186 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Junk, 



through moulding orifices as above explained; and lastly, I claim the 

 mode of compressing peat by the pressure of the atmosphere, and 

 separating the water from it by a pump as above described. 



James White. 

 11, East Place, Lambeth. 

 May 12, 1S340. 



ON THE HORIZONTAL AND PERPENDICULAR LINE IN 



ARCHITECTURE. 



By Frederick East, M.A. 



I vpas at the Institute the same evening that Sir Gardnor Wilkin- 

 son, a gentleman of great acuteness, tendered to its nicmbers certain 

 impressions produced upon his mind by the prGv.deiice of the hori- 

 zontal or perpendicular line in architecture. Sir Garduor, however, 

 from a certain politeness of feeling, did not extend his observations to 

 nnv length. He conveyed them rather in the shape of suggestions, 

 ■with a view to elicit from the profession more enlarged views upon 

 the subject. Probably in harmony with that wish it was that Mr. 

 Godwin entered the field, and favoured us at the last meeting with a 

 passing and pertinent criticism upon the perpendicular line. But the 

 bearing of his criticism atfected the frequent use of a column breaking 

 from the main entablature and exhausting itself in a figure. He con- 

 sidered it as a mere excrescence, giving perhaps too much importance 

 to sculpture, which I conceive most will admit as only accessory and 

 secondary to the design. Hence it was employed without judgment 

 or feeling when evidently a mere prop or support for the statue. His 

 observations seemed, however, limited to this; they appeared to pene- 

 trate no farther than to show this fallacy in taste. 1 can only regret 

 from tlie clearness and conciseness of those remarks that he did not 

 anticipate my own, and that the subject was not more indulgently 

 treated by one so much more competent to give them. 



Feeling, however, that it is expedient to detect the true spirit of a 

 composition, and of the minutia- which compose it, in order to guide 

 our o«n taste; and that no satisfaction can result from the mere know- 

 ledge of the existence of this or that style without we can apply it to 

 our own erections, if harmonious, or shun it, if discordant; I humbly 

 introduce my own impressions on the subject, which I ofi'er, however, 

 with submission to the profession, as before men, some of whom are 

 no doubt perhaps more fitted to impart information, than to receive 

 the s ightest observation, or the smallest wrinkle from me. 



By a consideration of the prevalence of these lines, so marked, and 

 prominent in the palaces and churches of Italy, in the middle ages, we 

 naturally trace out the real secrets of beauty in foreign creations, and 

 are enabled to judge whether they accorded with tlie spirit of the 

 times, and consequentlv with the beauties of real expression, as it was 

 then influenced. By this means we may avoid passing a hasty censure 

 upon that which to" an edifice in this cuuntry would be certainly de- 

 structive to true taste, and which we cuuld never imitate but under 

 similar circumstances. 



Notwillistandine the correctness of Mr. Godwin's remarks, I con- 

 ceive a more powerful motive, than to give effect to sculpture, in- 

 fluenced the adoption of the perpendicular line, in the purer days of 

 art. And that however a series of columns might have been after- 

 wards sacrificed to the beauties of a figure or the ornaments of sculp- 

 ture. Their use sprang originally from the poetry of nature and the re- 

 sources of Italian fancy. 



I conceive that great poetry and pathos — pleasing emotions, or 

 gloomy ideas are consequent upon a skilful appropriation of the per- 

 pendicular or horizontal lines. A partiality for the former when decked 

 with the garhmds of n.iture, enlivening us with gaity and mirth, and 

 exhil)itiiig in its tapering lightness, all that seduces and captivates; 

 whilst great indulgence ui the latter instils awe and inspires some idea 

 of the terrible and sublime. 



To illustr.ite mv meaning more clearly, I would make solid simpli- 

 city, weight, dignity, &c. to repose upon the horizontal, whilst elegance 

 and grace should seek their beauty from the perpendicular. Because 

 there seems to me something of phisiognomy in architecture, — a 

 cliaracter about it— so that we are either amazed, awed, softened, or 

 delighted, by its mien and general bearing. 



\V hen therefore we search after grace, nature reveals it, sporting 

 and skipping in lightness and elegance, never so beautiful as when in 

 action and erect, seldom shortened into repose. Hence the taperings 

 of the Gothic, and the careless lightness of the Corinthian. Hence also 

 the prevalence of the perpendicular, which might tend to insignificance 

 in a building, but fur a certain symmetry of parts, easily detected in 

 works of acknowledged merit. But to fashion the grand, the solemn, 

 the imposing edifice, we instinctively turn from any thing feminine or 

 alight. Like laughter and mirth they become noxious to our sterner 



moods, and nothing satisfies but a certain breadth of ])arts, a rigidity of 

 aspect, a dignified reserve as we search for the sublime. Nor does 

 anv loftiness of character, ner height of form display itself, but what 

 seems natural upon the breadth, merely in fact, a necessary proportion, 

 to avoid contempt and ridicule. Thus perhaps it was that horizontal 

 lines were sometimes preferred for the Italian palace ; though oftener 

 defeated in ett'ect, by the lurking fondness which Italian artists had, 

 for fanciful embellishment, giving occasionally an eccentric and inap- 

 propriate feature to an otherwise imposing front. 



