1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



205 



since we are arguing upon precedents, to argue with more caution, as 

 precedents become less obvious. We may learn, from a comparison 

 of carvings in stone and wood, 

 how completely the mode of 

 treatment varied with the ma- 

 terial in Gothic as in classical 

 art, and especially how well the 

 relief of the ornamental parts of 

 the work, was proportioned to 

 the bulk necessary to the self- 

 support of the substances em- 

 ployed. The skill with which a 

 considerable variety of mould- 

 ing and outline, and an effective 

 distribution of light and shade 

 was produced in wood without 

 employing unnecessary thick- 

 ness of material, or exposing a _ 

 high relief to the destroying 

 action of the weather, is not 

 one of the least remarkable in- 

 stances of the ability of the 

 Gothic architects, nor the least 

 worthy of careful examination 

 by their imitators, some of 



whom have nevertheless stu- Gothic Muuldings in wood, 



died to bestow upon wood- 

 work, all the amplitude of relief to be found in precedents executed in 



i&; ; ^ : tmmmw}z i 



Srretn of Henry VII. Tomb. 



Screen of Isli^'s Chapel. 



stone. From the practice of our masters in this respect, we may 

 safely infer, as we have done before, that they would have displayed 

 equal skill in devising new proportions and new modes of treatment 

 for iron, had they applied it to as many and as important purposes in 

 construction, as might be devised and executed at the present d.iy. 



Such purposes and modifications, it must be repeated, it is not the 

 intention of the present essay to suggest; but the inference is not one 

 of mere conjecture, since we actually possess works of art of the 

 middle ages in metal, legihly stamped with the peculiar influences of 

 the material, to which sundry modern attempts to Gothicize in cast 

 iron are very unlike indeed. 



Before we proceed to more elaborate works, it is worth while to 

 point out the various patterns in which the iron and lead work is dis- 

 posed, in the windows of the early Gothic. A series of these designs 

 will be found in Carter's Ancient Architecture (Part I, plate 79). It 

 is true that these forms are subservient to the display of stained glass, 

 but, independently of the glass, they are worthy of consideration and 

 study. At the Sainte Chapelle at Paris, the iron work rivals the 

 tracery of later times in the variety and richness of the patterns. 

 The material in these examples is wrought iron, but very little modi- 

 fication would be necessary to execute them in cast, and since iron 

 bars are indispensable in all Gothic windows, it is extraordinary that 

 so little advantage should have been taken of this mode of turning 

 them to account. 



Although this simple and obvious mode of employing iron in Gothic 

 architecture has been generally overlooked, more than one instance 

 might be adduced in which it has been used for the entire window 

 frames, but without any idea beyond that of imitating stone ; that is 

 to say, of adapting the material to as inappropriate a model as 

 possible. In these performances the form9 furnished by precedents 

 in stone are so closely imitated, and the bulk of the parts, and relative 

 breadth of the openings so far approached, that the result is a most 

 uncomfortable sensation of meagreness, weakness, and disproportion. 

 Had the analogy with stone been openly abandoned, and the supports 

 made no greater than is necessary, the material would at once be 

 recognized, and the mind so far satisfied. In what way the Gothic 

 architects would have treated a metal window frame, we may infer 

 from two works in metal, in which analogous architectonic combina- 

 tions are developed; viz., the screen of Edward IV.'s monument at 

 VVindsor, actually executed in iron, (what can precedent do more for 

 an uninventive age?) and that of Henry VII. at Westminster, in 

 brass. A comparison of a portion of the latter with a compartment 

 of the stone screen of Islip's Chapel, of about the same superficies, 

 will explain better than many words the peculiar influence of metal, 

 upon original Gothic composition. Whenever we recognise cast-iron 

 as a material susceptible of beauty, there is nothing upon which its 

 capabilities will be more successfully developed than in windows, 

 Gothic or otherwise. Of closely barred windows and grilles, 

 vie make abundant use for various purposes, but we have scarcely 

 thought of decorating them, except when some ambitious ironmonger 

 presses the favourite " Grtek honeysuckle" into some new invention, 

 more foolish than the last. 



The subject proposed by the Institute, upon which the foregoing 

 observations have been offered, is one of the greatest importance in 

 the present state of the arts and sciences in England. The modes in 

 which it may be discussed are many ; and valuable hints in architec- 

 tural composition might be elicited, if it were proposed with the 

 object of studying the capabilities of the material, and suggesting 

 modes in which they might be made available, in art as well as in 

 science. In the preceding remarks, it has been taken in a single point 

 only. The general argument on the effect of material upon design might 

 be extended, without perhaps digressing more than might be allow 

 able, and the modifications of our native architecture in the chalk and 

 rubble churches of Kent — the decorative flint-work of Norfolk and 

 Suffolk— and the different treatment of the detail, in the contempo- 

 raneous structures of the counties of Lincoln and Gloucester, con- 

 tingent upon the quality of their stone, would afford ample and deci- 

 sive examples bearing not too remotely on the main subject — but all 



