42 C O N T E X T 1 0 7 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 8 Book reviews Life and work Sir John Vanbrugh: storyteller in stone Vaughan Hart,Yale University Press (for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art) 2008, hardback, 288 pp, ISBN 978 0 300 11929 9, £35 For an architect, Sir John Vanbrugh had an unusually varied career. He spent two years in India with the East India Company; he served in the British army, including a period of four years imprisonment by the French; he was one of the most successful playwrights of his day; and after he gave up drama for architecture, he pursued a parallel career as a herald, serving as Clarenceux King of Arms for 22 years. None of this is new information, but previous writers have made only somewhat general connections between this wide experience and the buildings he designed. Overlooked are the theatrical and scenic qualities of Castle Howard or Blenheim to his career in the theatre, his military service when discussing the castellated houses at Greenwich, or his famous letter about giving Kimbolton ‘Something of the Castle Air’. In this book Vaughan Hart presents a novel and detailed interpretation of Vanbrugh’s buildings based on a close analysis of his several careers and intellectual interests. His thesis is that Vanbrugh’s buildings are ‘stories in stone’, designed to represent the character, historical associations and political importance of their patrons. Thus the freedom with which Vanbrugh mixed the classical language of architecture with references to medieval and Elizabethan prodigy houses corresponds theWhig theory of history, in which the greatness of Britain comes from its historic liberties with its opposition to French absolute monarchy. Blenheim and Castle Howard are not just grand, luxurious houses, they are memorials to martial virtue and to historical achievement. They deploy emblems and armorials, as one might expect from one versed in history and heraldry, and display parallels with literature in their rhetorical structure and their use of epic or heroic language to generate audience response. But they also use architectural metaphors to express particular meanings. Vaughan demonstrates how Vanbrugh’s buildings are based on his familiarity with architectural treatises by Vitruvius, Serlio, Palladio, Perrault and others, with their ideas of decorum and their recommendations for the use of different orders and architectural forms to express human and moral qualities such as gravity, military might, solemnity, simplicity and gaiety. Vanbrugh also understood the evocative power of architecture to trigger memories and moods in the spectator. Vaughan connects this with Locke’s theory of association, which Vanbrugh’s friend Addison wrote about in relation to landscape and architecture. In a letter arguing for the preservation of the tumbledown oldWoodstock Manor in the grounds of Blenheim Palace, Vanbrugh listed the various reasons for wanting to preserve the ‘Remains of distant Times’: ‘Some for their Magnificence or Curious Workmanship; and others as they move more lively and pleasing Reflections (than History without their aid can do) on the Persons who have inhabited them’.Written in 1709, this key text in the history of conservation makes Vanbrugh a pioneer of modern attitudes. This is not a book for the Vanbrugh novice: the reader should look elsewhere for descriptive and formal analysis of his buildings, for a chronological account of his work (Kerry Downes published a biography in 1987), or for a discussion about the respective roles of Hawskmoor and Vanbrugh. The book is clearly structured but is irritatingly repetitive, with far too much pedantic repetition of the ‘as was discussed in Chapter Three’ kind. Nevertheless, it enriches our understanding of Vanbrugh’s buildings, enabling us to look beyond their immediately visual appeal to their more specific meanings. Julian Treuherz, art historian and curator Keep your eyes open Artisan Art: vernacular wall paintings in the Welsh Marches, 1550–1650 Kathryn Davies, Logaston Press, 2008, 230pp, c330 colour illustrations, ISBN 978 1 90439 693 2, £24 hardback, £17 softback. The study of domestic wall paintings has advanced considerably in the past 20 years. It is good to have another regional survey to add to the growing literature on the subject. The substantial gazetteer (which occupies half the book) offers a large sample of wall paintings from theWelsh Marches, with the strongest emphasis on Shropshire. It is perhaps unfair to complain that a number of schemes in the area I know best,Worcestershire, are not included, since there is no published list of wall paintings in the county. This book has already been a spur to the compilation of such a list. The design sources of the more elaborate schemes can be identified in many cases. That subject has been advanced considerably by Anthony Wells-Cole’s work on the printed Manyordinarypeople in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centurieshad art in theirhomes –not thehigh artof easelpaintings like the famousTudorportraitsbut a formof rough and ready art painted on theirwalls.This book looks atwhat this decorationwas, how itwas done and its significanc for those commissioning it. Kathryn Davies has researched vernacular buildings throughout the Welsh Marches and discovered extensive painted decoration in houses surviving from this period.The paintings are not confined to houses of the gentry, though the decoration they commissioned was generally of higher quality and has tended to survive the ravages of time in better condition. This book considers the typeofdecoration found; thematerialsused; thepeoplewhoare likely tohavedone thepaintings (not usually artists,but local craftsmen) andwhat theworkmayhave cost. Of particular interest is what these wall paintings can tell us about society in the Marches in t e periodwhen theywere popular.Looking at th social andcultural context,manydfferent potential sources forwallpaintingdesignshavebeen identified includingprintedmaterial suchas pattern books and title-pages, textiles such as embroideries and painted cloths, and innumerable other elementsof thevisual environment.Even the church,where imageswere strictly controlled in the post-Reformation period, played a part. This type of decoration can reveal a great deal about the visual and culturalworld of the time, the nature of the art and design bywhich people were surrounded andwhich inspired and pleased them, and –most importantly – theways they hoped to impress their friends and neighbours, for wall paintings were a sign of status in their day just ashouses and cars are today.Althoughwallpaintings canbe found in allkindsof rooms, they are principally found in halls, parlours and chambers – rooms inwhich visitorswould have been received– and theirdesign seems tohavebeendeliberately selected togive carefully coded messages about theoccupantsof the house. This book will appeal to art historians and those interested in social history and vernacular architecture asw ll as s rving as a reference book; an extensive gazetteer includes photographs of almost all the paintings and details of the type of decoration, and a map shows where in the Marches they are to be found (most of them in private houses notgenerallyopen to the public). Dr Davies studied vernacular architecture at Manchester University under Professor Ron Brunskill and subsequently completed a doctorate at Oxford University on secular wall paintings in the Welsh Marches. She has worked in building conservation for many years, including 15 years in Shropshire where her interest inwall paintings developed.She is currently aHistoricBuildings InspectorwithEnglishHeritage. Logaston Press £17.50 ARTISAN ART Vernacular wall paintings in theWelsh Marches, 1550-1650 ARTISAN ART Vernacular wall paintings in theWelsh Marches, 1550-1650 Logaston Press Kathryn Davies ARTISAN ART Vernacular wall paintings in theWelsh Marches, 1550-1650 Kathryn Davies with a Preface by ProfessorRonBrunskill
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