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Apher lesan ‘s rege eee 8d BA Boll Whi he Dv te ed hehe da ede te by be ted hate Poe we or VR tao pi yA ah itr nem on ideqa iter eee ‘ ne eacets “be ele 8 sb he hs tb Aint he 38 ‘Shanta ae ond Belisle A de by goes MEAL SHA be oe Be iy be Aside th ihe Vea ‘ Fale apa y thin. pole tein noe Oapeds hearts dete She WAhebinnd Bish OPO (at ary at ses be ine rte DAG Ds My de doe bo hs be Gaga + os dit had Wyte ol ay eer ote nd dcdsd dks hbeabeine 1s pert ie Wo pe ean ahd ee hele ae de ae nde a4 @eedads Meld tht debs Pe lend de seks Phy bw eld day he he DY Ra Raho e Moihe ee on Vy ha Ae Mg Desh DY Fhe Me the Ae She hehe 4 ihe, SG. wh) Rahs tee ee ey Os og 0 hate a a Aces tk, bs brawhe date waa Res ate tg bil Vat De be sk te te Se tesihe Piety bdebe th Narturtl wee ‘a halk. THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. University of Illinois Library JAN 0 <1 2005 L161—H41 hea oy ann x a ‘ au \ s . as $235 WES ee ee ee a sae Bee : i ; i ' 6 a | = 4 ee] =) Z 4 cay RM Mm a 64 sal i Zz Z | So oat a o | Crest a= GN - iAP A ANI 19>? HOUSE ARCHIPECTURE. J. J. STEVENSON, FELLOW OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS, LN #aVAO VOL GILES. VOL. I. ARCHITECTURE. Londo : MACMILLAN AND CO. 1880, Crt 39 O’oo \ t Rech. @auip PREFACE. —_—_________. I BEGAN this book ten years ago during an interval in the practice of my profession. Many causes have delayed its completion, foremost among which was a sense of the inadequacy and imperfection of what I had written. The constant engagements of an architect made it difficult for me to give to the book the time needed to make it satis- factory. At the same time I was unwilling to lose the labour and the cost already expended. A consequence of the time the writing of the book has occupied is that many of the views it advocates, which were unusual when they were written, are now current and fashionable. I believe that the book may still be useful. Though inadequate, it is not, I hope, misleading. Throughout it, while stating my own opinions, I have tried to give the reader data for judging for himself. The illustrations have been one cause of the delay in publishing. They are all from wood blocks, which give more satisfactory results than some modern processes, not being liable to the imperfect printing of the lines in parts which is apt to occur in these. Most of the illustrations have been drawn on the wood by Mr. H. W. Brewer, some from my own sketches, but the greater part from his, The illustration of the Colosseum at Rome was drawn on the wood for me by Mr. Mac Whirter, A.R.A. The drawings have been cut on the wood by several engravers, including Mr. Cooper, Mr. Walmsley, Mr. Morison, Miss MacLaren, and Mr. Pitt, Miss Bateman, and A 3 al PREFACE. some others on the staff of the ‘Graphic,’ to all of whom I feel under obligation for the careful way in which the cuts have been executed. I venture to think that some of them deserve a high place among modern examples of the art of wood engraving. ; I am indebted for the use of a number of the cuts to the kindness of the Proprietors of the ‘ Graphic,’ to Mr. George Godwin of the ‘ Builder, and to Mr. James Parker of Oxford for those from his father’s work on ‘ English Domestic Architecture in the Middle Ages,’ and the examples of the Orders from Rickman’s ‘Gothic Architecture.’ In two © or three cases where the same cut illustrates different parts of the text, I have repeated it to save the reader the trouble of looking it up in a different part of the book. Tne Rep Housr, Bayswater Hill, December, 1879. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER II. Wuat Constitutes GooD ARCHITECTURE? .. CHAPTER III. THE CONDITIONS NECESSARY FOR PRODUCING GooD ARCHITECTURE CHAPTER IV. WHat Stryze oF ARCHITECTURE IS MOST SUITABLE FOR OUR HovusEs? . CHAPTER V. Gotuic ARCHITECTURE CHAPTER VI. GREEK ARCHITECTURE CHAPTER VII. CLASSICAL OR RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE .. CHAPTER VIII. Tum RENAISSANCE IN FLORENCE AND SIENNA PAGE ho Or 7Q 119 123 185 199 217 Vill CONTENTS OF VOL. I. CHAPTER IX. THE RENAISSANCE IN ROME... CHAPTER X. VENETIAN RENAISSANCE .. CHAPTER XI. THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE .. CHAPTER XII. THE RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY AND THE Low CouUNTRIES CHAPTER XIII. THE RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND CHAPTER XIV. THE RENAISSANCE IN SCOTLAND CHAPTER XV. CoNCLUSION PAGE 238 258 284. 500 380 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ALO! \ULOME NK FIG, PAGE Carolinen-Strass, Nuremberg . Frontispiece. 1. Shed for ladders at Héchberg, near Wiir tubung.. . 2 i) ae 2. Tilquhillie Castle, Aberdeenshire .. re es < 3 Pf ee 3. Rock-hewn Architecture, Petra .. “ rf 5 a ees t 4. Houses at Miinster .. i. 36 5, 6, 7 and 8. Different modes of seniibeciral creat of ate oat of a House... ‘5 x = .. 38, 39 9. House opposite the Cathedral at asanttg ss He 7 .. 40 10. Old House in the High Street, Glasgow .. vi z Peal. 11. House near the Town Hall, Nuremberg... “ ee Er . 42 12. Towers on the Walls at Nuremberg 4 - ‘. BR . 45 13. Borthwick Castle zs 46 14, 15, 16 and 17. Architectural aetiienis: fret, rae lines a aoe AT 18. Wall decoration in Chapter House, Burnham Abbey .. Ks AS. cbO 19. Egyptian Architecture.—Temple of Karnac .. 0 a ae) eho 22. Greek Architecture.—Temple at Pestum, Magna Grecia... Som OO 21. Roman Architecture——The Colosseum at Rome.—From a drawing by J. Mac Whirter, Esq., A.R.A. .. ry 59 22. Gothic Architecture.— View in Westminster Kier. eet a teers by R. J. Johnson, Esq., F.R.I.B.A. + cs te. #82 23. Renaissance Architecture.—Church of St. Etienne du Mont, Paris ree OO 24, Gable at Nuremberg ry An ee ells 25, 26. Sections of round and pointed Waggon Vaults } % a) wes 27, 28 and 29. Round and pointed Domes, plan and sections os .. 128 30. Church roofed with pointed Waggon Vault _.. ry #3 oa) Lo 31. Church with Groined Vaulting .. ns A e fais JLOU 32. Plan of Vaulting, square in plan .. % ‘ oko. do, 34. View and plan of Vaulting, oblong in are in Nace and square in Aisles .. * nn . FP > 182 39. Round-headed window iden ns Vault 2 “ e . 133 36. Groining without ribs Fe - . Y. ey oe ef 1157 x FIG. Ole 08. ou. 40. 41. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. I. Romanesque House at Boppart on the Rhine.—From the ‘ Builder’.. Goliath House, Ratisbon Gothic Street in Ratisbon .. House of the Musicians at Rheims Markenfield Hall, Yorkshire-—From Parker’ ee English Deinees Architecture of the Middle Ages’ . Decorated Window, under level Cornice .. . Perpendicular Window, under level Cornice . House of Jacques Coeur at Bourges . Plans of Vaulting showing development .. . Vaulting of the Crossing, St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. aie the ‘ Graphic’ . Morton Hall, Cheshire . Corner Oriel at Augsburg. Sones ie Bane . Gothic House at Boppart on the Rhine.—From the ‘ Builder’ . The Nassauer House, Nuremberg... . Hohenzollern ‘ si , o as ae . Grecian Doric.—Temple of Theseus, Ahene Nhe the use of this and the other illustrations of the Greek and Roman Orders from Rickman’s ‘ Gothic Architecture, Iam indebted to Mr. James Parker, of Oxford.).. . Grecian Doric.—Temple of Apollo at Delos . Grecian Ionic.—Erechtheum, Athens o . Temple on the Ilissus . The Corinthian Order.—Temple of Vesta, Tivoli a ye 5 Temple of Jupiter Olympus, Athenee . The Composite Order.—Arch of Septimius Severus, Rome . The Erectheum, Athens . Arch of Hadrian, Athens : . The Custom House, King’s Lynn .. . The Black Gate, Treves . Roman Capital carved in brick . Amresbury, principal front.. . Roman Doric.—Theatre of Marcellus, Rome . Roman Jonic.—Aqueduct of Hadrian, Athens .. a » Temple of Fortuna Virilis, Rome . Nicollini Palace, Florence .. . House in Via d Bianchi, Rome . Small Gothic House at Venice . Vandramini Palace, Venice PAGE 144 145 148 150 151 152 152 154 160 161 165 169 176 177 184 186 187 189 189 190 190 191 194 204. 206 207 208 209 210 211 211 219 223 226 228 FIG. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. I. X1 PAGE 72. Cornaro Palace, Venice .. AF By: Er a rf, se, 200 73. Staircase in the Ducal Palace, Venice 232, 74. Pesaro Palace, Venice oy 234. 75. Chateau de Thery .. a 4 me ae 239 76. Jacques Coeur’s House at ee aR of Ground-floor as 243 77, Chateau d’Azy-le-Rideau, Indre-et-Loire u 245 78. House at Orleans ee 948 79, 80. Gables at Nuremberg .. 959 81. Houses at Miinster, Westphalia 961 82. Street in Landshut, Bavaria 264. 83. Houses on the Pegnitz, Nuremberg. 266 84, Oriel Window at Freiburg in Breisgau .. = os “ 267 85. Inn at Kriegshaben, near Augsburg 268 86. Bishop’s, House, Wiirzburg eaLaod 87. New Miinsterhof Wiirzburg eg 4 88. House at Wiirzburg ag 973 89. Tower of the Rathhaus, Mannheim 974. 90. Wooden House at Hildesheim O75 91. Houses in the Market Place, Brussels 981 92. Old House at Lucerne 283 93. Longleat, Wiltshire From an old sor : 286 94, Interior in old House in Lime Street.—From the ‘ Graphic’ 291 95. Chimney-piece in old House in Lime Street.—From the * Graphic’ 293 96. York Gate, a Landing-place on the Thames a x a, 209 97, 98, 99 and 100. Amresbury, plans and elevations e 304-5 101. St. John’s College, Oxford, second quad .. 308 102. Market-Cross, Peterborough " 312 103. Steeple of St. Magnus, London Bridge Cioaiendd by Sir Christopher Wren) 318 104. Old Merchant Terie School, Taine e Wrett Street F Ba oe the ‘ Graphic’ 319 105. Merchant Taylors’ School, Playing Court. ear the‘ ‘Graphic’ 320 106. School-room of Merchant Taylors’ School.—Ditto 321 107. Old Bedlam, Central block O27 108. St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge 329 109. Drapers’ Almhouses, Margate 330 110. Kew Palace ¥ 300 111. Cowper’s House at Olney. Beth the ¢ Graphic’ 330 112. Redington Rectory .. 6 337 113. Town Hall, South Shields .. 338 X11 FIG. 114. 115. 116. 117 3 120. 121. 122. 128. 124. 125. 126. 127. 128. 129. 130. 131. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL, I. Custom House, King’s Lynn Montague House—the old British ae Old Street in London 118 and 119. Doorways in Essex Street, Ainias Tilquhillie Castle, Aberdeenshire Courtyard of House at Linlithgow Borthwick Castle Old House in High Street, Gincow Newark Castle, on the Clyde Seotch Castle os Old Glasgow University, oe See of inner Court 3 a south and west sides of inner Court % Ss Stair to Fore Hall ” 5 the Fore Hall .. Part of House in the High Street, Edinburgh Ordinary Classic House 342-3 PAGE 339 340 341 302 308 308 309 361 362 363 366 369 372 BYE’ 376 | HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. CHAP Die INTRODUCTORY. O build a house for oneself is an excellent education in architecture. By the time it is finished, and the owner has lived in it, he feels how much better a house he could build with the experience he has acquired, if he had to do it over again. While the work is going on his attention is called to questions he had never thought of before, which are now of the greatest interest to him. He examines the houses of his friends, and discovers features in them which he wishes, when too late, he had introduced in his own plans. The designs are altered and the cost increased. His taste in architecture, and his ideas about planning are changed by his new experience ; the building is too far advanced to adopt the improvements, and the house which he had hoped would be perfect, is a source of trouble and disappointment. He could build another house to his mind, but to go through the experience once in a lifetime is enough for most people. VOL. I. B wo, 2 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. To have, before commencing the building of a new house, the knowledge which the experience of building gives in sonie Mapertee t and fragmentary way at the end of the précess, ‘would. save. the owner trouble, expense, and Nee “To atten, to supply this is the be: of this book, | a ak I do’ not imagine: that any information I can give can supersede the services of an architect. It can no more do this than a treatise on medicine enables us to do without a doctor. Book knowledge is useless in practice without the tact, gained only by experience, when and how to apply it. But architects. have frequently told me that they wished they had such a book as this which they could put into the hands of their employers; as one of their great difficulties is, that those for whom they are working do not understand what is meant by the plans, and after they are executed find out that the result is not what they wanted. If the employer could have understood what was proposed, and the results which were possible, mis- understanding and disappointment would frequently have been avoided. I shall try to treat of all matters connected with the building of a house, so that any one may understand them and have grounds for forming his own opinion. This will involve the discussion of questions interesting to numbers who have no intention of ever building a house. It — will necessitate, as one important branch of investigation, an account of Architecture; some inquiry as to its meaning and aims, the principles on which its rules are founded, and its uses. To attempt to discuss these questions would be useless without some brief statement of the effects which Architecture has aimed at, and has succeeded in producing in various countries, 7 We must inquire into the conditions, social and intellec- tual, under which Architecture produced its triumphs, and INTRODUCTORY. 3 whether we may hope for satisfactory results, under the conditions under which we work at the present time. A question which must be settled before commencing au house, is the style of architecture itis to be builtin. Till about fifty years ago, this question did not arise; there was only one style in which people could build, that prevalent at the time. Since the modern Gothic Mei eat architects and all who care for Architecture have been divided as to whether we should adopt Gothic for our houses, or the Classic. style, which before that revival had been universally used. Possibly neither of them may be quite suitable for us. The question cannot be satisfactorily decided without examining all the styles which we might reasonably ass with a view to our modern wants and necessities. Apart from its practical use, such a discussion is interest- ing, on its own account, to all who care for Architecture ; and even those who think the subject technical and dull may find that it is of genuine human interest. The old styles of Architecture were the natural outcome of the character and history of the nations who invented them, and are among the most reliable and interesting records of their social condition and modes of thought. Each of them was formed by a gradual process of development, which it 1s most interesting to trace. Architecture has of late years become a subject of interest, and every one feels he should know something of it. Truer and more practical knowledge of it, more widely diffused, might give us again houses ieistocisc’ by good taste and Leas like fons of former times, in place of the dulness and vulgar pretentiousness which disfigure our streets and landscapes. The second volume treats of the planning and arrange- ment of houses, building materials, and the conveniences and mechanical contrivances which our modern notions of comfort demand. To get a perfectly satisfactory plan is of B 2 4 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. all matters the most important in building a house. - House- planning is an art derived through long tradition, and, to understand it, we must trace its history, which is full of interest, for it is the history of home life and social habits, To plan rightly we must know what experience has shown to be requisite in modern house-planning. | Before we can combine the various rooms and offices together into one house, we must understand the purpose of each, and the best form and size for that purpose. The family living-rooms, the servants’ offices, and the passages and stairs connecting them, will each form the subject of a chapter, before treating of the best ways of arranging and combining these together. There is a short chapter on the number of stories and height of houses in different circumstances, and another on the usual plan of town houses. To attempt a technical treatise on building materials and construction would be impossible in our space, and useless for our purpose ; but some information is necessary on the kind of materials we can have at our command, and the right way of using them, so as to produce a good architectural effect in form and colour, | | When the house is built it must be warmed and ventilated, supplied with water, a system of drainage, and various mechanical contrivances, such as_ bells, speak- ing tubes, and lifts, for convenience or to save servants’ labour, These matters will form the subject of a chapter. As a house is not complete internally without decoration and furniture, nor externally, without its surrounding terraces, gardens and pleasure grounds, a complete treatise on house architecture ought to include chapters on these subjects, They were in part written, but the preparation of proper illustrations would have still farther postponed this publication, already too long delayed. - INTRODUCTORY, 5 These questions will be better discussed with reference to a house in the country, where there is some space and freedom of arrangement, than if we are bound by the stereotyped arrangements of town houses. Every one of them has of late years been a subject of interest and discussion; and information is to be got with regard to all of them in magazine articles, and in books large and small. The literature of the subject is too extensive for easy acquirement or handy reference, and to be of practical use to any one building a house, it requires to be digested, and the conflicting views which abound on every point stated and compared. For any one without practical experience of building operations this process would be difficult, and the results probably wrong. Some notice of the more important works on these subjects will indicate the gap which this book is intended to fill. Mr. Ruskin, in his ‘Seven Lamps of Architecture,’ and in his ‘Stones of Venice,’ has discussed with eloquence and insight the fundamental principles of Architecture, the value. of the art to us, and the style we ought to adopt for modern use. By these and other writings he has inspired his generation with enthusiasm for art, and for nobleness and beauty in architecture. Ido not know how far he holds to the views expressed in these works, as since their publication he has modified some of his opinions. In them the subject is treated too often from the point of view of Italy to be practically useful or true of England. I think some of his views on architecture are open to question, and that their practical influence on modern architecture has to some extent been mischievous, Mr. Fergusson, in his ‘ History of Architecture,’ gives a clear and interesting account of all the great styles of architecture which have existed in the world. His three volumes form a complete text-book of great 6 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. value. He describes the historical buildings of each style, especially those which are landmarks in the history of art, and criticises them with ability and knowledge, and with the confidence which springs from the consciousness of their possession; pointing out faults, and suggesting how. the architect should have made his design so as to avoid them. | I do not think he is always successful, but the task he sets himself is difficult. We do not require a critic when he finds fault with a poem to put it right by composing passages to replace those he objects to. It is, perhaps, a task beyond human ability to re-design the great buildings of the different styles of architecture, for it implies greater insight and architectural invention than: their architects possessed. Trying to work out in several instances the results of Mr. Fergusson’s proposed improvements on historical buildings, I have found either that they altered the intention of the design, or introduced some new difficulty which it is not unreasonable to suppose the designer had appreciated and avoided. In criticism it is at least safer, and perhaps more instructive, instead of suggesting alterations, to take the buildings as they are, and try to realise their meaning and the impres- sion they were intended to produce. Throughout the work, Mr. Fergusson contrasts the con- ditions under which these old styles grew up with our modern method of producing architecture, which he insists we must abandon and return to the old, if the art is to flourish. This question is of interest to all who care for architecture, and especially to architects, as it involves their existence. About twenty years ago, Sir Gilbert Scott published a little book on ‘Secular and Domestic Architecture, Present and Future,’ to show how suitable the Gothic style of INTRODUCTORY. 