Medieval masons to architectural amateurs
Dear All,
I hope this finds you well. I have been pondering and discussing over the last few weeks the impact of crafted building work- on project’s beauty, sustainability- and on our wellbeing. It has sent me down some glorious rabbit holes, and resulted in some fascinating discoveries about the way architects and builders have worked together over the centuries. I could rattle on for several thousand words about this but I will stick to just a small section of the story today- from the mediaeval to the dawn of the modern:
In the past the gulf between architect and craftsperson just wasn’t there. We all know and have admired some of the UK’s great Gothic cathedrals. If we go back to the middle ages these spectacular feats of engineering were overseen, designed and built by master builders. The architect and the craftsman role were one. Usually the architect/ design role was filled by a master stonemason- as stone was the primary and most prestigious material for these vast projects. It was also the material that fulfilled the structural function, making these rather amazing men (because they all were at that point) not only architects, but surveyors, engineers and builders. There is evidence of working details scratched into stone, of their tasks in design and creating timber moulds for the stonemasons to work from, even of them taking up the chisel themselves on particularly tricky bits. Really quite remarkable.
There are accounts from the time of the most notable master builders being sought by rival towns and cities for their church or cathedral- and of the towns trying to outbid each other, much like football teams might compete today for a particularly celebrated player.
These master builders had a deep knowledge of their materials and its constraints. You can see this in the design development of cathedrals over the decades and centuries- they are the slow, iterative, cautious design changes of master craftspeople tentatively push the boundaries of their craft and the limits of their materials.
Skip to the Italian renaissance where the role of architect starts to divorce from a building craft apprenticeship and begins to find its modern form, and you suddenly see technological leaps in building design arising from someone with a limited theoretical knowledge imposing designs onto craftspeople and causing them to rise far beyond their comfort zone and the understood constraints and techniques of the time. It resulted in some spectacular architect but I imagine also a hell of a lot of swearing.
These relationships between, let’s call them artist-architects, and the master builders were fraught but essential. There are accounts of Brunelleschi (who designed Florence’s Cathedral) having arguments with the masters of the stonemasons guilds in Florence which caused them to have him arrested and of Leon Alberti (of general renaissance man fame) sending irate letters to his builders in Rimini when they ignored or misinterpreted his designs. The most spectacular work of these men could not have been built without the skill and knowledge of the craftsmen they worked with.
In England this division was slower to emerge with amateur architects- usually aristocratic men who had taken the grand tour around Europe- coming up with designs for their country houses, and relying on the expertise of master builders to fulfill their ambitions. This was more or less how the relationship remained until the nineteenth century- patrons with some limited architectural knowledge, or architects- usually coming from a background or family background in building relying on the technical expertise of the building trades and craftspeople and a close working relationship on site. To be a master builder was a position that held some respect and social standing, as well as the opportunity to make a good living.
This all began to change in the tumult of the nineteenth century, but I think i’ll leave that story for next time.
Until then!
Eleanor
Please do share this email if you’ve enjoyed it.