•2M 



THE CIVIL knginh:er and architects journal. 



[August, 



a score or two, — nay, very much better, because there is then more room 

 ior better subjects. And pray, has Mr. Allom taken leave of Paris? — does 

 he not intend to let us have from his truant pencil — views (interior and exte- 

 rior) of Notre Dame de Lorette, and St. Vincent de Panle, of the Ecole dcs 

 Beaub Arts, the Hotel du Quai Orsay, the Hotel of the Banker Hope, and 

 many other edifices which would show his forte? Let him labour in his 

 own proper vocation and be will be almost unrivalled in that department of 

 architectural illustration in which he has evidenced such captivating talent 

 in his "Constantinople," and his " France." As much cannot be said for the 

 putter-together of the letter-press in the latter work, for of architecture he 

 seems to know actually notliing, — is altogether unable to speak of buildings, 

 except by sometimes blundering most deliciounly, as when he talks of the 

 Theatre at Bordeaux been adorned with " interesting" ! Corinthian pilasters, 

 wliich is nearly all that he snys of it ! 



VH. Schlegel was not very wide of the mark in saying " Art has become 

 a slop-shop for pedantic antiquities." Those who pretend most to busy 

 themselves and to take interest in it, give their attention chiefly, and some- 

 times exclusively, to what is not of the slightest aesthetic or artistic import- 

 ance. In what are called Celtic monuments, for instance, there is no archi- 

 tectural articulation, they consisting of no more than so many brute stones, — 

 unshapen, shapeless, or misshapen. Such tilings are wholly destitute of 

 organization; hardly can they be called the work of man's band, being 

 .merely rude blocks of stone in their natural form, testifying that those who 

 set them up, had no architectural skill or science, and were unable to reduce 

 them to even the simplest artificial regular form, as the Egyptians did the 

 monoliths which they erected as obelisks. Yet though they possess neither 

 pictorial nor architectural interest, several plates are devoted — literally sa- 

 crificed to the subject of Celtic monuments, in both the first and second 

 series of Gailhabaud's Ancient and Modern Architecture. Surely a single 

 plate of specimens of them would have sufBced, would have been quite as 

 much as was their due share ; whereas modern architecture has as yet come 

 off very poorly, and must do so at last, unless the work is intended to be 

 carried on indefinitely. A really new and fresh subject has not yet been 

 given in it at all : they are all old acquaintances derived from other publica- 

 tions, — new only to those who are themselves new in architectural study. 

 Yet if unedited subjects — such as have not yet been made known in this 

 country at least, there is abundance, — even perplexity of choice. Out of the 

 number of recently erected structures at Paris, there are some infinitely more 

 worthy of notice than those which have been selected from that capital. 

 There is for one the new church of St. Vincent de Panle, also that of Notre 

 Dame de Lorette ; and a section of the Madeleine, which seems to have never 

 yet been so shown, would be very acceptable. The new Theatre at Dresden 

 by Semper, the new Palace at Brunswick, by Ottmer, would be novelties 

 worth setting before us ; whereas the modern specimens selected are stale 

 and mouldy, — are of what, in speaking of ladies, is termed a " certain age," 

 being neither old nor young, neither lovely, nor venerable. 



Vin. Architectural description is generally very dry stufT; few bring that 

 rich poetical imagination to it, or scatter such flowers of " gay rhetoric" over 

 it, as does the accomplished George Robins. As an example take the fol- 

 lowing elTusion from bis pen, which appeared the other day in the Times, 

 ri'laiive to a place distinguished by the not particularly inviting name of 

 Thistle Grove, but he has such a Midas touch tliat he makes every subject 

 he handles glitter like pure gold. — " The house," he teils us, " is a solid piece 

 of architecture based on the Corinthian order, adorned by a conservatory in 

 capital taste, with painted glass ; and within this little Elysium comfort is 

 conspicuous in every department." An uncomfortable Elysium, however, 

 would be something more marvellous. " The tact tliat prevails is of peculiar 

 cast; it disdains the prevailing order" ! This is somewhat transcendental 

 in meaning ; and requires some cniitation to make it out. The prevailing 

 order, by which it may be presumed the above-mentioned Corinthian order 

 is to be understood, is it seems after all, prevailed over — even disdained by 

 the still more prevailing tact. The tact and the order contend for pre-emi- 

 nence, and poor order comes otf with the worst of it, wherefore there is 

 likely to be some disorder in the matter. — " The doors of the drawing-room 

 arc distinguished by plate-glass ;" what an ingenious and delicate way of 

 Eiving us to understand that there is no plate glass in any other part of the 

 house '. Passing by the rest of the description, it will be suflicient to give 

 the conclusion — a climax not to be surpassed : " These apartments are so 

 perfect that really Elysium is brought to recollection" 1 ! As George Robins 

 is the only mortal upon earth who recollects Elysium, be cannot possibly do 

 better than enlighten the world by an accurate topographical descriptiun of it 

 from his own poetico-graphic pen. 



