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GIBBS, JAMES, a celebrated
architect, was born in Aberdeen, according to the most approved authority,
in the year 1674, though Walpole and others place the date of his birth so
late as 1683, a period which by no means accords with that of his
advancement to fame in his profession. He was the only son (by his second
wife) of Peter Gibbs of Footdeesmire, a merchant, and, as it would appear
from his designation, a proprietor or feuar of a piece of ground along the
shore at the mouth of the Dee, where his house, called "the white
house in the Links," remains an evidence of the respectability and
comparative wealth of the family. Old Gibbs retained during the stormy
period in which he lived, the religion of his ancestors, and was a staunch
non-juror. An anecdote is preserved by his fellow townsmen characteristic
of the man, and of the times. The conflicting religious doctrines of
presbyterian and episcopalian, and of course the political doctrines of
whig and tory, found in Aberdeen a more equal balance than perhaps in any
other part of Scotland; and history has shown, that in the event of a
serious struggle, the influence of the Huntly family generally made the
latter predominate; in these circumstances, it may easily be supposed that
the city was a scene of perpetual petty jarring, and that pasquinades and
abuse were liberally given and bitterly received. Gibbs being a Roman
catholic, was the friend of neither party, and an object of peculiar
antipathy to the presbyterians, who testified their sense of his
importance and wickedness, by instructing the children in the
neighbourhood to annoy the old gentleman in his premises, and hoot him on
the streets. Gibbs, to show his respect for both parties, procured two
fierce dogs for his personal protections and engraved on the collar of the
one "Luther," and on that of the other "Calvin:" the
compliment was understood by neither party; and the dogs and their master
being summoned before the bailies to answer for their respective
misdemeanours, the former were delivered over to the proper authorities,
and executed according to law, at the cross, the public place of
execution.
The subject of our memoir
attended the usual course of instruction at the grammar school, and was
afterwards sent to Marischal college, where he accepted of the easily
acquired degree of master of arts. At that period, when the Scottish
colleges were partly remnants of monastic institutions, partly schools for
the instruction of boys, having the indolence of the Roman catholic age
strangely mingled with their own poverty and the simplicity of
presbyterian government, there were but two classes of persons at the
universities,—the sons of the noblemen and gentlemen, living in a style
superior to the citizens, and a poorer class who were supported by the
bursaries, or even common charity; the two classes wore different dresses,
and of course had little communication with each other, excepting such as
might exist between master and servant. To which of these classes Gibbs
may have belonged is not known; that it should have been the latter is not
so improbable as it may appear, as custom, the master of every thing, made
it by no means degrading to those of inferior rank; while a burgess,
whatever might have been his wealth, would hardly in that age have been so
daring as to have forced his son upon the company of the offspring of
lairds. For some time after his father’s death, he was reared and
educated by his uncle-in-law and aunt, Mr and Mrs Morrison, people in much
the same respectable circumstances with his father; but destitute, perhaps
from his religious principles, of influence sufficient to enable him to
follow his father’s business with success, or more probably having a
natural bent for more tasteful pursuits, Gibbs, at the early age of
twenty, left his native town, nor did he ever return to a spot not very
congenial to the pursuit of a profession which must be studied among the
remains of ancient grandeur, and practised in the midst of luxury and
profusion. From 1694 to 1700 he studied architecture and the, mathematics
in Holland, under an architect to whom the biographers of Gibbs have given
the merit of possessing reputation, while neither his own talents, nor the
subsequent fame of his scholar has preserved his name from oblivion. Here
the young architect made himself acquainted with the earl of Marr, then on
a visit to the continent, who, according to the praiseworthy custom for
which Scotsmen have received rather uncharitable commendation, of
assisting their countrymen when they meet them in a foreign country, gave
him recommendatory letters to influential friends, and money to enable him
to pursue the study of his profession, for which it would appear the earl
had a taste. After leaving Holland he spent ten years in Rome, where,
according to Dallaway, he studied under P. F. Garroli, a sculptor and
architect of considerable merit; and where, like many who have afterwards
issued from the great manufactory of artists, to astonish and gratify the
world, he probably spent his days in labour and unnoticed retirement.