7 architecture is for our houses and public buildings. Since then the principles he advocated have largely influenced our architecture, and have been adopted even by our ordinary builders, but the result has not been all that could be wished. Difficulties not anticipated have shown themselves in adapting the style to modern use, and there is a feeling that the question whether Gothic is the most suitable style of architecture for modern domestic use needs reconsideration. Since Sir Gilbert Scott’s lamented death his lectures to the students of the Royal Academy, which he had previously prepared for publication, have been published in two volumes full of admirable illustrations of English medieval ecclesiastical architecture. The lectures, which were delivered at intervals during fourteen years, are not a consecutive treatise. They give the results of the author's life-long enthusiastic study of medizval church architecture, especially in England, His knowledge of buildings, from cathedrals to village churches, was unsurpassed, and it 1s used in discussing the interesting questions of the develop- ment and principles of Gothic architecture. These form a small part of the subject of this book, which would be incomplete without a reference to Sir Gilbert Scott's views. In his pleasant book, ‘Hints on Household Taste,’ Mr. Eastlake expresses his conviction that the ‘Gothic Renaissance” is a reformation slowly but surely taking place in this country, and urges the adoption of Gothic for our houses and for our furniture, even in ordinary Classic houses. His own designs in the book for decoration and furniture are in the Gothic style, but in the illustrations from old work, he shows an incipient liking for the more picturesque forms of the Classic style, which, | have reason to believe time has not diminished. 8 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. For the history of domestic architecture in England in the Middle Ages, the work commenced by Mr. Hudson Turner, and continued by Mr. Parker, is exhaustive. I have availed myself largely of it in giving the history of house-planning, and by Mr. J. Parker’s kindness I have been allowed the use of several of the woodcuts for these volumes. There are three systems of arrangement of the matter of the book—by subjects, by centuries, and by counties, so that parts of the same subject turn up at wide intervals—it is dificult to remember where. It is really a collection of valuable notes of interesting facts of medieval life in all its phases, and a copious index gets over the difficulty of arrangement. On the subject of the planning of houses, ‘The English Gentleman’s House’ by Professor Kerr, contains about all that need be known. The book is large and would bear condensation. In the chapters on planning I have endea- voured to go over the same ground. I shall have occasion sometimes to refer to it, as I cannot always agree with the statements and recommendations contained in it. Mr. Kerr devotes a small portion of it to the subject of archi- tectural style. He suggests as the answer of the English gentleman, when his architect asks him in what style he wishes his house built? “In no style at all, except the comfortable style if there be one,” and, ‘‘Take me as [ am, and build my house in my own style.” He gives, however, as samples for the gentleman to choose from, the same plan done up in ten different styles—Hlizabethan, and revived HKlizabethan, Palladian, rural Italian, Palatial Italian, and French Italian, the English Renaissance style, the Medieval or Gothic style, the Cottage style, and the Scotch Baronial style. The feat is a difficult one; something like translating INTRODUCTORY. 9 a piece of poetry into ten different languages. Mr. Kerr's designs fail in giving the nicer characteristics of the various styles, but this would have been too much to expect from one author. They have all a family likeness, due no doubt to their common parentage. They remind me of a fish dinner at which, cod, skate, and haddock all tasted the same, having been all cooked with the same lard. Sir Edmund Beckett has given the public the benefit of some of his extensive experience as a builder and amateur architect, ina little book which he calls, ‘ A Book on Build- ing,’ in which his aim is to give practical information to those intending to build, how to avoid legal and structural mistakes. The subject of house-building occupies a con- siderable part of it, not treated in a systematic way, but by instances of the mistakes which, in his experience, builders and architects are lable to commit. The book does not profess to be a systematic treatise, and assumes the necessity of architects. The arrangement is somewhat heteroge- neous; such diverse subjects as kitchen grates, skylights, oak graining (which the author approves of ), and windows all being treated of together. It goes into minute detail on some points, but I doubt if the information and directions are sufficient to enable an employer, who had not the practical experience of the author, to keep from error an architect who did not know his business. It leaves a strong impression of the risk which any one runs in build- ing, unless he superintends his architect not only m making the plans, but in carrying out the work. The first chapter treats of agreements with architects and builders, giving model forms of contract, to prevent the employer surrendering his authority over the work, and controverts the doctrine which, it seems, is held by some architects that, “after the plans are settled and the work 10 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. commenced, the ‘client’ must yield himself absolutely to his professional adviser.” It is reasonable rather that as he pays his money he should have his choice. Employers may sometimes insist on things in a building which an architect could not carry out consistently with his own credit. But it is seldom that the employer’s wishes, though they may not be what the architect thinks best, cannot be worked into the design. One plan of a house is given, which Sir Edmund Beckett designed for himself. It has a central hall lighted from the ceiling and contains many of the usual modern arrange- ments, but the want of facility in getting over difficulties, not uncommon in the work of amateurs, may be detected in parts, and a single instance is in any case insufficient to give an adequate idea of house-planning. The views expressed by the author are always decided, and many of them are the same as my own experience had led me to form. In judging of the architectural merit of buildings he takes, as we must all do, his own taste as the standard, with too little appreciation, perhaps, of the possibility of a different opinion in others. The book also contains chapters on the theory of domes and on the great pyramid. The late M. Viollet-le-Duc, the author of the admirable ‘Dictionary of French Medizeval Architecture, recently pub- lished a charming little book, which has been translated into English, under the title of ‘How to Build a House.’ The title is somewhat deceptive; the French title, ‘ L’Histoire d’une Maison,’ describes the contents more accurately. It would not help any one in building an English house. The conditions of building are those of French country parts, where the materials and modes of work differ from ours in England. ‘The plan is eminently French; no isolation of INTRODUCTORY. ll the public rooms, but all opening one into another, the bedrooms sufficient only for the limited size of French families;. the whole nursery accommodation in a house which costs £6000 being a small bedroom over the kitchen. The book, in plan a novelette, is a pleasantly told lesson on the principles of common-sense architecture, A lad, idle at home during the German war, is set, under the guidance of his cousin, an architect, to build a house as a surprise for his sister on her return from her marriage jaunt. Knowing architecture only from the treatises on the five orders in his father’s library, he had thought it a dreary subject, but his interest is awakened by being taught by practical experience how every feature of architecture springs from use and convenience. It is not shown, however, how pointed arches, and some other features introduced into the design of the house, spring from any necessity of construc- tion or use. The book is an excellent one for creating an interest in the subject. The same author had recently published another book also translated into English, under the title of ‘The Habi- tations of Man in All Ages,’ also in form a novelette. Two “beings” with an interest in house building visit, after the manner of the Wandering Jew, the various countries of the world, beginning with the times of the cave men, and taking leave of us at a dinner at a Paris restaurant in the days of the Second Empire. One of the companions 1s con- servative, the other in favour of the successive improve- ments in the construction of dwellings which they come across in their large experience. Both are rather bores, while the descriptions and pictures of the houses they see are, like the celebrated treatise of the author’s countryman on the camel, drawn largely from his own imagination. The addition of the data, if any, on which they are founded, would have made the book of more value. It does not profess to treat of modern houses, 12 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. M. Viollet-le-Duc’s ‘ Dictionary of Gothic Architecture’ is well known in this country, where the greater favour for this style has made it more popular than in France. It is acomplete encyclopedia of French medieval archi- tecture, containing admirable treatises on its principles and history, and on the arts connected with it; every detail being explained and illustrated with a wealth of knowledge, which seems to include every example of the style. I have been largely indebted to it for a knowledge of Gothic archi- tecture in its history, its principles, and its forms. The illustrations are very clever, well drawn and well cut on the wood. In their style, clean and sharp and rather thin, they suggest modern Gothic, and they somehow impart an air of modern Gothic to all the buildings, even the Classic ones, which they illustrate. The pointing of the stones is always carefully shown, which gives an air of surface and reality to the drawings. It is possibly on account of its success in the drawings that M. Viollet-le-Duc has occasionally in his restorations applied the same process to the buildings themselves, by filling in the joints of the stones with black mortar, making" the interior a net-work of black lines. This is not what the old builders intended. In the desire to show the construc- tion the architecture is lost. M. Viollet-le-Duc was more successful as an author than as an architect. Information on all the subjects I purpose to treat can be found in the Cyclopadias and Dictionaries of Architecture, such as Gwilt’s ‘Encyclopedia, or Raynaud’s ‘Traité d’ Archi- tecture,’ Paris 1863. The former, even in its later editions, is somewhat out of date in its information and its views. The short chapter on house-planning takes as a standard houses about a century old—in its criticism of buildings it judges of their merits according to their Classic purity. Raynaud’s book is more modern and thorough, but it is INTRODUCTORY. 13 based on French practice, and is an unsafe guide for English methods of work. Such books are of more use as books of reference to the profession than for teaching beginners, for which purpose an alphabetical arrangement is un- satisfactory. On the important subjects of draining, ventilation, heating, &c., many treatises have lately been published, advocating different systems, and inventions are constantly advertised, which it would be tedious to enumerate. I have attempted to explain the principles of systems which have proved successful in practice. There is justification, I think, for a book which aims to collect together all that need be said on these subjects, for ordinary practical purposes. On each of them books have been written, but what is essential to be known may, I think, be given within a few chapters. As I do not presume to teach the profession, but only the unlearned, I shall try to avoid technical terms, taking nothing for granted, but deducing everything from common first principles. In former days, when the old styles of architecture flourished, there was no occasion for such investigation of the principles and practice of these arts, for each age had only one way of working in them; all others being either inconceivable or false. The only difference consisted in doing better or worse the same things in the same way ; and the changes of style were so gradual, like those of natural growth, that though obvious when measured over centuries, they were unnoticed as they occurred. We have cut ourselves loose from tradition. Instead of accepting and trustfully following the ways and customs handed down to us, we claim to be absolute judges of right, and make our individual preferences laws. . It would need 14 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. omniscience not to fail. It may be some explanation of this state of matters with regard to architecture, that since the Middle Ages closed, the same uncertainty has prevailed in other matters. In religion, philosophy, politics, even in morals, as well as in architecture, it seems as if the grounds of our faith had to be settled anew. We cannot, as of old, trust the experts, for they are not themselves agreed. The thread of tradition has been cut, and in these, as in architecture, there are now no authoritative standards or articles of faith to which appeal can be made, -_ judgment given. Some may be content in building to accept at hap- hazard the first advice that turns up; but to form rational decisions, and to have an intelligent interest in the work, a man must understand the principles of the arts which find a place in it, especially of architecture in its double purpose of ministering to convenience and beauty. He must know its aims, and wherein its goodness consists—the causes of present failure, and the conditions necessary for success— and something of the nature’and merits of different styles, if he has to decide which is best to choose. Till the public care more for it, and know more about it, we cannot look for much improvement. Why should they spend money, and put themselves to trouble for mere dis- play or to gratify whims of architects, which they neither appreciate nor understand? Better take the builder’s house with its compo-dressings and vulgar ornament. It is sensibly planned and seems cheap at the money. But it has been built to sell. The principle of construction seems to be that it shall be always out of repair, so as to provide constant work for the building trades; and that at the end of the lease it may be worthless to the ground landlord. The walls are thin and let in the cold and the sound even of conversation from the next house. But for the floor INTRODUCTORY. 15 timbers which tie them together, a gust of wind would overturn them; the floors shake with the slightest move- ment; the plaster is half sand, and is kept on the walls mainly by the paper pasted on it; doors and windows do not fit; the plumber work is bad; the smell and poison of the drains come in, and the water-pipes freeze; the “compo ”’ outside, imitating massive stonework, requires constant painting, and occasionally scales off in masses, Its existence is a constant process of going to pieces; work- men are never out of it, and the tenant finds that to keep it habitable adds a third to his rent. The architecture, however small the house may be, is a union of vulear pretentiousness and mean shams, a The houses which men build for themselves need: not have these faults of bad workmanship, but they are some- times ill planned and often ugly. The owner may have had every desire to make his house a charming residence, and have spent money ungrudgingly, but too often his hopes are not fulfilled. It is not perfect as he intended. If he had to do it over again, he would make it different. He finds, perhaps, that he has miscalculated his requirements, and the destination of the rooms has to be changed, destroying the cherished arrangements: of the plan; or in his desire for light and view, he has made his drawing-room all window— scorching in summer, cold in winter, and without wall space for the furniture; or possibly, notwithstanding every care, the damp comes through the walls, some of the chimneys smoke, or the water-pipes freeze. Frequently he finds that while it was being built his taste has changed. With better knowledge, from the attention he has given to the matter since he became practically interested in building, he now “sees how much better his house might have been ; that what he thought would be beautiful and grand is fantastic, or vulgar and pretentious; or, if he does not see it, it may be none the less true. From whatever cause it arises, it is 16 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. generally admitted that a large proportion of modern houses are architectural failures. The art in them, such as it is, usually stops at the outside. Here they may have some resemblance to a medizval castle or an Italian palace, but we know that on entering we shall find neither the bold stone carving—the construction every- where apparent—the tapestry, and stained glass of the one, nor the marbles and frescoes of the other. Whether Classic or Gothic, the lobby will be painted in imitation of marble or granite; the dining-room with a plain tint of light green, and a whitewashed ceiling; the drawing-room paper of the last fashionable pattern; the bedrooms as common- place as those of an hotel; the carpets attempting to look an uneven surface of holes we would stumble in, and bunches of flowers we would crush in walking over; the furniture a mass of unmeaning curves; the pictures mere furniture, and no part of the architecture. In both there are the same gigantic mirrors, and great plate-glass windows with muslin curtains, occasionally, perhaps, a few old buffets or carved chairs from Wardour Street— reminiscences of the time when the same art and style governed not only the outside architecture of the house, but its internal decorations and everything it contained. In old times it was not so. A man was certain in building to get his money’s worth in art. Every old house is interesting, not because it is old, but because it is good. The style of one age may be better than another, but all are good in their way. The houses of Pompeii were all works of art; so are the few remains of Romanesque domestic architecture, at Cluny and elsewhere. Old Gothic houses of every period of the style are beautiful. Our streets are not to be compared in beauty with those of Venice, even in their decay, with all their colour gone, or in picturesqueness with those of Nuremberg (frontispiece), which was no better than many another city of its day, but has had the good INTRODUCTORY. 