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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2016
In his article entitled Gandy and the Tomb of Merlin, published in 1941, John Summerson brought to light one of the most introverted figures in the history of early nineteenth-century architecture. The essay, which begins with an analysis of one of Joseph Michael Gandy’s finest watercolour perspectives (Fig. 1), shows how the scene represented in the painting could be associated with a passage from Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso. Some years later, the same author described the architecture of ‘Merlin’s Tomb Chamber’ as ‘a version of Anglo-Norman, with some reminiscences of Roslin Chapel which Gandy had measured and drawn.’
1 See Summerson, John, ‘Gandy and The Tomb of Merlin’, The Architectural Review, LXXXIX, 532 (April 1941). pp. 89–90 Google Scholar.
2 According to Ariosto, Merlin had been imprisoned and killed by the Witch of the Lake, who had stolen his magic powers. Merlin’s body and spirit, the latter being still alive, were kept inside ‘un’arca di pietra dura, | lucida e tersa, e come fiamma rossa; | tal ch’alia stanza, ben che di sol priva, | dava splendore il lume che n’usciva.’ ( Ariosto, Ludovico, Orlando Furioso, canto III-XV (Verona, 1963), p. 47 Google Scholar). Summerson refers to Orlando Furioso in English heroical verse by Harington, John (London, 1634)Google Scholar when he quotes: ‘The very marble was so clear and bright, | that though the sun no light unto it gave, | The tomb itself did lighten all the cave.’ See also the Exhibition Catalogue, Joseph Michael Gandy 1771–1843 (London, 1982).
3 Summerson, John, ‘The Vision of J. M. Gandy’, Heavenly Mansions and other essays on architecture (New York, 1963), p. 129 Google Scholar.
4 Lukacher, Brian, Joseph Michael Gandy: The Poetical Representation and Mythography of Architecture (PhD University of Delaware, UMI Research Press 1987), p. 170 Google Scholar. By the same author see also, ‘Phantasmagoria and emanations: lighting effects in the architectural fantasies of Joseph Michael Gandy’, AA Files, 4 (London, 1983), pp. 40-48.
5 Scott, Walter, ‘Ballad of Rosabelle’, The Lay of the Last Minstrel: with Life and Notes (Edinburgh, 1809), canto VI.xxiii, p. 148 Google Scholar.
6 Billings, Robert William, The Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland, vol. IV (Edinburgh, 1845–52)Google Scholar, ‘Rosslyn Chapel Description’, pp. 2-3.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Farington, Joseph, ‘Account dated Tuesday Septr. 22 1801’ from The Farington Diary, ed. Garlick, Kenneth and Macintyre, Agnus, vol. v, August 1801-March 1803 (New Haven & London, 1979), p. 1629 Google Scholar.
10 A considerable historical literature exists for Castle, Roslin and Chapel, . Key works are: Historical and Descriptive Account of Rosslyn Chapel and Castle with Engravings (Edinburgh, 1827)Google Scholar; Muir, T. S., Descriptive Notices of the Ancient Churches of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1848)Google Scholar; Groom, Francis H., Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, vol. VI (Edinburgh, 1885)Google Scholar; Grant, James, Old and New Edinburgh (London, 1882)Google Scholar. Where not otherwise noted information cited in the text is taken from these sources.
11 Hay, Richard Augustine, Genealogie of the Saint Claires ofRosslyn (Edinburgh, 1835), p. 27 Google Scholar.
12 The Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland also states that Lord St Clair ‘built houses for the workmen to be employed in constructing the chapel, that he gave to each mason ten pounds a year, to each master-mason twenty pounds, to both an extent of land proportionate to the reward of the ability which they displayed, and to other artificers a commensurate extent of compensation and encouragement, and that, in consequence, he attracted all the best architects and sculptors from various parts of Scotland and of neighbouring kingdoms. He endowed it with various lands and revenues, and saw it rising in profuse magnificence of architecture; yet, after vast efforts and great expense, he left it unfinished.’ (Op. cit., p. 664; this work was published in c. 1860 without the name of any author or an exact date of publication.)
