Characteristics
Beaux-Arts architecture depended on sculptural decoration along conservative modern lines, employing French and Italian Baroque and Rococo formulas combined with an impressionistic finish and realism. In the façade shown to the right, Diana grasps the cornice she sits on in a natural action typical of Beaux-Arts integration of sculpture with architecture.
Slightly overscaled details, bold sculptural supporting consoles, rich deep cornices, swags and sculptural enrichments in the most bravura finish the client could afford gave employment to several generations of architectural modellers and carvers of Italian and Central European backgrounds. A sense of appropriate idiom at the craftsman level supported the design teams of the first truly modern architectural offices.
Though the Beaux-Arts style embodies an approach to a regenerated spirit within the grand traditions rather than a set of motifs, principal characteristics of Beaux-Arts architecture included:
- Flat roof
- Rusticated and raised first story
- Hierarchy of spaces, from "noble spaces"—grand entrances and staircases— to utilitarian ones
- Arched windows
- Arched and pedimented doors
- Classical details: references to a synthesis of historicist styles and a tendency to eclecticism; fluently in a number of "manners"
- Symmetry
- Statuary, sculpture (bas-relief panels, figural sculptures, sculptural groups), murals, mosaics, and other artwork, all coordinated in theme to assert the identity of the building
- Classical architectural details: balustrades, pilasters, garlands, cartouches, acroteria, with a prominent display of richly detailed clasps (agrafes), brackets and supporting consoles
- Subtle polychromy
Read more about this topic: Beaux-Arts Architecture