The Architecture of Art History: A Historiography

185 Pages·2018·2.99 MB·English

by  Mark Crinson

The German Tradition
The Architecture of Art History
The Architecture of
Art History
ii
The Architecture of
Art History
A Historiography
Mark Crinson and
Richard J. Williams
BLOOMSBURY VISUAL ARTS
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First published 2019
Copyright © Mark Crinson and Richard J. Williams, 2019
Mark Crinson and Richard J. Williams have asserted their right under the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Authors
of this work.
Cover design: Eleanor Rose
Cover image © The National Gallery, London
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Crinson, Mark, author. | Williams, Richard J., 1967- author.
Title: The architecture of art history: a historiography / Mark Crinson and Richard Williams.
Description: New York: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2018.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018030762| ISBN 9781350020917 (hardback: alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781350020931 (epdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Architecture–Historiography. | Art–Historiography. |
Art and architecture.
Classification: LCC NA190 .C74 2018 | DDC 709–dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2018030762
ISBN: HB: 978-1-3500-2091-7
ePDF: 978-1-3500-2093-1
ePub: 978-1-3500-2092-4
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CONTENTS
List of illustrations vi
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 The German tradition 13
2 The architectural unconscious – Steinberg and
Baxandall 33
3 Modernism – Institutional and phenomenal 53
4 From image to environment – Reyner Banham’s
architecture 75
5 The New Art History 95
6 October’s architecture 113
Conclusion 131
Notes 135
Index 165
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure I.1 Jean-Siméon Chardin – ‘The House of Cards or The
Son of M. Le Noir Amusing Himself by Making a
House of Cards’ (c. 1737). The National Gallery,
London. Oil on canvas, 60 × 72 cm 2
Figure I.2 William Butterfield – All Saints, Margaret Street,
London (1849–59). Photograph by Martin Charles 3
Figure 1.1 Frontispiece and title page of Heinrich Wölfflin,
Principles of Art History (first English edition, 1932).
Photograph by Mark Crinson 14
Figure 1.2 Page showing Rembrandt ‘Standing Nude’ (c. 1637),
from Heinrich Wölfflin, Principles of Art History (first
English edition, 1932). Photograph by Mark Crinson 21
Figure 1.3 Page showing Carlo Rainaldo’s façade of S. Andrea
della Valle (1655–63), Rome, from Heinrich Wölfflin,
Principles of Art History (first English edition, 1932).
Photograph by Mark Crinson 22
Figure 1.4 Villard de Honnecourt – ideal groundplan of a chevet
(c. 1235). Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris 28
Figure 1.5 Double page from Siegfried Giedion, Space, Time
and Architecture (1941), with Picasso’s ‘L’Arlésienne’
(1911–12) and Gropius’s Bauhaus building (1925–6).
Photograph by Mark Crinson 30
Figure 2.1 Double page from Michael Baxandall, Patterns of
Intention (1985), with Benjamin Baker’s Forth Bridge
(1882–90) and Picasso’s ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’
(1907). Photograph by Mark Crinson 34
Figure 2.2 Francesco Borromini – San Carlo alle Quattro
Fontane (1638–41), Rome. Engraving showing section
through the church, by Sebastiano Giannini (c.1730).
Wikimedia Commons 37
Figure 2.3 Michelangelo – ‘The Crucifixion of St Peter’ (1546–50),
Capella Paolina, Vatican. Wikimedia Commons 41
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii
Figure 2.4 Tilman Riemenschneider – Altar of the Holy Blood
(1499–1505), St James’s, Rothenburg. Wikimedia
Commons 46
Figure 2.5 Giovanni Tiepolo – Ceiling of the Treppenhaus (1751–2)
in the Residenz at Würzburg. Wikimedia Commons 47
Figure 2.6 Plan of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, from Santo Brasca,
Itinerario … di Gerusalemme (1481). As reproduced in
Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth
Century Italy, 1972. Photograph by Mark Crinson 49
