Soane and Schinkel

702-386 Formative Histories of Architecture Junpu Gao 355161 Tutor: Francis Thursday 9am

SOANE AND SCHINKEL: THE REPRESENTITIVES OF TWO NATIONS

by Paul Gao

Even though Karl Friedrich Schinkel was a generation younger than English architect

Sir John Soane, both nations, were facing a period in which the accepted knowledge

were questioned and new architectural challenges in terms of their function and

symbolism were placed upon these architects. Two were the greatest architects at their

time without doubt, and in this essay I am not going to find out who is better than the

other. I am going to look into details of their design. I am going to compare the ways

they transform and upgrade the classical knowledge. At the same time, I believe that

those different approaches could demonstrate and represent the cultural and social

context of the kings and of the nations. I will demonstrate 2 sets of examples. Firstly

Dulwich Picture Gallery and Altes Museum. Secondly two country residential which

are Pitzhanger Manor and Charlottenhof Palace. I suggest that John Soane tends to

reduce the classical elements in his design and focused on the structural elements

rather than complex ornamentations. Soane put his understanding of classical

knowledge into interior design and eventually became a master in using light effect in

the house. Meanwhile, Schinkel tends to draw inspirations from his mentor Friedrich

Gilly and stay with the authentic Greek elements in a period of transition in

arhictecture witch new institutions and new political circumstances are produced. If I

could use a word to describe each of them, I would say Soane’s works are ingenious,

and Schinkel’s works are romantic.

Dulwich Picture Gallery (1817) was the first purpose-built public art gallery in

London.1 Someone said it was the harsh financial constraint which caused the overall

simplicity of the design, but as Soane himself explained that recorded in Gillian’s

book: ‘every attention in my power shall be paid economise the expenditure as far as

1 GILLIAN DARLEY, “John Soane: An Accidental Romantic” New Haven, Yale

University Press. 1999 page 205


is consistent with solidity and durability of construction.’2 It is clear evident that

Soane was creating this sense of simplicity in a purpose but not because of the low

budget. His gallery was “criticised at the time but admired ever since”3 what I agreed

with was the ingenious abstract presentation of the classical elements (Fig 1): The

many arches like the ancient Roman facilities; the rectangular “pediment” of

mausoleum are the modern expression of beauty and dignity, an pure innovation; The

symmetrical layout (Fig 2) of the site which looked like most of the neoclassical

buildings; The semi circular arch rooftop was another classical element of the

Mausoleum; the used of the classical orders, rather than using the authentic columns,

he modified them. The columns that support the entrance were cubic and the

reduction of the classical capitals led to a remarkable clarity which I consider as the

best part of this design. When I first look at the picture of the building, I found there is

nothing significant. The cubic columns don’t even looked like columns, but when I

look at them carefully, the cubic columns are the simpler alteration of the round,

fluting carved stone with Ionic or Corinthian capitals on top. I eventually find out all

those modified classical tastes that Soane created with his innovative skill. Those

specific details as I mentioned together created an abstraction of classicism. This is

what I think about his Dulwich picture gallery and I think it is a good representation

of Soane’s idea and personal understand of the classical knowledge. The Altes

Museum (1823-1830) in Berlin was a romantic and divine temple of art.4

Unfortunately Soane hasn’t designed any mesuem in his life, otherwise we can have a

more interesting discussion today, however by looking at Soane’s gallery and

Schinel’s museum, I realised that the differnce was that rather than simply creating a

functional gallery like Soane did, Schinkel’s was facing a much more complex

challenge. Soane’s design was more relaxing and experimental, as if Soane was

playing with his idea and theories with the context of a leisurely british civil life at the

time. While Schinkel’s design conducted a lot of meaning. The museum was to please

the “romantic king” Frederick William III of Prussia whom desperately willing to

bring together the scattered Prussian collection of art after France has returned those

2 GILLIAN DARLEY, “John Soane: An Accidental Romantic” New Haven, Yale University Press. 1999 page 2223 GILLIAN DARLEY, “John Soane: An Accidental Romantic” New Haven, Yale University Press. 1999 page 2224 THEODORE ZIOLKOWSKI, “Schinkel's Museum: The Romantic Temple of Art”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 131, No. 4 (Dec., 1987), American Philosophical Society


collections which they looted away from Prussia during Napoleonic War. Scinekel

also wanted his design to educate the vast general public of Prussia. And most

importantly as Theodore Ziolkowski stated in his article that “the notion of the temple

of art to designate a display of painting had, by 1823, become a commonplace in

German cultural thought.”5 As you can see in the picture that the majestic architecture

consists of 18 Ionic columns sitting at the front (Fig 3), creating a sense of symmetry,

and a sense of superiority. The long magnificent colonnade together with the great

stairway created a sense of mysterious (Fig 4). The setting of rectagular attic that

coverd the rotunda again makes it even more mysterious. As well as the double

winged staircase which leading into the open entrance hall. Schinkel has made a

genius move as visitors walk in, they don’t feel like inside until they get up to the

entrance hall. This special treatment which is the blurred or indistinct between interior

and exterior has given the building a sense of romance (Fig 5) and more specifically

as Ziolkowski’s article indicates “that the visitors are encourage to leave from the

everyday world for the encounter with the majesty of art.”6 Schinkel design the

rotunda as a Pantheon to make the visitor “feel receptive” and gives them a sense of

