230 



Observations on Gothic Architecture. 



|)oIite gallantry, "Madam, I'm con- 

 tent: I wear wliat 1 win!" With llie 

 memorable words, he withdrew. 



I'otier, oi' the Porte St. Martin, is a 

 liappier caricaturist than we possess. 

 Periet, of the Gymnasc, is a mimic of 

 as high a reputation there as Matthews 

 liere, and (ills his house, — himself an 

 host. While Brunet, of (he Varietes, 

 is supposed to be less naturally an old 

 man, now that he grows elderly. 

 Mademoiselle Ciuti, of the Italiens, 

 is eperduement lovely ; the proof, a 

 youth's fate, who blew out his brains 

 from rejected passion : and Pelegrini, 

 of the same corps, is the most gentle- 

 manly bass iu Europe. 



P. Senachy. 



For the Monllih/ Magazine. 



OBSKUVATIONS OH GOTHIC 

 ARCHITECTURE, 



THAT the beautiful species of 

 architecture styled Gothic, was 

 the invention of those barbarous na- 

 tions, who, under the appellation of 

 Goths and Vandals, overwhelmed and 

 suliverted the Western Empire, is an 

 hypothesis which no one will, perhaps, 

 now venture to maintain ; but, to 

 whom the invention is to be ascribed, 

 archileets and antiquarians are by no 

 means agreed : and the discussion be- 

 comes interesting, in i)ro|)ortion to tiie 

 attention and admiration of late years 

 revived, respecting those prodigies of 

 human art which almost every country 

 in Europe, and England in particular, 

 exhibits. 



In the ingenious posthumous work 

 of the Rev. G. D. Whittington,* 

 edited by his noble friend the Earl of 

 Aberdeen, occurs the following very 

 questionable passage. — "In the 12th 

 eentury, a new character of building 

 suddenly appeared, and spread itself 

 over the greater part of Cliristendom. 

 This has, in latter times, been called 

 the Gothic style, thougii it did not 

 arise till long afl(^r tiie Goths were 

 melted down, and lost among the na- 

 tions of Europe. It has not the most 

 distant similarity either to Greci in or 

 Roman architecture, :.ud its origin has 

 been the subject of much controversy. 

 I am of opinion, that it is of Eastern 

 extraction, and that it was imported 

 by the Crusaders into tlie West. All 

 Eiistern buildings, as far back as they 



* Author, also, of Travels in Spain, 

 p!i1>li«lied in this IVIisceliany, ami rc- 

 jjiintcd, iu lb08; in two small volumes. 



[April I, 



go, and we cannot tell Jww far, have 

 pointed arches, and are in the sanre 

 style : is it not fair to suppose, that 

 some of these are older than the 

 twelfth century ? or that the same style 

 existed before that time? Is it at all 

 probable, that the dark ages of the 

 West should have given a mode of 

 architecture to the East ? I conceive, 

 therefore, tliat the Crusaders intro- 

 duced the fashion of the pointed arch, 

 and the first ornaments of the style, 

 which are few and simple ; but the 

 richness it gathered in process of time, 

 and the improvements and alterations 

 we observe in it from its first rise in 

 the twelfth, to its extinction in the 

 fifteenth [sixteenth] century, are 

 owing to the munificent encouragement 

 of the church, and of vast abilities of 

 the Freemasons of the middle ages. 

 By them this Eastern style was trans- 

 planted into the West." — Preface, 20. 

 " It has been repeatedly asked," 

 says the noble editor, " in what part 

 of the East we are able to discover 

 buildings constructed in the style al- 

 luded to, and of a date anterior to 

 those in the West ?" This very mate- 

 rial question Lord Aberdeen attempts, 

 though darkly and doubtfully, to 

 solve. 



1. It is impossible that the scantiness of 

 authentic records relating to these sub- 

 jects, among Oriental nations, should not 

 be felt by all, and the difficulty of attaining 

 to a knowledge of such as may exist. 



2. So frequent and destructive have 

 been the wars and revolutions of the East, 

 as but too often to entail the same fate on 

 works of art and utility, which attended 

 the princes and chiefs of the states sub- 

 verted. 



3. The people of the East sacrificed, in 

 a considerable degree, their peculiar style 

 of building to that whidi they tound esta- 

 blished by the Greeks. 



The noble editor nevertheless as- 

 sures us, that, in every country east of 

 Constantinople, and south of the 

 Euxinc, throughout the whole extent 

 of India, to the furthest limits of China, 

 examples are to be found of the 

 pointed arch, accompanied with the 

 slender proportions of the Gothic 

 architecture. "It is true," says he, 

 "that we are unable, for the most 

 part, to ascertain the precise dates of 

 these buildings ; but this, in reality, is 

 not very important, it being suflicient 

 to state the fact of their comparative 

 antiquity; which, joined to the vast 

 diiiusion of the style, appears adequate 

 to justify our conclusion." Tliis is 

 certainly 



