Architectural Styles Quiz

Architectural Styles: Characteristics, History, and Revivals

• An architectural style is a set of features that make a building historically identifiable and can include form, method of construction, building materials, and regional character.
• Styles emerge from the history of society and are documented in architectural history, with several styles being fashionable at the same time.
• Architectural styles also spread to other places, with each country adding its unique characteristics, and can spread through colonialism, foreign colonies learning from their home country or settlers moving to a new land.
• Revivals and re-interpretations of architectural styles may occur after they go out of fashion, and each revival is different.
• Vernacular architecture is not a style itself but technically can encompass every architectural style or none at all.
• Constructing schemes of period styles of historic art and architecture was a major concern of 19th-century scholars in the new field of art history.
• Terms originated to describe architectural periods were often subsequently applied to other areas of the visual arts, music, literature, and the general culture.
• Style in architecture is easier to replicate by following a set of rules than style in figurative art such as painting.
• Stylistic change in art has been the subject of debate in art history and archaeology, with some believing it is a response to new technical possibilities, while others believe it has its impetus to develop, or changes in response to social and economic factors.
• Mannerism is a style that explores the aesthetics of hyperbole and exaggeration and is notable for its intellectual sophistication and artificial qualities.
• Mannerism favours compositional tension and instability rather than balance and clarity, and the phases within it continue to be the subject of debate among art historians.
• Michelangelo is the best-known architect associated with the Mannerist style and is credited with inventing the giant order, a large pilaster that stretches from the bottom to the top of a façade.