Pop Culture and Art: A Brief Survey of Rosslyn Chapel
By Kasia Middleton
A few weeks ago, my alarm clock blinked a time closer to my morning lecture than I would have liked, and I closed the cover of a novel which had hooked me from page one. Was it a high-brow classic, with an introduction and notes by some lofty academic? Unfortunately, I am unable to profess such intellectualism. That night, the story which had so enthralled me was a thick paperback publication of Dan Brown’s seminal airport novel, The Da Vinci Code.
The book follows Robert Langdon, professor of symbology (not really a subject) and his generically attractive plot-device of a female companion (who is switched out indiscriminately for each of Langdon’s adventures). Forced to go on a quest to find the Holy Grail, they break codes and solve riddles which allude to secret societies, the history of Christianity, and many works of Western art. I have to admit to being swept up in the romanticism of the tale, but I hope my occasional bracketing shows some level of critical awareness. So, whilst I did enjoy Brown’s selective exploration of the carving on the interior of the remarkable (and close to home!) Rosslyn Chapel, I decided to do some digging of my own.
Figure 1: The exterior of Rosslyn Chapel, founded 1446, Roslin. Photo courtesy of Rosslyn Chapel Trust.
The chapel has experienced a rocky and varied history since its foundation in 1446 by Sir William St Clair, who died in 1484 before the chapel could be completed. It was originally intended to be around thirty metres longer and accompanied by a high tower, but when St Clair died, so did these plans, perhaps due to a lack of funding. This accounts for the rather odd form of the chapel’s exterior today (Fig. 1).
Some believe that the design of Rosslyn Chapel took inspiration from the Temple of Solomon and that it was connected to the Knights Templar. This claim feeds nicely into the plot of Brown’s book, but is mainly based on legend. There are unsubstantiated connections between the Templars and Scotland, which suggest that the King awarded assisting Templars their own land following the victory at the Battle of Bannockburn, in which the seventh Baron of Rosslyn fought. Rosslyn Chapel Trust officially remains neutral in the debate, offering up the legends in their online information, but making no claim as to their truth.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Rosslyn underwent restorative works which involved covering the roof of the chapel for fourteen years to dry the building out. It emerged from its canopy in 2010, and this is recorded in the BBC’s documentary Rosslyn Chapel: A Treasure in Stone, which recounts the more recent history of the chapel and allows for unique close-up glances at the carvings. These include numerous mason’s marks, which some believe to be mysterious symbols connected to the practice of freemasonry, but were probably more like artistic signatures ensuring a prompt payment for their work. Nevertheless, they give the whole chapel a sense of humanity and connection across the centuries which adds to its eternal charm.
Figure 2: Rosslyn Chapel interior. Photo courtesy of Rosslyn Chapel Trust.
But it is not only modern authors and visitors who have been enticed by the incredibly intricate interior of the chapel (see Fig. 2 for just a glimpse). Covered on all surfaces in impressively detailed carvings of figures, plants, and over one hundred so-called Green Men, Rosslyn Chapel offers a unique experience of the Flamboyant Gothic at its peak, taking inspiration from other astonishing feats of architecture nearby, such as Glasgow Cathedral. Like many religious buildings in Scotland, it suffered during the Reformation, but the intricacies have survived in remarkable detail, and have inspired many visitors and artists across the centuries.
Figure 3: The Apprentice Pillar at Rosslyn Chapel. Stone, c. 1446-1484. Photo courtesy of Rosslyn Chapel Trust.
The writings of Thomas Kirk from 1677 describe a visit to Rosslyn on a tour of Scotland, and show particular fascination with the famous Apprentice Pillar (Fig. 3). He tells the legend of this peculiar architectural feature, which is covered in dragons, plants, and vines, and encased in a beautiful helix of stone carvings. As the story goes, a Master Mason struggled to render the pillar properly and travelled abroad to see if he could work out how he would build it. On his return, he discovered the column’s namesake apprentice had completed it without him, and in a fit of jealousy, he murdered him with a stoneworker’s hammer. A legend such as this is typical of the history of Rosslyn, being most likely apocryphal, but still enticing people to visit.
Figure 4: John Slezer, The Chappell of Rosslin, 1693, National Library of Scotland. Photo courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.
The chapel was also included as a drawing in John Slezer’s 1693 Theatrum Scotiae, complete with fascinated onlookers (Fig. 4). Tourists throughout the eighteenth century continued to note down detailed descriptions of the interior of the chapel, with one such writer utterly overcome by its beauty: “Roslin! Sweet Roslin!”