17 fortune to have been preserved till now from modern altera- tions. For the charm of homeliness nothing can surpass the houses of the Tudor age, with their mullioned windows and oak-carving; and we can only feebly imitate the sumptuousness and elegance of those of the Renaissance of Francis L., or of our own Jacobean. Some may be better than others, but there are no failures such as we now constantly see produced. All are good architecture of their kind, not great mansions only, but farmhouses and cottages in village streets. And these results were accomplished, not by a specially educated profession, like the architects of the present day, directing the tradesmen by means of drawings and instructions, but by common tradesmen themselves, without any superintendence. Every village mason could build houses and churches’ such as for excellence and accuracy in architectural style we vainly now, with all our knowledge, attempt to imitate. Every village carpenter could make furniture more beautiful and in truer taste than the best town-made nowadays—solid in construction, eraceful in line, and rich in carving. As for house-painting, we have ceased, justly enough, perhaps, to consider it an art. We do not look on those painters as artists who work on the walls of our rooms, Kvery London builder thinks himself competent to design and execute decoration. Some call themselves plumbers and decorators, and one large London upholstering firm advertises that it includes decoration in its house agency department. Cheesemonger and decorator: would be about as congruous. We prefer to give artistic work to “ prac- tical men,” as they are called, that is, to those who know nothing about the subject. In old time people thought great artists were the proper men to do the work—Michael Angelo and Raphael were proud to be wall-decorators. If our houses are to be works of art, they must possess not only outside beauty, architec- VOL. I. C 18 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. tural proportions, and good colour, the artistic expression of their purpose and of modern life, not of uses and habits long extinct, but they must have the same qualities, the same art, inside, in all their decorations and furnishing. We copy only one part, and that the least important in the general effect of former systems of architecture—the stone mouldings and ornaments which time happens to have left to us—omitting the decoration, and making the furniture discordant, because in the buildings we copy from the one happens to have perished and the other to be removed. To be really a high work of art, a house must not only be beautiful outside, and all its surroundings in harmony, but inside there must be not only no shams and meannesses, but good art throughout; the walls and ceilings rich in colour and in art expression; paintings as good as art can make them, their decoration—a part of them—not hung on them by strings; the sculpture only the decora- tion of the architecture, the crowning points of its ornament or the enrichment of its surface, and in thus aiding it, acquiring an interest it never has when thinking only of itself; the furniture good in construction, graceful in its lines, and in harmony with the architecture; all the resources of art and manufacture, carpets, rich hangings, stained glass, gilding, carving, painting, good as art, and ministering to one harmonious effect. The thing has been. The houses of Pompeu were ~ second-rate performances in their age, but for wealth of art — throughout them, and unity of design down to the smallest details, our richest mansions cannot compare with them. A few battered buildings pulled about and altered, their furniture removed long since, when their old owners leit them, a scrap of colour here and there on the walls, telling that they once glowed with it, are all that remains to us of . the houses of the Middle Ages. But in their churches we can still trace the evidence of INTRODUCTORY. 19 what architecture then meant. Their windows here and there, as at York, or Bourges, or Chartres, still show us a splendour of colour in their stained glass which, but for them, we should never have dreamt of; the marble pillars remain; in places the floor, after the treading of forty generations, still glows with rich patterns of coloured tiles, and, under accumulated coats of whitewash, every now and then we discover traces of the painting which once covered their walls, was concentrated in brightness on the tombs and altars, and culminated on the ceiling; great crowns suspended from the roofs, studded with jewels and sparkling with lights; vestments, hangings, and furniture, admirable in colour and design, all uniting in producing an effect of rich, glowing splendour, of which these churches now are but the grey, white skeletons. The tiled floors and stained olass remain, for the colour in them was in imperishable material; but they are only isolated scraps of a system of decoration which pervaded the whole building. Floors and windows are the last parts of a room we should think of colourmg. The object in using encaustic tiles and stained glass was merely to carry out over windows and floors the colouring of the other parts of the building; and we think we are reviving medieval art when we copy these only, and leave the walls and ceiling cold stone, or raw, orey plaster. It is of some interest to investigate the reasons why art in our houses is so hopeless and helpless, so often mere failure, and its greatest successes only bad imitations of the art which nations and periods inferior to us in wealth and resources produced constantly and naturally, and without apparent effort. It may be that the present degraded state of house-build- ing is inevitable; that we must submit to see the country covered with miles of dismal, uninteresting streets, and spotted over with villas which violate good taste and C2 20 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. destroy its beauty, and be content with houses which make our lives in them a succession of annoyances; but if a remedy is to be found, the first step must be to know the causes which have produced our failure. : There are indications of a prevalent desire for a better state of things; and a knowledge of the objects to be aimed at, and the results attainable, in convenience and beauty, in a house and its belongings, may prevent a waste of effort in wrong directions, along paths by which advancement is impossible—may give higher and truer aims to those who are building for themselves, and, in time, might even improve the houses built on speculation by diffusing better taste, and creating a preference for houses sounder in con- struction and less vulgar in style. It is not because we are too poor that our buildings now cannot attempt to rival, in completeness and splendour of art, those of Greece or Rome, or of the Middle Ages. Nor is it even from our unwillingness to spend money. I suppose no age ever supported a greater number of artists, not in comfort merely, but in wealth. I certainly do not grudge it them, for none know better how to spend it, Besides those artists whom we know, who furnish the walls of the principal exhibitions, there is an innumerable company whose names we never hear, who turn out moon- lights, or mills, or mountain scenery with the regularity of manufacture, and somehow find a continuous sale. There are miles on miles of new pictures exhibited each year, which must get sold somehow, or the supply would cease. Sculpture, perhaps, is more a drug in the market; though the number of British Philistines and others who each year have their features immortalised in imperishable marble is considerable—much greater than those we see ranged close in rows like gallipots on shelves in exhibitions. And of expenditure on architecture there is certainly no stint. Old churches are pulled down for the mere pleasure INTRODUCTORY. 21 of building new ones (more’s the pity); new town halls, law courts, country houses, town mansions, clubs, churches, colleges, are rising everywhere—in many cases the building motive being the desire of increased magnificence, and the pleasure of building, rather than the necessity ; and to this expenditure I object, of course, still less than to that on easel pictures. But are the results satisfactory ? are the churches as good as old ones? Do the mansions in town or country approach in beauty, in completeness of art, those of the times of the Tudors or Stuarts? “Does the result in the club-houses justify the money spent on them? It is not sufficient answer to point to one or two perfect houses or churches among the thousands built. In the old times there were none bad. They may not show originality, or genius, or cleverness; but from palace to cottage they are natural and harmonious throughout, and yet they were no doubt built by common builders, for architects were not thought of, except for the most important works, There was a sense of art in the people, which did not need grand buildings or great expenditure for its manifestation, but showed itself in the cheapest and commonest structures, Here is a mere shed for holding ladders at a small German village (fig. 1, next page), which shows the old instinct, which we seem to have lost, to make the commonest things interesting and pleasing. Nowadays, except in rare and special instances, our buildings are bad and inartistic. And these special buildings are all imitations, more or less perfect, of old work. It is of little use asking who is to blame. The most obvious answer is, that it is the architects themselves, and the most obvious remedy, to hang a few of them; but the answer, though simple, is only half true, and the remedy, though severe, would be inadequate. The evil is not so much ignorance of architecture on the part either of its 79 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. professors or the public, for every one with any pretensions to taste knows something about it, has read Ruskin, and considers himself (or herself) a judge; and never in the world’s history were there so many styles understood and practised, more or less correctly. It may be that we know too much about architectural styles—that the variety of our knowledge confuses us, and prevents us doing what would be natural—that our restlessness prevents us sticking to any one of them till we have perfected it, and made it our own. Or our wealth, instead of helping us, may be the Fig. 1. SHED FOR LADDERS AT HOCHBERG, NEAR WURZBURG. cause of our failure. We may be so devoted to its acquisi- tion that we have no time left to learn how to spend it; for money alone can no more give us art than it can give us learning. Or we may not really care for art— paying for it, not that we like it, but because we think our position in society requires a certain amount of dis- play, which bad art will satisfy as well as good. Or the character of our buildings, as in all architectural styles, may merely express the character of the people who produce them; the display of magnificence in coarse INTRODUCTORY. an form and cheap material be the natural outcome of our vulgarity; the attempts to make things look, not what they are, but like something else which is thought erander—as a row of little houses clubbing together with the help of stucco ornaments so as to look lke a palace, or a dwelling-house with a quarter of an acre of ground from which the owner goes up to business every morning, and where the newspaper is delivered before breakfast, frowning with battlements, and making believe as if it held the country round in serfdom—may be the reflex of our pretentiousness and falsity, and signs that in our hearts we are ashamed of ourselves. No doubt all this is partly true, but not, I believe, to the extent which the universality almost of such qualities in the architecture would indicate; for I think it can be shown that the conditions under which architecture works at present in this country give a facility and amount of expresssion to such qualities altogether disproportionate to their prevalence among the people. The subject has really a greater than mere dilettante interest. Though we may not be conscious of it, it is no slight evil that the houses in which the greatest portion of the people live are built independently of art at all, or in defiance of it. Within the last twenty or thirty years whole towns have come into existence, which exhibit what seems a new characteristic in the human race—namely, utter disregard to the beauty of their dwellings. Never, so far as I know, have there been collections of human habitations so dismal, so completely without one artistic quality, or consequently so inhuman, as the miles on miles of uniform streets in our new manufacturing towns. The hut of the savage is at least picturesque; for love for the beautiful—a desire to ornament and turn into objects of art the things they use—has hitherto been a characteristic of all men, even the most degraded, 24 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. If a town is old, however poor, it is sure to have some beauty or interest; if new, we look for neither, but get out of 1t as soon as we can. Those who live among this ugliness possibly feel it no hardship. If so, it only means that it has entered their souls, and that they are losing one of the characteristics of humanity ; and it is a question, whether the intense rest- lessness of modern life is not aggravated by the places we live in, even where art is attempted, being so devoid of any beauty which can give lasting satisfaction. CEAGEEE Wik, LE WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD ARCHITECTURE ? HIS question has of late years, in this country, been obscured and rendered almost impossible of answer by the rivalry of competing styles. One party would almost say that good Architecture is Gothic architecture, the other that it is Classic. But some specimens so bad in both styles have been perpetrated, that even their own friends cannot acknowledge them. Not only may architecture be good or bad in any style, but it 1s essentially the same qualities that render it so in every style. Architecture is simply the useful art of building elevated to a fine art, following the tendency which all human beings have to make articles of use beautiful as well. Out of the same instinct, in all ages, the necessity of clothing has de- veloped the art of dress. On the oldest pottery there is ornament, and carvings on bone utensils have been found coeval with the elk and the reindeer in France. No amount of decoration was thought too great in any tribe for 26 | HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. their weapons, axes, clubs, and swords: what was always beside them they wished to be beautiful; and when they became settled, they ornamented their houses from the same motive. But they also built houses for their gods; and Architecture, with religion as a motive-power, has had a higher and more poetic development than it could have had in merely ministering to human wants. As the art to begin with is a useful one, that a building should be good architecturally, the first condition 1s that it should serve its purpose—houses must be suited to the wants and habits of their inhabitants; castles must be strong; churches and temples adapted to the worship or the rites celebrated in them. Again, as it is a structural art, consisting in putting materials together for a certain purpose, the second essential of good architecture is good construction—disposing the materials in the best form for strength and stability. Thus far we have merely good building; to become archi- tecture, which is a fine art, the element of beauty or of artistic expression must be added. From the first dawn of civilisation all building was architectural. It has been reserved for our age to find out that beauty in our dwell- ings is not worth striving for, that material wants are all that need be attended to. Various means have been used for arranging and treating buildings so as to add to them the element of art, and so make them architectural. Some nations covered them with ornament wherever they could put it. But, though this practice is not without advocates and examples in our day, it is unthinking and savage art. An illustration in Mr. Owen Jones’s ‘Grammar of Orna- ment,’ of the tattooed face of a New Zealander, shows how hideous may be the results, even of ornament in itself beautiful, when used in the wrong place; and the same effect would be produced in architecture, though not perhaps so WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD ARCHITECTURE? va f strikingly, if a Doric column were covered with ornament instead of the flutings which mark its purpose. Architecture, to attain its highest development, must have something more than mere ornament —the intellectual qualities of proportion and expression. This is true of all arts: music is proportion in sounds; painting is proportion ‘in colour and forms; and architecture, proportion of masses, of solids and voids. But to constitute true art there must be something more, the expression of human feeling or character. | That music and painting can express these, we know ; but that with stones and bricks, and wood and plaster, and while pursuing the vulgar human need of shelter, an archi- tect should not only express human feelings and character— such as power or tenderness, refinement or coarseness, oerandeur or meanness—but his own character, seems strange,—stranger rather that he cannot help doing it. But to do this a power of architectural expression must be presupposed, just as a man must have the faculty of musical expression, to be a composer. So that to get good archi- tecture, what is wanted is a good architect, one who has the power to construct and arrange the masses and forms of a building, and by means of them to express nobleness or beauty. There are various ways of disposing building materials so as to produce artistic results. Mere height has been an object of architectural effort since the builders at Babel commenced their tower to reach to heaven, while more imposing even is theeffect of length in endless ranges of columns and arcades. Mere mass of perpendicular windowless wall, even where there has been no conscious aim at architectural effect, is a most powerful one. It is mainly from this cause that old Scotch castles are so grand, while their modern imitations, riddled with windows, are so weak and feeble. 28 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. i ioe gee ||| |/1| ; > WS Fig. 2. TILQUHILLIE CASTLE, ABERDEENSHIRE, But perhaps the more powerful means of producing grandeur is by shadow—from great projecting cornices, or under deep porticoes, or in the dark recesses of creat arches. To the most impressive architecture, mystery is essential —the feeling that there is something more than we see. Glory half hid is double in effect. The half, as the Greeks knew, is often greater than the whole. The plays of ‘Medea’ and ‘Macbeth’ prove that this is equally true in dramatic art. Trura is essential in good architecture, as it is in all art, though in architecture, as in other spheres, it may be impossible satisfactorily to answer the old question, “ What is Truth?” “Truth” generally means the correspondence of a representation with the facts; and architecture, to be true, must be the expression of building necessities. Con- venience must not be sacrificed to appearance; materials must show themselves to be what they really are, and not something different; the construction which appears WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD ARCHITECTURE ? 