Clarity or Camouflage? The Development of Constructional Polychromy in the 1850s and Early 1860s

Jackson, Neil

doi:10.1017/s0066622x00001751

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 11 publications

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“…[25] From this, it is clear that Scott worked very closely with his painters and colourists, and from further remarks made it is clear he had an idea in his mind of exactly the final effects he wished to achieve and did not leave the choice of colours solely to his craftspeople. High Victorian fashion for constructional polychromy commenced during the 1840s [26][27][28]. This was accelerated by the publication of John Ruskin's considerations of colour in his seminal book The Stones of Venice, published between 1851 and 1853 [29].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of a Mid-19th Century Reredos by Sir George Gilbert Scott

et al. 2023

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A painted stone reredos in the Priory Church of St Cuthbert, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, UK, was analysed before recent conservation to determine the pigment scheme employed. The screen was created by the eminent British architect Sir George Gilbert Scott in the middle decade of the 19th Century. The results help inform the wider range of palettes employed by British architects and craftspeople working in the 19th and early 20th centuries which have previously been little studied. The pigments generally were high-quality vermilion (red), chrome yellow (yellow), and ultramarine (blue), and several alternatives were also evident such as red lead and haematite for red, bone black, and carbon black for black. Lightening and darkening agents were incorporated as lead white, barytes, and carbon, and pigment mixtures were used to achieve the colours dark blue-red, and green.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of a Mid-19th Century Reredos by Sir George Gilbert Scott

et al. 2023

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Stones of Science: Charles Harriot Smith and the Importance of Geology in Architecture, 1834–64

Gillin¹

2016

Archit. hist.

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In The Stones of Venice England's leading art critic, John Ruskin (-), made explicit the importance of geological knowledge for architecture. Clearly an architect's choice of stone was central to the character of a building, but Ruskin used the physical composition of rock to help define the nature of the Gothic style. He invoked a powerful geological analogy which he believed would have resonance with his readers, explaining how the Gothic 'character' could be submitted to analysis, 'just as the rough mineral is submitted to that of the chemist'. 1 Like geological minerals, he asserted that the Gothic was not pure, but composed of several elements. Elaborating on this chemical analogy, he remarked that, 'in defining a mineral by its constituent parts, it is not one nor another of them, that can make up the mineral, but the union of all: for instance, it is neither in charcoal, nor in oxygen, nor in lime, that there is the making of chalk, but in the combination of all three'. 2 He concluded that the same was true for Gothic: the style was a union of specific elements, such as naturalism (the love of nature) and grotesqueness (the use of disturbing imagination). 3 His analogy between moral elements in architecture and chemical elements in geology was not, however, just rhetorical. His choice to use geology in connection with architecture was part of a growing consensus that the two disciplines were fundamentally linked.In early Victorian Britain, the study of geology invoked radically new ways of conceptualising the earth's history. Charles Lyell (-), in his Principles of Geology (-), had argued that the earth's form was best examined by studying geological activity, such as volcanoes, earthquakes and erosion. 4 Others, such as the Oxford cleric and geologist William Buckland (-), rejected this emphasis on examining natural phenomena, and instead promoted geology as a subject best studied through fossil collecting and the observation of the earth's strata layout. 5 Despite these differences over what was the correct approach to investigate geology, the investigation of the earth was becoming increasingly intimate with the construction of architecture. Geology involved new ways of analysing the composition of stone, and changing perceptions of how various rock types Architectural History  (), -.

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George Gilbert Scott: A Pioneer of Constructional Polychromy?

Whelan¹

2014

Architectural History

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The dominant historical account of constructional polychromy in Britain describes its emergence in the fifteenth century as a by-product of the introduction of brick-making under Flemish influence. Blue bricks, over-fired or possibly deliberately vitrified, were put to use creating patterns and colour contrasts in load-bearing walls. This constructional polychromy passed from fashion in the late Renaissance period before returning to popularity in the mid-nineteenth century, prompted, it is said, by John Ruskin’s The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) and The Stones of Venice (1851–53), and landmark buildings, notably William Butterfield’s All Saints, Margaret Street in London, designed in 1849.

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Clarity or Camouflage? The Development of Constructional Polychromy in the 1850s and Early 1860s

Cited by 4 publications

References 11 publications

Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of a Mid-19th Century Reredos by Sir George Gilbert Scott

Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of a Mid-19th Century Reredos by Sir George Gilbert Scott

Stones of Science: Charles Harriot Smith and the Importance of Geology in Architecture, 1834–64

George Gilbert Scott: A Pioneer of Constructional Polychromy?

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