ISSN 2056-6492 MAUSOLUSMAUSOLUS THETHE JOURNALJOURNAL OFOF THETHE MAUSOLEAMAUSOLEA && MONUMENTSMONUMENTS TRUSTTRUST THETHE SUMMERSUMMER BULLETINBULLETIN 20172017
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Contents
Editorial Page 3 News Page 4 Classical Rotundas, Gothic Towers, and Page 6 Memorialising a Modern Mythology for Yale Stephen Gage REVIEWS Page 14 Robert Adam’s London Professor James Stevens Curl REVIEWS Page 17 Revisiting The Monument: Fifty Years since Panofsky’s Tomb Sculpture Robert Hawkins
Ambrose Bierce and the Exile of the Dead from San Page 20 Francisco Elizabeth Blood Mausolus Essay Price Page 24 Theatre of Empire: Topography, Ritual and Architecture Forzia Parveen Architecture, Death and Nationhood Page 32 Hannah Malone Events Page 35
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Patrons Editorial Professor James Stevens Curl Tim Knox The breadth of the study of monuments and mausolea is, Honorary Secretary I believe, amply expressed John St. Brioc Hooper by the articles in this summer issue of Mausolus. Where Chairman else would you fi nd focussed Ian Johnson studies of architectural history concerning Italy, Turkey and the Trustees States abutting chilling tales Alexander Bagnall of lead-guzzling squirrels? Roger Bowdler The forthcoming pages Gabriel Byng also refl ect, in reviews and Tom Drysdale introductions, the wealth of Amy Jeffs newly published literature Carolyn Leigh (Membership Secretary) of interest to MMT members, Tim Ellis covering such broad-ranging Robert Heathcote (Treasurer) subjects as Enlightenment Ian Johnson architects and medieval tomb Frances Sands sculpture. Gavin Stamp In all this, of course, the MMT Charles Wagner would be nothing without its ineffable sense of humour, so Mausolus is published twice look out for the wry citations a year by the Mausolea & from Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary. Monuments Trust. All contents Readers are invited to © MMT 2015 except where submit letters responding to otherwise indicated. the content via the editor’s email address given on the left. Members and others are warmly I look forward to publishing encouraged to contribute photos, your comments and ideas in news and features to: the Winter Issue. Amy Jeffs Corpus Christi College Amy Jeffs Cambridge CB2 1RH [email protected]
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Huth Mausoleum’s bricked-up entrance was temporarily opened for a 2016 interment
News
Ian Johnson with updates on events and projects
There are now two events on mausolea. Work is due to begin discussion with owners of the the near horizon for the MMT: soon to repair the damage Huth mausoleum (see photo) the visit to Great Witley in to the roof of the Heathcote in Kensal Green Cemetery Worcestershire on 12th August mausoleum at Hursley caused and the Friends of Kensal and the lecture on Mestrovic or by squirrels gnawing the lead Green Cemetery with a view later in November. This is not fl ashing, yet to be agreed to restoring, at least in some to ignore of course the AGM with the church authorities, measure, this mausoleum, the at West Norwood Cemetery. to reduce future damage by largest one in the cemetery. It This year we are the guests of cutting back overhanging trees. suff ered damage by vandals the Friends of West Norwood Some further restoration work from the 1960s but is of Cemetery and a we shall be is under consideration too. architectural and historical given a tour after the normal The mausoleum will be open merit, as is all the more clear administrative AGM formalities. to visitors as part of the Open since the recent publication of You will have already received House weekend on Sunday a biography of Frederick Huth fl yers/forms for all of these 10th September, as indeed will (who founded the banking events. Do please try to come other MMT mausolea -Boileau dynasty). In 2016 there was along to one, or indeed all, of and Sacheverell-Bateman. one further interment into the them as not only are the events Preparatory work continues mausoleum but it required themselves fascinating but they on the project to rebuild builders to knock down the also aff ord an opportunity to the Guise mausoleum in bricked-up doorway. It is hope meet and mingle with other Gloucestershire. Headed by that it may be possible to restore members and trustees. two trustees Charles Wagner the doorway and undertake The MMT has a number of and Tom Drysdale the aim is to other basic maintenance to longer term projects under rebuild the mausoleum which prevent further deterioration. way as well as the normal collapsed in 1917. The Scarisbrick mausoleum care and maintenance of its The Trust is holding in Crossens (near Formby in
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Lancashire ) has now been sculptors of the 20th century. has joined us and taken charge restored with the help of the He died in 1962 but amongst of Mausolus, having published MMT and we are helping plan his works are war memorials one edition already. Cliff ord for its future. A meeting with the and memorials at many burial Hodgetts who provided us with monument’s guardian is due to sites. It is to be held at the excellent advice has decided to take place in June. Gallery in Cowcross Street. step down but kindly off ered to In November two trustees, Finally I have to let you continue to help us where he Gavin Stamp and Roger know that the trust has gained can. Welcome to Amy and my Bowdler, will be giving a one new trustee and another sincere thanks to Cliff ord for his lecture on the Croat artist Ivan has resigned. Amy Jeff s a help over quite a time. Mestrovic. Mestrovic is widely doctoral student at Corpus regarded as one of the great Christi College, Cambridge,
Squirrel Attacks on Lead Flashing: causes and solutions
Being rodents, squirrels’ front teeth grow continuously. They therefore gnaw on hard surfaces to wear down the soft dentine enamel and, more slowly, the harder outer enamel, leaving a sharp edge. Unfortunately, this natural impulse has been directed at the lead on the roof of the hapless Heathcote Mausoleum. Sympathetic solutions are being explored.
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Classical Rotundas, Gothic Towers, and Memorialising a Modern Mythology for Yale Stephen Gage explores the American reception of revival styles
In 1921, the Yale Alumni Weekly edifi ce was a symbolic memorial diff erent attitudes towards published a retrospective structure that instantly became memorialisation in early celebrating two decades of the most prominent landmark twentieth-century America, with “the most remarkable period on the campus. Although both the Gothic providing a richer of expansion that Yale has projects intended to instil a sense and more potent sense of ever seen,” the largest in its of institutional unity and pride symbolic expression. 220-year history.1 Bookending by commemorating Yale’s past, By the late nineteenth either end of this period were they received vastly diff erent century, Yale had expanded two touchstone projects, each receptions. The Bicentennial beyond its early eighteenth- memorial in character. Thus, memorial was frequently seen century roots as a small college 1901 saw the completion of as an expensive misstep, and focused on the training of the the Bicentennial Buildings, a made little lasting impact on clergy. The College’s liberal arts monumental Classical group Yale’s self-image. By contrast, curriculum remained prominent, centred on a domed rotunda ecstatic praise was heaped on but it was joined by the Sheffi eld commemorating Yale’s war the Memorial Quadrangle from Scientifi c School, the Law dead. Then, at the end of the the moment the fi rst drawings School, and other emerging period in 1921, Yale completed were published and the project graduate and professional the Memorial Quadrangle, was seen to epitomise Yale’s programs. At the same time, a Gothic dormitory complex values as an institution. More sporadic and unplanned crowned by the soaring broadly, the story of these two expansion had made its campus Harkness Tower. The later monuments reveals strikingly in New Haven, Connecticut,
Fig 1
6 Mausolus - Summer 2017 jumbled and incoherent. Its function was strongly tied to original “Brick Row” of austere the typological precedent of dormitories competed with the funereal mausoleum as examples from a myriad of developed over centuries of nineteenth-century revival Western architecture. The styles (Fig. 1). The Bicentennial dome, much shallower in the Buildings, built for the occasion competition entry, was raised of Yale’s two-hundredth in the fi nal design to create anniversary, were intended more usable interior space, to rectify this by providing a thus giving a sense of Baroque central unifying space for the exuberance to an otherwise entire University. The goal sombre memorial. was thus to commemorate the Fig 2 past and celebrate the modern In its positioning, the Rotunda centralised organisation not only served as the means that had developed under of giving access to the diff erent President Timothy Dwight and functions of the complex, continued duing the tenure of but provided a conspicuous his successor, Arthur T. Hadley.2 urban presence at the corner The project’s importance of Grove and College Streets and large scale led Yale to forgo (Fig. 2). Lined with prominent its usual practice of selecting public entrances on both an architect at will, and an sides, the Rotunda connected invited competition was held Yale’s historic central campus in 1899, with noted architect green with its outlying scientifi c George B. Post brought in as buildings and thus marked chief juror. The winning design the central junction point was by Carrère & Hastings, a of the campus, literally and rising fi rm who would go on to symbolically (Fig. 3). Inside, complete the New York Public the walls of the Rotunda Fig 3 Library several years later. The were carved with the names project consisted of a dining of Yale’s dead from many hall and a large auditorium, diff erent confl icts, including the joined together by the Memorial Revolutionary War and the Civil Rotunda to form two sides of War (Fig. 4). In this way, people a formal courtyard. Whereas walking through the building Yale’s earliest buildings were were directly confronted with a in a more vernacular Colonial/ visual tribute to Yale’s past.3 Georgian style, the winning design was in the monumental The Rotunda functioned in Classical tradition of the many ways: a highly practical French Beaux Arts, then at the urban circulation link; a visual height of its popularity. The monument to the centralising Rotunda is loosely based on power of the University; and a Bramante’s Tempietto (1502), serious memorial symbolising itself based on various ancient the sacrifi ce made by Yale’s Roman precedents. Thus, students for their country. The the Rotunda’s memorial Classical/Renaissance style Fig 4
7 Mausolus - Summer 2017 chosen by the architects was dominant form became deeply the positioning of the Rotunda particularly suited to meeting rooted.7 had sought a symbolic joining these varied expectations; rich in The Memorial Quadrangle, of old and new conceived in historic associations, it was also designed by James Gamble relation to the urban scale of closely related to contemporary Rogers, brought this the entire campus, Harkness American civic culture, seen longstanding Gothic trend to a Tower connected old and in projects like the redesign of new level (Fig. 6). The project new in a more direct and the Mall in Washington DC and was donated by the Harkness personal way. The tower was the civic centre plans of Daniel family in memory of Charles carefully positioned so that it Burnham.4 As architectural W. Harkness, who graduated would be seen directly from historian Catherine Lynn from Yale in 1883 and died in the Old Campus Quadrangle, notes, these links made 1916.8 With a virtually unlimited assuming a conspicuous the Bicentennial Buildings budget, the site occupied an physical presence not found “the university’s emblem entire city block immediately in the smaller-scaled Rotunda of progressive aspiration.”5 west of the Old Campus, (Fig. 8). An ornate Memorial Further, their Classical style on which Rogers created a Gateway beside the Tower could claim roots in Yale’s series of seven quadrangles provided the main entrance to Brick Row, a more monumental providing dormitory space for the complex, accessed directly expression of the Colonial over 600 students. Dominating from the Old Campus across classism of these earliest the whole was Harkness the street (Fig. 9). buildings.