29 must be that which actually supports the building. But, in architecture, as in other arts, the representation must be artistic; not a dull, unarranged, unmodified siatement of facts as they happen to turn up. It is tiresome to tell everything, as an old woman tells her story, wearisomely relating whether a thing happened on a Wednesday or a Friday, giving genealogies and dates of marriage of all the persons mentioned, though these have no bearing on the point. The object in a work of art is to convey an impres- sion. To this all the parts must tend, and what is irrelevant must be suppressed or modified. A photograph is true (except that the relation of light and shadow is destroyed by green or red and yellow all being turned to black), but even if it represented Nature’s colour, or her relations of light and shade, it would not be a work of art: it is not the impression on the mind of an artist expressed by him in such a way as to impress others; it tells a great many things which no one is interested to know. So in architecture there is no need for painfully making every constructive expedient apparent, and bringing into prominence those meaner accessories of a dwelling-house, which, however essential, one does not care to refer to, or force on the attention. Language shows us that art is not a merely bare and true representation of facts, in the meanings it gives to “artless” as truthfully simple, and to “artful” as cunningly false. The border-line at which the production of artistic effect becomes falsehood must always be difficult to define. There may be ugly necessities of building construction, which it is right to conceal under beautiful forms or fine colour, as Nature conceals our bones and muscles under the rounded forms and marvellous flesh-colour of our bodies, As in these, so in architecture, the fundamental construction, though it need not be offensively obtruded, should be truly indicated; and the greater the amount of truth in materials and construction that can be expressed without losing sight of the artistic 30 : HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. idea at which the architecture aims, the nobler is the archi- tecture. That of the Romans is not satisfactory. They ornamented buildings, in which the main construction was arched, with pillars and lintels borrowed from Greek M i. i su » NAY ALORS i tl NN , J Fig. 3. ROCK-HEWN ARCHITECTURE, PETRA. architecture ; and although = great magnificence re- sulted,it wasnever satisfactory, — be- cause it was at bottom untrue. Gothic architec- ture, on the other hand, was truth itself. § Happily for it, no other better architecture was known which they might have been tempted to copy for the sake of its beauty, and whatever the ma- terials or construc- tion employed, they were allowed to tell their own tale. In the course of their growth many of the older architectures imitated forms in stone, which had been deve- loped in older wooden construction, or hewed ont an archi- tecture in solid rock, which had grown in constructions of built stone (fig. 2). WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD ARCHITECTURE ? 31 Such things are interesting to trace, as illustrating the continuous but inconceivably slow progress of human ideas, but no architecture can be perfect which retains them. Nowadays, with the beauties of all known architectures available for imitation, which can seldom be natural or truth- tul modes of expression for us, the temptations to this form of falsity are almost irresistible. Perhaps no age has ever indulged more than our own in the shabbier and more vulgar form of untruthfulness, of attempting to make cheap, mean materials look as if they were rare and valuable,—painting and sanding deal boards so that they may pass for solid stone, or graining them to look like oak or rare marble; or copying in stucco the archi- tecture of Italian palaces, and plastering it on common houses. Some people seem to think that tricks and decep- tions are legitimate means of producing artistic effects, such as making a range of small houses look as if it were one palace, or filling in the pillared recess at the end of a room with a single mirror without a frame, in the hope of making the room look twice as large. The deception is soon found out and becomes ridiculous. One house gets painted which includes half of some architectural ornament shared with the next, while the rest remain dingy; or some stranger breaks his nose on the mirror by attempting to walk into the supposed extension of the room. The people who like these little tricks are often honourable and truthful. Their morality does not lie in the sphere of art. One of the honestest men I know was charmed at my mistaking a wooden oriel window in his house which had been skilfully sanded over for a stone one. His honesty lay in a different sphere. Just as, some artists who have a zeal for their art as earnest as ever burnt for religion—who pursue it for the love of it, independent altogether of profit—are often careless about getting into debt, and regard money obligations as altogether secondary to doing their work honestly and well. ys HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. In the sphere of art, truth and honesty are as essential to excellence as to morality ; and our only hope of freshness and originality in our architecture must lie in allowing it to express our actual necessities, with perfect naturalness and truth. : Beauty, though there may be good and noble architec- ture without it, is essential to the highest forms of the art. It would be too great a digression in a book on domestic architecture to attempt to discuss the question why certain lines are more beautiful than. others. One theory is, that beauty in objects depends on their power of suggesting pleasing associations. And it is true that these may so warp our judgment as to give such objects a beauty in our eyes which they do not in themselves possess. But it will not account for new objects, with which we have no such associations, appearing beautiful. | The theory is rather that: objects are beautiful because they suggest pleasing associations from some sort of resem- blance to them—that a colour, for instance, is beautiful because it recalls tenderness or. purity, or a line because it suggests strength or grace. Association of this kind affects our perception of beauty more subtly and powerfully than accidental contiguity, sometimes by making us think things beautiful, but still oftener by suggesting something unpleasing or ludicrous, and so preventing us seeing beauty where it exists. Beauty is something distinct from pleasing associations, and we seem to have as good evidence of its independent existence as of those pleasing associations which are supposed to account for it, namely, our perception of it. Its essence | may perhaps he in the fact, that as we are a part. of the harmonious system of nature, those objects are beautiful to us which are in harmony with our material and spiritual being. This would account for the variety of opinions as to beauty held by different nations, and for the basis of WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD ARCHITECTURE? oo essential agreement among them all, which is shown by the fact that, by entering into the feelings of their producers, we may come to understand and admire various and apparently opposite productions in art.’ It is not a valid objection that some men cannot see beauty in things undoubtedly beautiful. That is a defect of their nature, like the want of a musical ear. The poet and painter, by their sympathy with it, perceive beauty in nature which others do not, and become its interpreters to these by means of human sympathy. No theory of beauty, however, can assist us in deciding what things are or are not beautiful. For this we must have “ taste,” an organisation which is affected by beauty or ugliness, as the palate is by sweetness or bitterness. To produce beautiful things something more is needed —that creative faculty to which new combinations, new ideas of grandeur and beauty come unsought, which in old times was believed to be the inspiration of the Deity. To the greatest architecture the idea of S1zE is essential. Its glory is, that it creates its forms on the scale of Nature's grandeur. To draw a line of three or four hundred feet against the sky, exquisitely modelled along its whole length, is an achievement which raises our opinion of humanity. Cities are always proud of their spires. St. Paul’s, or one of the great French cathedrals, makes the same impression on the mind as a great mountain. A. characteristic of the best architecture, and one which art of every kind must have in some form or other, is Drticacy—not the mere avoidance of all coarseness and vulgarity, but the presence of some kind of refinement—in form, in colour, or in modulation of shadow. It is for this 1 Mr. Darwin is of opinion that the taste of animals in regard to beauty is substantially the same as in mankind. VOL. I. D 34 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. reason that those who have a little knowledge of an art are such bad judges of it. Coarse, obvious effects strike them: they do not see the highest, which are always hidden, like the violet, and have to be sought. The main element, however, of architectal excellence 1s Proportion. It is difficult to say wherein it consists—as difficult as to say what beauty is, of which, indeed, it is one of the elements. No rule can be laid down for it, for it is of many kinds—tall or low, sturdy or delicate. People have sometimes amused themselves calculating proportions by mathematics, which undoubtedly has the power of expressing: them, but only after the proportion has been invented, just as mathematics can express musical harmonies. But it would be as possible to design architecture by mathematics as to compose tunes. ‘A musical ear in the one case, an eye for proportion in the other, are the only tests of right. The faculty of expressing ideas by notes harmoniously arranged, of throwing words into harmonious verse, or grouping the parts of a building in order and proportion, is the only means of production in music or poetry or architecture. The chief sphere in which proportion finds expression in architecture is in the relation of solids to voids—of the supported parts to their supports. It does not look at the problem involved merely from a constructive or engineering point of view, asking, Will the building stand ? but, Does it stand with ease and grace? The building must not only be secure, it must look secure. To attain this result, a strength beyond mere constructive exigencies is often required. A massive stone building should not stand - ona glass case, even when there are thin iron pillars behind the glass, concealed by haberdashery, quite sufficient to support it. The strength should be visibly ample. But neither ought the supports to be too strong for their work: a Doric column carrying. only a statue, instead of ny ‘ t ; i , t § t i ' + H ' { i bl bi yA nem Pe ee we Fig. 4. HOUSES AT MUNSTER, SHOWING VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL DIVISION OF THEIR SURFACES, WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD ARCHITECTURE ? 37 its mass of entablature, is a disproportionate waste of energy. But although resistance to gravitation is the chief motive of proportion in architecture, it should equally govern every space and form of a building—the size and shapes of the windows, and of the window-panes ; the amount of light and shadow; the ornaments and enrichments, not only in their quantity, but in the mutual relations of their parts. A common means of attaining it is by lines or mouldings dividing the surface of a building into spaces, and giving emphasis where it is wanted. Such lines when drawn horizontally are called string courses. They originally were flat beds of solid stone going through the whole thickness of a wall composed of rough irregular materials, so as to strengthen the wall at intervals, usually at each floor, a level bed for the floor to rest on. The projecting edge was naturally ornamented with mould- ing or carving, and later on became a pure ornament of the architecture, seldom now going farther into the wall than the few inches necessary to fix it in its place, and I think it is legitimately used to give to the design the effect of hori- zontal division, though it does not necessarily indicate the precise position of the floors. Similar effects of proportion may be obtained by piers or pilasters dividing the building perpendicularly. Two houses at Miinster (fig. 4) show this mode of producing architectural effect. In the farther house, to the left of the picture, which is:late Gothic in style, the idea of height is more dwelt on; the upright lines, which take the form of pinnacles, are kept as a fringe on the outside of the gable; in the other it is rather the horizontal lines that are enforced. Instead of the front running up into the gable, it is stopped by a strong cornice. The upright lines take the form of Classic pilasters. Mr. Fergusson disapproves of the use of pilasters, and, if 38 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. he were Chancéllor of the Exchequer, would put a pro- hibitory tax on them. But in every style of architecture effects of proportion have been obtained by enforcing the perpendicular or horizontal lines. The Greeks enforced the upright lines by fluting the columns. These bear the mass of entablature—the frieze and cornice, the horizontal effect of which is heightened by the deep projection of the cornice, while the sense of weight in the mass is aided by Tn... the triglyphs of the frieze, which, even if they represent the beam-ends of old wood construction, are now purely ornamental features (see fig. 20, p. 56). | In our ordinary town houses, where we have only a front to deal with in which the position of the windows is. fixed by necessity, such expedients are almost our only means of obtaining architectural effect, Figs. 5 to 8 illustrate some modes of doing this common in Classic architecture. Fig. 5 is the most naked form of building. In fig. 6 an appearance WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD ARCHITECTURE ? 39 of strength is given to the angles by building them of larger stones. The angles of the windowsare also protected and en- riched by a framework round them, and dignity and shadow is given by ornamenting the cornice and increasing its size and projection. But if we repeat this process through the five or six stories of our London houses it becomes monotonous. Gothic delighted in height, but the tendency of Classic architecture was to dwell on the horizontal line, and various See Seer cere e asa ne ae teecans saeceeeeeeenenenes = = TAUMTOTETUO TATRA NTE RT expedients were resorted to to reduce the apparent height of the building. One was to bring down the strong. line of the cornice, as in fig. 7, to the top of the main floor of the building, as if marking its importance and giving it dignity, and treating the rooms above as if they were only bedrooms, as ‘an attic,’ as it is called. In the old Italian palaces, where the great entertaining rooms were at the top of the house, it was fitting that the great cornice should be immediately over them. AO HOUSE ARCHITECTURE, Fig. 8 shows the common Classic mode of producing archi- tectural effect. The only architecture being in the orders derived from temples, the house is treated as a temple. The windows are accidents or necessary evils in the design. The ground floor is merely a base for a correct superstructure of columns and entablature. That it comprises two stories of the house is a regret- table accident which we must not dwell on. Yet noble effects have been gained by these means, and dignity and grace given to buildings other- wise dull. SYMMETRY, which may be considered a species of proportion, is almost essential to the noblest buildings—at least when it is absent, whatever the other merits of the build- ing, the highest dignity 1s unattainable. In every style, Greek, Gothic, and Renaissance, symmetry controlled the designs of Fig. 9, HOUSE OPPOSITE THE CATHEDRAL AT temples and churches, Bae In dwelling - houses, though often ruling the design as in this instance (fig. 9), it frequently gave way to the necessities of domestic convenience. It means that the parts on either side should be balanced and similar, not necessarily identical, like the two spires at the end of a modern church, both executed from the same drawing; but similar, like | HATA WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD ARCHITECTURE f Al those of an old cathedral, each retaining its own individu- ality. Of late years symmetry has not been much in favour. In the last century it was a universally acknow- ledged principle. That the door should not be in the centre was inconceivable. If the kitchens formed one wing the stables had exactly to match them in the other. The summer-house at one side of the garden had its duplicate on the other, even if it was half a mile off. Perhaps the Scotch gardener carried the principle too far, who shut up his son in one summer-house to balance a boy whom he had locked up in the other for stealing apples. Now- adays, we carry the opposite principle to an extreme. We put a spire at the side of a church rather than in the centre ; and where a door comes naturally in the middle of the house, we run up a gable on one side only to destroy the symmetry, under the delusion that we are carrying out Gothic principles. . Fig.10, OLD HOUSE IN GLASGOW HIGH STREET. It appears from this catalogue of the artistic effects which architecture is capable of producing, that they are widely various in kind, and that many of them are incompatible with others. Now, for the perfection of any work of art, Harmony is essential. All its various parts should suit one another. Nothing should be out of keeping. Ladies appreciate this principle in dress; it would be absurd to wear a brilliant bonnet with a rough stuff gown. Itis so much the essence of music that the word is used as a name for it, and it is the chief essential A? HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. in good colouring. And so in architecture it forbids discord; there must be no jarring, no part too rich or refined, or out of keeping with the rest. To strive after irregularity for its own sake is affectation, but when it arises naturally from the conditions of building, as in the little Scotch house (fig. 10, p. 41), it may be very pleasing. It is not the result of hap-hazard, but comes through a sense of art and grace in the builders, of which they may have been quite unconscious. | In the design of this ~~ house at Nuremberg, NS) (fig. 11)the architectural \\ effect is obtained with- #SS\_ out any ornament, solely fa %<| by means of proportion, exercised in a skilful dis- position of the windows and® roof. By simply lowering the wall in the centre, we get the effect of a mass of roof flanked by two towers. Fig. 11. HOUSE see tnees ok HALL, if the wall were built up between these towers to the level of their cornices, as a London builder would have done, the design would be commonplace. — It is irre- gular, but there is method in the irregularity. The neces- sities of internal arrangement make the towers different in size, but the centre of each is carried down and a feeling ae eh) i | th Z Mi { iy; YY, 1H i il WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD ARCHITECTURE ? A3 of height given by the line of windows one above another. But for this, the horizontal lme would have predominated, and there would have been no effect of towers in the design. Harmony is a universal law of Nature. In a few years she tones down the harshness of a new building, the rawness of rough scaur or broken rock with moss and lichens, into harmony and keeping with everything about it; and in architecture, even when the forms are bad