Example Architecture Essay
The Greek Revival and the Gothic Revival are terms that carry specific meanings in relation to the history of architecture. What did they represent at the time and what was the nature of the conflict between the respective adherents?
The Gothic Revival representedchiefly two things: firstly, in its earlier form, it was a Romantic celebrationin stone of the spirit and atmosphere of the Middle Ages; secondly, in itslater and more serious form, the Gothic Revival reflected the architectural andphilosophical conviction of its exponents that the moral vigour of the MiddleAges was reflected in its Gothic architecture, and that the reintroduction ofthis Gothic style of architecture to eighteenth-century society couldre-invigorate it morally. Neo-Gothic architecture in its earlier forms,typified by buildings such as Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill, wascharacterized by a highly ornamental, decadent, visually powerful and intricatestyle; and, what is more, a style that cared little for functionalism or strictadherence to specific structures. By these characteristics Neo-Gothicarchitecture encapsulated the Romantic literary and poetic spirit of the age,as had been evinced in the works of men like Horace Walpole, Alfred Tennysonand Sir Walter Scott. In this sense, the Neo-Gothic was a nostalgic andsentimental backward glance. In a different sense the Gothic Revivalrepresented the attempt of certain architects and churchmen to transfer theliturgical vigour of Gothic churches of the Middle Ages to the eighteenthcentury by capturing it in stone. Thus men like Augustus Pugin and John Ruskincame to argue that the Gothic Revival represented a standard of moralexcellence that was to be practised and imitated as widely as possible.
The Greek Revival grew out ofthe neoclassicism movement, and represented in essence an attempt by itsadherents to find in the architecture of antiquity a form of architecture thatcorresponded to the principles of reason and order emerging from their own Ageof Reason and Enlightenment. Neoclassicism, and the Greek Revival inparticular, represented a pursuit for architectural and intellectual truth. Anarchitect could perceive in the forms of antiquity principles of excellentreasoning and intelligence that prevailed in the rationalistic spirit of hisown age, and by reinvigorating the ancient style the neoclassical architectcould build buildings that were inspired by and inspired in others principlesof reason and rationality. Neoclassicism and the Greek Revival conflicted withthe Gothic Revival because they perceived the moral truths claimed by theGothic revivalists as chiefly illusory and false. The Gothic Revival was, inthe neo-classicist's eyes, a decadent celebration of style over substance thatelevated illusion and ornament above reason and truth. Neo-Gothic architectswere seemingly content to produce endless copies and weak imitations of Gothicstyle merely to please frivolous aristocrats; neo-classicists however believedthat their architecture was a creative act that gave birth to constantly newadaptations of the classical model. Neo-Gothic architects in turn conflictedwith neoclassicism because it was cold and devoid of emotion, feeling or moralpurpose; its elite attitude rendered any collaboration between the two stylesmost difficult.
Art historians divide theGothic Revival into two stages, and each of these stages came to representquite different ideas. The first stage of the Gothic revival was characterizeda 'raw' and na?ve imitation of Gothic architecture that lacked either anarchitectural philosophy or a coherent system of organization. The firstbuilding of this early type was Lord Horace Walpole's villa Strawberry Hillwhich was built in 1747; another prominent early specimen was Fonthill Abbey designedand built by James Wyatt. Both of these buildings, in the spirit of Walpole'satmospheric novel Castle of Otranto (Walpole, 2004), were attempts to preservein stone the Romantic atmosphere of the Middle Ages; both also demonstratedperhaps more clearly than any other buildings of this time the impracticalityand lack of structure of much Neo-Gothic building. This first flourishing ofNeo-Gothic architecture was extended into the public sphere also: for instancein the new Houses of Parliament designed and built by Sir Charles Barry andA.W. Pugin. In America too, this nascent Neo-Gothic style was reflected inbuildings such as Richard Upjohn's Trinity Church built in New York in 1840 andRenwick's St. Patrick's Cathedral also built in New York. The picturesquequality and organization of many of these buildings led to applause for itsRomantic splendour, but also much criticism for its lack of substance and for itsunfaithful imitation of the original Gothic form.
If the first stage of theGothic Revival lacked diligent observation and restoration of Gothicarchitecture or philosophical principles, then serious efforts were made at theturn of the century to ground the movement more securely upon such principles. The'late' period of Neo-Gothic is thus characterized by a stricter adherence tomedieval architectural form and to a philosophical interpretation that viewedGothic architecture as a paragon of moral virtue and excellence. In England twomen were of foremost importance in the development of this second stage: A.Pugin and J. Ruskin. (In France, Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Due played anequally important role). By this time, architects were no longer content tomerely imitate Gothic forms and designs, but sought to create original worksfounded upon the principles of the original Gothic architecture and whichfitted to the particular circumstances of nineteenth-century society.
