John Summerson

Classical architecture is a visual "language" and like any other language has its own grammatical rules. Classical buildings as widely spaced in time as a Roman temple, an Italian Renaissance palace and a Regency house all show an awareness of these rules even if they vary them, break them or poetically contradict them. Sir Christopher Wren described them as the "Latin" of architecture and the ana...

The architecture produced between 1700 and 1800 represents a classic perfection which no later age has equaled. The first half of the eighteenth century was pervaded by the spirit of the Baroque, epitomized most completely in palaces and churches: Schonbrunn in Vienna, the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, the dazzling theatrical churches and Residenzes of Germany and Central Europe. After 1750 arc...