Greek Temple, Architectural Project, Victor Forabosco

GREEK TEMPLE, ARCHITECTURAL PROJECT
Victor Forabosco
1895/6
Watercolor on paper
50 x 97 cm

Victor Forabosco was a master builder, i.e., architect, structural engineer, civil engineer, and site manager all rolled into one. He built villas and residential buildings in the Art Nouveau style, such as the Schmidt House in Kapfenberg (1906-7) and the company hotel of the Austrian-Alpine Coal and Steel Company in Leoben (1911-12). The present watercolor of a Greek temple was created in 1895-96 during his student year in Hanover and was "attestirt," i.e., accepted as a student project, by a Mr. Ross. Architectural drawing was an integral part of the curriculum for architecture students. It was not only a precise technical drawing, serving as a basis for subsequent construction with ground plan and elevation, but also, as here, to capture the essence and appearance of historical building forms and reproduce them in atmosphere. Forabosco's task was probably to draw an idealized temple. This he did, with all the architectural elements, a great deal of imagination, and a good sense of color. As decoration, he added famous sculptures and friezes from antiquity, such as Cupid and Psyche or Venus and Mars (both now in the Capitoline Museums in Rome). His depiction of temples is stylistically in line with the neoclassical architectural paintings and vedute of the 18th and 19th centuries.