Edmund Sharpe - Architectural Historian

Architectural Historian

Sharpe studied and wrote about ecclesiastical architecture throughout his adult life, both sketching and measuring historical churches and ruins. This resulted in a systematic series of published drawings in twelve parts between 1845 and 1847 entitled Architectural Parallels, containing measured drawings of abbey churches in the early Gothic style, and reissued as a single work in 1848. Sharpe intended to produce a further version with text, but this never transpired. Also in 1848 a Supplement to Architectural Parallels, was published, containing yet more detailed drawings. Simultaneously, Sharpe had produced the two-volume work Decorated Windows, the first volume being published in 1845, and the second in 1849. The work, which was praised by the art critic John Ruskin in The Stones of Venice, consisted largely of drawings by Sharpe's pupils – Paley, Austin, and R. J. Withers – with text by Sharpe describing and analysing the tracery of Gothic windows.

In 1851 Sharpe published a monograph entitled The Seven Periods of English Architecture, a small book of about 50 pages suggesting a new scheme for classifying the styles of English ecclesiastical architecture "from the Heptarchy to the Reformation". It was intended to replace the scheme then in use, which had been proposed in 1817 by Thomas Rickman. Rickman had divided English architecture into "four distinct periods, or styles" which he termed "Norman", "Early English", "Decorated English", and "Perpendicular English". The Norman style lasting until about 1189, was characterised by its arches usually being semicircular, although sometimes pointed; the ornamentation was "bold and rude". The Early English style, continuing to about 1307, was distinguished by its pointed arches and long narrow windows without mullions. He called the characteristic ornamentation "toothed" because it resembled the teeth of the shark. The following period, the Decorated English lasted until 1377, or possibly 10–15 years later, was characterised by large windows with pointed arches containing mullions, and with tracery "in flowing lines forming circles, arches and other figures". There was much ornamentation, carved very delicately. The final period identified by Rickman, the Perpendicular English, lasted until as long as 1630 or 1640. This was distinguished by the mullions and the "ornamental panellings" running in perpendicular lines. The ornamentation was in many cases "so crowded as to destroy the beauty of the design". The carving was again "very delicately executed".

In his classification, Sharpe first identified two main classes, according to whether the arches were "circular" or "pointed". The class characterised by the circular arch was the Romanesque class; that by the pointed arch was the Gothic. He divided the Romanesque class into two periods by date rather than by stylistic differences, the dividing date being 1066; this divided the "Saxon" from the "Norman" stage. Whereas Rickman allowed pointed arches when they occurred in the same building as round arches in his Norman period, Sharpe separated buildings that contained both types of arches into a separate intermediate style, the "Transitional". When it came to the Gothic class, Sharpe identified four styles, in contrast to Rickman's three, using the windows to differentiate between them. The earliest style was characterised by windows resembling a lancet "in its length, breadth, and principal proportions". These windows might be single, or in groups of two, three, five, or seven. This style he termed the "Lancet Period". During the next period, tracery appeared in the windows, and originally consisted of simple geometric forms, in particular the circle. This period he called the "Geometrical Period". Later the tracery became more complex, including the ogee curve; the characteristic feature being the "sinuosity of form" in the windows and elsewhere. This Sharpe termed the "Curvilinear Period". Finally, the transom appeared in the windows, and the curved line in the tracery became replaced by straight lines, an "angularity of form", and a "square edge was preferred". This style he named the "Rectilinear Period". The approximate dates Sharpe gave for his periods were, following 1066, the Norman Period up to 1145, the Transitional Period to 1190, the Lancet Period to 1245, the Geometrical Period to 1315, the Curvilinear Period to 1360, and the Rectilinear Period to 1550.

In comparing the two classifications, Sharpe divides Richman's Norman period into two, the Norman and the Transitional periods. Then Rickman has three Gothic periods in contrast to Sharpe's four. Comparing the descriptions of the styles and, approximately, the dates, Sharpe's Lancet Period corresponds generally with Rickman's Early English; and Sharpe's Rectilinear Period with Rickman's Perpendicular English. This leaves Rickman's Decorated English style divided into two periods by Sharpe according to the complexity of the tracery, the Geometrical and the Curvilinear Periods. Following the publication of the monograph, Sharpe read a paper to the Royal Institute of British Architects describing his system. The monograph and the paper led to "a bitter controversy". The debate between Sharpe and his followers on one side and supporters of Rickman's scheme on the other was published as a series of letters to the journal The Builder until the editor called a halt to the correspondence.

In the same year as Sharpe's short book, An Essay on the Origin and Development of Window Tracery in England, a much larger work on essentially the same subject, was published by the distinguished historian Edward Augustus Freeman, which proposed the terms "Flowing" and "Flamboyant" (the later already in use in France) where Sharpe used "Curvilinear". Although Rickman's scheme remains in general use, despite recognition of its deficiencies, Sharpe's terms "Geometrical" and "Curvilinear" are very often used in addition to distinguish styles or phases within Rickman's "Decorated". They were used by Francis Bond in his 1905 book Gothic Architecture in England, and are used in various recent works including the Pevsner Architectural Guides.

In 1869 Sharpe joined the Architectural Association, established in 1847 "by a group of dissatisfied young architects ... to provide a self-directed, independent education at a time when there was no formal training available". He then proposed and organised a series of six annual expeditions to study and draw buildings in different areas, which took place between 1870 and 1875. In 1870 the expedition was to Lincoln, Sleaford, and Spalding; in 1871 to Ely, Lynn, and Boston; the following year to Stamford, Oundle, Wellingborough, and Northampton; and in 1873 to Grantham, Newark, Southwell, Ashbourne, and Lichfield. The final two expeditions were to France: in 1874 to the northern part of the country, visiting places around Paris including Soissons, Laon, Rheims, and Chartres; the following year it was to the Charente district of southwest France, including Angoulême. In 1876 Sharpe gave a lecture on this expedition in London, linking the architecture of the region with Byzantine architecture elsewhere. Following Sharpe's death in 1877 the Association complied with his wish that the expeditions should be continued; and in 1882 it published Charente: In Memory of Edmund Sharpe, 1875.

Having been a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects since 1848, Sharpe was awarded its Royal Gold Medal in 1875. This was presented to him by Sir George Gilbert Scott, largely in recognition of his writings. In addition to those recorded above they include: The Architectural History of St Mary's Church, New Shoreham (1861), An Account of the Churches visited during the Lincoln Excursion of the Architectural Association (1871), The Mouldings of the Six Periods of British Architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation (1871–74), The Ornamentation of the Transitional Period of British Architecture AD 1145–90 (1871), The Ornamentation of the Transitional Period in Central Germany (1877), and The Churches of the Nene Valley, Northamptonshire (published posthumously in 1880). Other writings by Sharpe were published in The Builder and The Architect. He also delivered papers to the Architectural Association, and to the Royal Institute of British Architects. Among other subjects, he argued for restraint in the use of colour in the decoration of churches, in the painting of walls and the stonework, and in the stained glass. He was very critical of recent restorations of medieval churches, which had been a major occupation of architects during the previous 20 years, and was particularly caustic about the removal of whitewash from the interior of churches, and the damage thus caused to the underlying stonework. Between January 1874 and February 1875 Sharpe published The Architecture of the Cistercians, which dealt in considerable detail with the design and functions of Cistercian monasteries built in the 12th and 13th centuries in Britain and in Europe, most of which he had visited. In addition, Sharpe attended several meetings of the Archaeological Institute, and was a Vice-President of the British Archaeological Association.