Italianate vs Second Empire
Second Empire is the cross-discipline counterpart of Italianate — a contemporaneous Victorian style; mansard roofs were sometimes grafted onto Italianate massing.
Italianate
A romantic Victorian-era style evoking the informal villas of rural Italy — deep bracketed eaves, tall narrow windows, and an asymmetrical tower.
- Widely overhanging eaves on prominent paired decorative brackets
- Tall, narrow windows, often round-arched, with elaborate crowns
- Asymmetrical massing with a cupola, belvedere, or off-center tower
- Low-pitched or flat roofline rather than a steep gable
- Quoins, belt courses, and bracketed porch and door hoods
Second Empire
A grand, modern-yet-monumental Victorian style defined by the steep mansard roof and rich Baroque-derived ornament, named for the France of Napoleon III.
- Steep, dual-pitched mansard roof, often with iron cresting
- Dormer windows projecting through the mansard's lower slope
- Projecting central and end pavilions giving a tripartite façade
- Baroque-derived ornament: paired columns, pediments, quoins
- Pronounced vertical, monumental massing crowned by towers
At a glance
| Italianate | Second Empire | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1840–1885 | 1855–1890 |
| Discipline | Architecture | Architecture |
| Region | United Kingdom, United States, Australia | France, United States, United Kingdom, Canada |
| Family | Victorian | Victorian |
| Formal traits | bracketed, arched-windows, towered, low-roof | mansard, dormered, pavilioned, ornamental |
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