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| Essential
Architecture- Search by style
Italianate Architecture |
| Neo-Renaissance Italianate |
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| The Breakers designed by
Richard Morris Hunt, completed 1895. |
Nicolas Sursock Museum,
a perfect example of Italianate architecture in Lebanon |
Cliveden: Barry's
Italianate, Neo-Renaissance mansion with "confident allusions to the wealth
of Italian merchant princes." |
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| Indiana State Capitol |
Valparaiso, Indiana |
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| Bay Window Italianate |
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| Wood Italianate architecture in San Francisco |
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7 Toxteth Road,
Glebe, Sydney, Australia |
| Tower Italianate |
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| Blandwood Mansion, North
Carolina |
Eynesbury House,
Adelaide, South Australia |
The Neo-Renaissance:
Osborne House completed 1851. A large Palladian house given further "Italian
treatment" by the addition of a belvedere tower. |
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| Government House,
Melbourne completed in 1876. |
Government House,
Melbourne. The Hall decorated in 19th century Italianate style. |
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| The Railway station of
Albury, New South Wales, Australia was built in the Italianate Architectural
Style in 1881. |
Callan Park,
Sydney, Australia. |
Pyrmont Public
School, Sydney, Australia. |
| Bracketed Italianate |
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| Cape May, NJ- Italiante became
the most popular housing style in Victorian America. Italianate is also
known as the Tuscan, the Lombard, or simply, the bracketed style. |
The Davidson House,
Georgia |
Galveston, Texas. |
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| JOSEPH BIGELOW RESIDENCE, Port Perry, 1876 |
Edwards Place, 700 N. 4th Street,
Springfield, Illinois |
129 E Wheeling St, Lancaster, Ohio
Photocredit: Thomas Swinehart |
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| Adolphus W. Brower House: Sycamore, Illinois |
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Italianate architecture

Villa Emo by Palladio,1559. The great Italian
villas were often a starting point for the buildings of the 19th century
Italianate style.
In the course of the history of Classical architecture, an Italianate style
of architecture was a distinct nineteenth-century phase, in which Italian
sixteenth-century models and architectural vocabulary, which had served as
inspiration for both Palladianism and Neoclassicism, were now synthesized
with picturesque aesthetics, to create an architecture that, though it was
also characterized as "Neo-Renaissance", was essentially of its own time.
"The backward look transforms its object," Siegfried Giedion wrote of
historicist architectural styles; "every spectator at every period—at every
moment, indeed—inevitably transforms the past according to his own nature."
The Italianate style was first developed in Britain about 1802 by John Nash,
with the construction of Cronkhill in Shropshire. This small country house
is generally accepted to be the first Italianate villa in England, from
which is derived the Italianate architecture of the late Regency and early
Victorian eras.
The Italianate style was further developed and popularised by the architect
Sir Charles Barry in the 1830s.[5] Barry's Italianate style drew heavily for
its motifs on the buildings of the Italian Renaissance, this concept,
sometimes at odds with Nash's semi-rustic Italianate villas, produced what
came to be accepted as the Italianate style. The style was not confined to
England and was employed in varying forms, long after its decline in
popularity in Britain, throughout northern Europe and the British Empire.
From the late 1840s it achieved huge popularity in the United States, where
it was promoted by the architect Alexander Jackson Davis.
Italianate style in England
A late intimation of Nash's development of the Italianate style was his 1805
design of Sandridge Park at Stoke Gabriel in Devon. Commissioned by the
dowager Lady Ashburton as a country retreat, this small country house
clearly shows the transition between the picturesque of William Gilpin and
Nash's yet to be fully evolved Italianism. While this house can still be
described as Regency, its informal asymmetrical plan together with its
loggias and balconies of both stone and wrought iron; tower and low pitched
roof clearly are very similar to the fully Italianate design of Cronkhill[6],
the house generally considered to be the first example of the Italianate
style in Britain.
Later examples of the Italianate style in England tend to take the form of
Palladian style building often enhanced by a belvedere tower complete with
renaissance type ballustrading at the roof level. This is generally a more
stylistic interpretation of what architects and patrons imagined to be the
case in Italy, and utilises more obviously the Italian Renaissance motifs
than those earlier examples of the Italianate style by Nash.
Sir Charles Barry, most notable for his works on the Tudor and Gothic styles
at the Houses of Parliament in London, was a great promoter of the style.
