The Gothic-Revival Architecture - Essay Example

Student Name: Instructor’s Name: Title: The Gothic-Revival Architecture Course: Institution: Introduction Style is a system of structures with a class and a consequential expression via which the character of the artist and the broad point of view of a group are noticeable. It is as well a medium of communication within the group, expressing and fixing definite values of sacred, societal, and moral life by means of the expressive suggestiveness of structures. Moreover, a work of art may only articulate adequately its own era and not another. In the case of the Great Hall and Houses of Parliament, style, is very important, from its choice to its justification, and to its eventual preservation. The Gothic style originated in France. Gothic architecture surfaced as a unique style, emerging as the style of selection for major cathedrals, like Chartres, Rheims and Westminster Abbey. Even if directly linked to religious architecture, a few aspects of the style, like tracery and monument, were modified in magnificent buildings of medieval Europe (Aldrich, 1999). In this paper, the choice of the Gothic-Revival style to build the Great Hall and quadrangle and the Houses of Parliament will be discussed in terms of symbolic implication that is culture, civilization, history and education. The ideological connotations of the buildings will be expressed in terms of validations which cover the self interests of a specific group in society. Specifically, it will be discussed that even as presumably intended to educate the young people of the colony, the buildings served the welfare of some leaders who were efficient rulers in colonial society as well as who preferred to establish their political authority as well as their cultural authority in the colony and in British society. Moreover, these leaders of the colonial society preferred to free the colony of the disgrace of its basis upon convict labor as well as maintain close bonds with the home country. It can be said that the Gothic style of the Great Hall and Houses of Parliament played a significant role in these ambitions (Trigg, 2006). In the 1850s, Government house and Houses of Parliament were the most fundamental public building in Sydney and England respectively, from both a social and political perspective. In the 1840s and 1850s, the Gothic-Revival style was popular in designing colleges and universities buildings. It was used to symbolize history: the change of higher education in 19th and 20thC. The selection of the Gothic-Revival style to build the university buildings was a significant cultural statesman. Moreover, the choice of the Gothic-Revival style was a significant declaration of the university's educational mission. The Gothic Great Hall of Sidney University was designed by the English engineer Edward Blore and inaugurated in 1850 while the new Gothic Houses of Parliament was designed by Augustus Welby and Sir Charles Barry and inaugurated in 1852. The Gothic-Revival style was selected to build the Houses of parliament so as to highlight the past stability of the parliament system. The Gothic style miniature and infinite sculptural ornaments provide way of expressing, either representatively or plainly, everything that must be understood of national feeling or success (Kerr, 1983). The Gothic-Revival style is an important aspect of the Great Hall and Houses of Parliament. It expresses bonds with the medieval history, and expresses strength and stability. Moreover, as Gothic architecture symbolized material as well as intangible character, merging architecture and religion, new values were brought in with the Revival of the style. The Gothic-Revival style was preferred as it was easy for nations to adapt it to suit their nationhood. The issues of nation depiction, state style, and representation become entangled in the construction of the Houses of parliament buildings. There were other styles, such as the Greek or Roman that could have been used to build the Great Hall and the Houses of Parliament; they could not lead to achievement of the founders’ ambitions. For instance, the Greek style had lost support in the colony after 1845, especially for educational and political buildings but was useful for commercial and funerary buildings. It was very difficult to adapt an entirely Grecian building to the common requirements of public institutions (Aldrich, 1999). Gothic-revival style was very popular style in the whole of European civilization world. Using the Gothic-revival style to build the Great Hall and Houses of Parliament symbolized maturity of the colony. The amazing Gothic-revival style hall and Houses of Parliament would show that the nation was now cultured, enlightened, civilized and modern. It showed that the colony was now set to make it entrance on the world arena and no longer humiliated by the cruelty of conviction. In fact, Nicholson was straightforward on this as on his report to the select committee on the University of 1860, he positioned the buildings in a global spectrum. According to him, the use of the Gothic style would form a decoration to every capital of Europe and elevate the character of the nation all over the world. The gleam of the ostentatious buildings improved the status of the University and of those linked to its designing (Trigg, 2006). The use of Gothic-revival style was meant to link the University of Sydney and the Parliament with the English tradition, through the principle of associationism as England had no pedigree of great names and reputation of local associations while the citizens were not able to build upon past memories. Though nowadays the narrow mindedness and British prejudice