1839.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



367 



THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 



\Vitliout touching upon the general question whiclihas lately heen 

 agitated in several |)olitical and other journals, " How is the Royal 

 Academy to be dealt with?" and which has been settled, for tlie 

 present at least, by a inajurity of only five against Mr. Hume's motion, 

 — 'Without asking what are the merits or demerits of that body as 

 regards the other two fine arts, it must be allowed, I conceive, by 

 every one, that as far as architecture is concerned, the assistance it 

 affords it is the smallest possible, indeed barelv nomivial. A corner 

 allotted rather grudgingly to architectural drawings, at the Academv's 

 exhibitions, and a series of half a dozen lectures annually, constitute 

 almost the ^vhole of all it has ever done, or att'ected to do, for archi- 

 tecture ; and even this little has been considerably abridged, since for 

 several years the annual lectures have been suspended, owing to the 

 infirmities of the late and present *Professor of architecture, and the 

 office itself has been allowed to become a nominal one. Most assu- 

 redly neither of the individuals alluded to ought for a moment to be 

 reproached for his heavy personal afflictions ; yet it is justlv matter 

 of reproach to the Academy, that no one else is appointed to discharge 

 those duties for which continued ill health incapacitates him who, by 

 virtue of his office, ought to do so. We meet with nothing parallel 

 under similar circumstances any where else ; if a master is disabled 

 from attending to his school, he must either depute some one else to 

 do so for him, or his school must break up. Rut in the Royal Academv 

 they manage matters ditferently ; |irovided there be nominally a Pro- 

 fessor of architecture, it is all-sufficient. If he can give lectures, he 

 does so ; if not, the students must dispense with them. Yet what is 

 this but saying that it is a matter of perfect indift'erence whether 

 lectures of the kinil are delivered or not ? whether the duties of that 

 professorship are punctually discharged or remain altogether in abey- 

 ance ? Granting for a moment that such really is the case, the ques- 

 tion then suggested by connnon sense is, wherefore should there be 

 any such professorship, or any such lectures at all. If they are use- 

 less, let them be abolished; if not useless, why does the Academy 

 presume to treat them as if tliey were so ? That is the question, and 

 one which, I suspect, it would puzzle them greatly to answer, even 

 should they summon all the nous they have among them. 



As painters, the ujajority of the Academicians may not care one jot 

 about architecture and its interests; yet although they may indi- 

 vidually be perfectly indifit'rent to it, as a body it is as much their 

 duty that they should attend to it as to any other ])art of their insti- 

 tution. Here, therefore, another questicju starts up, namely, how 

 happens it that architecture is so inadequately represented in the 

 Academy as to be looked njjon as a mere cypher? Is it because, 

 although a partner in the firm with painting and sculpture, architecture 

 has only a very small share indeed in the concern, perhaps not more 

 than one fiftieth part of the whole ? Is it not worthy to be [nit upon 

 the same footing with its co-partners ? is there anything in the Academy 

 charter to such effect ? is it there expressly stipulated that the painters 

 are to have the lion's share, and architecture be content ^vith being 

 admitted to the honour of ])articipating by looking on ? 



I do not accuse painters, it is the Academy I accuse, for defrauding 

 architecture of its just rights, to which they are bound as nnich to 

 attend and to see supported, as those of painting itself. If architec- 

 ture is to be treated merely as "a poor relation," taken in out of 

 charily, to be subjected to continual insult, to be banished to a side 

 table in a corner, or even sent down to the second table, when there 

 are visitors at dinner, tlie sooner it shows its independence, and gets 

 out of the clutches of such charity, the better. Better for it to be 

 independent, and alone, than to be treated as the fag-end, the rag-tag 

 and bobtail of the Royal Academy. • 



I shall, no doubt, be reminded that architecture has now a home 

 ;uid establishment of its own in the Royal Institute of British Archi- 

 tects. To which I reply, all the more discreditable to if, it is, then, 

 that it should s\ibuut to the indignities put upon it by the Academv. 

 Neither does the circumstance just alluded to, WLU-rant tlie latter at all in 

 treating it ;fe it plainly does. So long as architecture continues to 

 belong to the Academy, it ought to insist upon justice from it. If, 

 on the one hand, the Academy are very, willing to get rid of archi- 

 tecture, and architectm-e can afford to be independent of the Aca- 

 demy, why ilo they not part by mutual consent ? or why does not 

 architecture fairly sue for a divorce ? 



