The Magazine with a few hand-written pages was a distinguished experimentation platform for Mackintosh and his contemporaries, whom he had met at the Glasgow
3. Plant Motifs in Mackintosh’s Architectural Ornament
3.1.3. The Religious Connotations of Mackintosh’s Plant Motifs
In his lecture titled Untitled Paper on Architecture in 1892, Mackintosh stated that:
“The salient and most requisite features should be selected for ornamentation, so from this it must appear, that, windows and doors being about the most important of modern requirements, round these should any ornament be sought [sic].”164
According to Mackintosh, architects should choose prominent and attention-getting features for decorating windows and doors, which are “the most important modern requirements.” Mackintosh’s architectural ornament in Queen’s Cross Church embodies this notion. His attitude to ornaments of buildings or objects is that they should be primarily based upon its intended “utility” by making forms plain.165
In light of this, plant motifs are forms that Mackintosh applied extensively across both the inside and outside of the church. Evidence suggests that Mackintosh did not lead a particularly religious life in a traditional Christian sense. However, Mackintosh used a fusion of various interpretations of the architectural ornament in Queen’s Cross Church in three wider contexts. Given the public already knew about the city coat of arms, the Free Church history, and the image of the Tree of Life, the placement of ornament in the church makes Mackintosh’s plant motifs meaningful and give it symbolic inference.
David Stark describes two possible theories as to why Mackintosh might have looked forward to receiving the whole commission for Ruchill Church instead of merely designing its hall in 1899 when he finished Queen’s Cross Church.166 One is that Mackintosh was at the time occupied with working on the other project, the buildings of the Glasgow School of Art (1896-1899), so did not have enough time to
164 Charles Rennie Mackintosh, “Untitled Paper on Architecture 1892”, in: Pamela Robertson (as note 1), p. 195 [E 31].
165 Ibid., p. 187 [E 17].
166 David Stark (as note 140), p. 151.
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take care of the entire process of Queen’s Cross Church.167 Another is that his Free Church clients were concerned that Mackintosh’s architectural detailing in Queen’s Cross Church might be reminiscent of “pre-Reformation or Anglican thought,” which inclined to government and church power from the Church of England.168
First, on the evening of the 23rd of June 1898, the Reverend Whyte of Edinburgh, Moderator of the General Assembly, delivered the opening remark, which mentioned and quoted "the noble, ever fresh, never conventional, never common-place motto of the city, 'Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the Word'" in the memorial stone laying ceremony of Queen’s Cross Church.169 In fact, “Let Glasgow flourish” derived from the motto of Saint Mungo, who is the patron Saint of Glasgow.170 The original elements of the coat of arms of the city include a tree, a bird, a bell and fish, which are attributes to the Saint (fig. 58).171 Free St. Matthew’s Church, Glasgow: A Record of
Fifty-Five Years indicates that “this house of prayer [Queen’s Cross Church] was a
reminder to men, that if they did their work loyally as in the Great Taskmaster's eye, they would do something, for generations to come, to continue to develop and extend the prosperity, the stability and the wealth of Glasgow.”172 This means that Queen’s
167 Ibid.
168 Ibid.
169 George Ernest Philip (as note 142), p. 157.
170 Saint Mungo is the patron saint of Glasgow. “‘Let Glasgow Flourish,’ St. Mungo said. As he bowed his white and sacred head. Over the first foundation stone. Of a town, where the wild stretched waste and lone,” in: Wallace Harvey, Chronicles of Saint Mungo: Or Antiquities and Traditions of Glasgow, Glasgow 1843, p. 3. “The origin of the armorial bearings of the city, are assigned to its first foundation by the Saint. They consist of the following: Argent, a tree growing out of a mountain base, surmounted by a bird in chief, all proper; a salmon with an amulet in its mouth, Or, on the dexter side; a bell pendant to the tree on the sinister. Discarding, however, the monkish fables respecting the origin of each separate part of this cognisance, we may conclude, with little danger of mistake, that the tree and the bird referred to the ancient forest which surrounded the Cathedral, the bell to the Cathedral itself, the ring to the Episcopal office, and the fish to the scaly treasures poured by the beautiful river below, at the foot of the venerated metropolitan. The motto is "Let Glasgow Flourish," to which in former times was added, "through the preaching of the word." Prior to the Reformation, the saint, mitred, appeared on the dexter side of the shield, which had two salmon for supporters [sic],” in: Ibid., pp. 9-10. About the Scottish Reformation of 1560, Confession of Faith Ratification Act 1560 at
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aosp/1560/1/contents (accessed March 27, 2017)
171 Ibid. Glasgow coat of arms, 1866, Glasgow, Mitchell Library, inv. G 929.8 MCG.
172 George Ernest Philip (as note 142), p. 158.
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Cross Church had a duty to play a crucial role in the city’s development. The carving ornamented in the form of a simplified combination of tree and bird on the south-east porch of Queen’s Cross Church would have been regarded as a political appropriation referring to Saint Mungo’s attributes and its connection to the pre-Reformation period in the context of Glasgow’s coat of arms.
