Text for professional reading skilles.

Vocabulary (The Age of Revivals)

array	маса, сукупність
choose (chose, chosen)	вибирати, відбирати
conscientiously	свідомо
dignified	достойний
either...or	або ... або
fancy	уява
fine arts	витончені мистецтва
glitter	мерехтіти, блищати
however	проте, не дивлячись на
iron	залізо
leisure	вільний час
miscellany	суміш
nevertheless	не зважаючи на, проте
owe	бути зобов’язаним
previous	попередній
rival	конкуруючий
stirring	активність, тривога
vie	суперничати
whatever	щоби не, який би не
assert	заявляти, стверджувати
be concerned

The Age of Revivals

The Industrial Revolution, which introduced new materials and techniques, made the 19^th century the time of the vast expansion of cities or urbanization in Europe and America. Then more buildings were constructed than in all previous ages added together. The total effect of all this on European towns and cities was, however, to replace the wonderful unity of the street by a chaotic miscellany of buildings, each asserting its own individuality.

The role of the architect was merely confined to decorating the buildings’ facades. Throughout Europe nearly every past style was re-examined and reused, but as the century wore on styles of the past were no longer imitated exactly, but were looked on as a quarry from which architects could extract whatever elements struck their fancy. A succession of rival styles came, vied with each other and went, some conforming conscientiously to historic precedent, but many more mingling reminiscences of different periods and countries. This resulted in either beautiful or graceless eclecticism. Richness of form and picturesqueness of effect were the principal aim.

Styles began to be chosen not just for fashion but for their associative qualities: Roman for justice, Gothic for learning and churches, Byzantine mainly for churches, the Italian Renaissance for palaces and ministries, Greek for government, Venetian for commerce, Oriental for leisure, Hansetic for housing, the Baroque for theatres and opera houses, Romanesque for public architecture, Colonial for bank buildings, churches and suburban homes. Nevertheless, the 19^th century revival architecture was dominated by the Classical Revival, or Neo-Classicism, and the Gothic Revival, or Neo-Gothic.

Historic and eclectic design on a monumental scale, as taught at the Ecole des Beaux Arts or the Parisian School of Fine Arts, strongly influenced world architecture during the latter decades of the 19^th century. This school was thought to be the arbiter of the period for everything in aesthetics that was considered useful or beautiful.

A reaction against stylizations came nearer the end of the century. It. Too, was decoration more than construction, and aimed at creating a style – especially a style of ornament – that owed nothing to the past. It emerged as Art Nouveau in France and Belgium, a little later as Jugendstil in Germany, and spread throughout Europe and reached the USA.

Behind this picturesque play-acting glittered the iron and glass architecture of the engineer-experimentalist, who created the impressive array of simple, dignified and refreshingly functional buildings, the viaducts, dockyards, textile mills and railway stations. There was Paxton’s Crystal Palace (1851), one of the most revolutionary buildings in the history of world architecture, and the daring towers or skyscrapers of the Chicago School (1880-1900).

The “Japonism” of the Aesthetic Movement, the Arts and Crafts movement, the preachings of William Morris against opulence and the tyranny of the machine (to lead, ironically, to its 20^th century idealization), the stirrings of Art Nouveau and the folksy aspirations of the garden city movement can now be seen to have been the ancestors of modern architecture.

Art Nouveau is characterized by organic and dynamic forms, curving design and whiplash lines. The curved line may be floral in origin (Belgium, France) or geometric (Scotland, Austria). This florid type of architecture exploits craft skills, using coloured materials (faience cabochons, stoneware, terracotta panels, stained glass, exotic veneers, moulded stonework), grilles, balconies, and tapered brackets in wrought-iron. Asymmetrical door- and window-frames, bow and horseshoe windows were also favoured. The Austrian variant of Art Nouveau is called Sezession; in Italy one speaks of Stile Liberty, in Spain, of Modernismo. In the later phases of Art Nouveau, faςade decoration was accompanied by a powerful plastic treatment of the whole building. The most important representatives of Art Nouveau are: in Germany Herman Obrist (1863-1927) and August Endel (1871-1925), in America Louis C. Tiffany (1848-1933), in Russia Fyodor Shekhtel (1859-1926). It is Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) from Spain who is considered by far the greatest in architecture.