of the effect is achieved by the use of paint, which is stippled to make the real columns look as if they are made of marble, and painted on flat surfaces to continue the architectural effects into illusionist space, so that the limits of the barn-like space become difficult to define. There are columns piled up on top of one another, draped with impressively solid-looking robed figures, supported by impressively solid-looking clouds. The actual shape of the architectural enclosure was made so as to allow this sort of painting to be done. The edges of the ceiling are curved down to join the walls, so there is no definite break between the two that would make a hard line that the eye could fix upon, and could then accurately find the limit of the room. Instead, we are not quite sure whether we are responding to the real volume or the illusion. Even if we try to see the space without its illusions, it is difficult, and to make the effort is certainly to miss the point. Everything here was conceived for the sake of its theatrical effect, so every detail was considered as part of the whole, and there is no room for standard fixtures and fittings. The pulpit seems to float on air in an agitated way, and even the pews are ornately carved so that they seem to go along with the general exaltation of the spectacle. It is a total all-enveloping work of art – the German word for it is Gesamtkunstwerk. There is the same concern for precious things and for dematerialization of the architecture as in the medieval era, but it is pursued here in a different architectural language, with different technical means. Behind and beneath all the ornament there is still an idea of classical order – Roman columns and entablatures are in there somewhere, giving a basic discipline, which then seems to have been stretched, shaken, and draped with festoons. It is a style of architecture that developed at royal courts in the 17th century, and was showy in a way that the lesser nobility could not match because it was so expensive to build. It remained popular among the peasantry, for whom it represented a form of escapist glamour. Again it is worth looking back to the Brighton Pavilion, which once belonged to this tradition of glamorous royal extravagance, and which now reaches a popular audience, that has its breath taken away by the whole thing (Figure 3). The particular style is different, but something about the motivation that produced it is the same, and so are some of the reactions to it.
11. Wieskirche, Steinhausen, Bavaria, Germany (1745–54); architect: Dominikus Zimmerman (1681–1766). This pilgrimage chapel, set in the midst of fields, is quite plain on the outside, but inside it is breathtakingly theatrical and seems at first to be little more than an ornamental froth of plasterwork. This initial impression masks a wealth of technical accomplishment and expressive skill. The building marks the end point of the development of a long tradition of lavish architectural effects, based on an underlying idea of classical ornament, and indeed classical columns and entablatures are to be found in amongst the riot of ornament. The general effect however is to give the impression of a building that has overcome the force of gravity, and the plasterwork looks as if it has been blown about by a great rush of air, causing turbulence in the detail and drift in the whole. Light comes into the building not only from the obvious windows, but also from unseen sources that should have the effect of spotlighting. The theatre is clearly an influence on the design decisions, from the illusionistic ceilings to the plasterwork and timber painted to look like marble. Impressively, everything that was originally in the church was adapted to the same vision, so the pulpit, the lectern, and all the pews are modelled and carved using the same ornamental style and seem as lively and exuberant as the building. When this church was being built, the Abbé Laugier, who worked at the Royal Chapel at Versailles – a building with many qualities similar to the Wieskirche – published