STYLE IX ARCHITECTURE. 399 



Perhaps no lordlv dwelling-house in the world, although it 

 seems plain at first sight, leaves a more lasting impression on 

 the mind of reverence and maj,esty than Michael Angelo's 

 Farnese Palace at Rome. Side-views of the famous buildings 

 of Florence, the Strozzi and the Ricchardi palaces, illustrate 

 the sharp perspectives commonly seen along the narrow streets 

 of Plorence. Had there been more elaboration of design, or 

 any confusion of issue between the horizontal and vertical 

 features, the everyday impressiveness and distinction which 

 have made these palaces famous would have been lost. 



I believe it is a physical fact that the eye takes in its impres- 

 sion of a large object by a series of quick, regular jumps. This 

 fact may explain the connnon disappointment between a paper 

 design and its realisation in actual building. May this be 

 accepted as a warning to all judges of architectural designs. 

 The eye can take in a complexity of many features on the small 

 scale of a drawing, but in an actual building the eye can only- 

 flash to its master, the mind, the features of its halting places 

 and their relation to each other. These, therefore, must be 

 more or less regular and not too frequent, with restful intervals 

 of bare spaces which it passes over without effort. The 

 emphasis of the contrasting" horizontal and vertical lines must 

 aid, and not confuse, the eye in its progress up and down and 

 from side to side. Our vision may even run in cadences as 

 in music, and this may explain the subtle qualities of rythm in 

 architectural designs. 



In addition there should be strong concentration of orna- 

 ment on any important and central features which require 

 emphasis on the nn'nd eye of the beholder. I'his is a strongly 

 marked characteristic of S[)anish architecture. 



It is only a half truth which asserts that there is no 

 nationality in art. To refute this fashionable theory of the day 

 we have only to think of our own English school of portrait 

 painting, Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Romney. And in 

 architecture also, though the principles are cosmopolitan or 

 eternal, as Wren called them, yet everv nation has its own 

 individual distinctiveness, wdiich, broadly speaking, reflects the 

 characteristics of the nation. This is evident in the 

 Renaissance style of France and England. Wren's criticisms, 

 which I have already quoted, about the frivolsomeness of the 

 architecture of Louis XlVth were at that time fully justified, 

 and to-day the French architects, with all their marvellous skill 

 in design and technique, which is the envy of other nations, 

 yet often show a want of sobriety, or rather an excess of 

 gaiety, which is perhaps characteristic of their nation. In the 

 English Renaissance architects, on the other hand, and especi- 

 ally in the work of Wren himself and his pupils, there is always 

 a sober Anglo-Saxon quality about it. Dull it may sometimes 

 be called by critics, but it is always the work of an English 

 gentleman. History too will always record that the xA.merican 

 colonist of the Southern States was an English gentleman 

 given to hospitality from architectural evidence alone. I think 

 the craze for French details, which have not alwavs the " At- 



