The Architecture, Decoration and Ornament Plate Books Collection (1819–1948)
The Architecture, Decoration and Ornament Plate Books Collection (1819-1948)
The architecture, decoration and ornament plate book collection contains 600 rare books. They were used as teaching materials at the Architecture Department of the University of Technology from the middle of the 19th century to the early 20th century.
The books are illustrated with printed black and white and colored plates in different techniques (lithography, etching, engraving, photogravure, heliotype). There is a mix of unique volumes, series and periodical publications, mainly in German, French and English, but including a large range of languages, origins and architectural styles.
The collection is available for research at the Aalto University archives on Otaniemi Â鶹´«Ã½. Some of the materials have also been digitized on Aalto Repo and Finna.
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Ornament plate books
19th‑century ornament plate books belong to a long publishing tradition beginning in late 18th‑century England. The rise of the plate books in Europe can be seen as a reaction to the destruction and looting of aristocratic and religious architecture during the French Revolution. Over the 19th century, manufacturers absorbed the codified forms spread through the plate books and, in turn, drove their standardization. Therefore, at the end of the century, the genre had reached its twilight.
A shift in the ornament status
During the 19th century, the ornament plate books built the notion of styles, based on scholar studies of political and religious contexts. Historicism had a major influence on the architecture, ornamentation and interior design of the time. Ornamentation thus emerged as a field in its own right, fencing with architecture for precedence.
Rossella FroissartThe shift is radical: changes in architectural form are understood through ornament.
For example, César Daly’s Motifs historiques reproduces French decors from the 15th to 18th century. Its chromolithographic plates are arranged chronologically by French reigns, from Louis II to Louis XVI. The decorative art styles, retrospectively defined in the 19th century, were named after the king of each era.
Historical inspirations
A significant part of the collection focuses on outstanding monuments from Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and more broadly the early modern period. These depictions mirror 19th‑century tastes and ideals, inspired by past architectures, and, in many cases, understood through a lens of fantasy as much as scholarship.
Many volumes explore ancient decorative and architectural styles, especially Greek and Roman. The largest chromolithography plate book of the collection, Gli Stili nella forma e nel colore, offers opulent illustrations of ancient art from the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
For the medieval era, the main focus is on religious architecture. Some books spotlight Anglo‑Norman and Arab‑Andalusian traditions, such as L’Architecture normande aux XIe et XIIe siècles en Normandie et en Angleterre and Die Baukunst Spaniens in ihren hervorragendsten Werken.
The books about Renaissance architecture and ornament often center Italian palaces and churches, as in Vincenza and Gli stili nella forma e nel colore. Works on the early modern era mostly highlight Baroque and Rococo styles, notably in the series Palast‑Architektur von Ober‑Italien und Toscana vom XV. bis XVII.
Historicist construction
Another major strand of the collection presents architecture from 19th‑century Europe and the United States into the early 20th century, contemporary with the books themselves. These albums often feature richly appointed private residences, from ornate facades to interior decoration, allowing today’s readers to track antique and medieval revivals.
Neoclassical currents are fueled by the century’s archaeological discoveries. Wealthy young men, sent on a Grand Tour to complete their education, brought back reproductions of ancient objects from these sites. Accordingly, Kunstgewerbliche Vorbilder aus dem Alterthum presents various decorative art objects, including ancient models and neoclassical copies. Neo‑Gothic examples influenced by medieval forms appear in volume 2 of Innere Ausbau and in Peintures murales des Chapelles de Notre-Dame de Paris.
The turn towards Art Nouveau at the beginning of the 20th century is likewise represented in both architecture and interiors within the collection, notably in the series Architektur von Olbrich and Aus der Wagnerschule. In the Art Nouveau movement, ornament is not only considered as an accessory to the structure but at the root of the architectural form. Thus, it can be seen as the peak of the ornamentation field.
Sources
Text: Cléa Mariotti