However, the image of a unifi ed institution promised by the monumental classicism of the Bicentennial Group never took hold.6 Even as it was being completed, Yale continued to construct dormitories, laboratories, and other structures in various Fig 6 styles, particularly the Gothic. These Gothic roots dated to the Library building of 1846, a miniaturised version of King’s In a further parallel, just as the College Chapel in Cambridge Rotunda of the Bicentennial (Fig. 5). Over the next half Buildings served as a century, the university began centrepiece memorial based demolishing the buildings of the on Classical mausoleum old Brick Row, replacing them precedents, Harkness Tower with a fortress-like perimeter of fulfi lled a similar function; it Gothic dormitories that created Fig 5 was conceived as a memorial a large enclosed quadrangle to Charles W. Harkness, and on the original Old Campus. included within it an elaborate While there was little stylistic Tower, a two hundred-foot Memorial Room. This space coherency between most of ornamental bell tower based was crowned by an authentic these buildings, the idea of loosely on St Botolph’s church masonry fan vault, proclaimed a quadrangle being Yale’s in Boston, England (Fig. 7). If as the fi rst to be newly-erected
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in several centuries.9 Thus, window established a sense of medieval religious precedent singularity that contrasted the was invoked as the appropriate more anonymous collective memorial language for the eff ect represented by the Quadrangle, with its most Rotunda’s hundreds of carved sacred symbolic space achieved names. through authentic medieval This sense of privacy building methods. Unlike the was perhaps fi tting given the Rotunda, which was public character of Harkness himself, and open to the surrounding known for his shy and withdrawn city, the Memorial Room was personality, but also for his withdrawn from the public intense sense of loyalty. If the eye, a place of mystery only Memorial Room and Tower hinted to the outside observer represented Harkness directly, Fig 7 through its large traceried they formed a highly personal window (Fig. 10). And similar example of the project’s larger to their diff erent positioning ambition—to memorialise the strategies, the Tower’s single loyal and selfl ess “Yale Man”, fan vault and single Gothic whose character would be
Fig 10
Fig 8
Fig 9
9 Mausolus - Summer 2017 directly shaped by his time living at Yale.10 As President Hadley summarised at the building’s dedication, “This is a memorial to a man who lived at Yale and loved it…In its whole design we see embodied the things which he cared for.”11 Hadley went on to connect the project’s sense of mission by invoking the destruction of the First World War: The waste of war is destroying churches and castles and glorious monuments of antiquity… Doubly important, then, it is to renew our supply of tradition and inspiration by buildings like this; to bring home to the students who shall live within Fig 11 these walls the lessons of aff ection and loyalty and love Noah Webster (Fig. 11).13 As attempted to permanently of the beautiful which should J Layng Mills commented enshrine Yale’s history as an go into the life of an ancient in the Yale Alumni Weekly institution. It manufactured a college.12 in 1921, “[Rogers created] kind of past-that-never-was In Hadley’s vision, the an atmosphere of his own— by expressing names, places Quadrangle almost assumes something more pregnant than and events from its actual the character of a War a mere repetition of the historic history with a romanticised memorial, symbolising not styles of architecture—and he Gothic vocabulary intended to those who died, but the values has done it by working into his maximise picturesque eff ect of Western culture as a whole fabric every vital and signifi cant and the mysterious allure and their manifestation through fact he could fi nd in Yale’s associated more generally architectural monuments. history…Our past is so much with the medieval (Fig. 12). Hadley also invokes the idea richer than we had realized.”14 The simple red brick barracks of institutional loyalty. In the This symbolism was further of its early days, so recently Quadrangle, this was achieved cultivated through the elaborate demolished, were not worth in the way traditional Gothic ceremonials accompanying its remembering in this new vision imagery was combined with construction and dedication. of resplendent Gothic details. extensive symbolic invocations The cornerstone, for example, As architectural critic Paul of Yale’s own history. Every gate, was laid 8 October 1917, Goldberger has commented, doorway, and common space exactly 200 years to the day “Yale before the Memorial within the project was inscribed when construction began on Quadrangle was an entirely with the names of famous Yale the fi rst building on Yale’s New diff erent place from Yale after fi gures, and Harkness Tower Haven campus.15 it…No single building project was crowned with statues of Thus, even more directly has changed Yale as much, Yale’s most illustrious, including than the Memorial Rotunda, or contributed as much to the Eli Whitney, Nathan Hale and the Memorial Quadrangle creation of its architectural
10 Mausolus - Summer 2017 image.”16 Rogers’ memorial of his...immortal tower,”17 while futile. The tower has no rival in established an almost mythic Record wrote that Classical modern architecture…It is so sense of Yale’s illustrious past, a architecture “lacked that spirit superior to anything of the kind sense of heightened poetry that of life which nothing but union so far erected in this country, or was absent from the austere with the people can give.”18 in modern Europe.”20 classicism of the Bicentennial Most direct of all was architect These reactions point to the Buildings. and Yale alumnus Charles peculiar suitability of Rogers’ The success of this Collens: “the Bicentennial picturesque Gothic as a fl exible endeavour is seen in the Buildings, dignifi ed in their language of memorialisation. ecstatic reactions by the way...in no sense [symbolize] While Classical architecture architectural press upon the the life of Yale…Gothic speaks was also driven by the Quadrangle’s completion of other things…Its originality in adaptation of precedent and in 1921. The Architectural detail, its pliability, joyousness, a sense of reverence for the Review, Architecture Record, and intimacy of treatment past (in this case, Antiquity and Architecture all dedicated bespeak literature, art, music, and the Renaissance), in entire issues to the project and, contemplation, interwoven with the eyes of early twentieth- in a direct rebuke of the earlier all the elements of a liberal century observers its poetic Bicentennial Buildings, all three education.”19 This promotion power paled in comparison to journals editorialise the project of Gothic at the expense of the Gothic romanticism. This is by touting its Gothic style at the Classical went hand in hand underscored by the fact that the expense of the Renaissance. with elaborate praise of the Memorial Quadrangle was so The Review commented Quadrangle’s design, above fervently embraced by insiders that “To have designed this all the Harkness Tower. As and outsiders alike, even Quadrangle in Renaissance the Review summarised, “To though Yale’s actual Colonial would have robbed the architect describe it in words is rather roots had more direct links to the
Fig 12
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Fig 13
Classical tradition as developed community. In contrast to institutional narrative, personal in England in the seventeenth Classical rationalist order, it memorial, and an intensely and eighteenth centuries. enlisted an emotional appeal picturesque visual language Certainly, a sense of connection that relied more on visual was an irresistible combination. to Oxford and Cambridge was delight than a specifi c sense one part of the Gothic’s appeal of time and place. Ultimately, Works Cited in a university setting. Yet a soaring and mysterious Betsky, Aaron. James Yale was also responding to tower was a more thrilling Gamble Rogers and a larger idea of the Gothic as visual spectacle than a stately the Architecture of a symbolic language in direct rotunda (Fig. 13). As such, Pragmatism. Boston: MIT opposition to the Classical, at despite their many similarities Press, 1994. this point closely associated in conception, Rogers’ tower Goodyear, William H. “The with the offi cial civic culture spoke more successfully to Memorial Quadrangle and of the modern industrial city. Yale’s yearning for a mythology the Harkness Memorial By contrast, the Gothic was commensurate with its modern Tower at Yale.” The irregular and vague, associated achievements. For all its Architectural Review Vol. variously with nature, personal anachronisms, the Memorial 120 No. 2379 (36 October freedom, mystic ritual and Quadrangle’s marriage of 1921): 299-314.
