A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE AND ITS REVIVAL

Copyright © 1999 by David H. Fox.  All Rights Reserved

The invention of the Gothic style is generally accepted to have taken place with the construction of the new choir for the Saint Denis Abbey near Paris, France, 1140-1144.  The style was characterized by the use of the pointed arch, flying buttresses, and the rib vault---none of which were Gothic innovations. .        Nikolas Pevsner, An Outline of European Architecture (Harmondsworth, England: Pelican Books, 1964), 89-92.

Gothic had been preceded by the Romanesque style, the descendant of the architecture of ancient Rome.  The arches and vaultings used in Romanesque were of semicircular profile, and thus limited by geometry to being not more than half their width in height.  The semi-cylindrical vaultings were either of the "tunnel" ("barrel") type or a series of forms created when one tunnel vault crosses another creating diagonal edges ("groins").  Groin vaults could be visually successful only when constructed over square sections ("bays").  The load-bearing stone walls tended to be relatively uniform in thickness and could not be pierced for large windows.

The pointed arch, the most characteristic Gothic form, had previously appeared in the architecture of ancient Rome and in that of the Middle East.  Whether it was introduced to Europe by pilgrims returning from the Holy Land, or invented anew is not known.  Its chief advantage over the round arch is that it may be varied in height relative to its width.  In terms of structural stability, a high pointed arch is to be preferred to a nearly flat one.

A basic change occurred in the design of stone buildings during the Gothic period.  Certain portions of the walls and ceilings were designated as structural supports and made correspondingly thicker, while the remaining portions were treated as mere filling or entirely removed for large windows.  In vaultings, these load bearing parts were called "ribs" and were the first portions erected during construction.  In the case of walls, the structural portions were often placed outside in the form of buttresses.  Flying buttresses were essentially half arches which conveyed the thrust of the upper stories safely to the ground.

The results were light filled interiors which appeared to rise up to heaven.  The effect was enhanced by carvings on the masonry supports which gave the illusion that the structure was upheld by slender columns.

While it was preferred to have stone vaulting, many Gothic structures had wooden ceilings, or none at all, which allowed the beams supporting the roof to be visible.  In England, exposed timber trusses were often subject to highly decorative treatment.

The Gothic style was spread by French architects to various parts of Europe where local architectural variants eventually arose.  English Gothic architecture is generally divided into three broad periods: Early English (1190-1280), Decorated or Flamboyant (1280-1380), and Perpendicular (1380-1550).  Owing to the length of time required for construction, and subsequent renovations, it is often possible to find elements of all three styles in a single major cathedral.

The Early English style is noted for its relative simplicity and use of narrow lancet windows.  

In Decorated Style, ceiling ribs and the stone mullions of windows ("tracery") were arranged in highly decorative patterns.  The ogee arch consisting of a convex and concave curve in each half was popular as was the extensive use of carved surface ornament.

The Perpendicular Style ("Tudor Gothic") was a reaction against the Decorated Style.  Interior ornament tended to be geometric, repetitive, and above all, more restrained.  This style was readily identifiable by its use of flatten arches and fan vaulting.

The decline of Gothic architecture in England was due to the belated influence of the Italian Renaissance in the early seventeenth century.  Architects such as Inigo Jones (1573-1652) began to design buildings in the Neo-classic style which displaced Gothic as the popular style by the 1650s.

It is often not recognized that the historic period of Gothic architecture continued long enough to reach the United States.  Saint Luke's Anglican Church of Smithfield, Virginia, was constructed 1632-1638 in brick with lancet windows and an open timber-truss ceiling. It survives as the oldest church building in the original thirteen colonies. .        Roger G. Kennedy, American Churches (New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1982), 164.

Following the disastrous London Fire of 1666, Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1693) was called upon to design replacements for a number Anglican parish churches, as well as, Saint Paul's Cathedral, his magnum opus.  When designing the Church of Saint Mary Aldermary on Queen Victoria Street, he was instructed to follow the style of the burnt Gothic building .        David Piper, World Culture Guides: London (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971), 105..  When finished in 1682, it stood as perhaps the earliest example of the Gothic Revival in England.  The portentous nature of this building was that the Gothic style was treated as a system of surface decoration rather than one of structure.  The most visually striking feature of the interior, the fan vaulted ceiling, was constructed of plaster.  The use of plaster imitations of stone vaulting would appear in Gothic Revival buildings for the next two-hundred-fifty years.

From 1600 to 1800 perhaps no year passed which did not see the building of some pointed arch and gabled roof, or the restoration of some crumbling tracery. .        Kenneth Clark, The Gothic Revival (London: Constable & Co., 1928), 1.

A notable example of Sir Kenneth Clark's foregoing statement was the 1735-1740 construction of towers on the incomplete facade of Westminster Abbey by Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661-1736).  Though an attempt was made to harmonize with the medieval structure, Hawksmoor could not prevent himself from introducing Neo-classical scrolls above the clock dials.  His All Souls College, Oxford, project of 1716-1735 featured Gothic exteriors and Neo-classical interiors. .        Kerry Downes, Hawksmoor (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1969), 168, 208.

