1847.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



241 



Models would sbow the great buildings of tlie Greelis, from which wouid 

 be seen the originals, which have Ijeen so much followed in late times. To 

 the lower classes of builders, to masons, and to workmen, this would be of 

 much use. We are sure that the model of the Parthenon has already done 

 a great deal of good in showing to the people how a public building of this 

 kind was treated at Athens. The peristyle, and the marble carvings, go far 

 beyond what we are here pleased to call Greek architecture. M^ith a better 

 knowledge, of such things we should not be waylaid with brick barns stuck 

 on to a small portico, or with porticos, so called by their makers, from being 

 made with a few naked columns which but for the capitals dare not be called 

 Greek or anything else. If the growth of Greek building in England be de- 

 •irable, nothing is more likely to further it than a knowledge of it in its best 

 shape. 



The bronzes and a few more casts would enable us to follow Greek art 

 from its beginning, and this is most useful. In the Eginetan marbles we 

 have rude and grim drawings of men ; in the Phidian we have gods in the 

 shape of men. We can see how art began, and how far nature truthfully 

 followed will lead us. The Greek carver learned from the living man, the 

 carver of this day from a cast, the pattern drawer or bronze founder is 

 taught in a school of design from a drawing of a cast, in which life has been 

 so wiredrawn that it has fluttered away. Going into the Egyptian room we 

 find in the best figures a careful anatomy in parts, hut that the carvers, hav- 

 ing stopped in that path in which the Greeks went on, never reached the 

 power of the iatter. 



The works of the failing time of art teach likewise, and we can track the 

 footsteps of failure from their first faint marking. When the carver set up the 

 great works of old as his model he began to waver, and though he might 

 bring forth a great work, yet he led those who followed bira off the right 

 track ; so that in the end nature was forgotten. Whatever may be said, the 

 living form is our nearest ami surest inspiration, it gives us a nearer insight 

 into the workings of the divine power, and we cannot therefore in art get 

 better teaching. 



The vases, showing how in the household, and in those things most brittle 

 and most worthless, the principles of art were followed by the Greeks, should 

 stand in the neighbourbond of the lasting remains of the Parthenon. It is 

 by seeing the Greeks in small things as well as in great, that we are led to 

 acknowledge the depth of their feeling for art and learning, upheld at a time 

 when the printing machine was not, before the telegraph overcame time, or 

 the railway lessened space. The schooling of the wealthiest Athenian was 

 behind that given to a foundling in an English workhouse; but how much is 

 England behind what Athens v;as in art ! 



The coins, which are now hidden, and about which it may be said no one 

 knows anything, should be drawn forth. They will be as safe under the pub- 

 lic watch, as where they now are. 



The Egyptian rooms, and even the Etruscan, are in a better state than the 

 Greek, and we have therefore not so much to say about them ; but in the 

 Egyptian rooms, models might well be placed of the pyramids, temples, obe- 

 lisks, tombs, sphinxes, and great works. Now, we only see the little works 

 of the Egyptians, their skill in handicraft; but we should have some know- 

 ledge of those great works, which have been the wonder of so many ages. 



The Roman rooms give us a very poor knowledge of a people who, by their 

 writings, are better known to us, and who have this claim— that they peopled 

 this island before us. and that our English forefathers fought with them. A 

 very great deal must be done before the Roman rooms will be what they 

 ought. Among other wants we may name copies of the frescoes from Pom- 

 peii. 



The Welsh or British antiquities should" be put in order, so as to show us 

 the state of the savages who filled the island before the English overcame 

 them. The few models of cromlechs were a useful addition, but all such 

 things should be modelled, and the works of the Irish and of the Welsh in 

 Gaul should be shown. 



The English antiquities cannot begin with any works of our forefathers in 

 Scotland, but a collection should he formed which should include tombs, 

 brasses, armour, weapons, coins, seals, models of buildings, books, paintings, 

 aad whatever are called mediaeval antiquities. 



RAILWAY LIFT BRIDGE. 



firUh an Engraving, Plate XIII.) 