13 It was pointed out by Wilson, Daniel in The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1851), pp. 629-30Google Scholar, that ‘many of the most remarkable features of Roslin Chapel are derived from the prevailing models of the period (when it was erected), though carried to an exuberant excess. The circular doorway and segmental porch, the dark vaulted roof, and much of the window tracery are all common to the style. Even the singular arrangement of its retro-choir, with a clustered pillar terminating the vista of the central aisle, is nearly a repetition ofthat of the Cathedral of St. Mungo at Glasgow. Various portions of other edifices will also be found to furnish examples of arrangement and details corresponding with those of Roslin, as in the doorway of the south porch and other features of St. Michael’s, Linlithgow, and also in some parts of the beautiful ruined church of St. Bridget, Douglas. It is altogether a mistake to regard the singularly interesting church at Roślin, which even the critic enjoys while he condemns, as an exotic produced by foreign skill. Its counterparts will be more easily found in Scodand than in any other part of Europe.’
14 ‘If all the niches which honeycomb the buttresses and pillars had each its statue, the building must have been singularly profuse in sculpture. Some of them are, however so small and short, that it seems questionable if they can ever have been filled. Slezer’s engraving of Rosslyn, more elaborate than most of his representations, depicts a multitude of images; but he is so absolutely deficient in his representation of existing details, that there is no trusting him for the non-existing. In the manuscript … of Father Hay … there is a minutely finished pen-and-ink view of the edifice as it was, or was supposed to be, before the iconoclasm. It is more minute than Slezer’s and still more abundant in statues; but it is not so minute and accurate as to make one to believe that it represents statues that really existed. This sketch, by the way, shows the west end topped by a series of crow-steps and a statue on each step. In the same view, a circular window is represented as covering a part of the space at the east end, now covered by a modern restoration.’ (R. W. Billings, Antiquities of Scotland, op. cit., p. 3.)
15 In connexion with the story, and perhaps even its recent origin, it is noteworthy that Slezer calls it ‘Prince’s pillar’, as if named in honour of the founder of the Chapel. Slezer, John, Theatrum Scotiae (London, 1693), p. 63 Google Scholar.
16 National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, Adv. MS 20-3.8, fols 150-54r, inscribed ‘Charta Willielmi Sinclare de Roselin facta Ecclesia Collegiata quisdem, 1523’.
17 National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, Adv. MS 29.4.2, fols 228–29, inscribed ‘Collegiate Church of Roslin, 1809’. Unfortunately Gandy’s painting has disappeared, but it is possible to see a copy of it, made by George Shepherd (1809), in the Print Room of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (Pressmark: 3031.76).
18 For the collaboration between Soane and Gandy, see Lukacher, Brian, ‘John Soane and his Draughtsman Joseph Michael Gandy’, Daidalos 25 (September 1987), pp. 51–64 Google Scholar.
19 See Crook, J. Mordaunt, ‘John Britton and The Gothic Revival’, in Summerson, John (ed.), Concerning Architecture, Essays on Architectural Writers and Writing presented to Nikolaus Pevsner (London, 1968), p. 98–119 Google Scholar.
20 See Britton, John, ‘An Essay Towards an History and description of Roslin Chapel, Scodand’ in The Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain; represented and illustrated in a series of views, elevations, plans, sections and details of various Ancient English Edifices: with Historical and Descriptive accounts of each, vol. III (London, 1812), p. 47–56 Google Scholar. For the connexions of the Chapel and Scottish Freemasonry, see the following: Wallace-Murphy, Tim, The Templar Legacy and the Masonic Inheritance within Rosslyn Chapel (Roslin, 1995)Google Scholar; Brydon, Robert, Rosslyn. A History of The Guilds, The Masons and The Rosy Cross (Rosslyn Chapel Trust, 1994)Google Scholar; Knight, Christopher and Lomas, Robert, The Hiram Key. Pharaons, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus (London, 1996)Google Scholar; Wallace-Murphy, Tim and Hopkins, Marilyn, Rosslyn. Guardian of the Secrets of the Holy Grail (Shaftesbury, 1999)Google Scholar.
