•24S 



THE CIVIL p:ngineer and architects journal. 



JULV. 



monv, siuli iis is lefiiiircd liy thoir infegml figiiie, but it is a shape 

 wlliili I'aiiiKil lu' varied in its nulliiic, ikji' can it lie iliangod in its pro- 

 portions. Neitlu'r docs il suljnut to be aiin;'xcd to any otlif r. Every 

 attempt vvliicli is made to l)lend tlie temple with any other design, 

 prod\ices a lame and discordant erteet. We must reject tlie arch, tlie 

 noblest invention of architectural science. Porticos cannot be dupli- 

 cated. Doric columns caimot be raised in stories. No window can 

 open into the cell. No wing can be added to the right or to tlie left 

 which does not at once convince the obser\ er that it has no real rela- 

 tionship to the centre which it obscures. 



How could any other result be anticipated ? The sacred architee- 

 tm'e of Greece admits of no habitable interior. A cell of narrow 

 dimensions, lighted by an aperture in the roof, and intended to contain 

 a single statue, is the only chamber which can be placed within the 

 walls of the temple. We are not required to enter into the fane. It 

 is a monument which we are to contemplate from without, and which 

 appears in its pride when considered as a portion of the surrounding 

 landscape. The chaste columns and pure sculptures whicli are now 

 mellowed by the hand of time to a sad and sober grey, originally shone 

 with all the splendour of the east. Every moulding wlis distinguished 

 by strongly contrasted colours ; and the snowy whiteness of the Parian 

 marble was concealed beneath tlie glowing layers of gold, a/.ure, and 

 vermilion, hi the opinion of the Grecian architect, his building was 

 seldom more than the frame-work of his sculpture. He never intended 

 it for social worship. A temple was a shrine upon which decorations 

 were to be displayed. The altar flamed before the portico. The votary 

 was to offer up his sacrifice in the hypaethrum, looking around to the 

 woods, the purpled hills, and the circling liorizon. 



From the science of its mechanical execution, aided by tlie tran- 

 scendent skill of the sculptor, the beauties of the design of the Gre- 

 cian architect are doubly enlianced. As masons, the Greeks carried 

 the art of building to the highest excellence. The Grecian architect 

 possessed the means which his mind required. His elements were 

 few. Scarcely any variety of structure was required from his art. He 

 placed a larger number of columns around the more sumptuous edifice, 

 and a smaller number around the more humble structure : he raised the 

 temple and the tomb. His career was definite ; he saw the end of it. 

 He w as required to perfect, rather than to invent. Grecian architec- 

 ture submits itself to the judgment, and the judgment is satisfied. A 

 problem has been jiroposed to which a perfect solution has been given. 

 The Grecian architect performed all that he had promised to himself; 

 all that he wislied to have, was given to him : and so soon did the 

 Grecian style attain its wonderful perfection, that, from the earliest to 

 the latest period, a few elegant improvements, scarcely to be discerned 

 even by the practised eye — a few tasteful variations, rather to be 

 described by the learned than felt by the specttator — are the only 

 tokens which denote the progress of Grecian art from infancy to 

 maturity. 



Such were not the labours of the Gothic Freemason ; he stops frus- 

 trated, but not in disapjiointment. Neither the quarries of Pentelicus 

 nor the chisel of Phidias could assist him. Rude materials and still 

 ruder hands were all that he could command. His architecture must 

 depend upon its innate character and significance. The cathedral is 

 to be considered rather as a forethought than as a finished specimen. 

 It exhibits the effort that has been made to eiuliody those abstract ideas 

 of solemnity and grandeur which could not be fully realized or accom- 

 plished by human power. Still the effect has not failed ; Gothic 

 architecture appeals to the imagination, and fancy half supplies the 

 deficiencies of the material scene. A Gothic building has always the 

 charms of mystery, it always appears to be larger than its actual 

 dimensions. The mouldings, the ])illars, the arches, always create re- 

 ceding shadows ; and to the mind, tlie idea of space arises from a suc- 

 cession of shadows, just as the conception of time results from the suc- 

 cession of ideas. In the earlier Gothic styles, the management of the 

 atrial tints was studied with remarkable skill. The mouldings are all 

 undercut, and the curves are almost invariably of the higher order ; 

 and the limbs of the apertures are marked by carrying the mouldings 

 above the level of the wall. A small fillet also often runs down the 

 front of the lesser columns. By these artifices all the forms of the 

 building are brought out, painted, as it were, in chiaro scuro; for the 

 minute linear projections catch the light and heighten it, and the un- 

 dercutting deepens and mellows the shade. In the more luxuriant 

 styles, however, this attention to the tints was neglected, and the 

 mouldings occasionally became shallow and trivial. Daylight is courted 

 by the Gothic architect. The lines and masses of the roofs, and but- 

 tresses, and transepts, the ascending pinnacles and towers, are marked 

 and defined by the full blaze of noon, which falls upon them and con- 

 trasts itself with the freshness of the apertures, and the darkness of 

 the walls which are behind the sunshine. Gothic architecture seeks to 

 exclude the siHit of middle earth. Its genius delights in quadrangles 



cloisters, porches; in piles wliiidi expand and close round the specta- 

 tor, leaving him nought to (Contemplate but themselves and the sky 

 and clouds. 



