247 



ful, as one might have expected from those materialists who devised them. The 

 Jesuit Churches of Venice and Vienna, the pleasure houses of the Romans and the 

 palaces of Louis XIV. and Charles II., have an austerity and reticence until recently 

 unsuspected, and it is modern complexity of life that has called for a style so adapt- 

 able. It may be in addition that the lighter spirit now pervading the Protestant 

 countries has evoked a free and more demonstrative manner of expression, and the 

 literary motive so much in evidence in modern music, and the didactic element in the 

 plastic arts have their equivalent in a freer expression in architecture, with its details 

 of sculpture and decoration. 



In English and American architecture the j " grand manner " quoted by Reynolds 



was a motive which was bound to recur. The recent researches made in the early 



eighteenth century and the period just before are in the art of architecture 



England. ^^ tQ haye full effect Thg workg by p rofessor Reginald Blomfield 



(who succeeded Leonard Stokes as President of the Royal Institute of British Archi- 

 tects) and W. H. Ward in this field have been notable influences. The great draughts- 

 men, such as Marot and Le Pautre, are now as familiar to us as Piranesi. Their fan- 

 tasies, though so seldom materialised, yet proved a mine of wealth for those in search 

 of new motives. The wealth of invention which never degenerated into the bizarre 

 has placed the French School of the Baroque first as an influence in this revival. Al- 

 ready in America, where architects have for so long been obsessed with the sophistry 

 of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, one can see the influence of this earlier and more elastic 

 manner, founded perhaps on a desire for the expression of a more racial character, 

 as much as to escape from what was rapidly becoming a formula. 



The lack of scholarly training characteristic of the last generation in English archi- 

 tecture is still the deterring factor in the progress which has here been outlined, but the 

 evidence of a definite trend is apparent even in the unaccomplished efforts of recent 

 years. It is true that public works of the importance of the new approach to Bucking- 

 ham Palace, the New London County Hall now in progress, the very large commercial 

 buildings in London such as Whiteley's new premises and the West-End establish- 

 ments rebuilt, all show a wavering spirit and a tentative handling of the themes drawn 

 upon from the sources described. Yet there is underlying them a distinct flavour of 

 the early eighteenth century or late seventeenth century spirit, and an attempt to 

 embody the strength of handling characteristic of the masters of these periods. 



London buildings such as the new Hall built by the Wesleyan body at Westminster, 

 the new Automobile Club, the Christian Scientists' Church in Curzon Street, and 

 certain business premises in the West-End of a smaller scale than the large emporiums, 

 show a far less hesitant manner, a complete knowledge of the style and possibilities, 

 combined with discriminating use of modern sculpture. 



But enough has been said to show the direction in which the architectural art not 

 only of England but of Europe generally is now moving. France, with her academic 

 leaning strengthened by a revulsion from the lapses of the past, ten years, 

 Influence. * s affected by this freer and more emotional, or perhaps it is better to say 

 sculptural, manner; and her influence is particularly strong in England at 

 present owing to such schools as the one at Liverpool University, the training of which 

 is so largely based on the Beaux-Arts School; whilst the work of certain French 

 architects in London, and especially the interior work of French decorators, is leav- 

 ing a definite influence which is not to be escaped. We have had the Greek phase, 

 then the Gothic cult, and later the Early Renaissance; but in the present period it 

 seems to be natural to revert to the phase of the Renaissance nearest to us. The 

 afterglow is now more powerful in its appeal than the once brilliant sun of the 

 meridian of its power. Its slanting rays reach out to us, and by their nearness ap- 

 parently have more power to revivify than the more intense but more distant flame 

 at its zenith. 



Considerable public. interest was aroused towards the end of 1912 in the designs 

 prepared by Sir Aston Webb, and adopted by the Office of Works, for the refacing of 



