Research Catalog

Inessential colors : architecture on paper in early modern Europe

Title
Inessential colors : architecture on paper in early modern Europe / Basile Baudez.
Author
Baudez, Basile, 1974-
Publication
Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2021]

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library JQF 22-362Schwarzman Building - Art & Architecture Room 300

Details

Description
277 pages : illustrations (some color), color maps; 30 cm
Summary
"Today, architectural plans and drawings are always signposted with colors: pink for poché, or exterior walls, yellow for certain interior elements, and blue for details and ornament. How and why did this practice begin? The craft of architectural drawing-plans, sections, and details-was originally developed during the Italian Renaissance under the influence of engravers. The results were correspondingly monochromatic, relying on representation through line and perspective. But in the 1800s, an influx of painters-turned-architects in Holland and Germany brought color into their designs. This innovation eventually spread throughout Europe, inspiring French architectural engineers to adopt a common color system in order to more clearly communicate their designs across the kingdom, and giving architects another tool with which to impress academic juries and the public. In this book, author Basile Baudez argues that color was not an essential feature of architectural drawing until European architects adopted a precise system of representation in response to political and artistic rivalry between countries, as well as the needs of public exhibitions. He shows that French engineers learned to use color from the Dutch colleagues they worked with and then fought against during the Dutch War (1672-78), demonstrating that a color-based system was published in French manuals for military engineers and used by royal architects, and that architects who wanted to compete with paintings for the public's attention needed to use the familiar language of color. This history reveals that color came to have three functions: to imitate architectural materials, to establish concise representational conventions that could span large geographic distances, and to seduce the public, including tourists. The book will feature a large number of fascinating, previously unpublished archival drawings, and will contribute to growing interest in the origins and professionalization of architecture, as well as the history of drawing as a medium"--
Subject
  • Color in art
  • Architectural drawing > Europe > History
  • ARCHITECTURE / General
  • Architectural drawing
  • Europe
Genre/Form
History.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and index.
Call Number
JQF 22-362
ISBN
  • 9780691213569
  • 0691213569
LCCN
2020049897
OCLC
1228187342
Author
Baudez, Basile, 1974- author.
Title
Inessential colors : architecture on paper in early modern Europe / Basile Baudez.
Publisher
Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2021]
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Research Call Number
JQF 22-362
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