1850.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECrS JOURXAL. 



83 



Italian masters; some are for an extensive and nearly exclusive 

 application of Medispval architecture, while others are for forming 

 a national style of our own, which should have the merit of 

 "beins something new." Tlie acute and strong-minded Forsyth 

 remarks upon this point, "I do not indeed admire the philosophy 

 which has lately hroken into architecture, nor the contempt so 

 often affected for Vitruvius. I would not subvert the authority of 

 example, nor be too severe upon the ancient superstitions of the 

 art. Their very antiquity, if it does not satisfy our reason, has a 

 charm on the fancy, and they fill up a space which our reverence 

 for what is old would make it difficult for a reformer to fill up 

 more pleasingly." And with equal force has it been observed by 

 that most eloquent instructor of art, Sir Joshua Reynolds, "Inven- 

 tion is one of the greatest marks of genius; but if we consult 

 experience, we shall find that it is by being conversant with the 

 invention of others that we learn to invent, as by reading the 

 thoughts of others we learn to think." 



In these days we have every possible facility and inducement 

 held out to us for the attainment of a thorough knowledge of our 

 art. Upon the opening evening of our present Session, the Gothic 

 architecture of Germany was graphically described and analysed 

 by one of the first scholars of our times, the Master of Trinity 

 College, Cambridge. Our Professor's chairs are filled by the most 

 able instructors. We have excellent weekly and monthly publica- 

 tions affording us both scientific and ])ractical information. Our 

 museums are daily being enriched nitli sculptured remains from 

 the most ancient cities in the world. We have societies devoting 

 their time and energies to the publication of architectural stores 

 which have hitherto been confined to the few, and nearly unknown. 

 The wonderful architecture of Southern India has been brouglit 

 to our view and described and commented upon in tliis room with 

 the most profound learning: while the Oxford graduate steps 

 forward with all the advantages of sound scholarship, intellectual 

 mind, and poetical imagination, to enlighten us with his 'Seven 

 Lamps of Architecture.' 



My own impression is, that each different style has its distinct 

 and separate beauties and features, and it is liot by a blind ad- 

 herence to one particular school for all purposes, but by a proper 

 adaptation of the style we may select for tlie object to be attained, 

 that we can command success. 



I would not for one moment be supposed to detract in the 

 slightest degree from the great merit of many of our rising archi- 

 tects in the admirable designs and structures they produce in 

 imitation of the ecclesiastical and domestic architecture of our 

 forefathers, and the experience of the last ten years has proved to 

 us that tlieir success progresses with their knowledge and research. 

 A similar persevering study of Italian examples would no doubt 

 produce similar satisfactory results; and as the broach spire and 

 the porch of the tliirteenth century may not possibly be found 

 suitable for every street or square in the metropolis, or in our pro- 

 vincial cities and towns, I should rejoice to see the studies of our 

 young architects also directed to the spires of our own immortal 

 »Vren, to the cupolas of Brunelleschi and Michael Angelo, and to 

 the works of my favourite Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola. 



N.B. On referring to the several illustrations, Mr. Angell took 

 occasion to acknowledge the obligation he was under to his 

 brother Members, Mr. Jolm Davies, Mr. Charles Parish, Mr. 

 Edward Falkener, Mr. W. W. Deane, and Mr. H. Oliver; as also 

 to Mr. James Morant Lockyer, Mr. F. B. Newman, Air. E. Prit- 

 ehard, Mr. Arthur Hakewell, and to his own pupils, Mr. George 

 Judge, jun., and Mr. Henry 'W^ood, for tlie valuable drawings, 

 sketches, and many points of interesting information tliey had 

 afforded him. Mr. Angell also took occasion to refer to a plan of 

 Caprarola, belonging to Mr. Hardwick, made in 1778, by Mr. 

 Thomas Hardwick, his late father, and Mr. Angell's most esteemed 

 master and worthy instructor. 



List of Popes during the Lifetime of Vignola, A.D. 1507 to 1573. 



A.D. Name. ContempOMry, 



1503.. Pius HI Hi'iiiy Vlll. of England, 1509. 



II .. Julius U. „ , 



1513 .. Leo X. 



1522 .. Adrian V[. ,| 



1523 .. Clement VII. " 

 1534 .. Paul III. " 



1550.. Julius III Edward VI., 1547." 



1555 .. Marcellus II. 



„ .. Paul IV. 



1559 .. Pius IV Marv, 1558. 



1566 .. PiusV Elizabeth. 



