Critic's Choice - Vaughan Hart's monograph on John Vanbrugh

Ravaged by fire in 1822, a century after it was built to designs by John Vanbrugh, Seaton Delaval Hall (pictured below) is partly a shell but still an imposing presence in the Northumbrian landscape. With the succession of the latest heir, however, its future is uncertain and the National Trust is trying to raise £6.3 million to 'save' it.

Seaton Delaval Hall

The full significance of the house clearly emerges in a thorough and absorbing new monograph by Vaughan Hart, Sir John Vanbrugh: Storyteller in Stone (Yale University Press, £35). It has the same qualities as Hart's earlier study of Vanbrugh's colleague and contemporary, Nicholas Hawksmoor – highly praised in AJ 06.02.03 – and, indeed, it shares some of the pictures. As architects during the brief flowering of English Baroque, their careers were closely entwined, and attributions aren't always certain – in this book, a photo of Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire shows 'Vanbrugh's or Hawksmoor's fireplace'.

Playwright as well as architect, a visitor to Surat in India in 1683, and a prisoner in Calais a few years later, Vanbrugh had the kind of life usually called 'colourful'. Though his text is speculative at times ('Vanbrugh would certainly have been interested in Surat's fort'), Hart is an admirable guide to the disparate sources that Vanbrugh drew on and the 'stories' his buildings were meant to tell. Frequent quotations from the man himself (such as explaining why a column should be fluted) aren't just informative, but vivid. They anchor this rewarding book.

Please note: In order to post a response you need to be registered on the site. You can register here.