NEO-CLASSICAL ARCHITECT

Robert Adam ( 1728 – 1792) was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior

designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), the country's

foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his older brother John, Robert took on

the family business, which included work for theBoard of Ordnance, after William's death.

The Board of Ordnance was a British government body responsible for the

supply of armaments to the Royal Navy and British Army.

In 1754 he left for Rome, spending nearly five years on the continent studying architecture

under Giovanni Battista Piranesi. On his return to Britain he established a practice in London,

where he was joined by his younger brother James. Here he developed the "Adam Style", and his

theory of "movement" in architecture, based on his studies of antiquity and became one of the

most successful and fashionable architects in the country.

The Adam style is an 18th-century neoclassical style of interior design and architecture, as

practised by the three Adam brothers from Scotland; of whom Robert Adam (1728–1792)

andJames Adam (1732–1794) were the most widely known.

The Adam brothers were the first to advocate an integrated style for architecture and interiors;

with walls, ceilings, fireplaces, furniture, fixtures, fittings and carpets all being designed by the

Adams as a single uniform scheme. Commonly and mistakenly known as "Adams Style," the

proper term for this style of architecture and furniture is the "Style of the Adam Brothers."

The Adam style is identified with:

Classical Roman decorative motifs, such as framed medallions, vases, urns and

tripods, arabesque vine scrolls, sphinxes, griffins, and dancing nymphs

Flat grotesque panels

Pilasters

Painted ornaments, such as swags and ribbons

Complex pastel colour schemes

Osterley Park

Osterley Park is a mansion set in a large park of the same name. It is in the London.

The original building on this site was a manor house built in the 1570s for banker Sir Thomas

Gresham. Two hundred years later the manor house was falling into disrepair, when, as the result

of a mortgage default, it came into the ownership of Sir Francis Child, the head of Child's Bank.

In 1761 he employed Robert Adam.

The house is of red brick with white stone details and is approximately square, with turrets in the

four corners. One side is left almost open and is spanned by an Ionic pedimented screen which is

approached by a broad flight of steps and leads to a central courtyard, which is at piano

nobile level.

The piano nobile is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles

of classical renaissance architecture. This floor contains the principal reception and bedrooms of

the house.

Kedleston Hall

The design of the three-floored house is of three blocks linked by two segmentally curved

corridors. The ground floor is rusticated, while the upper floors are of smooth-dressed stone. The

central, largest block contains the state rooms and was intended for use only when there were

important guests in the house. The East block was a self-contained country house in its own right,

containing all the rooms for the family's private use, and the identical West block contained the

kitchens and all other domestic rooms and staff accommodation. Plans for two more pavilions(as

the two smaller blocks are known) of identical size, and similar appearance were not executed.

These further wings were intended to contain, in the south east a music room, and south west a

conservatory and chapel. Externally these latter pavilions would have differed from their northern

counterparts by large glazed Serlian windows on the piano nobile of their southern facades. Here

the blocks were to appear as of two floors only; amezzanine was to have been disguised in the

north of the music room block. The linking galleries here were also to contain larger windows,

than on the north, and niches containing classical statuary.

The great north front, approximately 107 metres in length, is Palladian in character, dominated

by the massive, six-columned Corinthian portico, then the south front is pure Robert Adam. It is

divided into three distinct sets of bays; the central section is a four-columned, blind triumphal

arch , containing one large, pedimented glass door reached from the rusticated ground floor by an

external, curved double staircase. Above the door, at second-floor height, are stone garlands and

medallions in relief. The four Corinthian columns are topped by classical statues. This whole

centre section of the facade is crowned by a low dome visible only from a distance.

The neoclassical interior of the house was designed by Adam. Entering the house through the great north portico on the piano nobile, one is confronted by the marble hall designed to suggest the open courtyard or atrium of a Roman villa. Twenty fluted columns with Corinthian capitals support the heavily decorated, high-coved cornice. The floor is of inlaid Italian marble. Matthew Paine's original designs for this room intended for it to be lit by conventional windows at the northern end, but Adam, warming to the Roman theme, did away with the distracting windows and lit the whole from the roof through innovative glass skylights.

