What do you think?
Rate this book
An Architect of Promise: George Gilbert Scott Junior (1839-1897) and the Late Gothic Revival
446 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 2002
3 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 19, 2010
The architectural career of George Gilbert Scott Jr can be taken a succinct microcosm of many of the changes the gothic underwent in the second half of the century. His early works were influenced by Pugin and entirely English, and like Pugin he was the author of a noteworthy book on medieval architecture, Secular and Domestic Architecture, Past and Future (1858). For a time, under the influence of both Ruskin and his father, also a well-known architect, he favored the Middle Pointed variety of the 13th-century Geometrical Decorated style, but after the death of his father he turned away from this and in 1860s and 70s led “New School,” favoring Perpendicular late English Gothic. Scott mixed with artists and writers, including members of the Aesthetic Movement, and become enamored of Italian Gothic. His later works, such as the Albert Memorial, became progressively more eclectic. Scott began combining medieval and Renaissance styles, and incorporated some pagan elements into his designs for sacred buildings. Then he met Newman and converted to Catholicism. Scott was close to Wm Morris for a time, and sympathized with, but never joined, the Society for the protection of Ancient Buildings, which was founded by Morris 1877. And like so many other eminent Victorians Scott was, if only briefly, a fellow of Cambridge.
Scott’s father used styles eclecticly, mixing eg Queen Anne and Gothic even in restored medieval buildings, but Scott was increasingly careful and authentic in his restorations and gradually drew away from his involvement with Morris’ Firm. Gavin Stamp argues that this represented a rejection of the basic tenets of the High Victorian Gothic Revival – but there was more to it than that. It was part of a wider response to a crisis in British architecture in the years around 1870. It was a reflection of a profound loss of confidence in modern architecture and its ability to generate its own style rather than reproduce those of the past. Stamp goes on to conclude that Scott’s style can also be seen as modern – it was a search for statis rather than development, a simplification… which anticipated the aesthetic concerns of the following century, and that it was produced not of timidity and decline but of high intelligence and sophistication, enabling the Gothic Revival to move in a new direction.
Scott’s father used styles eclecticly, mixing eg Queen Anne and Gothic even in restored medieval buildings, but Scott was increasingly careful and authentic in his restorations and gradually drew away from his involvement with Morris’ Firm. Gavin Stamp argues that this represented a rejection of the basic tenets of the High Victorian Gothic Revival – but there was more to it than that. It was part of a wider response to a crisis in British architecture in the years around 1870. It was a reflection of a profound loss of confidence in modern architecture and its ability to generate its own style rather than reproduce those of the past. Stamp goes on to conclude that Scott’s style can also be seen as modern – it was a search for statis rather than development, a simplification… which anticipated the aesthetic concerns of the following century, and that it was produced not of timidity and decline but of high intelligence and sophistication, enabling the Gothic Revival to move in a new direction.
Displaying 1 of 1 review