stirling-1963-vol-1/05_078

Transcription

INTRODUCTION : THE MIDDLE AGES AND LATER
other castles and towers noted in this Inventory. Very little survives of the early defences of
the castle, and in the sphere of military architecture the most notable structures are the fine,
early 16th-century Forework and the early 18th-century fortifications and batteries that form
respectively the inner and outer defensive barriers on its south-east side. Of greater interest
are the Great Hall and the Palace, two buildings of outstanding importance in the history of
Scottish domestic architecture, which demonstrate the degree of imagination and skill in
design to which the architects of the Royal Works attained in the reigns of James IV and
James V.
The Great Hall, which seems to have been completed by the early years of the 16th century,
measures 126 ft. 6 in. from north to south by 36 ft. 6 in. from east to west within the walls,
and rose to a height of approximately 54 ft. It is thus considerably larger than either
Edward IV's Great Hall at Eltham (101 ft. 6 in. by 36 ft.) or Henry VIII's hall at Hampton
Court (97 ft. by 40 ft.), and in its original condition may well have outmatched these buildings
in splendour as it did in scale.The main elements of the plan are traditional, the hall, which
is set over a vaulted basement, having the dais at one end and the screens and entrance-doorway
at the other. The gallery that ran along the west façade of the hall is, however, an unusual
feature, as is also the staircase-tower that rises in the centre of the east façade; while the open
rounds that crowned the angles, together with the ornamental ridge-finials, gave distinction
to the roof-line. As at Eltham the dais was lit by large bay-windows roofed with rib-vaults, but
the bay design at Stirling, in which two pairs of mullioned and transomed windows are framed
by flanking shafts, is characteristic of contemporary French rather than of English taste.
Unhappily the exterior of the building was mutilated at the end of the 18th century when the
hall was converted for use as soldiers' barracks; while at the same time the interior was
subdivided, all original features, including the hammerbeam roof, being either destroyed or
concealed. It is in this condition that the Great Hall remains today, all attempts to secure its
restoration have failed.
In contrast to the Great Hall, which is perhaps the finest achievement of late-Gothic
domestic architecture in Scotland, the Palace is an essay in the new manner of Renaissance.
Like the Royal Palace of Falkland, with which it is approximately contemporary, James V's
Palace at Stirling is a fruit of the Franco-Scottish alliance, for there is ample evidence to show
the influence of French ideas on the designers of the Royal Works at this period, some of the
master-craftsmen themselves having been Frenchmen. The Palace was built between about
1539 and 1542, and on plan is a hollow square, originally comprising four ranges of buildings,
or "quarters", grouped round a rectangular courtyard. The west quarter was destroyed in the
17th century, but the north, south and east quarters remain and contain the State Apartments
on the first floor. The façades of the three surviving quarters are more or less symmetrical,
being boldly articulated by a series of recessed bays each of which contains a sculptured figure
set upon an ornamental baluster-shaft; these bays alternate with the large square-headed
windows that light the State Apartments. The design lacks the refinement exhibited in the
south façade at Falkland, but the details, especially the figure sculpture, are of very considerable
interest. The iconography of the sculpture is very varied, but some at least of the figures
represent the Planetary Deities; there is also a remarkable portrait of James V. Little now
remains of the original fittings of the State Apartments except for some handsome, carved-stone

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