The Formative Years

John Summerson roughly reduces the Adam style to four sources: (1) Palladianism of the Burlington-Kent school; (2) French planning; (3) Archaeological influences from Italy, Dalmatia, Syria and Greece; and (4) the influence of Renaissance masters such as Michelangelo, Raphael and Giulio Romano. The real nature of the Adam style is misleading, however, in so far as it seems to stress these stylistic sources at the expense of its profound relation to the intellectual development in Britain, especially in Scotland, from the mid-eighteenth century onwards. It was their dependence on contemporary intellectual maturation that integrated the diversified aspects of their style. This was the most profound source of inspiration for their architectural exercises, and was in part the consequence of their liberal education and, above all, their intimacy with the rising generation of the Enlightenment in the mid-eighteenth century.

When the Adam brothers were participating actively in the field of architecture, Scotland's Enlightenment movement was flowering. Enlightenment thought provoked dramatic developments in the areas of law, politics, philosophy and culture in general. And urban society responded directly to these developments with the construction of new public buildings, urban development and improvements of transportation facilities and social structure. Scotland was in the age of improvement.

In Edinburgh in particular the architectural ideas and suggestions of the Adam brothers attracted public attention and were always considered seriously. Their contributions to the development of the city of Edinburgh went far beyond that of the regular architect.