Blake and the Planing Line

The Reith Lectures

BBC

Society & Culture, Science

4.2 • 770 Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 1955

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

This year's Reith lecturer is Dr Nikolaus Pevsner, the German-born British scholar of history of art and architecture, and author of the county guide series, The Buildings of England (1951–74). In this series, Pevsner explores the qualities of art which he regards as particularly English, as illustrated in the works of several English artists, and what they say about the English national character.

Dr Pevsner explores the 'Decorated Style', which seems in every respect to be the opposite of the Perpendicular style which he examined in his previous lecture. Through illustrations ranging from English church architecture from 1290-1350 to the gentle curves of painters such as Gainsborough and Reynolds, Dr Pevsner places the artist William Blake (1757-1827) in the context of a very English tradition.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC wreath lectures. This lecture in the series
0:06.0	The Englishness of English art, given by Nicholas Pevsner, was originally broadcast in 1955.
0:15.7	We present the fifth in the series of BBC wef lectures on the Englishness and English art
0:21.8	given by Dr. Nicholas Tesner.
0:24.5	He calls this lecture Blake and the Flaming Line.
0:30.1	I said at the beginning of this series that such phenomena as national character in art
0:37.3	can only be defined in terms of polarities.
0:42.3	William Blake called them contrary.
0:47.3	He says, without contraries is no progression.
0:51.3	Attraction, reason and energy, love and hate are necessary to human
0:57.0	existence.
1:00.0	I want to start, not with Blake, I prefer to lead up to him gradually, but with what, to my
1:07.0	mind, is the outstanding example in England of progression by contraries.
1:13.9	The development of architecture from about 1290 to about 1350.
1:20.5	What 1350 stands for, I told you in detail last time.
1:26.2	The perpendicular style. The perpendicular style is reasonable, matter of fact, angular, repetitive,
1:33.3	and impressive by its spaciousness and clarity.
1:37.3	The style that went before, the decorated style, as we call it,
1:42.3	seems in every respect the opposite of the perpendicular.
1:46.7	Yet, it is as utterly English as is the perpendicular.
1:51.3	It has no contemporary parallels whatsoever on the continent, although, oddly enough, parallels or repercussions,
2:04.9	especially in Germany, start 50 years later.
	...

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