1S48.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



201 



ON THE APPLICATION OF SCULPTURE AND 



SCULPTURED ORNAMENT TO ARCHITECTURE. 

 By H. B. Gakling. 



At a meeting of the Royal Institute of British Architects, held 

 on tlie 29tli of iMay, the follovvinf^ paper was read : — " Ensay on 

 the Application of Sculpture and Sculptured Ornament to Architecture, 

 and the Principles which .should rcflulate their introduction, into Build- 

 ings generallji, both with regard to Beaut;/ of Embellishment and Pro- 

 priety of Style." By Mr. H. B. Garling ; for whicli the Silver 

 Medal of the Institute was awarded. 



If from the study of some individual branch of fine art, we 

 proceed to consider how to comhine any two or more of them in 

 the same composition with the fireatest effect, — in investifjating 

 the relation they bear to eacli other, the means by wliicli tlie im- 

 pressions conveyed by the one are influenced by its connection 

 with the other, and the sources from whence our ideas of beauty or 

 grandeur in each department result, we cannot fail to remark the 

 close and striking- analogy which exists between all the various 

 branches into which fine art is divided, whether by the impressions 

 they produce upon the mind, or the means by which those impres- 

 sions are effected. We shall find that though varying in the organ 

 by which they address the imagination, or the vehicle by which 

 they convey their impressions to the mind, they influence the 

 same feelings, strike as it were the same chords, and depend upon 

 causes varying in form only, to produce effects substantially the 

 same. 



Wliether it be architecture or sculpture, painting, music, or 

 poetry that engages our attention, it is but the expression of one 

 and the same sentiment — the collecting and arranging in the most 

 effective manner, the giving form and substance, as it were, to 

 those ideas and images, from which result our impressions of the 

 sublime and beautiful. 



Though we may discover in all, this common origin and aim, yet 

 between some the connection is obvious ; and the assistance tliey 

 afford to each other, when skilfully combined, more natural and 

 effective. 



Thus, if to the symmetry and proportion of architecture we add 

 the graceful terminations and flowing lines of sculpture, or the 

 relief and rich variety of pictorial embellishments, we enhance the 

 value of each by placing it in its most effective position, and sur- 

 rounding it with suitable and appropriate accessories. 



To the artist it is, therefore, an important as well as an inter- 

 esting investigation to consider how the architect and sculptor may 

 unite their labours with the most successful result ; and what rules 

 we must observe in the treatment of each department to produce 

 a harmonious and effective combination. 



If we commence our investigation by tracing the distinguishing 

 features of the various styles of art as each rose in succession 

 from the materials bequeathed by its predecessor, the first that 

 engages our attention is the collossal architecture of the Egyp- 

 tians. The distinguishing features of these extraordinary edifices 

 are so well known as scarcely to need description : interesting as 

 they may be to antiquarian research, and rich in matter for reflec- 

 tion and speculation on other points, to the artist they afford but 

 scanty materials for study, and still less for imitation and example. 

 That the germs of beauty and proportion may be traced in a cer- 

 tain propriety of decoration and regular disposition of parts may 

 not, perhaps, be denied ; as also that a certain effect of grandeur 

 has been attained ; the results of collossal size both in the general 

 mass, and also in the details of the composition. Yet they exhibit 

 a style of art so circumscribed in its object, so limited in its re- 

 sources, and so much fettered by conventional ideas and principles, 

 as to limit its advancement beyond a certain point — forming, in 

 fact, a perfect reflection of the social condition of the people with 

 whom it originated. 



If from Egypt we turn to Greece (where exquisite refinement of 

 taste and feeling were combined with a social condition more fa- 

 vourable to progress than in the former country), we shall find 

 the powers of the artist rapidly increasing 'with tlie demand for 

 their employment, and the scope afforded for their exercise. Aim- 

 ing at the attainment of beauty by nicely-adjusted proportions and 

 propriety of decoration, and attaining grandeur and dignity of 

 effect, not by actual size, but by simplicity of parts and regularity 

 of design, we observe even in their earliest efforts the germs of 

 that perfect mastery of all the resources of art, which subsequently 

 ripened and expanded into the inimitable productions of the age 

 of Pericles. 



