1843. J 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



201 



ON THE EFFECTS WHICH SHOULD RESULT TO ARCHITECTURAL TASTE, WITH REGARD TO ARRANGEMENT AND 

 DESIGN, FROM THE GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF IRON IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS. 



Essay to which the Medal of the Institute of British Architects was awarded in 1842. 



Decorative Architecture from the Baths of Titus. 



Great and manifold have been the disputes on the terms beauty 

 and taste. Right reason and sound judgment seem to enter princi- 

 pally into the composition of the latter quality, whether applied to 

 morals or the fine arts, and with regard to the former, much cloudy 

 argument may be cleared away by considering beauty in two points of 

 view — as positive or intrinsic, and relative; the former appealing to 

 the senses, the latter addressing itself to the understanding. The 

 agreeable sensations arising simply from the form or colour of an in- 

 dividual object, is due to its intrinsic beauty. Relative beauty arises 

 from the fitness of things — from the perception of a means adapted to 

 an end — from the parts being well calculated to answer the design of 

 the whole. Relative beauty, therefore, being intimately connected 

 with utility, is that which we principally recognise in architecture. 

 Many objects intrinsically beautiful may occupy a prominent station 

 in an architectural composition; but although strong and abiding 

 associations of ideas, may often render it difficult to distinguish in- 

 trinsic from relative beauty, yet it is certain that beauty is produced 

 in architecture in the most eminent degree, by combinations of parts, 

 none of which could justly be called beautiful if separated, and con- 

 sidered singly on their own merits ; and it is no less certain, that the 

 most beautiful elements of architectural composition contribute nothing 

 to the beauty of the whole, unless properly associated. They merely 

 become absurd, as may be seen daily in the base prostitution of the 

 exquisite models of Greek art. 



That beauty in architecture is inseparably connected with the ideas 

 of fitness and utility, is made evident by the fact, that we acknow- 

 ledge the highest degree of beauty to subsist in the most opposite 

 extremes of taste — in other words, that the exercise of judgment and 

 reason, which constitutes taste, leads us to consider beauty with refe- 

 rence to fitness and utility ; and if one modification of architecture is 

 admitted to a pre-eminence over others, it is because its fitness is the 

 most obvious, and the means by which its purpose is attained, more 

 simple and immediate. Whether we contemplate the architecture of 

 the Egyptians or the Greeks, the stupendous piles of the Eternal City, 

 the gorgeous monuments of the Gothic style, the mazy intricacy of 

 the Alhambra, or the finished productions of modern Italy, the mind 

 perceives, in each and all, the adaptation of the means to the end, and 

 the development of the spirit of the age and country, in which, and for 

 which, they were created, and these form the essential principle of 

 the relative beauty of architecture. Now where shall we turn to find 

 the beauty bom from the spirit of our age and country, in the archi- 

 tecture of the 19th century ? The very proposition at the head of 

 No. 72.— Vol. VI.— September, 1813. 



this paper is an answer. In the 19th century we are in possession 

 of a material in extensive operation, offering us new modes of con- 

 struction, new proportions, the power of creating new forms and com- 

 binations, differing from every thing that has preceded them in art. 

 It is now 62 years, since the erection of the bridge at Colebrook-dale 

 first revealed the capabilities of cast iron in construction on a large 

 scale; and during that period, science and cast iron have marched 

 hand in hand, with strides it is amazing to contemplate. But what 

 has art effected with this new power? The Institute of British Archi- 

 tects are still at the inquiry " what effect should result to architectural 

 taste, from its general introduction ? " ! In the real adaptation of cast 

 iron to architecture as an art, we are much where the Dorians were, 

 when they had placed four trunks of trees in a row with a tile upon 

 each. There the Doric order might have remained, had the Dorians 

 been of our stamp, and there it would have remained had trunks ot 

 trees instead of cast iron been first used in construction in our time. 

 Or perhaps the parallel will run closer, if we compare ourselves with 

 the ancients, when they first adopted the principle of the arch, since 

 they combined it with architectural forms already established ; as we 

 shall probably seek to do with cast iron, whenever we begin to bestow 

 our attention upon it. After 62 years' experience, under circum- 

 stances through which a new and original style of architecture might 

 have been developed, we are still where the Romans may have been 

 when they built their Cloaca Maxima. 



To what are we to attribute this stagnation in all our ideas, as 

 regards art in this point of view? Doubtless, to the blind spirit of 

 imitation and obstinate adherence to precedent (whether applicable 

 or not, seems of little importance) which characterises the architec- 

 ture of the present day. Where cast iron is to be used, the first 

 requisite seems to be to keep it out of sight, or to make it look as 

 much as possible like something else. To impress upon it the charac- 

 ter of a style would be more in the spirit of the ancients, whom we 

 profess to adore. Not that it is in the power of any man to stand 

 forth and say, " I will invent a style." A style, like a language, must 

 be the growth of time and circumstances; and who is to make the 

 first essay in an age when precedent is "the be-all and the end-all," 

 and when he who cannot command success, cares not for the higher 

 distinction of deserving it ? 



The fatal effect of this spirit on our architecture might be evidenced 

 in various ways. What has been advanced on the subject of cast iron 

 is very far from being the strongest point in which it might be shown, 

 but the argument must be limited to the question under immediate con- 



