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The Italianate style of architecture was first developed by John Nash in Britain in 1805, from the Picturesque movement, with the construction of Cronkhill in Shropshire . This small country house is generally accepted to be the first Italianate villa in England, from which is derived the Italianate architecture of the late Regency and early Victorian eras John Nash Biography . The Italianate style was further developed and popularised by the architect Sir Charles Barry in the 1830s Turner, Michael. Osbourne House Page 28. English Heritage. Osbourne House. ISBN 1850742499. Barry's Italianate style drew heavily for its motifs on the buildings of the Italian Renaissance, and was described by Barry as having a starting point from the "''charming character of the irregular villas of Italy''" Girouard, Mark. ''Life in the English Counrty House' Page 272'. Yale University this concept combined with Nash's semi-rustic Italianate villas, derived from the picturesque movement, produced what came to be accepted as the Italianate style. One of Barry's most defining works in this style was the large Neo-Renaissance mansion Cliveden . It has been claimed that one third of early Victorian country houses in England used classical styles, mostly Italianate Walton, John. ''Late Georgian and Victorian Britain'' Page 58. George Philip Ltd. 1989. ISBN 0540011851. However by 1855 the style was falling from favour, and Cliveden was to be a "''declining essay in a declining fashion""Direct quote from: Walton, John. ''Late Georgian and Victorian Britain'' Page 58. George Philip Ltd. 1989. ISBN 0540011851 The style was not confined to England and in varying forms was employed throughout Europe. It was particularly popular throughout the British Empire, where its Balconies and Loggia s suited the warmer climates ITALIANATE STYLE IN ENGLAND : Osborne House completed 1851. A large Palladian house given further "Italian treatment" by the addition of a Belvedere tower.]] An early intimation of Nash's development of the Italianate style was his design in 1805 of Sandridge Park at Stoke Gabriel in Devon . Commissioned by the dowager Lady Ashburton as a country retreat, this small country house clearly shows the transition between the picturesque of William Gilpin and Nash's yet to be fully evolved Italianism. While this house can still be described as Regency , its informal asymetrical plan together with its loggia, balconies of both stone and wrought iron; tower and low pitched roof clearly are very similar to the fully Italianate design of Cronkhill Photograph of Cronkhill The house is still more a picturesque cottage than great Italian Villa or Palazzo the house generally considered to be the first example of the Italianate style in Britain Later examples of the Italianate style in England tend to take the form of Palladian style building often enhanced by a Belvedere tower complete with Renaissance type ballustrading at the roof level. This is generally a more stylistic interpretation of what architects and patrons imagined to be the case in Italy, and utilises more obviously the Italian Renaissance motifs than those earlier examples of the Italianate style by Nash. Thomas Cubitt the London building contactor incorporated the simple classical lines of the Italianate style as defined by Sir Charles Barry into many of his London terraces Turner, Michael. Osbourne House Page 28. English Heritage. Osbourne House. ISBN 1850742499. Cubitt designed Osbourne House under the direction of Prince Albert , and it is Cubitt's reworking of his two dimensional street architecture into this free standing mansion Turner, Michael. Osbourne House Page 28. English Heritage. Osbourne House. ISBN 1850742499 which was to be the inspiration for countless Italianate villas throughout the British Empire, Following the completion of Osbourne House in 1851 the style became a popular choice of design for the small mansions built by the new and wealthy industrialists of the era. These were mostly built in cities surrounded by large but not extensive gardens, often too laid out in a terrace Tuscan style. On occasions very similar, if not identical, designs to these Italianate villas would be topped by Mansard roofs, and then termed Chateauesque . However, "''after a modest spate of Italianate villas, and French chateaux''"" Girouard, Mark. ''Life in the English Counrty House' Page 272'. Yale University by 1855 the most favoured style of an English Country House was Gothic, Tudor, or Elizabethan. ITALIANATE STYLE IN THE UNITED STATES : Alexander Jackson Davis 's design for the United States first Italianate building. Completed 1846]] The Italianate style was introduced in the