THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[March, 



CAKDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 

 FASCICULUS XXXV. 



" I must have liberlv 

 ■\Vitlial, as large a charter as the wincfs, 

 To blow on whom I please.'' 



I. I am not aware that Welby Pugin has been compared to Victor 

 Hugo, but Victor may certainly be compared to Welby, for the one 

 speaks in as depreciating a tone of the productions of modern archi- 

 tecture in France as the other does of those in England. Both are 

 such outrageous admirers of the antique, that is, the Gothic style, that 

 they have no admiration for anything else. In his " Notre Dame" the 

 French writer has commented very freely, though somewhat u la 

 Smel/ungiis, on several of the buildings of Paris, and, among others, 

 on the Pantheon, which he designates a "Savoy cake " ! In an article 

 by him in the " Revue ck Deux Mondes," he has since poured out his 

 vituperation on the Hotel of the Quai d'Orsay, the Ecole des Beaux 

 Arts, the Chamber of Deputies, the Madeleine, — which it pleases him 

 to describe as "a second edition" of the Bourse, — and the CLapelle 

 Expiatoire, of which he says "rien au monde de plus bossu." "Oh, 

 qui me delivera," he exclaims, " des colonnades!" including under 

 that term porticos also. It is, therefore, to be apprehended, that 

 some of our own classical buildings — those of the Smirke school of 

 design — would not find any favour in his eyes. After all, architectural 

 criticism does not appear to be his forte, for he certainly can under- 

 stand very little of the style he so energetically reprobates, when he 

 insinuates that there is a strong resemblance of character between the 

 Madeleine and the Bourse ; — an opinion pretty much akin to that of 

 the learned traveller who discovered a striking likeness between the 

 temple at Baalbec and Covent Garden Church ! There is, however, 

 one expression of his that deserves to be noted, viz. " I'architecture 

 seule, entre tous lea arts, n'a plus d'avenir." In this, it is to be feared, 

 there is some truth ; and a rather disagreeable truth it is, since the 

 very models that ought to stimulate us to rivalry are converted into 

 obstacles in the way of originality and all effort of our own. What- 

 ever be the style we happen to take up, we make no attempt at 

 carrying it forward, moulding it according to present circumstances. 



II. Among some other rather crotchety fancies in the article on 

 "Gothic Architecture" in the last No. of the Quarterly Review, it is 

 asserted that the Grecian style requires that caryatides should be 

 made to express exertion and effort, as if oppressed by the weight of 

 the entablature they support. Now, such figures ought, on the con- 

 trary, to manifest perfect repose of attitude, and tranquillity of 

 countenance,— not any sort of effort to bear up against the burthen 

 laid upon them — for that would indicate weakness, and their insuffi- 

 ciency for the office imposed upon them, but the ease derived from the 

 more than ordinary power and strength adequate to their office. The 

 mode recommended by the writer in the Quarterly would be at variance 

 with evetV principle of asthetics and architectural taste, and also 

 opposed to the practice of the Greeks themselves, who made their 

 caryatide figures to "stand at ease." Some over-sensitive critics 

 protest against the employment of such figures at all, as suggesting 

 painful ideas ; — an over-strained refinement of feeling that ought to 

 cause them to be very disagreeably affected bv the sight of many 

 other statues, put in situations which would be most perilous for any 

 human being. They who ate compassionately distressed at beholding 

 female figures performing the duty of columns, ought to be filled with 

 terror at seeing a statue stuck up on the top of a lofty column, or 

 made to stand as sentry in a niche, exposed to every change of weather 

 — frozen at one time, and fried in the sun at another. There is a good 

 deal of the kind in art, which it is impossible to reconcile with common 

 sense, supposingthat mere common sense is to be the judge of it, and that 

 the things which are so shown are intended to be mistaken for realities. 

