Kinship and politics in the art of plaster decoration
KINSHIP AND POLITICS IN THE ART OF PLASTER DECORATION This thesis explores the flowering of decorative plasterwork in late renaissance Scotland, its main focus being what influenced its development, the motivation of its leading patrons, and its role in the culture of Scotland at this time. The thesis begins by assesses why plasterwork has received much less attention in Scotland compared with other building materials, primarily stone, and whether this is as a result of Scotland’s architectural history being misunderstood in its British context. Early seventeenth-century Scotland was experiencing a building boom, its patrons increasingly benefiting from government positions, better education and foreign travel, exposing them to a wide range of influences at a time when houses and estates, (the main signals of status and rank) were being much transformed and domestically improved. This period heralded a burst of decorative plasterwork patronage throughout the country. This thesis analyses the influences which existed in late renaissance interiors in Scotland and whether a native tradition of decorative plasterwork existed in Scotland, and what influence this had on later decorative plasterwork styles. This thesis also gauges the affect that an absent court had on patronage and whether significant cycles of patronage can be interpreted by a study of seventeenth century plasterwork schemes in Scotland, and the role that decoration played in the culture of Scotland at this time. Finally, this research assesses the evolution of plaster throughout the century and why it may have developed differently from English work, and considers the changing role of decorative plasterwork in the late seventeenth century.
The Patron and the Garden: Sir David Lindsay and Edzell Castle, 1604
Charles McKean understood architecture as the reflection of the patron's social status and sense of place. Edzell Castle is the foremost example in Scotland of the patron choosing to display the important concerns of his intellectual and political life through his garden. In 1604 James VI tried to secure a union of England and Scotland and, emblematically, through his garden Sir David Lindsay celebrated the hoped-for Magna Britannia. Research into the sculptured panels of the Seven Planetary Deities, the Seven Liberal Arts and the Seven Virtues traces their origins in northern Europe c.1600 and bears further witness to the breadth and extent of his interests and contacts.
The Reformation and the English people
Preface. Abbreviations. 1. Layfolk and the Pre-Reformation Church. 2. The Importance of the Lay Fraternities. 3. Criticism of the Old Order. 4. The Old Order Disintegrated. 5. The Spoliation. 6. Coming to Terms with the New order. 7. Survival and Revival of the Old Faith. 8. Rival Evangelisms. Bibligraphy. Index.