Shorter Notice
Henry Yevele. By John H. Harvey. (Botsford. 15s.)
IT is a popular misconception that the artistic one-man-cartel is a modern phenomenon. But personalities like Professor Abercrombie (blithely replanning half a dozen cities) or the late Sir Gilbert Scott (who could safely alight at any railway station in Britain and be sure of being within walking distance of at least one of his jobs) have their mediaeval counterparts. Their names are today practi- cally unknown, but their practices were large enough to rival any of our contemporary be-knighted architects. Perhaps the most dis- tinguished and productive of them all was Henry Yevele, one of the two mediaeval architects mentioned in the Dictionary of National Biography, and now the subject of a full-length portrait by Mr. John Harvey. Yevele was one of a line of great architects—William of Sens (Canterbury Choir), Geoffrey de Noyers (Lincoln Choir), William Hurley (Ely Octagon), but in output and ability he sur- •• passed them all. Entering royal service as a young man, he soon became what might be called Chief Architect, and during the last 5o years of the r4th century he executed a prodigious amount of work—ecclesiastical, domestic, civic and military—all over the country, his most famous works being the naves of Canterbury and Westminster Abbey, the Bloody Tower, Westminster Hall and the Tombs of John of Gaunt, Edward III and Richard II. It was Yevele who was, more than any man, responsible for establishing in this country the " perpendicular " style, and his in- fluence on those who followed him was immense and lasting. Mr. Harvey's book, accurate, enthusiastic, fully documented and gener- ously illustrated, is a long overdue tribute to one of this country's greatest architects, and also to the style of which he was such a master.
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