Historical Styles

Dictionary entry

1. Art Deco 1920s–1930s / Style

   Stages urban luxury with repeating geometry and a metallic sheen.

2. Art Nouveau 1890s–1910s / Style

   Joins letters, figures and ornament into one flowing, plant-like line.

3. Gothic medieval–modern revivals / Style

   Summons mystery, awe and permanence through verticality and dark ornament.

4. Palladianism 1550s– / 17th–18th century revival / Style

   The villa formula Palladio distilled from Roman antiquity — proportion, temple front, strict symmetry — spread through his Four Books to Britain and America, becoming the archetypal 'correct face' of public architecture.

5. Baroque 1600–1750 / Style

   The total-art style that pulls the viewer in with ovals, curved surfaces, dramatic light and abundant ornament — treating architecture, sculpture, painting and urbanism as one staged spectacle of power and faith.

6. Rococo 1730s–1770s / Style

   Turned Baroque grandeur toward interior intimacy: shell-like curves, pale color and asymmetrical ornament composing a light-footed social space. One of the first styles in which decoration broke free of architecture to take the lead.

7. Beaux-Arts 1830s–1920s / Style

   The academic synthesis of the classical taught at the École des Beaux-Arts: grand axes, sculptural ornament and ceremonial sequence laid over modern iron and glass, giving the modern city its public face — stations, museums, banks.

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