Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

rior of Paris’s Notre-Dame to its Gothic splendor after removing the

Baroque and Napoleonic (FIG. 30-2) alterations.

HOUSES OF PARLIAMENTEngland also celebrated its me-

dieval heritage with Neo-Gothicbuildings. In London, after the old

Houses of Parliament burned in 1834, the Parliamentary Commis-

sion decreed that designs for the new building be either Gothic or

Elizabethan.Charles Barry(1795–1860), with the assistance of

A.W.N. Pugin(1812–1852), submitted the winning design (FIG.

30-44) in 1835. By this time, style had become a matter of selec-

tion from the historical past. Barry had traveled widely in Europe,

Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and Palestine, studying the architecture of

each place. He preferred the classical Renaissance styles, but he had

designed some earlier Neo-Gothic buildings, and Pugin successfully

influenced him in the direction of English Late Gothic. Pugin was

one of a group of English artists and critics who saw moral purity

and spiritual authenticity in the religious architecture of the Middle

Ages. They also glorified the careful medieval artisans who built the

great cathedrals. The Industrial Revolution was flooding the market

with cheaply made and ill-designed commodities, and machine

work was replacing handicraft. Many, such as Pugin, believed in the

necessity of restoring the old artisanship, which had honesty and

quality. The design of the Houses of Parliament, however, is not

genuinely Gothic, despite its picturesque tower groupings (the

Clock Tower, containing Big Ben, at one end, and the Victoria Tower

at the other). The building has a formal axial plan and a kind of Pal-

ladian regularity beneath its Neo-Gothic detail. Pugin himself said

of it, “All Grecian, Sir. Tudor [late English Gothic] details on a clas-

sical body.”^13

ROYAL PAVILIONAlthough the Neoclassical and Neo-Gothic

styles dominated early-19th-century architecture, exotic new styles

of all types soon began to appear, due in part to European imperial-

ism and in part to the Romantic spirit that permeated all the arts.

Great Britain’s forays throughout the world, particularly India, had

exposed English culture to a broad range of non-Western artistic

styles. The Royal Pavilion (FIG. 30-45), designed by John Nash

(1752–1835), exhibits a wide variety of these styles. Nash was an es-

tablished architect, known for Neoclassical buildings in London,

when he was asked to design a royal pleasure palace in the seaside re-

sort of Brighton for the prince regent (later King George IV). The

structure’s fantastic exterior is a conglomeration of Islamic domes,

minarets, and screens that historians have called “Indian Gothic,”

and sources ranging from Greece and Egypt to China influenced the

interior decor. Underlying the exotic facade is a cast-iron skeleton,

an early (if hidden) use of this material in noncommercial building.

Nash also put this metal to fanciful use, creating life-size palm-tree

columns in cast iron to support the Royal Pavilion’s kitchen ceiling.

The building, an appropriate enough backdrop for gala throngs

pursuing pleasure by the seaside, served as the prototype for numer-

ous playful architectural exaggerations still found in European and

American resorts.

Architecture 811

30-45John Nash,Royal Pavilion, Brighton, England, 1815–1818.

British territorial expansion brought a familiarity with many exotic styles. This palatial “Indian Gothic” seaside pavilion is a conglomeration of Islamic

domes, minarets, and screens.

30-44BUPJOHN,
Trinity Church,
New York,
1841–1852.