HISTORY OF ROMAN ARCHITECTURE
Comparing Pantheon with Hotel Tassel (Art Nouveau)
: Pantheon, Italy, Rome; 118-35 A.D.
: Staircase of Hotel Tassel; by V.Horta, Bruxelles; 1892-93
- Interior of Pantheon
(The Art of the World #6 Rome, Published by Gakken, Japan, 1974)
- On the lower level are seven full-length niches, each of which has a pair of Corinthian columns and pilasters alternating with smaller rectangular niches surmounted by triangular-shaped gables.
The second level of original design is the same pattern of the lower level but reduced the size and flattened. The columns are made by colored marble with solid Corinthian Capital.
- The substantial round columns, having real function of structure, and pilasters, part of the walls, are reappear on the upper level as plane graphic images.
The metamorphosis of the columns from real to formal, substantial to virtual suggests the process of abstraction or semiotics.
And also geometric patterns on the floor shows the geometrical motif and the resonance of the abstract design of Pantheon.
- Staircase of Hotel Tassel; by V.Horta, Bruxelles; 1892-93
(from "Victor Horta Hotel Tassel" by Francois Loyer - Jean Dlhaye, aux Archives D'architecture Moderne, Bruxelles)
The one of the best works of Art Nouveau style
- A steel column, with the shape of plant, is transformed into beams of organic figure relating to the banisters, beam of lamp and other elements.
The substantial column and other elements metamorphose into graphic patterns on the ceiling, walls and floor and finally fade into flat reflection.
The metamorphosis of the substance into virtual images repeat infinitely in the continuity of Art Nouveau.
And the fact that the virtual images which are fading into plane illusion gradually has the figure of organic plant shows the motivation in the beginning of modern age from William Morris to Arts and Crafts movement to Art Nouveau.
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