Ruskin's Littlefield building.

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The little field house is a unique Gothic building constructed of red brick. One of John Ruskin's characterizing definitions of a Gothic building is it can "withdrawal of any one characteristic, or any two, and will not at once destroy the Gothic character of a building, but the removal of a majority [of features] will."[2] It's sort of bizarre that Gothic has become so many different things. I once thought it related to Batman and stood for upright buildings with steel curtains and sort of the, well, unmistakable Gothic look we see when we look at Gothic buildings. But as I grew older, the definition of Gothic changed. I call a friend of mine "Gothic" sometime because he often wears this stoic look on his face and walks tall--for a short guy. A lot of times my ex-girlfriend would get a Gothic ton in her voice. Make no mistake, Gothic is hear to stay for at least one more generation. 

But I'll get  back to the building.

The first things that stands out to me is that we don't have many red Gothic buildings. The Littlefield building is unique in appearance. But, according to Ruskin, it does have the standard dimensions and style of a Gothic building. He says a Gothic building is, "roughness of the work: this look of mountain brotherhood between the cathedral and the Alp," confessing "the imperfection of the workman."[3] To me, the Little Field house looks like just that, a roughness of work that looks very comfortable. Ruskin expands his definition, perpetual variety of every feature of the building....great art, whether expressing itself in words, colours, or stones, does not say the same thing over and over again. He defines it as a love of nature. If you ask me, the Little Field building makes the nature around it look beautiful. And I'm not a big on fancy, historic architecture or Gothic structures. And I never really noticed the beauty of it until I focused on the clarity of the photo. If you imagine not being there in the same setting, then we're left with a rather boring place. Now that I focus on it, it's not.

It creates somewhat of a disturbed imagination or, as Ruskin writes, :a tendency to delght in fantastic and ludicrous, as well as in sublime, images;" That's what I think about when I see Little field house. I don't see heads of baby dolls painted with lipstick and dark hair hanging from the roof or trees or anything associated with the modern notion of Gothic. Rather, I think that all the features it has combine give it a Gothic look, though it doesn't seem like an outright Gothic structure. 

Perhaps this is one of Ruskin's more unique works. If we compare Ruskin's Littlefield building to 19th and 18th century architecture, we can see the primary differences is Ruskin's Gothic building has what the neoclassical building lacks--style. There is no savageness or rudeness at all. There isn't even any "generosity". The house below seems stingy. Other than the balcony on the front, it doesn't really do anything aesthetically. However, uniquely, it does remind me of my personal impression of a neo-classical style (seen below).


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Below this, we a somewhat fancy example of Puritan architecture. This blan building doesn't even attract you with color. They style is almost non-existent and it seems as it probably still took a long time to build. But I never really understood the Puritans anyway. To be honest, I never quite got what they were purifying from. But I do know that subsequent people also later didn't quite understand what they were doing other than try to "purify"--which seems a vague term to me--themselves and practice a more religious, less complicated life. Personally, I've never been one on fancy houses or cars. So I'll leave the battle between the era's architectures and their social movements alone for now.

In the meantime, happy blogging.

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1 http://www.amylavergne.com/blog/uploaded_images/littlefield-701886.jpg
2 Ruskin, course anthology
3 Ruskin, course anthology
4 http://www.skopelosnet.gr/images/arxitec6.jpg
5 http://www.salemweb.com/guide/arch/images/gphse.jpg
6 http://www.salemweb.com/guide/arch/images/gphse.jpg
7 http://www.carnegiehillbooks.com/catalog/3000/book/full/002534f.jpg