Witley Court - Building Module 053 - Distinction

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Buildings Module 053
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Jhe Story Of ^Popular ^photography - Century qiutchinson gjd
eJhe Story Of ^photography - fXichael gjngford - ôcal cpress
^Photographer's 'Handbook '3rd (Edition'- cjohn êdgecoe - cEdbury cpress
Story Of Architecture - ^Patrick %uttgens
Oxford Dictionary Qf Art " ân Chilvers

<Harold Qsborne
cpennis ârr
Colour gibrary ôok Qf Great Artists - êlvi
5Jhe ^Period fHouse Style, ^Detail &cDecoration 1774 to 1914 -

q^jchard Russell gâwrence
of eresa Chris
t:- (Witley Court And Church

gjfe And gûxury gn A Great Country <House - îll cpardoe
Canon CEOS Series - Canon (<U .qq g^td
12x8 ^prints - Jâx Spielmann
cprint ^processing - cjessops
Ênglish ^Heritage
Building Module 053
CONTENTS
introduction 1
Camera (History 2-7
3alm history 8- 11
y^rtists -
Renaissance - 12-14
cjames and cWilliam jyorsyth - 14
[A^chelangelo (Buonarroti - 1 5
l - 16
Architecture &. Architects -

3epn cgattista Îberti - 17
()onato q^ramante - 17-18
'Renaissance A^nnerism - 18-19
^Vpdrea cpalladio - 19
Greek 'Revival movement - 20
cjohn q\lash - 20
c&iigo clones - 21
cPalladian (proportions - 22
Witley Court ^History 23-26
Witley 9Hpdifications 27-28
Witley Court cpicrure qnformation 29-34
Êvalution 35
3ayout 36
(pictures cJhat q cQecided Jb geave Out Of cJhe gînal cpanal

Deeded 5Jb fge qncluded 37-42
Glossary 43-44
(Equipment ^sed 45
CNjegatives 46-47
Introduction
I would like to present to you 'Witley Court', the influences behind it and feelings it
brings out in those who understand the true beauty this ruin has to offer.
For me to walk the ground of this long empty shell letting my mind wonder as I
examin all the curves, corners and crevasses, every new step an adventure. Walking
around the walls on the ballroom, hall and marblefloored conservatory, you can
almost hear the murmurs of the revelry and music this now ghostly building
witnessed.
The stream of emotions that this structure evokes, well its just hard sometimes to
think that it was ever anything but a ruin.
There are those who would restore it to its former glory, pre 1930s. But I'm a
romanticist at heart, and would find the structure just to clean cut if it was restored.
You couldn't really let your mind drift anymore, thoughts of days gone by, the whole
way of life, and why, because for one thing the solid fact would be staring you in the
face. Ok it would be alright to visit once or twice, but not a thing dreams are made of.
Witley court is in three connected parts - the church, the grounds and the main ruin.
In this booklet the church and garden are even refered to, but this whole module is
really about the ruins, their shape, texture and pattern.
A BIT OF HISTORY
CAMERAS
For several centuries artists had used an instrument called an obscura to help them
draw scenes accurately. This instrument was the forerunner of photographic cameras.
The direct forerunner of the
camera was the camera
obscura, shown here in its most
highly developed form.
A lens on a rotating turret
projected an image of the scene
outside, via a mirror, down on to
a white-topped table where the
picture could be viewed. Early
experimenters realized that if
the table was covered by a sheet
of light-sensitive material, it
could capture a permanent
record of the scene. Few camera
obscuras were this grand; most
were very much smaller, and
many folded up, to be carried
around as sketching aids for
artists.
A picture made by French inventor, Joseph Nicephore Niepce, using bitumem of

