Compose two styles
Rather than blending two styles into a middle, this assigns them roles: one carries the structure, the other appears as an accent. Where the two fight, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Italian Rationalism: A strict frontal grid whose bays are equal and whose voids are not, so that the rhythm is regular and the reading is not.
- Type
- Set in Italian Rationalism's manner (A geometric sans set to the same module as the bays, with the leading derived from the same proportion.), and let Novecento Italiano's lettering (Roman capitals cut to classical proportion and spaced as though incised, aligned to the axis of the figure.) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Italian Rationalism's material (White render against polished marble and plate glass, with reveals deep enough to cast a real shadow line.); bring in exactly one thing from Novecento Italiano (Fresco-like matte surfaces in ochre, terracotta and stone grey, lit so that mass is modelled and almost nothing casts a shadow.).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
These two are already listed as related, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Italian Rationalism Keeping the white box and dropping the proportion: without the underlying ratios it is generic modernism, and the whole argument of these buildings was that the ratios were still present.
- Novecento Italiano Taking the monumental frontality as neutral good taste: the same devices were built to speak for a state, and used without that awareness the work carries an argument its author did not intend.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Italian Rationalism (Style, 1926–1943) and its accent from Novecento Italiano (Style, 1922–1943). Structural cues: White volumes and a regular rhythm of bays; Deep overhangs and bands of shadow; Marble set against glass; Classical proportion, translated. Accent cues, used sparingly: Simplified, solid bodies; Emphatically frontal composition; Subdued earth colour; Mass recalling classical sculpture. Composition: A strict frontal grid whose bays are equal and whose voids are not, so that the rhythm is regular and the reading is not.. Type and lettering: A geometric sans set to the same module as the bays, with the leading derived from the same proportion.. Let one material quality come from the second style: Fresco-like matte surfaces in ochre, terracotta and stone grey, lit so that mass is modelled and almost nothing casts a shadow.. Mood: Trust, Luxury, Technology, Calm. Color: build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 with a single accent drawn from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615. Constraints: do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. Produce an original composition in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Italian Rationalism 1926–1943 / Style / Modern Architecture
An Italian movement that set out to make the abstraction of modern architecture and the classicism of the Mediterranean hold at the same time. What looks like a white box is in fact carrying ancient proportion in the rhythm of its bays, the depth of its overhangs and the planes of its marble. A textbook for refusing to set the modern against the traditional.
- Novecento Italiano 1922–1943 / Style / Painting Techniques
A movement that, after the avant-garde had dismantled form, sought a return to the mass and stillness of Italian classicism. Simplified, solid bodies, subdued earth colour and emphatically frontal composition became the vocabulary of interwar public building and mural painting. A leading case of the return to order, and one that has to be read together with its closeness to the regime.
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