Figure 3.1 Le Corbusier – Villa Schwob (1912–16), La Chaux-de-
Fonds, Switzerland. Photograph by Richard J. Williams 54
Figure 3.2 Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky – Analytical diagram of
Le Corbusier’s Palace of the League of Nations (1927).
Reproduced from Colin Rowe, The Mathematics of
the Ideal Villa and Other Essays, 1976. Photograph
by Mark Crinson 66
Figure 3.3 Double page from Colin Rowe. ‘Dominican Monastery
of La Tourette, Eveux-sur-Arbresle, Lyons’, Architectural
Review, 129, June 1961. Photograph by Mark Crinson 67
Figure 3.4 Two views of the north wall of Le Corbusier’s church of
the Monastery of La Tourette. Reproduced from Colin
Rowe, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other
Essays, 1976. Photograph by Mark Crinson 71
Figure 4.1 Reyner Banham – ‘The New Brutalism’, The
Architectural Review, December 1955 79
Figure 4.2 Installation view, Parallel of Life and Art (1953).
© Nigel Henderson Estate Photo Credit: ©Tate,
London 2018 80
Figure 4.3 Cutaway section of ventilation system, Royal
Victoria Hospital, Belfast from Reyner Banham, The
Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment, 1969.
Courtesy: Mary Banham 86
Figure 4.4 Reyner Banham – freeway signs from Los Angeles: The
Architecture of Four Ecologies, 1971. Photograph by
Richard J. Williams 89
Figure 4.5 Reyner Banham – grain elevators and factories from
A Concrete Atlantis, 1986. Photograph by Richard J.
Williams 91
Figure 5.1 Cover of The New Art History, 1986. Photograph by
Richard J. Williams 96
viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 5.2 Cover of Block, 1 1979. Photograph by Richard J.
Williams 103
Figure 5.3 Vincent Van Gogh – Outskirts of Paris (1886). Santa
Barbara Museum of Art, California. Alamy stock photo 106
Figure 5.4 Berthe Morisot – Two Women Reading (1869–70).
Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington 111
Figure 6.1 Cover of October, 1, Spring 1976. Photograph by
Richard J. Williams 116
Figure 6.2 Richard Serra – Tilted Arc (1981) © ARS, NY and
DACS, London 2018 121
Figure 6.3 Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers – Pompidou Centre
(Beaubourg), Paris (1971-77). Photograph by Richard
J. Williams 122
Figure 6.4 Krzysztof Wodiczko – Homeless Vehicle (1988–9).
Photographer unknown 124
Photographic credits
Alamy – 5.3
Architectural Review – 3.3, 4.1
ARS, NY, and DACS, London – 6.2
Mary Banham – 4.3
Reyner Banham, A Concrete Atlantis – 4.5
Reyner Banham, freeway signs from Los Angeles: The Architecture of
Four Ecologies – 4.4
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris – 1.4
Colin Rowe, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa – 3.2, 3.4
Heinrich Wölfflin, Principles of Art History – 1.1, 1.2, 1.3
Martin Charles/RIBA Collections – I.2
Michael Baxandall, Patterns of Intention – 2.1
Michael Baxandall Painting and Experience – 2.6
MIT Press Journals – 6.1
National Gallery, London – I.1
Richard J. Williams – 3.1, 6.3
Siegfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture – 1.5
Wikimedia Commons – 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are especially grateful to the scholars who contributed so enthusiastically
to the session ‘The Art History of Architectural History’ that we organized at
the 2015 Association of Art Historians conference. Those who gave papers
include Jules Lubbock, Claire Zimmerman, Victoria Walsh, Alexandra Fraser,
Angeliki Polalli, Stefan Muthesius, Raúl Martinez, and Stina Hagelqvist.
John Onians contributed many perceptive interventions in discussion during
this session, as well as later on. Others to whom we are indebted for ideas
and insights include Ben Banham, Mary Banham, Joan Copjec, Sam Bibby,
Adrian Forty, Hal Foster, Kenneth Frampton, Anthony Gerbino, Jonathan
Harris, Asia Haut, Ben Highmore, Michael Hill, Penny Lewis, Lynda Nead,
Marcia Pointon, Felicity Scott, and Iain Boyd Whyte.
At Bloomsbury James Thompson has been remarkably patient and
encouraging, a model commissioning editor, while Sophie Tann has carefully
overseen the production of the book.