Judea on pewter plates, taken from a window in 1827 using a camera obscura can be
regarded as the world's earliest surviving camera photograph, (this technique could be
classed as photomechanical printing rather than photography).
Daguerre the inventor of daguerreotype, quickly set about designing a camera for use
with his new process. Manufactured by Alphonse Giroux et Cie in Paris,
it was the first commercially
produced photographic camera. It
used plates 16.5cm x 21.5cm
(6.5inches x 8.5inches) in size,
which became known as
'whole-plate size' and was a
standard in photography for more
than a century.
Daguerre's design was based on
one which had been used for
artist's camera obscuras in the
""* ..*'"*' 1700s. It is called the 'sliding box'
design and was frequently used for
early cameras. Made of two rigid
boxes, one inside the other. The inner box slides in and out to focus the image.
A BIT OF HISTORY
CAMERAS
Clearly cumbersome, it was not long before manufactures started to look for some
means of producing a folding camera which would be more portable. The
introduction of the first glass negatives in 1851 gave further incentive to make
cameras less bulky. Since the 'wet plates' needed immediate processing, the
photographer had to carry a portable darkroom around as well as the camera.
Throughout the 1850s manufactures turned increasingly to the use of leather bellows
as a means of making a camera more compact. The first bellows used were
parallel-sided, but in 1856 a Scotsman, C.G.H. Kinnear, designed a camera with
tapered bellows. These could concertina into a considerably smaller size, since each
fold of leather fitted inside the next, larger fold. The design is still used today on
largeformat field cameras.
When wet plates were finally superseded in the late 1870s, by dry plates, the basic
camera design continued for a while along similar lines. With the exception of
cameras designed solely for use in the studio, the important thing was to have a
camera which could fold into a convenient size for carrying. Two major designs
emerged.
The Instanto camera, made in England by E.&T.Underwood, was of the 'tailboard'
design, where the hinged wooden baseboard at the back of the camera folds up over
the glass focusing screen. When the camera was in use, this tailboard dropped down
to act as the base along which the back could be moved for focusing. The Meagher
camera is also of this design but with an extra piece of wood at the side to give better
protection to the bellows and added rigidity.
The Tourograph is of the alternative 'front-folding' design, where the hinged
baseboard folded up over the lens panel. Some cameras of this design had a hole in
the board to let the lens through, but with others it was necessary to remove the lens
before folding the camera.
There were many minor variations on the two above designs, such as the field
cameras made in the 1880s by the American company, 'Scovill'. These were
essentially a combination of the two designs above, since the baseboard was hinged at
both rear and the front of the camera, with bellows capable of extending in both
directions.
The identification of plate cameras from the first fifty years of photography can be
problematical since manufacturers frequently did not put their names on them.
The rise of dry plates from the late 1870s onwards, and the introduction of roll film
a decade later, widened the appeal of photography. Before these inventions appeared,
photographers had to know enough chemistry to prepare and process their own plates,
but now plates and film could be purchased ready-made and processed by someone
else. Inevitably, with this explosion of interest came a mass of new cameras, and
fierce competition between the manufacturers.
With the general public becoming increasingly involved in photography, there was a
demand for cameras of convenient size for taking snapshots. Hence the earlier 'stand'
cameras, so called because they needed a tripod or stand, were gradually joined by
'hand' cameras which could be hand held. Two typical American hand cameras were
the 'Pocket Wizard I' and the 'Pony Premo No.4'.
A BIT OF HISTORY
CAMERAS
The Wizard cameras were made from the mid-1890s by the 'Manhattan Optical
Company', in several models and sizes from quarter-plate, which measures 8.2cm x
10.8cm(3.25" x 4.25"), to 12.7cm x 17.8cm(5" x 7").
The Premo was made by the 'Rochester Optical Co.1 around the turn of the century
and again was one of a series of similar models which remained in production even
after the company had been taken over by 'Eastman Kodak' in 1903.
Both cameras had two additions compared with the earlier plate cameras, a
viewfinder and a shutter. Although shutters had been around for a considerable time,
they had been an accessory rather than a necessity, but the new dry plates were
generally too fast to be used without one, so they became a standard part of a cameras
design.
In 1895 the Englishman Frederick H.Sanderson patented a mechanism for swinging
the front lens panel. Initially, the 'Sanderson' camera was made as an ordinary stand
camera, but in 1899 a hand version was brought out. His tropical model specifically
for use in hot climates, using wood which was less likely to warp and extra metal
bracing to stop such warping. The bellows were usually made of cloth, not leather,
since certain tropical insects and moulds are fond of attacking leather.
A well-known camera of the strut design was the Anschutz' made by 'C.P.Goerz of
Berlin'. It was named after it's designer, 'Ottomar Anschutz', who had developed the
shutter used in the camera specially for his pioneering action photography. It was a
focal-plane shutter, made of fabric and capable of speeds as fast as 1/1000.The first
model (1890) had a rigid body, but in 1896 the folding strut version appeared. It
influenced the design of cameras for press photographers for many years, particularly
in continental Europe.
The 'Klapp' camera, made by 'Heinrich Ernemann of Dresden', Germany, was
another example of strut design. It was long-lived, with several models produced
between 1904 and 1926. This period also covers some important developments in the
German photographic industry, which was to be one of the leading industries in
photography, during the first half of the 20th century. The smaller companies began to
amalgamate into large organizations, finally culminating in the formation of 'Zeiss
Ikon AG', in 1926.
One problem with the early plate cameras was that the plates could only be loaded
one at a time. To take more than one picture entailed carrying a full bag of unexposed
plates loaded into their holders, called 'dark slides'. With the introduction of roll film
in the late 1880s, this restriction in the design of plate cameras was made all the more
apparent. To counter this, manufacturers began to look for ways of holding more than
one plate at a time inside the camera. The simple box design of plate cameras had
become increasingly popular during the 1880s, and lent itself to use for this purpose.
The simplest way to carry extra plates was to have a storage area built into the
camera body. The Kodak 'Eureka' of 1897-1899 used this principle to carry three
double dark slides. Another technique is shown in the camera of the same name
patented by the British manufacture W.W.Rough, in 1887. It had a magazine holding
twelve plates with a light-tight bag situated over it's open top. After each exposure,
the photographer could lift a plate up into the bag using a lever and then manipulate it
to the other side of the pack by hand.
A BIT OF HISTORY
CAMERAS
A popular design of the 1890s and early 1900s was the falling plate camera. The pack
of plates was held against a stop by a spring and, after the front one had been
exposed, the stop could be released using a catch to allow the plate to drop into the
bottom of the camera. The action of the spring then moved the pack along so that the
second plate now lay against the stop ready for exposure. The 'Klito' camera made by
Houghton's during the first two decades of 20th century was a very popular British
example of this design.
An unusual design was marketed by the English firm 'J.Fallowfield', in their 'Facile'
camera. The plates were held in two slotted compartments; an upper one for
unexposed plates and a lower for exposed. After each shot, the two compartments
moved in opposite directions to allow the exposed plate to drop down through a slit
and to position the next plate ready for exposure.
Some manufacturers decided to give the photographer the choice of roll film or
plates within the same camera. The Kodak Eureka, could take a cartridge roll film
holder in place of a spare dark slide. Another Kodak camera, the TSfo.2 Bullet', was
initially designed for roll film but models from 1896 onwards could take a plateholder
through a door in the side of the camera.
With many plate cameras the picture was focused and composed by looking at a
ground-glass screen placed directly where the plate was to go. However, the single
lens reflex design uses a mirror at an angle of 45 degrees to divert the image on to a
screen on top of the camera. This allows the picture to be viewed right up to the
moment of taking the shot, unlike a conventional plate camera, where loading the
plate prevents the screen from being used. The design comes from 17th century
'Camera Obscuras', and was first used on a photographic camera by the Englishman
photographer Thomas Sutton, in 1861. However, it did not come into general use until
the 1890s, when the speed of the dry plates made possible action photography, where
the need to view the scene right up to the moment of taking the picture was extremely
important.
In 1895, Eastman introduced a tiny box roll film camera called, the 'Pocket Kodak'.
Measuring just 10cm (4") in length, this was the first Kodak camera to be mass
produced. In the first year more than 100,000 were sold.
Although these cameras were beginning to bring photography to the general public,
they were still quite expensive for their day, so Eastman produced an even cheaper
box camera in 1900. It was aimed at children and so was named after characters in the
popular children's books of the time by Palmer Cox. The 'Brownie' camera was an
instant success and further models followed, some of which remained in production
into the 1930s. The Brownie name continued to be used on Eastman Kodak cameras
long after these early models; the last camera to bear the name was discontinued in
1982.
Thirty-five millimetre film was first introduced for movie pictures and had become a
standard size by the First World War. Several camera manufacturers thought about
using this readily available film stock for still cameras; but the early attempts were
not very successful because the early 35mm films were not of a high enough quality.
Among the early 35mm cameras was the 'Debrie Sept', which was made in Paris in
1921. It took film loaded into it's own special cassette.
A BIT OF HISTORY
CAMERAS
Just before the First World War, the German design engineer and keen mountaineer,
Oskar Barnack, had been working on a small camera for use in the mountains. He
made a prototype in 1913 but it was not until 1924 that the camera went into
production at the factory where he worked: E.Leitz Optische Werke, Wetzlar,
Germany. It was called the 'Leica', from the initials of 'LIEItZ CAmera' and took
pictures of the size 24mm x 36mm (1" x 1.5"), which was to become the standard for
35mm still photography.
The early cameras used a rangefinder for focusing, but it was not long before
manufacturers began to look at the possibility of using the single-lens-reflex design.
The SLR design had been used before in non-3 5mm cameras, including the popular
'Exakta Vest Pocket' models. So it was not surprising when Ihagee produced a 35mm
version of the Exakta in 1936. It was probably not quite the first 35mm SLR as the
Russian camera called 'Sport' (Cnopm) was reputedly a year earlier. However, the
'Kine Exakta' was certainly the first to be widely used.
The early 35mm SLRs did not have the now-familiar pentaprism on top of the
camera to turn the picture the correct way round in the viewfinder. It was not until
1949 that two cameras appeared on the market with this feature - the German 'Contax
S' and the Italian 'Rectaflex'. The Contax S is considered to be the first, as it was
patented at an earlier date.
The Japanese continued to make 35mm rangefinder cameras and, in 1952, their first
SLR came on to the market. It was the 'Asahiflex', which was the forerunner of the
well-known 'Pentax' range. In 1959 another Japanese company, 'Nippon Kogaku'
turned to SLR design with their 'Nikon F'. It was truly a classic camera which had a
great influence on professionals and amateurs alike.
Automatic exposure had first appeared on the 'Super Kodak six 20', a roll film
camera of 1938. Over the next thirty years many cameras of varying degrees of
automation were manufactured. One of the simplest ways of automating exposure is
to fix the shutter speed according to the type of film and then to vary only the
aperture. Several 35mm cameras working on this kind of principle appeared in 1960,
among them the Agfa Optima'. It fixed the shutter speed at between 1/30 and 1/500
for films of speeds 10 to 200 ASA, leaving the meter to control only the aperture.
The early camera meters were placed on the outside of the camera, but this had the
disadvantage that it fails to read the actual amount of light coming through the lens,
which may differ if there is a filter in place or other attachments. Through the lens
metering gets over this by placing the meter behind the lens and measuring the light
coming into the camera. The first coupled TTL metering appeared on a sub-miniature
camera, the German 'Mec-16 SB', made by 'Feinoptisches Week', but the first 35mm
SLR to have it was the Topcon RE Super', which was introduced in 1963. This
Japanese camera was made by Tokyo Kogaku and was also sold under the name
variant Topcon Super D'.
Designing a fully automatic focal-plane shutter is not easy, but in 1967 Konishiroku
Kogaku succeeded with their 'Konica Autoreflex' camera. It was capable of taking
pictures of either full or half-frame sizes and several models were made throughout
the 1970s.
A BIT OF HISTORY
CAMERAS
The 1960s saw the introduction of another feature which has become common place
on today's cameras: built-in electronic flash. It first appeared on the 'Voigtlander
Vitrona', in 1964 but the need for a handle containing the supply of batteries made the
camera somewhat unwieldy to use.
Another recent advance in 35mm camera design came in 1978 when the 'Konica
C35AF, the first camera with auto focus was introduced. During the 1980s others
followed, notably the 'Canon T80', which was the first SLR able to use autofocus
lenses, and the 'Minolta 7000'. The later was the first truly Autofocus SLR with the
mechanism lying within the body of the
cameras, not in the lens as with the
canon.
So we move into the 1990s and yet
another advance in cameras. The
'Canon EOS 5',
introduces the unique Eye Select
function - an intelligent focusing point
selection method. Any of the cameras
five focusing points can be selected
simply by looking at the corresponding
AF frame in the view-finder. After
focusing is completed in the oneshot
AF mode, the depth-of-field can be
seen by looking at the Depth-of-field
Check Mark in the upper left corner of the viewfinder. This closes the lens aperture
down to the required setting.
We have cameras with 16-zone silicon photocell metering, built-in motor drives of
up to 5 feet per second, shutter speeds from 30 seconds to 1/8000 of a second.
Now we are up to the present day, Digital cameras and camcorders that are making a
chunk in the market, that is more accessable to more and more peoples pockets,
starting at just under 100.00. Perhaps they are a very long way from what a
print/slide photographer sees as a good photo image, but a step foreward is a step
foreward.
Whose to say what will happen within the next couple of decades. Will we be solely
taking pictures with eye movements, have a head-up display with computer to change
the form of the picture at instant of taking. A miniture darkroom in a in a Digital
zoom camera.
All we can do is wait with anticipation.
A BIT OF HISTORY
FILM
William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), whilst on his honeymoon practised drawing
using the aid of a camera lucida. This optical instrument operated by throwing an
image of a scene onto a sheet of paper, which then could be traced (rather a laborious
way of getting a depiction of a still life image as a hard copy). Talbot had an expertise
in chemistry and optics, so he began experimenting with salt and silver nitrate. By
1835 he managed to stabilise camera lucida images on light-sensitive paper. Talbot
brought his efforts to the attention of the scientific community, in demonstrations and
communications in January and February 1839. He perfected his 'Calotype' process in
1841.
In the same year as Fox Talbot's demonstrations, a French man, Louis Daguerre
invented a process he named Daguerreotype. A direct positive on a silvered plate,
polished, fumed with iodine vapour to make it light-sensitive, and after exposure
subjected to mercury vapour.
Also during 1841 a lens improvement was worked out by Professor Petzel and made
by Voigtlander. It gave a sharp defined image in the middle of the picture.
Calotype was a paper negative process. Exposure time was reduced to minutes when
Talbot found a latent image was formed on the paper, which could be revealed by
using a developing agent. There was a slight draw back as the paper negative had
trouble with fine detail.
In contrast to the invention of Daguerre, Talbot's contribution was to invent the
negative/positive process, giving photography the possibility of industrialisation and
unlimited replication.
Frederick Scott Archer, an English sculptor and inventor, introduced his
collodion-on-glass methods for negatives (1851). In the process called 'wet collodion'
or 'wet plate', a plate coated in collodion, a mixture of guncotton in ether and
potassium iodide in solution, was immersed in the dark into a silver nitrate solution
for a few minutes, to allow the formation of silver iodide on it's surface. The plate
was withdrawn, drained and placed into a plateholder whilst still wet. The picture had
to be taken and developed before the surface was dry.
The previous year, L.D.Blanquart-Evrard introduced the albumen-coated papers
which dominated production of positive prints until the last years of the century.
Glass negatives cut exposure times and dramatically sharpened images. Glossy,
albumen-coated papers gave new incisiveness and brilliance to positive proofs.
A dry process was detailed by J.N.Taupenot in 1855, when the wet collodion process
was at it's peak. Tauenot used a mixture of albumen and collodion which gave fine
resolution and could be kept for weeks prior to exposure. Unfortunately the emulsion
was impractically slow. This lack of sensitivity continued to be a problem with dry
plates throughout the 1860's until 1871 when a breakthrough was made.
Dr Richard Leach Maddox, a London-based photo experimenter, had been searching
for a new process because the ether vapour from the wet collodion process affected
his already poor health. Looking for a substitute for collodion he turned to gelatin - a
substance derived from boiling animal bones, skin and tissue - using a mixture of
cadmium bromide and silver nitrate in a warm solution of gelatin which produced
silver bromide. This solution was coated on to glass plates and dried. Unlike previous
methods, these plates retained their sensitivity and although it still had it's pitfalls,
Maddox published his findings in the British Journal of Photography in September
1871.
8
A BIT OF HISTORY
FILM
In 1873 John Burgess produced a ready-mixed gelatin solution based on Maddox's
formula for DIY plate coating. It wasn't very successful, but later he went on to
produce pre-coated plates which were far better received in the photographic world.
In 1874, an amateur photographer named Richard Kennett, sold dried gelatin which
could be activated in water. The solution was dried by heat which, unknown to
Kennett, improved it's sensitivity.
It was another four years before Charles Bennett discovered the potential of
increasing sensitivity through using heat. He came up with a new gelatin dry plate
process whereby the gelatin was heated to vastly improve sensitivity. The plates were
easy to manufacture and far more sensitive than the wet collodion process with about
one tenth of the exposure time required. Plus the plates retained their properties for a
long time.
Within months pre-coated glass plates were being produced by many manufacturers
and soon the wet collodion process was virtually dead and buried, with only a few
practising the dying art. There was no longer any need for a darkroom and heaps of
chemicals. A camera, tripod and a few plateholders were all that was required.
Many photographers started preparing their own plates and biased the sensitivity
characteristics according to their needs. Because of this a method of measuring and
describing the sensitivity needed to be devised. Sensitometry was born, invented by
Ferdinand Hunter and Vero Driffield. The process of determing the response of
photographic materials to light, which remained the standard method of plate speed
determination for many years.
The introduction of the dry plate process had huge repercussions in photography,
most notably with he large reductions in exposure times. Now, snapshot-style
photographs became a reality and photography of a moving subject became possible.
Few people can claim to have had as large an influence in shaping photography as
George Eastman. An American bank clerk, born in 1854, Eastman first got involved
in photography in the late 1870's. He received training in the wet collodion process,
when it was popular. He had read about the dry plate process and started producing
his own plates. Soon after he went into business.
As Eastman was still working at the bank, his plates were initially distributed for
him by E. & H.T.Anthony, a leading photo supplier. But the business proved such a
success that he decided to go it alone, forming the Eastman Dry Plate Company in
1881. Eastman still had a number of concerns, mainly surrounding the plates
portability. Looking for a solution he took his existing emulsion and coated it onto a
paper negative material. This was sold in sheet form for plate cameras which needed
an appropriate adapter.
A further step was taken in 1884 when Eastman employed the services of William
Walker, a camera manufacturer, who helped him develop a universal holder. The
holder took a roll of paper negative material which was wound on after each exposure
with a key, each roll gave 24 exposures. Although this wasn't the first of it's kind, it
was by far the best and the negative material gave consistent quality.
A BIT OF HISTORY
FILM
Further improvements were made to the negative material. Gelatin emulsion was
coated onto a layer of soluble gelatin which had been put on a paper base. The film
was processed, soaked in warm water and the paper stripped away. The image was
then transferred onto glass sheets for printing. (Film for black-and-white photography
consists of a transparent base on which is spread a thin layer of an emulsion
consisting of a suspension of minute mixed crystals of silver bromide and silver
iodide in gelatin. The gelatin not only holds the grains but also greatly increases their
sensitivity to light. A latent image was made up of minute specks of silver formed in
the grains in response to light, which act as nuclei enabling the developer to convert
the whole of the rest of a grain into silver).
The improvements were popular but still Eastman wasn't satisfied. His process was
relatively complex and required a certain amount of photographic knowledge to
realise it's full potential. He wanted to make photography as easy as possible for
everyone. He decided to make his own camera, one which would be easy to carry and
simple to use. He based his design on his roll-film principle and in 1886 patented a
box camera called the 'Detective' which took plates of roll film. Only 50 were made,
however, as the design was deemed too complex, Eastman ended up selling most of
them to a camera dealer for $50 a piece.
In March 1888 a new design was introduced. It was incredibly simple to use and
proved to be the breakthrough Eastman was looking for.
To launch the camera he invented the name Kodak, which was distinctive,
pronounced the same in most languages and difficult to mis-spell. In addition to this,
he also introduced a complete developing and printing servive for the exposed films
in both UK and USA.
Getting the images processed was simplicity itself. The whole camera was sent back
to Kodak where the film was removed, camera re-loaded and then returned. The
negatives were developed, printed, mounted on card and returned anywhere within
ten days, all for 2 guineas. There was no mess, no hassle and, most importantly, no
darkroom required to get good pictures. The film could be processed by the user but
most chose to send it away which brought Eastman to coin the phrase, 'You press the
button, we do the rest'.
The box camera proved very popular especially among tourists but Eastman was
concerned by the processing costs incurred by the transfer of negatives to glass. He
employed a chemist, Henery Reichenbach, to find a suitable substitute to his film
which was as flexible as paper, as clear as glass and tougher than both of them. They
found the material in the shape of calluloid (invented by Englishman Alexander
Parkes in 1855. Celluloid:- A thermoplastic made from nitro-cellulose, camphor and
ethanol) which, by using several additives, produced thin, flexible and clear film. The
result was patented in early 1889 and in production by the summer of the same year.
In less than 50 years photography had gone from being a pipedream to a hobby for
the masses. After the slowness of Calotype in the 1840's and the inconvenience of the
wet collodion process in the 1850's, came the roll film of Eastman's box camera. Still
working with cellulose after the introduction of Eastman's highly inflammable
celluloid, improvements were made so that we now use cellulose acetates
(Acetylcelluloses. These are ethanoic acid esters of cellulose, obtained by the action
of glacial ethanoic acid, ethanoic anhydride and sulphuric acid, upon cellulose) in
todays modern film.
10
A BIT OF HISTORY
FILM
Films vary in the size of the grains they contain. This variation, in turn, has an effect
on the film's speed, or sensitivity to light. Coarse-grain films are faster than those ,of
fine grain, probably because a larger grain intercepts more light. Faster films can
therefore be used with a shorter exposure, in a weaker light, or at a smaller aperture.
The resultant picture, however, is apt to show grain, especially when greatly enlarged.
Slower, fine-grain films are used for work of highest quality. The speed of a film is
measured using a number of systems; for example, the American Standards
Association (ASA) scale is one common measure. Slow films have speeds of around
ASA 50; ASA 200-400 is satisfactory for general purposes; ASA 1,500 is the speed
of an extremely fast film. The scale is linear, so that films of speeds ASA 100 and
200 require one-half and one-quarter, respectively, of the exposure required for a film
of ASA 50.
11
Artists
Renaissance
Renaissance a term meaning 'rebirth' applied to an intellectual and artistic movement