In 1710, Gibbs returned to
Britain, and by the influence of the earl of Marr, then secretary
of state for Scotland, in queen Anne’s tory ministry, the means of
exhibiting his knowledge to advantage, and gaining emolument, were amply
provided. The renowned legislative measure, by which the metropolis was to
be made religious by act of parliament, on the erection of fifty new
churches, having been passed, the name of Gibbs was added by his generous
patron to the list of those eminent architects who were to put the vast
plan in execution. Previous, however, to commencing this undertaking,
he completed the first of his architectural labours, the additional
buildings to King’s college, Cambridge. It is generally allowed that
this is a production on which the architect could not have founded much of
his fame.— "The diminutive Doric portico," says Dallaway,
"is certainly not a happy performance, either in the idea or the
execution. Such an application of the order would not occur in a pure and
classic instance." While, on the other hand, the historian of the
university of Cambridge, remarks,—"It is built of white Portland
stone, beautifully carved, with a grand portico in the centre; and
contains three lofty floors above the vaults. The apartments, which are
twenty-four in number, are exceedingly well fitted up, and in every
respect correspond with the outward appearance, which equals that of any
other building in the university."—The latter part of the sentence,
in reference to the spot which contains King’s college chapel and Clare
hall, is sufficiently complimentary for the architect’s best works. The
truth appears to be, that those trammels which architects have had more
reason to detest than any other class of artists, restrained the genius of
Gibbs in this instance, and that being obliged to apply given form, size,
and number of apartments, to given space, he had no opportunity of
displaying the beauties which attend his other works. The first of
"the fifty," which Gibbs completed, was St Martin’s in the
Fields, a work which, with its calm tastefulness and simple grandeur,
might have been honourable to the fame of the greatest architect the world
ever saw. The west front of this building, surmounted by a light
and neatly designed spire, is decorated with Corinthian columns, over
which is a pediment, bearing the royal arms; the order is continued round
the sides in pilasters, and there is a double series of windows in the
inter-columniations, an unfortunate sacrifice of architectural effect to
internal accommodation. The interior is divided into three unequal parts,
by a range of four Corinthian columns and two pilasters on each side,
standing on tall pedestals; the central space or nave being covered by a
semi-elliptical ceiling, rising from the top of the entablature over each
column, and is rich in moulding and ornament. The following plainly told,
but judicious opinion of this building, is given by Ralph, in his
"Critical Review of Public Buildings,"- "The portico is at
once elegant and august, and the steeple above it ought to be considered
as one of the most tolerable in town; if the steps arising from the street
to the front could have been made regular, and on a line from end to end,
it would have given it a very considerable grace: but, as the situation of
the ground would not allow it, this is to be esteemed rather a misfortune
than a fault. The round columns at each angle of the church are very well
conceived, and have a very fine effect in the profile of the building: the
east end is remarkably elegant, and very justly challenges particular
applause. In short, if there is anything wanting in this fabric, it is a
little more elevation, which I presume is apparently wanted within, and
would create an additional beauty without."—"All the
parts," says Allan Cunningham, "are nicely distributed, and
nothing can be added, and nothing can be taken away. It is complete
in itself; and refuses the admission of all other ornament." Much
discussion seems to have been wasted on the portico of St Martin’s, some
insisting that it is a mere model of the portico of the Pantheon, or some
other production of classic art; others maintaining its equality in merit
and design to the best specimens of Grecian architecture. A portico, to
bear the name, must have basements, pillars, capitals, and an entablature,
just as a house must have a roof and windows, and a bridge arches; so all
that originality can possibly achieve in such a work, is the harmony of
the proportions and ornaments with each other, and with the rest of the
building; it is in having made the proportions and ornaments different
from those of the Pantheon, and adapted them to a totally different
building, that Gibbs has been original, and it is on the pleasure which
the whole combination affords to the eye, that his merit depends; a merit,
however, which cannot come in competition with that of the inventor of
the portico. The next church of the fifty, undertaken by Gibbs, was St
Mary’s in the Strand, a work on which, if we may judge from its
appearance, he bestowed more labour with less effect. Instead of appearing
like the effort of a single grand conception, forming a complete and
harmonizing whole, it is like a number of efforts clustered together.
Instead of being one design, the interstices in which are filled up by
details, it is a number of details united together; in gazing on which,
the mind, instead of absorbing the grandeur of the whole at one view,
wanders from part to part, finding no common connexion by which the joint
effect of all may be summoned before it at once.
Gibbs had just prepared the
plans of the buildings we have described, and was in the high and palmy
state of his fortunes, when his kind patron, having had his overtures to
procure the allegiance of the Highland clans contumeliously rejected, and
having been disgusted and thrown in fear by the impeachment of Oxford and
Stafford, and the exile of Ormond and Bolingbroke, resolved to avenge his
personal wrongs, by a recourse to the feudal fiction of the divine origin
of hereditary right, to maintain the theoretic purity of which, a nation
contented with its king was plunged in civil war, that the king they ought
not to have been contented without, should be restored. Family ruin
followed the rebellion of the earl; but the architect, fortified by the
practice of a profession, the principles of which politics could not sway,
and possessing knowledge which, unlike the art of governing, could not be
deprived of its efficacy by the influence of the party in power, remained
unmolested on the step to which he had advanced, and looked forward to the
prospect of other honours.
