1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



449 



of whose names are ones mentioned by Mr. Gwilt, although the one 

 was the Spanish architect par excellence, of the last century, so highly 

 extolled by Ponz, and the other hardly less celebrated at the opposite 

 extremity of Europe, where he was extensively employed at St. Pe- 

 tersburg.' After this, the reader will not be very much surprised at 

 our saying that the two chapters respectively appropriated to the ar- 

 chitecture of Spain and Portugal, and that of Russia, are exceedingly 

 meagre, stale in matter, and unsatisfactory in execution. In fact they 

 add nothing at all to what might be picked up out of very common 

 books ; and although Mr. G. may not be acquainted with Spanish, and 

 therefore not able to avail himself of Llaguno's " Noticia de la Arqui- 

 tectura de Espana," he would have found many valuable materials for 

 his purpose in Cook's Spain. However well qualified upon the whole 

 for so extensive an undertaking, we do not think anv individual can 

 do justice to every one of the multifarious subjects it comprises; yet 

 if so far demerit is removed from the writer or compiler, it still at- 

 taches to the work itself, therefore it would have been more satis- 

 factory had assistance been obtained for those portions of the 

 " Encyclopaedia," where it was evidently required. 



But to return to German architecture, — for we consider it deserving 

 far greater attention than Mr. Gwilt has bestowed upon it, or thinks 

 that it merits, — it is truly singular that one who may be presumed to 

 take a generous pride and interest in the art, should evince such sullen, 

 chilling indifference — or worse than indifference — towards the noble 

 and splendid architectural achievements by which Germany has dis- 

 tinguished itself within the course of the last thirty years. Even if 

 the architects themselves have not, in every instance, acquitted them- 

 selves in a manner perfectly satisfactorily, or so well as might have 

 been expected from the opportunities afforded them, still they who 

 provided those opportunities are entitled to our grateful admiration. 

 Under their auspices a new sera in the art has commenced ; a new 

 generation of talent has sprung up, — one endued with vigour of mind, 

 and which, abandoning the drowsy routine of the last century, ventures 

 to think for itself, and is less observant of rules than of principles. 

 Whether he himself was altogether the great artist his countrymen 

 hold him to be, or not, Schinkel's influence not only was, but continues 

 to be, very great ; and to that influence may be ascribed the higher 

 views now taken of the art, and its aesthetic principles. To him be- 

 longs the merit, of introducing Grecian architecture, not only in greater 

 purity as to style, but with less violence as to its native character and 

 original elements than it had been before applied on any part of the 

 continent. Yet, though he opened that track for himself, it must be 

 confessed that he did not make that further progress in it, which some 

 of his earlier works promised. Had he carried out to greater extent, 

 and with more freedom, the system he appears to have originally 

 laid down for himself, there is every reason to suppose that he would be 

 degrees have formed astyle consistent in itself,and atthe sametime pro- 

 viding for all those circumstances which must be imagined/or Grecian 

 architecture, if it is to be employed by us moderns, since they cannot 

 be immediately borrowed/rom it. How tastefully he could modify, or 

 we might even say invent, classic ornament and detail, is proved by 

 the capitals designed by him for the columns in the sculpture room 

 of the Berlin Museum ; and it is therefore to be regretted that he did 

 not treat with similar if not exactly equal freedom the entablature of 

 the external order, where he has strictly adhered to authority in what 

 we cannot help holding to be its defect. The cornice of the Hellenic 

 Ionic, always appears to us to be unsatisfactory, and at variance with 

 the character of the order in all other respects : owing to its want of 

 depth, and the comparative plainness as well as fewness of its mem- 

 bers, it rather disagreeably contrasts than accords with the fluted co- 

 lumns and their luxuriant curling and otherwise highly enriched capi- 

 tals ; in which the greatest degree of embellishment is obtained, and 

 there stops ; so that that which is or ought to be to the whole order 

 what the capital is to the column itself, — its completing decoration, 

 looks comparatively poor and unfinished. 



An examination of all Schinkel's buildings and designs, would be — ■ 

 we will not say a wearisome task, certainly not so to ourselves, — but 

 one of such length that we must here forego it, merely referring our 

 readers to what is said of them by Dr. Kugler in his "Karl Friedrich 

 Schinkel: eine Characteristik seiner Kiinsterichen Wirksamkeit." 