that began in Italy in the 14th century, culminated there in the 16th century and
influenced other parts of Europe in a great varity of ways. The metaphor of a 'rebirth'
goes back to the 15th centyry, when it was used to describe the revival of Classical
learning. It was also applied to a revival of the arts, and it was in the famous Lives of
Vasari that the idea of such a revival was systematically developed. Vasari saw the
history of art in Italy from Giotto to Michelangeloas a continous progress, which he
compared to the progress of organic growth, and his view dominated the conception
of art histroy up to recent times. The extension of the meaning of the term from a
movement in art and letters to a period of time began in the 18th century and was
given final currency when Jules Michelet (1798-1874) called a section of his history
of France La Renaissance (1855). Ruskin had used the expression 'The Renaissance
period' in his Stones of Venice in 1851. A few years later, in 1860, Jakob Burckhardt
published Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien (The Civilization of the Renaissance
in Italy), an extremely influential book that popularized the rather romantic notion of
the period as a great blossoming of human spirit - 'the discoverery of the world and of
man'.
This wide defination of the term made it particularly difficult to indicate the limits of
the period. If the 'discovery of the world' were taken to mean progress towards
'naturalism' in art, such tendencies might be detected in the 13th century. French art
usually described as Gothic. If the 'discovery of man' were taken as the touchstone,
such thoroughly medieval figures as St Francis of Assisi might be hailed as the
harbingers of the new age. These and sililar inconsisencies in delimiting the period
under discussion have led to much discussion of the whole concept by 20 century
historians.
In the visual art, the term is generally taken to imply a deliberate imitation of
Classical patterns or a conscious return to Classical standards of value. It is in
architecture that the imitation of Classical models is most easily discerned, for the
vocabulary of Roman architecture is quite distinct from that of the Gothic style, and
Brunelleschi was without doubt the first architect to revive the antique manner. (In
describing architecture the term 'Renaissance' has sometimes benn used to cover all
post-medieval building that uses a Classical idiom; thus Sir Reginald Blomfield's
History of Renaissance Architecture in England 1500-1800, published in 1897,
embraces a period that would now generally be subdivided into other categories such
as Baroque and Neoclassicism.). In painting and sculpture, it is harder to define the
Renaissance in terms of imitation of anicent models.
Vasari saw the beginnings of Renaissance sculpture in Nicola Pisano because he had
borrowed motifs from Classical sarcophagi. But we know that Gothic sculptors also
borrowed motifs from Classical statuary, and we now see that there is in fact so much
in common between the art of the Pisani and that of their northern contemporaries
that we classify their style as proto-Renaissance rather than Renaissance proper.
Moreover, Italian sculpture of the 14th century remains Gothic. It is only in the early
15th century that we can see a reflection of Renaissance taste in sculpture. Donatello
was not content with the copying of individual Classical sculpture whose glory has
been extrolled by the ancient authors.
12
Artists
His David (Bargello, Florence) was the first life-size nude statue since
Classicalantiquity, just as his Gattamelata (Padua) was a deliberate revival of the
Classical equestrian monument.
The problem of defining what constitutes Renaissance painting, in similar terms, is
considerably more complex, since there were virtually no ancient models surviving in
painting as there were in sculpture and architecture. The works of such famous
masters as Apelles and Zeuxis were known only through literary records, but Pliny's
descriptions of them influenced the painters as well as patrons and critics. From
Classical authors of Renaissance public learned to expect of painting a high degreee
of fidelity to nature and a search for the perfect form. Giotto, who made great
advances in naturalism, is sometimes put at the head of the Renaissance tradition, but
it is more consistent to give this position to Masaccio, who brought a new scientific
rigour to the problems of representation. Masaccio, like his friends Brunelleschi and
Donatello, was a Florentine, and it is thus reasonable to see Florence as the cradle of
the Renaissance, and the period around 1425 when they were producing some of their
most innovative works as a major turning point in European art.
The term 'High Renaissance' is applied to the brief period (1500-1520) in which
later centuries saw the fulfilment of all the ideals that painters had pursued since
Giotto; Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael are the dominant figures of the age.
Vasari points out that the perfect mastery of means achieved in this period led to an
ease of manner and a graceful harmony that stand in marked constrast to the strained
efforts of preceding generations. The harsh sculptural outline gave way to the mellow
modelling (sfwnato) of Leonardo, the rigid symmetry of Perugino to the balanced
varity of Raphael's pyramidal compositions.
The term 'Northern Renaissance' is applied to the transmission of Italian imagery
and ideals to the rest of Europe, but here again exact demarcation is far from easy.
North of the Alps painting developed independently of the Italian Renaissance
movement throughout the 15th century. There were indeed Italian influences, such as
that of Mantega on the Austian Michael Pacher, but they were exceptions. The
acceptance of Renaissance ideals as such was due to the conscious effort of a handful
of men, above all to Durer, who saw it as his mission to transplant the arts 'reborn' in
Italy on to German soil. He visited Italy twice with the aim of acuiring the secrets of
the Italian masters, that is the mathematical principles of perspective and proportion;
and he struggled all his life both in his theoretical writings and in his art to fathom the
mystery of Classical beauty.
The Netherlands with their strong Gothic tradition were slow to accept the
Renaissance and at first they assimilated it only through the medium of Durer's prints.
Lucas Van Leyden best represents this phase. In the work of Quentin Massys we find
the direct influence of Leonardo's art both in his types and in his treatment. But only
when the Flemings travelled to Italy did they experience the full impact of the
Renaissance: Gossaert tried somewhat ostentatiously to emulate Classical statuary
and the more sensitive Jan van Scorel absorbed something of southern poise and
serenity.
13
Artists
The later imitators of Italian painting, such as Heemskerck and the Floris brothers,
belong to Mannerism rather than the Renaissance. The same is true of paintaing in
France. There was a strong influx of Renaissance influence in France around 1500,
following the Italian campaigns of Louis XII (1462-1515) and Fancis I (1494-1547),
but Primaticcio and Rosso, who were called to Fontainebleau by Francis I, represent
the Mannerist phase no less than does Cellini, and the School of Fontainebleau cannot
therefore be said to represent pure Renaissance ideals, nor can the courtly portrait
style of the Clouet family.
These distinctions reflect once more the elusiveness of the term 'Renaissance',
particularly in its application to the north. While in the field of literature and thought
we are used to speaking of the Renaissance in Elizabethan England, few historians of
art would now consider such painters as Milliard or Eworth as representatives of
Renaissance style. Like their French contempories, they embody rigid courtly ideals
far removed from the wide sympathies and spirit of intellectual adventure from which
the Renaissance had orginally sprung in Florence.
Today the term Mannerism is used to cover Italian art in the period between the
High Renaissance and the Baroque, that is from 1520 to about 1600. Vasari gave the
term currency, for he often used the word maniera (meaning 'style' or 'stylishness')
as a term of approbation, signifing qualities of grace, poise, facility, and
sophistication. By extension the term 'mannerist' has been applied to art of any place
or time showing features analogus to those of Vasari's schema.
Brothers James and William Forsyth
The Forsyth brothers totally undeservedely, remain amoung the most underrated of
artists of the late Victorian period yet whose
masterpieces are sytill a joy to the eye, in
Worcester, around the county and nation,
even in a few places overseas.
Their output was prolific as they produced
works in marble and stone of breathtaking
detail and artistry to grace stately homes,
churches and public places.
But no doubt the pinnacle of artictic
achievement reached by the brothers was
with the two great fountains as Witley Court -
the monolithic Poseidon in the south parterre
garden and smaller Flora fountain to the east
(The Poseidon fountain was based on the Greek legend of Perseus rescuing
Andromeda from the clutches of Poseidon. A sea monster threatens to devour
Andromeda, but Perseus carries her off on the winged horse, Pegasus). Both were
considered in their time to be superior to those at Crystal Palace and Chatsworth.
It was boasted that the Poseidon Fountain, still surviving most intact, was the largest
block of statuary in Europe and the finest piece of sculpting of its scale - 178 yards in
circumference at its base.
14
Artists
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)
A Florentine sculptor, painter, military engineer, draughtsman, and poet who in his
later life turned to architecture. Michelangelo was described as one of the greatest
figures of the Renaissance but he also was one of the main forces that shaped
Mannerism. We see how, and compare one of his designs, all be it an interior,
'staircase of Laurentian', to the design of Witley Courts southern stone staricase.
Staircase of Laurentian
Witley Courts southern staircase
Interior of Medici Chapel