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Kelley, Brooks Mather. Yale: A Campus, 38-46, 116-117, 217. 8 Kelley, Yale: A History, History. New Haven: Yale 3 See Pinnell, Yale 372-374. The Harkness fortune Press, 1974. University, 141-144 and Scully was derived from their position Peterson, Jon A. The Birth et al, Yale in New Haven, 175- as primary partners of John of City Planning in the 180. D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil United States, 1840-1917. 4 See Peterson, Birth of City Company. Baltimore: John Hopkins Planning, 77-97 and 139-172. 9 “A General Description of Press, 2003. The project for Washington, the Memorial Quadrangle,” Yale Pinnell, Patrick L. Yale known as the McMillan Plan, Alumni Weekly Vol. 30 No. 16 University: An was issued in 1902, while a year (7 January 1921), 381. Architectural Tour. later saw Burnham’s Group Plan 10 Betsky, James Gamble New York: Princeton for Cleveland’s civic centre. Rogers, 104-106. Architectural Press, 1999. These ambitious projects 11 Hadley, speech printed in Scully, Vincent, Lynn, were joined by hundreds of Yale Alumni Weekly Vol. 27 No. Catherine, Vogt, Eric and new libraries, museums, and 4 (12 October 1917), 84-85. Goldberger, Paul. Yale in government structures in the 12 Ibid. New Haven: Architecture Beaux Arts style. 13 “A General Description of and Urbanism. New 5 Scully et al, Yale in New the Memorial Quadrangle,” Yale Haven: Yale Press, 2004. Haven, 176. Alumni Weekly Vol. 30 No. 16 Turner, Paul Venable. Campus: 6 The project was not (7 January 1921), 381. An American Planning completed as originally 14 Mills, “The Wrexham Tradition. New York: envisioned; the third wing Tower,” in ibid, 378. Architectural History needed to complete the court 15 James Gamble Rogers, Foundation, 1984. was abandoned, while plans “The Architectural Plan”, in Yale Wilcox, Marrion. “The Harkness for a monumental central Alumni Weekly Vol. 27 No. 4 Memorial Quadrangle colonnade were put on hold, (12 October 1917), 90. at Yale.” Architectural and only fi nished in 1927. 16 Scully et all, Yale in New Record Vol. 50, No. 3 As fi nished, the colonnade Haven, 264. (September 1921): 163- extended the memorial theme of 17 Goodyear, “The Memorial 182. the interior by commemorating Quadrangle and the Harkness Yale Alumni Weekly Vol. 27, No. Yale’s dead from the First World Memorial Tower at Yale,” The 4 (12 October 1917). War (Scully et all, Yale in New Architectural Review Vol. 120 Yale Alumni Weekly Vol. 30, No. Haven, 180, 182-184). No. 2379 (36 October 1921), 16 (7 January 1921). 7 The details of these 308. Yale Alumni Weekly Vol. 30, No. developments are meticulously 18 Wilcox, “The Harkness 36 (27 May 1921). Yale chronicled in Scully et al, Memorial Quadrangle at Yale,” Alumni Weekly Vol. 31, Yale in New Haven, 101- Architectural Record Vol. 50, No. 28 (31 March 1922). 231. Successive buildings No. 3 (September 1921), 167. were inspired by Ruskin’s 19 Collens, “The Harkness Endnotes Venetian Gothic, Richardsonian Memorial Tower,” Yale Alumni 1 Yale Alumni Weekly Vol. 30 Romanesque, and fi nally, Weekly Vol. 31, No. 28 (31 No. 36 (27 May 1921). Charles Coolidge Haight’s March 1922), 733. 2 For background on these Collegiate Gothic, a style 20 Goodyear, “The Harkness institutional changes, see pioneered by Cope and Memorial Quadrangle,” 313. Kelley, Yale: A History, 273- Stewardson at Princeton, Bryn 297, 315-325. For a discussion Mawr and the University of of Yale’s Brick Row and its Pennsylvania in the 1890s (see transformation, see Turner, Turner, Campus, 223-230).
13 Mausolus - Summer 2017 REVIEWS FRANCES SANDS Robert Adam’s London (Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd., 2016) ISBN 978 1 78491 462 2, ISBN 978 1 78491 463 9 (e-Pdf), 164 pp., 104 colour fi gs., pbk., £18.00, available from either the Soane Museum shop, http://www.soane.org/shop/product/robert-adams-london-dr-frances- sands or from www.archaeopress.com Review by Professor James Stevens Curl
Fig 1
This attractive, beautifully great Sir John Soane in 1833, in Barrie’s (1860-1937) quip that illustrated, and handsomely addition to around 1,000 works ‘there are few more impressive illustrated book was produced by the Adam Brothers produced sights in the world than a to accompany a major exhibition during their Grand Tours, a Scotsman on the make’,1 as he of the same title at Sir John collection comprising some 80% began to realise his ambition to Soane’s Museum, Lincoln’s Inn of all surviving Adam graphic become the leading architect Fields, London, 30 November productions), it assembles of his day in both Scotland and 2016 to 11 March 2017. Written the histories of numerous England, evolving a new and by the Curator of Drawings and commissions and speculative supremely elegant repertoire Books at the Museum (which projects in the capital. Indeed, of architectural ornament that holds some 8,000 original Adam Robert Adam (1728-92) might drew upon a huge variety of offi ce drawings, acquired by the well have deserved J.M. Classical precedents from
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Antiquity to the Cinquecento, James Streets (1768-72—a opened on a darkish afternoon, made even more attractive by vast venture which almost and was entranced by the quality an assured use of colour (his ruined the fi rm, and was only of the drawings, especially exquisite designs for ceilings retrieved when the properties those that were coloured. were especially felicitous). were disposed of by means Close inspection could hardly One of Adam’s fi rst London of a lottery in 1774), was fault the draughtsmanship, but jobs was the screen-wall demolished in 1936, apart from throughout the refi nement of in Whitehall in front of The 1-3 Robert Street, 6-10 Adam the architectural and decorative Admiralty (1723-6), a building Street, and 2-4 John Street: language sang out crisp and designed by Thomas Ripley Portland Place (1776-90), a clear: one could almost hear (1682-1758), at the mention of wide street of 68 large houses, the rasp of pen on hand- whose name Sir John Vanbrugh has been largely wrecked and made paper (a pleasure (1664-1726) laughed so much its fronts made incoherent, all denied modern generations of he ‘had like to Beshit’ himself. by supposed architects who students, obsessed with the Thereafter, designs for funerary should have known better. The dead-ends of Deconstructivism, monuments, interiors, public South and East sides of Fitzroy Parametricism, and whatever buildings, architectural details and furniture, private houses, street façades, ‘illuminations’, screens, chimneypieces, mirror-surrounds, and much else fl owed out of the Adam offi ce. Plans showed varied room-shapes, ingeniously juxtaposed, with breathtakingly beautiful staircases, but the most lovely designs, drawn and coloured with meticulous care, were those for ceilings, some of the fi nest illustrated in this volume (proposals for Coventry House [1765], Bolton House [1770], 10 Hertford Street Fig 2 [1769], and 15 Berkeley Square [1769, 1776], are particularly eye-catching in their intricate Square, London (1790-4), and will become the latest fashion detail and beautifully judged Charlotte Square, Edinburgh in fatuous, pointless, obscenely compositions). These wonderful (1791-1820), give a good idea expensive bling). Creativity, drawings put contemporary of the kind of unifi ed design steeped in observation, computer-drawn graphics fi rmly for terrace-housing the Adams learning, and taste, is a far in the shade. could achieve, but it has to be more noble activity than the Yet how shamefully has said that generally, their urban dreary processes that pass the grander work by the schemes have not fared well, for architectural design in Adam offi ce been treated by a and the work of John Nash these benighted times, and it philistine nation that looks, if it (1752-1835), a master of proclaims itself with clarity in looks at all, with its ears! The scenography, has suff ered even the exhibition and book, the Adelphi Buildings, Strand, with more brutal destruction. erudite text of which does its John, Robert, William, and I saw this exhibition the day it author great credit (apart from
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Fig 3 her use [a hanging off ence in Adam’s work, and even, and printers (Oxuniprint) are my book] of that ghastly word perhaps, to imagine a London to be congratulated on a fi ne ‘iconic’ to describe Adam or any in which more Adam designs achievement. work of architecture). had survived or been realised. Each of Adam’s architectural The book would have gained Professor James Stevens projects mentioned in Sands’s greatly had it been furnished Curl is the author of Georgian tome is plotted on reproductions with a decent index. Books Architecture in the British Isles of various parts of the 32-plate without an index have limited 1714-1830 (Swindon: English Plan of the Cities of London and use, and it should always be Heritage, 2011), and joint- Westminster, the Borough of remembered that the reader is author, with Susan Wilson, Southwark, and parts adjoining all-important in any publishing of The Oxford Dictionary of shewing every house (1792- venture. It is sad that such an Architecture (Oxford; Oxford 99), by Richard Horwood omission was made here, for University Press, 2015, 2016). (1757/8-1803), later published admirable though reproductions and updated (1807, 1813, of images may be, a well- Endnotes 1819) by William Faden (1749- constructed index would have 1 What Every Woman Knows 1836), who is commemorated hugely improved matters. The (published 1918) Act 2 in a tablet on the north wall quality of printing, design, of the Church of St Nicholas, font, notes, and illustrations, Shepperton. This conveniently however, is very good indeed, enables the reader to locate and the Oxford publishers
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ANN ADAMS AND JESSICA BARKER Revisiting the Monument: Fifty Years since Panofsky’s Tomb Sculpture (Courtauld Books Online, 2016) Robert Hawkins reviews a recent publication from the Courtauld Institute of Art
