Did it strike European contemporaries as being a bunch of upstarts falsely reaching back to an unrelated legacy, or that Americans were somehow bringing back the Roman Republic?
On a related note, what was the contemporary response to all the Roman trappings in our DC monuments?
Thanks!
I'm not not sure how to answer your first question but I can certainly answer your second.
When the plans for Washington D.C were first laid out in 1791 by Pierre L'Enfant the Mall was a central part of his design. He wanted there to be a grand avenue to connect the branches of government but the road was never constructed as L'Enfant had been dismissed from his job mid-construction.
The space put aside for L'Enfant's 'grand avenue' was basically just a natural environment up until 1850 when Andrew Jackson Downing created a plan to highlight the space's naturalistic qualities by creating English Garden-type spaces. A few of these still remain today as Henry Park and Seaton Park. Downing also built the U.S Botanic Gardens during this time.
The National Mall as we know it today, full of grand museums and monuments was really created in 1901 by the McMillan Commission. The themes present in our National Mall were quiet popular at the time and were supported by the 'City Beautiful Movement' which basically wanted more American cities to have grand spaces that sought highlight the dignity of modern humans. The McMillan Commission's plan has basically been the go-to master plan of DC since 1901, and even today there are portions of the plan which have yet to be constructed.
The humanistic ideas behind the City Beautiful Movement as well as the humanism present in the U.S constitution is where the Neoclassical themes (aka the Roman trappings) originate from. The connection to classical ideas has always been very important to Americans, as our government was heavily influenced by the Republics of Rome and Athens. Even the U.S Capitol has classical columns topped with corn as an representation of America's connection to the ancient republics. To add to this last point, classicism has been a major theme in American architectural history, particularly in the South where Palladian design was a popular style for plantation homes, and was even the style Thomas Jefferson used to build Monticello.
Basically classical architecture and Roman trappings have always been used to highlight America's republican character and our government's connection to classical philosophy. This is my first response to a post, sorry if it reads poorly.
Source: I live in DC and I have worked as a tour guide here.
