1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



155 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 

 FASCICULUS XLVIII. 



" I must have liberty 

 Withal, as large a charter as the winds, 

 To blow on whom I please." 



I. It is curious to observe how much fashion and custom prevail in 

 matters where they ought not to be allowed to have any authority. 

 It is still the fashion to talk of Michael Angelo as a "great architect," 

 and he is accordingly considered quite a luminary in that character — 

 a mistake of which some of our now rather numerous Professors would 

 do well to disabuse the public ; at any rate those who can admire 

 him and his caprices have no right to turn up their noses at those of 

 Borromini. It is the fashion — with book-making tourists more espe- 

 cially — to extol Palladio, generally in " criticism pilfered from guide- 

 books." And as it is also the fashion to make no mention of Calderari, 

 or any of the buildings designed by him in the same city of Vicenza, 

 the unfortunate Count Ottone is treated as a mere nobody. For tour- 

 ists of the Trollope breed, who make trading voyages of their travels 

 abroad, and who are content to return home with as much gossiping 

 and blundering as will serve them for a book-making and book-selling 

 job — for such persons there may be an excuse, since, if ignorance 

 can be pleaded as a sufficient one, they may generally claim it most 

 amply; but that a professional man, and one who made architecture 

 the chief object of his journey, should not even so much as once men- 

 tion Calderari or any work of his either at Vicenza or Verona, is 

 almost incredible — certainly quite unpardonable. Nevertheless, after 

 speaking of Palladio's buildings in the last-mentioned city, Woods 

 says, "I will not trouble you with criticisms on other palaces, where 

 there is nothing particularly beautiful to render them objects of 

 studv." Pitiful and humbugging evasion ! Did he mean to say that 

 Calderari, a decided Palladianist in his style, produced nothing that 

 will bear any comparison with Palladio's own works? If such was 

 really the case, that should have been a reason for his entering into 

 the subject, and explaining wherein the great difference consists, and 

 to what it is owing that, with far fewer solecisms and defects, 

 Calderari's buildings are decidedly inferior to those of Palladio. 

 This might have been rendered a highly interesting and instructive 

 piece of criticism, therefore we may fairly suppose that Woods' 

 reason for passing over Calderari was not that which he has assigned, 

 but the unwillingness to " trouble " himself with any farther remarks 

 on the subject of the palazzo architecture of Vicenza. The only 

 mention at all I have ever met with respecting Calderari, in any Eng- 

 lish book, is — pace Joseph Gwilt — in an article on the " Palladian 

 Architecture of Italy," in the Quarterly Review, where it pleases the 

 " ignorant reviewer" to remark, "Ottone Calderari particularly dis- 

 tinguished himself by simplicity and elegance, and a knowledge of 

 the true principles on which the beauty of Grecian architecture de- 

 pends. The Loschi and Bessaro palaces at Vicenza, and the Semi- 

 nario at Verona, are noble specimens of his skill." Where then 

 were Woods' eyes — where those of the hundreds of others who have 

 visited Vicenza only to prate like so many parrots about Palladio ? 

 It is just as if a foreigner, visiting England, should extol Temple Bar 

 as a work of the " great Wren," and of course a perfect architectural 

 gem, yet should not bestow a syllable upon the palazzi of Pall Mall. 

 As to Buckingham Palace, the less any one, either foreigner or Eng- 

 lishman, says of that, the better. It is a thousand pities it was ever 

 built, and at least five hundred that it has not since been burnt down. 



