Adam Style

The Adam style is a neoclassical architectural and interior design style developed in Britain from the 1760s by the Scottish architect Robert Adam, who lived from 1728 to 1792, together with his brothers James and John working as the firm Adam Brothers. Robert Adam drew his decorative vocabulary directly from ancient Roman architecture, informed in particular by his own detailed study and 1764 publication of the ruins of the Roman emperor Diocletian's palace at Split, and translated that research into a lighter, more delicate classicism than the heavier Palladian style that had dominated earlier eighteenth century British building. Adam style interiors are marked by fine, low relief plasterwork in ovals, medallions, urns, swags and honeysuckle motifs, often picked out in pale color schemes, applied across ceilings, walls and fireplaces as a single coordinated decorative program rather than left to separate craftsmen. The style's fullest surviving expressions are English country houses the Adam brothers remodeled or built new, including Syon House and Kedleston Hall, where Robert Adam controlled everything from the architecture down to the furniture and fittings.