The gothic style always fills the eye, and conveys the notion of com- 

 |}reliension and capacity. Habitation and converse, and congregational 

 worship beneath its roof, are seen to be its intent. We are invited to 

 enter into the cathedral. The ])ortals expand, and in the long ])er- 

 spective which appears between the pillars of the porch, and ends in 

 the distant choir, the light darts downwards through the lofty unseen 

 windows, each marked by its slanting beam of luminous haze, che- 

 quering the jjillars and the pavement, and forming a translucent gloom. 

 Gothic architecture is an organic whole, bearing within it a living 

 vegetating germ. Its parts and lines are linked and united, they 

 spring and grow out of each other. Its essence is the curve, w liich, in 

 the physical world, is the token of life or organized matter, just as the 

 straight line indicates death or inorganized matter. It is a combina- 

 tion of arches whose circles may be infinitely folded, multiplied, and 

 embraced. Hence the parts of a gothic building may be expanded 

 indefinitely without destroying its unity. However multiplied and 

 combined, they still retain their relative bearing; however repeated, 

 they never encumber each other. All the arched openings, the tall 

 muilioned windows, the recessed doors, are essential parts ; they do 

 not pierce the walls of the structure, on the contrary, they bind them 

 together. The spire may rise aloft, the large and massy walls may- 

 lengthen along the soil, but still the building preserves its consistency. 

 Richness of decoration, colour and gold may increase the effect of the 

 gothic style, but the inventor chiefly relies upon his art and science. 

 Gravitation, which could bring the stone to the ground, is the power 

 which fixes it in the archivolt, and every pinnacle bears witness to the 

 mastery which the architect has gained. Frequently the details are 

 bad. Parts considered by themselves are often destitute of beauty, 

 but they are always relevant, and all minor faults are lost in the merits 

 of the entirety. The history of the style accounts for its propriety, its 

 chiefest merit. Gothic architecture, whatever its primitive elements 

 may have been, was created in the northern parts of Europe ; it was 

 there adapted to the wants of a more inclement sky. Its structures 

 were destined for the religious worship of tlie people amongst whom 

 it was matured. In a gothic church no idea can possibly arise, save 

 that of Christianity and of the rites of Christianity. We cannot dese- 

 crate it even in thought. From its mode of construction no convenience 

 which we neeil, ever becomes a blemish, and its character assimilates 

 itself to every emblem or ornament which its use requires. 



Many of our contemporaries, whose genius no one can respect or 

 f rize more highly than we do, are desirous of introducing the pure 

 Grecian style for the purposes both of ecclesiastical and of civil archi- 

 tectm'c. But even their talents cannot naturalize the architecture of 

 ancient Greece in modern England. Tlie Grecian temple will not 

 submit to be tr;uisported into our atmosphere. No adaptation can be 

 given which will reconcile it to utility. Plate-glass windows glaring 

 through the intercolumniations, chimnies, and chimney-pots arranged 

 above the pediment, are just as appropriate as English nouns and 

 verbs in a Greek hexameter. When the portfolio is opened and the 

 drawing is shown, these incongruities escape observation in the neat 

 lines and colouring of a geometrical elevation, which can be made to 

 look just as the aitist pleases.* But when the scaffold is struck from 

 the real building standing in the o])en air, then they strike us most 

 forcibly ; anil we are coinpelleil to acknowledge that its principles are 

 too stubborn and unmanageable. View the Grecian temple as a dwell- 

 ing and with relation to its inhabitants, and then every part and por- 

 tion which contributes to comfort or convenience, is a grievous sin 

 against architectural fitness ; they are rejected by the very essence of 

 the building into which they obtrude themselves. Is it considered 

 with regard to its destination, is the architect retiring into his study 

 to plan the justice-hall, or the palace, the college, or the church ? Why 

 then, every sign which tells the intention of the structure, which con- 

 nects it with the policy, the learning, or the religion of our age, be- 

 comes a monstrous and perpetual solecism. If the aid of the chisel is 

 called in for the purpose of decorating any pure Grecian building, we 

 are compelled to abandon every shape and form which bespeak a 

 modern origin. For instance, in the public buildings of all nations, 

 the architect feels, or ought to feel, the necessity of introducing the 



'■ It solid mcjdels were metre in use, the ellect of (air buiklings would Ije 

 lictter unilcrstoud both by the architect and by his employer. For moilels on 

 a sm;dl scale, a very ingenious appllcatiiai has been made ai elder pith, a suli- 

 stance bitlierto unemployed for this purpose. It is capable of being stamped 

 into (lie most delicate architectural ornaments, and the fineness of its texture 

 and the mellowness of its colour, add greatly to the beauty of the mimic 

 liiiikhngs. This discovery, for it deserves the name, is as yet very little 

 known. 



