DOI article:
Crampin, Martin: The Gothic Revival character of ecclesiastical stained glass in Britain
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51154#0030
29
own work in the same style. Given this knowledge of me-
dieval stained glass, his use of pictorial models from no
earlier than the sixteenth century, instead of medieval ex-
emplars, for his new commissions can clearly be under-
stood as an artistic choice, and suggests that his own me-
dievalism remained largely superficial.
By the 1840s an increasing number of stained glass art-
ists were responding to both an increase in demand for
stained glass for churches and to the demand for more
thoroughgoing medieval styles. The decision build the
new Houses of Parliament in a Gothic style helped to
bring the style from the realm of eccentric medieval en-
thusiasts and connoisseurs into the architectural main-
stream, and the young architect and designer Augustus
Welby Northmore Pugin assisted the architect Charles
Barry with much of the design of the building, and par-
ticularly the fittings, including designs for stained glass
that were made by John Hardman of Birmingham and
Ballantine & Allan of Edinburgh.9 Pugins extensive ar-
tistic output, alongside his polemical writings arguing for
a return to medieval styles, were to have a transformative
effect on British architecture, particularly for the design
of churches.
The second quarter of the nineteenth century also saw
a new phase of the Gothic Revival in architecture that
adopted a more literal, archaeological approach to medi-
eval models, which was more earnest and less playful, and
arguably less original as it sought precedent and accura-
cy.10 The adoption of a more scholarly approach to Gothic
Revival architecture was made possible by the classifica-
tion of Gothic architecture by Thomas Rickman, whose
An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architec-
ture was first published in 1817.11 Rickmans work, along-
side further illustrated works on Gothic architecture, pro-
vided architects and critics with a succession of defined
and dateable medieval styles, from the Norman (or Eng-
lish Romanesque), to Perpendicular Gothic. Architects
were able to select from these styles and Pugin seized on
the Gothic, what he termed ‘pointed’, as the architectur-
al style most suitable for English church architecture. An
apologist for both Gothic architecture and Catholicism
(he became a Roman Catholic in 1834), he attacked the
‘Classical’, or ‘Pagan, influence on contemporary architec-
ture and the pluralism of architectural influences from the
ancient world. Pugin regarded these architectural styles
as embodying their religion - heathen temples built for
9 For Pugins stained glass and the decoration of the Houses of Par-
liament see S.A. Shepherd, ‘Stained Glass’, in Pugin: A Gothic
Passion, ed. by P. Atterbury, C. Wainwright, New Haven and Lon-
don, 1994, pp. 195-206, and also other chapters in the volume.
10 For an introduction to the period see chapters four and five of M.
Aldrich, Gothic Revival, London, 1994.
11 M. Aldrich, ‘Thomas Rickmans Handbook of Gothic Architec-
ture and the Taxonomic Classification of the Past’, in Antiquaries
& Archaists: the Past in the Past, the Past in the Present, ed. by M.
Aldrich, R.J. Wallis, Reading, 2009, pp. 62-74.
6. John Hardman & Co., designed by A.W.N. Pugin, The Resurrec-
tion with Scenes from the Gospels, 1850, Chester Cathedral, south
choir aisle. Photo: M. Crampin
idolatrous worship - which rendered them unsuitable for
Christian architecture.12 This belief went beyond ecclesi-
astical architecture and design, and he argued that a na-
tional, ‘Catholic’, architecture, based on ‘pointed’ design,
should supplant Classical or Baroque architecture because
‘we are Englishmen’.13 The son of a French immigrant, he
sought to resist an encroaching European uniformity of
style, observing that: ‘a sort of bastard Greek, a nonde-
script modern style, has ravaged many of the most in-
teresting cities of Europe; replacing the original national
buildings’.14
Pugin designed many stained glass windows for his
buildings and undertook further commissions for church-
es and cathedrals. The design of these windows followed
his preference for stained glass design of the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, and were made to his design
12 See for example, A.W.N. Pugin, The True Principles of Pointed or
Christian Architecture: Set forth in Two Lectures Delivered at St.
Marie’s, Oscott, London, 1841, pp. 45-51.
