The Terracotta Designs of Alfred Waterhouse - Couverture souple

Cunningham, Colin

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0471489492 ISBN 13 : 9780471489498

Editeur : Wiley-Academy, 2000

Synopsis

The Natural History Museum in London is one of Britain's finest examples of late Victorian architecture at its exuberant height. A decorative tour de force, it was conceived by Alfred Waterhouse, whose attention to detail in the creation of this masterpiece is legendary. The terracotta mouldings of flora and fauna adorning both interior and exterior of the building rival in richness and variety the equally renowned contents of the Museum's collections. This book presents a history of the development of Waterhouse's designs for these mouldings, setting them in the context of his work as a whole and of their manufacture. It acknowledges his courage in selecting the generally frowned upon medium of terracotta for the execution of the ornament, rather than the established and respected material of carved stone. It also provides a unique document of his exquisite pencil drawings for the individual blocks: although many of the drawings were destroyed when their practical use had expired, over 130 still survive, and are held in the Museum's Library. Seldom seen and never reproduced in their entirety, they bear witness to the fact that Waterhouse was not only a skilled architect but also an extremely accomplished draughtsman. This is a unique portrait of an ornamental scheme which influenced a generation at the end of the nineteenth century.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

COLIN CUNNINGHAM is known to many as the presenter of numerous Open University television programmes on Architectural History. He has written extensively on Victorian architecture, most recently contributing to The Albert Memorial (ed. Chris Brooks, Yale University Press, 2000), and co--authored the award--winning Alfred Waterhouse 1830 -- 1905:Biography of a Practice (Oxford University Press, 1992). He is former Chairman of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, and recently retired from the post of Reader in Architectural History at the Open University.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Wiley-Academy
• Date d'édition: 2000
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0471489492
• ISBN 13: 9780471489498
• Reliure: Broché
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 192
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible