‘In Search of the origin of the Gothic: Thomas Pitt´s travel in Spain in 1760’: ‘En busca del origen del gótico: el viaje de Thomas Pitt por España en 1760’, Goya. Revista de Arte, published by the Fundación Lázaro Galdeano, No 292, 2003, 9-22.

Abstract

The article examines the Observations in a Tour to Portugal & Spain, 1760, by John Earl of Strathmore & Thomas Pitt, Esq., in the context of the discussions about the origin of the Gothic in the eighteenth century. One of the most popular theories argued that the Gothic had an Arab origin, a theory that has been traditionally attributed to Christopher Wren. This article draws attention to a different and earlier version of the theory which proposed Spain as the cradle of the Gothic. It argues that Thomas Pitt had the mission to determine whether this theory was supported by Spanish medieval monuments. Although Pitt does not appear mentioned in printed histories of Gothic architecture, his refutation of the theory was crucial for the rejection of an Arab origin of the Gothic where it mattered most, in the medievalist avant-garde at Cambridge. It also placed the interaction between Islamic and Christian works and artists at the heart of the study of Spanish medieval art and architecture.

Keywords

• Thomas Pitt
• origin of the Gothic
• Christopher Wren
• Thomas Gray
• Spanish medieval architecture
• medievalism
• historiography of the Gothic