Academic Architecture (European and Asian Architecture)

During most of the history of architecture, architects had to be artists, engineers, and scholars. This three-volume series of books is about what architects needed to know to create the most important buildings in Western Architecture from 600 B. C.-A. D. 1943. Greek and Roman Architecture, the first volume of this series, is about the development of Greek architecture, the influence of Greece on Rome, and the early influence of Rome on other architectural traditions outside the Roman Empire. Renaissance Architecture, the second volume, is about the revival of Roman architecture and secular thought. Academic Architecture, the third volume, is about the revival of all styles of architecture, their scholarly study by archaeologists and architects, and an increasingly eclectic used of design elements within the framework of the design principles of Classic Architecture. Academic Architecture deals with the period that was characterized by the professional training of architects. Following the Renaissance, Italy continued to produce major architects and artists, most notably Bernini, who apprenticed under an architect. By contrast, during the Renaissance, neither Brunelleschi, Bramante, Palladio, nor Michelangelo apprenticed under an architect; three of the four began their careers by apprenticing under artists, and Palladio began his career as a stonemason. Italy continued to be the country in which architects and artists from throughout Europe came to study the buildings of ancient Rome and of the Renaissance, and starting in the 17th Century, national academies began to be created to train individuals to work later in their own countries. The French Academy combined formal instruction in art and architecture with an apprenticeship in architecture, and the Ecole des Beaux Arts became the model for architectural schools worldwide. The examples of Serlio and Palladio were followed by other architects and by archaeologists to produce treatises and manuals that provided a wider range of styles of architecture with greater detail and precision, and the scholarly study of world architecture increasingly influenced designs. Although most architects including Inigo Jones, Robert Adam, and Schinkel continued to go to Italy to study its buildings, publications increasingly made it possible to learn anywhere about the design of the greatest buildings worldwide and for individuals with no formal training like Thomas Jefferson to teach himself to be an architect through books rather than buildings.