 There is also another memoir or similar "Characteristik" of him by 

 O. F. Gruppe, which is in some respects more complete, and which 

 speaks at some length of one of his latest, and it would appear, most 

 successful labours,— the designs for a most magnificent villa for the 

 Empress of Russia, at Orianda, in the Tauridan Chersonesus, between 

 Katfa and Baktschisarai. The spot selected by the Empress for this 

 summer retreat is upon a rocky declivity, at a height of about 1,500 

 feet above the level sea, and in a horizontal direction about 2,000 feet 

 from the sea beach. There either is to be, or was to have been 

 erected— for that point is left doubtful by the writer, an extensive 



pile, seated on a terrace platform, and consisting of various pavilions, 

 connected by colonnades. Unfortunately, such detailed description 

 as would enable us to form some tolerably clear idea of what appears 

 to be no less varied and complete than extensive in its plan, is not at- 

 tempted ; therefore from what is said we can collect little more than 

 that there would be atria and open courts, surrounded with columns, 

 with occasional vistas from one to the other, and embellished with 

 ' mosaic columns,' inlaid pavements, fountains, flower-beds, and choice 

 plants growing in vases, &c. ; and in the largest or central cortile there 

 would be a lofty insulated structure, towering above all the rest, so as 

 to form a striking feature in the general composition. In this project 

 Schinkel, we are told, gave free scope to his fancy, and availing him- 

 self of the unusually favourable opportunity the peculiar nature of the 

 subject presented, endeavoured to combine all the scattered rays of 

 Grecian architecture, and also concentrate in one work some of his 

 own happiest ideas. 



One thing is certain, that whatever change of opinion may take 

 place as to his merits and talents, Schinkel will henceforth be a pro- 

 minent name in architectural history, although he has been passed 

 over as if he was the merest cypher, in the " Encyclopaedia ;" and that 

 he should have been so, is all the more strange, inasmuch as there 

 would else have been an opportunity of touching upon the subject of 

 Grecian architecture, properly so called, with reference to its applica- 

 bility for modern purposes, and the attempts made to revive it in 

 original purity, and so as to preserve its poetical character. 



Mr. Gwilt, or any one else, might stand excused for not attempting 

 — we will not say to describe, but to enumerate all the monumental 

 structures which have of late years been erected not only in those two 

 foci of art, Berlin and Munich, but in various other capitals and cities 

 throughout Germany. Yet that he should not have named any, shows 

 an excess of caution, — a consciousness that their bare names would 

 suggest themes of admiration to many — to those at least in regard to 

 whom he is pleased to remark, that "an extraordinary species of 

 bigotry has laid hold of them " in favour of German architecture : an 

 observation, by-the-bye, that does not come with peculiar grace from a 

 writer who shows himself throughout his work to be bigotted and 

 dogmatical in an offensive degree. 



There is at least one edifice to which Mr. Gwilt might have referred, 

 if only as an instance of what German energy and perseverance can 

 accomplish, and also to convince his readers, by so doing, that he en- 

 tertains no bigoted prejudices agairist German architects, — we mean 

 the Walhalla, — a structure not likely to be passed over in silence 

 by any other historian of the art, let him be of what country he may; 

 for its fame will outlast the solid masonry of which it is built, if not 

 the hill on which it stands. Although only one of the many magnificent 

 architectural schemes, begun and accomplished by Ludwig of Bavaria, 

 it would have sufficed for his fame, and proved how justly he is en- 

 titled to the epithet of " Kamtliebend." The idea of erecting a tem- 

 ple to the universal genius of Germany, where should be assembled 

 the images of all its most illustrious sons, who signalized themselves 

 and their country, in arms or in art, as sovereigns or as legislators, as 

 philosophers or as poets, had long been a favourite one, cherished by 

 him for many years before he came to the throne. 



It was in February 1814, that a programme was first issued, and ar- 

 chitects invited to send in designs, none of which, however, proved 

 satisfactory; wherefore nothing further was done until the beginning 

 of 1821, when Klenze (the architect of the Glvptothek) was in- 

 structed to prepare a fresh one. Even this last was greatly modified 

 afterwards, nor was it begun to be carried into execution until 1830, 

 when the first stone of the substructure was laid October 18th. But 

 if up to that time there seems to have been a good deal of procrasti- 

 nation — easily accounted for by the number of other important works 

 then in progress at Munich itself, no want of diligence and energy 

 showed itself in carrying on the building wdien once commenced, tor 

 it was finished before October 1812, and solemnly inaugurated on the 

 19th of that month. Thus within somewhat less than twelve years 

 has been successfully completed one of the noblest w ? orks of art un- 

 dertaken in modern times, and one that, considered merely as to its 

 magnitude, exceeds many a building that has been the labour of an 

 entire century. The edifice itself is a work of great magnitude, 

 not so much on account of its mere size — for in that respect it is not 

 at all remarkable, as of the extraordinary solidity of its construction 

 and material, the astonishing care with wdiich every part both of the 

 exterior and interior is finished up. Many other edifices of note are 

 more or less imperfect on their exterior; some present little more 

 than a facade, and in scarcely any is the same degree oijinmh — which 

 is not to be confounded with decoration — kept up throughout. But, 

 though if taken only by itself, the Walhalla would still be an asto- 

 nishing work, the Doric peripteral edifice is only a part of the general 

 external design, it being reared upon a lofty and colossal substructure, 



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