21 Beyond the plates published by Billings, Gandy’s influence can be seen in the designs of John Lessels published in The Transactions of the Architectural Institute of Scotland, session 1862-63, in which we are presented with a series of architectural details in a portion of the work entitled ‘Roslin Chapel, shown in some of its more peculiar characteristics’ (Edinburgh: National Monuments Record of Scotland, RIAS Engraving Books 1.12). The architect John Lessels (1808–83), on several occasions in his career as a planner, decided to escape from the rigorous rules of his work, in order to enjoy painting at Roslin Chapel. He exhibited several oil paintings of the Chapel at the Annual Exhibition of the Edinburgh Royal Scottish Academy from 1847 to 1866.
22 John Britton, Architectural Antiquities, op. cit., p. 47. Britton, with this comment, is informing us that he accompanied Gandy on his visit to Roslin, despite there being no written testimony to prove it.
23 Gandy’s sketchbook is on loan to Sir John Soane’s Museum by Sean McCormack.
24 In reference to this, Gandy, in his sketchbook, clarifies the origin of this detail, writing: ‘This one [related to the circular finial] remain at North Door’ (ibid., fol. 21r).
25 In addition to the evidences of the crease line on the building, a series of engravings published immediately before and after Gandy’s views make it clear that the aisles and Lady Chapel were covered in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century by a high pitch roof rising to a peak in the front of the East window of the cierestorey (see Fig. 14). The most important are the engravings of Sparrow published in Francis Grose’s Antiquities of Scotland (London, 1790)Google Scholar and the lithographs of Baynes, Thomas Mann in Twenty Views of the City Environs of Edinburgh (London, 1823)Google Scholar. Blore, Edward, in his plates of Roslin Chapel for Walter Scott’s Provincial Antiquities and Picturesque Scenery of Scotland (London, 1826)Google Scholar, shows clearly how the roof covered more than half of the cierestorey windows. The evidence that John Baxter the elder (–1770) was the architect for this roof is contained in the Clerk of Penicuik papers (Scottish Record Office, Register House, Edinburgh: GD.18/5010/6). This timber roof was completely removed in the late 1830s, during William Burn’s restoration of the Chapel (Scottish Record Office, document GD.164/1013), as appears in the calotypes by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson. For this see Stevenson, Sara (ed.), David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson: catalogue of their calotypes taken between 1843 and 1847 in the collection of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (Edinburgh, 1989), p. 211 Google Scholar. I am obliged to Dr Iain Gordon Brown for suggesting the possibility of Sir John Clerk’s involvement at Roslin.
26 All of the drawings in the sketchbook were originally made in pencil. Later on Gandy chose the most interesting drawings to trace over in pen. In this way, his first impressions, recorded on site, were filtered through a radical selection process that he later used for his published images.
27 J. Britton, Architectural Antiquities, op. cit., p. 49.
28 In the same sketch, Gandy provides notes on the colour of the stone which assumes a ‘General tone of Colour Bronze Green mixed with, tints gilled with Brown and Black’: Gandy’s Sketchbook (London, Sir John Soane’s Museum), p. 24r.
29 Britton, Architectural Antiquities, op. cit., p. 52.
30 Helmut, and Gernsheim, Alison, L.J. M. Daguerre, The History of the Diorama and the Daguerreotype (London, 1956), p. 176 Google Scholar.
31 Ibid., p. 178.
32 Schivelbusch, Wolfgang, Disenchanted Night: the Industrialisation of Light in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1988), p. 216 Google Scholar.