Figure 5: Alexander Nasmyth, Rosslyn Chapel and Castle, c. 1789. Oil on canvas, private collection. Photo courtesy of Angelo Maggi.
A renaissance of interest in Gothic and Medieval art occurred against the backdrop of eighteenth and nineteenth century antiquarianism, which filtered into mainstream art mostly through the Romanticists. Many artworks were produced representing Rosslyn Chapel and its surroundings in the nineteenth century. The artist Alexander Nasmyth set up a school in Edinburgh in the late eighteenth century intending to teach his pupils to paint en plein air. Rosslyn Chapel was a favourite site (Fig. 5). Rosslyn also inspired artists further afield, including Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, the father of photography, who produced a diorama of the chapel, a huge form of theatrical representation popular in the nineteenth century. Eventually, under the guiding hand of Queen Victoria and her fascination with all things Scotland, the Scottish Episcopal Church rededicated Rosslyn for public worship in 1862, and it is used for services to this day.
Rosslyn is a perfect site for getting swept up in romantic legends and apocryphal stories. Dan Brown begins The Da Vinci Code with a bold disclaimer stating that “all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” In truth, Brown’s research is based around a 1982 book entitled The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, which posits that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene married and had children, and their descendents survived and were protected by a secret society. International bestseller and infamous hoax, both it and Brown’s subsequent novel have spurred yet more writing on the falsities they propagated. Ultimately, all Brown did was tell a good story that kept me and millions of others reading into the small hours. But all forms of art are intended for the masses, literary or visual. A visitor at Rosslyn and a reader of The Da Vinci Code are not so disparate in the end.
Before the publication of The Da Vinci Code in in 2003, Rosslyn Chapel recorded 30,000 visitors a year. After its publication, this number increased to 70,000, and then again to 176,000 in 2006, when the film adaptation starring Tom Hanks was released. The icon of pop culture was a welcome but unexpected boon to Rosslyn Trust, allowing them to open up a visitor centre in 2012. In the last year, research revealed that a staggering 72% of visitors had both read and watched The Da Vinci Code. The director of the Trust stated that this fascination has allowed them to “undertake a major programme of restoration and repair […] enabling future generations to appreciate these unique buildings.” Despite its flaws, The Da Vinci Code has prompted huge intrigue which has had a positive effect. It joins a host of other artworks, books, and documentaries which have sustained public interest in this iconic Scottish site across almost six centuries. We like to believe that it is not up to us to preserve history and art, but without the recent public footfall at Rosslyn, who knows what would have gone unrestored, unremarked, and unseen?
The relatively minor instance of Dan Brown’s novel and Rosslyn Chapel provides a great example of the importance of public awareness of cultural heritage sites and works of art. The chapel is only an hour and half’s drive away from St Andrews, and though I may have disabused readers of fanciful notions of the Holy Grail, the Knights Templar, and murderous Master Masons, I hope I might join the likes of Kirk, Slezer, Daguerre, Nasmyth, and above all Brown, in prompting a pilgrimage or two.
Bibliography
Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code. London: Corgi Books, 2004.
Derrick, Wayne, dir. Rosslyn Chapel: A Treasure in Stone. BBC, 2010. Digitised edition.
Ford, Marcia. “Da Vinci Debunkers: Spawns of Dan Brown’s Bestseller.” Archived in 2004. Accessed March 20, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20040527122442/http://faithfulreader.com/features/0405-da_vinci_debunkers.asp
Handa, Rumiko. “Using Popular Film in the Architectural History Classroom.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 69, no. 3 (2010): 311–19.
Maggi, Angelo. Rosslyn Chapel: An Icon Through the Ages. Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, 2008.
Rosslyn Chapel Trust. “What is Scottish Freemasonry?” Accessed March 20, 2024. https://www.rosslynchapel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2019/11/Scottish_Freemasonry.pdf
Rosslyn Chapel Trust. “The Apprentice Pillar.” Accessed March 20, 2024. https://www.rosslynchapel.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/apprentice-pillar-fact-sheet.pdf
Rosslyn Chapel Trust. “History.” Accessed March 20, 2024. https://www.rosslynchapel.com/about/history/
Rudden, Liam. “How Global Success of The Da Vinci Code Brought the World to Roslin’s Mystical Rosslyn Chapel.” Edinburgh News, March 10, 2022. https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/people/how-success-of-the-da-vinci-code-brought-the-world-to-rosslyn-chapel-3605716