Laws of Beauty 
THE, LAW OF TRJNITY: A THREEFOLD DIS¬ 
POSITION OF THE PARTS OF A BUILDINO- 
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GOTHIC -NOTRE, CAME. 
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ITALIAN RENAISSANCE, 
PALAZZO VENDRAMIN- 
CALEEG1 AT VENICE. 
EGYPTIAN- FRONT OF TEMPLE. 
FRENCH RENA! S SAN CE • GHAEAU 
PALAZZO BARIOUNI, FLORENCE I DE BEAUMEJNIL. 
pinnacle of a Gothic cathedral is a little 
tower with its spire. 
Ruskin says, in Stones of Venice , “ All 
good Gothic is nothing more than the 
development, in various ways, and on every 
conceivable scale, of the group formed by 
the pointed arch for the bearing-line below, 
and the gable for the protecting line above: 
and from the huge, gray, shaly slope of the 
cathedral roof, with its elastic pointed vaults 
beneath , to the slight crown-like points that 
enrich the smallest niche of its doorway, one 
law and one ex¬ 
pression will be 
found in all. The 
modes of support 
and of decoration 
are infinitely vari¬ 
ous, but the real 
character of the 
building, in all 
good Gothic, 
depends on the 
single lines of the 
gable over the 
pointed arch end¬ 
lessly rearranged 
TH£ LAW OF CONSONANCE,: REPETITIONS VARIATION 
\ 
CHATEAU MAINTENON.~- THE CENTRAL PAVILION WITH TO TWO 
TURRETS ECHOES THE ENTIRE FACADE, WITH ITS TWO TOWERS 
and repeated.” I n classic architecture, instead 
of pointed arch and gable, it is the column and 
entablature which constantly recurs. Every 
vertical member should have something to 
correspond with base, shaft, and capital, and 
every horizontal something to correspond 
with architrave, frieze, and cornice. 
T his law of consonance is more obscurely 
present in architecture in the form of recurring 
numbers,—identical geometrical foundation 
figures, parallel diagonals, and the like. 11 has 
to do also with the style and scale of a build¬ 
ing,—the adherence to substantially one 
method of construction and one manner of 
ornament throughout, just as in music the key, 
or chosen series of notes, may not be departed 
from except through proper modulations. 
Another principle of natural beauty which 
finds frequent illustration in architecture, 
particularly in that of the Byzantine and 
Gothic styles, is that of diversity in monot¬ 
ony : a perceptible and piquant difference 
between the individual units belonging to a 
single type or species. No two persons look 
exactly alike, though they have similar 
members and features, no leaves from the 
same tree are quite identical. 
The metopes of the Parthenon frieze, seen 
at a distance, must have appeared very like 
one another, yet each is a separate work of 
art. So also are the capitals to the columns of 
the beautiful sea arcade of the Venetian Ducal 
palace : alike in contour, they differ widely in 
detail, and unfold a Bible story. In Gothic 
cathedrals and monastery cloisters, a teeming 
variety of invention is hidden beneath apparent 
uniformity. The gargoyles of Notre Dame 
make similar 
si 1 houettes 
against the sky ; 
but seen near at 
hand, what a 
menagerie of 
monsters ! 
The medieval 
builders of Italian 
churches varied 
the sizes of the 
arches in the same 
arcade; and that 
this was an effect 
of art, and not 
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