A further search has turned up the link below, which seems to confirm the architectural aspects:

"Martin's painting was inspired not only by Milton's text but also by P.J. de Loutherbourg's immensely successful Eidophusikon, a kind of animated sound-light scenic effect, and by the contemporary architecture of London such as the immense water-gates of Somerset House, the arcade of Carlton House Terrace, and Charles Barry's perspective plans for the new Houses of Parliament. The composition was developed from Martin's 1824 Paradise Lost mezzotint, and the dominant diagonal of the buildings along the river, here formed of molton rock, from his canvas of The Fall of Babylon, 1819, and the mezzotint of 1831 (illustrated Feaver, op. cit., pls. 26 and 27). Despite the imagination of the scene as a whole the details provide a completely realistic foundation."

However, the primary point of my question is whether or not the painting might have also have been making a political statement. 

Having just retrieved my Tate 2011 Martin Exhibition catalogue, I see that by 1837, Martin was deeply in debt, partly as a result of the failure of Martin's Thames and metropolis improvement plans, which didn't get the support he and colleagues sought from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the enterprise subsequently failed (p. 36).

Could this indicate a political motive behind (interpretation of) the painting?

http://goldenagepaintings.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/john-martin-pandemonium.html

https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Martin-Apocalypse-Myrone/dp/1854378899/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1485351996&sr=1-2-fkmr0&keywords=tate+catalogue+John+Martin+exhibition+2011

thanks

Recently critics have tended to read The Great Day of His Wrath as a comment on the impact of industrialisation, a point supported by the testimony of Martin's son, who said that his father was inspired to paint the scene after making a journey at night through the "Black Country", one of the most intensely industrialised areas in England at the time.   A Londoner himself, the sorry state of the capital was also probably on Martin's mind. In the middle of the 19th-century, London was a pretty hellish place to live.

The "dark satanic mills" that the poet William Blake wrote of and the new factories and machinery of the industrial age had replaced farms and wrecked rural communities.   Meanwhile, the population of cities across Western Europe and American exploded at a terrifying rate, causing slum dwellings, extreme poverty, and poor sanitation.

The Thames itself, the source of London's water supply, also caused the deaths of hundreds every week from cholera during periods of epidemic.   Something had to done and in the late 1820s Martin took it upon himself to do it, submitting a proposal to parliament which provided a detailed plan for the construction of a sewage system that would help remedy the crisis.   His plans were rejected.

As a belated repost, perhaps, in 1841, he painted Pandaemonium in which Milton's Satan stands before his diabolical city, a river of lava running past it.   The design of the building bears an uncanny resemblance to that of the as yet uncompleted Houses of Parliament situated right on the banks of the foul and pestilential Thames.

Also check out the link;

http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/blogs/john-martin-art-and-films-and-games-after-end-world

Stephen,

Thank you for the link and for fleshing out the context.

Our assessments seem to agree, but unless he left specific notes about Pandaemonium, then I guess we'll never know precisely what Martin meant by the painting.

Paul

Dear Paul,

Try this link

Dear Hasitha,

Thanks for adding to my collection of John Martin references. It didn't show up in my original searches.

However, a quick look at the PDF sampler you posted shows that it's all modern short stories and while they might say a little on modern interpretations of Martin's ideas, (at a stretch, perhaps even a modern view on Martin's politics), the full-length book seems to be unavailable - even though a kindle copy is mentioned in Amazon reviews but not offered by Amazon (copyright issues?).

Not only does Amazon say that the hardcopy is not available at present, I can't locate 2/H copies on AbeBooks or eBay either, so unable to check beyond the sampler.

Regards - Paul

Bonjour,

Au 19 siècle en Angleterre, l'architecture "Greek Revival" nait d'une identification de résistance des  Grecs (le peuple anglais) contre les Romains (le peuple français).

L'architecte Augustus Welby Pugin  a travaillé à la reconstruction  du nouveau bâtiment du parlement... et il était un fervent catholique.

Peut-être y a t-il là un lien !