Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: the Gothic Aesthetic in Britain and British Furniture, 1730–1840
- 1. Understanding Gothic Architecture in Georgian Britain
- 2. Creation of Classical Gothic Architecture, Furniture and Interiors
- 3. High Fashion and Fragments of the Past: the Omnipresence of Rococo Gothic
- 4. Fluctuating Tastes: Gothic in Later Eighteenth-century Britain
- 5. The ‘Chaos of Modern Gothic Excrescences’: Regency to Revolution
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Introduction: the Gothic Aesthetic in Britain and British Furniture, 1730–1840
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 October 2017
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: the Gothic Aesthetic in Britain and British Furniture, 1730–1840
- 1. Understanding Gothic Architecture in Georgian Britain
- 2. Creation of Classical Gothic Architecture, Furniture and Interiors
- 3. High Fashion and Fragments of the Past: the Omnipresence of Rococo Gothic
- 4. Fluctuating Tastes: Gothic in Later Eighteenth-century Britain
- 5. The ‘Chaos of Modern Gothic Excrescences’: Regency to Revolution
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Summary
The Renewal, in this country, of a taste for Mediæval architecture, and the reapplication of those principles which regulate its design, represent one of the most interesting and remarkable phases in the history of art. Unlike the Italian Renaissance, which was intimately associated with, and in a great measure dependent on, the study of ancient literature, our modern English Revival fails to exhibit, even in its earliest development, many of those external causes to which we are accustomed to attribute a revolution in public taste.
(Charles Eastlake, 1872)FURNITURE HISTORY IS often considered a niche subject area that is at considerable remove from the main discipline of art history, and one that has little to do with the output of painters, sculptors and architects in any given historical period. This book, however, connects the key intellectual, artistic and architectural debates that surfaced in the arts between 1730 and 1840 with the design of Gothic Revival architecture, interiors and furniture. Despite the expanding corpus of scholarly monographs and articles to date that deal with individual architects and cabinetmakers, little sustained attention has been paid to exploring the multidisciplinary expressions of Gothic Revival design in Georgian Britain. This early phase of the Gothic Revival is typically dealt with cursorily, as a prelude to what, it is implicitly suggested, is the ‘proper’ Gothic Revival of Victorian Britain spearheaded by A.W.N. Pugin (1812–52), Sir Charles Barry (1795–1860), Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811–78) and George Frederick Bodley (1827–1907). The relationship between architecture and interior furnishing programmes between 1730 and 1840, moreover, has also received insufficient attention. This book fills this gap and addresses the connec tions between the design of Gothic Revival architecture, interiors and furniture, and their relationship with contemporary understandings of medieval architecture in the period 1730–1840. It presents a new reading of the early Gothic Revival, and explores the style's broad geographic reach and popularity among certain mideighteenth- century designers. A nuanced reading of the style's previously glossed over distinct phases of evolution and transformation is articulated through a range of case studies and examples that, when scrutinised, reveal the remarkably flexible and imaginative application of Gothic forms to contemporary fashions.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Georgian GothicMedievalist Architecture, Furniture and Interiors, 1730-1840, pp. 1 - 6Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2016