Historicism
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Styles recreated or closely inspired by historic styles
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had some positive virtues in that the architect was challenged to find new aspects, adaptations and aesthetics albeit still within the reptoire of elite Western styles
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C18 and C19 original styles such as Gothic, Romanesque, Roman, Greek, etc. were surveyed, measured, studied comparatively and published
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This wealth of exactitude enable expansion of architectural repetoire and the illusion of novelty craved by the educated elite and architects themselves
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enhanced in tandem with literature of the age (e,g, Sir Walter Scott and later Kipling) and history of art
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Historicism became especially strong from the 1850s in Ruskin’s advocacy of Gothic Revival as possessing ethical character appropriate to English society
Styles recreated or closely inspired by historic styles
had some positive virtues in that the architect was challenged to find new aspects, adaptations and aesthetics albeit still within the reptoire of elite Western styles
C18 and C19 original styles such as Gothic, Romanesque, Roman, Greek, etc. were surveyed, measured, studied comparatively and published
This wealth of exactitude enable expansion of architectural repetoire and the illusion of novelty craved by the educated elite and architects themselves
enhanced in tandem with literature of the age (e,g, Sir Walter Scott and later Kipling) and history of art
Historicism became especially strong from the 1850s in Ruskin’s advocacy of Gothic Revival as possessing ethical character appropriate to English society
Acquisition
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Related to historicism in that it reflects C19 preoccupation with novelty but also in conflict with Ruskinian revivalism
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More concerned with scientific and Imperial expansion, museology and the classification of knowledge that underlined later Enlightenment
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Acquisition is accumulating information, facts, sometimes driven by Romantic desire for possession, and prosaic desire for Knowledge, ownership and wealth in sense of ownership of peoples, societies, land, etc – so highly political
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Encapsulated in Napoleon’s collecting tour of Egypt and Elgin’s in Athens
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Supplied enormous riches for their national museums, impact on further style changes, luxury, appealingly exotic or rational and educational all at the same time - anathema to Ruskin’s appeal for purifying aesthetic rooted in moral worth.
Related to historicism in that it reflects C19 preoccupation with novelty but also in conflict with Ruskinian revivalism
More concerned with scientific and Imperial expansion, museology and the classification of knowledge that underlined later Enlightenment
Acquisition is accumulating information, facts, sometimes driven by Romantic desire for possession, and prosaic desire for Knowledge, ownership and wealth in sense of ownership of peoples, societies, land, etc – so highly political
Encapsulated in Napoleon’s collecting tour of Egypt and Elgin’s in Athens
Supplied enormous riches for their national museums, impact on further style changes, luxury, appealingly exotic or rational and educational all at the same time - anathema to Ruskin’s appeal for purifying aesthetic rooted in moral worth.
