written for the general reader who had little or no training in architecture. Its main purpose was to inform travellers who visited these masterpieces in Europe to gain the greatest appreciation and enjoyment of Gothic architecture. Although Kingsley was largely self-taught and inexperienced, he still managed to create the first book on medieval architecture written by an American.37 Quite simply, it was an immense achievement. The bibliographies were testament to the staggering breadth and depth of the reading he had undertaken before attempting this mammoth work.38
10. Kingsley aged 25 in 1908.
Courtesy of Brooklyn Museum Archives. Goodyear Archival Collection. General correspondence (1.1.066): Porter (1910). Location unknown, 1908.
Although the book mainly dealt with the Gothic architecture of France, it also encompassed a history of architecture from Greek and Roman times. Kingsley was just 26 years old when the book was published in two volumes in 1909, by Baker & Taylor of New York. It contained over 300 illustrations that Kingsley had commissioned. The work was considered groundbreaking, as Kingsley used documents to ascribe dates to monuments as the means for tracing the evolution of Romanesque and Gothic architecture. This revolutionized the rather careless method employed by previous researchers, of deducing the chronology of development from conjectured theories.39
To attempt such an enormous work at a young age shows an inner confidence in his research, analytical and literary abilities. His writing style was clear and fluid, displaying an incredible knowledge of his chosen subject but also showing a deep passion for the planning, construction and ornamentation of architectural wonders, including Roman temples, Gothic cathedrals and Norman towers. The actual writing of the book must have taken him many thousands of hours, spent alone at his desk, constantly refining and editing every sentence.
The work also shows Kingsley’s love for medieval monuments and, in particular, the mystical delight he derived from the beauty of a Gothic cathedral that could transport him to another realm:
But the Gothic Cathedral alone possesses the power to lift the mind entirely from the cares and thoughts of the world, de materialibus ad immaterialia transferendo, the power to call forth within the soul a more than mortal joy, until for the moment the material world is forgotten, and the mind is carried captive to that strange shore of the universe which is more of the mould of Heaven than of Earth.40
The book was widely acclaimed. A reviewer for The Sun (New York) described the work as a ‘stupendous undertaking. The bibliography of the subjects of the first volumes embraces 2,500 separate entries and is in itself a remarkable contribution to the study of a single art.’41
According to The Washington Times, ‘For six years, Mr Porter, who is a young man, has constantly applied himself to the production of this monumental history of architecture, making several Asiatic and European trips required by the book since his graduation from Yale and working on the subject daily for years.’42
Even after his great success, Kingsley had no time to rest. He travelled to Italy during the winter of 1908, spending January 1909 in Naples.43Here he conducted further research into Italian architecture that would form the basis of his second book, The Construction of Lombard and Gothic Vaults. At this stage of his career Kingsley was not affiliated with any university. He must have incurred enormous expense in conducting independent research in Europe but his considerable wealth allowed him to pursue any quest that captured his interest. Kingsley had found an area in which he excelled and which provided him with meaning and purpose. He was therefore more than content to throw himself, body and soul, into the study of his chosen subject.
Kingsley needed no justification for spending money in the pursuit of art. In fact, he abhorred art that was made for commercial reasons. In later writings he made this abundantly clear:
There are two kinds of architecture, as there are two kinds of painting, of sculpture, and of literature. One is artistic, created for the joy of bringing into the world a beautiful thing – material compensation may or may not be given, but is secondary; the other is commercial, made primarily for expediency, for money, for fame. Roman art is of the commercial variety... They were opportunist structures, lacking intellectual and emotional content.44
When it came to commercialism in art, Kingsley took a high moral stand. There was no allowance made for struggling artists who had to feed themselves and their families. Even in Kingsley’s time, there were very few artists who could indulge their art to their heart’s content. Poverty would certainly concentrate the mind to dwell on more physical and mundane matters. Whatever emotional turmoil that Kingsley had so far faced in his life, the lack of finance had never been a factor.
For Kingsley, the joy and delight he experienced when researching ancient monuments in Rome was adequate compensation. His descriptions of his Roman travels after the publication of Medieval Architecture reveal a man who has indeed found a vocation that is all-consuming: ‘the opportunity has come to linger long in Rome; to draw and photograph among the ruins of the Agro, to poetize with Carducci on the Aventine or in the Baths of Caracalla. Often as I have stood in the august presence of the Roman Forum, it has never been without emotion.’45
While in Italy, Kingsley’s good friend and mentor William Henry Goodyear, the curator of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, wrote to him, advising him to take accurate photographs of the churches and monuments he visited: ‘In my own experience, I have often undervalued the great importance of photographic record and have very frequently been obliged, on account of necessary haste, to omit observations which have involved sometimes revisiting a monument at great cost in some other year, and on many occasions I have never been able to make good.’46
Goodyear’s advice was to stand Kingsley in good stead over his many years of productive research. He quickly became very proficient as a photographer and never went anywhere without his camera. From 1909 onwards, Kingsley no longer needed to buy book illustrations, as he was quite capable of producing his own photographic images.
In April 1909, at the age of 26, Kingsley was elected a member of the prestigious Société Française d’Archéologie, a rare honour for an American scholar. His election was in honour of his unique contribution to the study of medieval architecture.47 During the remainder of 1909 and the whole of 1910, Kingsley continued his studies of Lombard architecture.
The Construction of Lombard and Gothic Vaults was completed in 1911 and published by Yale University Press. In this work, Kingsley discovered the earliest examples of rib vaults to have been created in Lombardy, in northern Italy. He then logically described the vault’s evolution from Roman architecture to French Gothic.48 In the opening chapter Kingsley summarized his findings: ‘Rib vaults therefore were invented in Lombardy as a simple device to economize wood. They were adopted by the French builders for the same purpose. The same desire to dispense with temporary wooden substructures governed the development of architecture during the entire transitional period, and eventually lead to the birth of Gothic.’49
In the decade following his father’s death, Kingsley had largely reversed the scandal and public lampooning of his family. Arthur Kingsley Porter had established himself as a brilliant scholar, an author of international acclaim and an authority on medieval architecture. Having immense wealth at his disposal and being surrounded by like-minded friends in New York, Kingsley was now living the good life. There was just one final element to be fitted into place: it was time for Kingsley to fall in love.
Chapter four
Establishing Roots: Marriage and Yale
Kingsley
