1st Edition

Antiquity Origins, Classicism and the New Rome

By Christopher Tadgell Copyright 2007
    866 Pages 1122 Color & 352 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    866 Pages
    by Routledge

    This is the first in a series of seven books that describe and illustrate the seminal architectural traditions of the world. It describes the origins of the Classical tradition in the mountain temples of Sumer, the pyramids of Egypt and the ziggurats of Mesopotamia. The story continues with the temples, theatres, palaces and council chambers of ancient Greece and Rome, and finishes with the adoption of Classical models to house the new institutions of Christian Europe. Excursions along the way take in Mesoamerica and the Andean littoral, and Africa.

    Not simply a profusely illustrated catalogue of buildings, the book also provides their political, technological, social and cultural contexts. It functions equally well as a detailed and comprehensive narrative, as a collection of the great buildings of the world, and as an archive of themes across time and place.

    PROLOGUE: ORIGINS ; Sentient Man At Home; The Fertile Crescent And The Neighbouring;  Nile Valley; Settlement To Town; Religion: Earth-Mother And Sky-God; Neolithic Europe; PART 1 WEST ASIA AND THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN; 1.1 THE FERTILE CRESCENT AND THE NILE VALLEY; Introduction: Civilization And Architecture; Materials And Structure; Ornamentation And Design; 1 Sumer; Religion; The Tripartite Plan And The Temple; Secular Power And Kingship; The Palace; The Early Dynastic Temple; 2 The Old Kingdom Of Egypt; Egyptian Cosmology; Pharaonic Egypt; The Old Kingdom Succession; Pharaonic Continuum; From Mastaba To Pyramid; From Pyramid To Obelisk; 3 Mesopotamian Empires; Ur: Sacred Compound; Ur: Town And House; Ur’s Sumerian Successors And The Palace; The Temple In The Early 2nd Millennium BCE; Amorites, Trade And The East; The Indus Valley Civilization; Assur, Mari And Babylon; 4 Theban Kingdoms Of The Nile; Gods And King; Houses For The Living And The Dead; The New Kingdom And Empire; Hiding The Tomb; Amplifying The Temple; The Royal Cult Temple; The Palace; The Town: Grids And Zoning ; 1.2 THE AEGEAN, ANATOLIA AND THE ARYANS; 5 Minoans And Achaeans; Crete; Minos And The Bull; Cretan Cataclysm; Achaeans And Trojans; The Triumph Of Reason; The Hittite Anatolian Order; Citadels And Sanctuaries In Ancient Anatolia ; 1.3 ISSUES FROM A DARK AGE; 6 Levant; The Dark Age At The Turn Of The Second Millennium; The Bit-Hilani; The Hebrews; 7 Sabea; Sabea And Axum; 8 World Empire; Assyria And Babylon; Seats Of Assyrian Power; The Fall Of Assyria And The Neo-Babylonians; The Achaemenids And Their World Empire; Seats Of Achaemenid Power ; PART 2 PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA; Introduction; 2.1 MESOAMERICA; 1 The Pre-Classic Era Of The Olmecs; Olmec Centres; Olmec God, Man And Mediator; Olmec Legacy; 2 Classic Achievement; Common Beliefs; The State; Siting And Planning; Ubiquitous Form; Type And Style In The Orbit Of Teotihuacan And Monte Alban; Classic Mayan Idiosyncrasy; Late-Classic Mayans; 3 The Post-Classic World Of The Toltecs And Aztecs; The Northern Chichimeca And Their Progeny; Mexica Aztecs; 2.2 THE ANDEAN LITTORAL; Introduction; The First Horizon; Tiahuanaco And The Middle Horizon; The Late Horizon Of The Inca; Inca State And Hierarchy; Inca Religion; Inca Building; The Temple; Complex And Town; PART 3 THE CLASSICAL WORLD; 3.1 HELLENIC ORDER; Introduction: Hellas And Hellenic Society; The Olympian Gods; Early Temples; Hellenic Settlement; Towards Democracy; The Polis; The Persian Menace; Philosophy; Mathematics,Music And Mysteries; 1 The Ordering Of Architecture; The Anthropomorphic Ideal Of Order; Ionic Inception; 2 Doric From Archaic To Classical; Western Colonies; Refinement Of Proportions; Truth Versus Appearance; The Ideal And Vitality; 3 Periklean Apogee; The Propylaea; The Temple Of Nike And The Erechtheion; The Sanctuary Of Dionysos; 4 Planning And Technology; The Development Of Formality; Housing; Building Technology; 5 Polis In Crisis; Platonic Rationalism; Aristotelian Empiricism; Eclecticism And The Advent Of Corinthian; Praxiteles And Lysippos; Internal Embellishment And Ambiguity; 3.2 MACEDONIANS AND THE EAST; Introduction; Divine Monarchy; Transformation Of The Hellenic Ideal; Tombs And Monuments; Ionic Apotheosis; 6 Late-Classical Planning And Defence; The Theatre; Housing; Defence; Pergamon; Mixed Orders; 3.3 REPUBLICAN ROME AND ITS MENTORS; Introduction: Legend, Arms And Mores; Greeks And Etruscans; Absorption Of Etruria And Destruction Of Carthage; Rigour And Religion; Political Discipline ; 7 Etruscan Legacy; Houses And Tombs; Temples; From Temple Precinct To Urban Order; 8 Hellenization And Engineering; Eastern Conquest; Republic In Crisis; Early Hellenistic Roman Building; The Hellenized Roman Town And Public; Building Types; Decoration And The House; Mass Housing; Engineering And Building Technology; Materials; 3.4 AUGUSTAN ROME AND ITS EMPIRE; Introduction: From Caesar To Constantine; Augustus; Imperial Succession; Expansion And Decline; The Cult Of The Emperor; 9 Augustan Rome And Vitruvius; Vitruvius; 10 Form And Imperial Style; The Theatre And Its Articulation; Scenography; Mannerism; Rococo; Parthian Postscript; 11 Mass And Imperial Space; Concrete Space; The Apotheosis Of The Villa; Thermae; Decoration; Baroque Mass; Sassanian Digression; Palace And Basilica In The Age Of Diocletian; PART 4 CHRISTIANITY AND EMPIRE; 4.1 ROME AND NEW ROMES; Introduction: Constantine And The Dominion  Of Christ; Christianity In Context; Retreat; From Proscription To Prescription; Authority; Doctrine And Debate; Neoplatonism And The Light Of God; Liturgy; Icon And Iconoclasm; Christian Building Types: The Roman; Inheritance; Constantinian Building; The Basilica; Baptistery And Shrine; Hybrids; 2 Division And Late-Imperial Rome; The Eternal City Eclipsed; Building Under Constantine’s Successors; Roman Standards; Milan; Ravenna; 3 Early Imperial Byzantium And Diversity; The Orbit Of Constantinople; The Aegean Littoral; Asia Minor; Syria; Egypt And North Africa; Baptistery; 4 Beyond The Pale: Ethiopia; The Church In Axum; The Late-Axumite Church; Lalibela; Gondar And Tana ; 4.2 JUSTINIAN AND THE APOTHEOSIS OF BYZANTIUM; Revival In The East; Justinian Splendour: Basilica And Dome; Cross And Dome; 5 Consolidation And Standardization In The East; From Domed Basilica To Quincunx; EPILOGUE: THE LAST HALF MILLENNIUM OF BYZANTIUM; Introduction; The Prevalence Of The Quincunx; The Iconic Panoply Of Heaven; From Contraction To Organic Development; GLOSSARY; FURTHER READING; MAPS; The Achaemenid Empire, C. 650–330 Bce; Egypt, C. 2500 Bce; The Hellenistic World; The Roman Empire, C. 100 Ce; The Christian World, 700–1050; The Incas; The Aztecs; INDEX

