Observations on Gothic Architecture. 



1823.] 



certainly arriving at a eonclution very 

 rapidly, and very easily. But, if the 

 object is to prove, tliat the style of 

 architecture introduced into Europe 

 in tlie twelfth century was !)orrowed 

 from the East, it must, according to (he 

 common rules of reasoning', be of pri- 

 mary importance to show, that it ex- 

 isted in the East before the twelfth 

 century. " The inliabitants of the 

 West," as his lordship tells us, (p. xx.) 

 *' could not convey a knowledge 

 which tbcy did not possess." And 

 the converse of this proposition is no 

 less unquestionable. 



The hypothesis of Mr. Whittington 

 had been long before maintained, 

 though Lord A. does not advert to this 

 remarkable circumstance, by the cele- 

 brated Sir Christopher Wren, and 

 upon his authorily, which in modern 

 times has mucli declined on the sub- 

 ject of Gothic architecture, it was 

 once very generally received. " He 

 was of opinion, tliat, what we now vul- 

 garly call the Gothic, ought properly 

 and truly to be named the Saracenic 

 architecture, refined by the Christians ; 

 and which, first of all, began in the East 

 after tbe fall of the Greek empire. 

 The holy war gave the Christians, who 

 had been there, an idea of the Saracen 

 works, which were afterwards, by them, 

 imitated in the West. They made 

 their pillars of a bundle of little 

 toruses, M'hich they divided into more 

 when they came to the roof; and, tra- 

 versing one another, gave occasion to 

 the tracerj' work. They used the 

 sharp-headed arch, which would rise 

 with little centering, required lighter 

 key-stones, and less buttment." 



This great architect proceeds to 

 .speak of what he considers as the de- 

 generacy of the Gothic style, which he 

 admits had pioiluce<l " eminent struc- 

 tures of great loftiness and magnifi- 

 cence. But as all modes," says he, 

 " when once the old rational ways are 

 despised, turn at last into unbounded 

 fancies, this tracery induced too much 

 mincinfj of the stone into open battle- 

 ments, and spindling pinnacles, and 

 little carvings, without proportion or 

 distance. — Wrens Purentalia, j). 2'J7. 



He then quotes with approbation a 

 passage from Evel} n, which, ncvcrthe- 

 Jess, gives a very diflercnt account 

 from tliat of Sir Christopher Wren 

 himself, of the origin of (iolhic archi- 

 tecture, and passes a judgment upon 

 it in (he highest degree prejudiced and 

 barbarous. "The ancient Greek and 



231 



Roman architecture," says Mr. Eve- 

 lyn, " answer all the perfections re- 

 quired in a faultless and accomplished 

 building; such as, for so many ages, 

 were so renowned and reputed by the 

 universal suflrages of the civilized 

 world; and would, doubtless, still have 

 subsisted, and made good their claim, 

 and what is recorded of them, had not 

 the Goths, Vandals, and other barba- 

 rous nations, subverted and demolished 

 them, together with that glorious em- 

 pire where tliose stately and pompous 

 monuments stood ; introducing, in their 

 stead, a certain fantastical and licen- 

 tious manner of building, which mc 

 have since called modern, or Gothic, 

 congestions of heavy, dark, melan- 

 choly, and monkish, piles, without any 

 just proportion, use, or beauty, com- 

 pared with the truly ancient: so as^ 

 when we meet with the greatest in- 

 dustry, and expensive carving, lull of 

 fret, and lamentable imagery, sparing 

 neither of pains nor cost, a judiciou* 

 spectator is rather distracted, or quite 

 confounded, than touched with that 

 admiration which results from the true 

 and just synmietry, regular propor- 

 tion, union and disposition, and from 

 the great and noble manner in which 

 the august and glorious fabrics of the 

 ancients are executed." 



But why cannot it be allowed, that 

 both the Grecian and the Gothic archi- 

 tecture are admirable in their different 

 ways ? If the first is " more simply, 

 more severely, great," the latter is su- 

 perior in grace, in elegance, in the 

 colourings and finishings of fancy, and 

 in all that fascinates the imagination. 

 Why should one species of excellence 

 be extolled at the expense of another. 

 The Grecian architectuio at the ex- 

 pense of the Gothic? Or why cannot 

 we applaud the Rom in school of 

 painting, without depreciating the 

 Flemish, or tiie Venetian. 



Bishop VVarburton, who, with all 

 his eccentricities, was a g(;nius of an 

 high order, has, in his cliaiaclcristic 

 manner, and with that ingenuity 

 which gives a plausible! colouring to 

 the most fallacious ideas, touched 

 upon this subject in his Notes on 

 Pope's Epistles ; though it*is probable 

 (hat he gave very little credit to his 

 own conjecture, or rather his own as- 

 sumption ; his eagerness for literaiy 

 fame too often inducing him to write 

 for praise or victory, rather than for 

 (ruth. 



"As (he magnificence of (he Gothic 

 cuthfdrui.s 



