The Gothic Revival in the nineteenth century: Early work by A.W.N. Pugin

 


As a young man Augustus Pugin converted to Roman Catholicism and in 1836 published “Contrasts” in which he compares architecture and interior furnishings in Protestant and Roman Catholic settings. One of his drawings illustrates “a faithful picture of Protestant desecration and neglect” and features a defaced altar screen, below which stands an altar table that Pugin describes as a “cheap and ugly table”. In contrast a sketch of an altar and associated furnishings in a Roman Catholic setting is described as “more suited to a fashionable boudoir that to an altar for sacrifice.”

Pugin’s aim was to recapture the Gothic style in the buildings and furnishings he designed. An early commission was Scarisbrick Hall, close to Ormskirk in Lancashire. Charles Scarisbrick initially wanted a garden seat and chimney piece, but the young and enthusiastic Pugin set about trying to rebuild the entire property. Pugin produced for Scarisbrick a number of rooms central to the house: the Great Hall, the Oak Room and the King’s Room. In the Great Hall a massive relief of Christ wearing a crown of thorns was the feature, as it faced the minstrels’ gallery. Externally Pugin wanted to transform Scarisbrick Hall into a Catholic Mansion of Old Times, but his client was not agreeable to this plan. Charles Scarisbrick came from a family that had been recusant Roman Catholic since the Reformation and made no connection between religious conviction and its expression in the design and furnishing of buildings. He did not want pictures of Catholic martyrs on the library ceiling, a separate chapel or an imposing clock tower. Pugin built the latter to a design that was a reminder of the tower at the Palace of Westminster, that would be built later.

Whilst Pugin was certain of his religious conviction and of his polemical references to it, his architectural and interior designs were still in their infancy and lacked experience. His confidence was massive and so he asserted about the Gothic Revival “The night of sorrow is far spent, the brightness of returning glory is seen”. Future projects would reveal this glory in Pugin’s Architecture.



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