The Scottish Chateau: The Country House of Renaissance Scotland

Phoenix Mill: Sutton Publishing, 2001. Softcover. VG- with light foxing to insides of covers and light general shelf wear but o/w clean and tight.. Color-photographic wraps with white lettering on spine. 312 pp. with a few color plates and many bw illustrations. "It has long been held that the Scottish chateaux, perhaps the best known of Scottish buildings, were castles, defensive strongholds built in a country where the Renaissance architecture was commonly believed to be somewhat backward. As Charles McKean demonstrates in this radical reassessment of the development of the country house in Renaissance Scotland, however, the image of 'MacSavage' which has dominated our view of the country's architecture during the period is more myth than truth. On the contrary, the architectural demands of a cultured nation participating in European ideas were satisfied by a flowering of domestic architecture that symbolised its status and growing sophistication. In these 'castle-wise country houses' battlements were ornamental, their gunloops essentially unusable, and their large gardens indefensible, while their owners lavished time and money on clothes and inventions, chivalry and flamboyant architectural devices. ... Well researched, elegantly written and including a wealth of superb illustrations from a diverse range of sources, [this book] provides a stimulating and enjoyable introduction to the nation's Renaissance architecture for the general reader. It will also provoke widespread debate and a reassessment of the architecture of the period among scholars." Includes 2 appendices, a glossary, and a conversion table, along with a map locating all the houses discussed.