070515. 8/46, Thirty-six Views of Bath Abbey. My tribute to Hokusai’s Fugaku Sanju Rokkei

May 15, 2007 at 4:43 AM | Posted in Architecture, Bath, Bath Abbey, Cathedrals and churches, Fugaku Sanju Rokkei, Hokusai, somerset, Towers | 9 Comments

See the series so far!

The Hidden Splendour of Bath Abbey

The Abbey Church its splendor rears
The sacred monument of former years
Behold its sculpture—and mark while you view it
The pretty little house sticking to it.
The citizens of Bath, with vast delight
To hide their noble Church from vulgar sight.
Surround its walls with chimney pots!
Surely from these designs so pur, so chaste,
Bath has been called the emporium of taste.

–Q. in the Corner, Rough Sketches of Bath and Other Poems (Bath: 1817)

The view is from the southeast while the poem describes the houses along the north end of the abbey, which were pulled down by Marshall Wade to create Wade’s Passage, an unobstructed view down High Street to the Abbey. Perhaps not, I believe Wade’s Passage was created in the early 18th century. The Japanese print is Hokusai’s “Minobu-gawa ura Fuji.”