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The Romanesque Revival in Britain, 1800–1840: William Gunn, William Whewell, and Edmund Sharpe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

J. B. Bullen
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Extract

The Romanesque revival, like the Gothic revival, was an international movement. It passed easily across national boundaries and its effects were felt throughout Europe and across America. In Britain it was overshadowed by the Gothic revival out of whose historiography it grew, and is easily confused with the Norman revival that enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1830s and 1840s. Both the Norman revival and the study of the Romanesque were the fruit of British antiquarianism, because in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries there was in this country a well developed scholarly interest in pre-Gothic, round-arched buildings.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 47 , 2004 , pp. 139 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2004

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References

Notes

1 Cocke, Thomas, ‘Rediscovery of the Romanesque’, in English Romanesque Art 1066-1200, ed. Holland, Tristram, Holt, Janet and Zarnecki, George (London, 1984), p. 362 Google Scholar. The words are those of Thomas Warton.

2 Dickinson, Gillian, Rutland Churches Before Restoration (London, 1983), p. 107 Google Scholar.

3 Ibid., p. 86.

4 Tina Waldeieir Bizzaro has pointed out that though the French writer, Charles de Gerville, spoke of ‘architecture roman’ a little earlier in 1818, Gunn had long composed his book with its important neologism. Bizzarro, Tina Waldeier, Romanesque Architectural Criticism: A Prehistory (Cambridge, 1992), p. 4 Google Scholar.

5 In a letter to Gunn in 1800 Flaxman made a passing reference to the two of them seeing ‘Rome together’. Unpublished letter: British Library, Add. MS 39790, fol. 16.

6 Flaxman, John, Lectures on Sculpture (1829), p. 304 Google Scholar. These were written much earlier in his life.

7 Irwin, David, John Flaxman: 1755-1826 (London, 1979), p. 41 Google Scholar, and Gunn expressed his enthusiasm for ‘Bruschetto’ in An Enquiry (1819), p. 51.

8 See Gatti, Hilary, ‘Il Campo Santo di Pisa nella letteratura inglese’, Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa: Classe di Lettere e Filosofia, 16, no. 1 (1982), pp. 239-70Google Scholar, and Cooper, Robyn, ‘“The Crowning Glory of Pisa”: Nineteenth-Century Reactions to the Campo Santo’, Italian Studies, 37 (1982), pp. 72–90 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Letters from Robert Smirke to his father, Pisa, 22 November 1803, Smirke Papers, British Architectural Library (RIBA), quoted in Jackson, Neil, ‘Christ Church Streatham, and the Rise of Constructional Polychromy’, Architectural History, 43 (2000), p. 221 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Smirke, Robert, ‘Account of some Remains of Gothic Architecture in Italy and Sicily’, Archaeologia, 15 (1806), pp. 363-66CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The Campo Santo was begun around 1278 and, according to recent research, the Gothic filigree was added about one hundred years later in the mid-twelfth century. See Caleca, Antonio, ‘Costruzione e decorazione dalle origini al secolo xv’, in Baracchini, Clara and Enrico, Castelnuovo, Il Campo Santo Di Pisa (Turin, 1996), pp. 13–48 Google Scholar.

11 Letter from Flaxman to Gunn, May 1810, BL, Add. MS 39790, fol. 20.

12 Letter from Flaxman to Gunn, November 1812, BL, Add. MS 39790, fol. 21. He recommended Martini’s, Giuseppe Theatrum Basilicae Pisanae (Roma, 1705)Google Scholar and Morrona’s, Alessandro da Pisa illustrata nelle arti del disegno (Pisa, 1787-93)Google Scholar.

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15 Gunn, William and Taylor, Arthur, ‘Remarks on the Gothic Architecture of the Duomo, Battistero, and Campo Santo of Pisa’, Archaeologia, 20 (1824), p. 543 Google Scholar.

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18 Becher, Harvey W., ‘William Whewell’s Odyssey: from Mathematics to Moral Philosophy’, in William Whewell: a Composite Portrait, ed. Fisch, Menachem and Scharrer, Simon (Oxford, 1991), p. 4 Google Scholar.

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20 Douglas (1881), p. 66.

21 Pevsner, Nikolaus writes about this in his ‘William Whewell and his Architectural Notes on German Churches’, German Life and Letters, 22 (1968), pp. 39–48 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Thomas Rickman, The Journals of Thomas Rickman, RIBA, RIT/1-3.

23 Rickman had first worked as an architect for Whittaker around 1822 when the latter, as the new vicar of Blackburn, began a church-building programme.

24 Todhunter, Isaac, William Whewell, an Account of his Writings, with Selections from his Literary and Scientific Correspondence (London, 1876), p. 99 Google Scholar.

