Architecture - Andrew Ballantyne [7]
In the medieval period many different styles of architecture developed. Churches that tried to imitate Roman vaults and arches are now called ‘Romanesque’. Later churches that used pointed arches and more decorative window tracery are called ‘Gothic’. Gothic is subdivided into different local styles. In England we find the Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular styles. In France we find High Gothic, Flamboyant, and Rayonnant. The names of local styles are mostly derived from ideas that describe the effect of the architecture, or the shapes of tracery. ‘Romanesque’ also refers us back to the form of the building, which is reminiscent of those of Rome. In England and northern France, Romanesque architecture can be called ‘Norman’, after the dukes of Normandy who commissioned it, so this is a ‘political’ name for the same style. Similarly the name ‘Gothic’ is political, in that it refers to a body of people, the Goths, who laid waste to Rome. This does not tell us anything useful about the architecture, but it does tell us about how the architecture was seen at the time that the name was coined, in the 17th century, long after the cathedral-builders had stopped building in that manner.
Similarly, it no longer seems quite satisfactory for us to think of ourselves as living in the late days of the Renaissance. At some time, somewhere, it must have come to an end, but just when that happened is difficult to decide. The austere work of Brunelleschi and Alberti was followed by more decorative work by architects such as Bernini and Borromini, that overlaid rich ornament on a classical background, in a manner that we call Baroque and which reached its fullest development in 18th-century France and Germany (Figure 11). While this is certainly part of the same tradition, there is a different range of artistic intentions here, and so there is a different stylistic name. There was a reaction to these excesses, when the elaboration was, so to speak, stripped away and the classical order made clear again. This movement, known as Neoclassicism, was also nourished with new knowledge from archaeological investigations in Greece, which brought to light a better understanding of the architectural forms of the ancient Greek world, which had been officially revered, even when they were not really known.
By the end of the 18th century, then, there were rival versions of classicism in circulation, based on various understandings of Greek and Roman architecture, ranging from the fundamentalist simplicity of austere Doric temples, to the highly ornamental work of the Adam brothers. There was also a growing antiquarian interest in medieval architecture that developed into the very serious-minded architecture of the Gothic Revival of the mid-19th century (Figure 5) and various forays into exotic spectacle, such as the Brighton Pavilion (Figure 3). This eclecticism has flourished ever since, more visibly at some times than at others, marking the fact that the tastes of the classes that have money to spend on building were no longer unified. If the Renaissance marked the passing of power from the feudal to the mercantile classes, the coming of eclecticism marked the arrival of the great industrial fortunes. The people who made their money from the East India Company, from sugar plantations in the West Indies, or from industrial production