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THE CIA IL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[March, 



CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 



Intnductory Lecture on the state and study of Civil Architecture, 

 delivered in the Theatre of the Royal Dublin Society, on the oth and 

 Sth of January, 1842. 



By Hexry Fulton, M.D., Author of "Travelling Sketches in Europe 

 and Asia," — "Collegiate Architecture," &c. 



" From the remains of llie workp of the nnc'ents tlie modern arts '.verc 

 revived, and it is by their means that they must be restored a second time. 

 However it may mortify our vanity, we mus' be forced to allow them our 

 masters ; and we may venture to prophecy, tliat when they shall cease to be 

 studied, arts will no' longer flourish, and we shall again relapse into barba- 

 rism."— Sir J. Reynolds, 



The study of civil architecture is a subject too much neglected. 

 Civil engineering, painting, sculpture, and all the other branches of 

 the arts and sciences receive public attention, while that of architec- 

 ture is comparatively unaided and unknown. It is not to be expected 

 that Arts' Unions will be established for the purpose of erecting 

 temples and palaces ; but I hope to be able to suggest a plan more 

 feasible, and not less efficacious ; for it is the privilege of few to erect 

 edifices such as I have mentioned, but it does come within the reach 

 of all to appreciate the beauties of such constructions. 



I feel that, as an amateur, some apology is due to you for appearing 

 in this place as a lecturer. The importance of the subject, and its 

 not having been taken up by others better qualified, must excuse me ; 

 and I trust that any deficiency, arising from inexperience, may be 

 balanced by the desire of furthering that object. 



Should this effort be followed in this city by more scientific labour- 

 ers, mine may in the interim obtain what astronomers call a heliacal 

 rising, befor#any light I may be able to throw on the subject shall be 

 lost in the superior attainments of those who may follow. 



Feeling that I must leave to others to teach the art, I shall content 

 myself if I succeed iu creating in your minds that which so strongly 

 exists in my own, — a desire to become better acquainted with its 

 principles. 



It is not difficult to prove that the ancients excelled the moderns in 

 the fine arts of sculpture and painting. With respect to sculpture, 

 ■witness the Apollo, the Venus de Medici, the Laocoon, and a host of 

 others. As for painting, we have not any of the ancient master-pieces 

 existing in our days; but we have the frescos found in the Baths of 

 Titus, and other places in Rome, and a crowd from Pompeii and Her- 

 culaneum : and may we not argue, that as our best ]iainters have not 

 excelled, in drawing at least, the mere decorations of the ancients, 

 how could modern works stand a comparison with those finished pic- 

 tures, of which the frescos alluded to were probably copies executed 

 by very inferior artists? It is well known that Raffaelle himself took 

 his designs for the Arabesques of the Vatican from those of the Baths 

 of Titus. 



The great number of frescos discovered in the places alluded to, 

 forbids the supposition that their execution could have been expen- 

 sive, such as we read (in Arbuthnot's Tables of Ancient Coins,) of 

 their finished paintings — that a picture of Aristides was bought by 

 King Attains for lUU talents, i.e. about £19,000; that Julius Ctesar 

 gave 80 talents, i£1.5,.500, for the Ajax and Medea; and that Apelles 

 was paid nearly £39,000 of our money for his picture of Alexander. 



Both painting and sculpture have, in the hands of such men as 

 Bupnarrotti, Raffaelle, Canova, and Thorwalsden, made rapid progress 

 to the high goal of perfection attained by the artists of Greece and 

 Rome : hut shattered and ruined as the works of Grecian architecture 

 are, enough remains to eclipse the efforts of modern art, whenever a 

 comparison can be made : that is, by comparing things of the same 

 description with one another — the columnar ordinances of the Greeks 

 witli those of our own times — the originals with those professing to 

 be derived from them. 



We must admit that painting and sculpture have an advantage 



which architecture has not, in the possession of models and objects of 

 nature, from the study of which a correct taste can be formed; but it 

 is more difficult to lay down fixed rules for the formation of taste, or 

 say what should or should not enter into architectural composition : 

 still we are not altogether left to steer without compass — for if we 

 are to suppose that the first idea of architecture was taken from the 

 erections of the feathered bipeds, then convenience and simplicity, so 

 evident in their erections, should never be lost sight of in ours; and 

 although we may add embellishments to the requisites just mentioned, 

 such ornaments must harmonise with utility and simplicity of design, 

 to constitute, as a whole — beauty : and in all the works of creation, 

 as far as we can understand them, we see that each part has a purpose 

 for which just the requisite degree of strength is bestowed ; and the 

 painter or sculptor who would represent the club of Hercules wielded 

 by a Ganymede, the burden of Atlas borne on the shoulders of Apollo, 

 or the muscles of a Vulcan thrown into action to break a fly on the 

 wheel, would be considered as devoid of taste. The same observa- 

 tions apply with force to the laws of proportion in architecture. 



Let us now enquire why does not the revival of architecture advance 

 in equal degree with the sister arts of painting and sculpture. It 

 cannot be for lack of pecuniary patronage, for some of our architects 

 make enormous fortunes. It cannot be for want of talent and inform- 

 ation, for we have many who posjess both : for instance, are we to 

 suppose that the architect who delineated the ruins of Magna GrtEcia, 

 was unable to produce a more correct building than the National 

 Gallery at Cliaring-cross? No ! The cause must be sought for in the 

 ignorance and want of judgment of those who patronise them. Large 

 sums are not given for bad statues or paintings, except by fools or 

 dnpes, because men of good taste know something of the value of both 

 the one and the other. Not so in architecture ; and the architect, 

 feeling that it is in his power to pass on his ignorant employers any 

 elevation which may look well in a drawing, hxas not a proper stimulus 

 for exertion ; and the science never will flourish, or architects be con- 

 vinced of the necessity of a closer application to the principles of 

 architecture in its purest era, until those who patronise them learn 

 something of its rules and proportions. 



I am not aware that it at all forms part of t!;e acquirements taught 

 at any public school, where so much is learned of the religion of the 

 gods, but nothing whatever of the temples erected in honour of them; 

 and which, as existing monuments, and affording useful models, we 

 ought at least to be as well acquainted with as their worship, manners, 

 or customs.* 



Many are deterred from studying the theory of the art, from what 

 they suppose to be the jargon of names which, it may be, convey no 

 meaning to the mind. But let not this difficulty deter : when the 

 thing is known, its name, if forgotten, can easily be found out, and it 

 is not necessary for the amateur to enter minutely into all the details ; 

 without which labour, a respectable degree of information can be 

 attained. And the eye which can appreciate the excellence of a 

 statue or a picture, will soon learn to estimate the beauty of a well 

 proportioned edifice; the taste and judgment will call for and be grati- 

 fied by the reproduction of works of merit, instead of a multiplicatioa 

 of deformity, such as disgraces the national taste, and disfigures the 

 capitals of our country. 



In giving a brief sketch, it is not my intention to commence with the 

 fabulous origin of architecture, or to dwell on that of the Etruscans 

 and Egyptians, whose gigantic works, still existing, are objects more 

 for admiration than imitation, more interesting to the antiquary than 

 the architect. But I shall take the subject up when the art had 

 attained its zenith in Greece, in the age of Pericles, when the three 

 columnar orders of Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian existed in a state of 

 perfection, which all subsequent alterations and modifications tended 

 only to degrade and destroy. After the conquest of Greece, the 

 Romans carried -off many of the statues and paintings to Rome, which 

 served them as models ; but being unable to remove the temples, they 



" I recollect showing a model to an architect's apprentice, of some two or 

 three years' standng, who did not know a Doric from an Ionic column. 



