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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.

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