13 Ibidem.
14 Ibidem.
own work in the same style. Given this knowledge of me-
dieval stained glass, his use of pictorial models from no
earlier than the sixteenth century, instead of medieval ex-
emplars, for his new commissions can clearly be under-
stood as an artistic choice, and suggests that his own me-
dievalism remained largely superficial.
By the 1840s an increasing number of stained glass art-
ists were responding to both an increase in demand for
stained glass for churches and to the demand for more
thoroughgoing medieval styles. The decision build the
new Houses of Parliament in a Gothic style helped to
bring the style from the realm of eccentric medieval en-
thusiasts and connoisseurs into the architectural main-
stream, and the young architect and designer Augustus
Welby Northmore Pugin assisted the architect Charles
Barry with much of the design of the building, and par-
ticularly the fittings, including designs for stained glass
that were made by John Hardman of Birmingham and
Ballantine & Allan of Edinburgh.9 Pugins extensive ar-
tistic output, alongside his polemical writings arguing for
a return to medieval styles, were to have a transformative
effect on British architecture, particularly for the design
of churches.
The second quarter of the nineteenth century also saw
a new phase of the Gothic Revival in architecture that
adopted a more literal, archaeological approach to medi-
eval models, which was more earnest and less playful, and
arguably less original as it sought precedent and accura-
cy.10 The adoption of a more scholarly approach to Gothic
Revival architecture was made possible by the classifica-
tion of Gothic architecture by Thomas Rickman, whose
An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architec-
ture was first published in 1817.11 Rickmans work, along-
side further illustrated works on Gothic architecture, pro-
vided architects and critics with a succession of defined
and dateable medieval styles, from the Norman (or Eng-
lish Romanesque), to Perpendicular Gothic. Architects
were able to select from these styles and Pugin seized on
the Gothic, what he termed ‘pointed’, as the architectur-
al style most suitable for English church architecture. An
apologist for both Gothic architecture and Catholicism
(he became a Roman Catholic in 1834), he attacked the
‘Classical’, or ‘Pagan, influence on contemporary architec-
ture and the pluralism of architectural influences from the
ancient world. Pugin regarded these architectural styles
as embodying their religion - heathen temples built for
9 For Pugins stained glass and the decoration of the Houses of Par-
liament see S.A. Shepherd, ‘Stained Glass’, in Pugin: A Gothic
Passion, ed. by P. Atterbury, C. Wainwright, New Haven and Lon-
don, 1994, pp. 195-206, and also other chapters in the volume.
10 For an introduction to the period see chapters four and five of M.
Aldrich, Gothic Revival, London, 1994.
11 M. Aldrich, ‘Thomas Rickmans Handbook of Gothic Architec-
ture and the Taxonomic Classification of the Past’, in Antiquaries
& Archaists: the Past in the Past, the Past in the Present, ed. by M.
Aldrich, R.J. Wallis, Reading, 2009, pp. 62-74.
6. John Hardman & Co., designed by A.W.N. Pugin, The Resurrec-
tion with Scenes from the Gospels, 1850, Chester Cathedral, south
choir aisle. Photo: M. Crampin
idolatrous worship - which rendered them unsuitable for
Christian architecture.12 This belief went beyond ecclesi-
astical architecture and design, and he argued that a na-
tional, ‘Catholic’, architecture, based on ‘pointed’ design,
should supplant Classical or Baroque architecture because
‘we are Englishmen’.13 The son of a French immigrant, he
sought to resist an encroaching European uniformity of
style, observing that: ‘a sort of bastard Greek, a nonde-
script modern style, has ravaged many of the most in-
teresting cities of Europe; replacing the original national
buildings’.14
Pugin designed many stained glass windows for his
buildings and undertook further commissions for church-
es and cathedrals. The design of these windows followed
his preference for stained glass design of the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, and were made to his design
12 See for example, A.W.N. Pugin, The True Principles of Pointed or
Christian Architecture: Set forth in Two Lectures Delivered at St.
Marie’s, Oscott, London, 1841, pp. 45-51.
13 Ibidem.
14 Ibidem.