Architecture and the Historical Imagination: Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, 1814–1879

624 Pages·2014·14.277 MB·English

by  Martin Bressani

architecture and the historical imagination
Hailed as one of the key theoreticians of modernism, Eugène-Emmanuel
Viollet-le-Duc was also the most renowned restoration architect of his age,
a celebrated medieval archaeologist and a fervent champion of Gothic
revivalism. He published some of the most influential texts in the history of
modern architecture such as the Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture française
du XIe au XVIe siècle and Entretiens sur l’architecture, but also studies on
warfare, geology and racial history. Martin Bressani expertly traces Viollet-le-
Duc’s complex intellectual development, mapping the attitudes he adopted
toward the past, showing how restoration, in all its layered meaning, shaped
his outlook. Through his life journey, we follow the route by which the
technological subject was born out of nineteenth-century historicism.
Martin Bressani is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director
at the School of Architecture, McGill University, Canada.
To my wife Claude Jean
Architecture and the
Historical Imagination
Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, 1814–1879
Martin Bressani
© Martin Bressani 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Martin Bressani has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to
be identified as the author of this work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Bressani, Martin.
Architecture and the historical imagination : Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc,
1814-1879 / by Martin Bressani.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7546-3340-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4724-4088-4 (ebook) --
ISBN 978-1-4724-4089-1 (epub)
1. Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène-Emmanuel, 1814-1879--Psychology. 2. Architecture and
history. I. Title.
NA1053.V7B74 2014
720.92--dc23
2013037795
ISBN 9780754633402 (hbk)
ISBN 9781472440884 (ebVk)
ISBN 9781472440891 (epub)
Printed in the United Kingdom by Henry Ling Limited,
at the Dorset Press, Dorchester, DT1 1HD
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Translation and Abbreviations xxi
Preface xxiii
Acknowledgments xxvii
PART I: RESTORATION AND LOSS
1 Mourning 3
At Notre-Dame 3
Double Bind 11
Incorporation 24
Doubling 30
2 Architecture Painted 45
Drawing the Past 45
History in Color 53
Historical Drama 58
Italian Interlude 62
La poésie sauvage 73
PART II: THE GOTHIC R EBORN
3 History Re-enacted 93
Return to the Gothic 93
The Question of Vézelay 99
Restoration and the Referential Illusion 103
Vézelay Repaired 113
4 Reviving the Gothic 129
Joining the Revivalists 129
The Gothic as Excess 133
vi architecture and the historical imagination
Archaeology Practiced 140
The Sainte-Clotilde Controversy 145
Revivalism versus Modernity 151
5 The Gothic Narrated 165
Introït 165
Viollet-le-Duc’s Account of Gothic Construction:
A Brief Overview 166
Taxonomy versus Narration 172
Part III: the GothIC dIssemInated
6 Toward Empire 191
Identification Works 191
Unity as the Aftermath of Conflict 201
The Te Deum Ceremony of January 1852 210
7 The Gothic Put to Use 223
The Second Empire and the Launching of the Dictionnaire
raisonné 223
The Dictionnaire raisonné as a Publishing Venture 228
The Dictionnaire raisonné as Graphic Environment 232
Arousing Curiosity: The Figures of the Dictionnaire raisonné 239
Text and Image 241
The demi-effet 247
Drawing as Restoration 249
8 Physiology of the Ancient Architecture of France 267
Architecture versus Construction 267
The Ideal Cathedral 277
Compulsion to Repeat 288
Part IV: the GothIC as WILL
9 War rue Bonaparte: 1856–1864 305
Omnipotence 305
At the Beaux-Arts in 1857 313
The coup of 1863–1864 315
10 Instinct and Race 333
Instinct and Memory 333
Race as an Aesthetic of Revenance 345
contents vii
11 Style 381
Style versus Styles 381
Shaping Objects 382
The Imprint of an Idea 387
Style and Race 392
Part V: transGressIons Into modernIty
12 Locomotives and Iron 407
Curiosities, Ugliness and Transgression 407
Mechanical Fantasies 415
Iron Historicized 423
Iron through the Lens of History 426
13 At War 451
14 Late Works 465
The Geography of Time 465
The Massif du Mont-Blanc 478
15 Conclusion: Autogenic Rebirth 499
Bibliography 527
Index 567
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Illustrations
1 Mourning by E. Capron. From Maurice Tourneux,
Prosper Mérimée, ses portraits, ses dessins,
1.1 E.-E. Viollet-le-Duc. View of
sa bibliothèque, 1879. Private collection
existing conditions of the Antique
Theatre at Taormina. 1836. Ink wash, 1.6 Raymond-Auguste-Quinsac
graphite and gouache. 33.3 × 170.5 Monvoisin. Portrait of Emmanuel
cm. MAP. © Ministère de la Culture Louis-Nicolas Viollet-le-Duc. Undated.
/ Médiathèque du Patrimoine, Dist. Oil on canvas. From Paul Gout, Viollet-
RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY le-Duc. Sa vie, son oeuvre, sa doctrine,
1914. Courtesy Bibliothèque des livres
1.2 E.-E. Viollet-le-Duc. Restored
rares et collections spéciales, Université
view of the Antique Theatre at
de Montréal
Taormina. 1840. Watercolor. 76.6 ×
133.5 cm. MAP. © Ministère de la 1.7 Lzinka de Mirbel, Miniature
Culture / Médiathèque du Patrimoine,
portrait of Étienne Delécluze. 1832.
Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Art
Watercolor. From Paul Gout, Viollet-le-
Resource, NY
Duc. Sa vie, son oeuvre, sa doctrine, 1914.
Courtesy Bibliothèque des livres rares
1.3 The Viollet-le-Duc and Delécluze
et collections spéciales, Université de
family house at 1 rue Chabanais, Paris.
Montréal
Photo by the author
1.4 Aimé Millet (after a watercolor 1.8 Étienne Delécluze, Viollet-
by Étienne Delécluze), Portrait of le-Duc as a young boy holding his
Mrs. Sophie and Eugénie Delécluze. paint brush. 1819. Oil on canvas.
Undated. Charcoal and gouache. From Pierre-Marie Auzas, Eugène
From Paul Gout, Viollet-le-Duc. Sa vie, Viollet-le-Duc 1814–1879, 1979.
son oeuvre, sa doctrine, 1914. Courtesy Private collection
Bibliothèque des livres rares et
1.9 Raymond-Auguste-Quinsac
collections spéciales, Université de
Monvoisin. Portrait of Viollet-le-Duc.
Montréal.
1834. Graphite. From Pierre-Marie
1.5 Achille Devéria. Portrait of Auzas, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc 1814–1879,
Prosper Mérimée. c. 1832. Heliogravure 1979. Private collection