Ruskin, Semper, Viollet-le-Duc

The early developments of art and architecture in the modern movement were deeply initiated within the complex theories formulated in the nineteenth century. Aids in this development from Semper, Ruskin, and Viollet-le-Duc all proved to exhibit a renowned understanding of architecture through practice but more importantly their theories and writing.  

 

The most important protagonist and enthusiast of the Gothic cause in England was John Ruskin. For Ruskin art and architecture formed only a part of a much larger sociological understanding. As conveyed through his work The Seven Lamps of Architecture, Ruskin believed the laws of Architecture are identical with those of man’s moral life “The quality of architecture represents the quality of man” (P.22 Pevsner).  Pertaining to the High Gothic style worshipped by Ruskin and French counterpart Viollet-le-Duc, the former hypothesized a Lamp of Truth or that lies must be shunned in construction. Stating that deception such as gilding or facing surfaces to “the use of cast or machine-made ornaments of any kind” (P.16 Pevsner) must not be practiced. Relating to Ruskin, Viollet-le-Duc’s theories follow closely however the use of materiality poses a different thought. Depicted in several illustrations of the second volume of Entretiens by le-Duc, there are significant celebrations of exposed iron and cast ornaments.  These elements which Ruskin believed to be lies were often the basis of Viollet-le-Duc’s structure and much ornamentation. Pevsner concludes no better than by stating “There you have two men, but whereas Viollet here appears wholly forward-looking, Ruskin wholly Backward-looking” (P.37).  Viollet-le-Duc became a very important figure and through his designs and theories iron thus became associated with the reform of the decorative arts. His influence as explained in the Bressani reading relates his development and influence on the Art Nouveau movement: “Not only does an architecture need to have style, i.e. embody a specific structural principle (a specific Geometry) in response to the nature of the materials used and the functional requirements, it also must give a clear representation of the understanding of nature which the epoch has gained, it must reflect the degree of consciousness of the age.” Of the principles Viollet-le-Duc bestowed on the Art Nouveau movement none were more symbolic than the spatial organization of the building citing function rather than rules of symmetry and proportion “geometry forms the essence of natural law” (Pg.340 Bressani).

To touch on restoration, Viollet-le-Duc fixates on the importance of materials as a generator for form stating notions such as “To borrow forms from antiquity was irremedially deceitful” (Pg. 340 Bressani). Viollet-le-Duc theorized that restoration must be “to restore a building is not just to preserve it, to repair it, and to remodel it, it is to re-instate it in a complete state such as it may never have been in at any given moment” (P.38 Pevsner). This of course is entirely different than Ruskin’s belief of which he felt restoration to be the “total destruction which a building can suffer”. 

Gottfried Semper, a German architect of higher standing, possessing a larger portfolio of monumental buildings differs from theorists such as Viollet-le-Duc and Ruskin in an important aspect. “Semper dominated German theory to a much greater extent than these two other individuals did within their cultural context”  (Pg. 130 Modern Architectural Theory). Semper loved but hated the Gothic and iron stylistics Ruskin and Viollet-le-Duc stood for. He introduced the contrast of “tectonic” and Stereitomic” architecture - an architectural system based on the relation between load and supporting structure as against an Architectural system based on the continuity of volume (Pg. 9 Zucker). Citing the  “style” of Architecture “true” only if its forms were motivated by the factor he saw important: construction, material, and the prevailing socio-economic, cultural, and climatic conditions.  

In his work The Four Elements of Architecture Semper attempts to classify systematically for the first time all architectural forms as a kind of typology of architecture, A strong hypothesis which I believe Frank Lloyd Wright makes more known much later. Semper’s aim was “to discover the underlying order to architecture style and its forms (similarities & relationships)” (Lecture). His four elements focused on: Hearth, platform, roof, and enclosure.

To examine Semper’s work such as the Opera house in Dresden, he was not one to adhere to a specific time period or style. He did however believe in the use of local materials a notion of which le-Duc approved as well.  

Semper as well as Ruskin and Viollet-le-duc almost single handedly charted the course of theory during the Victorian Movement; it is almost impossible to understand the push for modernism at the turn of the century without the recognition of their ideas.