1843] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



elusion, I venture to suggest the examination and study of arabesque 

 composition as practised by the ancients and the moderns — a com- 

 parison of the Baths of Titus, and the remains of Pompeii and Her- 

 culaneum, with the Loggia of Raffaelle, the Villa Madaraa and the 

 Palazzo T, as one of the most instructive lessons that can be devised, 

 upon the varied and original results that may be derived from the 

 same materials, according to the different lights in which they are 

 viewed, the different modes in which they are studied, and the diffe- 

 rent purposes to which they are applied. In the resources which the 

 decorative artist can call to his aid, the moderns bave greatly the 

 advantage over the ancients, since we possess their materials and our 

 own also. For as long as ancient authors are read, and ancient art 

 appreciated, so long will allusion to the manners, customs, poetry, and 

 religion of antiquity be familiar to us, and the symbols to which they 

 gave rise be universally understood ; indeed numberless allusions of 

 this kind are constantly before us, and are so familiar that we forget 

 to inquire their origin. In personification, and the embodying of 

 abstract ideas, the field is as open to us as to them, and we see to 

 what advantage it may be turned by the examples we have just passed 

 in review ; and if we add to all these objects those derived from the 

 useful arts and sciences which may be turned to account in the hands 

 of the skilful decorator, his resources maybe considered boundless. 

 For as we have seen in these examples, it is not the familiar aspect 

 of any object which should banish its representation from works of 

 fancv. Every thing depends upon its proper application. The ancients 

 made the best use of whatever they considered most appropriate, and 

 we must endeavour to do the same. Thus, on the pedestal of the 

 Column in the Place Vendome, a professed imitation of that of Tra- 

 jan, modern arms and habiliments occupy the place of those of the 

 Roman period sculptured on the original. Whether this translation 

 be as well executed as it might be, is not now the question. It is 

 noticed merely as being right in principle. One fertile source we 

 have, totally unknown to the ancients, from which materials may be 

 drawn for decoration, carrying with them the invaluable quality of 

 being in all cases significant as well as ornamental — I mean the science 

 of heraldry. I cannot help thinking that the Greeks, who used so 

 much diversity of colour in their architecture, would have availed 

 themselves liberally of the tints of heraldry in their decorations, had 

 they been acquainted with it. From the personal allusions it con- 

 veys, it might be made a much more important feature than it even 

 now is, in the decoration of private as well as public buildings, and we 

 have only to study the works of the middle ages for invaluable hints 

 on the mode in which it may be applied. The mere display of 

 shields of arms is but one mode. We shall find heraldry intimately 

 woven into the ornaments of our Gothic buildings, and he who can 

 read its language, may often understand an allusion in what may 

 appear, at first sight, a mere decoration. Thus, one of the mouldings 

 of the tomb of Humphrey, Duke of Glocester, at St. Albans, is filled 

 with an ornament, which, on examination, resolves itself into a cup 

 containing flowers, a device assumed by that Prince, says a MS. in 

 the college of Amis, "as a mark of his love for learning." Heraldry 

 has not been neglected in modern Italian art, and a very well imagined 

 arabesque may be seen at the town hall at Foligno, where the ceiling 

 is covered with foliage spreading from the centre, on the ramifications 

 of which are hung the shields of the nobility of Foligno for many 

 generations. And at Macerata there is a church decorated in a very 

 peculiar style, bearing throughout an allusion to the name of the 

 founder. 



A. P. 



Pompeii. — The Frankfort Journal of the 10th November, states, that the 

 last excavations made in the Street of Pompeii brought to light a number of 

 paintings in fresco, which were affixed as an ornament to four adjoining 

 houses. One of those paintings was remarkable for the extreme correctness 

 of the design, and for the freshness of the colouring. The subject of this 

 painting is Bacchus and a faun pressing grapes, which are home by a young 

 slave, whilst a child is pouring the wine into a vessel fixed in the earth. 



