1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



227 



scope, wp hiive made our way, and in despite of want of instruction, 

 want of taste, and want of encouragement, at any rate we have shown 

 that we can |)roduce high art, if it be hnt called for. The barbarians 

 who could add \vhitewashe<l garrets to the British Miisoum, are but a 

 portion of the great body of Midases in art, who, by indifference or 

 opposition, check its encouragement by the legislature, and although 

 they have begun to find out that whitewash is not the best back-ground 

 for the Elgin marbles, yet they and their brethren nnist go a step 

 further, if they wish England to make a good figure in the eyes of its 

 neighbours. There is the British Museum, National Gallery, and 

 Royal Exchange to go to work upon, and above all, the new Houses 

 of Parliament; rich as they are in historical associations, they lose 

 half their value without even a mark to tell the scene of so many 

 great events, where the sovereigns of a mighty empire have been 

 created and deposed, tried and executed, where viceroys and ministers 

 have been arraigned, the destiny of the old world and the new deter- 

 mined, kings matle tributary, and slaves set free. 



We must liy this time have made known the high sense which we 

 entertain of the talents and exertions of Mr. Latilla, and we are dis- 

 posed to look less at his past works, than to dwell upon the hope of 

 those which are to come. Even since his labours at Beaufort House, 

 he has in Italy acquired fresh jjower and conlidence in his art, and his 

 course of instruction has been such as well to fit him for a higher task. 

 For many years he has devoted himself to fresco painting, and tlic 

 history of his initiation, which we have heard, is a good lesson of the 

 value that may attach to what we too often tiespise as trifles. 

 John Nash, the architect, brought home from Italy a collection of 

 designs from the Loggie of the Vatican and some Italian artists, whom 

 he employed to paint jiart of his house in the Ratt'aelesque style, 

 and Latilla, then a boy, was employed in finishing it after they left, 

 when he was so struck by what he saw, that from'that day he devoted 

 liiniself to fres«o, and exerted himself for its introduction. 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS IN LONDON. 



^ Critical Reviem of the Public Bitildiiigs, Statues and Ornaments in 

 and about London and IVeslminatct — 1734. 



By R.iLPH. 



(Continued from page 201. J 



Tlie grand catliedral of St. Paul's is undoubtedly one of the most 

 magnificpnt modern buildings in Europe ; all the parts of which it is 

 composed are superlatively beautiful ;uk1 noble ; the north and south 

 fronts in particular are very perfect pieces of architecture, neither 

 ought the east to go without due applause. The two spires at the 

 west end are in a finished taste, and the portico witli the ascent, and 

 the dome that rises in the centre of the whole, afford a very august 

 and surprizing prospect; but sti!!, with all these beauties, it has cer- 

 tainly yet more defects ; and the pleasure we receive from the first is 

 so much qualified and tamed by the last, that we rather wonder how 

 we can be pleased so much, than why we are displeased at all. But 

 not to condemn in the gross, I will take the liberty to touch upon a 

 few particulars, and lay myself justly open to censure, in case I mis- 

 take, or blame in the wrong place. 



In the first place therefore, there is a most notorious deficiency in 

 point of view ; such a huge fabric as St. Paul's ought at least to be 

 surveyed at the distance of Temple-bar, and the vista ought to be 

 considerably wider than the front of the building. But this is so far 

 from the case here, that we cannot see it till we are upon it, and this 

 defect is still made worse by turning the edifice from the eye even 

 where it can be viewed, for the sake of that ridiculous superstition of 

 erecting it due east and west. In the next place, the dividing the 

 portico, and indeed the whole structure into two stories on the out- 

 side, certainly indicates a like division within : a circumstance abound- 

 ing with absurdities, and defeating even the very end of erecting it at 

 all. If indeed the architect had been embarrassed to reconcile the 

 distance and height of his columns, I am humbly of opinion that a light 

 and pro]5er attic story had answered all enils both of use and beauty, 

 and left him room to have enlarged his imagination, and have given 

 an air of majesty to the whole : let me add that 1 apprehend the por- 

 tico should have been farther projected on the eye, instead of retreat- 

 ing from it, in order to have given a grand contrast to the whole front, 

 and aided the perspective within. 



