Чарльз Роберт Кокерэлл: Архитектор, археолог және жазушы өмірі мен еңбектері

English architect, archaeologist, and writer

Charles Robert Cockerell (27 April 1788 – 17 September 1863) was an English architect, archaeologist, and writer. He studied architecture under Robert Smirke. He went on an extended Grand Tour lasting seven years, mainly spent in Greece. He was involved in major archaeological discoveries while in Greece. On returning to London, he set up a successful architectural practice. Appointed Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts, he served in that position between 1839 and 1859. He wrote many articles and books on both archaeology and architecture. In 1848, he became the first recipient of the Royal Gold Medal.

Charles Robert Cockerell was born in London on 27 April 1788, the third of eleven children of Samuel Pepys Cockerell, educated at Westminster School from 1802, where he received an education in Latin and the Classics. From the age of sixteen, he trained in the architectural practice of his father, who held the post of surveyor to East India House, and several London estates. helping in the rebuilding of Covent Garden Theatre (the forerunner of today's Royal Opera House).

On 14 April 1810 he set off on the Grand Tour. Due to the Napoleonic Wars much of Europe was closed to the British, so he headed for Cadiz, Malta and Constantinople (Istanbul); from there he went to Troy, finally arriving in Athens, Greece by January 1811. In Constantinople he met John Foster (architect) who would accompany him on his tour. In April 1811 he was in Aegina where he helped excavate the Temple of Aphaea (which he called the Temple of Jupiter), finding fallen fragmentary pediment sculptures (these are now in Germany), which he discovered were originally painted. On 18 August 1811 he set out with three companions from Zakynthos on a tour of Morea, aiming for the temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae in Arcadia. The magnificent Bassae Frieze that Cockerell discovered at the temple was eventually excavated and sold to the British Museum. It was there that he met Frederick North, who persuaded Cockerell and Foster to accompany him to Egypt, setting off in late 1811, they travelled via Crete, where North abandoned the idea, so Cockerell and Foster decided to visit the Seven churches of Asia and visit Hellenistic sites along the way, Returning to Athens, before going on in May 1814 to Zakynthos to attend the sale of the Bassae Frieze. Back in Athens he met an old school friend John Spencer Stanhope and his brother, between August and October he was struck down by the fever again, but was well enough to attend a celebration of the anniversary of the Battle of Salamis at Piraeus on 25 October. In a letter of 23 December 1814 he details his re discovery of entasis, he enclosed a sketch for Robert Smirke of one of the Parthenon columns showing its outline. Thanks to the abdication of Napoleon in April 1814, the Kingdom of Sicily and Rome were now open to the British, so on 15 January 1815 Cockerell left for Naples in the company of Jakob Linckh, they visited Pompeii and only reached Rome on 28 July. Writing to his father on 28 December saying he had purchased copies of Domenico Fontana's Della transportatione dell'obelisco Vaticano e delle fabriche di Sisto V and Martino Ferraboschi's Architettura della basilica di S. Pietro in Vaticano. In 1816 Cockrell moved on to Florence. Cockerell was presented to Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany and was awarded the diploma of Academician of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno. While in Florence in early 1816 Cockerell produced a design for Wellington Palace for Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, it would have been in the style of Greek Revival architecture on a scale to rival Blenheim Palace, though in the end nothing came of the proposal. In June he suffered another bout of ill health. From Florence Cockerell continued his tour visiting Pisa for a month, returning to Florence, he set out on 13 September for Bologna, Ferrara, then travelling by boat along the Po to Venice where he stayed three weeks. From Venice, Cockerell visited Andrea Palladio's buildings along the Brenta (river) and at Vicenza, passing on to Mantua and the Palazzo del Te, Parma, Milan, Genoa and back to Rome from where he set off in March 1817 to return home via Paris.

On 23 March 1828 he proposed marriage to, and was accepted by, Anna Maria Rennie (daughter of John Rennie the Elder) while strolling in the grounds of Dalmeny House, Scotland, she was twenty five, and he was nearly forty. The engagement ring was bought for £27 10s 0d in Edinburgh on 29 March and the wedding took place on 4 June 1828 in St James's Church, Piccadilly, the Bishop of London William Howley officiating. The couple set up home at 87 Eaton Square. In 1838 the family moved to Ivy House, North End, Hampstead. from this time on his architectural practice virtually ceased. The family moved to 13 Chester Terrace, where he died on 17 September 1863, aged 75. his marble tomb consists of his profile portrait, suspended from an Ionic column, surrounded by rich embellishment.

Whilst in Edinburgh and working on the National Monument with fellow Freemason, William Henry Playfair, Cockerell was Initiated into Scottish Freemasonry in Lodge Holyrood House (St Luke's), No.44 on 18 May 1824.