What Meanings Did Contemporaries Attach To Styles Fashionable In The Eighteenth Century Essay, Research Paper
The eighteenth century was a period of change as
much for the architectural world as for the world of the architect.???? The Glorious Revolution marked the
beginning of great stability, vast economic growth and population growth;
factors that would lead to a massive growth in the amount of building going on
in Britain.??? At the same time, London,
the hub of England, was transformed from a medieval city into a bustling stone
metropolis following the destruction of the old city during the Great
Fire.? The resulting boom in building
led to a popularisation of interest in architecture and the publication of
books detailing new fads and moulding patterns for use by builders in order
that they would be able to make their creations more fashionable without any
great effort.? The concept of taste as
something that was ?right? or ?wrong? (Shaftesbury saw taste as ?founded on
truth, or veri similitudae at the least?) meant that reactions against styles
of architecture were usually tacit or tepid, as disagreeing with the panels of virtuosos
in such establishments as the Dilettanti or Antiquarians dictated the
fashionable and the unfashionable A powerful new national bank (introduced by William
III who had seen such a system operate with great success in his native
Netherlands), combined with the gradual industrialisation of Britain, the
growth of Empire and the development of the modern capitalist system led to a
growth of British affluence.? By the end
of the eighteenth century, Britain had swept from being at the edge of European
affairs to being the arbiter of them, mostly due to her economic maturity.? The physical result of this for the average
Briton would have been the massive growth in public works.? Financed by Queen Anne?s Coal Tax, the
British government was capable of raising huge funds for the building of
tremendous buildings.? The economic power of the government at the
beginning of the eighteenth century was manifest from the new St. Paul?s
Cathedral.? One of the largest churches
in Christendom, the famous domed cathedral of the new metropolis was just one
of the hundreds of churches built by Wren in the late seventeenth century in
London alone.? This prolific master was
seen in the early eighteenth century as a great ?modern? to rival the
?ancients? and his work was everywhere to be seen. The result was a
proliferation of the baroque style.? The
baroque style was developed as a variation on the classical style during the
seventeenth century.? Abandoning the
classical rules of architecture as developed by Brunelleschi and Alberti (a
movement encouraged by the humanist movement who amongst other things advocated
study for its own sake, a point of philosophy that lead amongst other things to
a proliferation of interest in the classical works, including classical art and
architecture) whilst retaining the classical motifs, the baroque style was
replete with pilasters, columns, friezes and other obviously ?classical? motifs
and yet these were deliberately ?mismatched?.?
For example, St. Paul?s columns are paired together so that although the
pairs maintain equidistance, there is not equidistance between each column.? Equally the wanton placement of Doric,
Corinthian and Ionic columns would have been upsetting to the classical
architect. The abandonment of the strict rules governing the use of columns
allowed stylisation in a way impossible in the strictly classical mode. The rebuilding of London in the modern mode made the
old gothic buildings stand out to such an extent that many were retraced or
remoulded according to the new fashion.?
The Palladian school, based on Palladio?s famous treatise, was the
emergent fashion from the Wren era and as the government renewed the fabric of
London, a city that held more than twenty times as many citizens as the next
largest of England?s cities, the baroque and Palladian fad was transmitted
across the country. These affluent people would also contribute in great
measure to the boom in building.? The
growth of capitalism, catalysed by such events as William III?s wars, which led
to the growth of the powerful London banking network developed a tremendous
?moneyed interest?.? Wealth poured in
from colonies and trading posts, and the British foreign policy became one of
ensuring the safety of British global trade. This growth in commerce led to a
greater pool of disposable income available to a greater number of people, and
as such it led to a growth in the number of people building their homes
according to their tastes.? As the
gentry and lesser nobility grew in financial power, the agrarian revolution led
to an increase in the profits of the older landed class.? The corruption, contacts and bribery of
politics let such people as Walpole, born a lowly country squire, become one of
the richest men in Europe. The fad for building resulting from the
proliferation of disposable income and the new architectural trends that led to
such celebrated creations as Blenheim Palace, Houghton, Castle Howard, Chatsworth
and Woburn.? Old houses were retraced
and refitted, and landscaped gardens were built across the country.? The result of all of this building was a
massive increase in the demand for architects; a demand that would lead to an
increase in their status and to a new type of architect emerging.? Whereas John Vanburgh, Burlington and Boyle
were aristocrats who turned to architecture after a series of other jobs, the
profession of architect was becoming a profession in itself. Although
Burlington?s Palladian creations would bring him a reputation amongst
contemporaries to compete with Wren, the next generation of architects would be
known as architects alone.? Sir William
Chambers spent nine years travelling in the Orient, a year studying in Paris
and five years in Italy.? Robert Adam
had been a student at Edinburgh before France, Italy and Dalmatia all imposed
their styles on his consciousness.? The fad for travelling led to the import of many
ideas, examples and styles.? The
improvement in the technology of copper etching led to a new ability to convey
new styles, ancient styles and non European architecture in such publications
as ?The Gentleman?s Magazine.? ?Styles such as the Palladian, as pioneered by Burlington were
disseminated by such books as Kent?s ?Designs of Inigo Jones,? Castell?s
?Villas of the Ancients,? and Ware?s translation of Palladio?s treatise.