BUILDINGS IN BELGIUM. 

 By George Godwin, Jon., F.R.S., &c. 



" Perhaps no study reveals to us more forcibly the social condition and 

 true feeling of passed generations than that of their monuments."— M. Guizot. 



Chapter I. 



Belgium contains a multitude of interesting examples of architec- 

 tural skill in the middle ages, eminently worthy of careful study, and 

 sufficient, from the diversity of the epochs they mark and the charac- 

 ter they bear, to illustrate fully a history of the rise and progress of 

 Gothic architecture, and the re-birth of Italian art. An essay on the 

 architecture of Belgium, its peculiarities, its gradual alteration, and 

 its connexion with the architecture of other countries, would be a 

 valuable work, and, so far as I know, is yet to be done, notwithstand- 

 ing that most of her chief buildings are almost universally known. 

 The present memoranda consist simply of the jottings made during a 

 brief visit to the country in question, and are published with the feel- 

 ing which has in other cases led the writer to take the same course, 

 namely, that if every one will bring a stone, you may soon raise a 

 pyramid. 



The domestic architecture of Belgium offers an infinite variety, and 

 affords numerous bints for present application. Within a very small 

 circle, in some cases even in a single city, examples may be found of 

 the different styles of building which have prevailed at intervals, say 

 of fifty years, from the 11th or 12th century up to the present time. 

 Such towns are a book wdiich those who run may read, and afford a 

 great amount of pleasure and information to those who will pause to 

 think. At Tournay, a most interesting old town, close to the French 

 frontier, towards the western extremity of Belgium, (and of which I 

 shall hereafter speak again,) there are several exceedingly ancient 

 houses; one of an interesting character is situated near the church 

 of St. Brixe. The whole is of stone, and terminates in a gable. The 

 windows, about 5 feet high and 4 feet wide, are each divided into two 

 openings by a small column with plain leafed capital. One of the lower 

 windows has simply a rectangular mullion down the centre, the edges of 

 which are chamfered to within a certain distance from the top and bot- 

 tom. The siring courses, consisting simply of a square member and a hol- 

 low, continue through the whole front, and form straight window heads, 

 over which are introduced discharging arches. The adjoining front 

 is precisely similar. In the Rue des Jesuits there are some houses of 

 the same character, but of a somewhat more advanced period. The 

 columns and caps are nearly the same as those before mentioned, and 

 the upper part, perhaps 50 or 60 feet in extent, consists wholly of 

 windows and small piers alternately. 



Ghent and Malines display similarly ancient houses. 



An early advance upon this arrangement would probably be the 

 introduction of a transom to divide the windows into four, and so to 

 form a croisee. In the gable of an old house at Ghent, near the Hotel 

 de Ville, appears a large pointed window, quite ecclesiastical in as- 

 pect, with mullions, traceried head, and label. A house near the 

 Grand Place at Tournay affords a very perfect example, of the appli- 

 cation of pointed architecture to a street front, at the beginning of the 

 16th century, and the Hotel d'Egmont at Ghent, shows, another appli- 

 cation of the same style at a period when it was beginning to exhibit 

 svmptoms of decline ; as also on a much more elaborate scale, does the 

 well known Maison des Franc Battliers in the same city. 1 



Near the Eglise de Chateau at Tournay is a large building, now the 

 Horse Infirmary for the artillery, which would seem to be an example 

 at a later stage of the decline. It is constructed of red brick and 

 stone, and presents gables, pointed headed windows, other square 

 windows divided by mullions, and large dormers in the roof. The mould- 

 ings, however, are Italianized, the discharging arches, partly stone 

 and partly brick, which occur even over the pointed headed openings, 

 are made into adornments, and all the ornaments which appear are of 

 mixed design. Later still, the line of the gable became altered into 



1 Mr. Donaldson has o:ade a very interesting series of sketches lo illus- 

 tiate die gradual progression here only hinted at. 



