Exhibition 2025
From New Haven to Nimes and Arc-Et-Senans: A Study of Classical Architecture and Its Influence on Neoclassicism
Creative Performing Arts Award, Displayed in Trumbull Art Gallery
Nimes, of all cities in the south of France, has the greatest Roman architecture. It is home to several monumental structures ranging from the Jardins de la Fontaine, an ancient site of worship, to the Arena of Nimes. Most amazingly, Nimes is home to the Maison carrée, an ancient Roman temple and singlehandedly the most classic example of Vitruvian architecture.
What I discovered only last semester through Professor Craig Buckley’s course “Modern Architecture in a Global Context from 1750 - present” is that this temple has been the inspiration and template for seminal Neoclassical buildings such as the Pantheon in Paris, the Royal Salt Works in Arc-et-Senans, and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in the United States.
Studying the Maison carrée and analysing the socio-historic contexts of the resulting Neoclassical buildings, I realised there is a lot to learn in how Classical architecture has influenced Neoclassical architecture not just in France, but in the buildings we experience daily in New Haven as well.
I am interested in why buildings in New Haven such as the Center Church, the New Haven Public Library, and Yale’s Woolsey Hall were built this way. What values were their architects trying to convey through the Neoclassical style? How have these buildings progressed from their Classical counterparts? How do these buildings allude to the original Maison carrée?
This project gave me the opportunity to answer these questions. This is a study of Classical architecture in Nimes, its influence on Neoclassical architecture in the rest of France, and how this relates to the Neoclassical architecture found in New Haven today.
The first stop was Nimes. Complete with Roman aqueducts, ramparts, baths and arenas, I felt like I was walking through the ruins of an ancient city, the Rome of France. My first impression of Nimes was that it was incredibly small. The whole city could be walked around in one afternoon and explored in the one weekend that I spent there. The influence of the Romans was clearly evident with the traditional columns-pediment-entablature structure plastered on many facades. Fortunately I had a local tour guide, Annye (introduced to me by a friend in London), to point out ornamentations that were replicas of the old, the decorations that the flamboyant Louis XVI had added many years later, and differentiate them with the original Roman carvings. Most importantly she told me stories of the development of Nimes over the years and opened my eyes to classical features and allegories from the Maison carée that inspired the most modern building in Nimes, Norman Foster’s Carre d’Art.
If Nimes was frozen in time, my next stop Arc-et-Senans was frozen in place, secluded in the midst of the French countryside. When I stepped off the train, golden dappled sunlight coated the tips of long grass and wheat crops, its reflection cast on the white stucco walls of the French cottages. What interested me the most about the Royal Saltworks was that half of the 8 hectares of land was dedicated to community gardens. Students from local landscaping schools had each designed small segments, and together these wedges contributed to link the circular whole of the garden. To me the community effort was crucial as this directly opposed the grandeur and hierarchical order imposed by the neoclassical style.
Coming back to New Haven, I have now come to appreciate that yes, while New Haven does have Neoclassical buildings, they are in fact extremely different in character. The differences range from shape and structure to colour and material. Most distinctly, the buildings in New Haven often use a different material, red brick and white painted wood, perhaps a nod to the burgeoning style of colonial architecture. In New Haven there is also decreased use of the Corinthian order, and increased use of the Doric and Ionic order, a simpler, more rustic style.
Buildings found across both continents follow Palladian standards, an architectural style inspired by Roman temples that was representative of order. But more importantly the buildings in New Haven spoke to the burgeoning American ideals of democracy and hence beyond their echoes of antiquity, these buildings sing with their own distinctive nobility, timelessness, and permanence.