and the style feeble, mere harmony will sometimes produce the effect of beauty. | We dispense with it in our modern architecture to a wonderful extent; more than any time or nation hitherto has done. We think nothing of putting rich stained glass in a bare, white plastered interior, like a jewel in a swine’s snout, or spotting the dingiest of cement house-fronts with flower-boxes made of the gaudiest coloured tiles, and making abortive attempts at art by furnishing our houses of common- place builders’ Classic with fiercely Gothic furniture. On the other hand, so intent are we sometimes to obtain harmony, that we compel all the houses in a street to be made from the same design so that a man cannot tell his own except from the number on the door. In our restorations of old buildings it has been carried so far that immense quanti- ties of valuable art have been removed from our churches and destroyed as not of the same date as the rest of the building, in forgetfulness of the fact that these are historical monuments—that their interest lies in each’ generation having left its mark on them—that the impression of wealth and magnificence, and contrast also, produced by the rich Jacobean carvings so ruthlessly removed, are valuable effects in architecture, as well as harmony. Harmony consists rather in identity of feeling than of form or style. The quaint old Classic screens and tombs, the grace of Inigo Jones, and the elaborate richness of Grinling Gibbons, are 44 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. in better keeping with the old buildings than the modern Gothic which, alas, has so often supplanted them ! Still harmony must be our rule, as it is Nature’s—a rule not to be broken without cause—to express some higher meaning, or to preserve some work our fathers have left us. CoNnTRAST is also a means of obtaining artistic effect, more telling than harmony, though not capable of producing such perfect results. An exquisitely carved and moulded window in a great field of plain wall looks more delicate itself, and makes the wall look grander. In Perpendicular Gothic, on the other hand, the tracery of the windows is carried over the walls, making the whole surface harmonious. This system was thoroughly carried out by Barry in the Houses of Parliament. But if the building has gained thereby in harmony and richness, it has lost in power. Who shall decide where and how far either principle shall be carried out? what rules can we lay down? Only the same as for composing poetry or music—the insight and invention of the musician and the poet—of one who has the power of composition, of so combining words or notes or colours as to express human feelings or ideas; or, in archi- tecture, of one who can so use his materials as to produce a building possessing any of the artistic merits we have enumerated. In painting and architecture, the laws of composition are essentially the same :. the same kind of considerations regulate the lines and masses of a picture and of a building. Its chief aim must be to produce unity, so that, however various the ideas it 1s concerned with, they shall unite in producing one idea, one work of art. OrnAaMENT.—Architecture can produce artistic effects of this kind without the aid of sculpture or painting or ornament of any kind, by the mere arrangement of masses WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD ARCHITECTURE ? AD of building. Not even such an amount of ornament as @ cable moulding is needed, without which Mr. Ruskin thinks a mere utilitarian building, like a fortress, cannot be considered architecture.. There is no ornament, not even the simplest chamfer, on these towers from the walls of Nuremberg (fig. 12); yet they are examples not of building only, but of architecture, and not unworthy of the designer, Albert Diirer. Are not grandeur and impressiveness artistic qualities ? and when old fortresses possess these by their ri Kt ne : i iN é r) = NVUBAU has LAR ATs =| Se, CRP i ue) ite i A ss AVE ANN Ly = iN “i | ag): iy ira ii é =f 7 = ! toe =, = ich zr itt Me ieee oe 2 i o Wd, 2: Re: ee i oe Fig. 12. TOWERS ON THE WALLS AT NUREMBERG, mass and strength, and the skill with which they are fitted ‘to the rocks they crown and give dignity to, although they may be the most utilitarian of buildings, without a single ornament or moulding, they may possess the noblest qualities of architecture. ‘The parapets in old castles projected on corbels, as im Borthwick Castle (fig. 13, p. 46), are not designed for ornament, but for the practical purpose of dropping down stones on assailants. But though architecture is possible without ornament, it cannot without it reach its most perfect manifestations. In A6 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. the great ages of art, sculpture and painting had almost no existence except as its decorations. The Elgin Marbles are the decoration of a frieze; the Theseus, a piece of architec- tural sculpture. In the Middle Ages sculpture was almost unknown, except as adorning doorways and other parts of FACET AT iil i ei ! ANNU pop Prati th ic ae { ‘| i atte i " 1! 4 pa iste = \ ij 4 iQ = au | E i A [ i 2 : FEE ——— awe ti Sat RF Et sees ees ER I poe ss a, <= Sa es So i : : PIT r Mt, BORTHWICK CASTLE. buildings; while the paintings of that time, and even of the great ages of Venetian and Roman art, were generally decorations of the walls or altars, and essential parts of the buildings. It may be questioned whether painting and sculpture WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD ARCHITECTURE ? AT have gained by their present independence. Architecture certainly has lost one of the most powerful means of giving it interest. Ornament, when employed in architecture merely for its own sake, and because it is pretty, is weakness. It is valuable only when it assists the meaning of the design, enforcing certain lines or points and giving it richness or softness. For this purpose such an ornament as a Greek fret (figs. 14, 15) or a chevron (fig. 16), or lines and dots (fig. 17), may be not less suitable than the direct imita- —=—=——=—=— tion of natural objects, such as leaves or "14 Fret animals, probably more so; for, aS @ — —_ee—eeee—— building is necessarily largely composed Les} LE] Ea] | of straight lines, straight-line ornament may harmonise with it better than the free and irregular curves of nature. As, in weaving, even a pattern on a table-cloth so simple as squares like a back- gammon board may be perfectly satisfactory and ornamen- tal because it is suitable to the material, and arises naturally from the processes of weaving, To follow the spirit of Na-— ture, not to imitate her forms, should be the aim of art. I do not know whether even Mr. Ruskin himself now holds the theory, stated in ‘Seven Lamps of Architec- ture, “that all beautiful lines are adaptations of those which are commonest in the external creation”-—that in the Doric temple the cornice and triglyphs are not beautiful “Pecause unimitative”’—that the fluting of the column derives what low beauty it possesses from its feeble resem- blance to ‘ canaliculated organic structures.” “The Roman- esque arch,’ he continues, “is beautiful as an abstract line. Fig. 15. Fret. A8 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. Its type is always before us in that of the apparent vault of heaven, and the horizon of the earth. The cylindrical pillar is always beautiful, for God has so moulded the stem of every tree that is pleasant to the eye. The pointed arch is beautiful; it is the termination of every leaf that shakes in summer wind, and its most fortunate associations are directly borrowed from the irefoiled grass of the fields, or from the stars of its flowers. Farther than this man’s invention could not reach without frank imitation. His next step was to gather the flowers themselves, and wreath them in his capitals.” And again, “I believe that we may reason from Frequency to Beauty, and vice versd; that knowing a thing to be frequent (visibly frequent), we may assume it to be beautiful, and assume that which is most frequent to be most beautiful ”—‘ that forms which are not taken from natural objects must be ugly.” On this ground Mr. Ruskin “ convicts” the Greek fret of “ yoliness,” because it has no precedent for its arrangement but the forms of crystals of bismuth, an artificial condition of a rare metal. The theory is a total misconception of the whole meaning and use of ornament in architecture. It 1s a certain sign of weakness and decay when architectural | ornament isa profuse imitation of natural forms. The beauty of the Doric column does not consist in its resemblance to some forms of reeds—some Egyptian ones are much like reeds, but are coarse and clumsy in comparison—but on its form being so perfectly contrived for supporting the weight, and on its flutings and the line of its capital so delicately marking this purpose; just as the triglyphs have a meaning’ (whatever their origin), and therefore beauty, because they mark the downward pressure of this weight, and the cornice as giving protection and shadow. The beauty of Greek Doric does not consist in ornament, which would ruin it, but in its perfect proportion and delicacy of line. The Corinthian order, which is a close imitation of natural forms, is vulgar WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD ARCHITECTURE ? 49 in comparison, and it was consequently a favourite with the more inartistic Romans. Columns half the thickness would be hker reeds; triglyphs carved with natural leaves would not improve the temple. Without its sculpture, the Parthenon is still beautiful. No doubt it has lost the last finishing touch, but the loss is far less than that of its painting and colour. Alter the relations of the weight of entablature to the supporting columns, or of the masses of light and shadow, and its beauty would be gone at once, and all its sculpture and painting would not restore it. That Mr. Ruskin’s theory convicts the Greek fret of ugliness is of itself sufficient to prove it false. If the old test, “ quod semper, ubique, et ab omnibus,” is any test of truth, the Greek fret can show a higher antiquity and a wider catholicity than any opinion or religion. In Asia, whence the Greeks probably got it, in India, in China, in Japan, it is a favourite ornament. It occurs frequently on the “sculptured stones of Scotland,’ and in caves once tenanted ; it is found in the New World on the pottery of Indian tribes in South America. Even Mr. Ruskin himself, though calling it a “ horrible design,” admits that it may be employed with advantage as an ornament on coins “ when it is small,” as it must be when so used, though it need not be small in proportion to the size of the coin. Accepting the fact that mankind regards it as an orna- ment, let us ask what there isin its form to make it so. May it not be because it is a succession of spirals architecturalised —reduced to straight lines, and brought into harmony with the lines which, from its essential nature, are dominant in architecture ; just as the chevron, or the simplest form of Greek fret, would be a wave architecturalised ? Ornament composed of straight lines was no doubt first adopted in barbarous times because it was easily executed, but it con- tinued to be used in the most refined Greek buildings because it was felt to harmonise with the architecture. The fret is VOL. } B 910) HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. not a Gothic ornament, though something very like it is occasionally found among the scarce examples left of painted decorations in that style, which in those parts of the building not governed by curved lines of construction, abounded in ornament equally composed of straight lines, and equally unlike anything in nature; such as, for example, the lines ot “stoning ” found on old Gothic buildings (fig. £3). The lines of archi- tecture and its orna- ment must of course be natural—that 1s, they must be according to is nature and con- stitution ; for the imi- tation of animal or Fig. 18. DECORATIONS ON CHAPTER HOUSE, et ble f ring te BURNHAM ABBEY. veg ab O Be y> for it, be unnatural. It has an organism of its own--a life which, like all life, evidences itself in resistance to gravitation, a character which is noble and beautiful when it fulfils the purposes of its being, and only that ornament is valuable which aids in expressing this. ‘The leaves which shake in the summer wind” are beautiful in their own place and way, but their forms may be utterly unnatural in architecture, and therefore ugly. Gothic arches are beautiful, not be- cause they are like leaf points—an accurate imitation of - leaf points might make very ugly arches—but because they are a true, excellent, and vigorous mode of construction. Mr. Ruskin’s theory of architectural ornament is opposed by the practical evidence of every style of architecture. Even when architectural ornament represents natural forms, it cannot do so by imitating them; indeed, it is generally good in proportion as the resemblance is distant. Very little of the full beauty of a plant can be imitated in stone or wood-carving. The softness and colour and delicacy of a i) ; : ‘shal i ‘ ade’ 4 5 S.- Fy ‘ ee ee ———— SSS ———> ——= = —— SSS ——_——) —— “is ——— =) : == sip a | A sj —— — = —= 4 I ise = y fi ts mi iit i M7 y| oi Ad |B Wnts AIT I WA a ee a ( = S ———— atu MM ZS ——— z == = = pa, wa tha = 5s fF LS ST i Apodet ==, Fs es —= —SSS——_—= —— =—— = = [== = ee ——— = ey, = = SSS SS SS = > ————S = SSS = co a ——S3 ae 222] =H 3 = = | = Sie o_o = ial Fe aa es f rie i A Hl Sea pea nT 7 UL TT UTA FRONT ELEVATION Fig. 64. AMRESBURY, PRINCIPAL FRONT. not the perfect refinement of Greek art, was admirable in its own way. Itisa different kind of glory from the glory of Gréek architecture—a lower sree rather than refined. Roman architecture tended to work itself clear of the extraneous ornaments of Greek columns and lintel. In engineering works, such as aqueducts, they had been from VOL. I. i 210 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. the first dispensed with. In Diocletian’s great palace at Spalatro, where he retired when he resigned the empire, the arch becomes more prominent as an architectural feature. In the Church of St. Sophia at Constantinople, built by Justinian in the first half of the sixth century, all trace of Greek construction, and of “the orders,” has disappeared. The architecture consists of arches, vaults, and domes appropriately decorated. But this natural development, which is a sign of life and truth in the architecture, has been counted degradation, the result of ignorance and error. After describing the splendid marble columns of St. Sophia, Gibbon, expressing the opinion of his time, adds, “but every order of archi- tecture disclaims their fantastic capitals.”* It was left to Gothic architecture under new conditions to give a new development to the principle of the arch. | In adopting the Greek orders the Romans altered and vulgarised them, bringing them better into harmony with their own feelings and the use they made of them, giving them ereater richness and ornament, and less grace and delicacy of line. The delicate parabolic curve of the capital of the Grecian Doric, rig.cs. Roman almost a straight line, became a segment of a DORIC.—THEATRE . : ° ° . or maroriius circle. They omitted the flutings not from ares” nargimony, but not perceiving their use and value, preferring instead of the white marbles of the Greeks, richly coloured marbles, whose surface the flutings would have spoilt. To the Doric order they added a base, the 1 We have learnt to see such capitals now with different eyes. They are; full of beauty and variety. ‘The carving of their acanthus leaves is Greek, rather than Roman, in spirit and delicacy of line. A similar treatment of capitals is found in Gothic buildings of the thirteeth century, especially in France. CLASSICAL OR RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE, 211 want of which is even painfully obvious in the illustration (fig. 65) from the Theatre of Marcellus at Rome, as the solid base is omitted on which, in Greek architecture, the Doric column rests. They lost the Greek proportions, elongating the columns, reducing the weight of the en- tablature or supported mass, and depriving the architecture of its dignity. In their hands the Ionic order was sub- : —— 141 |! I 2% i | " ay . ; uy ‘onan TW Nt HN | i Vy | he | yah HTT | a ee ae 1 aah mT ATR ated bed tt ls _l i O.JEWITT, ‘ : : | Fig. 66. AQUEDUCT OF HADRIAN, Fig. 67. TEMPLE OF FORTUNA VIRILIS, ATHENS. ROME. ROMAN IONIC, jected to a similar transformation, columns are slenderer, the entablat shadow of the projectin moulding supporting it, The illustration from the Aqueduct of Hadrian at Athens (fig. 66) shows an invention of the Romans, in combining their own arched architecture with the Greek orders, which P 2 It is less severe, the ure of less depth, the $ cornice modified by a deep 3 es HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. became a feature of Classic and especially of Renaissance architecture. This example is clumsy and imperfect. in the combination of its parts. In adopting the idea the Renaissance architects carried the whole entablature and cornice over the two pillars, and rested the arch on the top of the cornice instead of, as in this instance, on the top of the architrave. They made the arch much lighter, only the width of the architrave. In the buildings which the Romans left in Haly and elsewhere, the Renaissance architects believed they found five different orders of architecture, and therefore the science of architecture had five orders and no more. Besides the three orders of the Greeks they found the Tuscan, which, as Palladio says, “is the most plain and simple of all the orders of architecture, as it retains more of the old simplicity, and is devoid of all those ornaments which give so great a grace and beauty to the others.” ' * [iii says, “the intercolumnations may be very wide, because the architraves are made of timber.” In old Roman practice the treatment and proportions of the Orders were by no means fixed, and in the modification of the Corinthian, which we have already described, which some Roman architect in the exercise of this liberty had pro- duced, was found a new order, the Composite (see page 191, fir. 58). Palladio looks on these orders as ultimate facts of science. That a new order should be added was as impossible as the creation of a new animal. Freart, Sieur de Chambray, in Louis Quatorze’s time in an interesting treatise, “made Hn evlish for the benefit of builders,” by John Evelyn, the author of the Diary, goes farther. He refuses io address himself to those who pretend that “the mind is 1 Andrea Palladio’s ‘ First Book of Architecture,’ with all the plates exactly copied from the first Italian edition, printed in Venice. a.p. 1570. Revised by Colin Campbell, Esq., Author of ‘ Vitruvius Britannicus.’ CLASSICAL OR RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE. 213 free, not bound, and that we have as good right to invent and follow our own Genius, as the Anfients, without ren- dering ourselves their slaves; since Art is an infinite thing, growing every day to more perfection.” “The three orders which are derived to us from the Greeks, not only contain whatsoever is excellent, but likewise all that is necessary, of architecture; there being but three manners of building: the solid, the mean (or intermediate), and the delicate.” He compiains that, “we daily behold these orders so dishgured and ill-treated by the workmen of this age that, to speak seriously, there remains not so much as a single member which has not received some strange and monstrous alteration.” Yet Freart seems to have had no perception that the orders, as employed by the best authorities, differed in their character from Greek architecture; the faith in their autho- rity was too strong for any such questioning. There was some doubt as to whether the Doric column should have a base; the authority of the order of the Theatre of Marcellus was against it, but the feeling of its necessity prevailed against authority. The principle of authority checked the free development of architecture, in a way unknown in the medieval styles. The evil was not that the new architec- ture was derived from the old. It might have developed freely, as one language may develop freely which is derived from another. But the new forms of life which were con- stantly springing up were compelled to conform to dead rules: and under the force of this compulsion, the style was continually recurring to the original type. Instead of, as would have been the case in a natural growth, becoming less like the original, its aberrations were greatest at first; just as a school boy’s Latin theme is marked at first by English idioms, which disappear with his more perfect knowledge of classic authorities. The absolute authority of the five orders became 214 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. established about the time that the new opinions of the Renaissance in religion were being crystallised into the symbols and standards of the various churches. There was an outburst of free thought and natural de- velopment, both in architecture and in religion, before this result was attained. In both provinces it was condemned and as far as possible suppressed by the decrees of the Council of Trent and of Protestant synods, as at Dort;. but, in the early days of the Renaissance, architecture happily had free course. The genius of the great Italians, when they revived the ancient architecture, discovered, perhaps unconsciously, new proportions. Alberti, Michael Angelo, Palladio and other architects, followed different proportions in the orders ; and in matters where the guidance of the ancients failed them, and they had to trust to their own invention, they worked out a new development of style. The new learning crossed the Alps carrying with it the new architecture, which was accepted as authoritative and true. But the native Gothic styles had too much vitality to be crushed out by it, and, like conquered peoples, mingled with their conquerors. In each country a new style was produced which united with the old native the features of the new Classic style. The varieties of these styles almost defy classification. Each country had its own, and in each the style varied according to the strength of the Classical knowledge or native habit. To the learned, like Freart or Evelyn, they were all abominable; a corruption of pure Classic by barbarous admixture. Such men could not see that they were natural growths, inevitable in the circum- stances, and worthy of study like any other natural production. Even living writers have hardly realised this. The advocates of Gothic and of Classic have alike abused these styles; but their turn of appreciation has come. Correct Classic, asphyxiated by its own rules, had, forty years CLASSICAL OR RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE. 215 ago, become tiresome, almost dead, when a fresh rising of the Gothic spirit, the result of the Romantic revival, asserted freedom and common sense in architecture. This new spirit influenced all the leading thought of the day, and the authority of the orders was for ever broken. But the wave of the Romantic revival began to ebb. The spirit of the Renaissance reasserted itself as the basis of our modern ideas and life. Poets felt once more the meaning of the worship of Nature and of the old Gods. In architecture those who had felt the enthusiasm for Gothic, who had drunk in its spirit and had made it a part of themselves, awoke to the consciousness that it was not the expression of modern ideas, or of the domestic requirements of modern life. | But they could not return to the thral- dom of the Orders, or give up for architecture the right of free development, which the Gothic movement had won. Trained and formed in Gothic, the spirit of the Renaissance coming to them with the force of new truth, they were under the same influences as the earliest Renaissance architects. They naturally produced work with the same characteristics, and found these styles the expression of their own state of feeling and models for their work. To this stream of tendency, I believe, it is due that these early Renaissance styles have again become interesting ; the objects of study and the models for modern work. [ believe it possible that, freed from the obligation to conform to the fixed Classic rules, a natural style, the growth of our modern wants, may be founded on them. From the variety of influences under which these old styles were formed, the varieties of them almost defy classification. They cannot be arranged chronologically like the Medieval Gothic styles, in eae the growth is regular and the style of each century is similar in each country, for the force of the new spirit varied in different places at the same time. St. Peter’s at Rome; the Spire of 216 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. Beauvais; King’s College Chapel, Cambridge; and Renais- sance buildings in France, were being built at the same time, and traces of Gothic continued in England, long after Inigo Jones had begun Whitehall. | It would be altogether beside our purpose to attempt a complete account or history of these styles. We shall content ourselves with describing some specimens, taken very much at random, as they appeared picturesque or interesting, or furnished some feature suitable for modern use. I have not given illustrations of palaces; those who wish to learn about them will find them treated of in Mr. Fergusson’s book. Our interest is in houses on a scale that we might ourselves possibly live in. In such smaller houses, the new style had free development, for their builders, imperfectly learned in the Classic rules, continued old traditions and altered the Orders to suit themselves, sometimes with a true feeling and sense of art. Palaces were bound to conform to the strictest rules of Classic art and therefore have not the variety and suggestiveness of less important buildings. THE RENAISSANCE IN FLORENCE AND SIENNA. 917 CHAPTER YIII. THE RENAISSANCE IN FLORENCE AND SIENNA. lc the revival of Classic architecture in Italy, Rome was not the leader. Reduced in population and in wealth by the faction fights of her nobles, and by the absence of the Popes in Avignon, she did not recover sufficiently to erect new buildings till the beginning of the sixteenth century. The first architects who were touched by the new spirit were Florentines. Brunelleschi, who was born in 1377, conceived the idea of covering with a dome the crossing of the nave and transepts of the cathedral of his native city which its Gothic architects had left unfinished, and he devoted his life to realise this idea. Going to Rome to study the dome of the Pantheon he learned Roman archi- tecture and introduced it into his work. Returning to Florence he used the new style without a trace of Gothic admixture in the churches of San Lorenzo, commenced in 1425, and San Spirito. Alberti, born about 1406, a scholar before he was an architect, advanced the movement greatly by his writings. He built several churches, as those of St. Francis at Rimini, and St. Andrew at Mantua, in perfectly pure Classic. 218 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. - In domestic architecture the change was not so readily made, for the old style showed itself long afterwards in pointed arches and traceried windows and great rusticated stones, which the necessity for strong buildings for defence, as well as a feeling for picturesque grandeur, had made a characteristic of the old Gothic palaces of Florence. In this, as in the recent Gothic movements, the new style was used for churches by people, who would never have thought of giving up the style for their dwelling-houses they had been accustomed to. In the Pitti Palace, commenced by Brunelleschi in 1435, the arches are all pointed, and the wall is composed of great stones, some of enormous size, * left rough on the surface, though carefully jointed. In the Rucellai Palace? (which Alberti commenced in 1460), the roughness of the rustication is toned down, and the walls ornamented with pilasters between the arched windows, recalling the characteristic feature of the old Roman style; but though the arches have now become round, they are still filled with a form of tracery. The Nicollini Palace, of which I give an illustration (fig. 68), shows an interesting mingling of Gothic and Classic features. The outside line of the arches is pointed while the opening is round, making the arch stones deepest at the top—a feature common in Italian Gothic work much commended by Mr. Ruskin. Inside these are Classic pilas- ters (not properly shown in the cut), supporting round and pointed arches. The cornices are Classic, though without strict adherence to ancient authority. The loggia at the top, a feature which gives much of its charm to Florentine architecture, has lent itself perfectly to Classic forms. ; Mr. Fergusson thinks that this palace is of later date than the early period of the transition, and that Bramante may have been its architect. More likely it is of the time of 1 T measured some between 20 and 380 feet long. 2 A wood-cut of this palace is given by Mr. Fergusson, vol. iil. p. 86. | THE RENAISSANCE IN FLORENCE AND SIENNA. 219 Brunelleschi, to whom it is usually attributed, who died the year Bramante was born (a.pD. 1444), and whose style, as shown in the work which it is known he designed, like the palace of the Cancelleria at Rome, is quite different in character, being fully developed Classic. Judging from the | ee rt HN ie | : = ; 1 1 | in ; | uy PF he pt | SM f I ( [ea f ! TT | 1 TT T a a LTA "i mye a A || = ; TAT 7 [2 jan cist a | ite mt JES Sa a a ees pe a om || T ee ii} Fig. 68. NICOLLINI PALACE, FLORENCE, sections of its mouldings, given in Montigny and Famin’s work on Florentine architecture, from which I have copied the illustration, the Nicollini Palace does not seem to me to have the lightness and elegance of detail which Mr. Fer- eusson attributes to it (‘History of Architecture,’ vol. iil. 92.0 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. chap. 87). The appearance of lightness from the want of the rustication of the wall surface, which might be supposed to indicate a later date, is due rather to part of the front being of brick, a common material in Italian Gothic. Making the whole of the rest of the surface of rough stones would have been incongruous, consequently the lower stories, which are of stone, have their stones hewn smooth on the surface; but the appearance of strength is retained by rusticating the angles and arches. The arches and angles beside the brickwork are also hewn smooth, from the same desire of avoiding too great contrast, while the piers of the loggia above them are in single stones. The angle piers of the building thus gradually get smoother as they rise; they are rusticated in the two lower stories, where the appearance of strength was desired, of hewn stone in the next, in the highest without any joint at all. The different surfaces of rough stone, hewn stone, and brick, are used together with great artistic skill ; the Gothic and Classic features are combined without any sense of incongruity ; and the result is a noble and artistic design in admirable harmony. Like other Italian palaces, the Florentine have a great open central court surrounded by open arcades, which gives access to the rooms on each story ; probably a tradition from the houses of Rome and Pompeii. In the architecture of these arcades we find no trace of Gothic. In some cases, because being usually the last part of the building to be finished, the Classic style may have come in by the time they were built, but even if built at the same time as the fronts, ‘it may have been the fashion to use for them, as for churches, the purer Classic style, which was admirably fitted for them. In the neighbouring city of Sienna, architecture, both in Medizval and Renaissance times, was under the same influences as at Florence. In emerging from Gothic, her early Renaissance took similar forms and passed through the same stages. The Gothic towers overhanging the THE RENAISSANCE IN FLORENCE AND SIENNA. 221 market-places in both cities are the same in form—an unadorned square shaft, with great straight corbels sup- porting little arches on which stand the battlements; with a smaller similar tower inside. But the Sienna tower is of brick. Sienna had no quarries which could give her the magnificent stones of Florence. It is an unpractical criticism of Mr. Fergusson’s (vol. iii. p- 89) that “the defect of the Sienna buildings is that the stones employed are too small to give effect to a design depending so much on rustication as the Tuscan palaces.” There is no evidence that the Sienna architects aimed at the Florentine effect of rough wall. In the Spanocchi Palace, commenced by Giorgio in 1472, the arches throughout, as in the Florentine palaces, have the outline of the arch stones pointed, while the arch open- ings are semi-circular. These are filled with tracery con- sisting of two round arches with a circle over them. This palace is built of tufa, a volcanic stone, the heads which look out between the corbels of the cornice being in terra-cotta. The Piccolomini Palace, built by the same architect about thirty years later, is of travertine. It has the same kind of tracery, but the pointed form of the outside rim of the arch has disappeared. Montigny and Famin, the authors of the excellent series of measured drawings of Tuscan architecture (Paris 1866), to which I have already referred, give the following estimate of the artistic merit of this palace: “Dans son ensemble ce palais est d’un aspect grandiose et peut étre considéré comme un des plus beaux de Toscane.” This is different from Mr. Ferg-usson’s estimate of the same palace quoted above. With such diversity of opinion among experts, what is the reader to believe? Such excathedra judgments are of little use. Art criticism seems to me to be of value only when it enables us to understand the meaning of a work of art, and the result which has been obtained under the conditions. _ 222 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. CHAPTER IX. THE RENAISSANCE IN ROME. MHERE was little building in Rome till the beginning of the sixteenth century. Rome has no buildings showing the transition from Gothic to Renaissance, for she had no Gothic style of her own with which a compromise could have been made, or which could have resisted the influence of the splendid ancient Roman buildings she possessed. The architects of her palaces were chiefly Florentines, called there by the sumptuous expenditure in building of her popes and nobles during the first half of the sixteenth century. It is not within my plan to give examples of palaces covering ‘acres, of three great stories, each thirty feet high. The social state which rendered them possible has disappeared. Icontent myself with giving the eleva- tion of a somewhat ordinary house with shops in the Via de’ Bianchi (fig. 69) said to have been designed by Sansovino, the architect of the Library of St. Mark at Venice (born 1479, died 1570). Mr. Fergusson might consider it bad art, because it attempts to make two stories appear as if they were one. THE RENAISSANCE IN ROME. 223 Ordinary houses must. have bedrooms and five orsix stories of different heights, and to group two stories of windows to- oether into one story by means of cornices, or by pilasters, or by putting them under the same arch, as in some old Gothic —S=s \\ c\ A esses ay = \y | | an Sir; | ER, By; its ——— i} | sil HU | a) ee I ! Fig. 69. HOUSE WITH SHOPS, VIA DE’ BIANCHI, IN ROME. examples, is a method by which architects in various ages and styles have given proportion to their buildings, thus raising them above the artistic level of cotton mills. It seems as legitimate as the grouping together of windows 294 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. on the same story, a device which Mr. Fergusson frequently commends. In this example the grouping of the windows is simple and skilful. To remove the cornices which divide the floors, or to put a cornice to mark each floor, would take the dignity and meaning out of the elevation. This house shows the Italian style fully developed, and it is interesting as a prototype of the style which has be- come the commonplace of London builders. For its success it depends almost wholly on good proportion, which unfor- tunately the London builders have not always given us. VENETIAN RENAISSANCE. 25 CHAPTER X. VENETIAN RENAISSANCE. eae had a flourishing style of Gothic of her own, which, of all forms of Gothic, supplies the examples best suited for modern use. It does not affect the gloomy grandeur of the Florentine palaces, or the small barred windows of French and English medieval castles, for she was secure from foreign attack behind her “streak of silver sea;” while the strong hand of her oligarchy rendered fighting among the nobles, inside the town, impossible. Her palaces therefore were never castles or fortresses, but from the earliest times, in their fronts to the canals, had more window than wall. Her sea-girt position, like that of England, gave her colonies, and commerce, and wealth; in which others besides the great nobles were sharers, which she spent largely in building. Hence we find interesting specimens of architecture in mode- rately sized houses (fig. 70). Her Gothic style was not pro- perly Italian, for Venice was not properly a part of Italy. Her people considered themselves Romans, and she con- tinued the traditions of the Roman empire which had been VOL. I. Q 226 ~ HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. transferred to the East, which influenced the eastern coast of Italy long after it had lost the West. The shape of the Doge's cap, and the use on state occasions of umbrellas hke Eastern potentates, are traces of this Hastern influence. Her Gothic has an Eastern character. Her treatment of the pointed arch and her pointed domes, recall = those of the Saracens = in their mosques, | = or the Mohammedan tombs of India. It suggests a climate sunnier even than her own. When it has been introduced into this country, it shivers like a Hindoo in his white cotton dress in London streets. It is essen- tially a coloured architecture, delight- ing in broad sur- faces bright with painting and coloured marble. The pointed arch was used more as a beautiful form than a necessity of construction; it was ornamented by coating it with marbles, not as in northern Gothie by cutting it into mouldings marking the lines of construction. — - Venetian Gothic was living and vigorous, and held its own against the Classic influence till the beginning of the sixteenth century, when it was still strong enough to force a compromise. The characteristic form of old Roman and Fig. 70. SMALL GOTHIC HOUSE AT VENICE. tit fh ' E=\ © — S =| a HEF " I] | mahal A OOD as pe — hive ———— Toi ae ad a Me | ee ae RAG RAI | igs” VENETIAN RENAISSANCE. 