We see that there is still a influence of
Gothic in Michelangelo's Renaissance
work.
Although as we can see the staircases are
not identical, there is a similarity in
techniques and proporations. The Witley
Court design may not be so ornate but you
can see roughly that a Renaissance-
Mannerism style was used.
Looking at Michelangelo's architectural
work, no less an art form than his
paintings, an attension to shape and
symmetry is very present. Bold columns,
crisp, sharpe angles, Mathematical,
razor-edged masterpieces. (Brush strokes with a ruler).
15
Artists
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio) (1483-1520;
Rapheal an Italian painter and architect, an artist in whose works the ideals of High
Renaissance find their most complete expression.
An overwhelming influence on his early work was Perugino, but Raphael far
surpasses Perugino in lucidity and grace.
There are not many examples in painting of this symmetrical structure that is
Renaissance/Mannerism, but here in Rapheal's The Betrothal of the Virgin 1504 we
can clearly see it.
We can clear associate this style of
painting to Mannerism and the
mathematical standards of the
Palladio proportions, with these
strong arches and small square
windows above.
Raphael worked under the influence of Leonardo and Michelangelo, his work
became more grander and sophisticated. He tended to paint his subjects with a
serenity, a sence of some deep inner integrity, that removes any doubt. This sence of
well-being distinguished his art from the more disturbingly intellectual work of
Leonardo or michelangelo, and evidently reflects his own balanced nature.
16
Building Module 053
Architecture and Architects