of this perspective is obvious, at that time it was acknowledged by upper class or who wished finally to go back permanently to their home country, like Nicholson, Wentworth and Merewether. All other traditions which the colony used to build its foundation were disregarded. Generally, aboriginal culture, if discerned at all, was highly deemed in terms of ethnography, the criminal heritages was a cause of embarrassment and the achievements of discovery before as well as after 1770 were disregarded apart from those of James Cook the captain (George, 1972). The Great Hall and the Houses of Parliament iconography reflected this attitude. The stained glass depicted 36 great English men, however, only one had an association with Australia that of James Cook the captain. William Long donated one of the stained glass and his contribution was almost thrice that of other donors, though this was not recognized. The father of William Long was a convict, although William was a graduate of Cambridge. Therefore, it has to be assumed that his bigger contribution was associated with a desire for decency. His convict origins account for the lack of adequate acknowledgement of hi contribution and as a result, he appear nowhere in the early history of thee university. There are some examples if native flora and fauna among the large number of gargoyles and heads symbolizing the English types that ornament the Great Hall and Houses of Parliament, however is there at all no mention of the Indigenous people. Convicts, indigenous people and explores could not meet the objectives of the founders, which included associating the two buildings with the Oxbridge tradition and British crown, and raising the status of this newly abject and despicable colony, whose mane was made use of in the home country as an description of disrespect and a bye-word of accusation (Kerr, 1983). The founders of Great hall and Houses of Parliament hoped that the ideas of associationism could invoke the Oxbridge tradition. All owners of a famous cottage ornee were whether intentionally or not, practicing the cult of reminiscence through associationism. From the time Macquaries, who did a lot to make known the Gothic architecture that was the antecedent of the more archaeologically approved Gothic-Revival style, publications that tackled these ideas were familiar and in circulation in the nation. These publications include, The present State of Ecclesiastical Taste in England by Pugin; Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste by Alison and Observations Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty by Gilpin (Andrews, 2002). The continuous use of the word association in relation to the Gothic architecture of the Great Hall and Houses of Parliament by its founders indicates a conscious strategy or else the deduction that the idea was generally implicit in the colony. Associational qualities are inherent in the two buildings and are linked to art, classifying the Great Hall and Houses of Parliament into the class of ‘art’. These associations remind the people of England of those who as statesmen, orators, princes, poets, divines and philosophers have greatly contributed to giving Britain such a good reputation. Good buildings such as the Great Hall and Houses of parliament can have great impact on the character of people associated with them (George, 1972). The founders of the Great Hall and Houses of parliament believed that associations stirred by buildings in the Oxford and Cambridge style could lift up and nurture the experience of colonial youth. The significance of the Great hall and Houses of Parliament and their associational characteristics besieged all other more realistic consideration. The accurate agenda of the Great Hall associationism was to lock the nation into the traditional tertiary education system of Oxbridge that would perpetuate ties with England, the home country, through providing the colony with native administrators who were cultured to be absolutely loyal and obedient to the welfare of England (Robert, 1987). The Gothic-revival style associationism in the colony was commonly implicit in connection to reminiscence for the homeland. Similarly, the Gothic-Revival style of the Great Hall and Houses of Parliament were linked to reminiscence as well as the artificial structure of the ruling class in the nation as discussed above. The Gothic style in England included more complex issues, a few of which related to the grand Great Hall. It is common sense that there were association between the English Gothic-revival and the twofold worries of destruction of society due to the French revolution and worry of such a fierce revolution in England, together with reminiscence for an peaceful past in the face of quickly changing modern society that placed stress on the individual. The Gothic-revival style provided a model of a culture founded on the feudal principles of medieval England, whereby loyalty, social order and control would emerge. By mid 19th C, New South Wales was not modern and thus there was no need for the utilization of associationism in rivalry to this characteristic of society. However, in the 1850s, the two issues of loyalty to the Empire (which involved more than training future administrators as it was important for those whose wealth and social status were reliant on the relationship between the colony and England) and law and order, were turning into a setback for conventional colonials (George, 1972). England experienced social disorder in the 1850s. The discovery of gold was one of the reasons for this social chaos. The prospect of a self government brought about conflict among the ruling classes whereas there was joblessness