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Figure 10: North elevation of Wren’s St Mary-le-Bow (left) and Figure 11: Antonio da Sangallo's model for St Peter's, Rome (right)
In fact, it is precisely these theories which gave way to the formation of the English Baroque at the turn of the eighteenth century. Though the climax of the English Baroque was to be seen in the generation after Wren (most notably in the works of John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor) the architecture of England at the time evolved sporadically and as we have seen in the instance of St Stephen Walbrook, Wren was truly aware of the outstanding qualities and rhetorical capabilities of the Baroque. As far as any steeples and towers, St Vedast Foster Lane is arguably the greatest embodiment of the Baroque spirit amongst any of Wren’s City steeples 40 - rivalled only by the West towers of St Paul’s. The body of the church contains all the traditional elements one would expect of an Anglican church - albeit in a modest capacity - whilst also making resourceful use of the lasting medieval fabric of the church. 41 A conservative use of the Tuscan order on the south aisle arcade is defined by an exceptionally large stained-glass window illustrating the life of the Frankish Saint amongst other things and flanked by smaller round-headed windows. As with the majority of the Wren churches however, the primary allure of St Vedast is the striking steeple which sits in the southwest corner of the church and overlooks Cheapside. In most cases, Wren’s churches were designed with only a single show façade in which most investment and aesthetic forethought was put towards.42 It is for this reason that the towers and steeples of Wren’s churches were his biggest architectural expression. At St Vedast, a group of tightly packed diagonal composite pilasters form concave walls above the Doric frieze of the tower. Above this lies a second diminished layer of convex and concave walls which seem to almost absorb the plain pilasters, much like the composite ones below. Figure 12 shows the result: a series of swinging curves and bends on two separate stages of the steeple, a curious deviance from Wren’s usual tendencies rooted in a post-Palladian classicism and order of antiquity,43 but nonetheless reminiscent of the sensuous, flamboyant surface play of Borromini’s oratory of St Philip Neri in Rome 44 or even his church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. Furthermore, the rectangular openings punched into each face make intricate play of the light and shadow arrangements, adding a further sense of drama to an otherwise unassuming church. In any
40 41 42 43 44
Nikolas Pevsner and Simon Bradley, London. 1, The City of London, pg. 265 Nikolas Pevsner and Simon Bradley, London. 1, The City of London, pg. 265 Kerry Downes, The architecture of Wren, pg. 64 http://romananglican.blogspot.com/2019/08/baroque-rebirth-and-birth-of-anglican.html John Summerson, Architecture in Britain: 1530 - 1830, pg. 200
