Architecture: A Very Short Introduction

Burlington’s villa at Chiswick established an idea of fashionable architecture that dominates our view of 18th-century architecture. What did it mean to Burlington and his contemporaries? It should be noticed in passing that it is only in the wealthiest part of society that there were fashions in architecture. Houses are always expensive to build, and finely wrought carefully considered houses built in dressed and sculpted stone were only ever available to the rich, who had retinues of servants to support their domestic arrangements. Most people were not caught up in any concern to live in a fashionable house, but would be content to have a sound dwelling to live in. Inevitably, in understanding what the building would have meant to its designers, we are involved in seeing the world from a particular point of view, that could be characterized as élitist, because it has always been most readily accessible to the people who did not have to worry about making money for basic necessities. The consequences for the working population of being fired with a passion for the arts gave rise to the Romantic stereotype of the starving artist, who finds a way into an élite culture without having the means to support a reasonable level of comfort. Talented people without private means managed to make their way in 18th-century England by having a patron adopt them, though this was not seen as a suitable arrangement for a man of property to make with a woman, and few women managed to establish themselves as artists, except in acting, which was rarely seen as an altogether respectable profession. William Kent was very respectably adopted by his patron Lord Burlington, and became a closely integrated member of the family. Colen Campbell was not, as he had a healthy income from his flourishing architectural practice and did not need to make himself dependent on the earl. The type of projects in which the two men could engage were therefore rather different, as Campbell needed to have an eye to the business, whereas Kent could experiment more freely and was not dependent on attracting commissions but only on the goodwill of his patron. The fashionable building, whatever its form, had meaning, as it automatically marked its proprietor as belonging to a social élite. It could be said that this is the most important thing to be said about the building, and it is possible that it could be the main reason for wanting to build it. However, for someone like Lord Burlington who belonged absolutely securely to the highest level of society, with or without a fashionable villa, that was not the point at all. For him it worked the other way round: he conferred social status on architecture by taking an interest in it.