to turn Paris into
Alexandre Vignon an imperial capital. Built in the form of a Roman temple
Church of the Madeleine
1807-1842 surrounded by a Corinthian colonnade, the Madeleine
reflects the taste for Classical art and architecture
Alexandre Vignon

French architect of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic

periods. A pupil of Leroy and Ledoux, he was
commissioned to build the Temple de la Gloire (after
1813 the Madeleine), Paris, in 1806 to be erected on
the foundations of an earlier church (1746) begun by
Contant d'Ivry, and revised by G.-M. Couture (1732–
99) in the 1770s. It is a grand octastyle Corinthian
building (constructed 1816–28) on a high podium
resembling a rectangular Roman temple (a type only
revived from C18), with an interior (1828–40) by
Jean-Jacques-Marie Huvé (1783–1852) derived from
Roman thermae.
Alexandre Vignon
Church of the Madeleine
1807-1842
Interior

The Madeleine is built in

the Neo-Classical style
and was inspired by the
Maison Carrée at Nîmes,
one of the best-
preserved of all Roman
temples. Its fifty-two
Corinthian columns, each
20 metres high, are
carried around the entire
building .

A single nave with three

domes over wide arched
bays, lavishly gilded in a
decor inspired as much
by Roman baths as by
Renaissance artists
 The site of this edifice, centred at the end
of rue Royale, a line-of-sight between
Gabriel's twin hôtels in the Place de la
Alexandre Vignon
Church of the Madeleine
Concorde, required a suitably monumental
1807-1842
View along the Rue Royale
end from the time the square was
established in 1755, as Place Louis XV.
Gisors
Palais Bourbon
1795
View along Rue Royale towards
Place de la Concorde and Portico
Gisors
Portico, Palais Bourbon
1795
Gisors
Portico, Palais Bourbon
1795
Interior
Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine
Arc de Carrousel (In grounds of Musee de Louvre 1952)
1807
Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine
Arc de Carrousel
1807
Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine
Arc de Carrousel
1807
View towards Place de la Concorde and Arc de Triumphe
Charles-Francois Chalgrin &
Jean-Arnaud
Arc de Triomphe
begun 1806
Charles-Francois Chalgrin &
Jean-Arnaud
Arc de Triomphe
begun 1806
Charles-Francois Chalgrin &
Jean-Arnaud
Arc de Triomphe
begun 1806
March of the Volunteers, Francois Rude, 1836