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What did Robert and James Adam publish in The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam?
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Robert Adam
Robert Adam, oil painting by an unknown artist; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
In The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam, published in two volumes between 1773 and 1779 (with a third volume following posthumously in 1822), the brothers detailed their architectural philosophy and designs.1
Most notably, the preface to the first volume provides their definition of "movement," a core concept of the Adam style. They described this principle as:
Movement is meant to express, the rise and fall, the advance and recess, with other diversity of form, in the different parts of a building, so as to add greatly to the picturesque of the composition.1