“beautiful and sublime” and a “sense of sacred”. 7 all such moves made by Schinkel

suggests that his understanding of classicism consists of a sense of symbolism which

he refers to as the feelings of sublime, beautiful, divine, dignity, sacred. In his

Rotunda design which derived form the Pantheon, gives the sculptures a religious

respect in order to show the idea of romantic spirit in which classical elements could

represent (Fig 6). Schinkeel’s adoptaion of Greek tradition has helped him to expresss

the common cultural taste of his time during early 19 centuray in Prussia. We can find

the similarities in the works of musician such as Beethoven and writer such as Goethe

which all desperately trying to expresse a sense of romance and sublime in their

works which formed a cultural trend that flew within the 19th century Prussian society.

In comparision to Soane, as I mentioned the leisurely civil life of English people and

the natural protection of English channel has made Britain a place of relatively

comformity. The desperate desire of Soane and most of the British people to walk into

5 THEODORE ZIOLKOWSKI, “Schinkel's Museum: The Romantic Temple of Art”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 131, No. 4 (Dec., 1987), American Philosophical Society6 THEODORE ZIOLKOWSKI, “Schinkel's Museum: The Romantic Temple of Art”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society7 THEODORE ZIOLKOWSKI, “Schinkel's Museum: The Romantic Temple of Art”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society


a modern world was thus evident in the way they experiment new architectural

institutions and in contrast to Prussia which was a a nation just walked out of the

trauma of Napoleon era, urgently looking for a new social and cultural identity and

dignity, no wonder Schinkel and most of the Prussian public will choose the authentic

Greek majesty to represent themselves.

Pitzhanger Manor House (1804) in Middlesex was another piece of work that Soane

built to develop and experiemnt his idea of Greek classicism. Differed from Dulwich

Picture Gallery, Soane has returned to the traditional Classic element in designing his

own house. In this design we can see Soane tends to combine the classical elements

with the landscape itself to creat a picturesque efffect. The four Ionic columns were

images of the Arch of Constantine in Rome (Fig 7), as Dean explained in the book

that such treatment was to “convey a tremendous sense of scale in a relatively modest-

sized building.”8 In order to creat a landscpae feeling Soane has used the columns as

scale rulers to maximise the potential effect of the yellow stock brick structure. The

façade was very classically decorated: apart from the columns, there are statues of

terracotta similar to a Greek temple in Athens; penals containing eagles which copied

from a basillica in Rome; sculptures above the columns copied from a Roman

temple.9 The breakfast room in the interior was ingenious in the way Soane adopt

classical elements into the modern design. Soane has choosen the dark rim which is

similar to the one in Pantheon in Rome to frame the domed ceiling of the breakfast

room, together with the repeating Greek key patterns (Fig 8) such as bronzed

caryatids, marbled panels, winged victorite on the canopy1010 and rich Roman

room decoration, in contrast with Soane’s innnovative skylight effect, creating a

illusion of a ancient classical form and even “grander” as Soane himself

indicate.1111 Again in the library, Soane has used a vault form ceiling which was

8 PTOLEMY DEAN, “Sir John soane and his country estate” Aldershot, ASHGATE. 1999 page 939 PTOLEMY DEAN, “Sir John soane and his country estate” Aldershot, ASHGATE. 1999 page 93-941010 GILLIAN DARLEY, “John Soane: An Accidental Romantic” New Haven, Yale University Press. 1999 page 1581111 PTOLEMY DEAN, “Sir John soane and his country estate” Aldershot, ASHGATE. 1999 page 94


derived from Roman vaulting, creating a “starfish” vault.1212 This to me was a

ingenious treatment by Soane to give the library a rich and interesting modern taste

while at the same time keeping the classic and sublime effect from the classical world.

