Belgian architect and designer. Trained at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (1876-81), Horta became a pupil of the Neoclassical architect Alphonse Balat. His first independent building, the four-storied Hôtel Tassel in Brussels (1892-93), was among the first continental examples of Art Nouveau, although it incorporated Neo-GothicGLOSSARYGothic, which may well have originated with Alberti as a derogatory term and which certainly corresponds to Vasari's 'maniera tedesca' ('German style'), is properly the descriptive term for an artistic style which achieved its first full flowering in the Ile de France and the surrounding areas in the period between c. 1200 and c. 1270, and which then spread throughout northern Europe. It is characterized by the hitherto unprecedented integration of the arts of sculpture, painting, stained glass and architecture which is epitomized in the great cathedrals of Chartres, Amiens, and Reims or in the Sainte Chapelle in Paris. In all the arts the predominantly planar forms of the Romanesque are replaced by an emphasis on line. There is a transcendental quality, whether in the soaring forms of the pointed arches or in the new stress on the humanity of Christ, which similarly distinguishes it from the preceding Romanesque style. In thinking of Nicola (d. c. 1284) or Giovanni Pisano (d. after 1314) there is same danger of forgetting what had happened in French sculpture half a century or more earlier, and likewise it is hard to remember that the spectacular achievements of early Renaissance art are a singularly localized eddy in the continuing stream of late gothic European art. By northern European standards few Italian works of art can be called gothic without qualification, and the story of 13th and 14th century Italian architecture is as much one of resistance to the new style as of its reception, whether directly from France or through German or central European intermediaries. In sculpture and in painting, the Italian reluctance to distort the human figure, conditioned by a never wholly submerged awareness of the omnipresent antique heritage, gives a special quality to the work of even those artists such as Giovanni Pisano or Simone Martini who most closely approached a pure gothic style. Nevertheless, the vitalizing role of Northern gothic art throughout the early Renaissance and the period leading up to it should never be underestimated. The artistic, like the cultural and commercial, interaction was continuous and much of the Italian achievement is incomprehensible if seen in isolation. It is not merely at the level of direct exchanges between one artist and another, or the influence of one building; painting, manuscript or piece of sculpture upon another, that the effects are to be felt. The streaming quality of line which is so characteristic of Brunelleschi's early Renaissance architecture surely reflects a sensitivity to the gothic contribution which is entirely independent of, and lies much deeper than, the superficial particularities of form. The counterflow of influence and inspiration from South to North must likewise not be underrated. In particular, the contribution of Italian painters from Duccio and Simone Martini onwards is central to the evolution of the so-called International Gothic style developing in Burgundy, Bohemia and north Italy in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. and Neo-RococoGLOSSARYA style of design, painting, and architecture dominating the 18th century, often considered the last stage of the Baroque. Developing in the Paris townhouses of the French aristocracy at the turn of the 18th century, Rococo was elegant and ornately decorative, its mood lighthearted and witty. Louis XV furniture, richly decorated with organic forms, is a typical product. Leading exponents of the Rococo sryle included the French painters Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) and Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), and the German architect Johann Balthasar Neumann (1687-1753). Rococo gave way to Neo-classicism. stylistic elements. An important feature was its octagonal hall with a staircase leading to various levels. The curved line, characteristic of the Art Nouveau style, was used on both the façadeGLOSSARYthe front or principal face of a building, especially one elaborately constructed; a blind façade is a façade that is purely decorative and does not relate to the structure of the building. and interior. Other buildings in Brussels in his rich, elegant style are Hôtel Solvay (1898-1900), notable for the plastic treatment of its façade, and Hotel Winssingers (1895-96), as well as his own house on the rue Americaine (1898).
His masterwork is the Maison du Peuple, Brussels (1896-99), the first structure in Belgium to have a largely iron and glass façade (demolished in 1965). In its auditorium, the iron roof beams were both structural and decorative. After 1903 Horta simplified his style, using decoration more sparingly and eliminating exposed iron. His later output demonstrates a safer and more academic approach.
In 1912 he became director of the academy and designed the Palais des Beaux-Arts (1922-28) in a simple, severe classicalGLOSSARYRelating to the culture of ancient Greece and Rome (classical Antiquity). The classical world played a profoundly important role in the Renaissance, with Italian scholars, writers, and artists seeing their own period as the rebirth (the "renaissance") of classical values after the Middle Ages. The classical world was considered the golden age for the arts, literature, philosophy, and politics. Concepts of the classical, however, changed greatly from one period to the next. Roman literature provided the starting point in the 14th century, scholars patiently finding, editing and translating a wide range of texts. In the 15th century Greek literature, philosophy and art - together with the close study of the remains of Roman buildings and sculptures-expanded the concept of the classical and ensured it remained a vital source of ideas and inspiration. style. His last major undertaking was the central railway station in Brussels, which began just before World War II.
Although his work was confined almost entirely to Brussels, the ten years (1893-1903) of his active career working in the Art Nouveau style had a revolutionary effect on European perceptions of 19th-century rules of design. Apart from initiating and developing the style in Brussels, he created interiors in which furniture and decoration were remarkable for their stylistic unity and were in complete opposition to the eclecticismGLOSSARYA nineteenth and twentieth-century architectural style in which a single piece of work incorporates a mixture of elements from previous historical styles to create something that is new and original. of 'conventional' contemporary interior decoration. He was one of the first architects to consider the potential of the open plan. He also applied the rationalist principles of Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc regarding the exposure of the iron structures of his buildings. He was the first to make extensive use of cast iron in domestic architecture, combining the taste of an artist with the skill of an engineer in fashioning iron into the sinuous organic outlines characteristic of Art Nouveau.
The achievement of Horta's earlier career was extraordinary, his skills as a decorative and structural designer and as a planner coming together to create works of rich visual and spatial experience. His buildings were highly influential, in particular for Hector Guimard, who met Horta in 1895. Because of his innovations in structural expression and free planning, Horta came to be regarded by many as a precursor of the Modern Movement; it is, therefore, curious that he did not participate in the new movements in architecture that gathered momentum after World War I and reflected many of the same preoccupations.
Horta ranks with Henry van de Velde and Paul Hankar as a pioneer of modern Belgian architecture.
