Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Thursday 20 July 2017

Neo-Gothic. Gothic Revival.



The Lady Chapel of Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott,
overseen by  
G F Bodley. The Lady Chapel was the first part of the Cathedral to be completed in 1910 and retains many of the Gothic features of the original design.
As Scott grew in confidence, the rest of the Cathedral was redesigned and streamlined
to arrive at a much more massive, austere style of architecture
Photo: 4 December 2005.
Source: Own work.
Author: © Andrew Dunn.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Gothic Revival campus of The University of Mumbai, India,
showing 
the Rajabai Clock Tower still under construction in 1878.
Source: Original Photograph currently with The British Library.
Author: Unknown.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, Neo-Gothic, or, Jigsaw Gothic, and, when used for School, College, and University buildings, as Collegiate Gothic) is an Architectural Movement that began in the Late-1740s in England.

Its popularity grew rapidly in the Early-19th Century, when increasingly serious and learned admirers of Neo-Gothic Styles sought to revive Mediaeval Gothic Architecture, in contrast to the Neo-Classical Styles prevalent at the time.

Gothic Revival draws features from the original Gothic Style, including Decorative Patterns, Finials, Scalloping, Lancet Windows, Hood Mouldings, and Label Stops.


Illustration: ENCYCLOPEDIA2.

The Gothic Revival Movement emerged in 19th-Century England. Its roots were inter-twined with deeply Philosophical Movements associated with a re-awakening of High Church or Anglo-Catholic Belief concerned by the growth of Religious Non-Conformism.

Ultimately, the "Anglo-Catholicism" Tradition of Religious Belief and Style became widespread for its intrinsic appeal in the Third-Quarter of the 19th-Century. Gothic Revival Architecture varied considerably in its faithfulness to both the ornamental style and principles of construction of its Mediaeval original, sometimes amounting to little more than Pointed Window Frames and a few touches of Gothic Decoration on a building otherwise on a wholly-19th-Century Plan and using contemporary materials and construction methods.


The unifying style of Parliament Hill
Ottawa, Canada, is Gothic Revival.
Photo: 16 August 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Digging.holes.
(Wikimedia Commons)

In parallel to the ascendancy of Neo-Gothic Styles in 19th-Century England, interest spread rapidly to the Continent of Europe, in Australia, South Africa and to The Americas; indeed, the number of Gothic Revival and Carpenter Gothic structures built in the 19th- and 20th-Centuries may exceed the number of authentic Gothic structures that had been built previously.


Photo: 8 August 2011.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)

The Gothic Revival was paralleled, and supported, by "Mediaevalism", which had its roots in antiquarian concerns with survivals and curiosities. As "industrialisation" progressed, a reaction against machine production and the appearance of factories also grew. Proponents of the picturesque, such as Thomas Carlyle and Augustus Pugin, took a critical view of industrial society and portrayed pre-industrial Mediaeval society as a Golden Age. To Pugin, Gothic Architecture was infused with the Christian values that had been supplanted by Classicism and were being destroyed by industrialisation.


An example of Russian Gothic Architecture.
Date: 2007.
Author: Сергей Ильин-Михальский (Sergey Ilyin-Mikhalski).
(Wikimedia Commons)

Gothic Revival also took on political connotations; with the "rational" and "radical" Neo-Classical Style being seen as associated with Republicanism and Liberalism (as evidenced by its use in The United States and, to a lesser extent, in Republican France), the more Spiritual and Traditional Gothic Revival became associated with Monarchism and Conservatism, which was reflected by the choice of styles for the rebuilt Government Centres of The Parliament of The United Kingdom in London and Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

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