New volume on Royalty and Architecture edited by Frank Salmon and Clive Aslet
CSCA Director Frank Salmon and CSCA Visiting Professor Clive Aslet have co-edited a new volume titled Royalty and Architecture: Visions and Ambitions of European Monarchs and Nobility with Stolpe Publishing (2023). This volume of essays is the first major international study of a critical subject: the extent to which European royal architectural commissions from the seventeenth century to the present day were designed by the monarchs who ordered them.
In this richly illustrated book, a number of prominent scholars provide critical examples and new perspectives on the importance of monarchs for architecture and architecture policy. The essays reveal the degree to which many kings and princes – and, inevitably, queens and princesses – received some training in architecture and took an informed interest in how their money was spent on building projects that excited them.
Recent research on Gustav III (1746 – 1792), for example, has shown that he was in fact the architect for a number of important building projects. His relative George III of England (1760 – 1820) also had a great interest in architecture, and his drawings and sketches have been preserved.
Aside from writing essays of their own, Aslet and Salmon have invited a number of leading international scholars on the subject: Barbara Arciszewska (Warsaw University), Basile Baudez (Princeton University), Julius Bryant (Victoria and Albert Museum), John Goodall (Editor of Country Life), Elisabeth Kieven (Biblioteca Hertziana, Rome), Jarl Kremeier (Berlin), Rebecca Lyons (Royal Academy of Arts), Magnus Olausson (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm), Emily Roy (National Trust), Ian Thompson (University of Newcastle), and Simon Thurley (Chair of the National Heritage Lottery Fund). In addition an essay has been prepared from the late David Watkin’s book on King George III as architect.
