Public Thesis Defense – Daniel SIK

The relationship between Magnificence and Hospitality in the Domestic Architecture of Elizabethan and Early Stuart England

Friday 9 january at 3pm - Room AV-02, LOCI-Bruxelles, rue Henri Wafelaerts 47/51 à St Gilles 

This thesis examines how domestic architecture in Elizabethan and Early Stuart England were expected to articulate privilege, as well as to justify privilege through signs of virtue. In particular, it focuses on the relationship between magnificence and hospitality in England between 1558 and 1660, and foregrounds the emergence of an antagonism between the two values in architectural discourse as argued by reactionary polemicists. These reactionaries accused the nouveau riche of ‘virtue signalling’ through magnificent house-building, and proposed alternative architectural semiologies of rustic hospitality. What emerged was an ideological conflict driven by the instability of moral signifiers in architecture. Building upon the work of cultural materialists, this thesis treats both building culture and moral literature as superstructures supporting certain economic and class dynamics, and argues that the shifting socio-economic realities of early modern England destabilised how domestic architecture was intended to articulate both wealth and social concern. Methodologically, it approaches magnificence, hospitality, and domestic architecture as ideological signifiers, using database building and contextual analysis of verbal and architectural signs to track their shifting use and value.

Jury Members :

• Prof. De Raedt Nele (UCLouvain), supervisor
• Prof. Morel Anne-Françoise (KULeuven), co-supervisor
• Prof. Pleitinx Renaud (UCLouvain), chairperson
• Prof. Chanvillard Cécile (UCLouvain), secretary
• Prof. De Koninck Ralph (UCLouvain)
• Prof. Stevenson Christine (The Courtauld Institute of Art, UK)
• Prof. Guidicini Giovanna (Glasgow School of Art, UK)

Pay Attention : the public defense will also take place in the form of a videoconference.