The Growth of the English House: A short history of its architectural development from 1100 to 1800Gotch, J. Alfred (John Alfred)
History
The Growth of the English House: A short history of its architectural development from 1100 to 1800
Gotch, J. Alfred (John Alfred)
Architecture -- England; Architecture, Domestic
The mouldings of the panels became bolder; instead of being narrow and
kept within the face of the surrounding woodwork, they grew to 3 in.
or more in width and projected considerably beyond the face; the panel
itself, instead of being recessed from the framing, not infrequently
stood out in front of it (Fig. 182). The carving followed the same
tendency; instead of being flat in section, delicately modelled in
conventional designs, and kept in subordination, adding an unobtrusive
interest to the surrounding work, it asserted its independence, grew
high in relief, assumed naturalistic forms, and challenged admiration
on its own account. This is particularly noticeable in Grinling
Gibbons’ carving, which excites admiration by its life-like modelling
and wonderful execution, yet often induces the feeling that it has
been too eager to throw off the wholesome restraints of architectural
treatment.
[Illustration: 183. Boughton House, Northants (_cir._ 1700).
View in State Apartments.]
[Illustration: 184. House in Buckingham Street, Strand, London (1675).]
[Illustration: 185. Wilton House, Wiltshire.
Chimney-piece in the Single Cube Room (_cir._ 1648).]
[Illustration: 186. House in Hatton Garden, London. (Now destroyed.)]
The large panels, the dado, the bold bolection mouldings are everywhere
in evidence at Boughton House, where suites of rooms, opening one
from the other, afford long vistas through lofty doors (Fig. 183).
There is an excellent example in a house (now rebuilt) in Buckingham
Street, near the Strand (Fig. 184), built about 1675; a house which was
the residence of Peter the Great while he was studying at Deptford.
By the middle of the seventeenth century pilasters, as a means of
dividing wall-panelling into bays, had gone out of fashion; their
place was sometimes taken, as at Wilton, by carved drapery or
flowers apparently hung on the wall (Fig. 185); but even this attempt
at grouping the panels was subsequently relinquished, and the walls
became covered with nothing but the large panels, crowned with a good
cornice and relieved by the dado, the windows, the doors, and the
chimney-piece. This simple but satisfactory treatment may be seen in
numberless houses of the time of Queen Anne and the early Georges,
where the panelling consists of nothing more than slightly raised
panels, surrounded by the plainest of mouldings (Fig. 186). Later in
the century the wood panelling disappeared, and its place was taken
by panels sunk in the plaster of the walls, such as Abraham Swan
shows in his “Designs of Architecture” (Fig. 187), or by the more
elaborate plaster panels of the old War Office (Fig. 188) attributed to
Brettingham; or yet again by wallpaper, such as is familiar to every
one in the present day.
[Illustration: 187. Treatment of One Side of a Room.
_From Abraham Swan’s “Designs in Architecture”_ (1757).]
[Illustration: 188. Room in Old War Office, formerly Cumberland House,
Pall Mall (1760–67).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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