At the end of the second set, I posted an image of the Blessed Sacrament chapel at the church of Saint Giles, Cheadle. Here's a view from the nave. The Sacrament chapel can be seen to the far right.
Pugin's "Medieval Court" at the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations of 1851, which won him praises all around for showing the world how to apply the True Principles in all things.
More illustrations of the Medieval Court.
A thurible (incenser).
The baldachin (canopy) over the high altar of Saint Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham. Pugin was honored with the task of constructing the first Catholic cathedral in England since the Protestant Reformation. The altar houses a relic of Saint Chad of Mercia as well.
Pugin's creation of another sort. On the left is one of his daughters, Anne Pugin. To the right is Anne's husband, John Hardman Powell, who was also Pugin's only pupil.
Pugin's vision of a Gothic future was very.... hmm, spiky, indeed. This is from a cover illustration of the Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture.
The Banqueting Hall at Lismore Castle, Ireland, currently the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire. The Banqueting Hall was remodeled from what was formerly a chapel, back when the castle was the local bishop's residence during the Middle Ages.
Pugin's tomb at the church of Saint Augustine, Ramsgate. He's carved wearing his black velvet gown, which he wore for formal events. I believe the five figures praying below him are his children, while his wives are portrayed in the stained glass above.
Excellent work, Mr. Griffin. But the title of your blog evokes a question: how does one do medievalism in the modern world? Forgive me if you find it a foolish question. I am actually quite serious. I think that the answer lay somewhere between Pugin and William Morris: not only loving the medieval, but making it where you are. Perhaps one day we will discuss it.
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of this blog is to explore and answer that very question. I'm working on articles about the modern medievalists (see the right-hand column) first in order to work up to how to apply their strategies in the (even more) modern world today.
DeleteThe first step is in embracing the medieval ethos in faith. If we make it the center of our world, as they did in theirs, everything else falls into place much more easily.
Second step just might be to embrace a little Medieval Thought.
DeleteLike a literal belief in Genesis 1 - 11, like Geocentrism (with God moving the whole cosmos and angels moving each star or planet), like accepting Pagan Heroes as having lived and Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Beowulf as mainly speaking history.
Of course, when Odyssey opens with a scene on Mt Olympus, we cannot quite buy that, but we can buy Ulysses (not Grant) after Troy came to Ethiopia, after having been to the island of Calypso, unless it was the other way round.
Btw, you and your readers (and wife, perhaps not yet your children?) are welcome to FB : Was Ithaca an Island in Odyssey?
Hans, I think there is some element of truth to the Iliad. I am, unfortunately, not convinced by geocentrism if we're speaking of it as someone like Robert Sungenis sees it. While we are free to see the cosmos chiefly in relation to our own place on earth (in fact, I'm apt to see my own armchair as the precise center of the universe), there's no way to get around (pardon the pun) smaller celestial bodies, such as planets, moving around larger ones, such as stars.
Delete