The adoption of the one style or the other results, I conceive from 

 the spirit of the times. The artist wished to change the dull monotony 

 of a mass, to give life and sprightly features to the building. To deck 

 the edifice in all the fashions of elegance, sought and employed quali- 

 ties in form and exterior conducive to this idea. 



He knew that effective grace must depend upon the happiness of 

 contrast, and selected the perpendicular line as the best index to variety 

 in a front of breadth and lateral bulk. In after times the church — the 

 Roman church was to betray the resources of its wealth ; — the people 

 were to conceive a proper notion of its splendour — the terrible and 

 sublime were to be lost, or rather to Oe subdued for a little, amidst 

 images of attraction and wonder. Hence the artist digressed, and 

 violated symmetry, to court the spirit of the times. 



Or the Ducal palace WcC to awe the passer by, the vassal was to 

 shrink when near the presence of the great. Hence the judgment of 

 the artist fed the noble's pride, by investing the edifice with all that 

 indicated the suUenness of grandeur. The horizontal line traced it- 

 self all through the edifice, or was broken by a wing or a centre of 

 richness and tapering forms, as if to intermix with so much oppressive 

 dignity some picture of splendour and elegance too. 



There seems no exact standard to test the merits of either grandeur 

 or grace, yet to, a mind susceptible to and attracted by natural elegance 

 or the puredistinctionsof art, first impressions are generally most correct. 

 Without entering however into examples which are unnecessary, if 

 the moral of the sentiment be imbibed, and we can only trace the prin- 

 ciple affecting the application of either to its true source, so as to assist 

 our own ideas of correct taste and of purity in design. I shall in con- 

 clusion merely test these opposites in art, by a comparison with two 

 opposites in nature — and would lemark that as we love in woman with 

 her laughing eye and elegance of motion, that aerial lightness, that 

 sylphlike form, which facinates and enchants ; so we expect that com- 

 pactness, that breadth,— that stern solidity of air in the more dignified 

 lord of earth. And that whereas we cede to woman with her loveli- 

 ness of grace, gaiety of attire, and profusion of ornament as an increase 

 to her cTiarms, so we expect not to find the majesty of man masked by 

 a whimsical dress, or cloaked by a frivolous garb. Presuming at the 

 same time that the coldness of our fancy may lessen the contrast, and 

 account for our giving the swellings and undulations of grace less pro- 

 minence than accorded with the fire, — -the energy of the ardent Italian. 



Whether we transport ourselves to Vicenza and see the edifices 

 built or restored by Palladio, or follow our own great genius of the 

 same school Inigo Jones, into the harmonious distributions of the flat 

 and void of the sombre and light — -we see a felicity in outline, a play 

 in efi'ect, in which ancient beauty is reproduced and revived in com- 

 binations unknown to antiquity. This beautiful harmony seems to me 

 the effect of lines. In the great front of the design for the Whitehall 

 Palace, wdiere the facade is long, we see with what consummate skill 

 in the combination of lines, Inigo Jones pleases the eye, to a length of 

 1151 feet. How in the centre, column rears itself above column. Hon 

 the whole centre itself is elevated — what a noble attitude it has! how- 

 rich and yet how symmetrical ! Contrasted against this front of ele- 

 gance cornes a void where naked simplicity reigns — where little or no 

 ornament appears — where little of what is tapering is seen^and the 

 eye which seemed to soar up the rich and elegant columns of the cen- 

 tre, now wanders along the broad g'oomy silent mass which intervenes^ 



This you see is depressed — is lower than the centre — the idea of 

 breadth is at once visible, and the contrast with the lofty centre is ap- 

 parent — and thus the effect is virtually speaking one of lines. This 

 idea of harmonious distribution is visible in the centre itself. There 

 to give importance to that part in so long a facade, the length of it 

 must necessarily be great, and to remedy this Inigo Jones introduces 

 two towers, the relief of which and their tapering appearance is very 

 striking and effective. 



As you progress along the front you catch once more the lofty wing, 

 the columns, their statues, and the frequency of lofty lines is again 

 seen, and your eye wanders as it were between dullness and life. This 

 peculiarity— this attention to the varied employment of lines is pecu- 

 liar to others as also to Palladio, and to be seen in his Palazzo del 

 Capilanio and other buildings at Vicenza. 



'i'he introduction of columns in a long continuous edifice seemed not 

 only to give the idea of support but to create variety. 



