University of Oxford : Old Clarendon Building (Oxford, England) : The south elevation, detail of the portico showing the pediment

Creator:

Hawksmoor, Nicholas, 1661-1736

Published/Created:

Broad Street, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, United Kingdom
1711-1715

Date Depicted:

6/2/2007
1700 AD - 1799 AD

Materials:

stone

Notes:

The Old Clarendon Building was commissioned to house the two printing companies of Oxford University, one of which made money by producing the Authorized Version of the Bible, the other spending it in producing subsidized works of scholarship. His brief required two virtually separate sets of workrooms linked by a portico, which framed a central passage on the axis of the already standing quadrangle of the Bodleian Library [Schools Quadrangle]. As both a utilitarian structure (though it no longer houses the presses) and an ornament to the University, Hawksmoor's building combined his understanding of the eloquence of plain monumentality with his sensitivity to the detailing of Classical architecture. He provided tetrastyle Doric porticos, prostyle towards the street and applied towards the Library; the rest of the exterior is astylar, except that the entablature of the giant order is carried all the way round. The wall surfaces are articulated and enlivened by changes in plane from bay to bay that also emphasize and exploit the massive thickness of the load-bearing walls. The windows have plain, raised architraves without any of the conventional mouldings, but all the windows in the raised basement and some on the top storey have exaggerated and dropped triple keystones, a motif usually associated with Italian Mannerism but one that Hawksmoor, by producing the boldest examples, made peculiarly his own.

Variant Titles:

Bodleian Library; Clarendon Building

Topics:

Architecture -- Britain -- 18th century -- (YVRC)

Period/Style:

Mannerist
Neoclassical

Culture:

British

Accession Number:

1A2-E-O-CB-A5

Genre:

architecture (AAT)
schools: universities and colleges (buildings) (AAT)

Format:

Image

Content Type:

Sculptures, Models, & Architecture

Rights:

Copyright Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc
The use of this image may be subject to the copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) or to site license or other rights management terms and conditions. The person using the image is liable for any infringement.

Access Restrictions:

Yale Community Only

Digital:

architectural exteriors; Education; educational; printing; printing presses construction building divisions; rooms and spaces; studios (work spaces); buildings; industrial buildings; factories (structures); buildings; libraries (buildings) portico; pedim

Source Creator:

Gilchrist, Scott

Source Title:

Archivision Module Three

Source Created:

2878 Chamonix, Montreal QC
Archivision, Inc.
6/2/2007

Source Note:

Purchase, Visual Resources Collection, May, 2011; photographer Scott Gilchrist

Yale Collection:

Visual Resources Collection

Digital Collection:

Visual Resources Collection

Local Record Number:

4152

OID:

10163122

PID:

digcoll:1837117