Unlike Nash he found his inspiration in Italy itself. Barry drew heavily on
the designs of the original Renaissance villas of Rome, the Lazio and the
Veneto or as he put it: "...the charming character of the irregular villas
of Italy."[7] His most defining work in this style was the large
Neo-Renaissance mansion Cliveden (illustrated above). Although it has been
claimed that one third of early Victorian country houses in England used
classical styles, mostly Italianate[8], by 1855 the style was falling from
favour and Cliveden came to be regarded as "a declining essay in a declining
fashion."[9]
Thomas Cubitt, a London building contactor, incorporated simple classical
lines of the Italianate style as defined by Sir Charles Barry into many of
his London terraces.[10] Cubitt designed Osbourne House under the direction
of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and it is Cubitt's reworking of
his two dimensional street architecture into this free standing mansion[11]
which was to be the inspiration for countless Italianate villas throughout
the British Empire.
Following the completion of Osbourne House in 1851, the style became a
popular choice of design for the small mansions built by the new and wealthy
industrialists of the era. These were mostly built in cities surrounded by
large but not extensive gardens, often laid out in a terrace Tuscan style as
well. On occasions very similar, if not identical, designs to these
Italianate villas would be topped by mansard roofs, and then termed
chateauesque. However, "after a modest spate of Italianate villas, and
French chateaux"[12] by 1855 the most favoured style of an English country
house was Gothic, Tudor, or Elizabethan.
Italianate style in Lebanon
The Italian, specifically, Tuscan, influence on architecture in Lebanon
dates back to the Renaissance when Fakhreddine, the first Lebanese ruler who
truly unified Mount Lebanon with its Mediterranean coast executed an
ambitious plan to develop his country.
When the Ottomans exiled Fakhreddine to Tuscany in 1613, he entered an
alliance with the Medicis. Upon his return to Lebanon in 1618, he began
modernizing Lebanon. He developed a silk industry, upgraded olive-oil
production, and brought with him numerous Italian engineers who began the
construction of mansions and civil building throughout the country. The
cities of Beirut and Sidon were especially built in the Italianate style.
The influence of these buildings, such as the ones in Deir el Qamar,
influenced building in Lebanon for many centuries and continues to the
present time. For example, streets like Rue Gouraud continues to have
numerous, historic houses with Italianate influence. Buildings like the
Nicolas Sursock mansion on Rue Sursock, which is today a major museum,
attest to the continuous influence of Italianate architecture in Lebanon.
Italianate style in the United States
The Italianate style was popularized in the United States by Alexander
Jackson Davis in the 1840s as an alternative to Gothic or Greek Revival
styles. Davis' 1854 Litchfield Villa in what has become Prospect Park,
Brooklyn is a splendid example of the style. It was initially referred to as
the "Italian Villa" or "Tuscan Villa" style. Blandwood, the Governor's
mansion in North Carolina, built in 1844, claims to be the oldest remaining
example of Italianate architecture in the United States.[16] An early
example of Italianate architecture, it is closer in ethos to the Italianate
works of Nash than the more Renaissance inspired designs of Barry. Richard
Upjohn used the style extensively, beginning in 1845 with the Edward King
House. Other leading practitioners of the style were John Notman, who
designed the first "Italian Villa" style house in Burlington, New Jersey in
1837, and Henry Austin.
Italianate was reinterpreted again and became an indigenous style. It is
distinctive by its pronounced exaggeration of many Italian Renaissance
characteristics: emphatic eaves supported by corbels, low-pitched roofs
barely discernible from the ground, or even flat roofs with a wide
projection. A tower is often incorporated hinting at the Italian belvedere
or even campanile tower.
Motifs drawn from the Italianate style were incorporated into the commercial
builders' vocabulary, and appear in Victorian architecture dating from the
mid to late 1800s.
This architectural style became more popular than Greek Revival by the late
1860s. Its popularity was due to its being suitable for many different
building materials and budgets, as well as the development of cast-iron and
press-metal technology making the production of decorative elements like the
brackets and cornices more efficient. However, the style was superseded in
popularity in the late 1870s by the Queen Anne style and Colonial Revival
style.
The Breakers, located on Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, is a
70-room mansion designed by the architect Richard Morris Hunt for Cornelius
Vanderbilt II. Constructed between 1893 and 1895, it is the epitome of the
Italianate style in the United States. While to all outward appearances it
is a complete Renaissance palazzo, its construction with steel trusses and
no wooden parts made use of the most modern building techniques the late
19th century had to offer. The tall chimneys, juxtaposing wings plus the
exaggeratedly large corbels supporting the pitched and visible roof are all
indicative signs of the American interpretation of the Italianate style.
"The Breakers" and its style of architecture has been described rather
disparagingly by architectural commentators as "Europe's obsession with the
historical styles parallelled in the American idea of a Renaissance palazzo
adapted to a private house."[18] However, by the time of its completion "The
Breakers" was more an expression of its owners' personal taste, cultivation,
and wealth than a popular architectural style.