To understand the architecture of Witley Court we must talk about the Renaissance
(also Known as Italianate, Tuscan or Rural Italian) period.
Architectual periods are never neatly bounded. So much do movements overlap that a
mason working on Milan Cathedral (the greatest and accroding to some the only
really Gothic cathedral in Italy) in the 1440s could have travelled to Florence one
hundred and fifty miles away and found work there on a cathedral that represented a
quite different attitude towards design. The work in question was the dome of
Florence Cathedral, and it's architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), who trained
as a goldsmith, was revolutionizing design and taste.
There had, of course, been domes before, like the Pantheon in ancient Rome and the
Byzantine domes of the Ottoman empire. This one was different. Brunelleschi fitted a
dome on top of an octagonal drum, and made no attempt to use pendentives. He
invented a complicated wooden form, around which his eight-panelled dome could be
built in two layers, an inner and an outer masonry shell. Also different was the fact
that masonry ribs were tied together in a series of reinforcing 'chains' at strategic
points in the form of bands of timber clamped with iron or stone and iron. The cupola
on the top was a temple of masonry acting as a weight holding the rather pointed
dome together and preventing it from spreading apart.
That dome was by no means Brunelleschi's only or his most revolutionary
contribution to the new movement. His Foundling Hospital of 1421, simple and
serene, with graceful arcades of round-headed arches above slim Corinthian columns,
plain rectangular windows directly above the centre of each arch and simple
triangular pediment, was another inaugural building of the Renasissance. As for the
chapel he created for the Pazzi family in the cloisters of the Franciscan friary of Santa
Croce, it was not only perfect, but it was also a copy-book for Renaissance buildings.
Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472)

A writer of plays, music and had written a treatise on painting before he produced
what was to become one of the essential books of the Renaissance,
De re aedificatoria. It was the first architectural book to be published, in 1485, in
moveable type. He explained the theory of beauty based on the harmony of numbers
and used Euclidean geometry to lend authority to the use of basic shapes - the square,
the cube, the circle and the sphere - working out ideal proportions from these figures
by doublind and halving. And he produced one of the cruical archtectural statements
of the Renaissance in defining beauty in a building as the rational integration of
proportion of all the parts, where nothing could be added or taken away without
destroying the harmony of the whole.
Donate Bramante (144-1514)

He grew up near Urbino, became a painter, spent some time in Milan, where he knew
Leonardo da Vinci, and arrived in Rome after Milan fell to the French king, Louis XI,
in 1499. He had already shown the influence of Alberti in his work in Milan, but it
was the work of the last twelve years of his life, in which he seems to have become
imbued with the spirit of the ancients, that give him his place in history.
The building which came closest to representing the pure classicism of the
Renaissance was the little temple he built on what was then thought to be the site of
St Peter's martydom, the cloister of San Pietro in Montorio, on the Janiculum Hill.
17
Building Module 053
The Tempietto, consciously modelled on the ancient Rome temple of Vesta, fulfils all
Alberti's prescriptions. Freestanding within its courtyard, with steps rising to a
circular plinth, its form is a drum encircled by a Doric colonnade, trimmed with a low
balustrade, through which the drum reaches up
and is crowned with a dome - possibly
architecture's finest gem.
Tempietto San Pietro

in Montoroio, Rome,
by Donato Bramante
Renaissance Mannerism
One trick was to emphasize perspective by lines in moulding and decoration so as to
create a room, a court or s street like a tunnel. Vasari uses it cleverly in his courtyard
to the Uffizi, Florence, which sucks visitors along and through the ABA gateway to
the Arno beyond. A hallmark of Michelangelo adopted widely by Palladio and others,
was the creation of giant orders, that is to say, columns running up through two or
more storeys, sometimes the entire height of a facade. They are best seen on the
palaces that surround the Capitol in Rome.
This late sixteenth-century style deliberately flouts classical prescriptions. Jacopo
sansovino (1486-1570), Baldassare Peruzzi (1481-1536) and Sebastiano Serlio
(1475-1554) were among its exponents.
Giulio Romano (1492-1546), the greatest Mannerist figure. A pupil of Raphael's and
the first Renaissance artist to be born and rasied in Rome, could play the classical
game with as much ease as anybody. In fact, he expanded as much intellectual
exertion on breaking the rules as he did on keeping them in, for example, the
Cathedral at Mantua. What the Mannerists did with classical detail was really a sort
of in-joke. When Romano dropped a few wedge-shaped stones below the architrave in
the courtyard of the Palazzo del Te
at Mantua, built for Duke Frederico
Gonzaga II, he knew perfectly well
that he was nat actually making the
structure unsafe, but he hoped it
might make the uninitiated gasp
with shock.
18
Building Module 053

The ruses reached fever-pitch in his Cortile della Cavallerizza of the Palazzo Ducale
at Mantua, with its pock-marked rusticated arcades and giddy columns, like mummies
attempting to struggle out of their wrappings.
A more serious Mannerist building is the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne in Rome
which Peruzzi started to build in 1532. It has a revolutionary facade, for it is curved. It
is broken in the middle by an irregular portico, formed by a pair of columns, a space
and a single column, on either side of the entry to a recessed front door. The
first-floor row of windows in the upper wall is unexceptional, but the two rows above
are quite odd, horizontally rectangular holes cut out of the facade, framed, as it were,
in stone picture-frames, of which the lower row have scrolled curves like a sheet of
parchment.
Andrea Palladio (1508-1580)

Palladio was a precise and exact classicist. In his Villa Capra (Rotonda) near Vicenza
(1550), a symmetrical building, he
i created an ideal place for a secular
purpose, closely following Albert!'s
rules and spirit. He controlled the
classical rules - not they him. It was as
if he distilled the essence of
classicium from the Vitruvian rules
and the ancient models, and held the
pure and colourless liquor up to the
light. His building have the hallmark
of elegance.
Except for two churches in Venice, his buildings are around Vicenza. They are
secular, reflecting the new importance of secular rather than religious buildings that
makes the architectural character of the sixteenth century onwards different from
what had gone before. Undoubtedly aided by the dissemination of his architectural
treatise, I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura of 1570, his work had an enormous influence
in other countries, notably on the Georgian architects in eighteenth-century England,
Thomas Jefferson and other architects in America, and in Russia. It is tempting to
describe him as a symbol of the classical style, since he achieved, in a seemingly
effortless manner the two most prized qualities of Renaissance architecture:
exactitude and centralized plans. It is these qualities that give his building the
humanity sometimes lacking in strict, formal classical buildings.
The plan of the Villa Rotonda, with its circular room covered by a dome set within a
raised, approached on all four sides by even flights of steps, shows that it was not
particularly comfortable to live in.
With the Basilica (Palazzo della Ragione) in Vicenza, Palladio gave Europe one of
its most popular architectural motifs, the Palladian motif, a central arched window or
opening flanked by a flat-topped window on each side. It became one of the most
widely used and effective features of great houses for several centuries. In his many
other villas it was his extension of regular plan to embrace outbuildings and the
landscape that gave a lead to the lanscaping movements of the eighteenth century.
Rarely has an architect whose work was concentrated in such a relatively small area
had such a world-wide influence upon building and their surroundings.
19
Building Module 053
Greek Revival movement
The movement was initiated by Robert Adam and Sir William Chambers, who from
from 1760 were joint architects of the works of George III. Chambers was the most
celebrated academician of his day.
In Somerset House in the Strand, London, with its restrained though imposing
Neo-Palladian facades around
four sides of the courtyard, he
established the Neo-classical
style for government building in
England. But he was as carried
away by the romantic obession
with ruins and follies as were
less establishment figures.
John Nash (1752-1835)

Nash translated the picturesque of the counrty estate to the city in his Neo-classical
terraces round Regent's Park, London, producing continuous frontages which were as
impressive as those the Woods had made in Bath and others had done in the new town
of Edinburgh. He anticipated garden cities with his plans for self-contained villas
around Regent's Park, each private in its own foliage but all possessing the park.
During 1815 and 1821, he remodelled in Hindu style a Palladian pavilion built at
Brighten for the
Prince Regent by
Henry Holland
(1745-1806) in the
1780s. Nash decked
out the classical
symmetry of the
main facade in
Moorish arcades.
Cumberland
Terrace, designed
by Nash for the very
top end of the new
style large terrace, with a new name 'Regency'. Often grander than nearby public
buildings. The upper-class clientele didn't mind rubbing shoulders with socially
acceptable neighbours. The occupants enjoyed far more space, privacy, comfort and
also a higher standard of hygiene than their continental equivalents in Paris or
Vienna.
20
Building Module 053
Inigo Jones (1573-1652) lived before the Georgian period but he
was responible for establishing the 'classical' style of architecture
in Britain. Jones had studied in Italy for several years and
absorbed the Roman architecture and that of the Renaissance
architect Andrea Palladio. On his return to England, he proceeded
to design buildings in 'the good Roman manner' following the
strict set rules for classical proportions drawn up by Palladio. The
most famous of these were the Queen's House at Greenwich, the
Whitehall Banqueting House and Covent Garden.
Inigo Jones worked as Surveyor to the Crown and executed his
buildings under Court patronage. His designs were adopted by certain men of taste
who became known as the Palladians. The most famous of these were 'The
re-assertion of strict Palladianism' in the early eighteenth century, led by men such as
Lord Burlington and the architect Colen Campbell. The uniformity of the Palladian
style was compatible with the building of houses in congested towns suffering badly
from overcrowding yet still expanding. It could also be executed in brick or stone.
This made it an easy choice for conforming with the basic precautions against the
spread of fire which had come into force in London in the aftermath of the Great Fire
(1666). These precautions against fire culminated in the 1774 London Building Act.
In Bath, the palatial uniformity of the terraces designed and built by John Wood the
elder and John Wood the younger were vastly admired. The acceptability of the style
grew further as the classical architecture of Italy became more familiar to members of
the aristocracy.
A Bath terrace designed and built by the Woods, father and son.
This due to the
popularity of the
Grand Tour - a
cultural progress
through the most
notable towns and
sites of Europe
which was
regarded as the
finishing school of the aristocracy. The components of the Palladian style could be
copied by the 'spec' builders and adapted according to the size and plot available.
By 1774 Palladian designs had been widely disseminated by means of pattern books
which were available not only to the Court and great patrons but right down through
the classes to the humble carpenter and bricklayer. Palladianism was seen as the
epitome of elegance and refinement. It was very un-English. The new buildings were
in stark contrast to the timber-framed houses and buildings with gables, mullioned
windows and wooden decoration in the form of brackets and carved barge-boards that
had previously been the norm. Classical architecture in Britain has returned over and
over again to Palladianism.
21
Building Module 053
Palladian Proportions
speculative builders simplified Palladian proportions down to modular approach,

