Wren

by Margaret Whinney

Sir Christopher Wren overcame a complete lack of formal training and scant firsthand knowledge of European architecture to become a master of his art. He built nothing before he was thirty; but by the time he was seventy and still very active, his achievements rivaled those of any European architect. Wren was gifted with a fertile imagination, and his artistic gifts were complemented by his brilliant technical ingenuity. This combination is apparent in Wren's greatest work, St. Paul's Cathedral in London, which required rebuilding after the Great Fire of 1666. The famous dome of St. Paul's is a masterpiece of engineering, but it is also considered among the most beautiful in the world; it occupies a striking place in the London skyline as a legacy to England's greatest architect. This intelligent, well-illustrated survey by the late Margaret Whinney includes discussions of Wren's churches and secular buildings, and provides a look at several of his unexecuted designs.

Genres: Art

216 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1998

Reviews

[Joe Court]

The account of the young Wren dotting the city with small churches is like a timelapse, soundtracked by masons, bricklayers, and perhaps Michael Nyman, of youthful ingenuity (‘Well, why can’t I do that?’) and lust for variety. You can see Wren standing for hours on his sites, cheerfully vexed by financial pressures, clergy relations, local obstructions, and structural nightmares. It's also inspiring how Wren, who lacked equals as well as travel experience, learned and perfected his art from books. From an engraving he could picture how the light fell in the Basilica of Maxentius. Wren is photosensitive—‘nothing could adde beauty to light’—and it makes his buildings wonderful. If his writing and social relations didn’t suggest that he was dignified and affable, I would picture him as pale and squinty.

Whinney writes exactly what you want to know. She is a great tour guide, and like many tour guides she is highly opinionated. 'Sassy' is the word, really. She gives no quarter to Victorian meddling. She lambasts the wedging into St Paul’s of ‘a monstrous pink reredos… an unfortunate anti-climax. Luckily [because of the Blitz] this no longer exists’. In the central portico and loggias of Chelsea Hospital, ‘the juxtaposition of the large and small orders is not entirely happy’. She is rather too happy to chide the young Wren as ‘immature’. I cannot agree with her unspoken conclusion that Wren only achieved ‘maturity’ during the construction of St Paul’s and the Naval Hospital.

[Matthu Stull]

you don't have to be italian or to go there,, but there were some serious buildings went on there coupla years back. christo wren proves that one needn't be an architect to be an architect

[₵oincidental Ðandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

To describe this book as "superb" would be a gross understatement.