The Northern Italian sketch book of Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Lead Research Organisation:
Glasgow School of Art
Department Name: School of Fine Art
Abstract
This project will create a website of previously unpublished research material, and make a key resource accessible to scholars and the public for the first time.
It explores one aspect of the early career of the celebrated Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928). It is based on the drawings in a little-known sketchbook housed at Glasgow School of Art, and which Mackintosh used on a scholarship tour of Italy in 1891. In themselves, the 93 pages of drawings of buildings and details represent an excellent example of the output of an architectural student on a 'Grand Tour' at the end of the nineteenth century. However, Mackintosh's reputation and his acknowledged skills as a draughtsman elevate the sketchbook to a work of international significance.
The project is the culmination of three years research to accurately identify and record, for the first time, all the sources for Mackintosh's Italian sketchbook drawings. It has resulted in a large quantity of valuable but unstructured research findings in the form of both images and text. The organisation and dissemination of this material via the internet will enable a wide spectrum of users, from scholars to the public at large, to gain an insight into what attracted and inspired Mackintosh as a young man at the formative stage of his career. They will be encouraged to appreciate Mackintosh's superb draughtsman ship and compare his sketches with photographs of the sources, some well-known, others less so, as they appear on the ground today. Specially-written descriptions will accompany each image and will provide the valuable context that the sketchbook inevitably lacks.
The website will specifically stimulate users' interaction and engagement with the history of architecture and design. It will encourage them to participate in the research by identifying the small number of Mackintosh's as yet untraced sources, thereby providing a comprehensive account of his Northern Italian tour.
It explores one aspect of the early career of the celebrated Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928). It is based on the drawings in a little-known sketchbook housed at Glasgow School of Art, and which Mackintosh used on a scholarship tour of Italy in 1891. In themselves, the 93 pages of drawings of buildings and details represent an excellent example of the output of an architectural student on a 'Grand Tour' at the end of the nineteenth century. However, Mackintosh's reputation and his acknowledged skills as a draughtsman elevate the sketchbook to a work of international significance.
The project is the culmination of three years research to accurately identify and record, for the first time, all the sources for Mackintosh's Italian sketchbook drawings. It has resulted in a large quantity of valuable but unstructured research findings in the form of both images and text. The organisation and dissemination of this material via the internet will enable a wide spectrum of users, from scholars to the public at large, to gain an insight into what attracted and inspired Mackintosh as a young man at the formative stage of his career. They will be encouraged to appreciate Mackintosh's superb draughtsman ship and compare his sketches with photographs of the sources, some well-known, others less so, as they appear on the ground today. Specially-written descriptions will accompany each image and will provide the valuable context that the sketchbook inevitably lacks.
The website will specifically stimulate users' interaction and engagement with the history of architecture and design. It will encourage them to participate in the research by identifying the small number of Mackintosh's as yet untraced sources, thereby providing a comprehensive account of his Northern Italian tour.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| David Buri (Principal Investigator) |