Rediscovering architecture : Paestum in eighteenth-century architectural experience and theory Jong, S.D. de

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Rediscovering architecture : Paestum in eighteenth-century architectural experience and theory

Jong, S.D. de

Citation

Jong, S. D. de. (2010, December 21). Rediscovering architecture : Paestum in eighteenth-century architectural experience and theory. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/16266

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Rediscovering Architecture

Paestum

in Eighteenth-Century

Architectural Experience and Theory

Proefschrift

ter verkrijging van

de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden,

op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof.mr. P.F. van der Heijden, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties

te verdedigen op dinsdag 21 december 2010 klokke 16.15 uur

door

Sigrid Dagmar de Jong

geboren te Den Helder in 1974

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promotiecommissie

promotor

Prof.dr. C.A. van Eck

overige leden

Dr. M.J.F. Delbeke (Universiteit Leiden/Universiteit Gent) Prof.dr. E.M. Moor mann (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen) Dr. F.H. Schmidt (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

Prof.dr. A. van der Woud (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)

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for my parents

and to the memory of

Elisabeth van Druten

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7

Towards movement: the picturesque in architecture 138 Pictorial impressions and hasty views: picturesque elements in Paestum 149 In search of the picturesque: Richard Payne Knight’s Paestum account 152 Picturesque versus sublime: the Expedition into Sicily and John Cozens’ view 165 The educated mind: the theories of Richard Payne Knight and Uvedale Price 174

Associating Paestum 182

Architecture as painting 190

Part II Experiences of Movement

Chapter 3 Entering Ruins: A physical experience 197 Entering ruins in the imagination: Diderot and Robert among painted remains 199 A self-portrait in ruins: John Soane’s Crude Hints 210 Mass and space, load and support: Goethe and Forsyth in the temples 220

Sensing ruins by Eustace and Shelley 228

The body in architectural space 235

Chapter 4 Staging Ruins: Theatrical sequences 243 The sequence of experience: acting and directing 248

Architecture as scenographic experience 266

The landscape as scenery 268

The temples as a stage 275

Theatricality as a means of plotting an architectural experience 279

Part III Contextualising Experiences

Chapter 5 In Pursuit of the Primitive: History in the making 291

Primitive perfection in Laugier’s mind 299

Marvelling at primitive purity in Paestum 318 Piranesi’s theories on invention in architecture 335

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History seen as a system by Winckelmann 345

Paoli turns history around 353

Quatremère de Quincy writings towards a universal architecture 364 The genius of the place according to Labrouste 375

Primitivism, origins and history 394

Chapter 6 The Eye of the Architect: Paestum exported 401 Revising treatises: Pâris on Desgodetz and Delagardette on Vignola 405 The development of Greek architecture according to Le Roy and Wilkins 424

Paestum abroad in collections 444

The two-dimensional architecture of Durand 458

Architecture without experience 463

Conclusion

467

Bibliography 474

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Acknowledgements

Just as the publications of the protagonists in this book, my thesis largely originated in, and was inspired by the European centres of the eighteenth century, Paris, London, Rome and Naples.

But it could not have been realised without the financial and intellectual support I received at the University in Leiden. Of all the people at Leiden University I would first of all like to thank my supervisor, Caroline van Eck, for many passionate, stimulating, thought provoking and eye- opening conversations and guidance. I am also grateful to Maarten Delbeke, Eric Moormann, Freek Schmidt and Auke van der Woud for agreeing to be on the reading committee of my thesis and for their stimulating reactions.

Thanks to the Pallas Institute, now the Leids Universitair Instituut voor Culturele Disciplines (LUICD), I could finally do my research full time, after some years of trying to combine writing a PhD thesis with a job at the Netherlands Architecture Institute. Pallas provided many a scholarship for research trips to London and Paris and for giving lectures in Belgium and Italy. In addition, the Leiden University Fund gave a travel grant for research in London on two occasions. I am grateful for that. Abroad, my gratitude goes to the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art for funding a research grant to continue my research in London and to the Fondation de France and the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art in Paris for making Parisian research possible. In these cities I also benefited from the help of the staff of many libraries and archives, of the British Library, the British Museum (especially Kim Sloan), the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, the Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Royal Institute of British Architects, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and in Paris, of the Archives Nationales, the Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, the Fondation Custodia, the Institut de France, the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art. I also thank the staff of the Bibliothèque Municipale in Besançon and the Bibliothèque Municipale and Archives Municipales in

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11 Bordeaux, and in Italy of the Archivio di Stato in Naples. I am highly grateful to Madame Daphne Doublet for very generously allowing me to consult her collection of eighteenth- century papers. Scholars I would like to thank for helping me at different stages of my research are Frank Salmon, Barry Bergdoll, Andrew Ballantyne, and Jean-Philippe Garric.

In the first stages of my research the support of colleagues at the Netherlands Architecture Institute and at Van Hoogevest Architecten enabled me to travel to archives and libraries and granted me time to write the first lines. Special thanks are due to Mariet Willinge (NAi) and Gijsbert van Hoogevest for their support. In this period many other people were important who read my texts and with whom I discussed my subject, of those I would like to thank Sebastiaan Derks, Coert Peter Krabbe, Vladimir Stissi and Petra Brouwer. Later, at Leiden, my colleagues Stijn Bussels, Joris van Gastel, Lex Hermans, Elsje van Kessel, Minou Schraven, and also Bram van Oostveldt were generous in critical reading, useful comments and moments of enjoyment at lectures or travels. Students at courses I taught at the art historical department have also helped me to clearly formulate my ideas, and a memorable visit to Paestum with some of them in 2008 when we entered the temples, made us almost live the eighteenth-century experience.

The support of my friends was important as well, and they have inspired me with their curiosity, their questions and enthusiasm. Here I would especially like to mention Karien Beijers, Loes van Harrevelt, Marja Potters and Esther Starkenburg. Also I wish to express a special gratitude to Philippe Gardaz for his help and his knowledge and passion for the eighteenth century. I am very grateful to Lineke Deurloo for offering me an occasional home at Leiden and for her hospitality and attention. Most of all, my family has never failed to be warmly encouraging. In particular my parents, Hans and Vera de Jong, and my brother Lars de Jong have helped me more than I could thank them for to follow the path towards this thesis.

I express my special gratitude to my mother for her generous help in the final stages of writing.

To my great regret my wonderful grandmother, Elisabeth van Druten, has not lived to see me becoming a doctor in Leiden, her city. Therefore this book is dedicated to her memory.

I owe the largest debt of gratitude to Patrick Leitner who, with his enlightened and critical outlook on architecture, his creative mind and eagerness nourished our many inspiring exchanges of ideas and stimulated me to constantly discover new viewpoints. Thanks to him, Paris opened both my mind and my heart.