25 Ibid.

26 Ibid.

27 Letter from Whittaker to William Whewell, Blackburn, 30 September, 1829, Trinity College, Cambridge, Add. MS a.21482.

28 Whewell actually provided the terms ‘anode’ and ‘cathode’ for Faraday in his work on electricity and in 1840 he coined the word ‘scientist’.

29 Whewell, William, Architectural Notes on German Churches (Cambridge, 1830), p. 2 Google Scholar.

30 Whewell (1830), p. 24.

31 Pevsner (1968), p. 46.

32 Letter from Whittaker to Whewell, Appleby, 22 June 1814, Trinity College, Cambridge, Add. MS 9.21477.

33 Letter from Benjamin Satterthwaite to Whewell, Lancaster, 5 October 1820, Trinity College, Cambridge, Add. MS a.21221.

34 Letter from Rickman to Whewell, Birmingham, 10 May 1832, Trinity College, Cambridge, R.6.1132.

35 Rickman’s journals, entries for 6 October 1832 and 10 October 1832, RIBA.

36 Letter from Sharpe to Whewell, Coblenz, 2 July 1833, Trinity College, Cambridge, R.6.116.

37 See Bullen, J. B., Byzantium Restored (London, 2003) pp. 16–18 Google Scholar.

38 Letter from Sharpe to Whewell, Coblenz, 2 July 1833, Trinity College, Cambridge, R.6.116.

39 Pevsner (1968), p. 46.

40 Letter from Sharpe to Whewell, Munich, December 1833, Trinity College, Cambridge, R.6.117.

41 The Rundbogenstil buildings of Ludwig I had received considerable favourable publicity in Britain. As early as 1831 the architectural writer Leeds, W. H. praised the patronage of this style by Ludwig I in an article, ‘Modern Architecture and Architectural Style’, Foreign Quarterly Review, 7 (1831), pp. 432-61Google Scholar, and again in ‘The Present State of Architecture in Germany’, Foreign Quarterly Review, 14 (1834), pp. 92-118. In 1837 the architect Joseph Gwilt (who designed a Romanesque church for Greenwich in 1846) pointed out that ‘no country in Europe exhibits such early and beautiful specimens of Romanesque and pointed architecture as are to be found in Germany’, Elements of Architectural Criticism (London, 1837), p. 73.

42 Its title was An essay on the origin and progress of Gothic architecture, traced in the ancient edifices of Germany.

43 Letter from Sharpe to Rickman, Ratisbonn (Regensburg), May 1834, Trinity College, Cambridge, R.6.118.

44 This seems to have come to nothing.

45 Sharpe, Edmund, ‘Kloster Ebrach’, in Illustrated Papers on Church Architecture (London, 1876), part 3, plate 3 Google Scholar.

46 Letter from Sharpe to Whewell, Bamberg, 18 August 1834, Trinity College, Cambridge, R.6.119. Sharpe later wrote extensively on Cistercian building.

47 Heideloff published Oer Christliche Altar in Nuremburg in 1838.

48 Letter from Sharpe to Whewell, Coblenz, 17 December 1834, Trinity College, Cambridge, R.6.1110.

49 Ibid.

50 Letter from Sharpe to Whewell, Lyon, 6 May 1835, Trinity College, Cambridge, R.6.1114(1).

51 Letter from Whittaker to Sharpe, Blackburn, 13 May 1834, Central Library, Manchester.

52 Letter from Sharpe to Whewell, Lyon, 6 May 1835, Trinity College, Cambridge, R.6.1114(1).

53 Ibid.

54 Letter from Sharpe to Whewell, Toulouse, June 1835, Trinity College, Cambridge, R.6.1111.

55 Ibid.

56 ‘Farewell Dinner to Edmund Sharpe, Esq. M.A.’, Lancaster Guardian, 8 March 1856, p. 8. I am most grateful to John Hughes for pointing this out to me.

57 Ibid.

58 Merimee (1837), p. 315.

59 Labord, Alexandre, Les Monumens de France (Paris, 1816), p. 37 Google Scholar. ‘The style of the architecture of this time,’ Laborde wrote, ‘and which lasted up to the middle of the 12th century is a continuation of the Roman.’

60 ‘Monuments du style Byzantin ou Roman’, Laborde (1836), pp. 1-10. These included Moissac and Saint-Satrunin (Toulouse) visited by Sharpe.

61 Letter from Whittaker to Sharpe, Blackburn, 13 May 1834, Central Library, Manchester.

62 Petition a Monsieur le Président … Departement du Garde, Archives de la Département du Garde, Accession no. V. 172.

63 Pieyre, Adophe, Histoire de la Ville de Nîmes Depuis 1830 à Nos Jours, 3 vols (Nîmes, 1886), 1, p. 77 Google Scholar.

64 Questel entered the Beaux-Arts in 1824. He was familiar with the adventurous historical relativism adopted by his teachers. In the early 1830s he helped Duban in his plans for reorganizing the buildings of the École and in creating the series of sceneographic courtyards through the middle of the complex. One of those was French Romanesque.