33 Gernsheim, L. J. M. Daguerre, op. cit., p. 18. On the Diorama techniques see also G. Bapts, , Essai sur l’histoire des Panoramas et des Dioramas (Paris, 1891)Google Scholar; Gill, A. T., ‘The London Diorama’, History of Photography, I (January 1977), pp. 31–33 Google Scholar; Altick, Richard Daniel, The Shows of London (Cambridge, Mass., 1978)Google Scholar, cap. IX.
34 ‘View of Roslyn Chapel, at the Diorama’, in The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, CLXXXV (Saturday 4 March 1826), p. 132.
35 Ibid.
36 Dubbini, Renzo, Geografie dello Sguardo, Visione e paesaggio in età moderna (Torino, 1994), p. 104 Google Scholar. See also by the same author ‘Il paesaggio dei Diorami’, Eidos, 5 (Gennaio 1990), pp. 26-39. According to Dubbini there are ‘strong connections between the techniques used by a Diorama and Scott’s literary style. Like a Diorama, Scott’s literary descriptions are constructed with an optical conception. In them the variation of light is strong, unexpected and often has supernatural overtones. Thus architecture has a fundamental function in establishing the identity of place, in the definition of local character and in fluctuations of weather.’ The relationship between the dioramie views and music has been explored by J. Mordaunt Crook, ‘John Britton and The Gothic Revival’, op. cit. (p. 103), where he quotes W. H. Pyne as saying of J. P. de Loutherbourg’s earlier dioramie invention, the ‘Eiodophusikon’, ‘he introduced a new art — the picturesque of the sound.’
37 From ‘The Diorama’ in The Times, London, Tuesday 21 February 1826, p. 4.
38 Helmut, and Gernsheim, Alison, The History of Photography; from the Camera to the Beginning of the Modern Era (London, 1969), p. 66 Google Scholar.
39 The title is Two Views: Ruins ofHolyrood Chapel, A Moonlight Scene painted by M. Daguerre and the Cathedral of Chartes by M. Bouton in the Diorama of London, Regents Park (London, 1825), p. 4; (British Library 1359. d.6). About the painting by Daguerre, Holyrood Chapel, A Moonlight Scene in the Walker Art Gallery of Liverpool, see the Catalogue of the Gallery, p. 50; see also Bann, Stephen, The Clothing of Clio. A study of the Representation of History in Nineteenth Century Britain and France (Cambridge, 1984), p. 56 Google Scholar.
40 The announcement of his appointment to the School of Design is thus given in the Edinburgh Evening Courant for 12 and 14 July 1760: ‘The commissioners and trustees for improving Fisheries and Manufactures in Scotland do hereby advertise that by an agreement with Mr De la Cour, painter, he has opened a school in this city for persons of both sexes that shall be presented to him by the trustees, whom he is to teach gratis the Art of Drawing for the use of manufactures;… Mr De la Cour is likewise to teach the art of drawing to all persons that choose to attend his school at one guinea per quarter.’ Quoted in Fraser-Harris, D. F., ‘William De la Cour, Painter, Engraver and Teacher of Drawing’ in The Scottish Bookman, vol. 1, 5 (January 1936), pp. 15, 16Google Scholar.
41 Halsby, Julian, Scottish Watercolours 1740-1140 (London, 1989), p. 24 Google Scholar.
42 Delacour’s drawings of the Chapel were part of the Royal Topographical Collection of King George III. In 1820 they arrived at the British Museum, where it is probable that Daguerre saw them, while working in London on other Dioramas. The debt of Daguerre to Delacour is made certain by their both showing the interior of the Chapel in a perspective which greatly exaggerates its actual length. There is a similar perspective view of the Chapel drawn by the Encyclopaedia Britannica engraver: Bell, Andrew. Bell’s Inside Perspective view of the Chapel of Rosslyn was published with ‘An Account of the Chapel of Roslin’ in The Edinburgh Magazine (Edinburgh, January 1761)Google Scholar. A copy of this engraving is kept in the Gough Maps Collection in Oxford’s Bodleian Library (volume 39, BJ.II.682).