based on the circle and the asquare. (The diameter of the circle was the same as the
width of the square.) The width of the window formed the basic module, which was
one square/circle wide. The whole facade was composed of modules. The most
prestigious parts of the house (eg, the first-floor windows) received the most
expansive treatment, usually two modules deep for a large house. Although the height
was exact number of modules, the width of an individual house often was not. It was
the overall proportions of the terrace that took priority over individual dwellings
Another unit used in the classical scheme was the Golden Rectangle. This took its
depth from the diagonal of the square. Its width remained that of the square. This was
preferred for ground and second floors of a large house. The proportions were 7:5.
The depth of the windows on other floors might revert to the square. This was also the
width of the 'pier' between the windows of the house.
Composition of a facade in units

Circle/square:
6.5
the basic unit
1
10 The Golden Rectangle
22
WITLEY COURT
The parish of Great Witley was a flourishing community in Saxon times. After the
Norman Conquest of 1066-1070 the land was granted to Urso d'Abbetot, a relative of
William the Conqueror.
By 1100 the ambitious baron William de Beauchamp had acquired the Manor, having
married Urso's daughter. In 1287 the family of Cooksey had taken it over through
their alliance with the Beauchamps, and appointed a parish priest. A Cooksey hiress
was married to Sir William Russell of Strensham in 1499, and the Manor remained in
Russell hands for over a hundred and fifty years.
' -&* . 1670s
,...; , During the turbulent times following the

Civil War of 1642-1651, the Manor
passed out of the hands of landowners and
[ t*"ii' i * * m* ê Pssessin of the Foley family,
4K ^Bfrf * * industrialists, ironmasters and
entrepreneurs. Thomas Foley bought the
Manor in 1655 greatly enlarging the
existing Jacobean house and by adding two towers. Thomas died in 1677 and is
buried in the Foley vault under the church. His son Thomas the second in the line of
Thomas's, occupied the Court from 1677-1702, adding to it's size and grandeur. The
next Foley to posses the Court was Thomas the third in the line of Thomas's, who
lived there for thirty-three years.Among major changes he made to the Court were the
building or rebuilding of two wings to the north, and extensive stables set at right
angles beyond them (later demolished). He died in 1733 and is commemorated in the
church as the 1st Lord Foley of Kidderminster.
Thomas, the fourth in the line of Thomas's, his son and heir, immediately set about a
task dear to his father's heart - rebuilding the old parish church which was sited to the
west of the Court. This was completed in the remarkable time of two years, probably
to designs by James Gibbs. It was plain, with a brick extior matching the facade of the
Court at that time.
The extended house and church in the 1750s
In 1766 a second cousin Thomas Foley, the

fifth of the Thomas's inherited the Court and
spent much effort trying to save the family
fortunes from his free-spending sons, one of
whom, Thomas, the sixth Foley who came into
the estate in 1777. Known as 'Lord Balloon' an
obese gambler, he was a friend of the architect
^ * i ^ i~ If * *
* 11 t * * John Nash who was commissioned to add
magnificent porticoes to the north and south of
the Court. These were completed by his heir Thomas Foley, the seventh of the
Thomas's, who occupied the Court from 1793-1833. The last of the Foleys to own
and live at the Court was his son Thomas the eighth of that name.
23
WITLEY COURT
John Nash designed additions in the
early 1800s
The Foleys lived at Witley for 183

years, gradully transforming the modest
manor house into a great mansion with
extensively landscaped parkland. They
demolished the decaying medieval
church and built the existing church in
the Renaissance style. It was also during
their time that the villagers were
persuaded to move their houses from the vicinity of Witley Court to the present site of
Great Witley). This Thomas sold the Court in 1837 to the Dudley family for a massive
sum to pay off the inherited debts of his gambling grandfather.
The purchasers were the trustees of William Hunble, Lord Ward, who was heir to the
vast wealth of the Dudleys.
The Dudleys were industrialists. In the 1740s, they were in the forefront of the
Industrial Revoultion. Thier Black Country ventures included extensive workings of
coal, iron, limestone and fireclay, and later came to include engineering and railway
construction. When Viscount Dudley died in 1833 his income was 123,000 a year.
William Humble Ward's trustees paid 890,000 for Witley Court and its estate
(perhaps $40 million at current values). However he was not yet of age, and preferred
to remain at the family home of Himley Hall near Stourbridge. In 1843 he lent Witley
Court to Queen Adelaide, the widow of King William IV (1830-1837). There many of
the crowned heads of Europe visited her during her three-year residence.
"'-w ir -~'t*v,
mtqr
:^y?^'^l^t
^
wr%n, r;*^ *&:**::
I --*.'' f**^: i>.:
;Ml?^Mlîi
'i' ;;',,''d;.-^'.w*
Î&^'M',^;;!:;^
,*- e I:
,*#
H?':' ^
The Dudley's palace in mid-Victorian times.
24
WITLEY COURT
In 1846 at the age of 28, Lord Ward came into his inheritance. Soon he began
planning the Trasformation of Witley Court. He engaged the architect Samuel
Daukes, and brought down a sculptor and wood carver from his Scottish estates: these
were James and William Forsyth. These brothers sculptured the magnificent
stonework centrepieces of the water features.
The cost of the alterations, which occupied

the 1850s, came to 250,000 then, more than
forty times as much if you had to do the
alterations now.
Samual Daukes added the curved wing from
the South Portico to the Orangery, providing
nursey quarters and a classroom for the
children. The Orangery featured curved glass
roof panels, an ornamental pond and foutain. The stables and servants quarters were
extensively enlarged, and finally the entirety of the Court and church was faced with
cut stone. A lengthy stone balustrade surrounded the gardens (echoed in the roof of
the Court).
Then William Nesfield was employed to lay out an ambitious scheme of gardens,
stonework and fountains. Finally, Moxon the royal decorators were hired to refurbish
the hundred principal rooms in luxurious Second Empire style. By the time he died as
1st Earl of Dudley in 1885, Lord Ward had created a Palladian palace.
His eldest son, the 2nd Earl, was a friend of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward
VII 1901-1910). He made Witley Court one of the great fashionable houses of late
Victorian and Edwardian times, until its sale in 1920 following the tragic death of his
wife by drowning.
The era of it's greatness was over, the bulk of the Witley estate was auctioned in
Worcester; it comprised 40 farmhouses, 100 cottages, 3 public houses and 8,500 acres
of prime agricultural land. Even at prices of around 20 an acre only half the lots
were sold, owing to the post-Great War depression.
The Court with its contents and 800 acres of parkland was bought privately by Sir
Herbert Smith (1872-1943). He was a Kidderminster man who had worked his way up
from carpet designer to owner and chairman of Carpet Trades. Soon after his
purchace of Witley Court he retired and devoted himself to running the property. He
introduced electricty and a more economical heating syetem. Smith also drastically
reduced the number of staff and estate workers: this caused considerable local
distress, as did his closure of many long-used local footpaths.
25
WITLEY COURT
On a September evening in 1937 during Sir Herbert Smith's absence, the head
gamekeeper noticed smoke at the Court. Only a skeleton staff was present, and they
were unable to deal with the fire, which appears to have started in one of the kitchens
under the East Wing. Although the Court had 'fireproof floors made from special
timber, the flames funnelled up the East Tower and spread to most rooms in the
central and eastern part of the building. The greater part of the building was
untouched. But with the war clouds gathering in 1938, Sir Herbert Smith decided to
auction the buildings and thousand acre estate. Bidding stopped a 21,000, well
below the reserve figure. The Court and land was then split into seperate lots: the
buildings were purchased by demolition contractors, and most of Lord Foley's
magnificent woodland was felled by timber merchants.
After three hundred years of evolution, the grandeur that was Witley Court fell into
ruin and decay.
For thirty years the Court was ravaged by demolition contractors, vandals and
neglect. But in 1967 an enterprising local group began a successful campaign to save
the baroque church, and in 1972 the Department of the Enviroment undertook the
quardianship of the Court and grounds. The restored church and preserved ruins of the
Court are a monument to their unceasing labours.
26
WITLEY COURT BUILDING MODIFICATIONS
Witley Court
Showing the alterations made to the house built by the Russells about 1600 bu its subsequent owners, the Foleys
1655-1837, and Wards 1837-1920.
All the house East of the line A B was gutted by
fire on September 7th 1937. / [|to the caujeway
The garden was laid out by Neslield and enclosed / ]
by balustrade, completed in 1851. / |
*D
I The 1st Lords Lady Foley

