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Early Classicism in Ireland: Architecture before the Georgian era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Rolf Loeber
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Extract

The emergence of Irish architecture in the classical fashion may seem to have started with the appearance of Edward Lovett Pearce’s Palladian buildings in the late 1720s and 30s, followed by the tidal-wave of classical architecture by architects such as Richard Castle, Thomas Ivory, James Gandon, and many others. Was wide acceptance of classicism in eighteenth-century Ireland due to the architects’ persuasion of their patrons, or had the patrons already been predisposed to classical styles of art? Were Pearce’s patrons the first to be confronted in Ireland with all the paraphernalia of classicism, or could the parents of his patrons have taught them the essence of classical art?

Classical Irish architecture of before the eighteenth century is little known nowadays because so little has survived to the present day. A succession of internal revolts, ending with the 1922 burnings, eradicated much of the evidence of early classicism. Also the damp Irish climate and the decline of landed families heavily contributed to this toll. Only within the last thirty years, the important country house Eyrecourt Castle in Co. Galway lost its princely staircase and wainscotting (sold to the newspaper millionaire William Randolph Hearst), and has itself been left to collapse. Of the numerous houses known to have been built in the late seventeenth century only Beaulieu, Co. Louth, survives intact. The countryside is also scattered with the ruins of the plantation houses of the early part of the century. Again, the survival of any of these buildings with its interior is extremely rare.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 22 , 1979 , pp. 49 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1979

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References

Notes

1 This paper was first presented in a slightly different form to the Irish Georgian Society, in St Catherine’s Church, Dublin, on 17 September 1974. Much of the research done for this paper was supported by a Leverhulme Trust Fellowship. I am specially grateful to the Hon. Desmond Guinness and Mr John Harris for their encouragement, and to Dr Maurice Craig for his valuable comments. Without the helpfulness of numerous owners of houses, ministers and caretakers of churches, and librarians, this paper would have never been completed.

2 Quoted in Croker, T. C. (ed.), Tour of M. Boullaye le Gouz in Ireland in 1644 (1837), p. 132 Google Scholar.

3 M. Craig, lecture on seventeenth-century architecture in Ireland, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Dublin, 3 November 1977.

4 For a general introduction to classical influences in Ireland, see Stanford, W. B., Ireland and the classical tradition (Towata, N.J.), 1976 Google Scholar. Early Irish heraldic books were occasionally decorated with classical designs. See for example Daniel Molyneux, ‘Visitation begonne in the Cittie of Dublin . . .’, 1607 (Genealogical Office, Dublin Castle, MS 46). On early classical themes in Irish book decorations see Pollard, M., ‘The woodcut ornament stocks of the Dublin printers, 1551-1700’, thesis submitted for the Fellowship of the Library Association, 1966, copy in Trinity College, Dublin Google Scholar. Another example is the Caesar’s head on the charter of Dublin bricklayers, dated 1670 (BL, Add. MS 11,268, f. 98).

5 Quoted in ‘A brief relation of the passages in the Parliament summoned in Ireland anno 1613’, in Lodge, J. (ed.), Desiderata curiosa Hibernica (Dublin), 1772, 1, 418 Google Scholar. This was Sir Patrick Barnewall of Crickstown, who sat in the Parliament of 1585, and who was buried at Lusk, Co. Dublin ( D’Alton, J., History of the County of Dublin (Dublin, 1838), p. 306 Google Scholar.

6 Stone, L., The crisis of the aristocracy, 1558-1641 (1965), p. 698 Google Scholar. Details about Roger Boyle and other architects in Ireland of this period can be found in R. Loeber, Biographical dictionary of architects in Ireland, 1600-1730 (to be published).

7 Henry Piers, A discourse of his travels written by himself, 1605, Bodleian Library, Oxford, Rawlinson MS D. 83. Copy in Public Library, Pearse St, Dublin, Gilbert MS 177.

8 CSPI, 1606-08, p. 651; CSP Venice, 1603-07, pp. 403, 413-14, 417. Pynnar was to bring Italian architectural drawings from Sir Henry Wotton to the Earl of Salisbury, who was then building Hatfield House.

9 HMC, 6th Report, p. 731.

10 For a review of the importance of these groups, see the introduction to R. Loeber, ‘Biographical dictionary of architects in Ireland, 1600-1730’.

11 Craig, M., ‘New Light on Jigginstown’, Ulster Journal of Archaeology, XXXIII (1970), 107-10Google Scholar.

12 Heber, R., The Life of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D. (Huntington, Hartford, 1832)Google Scholar.

13 MacSkimin, S., History and Antiquities of Carrickfergus (Belfast, 1823), p. 119 Google Scholar.

14 See note 59.

15 Gandon, J. and Mulvany, T., The Life of James Gandon, Esq. (Dublin (1846), reprinted 1969), ed. Craig, M., p. 261 Google Scholar.

