Bentley, John Francis
Bentley, John Francis (1839–1902). Doncaster-born English architect. He joined the London office of Henry Clutton, working on the Jesuit Church in Farm Street and on Clutton's delightful little church of St Francis of Assisi, Notting Dale, London, where he designed the high-altar, baptistery, and much else. In 1862 he converted to Roman Catholicism and set up his own practice, obtaining much work from his Church, including the Holy Rood, Watford, Herts. (1883–90), a firmly English mix of Second and Third Pointed Gothic, with an exquisite high-altar, reredos, Rood-loft, and Rood. His greatest building is Westminster Cathedral (1894–1903), an Italo-Byzantine building with a red-and-white striped exterior influenced by Norman Shaw's New Scotland Yard. An eclectic tour-de-force, other precedents were San Marco, Venice, San Vitale in Ravenna, the Romanesque Duomo in Pisa, the Domkirche (Cathedral Church) in Speier, Sant'Ambrogio in Milan, the Certosa in Pavia, and Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (Istanbul). Romanesque and Byzantine elements fuse, but the plan is not unlike Vignola's church of Il Gesù in Rome: the series of saucer-domes (constructed of concrete) recall those of St-Front, Périgueux.
Bibliography
Browne & and Dean (1995);
Hôpital (1919);
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004);
Scott-Moncrieff (1924)
More From encyclopedia.com
John Palmer , Palmer, John (1785–1846). English architect. Originally an illiterate mason, he taught himself to read and write, and learned the ‘rudiments’ of arch… Church Commissioners , Church Commissioners. Body which manages the endowments of the Church of England.
church commissioners. See ecclesiastical commissioners. Ecclesiology , The branch of theology that studies the nature and mission of the Church. After considering the history of ecclesiology, this article will survey the… Presbyterians , Presbyterian
★427 ★
American Presbyterian Church
1647 Dyre St.
Philadelphia, PA 19124-1340
The American Presbyterian Church was founded in 1977 by pe… Church Of England , Church of England, the established church of England and the mother church of the Anglican Communion.
Organization and Doctrine
The clergy of the chu… Celtic Church , Celtic Church, name given to the Christian Church of the British Isles before the mission (597) of St. Augustine of Canterbury from Rome. Founded in…
About this article
John Francis Bentley
All Sources -
You Might Also Like
NEARBY TERMS
John Francis Bentley