-wings, church & stables. Buildings and other things now
,1MlIl=i?k
House finished by 1733. demolished have been put where
Church " " 1735. ^**"t " _3Uttf^ they seem to be in old pictures and
may not be rightly placed.
I [Thomas. 3rd Lord Foley
1793-1S33 mooed the stables Distance from C-D, 1000ft.
& added porticoes. Length of house and building, 600ft
Architect - John Wash.
(HH William, 1 s* Earl of Dudley Drawing not to scale and taken from
added crescent wing & plan drawn by Canon R.A. Wilson,
cased church & house with 1938.
stone. Added balustrades.
Architect - S.W. Dawkes.
27
WITLEY COURT BUILDING MODIFICATIONS
(English heritage ftas made an announcement of a jrve-year, 1.5 mitfion pound restoration
programme designed to return one oJtPie fargest igtfi entury Jbrmaf gardens, created by ûliam
y^ndrews c]%sjiefd, to its C^)ictorian grandeur.
^ 300.000 pound pottery grant has enabled the conservation Body to Buy Back an important area of
parfcfand sofd after the jire in geptenther 1937, and to open up the houses northern vista.
A&out 200 new car parking spaces are Being created and -work is continuing to restore the
cposeidon Jountain in the south parterre garden. oJhe ^Poseidon fountain ^Restoration ociety has
Been raising cash to return this major attraction to -working order. Qne jets are expected to roar
again &y 1999.
Here we see Poseidon

Fountain under the on
going repair.
28
Building Module 053
Picture Information
The first in a group of three establishing shots
Here we start with a corner view of the Orangery.
Imposing, thick plate glass of the windows and
curved glass of the roof, has long since gone. An
empty shell, where tropical plants once flourished.
Still a thing of beauty without all of it's Victorian
trappings. It has always filled me with a sense of
order, perhaps due to the columns and strong
arch-ways. Perhaps not pin sharp but it gives me the
right feeling.
Equipment used:- Uni-lock 2700 Tripod, Chinon CE-4 camera body, Carl Zeiss Jena 28-70mm,
Chinon PW-540 Power winder S.
Film: Jessop 200asa. Aperture: F22 Speed: 60 Focal length: 28mm
The second in our establishing shots.

Witleys Courts Southern entrance.
A distorted shot with softening at the edges to
thrust out the main bulk of the building, like a
welcoming mouth. There is always something
about this view that causes me some
excitement. Don't ask me why, it always seems
very warming, inviting.
Equipment used:- Uni-lock 2700 Tripod, Chinon CE-4 camera body, Chinon 55mm lens,
Chinon PW-540 Power winder S, Kepcor Video Deluxe 18mm Semi-Fisheye
Film: Colorama 200asa. Aperture: F16 Speed: 30 Focal length: 55mm + 18mm fisheye
The third in the establishing shots.

I like the strength and proportions that this
part of the building has. Not one of the most
romantic parts of the court but surely one of
the most mathematically correct. You can
clearly see the Palladio influence, and the
facade Daukes curved wing is extremely
impressive.
Equipment used.- Uni-lock 2700 Tripod, Chinon CE-4 camera body, Chinon 55mm lens,
Chinon PW-540 Power winder S,
Film: Jessop lOOasa. Aperture: F16 Speed: 60 Focal length: 55mm
29
Building Module 053
Picture Information
**> Here we see the left hand staircase leading from
the Orangery's, southern part.
What appeals to me are the angles of the steps,
and the empty slots where the stone balusters once
sat. By looking at the pattern at the top of the
stairs you can almost picture an image of how the
complete staircase must have looked. If given a
choice of, as it is now or was originally, now
would be preferable, as it is less uniformed.
Equipment used:- Uni-lock 2700 Tripod, Canon Eos 10 camera body, Canon 35-135mm Zoom Lens
Film. Jessop lOOasa. Aperture: F32 Speed: 60 Focal length: 105mm
This is a very personal view of a triple archway, double column

spaced, in the southern wall of the Orangery. It felt very church
like. A long narrow aisle leading off into the distance, columns
thrusting into the heavens. You get lead into the picture by what
could almost be an open doorway, the carvings skyward carry
you through, to what could be a walk of infinity.
Equipment used:- Chinon CE-4 camera body, Chinon 55mm lens

Film: Jessop lOOasa. Aperture: F22 Speed: 60
Focal length: 55mm + 18mm fisheye
This is the east face of the Orangery.

I like the way the shape of the foreground
arches draw you up the steps and through to the
background, an echo of the foreground. Using a
semi-fisheye made the effect more complete.
I was happy the way the stone work appeared,
but would have liked a little more sun to make
the shadowing cast by the iron staircase
stronger . A little bit of aberration around the
r~r: edges, but I got the shape I was looking for.
Equipment used:- Chinon CE-4 camera body, Chinon 55mm lens

Film: Jessop 200asa. Aperture: F22 Speed: 60 Focal length: 55mm + 18mm fisheye
30
Building Module 053
Picture Information
Southern entrance to the court.
This grabbed me straight away, it just overflows with greatness.
All the shapes work together, the tall stately columns, the angle
and arches of the windows, the dense shadow and rich blue of
the sky beyond. More overcast and this picture wouldn't have
worked. Perhaps using a polariser did give me a bit of an edge,
but worth it.
Equipment used:- Uni-lock 2700 Tripod, Canon Eos 10 camera body, Canon
35-135mm Zoom Lens, Cokin Linear Pola A160
Film: Jessop lOOasa. Aperture: F32 Speed: 90
Focal length: 50mm
Staircase to the left of the southern entrance.

Unlike the Orangery staircase this complete
balustrade had a very positive feel in the flow
of the stonework. The fact that you can see part
of the court behind gives you a perspective that
you can relate to, and you have depth because
the sun has managed to pick out some of the
stonework.
This shot may appear a little to bright in some
areas but it does show how the staircase was
constructed, especially if you compare this shot
to the Orangery staircase with it's empty slots.
Equipment used:- Uni-lock 2700 Tripod, Canon Eos 10 camera body, Canon 35-135mm Zoom Lens
Film: Kadak Ektar lOOasa. Aperture: F22 Speed: 60 Focal length: 120mm
31
Building Module 053
Picture Information
A view of the church through one of the curved wings
windows. What can I say about this picture. The church
dome is contained well with in the strong arch of the
window. The tree in the middle-ground adds balance. One
must admit that the speckled texture of the wall may draw
the eye a little, not too much though because of the
shadowing. Then you look at the false balustrade/balcony
which does give the shot a vital support.
The urn to the right keep he viewers attention, take it away
and the whole picture would lose it's beauty.
Equipment used:- Uni-lock 2700 Tripod, Canon Eos 10 camera body,

Sigma 75-300mm AF Zoom Lens, Cokin Linear Pola A160
Film: Kodak Ektar lOOasa. Aperture: F32 Speed: 90
Focal length: 260mm
The cast-iron newel of the metal stair leading from the eastern end
of the Orangery.
A very strong shape that I felt needed to be included in this set.
Looking at the colour photograph, you can clearly see that the grey
paint that now covers it is far from flattering. But I would imagine to
see it with all it's original cast-iron it would be a very powerful
piece of Victorian metal-work.
Equipment used:- Canon Eos 10 camera body, Canon 35-135mm Zoom Lens
Film: Jessop 200asa. Aperture: Fl 1 Speed: 250
Focal length: 135mm
One in a set of three pictures looking at the balusters of

the Orengery.
This shot illustrates how the evening sun distorts their
shape elongating them, with the roll of the brick path
snapping off the ends.
Not one of the strongest shots of this module. But it
did remind me of one of those old fashioned films,
where you see each of the spaces between frames.
Equipment used:- Uni-lock 2700 Tripod, Chinon CE-4 camera body, Chinon 55mm lens
Chinon PW-540 Power winder S
Film: Jessop lOOasa. Aperture: Fll Speed: 60 Focal length: 35mm
32
Building Module 053
Picture Information
The second in a set of three
pictures looking at the balusters
of the Orengery.
This even though taken straight
on has a strength of it's own. The
foreground is very sharp and show
the cutting edge form of the
balusters and how they are
eroding. The faces not as polished
and smooth as they once were. A
stark contrast compared with the
newer stone of the southern courts
entrance staircase.
The softer arches in the
background add an extra
dimension, helping to support the picture by giving it less of a record shot look, and more pattern to
hold the eye, harsh on smooth.
Equipment used:- Canon Eos 10 camera body, Canon 35-135mm Zoom Lens
The third and last in a set of three pictures

looking at the balusters of the Orengery.
Looking up and through to get and echo effect
from the balustrades of the court.
The would usually make the foreground more
menacing, but not in this shot. The richness of
the sky seems to control this effect and you
begin to notice the decay of the stone rather
than anything that may push you into feeling
insignificant.
Equipment used:- Uni-lock 2700 Tripod, Canon Eos 10 camera body, Canon 35-135mm Zoom Lens,
Cokin Linear Pola A160
Film: Kodak Ektar lOOasa. Aperture: F32 Speed: 60 Focal length: 100mm
33
Building Module 053
Picture Information
Here we see some more of the cast-iron staircase that the
newel on page 32 belongs to.
Brimming over with interesting curves and angles that hold
the eye and stimulates the mind. A good design that is if alone
would exude nothing but given the background support of the
other scrolled rail is a veritable feast.
To change anything in the picture, again it would have to be
removing the undercoat from the metal. This grey can make
things look so drab.
Equipment used:- Uni-lock 2700 Tripod, Chinon CE-4 camera body,

