Antiquaries in the Age of Romanticism: 1789-1851 - Queen Mary ...

It constitutes at once a beautiful and picturesque mass. A series and succession of pediments,
pinnacles, buttresses, windows and bold projections, crowned with the rich tower and lofty spire, are
embraced at one view, and fill the eye and mind as a homogeneous whole. 94
Figure 13 Salisbury Cathedral from The Cathedral Antiquities
Comprising plans, sections, details and elevations as well as perspectives the
plates illustrate not merely the cathedral but the interplay in its treatment between
accurate, measured drawing and artistic sensibility. Plate VIII [fig: 14], showing the view
from the cloisters is based on Turner’s watercolour of c1802 [fig: 15] and deploys again,
like Milner’s view of St Peter’s, Knight’s quintessence of Gothic, the view from one
space to another through a partial screen. In Plate XVIII the West end is by contrast
anatomised, shown in plan, section and elevation like an écorché. As Britton explained in
his introduction both aspects mattered: ‘Whether contemplated as objects of grandeur,
science, art, or history, [the cathedrals] alike claim the attention and admiration of all
persons of taste and learning.’ 95 While the ‘architectural antiquary’ goes into details,
‘examines their construction, and their various styles of architecture; inquires into their
history, epochas of enlargement and alteration; and, finally, scrutinizes their architectural
94 Britton, The Cathedral Antiquities, 2, p. 67.
95 Britton, The Cathedral Antiquities, 2, p.vi.
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