J. U. Rastrick, Esa., Engineeb. 



This Bridge is in course of construction over the Surrey Canal, on the 

 Brighton branch railway from New Cross to the river Thames ; it is con- 

 structed of timber, consisting of four inverted trussed girders, which carry 

 the rails, the ends of the girders bear upon sills supported by piling of whole 

 timbers, 12 x 12 inches. 



The platform is lifted bodily by six wire ropes, which pass over single 

 grooved pulleys, supported by iron standards, and then descend and pass 

 round douhly-grooved pulleys ; the ends of the ropes are attached to six 

 iron halance-weigbts, of two tons each. The lower pulleys are keyed on to 

 iron shafts, which are turned by the wheel gear at the end, when it is 

 desired to raise the Bridge. 



The clear water-way is 21 feet, and the head-way, when the platform is 

 lifted, 12 feet; the platform is 31 feet long by 23 feet wide. 



GERMAN ARCHITECTURAL WORKS. 



1. Beilrage zur Kennlniss der Backstein-Arcldteclur Italiens. Von L. 

 RUNGE. Berlin : Heymann. London : Franz Thimm. 



2. Die Bauwerke in der Lombardei. Von Friedrich Osten. Darmstadt : 

 Leske. London : Franz Thimm. 



3. Kunstwerke und Gerdthsehaflen des MUtelulters und der Renaissance 

 Von E. Becker und J. vou IIefneb. Frankfurt: Schmerber. London : 

 Franz Thimm. 



We may put these three publications together as aflfording materials for 

 considerably enlarging the sphere of architectural study, and directing it to- 

 wards edifices and works of art belonging to the mediajval period, which 

 have hitherto been scarcely noticed, much less been illustrated, either by the 

 pencil or by historical comment and description. This is especially the case 

 with regard to the first work on the list, viz. : Runge's *' Brick Architecture 

 of Italy," though some of the examples are from Bologna, Ferrara, and other 

 places usually visited by travellers, artists, and students. Yet, pre-occupied 

 by the fame of the remains of classical architecture on the one hand, and by 

 that of the modern standards of the art on the other, such visitors seem to 

 have uo eyes except for the Pantheon and St. Peter's, and for the buildings 

 of Sansovino, Palladio, and other accredited masters. Surrendering them- 

 selves up entirely to their " Guide-book," they suflTer their attention to be 

 absorbed by, and their inquiry limited to, its directions. Next to seeing all 

 that is there pointed out, it seems to be with them a merit to see nothing 

 else — to search for nothing further. They do not even give themselves the 

 chance of stumbling upon anything which their purblind and one-eyed 

 " Guide" is unable to discern for them. 



Even Woods himself is exceedingly unsatisfactory indeed in regard to 

 some of the places and buildings he visited, for bis visits seem to have been 

 made en courier, and his notices of them — Ferrara and Faenza, for instance — 

 are usore provokingly tantalizing than complete silence would have been ; or 

 if they do not tantalize, it is because they mislead, by leaving it to be sup- 

 posed that they really contain nothing at all worth an architect's attention. 

 He does not even so much as hint at Brick Architecture in the North of 

 Italy as constituting a peculiar style of ornamentation. Something, on the 

 contrary, although in itself hut very little, may be found in the 29th chapter 

 of Hope's " Historical Essay of Architecture," in a note to which it is said : 

 " In the plains of Lombardy, where stone is rare, clay has in buildings of 

 importance, been moulded into forms so exquisite as to have been raised 

 into a material of value and dignity. In the ancient churches of Pavia, &c., 

 it presents itself in all the delicate tracery of the middle ages ; in the Great 

 Hospital,* Campo Santo, and Castiglione Palace, at Milan, it exhibits the 

 arabesque, medallions, and scroll-work of the cinque-cento style. On this 

 side the Alps, clay has never received forms quite so elaborate, &c. &c." This 

 alone sufficiently recommends, or ought to recommend, Runge's work, which 



* ftlost strange lo say, Wtjoda dismisses this extraordinary ftrchitectural monument at 

 once, l)y merely assuring ns ttiat "it possesses littie interest as an object of aichilec- 

 ture" 1 1 — although it is an editice of most singular character. 



33 