In 1964, Erwin Panofsky ‘prospective’ monuments is full of archival insight) and published Tomb Sculpture: (which anticipate after-life) complicating its arguments Four Lectures on its Changing or between fl at, schematic (Shirin Fozi, Robert Marcoux, Aspects from Ancient Egypt relief and plastic, naturalising and Geoff rey Nuttall). Section to Bernini. The fi rst line of the sculpture. The dichotomies 2 considers the relationships book states that it was a text are occasionally crude, but between monuments and ‘not intended for publication’: it they give a rough road map by their viewers: Jessica Barker was prepared as a ‘little series which the sprawling landscape deals with juxtapositions of of public lectures’, given at The might begin to be navigated. visible/invisible and corrupted/ Institute of Fine Arts of New York This new collection of incorruptible bodies; Luca University. Panofsky warned essays, edited by Jessica Palozzi forges literary links his friends: ‘Please don’t read Barker and Ann Adams and with Petrarch; James Cameron the rather superfi cial text... Just published by Courtauld describes the relationship look at the pictures which are, Books Online, contains both between funerary monuments for the most part, quite nice’. ‘retrospective’ and ‘prospective’ and liturgical seating. Section The book, he claimed, had an approaches. Some essays look 3 addresses material issues, index ‘produced by an idiot’ back to specifi c issues raised by proceeding from Kim Woods’ and, what is more., was ‘very Panofsky’s original text; some observation that materials superfi cial … in part misleading, look forward to new avenues are almost entirely absent and horrible to look at’. opening up in the study of tomb from Panofsky’s discussion to Nonetheless, it has become sculpture. Of course, these two corrective essays by Sanne a canonical work, largely approaches are co-dependent, Frequin, Matthew Reeves, because of the un-matched for it is often through the and Martha Dunkelman. Ann scope of the study and the remembering of things past Adams addresses the fact extensive illustrations. Despite that windows are opened onto that monumental brasses are Panofsky’s own dismissive future possibilities. The editors missing from Panofsky’s text remarks, the text has obvious have narrowed the scope by (only one example features, merits: it deftly organises three presenting a series of ‘short from St James’ Church, millennia of disparate sculpture stories’, focusing on medieval Draycot Cerne, Wiltshire). to produce comprehensible and Renaissance topics, in Adams’ essay is good example narratives, off ering terms that response to Panofsky’s original of the book in its additive mode begin to get a handle on the epic narrative. - brasses at Cleves, Nijmegen, diff erent ways that funerary The essays are presented in Geldern, and in England, are sculpture might function. He three sections. Section 1 deals brought into the discussion, in sets up characteristic polarities most explicitly with Panofsky’s an attempt to counter the idea between, for instance, text, contextualizing it (Susie that all tomb brasses were ‘retrospective’ monuments Nash’s account of the original’s subordinate to their marble (which recall past life) and compilation and publication equivalents.
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Many passages evidence essay ‘From the Pictorial to the cause’ of his misinterpretation a growing awareness among Statuesque: Two Romanesque of the Trenta tomb. Nuttall, contemporary scholars of the Effi gies and the Problem of building on the ideas of John problems raised by studying Plastic Form’, and by Geoff rey Shearman, considers the monuments from photographs Nuttall, who sees Panofsky’s ‘activation’ of Crivelli and Pecci alone. This is stressed, for reliance on photographs taken tomb slabs when positioned example, by Shirin Fozi in her from above as the ‘primary in real space and seen from
18 Mausolus - Summer 2017 the diff ering perspectives of a by Panofsky’. But it remains Panofsky discussed only moving spectator. Panofsky’s an argument with, rather than iconography and not ‘material’ original publication did indeed against, Panofsky. In this sense - but surely the two meet in rely mainly on stock images for this book is part of a current his discussion of sculptural the illustrations and therefore trend of renewed interest in plasticity, which is dealt with on well-established, canonical Panofsky’s oeuvre. Christopher eloquently elsewhere in this viewpoints (although, as Susie Lakey, for example, is revisiting volume by Shirin Fozi. Largely, Nash points out, Panofsky the arguments of Panofsky’s though, the essays are clear was not insensitive to the Perspective as Symbolic Form, and well-argued, and together problems this created and maintaining their general shape they make for a thorough on one occasion requested a but probing and interrogating review of the topic. new photograph be made in the diffi cult details. The book’s title sets up order to illustrate a particular In Revisiting the Monument an illuminating metaphor angle of view). Particularly in we fi nd many examples of the (which runs throughout, most the third section, ‘Monuments same strategy of destabilising explicitly in Susie Nash’s and Materials’, the authors Panofsky’s arguments in essay): it suggests that Tomb make use of fi rst-hand access order to uphold them. Robert Sculpture is itself now a and technical innovations that Marcoux, for example, responds commemorative monument, to were simply unavailable to in his essay to a 1965 review of be contextualized, critiqued and Panofsky, who worked primarily Panofsky’s book, which judged analysed. Indeed, Panofsky from photographs. A recurring the catagories of ‘Prospection’ was aware of its likely funerary theme of these new essays, and ‘Retrospection’ to be function: so delayed was the then, facilitated and perhaps rather arbitrary. Marcoux, publication of the original engendered by these practical anxious not to make the same book that it nearly became a developments, is the desire to mistake, instead proposes tombstone for its aging author. consider the experience of an ‘more of a dialectical way ‘I begin to be afraid that the embodied, mobile spectator. of understanding the rich Tombs will really appear as a There is a certain diversity of medieval tombs post-humous memorial’, he consensus of opinion among by presenting the notions of wrote, ‘… but I should not mind’. the contributing authors and retrospection and prospection These new essays, then, serve it recurs as a refrain at the as two poles between which the to extend, repair and elaborate start of each essay: all agree commemoration of the dead upon the original monument. Panofsky’s original book ought oscillates in the later Middle They work, just as a piece of to be admired (particularly for Ages’. So this is a fantasia on tomb sculpture works, to (as its magisterial breadth, which a theme by Panofsky - a richer, Shirin Fozi has it) ‘retool a has not since been rivaled), but more polyphonic re-scoring, problematic legacy as a larger that its enormous scope means perhaps - but the melody spiritual success.’ And although that its analysis lacked depth remains recognizable. teleogies are questioned and and that there is consequently There are occasional lacunae interrogated, much of work to be done by modern frustrating lapses into the fabric of the original book scholars, expanding, obfuscation: ‘the material continues to be venerated. So deepening, complicating, specifi city of the tomb slab’, often, it seems, Panofsky’s revising. The authors stress the writes one contributor, ‘is that almost-instinct has proven importance of placing tombs it is intrinsically linked to the almost true. And what will within specifi c contexts (artistic, grave by serving as its cover.’ survive of his monumental text, spatial, liturgical), ‘expanding And there is some caricaturing therefore, is love. and destabilising the neat of Panofsky’s original position: teleological narrative proposed Sanne Frequin claims that
19 Mausolus - Summer 2017
Ambrose Bierce and the Exile of the Dead from San Francisco Elizabeth Blood presents extracts from the Devil’s Dictionary with an introduction to its nineteenth-century author Of his fi ction, Wilson wrote that Death was “Bierce’s favourite character” and possibly his “only real character”. Readers with a taste for the macabre and ghostly will revel in his work.1 Ambrose Bierce is a name that conjures up the American Civil War, cynical and controversial newspaper journalism, ground- breaking ghost story writing, and a life shrouded in legend. Words such as “fearlessness”, “irreverence”, “satire”, “maverick”, “cynic”, “wit” populate scholarly accounts of his life and work, but he remains a somehow elusive fi gure. He is thought by many to have been a writer and wit on a par with Mark Twain, akin to Edgar Allen Poe. Bierce was born in Meigs County, Ohio in June 1842, the youngest of nine children of a farmer. He was unhappy at home and was sent to military Portrait by J H E Partington of 1893, exhibited at the Chicago World’s Fair school, seemingly habitually that year, and Bierce’s signature. Bierce was born in 1842 and disappeared rebelling against authority. after leaving for Mexico in 1913 Although he excelled as a soldier in the Union Army when the American Civil War broke out, he was formed neither for domesticity or discipline at any admired and feared for the use Bierce’s writing. It is divided stage of his life. Bierce worked of his vitriolic wit against those into two halves: tales of as a journalist in San Francisco, whose principals he attacked. Soldiers’ deaths inspired by where he contributed to and His friend, Vincent Starrett, the American Civil War and edited newspapers from wrote that he was capable of those of Civilians. Both explore 1866-72 and in London from “the keenest satire since Swift, death’s inevitability and its 1872-76, moving back to San glittering, bitter, venomous, but unpredictability, its glory and Francisco in 1876 and later thoroughly honest.” its horror. Readers are steeped moving to Washington. He was In the Midst of Life (1892) in the soil of graveyards. From is a quintessential example of reading ‘A Watcher by the
