ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS

Few architectural drawings survive and differences between them and the finished buildings they portray make them difficult to interpret. As one scholar has commented, it is as architects were determined to preserve the secrets of their workshops. Perhaps the most extraordinary architectural drawing we know today is the design for a façade for Barcelona Cathedral, produced in 1408 but not executed until the late 19th century when a new campaign of building was undertaken in the city’s Gothic Quarter.

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Architectural Drawing, ca. 1450, pen and brown ink over black chalk on vellum, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This drawing is similar to the west facade of the church of Saint-Maclou in Rouen, designed in the 1430s, but there is no evidence that it was the model for any particular building.

Maestre Carlín, Project for the Main Portal of Barcelona Cathedral, 1408, pen and ink on parchment, Archivo Capitular de la Catedral de Barcelona.

This huge drawing, on 12 large sheets of parchment, was produced by Maestre Carlín, an architect from Rouen, one of many northern European craftsmen to emigrate to the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century. Bringing with him the new forms of French Flamboyant style, he was closely involved in designing portals for the cathedrals in Barcelona, Seville and other peninsular cities.

Façade of Strasbourg Cathedral, 1260s, pen and ink on parchment, Musée de l’Oeuvre Notre-Dame, Strasbourg.

One of the earliest architectural sketches to survive, this work includes fanciful elements and raises questions about how these kinds of drawing were used.