The popularity of Italianate architecture in the time period following 1845
can be seen in Cincinnati, Ohio, the United States' first boomtown west of
the Appalachian Mountains. This city, which grew along with the traffic on
the Ohio River, features arguably one of the largest single collections of
Italianate buildings in the United States in its Over-the-Rhine
neighborhood, built primarily by German-American immigrants that lived in
the densely populated area. In recent years increased attention has been
called to the preservation of this impressive collection, with large-scale
renovation efforts beginning to repair urban blight. Cincinnati's
neighboring cities of Newport and Covington, Kentucky also contain an
impressive collection of Italianate architecture.
The Garden District section of New Orleans has beautiful examples of
Italianate style. 1331 First Street, designed by Samuel Jamison, the Van
Benthuysen-Elms Mansion at 3029 St. Charles Avenue, and a famous example
that has been in numerous movies and commercials, 2805 Carondelet Street
(technically located a block outside the garden district), are fine examples
of New Orleans' contribution to American Italianate architecture.
Italianate style in Australia
The Italianate style proved to be immensely popular in Australia as a
domestic style. The architect William Wardell designed Government House in
Melbourne — now the official residence of the Governor of Victoria — as an
example of his "newly discovered love for Italianate, Palladian and Venetian
architecture." Cream-colored, with many Palladian features; except for its
machicolated signorial tower that Wardell crowned with a belvedere—it would
not be out of place among the unified streets and squares in Thomas Cubitt's
Belgravia, London.
The hipped roof is concealed by a balustraded parapet. The principal block
is flanked by two lower asymmetrical secondary wings that contribute
picturesque massing, best appreciated from an angled view. The larger of
these being divided from the principal block by the belvedere tower. The
smaller, the ballroom block, is entered through a columned porte-cochere
designed as a single storey prostyle portico.
The Italianate style of architecture continued to be built in outposts of
the British Empire long after it had ceased to be in fashion in Britain
itself. The Railway station of Albury, New South Wales, Australia completed
in 1881 is an example of this further evolution of the style.
Interior decoration
In interior decoration there were direct parallels to "Italianate"
architecture with free recombinations of decorative features drawn from
Italian 16th-century architecture and objects, which were applied to purely
19th-century forms. Wardrobes and dressers could be dressed in Italianate
detailing as well as row houses.
The spur to such commercial designs can be found in the "free Renaissance"
style that was espoused by Charles Eastlake. In 1868 he published Hints on
Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and other Details which was very
influential in Britain and later in the United States, where the book was
published in 1872. Although the archeology of Mr. Eastlake's volume was
always careful, most of the principles in it are beyond question, and can be
generally stated in a few words. The Italianate style would have no carving
or molding or other ornament glued on — such work must be done in the solid;
no mitered joints, but joints made at the right angle, and secured by
mortise, tenon, and pin; woods in their native color, and unvarnished, or
else painted in flat color, with a contrasting line and a stenciled ornament
at the angles; unconcealed construction everywhere, and purposes plainly
proclaimed; and with veneering, round corners, and all curves weakening the
grain of the wood being absolutely forbidden. The furniture that he thus
proposed has straight, strong, squarely cut members equal to their
intention. Its ornament is painted panels, porcelain plaques and tiles,
metal trimmings, and conventionalized carvings in sunk relief, a part of the
construction entering into the ornament, also in the shape of narrow
striated strips of wood radiating in opposite lines, after a fashion not
altogether unknown in the time of Henry III. It has the honesty and
solidity, but not the attraction, of the Medieval; and if it is stiff and
somewhat heavy, and fails entirely to please, it has yet a wholesome and
healthy air.
Today "Italianate" furnishings are often called "Eastlake" by North American
collectors and dealers, but contemporary terms for such broadly classicizing
designs ranged imaginatively, and included "Neo-Grec".
Elements of the style
Key visual components of this style include:
Low-pitched or flat roofs; roof is frequently hipped
Projecting eaves supported by corbels
Imposing cornice structures
Pedimented windows and doors
Arch-headed, pedimented or Serlian windows with pronounced architraves and
archivolts
Tall first floor windows suggesting a piano nobile
Angled bay windows
Attics with a row of awning windows between the eave brackets
Glazed doors
Belvedere or machicolated signorial towers
Cupolas
Quoins
Loggias
Balconies with wrought-iron railings, or Renaissance balustrading
Balustrades concealing the roof-scapes
About 15% of Italianate houses in the United States include a tower
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The Italianate style had its beginnings in
England when builders started to design recreations of Italian Renaissance
villas. When the style was adapted to America, it became the most popular
building form in the country by the late 1860s, because of its advantages.
Italianate homes could be built on a modest budget, by using many different
materials. New mass production techniques made it possible to easily and
affordably produce the cast-iron, and press-metal decorations needed.
The Italianate style is characterized by a symmetrical, severely blockish
form, with a low pitched (even flat) roof, with widely overhanging,
projecting eaves supported by large brackets, which makes the roof form
recede, to give more prominence to the walls. This style fits better than
many on densely-packed city lots, so it became very popular for downtown
commercial buildings.