Let the painters have the Academy and its exhibitions to them- 

 selves. If the architects care for having an exhibition at all, let them 

 have a proper one; if not, let them go without one. If they remain 

 with the Academy, and the latter can afford them no better accommo- 

 dation than it now does on the upper floor, let other and sufficient 



* At the time tliis article was written Mr. Wilkins was living. 



rooms be apjiropriated for the exhibition of architectural drawings on 

 the lower floor of the building. By being kept quite apart from the 

 pictures, and none suffered to intrude among thejn, the architectural 

 drawings would be benefitted. Yet this is not all; additionid and 

 adequate space is not the only improvement wdiich is required : some 

 of the present regulations ought to be altered Instead of its being 

 insisted upon that architectural designs should have backgrounds and 

 be coloured, to nrake pretensions as pictures, tlie contrary rule ought 

 to be established, and no other colouring than shadowing with sepia 

 or neutral tint should be allowed in designs, except in cases where 

 colour is essentially part of the design, as in interiors, and perhaps in 

 perspective views of buildings already executed ; drawings of which 

 class should be in a separate room from the otliers. In many instances 

 colouring becomes really the leiiociiiiinn iirtis, particularly when those 

 extravagantly unnatural hues are resorted to, and those captivating, 

 but deceitful, and exaggerated pictorial efl'ects put into geometrical 

 designs, which every exhibition at the Academy witnesses, and which 

 only serve to draw the attention from architectural merits and defects, 

 and fix it upon circumstances that have nothing to do with either. 

 To be what it ought to be, an architectural exhibition would be upon 

 a very diflferent footing, from what that portion of theirs is at the 

 Royal Academy; it would be greatly more comprehensive as regards 

 design, as it would embrace every thing connected with the decorative 

 part of architecture; wdiile it would also be more select, no drawing 

 being admitted but what had some kind of value or interest. That 

 any improvement will ever take place at the Academy in this respect 

 is altogether hopeless. But then, it will be asked, am I so conceited 

 and so silly as to imagine that what I have said will stir up architects 

 to do for themselves wdiat the Academy and the painters will not do 

 for them. By no means; I no more expect it than I do to hear that 

 St. Paul's has made a trip across the Atlantic in a steamer. Then 

 why do I toui-li (he suliject at all ? liecanse I am anxious that, at all 

 events, people slio\ild understand the disgraceful position in which 

 architecture stands at the Royal Academy, and that no one should be 

 able to say that, lie it ever so bad, there is no remedy for it. Archi- 

 tecture can shift witliout any favour and pii/ronnge from the Academy; 

 if not, it must be in a trulf pitiable plight, seeing what kind of sup- 

 port and patronage it now receives from it. Whether in other re- 

 spects the Academy be more than a mere club of artists, as some 

 have affirmed, I leave to the consideration of others ; and only add 

 that, whatever may have been the case formerly, there is, now that 

 the Institute has been established, not the slightest re.ason wherefore 

 architecture should continue to submit to the contumelious treatment 

 it receives at the hands of the Royal Academy. 



ViNDEX. 



ANCIENT STATUES. 



On the differenl Ulaltriah employed by the ^ncienlnfur Slatiia^, and on 

 IliL J'drielim of Hit ir Marbles. Translated from the French of the 

 Count de Clarac, Knight of rarious Orders, Keeper of the First Di- 

 vision of the Royal Museum of Antiquities in. the Louvre. 



There are few substances capable of being subjected to the chisel 

 and of receiving a form, which the ancients did not employ in the 

 sculptural art.* Clay and wood, on account of the ease with which 

 they are wrought, were doubtless the first materials enqjloyed in the 

 infancy of sculpture, which only employed itself upon stones and 

 metals when its processes were more advanced and matured. These 

 first and rude essays were probably clothed with real stufl's, in order 

 to give them a greater appearance of truth, until the period arrived 

 when the chisel could attain the representation of drapery. As it is 

 nitural, also, in the infancy of art, to consider that the natural cohmr 

 of objects adds greatly to the fidelity of their representation, it ni;iy 

 easily be conjectured that when metals and stones were used, those 

 colours were sought which presented the nearest approach to the 

 objects wished to be imitated. Thence originatedjiolychromii; sculp- 



* For authorities on this suliject see Pliny, HM. Nat. 1. 36; Junius, ile Pic- 

 turd (V^crHw, p. 270-296 ; Blasius Caryoiiliihis, de Marmoril/nn Jntir/uis ; 

 I'V'rlier, Lettro-s Miiicratof/ii/ue s-ur I' Italic; To/zeti, Voyage clc Toscaiie ; 

 (Juatrcniere de Quiiic}', Juiiiicr Olijinpim, [i. 24 et seq. 132-10."^; Jlrard, 

 Traife ila Picrrca PrccU'ii.-<cs, vol. 2; Lcvrault, Xoureau Victiuniia/rc (I'/Jifit. 

 .\'al : Diction. f7ff,v.sv(/«c f/V/w/. .V«^., articles Alabaster, lU'cccia, I'lnicatclle, 

 (Iranite, Luuiacellc, .\Iuible, PorphjTV, Serpentine, &c. ; Winckelman's llis- 

 ton' of Art, B. 1, c. n, and B. 7, c. i ; LcDiclionnnire de I'Jntirpiite de I'En- 

 cijclnpcdie ; Facius's Collection of all that Plntarcli has said upon .Ai't, Leipsic 

 and Colmrg, 180') ; Ilcync, AntiiiHarische Aiifsaetze ; Bottiger, Amattho'a ; 

 and the Essay on the Technical Part of Ancient Sculpture, prefixed to my 

 Museum of Ancient and Modern Sculpture. 



2 F 



