l^ilo] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



303 



Among the edificos built at this time in the provinces one of tlie 

 most impi^rtant is the Town Hall of Kheinis. The first stone of this 

 buililing was laid in l(ji7. In the ontre of the grand facade is an 

 equestrian statue of Louis XIII. The left wing cf the building long 

 remained uncompleted. The Hotel-de-Villo of Lyons is also an 

 edifice of great importance; isolated nn all sides, the iflVct of the 

 court, «hieh is elevated above the adjacent houses, is very pictu- 

 resque. The principal elevation consists of two wings with a centre 

 fa9ado recessed. A balcony runs along tlie whole first floor; in tlic 

 centre of the facade is an equestrian statue of Louis Xlll. 



Some of the apartments of Fontainohleau belong also to this period. 

 The chateaux of the time of Loins XIII. which yet rem lin may in 

 general be recognized by the mixture of brick and stone. In some 

 the interior decorations are well preserved, as in the Chateau of 

 Livernv near Hlois. The Guard Chamber is still to be seen, and a 

 bed clwmber, of which the ceiling, the chimneys, &o., are in complete 

 preservation. 



The stvie of architecture of the reign of Louis XIII. and of the 

 regency of Anne of Austria is far from exliihiling that symmetry 

 which 'belonged to the preceding era of Henry IV. There was a 

 period of cessation after which architecture sensibly altered. It 

 must, however, be allowed that while the style was inferior in taste 

 to that of the sixteenth century, it at the same time assumed more in- 

 dependence. It still adhered to the Italian model, but it presented a 

 ))hvsiognomy more thoroughly national. The architecture of the 

 leventeenth centurv had become more pompous and monumental than 

 the preceding. To characterize it iu a word, it had become more 

 monarchical. 



Forgi>tten awhile amid the civil wars of the kingdom, the Arts in 

 the seventeenth century began to revive, and in viewing the efiurts of 

 Leniercicr and Mausart in this age we have at least a presentiment of 

 the marvels of the reign of Louis Quatorze. 



BRITISH AND FOREIGN INSTITUTE. 



This Institute contemplates erecting a building of their own, vying 

 in scale and architectural character with some of the West-end club 

 houses. As there has been no scruple in regard to letting us see the 

 design itself*, we think there need have been no secrecy with respect 

 to the authorship of it, but on that point our curiosity has hardly even 

 food for conjecture, unless we are to understand from Mr. Bucking- 

 ham's expression, "my first step was to prepare a new set of plans 

 and designs," that the drawings were actually designed by himself; 

 and if such be really the case they show him to be no mean profi- 

 cient in architectural study, — on the contrary, to possess rather 

 more than less talent than what forms the average among the 

 professional ranks. These designs, we are told, " were submitted 

 to Mr. Tite, who approved heartily of the drafts, and who, with 

 the taste of an accomplished artist, &c. &c., executed a set of 

 beantifid drawings of the proposed building." Still, though Mr. Tite, 

 no doubt, improved the "drafts" in regard to mere a'chiteclural 

 calligraphy, we presume that he did not think fit to alter any of the 

 ideas in them ; since, if he ventured to make any corrections at all, 

 it is quite unaccountable to us that he should have suffered two fea- 

 tures to pass, which are so unlike in taste to everything else in the 

 fafade that they seem to have been introdnced merely out of perverse- 

 ness, for the sake ol discordance and ugliness and nothing else, 

 without any sort of reason or motive whatever. We allude to the 

 two windows in the ground floor of tlie fa9ade, which, though of the 

 same size and proportions as the other openings, and like them square- 

 headed, are filled in with puny and most miseraUe-looking arched 

 Venetian windows of paltry design. Surely Mr. Tite never for a 

 moment sanctioned such a tasteless caprice and downright barbarism. 

 We admit that those deformities are very easily expunged, but why 

 was not that dene before the elevation was engraved in order to be 

 published? This lault excepted — the design is in some respects un- 

 usually good, for though of more sober than ornate character, it po3» 

 aetses phi/siognomij and manifests artistic feeling, which only renders 

 all the more unaccountable the wilfulness that disfigured such a design 

 by thrusting into it two features of equally gratuitous and unmitigated 

 ugliness. 



