1839.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



249 



distinguishing symbols of the people in whose land the pile was raised. 

 From them the structure obtains its national character. Heraldic or- 

 naments may therefore be considered, not as ornaments, but as the 

 significant stamp of our edifices; yet an artist would never venture to 

 place the arched crown or barred helmet in the pediment, or to bring 

 the lion and the unicorn in conjunction with the stately Doric portico.* 

 Would a Roman architect have been afraid of the eagle ? These ob- 

 servations may appear trifling, but if they are considei'ed, it will be 

 soon understood how such scruples and difficulties estrange the archi- 

 tect from the intellectual cultivation of his art, and reduce hira to a 

 mere mechanical draftsman. 



The objections which present themselves against the pure Grecian 

 style, do not operate with equal force against that modification of the 

 Roman orders which was invented by the great Italian architects who 

 flourished after the revival of the arts. This style has been called an 

 adulterated style. It may be admitted that a new compound has been 

 formed, but the alloy possesses a ductility which is denied to the purer 

 metal. And we do not scruple to acknowledge, that, if we were prac- 

 tical architects, we would gladly err like Bramente and Palladio, and 

 Michael Angelo. This style has been so judiciously matured and na- 

 turalized as to acquire great propriety and a great degree of pictur- 

 esque beauty. Perhaps it was perfected in England. Wren, the 

 Ariosto of architecture, brought it to the highest degree of excellence. 

 It is a bad omen for the progress of architecture, that so many attempts 

 should now be made to depreciate the productions of this great man, 

 the pride and honour of English art. The exterior of St. Paul's cathe- 

 dral resulted from the earnest reflection and labour of a most compre- 

 hensive mind. From the pavement of the area up to the cross-crowned 

 globe, there is not a portion which can be removed without destroying 

 the integrity of the composition. It was all present and visible to the 

 mind's eye of the architect before a line was drawn upon the paper. 

 It tells a complete story, neither weakened by after-thoughts nor dis- 

 figured by redundances. If snail-like we crawl about the surface, we 

 may grope and stumble upon some l)etty deformities, an unclassical 

 vase or an inelegant scroll, but no one who has the heart to appreciate 

 this master-piece can be patient when he hears such cavilling criti- 

 cism. 



Wren had the conception of a painter. Architects often fail from 

 the poverty and meagreness of the masses and returns. They com- 

 pose their buildings out of screens and facades. They seem to forget 

 that a building is to be viewed from more than one point of view, and 

 in various lights. One of the pleasures which we derive from the 

 contemplation of architecture, arises from the manner in which the ob- 

 jects unfolds and varies as we approach it, or recede from it, or walk 

 around it. We study the play of the perspective and the changes of 

 the shadowing. The spectator wishes to have a spectacle of which 

 the merits are not to be made out at once. A building destitute of 

 these powers of stimulus and jjrovocation, is like a fair woman's coun- 

 tenance without intelligence or passion, a second look begets indiffer- 

 ence, a third, satiety. Wren fully understood the method of giving 

 architectural expression. His lines and masses are always working 

 upon each other. The small low door at the side of each belfry of St. 

 Paul's marks the loftiness of the pile. By coupling the pillars of the 

 double portico he obtained further breadths of shadow as well as 

 greater altitude than he could have done by adhering to the plan of 

 tlie Grecian portico. And the pyramidical belfreys \mite in a symme- 

 trical group with the towering dome, based upon the colonnade which 

 circles and retreats below. 



The claims of any particular style, and the merit of any building 

 may be estimated according to a very simple and intelligible principle. 

 The real architect ought not to work by line and rule ; he should re- 

 collect that he is composinga work which ought to have a given intent. 

 Whenever he determines to adopt any system which prevents him 

 from yielding to the meaning of his structure, he ought to apprehend 



* It is lamentable to note the treatment which these respectable animals 

 receive from modem sculptors when tliey seek to classicize them. Tliey are 

 usually compelled to turn their rumps against the shield which they ought to 

 support, and that in the most awkward manner. Artists in general are com- 

 pletely ignorant of the decencies of tlie science of heraldry. One blunder, 

 which they perpetually commit, and which shocks the eyes and tbe judgment 

 of the herald, is the practice of bundling up the royal bearioKs in a circle 

 within the garter, instead of representing tliem on the shield. Tlie prescrip- 

 tive forms of heraldic animals snonUI never be varied under the mistaken idea 

 that they are improved by bringing them to a nearer resemblance to nature. 