United States by Alexander Jackson Davis in the 1840s as an alternative to Gothic or Greek Revival styles. Blandwood the Govenor's mansion in North Carolina , completed in 1846, claims to be the oldest example of Italianate architecture in the United States Blandwood Mansion, America's Earliest Tuscan Villa . An early example of Italianate architecture it is closer in ethos to the Italianate works of Nash, then the more Renaissance inspired designs of Barry. Italianate was reinterpreted again and became an indigenous style. It is distinctive by its pronounced exaggeration of many Italian Renaissance characteristics. Emphatic Eave s supported by Corbel s. Low-pitched barely discernable from the ground, or even flat roofs with a wide projection. A tower is often incorporated hinting at the Italian Belvedere or even Campanile tower. Motifs drawn from the Italianate style were incorporated into the commercial builders' vocabulary, and appear in Victorian Architecture dating from the mid to late 1800s. This architectural style became more popular than Greek Revival by the late 1860s, becoming the most popular house style in the United States due to its being suitable for many different building materials and budgets, as well as the development of cast-iron and press-metal technology making the production of decorative elements like the brackets and cornices more efficient. However, the style was superseded in the late 1870s by the Queen Anne Style and Colonial Revival style. completed 1895]] The Breakers (''illustrated left'') located on Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island a 70-room mansion constructed between 1893 and 1895 designed by the Architect Richard Morris Hunt for Cornelius Vanderbilt II is the epitome of the Italianate style in the United States. while to all outward appearances it appears a complete Renaissance palazzo, its construction using steel trusses and no wooden parts made use of the most modern building techniques the late 19th century had to offer. The tall chimneys, juxtaposing wings plus the exaggeratedly large corbels supporting the pitched and visible roof are all indicative signs of the American interpretation of the Italianate style. However, by the time of its completion "The Breakers" was more an expression of its owners personal taste, and cultivation than a popular architectural style. ITALIANATE STYLE IN AUSTRALIA completed in 1876.]] , New South Wales , Australia was built in the Italianate Architectural Style in 1881]] The Italianate style proved to be immensly popular in Australia as a domestic style, the architect . Cream-colored, with many Palladian features; except for its machiolated signorial tower that Wardell crowned with a Belvedere — it would not be out of place among the unified streets and squares in Thomas Cubitt's Belgravia , London. The hipped roof is concealed by a Balustrade d Parapet . The principal block is flanked by two lower asymmetrical secondary wings that contribute picturesque massing, best appreciated from an angled view. The larger of these being divided from the principal block by the belvedere tower. The smaller, the ballroom block, is eneterd through a columned Porte-cochere designed as a single storey Prostyle Portico . The Italianate style of architecture continued to be built in outposts of the British Empire long after it had ceased to be in fashion n Britain itself. The Railway station of Albury , New South Wales , Australia completed in 1881 is an example of this further evolution of the style INTERIOR DECORATION . The Hall decorated in 19th Century Italianate style]] In interior decoration there were direct parallels to "Italianate" architecture with free recombinations of decorative features drawn from Italian 16th-century architecture and objects, which were applied to purely 19th-century forms. Wardrobes and dressers could be dressed in Italianate detailing as well as row houses. The spur to such commercial designs can be found in the "free Renaissance" style that was espoused by Charles Eastlake . In 1868 he published ''Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and other Details'' which was very influential in Britain and later in the United States, where the book was published in 1872. Today "Italianate" furnishings are often called "Eastlake" by North American collectors and dealers, but contemporary terms for such broadly classicizing designs ranged imaginatively, and included "Neo-Grec". ELEMENTS OF THE STYLE Elements of this style include exterior ornamentation involving roof brackets with extended exterior Cornice mouldings, Quoins , Portico and floral designs. Key visual components of this style include:
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