Italianate houses usually have many of these features:
Low-pitched or flat roofs
Wide, overhanging eaves with brackets and large cornices
Visually balanced facades
Symmetrical rectangular or square shapes
Tall appearance; with 2, 3, or 4 stories
Square cupolas or towers
Porches topped with balustraded balconies
Tall, narrow, double-paned, double hung windows
Side bay windows
Heavily molded double doors
Roman or segmented arches above windows and doors
Decorative bracketed hoods or lintels over windows and doors. |
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In the seventeenth century, two French artists,
Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, fell under the spell of the Italian
landscape and in their paintings translated it into a vision of Arcadia. For
more than a century thereafter, many cultured Europeans allowed themselves
to admire a real landscape only if it was literally ‘picturesque’ enough to
resemble a painting by Claude.
Through the efforts of such men as Uvedale Price, Richard Payne Knight and
Humphrey Repton, the Picturesque movement in architecture and landscape
design gained strength in Britain without ever completely forgetting its
Franco-Italic beginnings. From this movement, a significant strand of
nineteenth-century domestic architecture endeavoured to establish a vaguely
Italian ambience, drawing on images of rambling farmhouses in the Campagna
and idyllic villas in the Tuscan countryside. The facile John Nash began the
movement in Britain in 1803 with the stuccoed, picturesquely asymmetrical
Cronkhill in Shropshire. Karl Friedrich von Schinkel provided an important
Continental example of the Italianate style some decades later with his
Court Gardener’s House at Potsdam (1829—31). Pattern books were an important
vehicle for the spread of the style, two influential publications being
Charles Parker’s Villa Rustica (1832) and Calvert Vaux’s Villas and
Cottages, published in America in 1857. No less a personage than Prince
Albert, working with Thomas Cubitt, gave the Italianate style a boost when
he designed Osborne on the Isle of Wight (1845), a retreat for Queen
Victoria and the royal family. Osborne, with its tall, balustraded tower,
was to be the model for many large residences throughout the Empire,
including Government House in Melbourne.
The Italianate style was never an ‘academic’ idiom. As a style of domestic
architecture in Australia, Victorian Italianate made minimal reference to
Italy. Mouldings and minor details usually had a classical feeling, but two
of the style’s prominent characteristics—the faceted bay and the stilted
segmental arch—were not specifically Italian at all. A Victorian Italianate
building of any consequence has a tower capped with a low- pitch pyramid
roof—or, more pretentiously, with a balustrade—and it is likely to have an
asymmetrical principal elevation. Indeed, it can be claimed with much
justification that the Great Australian Asymmetrical Front (where the main
bedroom pokes out a metre or two towards the Street beyond the rest of the
house) began with the Victorian Italianate and has continued with little
interruption down to the present day.
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Quoted from:
"A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Austrlian Architecture; Styles and Terms
from 1788 to the Present"
RICHARD APPERLY, ROBERT IRVING, PETER REYNOLDS. PHOTOGRAPHS BY SOLOMON
MITCHELL.
Angus & Robertson Sydney 1995 ISBN 0207 18562 X
Copyright © 1989 by Richard Apperly, Robert Irving and Peter Reynolds. |
| Link-
http://www.sydneyarchitecture.com/STYLES/STY-V09.htm |
U.S. Domestic Use
ITALIANATE

(1850-1890)
Most numerous of the Victorian homes, these Italianate structures, sometimes
called Bracketed Italianate, borrowed Italian Renaissance motifs. They are
rectangular in shape, with two to three stories, tall and narrow, a balanced
composition with bracketed cornices, parapets and false fronts, elongated,
arched, wooden sash windows, large paneled doors, and facades decorated with
molded panels, friezes, pilasters or quoins.
ITALIANATE VILLA

(1860-1885)
The larger Italianate Villas were mansion sized homes. They resembled the
Bracketed Italianate, but also has a square tower or cupola above the roof
line. Generally more ornate, with ornamented porticos and triangular
pediments on the roofline/porch.
RAISED BASEMENT COTTAGE

(1865-1885)
These houses have Italianate style trim, similar to Pioneer houses, as well
as triangular pediments in the roofline and raised basements. Less ornate
versions are sometimes referred to as Working Mans Cottages.
Thanks to
http://www.sharonkramlich.com/sfinfo/architecture/
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One of America's most popular 19th-century
styles, the Italianate was derived from the architecture of Italian villas.
Architects used the style between the 1860s and 1890s for a wide variety of
building types, from houses and small apartment buildings, to institutional
structures.
Common characteristics are:
-vertical proportions
-tall, rounded windows and doors
-stone trim with incised foliated ornament
-intricate wood or pressed metal cornices
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