16 Bodleian Library, Oxford, Carte MS 31, f. 440.

17 Grosart, A. B. (ed.), Lismore Papers (1886-88), series 1, Vol. 11, 285 Google Scholar.

18 Wheeler, G., Libraries in Ireland before 1855. Thesis, University of London, 1957 Google Scholar, revised 1965, Vol. 1 (copy in Trinity College, Dublin). He refers to a catalogue of the Conway collection in the Public Library, Armagh, which I have not been able to examine.

19 A catalogue of the library of the Honourable Samuel Molyneux, deceased, which will be sold by Auction the zoth of January, 1729-30 (copy in Trinity College, Dublin, vvi-45).

20 BL, Add. MS 46,958B, f. 68.

21 Loeber, R. (ed.), ‘Architects and craftsmen admitted as freemen to the City of Dublin, 1464-1485, and 1575-1774’. Unpublished MS, copy in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin Google Scholar. Architects in a wider sense are mentioned in the City of Waterford in 1646 (HMC, 10th Report, App. v, p. 279).

22 Huntington Library, San Marino, California, HA 13,999.

23 See note 77.

24 Mainly in ecclesiastical architecture, see below.

25 Visible on a late sixteenth-century view of Trinity College published by J. P. Mahaffy in An epoch of Irish history: Trinity College, Dublin . . . (2nd ed. 1906), title-page.

26 Chatsworth, Lismore, MS f. 131. I am indebted to Anne Crookshank for allowing me to quote from this source and following documents which she and Irene Calvert abstracted at Chatsworth.

27 Craig, M., Portumna Castle (Dublin), 1976 Google Scholar.

28 Apart from the examples in the text, other early seventeenth-century classical door surrounds are at Dromaneen (Co. Cork), Manor Hamilton, Co. Leitrim (c. 1638), Loughcrew (Co. Meath) and Newtown (Co. Down) where both entrances now are incorporated in garden gates, Dunluce Castle (Co. Antrim), Rathcline (Co. Longford), Killeagh Castle (Co. Down), and Moore Hall, Co. Kildare (? late sixteenth century). Gone are the classical main entrances of Bunratty Castle (which consisted of a segmentally pedimented surround, probably dating from f. 1617, see Dineley, p. 173), and Menlough Castle, Co. Galway (Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society (1913-14), 8, 155). Classical door-surrounds of early seventeenth-century churches can be found at Tullynakill Church, Co. Down, 1639, and at Rathrea Church, Co. Longford. The latter has doric pilasters, a proper frieze, and a pediment. (Information kindly provided by Dr M. Craig, who is preparing a paper on the sculpture of this church.)

29 For the Browne and French doorways see Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, IV (1905-06), 37-39, 62-64.

30 Hill, G. (ed.), The Montgomery manuscripts, 1603-1706 (Belfast, 1869), p. 59 Google Scholar; An archaeological survey of Co. Down (Belfast, 1966), p. 260.

31 M. Craig, ‘New Light on Jigginstown’, ut supra.

32 Burgon, J. W., The life and times of Sir Thomas Gresham, 11 (1839), 117 Google Scholar.

33 Chatsworth, Lismore MS 3, ff. 131, 139, which gives the full contract for the chimney-piece, signed by the mason Richard and his son John Hamond. See also note 26.

34 Part of a contemporary wooden chimney-piece is in the convent adjoining the College. A third wooden one partially survives at Ballyseedy, Co. Kerry.

35 A large fragment of a singularly interesting chimney-piece of a different design can still be found at the ruined part of the Ormond Castle at Carrick-on-Suir, which was supported by two large scrolls, not unlike a design by the Italian architect Serlio ( Serlio, S., Tutte l’Opere d’Architettura et Prospettiva, Venice, 1619, 157 Google Scholar). Another early (1603) classical chimney-piece is at Carrigaholt, Co. Clare (for a drawing of this see RIA, MS 3A49).

36 R. Loeber, ‘Early 17th century monuments to the dead in Ireland: A survey from Monumenta Eblanae and other sources’ (submitted to the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy). See also Crook-shank, A., Cork, Lord and his monuments, Country Life, cxlix (1971), 1288 Google Scholar f.

37 CSPI, 1633-47, p. 168.

38 Sheffield Public Library, Strafford MS, Plan of proposed mint, not dated but probably made c.. 1634-35.

39 Journal of the British Archaeological Association (1978), pl. xvi.

40 Verney, Lady F. P. N., and M. M., (eds), Memoirs of the Vernej Family, 1 (1892), 210 Google Scholar.

41 Grosart, A. B. (ed.), Lismore Papers (London), 1886-88, series 1, III, 135 Google Scholar.

42 HMC, 11th Report, App. VII, 75.

43 Marshall, J. J., History of Charlemont and Mountjoy Forts (Dungannon, 1921), pp. 13–14 Google Scholar.

44 Detail of a view by Thomas Phillips in 1685 (NLI, MS 3137, f. 42).

45 Historic buildings . . . in the City of Derry (Belfast, 1970), p. 7.

46 Luckombe, p. 335. Other examples are the simple round-headed west door of Lismore Cathedral and one at Tullynakill Church, Co. Down (1639) which has pilasters and an architrave. As early as 1617 St Mary’s Church, Youghal, received a ‘compaste inbowed Roof’ (Grosart, op. cit., series 1,1, 169).

