| This dissertation examines the uses and purposes of history in the graphic works and the domestic interiors of nineteenth-century British architect William Burges (1827-1881). Burges is recognized in contemporary historiography as one of the major figures of the Gothic Revival in Britain---in particular the period of stylistic eclecticism and experimentation known as High Victorian Gothic (circa 1850-1870)---but his work has frequently been faulted for a lack of authenticity. In a marking series of studies on historical representation begun in the 1980s, art historian Stephen Bann has claimed that all encounters with the past are ultimately personal in nature. Building on this hypothesis, the author of the dissertation argues that Burges's interiors and decorative objects constitute the visible trace of a life-long quest for identity. The research project first examines Burges's connections to a tradition of antiquarian scholarship. It then traces the nature of Burges's identification with the medieval past over a period of approximately twenty years, from the initial ordering of his topographical albums (circa 1858) to the building of his home of Tower House in London (1875-1878). The author works with notions of fantasy, dream, and fiction to explain the relation between this nineteenth-century architect and his medieval persona, as well as that between his historicist decors and their architectural support. In the context of this research, a fiction is conceived as a world made up of elements both imaginary and real, but which operates under different rules than external reality. |
