The symbolic function of the Bank of Montreal Building on the Place d'Armes, 1846 : an image of the English mercantile aristocracy
Date
1979
Authors
Vincelli, Brendan MacLeanr
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Abstract
This study explores the symbolic function of the Bank of Montreal Building, on the Place d'Armes, in Montreal, By John Wells, of 1846.
Looking at the structure in historic perspective, its inherent symbolic function within the context of Montreal during the first half of the nineteenth century is unravelled by an examinati6n of the "roots" of the artistic form. The historic battles of the English landowning class, within the European framework, became the basis of the 'country house image', to which the Bank of Montreal was heir.
The fight against bureaucratic monarchy, the desire to 'do what one would with ones own', became the foundations of the triumph of the Whig nobility at the start of the eighteenth century.
The desire of a 'natural world', a rational space, was expressed by the agrarian image of the victorious Whig nobility. When the aristocracy conscripted the Palladian style as their visual metaphor in 1714, the 'temple house' image became tied to the concept of oligarchical government, and the agricultural revolution taking place in the countryside.
The agricultural revolution, reformed, and reorganized the economy, the entire way of life in England. The Palladian style spread to Scotland, and Ireland, as the symbol of the new economic order, capitalism.
The 'agrarian image', the Palladian temple house form, was adopted by the banks in the English-speaking world as their architectural image. In the United States, in Canada, the agrarian image of the English mercantile aristocracy, reappeared as the symbol of the new economic order.
The Bank of Montreal Bu il ding of 1846, within the context of Montreal of the first half of the nineteenth century, was an invitation to the conquered French to come and participate in the new economic system. So, in Lower Canada, the historic symbol of reformed agriculture, the English mercantile aristocratic image, stood in opposition to the way of life of the vast majority of the French-speaking population, locked into a pattern of semi-feudal, unreformed agriculture, as the basis of the economic system.