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Dead’, one might surmise that relocations from inner-city San Bierce opens with “I never Bierce believed surgeons and Francisco during second half clearly knew why I visited soldiers were people who had of the 19th century. The city the old cemetery that night. “suffi cient familiarity with death” had dozens of burial grounds, Perhaps it was to see how the so as to be “unmoved” by it.2 In but by the 1860s there were work of removing the bodies ‘The Aff air at Coulter’s Notch’ calls for their removal to outer was getting on, for they were all he describes the “crushed and city locations so that the inner- being taken up and carted away broken bodies” of soldiers as city land could be developed. to a more comfortable place examples of the “wreckage” As public parks began to where land was less valuable. and “ruins” of battle. be established in the late It was well enough; nobody had Perhaps it was the contrast nineteenth-century, cemeteries buried himself there for years, between battlefi eld death and were used less as recreation and the skeletons that were the competitive monument- spaces and developers now exposed were old mouldy building of settled urbanites argued that city-centre burial aff airs for which it was diffi cult that inspired the satirical sites were a barrier to urban to feel any respect. However, I observations extracted below. progress and a danger to put a few bones in my pocket He lived during a time when the public. They pointed to as souvenirs.” Victorian funerary taste was graveyards that had fallen Cemetery removal in San at its most eff usive and there into disrepair (and disrepute). Francisco (and elsewhere) could not have been a greater These once garden landscapes continued into the twentieth contrast between the hasty were called eyesores: there century. Today only two are left burials of his comrades and were public health concerns of the dozens that once existed. the competitive burials of these about disease; drunken late- In 1914, the year most presume citizens. Bierce, perhaps as night goings-on were reported Bierce died whilst travelling with a result of war experience, to be a regular occurrence in Pancho Villa’s rebels during saw commemoration as burial grounds; bronze doors the Mexican Revolutionary inconsequential; he, his were stolen from mausolea; War, four of the main San wife and his two sons lie in bones or even complete Franciscan cemeteries were unmarked graves. skeletons were stolen; skulls declared a public nuisance and It struck me that for used as footballs.3 Although their owners given fourteen Mausolus readers, it would be some residents protested at months to remove the dead. apt to extract from The Devil’s the disinterments, and tried What “Bitter Bierce’s” “burning Dictionary (1906) and other of to have cemeteries protected pen” would have written as that his stories the terms that are the as historical landmarks, their process continued can only be language of our mutual interest: opponents’ campaign had speculated upon. In light of his cemeteries, monuments, gathered too much momentum background, Bierce’s writings tombs. His satirical defi nitions to be stopped. on death and burial, and the appeared in his columns from In 1868, the fi rst bodies following defi nitions from The 1881 onwards, but were not began to be disinterred from Devil’s Dictionary, take on even collected and published as the the Yerba Buena cemetery, greater sardonic meaning. Dictionary until 1906. They to make way for a new Civic reveal something of the reality Centre including City Hall. It The Devil’s Dictionary, 1906 of war death, the materialism of would appear that Bierce had Bierce’s satirical defi nitions of nineteenth-century urban death visited the works fi rst-hand, funerary categories are among and his distaste for the clear for, in ‘The Discomfi ted Demon’ the most devastating ever contrast between the two. (a short story in The Fiend’s written. Here are the choicest Bierce witnessed an Delight of 1873 originally called examples, each of which bursts extraordinary wave of cemetery ‘The Devil at Yerba Buena’), the bubble of sepulchral pomp.
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Disinterment work in Odd Fellows Cemetery, San Francisco. Many bodies were missed during these cemetery removals and remains are still found during excavations for new buildings on former cemetery sites. Monuments were broken up, dumped in the Bay, or used in public realm works. Photo published with kind permission from San Francisco Public Library P.S. – Gabriel will raise her. the eff ect a striking grave ‘Cemetery, n. An isolated monument has upon Jove, who suburban spot where mourners Cremation, n. The process decides to respect the profuse match lies, poets write at a by which the cold meats of epitaph and fi nal inscription target and stone-cutters spell humanity are warmed over. pleading “R.I.P.” and leaves for a wager. The inscriptions the dead man accordingly un- following will serve to illustrate Epitaph, n. A monumental resurrected.] the success attained in these inscription designed to remind Olympian games: the deceased of what he might Grave, n. A place in which have been if he had had the will the dead are laid to await the His virtues were so conspicuous and opportunity. coming of the medical student. that his enemies, unable to overlook them, denied them, and his friends, to whose loose lives they were a rebuke, Epitaph, n. An inscription on Mausoleum, n. The fi nal and represented them as vices. They are a tomb, showing that virtues funniest folly of the rich. here commemorated by his family, who acquired by death have a shared them. retroactive eff ect. Monument, n. A structure intended to commemorate In the earth we here prepare a Place to lay our little Clara. [Apt reading on this theme is something which either needs Thomas M. and Mary Frazer ‘Resurgam’ (in The Fiend’s no commemoration or cannot Delight of 1873), a poem about be commemorated.
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Indiff erence. Tombs are now Windus Ltd, 1892 (1964 The bones of Agamemnon are a show, by common consent invested reissue). And ruined is his royal monument, with a certain sanctity, but when they have been long Bierce, Ambrose. The Enlarged but Agamemnon’s fame suff ers tenanted it is considered no sin Devil’s Dictionary. London: no diminution in consequence. to break them open and rifl e Penguin, 1990 The monument custom has its them, the famous Egyptologist, reductiones ad absurdum in Dr Huggyns, explaining that a Bierce, Ambrose (as Dod Grile). monuments ‘to the unknown tomb may be innocently ‘glened’ The Fiend’s Delight. London: dead’ – that is to say, as soon as its occupant is done John Camden Hotton, 1873 monuments to perpetuate the ‘smellynge,’ the soul being then memory of those who have left all exhaled. This reasonable Brooks, Jon. ‘Why Are There So no memory. view is now generally accepted Many Dead People in Colma? by archaeologists, whereby the And So Few in San Francisco?’ [For wry comment featuring the noble science of Curiosity has Online article: KQED, 16 word “monument”, see ‘The Late been greatly dignifi ed.’ December 2015. Accessed Dowling, Senior’ (in The Fiend’s Knowledge of the 29/05/2017 from
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The Mausolus Essay Prize Theatre of Empire: Topography, Ritual and Architecture
Fozia Parveen presents the politics of death in 16th century Istanbul
“In cities only change endures... all cities are caught in a balancing act between destruction and preservation...”
(Spiro Kostof, The City Assembled: The Elements of Urban Form Through History, p.280)
The Imperial mosque-tomb complexes of sixteenth-century Istanbul are important because they projected a hegemonic royal identity. Acting additionally as Friday mosques, they stood out as a building type, closely tied to the Ottoman Sultans’ legitimacy. From them, the Sultan’s claims to sovereignty Fig.1: Tomb of Selim I, built ~ 1520, Istanbul. were broadcast each Friday, permanency was articulated of Islam at the Christian border the Muslim holy day. Much topographically, ritually, and with Europe.3 Gathered in one more than multi-functional architecturally through these sacred centre, the construction structures, they were sites of three memorials, which I have of a mosque-tomb was an potent remembrance for the studied together to refl ect their exclusive privilege of the Sultan esteemed Sultanic patron ceremonial engagement with himself. Macroscopically, whose tomb they housed.1 the ‘audience’ in relation to the Islam’s military triumph over Furthermore, a major element Divanyolu thoroughfare. The Christianity was marked in of prestige-seeking, identity, three tombs I will be studying popular Ottoman culture of and commemoration, was are of Selim I (d. 1520) (Fig. the sixteenth-century through through hazire (cemeteries). 1), Suleiman I (d. 1566) (Fig. 2) these victory monuments Strategically installed after and Selim II (d. 1574) (Fig. 3): funded by the spoils of war 1453, they functioned to father, son and grandson. against Christian armies. legitimise a city without an The respective mosque- Microscopically, at the Islamic past, thus providing a tomb complexes, crowning community level, these tombs new urban identity in fi fteenth- the diff erent hills of Istanbul, are signifi cant because they century Istanbul.2 In this essay, demonstrate how, as charitable symbolise how the Ottoman I will examine the tombs of patriarchs, the Sultans saw Sultans of the sixteenth- three Ottoman Sultans of themselves as international century, the Golden Age of the sixteenth-century. I hope custodians of the institutions the Ottoman Empire, saw to explore how a dynastic
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and Damian close by, was transformed into a sanctifi ed pilgrimage site for Muslims of the newly conquered territories in Anatolia.4 Over a century later, Eyüp’s shrine, a Muslim relic from the past, would hold a central role in the public dialogue between the tombs of Selim I, Suleiman I and Selim II by way of a unique topographic narrative through the city fabric of Istanbul (Fig. 4). Th is discovery of Eyüp’s sarcophagus linked a dynamic and mythical past to an early- modern Muslim polity. The patron-saint’s tomb formed the nucleus of this new Ottoman capital through symbolism Fig. 2: Tomb of Suleiman I, built ~ 1566, Istanbul. and ceremony; it was where many grandees were subsequently buried and where themselves, and how they perished during the First Arab royal coronations were held, sought to be commemorated. Expedition to Constantinople further perpetuating a sense Travelling along the Golden in 654. Carefully overseen by of a prophetically-bestowed Horn, and looking up at the Mehmet II, this site, already blessing upon the Ottomans.5 skyline, this visual symbiosis consecrated by the Byzantine Furthermore, it was from the along geographical markers is monasteries of saints Cosmas site of Eyüp’s shrine that stately evident. There appears to be a dual vision advocated by the Sultans, of urban splendour orientated by the sea and Istanbul’s inner urban space.
