American Renaissance

In the history of American architecture and art, the period between about 1876 and 1917 is known as the American Renaissance. It is mainly characterized by a renewed national self-confidence and the feeling that the United States were the heirs of Greek democracy, Roman law and Renaissance humanism.

Background

The prevailing at the time of employment of the U.S. population to their national identity and nationalism was expressed by both the Modern and technology as well as by academic classicism. The people were convinced of new technologies, such as the cable construction of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Culturally, this epoch is reflected primarily in Prairie Houses and the Beaux -Arts architecture and art resist, as in the City Beautiful movement and the " establishment of the American Empire ". The Americans felt that their civilization had become very modern and at the same time grow up. Politically and economically, this era coincides with the Gilded Age and neo-imperialism.

The falling in this epoch World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 seemed impressive at Henry Brooks Adams, who was convinced that people in the future even more on Richard Morris Hunt, Henry Hobson Richardson, John La Farge, Augustus Saint -Gaudens Daniel Burnham, Charles Follen McKim and Stanford White would speak, if the contemporary politicians and millionaires are almost forgotten.

In the cathedral of the reading room of the new Library of Congress mural by Edwin Blashfield can be seen that deal with the topic of the progress of civilization.

The exhibition shown in 1979 at the Brooklyn Museum American Renaissance: 1876-1917 fanned the general interest in this movement again.