65 Salles, Jules, Notice sur l’église Saint-Paul (Nîmes, 1849)Google Scholar. A similar point was made by Jouve, Esprit in his Dictionnaire d’esthétique chrétienne (Paris, 1856), p. 470 Google Scholar. Questel, in homage to his Roman neighbour, however, chose the same type of stone from Lens and Beaucaire that had been used in the construction of the Maison Carrée.

66 Letter from Sharpe to Whewell, Lancaster, 21 December 1835, Trinity College, Cambridge, R.6.1112.

67 Hewitson, A., Churches and Chapels … in Preston (Preston, 1869), p. 88 Google Scholar.

68 Holy Trinity, Brathay, Ambleside (1836) by Giles Redmayne, St John, Out Rawcliffe (1837-38) by John Dewhurst, St James, Clitheroe (1839), Holy Trinity, Bacup (1840-41) are a selection mentioned by Pevsner. See Pevsner, Nikolaus, The Buildings of England: North Lancashire (Harmondsworth, 1969), p. 29 Google Scholar et seq.

69 Ibid.

70 Rickman and Henry Hutchinson designed St Paul’s, Preston (1822-26).

71 Letter from Sharpe to Whewell, Lancaster, 21 December 1835, Trinity College, Cambridge, R.6.1112.

72 Willis, Robert, Remarks on the Architecture of the Middle Ages, especially Italy (Cambridge, 1835), p. 13 Google Scholar.

73 Ibid., p. 1.

74 Watkin, David and Lever, Jill, ‘A Sketch-book by Thomas Hope’, Architectural History, 23 (1980), pp. 52–59 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Stephens, Suzanne, ‘In Search of the Pointed Arch: Freemasonary and Thomas Hope’s “An Historical Essay on Architecture”’, The Journal of Architecture, 1, no. 2 (1996), pp. 133-58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

75 For Hope see Watkin, David, Thomas Hope and the Neo-Classical Idea (London, 1968)Google Scholar.

76 Hope, Thomas, An Historical Essay on Architecture (London, 1835), 1, p. 250 Google Scholar.

77 Whewell, William, Architectural Notes on German Churches, 2nd edn (Cambridge, 1835), p. 16 Google Scholar. Britton’s 1838 architectural dictionary mentioned Gunn as the originator of the term ‘Romanesque’ and that it had Whewell’s approval, and similarly under ‘The Romanesque Style’ J. H. Parker’s third edition of his Glossary of Terms used in … Architecture (1840) quotes Whewell as an authority. Glossary of Terms used in … Architecture, 3rd edn (Oxford, 1840).

78 See note 38.

79 Gwilt, Joseph, Elements of Architectural Criticism (London, 1837), p. 73 Google Scholar.

80 Quoted in Basil Clarke, F. L., Church Builders of the Nineteenth Century: A Study of the Gothic Revival in England (London, 1938, 1969), pp. 42–43 Google Scholar.

81 Brandwood, Geoffrey K., ‘Fond of Architecture — The Establishment of the Society and a Short History of its Membership’, in ‘A church as it should be’: the Cambridge Camden Society and its influence, ed. Webster, Christopher and Elliott, John (Stamford, 2000), p. 49 Google Scholar.

82 Anon., ‘Mr Petit’s Remarks on Church Architecture’, Ecclesiologist, 1 (1842), p. 97.

83 Anon., ‘Modern Romanesque’, Ecclesiologist, 1 (1842), p. 162.

84 ‘Anglicanus’ (1842-43), p. 161.

85 Anon., ‘Romanesque and Catholick Architecture’, The Ecclesiologist, 2 (1842), pp. 5-16, p. 5. The view that ‘GOTHICK IS THE ONLY CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE’ was endorsed by its insertion into the third edition of the Camden Society’s bible for new Churches, A Few Words to Church-Builders (Cambridge, 1844), p. 5.

86 He returned to it at St Paul’s, Scotforth (1874-76).

87 The Report of the 21st meeting of the Cambridge Camden Society on 8 November 1841 gives E. Sharpe as an elected member. See Ecclesiologist, 1 (1842), p. 7.

88 For a full account of this see Jackson, Neil, ‘Christ Church Streatham, and the Rise of Constructional Polychromy’, Architectural History, 43 (2000), pp. 218-52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

89 For Sara Losh see Bullen, J. B., ‘Sara Losh, Architect, Romantic, Mythologist’, Burlington Magazine, 143 (2001), pp. 676-84Google Scholar, reprinted in The Burlington Magazine: A Centenary Anthology, ed. Levey, Michael (New Haven and London, 2001), pp. 215-24Google Scholar.