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 Neoclassicism: Let the horizontal work hard and place elements symmetrically.
- Type
- Set in Neoclassicism's manner (Inscriptional capitals, letterspaced wide.), and let Stripped Classicism's lettering (Incised roman capitals, widely spaced, centred on the axis and stated once only.) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Neoclassicism's material (The white of stone and plaster, with gold kept to key points.); bring in exactly one thing from Stripped Classicism (Large ashlar limestone or granite, honed flat, with joints fine enough that the wall reads as one continuous surface.).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- Roughly 160 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Neoclassicism Do not mistake simplicity for dullness. Hard contour and tense composition are both required at once.
- Stripped Classicism Reaching for it because it looks austere and expensive: the symmetry and the blank wall make a claim of authority whether or not you intended one.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Neoclassicism (Style, 1760s–1830s) and its accent from Stripped Classicism (Style, 1920s–1950s). Structural cues: Hard, clear contour lines; A restrained number of colors; Ancient subjects and dress; Shallow, stage like space. Accent cues, used sparingly: The rhythm of columns stripped of ornament; A strong axis and symmetry; Smooth planes of stone; Walls without large openings. Composition: Let the horizontal work hard and place elements symmetrically.. Type and lettering: Inscriptional capitals, letterspaced wide.. Let one material quality come from the second style: Large ashlar limestone or granite, honed flat, with joints fine enough that the wall reads as one continuous surface.. Mood: Trust, Luxury, 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
- Neoclassicism 1760s–1830s / Style / Historical Styles
A movement that turned back to ancient simplicity, prompted by the excavations at Pompeii and reacting against the decorative excess of Rococo. Contours are hard, color is held down, and the subjects preach civic virtue. States of the revolutionary period chose this style as their own face.
- Stripped Classicism 1920s–1950s / Style / Modern Architecture
The manner of government and memorial building in which classical architecture is shorn of ornament, leaving only proportion, axis and the rhythm of the columns. That it still reads as classical without ornament made it a cheap means of speaking authority. Important as a case in which the minimal and the intimidating live together.
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