1572 .. Gregory XIII 



Remarks made at the Meeting after the reading of the foregoing Paper, 



Mr. Angell on concluding his paper, having been greeted with conside- 

 rable applause, 



Mr. TiTE said he was desirous of pulling language into those cheers, and 

 therefore he would move a vote of thanks to Mr. Angell for his interesting 

 and successful paper, which was equally complete as a memoir of Vignola, 

 and as an illubtratiun of his works. He had tried to find out if there were 

 any circuinbtances relative to Vignola which were not generally known, and 

 he had discovered, as well as Mr. Angell, that Vasari was jealous of Vignola, 

 for he found very little about him under the head Barozzi, and under that of 

 Vignola nothing at all. The great hulk of the information respecting 

 Vignola in Vasari was given incidentally, and he broke off rather abruptly, 

 saying he should say more about it in another place, but that other place 

 was nowhere to be discovered. The struggles of Vignola to attain a posi- 

 tion were as remarkable as the eminence which be succeeded in achieving. 

 The gradual and laborious steps by which he rose to eminence, and his ulti- 

 mate success and distinguished position, afford to young architects many an 

 useful lesson of perseverance and hopefulness. Mr. Angell had early in life dis- 

 covered the excellencies of his favourite, and he hoped that now later in life he 

 would give the Institute a little more of the Italian architects of the 16th 

 century. He agreed with his friend that this architecture, as applicable to 

 ecclesiastical purposes, had of late been too muidi neglected. There was, he 

 admitted a great deal of beauty and fitness of purpose in mediaival architec- 

 ture, but admiration for that style might be carried too far. It might be 

 considered an heretical opinion, but he believed that a church might be built 

 for Protestant worship much better adapted for the purpose than many of 

 the structures recently erected, beautiful although they undoubtedly were. 

 He would say, let the latter be built, but do not let the Italian style be cast 

 aside. He knew that fashion possessed imperative influences, and that to 

 live the architect must in some degree obey the taste of the times; but he 

 honestly thought that the neglect of the Italian for the raedifeval, if carried 

 much further, would be a serious evil. Even now English architects had not 

 progressed in their ecclesiastical buildings as they ought to have done. He 

 hoped the elaborate and elegant essay they had just heard would revive in the 

 minds of those present, — and he knew how much influence they exercised 

 over the general taste of the community, — the study of Vignola. His object 

 in rising was, however, to move that the ordinary compliment, offered in no 

 ordinary sense, be given to his friend, as well as their sincere thanks for 

 having delivered so elegant, so complete, and so useful a paper. 



Mr. Hardwick could not allow any other person to second the motion, 

 for he had had the good fortune to be brought up in the same otRce with Mr. 

 Angell. They had pursued their studies together, and when he saw the 

 application, the zeal, the attention which his fiiend exhibited, he felt confi- 

 dent that sooner or later he would show great talent in his art. The paper 

 that had just been read showed that he was perfectly right in his anticipa- 

 tions; for a more exquisite, a more charming essay on Italian architecture 

 had never been written. He had visited many years ago the Caprarola of 

 Vignola, in his opinion one of the most beautiful specimens of art in exist- 

 ence. He entirely concurred in the hope that this paper would bring back 

 their students to a greater attention to the architecture of Italy. The 

 architecture of the middle ages was beautiful and picturesque, and in many 

 instances reached sublimity ; but at the same time, some attention to the 

 fine architectural taste and genius exhibited in the works of Vignola, and 

 other Italian architects were essential to the student. He hoped every 

 student present would allow the paper to make a due impression upon his 

 mind, and that all of them would study the works of the Italian architects a 

 little more than was now the practice. 



The Chairman thought that young English architects would derive as 

 much advantage from the study of liramante and Vignola, as English 

 painters derived from the examination of the great works of Michael 

 Angelo and Titian. There was one expression which fell from Mr. Angell 

 in his paper, in reference to which he wished to say a word or two. Mr. 

 Angell spoke of the Italian style, a phrase perfectly justifiable by common 

 parlance, but in his opinion extremely incorrect. The style of architecture 

 in Italy was that which had prevailed ever since architecture had been 

 civilised by Greece, greatly modified no doubt by political changes and social 

 circumstances, and altered by the necessities of the times, and by the 

 extended scope of the science of construction. Still it was essentially the 

 same style ; and it might be regarded (to take the mode of expression used 

 in natural history), as a species belonging to a genus, which comprised Greek, 

 Roman, Italian, and Modern architecture. 



Mr. CocKERELL could not make up his mind to give a silent vote, although 

 he would not repeat the compliments so due to Mr. Angell, which had been 

 expressed by those, who bad spoken for the whole sense of the Society. He 

 joined in all those expressions of gratification, and also in the hopes which 

 had been expressed for the revivification of the old masters, dug out from the 

 remains of Italian architects as it were by this admirable paper, descriptive of 

 one of those masters, not the least remarkable, interesting, and conspicuous 

 in his career. He sincerely hoped that the works of the other great Italian 

 architects of the 16th century would be presented to them in a similar 

 manner; and by a comparative study of these " great lamps" of architecture, 

 they should be able to appreciate the peculiar secrets and motives of progress 

 which the art had made from Bramante, with his minute, silvery, delicate 



12* 



