During
the Gothic Revival in Britain and France,
the grotesque represented a world turned
upside down, where, for instance, monsters guarded the church. The term,
Gothic, was first used during the Renaissance
by Humanists as a derisive reference to “barbaric” architecture
produced after the decline of Classical civilization and before their
own efforts to resurrect Classicism. But the late eighteenth century brought
a revival of interest in Gothic architectural and literary themes. What
was initially a sentimental curiosity for crumbling ruins led to an archaeological
interest in medieval architecture. A generation of architects, headed
by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, created new structures based on the
precepts of Gothic architecture. The American
novelist, Nathaniel Hawthorne, called Pugin’s designs for the Houses
of Parliament at Westminster, “gravely gorgeous,” a fitting
oxymoron for a movement so concerned with contrasts. Pugin’s design
for the heavily gilded interiors is generally recognized as one of the
greatest monuments to the English Gothic
Revival.
British Romantics developed a new literary genre: the Gothic horror novel. Ann Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, two of the most famous examples, emphasized remote medieval settings—particularly castles and preferably in ruins—as ideal settings for their Romantic tales of horror. The medieval structures, they felt, seemed splendid, yet sinister. In their fast-changing, modern world, Gothic architecture suggested irrationality, a contrast of soaring beauty and worldly grotesque.