It is notable that in Marriage a la Mode, Lord Squander?s desired palace
is a Palladian mansion.? Hogarth wrote that it is in nature that one ought to
find forms, such as the Corinthian column having its origins in a basket of
dock leaves and that Palladio?s book was of such importance that no architect
should ?stir a step? without it.? He
also notes that extravagance inside a church is not really a good thing,
(despite his admiration of the building of St. Peter?s) as it is offensive to
his Anglican sentiments, and this aversion to extravagance and luxuria seems to
have spread.? The Dillettanti sponsored
the study of Palladian ?The Antiquities of Athens measured and delineated?. The
Palladian Hogarth complimented St. Paul?s Cathedral for its ?variety without
confusion, simplicity without nakedness, richness without tawdriness,
distinctness without hardness, and quantity without excess?.? The importance of excess as a vice (a
?luxuria? to be avoided) within the Palladian school?s ranks is clear from
Vanburgh?s letters, where he defends one of his creations claiming that it
could be lit by a small number of candles, and that the hall, despite contrary
reports, did not cause drafts to blow through the building, blowing out candles
as they went. Palladio was not universally popular. Adams? time in
Dalmatia was recorded in his ?Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at
Spalato.?? Palladio was much
undermined by this book as by Adam?s later work, ?The Works in Architecture
of R. and J. Adam.? Isaac Ware?s ?A Complete Body of Architecture? criticised
the concurrent trend for ?transfer[ing] the buildings of Italy right or wrong,
suited or unsuited to the purpose into England.?? Ware urged the architect instead to ?think, as well as to
practise? and to consider the ?purpose? of the building, despite the urgings of
Palladio to think in terms of lengths and breadths.? There were more weighty reasons for disliking the new
architectural mode of Palladian frontages and the Romanesque mode.? ?Stucco?d walls, Mosaic floors, Palladian windows and Venetian doors? were erected in England
?careless? of climate soil and place? and were often viewed as inappropriate
for the English world.? Despite the
support of the Dillettanti for the school, and the obvious confirmation of the
good taste of the style, James Cawthorn wrote that it was not only ridiculous
to build Mediterranean buildings in Britain, but in certain cases sacrilegious.? The copying of Greek or Roman temples,
circuses or ?Cyprian shrines? for use as churches he sees as blasphemous and
dangerous. Cawthorn goes on to attack the trend for Chinese
architecture, noting how the ?farms and seats? of England were trying to match
the ?villas of Pekin?. Chamber?s ?Design of Chinese Buildings? along
with prints produced by Jesuit missionaries and wandering artists proliferated
the cult of Chinese architecture as the pavilion of Hyde Park will
testify.? The fad for the east was most
evident in gardening where landscape artists such as Brown or Repton would, in
Hogarth?s words, install ?a serpentine river and a wood? as desired, based upon
the popularly circulated images of Chinese gardens.? Mrs. Delany speaks at length of how a traditional English estate
was transformed by landscaping so that they had ?opened a view to the river?
and turning the deer out.? Although Mrs.
Delany sees the deer as ?beautiful enliveners? of a view, she seems to approve
in general of the changes to the house which although ?not entirely finished
according to the plan, is very handsome and convenient.?? It is notable that in ?Humphry Clinker,? Mrs
Baynard?s crippling attempts at landscaping included the (disastrous)
installation of a stream.? The mode for
Chinese architecture was popular enough for Lord Kames to bitterly declare it
the preferred mode of building before ?the Gothic? or the ?Greek? schools.
Attacking the Chinese style, Shebbeare?s ?Letters on the English Nation?
criticises the proliferation of the school that encouraged ?little bits of wood
standing in all directions.?? Morris? ?The
Architectural Remembrancer? claims that the Chinese school ??consists in
mere whim and chimera, without rules or order?? and regards the whole school as
a ?novelty,? much like the eighteenth century Gothic school. The eighteenth century Gothic resurgence, led by
Horace Walpole?s Strawberry Hill villa near Twickenham.? Taking the opportunity to ?exhibit specimens
of Gothic architecture,? the resurgence of the Gothic style quickly overtook
the Palladian school.? Shebbeare?s ?Letters
on the English Nation? demonstrate some hostility to the Gothic school
although this likely to be more of an aesthetic hostility as opposed to
anything deeper, as he reflects on the ?minute unmeaning carvings which are
found in the Gothic chapels of a thousand years standing? and the hundreds of
houses with ?porches in that taste.? The ?novelty? styles (Gothic/Chinese) physically
contrast well with the Palladian buildings of the eighteenth century, yet all
were ?tasteful? and approved of.?
Although the novelty fads belong more to Regency England and people of
the echelon of the Macaroni, the age of the great town house brought out these
absurdly different styles.? The
Palladian school, although the height of traditional good taste, was criticised
for its ignorance of life in Britain.?
Open atria and mosaic flooring in halls are never advisable in wet
climates, and it was for such inadequacies of the school that it was condemned.