II. The plea of insanity is now becoming a very fashionable, and is 

 certainly a most convenient one. For some of the things they de- 

 signed, both Nash and Soane, not to speak of a good many others, de- 

 served to have been hanged ; and if tried could have escaped only on 

 the grounds of positive insanity. But then, those who employed them 

 ought to have been hanged too — at any rate, ought to have been shut 

 up in Bethlehem, as being equally insane. Oh ! the untold millions 

 squandered away upon lost opportunities! Let us not think of it, for 

 it is enough to drive us all mad, and qualify us for the glorious privi- 



lege of insanity. Apart from their architectural phrenzies, there was, 

 however, little in common between Nash and Soane ; the one lived en 

 prince and died a beggar, the other lived very much like a hunks 

 and left a vast fortune, which he most assuredly would not have done 

 could he by any possibility have carried it away with him. I well 

 remember once being witness to a complete scena, in which Soane was 

 the actor. In reply to some complimentary remark about his house, 

 he burst out with " D — n the house ! curse the house ! Could I have 

 my mind, I would tear it all to atoms this very instant — yes, this very 

 instant. I am sick of hearing of it— I abhor it— I detest it— I loath 

 it — I abominate it. And so you are come to see the house ? — here is 

 a d — d dull day to come on such an errand. ' Tis as dark as pitch — 

 as black as Erebus. Confound the house, it is my eternal torment, 

 and a parcel of folks are continually coming here, to see the d — d 

 house : they don't come to see me — no, I am nobody, they only come 

 to stare at the d — d, infernal, abominable house !" After which fu- 

 rious explosion, and tempest, the old man suddenly became not only 

 tranquil, but very condescending, gracious, and chatty. If he was 

 really mad, there was also a certain degree of method in his madness, 

 and a most extraordinarily queer method it was. "Rich and rare" 

 are the anecdotes that remain to be told of Sir John Soane. I know 

 one who promised to give a collection of them to the public, but he 

 has not kept his word. 



III. Independently of the egregious blunders with which it teems, 

 the English translation of Milizia's Lives of celebrated architects, 

 would disgrace a penny-a-liner. That work has been done into Eng- 

 lish, with a vengeance. It seems to have been done by way of exer- 

 cise while the translator was learning Italian, and in all probability 

 such was really the case. The best part of the book is the index, 

 which as matters go, is saying something in its favour, indexes, even 

 to books of reference, having now gone almost entirely out of fashion. 

 No matter, this is an age when, thanks to the march of intellect, 

 everybody reads and nobody studies. 



IV. So Albert has actually shed the light of his countenance and 

 the glory of his presence on the Institute of British Architects ; yet 

 his visit to it turned out one of the dullest and flattest affairs imagin- 

 able. If the Institute really felt flattered or encouraged by it, they 

 must be the most easily satisfied mortals breathing. Of course all 

 was conducted very " properly -," no blunders were committed either 

 on the one side or the other. The Prince was exceedingly prudent 

 and discreet — which for a Prince, is saying something: he did not 

 attempt any compliments ; he did not pretend to congratulate the In- 

 stitute on their unwearied zeal, and on what they had done for the 

 advancement of architecture in this country. In abstaining altoge- 

 ther from blarney, his Royal Highness showed good taste, but he cer- 

 tainly did not manifest the slightest cordiality or sympathy with them. 

 The whole affair was mere matter of form and ceremony — at once 

 perfectly correct and intolerably chilling. The Prince seemed to con- 

 sider it a bore — how the others relished the taste they got of Royal 

 condescension and patronage, I pretend not to say. There was, at all 

 events, a paragraph for them in the newspapers and Court Circular; 

 but as to the patronage itself, that is likely to turn out a mere phan- 

 tom — of just as much real service to the Institute, as the Institute 

 itself is to the art and the profession. 



V. " I cannot recommend frescos," says Mr. Eastlake, " for the 

 sitting rooms of dwelling houses ;" a very reasonable piece of advice, 

 now that we seem to be threatened with a fresco mania. If that mode 

 of painting is to be employed for the merely general decoration of 

 walls, it would soon sink to the level of paper-hanging, and its 

 greater pretension would chiefly serve to render ij all the more paltry 

 and unsatisfactory. On the other hand, if it is to be employed for 

 subjects upon a large scale, and with figures of the size of life, it 

 would be a most obtrusive and oppressive species of decoration. In 

 that respect painted ceilings are objectionable enough, but they are 

 comparatively quite removed from notice. Saints and virtues may 

 cut capers over our heads, and dance jigs in the clouds, without our 

 being compelled to look at them ; but it would be very different were 

 the walls of our rooms to be peopled with such figures — poetical or 



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