Thus at the turn of thenineteenth-century it is possible to observe a clear evolution in the form ofthe Gothic Revival away from the loose sentimentality and picturesque qualityof the early period and towards a style of dominated by precise architecturalimitation of Gothic form as made possible by detailed and comprehensiveinvestigations into this style. One such early investigation was John Carter's TheAncient Architecture of England (Carter, 1795) which was the first workthat recorded with extensive detail and exactitude the Gothic style of medievalbuildings; Thomas Rickman's An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of EnglishArchitecture (Rickman, 1817) gave an extensive account of the varieties ofGothic styles, whilst Pugin's Specimens of Gothic Architecture (Pugin,1821) deepened and extended the range and accuracy of these initialinvestigations. Nonetheless, despite the great advances that had been made inthe scholarship of the Gothic Revival, the actual building of Gothic buildingsremained for some time in the earlier ornamental style that characterized thefirst period of the movement -- famous examples being Windsor Castle which wasrestored in 1824 by Sir Jeffrey Wyatville, and King's College Cambridge in 1827to 1831. The greatest use of the Neo-Gothic style at this time was however forchurch buildings -- the style being cheaper and easier to construct thanneoclassical designs.
For all the diligent andpain-staking work of the Gothic Revival scholars to come to life in actualbuildings it took the skill and vision of one particular man. This man wasAugustus Charles Pugin: he presented the argument that Neo-Gothic architecturalstyle was the most fitting emblem of the spirit of the Catholic Church and so wasalso therefore the only permissible architectural form to express the work of Godin his Church. In Contrasts (1836) Pugin argued that architectural formimitates the condition of the society that creates it; since the society ofmedieval times was a paragon of virtue and moral integrity then it was naturaland obvious that Gothic architecture is the most moral form of architecture.Thus in The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture (1841)Pugin was able to set down comprehensive and coherent principles for thejustification of the Gothic Revival. In a major step away from the earlierdecadence or the style, Pugin argued that all features and designs of a churchmust be essential for its correct functioning and structural shape;architecture form must be clean and purposeful since these are also thequalities that we expect of our moral condition. Pugin put this architecturalphilosophy into practice most assiduously in the years 1837 to 1844: in StMary's Church in Derby, in St. Wilfred's Church in Manchester and in St.Oswald's Church in Liverpool and many other church buildings. Pugin's workquickly became an inspiration for Anglican Church reformers such as theTractarians in Oxford who used his architectural church style as an ideal form bywhich to carry out their own agenda of church building restoration.
It should be noted here thatPugin's work as well as that of many other architects across Britain and Europewas profoundly influenced by the ideas of John Ruskin and his two seminal worksThe Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) and The Stones of Venice (Ruskin,1854). Ruskin's ideas were inspired by the architectural forms that hehad seen in Italy and particularly in Venice; Ruskin thus argued that Gothicwas the supreme form of architecture due to the 'sacrifice' made by stonemasonsin detailing every stone of a building. Ruskin thus exalted Doge's Palace as 'thecentral building in the world' (Ruskin, 1854) -- arguing that Pugin'sprogramme of Gothic Revival in churches should be extended to governmentbuildings also. Moreover, Ruskin himself by his teachings extended the GothicRevival further by promoting a 'polychromatic' style of work inspired byItalian Gothic architecture. This work in turn inspired buildings such asButterfield's All Saint's Church, Keble College in Oxford and Rugby School.
In short, by the end of theeighteenth century the Gothic Revival had been transformed from what began as aRomantically inspired fondness for majestic ornamentalism, into a style ofarchitecture grounded upon powerful moral and philosophical principles as wellas an intricate and comprehensive awareness of Gothic form.
The Greek Revival, a growth outof the neoclassicism movement, flourished in the years 1750-1830, and was inmany ways the antithesis of the Neo-Gothic form of architecture with which itwas contemporaneous. As we have seen, whatever its later manifestations, theGothic Revival had been a product of Romanticism and of the passions andemotions; the Greek Revival, in complete contrast, exalted reason, the intellectand rationality above all else. Neoclassicism sought as its highest aim torealize architectural and intellectual purity and truth -- in stark contrast towhat it perceived to be the ornamentalism and illusory truth of the Neo-Gothicstyle. 'Neo'-classicism was founded upon a corpus of work that had in antiquityachieved canonical status, that is, it was based upon the observation of'classic' art and classic form. In the words of Crook (1995) 'Ideally - andneoclassicism is essentially an art of the ideal - an artist, well-schooled andcomfortably familiar with the canon, does not repeat in a lifelessreproductions, but synthesizes the tradition anew in each work'. In otherwords, neoclassicism -- of which the Greek Revival was to become the most refinedexample -- sought the highest possible levels of artistic achievement; the neo-classiciststyle existed only to reinterpret for contemporary circumstances the great workand principles that had already been achieved in the past. Thus, in Crook's words(1995), 'Neoclassicism exhibits perfect control of an idiom' (Crook,1995); that is perfection already achieved, the architect's task is to fit thatperfection of antiquity in a modern cast. All of these above points aresignificant for understanding the opposition of architects of the Greek Revivalagainst the Gothic Revival. For, in the beginning, much of Neo-Gothicarchitecture consisted of little more than crude and na?ve imitations of farsuperior original Gothic works. Thus in such imitation work there was nocreativity and no continuation of the development of an existing idiom. ThusNeo-Gothic form was viewed by Greek revivalists as superfluous and as inferiorto their own architectural pursuits.