I shall say no more on the outside than this, that aecording to my 

 best notions of regularity and order, the dome should have been raised 

 exactly in the centre of the whole, and that there should have been 

 two corresponding steeples at the east as well as the west end, with 



all other suitable decorations ; if a view of the whole length of the 

 building, too, could have been opened to the water-side, it would 

 have added greatly to its grandeur and magnificence, and have afforded 

 a most nof^le prospect from off the river into the bargain. However 

 odd or new the first of these propositions may seem, let any body take 

 a view of St. Paul's from any of the neighbouring hills, and they will 

 instantly discern that the building is defective, and that the form of a 

 cross is more favourable to superstition than beauty ; in a word, they 

 will easily see at least, that the dome, in its present circumstance, is 

 abundantly too big for the rest of the pile, and that the west end has 

 no rational pretence to finer and more splendid decorations than the 

 east. 



Before we begin our examination of the inside of St. Paul's, it will 

 not be amiss to cast an eye on the statue in the area before it, erected 

 in honour of the late queen. It stands exactly in the front of the 

 building, though it seems, by the odd situation of Ludgate Street, to 

 be on one side, and is, upon the whole, modelled in a tolerable taste, 

 and executed as well ; the principal figure, indeed, the queen herself, 

 is an exception to this character; such a formal Gothic habit, and 

 stiff, affected attitude, are neither to be endured or pardoned, and 

 there is not one of those round the base tliat does not justly deserve 

 the preference. 



Whoever understands the nature of public ornamental buildings 

 critically, always lays it down for a rule, that they cannot be too ex- 

 pensive or magnificent ; for which reason St. Paul's is so far from 

 being admired" for being so grand and a\igust as it is, that nothing is 

 more common than to hear it censured for not being more so. Every 

 body knows that the fund which raised it from its ruins to its present 

 glory, was equal to any design of beauty cr majesty; and as those 

 who had it in trust went so far towLVrds this necessary end, it is a 

 thousand pities they did not carry it on much farther, and make this 

 pile not only the ornament of Britain, but the admiration and envy of 

 all Europe. St. Peter's at Rome was already built ; a model which 

 the most finished architect need not have been ashamed to imitate, 

 and as all its particular beauties have been long publicly known and 

 admired, I think it was incumbent on us to have equalled it at least ; 

 and if we had excelled it too, it would have been no more than might 

 have been reasonably expected from such a nation as ours, "and such 

 a genius as Wren. 



On these principles it is that men of taste and understanding are 

 surprized, at entering this church, to see so many faults, and miss so 

 many beauties; they discover at once that it wants elevation to give 

 it a proportionable "grandeur, and length to assist the perspective ; 

 that the columns are heavy and clumsy to a prodigious decree, and 

 rather incumber the prospect than enrich it with symmetry and beauty ; 

 half the necessary breaks of light and shadow are hereby wanting, and 

 half the perspective in general cut off; at the same time I do not 

 deny but many parts of the decoration are exceedingly grand and 

 noble, and demand very justly a sincere applause, i'he dome is, 

 without question, a very stupendous fabric, and strikes the eye with 

 an astonishing pleasure : it is, indeed, one of those happy kinds of 

 building that please all kinds of people alike, from the most ignorant 

 clown up to the most accomplished gentleman; but yet even here the 

 judge cannot help taking notice that it bears no proportion to the rest 

 of the building, and that after you have seen this, you can look at no 

 other part of it; whereas a judicious builder would husband his 

 imagination, and still have something in reserve to delight the mind, 

 though nothing perhaps could be coiitrivcd to surprize after it. 



For example, the very nature of a choir would not admit of any 

 thing so marvellous as the dome, yet it might have relieved the eye 

 with something equivalently beautiful ; the entrance in front might 

 have been more noble and uniform, cither composed of wood entirely 

 or marble, for the present mixture of both makes a disagreeable piece 

 of ])atch-work, that rather disgusts than entertains ; the opening on the 

 inside, through the present beautiful range of stalls, might have termi- 

 nated in a much more magnificent alcove than we see there at present, 

 adorned with all the elegance and profusion of decoration; the altar 

 should have been raised of the richest marble in the most expensive 

 taste, that it might have been of a piece with the rest of the church, 

 and terminated the view of the whole, with all the graces of the most 

 luxuriant imagination. All the intermediate spaces should have been 

 filled up with the noblest historical paintings ; all the majesty of 

 frieze-work, cornices, and carving, heightened with the most costly 

 gildings, should have been lavished to adorn it, and one grand flow of 

 man-niricent curtain, depended from the windows, to finish and adorn 

 the same. 



Thus have I been free enough to give my impartial opinion of St. 

 Paul's ; I hope not too presumptuously, and if iguorantly, let every 

 reader's private judgment set ine right. 



St. Andrew's Holborn, has the advantage of a very good situatio«, 



2 II 2 