2.29 revived Classic architecture was adopted—the round arch behind a screen of columns and lintel—but the Gothic spirit asserted itself in filling- these arches with tracery, in which Classic forms were used, similar to that which had been already adopted by Alberti in Florence, and Giorgio in Sienna (fig. 71, the Vandramini Palace). Though the com- promise was natural in Italy, as is shown by its adoption in Sienna and Florence, it was not adopted north of the Alps. It is suited only for a round arch, and the northern Gothic, in giving up the pointed arch for its windows, had adopted not the round arch, but the straight lintel. In Italy, with the growing taste there for correct Classic, this tracery was felt to be unsatisfactory, and was soon abandoned. That it is an expression of the Gothic spirit, is shown by the fact that Sir Gilbert Scott has filled with it the windows of Sir Christopher Wren’s Church of St. Michael’s, Cornhill, which he has Gothicised. I dislike this form of tracery, and have never seen any modern example of it which seemed bearable; but I find some difficulty in giving my reasons for the feeling. It seems unmeaning, and without any beauty of lime, such as genuine Gothic tracery has. Certainly it serves no practical need of modern architecture. But every one admits the Vandramini Palace to be charm- ing. The tracery looks well in it; and for once Mr. Fergusson pardons the introduction of the Orders as orna- ment and does not suggest an improvement by the sub- stitution of panelling. The design is so admirably worked out, there is throughout such perfection of grace and harmony, that it is impossible to find fault with it. It is an instance of the old truth, that the artist is greater than his materials, and can express himself in any forms, if they are natural to him and he is used to them; while he will fail if he tries to fight with arms “which be has not proved.” | By the middle of the sixteenth century, the architecture 230 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. had come under the same Classic influence in Venice as in the rest of Italy; San Michaeli was building several palaces, and Sansovino had begun his celebrated Library of St. Mark’s. The great Cornaro Palace on the Grand Canal (fiz. 72), commenced by the latter in 1532, gives some idea of his style. The main idea of the design is the same as that in old Roman © archi- tecture, ranges of arches behind a screen of co- lumns and en- tablature, but it has a_ greater amount of open- ing than _ the Roman, in pro- portion to the wall, There is a variety of treatment in the lower and in the uppermost stories, and the —=== two main stories oneness : —— are ornamented a by balustrades, a charming in- vention of the Italian Renaissance. These and later architects who adorned the city were foreigners; but, whether they were inspired by the spirit of Venice or worked to please Venetian tastes, their buildings are characterised by an oriental magnificence unknown in other Italian cities. “‘The great defect,’ says Mr. Fergusson (vol. iii. p. 95), ‘in Sansovino’s design of the Library of al eh || (aa Fig. 72. CORNARO PALACE, VENICE. ee | as me ———| Ill IMUTOTTUTTT] N= ———— I tin : ——=.! Z <0 /; ae y ; 7 Sy wbx! i! S aS J 4 x i = G SS € U ( es 225) aS } = ANY : z ~— KE => wa . SP ~ » A a mr = \ \ Ss = S . WES . \ & S =AOW< Li, } ‘ ,. oom > \ \ 2S } ney SaaS Nao = LEN ED. 55 I: Sas « ENA ON Sa ¢! AN cs ZAI AR 7 A Fig. 73 STAIRCASE OF DUCAL PALACE, VENICE. VENETIAN RENAISSANCE. 233 St. Mark, appears to be that the architectural ornament is not necessarily a part of the construction.” “It is felt that it might be away, or another class of ornament used, and the building would not only stand, but might perhaps look as well, or better. More than this, there is a quantity of sculptured ornament, figures in the spandrils, boys and wreaths in the frieze, and foliage elsewhere, which not only is not construction, but does not even suggest it. If all this were omitted the building would be relieved from that con- fusion of parts which is one of its principal defects; or, if enrichment were necessary, more conventional ornament would have attained the same end, and if it could have been made to suggest construction, so much the better.” This is to suggest the substitution, for that which he criticises, of another wholly different design of Mr. Fer- gusson’s own. Even if the Venetian architects could have followed Mr. Fergusson’s instructions in designing their buildings, whatever the gain might have been, it would have lost us many charming bits of art, and interesting and characteristic varieties of style. It seems wiser to accept the productions of great artists as they left them, and to endeavour to understand their meaning. The view of the Staircase of the Ducal Palace (fig. 73) is a striking example of this richness of ornament of the Venetian Renaissance. It is said to have been designed by Sansovino. Its peculiarities are more probably due to the skill and fancy of Venetian workmen. It reminds us rather of Gothic freedom and exuberance than of Classic purity, and though almost lost among the richness, we can trace the survival of Gothic forms in the central boss and ribs of the vaulting. It is an example of the same sumptuous taste and skill in carving which continued long afterwards to produce richly carved furniture and mirror frames in Venice and throughout Italy. But all such irregularities were soon brought under strict 234 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. Classic rule. The old art might still. have some scope in carved mirror frames and furniture, but, in building, the Orders were the only rule. The art of architecture often be- came a sort of puzzle of fitting together in the same building orders of different dimensions, but, of course, of exactly the same proportions. Palladio, in the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, hit on an expedient which was much admired, of diminishing the size of the great order of the nave by raising Fig. 74. PESARO PALACE, VENICE. it on pedestals, so as to lessen its disproportion to the lesser order of the aisles. The Orders sat upon Architecture like the old man of the mountain; they had to be carried about into positions where they were altogether out of place, and Architecture revenged the intrusion by reducing. them to mere ornaments, and asserted her freedom in the sumptuous grandeur of the style of the Jesuits. | In the seventeenth century this spirit of rich magnificence showed itself in external architecture. The Pesaro Palace, VENETIAN RENAISSANCE. 235 of which the accompanying woodcut (fig. 74) gives an in- adequate idea, designed by Longhena about 1650, is a mass of columns and sculpture, very rich and beautiful, and a fit outcome of the spirit which made Venice for a century _ later the gayest and most brilliant capital of Kurope and the resort of all pleasure seekers. In the Church of San Zenobio, built about 1680 (see woodcut in Mr. Fergusson’s book), the facade is richly ornamented with statues, and the gables are curved and broken and tossed about with luxurious freedom. The Church of Santa Maria della Salute, with its great scrolls with statues on them leading up to the dome, may, as Mr. Ruskin says, be bad architecture, but, with the Dogana with its great gilded ball as a foreground, if we may judge from the innumerable times it has been painted, it must seem to artists the most charming of architectural compositions. We cannot conceive of Venice without it ; it seems to embody her colour and beauty. The west side of St. Mark’s Place is now occupied by a palace, built for their emperor by the Austrians, in this century while they held Venice. It is very correct in style; all extravagances have been carefully avoided, but it is dull and worthless as art, not worth criticism, and an example of the result to which criticism and fixed rules of art naturally lead. The results worked out and embodied in the sixteenth century by the great Florentine architects in Roman palaces, by Palladio in Vicenza, and by Alessi in Genoa (1500-1570), have ever since remained the rule and standard for domestic architecture among all civilised nations. All departures from these rules, however charming, have been counted heresies, which it was the duty of all who aimed at perfection in architecture to discourage and suppress. The result has been the same as with fixed 236 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. standards in other spheres of human thought and invention. The changes and developments natural among different peoples, or through individual genius, have been re- strained, but only at the price of the loss of national freedom and life in domestic architecture. _ A copy is apt to fall short of the original model, and in copying Italian palaces the builders on the other side of the Alps worked under a special disadvantage. The grandeur of the Italian palaces depends, in large measure, on the great mass of wall in proportion to. the window openings. Kach story is often thirty feet high, and the windows reach only halfway to the ceiling, leaving above them a great mass of unbroken wall. In the bright climate, windows of this size, in proportion to the size of the room, gave sufficient light. These lofty stories were built partly, no doubt, to obtain an effect of grandeur, but also for a practical purpose. In Italy, where there is great heat during the day and miasma at night, windows and all openings are kept carefully closed, except in the cool of the evening or in the morning when they are opened to renew the air. It was therefore necessary that the rooms should be of sufficient capacity to enclose enough air for a day’s consumption. In England we can have constant ventilation, consequently our rooms need not be so lofty ; and in our dark climate, windows reaching only halfway up the wall of the room would give an effect not of grandeur but of dismalness. We want all the light we can get, and from as high a point in the room as possible. The conditions of building in the two countries are wholly different; and in merely copying Italian architecture for English use, our builders have lost its proportion and gran- deur. In the different circumstances a different treatment was required. In giving some account of Renaissance architecture VENETIAN RENAISSANCE. Ey | north of the Alps, we shall find interest and benefit not so much in great palaces designed by learned architects in imitation of those of Italy, as in smaller houses, where the builders felt themselves at liberty to modify the style, according to convenience and the old traditions of the country. 238 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. CHAPTER XI. THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE. RANCE was the first country across the Alps whose architecture was influenced by the new _ revival. Even in the reign of Louis XII. (4.p. 1498-1515) there are indications of the change. Under his successor, Francis I., palaces and castles in the new style were built in every part of the country. The constant intercourse with Italy, the interest of the Court in art and its patronage of Italian artists, who were then acknowledged masters in all the arts, enriched the country, in the first half of the sixteenth century, with examples of the new style, of a complete- ness and correctness which was not seen in England and Germany till nearly a century later. There is some evi- dence which would almost make it appear as if the new style had grown up independently and simultaneously in France and Italy. There is said to be undoubted documen- tary evidence that the town hall of Orleans, in which there is a mingling of Classic features in a design otherwise Gothic, was built in the fifteenth century. But French Gothic was a living and vigorous style. It THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE. 239 maintained a long struggle with its invader, and even when the new style was accepted without question, medizeval features continued to characterise it and were never wholly abandoned. By this union of the two styles the genius of the French in art produced one of the most charming forms of the Renaissance architecture, thoroughly worked out and finished, and ad- mirably suited for modern domestic requirements. One of the most marked character- istics which the French — Renaiss- ance inherited from the Gothic archi- tecture of the country, was the tall pyramidal sla- ted roofs, pecu- liar to it among the Renaissance styles of Europe. A few examples are found in Ger- many, due in part to French influence, but the true char- Fig. 5. CHATEAU DE THERY. acteristic of German Renaissance and of German Gothic houses is, that the front is a great broad gable with several stories of windows in it. These tall pyramidal slate roofs are found chiefly in chateaux and mansions in the country; sometimes also in town houses. They are a legacy from the later Gothic Le) fara WY UH ha 9) , vee mes 240 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. style of the country, which it retains to the present day. It will be remembered that in attempting to give a rationale of Gothic architecture, I showed that, while in England the pointed arch had in later Gothic become flattened, and the roofs had been made flat in harmony with it, in France pointed vaulting and pointed windows having been retained, high steep roofs have been retained also. This habit was, no doubt, encouraged by the quarries of beautiful slates which almost every province of France possessed, durable and thin, capable of being cut into any forms or worked into any curves or angles and, when laid, forming a beautifully even surface. The excellence of the material led the builders to take a pride in their roofs and to make the most of them, and to prefer slate roofs to gables, sometimes even in their churches. In the treatment of the roofs lies the chief charm of the pretty little Gothic Chateau de Thery, which is here illustrated. It will be seen from this illus- — tration that these sloping or “hipped” roofs, as they are technically called, are better suited than gables to the round and octagonal towers and to the machicolations—the para- pets projected on corbels, which we see here, leaving openings for throwing stones and molten lead down on besiegers—of medieval military architecture. In many French buildings (e.g. the new building of the Louvre) these pyramidal roofs are truncated so as to form a square plat- form on the top surrounded by an ornamental railing. Sometimes they terminated in a form like a chisel edge as in the entrance tower of Jacques Coeur’s house at Bourges (fig. 44, p. 154). ~ These tall roofs have lately become very fashionable in England, partly because they express the Gothic tendency to height, with which most of the architects are imbued; no doubt also, because they give a good deal of show for the money. All about London now they break up the modest roof-lines of the older architecture. They are apt to look THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE. 241 pretentious here, as there is neither tradition nor convenience to justify them, for they make the neighbouring chimneys smoke, and when stuck on the top of houses already of seven stories, they compel their chimneys to be carried so high that they cannot be swept. They are dangerous for fire. Constructed of wood and rising high above the party-walls separating the houses, the flames spread with the wind from one high roof to another. These high roofs were, it is said, a chief cause of the destructiveness of the great fire at Chicago, where this fashion apparently had been adopted. On houses in the country they make hard shiny black spots in the landscape, for our slates are not so beautiful as the French. Another feature which French Renaissance inherited from the Gothic style of the country is, that the windows have mullions and transoms. From an early period French Gothic had given up the use of the pointed arch for domestic buildings. The little French chateau (fig. 75) illustrates this, as does also Jacques Coeur’s house at Bourges (fig. 44, p. 154), in which all the windows are square-headed, except that of the chapel over the entrance, which is filled with tracery and pointed, thereby fitting better the vault- ing of the chapel; also perhaps, because traceried windows had come to be considered specially ecclesiastical features. Mullioned and transomed windows continued for some time a universal characteristic of French Renaissance. They formed part of the original design of the Tuileries, and of the Louvre, as we know from contemporary drawings in Du Cerceau’s book on Architecture. The stone mullions and transoms are now removed, but a similar effect is obtained in these and other French buildings by broad divisions of wood occupying the same positions. Another inheritance of French Renaissance from the Vom I: R 242 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. medieval style was a castellated or semi-fortified character. Since the invention of cannon the nobles found that their castles had become useless as fortifications. They were dark and inconvenient as dwellings, consisting of massive towers at the angles with solid curtain-walls between, enclosing the great tower or keep; the only openings, except in the highest stories, being small narrow slits, which a man could not get through. Inside, the staircases and passages were narrow and tortuous, so as to puzzle an enemy if he got in. With the new style came a new building impulse. King, nobles, and commoners re-housed themselves with larger accommodation, greater splendour, and above all, with abundance of window light. A desire for abundance of light in their dwellings characterised the style of this period in France as well as the contemporary Tudor style in England. It seems almost as if they expressed in their dwellings their delight in the light which they felt the new learning had brought them ; possibly it was only a reaction from the darkness which ne necessities of defence had hitherto compelled them to endure. The castles being now useless as fortifications did not require a garrison. But in rebuilding them their accom- modation was not lessened. Larger and more splendid rooms than the old ones were wanted, and the nobles did not much diminish the number of their retainers. They were a sign of power and importance, and the men- at-arms continued in the house, rendering the old sort of menial service of various kinds, in addition to their mili- tary duties, which were now dispensed with. The tradition remains to the present day; footmen and men-servants being kept in great houses for show rather than for use. In most castles the solid curtain-walls between the angle- towers were pulled down, and on their sites ranges of well- ‘Jit buildings were built, giving greatly increased accommoda- THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE. 243 tion. But the angle towers were left. They gave some accommodation, one dark vaulted room on each story ; while the curtain-walls gave none except by the sheds leant against them. It is a characteristic of almost every period of architecture but our own, that any work of pre- decessors which could be turned to use was never pulled down. Possibly also, the nobles kept the towers as the symbols of their former power. These towers, thus left in the chateaux when they were rebuilt and fitted for modern use, gave them the look of RRMA TOWERS OF OLD CITY WALL AL voA7 rooms AND WARDROBES MENT MADE PAKT OF THE NEW HOUSE FORMING AN APFARTE! Preancce \| GREAT COURT —_——_——— o=_ aoe ee eee D GALLERY WHERE TKE POOR WNTEO ANNI THE FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF a RENAINS OF WHE REPEST Fig. 76. JACQUES COCEUR’S HOUSE AT BOURGES.