RUSTIC MASONRY. 



The value of what is termed rustic masonrj' has been alluded to incidentally 

 in the paper on the employment of pediments and columns in the decoration 

 of windows ; we now propose to consider the aesthetic propriety of " rustica- 

 tion," a little more generally. 



Of this kind of masonry there are two principal species. In the one ex- 

 terior surfaces of the stones are indented to resemble imperfect tooling; in 

 the other the walls are streaked viith prism-shaped channels in imitation of 

 defective jointing. Both kinds of rustication are studied counterfeits of de- 

 formity — not merely deceptive imitations, but imitations of defects. 



Were not our eyes familiar with every absurdity important into classic 

 architecture, during what is termed the Revival of the Arts, it would not he 

 necessary to defend by argument the condemnation of studied defects. As 

 it is, however, it will be necessary to show in what manner the defects under 

 consideration violate the fund.imental principles of classic architecture. 



The origin of rustic masonry was necessity. At a very early period of 

 Grecian architecture, while the mechanical arts were rude and immature, the 

 irregularities in the masonry were unavoidable evils, and the edges of the 

 stones were chamfered to palliate in some degree the defects in the jointing. 

 In proportion however as art advanced, the surface of the stone was more 

 smoothly wrought, and the arris better squared, till at last the Greek masons 

 were able to build that which is or ought to be a pleasing object to every 

 architect — perfectly finished masonry. In this manner and no other were 

 built the glorious temples of the age of Pericles. Many centuries however 

 after these monuments of perfect art had been forgotten, and when also the 

 decay of mediajval architecture evidenced how rapidly the principles of pure 

 taste were being abandoned, an Italian architect, Brunelleschi (the same 

 who built the cupola of Sta. Maria del Fioreat Florence, a structure in which 

 the essential feeling of classic architecture is systematically misinterpreted 

 throughout) re-adopted rustic masonry along with a multitude of similar 

 solecisms, for which be has received, facetiously we suppose, the title of Re- 

 storer of Architecture. 



A writer who has attempted to defend the propriety of rustic decoration, 

 observes that though it be the imitation of defects, it exhibits a studied in- 

 tention, which is a suflicient excuse for its adoption ; and yet the same writer, 

 by a singidar inconsistency, condemns the use of rustic dies on columns in 

 which, beyond controversy, studied intention is more distinctly exhibited 

 than in rustic or tatooed masonry.* But we wish to found our condemna- 

 tion of the practice not ou the inconsistencies of a single writer, but oa 

 general principles. 



It has been shown in a previous paper, and will therefore be taken for 

 granted in this, that the distinctive characteristics of Pointed and Classic 

 Architecture arc multiplicity in the one, and simplicity in the other. The 

 former style (when correctly developed) consists in the picturesque combina- 

 tion of a multitude of dissimilar parts ; the latter exhibits but a very few 

 forms, and those of the simplest kind. Now directly chamfered masonry is 

 adopted, this essential character of simplicity is lost at once; each stone as- 

 sumes a separate individuality and appears as if set in a frame ; instead of 

 showing but few lines the structure exhibits an infinite i.umber everywhere 

 intersecting each other and forming a rectangular network. Where columns 

 are employed, as in porticoes, the horizontal lines of this reticulation appear- 

 ing beliind the columns, appear to cut tliem athwart, and destroy that idea 

 of verticality which is their essential attribute. 



A remarkable instance of the injury produced by horizontal lines crossing 

 or appearing to cross the columns of a classic edifice, is seen in the church 

 La Madeleine at Paris, certainly as far as regards the exterior, one of the 

 most successful of modern attempts to revive pure classic architecture. The 

 channels scored on the masonry of the cella have a most injurious efl'ect on 

 the cbaiacter of the columns, and this injury is further increased by the im- 

 perfect (French) workmanship of the columns themselves. The shafts are 

 composed of stones so imperfectly united that they appear encircled with a 

 series of hoops or rings which, except the observer be at a considerable dis- 

 tance, cause the columns to appear discontinuous and vertebrated, 



* We presume that there are few people who think at all on the subject who would 

 advocate the employment of rustic dies in columas. The French apply the word " Bos- 

 sage," the derivative of which signilies a tumour or hump, to projecting stones left rough 

 iu building, to be carved and bnisbed subsequently; jus* as we now see in new churches. 

 &c., corbel stones or crocl^ets merely boasted out in the tirst Instance and sculptured 

 afterwards when built into their places- There is no doubt that rustic dies originateii la 

 a stupid blunder by which mere Hossages were mistaifeii f"r iinished work. What shoaliJ 

 we think of the taste which would leave the irrtgular lumps of stone now to be seen in 

 some of the arch-lnouiUiogs oftho Palace of Westminster in their preseot uuHnished 

 State' 