Chinon 55mm lens,
Chinon PW-540 Power winder S,
A view from the inside of the court looking out through

the southern door out onto the Poseidon fountain, and
grounds beyond.
It shows part of the naked decaying brickwork inside
supporting these impressive arched doorways.
This picture has been added for one reason, that it is a
nice shot using perspective, and to show that the court is
more than the facades that I have shown in other photos of
this collection.
There is a bit of softness to the image, and yes the light
was a tad flat. But you do get a general feel for the
building.
Equipment used:- Uni-lock 2700 Tripod, Canon Eos 10 camera body,

Canon 3 5-13 5mm Zoom Lens
Film: Jessop 1 OOasa. Aperture: F22 Speed: 45
Focal length: 55mm
34
Building Module 053
EVALUATION
Ho evaluate ones own work can be a hard thing* we all criticise

but being self-critical and not getting to carried away is another
thing.
It is far easier to pick a subject of something one likes and
understands than to pick one that is new, and which takes time to
learn about before setting out on the adventure of exploring the
photographic angle.
Witley Court was just one of those subjects for rne. Yes, I had
viewed it, visited it, and imagined. But had never really
understood it.
There perhaps are a lot of things that I should have done:*
Improved the sharpness by using a slower film, say a 50 or 25ASA,
giving the architecture just that little extra bite.
Been less adventurous with my semi-fisheye, even though the
exploration into shape was enjoyable.
People might look at this work and say 'well he could have taken
more of the building, gone more in depth*. But after all it is my
own personal view of how I see and feel about the court.
Reflecting on the whole, this module has been enjoyable and at
the same time some hard work, and research has gone into it.
Let me see, would I change any of my pictures? The answer I
suppose would have to be no. But I ever choose to do an
architecture module I know a great more work would be involved.
in all it has been a great leaning experience.
35
Building Module 053
Building Module 053
Pictures that I decided to leave out of the final panel
but felt they needed to be included
This fist one is yet again a view of the Orengery's west cast-iron staircase.
I had already placed a similar shot in my layout, which showed more of the west face using a
semi-fisheye.
However this limited view shows the shadowing better from the evening sun, and gives the building
a much warmer glow.
37
Building Module 053
This next one shows a spiral staircase in the east wing, southern face.
An interesting pattern effect, but not really suitable to add to the panel.
The lighting is a bit dull, and the focus seems slightly soft.
If it had worked out I still don't think that I would have added it as the subject matter was to
different to the chosen shots.
38
Building Module 053
There is still evidence of that fateful day in 1937 When Witley Court was started on it's path to decay.
39
Building Module 053
These two shots are again of balusters.

You can only place so many pictures of this type in a layout. Again they are experiments in shape
and pattern.
And as these were of the new stone of the southern entrance, and a little clean, free from the marks
of age.
40
Building Module 053
Pictures that 1 decided to leave out of the final panel
These two pictures show some of the decorative stone work that you find around the grounds, doors
and windows.
41
Building Module 053
I This is one of the two pagoda type structures either side of the southern grounds.
As they didn't suite the direction that I wanted the rest of the module to go in, I left them out. But as they are really a thing of beauty and
of some pictorial interest I include one here.
42
Building Module 053
llossary
ARCHITRAVE
Lowest structural part of entablature, forming a lintel and uprights surrounding an
opening.
ASHLAR
Stone hewn so it could be laid square with finely-fitting

joints.
BALUSTRADE
Series of balusters supporting a rail or coping; identifiable as

an Italianate feature, common from 1840s onwards.
Cornice and Balustrade.
CORNICE
Upper projecting part of classical entablature; designed to stop rain running down the
face of the building
, ,
I F
' Kiimii'.Tiirmf
I J
-f r Typical Georgian Connices.
43
Building Module 053
llossary
eNTABLATURE
Classical lintel comprising architrave (main structural component), decorative frieze
and cornice
/infahiittttri' .
taken from f-'aita/dm by
Wsffiaati f,fitimfew.
FACADE
Face of a building, usually the principal one.
FRIEZE
Part of a wall between the cornice and picture rail
CjEORGIAN STYLE
The Period House: Style, Detail & Decoration illustrates the late Georgian form of
urban domestic building of the period 1774-1810. This was the most severe phase of a
whole period of development based upon classical, Palladian principles which began
in the seventeenth century, well before King George I actually came to the throne
(1714).
LINTEL
Flat, structural top of an opening
PEDIMENT
Formalised classical
gable, used to
' ' * T~
emphasise a part of
the building.
44
EQUIPMENT
Canon Eos 10 camera body

Canon 35-135mm AF Zoom Lens
Sigma 75-300mm AF Zoom
Uni-lock 2700 Tripod
Chinon CE-4 camera body
Chinon 50mm
Chinon PW-540 Power winder S
Carl Zeiss Jena 28-70mm
Sigma 100-200mm Zoom Lens
Kepcor Video Deluxe 18mm Semi-Fisheye
Film: Jessop 100 ASA

KodakEktarlOOASA
Colorama 200 ASA
Cokin Linear Pola A160
Escom Pentium 75
Epson Stylus II
Mustek CG-8000T scanner
MS Paint
Microsoft Works 4.0
serif -PhotoPlus 2.0
Paint Shop Pro 3.11
45

Witley Court - Building Module 053 - Distinction

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66i

Jhe Story Of ^Popular ^photography - Century qiutchinson gjd

eJhe Story Of ^photography - fXichael gjngford - ^ocal cpress

^Photographer's 'Handbook '3rd (Edition'- cjohn ^edgecoe - cEdbury cpress

Story Of Architecture - ^Patrick %uttgens

Oxford Dictionary Qf Art " ^an Chilvers

Colour gibrary ^ook Qf Great Artists - ^elvi

5Jhe ^Period fHouse Style, ^Detail &cDecoration 1774 to 1914 -

t:- (Witley Court And Church

Canon CEOS Series - Canon (<U .qq g^td

12x8 ^prints - J^ax Spielmann

cprint ^processing - cjessops

Camera (History 2-7

Architecture &. Architects -

Witley Court ^History 23-26

Witley 9Hpdifications 27-28

Witley Court cpicrure qnformation 29-34

(pictures cJhat q cQecided Jb geave Out Of cJhe g^inal cpanal

A picture made by French inventor, Joseph Nicephore Niepce, using bitumem of

Renaissance a term meaning 'rebirth' applied to an intellectual and artistic movement

Brothers James and William Forsyth

Witley Courts southern staircase

Interior of Medici Chapel

Architecture and Architects

Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472)

Donate Bramante (144-1514)

Tempietto San Pietro

Architecture and Architects

Andrea Palladio (1508-1580)

John Nash (1752-1835)

speculative builders simplified Palladian proportions down to modular approach,

Composition of a facade in units

10 The Golden Rectangle

' -&* . 1670s

,...; , During the turbulent times following the

In 1766 a second cousin Thomas Foley, the

The Foleys lived at Witley for 183

The Dudley's palace in mid-Victorian times.

The cost of the alterations, which occupied

I The 1st Lords Lady Foley

Here we see Poseidon

The second in our establishing shots.

The third in the establishing shots.

This is a very personal view of a triple archway, double column

Equipment used:- Chinon CE-4 camera body, Chinon 55mm lens

This is the east face of the Orangery.

Equipment used:- Chinon CE-4 camera body, Chinon 55mm lens

Staircase to the left of the southern entrance.

Equipment used:- Uni-lock 2700 Tripod, Canon Eos 10 camera body,

One in a set of three pictures looking at the balusters of

The third and last in a set of three pictures

Equipment used:- Uni-lock 2700 Tripod, Chinon CE-4 camera body,

A view from the inside of the court looking out through

Equipment used:- Uni-lock 2700 Tripod, Canon Eos 10 camera body,

Ho evaluate ones own work can be a hard thing* we all criticise

These two shots are again of balusters.

Stone hewn so it could be laid square with finely-fitting

Series of balusters supporting a rail or coping; identifiable as

Cornice and Balustrade.

-f r Typical Georgian Connices.

Canon Eos 10 camera body

Film: Jessop 100 ASA

Cokin Linear Pola A160

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