Myth-Making and Topography It is important that we understand the origins of the topography of sixteenth-century Istanbul. The popular myth-story told how Ak Shemsuddin (d. 1459), the spiritual teacher to Mehmet II (d. 1481), rediscovered the tomb of the warrior-saint Ayyub al-Ansari (d. 654, known from hereon as Eyüp) outside the city walls. Eyüp was a Medinian companion of the Prophet Muhammed (d. 632) who Fig. 3: Tomb of Selim II, built ~ 1574, Istanbul.
25 Mausolus - Summer 2017 processions and ceremonial saint. A collective barakah Prophet Muhammed himself, parades commenced before (blessing) was in this way the Ottoman archae ological calling at important locations, amassed, beginning with observation found in the burial such as the imperial turbeler this Muslim shrine before the practices of many communities (shrines), the janissary barracks imperial tombs were visited. and periods, endorsed by Leor (Sultan’s household troops and Thus an uninterrupted imperial Halevi, where followers seek to bodyguards), and bazaars inheritance and dialogue was be buried close to a founding (marketplaces). visualised between the tombs Father or Mother or their The Sultanic mosque-tomb of Selim I, Suleiman I and Selim disciples.7 This is signifi cant complexes are lined along II, and legitimised through to the Ottoman conception of a processional route, called this urban thoroughfare of urban form. Unlike the cities of the Divanyolu, which runs Ottoman state and power. The Renaissance Europe, with their along Eyüp’s mausoleum at Divanyolu held a pivotal role in fl ow of space, homogeneity of the highest point along the the symbols and ceremonials of facade, typological consistency, thoroughfare and fl ows down Ottoman society as a chosen or uniformity of placement and to the Golden Horn.6 Eyüp’s burial ground for the elite. direction, sixteenth-century memory was commemorated By burying relatives, and Istanbul did not have a regular and honoured at the beginning by being themselves buried, in street structure. This urban of each processional visit prime land along the Divanyolu restructuring came much later along the Divanyolu path, and route, proximate to dead saints in the nineteenth-century tribute paid to their patron- and therefore proximate to the under the Tanzimat Reforms.8
Fig. 4: Sultanic mausolea of Istanbul plotted on Hellert’s 1836 map.
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Spiro Kostof observes that the alignment and orientation of commemorative monuments along the Divanyolu axis and other important thoroughfares did not follow an organic form. Instead he argues that they were designed, actively shaped, and conceived with this reciprocal dialogue between the foundation structure and the street in mind.9 There is a debate as to what extent town planning was formulated, with Thomas Cerasi claiming that it was in fact ‘chaotic and Fig. 5: Friday procession of Sultan Suleiman I through the Hippodrome, from disorderly’ in sixteenth-century a series of woodcuts by Pieter Coecke van Aelst, published in 1553, c. 1553. Istanbul, comparable with the daily chaos of the streets.10 Nonetheless, the foundations mahalles (districts) along its axis, site selection of mosque-tomb of the Ottoman Classical period thus creating the topographical complexes along this route by (1520-1650) were dispersed fulcrum of the city fabric along the Ottoman sultans, a public over the whole length of the this thoroughfare (Fig. 4). This dialogue was topographically Divanyolu.11 facilitated an assertive dialogue implied, designed to convey a Ritual processions along between connective elements, statement of prestige, unity, and the Divanyolu echoed to some giving form and character to identity with Classical antiquity. extent the processions during Ottoman urban space through Additionally the positioning of the reign of the founder of destruction and preservation. the tombs of Selim I, Suleiman the historic Constantinople, The route came into contact I, and Selim II, constructed atop Constantine I, in the fourth with numerous monumental diff erent hills in Istanbul, with century. Mehmet II saw himself buildings, and mausoleums the Divanyolu running along the as Constantine’s natural heir, in particular were focal crest lines of these prominent and inheritor of his geographical points of remembrance and hills, further suggests a public markers, commissioning his commemoration along this road. dialogue between these tombs own mosque-tomb complex The Ottoman Empire regarded along this key route through on the same hill as the fourth- itself as the heir of Greek, a unique landscape. During century Church of the Apostles, Roman, Byzantine, Turkic, and parades the Sultan would where Constantine is buried.12 Islamic imperial ambitions, and symbolically stop and dismount The ‘Road to the Imperial thus appropriated symbolic from his horse to pay homage to 14 Counci l’ or Byzantine Mese, geographical markers to an ancestor at their sepulchre. linking Constantinople to Rome, maintain this vision, as Through this changing balance was later appropriated by the demonstrated here.13 of power, the Divanyolu had Ottomans to the ‘Divanyolu’. There was a common policy a lasting association with the Mehmet II and his pashas of imperial exposure to public philosophy and ambitions of the (Turkish offi cers) of the 1453 view which extended to the Ottoman dynasty, as already conquest of Constantinople imperial tombs dotted along the cited by Kostof. As part of the structured the Divanyolu Divanyolu path. It would appear town core, the Divanyolu was by centering mosques and that, through the patronage and a catalyst for urbanisation itself,
27 Mausolus - Summer 2017 given that market areas, parks, from the shrine of Eyüp, but emphasised the importance and public fountains were closest to the Golden Horn of commemoration and connected to it, and through it (Fig. 4). This juxtaposition of intercession for the deceased were connected to each other. placement and summit over Sultan at his tomb (Fig. 5). This architectural stage had time provided a distinction to The incorporation of tombs of both convergent and divergent Istanbul topographically and past ancestors into popular levels of uses, symbols and exalted its fame and prestige. culture defi ned the relationship values, through commerce, of power to the ‘audience’ tranquil beauty, and charity. Ritual and Commemoration through facts and events more Istanbul is known as ‘the city Sultanic ritual visitations of transient than the monuments built on seven hills’. These hills ancestral tombs and the themselves – in other words, appear to represent a hierarchy sanctifi ed tomb of the city’s through a ritual dialogue. of power among the diff erent patron-saint, Eyüp, turned the mosque-tomb complexes whole empire into the inherited Framing the Gaze which sit atop them and lie legacy of one family through Through the image of the between the shrine of Istanbul’s processional and individual Sultan, architecture also Muslim patron-saint, Eyüp, rituals. Royal rites of passage, conducts an explicit dialogue and the Golden Horn. The religious celebrations, and between the tombs of father, three tombs being examined military campaigns brought son and grandson. For example in this essay, that of Selim I, the population together, Selim I’s marble tomb follows Suleiman I and Selim II, lie on congregated in the city core.15 an octagonal plan (Fig. 1). the fi fth, third, and fi rst hill of These representations of The marble, unlike that of the Istanbul respectively, in order of memory, as part of a larger tomb of Suleiman I, appears distance away from the shrine victory monument, were linked uniform and consistent, of Eyüp, and proximity to the together as a group through suggesting a single source and Golden Horn. These tomb sites these stately processions. workforce rather than multiple were not selected arbitrarily, but The parades themselves had historic sites or quarries. By were well considered, almost much more to do with the contrast, Suleiman I’s search negotiated with other tomb sites, ‘theatre of empire’ than with for columns for his mosque- and planned well in advance of Islam, with the consumption tomb complex from far fl ung the Sultan’s death. The seven of alcohol occasionally being histo ric places such a s hills were markers of distance, permitted during such events, Jerusalem and Alexandria, has space and identity, but also often involving disagreements symbolic signifi cance.17 interestingly of piety, charity, between Sultans, grand muftis Similarly, the tomb of Selim and military achievement (chief legal jurists) and grand II is a complex structure during the Ottoman era, in their viziers (prime ministers) comprising a square outer shell commemoration of the Sultanic behind the closed doors of and an octagonal inner shell. patron. Selim I’s mosque-tomb Topkapi Palace.16 The living The dome itself sits upon a complex was built closest to were honoured alongside drum, resting on eight pillars, Eyüp’s shrine. The Suleimaniya the deceased to project this supported by semi-domes mosque-tomb complex, on sense of prestige, theatre, and which buttress the weight of the the third hill, was erected in a imperial dialogue, along the larger central dome. Through position of maximum visibility, Divanyolu town core. the use of diff erent treatments and Selim II, unprecedentedly, The repetition of these and styles of masonry, from was laid to rest in the historical rituals after royal accessions, ashlar to stone lattice work, and palace of the Byzantine before departures for the complex ablaq voissoirs emperors, the Hagia Sophia, on military campaigns, and and entryway lunettes present the fi rst hill of Istanbul, furthest during festivities, further in all three tombs (Figs. 1, 2
