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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[March, 



OBITUARY. 



GEORGE MADDOX. 



We have to take some reproach to ourselves for not having before 

 spoken of one who, if scarcely known to the public as a professional 

 man, was an honour to his profession, and most sincerely and de- 

 votedly attached to his art — to a degree that, perhaps, rather retarded 

 than at all advanced his immediate interests, causing him to post- 

 pone all other considerations to his love of art — an enthusiasm which 

 continued unabated to the very last. 



The whole of his long life may be said to have been one uninter- 

 rupted course of study, not merely in architecture, but in art generally; 

 therefore, long as it was, it offers very little in the shape of matter-iif- 

 fact biography, although if treated auto-bio graphically, and so as to 

 record mental habits and their formation — feelings and opinions, the 

 most studious and an almost recluse life, may possess a higher and 

 even stronger interest for the few, if not for the many, than one marked 

 by variely and adventure. The power and originality of mind were 

 rot wanting, which would have enabled the subject of our memoir to 

 give the world a memoir of himself, fraught both with interest and 

 instruction — most certainly the last, if only by embodying in perma- 

 nent form his own opinions and views of art, and thereby becoming a 

 valuable store of criticism. 



As to what we are able here to say, it is so very slight and imper- 

 fect that it does not deserve the name of "memoir" at all, since it 

 amounts lo little more than a mere " memorandum" of the man, 

 without even the skeleton of a biography, in regard to facts and dates. 



George Maddox was a native of the town of Monmouth, where he 

 was born in 17G0, and where his father was, we believe, a builder by 

 trade. On the expiry of the time of his apprenticeship with his 

 father, he came up to London, where he afterwards obtained an en- 

 gagement with Soane as his assistant. How long he actually con- 

 tinued with him, we are unable to say, but we believe for no very 

 great length of time; certain it is that he ultimately quitted him in 

 disgust,— which is so far from being at all surprising, that it would 

 have been infinitely more so, had one of such independence of mind as 

 was Maddox, tamely brooked the tyrannical temper, and the wild and 

 wayward caprices of the other. Though this may have been a some- 

 what imprudent step in its consequences, there was, no doubt, enough 

 to justify it, more especially as there is strong reason for supposing, 

 that not temper alone, but also ungenerous conduct, on the part of 

 Soane, caused the rupture between them ; and, whether justly or un- 

 justly, at all events the character of the latter gives strong probability 

 to such suspicions. He was next connected with the Pantheon, in 

 Oxford Street, and in such a manner as to be seriously involved in 

 the pecuniary affairs of that property. About the same time a most 

 promising prospect that was opening itself to him, was suddenly cut 

 off by the loss of a patron in the then Duke of Cumberland, brother to 

 George III., whose death caused the project of building an Opera 

 House in Leicester Square to be abandoned, just as all but the final 

 preliminaries had been arranged. The edifice was to have been upon 

 a scale then, and even now, unprecedented in the metropolis; Grecian 

 Ionic in style, with a magnificent portico, whose columns would have 

 been about sixty feet high. What became of the design for it, we 

 are unable to say ; but it does not appear to have been preserved. 

 The same is, unfortunately, the case with those of many buildings 

 which he actually did execute, and which, although, being for the 

 most part only private houses, and those upon a moderate scale, they 

 were not of a kind to obtain general notice, have much in them highly 

 deserving of attentive study, being most carefully studied themselves; 

 and containing many original and valuable ideas, nor least of all so, in 

 regard to detail. At any rate, a selection of some of them would have 

 formed an instructive publication, as would likewise some of his 

 original compositions for capitals, and other ornamental details in the 

 Greek style; to which, for want of any other, the not particularly 

 recommendatory epithet of "fancy" capitals, &c., must be applied, 

 although they were singularly happy in idea, and true to the sentiment 

 of Grecian prototypes, — felicitous conceptions meditated, and after- 

 wards wrought out, core amore. 



Enthusiastic as was his admiration of classical architecture, more 

 especially of Grecian, Maddox was by no means an advocate for 

 merely copying the extant examples of it, much less for treating them 

 in the jejune, spiritless, and mechanical manner we generally find 

 them. He was, in fact, an artist in the most comprehensive sense of 

 the word,— perhaps to a degree that was rather prejudicial than the 

 contrary, to his immediate interests, since he was too much wrapt up 

 in art, to attend to thai of making his way in the world, and pushing 

 him-self forward as he might have done, without thereby compromising 

 )iis integrity. 



