This second volume of the landmark Architectural Theory anthology surveys the development of architectural theory from the Franco-Prussian war of 1871 until the end of the twentieth century. The entire two volume anthology follows the full range of architectural literature from classical times to present transformations. An ambitious anthology bringing together over 300 classic and contemporary essays that survey the key developments and trends in architecture Spans the period from 1871 to 2005, from John Ruskin and the arts and crafts movement in Great Britain through to the development of Lingang New City, and the creation of a metropolis in the East China sea Organized thematically, featuring general and section introductions and headnotes to each essay written by a renowned expert on architectural theory Places the work of "starchitects" like Koolhaas, Eisenman, and Lyn alongside the work of prominent architectural critics, offering a balanced perspective on current debates Includes many hard-to-find texts and works never previously translated into English Alongside Volume I: An Anthology from Vitruvius to 1870, creates a stunning overview of architectural theory from early antiquity to the twenty-first century
The fragments of which this lecture is composed are taken entirely from the original manuscripts which have but recently been discovered. It is not certain that they all belong to the same lecture, nor that all were written at the same period. Some portions were written in Philadelphia in 1882.
The successful interpretation of the ancient writings of Egypt, Chaldæa, and Persia, which has distinguished our times, makes it necessary that the history of antiquity should be rewritten. Documents that for thousands of years lay hidden beneath the soil, and inscriptions which, like those of Egypt and Persia, long offered themselves to the gaze of man merely to excite his impotent curiosity, have now been deciphered and made to render up their secrets for the guidance of the historian. By the help of those strings of hieroglyphs and of cuneiform characters, illustrated by paintings and sculptured reliefs, we are enabled to separate the truth from the falsehood, the chaff from the wheat, in the narratives of the Greek writers who busied themselves with those nations of Africa and Asia which preceded their own in the ways of civilization. Day by day, as new monuments have been discovered and more certain methods of reading their inscriptions elaborated, we have added to the knowledge left us by Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, to our acquaintance with those empires on the Euphrates and the Nile which were already in old age when the Greeks were yet struggling to emerge from their primitive barbarism. Even in the cases of Greece and Rome, whose histories are supplied in their main lines by their classic writers, the study of hitherto neglected writings discloses many new and curious details. The energetic search for ancient inscriptions, and the scrupulous and ingenious interpretation of their meaning, which we have witnessed and are witnessing, have revealed to us many interesting facts of which no trace is to be found in Thucydides or Xenophon, in Livy or Tacitus; enabling us to enrich with more than one feature the picture of private and public life which they have handed down to us. In the effort to embrace the life of ancient times as a whole, many attempts have been made to fix the exact place in it occupied by art, but those attempts have never been absolutely successful, because the comprehension of works of art, of plastic creations in the widest significance of that word, demands an amount of special knowledge which the great majority of historians are without; art has a method and language of its own, which obliges those who wish to learn it thoroughly to cultivate their taste by frequenting the principal museums of Europe, by visiting distant regions at the cost of considerable trouble and expense, by perpetual reference to the great collections of engravings, photographs, and other reproductions which considerations of space and cost prevent the savant from possessing at home. More than one learned author has never visited Italy or Greece, or has found no time to examine their museums, each of which contains but a small portion of the accumulated remains of antique art. Some connoisseurs do not even live in a capital, but dwell far from those public libraries, which often contain valuable collections, and sometimes—when they are not packed away in cellars or at the binder's—allow them to be studied by the curious.[2] The study of art, difficult enough in itself, is thus rendered still more arduous by the obstacles which are thrown in its way. The difficulty of obtaining materials for self-improvement in this direction affords the true explanation of the absence, in modern histories of antiquity, of those laborious researches which have led to such great results since Winckelmann founded the science of archæology as we know it. To be continue in this ebook...
Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.
“A Picture is a Purely Decorative Thing” is a brand new collection of essays and excerpts on the subject of The Arts written by Oscar Wilde. Contents include: “The Artist”, “The English Renaissance of Art”, “An Exposure of Naturalism”, “Sculpture at The Arts and Crafts”, “House Decoration”, “The Poetry of Archæology”, “The Art of Archæology”, “Art and the Handicraftsman”, “Mr. Morris on Tapestry”, “Lecture to Art Students”, “The Relation of Dress to Art”, “London Models”, “Pen, Pencil and Poison”, “Printing and Printers”, etc. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish poet and playwright who became one of the most popular in London during the 1880s and 1890s. Well-known for his sharp wit and extravagant attire, Wilde was a proponent of aestheticism and wrote in a variety of forms including poetry, fiction, and drama. He was famously imprisoned for homosexual acts from 1895 to 1897 and died at the age of 46, just three years after his release. A fantastic collection of interesting and thought-provoking essays not to be missed by those with an interest in the work and mind of this seminal literary figure. Other notable works by this author include: “Picture of Dorian Gray” (1890), “Salome” (1891), and “The Importance of Being Earnest” (1895). Read & Co. Great Essays is proudly publishing this brand-new collection of classic essays complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of Oscar Wilde.
As the first comprehensive encyclopedic survey of Western architectural theory from Vitruvius to the present, this book is an essential resource for architects, students, teachers, historians, and theorists. Using only original sources, Kruft has undertaken the monumental task of researching, organizing, and analyzing the significant statements put forth by architectural theorists over the last two thousand years. The result is a text that is authoritative and complete, easy to read without being reductive.