 How many extravagant absurdities are tolerated in painting I The 



representations of Cherubim, for instance, are not only absurd, but 

 disgusting; for a child's head cut off, and having a pair of wings tied 

 to it, would be an object which, instead of affecting the heart, would 

 be more likely to turn the stomach. 



III. In the " Discours Preliminaire" to the first volume of his " Edi- 

 fices de Rome Moderne," Letarouilly makes some sensible remarks, 

 one of which is to the effect that those purely numerical relations and 

 proportions, upon which so much stress has frequently been laid, have 

 been greatly over-rated, since architectural beauty is not to be esti- 

 mated arithmetically. It is, in fact, evident enough that mere 

 mechanical beauty of proportions alone will go but a very little way 

 in satisfying the eye, for those proportions may be observed « la n'gueur, 

 and the design itself may nevertheless be in abominably bad taste, or, at 

 any rate, dull and insi pid. The same writer also opposes the silly notion of 

 the science of music being of any service to the architect. There exists 

 only a certain vague analogy between the two arts; therefore, to fancy 

 that any direct application of the rules of the one can be turned to 

 account for the other, is no better than a chimerical whim, worthy of 

 the philosophers of Laputa. If any such application be possible at 

 all, it ought to hold good one way as well as the other ; and the 

 musician might certainly profit just as much by a knowledge of archi- 

 tecture, as the architect can possibly do by studying the laws of 

 musical composition. 



IV. In reporting the King of Prussia's visit to the British Museum, 

 the newspapers have not informed us what opinion his Majesty- 

 expressed of the architecture of the building, on the plans and model 

 of it being exhibited to him. Perhaps he thought it more advisable 

 to keep his opinion to himself; and he might, moreover, be excused 

 if he felt more astonishment than he expressed ; — astonishment at the 

 rigorous economy manifested in that national edifice, compared with 

 the prodigality of the doings at Windsor Castle. 



V. About two years ago the newspapers assured us that Prince 

 Albert possessed more than ordinary taste for the fine arts, and that 

 art might accordingly look forward not only to more hearty, but more 

 intelligent patronage than it has hitherto been its fortune to obtain 

 from a British court. Alas ! for the sycophantic prophecies of news- 

 papers 1 The so-boldly-predicted encouragement of art has as yet 

 produced no other fruits than portraits of royal babies, and dog-ken- 

 nels for royal puppies, except it be the huge royal christening cake — 

 a most unequivocal specimen, no doubt, of superior tasle. It may be 

 that the predicted patronage is still to come — that we have mistaken 

 the mere buddings and blossomings of it for the fruits. Such, it is to 

 be hoped, is the case, but at all events, the blossoms themselves are of 

 a very sickly kind. For aught that at present appears to the contrary, 

 the future is likely to prove very much like the past, in a country 

 where the sunshine of royal patronage to art has never amounted to 

 more than mere moonshine. 



VI. If we may believe Toussaint, mathematical science and theory 

 are of comparatively little service in actual construction, and in fact 

 are never trusted to, as architects themselves, he says, very well know, 

 although they do not care to confess as much. " We are aware," he 

 continues, " that such assertion will excite a hue and cry against us from 

 the mathematicians, who will endeavour to prove, by A plus B, that 

 it is mailiematicalbj false, and that we are altogether mistaken. Yet 

 if we ask them how many architects they can reckon up in Paris who 

 know anything of mathematics, we suspect they would be compelled 

 to reply, in the verse of Boileau, 



" U y en a jusqu'ii trois que je pourrais citer." 

 and even out of that number, how many are there who have recourse 

 to their mathematics in constructing their buildings? On the other 



hand, we can oppose to their example that of Messrs. ■ , and , 



and . But we yield to the force of prejudice and opinion, other- 

 wise we could here produce a rather long list of names of those who 

 will deservedly stand high in the estimate of posterity as celebrated 

 architects, although they are absolutely ignorant of mathematics ! " If 

 for Paris we read London, the remark will, perhaps, liold equally 

 good. 