and hopelessness among the working classes. There was religious, cultural and industrial dissension which led to chaos and violence. From 1848 to 1853, political demonstrations as well as obstruction of the streets in the region of House of Parliament were prohibited. In 1844 and 1950, ruling class members were harassed by robbers to an extent that public conferences were arranged for the protection of life and material goods in Sydney. During this period, church and family never exercised tough control over colonial community. Pardoned ex-convicts were not under the orders of the church that preached obligation and obedience to the Government. Likewise, the family was not a powerful controlling element as many extended family members were left in England. In 1853, conservatives perceived the call by Lang for an Australian Declaration of Independence as a threat and instead called for a conservative British constitution (Kennth, 1982). The unrest witnessed in the 1850s called for a declaration of British rule in addition to re-imposition of the social hierarchy whereby the England’s Queen was supreme. It generated the call for an icon that could reinstate an allegiance to England, an icon that personified the authority of traditions, the past, culture and civilization that would be made use of in an associational logic as a stabilizing model. The Great Hall and Houses of Parliament built in a Gothic-revival style provided such an icon that was suitable to the circumstances of the 1850s. The fact that the Great Hall resembled the Westminster hall served as a souvenir of the British Empire rule as the stained glass windows represented the sovereigns and incredible men of English history as well as the seraphs and the gargoyles. The Great Hall was accessible to everyone and many people flocked to view it. Roughly, a thousand people would visit it to view the astonishing building. In 1859, fourteen thousands people attended a music festival that was performed in the Great Hall (Andrews, 2002). The Great Hall and the Houses of Parliament may be seen as an expression of art that is actually straightforward and established. The preference of cedar for building the hammer-beam roof symbolized knowledge of the thinning availability of the best and most typical structure of early settlement and was planned as a permanent model in, and souvenir of, the rapid-dying cedar of the Australian east coast. The carvings and ornamental embellishments of the buildings asserted in representative form the University's position in the custom of British universities as well as the modern global world of learning. . The painting represents a magnificent and symbolic Gothic buildings, from the main entry of which one would command a scene of a potential path of trees. The traditional use of utilitarian bricks to build Gothic buildings was changed to more imposing sandstones. As a result, the Gothic buildings looked striking, greatly crenellated and military. Therefore, the most apparent rationale for the selection of the Gothic-Revival style is because it was incredibly stylish; however, there was more to it than sheer style (Weitzman, 1961). In the 19th C, architects looked at history symbolically as a way of regaining the control and stateliness of simpler era that were assumed to have been vanished during the contemporary era of swift social and industrial development. The Gothic style was thought of as promoting moral qualities. In the 1840s, countries were looking at their past with a view of identifying their own national architecture styles that could unite their people through a sense of universal national identity. The choice of Gothic-Revival style was meant to emphasize elements like nationalism, eclecticism, historicism, Romanesque and picturesque (Robert, 1987). Conclusion It’s eminent from the discussion above that the choice of the Gothic-Revival style for the for Sydney University’s Great Hall and quadrangle, and for Britain’s Houses of parliament was deliberate since other styles were practicable. The Gothic-Revival style was chosen to offer a symbolic relation between citizens and the Oxbridge tradition, and using this it led to the persistent subservience of the colony to the home country at an era when other loyalties were being propagated. The Gothic buildings were greatly ornamented to create a structure that could electrify the guests to the colony as well as Europeans and English residents, with the notion that Australia and Britain were complicated, established and cultured countries that had abandoned their convict foundations. Above all, the personal self interests of the founders were obvious in the choice of the Gothic style. The imposing buildings offered a background for their own ambitions in Britain and in Australia. Bibliography Aldrich. Megan. Gothic Revival. London: Phaidon Press Ltd, 1999. Brian Andrews, Creating a Gothic Paradise: Pugin at the Antipodes, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery catalogue, Hobart, 2002. Clark, Sir Kennth. The Gothic Revival: An Essay in the History of Taste, 1928. Cooke. Sir Robert. The Palace of Westminster: Houses of Parliament. London: Burton Skira, 1987. Joan Kerr, Our Great Victorian Architect Edmund Thomas Blacket 1817-1883, National Trust catalogue, Sydney, 1983. Hersey, George L. High Victorian Gothic: a study in associationism. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972. Stephanie Trigg (ed.), Medievalism and the Gothic in Australian Culture, Melbourne University Publishing, Carlton (Vic.), 2006. Weitzman, George H. "The Utilitarians and the Houses of Parliament." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 20 (October 1961): 99-107. Read More

