400 stylp: ix architkcture. 



tribute of Eternal," is one of the dan.yers in the patli of Eui^- 

 lish architecture to-day. 



The efforts of the Renaissance culminated in the work of 

 Michael Anijelo, who. in St. Peter's, realised his ideal of lift- 

 ing the Pantheon on the top of the Bath of Diocletian. Thus 

 it took 1.400 years after the great Roman dome was built be- 

 fore realisation was given to the external magnificence of this 

 the noblest feature in architecture. In the great Roman dome, 

 the Pantheon, the dome as a feature of extreme beauty is 

 practically non-existent. By way of contrast the Pantheon at 

 Paris, built 1,500 years later, justifies what Wordsworth 

 said of our St. Paul's. " Its skylike dome has typified by reach 

 of daring art ' Infinity's Embrace.' " 



A general knowledge of the great principles underlying the 

 best Renaissance architecture, and indeed all the architectures, 

 such as repose, restraint, balance, symmetry, dignity, 

 order, rythm, vista, connection of surfaces and contrast of 

 void with mass, used once to be part of the education of every 

 educated gentleman. The style, it is true, at one period 

 stiffened into affectation and dullness, or. as Professor Bloem- 

 field wittily says, became associated with periwigs and pomposi- 

 ties. Yet it has been a misfortune to architecture, that the 

 Romanic school, which followed this period of dullness, should 

 have swept away all the old principles, both the good and bad, 

 principles which we by slow and painful processes must re- 

 learn if our architecture is ever again to reach the high level 

 it attained during the best period of the classic revival. 



I have chiefly referred to ecclesiastical architecture because it 

 was in the building of the churches that during nearly a thousand 

 years of the dark ages — from the end of the Roman Empire 

 to the Renaissance — the sacred fire was kept burning in Europe. 

 Another reason fo-r this prominence is that the attributes of 

 churches, being more jesthetic and less material, and therefore 

 higher in the scale of art, form a better text for my discourse. 

 We have seen how the desire for sunlight and warmth created 

 ("lOthic architecture. It becomes an interesting problem for 

 church builders in South Africa, who, while wishing" to pre- 

 serve the traditional forms of the Church of their Motherland, 

 are yet forced by climatic considerations to a limited use of the 

 features which give the style its birth and character. For a 

 fully-developed typical Gothic building, in which the wall sur- 

 faces are reduced to a mere framework, would be intolerably 

 hot in the South African sun. It would seem, therefore, that 

 we ought to turn for study, though not for the purposes of 

 slavish imitation, to the earlier churches of the vSouth of 

 Europe. 



I have in this paper made reason the chief basis of my criti- 

 cism, and it must mainly be so; but it cannot take us the whole 

 way to the truth. There exists in architecture an instinct — 

 feminine may I call it — which transcends reason. 



In its deepest and highest aspects architecture is allied to 

 music and poetry, and is beyond the reach of definition, and 

 almost of criticism. We can feel its beauty but cannot put it 