Thus much premised, we proceed to description : the plan occupies 

 a site of 8U feet frontage by MO in depth, and would be either entirely 

 insulated or painisular, that is, exhibiting three fronts and leaving 

 other buildings to be erected against the remaining side or rear, which 



cttous of tile Brilisb and Foreign Institute, lately 



end is occupied by the Theatre for lectures and concerts (measuring 

 "9x'5 feet in its lower part on the ground floor, by 4Sx35 above, 

 where it is contract''d by three s doons being carried around it upon 

 the principal lloor ; the extreme height from the floor of the Theatre 

 to the skylight 58 feet). The facade presents an astylar composition 

 of the kind lately introduced among us under the title of the Italian 

 palazzo mode, and has nothing of decoration but what it derives from 

 the dressings of the openings, rustic quoins, moulded yet otherwise 

 plain stringcourses, and the general cornicione, above which a deep 

 blocking-course is substituted for an eaves roof. There are three 

 tiers of openings, viz., on the ground floor, mezzanine story, and prin- 

 cijial floor, and only five openings in each, three of which on the 

 ground floor, viz., the centre oue and that at each end, are doors, the 

 other two being filled in with the windows of most detestable design 

 already mentioned. Even the doors themselves are not quite salis- 

 ficlory, because the mode of their panelling causes them to look too 

 much like ordinary room doors, only on an enlarged scale, in conse- 

 quence cf which they take away from the size ol the other features. 

 Otherwise, taking the mere openings themselves, a|)art from what is 

 put into them, the ground floor is well treated, and though it docs not 

 constitute a distinct rusticated basement, it derives both richness and 

 energy from the bold rustic quoins— both those at the angles and those 

 whicli serve as dressings and key-stones to the doors and windows; 

 and though the surface between them has only liorizonlal joints, it 

 amounts to more than what serves to give relief to the mouUled quoins, 

 consequently the eflect is altogether different from — we hardly need 

 say very superior to — that most un-Ilalian substitute for rustication 

 mere horizontal streakings on the face of the wall, causing it to look 

 as if instead of being constructed of masonry it was covered with 

 boards or planks painted of a stone colour. The mezzmine floor is 

 treated so nearly similar to the ground one that it may almost be said 

 to be in continuation of it. Instead of being made little better than 

 small holes, intended to escape notice as much as possible, the win- 

 dows are rendered important features and contribute in no small de- 

 gree to the effect of the ensemble. The windows of the next or third 

 tier, which are those of the principal floor, are a good deal in the 

 Flortnliue manner, being round-headed, with jointed or rustic archi- 

 vults, triple keystones, and facetted blocks for imposts, from which 

 are carried down plain architraves that extend out below with a 

 sweeping cuive: one peculiarity is, that instead of the windows 

 either descending quite down to the string course on which the com- 

 position forming their dressing rests, or having a balustrade or other 

 parapet beneath them, there is a sort of large tablet just under each 

 opening, whose lower edge is broken, it being deeper at the ends than 

 in the middle. Exceplis txceptandis, that is, the two abominations 

 before mentioned, the general composition is eniitled to great praise; 

 it bears the impress of an unaffected and noble male simplicity, and is 

 of superior character -CLuio fenestration,* in which last respect it is truly 

 in the genuine Florentine gusto, there being only Jive windows on a 

 line of 80 feet, and their openings being not quite one-third of the 

 pier or solid between them. This excess — as it will no doubt ba 

 called -of solid over void, is, if it be an error at all, one on the right side, 

 since be the design ever so faulty in other respects, it is sure to pro- 

 duce two valuable artistic qualities — breadth and repose. — Look, for 

 instance, at the back of Exeter Hdl: no one vrould think of quoting 

 it as a piece of architecture, for it makes not even the very slightest 

 pretensions to design, being in fact little more than a lofty mass of 

 brickwork, with a range of a few windows in the upper part of it, ne- 

 vertheless it is perfect dignity itself in comparison with many of the 

 things which call themselves /nfa&s, some of them so drawn out and 

 so completely riddled with vi-indows that the external wall seems to con- 

 sist of little more than the upright and transverse bars of a grating. 



We regret that it was not thought necessary to show us the full 

 complement of the drawings for the building, only four out of the six 

 mentioned as forming the set being engraved. Yet the longitudinal 

 section was indispensable, since without that we are left quite in the 

 dark with respect to many circumstances. Neither would the cor- 

 responding or side elevation have been altogether superfluous, for 

 though it may otherwise resemble the front, there must be considerable 

 dilierence of character in one respect, — a diflerence, however, which it 

 was no doubt considered prudent not to let ns see, and perhaps thought 

 we should not find out. Each of these side elevations (140 feet in 

 length; has eight windows on a floor (excepting the ground floor which 

 has only seven), and appears intended to form a regular front, yet, 

 strange to say, the windows are very irregularly s|)aced,for at the end 

 next the principal front the windows are onlyyoHcfeet from the angle, 

 while at the other they are twenly-tno! besides whicli they are not 

 put at equal intervals from each other, some of the piers being much 

 wider than others. What renders this disregard of even ordinary 



We purpoEc mubing ' Fenestration,' ere long, the tuljei 



separate p.iper. 

 40* 