Apart from the merits of each in its particular department, the 

 principles they observed in combining architecture and sculpture 



in one composition claim our most careful attention. Whether 

 forming the graceful terminations of the acroteria, or filling up the 

 voids of the pediments, or metopes of the Doric entablature, or 

 decorating the walls in long continuous friezes of elaborate design, 

 we observe how admirably the sculptural accessories complete the 

 general outline of the masses, fill up every void space with rich 

 and appropriate decoration, and relieve the more regular forms of 

 the architecture with the most pleasing variety of lines ; imparting 

 poetry of feeling to the wliole composition, and assisting in a most 

 important degree the character aimed at by the architect. 



The rules observed in the treatment and distribution of sculp- 

 ture by the artists of Greece, obtained throughout the whole of 

 the best period of classic art. 



The triumphal and monumental buildings of antiquity are par- 

 ticularly interesting, as exemplifying the views and ideas of artists 

 of the most acknowledged skill and judgment. The mausolea of 

 Halicarnassus, of Hadrian, and of Augustus, the Antonine and 

 Trajan columns, the triumphal arches on the Via Sacra, the com- 

 memorative monuments in short of every class, when carefully 

 considered, will be found to possess a character admirably adapted 

 to the purposes of their erection : but in the application of these 

 ideas to our own times, we must ever keep carefully in view the 

 particular circumstances which guided them in the forms and ar- 

 rangement they adopted. As art degenerated towards the decline 

 of tlie Roman empire, the abandonment of true principles became 

 apparent in all its departments — in none more so than in the treat- 

 ment of sculptural accessories, — their meretricious character and 

 the profusion of ornament (often exceedingly coarse and inelegant) 

 destroying that repose and chaste simplicity, so essential to true 

 dignity of style and so happily attained in the works of a better 

 period. Of these abuses the latter examples of Roman architec- 

 ture, particularly the baths and even to a greater degree the gor- 

 geous remains at Balbec and Palmyra, afford remarkable 

 instances. 



The political convulsions which for centuries distracted the 

 world, so completely buried in barbarism and ignorance every 

 class of literature and every vestige of art, that scarcely any pro- 

 duction worthy of the name can be recorded. This destruction of 

 art seems to liave been completed at a period when the true prin- 

 ciples of taste being abandoned, and its most essential rules being 

 completely lost sight of, all hope of further progress was stayed ; and 

 thus, though for a time its extinction was most complete, this very 

 circumstance may be said to have paved the way for its regenera- 

 tion on better principles, at a subsequent period. By it was 

 annihilated all mere conventional rules, and by it was destroyed 

 every false standard of excellence ; and the absence of precedent 

 conij)elled the artist to go back to the study of nature, the only 

 source from which, in early ages, lie can, and in all ages, he should, 

 derive his ideas, however he may seek to form his taste, mature 

 his judgment, or collect e->cperience from the works of others' : and 

 from tliis constant reference to nature alone, we must trace that 

 freshness of feeling and vigour of conception with which the early 

 productions of art and literature teem, and which we strive in 

 vain to catch when the feelings of society have become more re- 

 fined and enervated, and its structure more artificial and compli- 

 cated. Art will invariably take its tone and expression from the 

 character of the age in which it is produced ; it is an influence the 

 artist cannot resist ; it forms the very atmosphere he breathes ; 

 and from it the constitution of his mind takes its tone : the expe- 

 rience of the past oft'ers no exception, the character of art at the 

 present day confirms it. 



As the arts gradually emerged from the obscurity in which they 

 were buried (fostered by a patronage peculiarly favourable for the 

 development of their loftiest powers), they began to assert their 

 true position and exercise their legitimate influence on society ; 

 and while the monuments of classic art were rapidly falling to 

 decay, another style of architecture arose, based on principles of 

 construction and of composition almost as diametrically opposite to 

 those of classic art as the source from whence it sprung, the pur- 

 poses to which it was dedicated, and the character of the age and 

 people amongst whom it originated. The sculptural accessories 

 are no less different in character than the architecture with which 

 they are associated. These sculptural accessories (often vigorous in 

 design and well conceived, consisting ijrincipally of isolated 

 figures, stiff and constrained, distributed and arranged rather by 

 conventional and prescribed ideas of symbolism than by rules of 

 artistic composition), convey ideas more by symbolical arrangement 

 than by a combination of action and expression ; of this perhaps 

 the fronts of Wells and Exeter Cathedrals may be adduced as the 

 most striking examples. Thus in the sculptural decoration of 

 mediaeval architecture we observe a style of art too subordinate in 



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