28 Mausolus - Summer 2017 and 3), the physical capacity of ghaib (the unknown) in Muslim grandson, along the ceremonial this architecture evokes order, belief, implicitly articulated stage of the Divanyolu. The beauty, authority: embodying through the ‘veil’ of these message of unity through the image of the Sultan. window compositions. Through diversity is persistent; not Exploring the use of space, this multifaceted layer a ruptured dialogue but an with the exception of the portal of windows, fenestrated unbroken dialogue. facade, the remaining seven banisters, and marble steps, Architecture as an facades of Selim I’s tomb tectonically the building appears intermediary provided a vehicle hold grilled windows on both stronger and more unifi ed. It is for the interaction between the upper and lower levels of in harmony with itself through sacrosanct urban space, the the tomb. The architectonic its eclecticism, exemplifying gaze of the Sultan, and the decorative program appears the meshing of beauty and ritual commemoration of the to be linear without rosettes, strength, both from a distance ‘audience’. Tarkan Okçuoğlu lunettes or ornamented and up close. describes how the grilled surfaces on the seven facades. The tomb portico of Selim windows on both the upper The portal facade contains a I only extends from the portal and lower zones of the tomb dome-shaped decoration in red facade, whereas the tomb facades emphasised the explicit brick on the upper level, and portico of Suleiman I extends all barrier between aristocracy and the main ceramic decorative the way around the hexagonal ‘plebeians’.19 Gulru Necipoglu and calligraphic arts appear core. A piece of the black points out that the Ottoman near the entrance, as they do stone, a Muslim relic from Sultans did not present on the tomb portals of Suleiman the Kabaa, is placed over the themselves directly to their I and Selim II. The windows entranceways to both the tombs subjects outside public parades. to the tomb of Suleiman I are of Selim I and Suleiman I. The Even within the Topkapi Palace, also grilled and appear on ambulatory of Suleiman I, and their primary residence, the all of its six facades. Having the space around the tomb of Sultans spoke thr ough grilled grilled windows on the lower Selim I, allows visitors to walk windows to their own grand level almost emphasises the around the whole monument, viziers (prime ministers).20 barrier between subject and the as a Muslim observer would By extension, the fact that Sultan, a hijab (veil) articulated during the ritual tawwaf there are grilled windows on architecturally between the (circumambulation) around the the lower levels, when a light caliph and his citizens, stressing Kaaba, Islam’s most sacred source already exists on the that he was only accessible to mosque in Mecca, almost as upper levels of these tombs, a select few, in both life and if this commemorative ritual the spaces for the public to death. Furthermore, the interior has been transformed into a circumambulate the sarcophagi of Selim II’s tomb is well-lit with building in the heart of Istanbul. (but not enter the tombs in the two tiers of windows on the Despite their diff erences of sixteenth-century), and the octagonal shell, in addition to a typology, tomb site, and the variety of materials used, from third row of windows along the use of space, there appears tortoise-shell to ivory, suggest drum of the dome, and eight to be a clear public dialogue an architectural discourse which windows on the roof of the lead- between these three tombs. maintains a distinction, within covered dome, provoking a The stonework, tilework, and the social fabric of Istanbul in polyfocal engagement between calligraphic arts all point to a the sixteenth-century, between viewer and edifi ce.18 I believe fusion of artistic talents within the public and the private space that this tomb architecture acts the public sphere to project a of the Sultan, preserved and as an intermediary between dynastic image of legitimacy, commemorated for these three the ‘audience’ and space, the individuality, and grandeur, successive caliphs of Islam space of the ‘afterlife’, or al- through father, son, and (religious leaders of the global
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Muslim community). are being opened to the public Thames and Hudson, 1999. Diff erences in architectural for the fi rst time in decades. The craftsmanship and a versatile Ottoman Empire’s suppression Maas, M. The Cambridge architectural surface allowed and re-appropriation provides Companion to the Age each Sultans personality and clues to today’s identity politics of Justinian. Cambridge: character, whether of austerity, of that region. Today these Cambridge University Press, opulence, or piety, to shine historic tombs are identifi ed as 2005. through. The dynamic multi- embodying a legacy which the layered symbiosis manifested in Turkish government wants to Necipoglu, G. The Age of Sinan. these decorative skins allowed reclaim and protect. It will be London: Reaktion Books, 2007. for architectural portraits to be interesting to see what new realised, carefully crafted by social and cultural roles these the chief architect Alauddin (d. imperial mausoleums occupy Chapters in Books & Articles 1539) and the Ottoman baroque in years to come, as part of Ağir, A and Okçuoğlu, T. “The master, Mimar Sinan (d. 1588), the wider narrative of Neo- Art of Eternal Rest: Ottoman adorning the act of veneration. Ottomanism, and signifi cantly Mausoleums and Tombstones” In conclusion a public as beautiful works of art. in Tra Quattro Paradisi. dialogue between these three Esperienze, ideologie e riti Sultanic tombs and their Works Referenced relative alla mor tetra Oriente ‘audience’ was communicated e Occidente, ed. A. Fabris, and aided through a ‘sacred’ Books (Hilâl. Studi turchie ottomani 1), topography, associated rituals Bisaha, N. Creating East and Venice 2013. and architectural programs. West: Renaissance Humanists Furthermore, these mosque- and the Ottoman Turks. Cerasi, M. “The Urban and tomb complexes contributed to Architectural Evolution of the the urbanisation of Istanbul. The Pennsylvania: University of Istanbul Divan Yolu: Urban Ottoman Sultans appropriated Pennsylvania Press, 2006. Aesthetics and Ideology in existing geographical markers, Ottoman Town Building” in actively shaping town planning Curatola, G. Turkish Art and Muqarnas Vol. 22 (2005): 189- along the Divanyolu in the Architecture from the Seljuk’s 232. interests of their own legitimacy, to the Ottomans. New York: visibility, and mythmaking, Abbeville Press, 2010. N ecipoglu, G. “Dynastic to control behaviour in both Imprints on the Cityscape: The life and death. Here, natural Halevi, L. Muhammad's Grave: Collective Message of Funerary topography, ritual, and edifi ce, Death Rites and the Making Imperial Mosque Complexes” were all integral in articulating of Islamic Society. Columbia: in Istanbul, Colloque Sultanic portraits. Pertinently, Columbia University Press, Internationale: Cimetières less than one hundred years 2005. et traditions funéraires dans since the dismantling of the le monde islamique (Institut Ottoman Empire, rather than Kafadar, C. Between Two Français d'études Anatoliennes, dismissing tombs of a bygone Worlds: The Construction of Istanbul, September 28–30, era as part of a repressive the Ottoman State. Berkeley: 1991), ed. Jean-Louis Bacqué- past, President Erdoğan holds University of California Press, Grammont, Paris, C.N.R.S, them up collectively to inform 1996. 1996: 23-48. a progressive future for a ‘New Turkey’.21 These imperial Kostof, S. The City Assembled: Necipoglu, G. “The Suleymaniye tombs are currently undergoing The Elements of Urban Form Complex in Istanbul: An extensive restoration works and Through History. London: Interpretation” in Muqarnas Vol.
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3 (1985), 92-117. Abbeville Press, 2010), 13 C. Kafadar, Between Two 240. Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State (Berkley: 6 G. Necipoglu, “Dynastic University of California Press, Newspaper Articles Imprints on the Cityscape: The 1996): 35 “Ottoman Language Classes Collective Message of Funerary to be introduced ‘whatever Imperial Mosque Complexes 14 Necipoglu, The Age of they say’, v o w s in Istanbul” in Colloque Sinan, 33-34. Erdoğan” in Internationale: Cimetières et traditions funéraires dans 15 Gulru, Dynastic Imprints on Hurriyet Daily News 08/12/14 le monde islamique (Institut the Cityscape: The Collective http://www.hurriyetdailynews. Français d’études Anatoliennes, Message of Funerary Imperial com/ottoman-language- Istanbul, September 28–30, Mosque Complexes in Istanbul, classes-to-be-introduced- 1991), ed. Jean-Louis Bacqué- 33. whatever-they-say-vows- Grammont, Paris, C.N.R.S, erdogan. 1996: 25. 16 Necipoglu, Age of Sinan, 66- 71. 7 L. Halevi, Muhammad’s Endnotes Grave: Death Rites and the 17 G. Necipoglu, “The 1 G. Necipoglu, The Age of Making of Islamic Society Suleymaniye Complex in Sinan (London: Reaktion (Columbia: Columbia University Istanbul: An Interpretation” in Books, 2007), 31. Press, 2005), 228 Muqarnas Vol. 3 (1985), 105.