The emergence of the GreekRevival was made possible by an astonishing efflorescence of archaeologicalexploration into the sites and cultures of classical Rome and Greece around themiddle of the eighteenth century. The discoveries of the archaeologistsinspired and sustained the Greek revival. In 1719 Bernard de Montfaucon'sreleased his giant ten-volume opus Antiquity Explained and Represented inDiagrams (Montfaucon, 1719). This book was hugely popular and intrigued theimaginations hundreds and thousands of European tourists who began to flock tothe sites of ancient Rome and Greece. Furthermore, the sensational excavationsof cities like Pompeii and Herculaneum in 1748 and 1738 further fuelled theimaginations of architects, archaeologists, novelists and many others. Manyother works on classical art and architecture such as Giovanni Piranesi's PrimaParte di Architecttura, Robert Wood's Ruins of Palmyra (1753) andRobert Adam's Ruins of the Temple of the Emperor Diocletian (Adam's, 1764)were soon published and led to still further thousands going on adventures tothe Continent.
This general interest inclassical antiquity quickly transformed in the eighteenth century into a burstof fascination with Greek antiquities in particular and displayed a conviction asto the superiority of Greek above Roman architecture. The discovery of thesixth-century ruins of Paestrum received much publicity and was recorded byItalian artist Domenico Antonini and French architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot;soon afterwards Pancrazi published his seminal Antichita Siciliane andDumont released his Ruins de Paestrum. Deeper investigation into theGreek mainland territory led James Stuart and Nicholas Revett to publish TheAntiquities of Athens (Stuart & Revett, 1750) which was highlyinfluential upon architects in England. Whilst it took some time forthis appreciation of Greek form to be turned into actual imitative buildings nonethelessthe superiority of Greek to Roman architecture had been established by the timeof Johan Winckelmann's Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of theGreeks in 1765.
Thus architects of the GreekRevival sought to infer from these classical forms principles of order andreason that corresponded to those being discovered in their own age ofEnlightenment; neoclassical architects argued that if their own buildings cameto embody these principles then society at large would be edified by theexperience. Nonetheless, the Greek Revival, like Neoclassicism generally,contained an inherent paradox. Its longing backward-stare to the times ofantiquity was inspired by as much by an emotional fondness for antiquity (supposedlythe characteristic of the Romantic Gothic Revival) as a predilection forprinciples of pure reason and rationality. Thus some twentieth century arthistorians have come to speak of this aspect of the Greek Revival as 'RomanticClassicism' (Stillman, 1998).
After 1800, in England, theinternal dynamics of Neoclassicism directed the movement away from Romanarchitecture and toward that of ancient Greece - as such, a huge number ofbuildings were built in these years according to the architectural principles ofancient Greece. Sir John Soane, the architect of the Bank of England, developeda highly influential architectural style that involved promoting the linear abstractionof classical Greek forms and, by using extensive archaeological evidence toinform the designs of patterns, he achieved a spectacular dramatization of theinterior spaces of his buildings -- a style reminiscent of Etienne-LouisBoullee and Claude-Nicholas Ledoux on the continent. A prominent example of thisnew style in England was Downing College, Cambridge, modelled upon theErechtheum from the Acropolis in Athens. The Covent Garden Theatre in London,built by Sir Robert Smirke, was the first Doric style building in the capital;the planning of Regent Street as well as Regent Street Park by John Nashreflected the use of classical Greek styles of city planning and organization. Sotoo the British Museum in London built in 1847 is perhaps the most prominentexample of ionic Greek imitation in Britain. In Edinburgh -- named admiringly the'Athens of the North' by locals at the time -- the Greek Revival was extremelyinfluential in the eighteenth century, as shown in buildings such as the RoyalHigh School and the Royal Scottish Academy. The dominance of Greek neoclassicalarchitecture would dominate the British landscape until the advent of Modernismin the twentieth century.
In the final analysis, even ifit is paradoxical to say so in light of the sustained conflict that existedbetween them, both the Gothic Revival and Greek Revival had similar goals, andused similar means to attain those goals. The Gothic Revival began life as acelebration of the spirit and forms of a time other than its own: the Middle Ages.So too, the Greek Revival was engendered by a renascent fascination withclassical archaeology and the Greek Revival's preoccupation was with the idealsand forms of ancient Greece - somewhere even more removed than Medieval Europe!The Greek Revival ultimately represented an attempt to renew and reinvigoratethe classical Greek belief in the purity and perfection of architectural formand its corresponding revelation of 'truth'. It was thus no coincidence thatthe spirit of the neoclassical age was also dominated by the Enlightenment andthe Age of Reason. The Greek Revival thus cast the ancient principles ofclassical Greece in the mould of eighteenth century rationality; the aim here,like with the later Gothic Revival, being to produce a form of architecturethat would edify society. The bitter conflict between the Gothic Revival andthe Greek Revival can be explained simply by the fact that each wereprepossessed by attitudes quite contrary to the other: one exalting reason andorder, the other passion and emotion. Both revivals were each consumed in thewhirlwind of their own zeitgeist and only with retrospect and the other advantagesof history is it possible show the equal validity of their separate truths.
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