Christopher Tadgell

The Prophet Muhammad – acknowledged by his followers to have been the hand with which God wrote his definitive Word enshrined in the Koran – was born into the Quraishi tribe at Mecca around 570 AD and died in Medina in 632 AD. The great religion founded on that Word, which first claimed the submission (Islam) of the Arabs, rapidly...

The seventh book in the Architecture in Context series, this is a comprehensive survey of the European tradition of architecture from the pre-dawn of the Enlightenment in early Georgian England to the triumph of Brutalism in the seventh decade of the twentieth century. The three main sections are preceded by a concise introduction isolating the key philosophical and political theories...

Unprecedented in scope, this fifth volume in the Architecture in Context series traces the rediscovery of Classical ideas and the emergence of the great artists and architects of late 15th- and early 16th-century Italy, leading to the cultural peak characterised as the High Renaissance. It begins with a definition of Mannerism, the seminal development from the High Renaissance and the...

In tracing the evolution of the Louvre from fortress to palace and of Versailles from hunting domain to dynastic capital, Dr Tadgell’s detailed architectural analysis of many projects—external and internal, realised and unrealised— is set in the context of the development of the medieval monarchy towards absolutism, of the development of the medieval château towards precedents for the seat of...

In tracing the evolution of the Louvre from fortress to palace and Versailles from hunting domain to dynastic capital, Dr Tadgell’s detailed architectural analysis of many projects—external and internal, realised and unrealised—is set in the context of the development of the medieval monarchy towards absolutism. It also examines the development of the medieval château towards precedents for the seat of...

This volume tells the story of European architecture in the ‘middle ages’ – from the destruction by northern barbarians of Rome and the urban society it had fostered to the rediscovery of Classical values and the rebirth of humanism in 15th-century Italy. This period saw the evolution of feudalism, with its patterns of dependency and obligation, the establishment of monasticism...

Unprecedented in scope—like its companion volume on the High Renaissance, Mannerism—this sixth volume in the Architecture in Context series traces the development of architecture and decoration in the 17th and early 18th centuries. It particularly explores the transformation of rationalist Classical ideals into the emotive, highly theatrical style known as Baroque, and the further development away from architectonic principles to...

This book traces the evolution of the great palaces of the Louvre and Versailles, from Pierre Lescot’s designs for expanding the former in the mid-16th century to the successive grands projets for the transformation of the latter over the course of the 18th century. Detailed architectural analysis is set in the context of the development of the medieval monarchy towards...