    Biography

    Christopher Tadgell taught architectural history for almost thirty years before devoting himself full-time to writing and research, travelling the world to see and photograph buildings from every tradition and period.

    Born in Sydney, he studied art history at the Courtauld Institute in London. In 1974 he was awarded his PhD for a thesis on the Neoclassical architectural theorist, Ange-Jacques Gabriel. He subsequently taught in London and at the Kent Institute of Art and Design in Canterbury, with interludes as F.L. Morgan Professor of Architectural Design at the University of Louisville and as a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He has lectured at academic institutions around the world, including the universities of Princeton, Harvard, Columbia and Cornell, the Graham Foundation in Chicago, and Cambridge University and the Courtauld Institute in the UK. He is a Trustee of the World Monuments Fund, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a member of both the British and American Societies of Architectural Historians.

    His The History of Architecture in India (1990, several reprints, Phaidon) is the definitive one-volume account of the architecture of the subcontinent, while many publications on French architecture include the standard account in Baroque and Rococo Architecture and Decoration (ed. Blunt, 1978, Elek). He has contributed many articles on Indian and French architecture to The Grove Dictionary of Art and other major reference books.

    '[The first in] a grand survey of the whole of world architecture.' - The Times

    ‘This book is an absolute tour de force. Architecture is only the beginning; we are told about the civilizations that created it, with examples of their artefacts as well as their buildings.’ - John Julius Norwich

    ‘Astonishing in its scope, clarity and insight, Tadgell’s survey of the built environment from the beginnings to the twilight of Byzantium works at every level: it will guide the student and stimulate the scholar.’ - David Starkey