Other examples such as the staircase which was rendered with dark marbling in order

to make it looks like the walls of Roman tombs. The element of antiquity was rapidly

used in Pitzhanger Manor. In comparison to Schinkel’s Charlottenhof Palace at

potsdam (1826-1829), a villa that serves as a retreat for the crown prince which was

Frederick William IV who also admired the classical style. The villa was a

redevelopment over a farm house. After the reconstruction, the step roof was

transformed into the raised temple roof. The simple treatment of the exterior gave the

villa an elegant feel.13 13 The interesting thing about Charlottenhof was apart from

the mystery of Schinkel’s idea. The young Prince was actually doing the design as

well. The Doric portico was a direct attempt towards the antiquity (Fig 9). In the

planning of the original site, Schinkel has drawn a main axis across the Charlottenhof

Villa which contains a symbolic meaning. The axis started from pre-history which

was the primitive tent of the terrace and then moved to the Classical elements of the

Villa with those Pompeian frescoes and then it came to the Roman hippodrome

behind the villa, all these indicate Schinkel’s idea of ancient history. The rose garden

at front of the terrace indicates the modern period (Fig 10). in his late career Schinkel

tend to do this kind of arrangement which shows the different time period within a

architecture in order to discover the idea of how independent architecture would

conduct the symbolic meaning of classical message in a modern era. And by creating

this main axis Schinkel has also formed a romantic manner that Charlottenhof Villa

was a dreamed paradise which consists of pre-history, ancient history and modern

even a pump house which indicates the future.1414It tells me that throughout

Schinkel’s career, by adopting the classical knowledge, he was trying to look for the

balance between classic and modern, between spirit and material, between art and

1212 PTOLEMY DEAN, “Sir John soane and his country estate” Aldershot, ASHGATE. 1999 page 9413

13 MARTIN STEFFENS “Karl Friedrich Schinkel: 1781-1841 an Architect in the Service of Beaut”, Taschen America Llc, 2003 page 621414 LAIN BOYD WHYTE “Charlottenhof: The Prince, the Gardener, the Architect and the Writer”, Architectural History, Vol. 43 (2000), pp. 1-23. SAHGB Publications Limited page 20


function, as himself explained as a “'vigorous mediation”.1515And that was why I

suggest his works always conduct a symbolic meaning, a romantic spirit, sometimes

divine, sometime dignified, and sometimes elegant. Because I believe Schinkel was

always trying to give the antiquity a contemporary content. By doing so, like

Charlottenhof, the axial layout and the time relationship between the classical temple

like villa, the Roman hippodrome, the pumphouse later have upgraded the structural

significance of the Greek and Roman element into a metaphorical and spiritual level.

While Sir John Soane’s design showed us when 19th century Britain going through the

period of a modernizing and innovating, how he borrowed from he antiquity and

upgraded the details into a new abstract mode that has gone beyond his time. And

Schinkel has shown us a 19th century Prussia picture of romantic king and his prince,

and the way he use the classical spirit to interpret and balance the future architectural

movement. Another differnce I found out was the way of using antiquity in interior

design. For example the classical columns were modified by Soane and used in the

Pitzhanger manor beside the windows inside. Orders were also used in the corridor of

the house in order to create this sense of classicism similar to the Roman interior

setting. The library room (Fig 11) which consists of vaulting and arched false doors

and Greek Decorartions as mentions were a very significant feature of Soane’s

interior design in his house, and these features are quiet different from Schinkel’s

Chrlottenhof interior. As you can see rather than Soane’s ingenius and small scale

layout of Greek and Roman decoration which create a modern and enclosure feeling,

Schinkel has again tried to express a sense of raomancce by using authentic elements.

The sculpture sitting on the pedestal at the corner with the arch behind was my

favourite part of this room (Fig 12). Suggesting that Schinkel tend to use less

Classical element inside the house than Soane but by balancing the modern interior

layout with the classical sculpture, together create aromantic feeling in the room was a

significant contrast to Soane’s adstract and innovative classical picture that he created

in his library room such as the false doors and vaulting I mentioned.

Schinkel described Soane’s Lincoln’s Inn Fields as “ingenious” and “full of little

1515 LAIN BOYD WHYTE “Charlottenhof: The Prince, the Gardener, the Architect and the Writer”, Architectural History, Vol. 43 (2000), pp. 1-23. SAHGB Publications Limited page 20


deceptions”1616. And when he visited Soane’s Bank of England he claimed that “

he could see the logic of it, and the impression was confusing”.1717 Even though

Schinkel hasn’t designed a Bank or a house like lincoln’s Inn fields, we can see the

difference in approaching modern institutions with classical knowledge. The abstract

and innovative experiment and enclosing interior by Soane was confusing and with

deception to Schinkel, but he realised such were ingenious. Unfortunately we don’t

have any direct thoughts recorded from Soane about his view of Schinkel. In

concusion, I believe that Soane’s background was a urgently modernising society. It

was a society where the freedom of thoughts was blooming. Interesting ideas were

experimented in all kinds of field like literature, theatre, painting, music and

architecture. Soane was a pioneer of such an era in Britain like Prof. Rand Carter

added in his article that “if Italy provided a view of the past, England offered a view

of the present and a glance into the future”1818. In contrast to Prussia, an era of

restoration. The popular romanticism was flowing within the states of Germanic

people, with a background of nationalist consciousness. Schinkel’s design thus seems

less innovative than Soane’s. Schinkel’s design was more symbolising. In his works

we see his desperate patriotism towards his fatherland Prussia. He wished he could

express this sense of romance in establishing a whole new Prussian identity. And

Soane at his time was more into his academic career rather than national hero because

Britain’s identity was already established through the economy and its military force.

