Visual Support of the Neo-Gothic Project: “Contrasts” by A. W. N. Pugin
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33910/2687-1262-2022-4-1-25-35Keywords:
Pugin, architecture, city planning, Gothic revival, “Contrasts”, manifesto, aesthetics, morality, Catholicism, Middle Ages, ReformationAbstract
- W. N. Pugin (1812–1852), a representative of the Gothic revival, known primarily as the co-author of the Houses of Parliament in London, was also a prolific writer, expressing his original views on the role of architecture in the contemporary society. This article analyses Pugin’s most famous text— his treatise “Contrasts” (1836, 1841).
Pugin’s contemporaries stressed his revolutionary role in the history of the Gothic revival. Architecture historians of the 20th and 21st centuries, however, tend to highlight his influence on urban studies. We aim to demonstrate that these interpretations are based on two constituent parts of Pugin’s treatise studied separately.
The text of “Contrasts” deals not with architecture as it is, but with the criticism of English Reformation, which was (as Pugin thought) organised solely by Henry VIII, and which destroyed the harmonious medieval society. According to Pugin, monasteries were the highest manifestation of this society. As a Catholic convert, he tended to idealize both Christian and organic features of the medieval society, though monastic life was for him a certain Gesamtkunstwerk organized on the basis of Christian (i. e. Gothic) art. On the contrary, the illustrations, which were a separate album inside the book, demonstrated a profound understanding of the value of urban environment, therefore they are still presented as an example of progressive urban thought. Reasonable as it is, this appraisal is based only on the illustrations, which are a separate entity inside the book. We can assume that Pugin (due to certain lack of intellectual discipline) was unable to pronounce some ideas which seemed obvious to him and which are more valuable for us than all his laments about Protestant vandalism.
References
ИСТОЧНИКИ
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Dugdale, W. (1693) Monasticon Anglicanum, or, The history of the ancient abbies, and other monasteries, hospitals, cathedral and collegiate churches in England and Wales. With divers French, Irish, and Scotch monasteries formerly relating to England. Vol. 1. London: Sam Keble Publ.; Hen. Rhodes Publ., 400 p.
Pugin, A. (1836) Contrasts. London: Printed for the author, 120 p.
Pugin, A. (1841) Contrasts: or, A parallel between the noble edifices of the Middle Ages, and corresponding buildings of the present day; shewing the present decay of taste. London: Charles Dolman Publ., 194 p.
Spelman, H. (1853) The history and fate of sacrilege, discover’d by examples of Scripture, of heathens, and of Christians; from the beginning of the world, continually to this day. London: Joseph Masters Publ., 371 p.
ЛИТЕРАТУРА
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Crook, J. (1987) The dilemma of style: Architectural ideas from the picturesque to the post-modern. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 348 p.
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Hitchсock, H.-R. (1954) Early Victorian architecture in Britain: In 2 vols. Vol. 2. (illustrations). New Haven: Yale University Press, XXXII, 200 p.
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Le Corbusier. (1986) Towards a new architecture. New York: Dover Publ., 320 p.
Pevsner, N. (1972) Some architectural writers of the nineteenth century. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 338 p.
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Dugdale, W. (1693) Monasticon Anglicanum, or, The history of the ancient abbies, and other monasteries, hospitals, cathedral and collegiate churches in England and Wales. With divers French, Irish, and Scotch monasteries formerly relating to England. Vol. 1. London: Sam Keble Publ.; Hen. Rhodes Publ., 400 p. (In English)
Pugin, A. (1836) Contrasts. London: Printed for the author, 120 p. (In English)
Pugin, A. (1841) Contrasts: or, A parallel between the noble edifices of the Middle Ages, and corresponding buildings of the present day; shewing the present decay of taste. London: Charles Dolman Publ., 194 p. (In English)
Pugin A. (2012) Istinnye printsipy ostrokonechnoj ili khristianskoj arkhitektury [The true principles of pointed or Christian architecture]. Vestnik Pravoslavnogo Svyato-Tikhonovskogo gumanitarnogo universiteta. Seriya 5: Voprosy istorii i teorii khristianskogo iskusstva — St. Tikhon’s University Review. Series V: Problems of History and Theory of Christian Art, no. 1 (7), pp. 126–170. (In Russian)
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REFERENCES
Alexander, M. (2017) Medievalism: The Middle Ages in Modern England. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 312 p. (In English)
Clark, K. (1974) The Gothic revival. An essay in the history of taste. New York: Harper & Row Publ., 236 p. (In English)
Conner, P. (1978) Pugin and Ruskin. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol. 41, pp. 344–350. https://doi.org/10.2307/750883 (In English)
Crook, J. (1987) The dilemma of style: Architectural ideas from the picturesque to the post-modern. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 348 p. (In English)
Degtyarev, V. V. (2017) Arkhitektor Ogastes Uelbi P’yudzhin i antikvarnaya traditsiya [Architect Augustus Welby Pugin and the antiquarian tradition]. Observatoriya kul’tury — Observatory of Culture, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 445–451. https://doi.org/10.25281/2072-3156-2017-14-4-445-451 (In Russian)
Degtyarev, V. V. (2019) Kontseptsiya gesamtkunstwerka v arkhitekture i arkhitektor O. U. P’yudzhin [The concept of Gesamtkunstwerk in architecture and architect A. W. N. Pugin]. Khudozhestvennaya kul’tura — Art & Culture Studies, no. 4 (31), pp. 254–275. https://doi.org/10.24411/2226-0072-2019-00080 (In Russian)
Hill, R. (2007) God’s architect. Pugin and the building of Romantic Britain. London: Allen Lane Publ., 602 p. (In English)
Hill, R. (2012) Pugin, God’s architect. The Guardian, 24 February. [Online]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/24/pugin-gothic-architect (accessed 02.07.2021). (In English)
Hitchсock, H.-R. (1954) Early Victorian architecture in Britain: In 2 vols. Vol. 2. (illustrations). New Haven: Yale University Press, XXXII, 200 p. (In English)
Holliday, K. E. (2012) Beginnings and endings: Phoebe Stanton on Pugin’s Contrasts. Journal of Architectural Education, vol. 66, no. 1, pp. 128–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/10464883.2012.720235 (In English)
Le Corbusier (1986) Towards a new architecture. New York: Dover Publ., 320 p. (In English)
Pevsner, N. (1972) Some architectural writers of the nineteenth century. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 338 p. (In English)
Phillips, M. S. (2013) On historical distance. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 312 p. (In English)
Rappaport, A. (2009) Dukh vremeni i arkhitektura XIX veka. In: I. A. Azizyan (ed.). Ocherki istorii teorii arkhitektury Novogo i Novejshego vremeni [The spirit of the time and the architecture of the XIX century. Essays on the history of the theory of architecture of Modern and Contemporary times]. Saint Petersburg: Kolo Publ., pp. 135–189. (In Russian)
Rykwert, J. (1972) On Adam’s house in paradise. The idea of the primitive hut in architectural history. New York: The Museum of Modern Art Publ., 223 p. (In English)
Stanton, P. B. (1972) Pugin. New York: The Viking Press, 216 p. (In English)
Wagner, C. (2005) “Standing Proof of the Degeneracy of Modern Times”: Architecture, society, and the medievalism of A. W. N. Pugin. In: J. Palmgren, L. Holloway (eds.). Beyond Arthurian romances: The reach of Victorian medievalism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan Publ., pp. 9–37. (In English)
Watkin, D. (1984) Morality and architecture. Chicago; London: Chicago University Press, 126 p. (In English)
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