1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



29.5 



sess very great merits ; and it is clieerinr; to reflect that with the ex- 

 ception of one or two instances they display originality of thought, 

 and that they are modified by circumstances peculiar to the buildings 

 to which they attach ; thus they aftbrd u^ valuable lessons. A question 

 seems here to arise, how is it that these porticoes, having so many 

 claims to our admiration, are not oftener the theme of praise ? The 

 reply naturally is, that they have to contend against very overpowiug 

 circumstances ; they are generally in confined situations, and much 

 discoloured. It would seem from their being so placed, concealed and 

 incumbered by buildings often of the meanest description, that great 

 indirterence must have prevailed towards art in general, at the time 

 at which they were erected, and, that but little sympathy could have 

 been entertained for the feelings of an artist, anxious about the efTect 

 his work was calculated to produce. We have to congratulate our- 

 selves that the times in which we live, bear the stamp of a more en- 

 lightened and liberal sentiment. 



As much solicitude is now shown in rescuing former works from ob- 

 livion as in erecting new ones ; and London in its present stage may 

 be compared to an old picture, in the hands of an intelligent repairer, 

 to which the latter not only adds fresh parts, but is equally intent in 

 giving value to its concealed beauties, by dexterously removing the 

 excrescences of time and neglect. But there remams yet to be men- 

 tioned, a cause still more powerful in diminishing the effect of our 

 porticoes, than any yet alluded to, viz., the tower, which becomes a 

 real deformity, when seen rising immediately over the roof of the 

 pediment. This feature so capable of being rendered beautiful when 

 philosophically treated, becomes a positive eyesore when seen shoot- 

 ing out of the roof of the j)edinieiit, and interfering with the severe 

 and classical form of the latter; thus placed it produces all the de- 

 formity of a hump upon the back; and yet despite the incongruity 

 resulting from this peculiar disposition of the tower and pediment, it 

 has been persisted in by the generality of our architects, in spite of 

 the better example shown us, by our immortal countryman Sir C. Wren, 

 and his immediate followers. The system whicli the Italians have 

 adopted, in disposing of these two features, which modern custom has 

 rendered it necessary to combine, shows their nicer discrimination of 

 the true principles of beauty. They have felt, that the forced contact 

 of two elements, whose characteristics are so diametrically opposed — 

 the perpendicular predominating in the one, the horizontal in the 

 other — could not but be productive of an inharmonious result, and, liave 

 therefore invariably placed the tower at the end, or on the flank of 

 the ch\u-ch; thus not only, is no unpleasant sensation created, but ad- 

 ditional beauty results from this disposition, in the charm which both 

 features give through an agreeable contrast. 



St. George's, Bloomsbury, aft'urds a striking instance of the last- 

 mentioned method of treating the subject in question, and however 

 opinions may differ with respect to the design itself, people of taste 

 are unanimous in their approbation of the system which the architect 

 has adopted, of combining those two important features, the portico 

 and tower. 



The following remark from the late Mr. Thomas Hope, is quoted as 

 an introduction to some general observations respecting porticoes. 

 Touching the important requisite dtplh, that author says, " a portico 

 thus constructed becomes in the first place an object of "real utility; it 

 fulfils its apparent destination, that of affording shelter to the pedes- 

 trian, and screening the inhabitant waiting for the hour of prayer from 

 the inclemency of the weather; it becomes in the second place a means 

 of infinite beauty, and gives at once to the individual columns, more 

 relief, more distinctness, and consequently more effect, through the 

 deep shade it throws upon the wall behind ; and to the entire facade, 

 more motion, more picturesqueness, and more dignity." 



Touching the utility of porticoes, it may be permitted to remark 

 ujion a fact connected with their projection from the face of the build- 

 ing, \ipon which circumstance so much of their utility depends ; it is 

 then quite consistent with good taste to give to the portico, if required, 

 a projection greater than one intercolumniation, without placing any 

 colunjn in the return ; owing to want of attention to this circumstance, 

 it is not unfrequently seen, where the projection is a little more than 

 one intercolumniation, that the intercolumniation itself is made out by 

 a colunm, immediately behind which is placed the ante ; a proceeding 

 which produces the very reverse of a good effect ; for the contrast of 

 the cylindrical form of the shaft of the column, with the square form 

 of the ante, pleasing when the eye is enabled, by a proper intervening 

 space between them, -to glance gradually from one to the other, is 

 quite grating to the sight, when thus made sudden, by the almost im- 

 mediate contract of features so dissimilar, — besides that, this ojnion of 

 column and ante, by producing irregularity in the distribution of the 

 points of support, gives to the portico an appearance of weakness. 