The saloon, contained behind the triumphal arch of the south front, like the marble hall rises the

full height of the house, 62 feet to the top of the dome, where it too is sky-lit through a

glass oculus.

Robert's later exteriors, as in his London street houses (ca. 1769-1780), lose the three-

dimensional quality and become more flat and linear, with shallow relieving arches, flush

windows, and recessed porticoes.

INTERIORS Though Adam’s decoration is usually regarded as little more than

delicate surface embroidery, its purpose, in fact, was considerably broader. It served to articulate, focus and define a room, to relate the different elements within it, to achieve balance and symmetry and to give character.

At the same time panelling disappeared from the walls which were painted in flat colours with narrow bands of moulding outlining plain areas of various shapes but excellent proportions. Lavish plaster ceilings had gilded and coloured low-relief details and were enriched by paintings framed in panels.

Neo-Classical Style in brief:

Robert Adam exercised total control over his interiors;

Formality and elegance of utmost importance;

Circular and oval rooms introduced;

Classical plaster work for walls and ceilings;

Ceilings became more important, painted with classical scenes;

Wall colours dark and light green, pale blues, dark pinks, Etruscan red and black also fashionable.

• The ceiling was always a key feature of Adam’s decorative schemes.

• He chose pastel shades rather than white

for the background.

• This makes the plasterwork relief stand

out.

Ceiling patterns, for instance, were put to a variety of uses to mark out the subtle rhythm of the wall elevations, or to draw attention to the center of the room or divert the eye away from asymmetrical walls, to emphasize the curve of an arched ceiling or to suggest a shallow dome or a groin vault on a flat ceiling.

Regardless of whether Adam’s ceilings were executed in stucco or painted in the ‘Antique Style’, whether they incorporated paintings by Zucchi of classical subjects or were purely decorative, their impact was immediate. From Adam’s point of view, grotesques and geometrical patterns had the additional advantage of allowing him maximum artistic freedom.

Color was Adam’s most distinctive contribution to decoration. He used small-scale inlaid scagliolaornaments in a wide range of colors.

Adam was hired to remodel Syon’s House interior in the 1760s and would ultimately redesign many of the rooms, as well as build an exterior rotunda. No two rooms were alike; the great hall, in black and white and other cool tones, marble and stucco detailing throughout, was decorated to resemble a Roman basilica with fluted columns, a large half dome, and statues or busts of robed ancients. However, included are details not representative of Roman style at all, like a Greek key pattern in the floor and circular ceiling medallion so emblematic of Adam style.

INTERIOR OF SYON’S HOUSE

The great hall of Syon’s House

The anteroom of Syon’s House

In complete contrast to the great hall, the Anteroom or Vestibule is boldly decorated in gold, red and grey colors in the style of Imperial Rome.

Neo-Classical Furniture and Fabrics in brief:

Designs on furniture are refined simplicity;

Classical detail;

Cylindrical legs for tables and chairs, often gilded and painted;

Satinwood and mahogany in use;

Marquetry and painted furniture popular;

Damasks, moirés, stamped velvets, striped fabrics;

Wallpapers printed with classical designs.

Furniture designs Dovetail joints, which is an interlocking wood joint , was used during

this design era, with popular drawer pulls including the oval stamped brass back plate with bail.

Graceful and refined, the chairs made during this era boasted with shield-shaped backs and oval-shaped backs, all beautifully detailed and sporting a central splat. Chair seats were either

square or horseshoe-shaped with chair arms slightly curved. Popular woods used to manufacture this style of furniture included satinwood and mahogany. However not only limited to these wood types, furniture was also made of tulipwood, sycamore, rosewood and goncalo alves. Populate veneers included satinwood veneer and amboyna veneer.

Reference www.adamarchitecture.com

www.adriennechinn.co.uk

www.encyclopedia.com

www.britannica.com