The most magnificent,
though perhaps not the purest of Gibbs’s works, is the Radcliffe Library
at Oxford, on the completion of which, he received the degree of master of
arts from that university. The Radcliffe Library is of a circular form,
rising in the centre of an oblong square of 370 feet by 110, with a cupola
140 feet high and 100 feet in diameter. The lofty dome of this building
raises itself in the centre of almost every prospect of Oxford, and gives
a characteristic richness to the landscape. "The Radcliffe
dome," says Allan Cunningham, "in fact conveys to every distant
observer the idea of its being the air-hung crown of some gigantic
cathedral or theatre. It is, perhaps, the grandest feature in the grandest
of all English architectural landscapes; it rises wide and vast amid a
thousand other fine buildings, interrupts the horizontal line, and
materially increases the picturesque effect of Oxford;" on a nearer
and more critical view, however, the spectator is disappointed to
find that a want of proportion betwixt the cupola and the rest of the
building, slight, but still very perceptible, deadens the effect of the
magnificent whole, a mistake on the part of the architect, which has
frequently turned the whole mass of taste and beauty, into an object of
ridicule to the bitter critic. It may be in general questioned how far
such a building, however much its swelling magnificence may serve to add
dignity to a vast prospect without, or solemnity to an important pageant
within, is suited for the more retired purposes of a library. The student
seldom wishes to have his attention obstructed by the intrusion of
a wide prospect upon his view , whenever he raises his eyes; and perhaps
when extent and grandeur are desired, a more suitable method of
accommodating them with comfortable retirement may be found in a corridor
or gallery, where any one, if he is anxious, may indulge himself by
standing at one end, and luxuriate in the perspective of the whole length,
while he who wishes to study uninterrupted may retire into a niche, whence
his view is bounded by the opposite side of the narrow gallery. In the
completion of the quadrangle of All Souls, Gibbs had the great good
fortune to receive a growl of uncharitable praise from Walpole.
"Gibbs," says the imperious critic, "though he knew little
of Gothic architecture, was fortunate in the quadrangle of All Souls,
which he has blundered into a picturesque scenery not void of grandeur,
especially if seen through the gate that leads from the schools. The
assemblage of buildings in that quarter, though no single one is
beautiful, always struck me with singular pleasure, as it conveys,
such a vision of large edifices unbroken by private houses, as the mind is
apt to entertain of renowned cities that exist no longer." Such is
the opinion of one, whose taste in Gothic architecture, as represented by
the straggling corridors, and grotesque and toyish mouldings of Strawberry
Hill, would not, if curiosity thought it of sufficient importance to be
inquired into, bear the test of a very scrutinizing posterity. A
comparison of his various opinions of the different works of Gibbs are
among the most amusing specimens of the construction of the noble critic’s
mind. Where the architect has been tasteful and correct, he only shows
that mere mechanical knowledge may avoid faults, without furnishing
beauties, "and where he has been picturesque and not void of
grandeur, the whole is the effect of chance and blunder." Among the
other works of Gibbs are the monument of Holles, duke of Newcastle, in
Westminster Abbey, the senate house at Cambridge, a very favourable
specimen of his correct and tasteful mind, and some buildings in the
palace of Stowe. The west church of St Nicholas in his native city, a very
fine specimen, if we may believe the accounts of contemporaries, of Gothic
taste, having fallen nearly to ruin, Gibbs presented the magistrates with
a plan for a church that might reinstate it. In this production we look in
vain for the mind which imagined the lofty pomp of the Radcliffe, or the
eye that traced the chaste proportions of St Martin’s; and one might be
inclined to question with what feelings the great architect made his
donation. The outside is of no description of architecture under the sun
"in particular;" it just consists of heavy freestone walls, with
a roof, and plain Roman arched windows. The inside is a degree worse.
Heavy groined arches, supported on heavier square pillars, overtop the
gallery. There is in every corner all the gloom of the darkest Gothic,
with square corners instead of florid mouldings, and square beams instead
of clustered pillars; while the great arched windows of the Gothic piles,
which send a broken and beautiful light into their farthest recesses, are
specially avoided, a preference being given to wooden square glazed
sashes, resembling those of a shop—in the whole, the building is one
singularly repulsive to a correct taste.
Gibbs, in 1728, published a
folio volume of designs, which have acquired more fame for the knowledge
than for the genius displayed in them. By this work he gained the very
considerable sum of £1900. Besides a set of plans of the Radcliffe
Library, this forms his only published work: his other papers and
manuscripts, along with his library, consisting of about 500 volumes, he
left as a donation to the Radcliffe Library. After five years of suffering
from a lingering and painful complaint, this able, persevering, and
upright man died in London, in 1754, having continued in the faith of his
ancestors, and unmarried. He made several bequests, some to public
charities, others to individuals, one of which in particular must not be
passed over. Remembering the benefactor who had assisted him in the days
of his labour and adversity, he left £1000, the whole of his plate, and
an estate of £280 a year to the only son of the earl of Marr; an uncommon
act of gratitude, which, however party feeling may regret the
circumstances which caused it, will in the minds of good and generous men,
exceed in merit all that the intellect of the artist ever achieved. |