47 See Phillips, W. A. (ed.), History of the Church of Ireland (Oxford, 1933-34), 3 volsGoogle Scholar, and Meehan, C. P. (ed.), The rise and fall of the Irish Fransiscans . . . (Dublin, 1877)Google Scholar.

48 CSPI, 1625-32, pp. 509-10.

49 I am indebted to Mr Peter Walsh for drawing my attention to an eighteenth-century description of this house by Cooper, Austin (Dublin Penny Journal, 1902, p. 276)Google Scholar.

50 BL, Add. MS 15,893, f. 243.

51 Serlio, op. cit. (1619), Libro settimo, p. 99.

52 Loeber, frontispiece and p. 26.

53 Colvin, H., A biographical dictionary of British architects, 1600-1840 (London, 1978), p. 440 Google Scholar.

54 Huntington Library, San Marino, California, Hastings MSS 14,491 and 14,506.

55 Batten, M. I., ‘The architecture of Dr. Robert Hooke’, Walpole Society, XXV (1937), 109 Google Scholar.

56 NLI, MS 2417, f. 237. Note that this document is partly misquoted in HMC, Ormonde, n.s., VI, 279-80.

57 HMC, Ormonde, n.s., III, 201.

58 NLI, MS 2487, f. 23-24.

59 Smith, C., The ancient and present state of the county and city of Waterford (1746; reprinted Cork, 1969), p. 56 Google Scholar; see also Loeber, ‘Biographical dictionary. . . ‘, as n. 10 above.

60 Bence-Jones, M., Burke’s guide to country houses. Vol. 1: Ireland (1978), p. 44 Google Scholar.

61 Dineley. Demolished. Compare this building with the old exchange of Limerick City and the session house at Naas, Co. Kildare, both of which had galleries with classical pillars, and an accumulation of mannerist details (Dineley, 140; Loeber, p. 14).

62 I acknowledge the kindness of the Knight of Glin in passing on to me the photograph of the Cork Exchange from the Holkham Collection.

63 Loeber, pp. 10-11.

64 PROI, RHK 1/1/1, under the date 27 January 1686/7.

65 Loeber, R., ‘Sir William Robinson’, Quarterly Bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society, XVII (1974), 3–9 Google Scholar.

66 See for example the engraving of Hendrik de Keyser’s Zuiderkerk, Amsterdam, in Architectura Moderna (1631).

67 Loeber, R., ‘An unpublished view of Dublin in 1698 by Francis Place’, Quarterly Bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society, XXI (1978), 7–15 Google Scholar, and Wheeler, H. A. and Craig, M. J., The Dublin Churches (Dublin, 1948), p. 9 Google Scholar.

68 Serlio, op. cit., 1619, Libro quinto, p. 204.

69 R. Loeber, ‘Sir William Robinson’, p. 8.

70 Castlecor, according to a datestone, was built in 1723. It was demolished some decades ago (for an illustration, see Neale, J. P., Views of seats of noblemen and gentlemen in England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland (London, 1818-29), VI, n.p.)Google Scholar. For Buncrana Castle see Craig, M., Classic Irish houses of the middle size (London, 1976), pp. 64–65 Google Scholar. The pavilions at Buncrana Castle probably are contemporary with the house; this is less certain in the case of Castlecor.

71 A drawing of its original appearance was published in Loeber, R., Durrow, Castle, Quarterly bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society, XVI (October to December 1973), 104 Google Scholar.

72 Smith, C., The ancient and present state of the county and city of Cork (Dublin, 1774), 1, 248 Google Scholar. Demolished.

73 A drawing originally among the collection of Major J. H. de Burgh, of Oldtown, Naas, was lost some years ago. Only a photograph of it is preserved, published by Bence-Jones, op. cit., p. 229.

74 Craig, M. and the Knight of Glin, Ireland observed (Cork, 1970), p. 32 Google Scholar.

75 Bennett, G., The History of Bandou . . . (Cork, 1869), p. 485 Google Scholar.

76 R. Loeber, Sir William Robinson, ut supra, p. 9.

77 BL, Add. MS 47,038, ff. 111, 112, 119; Anderson, J., A genealogical history of the House of Yvery (1742), 1 Google Scholar. Note that the engraving of Burton House seems to have been inserted only in a limited number of copies of this book.

78 BL, Add. MS 47,025, ff. 80-81v.

79 HMC, Egmont, 11, 235–36 Google Scholar.

80 Published in Campbell, Colin, Vitrwius Britannicus, 1 (1715), 95–97 Google Scholar.

81 M. Craig, The Knight of Glin, and J. Cornforth, Castletown, Co. Kildare, Country bife, 27 March, 3 and 10 April 1969.

82 Loeber, R., Biographical dictionary of engineers in Ireland, 1600-1730, The Irish Sword, the Journal of the Military History Society of Ireland, XIII (1977), 115 Google Scholar.

83 Illustrated in Hibbard, H., Carlo Moderno (1971), pl. 14cGoogle Scholar.

84 R. Loeber, ‘Sir William Robinson’, op. cit., p. 9.