1816.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



lo;) 



the famous lam pholder in the Siroizi palace, Florence; the dolphins and 

 •ea-hoises sculptured on the top of the tall mooring-posts in Venice ; 

 llie lanterns on her canals ; the ornaments of the Ca' d'oro ; the pedestals 

 to the Grecian standards in the Piazza di Sau Marco; or the bronze cis- 

 terns in the quadrangle of the Uucal palace. 



HOYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION: ARCHITECTURE. 



We will not disturb the opinion which attributes improvement to the pre- 

 sent Exhibition as far as the painters are concerned, — although for our part 

 we do not perceive the slightest general advance at all,— but matters have 

 most assuredly not mended this season with regard to architecture. How 

 ever, we are tired of repealing the same complaints year after year, and 

 th.it to no purpose. The Academician architects take pattern by Sir Robert 

 Smirke, and their quality brethren lake pattern by tbera, therefore from 

 those v^'ho, it is to be presumed, could show us most, we get least; nor 

 have we much from other quarters to inform us what is going on in various 

 parts of the country. Liverpool, Manchester, and many other important 

 places are wholly unrepresented in the present annual parliament of art in 

 Trafalgar Square. Where are all the things whose fussy " lirst-stone-lay- 

 ing" ceremonies are recorded with such " wink o' the eye" admiration by 

 newspapers? Where, all those drawings which have borne off five and 

 ten pound premiums from liberal and self-enlightened competition commit- 

 tees? We see them not here : but to speak of what we do not see would 

 be a much longer tale than to enumerate what we do find, that either de- 

 serves commendation or is worth mention. In an exhibition of architec- 

 tural drawings we have a right to look for interest of some kind— either 

 that attending designs adopted or proposed for particular buildings, be the 

 talent shown in them, what it may ; or else that which is produced by the 

 intrinsic merit of the subjects themselves, though they may be merely ima- 

 Kinary ones. This year there is an unusual dearth of interest of eiiher 

 kind. Tliere are besides a number of drawings, which though put into the 

 architectural room hardly belong to it at all, more than the unlucky oil 

 paintings which are stuck up there in order to be out of harm's way, till 

 their owners send for them again. We allude to mere views and delinea- 

 tions of buildings, whose execution gives them no pretensions whatever as 

 productions of the pencil, while the subjects they represent are either so 

 exceedingly hackneyed, that their titles in the catalogue operate as a warn- 

 ing to pass them over; or so trivial, that we turn away from them as soon 

 *i beheld. Not a little provoking is it to find that few of those who do 

 bring home any architectural sketches and studies from abroad, care ever 

 to hunt out any thing fresher than such wonderful rarities as the Athe- 

 nian Acropol.s and Parthenon, and the Roman Coliseum and Forum. Does 

 the actual capital of King Otho afford nothing whatever at all worth re- 

 presenting upon paper? Is his " Modern Athens" so deplorably insipid 

 as not to have a single marked feature, or even any general physio-^nomy ? 

