Sight Unseen: Mediating Vision and Emotion in Gothic Revival Churches c.1830–50

With the revival of Gothic ecclesiastical architecture in nineteenth-century Britain, a cultural interest in church furnishings reignited alongside intellectual attention to their symbolic and emotive power. Rood screens, in particular, became both a symbolic and literal locus for the production of awe, mystery and revelation. The primitive interpretation of rood screens both exalted the object symbolically and allowed it to activate the spiritual senses by limiting physical sight to the altar, thus preserving the mysteries of the Eucharist. This essay considers how rood screen controversies during the mid-Victorian period unveil complex relationships between emotion, revelation and sight within Gothic Revival church interiors.