 This observation is of value to the architect who is desirous of making 

 liis portico an object both of utility and beautv; for in extending it 



across the foot-path, additional, and very requisite, shelter is afforded, 

 and much picturesqueness is also produced by thus gracefully breaking 

 the necessary long line of street architecture. The beautiful portico of 

 Hanover Chapel, in Regent-street, those of the Haymarket Theatre, 

 and Melbourne House, Whitehall, favourably illustrate this position. 



A very important item in fhe composition of a portico, is the back 

 ground, or wall immediately behind the columns, — this line of wall 

 should always be made to recede, and if possible considerably from the 

 front line of the ante, for by this means a deep tone of shadow is se- 

 cured fur the relief of the columns in front. It is not possible to ad- 

 mire too much the painter-like feeling displayed in this respect, in 

 the above mentioned exquisite portico of Hanover Chapel, where the 

 effect at night seems to have been a matter of study, as completely as 

 that by day: the lamps within the portico are so happily placed that 

 in two corresponding points of view they become concealed from the 

 eye of the observer, who freed from their glare, contemplates more 

 willingly the columns, which tell out in the picture, as dark objects, 

 relieved upon a back ground of subdued light. It is important too 

 that in this portion of the portico there should be as few lines as 

 possible, at all analogous to those of the columns; all perpendicular 

 lines should therefore be avoided ; the introduction of pilasters behind 

 the columns, according to the Italian school, is a vice in composition; 

 they only tend to |)roduce monotony and confusion, by repeating and 

 interfering with the front lines of the portico; the obtaining of Tiori- 

 zontal lines on the contrary should be aimed at as these by contrast, set 

 off" the columns well, especially if the latter be fluted. 



The porticoes of the Greeks and Romans, are admirable in the con- 

 duct of the back orround, and in this feature we, who keep more to the 

 ancients, greatlv excel our ancestors, who designed more immediately 

 in the style of the Italians, the back grounds to whose porticoes are 

 oftentimes positively vulgar. The two celebrated circular temples of 

 Vesta at Rome, and at Tivoli have no pilasters corresponding to the 

 columns, which latter features thus unembarrassed, produce a striking 

 effect. Bramante, that great master of the art, did not escape from 

 this vulgarism, and has greatly impaired the eflfect of his well known 

 little circular temple at San Pietro, in Montorio, by the introduction of 

 these worse than useless appendages, pilasters. 



Aspect is another grand consideration in the application of a portico ; 

 no portico should have a northern aspect, unless it have at the same 

 time a famous projection.. The grand portico of Rome, the front of 

 which is due north, reads us a valuable lesson upon this point; it pro- 

 jects no less than three intercolumniations from the face of the wall, 

 consequently twice in the day it receives abundance of sunshine, owing 

 to which circumstance it never wears a gloomy appearance. Sunshine 

 is to a portico, what a smile is to the countenance; though neither 

 of the attributes be visible for the moment, their genial influence is 

 ever apparent. A portico from the very boldness of its parts, and 

 peculiar plan, being well calculated for a sunny effect, becomes on the 

 contrary, a most gloomy object, if never enlivened by the the sun's 

 rays ; to wit, that dull looking portico affixed to the end of the College 

 of Physicians. In the first place, the aspect of this portico is nortti, 

 and stuck as it literally is against the wall, it remains throughout the, 

 year a complete stranger to the sun's rays ; this portico never wears a 

 smile, but cold, chilly and repulsive, even in the brightest season, it 

 has the appearance of labouring under a fit of the dumps, and presents 

 the novel spectacle of a portico requiring the physician's aid; its 

 gloomy appearance offers a strange contrast to the gay scene around, 

 whilst its oblique position, one can imagine it to have contracted from 

 a habit of darting, side-long wistful glances at the sunny, cheerful 

 faces of its neighbours, of the National Gallery and St. Martin's. 



Surely it is a strange anomaly, that a conspicuous part of a building, 

 which, from its destination of College, of the guardians of the health of the 

 public, is so rife with associations of a cheering nature, should assume 

 so dreary a look. The Fa<ailty must not be surprised, should any one 

 imagine them, to have laboured under a heavy attack of the portico- 

 mania, when they pressed this woeful-looking object into their service, 

 standing as it does, without reason, rhyme, or sunshine. And singular 

 to observe, another branch of the healing profession, exhibits strong 

 symptoms of having laboured under the same curious malady ; the 

 Royal College of Surgeons having, as it were, by hook or by crook, 

 possessed themselves of something of the portico kind, in the shape 

 of four columns, with a bit of an entablature pasted against the wall, 

 aftbrding no shelter, but screening the light, amputation here would be 

 of use, for if the well known Italian question were put to tliese columns, 

 of " Care coloune, die fate qua ?" they might be excused answering, 

 " non sappiamo in veritti." 



Touching the forms of porticoes, it may be observed that the num- 

 ber of columns should be*in such proportion to the height, and pera- 

 meter of the portico as to display at once its form, without the neces- 

 sity of the eye glancing to the steps, or to the entablature, in order to 



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