1616 N. E. BRIDGES “Perspectives from Sir John's podium”, http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=160485&sectioncode=20, 10 January 19971717 GILLIAN DARLEY, “John Soane: An Accidental Romantic” New Haven, Yale University Press. 1999 page 1361818 RAND CARTER (NY) “Karl Friedrich Schinkel: The Last Great Architect", Collection of Architectural Designs, Chicago: Exedra Books Incorporated, 1981


1. The mausoleum in Dulwich Picture Gallery


2. Dulwich Picture GalleryThe symmetric layout of the site

3. Altes MuseumThe symmetry and the superiority


4. Altes Museum ColonnadeCearting mysterious and divine feeling

5. Schinkel’s own sketch of Entrance hallThe romance of getting away from the world and into the majesty of art


6. RotundaThe sublime and romantic feeling of classical elements give to the art works

7. Pitzhanger Manor HouseThe Ionic orders worked as scale rulers to get the façade well proportioned

The ornaments are Classical


8. Domed ceiling of breakfast roomThe Roma Dome and the Greek ornaments

9. Doric porticoSchinkel’s and the Crown Prince’s dreamed style

10. Plan of 'Charlottenhof” drawn by Gerhard Koeber, 1839The axis meant by Schinkel, an symbolic setting which consists of contemporary

content of modern knowledge in a classical temple


11. The library room of Pitzhanger ManorThe “starfish”

Enclosure feelingThe arched false doors


12. Interior of Charlottenhof PalaceThe contemporary content with the authentic Classical art work

REFERENCE

BARRY BERGDOLL “European Architecture 1750 -1890”, Oxford University Press, 2000

GILLIAN DARLEY, “John Soane: An Accidental Romantic” New Haven, Yale University Press. 1999

KARL FRIEDRICH SCHINKEL, “The English Journey: Journal of a Visit to France and Britain in 1826” New Haven and London, Published for The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press. 1993

LAIN BOYD WHYTE “Charlottenhof: The Prince, the Gardener, the Architect and the Writer”, Architectural History, Vol. 43 (2000), pp. 1-23. SAHGB Publications Limited

MARTIN STEFFENS “Karl Friedrich Schinkel: 1781-1841 an Architect in the Service of Beaut”, Taschen America Llc, 2003

N. E. BRIDGES “Perspectives from Sir John's podium”, 10 January 1997http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=160485&sectioncode=20

PTOLEMY DEAN, “Sir John soane and his country estate” Aldershot, ASHGATE. 1999

RAND CARTER (NY) “Karl Friedrich Schinkel: The Last Great Architect", Collection of Architectural Designs, Chicago: Exedra Books Incorporated, 1981

THEODORE ZIOLKOWSKI, “Schinkel's Museum: The Romantic Temple of Art”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 131, No. 4 (Dec., 1987), American Philosophical Society

IMAGE REFERENCE

Fig 1 Dulwich Picture Galleryhttp://www.urban75.org/london/east-dulwich-london.html

Fig 2 Dulwich Picture Galleryhttps://museuminsider.co.uk/2009/02/16/project-tracker/plans-afoot-at-dulwich-picture-gallery/

Fig 3 Altes Museumhttp://www.valcasey.com/thesis/thesis_staging.html


Fig 4 Altes Museumhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_B_145_Bild-P014752,_Berlin,_Altes_Museum_am_Lustgarten.jpg

Fig 5 Altes Museumhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Altes_Museum_Treppe_Schinkel.jpg

Fig 6 Altes Museumhttp://lifeloom.com/263HistArch1.htm#ClassicalAnti

Fig 7 Pitzhanger Manor Househttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pitzhanger_Manor.jpg

Fig 8 Pitzhanger Manor Househttp://www.flickr.com/photos/dgeezer/2662617534/

Fig 9 CharlottenhofCut from LAIN BOYD WHYTE’s article “Charlottenhof: The Prince, the Gardener, the Architect and the Writer” page 19

Fig 10 CharlottenhofCut from LAIN BOYD WHYTE’s article “Charlottenhof: The Prince, the Gardener, the Architect and the Writer” page 10

Fig 11 Pitzhanger Manor Househttp://www.fauxology.com/page/5/

Fig 12 Charlottenhofhttp://www.historicgermany.com/3342.html

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Soane and Schinkel