Neoclassicism

On this cast

• Saucer domeA shallow dome on a drum, as on the Pantheon in Rome: a sign of civic dignity, not of a church.
• DrumThe cylindrical wall that lifts a dome, ringed with windows and pilasters.
• Plain wingsFlat walls of fine ashlar with sparse, crisp ornament. Neoclassicism calms the Baroque down.
• Banded rusticationOnly the horizontal joints are cut deep, giving the base long lines of shadow.
• Pedimented windowsTall windows with a slim architrave and a small pediment on brackets, set in a steady rhythm.
• Greek keyA running fret pattern taken straight from ancient vases and temples.
• CorniceA cornice of strict, simple mouldings closes each wing.
• BalustradeA row of turned balusters hides the roof and gives the skyline a crisp edge.
• Portico wallThe wall behind the columns stays deep in shadow, so the colonnade stands out.
• Main doorA tall door on the axis under its own pediment.
• Statue nichesRound-headed niches with standing figures flank the door.
• Flight of stepsA wide stair up to the portico, as to a temple.
• Giant Ionic orderFree-standing columns rising through the full height of the building, copied faithfully from Greek examples.
• EntablatureA plain architrave and a frieze with laurel wreaths. Ornament is used sparingly and with archaeological care.
• Low pedimentThe temple front transplanted onto a museum, bank or parliament: authority borrowed from Athens.

How to spot it from the street

1. A temple-front portico with giant columns
2. Plain walls and sparse, precise ornament
3. Greek details: key patterns, wreaths, low pediments
4. A shallow dome on the bigger buildings

Where it came from

The digs at Herculaneum (from 1738) and Pompeii (from 1748), and the first accurate drawings of Greek temples, made Baroque look overdressed. Architects wanted simplicity, reason and 'noble simplicity and quiet grandeur', in Winckelmann's phrase. In Paris Soufflot began Sainte-Geneviève, now the Panthéon, in 1757.

Neoclassicism became the look of the new public institutions. The British Museum, the Altes Museum in Berlin and the United States Capitol all lean on the same idea: a giant portico of correct Greek or Roman columns, plain wings with crisp windows, and perhaps a dome after the Pantheon in Rome.