Second, in the record of Free St. Matthew’s Church, Glasgow, Free St.
Matthew’s token (fig. 59) appears to feature the iconic image of burning bush and a metaphor on page 193.173 The burning bush is depicted in the Old Testament Book of Exodus, and signifies both the suffering of the church and God’s protection (Exodus 3:1-4:17).174 It became the symbol of the Church of Scotland and was retained by the Free Church of Scotland.175 The Latin phrase nec tamen consumebatur set on the ribbon below the image is a favorite proverb of the Free Church of Scotland, implying
“yet it was not consumed.”176 As it was considered to be the burning bush for Queen’s Cross Church (fig. 42), it was a sign of the everlasting faith in the Free Church.177
Third, the fruit of the Tree of Life in the context of Genesis appears in the Garden of Eden.178 The Tree of Life, is one of Mackintosh’s favorite motifs, and dominates his art. In his lecture scripts on architecture, Mackintosh quoted from William Richard Lethaby's Architecture, Mysticism and Myth, which advances a true basis of cosmic
173 The image of the burning bush on the Saint Matthew’s token, 1843, from: Ibid., p. 193.
174 Aaron Denlinger, “The Symbol of the Burning Bush in Church History,” at
http://www.ligonier.org/blog/symbol-burning-bush-church-history/ (accessed March 30, 2017).
175 Ibid.
176 “He looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed,” in: Bible, Book of Exodus 3:2, the new international version at http://biblehub.com/exodus/3-2.htm (accessed June 11, 2017).
177 Aaron Denlinger, “The Symbol of the Burning Bush in Church History,” at
http://www.ligonier.org/blog/symbol-burning-bush-church-history/ (accessed March 30, 2017).
178 The planting of the garden in the Bible, Genesis 2:8, in the new international version, reads as follows: “Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed”
at http://biblehub.com/genesis/2-8.htm (accessed June 11, 2017). The text in the Bible, Genesis 2:9, in the new international version, reads as follows: “And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil” at http://biblehub.com/genesis/2-9.htm (accessed June 11, 2017).
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symbolism whereby a known tree is both a reference to the unknown universe and became a primary form for sacred and secret knowledge in antiquity.179 Mackintosh employed the image of trees in Queen’s Cross Church’s architectural ornament (fig. 49) and building structure (fig. 48). Also, the depicted ornament of the pulpit (fig. 51) and the panelling (figs. 44, 45) with stylized leaves might have been intended to signify the image that “seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown” in the parable of the sower in the Gospel of Saint Matthew.180 Mackintosh’s creativity may have been relevant to the sermon recorded in the chapter
Founding of Saint Matthew’s: “O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret
places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.”181 According to the reference in the Gospel, ornament in the church responds to an awareness of the providence of God in this sense.Although Mackintosh might not have been working by himself, his high level of involvement in the commission determined that the ornament in the church be only designed for his artistic purpose.182 Retrospective materials prove that there are the above mentioned three possible interpretations and interrelations. Mackintosh’s individual stylistic language of plant motifs can be inferred from his previous plant-related works, which can lead to an understanding of the design process from the visualization to the geometricalization of plants. It is evident that geometric forms in Scotland Street Public School are deduced from his representative plants.
179 “The unknown universe could then only be explained in terms of its known parts; the earth, shut in by the night sky, must have been thought of as a living creature, a tree, a tent, a building,” in: William Richard Lethaby, Architecture, Mysticism and Myth, New York 1892, p. 10. Alan Senior, “The Symbolic Art of Charles Rennie Mackintosh,” in: Quest Magazine, Vol. 90, No. 3, May-June 2002.
Theosophical Society at
https://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/42-publications/quest-magazine/1451-the-symbolic-art-of-charles-rennie-mackintosh (accessed August 1, 2017).
180 James Macaulay, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, New York and London 2010, p. 140. The text is quoted from the Bible, Matthew 13:8, the new international version.
181 George Ernest Philip (as note 142), p. 28.
182 David Stark (as note 140), p. 151.
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