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Trinity College Chapel, University of Oxford case study 12 Trinity College Chapel, University of Oxford 1691–4 College chapel Almost unaltered Architect: attributed to Henry Aldrich (1648–1710), in consultation with Sir Christopher Wren Only one building, Peckwater Quadrangle, Christ Church, Oxford is cer- tainly designed by Aldrich, but his contemporaries mention him as “an able judge in architecture.” At the time of his death he was compiling “Elementa Architecturae,” a treatise on civil and military architecture. Part of this was a study of the orders of Solomon’s Temple.1 He also persuaded Fairfax to make a translation of Palladio’s Antichità di Roma, published by the Clarendon Press in 1709. It is more than likely that he traveled to France and Italy where he had contacts with contemporary architects.2 Historical note Important building works were undertaken at Trinity College in the seven- teenth century by the president of the time, Ralph Bathurst (1620–1704). He was a good scholar and divine, though mainly interested in natural science. In 1688 he became the president of the Oxford branch of the Royal Society. The college’s popularity increased thanks to his intellectual and social qualifica- tions. The new buildings included the Wren quadrangle, inspired by French classicism. The building of a new chapel was a late, though very important part of this project. The medieval chapel had become “very homely, infirm and ruinous.” By the 1642 parliamentary visitation, the chapel had been readorned. President Ralph Kettell could persuade the parliamentary visitors that the paintings of the altars of Our Lady and St Catherine were by no means the 1 Henry Aldrich, Philip Smyth, transl., The Elements Of Civil Architecture: According To Vitruvius And Other Ancients, And The Most Approved Practice Of Modern Authors, Especially Palladio (London, 1789), 21. 2 Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995), 69, 70. Eileen Harris, British Architectural Books and Writers 1556–1785 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 109–12. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004398979_022 314 case study 12 object of adoration or devotion. However, his successor President Harris had them painted over in green.3 Ralph Bathurst was the principal benefactor of the new building, but he had to raise money by subscriptions for the interior fittings.4 The 1691 design for the new building is traditionally attributed to Dean Aldrich.5 However Pevsner is not convinced, but does not propose an alternative.6 Wren’s collaboration dates from 1692. After viewing the designs of the chapel, Wren wrote to the president that “he had considered the designe you sent me of your chapel, which in the maine is very well, and I believe your worke is too far advanced to admit of any advice: however, I have sent my thoughts which will be of use to the mason to form his building.”7 According to Blackiston, Wren strengthened the west wall and porch and made the balustrade more solid in order to carry vases and statues instead of pinnacles.8 The first stone of the chapel was laid on July 9, 1691, and it was consecrated in 1694 by Bishop John Hough of Oxford. Bathurst read the Mattins and the communion service, including the traditional psalm 84: 122–132 and the les- sons, 2 Chron. 6 and John 10: 22. The epistle was taken from 1 Cor. 3: 16 and the Gospel from John 2: 13.9 Trinity Chapel was the first in Oxford to be built in classical style.10 It con- sists of a rectangular plan with square west tower above the gateway. The south and north walls are divided into four bays with arched windows and pilas- ters. The length of the walls is topped with a balustrade and decorative urns. The statues on the tower represent allegories of theology, medicine, geometry, and astronomy. 3 Aymer Vallance, The Old Colleges of Oxford, Their Architectural History Illustrated and Described (Oxford: Batsford, 1912), 76. 4 Clare Hopkins, Trinity: 450 Years of an Oxford College Community (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 153. 5 “Trinity College,” in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 3, the University of Oxford, eds. H.E. Salter and Mary D. Lobel (London: Victoria County History, 1954), 238–51. British History Online, accessed March 19, 2016, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol3/ pp238-251. 6 Jennifer Sherwood and Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire (London: Penguin, 1974), 43. 7 Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary, 1089. 8 Herbert E.D. Blackiston, University of Oxford: College Histories (London: Routledge, 1998), 164. 9 Blackiston, University of Oxford, 165. 10 Sherwood and Pevsner, The Buildings of England, 43..
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