Green Lion Gothic Revival Style
Following on from the Romanesque style of the 11th and 12th centuries, Gothic architecture is an inevitable influence on the British landscape.
18th Century
Features of a school of romanticised Gothic architecture, can be seen in Oxford colleges and residential properties; in restored cathedrals; and in new churches, replacing the original medieval structure. One of the prime movers of a new interest in Gothic style was Horace Walpole. His Castle of Otranto (1764) is considered to be the first Gothic novel in the English language: supernatural events provide arrive with exaggerated symbolism, as the plot is gradually unveiled. Walpole's Strawberry Hill House, a suburban development, is vaguely based on archaeologically correct Gothic. The Gothic designs of English architect James Wyatt RA (1746-1813) similarly met the aspirations of the landed classes and clergy. Wyatt's career also encompassed commissions in the classical style of the period.
Victorian Gothic
- Victorian designers installed new stained glass windows, adding a dimension of colour to the light within the building. The Gothic arts were studied by a series of amateur art historians and scientists rediscovering the medieval glass techniques. Pieces of glass were tested and their colour secrets unlocked, enabling the revival in the production of mosaic stained glass, leading off separate colours.
- Interest in the Illuminated Manuscript was revived by John Ruskin. Ruskin saw the ornately decorated pre-print books produced by monastic scribes as examples of the Gothic, an aesthetic Ruskin championed as providing the artistic fulfilment lost in the age of mass production. The medieval mode of production, Ruskin argued, provided the artisan with an opportunity for individual expression; the artisan contributed not simply his labour power, but his expertise and aesthetic sensibility.
- A.W.N. Pugin, published The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture in 1841, which contained several themes that Ruskin would later echo: that a building should first be functional; that decorative details should embellish the functional; and that materials and conditions should indicate methods of construction. Ruskin's The Seven Lamps of Architecture discusses the architecture of Medieval Europe and identified authenticity "as a lamp of architecture" in Victorian Britain: "I have now no doubt that the only style proper for modern northern work, is the Northern Gothic of the 13th century, as exemplified, in England, pre-eminently by the cathedrals of Lincoln and Wells, and, in France, by those of Paris, Amiens, Chartres, Rheims, and Bourges, and by the transepts of that of Rouen."
- Ruskin, having set out his modus operandi then transferred his base of operations to northern Italy in The Stones of Venice. For Ruskin, the Ducal Palace on Saint Mark’s Square, was “The Central Building of the World.” Venice was, he suggested, “The first of the states in Christendom."
Features of Neo-Gothic were later incorporated into the Art Nouveau style that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century.
Neo-Gothic Timeline
- 1747 - Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (1717-1797), known as Horace Walpole, was an art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and politician. In same year in which he published Aedes Walpolianae, a catalogue of Sir Robert's art collection and the first book on a private art collection in England, Walpole moved into Strawberry Hill, a former coachman's cottage near the London suburb of Twickenham.
- 1752 to 1756 - Shobdon church, near Leominster, rebuilt in the 18th century for the Hon. Richard Bateman of Shobdon Court, a friend of Horace Walpole, is an example of the rococo Gothic style. The original church was kept as a "folly"; the V&A has a plaster cast of the 12th century tympanum made for the Hyde Park Great Exhibition. Stylistically, Shobdon is a jolly and cheerful version of medieval architecture made fit for polite society.
- Easter Monday 1786 - The west end of Hereford Cathedral fell down damaging the Norman nave. Repairs were undertaken by Wyatt. "Wyatt's Folly" was itself restored in the 20th century by John Oldrid Scott.
- 1789 - French Revolution proved fatal to the monastic buildings and Romanesque abbey church of Cluny. The church was systematically dynamited for construction material (1811 to 1823).
- 1792 - Wyatt completed the restoration of Salisbury Cathedral.
- 1795 - Durham Cathedral was restored by Wyatt who demolished half the Chapter House, altered the stonework of the east end and added a rose window replacing the original medieval window: work criticised by John Carter in a series of letters under the title, "Pursuits of Architectural Innovation".
- 1796 to 1806 - Construction of William Beckford's Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire, designed by Wyatt.
- 1820- Publication of Ivanhoe (written by Sir Walter Scott in 1819).
- 1821 - Publication of Kenilworth by Sir Walter Scott.
- 1831 - Publication of Notre Dame de Paris. In the 3rd book, Victor Hugo, lamented the destruction of medieval Paris: "the Paris of three hundred and fifty years ago - the Paris of the 15th century was already a gigantic city. We Parisians generally make a mistake as to the ground which we think that we have gained, since Paris has not increased much over one-third since the time of Louis XI. It has certainly lost more in beauty than it has gained in size."
- September 1839 - Publication of the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine.
- 4 September 1842 - Ceremony attended by Wilhelm IV marked the resumption of Cologne Cathedral construction work.
- 15 August 1844 - Inauguration of the Scott Monument in Edinburgh.
- 1849 - The 2nd Earl Somers, commissioned Pugin, who had completed the remodelling of the House of Lords just two years earlier, to decorate the drawing room, at Eastnor Castle, in the High Gothic revival style.
- 6 August 1850 - The Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix made the case against restoration in his Journal: Plus j'assiste aux efforts qu'on fait pour restaurer les églises gothiques, et surtout les peindre, plus je persévère dans mon goût de les trouver d'autant plus belles qu'elles sont moins peintes. On a beau me dire et me prouver qu'elles l'étaient, chose dont je suis convaincu, puisque les traces existent encore, je persiste à trouver qu'il faut encore les laisser commes le temps les a faites; cette nudité les pare suffisament; l'architecture a tout son effet, tandis que nos efforts, à nous autres hommes, d'un autre temps, pour illuminer ces beaux monuments, les couvrent de contresens, font tout grimacer, render tout faux et odieux.
- 1853 - Rose window in Christ Church Cathedral designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott.
- 1855 - Publication of "The Churches of North France: Shadows of Amiens" by William Morris in his co-founded The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine.
- 1857 - The chapel of Notre-Dame-des-flots in Sainte-Adresse has a rose window in the Gothic style.
- 1864 to 1866 - Construction of the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott.
- 1895 to 1905 - Construction of Antwerpen-Centraal railway station building.
- 1906 to 1910 - The Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926) merged Neo-Gothic and Moorish revival styles with the Art Nouveau style. He moved to Barcelona around 1869, where he met his main patron Eusebi Güell. and designed the Casa Mila apartments.
- 1913 to 1927 - In Search of Lost Time a semi-autobiographical novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust, published in France. Proust's novel encompasses the destruction of medieval cathedrals at Reims and Amiens.
- 1935 - In an article in the journal Stained Glass, Wilbur Burnham expressed his views about the importance of the medieval tradition in the harmony of the primary colours, red, blue, and yellow, with the complementary orange, green, and violet typical of his windows. His studies of medieval windows demonstrated that reds and blues should predominate and be in good balance. Burnham also noted that windows should maintain high luminousity under all light conditions.
