260 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[August, 



be made out with marvellous care, he will yet turn to those monu- 

 Small scientific skill was required for the construction of the Druidi- 

 cal temple, or the Grecian portico ; but from the increased use of the 

 arch arose a new era in the art of building. Smaller stones were em- 

 ployed, with skilful arrangement of counterfort; and labour replaced 

 by economy and facility of execution. With the change from the 

 semicircular to the pointed arch, arose a still greater facility of exe- 

 cution, combined with a nearer approach to the advantages which had 

 resulted from the principle of simple repose. But along with, though 

 not necessarily resulting from the use of the pointed arch, a force was 

 at work towards the ruin of many edifices, but for which the practice, 

 rather than the theory of Gothic architects must be censured. The 

 supporting columns of the central tower began to bend in the middle, 

 as at Westminster; and other failures, all proceeding from one cause, 

 took place little subsequent to the building of the several structures. 

 It became necessary to connect the great piers of the tower, to pre- 

 vent the recurrence ; and counterforts were inserted at Salisbury, 

 Wells, (Fig. 8,) and elsewhere. It has been thought that this failure of 



Fig. 8.— Section of Wells Cathedral, looking iionli. 



the central piers was occasioned by their insufficiency as abutments to 

 the adjoining arches; and this opinion seems to have been present 

 with Sir Christopher Wren, in his proposal to add a central spire to 

 the abbey. But I am inclined to think, that the breadth of the piers, 

 coupled with the weight of the tower above, would be well able to 

 resist the thrust of a pointtd arch, were not some other tendency at 

 work ; and prefer the opinion, that the bending of each column was 

 wholly caused by the sliding of the rubble work upon the back of its 

 neighbouring arcb. The more pointed the arch, the less thrust would 

 it exercise, but the more would it tend towards the settlement. This 

 seems a more probable cause than any other ; there could have been 

 no objection to increasing the dimensions of the column if necessary. 

 The report on the state of Hereford Cathedral shows that this sliding 

 of the materials upon the main arch of the tower, assisted by the subsi- 

 dence of the foundation, has caused its western column to swerve from 

 the perpeudicular, and in the opposite direction, that is, towards the 

 west. The same thing has taken place at Aylesbury Church, in a like 

 direction ; and the displacement of the ashlering in the tower of St. 

 Mary's, Redcliffe, was attributed, by Mr. Hoiking, to the subsidence of 

 the rubble work. Had the spandi ils of the arches been laid in courses, 

 which modern experience would dictate, such failures could not have 

 occurred, and therefore no objection can be taken to the modern adap- 

 tation of Gothic architecture on the ground of insecurity. It may be 

 remarked that there is some difference of opinion about the reversed 

 arch at Wells — as to its merits as a composition. ' 



Though in " these piping times of peace," "armorial bearings" no 

 longer distinguish the warrior on the field, they are still not exploded, 

 nor hive they ever been in any country ; they still engage the patient 

 attention of numerous antiquarians, and seem to be a legitimate mode 

 of drcoration in any style of architecture. One of those recollec- 

 tions of the past, which are stable, though the occasion has past 



6 Journal, Vol. V., p. 374. 



' The counterfort at Wills was probably coeval wit the piers— that at 

 Salisbury later in date. 



away, they will yet long serve to shorten the labours of the historian, 

 as now. — The so called economy of modem times has deprived our 

 art of that sister, without which she is inexpressive, and incomplete ; 

 but there can be no other reason that niches should be "tenantless" in 

 any religious edifice : and none that the obscenities of former times 

 should be copied in the present. The exquisite richness of the 

 Gothic foliage would be apt, from its very profusion, to cloy upon the 

 mental palate, had it no immediate contrast, as with the grotesque 

 and the satirical. Thus, as at York, we find the passions of men and 

 the habits of animals depicted amongst the leaves of a capital or a 

 bracket. In other cases we have the monogram IHS and other reli- 

 gious insignia. Though some of the carvings are sufftcientiv shocking 

 to eyes polite, as for example, the gorgeuils, yet these are never 

 "senseless;" they have always an expression in character with their 

 purpose, and may safely be contrasted with the unnatural lions, the 

 sphinxes, and chimjeras of other schools of art. Though, in the 

 sculpture of the earlier styles, forms were conventional, and a 

 particular sentiment was expressed in an established mode, this 

 severe style presents many claims to our admiration, though in 

 execution, it can be as little compared with the later style, as 

 can the marbles of Xanthus with those of the Parthenon. But 

 good sculpture, and by Gothic architects, does exist, grand in concep- 

 tion as that at Wells, and perfect in execution as that at Westminster ; 

 and it received the admiration of our own Flaxman. Speaking of the 

 interior of Henry VH's chapel, he says, " the figures of the tomb 

 have a better proportion and drawing in the naked than those of the 

 chapel ; but the figures of the chapel are very superior in natural 

 simplicity, and grandeur of character and drapery." But, of the 

 sculpture of Henry V's chantry, the work of a centurv previous, he 

 says, " The sculpture is bold and characteristic ; the equestrian group 

 is furious and warlike: the standing figures have a natural sentiment 

 in their actions, and simple grandeur in their draperies, such as we 

 admire in the paintings of Raphael." Could there be higher praise 

 than this from so great a man? The vertical character of Gothic 

 architecture does indeed demand in the garments, folds which may 

 accord with the genius of the style; or rather eschews those contor- 

 tions of drapery and whimsicalities of design observable in the works 

 of the later Italian school, particularly of the followers of Bernini ; 

 and of which some idea may be gained from the engravings to the 

 English edition of Palladio's works. If a group be viewed singly in 

 a gallery or an apartment, where only it appeals to the eye, its forms 

 may be influenced by the taste of the artist alone; but, in architectonic 

 sculpture, a different treatment of the subject is demanded. A greater 

 rigidity, or a more erect position seems necessary for statues, when 

 combined with architecture, in all styles. "Their attitudes," says 

 Chambers, " must be upright, or, if anything, bending a little for- 

 wards, but never inclined to either side. Their legs must be close to 

 each other, and their draperies close to their bodies; for whenever 

 they stand stradling with bodies tortured into a variety of bends, and 

 draperies waving in the wind, as those placed on the colonnades of 

 St. Peter's, they have a most disagreeable effect, especially at a dis- 

 tance; from whence they appear like lumps of unformed materials, 

 ready to drop upon the heads of passengers." That excellence of 

 imitation is not the highest quality of art, is readily granted, but it is 

 not less true, that in some degree it may detract from our delight, by 

 its very excess " reminding us that life and animation are wanting," 

 and thus defeating the aim of the artist. For remarks on this heaii, 

 vide Reynolds passim, in the lectures of the professor of painting at 

 the Royal Academy, and in Mr. Eastlake's translation of Kugler's 

 Handbook. — To him, who feels that a devotional character should be 

 impressed on all monuments erected in churches, I suggest in favour 

 of Gothic architects one practical argument — a walk through West- 

 minster Abbey. There he will find architectural ornaments ruthlessly 

 sacrificed, that square patches of black and white may occupy their 

 place. He will see cumbrous monuments to some " periwig-pated 

 fellow," or some courtier of a passing day, occupying a position, tar- 

 dily granted or denied, to the mementoes of the philosopher and the 

 poet. But though each individual hair of their wigs or their whiskers 