The aristocratic writer, Horace Walpole (1717-1797), is often credited with originating the fashion of Gothic Revival country houses in England.  For a period of twenty years, beginning about 1750, he decorated and enlarged his Strawberry Hill cottage near London using a bewildering assortment of Gothic motifs rendered mostly in plaster.  More substantial constructions would be found in Gothic Revival houses of the late eighteenth century. .        Nikolas Pevsner, An Outline of European Architecture (Harmondsworth, England: Pelican Books, 1964), 358.

Americans were likewise attracted to Gothic residences.  An early example was Sedgely, the home of the Philadelphia merchant William Crammond, designed in 1799 by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect of the United States Capitol. .        Wayne Andrews, "American Gothic," American Heritage (Oct. 1971): 31.  As had earlier occurred with the Neo-classic style, the Gothic Revival in America would be adapted from masonry to wood construction, in this case as "Carpenter's Gothic."  Forms impossible to execute in stone became commonplace.

Owing to the large number of English parish churches built in earlier eras, there was little construction in the 1760-1820 period.  Expression of the Gothic Revival in church architecture was thus largely postponed until the great urban expansion of the nineteenth century.  What examples appeared tended to treat the style in a rather superficial way.  A characteristic example was the "Design presented to the Church Commissioners" by the London architect John Soane (1753-1837). .        Joselita Raspi Serra, Paestum and the Doric Revival 1750-1830 (Florence, Italy, Centro Di, 1986), 35.  The plan of a single church was given with depictions of the exterior rendered in Gothic Revival and three Neo-classic forms.  The substitution of crenelations for a balustrade, pointed arched windows for flat lintels, and flying buttresses for Doric columns on the tower was all that was required for the transformation of one style into another.  The Gothic style of that period was simply just "the frosting on the cake."

On 16 October 1834, the Palace of Westminster, which housed Parliament, was largely destroyed by a spectacular conflagration which inspired canvases by Turner and Constable.  The proposed reconstruction set off a national debate as to the proper style for this most important of government buildings.  The Neo-classic style had lately evolved into severe monumentality by stricter adherence to ancient Greek models.  Champions of the "Christian" Gothic style condemned this as being "pagan."  The survival of historic Westminster Hall whose 1406 hammerbeam ceiling spanned the 221 by 75-foot chamber probably prompted the adoption of Gothic.  Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860), an architect who preferred the Neo-classic, won the design competition.  Barry's assistant, Augustus W. N. Pugin (1812-1852), a designer enamored of the medieval, was responsible for the interior and exterior ornamentation.  The result, in Pugin's words: "All Grecian, Sir; Tudor details on a classic body."  Pugin took great interest in these details which extended even to the umbrella stands.

The construction of the Houses of Parliament did not yet signal the great shifting of styles which was to occur in the last third of the nineteenth century.  Indeed, Gothic Revivalists would eventually scorn this building for its symmetry and use of the Perpendicular style---a debased form of Gothic in their opinion.

The use of Gothic in Anglican churches remained a rather contentious matter as architectural styles had become emblematic of the theological factions of the day:

Twenty years ago [1852], however, the extreme Protestant party was still a strong one.  They saw mischief lurking in every pointed niche, and heresy peeping from every Gothic pillar.  They regarded the Medievalists with suspicion, and identified their cause with Romish hierarchy, with the Inquisition and Smithfield [site of burning of Protestants].  It would be a curious matter for speculation to ascertain how far the [Gothic] Revival has been encouraged, and how far it has been retarded, by ecclesiological zeal or idle bigotry. .        Charles L. Eastlake, The History of the Gothic Revival (1872), reprinted by the American Life Foundation (1975), 266.

Sir Kenneth Clark described Anglican practices of the time:

Only special students of the period know how greatly the English Church of 1830 differed from the English Church of today [1928].  Chancels and altars, clergymen in surplices, anthems, festivals, frequent standings and kneelings---these form part of everybody's mental picture of an Anglican church.  But to understand the development of the Gothic Revival we must imagine a time when all these forms were unthinkable.  To a good protestant of 1830 the least suggestion of symbolism---a cross on a gable or on a prayer book---was rank popery.  All forms of ritual were equally suspect.  The clergyman wore a black gown and read the communion service from his pulpit; no one knelt during the longer prayers, or stood when the choir entered; indeed, the choir, if it existed at all, was hidden in a gallery, where it performed to the accompaniment of violins and a 'cello.  The old Gothic churches had been gradually adapted to suit this type of service.  Superstitious features such as piscinae [for disposable of consecrated fluids] and sedilia [ceremonial seating for the clergy] were abolished; since altars were seldom used, even as tables, the chancel was either abandoned or employed as a vestry; and whatever symbolic sculpture existed in the nave was concealed by massive, comfortable pews for the rich and precarious galleries for the poor. .        Kenneth Clark, The Gothic Revival (London: Constable & Co., 1928), 197-198.