Gothic-revival style was very popular style in the whole of European civilization world. Using the Gothic-revival style to build the Great Hall and Houses of Parliament symbolized maturity of the colony. The amazing Gothic-revival style hall and Houses of Parliament would show that the nation was now cultured, enlightened, civilized and modern. It showed that the colony was now set to make it entrance on the world arena and no longer humiliated by the cruelty of conviction. In fact, Nicholson was straightforward on this as on his report to the select committee on the University of 1860, he positioned the buildings in a global spectrum.

According to him, the use of the Gothic style would form a decoration to every capital of Europe and elevate the character of the nation all over the world. The gleam of the ostentatious buildings improved the status of the University and of those linked to its designing (Trigg, 2006). The use of Gothic-revival style was meant to link the University of Sydney and the Parliament with the English tradition, through the principle of associationism as England had no pedigree of great names and reputation of local associations while the citizens were not able to build upon past memories.

Though nowadays the narrow mindedness and British prejudice of this perspective is obvious, at that time it was acknowledged by upper class or who wished finally to go back permanently to their home country, like Nicholson, Wentworth and Merewether. All other traditions which the colony used to build its foundation were disregarded. Generally, aboriginal culture, if discerned at all, was highly deemed in terms of ethnography, the criminal heritages was a cause of embarrassment and the achievements of discovery before as well as after 1770 were disregarded apart from those of James Cook the captain (George, 1972).

The Great Hall and the Houses of Parliament iconography reflected this attitude. The stained glass depicted 36 great English men, however, only one had an association with Australia that of James Cook the captain. William Long donated one of the stained glass and his contribution was almost thrice that of other donors, though this was not recognized. The father of William Long was a convict, although William was a graduate of Cambridge. Therefore, it has to be assumed that his bigger contribution was associated with a desire for decency.

His convict origins account for the lack of adequate acknowledgement of hi contribution and as a result, he appear nowhere in the early history of thee university. There are some examples if native flora and fauna among the large number of gargoyles and heads symbolizing the English types that ornament the Great Hall and Houses of Parliament, however is there at all no mention of the Indigenous people. Convicts, indigenous people and explores could not meet the objectives of the founders, which included associating the two buildings with the Oxbridge tradition and British crown, and raising the status of this newly abject and despicable colony, whose mane was made use of in the home country as an description of disrespect and a bye-word of accusation (Kerr, 1983).

The founders of Great hall and Houses of Parliament hoped that the ideas of associationism could invoke the Oxbridge tradition. All owners of a famous cottage ornee were whether intentionally or not, practicing the cult of reminiscence through associationism. From the time Macquaries, who did a lot to make known the Gothic architecture that was the antecedent of the more archaeologically approved Gothic-Revival style, publications that tackled these ideas were familiar and in circulation in the nation.

These publications include, The present State of Ecclesiastical Taste in England by Pugin; Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste by Alison and Observations Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty by Gilpin (Andrews, 2002). The continuous use of the word association in relation to the Gothic architecture of the Great Hall and Houses of Parliament by its founders indicates a conscious strategy or else the deduction that the idea was generally implicit in the colony.

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