Art And Architecture Essay Samples

The arrival of colonial masters in America marked a tremendous change in the cultural, social economic and political orientation in the country. One of the social cultural practices that the colonial masters came with was the introduction of Christianity to the American land. As the European settlers continued to stream into America in the early 15th and 16th century, locals were gradually converted into Christians. During her reign, Queen Elizabeth I instituted radical reforms and doctrines in the Church of England, a move that placed many Puritans on a collision course and made them to migrate to the new America for asylum and religious freedom. Puritans were dissatisfied by the limited extent of the English reformation and the Church of England’s acceptance of some practices of the Catholic Church. They believed in simplicity and modesty and their religious beliefs were reflected by the houses they built. They built simple houses that had a thatched roof and windowpanes of glued paper.
The natives of America adopted the Puritan architectural design and today it is much regarded as classy. The design has been extensively preferred to domestic architecture.
Another architectural design that found its way to the larger America was the Palladian-a design that originated from Italy. This style was a replica of Greek and Roman classical motifs. This design was mostly found in the southern parts of America as a majority the New England Puritans preferred their own style. This style was mainly adopted by rich plantation owners.
The architectural designs that would be adopted were determined by various factors that included religion, economic status and the availability of the raw materials. As evidenced by the plight of the Puritans, their first building had window panes made of glued papers and thatched roofs. Later when their economic status improved, they replaced the windowpanes with glass ones and the roof were now made of split wood, which was abundantly available at that time.
As the economic status of settlers improved, their taste of modesty too increased and this led to many designs that were an improved version of the old one. Bricks were also introduced and became a critical component in the construction activity.