Early Modern Architecture

Early Modern Architecture explores global, interdisciplinary frameworks for the architecture (design, theory, and practice) of Europe and its colonies, c.1400-c.1800. This site particularly disseminates and fosters international scholarly exchange of innovative research and education. We seek to showcase new methodologies that link areas of architectural history, art history, and the humanities. All images are in the public domain, obtained from open access collections and also out of copyright. Information on reproduction policies of particular collections is available on our website: http://earlymodernarchitecture.com.

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Virgil Master, Liber alchandrei philosophi, c. 1405 (France).  Tempera colors, gold paint, gold leaf, and ink on parchment in a 16th-century doeskin binding, restored and rebacked in 1946.  Ms. 72 (2003.25), The J. Paul Getty Museum of Art, Los Angeles.

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Melchior Küsel after Johann Wilhelm Baur, Escorial, Spain, 1681.  Etching.  Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

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Francis Harding, Warwick Castle, c. 1764.  Oil on canvas.  Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

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Taddeo Crivelli, St. Gregory, c. 1469.  Tempera colors, gold paint, gold leaf, and ink on parchment.  Ms. Ludwig IX 13 (83.ML.109), fol. 172v, The J. Paul Getty Museum of Art, Los Angeles.

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Italian or Spanish artist, Altar frontal with scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist, probably for Valletta, Malta, c. 1600. Gold metallic threads and multi-colored silk embroidery on silk velvet; semi-precious stones. Costume Council Fund, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (http://www.lacma.org).

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Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Veduta, nella Via del Corso, del Palazzo dell’Accademia instituita da Luigi XIV, Re di Francia per i Nazionale Francesi studiosi della Pittura, Scultura, e Architettura..., in Vedute di Roma, 1752. Etching. The Arthur Ross Collection, Yale University Art Gallery.

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Jan van der Heyden, Burning of the Old Amsterdam Town Hall, 1690. Etching and engraving on laid paper.  Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

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Lievin Cruyl, Eighteen Views of Rome: The Castel Sant’Angelo, 1665.  Pen and brown ink and brush and gray wash over graphite; squared in graphite; framing lines in brown ink. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund 1943.268.

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Peter Monamy, The Opening of the First Eddystone Light in 1698, c. 1703.  Oil on canvas. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

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Workshop of Gerard Horenbout (Flemish), Initial H:  David in Prayer, c. 1500. Tempera colors and gold paint on parchment. Ms. Ludwig IX 17 (83.ML.113), fol. 71, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

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Stained-glass window with arms of the town of Schaffhausen, Switzerland, 1609.  Pot metal; white glass with silver stain and enamel; flashed and abraded glass.  William Randolph Hearst Collection, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (http://www.lacma.org).

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William Chambers, “The Primitive Buildings,” in A Treatise on Civil Architecture, 1759.  Engraving.  Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

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Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Campanile of a Cathedral for Berlin, 1831.  Pen and gray ink with gray wash over graphite, touched with pen and brown ink, with a border in pen and green ink with gold wash, on wove paper laid down on card. Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Patrons' Permanent Fund, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

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Jonathan Goldsmith and Lewis Firm, Doorway from the Isaac Gillet House, Painesville, Ohio, USA, 1821. Wood, leaded panes, and brass decoration.  Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry, The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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George Arnald, A Western View of Part of Westminster and Bird Cage Walk Taken from the Mill House, 1808.  Oil on panel.  Yale Center for British Art, The Paul Mellon Collection.

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Willem Vrelant (Flemish), Christ Blessing, early 1460s. Tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink on parchment. Ms. Ludwig IX 8, fol. 34, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

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Heraldic panel, Netherlands, c. 1625.  White glass with silver stain and enamel.  William Randolph Hearst Collection, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (http://www.lacma.org).