 It would seem that even our architectural draftsmen and sketchers are so 

 infected with the " precedent-mania" that they dare not show us any 

 building unless there is precedent for so doing by its having been repre- 

 sented times innumerable before. Whether it be abroad or'at home that 

 they go in quest of subjects, our architectural likeness-takers, seem terri- 

 bly averse to novelty, or else they must fancy they have no right to lake 

 subjects from buildings which are so recent, that the office of showin- ihem 

 seems to belong exclusively to those who designed and erected them" The 

 latter, however, do not always consider it worth their while to do so • cer 

 Urn at least it is that we do not find at the Royal Academy's exhibitions 

 many the things which are best of all suited for pictorial representation 

 The Co osseum »n the Regent's Park, for instance, might have supplied 

 more than one unusually striking subject, since, besides its beautiful 

 Glypto heca-perfeclly unique as an inteiior-it offers many scenic archi- 

 tectural bits in other parts of the place, which would show still better in 

 picture than they do in themselves, because in picture they would look 

 like realities, whereas as seen in reality tiiey are most undisguisedly only 

 .lever imitations and fictions. There might, again, have been one or two 

 drawings of some of the apartments in the new budding at Lincoln's Ion, 

 nd among them, both a general view .nd a partial one of the Library 

 Yet somehow or other,-and it may perhaps be as well not to inquire too 

 •wely into the reaaoo.-architeots are apt to be of most stepmotherly dis- 



position towards their own productions, begrudging what it would cost !• 

 let us behold them in pictorial effigy. Few of them take any generous in- 

 terest in their art, as a fine art, and fur its own sake ; therefore they cannot 

 with any sort of fairness complain of or express surprize at the indifference 

 ofthe uninitiated, and the apathy of the general public ;-and the latter 

 seem to consider the architectural drawings little better than a dead weight 

 on the Exhibition. Not a little mortifying is it to witness the hurried, 

 listless glance bestowed on architectural subjects. If there be ever any 

 thing of the kind among the oil paintings, it is never estimated except 

 according to its execution as a picture. Even one of Scarlett Davis's 

 glorious achievements of pictorial and architectural art,-one of Scandretl's 

 fascinatingly exquisite groups of detail, or scenic views, has been known 

 to engage attention far less than such horribly trivial subjects as swill-de- 

 vouring pigs, turnip-munching boys, and strapping country wenches wash- 

 ing their not over and above delicate feet ! How refined and poetic we 

 English are in our ideas I 



What sort of relish there is among the public for any thing relating to 

 architecture is most disagreeably apparent from the circumstance of archi- 

 tecture being passed over altogether by the daily critics who profess to en- 

 lighten us in matters of art. The " big Times" has spoken of the present 

 Exhibition without bestowing even so much as a syllable upon the archi- 

 tectural drawings. So that unless the " Times" be very much behind the 

 times we actually live in, its silence as to our art is significant and ex- 

 pressive enough.-Aud what, all the while, is the Institute about?— 

 has it done, is it doing, can it do, or does it care to do any thing, to give 

 the requisite impulse, and bring architecture forward -and not only bring 

 It forward, but force it upon the attention of the public? Leaving it to 

 answer the question as best it can. 



Of about two hundred and thirty subjects placed in the catalogue under 

 the head " Architecture," barely one-half belongs to it, the rest consisting 

 of graphic odds and ends-the very " tag-rag and bobtail" ofthe pictures ; 

 nevertheless the half constitute more subjects than can be properiy seen 

 and the deficiency to be complained of is not so much that of quantity at 

 of quality and interest. There certainly is very little of architectural in- 

 terest in the solitary production contributed this season, after a couple of 

 years' absence, by Professor Cockerell, for he makes his appearance rather 

 as a truant from his own art, and ambitious of signalizing himself in 

 another. This is all the more singular, because St. George's Hall, Liver- 

 pool, for the sculpture of whose pediment he here exhibits a design in No 

 125 1, (showing only the pediment and upper part of the columns, on a 

 large scale), is the «,ork of a different architect. Leaving more competent 

 judges to determine the technical merits of the composition as one intended 

 for sculpture, we can only say it strikes us as being so very Greek and 

 classical as to forfeit character for originality; and at any rate there is 

 nothing peculiar in the mode of its combination with the architecture un- 

 less a return to the Greek system of placing entire statues within a pedi- 

 ment, can pass for an artistic conceplion; whereas by venturing to depart 

 from ancient authority-as he has oft-times done in architeclure-the Pro- 

 fessor might have " initiated" a still more effective as well as perfectly 

 new mode-produced by omitting the tympanum, and leaving the pediment 

 quite open, except as filled iu by the statues, (so fixed as to support th« 

 raking cornices); which would then tell all the more vigorously seea 

 against the vacant space behind. Once adopted, this idea might be made 

 to lead to other quite novel yet adequately matured effects, which we can- 

 not now stop to point out, wherefore leaving this hint to suffice ad interim, 

 we shall perhaps explain ourselves more fully at fitting opportunity. In 

 taking leave ofthe Professor, we express the hope that we shall see him 

 again next season somewhat more inpro;;rio personi, and in his character 

 of architect. 



With the above exception— St. George's Hall-Grecian and Roman ar- 

 chitecture does not appear to be in great request for au; buildings of im- 

 portance actually projected. The principal object of that kind which ws 

 here meet with is No. 124U, " Elevation ofthe new Theatre to be built on 

 the east.side of Leicester-square," F. C. J. Parkinson ; which, though it 

 has been spoken of disparagingly by a contemporary, who calls it « an in- 

 different transcript of the Haymarket Theatre," appears to us a pleasing 

 and tasteful composition, with some clever touches of original detail and 

 not only ornate but consistently so; and further, possessing more strongly 

 marked and appropriate character than any of the existing theatres. If 

 any resemblaace can bs traced between this fajade aud that of the Haj. 



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