The religious impetus for the introduction of the Gothic style into Anglican churches came from the "high church" or "Oxford Movement" which favored elaborate rituals as found in the Roman Catholic Church.  In terms of church design, the high altar was favored over the pulpit as the object of architectural emphasis.  Spacious areas for the accommodation of the choir and clergy serving about the altar were necessitated.  The rise in popularity of ritualism led to the acceptance of Gothic ecclesiastical architecture from the mid-nineteenth century.

It is ironic that the Roman Catholic Church did little to encourage the Gothic Revival in England.  Charles L. Eastlake attributed this to three causes.  The migration of nearly a million largely poor Irish Catholics into England required the rapid construction of churches "executed in any style or no style---it mattered little---so long as they were built and occupied." .        Charles L. Eastlake, The History of the Gothic Revival (1872) reprinted by American Life Foundation (1975), 347.  Secondly, the Catholic religious orders in England were largely of Italian origin and favored their native Neo-classic styles.  Thirdly, the presiding Catholic prelate of the period, Cardinal Wiseman, had a great personal interest in the art of the Renaissance.

The rancor over architecture in the Church of England did not necessarily extend to denominations whose ideal place of worship remained a comfortable meeting house where all could see and hear the preacher.  The adoption of Gothic implied no alteration of the basic plan of their rectangular pulpit-centered edifices.  

By the time the Audsley brothers had established their architectural practice in the early 1860s, the Gothic Revival was a popular choice for churches and dwellings.  By the 1870s, large public buildings, hotels, railroad stations, and offices were being designed in the style.  There was a pronounced tendency to favor the picturesque with all manner of spires and turrets appearing in asymmetrical arrangements.  Bold colorations were used which had no antecedent in the Middle Ages.  Facades might include stonework of contrasting colors, sometimes in combination with brick.

The Audsleys declared their allegiance to the Gothic Revival on the very first page of their 1870 work on domestic architecture:

The introduction into this country of the ancient classical styles, which took place about fifty years ago [c. 1820], was anything but a step in the right direction. .        W. & J. Audsley, Cottage, Lodge, and Villa Architecture (Liverpool: 1870) a.

Further passages extolled the merits of the Revival and quoted major architects of the day at some length.  Despite their enthusiasm, the Audsleys did not align themselves with the extremists who sought to build literal copies of medieval structures:

The true Gothic revivalist does not desire to see, by a servile copyism of ancient buildings, the comforts and indispensable requirements of modern civilization done away with or even modified, but rather desires to elevate his art by making it subservient to every end, and by moulding it to suit the every day wants of time. .        W. & J. Audsley, Cottage, Lodge, and Villa Architecture (Liverpool:  , 1870), 4.

It will be seen that the Audsleys eventually accepted a somewhat popular notion of the time that architectural style ought to be dictated by the nature of the building.  Thus, Gothic was proper for "sacred" places such as churches and homes, while the pagan Neo-classic was better suited for secular offices or museums.

It should be noted that the Gothic Revival did not sweep aside all other styles.  Gothic was but one of a number of revival styles popular in the nineteenth century.  At the time of his immigration in the early 1890s, G. A. Audsley would have been met by numerous examples of the Romanesque Revival.  The style had been pioneered in the United States by Henry H. Richardson (1838-1886) who was influenced by historical buildings in southern France.  The "Richardsonian" Romanesque was massive in character with roughly cut stone blocks, sometimes in contrasting colors, and monumental round arches.  It had virtually become a national style when its popularity plunged with the erection of the Roman Revival pavilions of the Chicago Columbian Exposition in 1893.  Judging by his negative comments on Romanesque Revival stonework in the 1890s, G. A. Audsley probably had no interest in this style.

The Gothic Revival proved to be more durable than the Romanesque Revival.  The end of the nineteenth century saw major cathedral projects including New York, Washington, and Liverpool, where the actual structural system of Medieval Gothic architecture was revived.  The plaster vaults and iron columns of an earlier era were not to be admitted here, and much was made of the fact that these buildings were entirely of stone with no structural steelwork.

Quite surprisingly, the Gothic style found popularity in early twentieth century structures containing a great deal of steel.  The vertical emphasis of Gothic architecture was found by American architects to be suited to skyscrapers.  The best-known example was Cass Gilbert's (1859-1934) Woolworth Building (1913) in New York City.  The 880-foot-high facade was composed of terra cotta panels molded with Gothic ornament and supported by the steel frame.

By 1930, the Gothic Revival had largely run its course.  Churches and college campuses, the last strongholds of the Medieval Gothic style, likewise sheltered the last of the Gothic Revival.  Art Deco and Modernism, both futuristic styles, overtook the traditional.