 They are not intended to represent natural animals, they are symbols like the 

 Kgyptian hieruglyphics. Brooke, the herald, once went to the Tower for the 

 purpose of seeing the lions. When the worthy King-at-arms was introduced 

 into the presence chamber of the royal beasts, he SHure that the warder was 

 cheating him ; he had tricked lions any time these forty years, passant, ram- 

 pant, couchant, regardant, and he ouglit to know what a lion was. As a 

 herald, Brooke had a right to be incredulous. 



that he is in the wrong. Whene\or he feels himself cramped by his 

 pattern, he may be assured that the precedent, however good in itself, 

 is bad for the purpose to which he makes it a slave. Lines of equal 

 length, duly rhymed and well disposed in pages of equal dimensions, 

 do not constitute a poem unless they have sense within them. Columns 

 however prettily arranged, pediments though classical, architraves, 

 friezes, stylobates, do not make an architectural work unless they are 

 so disposed as to conform to the end and object of the edifice vvhich 

 they adorn. Should they not perform this duty, the builder is no 

 architect. The fabric may be sumptuous, comfortable and convenient, 

 but as a production of the art it has no more merit than a barn — not 

 even so much, — because the barn-door, and the thatched roof, and the 

 weather-boarded sides, are all in keeping with the threshing floor 

 within; — and this is not the case with such an unmeaning structure. 

 It is the business of the architect to unite splendour when a display 

 of wealth is desired, comfort and convenience in all cases, with thai 

 intelligence wdiich alone entitles him to an artist's name. As the poet 

 seeks that every phrase antl word which he employs should be poeti- 

 cal and airalogons to the style and character of his poem, so should the 

 architect try to keep every member and portion of his building con- 

 cordant to its intent. It would be a grievous sin against good taste, 

 that is to say against common sense, if in a Christian hymn we were 

 to introduce the mythology of Ovid or Virgil. This will be readily 

 acknowledged, and the fault could not be committed by any one of the 

 present day. But is it less incongruous to adorn the walls of a Chris- 

 tian church with the scull of the slaughtered bull and the sacrificial 

 patera ? Architects are perpetually introducing clasaicnl emblems, as 

 they call them ; but if they are employed as things without meaning, 

 they are nonsense. And if we consider them as bearing a meaning, 

 then their signification is so out of place that it becomes an absurdity. 



An architect should recollect that he is not a pupil whose merits 

 consist in repeating a lesson by rote, but a man who deserves no praise 

 unless he makes an intelligent use of the lesson. If he would take the 

 liberty of thinking for himself, he woidd certainly remedy such gross 

 and palpable errors. It would not be difficidt to preserve some degree 

 of consistency even in a church built according to the Grecian or 

 Roman orders. Instead of the lotus, or the honeysuckle, or the acan- 

 thus, there might be introduced the vine, the palm, the olive ; wdiich 

 in a certain degree have the character of scriptural frees. Many of 

 the emblems of Hope, Faith, and Redemption, found on the tomljs of 

 the early Christians, might be advantageously emploj-ed ; and without 

 the slightest approximaticni to the rank adornments of popery, the 

 artist could adopt such a system of Christian iconology as should be 

 neither ungraceful nor unappropriate. 



Texts or inscriptions may be so managed as to become very orna- 

 mental and impressive. But the letters should be large and deep, and 

 cut in the hard stone, as a part of the original conception of the build- 

 ing, and not painted on, as a subsequent addition. The architect 

 shoidd also avoid the most vidgar error, so often committed in printed 

 books, of adding chapter and verse at the end of the line. Whenever 

 a quotation is addressed to the imagination of the reader, we must 

 assinne that we are merely bringing to his recollection the words of an 

 author whose works are already known to him. We should not ap- 

 pear to teach something new. The beauty of an illustrative quotation 

 consists in its being apt, in its being familiar to our minds. It must 

 seem to present itself without labour, not as if we had sought it out. 

 The total want of inscriptions upon our modern buildings is a further 

 proof of the vagueness of modern architecture. It was not thus among 

 the ancients. They built for the people, who saw their chronicles 

 upon the marble. The lines were read by the fathers, the children, 

 the grandchildren, and after the lapse of ages, the moss-grown charac- 

 ters add the most powerful charms to the majestic ruin. These means 

 of giving interest to architecture are now always neglected. The 

 M'aterloo Bridge, unquestionably the finest in the world, might for any 

 thing which appears upon the granite, have been erected by a people 

 ignorant of the art of writing. It does not even bear a date. 



A church should never vary from the established plans adopted of 

 old ; nor should it be wanting in any one of the parts which we have 

 been accustomed to see in sacred buildings. Durandus,* in his de- 



T The solemn dulness of the allegories of Durandus is .almost amusing : — 

 ' Tiures ecclesiae, predicatorcs stmt et prselati ecclesiie qui sunt muninien et 

 defensio ejus. iJnde sponsus ad sponsam in canticis .amoris sic loquitur: 

 C'ollam tuum sicut turris David edificata cum propugnacalis. Pinaruluui 

 luiris, vitam vel mentem prslati, quae ad alta tcndit, rcpricsentat. Galhis 

 super ecclesiam positus, pr>-edicatores designat. Gallus eniai piolinida; noctis 

 pervigil horas suo cantu dividit: dormientes e.\citat ; diem appropmquanteni 

 praecinit, sed prius seipsum .alarum verbere ad c.antandum excitat. Haec sui- 



gula niyaterio non carent 



Virga terrea in qua Gallus sedet, rectum repnesentat pricdicantis sermonem, 

 ut non loquatur ex spiiitu hominis sed Dei. Fenestra; ecclesiK Yitre<e, sunt 



