Borne out of this, starting around the 17th Century was the Baroque era. It is my view that it is one of the architectural peak periods in western civilisation.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Has it struck you that the music which is regarded as the most sublime in western civilization, which is the music of Bach, is called baroque?
In Florence, classical buildings sit against medieval buildings. It's that contrast we like.
Although there are countless tangents that a career in the building arts can take, it is nonetheless most unusual for a major architectural practice to emerge once a firm's principals are well into what is loosely called middle age.
A contemporary artist can use the findings of all epochs and all styles, from the most primitive literary expressions up to the most refined products of the baroque.
It is not architectural achievement that makes the structures of earlier times seem to us so full of significance but the circumstance that antique temples, Roman basilicas, and even the cathedrals of the Middle Ages are not the works of single personalities but creations of entire epochs.
There was an age, however, when the transition from savagery to civilization, with all its impressive outward manifestations in art and architecture, took place for the first time.
I think every period - except for the 14th century, or something - has some merits.
I don't believe that classical architecture is enough to engage people anymore. They say: 'So what else is new?'
The tradition of classical music and the opera is such that it used to be the place where social intercourse could take place between all parts of society: politicians, industrialists, artists, citizens, etc. That tradition, I think, still exists, but it's much, much more diluted.
Prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over.