Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811–78) and the Gothic Revival
Sir George Gilbert Scott, father of the founder of Watts & Co. alongside G. F. Bodley and Thomas Garner, was one of the most prolific architects of the Victorian era and a pivotal figure in the Gothic Revival movement. The movement began in England in the late 18th century and continued throughout the 19th. Its aims were to revive medieval Gothic forms and it provoked an increasing interest in preserving and restoring older buildings, as well as a desire to understand the different styles of Gothic architecture. This movement coincided with the Victorian love of replicas and reproductions, which fostered a burgeoning trade in plaster casts.
The Victorian Plaster Cast Trade and the Formatori
Making plaster copies is millennia old, but it reached the height of its demand in Britain during the 19th century. Among the many craftsmen arriving in Britain in the early 19th century to cater to this trend were the the formatori, plaster figure and mould makers. Not to be confused with the figurinai, the ‘wandering Italians’ who sold cheap reproductions in the street, the formatore were skilled artisans who specialised in creating plaster replicas of sculptures and architectural details and who were trained in the production of new plaster moulds.
One such craftsman and contemporary of Sir George Gilbert Scott was Domenico Brucciani (1815–80). He arrived in London from his native Tuscany in 1829 to join his uncle’s plaster figure making business in Covent Garden. A skilled formatore, he took over the business in 1840 and rapidly expanded the stock of classical and contemporary sculpture and architectural ornament. His reputation grew and thanks to his passion for quality and his business acumen he managed to secure prestigious contracts to supply museums, art galleries, and art schools across Britain and abroad.
Wood engraving: The Late Mr D. Brucciani (from a photograph by S. A. Walker, 230 Regent St), Pictorial World (1880). Collection of Rebecca Wade.
Domenico Brucciani and his Craft
Brucciani established himself as the leading Victorian formatore through a series of notable achievements. His first was winning a competition for the South Kensington Museum who were looking for their own maker of moulds. That was followed by his selection as official formatore to the British Museum in 1857.
He was a prize-winning exhibitor at the International Exhibition in 1862 and his reputation was further boosted by Napoleon III’s visit his showroom the following year. These successes enabled Brucciani to expand his premises in 1864 to a new 100-foot showroom at 40 Russell Street: the Galleria delle Belle Arti was born.
Invoice from Domenico Brucciani’s Galleria delle Belle Arti.
Never one to shy away from a challenge and confident in his skills, in 1866 he accepted the most difficult commission of his career to date, the casting of the monumental Puerta de la Gloria of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. This was commissioned by Henry Cole for the South Kensington Museum and is now housed in the Cast Courts of the V&A. This astonishing feat was beset with near catastrophes and misunderstandings from the start, and some in the local Compostela population threatened to sabotage Brucciani’s efforts as they thought he was stealing part of their beloved cathedral.
Domenico Brucciani at Westminster Abbey
Fresh from this recent success and the renown it brought, it was almost inevitable that Sir George Gilbert Scott’s path would cross with Brucciani’s. As Surveyor of the Works at Westminster Abbey, and with South Kensington Museum’s drive to preserve and document the treasures of the Abbey, D. Brucciani & Co.’s services were sought out in relation to Westminster Abbey. In a letter dated 6 July 1868 written by George Gilbert Scott Jr (founder of Watts & Co.) regarding his father’s work, Scott Jr writes that: ‘casts of all the statues of saints in the Lady Chapel were taken by Mr Domenico Brucciani for the South Kensington Museum’.
Photo of the Lady Chapel, Westminster Abbey, 1870
Casting in The Lady Chapel (Chapel of Henry VII) in Westminster Abbey
The commission in the Lady Chapel was a significant one as the chapel contained the largest surviving collection of early Tudor statuary, as well as being the burial place of 15 kings and queens. In his Gleanings from Westminster Abbey (1861) Sir George Gilbert Scott wrote with pride:
I trust it will be admitted that we possess in this magnificent Abbey a museum of sculpture eminently national, unequalled in extent in any other place or country, of surpassing beauty, and of the highest artistic excellence.
Brucciani's method of plaster casting was meticulous, ensuring that each piece was an accurate and invaluable record of the original. Some casts were more selective and replicated the outer surface of the original work only, rather than its whole structure. To future generations, they became an invaluable record of alterations, repairs and the passage of time. Brucciani’s endeavours in the Abbey and elsewhere also highlighted the wider importance of casts as an educational tool and a means of safeguarding cultural heritage, a mission close to Gilbert Scott’s heart.
Casts of St Anne and St Augustine by D. Brucciani & Co. From the carved limestone originals in the Henry VII chapel (the Lady Chapel), c. 1868, V&A Museum. Image courtesy of LASSCO.
A Shared Passion for Legacy and Education
Both Scott and Brucciani were driven by a shared passion for their craft and a commitment to preserving and educating others about the treasures of the past. Their legacies have provided access to works that otherwise would have been inaccessible to students and the public. Together, they helped to ensure that the aesthetics and architectural marvels of the Middle Ages would endure and inspire future generations of architects and artists.
The study of this immense collection will afford intense gratification to the historian, the antiquary, the archaeologist, and the lover of fine art. The public feeling is becoming daily more awakened to the treasures we possess, and to the determination to preserve them to our posterity.
(Sir George Gilbert Scott, Gleanings from Westminster Abbey, 1861)
Plaster cast c. 1868 taken from a statue of St Oswald in the Henry VII chapel (the Lady Chapel), V&A Museum.
Bibliography
Reynolds, Christine (ed.), Surveyors of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey 1827–1906: Reports and Letters, The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 2011
Scott, George Gilbert, Gleanings from Westminster Abbey (1861)
Wade, Rebecca, Domenico Brucciani and the Formatori of 19th-Century Britain, Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019