2 A. Ağir and T. Okçuoğlu, “The 8 Cerasi, “The Urban and 18 Necipoglu, Age of Sinan, Art of Eternal Rest: Ottoman Architectural Evolution of the 111. Mausoleums and Tombstones” Istanbul Divan Yolu: Urban in Tra Quattro Paradisi. Aesthetics and Ideology in 19 Ağir and Okçuoğlu, The Esperienze, ideologie e riti Ottoman Town Building” in Art of Eternal Rest: Ottoman relative alla morte tra Oriente Muqarnas Vol. 22 (2005): 211– Mausoleums and Tombstones, e Occidente, ed. A. Fabris, 213. 146 (Hilâl.Studi turchie ottomani 1), Venice 2013, 131. 9 S. Kostof, The City 20 Necipoglu, Age of Sinan, 3 N. Bisaha, Creating East Assembled: The Elements of 145. and West: Renaissance Urban Form Through History Humanists and the Ottoman (London: Thames and Hudson, 21 “Ottoman Language Classes Turks (Pennsylvania: University 1999), 105. to be introduced ‘whatever they of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), say’, vows Erdoğan” in Hurriyet 76-78. 10 Cerasi, The Urban and Daily News Architectural Evolution of the 08/12/14
31 Mausolus - Summer 2017
Architecture, Death and Nationhood: Monumental Cemeteries of Nineteenth-Century Italy (Routledge, 2017)
Hannah Malone introduces her new volume and the values it shares with the MMT
patron of the Monuments and Mausolea Trust. As part of the research, I undertook a year- long ‘Grand Tour’, during which I visited about fi fty cemeteries across Italy and gathered over 9,000 photographs of tombs and sculpture. During fi eldwork, I also met with politicians, academics, and experts in conservation who expressed an emergent interest in Italian cemeteries as national monuments. Some of the cemeteries are falling to disrepair, but many have recently undergone restoration work. Italy’s monumental cemeteries deserve to be better known as historical sites and cultural destinations. In what follows, I will off er a brief introduction to the book that resulted from my research and hope that it demonstrates the great value of the architectural sources that it explores. Italy has some of the grandest cemeteries in Europe, if not in the world. Over the course of the nineteenth century, burial grounds were built in many Italian cities that were unique in their scale, grandeur, and monumentality (Figure 1). The new cemeteries became This book was inspired by the thesis that I completed at St destinations for visitors on the experiences of my childhood in John’s College, Cambridge, Grand Tour and rivalled the northern Italy, including visits under the supervision of Frank great Victorian graveyards, to the monumental cemetery Salmon, and the guidance such as the Magnifi cent Seven of Genoa. It draws on the PhD of James Stevens Curl, a in London. They represented
32 Mausolus - Summer 2017 a new type of building that emerged in direct response to the evolution of Italian society and politics. During the 1800s, Italy underwent a period of momentous change that was marked by the rise of the middle classes, rapid industrialization, the struggle for political independence, and the creation of the nation-state. Italy’s monumental cemeteries refl ected the tensions and confl icts that shaped the emergent nation. As the fi rst survey of Italy’s Figure 1 Brescia: Monumental cemetery, begun 1815 (source: Hannah Malone) monumental cemeteries, the book explores the emergence and socially inclusive. They landscaped gardens. This set of modern funerary customs. It refl ected hygienic concerns, them apart from the garden explains why Italians created pressures generated by urban cemeteries of Père Lachaise in vast and grandiose cemeteries, expansion, and innovations Paris or Highgate in London. The and embraced a new way of in science and city planning. book addresses the question of burying and commemorating They also expressed cultural why the Protestant countries of the dead. It shows how, against and political forces associated northern Europe opted for the the backdrop of national with the Enlightenment, such as model of the garden cemetery, unifi cation, the new cemeteries egalitarianism, anticlericalism, whereas the Catholic nations symbolized the power of the and an emphasis on human of the Mediterranean built new nation, eff orts to construct dignity. Later, they refl ected monumental graveyards. In an Italian identity, and confl icts the celebration of the dead in Italy, for example, the Staglieno between Church and state. It an era of Romanticism and cemetery in Genoa is a vast also illustrates how the cities of individualism. complex that stretches over the dead mirrored the cities of The book explores the 33 hectares and incorporates the living. origins of Italy’s monumental a neoclassical replica of the In Italy, as in the rest of cemeteries in the context Roman Pantheon, a number Europe, from the Middle Ages of a radical change in of suburban ‘villas’, and a until the mid-eighteenth century, funerary practices across large collection of funerary the dead were generally buried eighteenth-century Europe, sculpture (Figure 2). Equally, in churches and overcrowded and infl uences associated the Monumentale cemetery in urban graveyards. However, with the Enlightenment and Milan embodies a large portico from the 1740s, a radical reform Romanticism. Although those in an eclectic, Byzantine– in funerary customs prohibited cultural conditions were Romanesque style, within burial inside cities and put an end relatively common throughout which the haute bourgeoisie to Christian traditions of church Europe, nineteenth-century erected massive mausolea. interment. The new suburban Italian cemeteries are markedly Although there are exceptions, cemeteries of the 1800s diff erent from their European such as a picturesque diff ered from earlier graveyards counterparts, as they developed extension descending a slope in that they were public, as monumental or architectural in the Poggioreale cemetery in secular, multi-denominational, structures, rather than as Naples, Italian cemeteries are
33 Mausolus - Summer 2017 distinctly monumental. That The new cemeteries also burial ground as a microcosm of said, they are also remarkably refl ected social change and the urban society. Like the piazza, varied, as can be seen by rise of the bourgeoisie. Their park, and opera house, the comparing San Miniato, which art and monumentality served new cemeteries were important was established within a to project the newfound status institutions in the nineteenth- Renaissance monastery on a of the Italian middle classes. century city, and spaces for hill overlooking Florence, with A new, ‘bourgeois realist’ style leisure, community and social the cemetery island of San emerged in funerary sculpture, interaction. The choice of style Michele in Venice. which allowed the middle for a new cemetery was an Italy’s monumental important issue and a matter of cemeteries were created at public debate. Thus, the book a time of remarkable political looks at why neoclassicism turmoil. Within the context of dominated Italian cemeteries the Risorgimento - the Italian before unifi cation in 1861, but struggle for independence medievalism was adopted for - they were associated the cemeteries of unifi ed Italy. with nationalism and a The book is illustrated by rising civic consciousness. 120 images, which include Following unifi cation in prints, architectural drawings, 1861, they were used and old photographs. It to convey the power of provides a catalogue that the bourgeoning nation off ers basic information for and to commemorate twenty-fi ve major Italian national heroes. The cemeteries, and comprises book examines the role additional illustrations, of cemeteries in the historical facts, and politics of unifi cation. descriptions. The It covers the confl icts catalogue is intended as between local and a tool for both researchers national interests, and and cultural tourists. the eff orts to construct As a guide to Italian Italian history, and to cemeteries, the book build a national identity, which will appeal to any through the commemoration reader with an interest in of the dead. Tensions between classes to fl aunt their wealth the history of burial grounds. Church and state were played through realistic depictions As the fi rst monograph on out within burial grounds that of clothing and furniture. Italy’s monumental cemeteries, were publically owned, but This meant that, instead it captures an image of the administered by the clergy; for of representing allegorical fl edgling Italy as mirrored in the example, through the Vatican’s fi gures in classical garb, Italian architecture of its monumental resistance to cremation as a sculptors depicted the relatives cemeteries. secular alternative to burial. of the dead in modern dress. Paradoxically, although the At the same time, women and H. Malone, Architecture, Death and Nationhood: Monumental Cemeteries Catholic Church forbade children took a more prominent of Nineteenth-Century Italy (Routledge, cremation until the 1960s, role in tomb statuary. The book 2017) Catholic Italy pioneered its also explores the relationships adoption, partly because of the between Italian cemeteries and ISBN: 131708988X, 9781317089889 Available for £25.60 as an e-book infl uence of Freemasons. their cities, and looks at the
34 Mausolus - Summer 2017
2017 EVENTS
SATURDAY 8 JULY Annual General Meeting At West Norwood Cemetery
The Annual General Meeting will take place on Saturday 8 July 2017 in The Crematorium Chapel, West Norwood Cemetery, Norwood High Street, London SE27 9JU. It will commence at 12.00 noon and be followed by lunch and a tour of the cemetery led by Dr Robert Flanagan.
West Norwood Cemetery, founded in 1836, was laid out by Sir William Tite, who was himself interred there in 1873. It was one of London’s fi rst garden cemeteries and contains a number of notable mausoleums and listed monuments and includes a splendid section for the Greek Orthodox Community. Among its famous residents are: Sir Hiram Maxim (inventor of the automaticmachine gun), Sir Henry Bessemer (inventor of the famous steel process), William Burges (architect), David Roberts (artist), Dr William Marsden (founder of the Royal Free and Royal Marsden hospitals), C W Alcock (founder of Test Cricket and the FA Cup), Sir Henry Tate (sugar magnate and founder of the Tate Gallery), Sir Henry Doulton of pottery fame, and Mrs Isabella Beeton who, of course, needs no introduction.
The meeting is free but we would appreciate a donation of £10 towards the cost of lunch. Please book your place via the website or send a cheque to The Secretary at 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ.
Please do your best to be there on this important occasion in the Trust’s year.
The Norfolk weekend has been cancelled. Information about the other two events are as listed on the website
SATURDAY 12 AUGUST A day in Worcestershire featuring a visit to Great Witley, England’s fi nest Roccoco church
NOVEMBER Wednesday 15 November at The Gallery, 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ
A talk about the Sculptor, Ivan Mestrovic, by Roger Bowdler and Gavin Stamp
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