Historians have called the mix of architectural
styles used during the 1870s and 1880s "synthetic eclecticism."
(18) Architects and artists
in the early nineteenth century drew from a variety of sources,
but not always harmoniously.
In contrast, American Renaissance artists and
architects produced works according to the principles of "scientific
eclecticism." They drew from the best scientific models.
The result was
an art and an architecture that demonstrated American
originality while drawing from the best European sources.
At the same time, the art and architecture reflected
the Victorian desire for harmony, order, and restraint.
Reasons for the Renaissance Architectural historian Richard
Guy Wilson cites three factors that fueled the American
A growing interest
in idealistic subjects in American art
in foreign cultures
An increased American nationalism
Historian David Handlin offers further
reasoning into the adoption of classical models.
Renaissance was a response to the "overactivity"
of buildings by architects such as Frank Furness
and H. H. Richardson
Architectural practices had
grown in size by the 1890s, and classical handbooks
enabled many architectural firms to undertake and
complete more projects (19)
In Sticks and Stones, historian
Lewis Mumford argues that the classical tradition expressed
The closing of the frontier
The rise of a robber baron class
with ambitions to become a new aristocracy (20)
The American Renaissance, in short, offered
an idealized, genteel world in the midst of economic, social,
and cultural change.