Cheap and vulgar praise he scorned, and no doubt felt that few 

 could appreciate his ideas. This last must certainly have been the 

 case in regard to the architectural subjects, annually sent by him to 

 the Society of British Artists. As pictures in oil, they were of all 

 others almost the least calculated to attract notice in an exhibition 

 room: "Portraits of cabbages," as he himself used to say, would 

 have had a fairer chance of being looked at. And his required to be 

 not only looked at, but carefully looked into, to detect all the varied 

 beauties of detail, and the fresh and valuable ideas with which they 

 abounded. In truth, they were quite out of their element in such 

 miscellaneous exhibitions, more especially as there was nothing in 

 their mere titles to call attention to them, and being generally of small 

 size, and not of a kind to strike at first sight, they were apt to be 

 overlooked, or else merely glanced at, by those who could have done 

 justice to their merits. 



Besides being a very superior architectural painter in oil, Mr. Mad- 

 dox showed great ability with his etching-needle, and some time before 

 his death had made considerable progress with a series of etchings, 

 about forty in number, of groups of architectural fragments and orna- 

 ments. Unfortunately infirmity and suffering prevented his finally 

 completing them for publication, as he intended ; yet it is to be hoped 

 that even now they will not be entirely lost to the world, but impres- 

 sions of tliem published from the coppers as left by himself. This, 

 we hope, will be done, if only for the sake of his widow, who, it pains 

 us to say, has been left almost entirely without resources, since for 

 many years previous to his death he had no other means of subsisting 

 than teaching pupils, and occasional employment from others in 

 making designs and drawings; occupations precarious almost at the 

 best, and frequently interrupted of late years by severe and protracted 

 attacks of illness. The last of which terminated in his death, Oct, 7, 

 1843 in the 83rd year of his age. 



LmGI CANONICA 



Is another octogenarian whom art has lately lost, and still more 

 recently, for he died at the beginning of the present year, some time 

 in the month of February, at Milan, aged 82. Like his eminent contem- 

 porary, Luigi Cagnola, whom he survived just ten years, it was the 

 good fortune of theCavaliere Luigi Canonica to be employed on some 

 of the more important monumtns of Milan. After the celebrated jirco 

 delta Pace, by the former, the Arena, by the latter, is one of the 

 modern architectural tioiii of that city, although it is not every English 

 tourist — not even those among them who are architects also — that has 

 condescended to bestow any notice on either, at least not beyond what 

 the ordinary "Guide-book" supplies. That the "Arena" should 

 have obtained so little of their attention, is indeed surprising, because 

 it affords a good opportunity for comparison with ancient structures 

 of the same kind. We meet, however, with some description of it, in 

 a work entitled " Notei Abroad, Sec," which, we may remark, deals 

 far more largely than usual in architectural criticism, and occasionally 

 speaks out more than rather freely in regard to some of our architects 

 here at home. 



" In the arena," says the writer, " Canonica has given us an imitation 

 of an ancient amphitheatre, upon a still larger scale than any similar 

 work of the Romans, it being an ellipsis of about 800 by 400 feet, 

 dimensions that would give it a superiority even over the Colosseum. 

 In other respects, however, it must be confessed that it falls very 

 far short both of that and the edifice at Verona, for there are not more 

 than eight rows of gradini, which do not rise above twenty feet; 

 which want of height, together with the much greater extent of open 

 area, causes it to assume altogether a different character, and appear 

 little more than an inclosure surrounded by asingle/);-(eci>ie/2o of seats; 

 whereas iu all the ancient amphitheatres the external walls are ex- 

 ceedingly lofty, and consist of tiers of arcades. Here, on the contrary, 

 there is only one series of semi-circular arches, disposed at a consi- 

 derable distance from each other, with a plain square-headed doorway 

 beneath it (each?J, and the summit is finished by a balustrade. Never- 

 theless the whole is a work of great magnitude, and was completed 

 within a comparatively shorttime." (It was commenced in 1805.) "The 

 principal entrance is at one extremity through an arch, with two fluted 

 Doric columns on each side of it, supporting an enriched entablature, 

 and a pediment, filled with sculpture, placed against a podium, or 

 low unbroken attic. This frontispiece rises much higher than the 

 external wall, the impost of the arch itself being on a level with 

 the top of the balustrade. There is also on one side, namely that 

 adjoining the Piazza d' Armi, a raised loggia (PutvinareJ of eight 

 Corinthian columns of red granite, containing seats for the Viceroy 

 and his suite, with a saloon behind it, whose windows open on 

 the piazza. This unique structure was erected by order of Buona- 

 parte as a place of public amusement and recreation for his 

 Milanese lieges, where they might be gratified not only by horse 



