Curated category
Architectural styles
- Neoclassical architectureIn the mid-1700s, a quiet revolution began in Italy and France. Architects stopped copying the swirling curves of Baroque design.
- Baroque architectureIn the late 1500s, Rome became the stage for a new kind of architecture designed to fight a spiritual war. The Catholic Church needed a visual weapon against…
- Romanesque architectureIn the year 1063, a stone mason in Speyer began carving the first groin vault for a wide nave. This single architectural decision marked the birth of a style…
- Renaissance architectureIn the early 15th century, a brick dome began to rise over Florence Cathedral. This structure had been left unroofed by Arnolfo di Cambio in the 14th century.
- Gothic architectureIn the Île-de-France region of northern France, a new architectural style emerged between 1140 and 1144 at the Abbey of Saint-Denis.
- Indo-Islamic architectureThe year 1193 marked the establishment of Delhi as the capital of the Ghurid dynasty, initiating a profound architectural shift across the Indian…
- Elizabethan architectureQueen Elizabeth I commissioned no new royal palaces during her forty-five year reign from 1558 to 1603. Her father Henry VIII had imported Italian artists to…
- Constructivism (art)Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko founded Constructivism in 1915. This movement emerged from the ashes of World War I and Russian Futurism.
- ModernismIn 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species through Natural Selection. This book undermined religious certainty and challenged the idea that…
- Byzantine architectureIn the year 330, Constantine the Great established a new capital in Byzantium, which became known as Constantinople. This event marked the beginning of an…
- ManuelineIn 1495, King Manuel I ascended to the Portuguese throne and immediately began funding a new era of exploration. His reign lasted until 1521, marking the…
- MannerismIn 1520, a group of young artists in Florence and Rome faced an impossible choice. They had inherited a tradition where Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo…
- Tudor architectureIn 1498, Henry VII began spending vast sums of money to enlarge Greenwich Palace. This project marked a sharp break from centuries of English building…
- Palladian architectureAndrea Palladio was born in Padua in 1508, the son of a stonemason. He studied Roman buildings and the writings of Vitruvius from 80 BC to shape his own…
- Church architectureIn the first three centuries of the Christian era, believers worshipped inside private homes rather than dedicated religious structures.
- Empire styleNapoleon Bonaparte seized power in 1799 and immediately demanded a new visual language for his rule. The previous Directoire style had favored austere lines…