—PLAN OF GROUND-FLOOR. fortified buildings, a character which was carried out in the parts which were rebuilt, and also in the new chateaux of the period. In both new and old, the moat or ditch of water round the castle was retained, though it had ceased to be useful for defence, from old habit or because it was a symbol of former power and importance. The possession of it was accounted a sign of signorial rights. This process of remodelling old fortified places is well illustrated by the house of Jacques Coeur at Bourges (fig. 76). R 2 DAA | HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. He had bought for the site a portion of the old city walls which had become disused in consequence of the extension of the city. He pulled down the curtain-walls between the towers, and replaced them by ranges of elegant buildings. The towers he worked into the plan, remodelling them and making them fit for habitation by inserting larger windows. The greater thickness of the walls shown on the plan distinguishes the old from the new buildings. The narrow windows or loop-holes in such towers, lighting each story, were usually in a tier, one above the other. Though the openings were small on the outside, they widened out inside into large deep bays in the thick- ness of the walls. It was therefore easy to cut a wide gash from top to bottom in the tower in which larger windows were inserted. These were built in the new style, flanked by pilasters which covered the junction of the new and old masonry. As the opening had been made from bottom | to top, these pilasters were carried continuously through the whole height of the tower one above the other; there was no mass of plain wall dividing the rows of windee in ae different stories as in Italian architecture. These tiers of windows dividing the wall perpendicularly through all the stories became a feature of the French Renaissance. By enforcing perpendicular lines, they ex- pressed the tendency to Gothic principles of design, which influenced the builders more than the principle of dwelling on the horizontal lines characteristic of Classic architecture. This arrangement was adopted in new buildings. | The Chateau d’Azy-le-Rideau, in the department of Indre- et-Loire (fig. 77), is one among innumerable examples of this — mode of treatment, though the amount of window obtained is less than usual. The spread of the new architecture in France was very rapid. There was a rage for building in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Architecture and the decorative arts Dae SP LEN Bpaw BL a ett MN ong Ae Ley Vig 4" ys : THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE. 947 were matters of interest to king and people, as we see from the wealth and favour given to Italian artists. The palaces and chateaux then built are still the best in France. Only in towns decayed and deserted do we find houses older than this date, and however interesting archeologically these may be, they are poor dwelling-houses according to our notions. Chateaux and manor-houses were everywhere of a charming grace and kindliness of aspect, which does not suggest that oppression of the peasants for the next two hundred years, which in the Revolution sent so many of them up in flames. In the earlier buildings of the reign of Francis I. Gothic details still prevail. In the Chateau of Nantouillet, built by his minister, Duprat, in 1520, the front is divided hy Classic pilasters and mouldings not attempting Classic proportion, while the jambs and mullions of the windows have Gothic mouldings and bases. The staircase has pointed windows with tracery supported on mullions, which are shaped like Classic balusters, and has ‘vaulting of the most intricate design, following the slope of the steps, the vaulting ribs being curved in two planes. There are the usual indications of an effete style; no crudeness, but an attempt to excite a sensation by intricate and wonderful workmanship. The new style soon worked off all traces of Gothic form, and frankly accepted the Classic orders and deiails, but it was no slave to them. The spirit of freedom in which the practice of Gothic had trained the builders prevented this. The French genius in art used the materials of Italian architecture with a freedom and power of invention which formed out of them an original style. They did not restrict themselves to the five orthodox orders, with their fixed proportions and stereotyped capitals, which indeed was an idea of later growth, hardly formulated at this time even in Italy. They invented new forms of capitals almost 248 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. as various as Gothic ones, and altered the proportions of the columns and cornices to suit their buildings. To do this well, implied genius and originality in art. A claim for freedom, and doing as we like in architecture is justifiable only when we have a power to originate beauty, and taste to restrain us in its exercise. Other- wise, it is better to be content to copy. French Renaissance long retained the Gothic feature of di- viding the windows by stone mullions and transoms, along with the Classic feature of pilasters flanking their sides. The house so called of Agnes Sorel, and the Episcopal Palace at Sens (of i} which drawings are oe aT numerous),' as also the | little house at Orleans (fig. 78), illustrate this treatment. : Fig. 18. HOUSE WITH SHOP AT ORLEANS. This house with its shop at Orleans which I have put into perspective from Sauvageot’s drawing, is a fair specimen of the fully developed Re- naissance of Francis I. Gothic detail has disappeared ; there is a reminiscence of it only in the form of the AUPE Ds S25 = = = = = SS iA * See Fergusson, vol, iii. pp. 196, 197. THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE. 249 windows with their mullions and transoms, and in the slender shafts supporting the arches of the door-ways, though the arch mouldings are Classic. But the spirit of the design is Gothic. It has the effect of decoration spread over the surface rather than the opposition of solid and void which is the principle of Classic. Instead of void being placed over void, and solid over solid, which is an essential rule of Classic, the two upper stories are differently centred from the lower, but this suggests no idea of weakness. As in Gothic architecture the upper stories spring from the lower one, rather than rest on it. The pilasters spring from corbels; their weight is not carried down to the ground, as it would be in true Classic. The design is Gothic also in its irregularity and freedom, the windows are of any size, and placed not symmetrically, but in whatever position they are wanted. Symmetry is thought of, but it is not paramount. For the sake of it the large arch of the shop is drawn partly over the opening and partly over the solid wall at the corner, so as to bring it under the centre of the larger window, which is treated as one of the centres of the front, with two pilasters on each side of it. In all this there is more of Gothic than of Classic motive; a pleasing confusion—it would be too much to call mystery—which makes us feel there 1s more in the design than we see at first sight, and makes this building, though an unimportant one, a good example of the principle of the Renaissance—the Gothic spirit revealing itself in Classic forms. The front of the Church of Saint-Etienne du Mont beside the Panthéon at Paris (fig. 23, p. 66) exhibits another and a later development of French Renaissance. I have already referred to it as a typical example of the union in Re- naissance architecture of the Gothic spirit with Classic details. The front seems to have been added to the already existing church which shows itself through the traceried windows. 250 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. The church, said to have been begun in 1537, is in the interior one of the latest productions of Gothic. Though worked out with Classic mouldings and ornament, it illustrates Gothic lightness and. aspiration better than many Gothic buildings. I have chosen this front for illustration, as exhibiting the characteristics of the later Renaissance. There is no attempt at restraint or refinement of line in the design, but there is an effect of sumptuous picturesqueness, with an air of gaiety and aspiration, which may well atone for the incongruities for which Mr. Fergusson condemns it. Some of the buildings at the commencement of the reign of Francis I. (a.p. 1513) are without trace of Classic ad- mixture. Before the end of his reign in 1547, palaces such as Fontainebleau and the chateau of Madrid in the Bois de Boulogne, now destroyed, had been built, and the Louvre had been commenced, without a trace of Gothic in the details. For other important buildings, although Italian artists were employed to give designs, the native artists and workmen seem to have taken a good deal of their own way in carrying them out; while in less important buildings, of which they were the designers, they merely added to their old Gothic designs some touches of the new manner which they had learned from the Italian masters. They did this with such thorough knowledge of practical requirements and feeling for art as to create a new and beautiful variety of style, more interesting and more pro- fitable for study than the correct Classic. In the next century Roman infallibility in the province of architecture had crushed out national characteristics and individual freedom. But though this authority was formally acknowledged, it was not obeyed. Gallic liberties were asserted and maintained in architecture as in religion. It is not within the scope of this book to give a com- THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE. 251 plete history of French Renaissance architecture, or to refer, except briefly, to the forms which it assumed in succeeding reigns. Any one interested in the subject will find information in the volume of Mr. Fergusson’s book on the Renaissance styles, especially in the woodcuts with which it is illustrated. I cannot, however, always agree with Mr. Fergusson in his criticisms on these styles. The architecture of the time of Henry II. (1547-59) had the purer Classic forms of the later style of his father, covered with rich and beautiful ornament. |= MAI WiBiaE sift — — s) i \ {i11 WEE eee Ql = yuna Wt | lB ‘ eS Sa — | THT TH HEE Tl an gs WAU SS = ANT! \ \ uy TREE eda A sy Ae C 7 (hide Ne WAHT! Hy VL] ee —— =e | i 1 if x “- | ' | LT I Bz j TTT | ST TLTLL Zs HAH if At ! = TEAL adn = STS AMT THEN I ! NW ' | aid HHI | Z = Renaneiee \ f \ \ ill i ne qin = , AWA WW TH! = =a = AGAMA fi | (|e = | ui Fi i RAWSON ¥ Er — = | 1 | | | 2 = eS ay H \; , ==\ i ih itl net | i's TAIN re Mt i ) eee A AG GUS SIAN i i! i | ip Fe ee \ ‘ NN AL NIATN UT ean | iy —— { AQHA A} h | cy Ss | ANH |!) 9) SAREE RSS | Wit il: Z BRS 2 \\ i i} “allt (Hal VAN! Se a = = = = —— = SS = ee STREET IN LANDSHUT, BAVARIA. sa aa FAN MI Hit} WY i i) RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES. 265 towards it, is unpractical and inconvenient. It necessitates a gutter between each: house, which can have no overflow except at the ends, and, if it leaks, leaks into the houses. If the chimneys are in the party-walls, which is often the most convenient position for them, they must rise from this gutter to the height of the ridge, with a risk of smoking, and expensive to build. There is danger besides, of fire spreading from one roof to another, when there is no solid wall between the houses rising higher than the roof. For these reasons the practice has been gradually given up. In the drawing of the Carolinen-Strasse, at Nuremberg (frontispiece), it will be seen that though some of the houses have their gables to the streets, in most of them the cornice is to the street, and the gable between the houses. An effect of as great or even greater picturesqueness is obtained by this means. It gives the expanse of roof broken up by little windows, characteristic of the Nuremberg houses, as well as smaller gables or dormer windows, toward the street. These were indispensable to a German house, for the stories in these great roofs were used as store-places, and for the periodical washings of the family. The great stores of linen which each house possessed made the dis- comfort of a family washing necessary only about every three months. The same custom still prevails in Germany and Holland; the extensive floor space of the stories of the roof was used for washing, mangling, and drying; and to facilitate the last process, the little windows in the roofs were opened so as to create a through draft. Hence a derrick projecting over the street was necessary in each house, as may be seen in the drawing, for hoisting up or down the linen as well as the stores. Some part of the space was usually devoted to keep these. Other portions were occasionally used for drying apples, the produce of the family orchards. Nuremberg, above all other cities, gives one the impression 266 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. of a: city of the Middle Ages; yet this impression is pro- duced by houses Classic in date and: details. A Gothic city existed before the present one, as the two great Gothic churches testify, and the view in the Nuremberg Chronicle, in the year 1498. The Nassauer House (fig. 50, p. 177), and some others remain. But most of the streets have been rebuilt in Classic style, and so handsomely and conveniently that nothing would be gained by rebuilding it in the present day. Here, as elsewhere in the early Renaissance, the essential spirit of the style is Gothic. It has Gothic freedom and pictur- esqueness and aspiration, aN though doubtless the good eS burghers thought they were carrying out true Classic. The words were Classic, but they were embodied in the old language. The builders were trained to familiarity with them, and used them as their natural mode of expression, but they had not changed their nature ; ee 1 A ON ee eee the Classic words express | Gothic feelings and ideas. It is this unconsciousness, this perfect naturalness, which gives the charm to these streets. They are the natural out- come of the circumstances, and are entitled to be considered examples of a true style. (Frontispiece.) There isa character and picturesqueness about the Nurem- berg houses which gives a charm even to those in the poorer districts, like those in my sketch beside the river, fig. 83. yl All | oe vl i | eas ‘il enn In her Renaissance style Germany retained another characteristic of her Gothic architecture, the projecting bow windows, not rising from the ground, but hung out from RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES. 267 the upper stories; which, as the illustrations show, occur so frequently in the houses. Almost every house in Nurem- berg has one such, usually attached to the principal dwelling- room of the house. That at St. Sebald’s Parsonage, opposite the church, is a beautiful Gothic example, well known from photographs and drawings. There is a pretty little one on the centre of the Nassauer House (fig. 50, page 177), facing St. Lawrence Church. In the Renaissance houses of Nurein- berg they were usually square in plan, with a curved Classic pediment over them. This sketch from Freiburg in Breis- eA gau (fig. 84), is a late Gothic 5; fii example of a square projecting =} }/Mi oriel. Sometimes they were continued through the several iy stories, as in the house to the ‘ right in the drawing of the x Carolinen - Strasse, (Frontis- = piece, and the house at Wiirz- ‘, =| @ burg, illustrated in page 273). But the form of projecting windows, peculiarly charac- teristic of German house architecture, is the Erker or Fig 8 ORIEL AT FREIBURG IN BREISGAU. Eckjenster, a lantern or turret, pierced with windows all round, projecting from the corner of the house. The idea doubtless sprang from the angle turrets of Gothic fortifica- tion, of which the little house at Boppart (fig. 49, p. 176), is an illustration. The idea is fully developed inthe beautiful example of late Gothic date at Augsburg (fig. 48, page 169). On the corner of the Bishop’s house at Wirzburg (fig. 86) there is a beautiful and picturesque example, dating from the last quarter of the sixteenth ventury. It has carved on A/ aa fe ar ’ Spd Ht ~\ 7 ih YY /, ae (hel oa Ja fe (eA . —— 268 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. it the arms of Bishop of Julius who founded the university about 1590. It is Classic in the detail of the cornices, but Gothic in its picturesqueness as well as in the mullions and transoms dividing the windows. The other windows of the house have Gothic interpenetrating mouldings, even that over the pretty little Classic doorway witb its fluted Corinthian columns. The Classic architecture seems to have been employed on the parts intended to be specially beautiful and ornamental. Where use alone was aimed at, the familiar Gothic was thought good enough. The mas- sive arched doorway, on the flank of the Bishop's house, seems an alteration of the eighteenth century. The drawing of the house opposite the Cathedral at Augsburg (fig. 9, page 40), gives a later example of these corner turret win- i; dows. The ogee form of a the corbels supporting the ie turrets, as well as the — — flattened arches, seem to Fig. 85. INN AT KRIEGSHABEN, NEAR indicate that the building at ee dates from the eighteenth century. Sometimes the builders made projections at the ground-level, as the little inn at Kriegshaben near Augsburg (fig. 85) shows. In date and details it is late Classic, but there is a picturesqueness, | must even say dodginess, in the arrangement of the structure which ought to charm the heart of a modern Gothic architect, and to convince him that the characteristics, which he loves so much, are not peculiar to his favourite style. tal if These projections from the general wall surface of the houses give great interest and picturesqueness to the streets of Nuremberg and other German towns. They relieve the BIT Maia TE ROT | a wo) h ian ic i aad ee ——— UAITAATERTE NW Ai Nees pic i SHANK HN Witty i af } WUT Sy 7 fe MN al) | PA ll Was ras H | ' ‘igh ay yin Hit Fig. 86 BISHOP’S HOUSE, WURZBURG. RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES, 27] dull monotony, which is the chief characteristic of our modern towns, and they make the houses pleasanter to live in. Our modern building Acts forbid them, partly with a view to uniformity and regularity, which it seems their great object to encourage, partly because the encroachment they make on the street is supposed to be an evil, and partly perhaps because the framers of these Acts seem to have thought that the small amount of skill in building required for their construction was beyond what modern builders could with safety be allowed to attempt; for they are for- bidden by the London building Acts, even where the house is set back from the street and they do not project over the roadway. Another characteristic of the Renaissance architecture of Germany, which is also found in her Gothic, is the arrange- ment of the ground-floor in the houses, and the uses to which it was put. It was not generally used for living rooms or bed-rooms. As in Italy, people seem to have preferred to live not on|the ground, but one story at least above it. So the ground-floor was left to be utilised as best it might. Sometimes it was occupied as cellars, or for storing farm produce. When, as is still frequently the case In German towns, the merchant’s house was also his place of business. the ground-floor served as the magazine for storing and selling his goods. Sometimes it was un- appropriated, left open to the street as in the Neu-Miinsterhof at Wiirzburg (fig. 87), and provided with stone benches for public convenience ; or the front part of it, as at Miinster (ig. 81, page 261), appropriated as a covered arcade for foot passengers. The picturesque house in the same city (fig. 88, page 273) shows a characteristic feature of south German house arrangement in the great door, wide and high enough to admit a loaded waggon to the court behind, with the smaller door beside it for access to the house. Sometimes 272 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. almost the whole of this ground-floor was occupied witn a large hall provided with stone benches, generally open to the public, from the inner end’ of which ascended the great staircase to the house proper, which occupied the floor above. s LANE SRS x RSS a Los ‘ cS a Fig. 87. NEU-MUNSTERHOF, WURZBURG. A special characteristic of German house architecture, 1s the imperfect development, and small importance of the chimneys, as compared with those in French and English RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES. 273 houses, This arose from the use of close stoves instead of the great open fireplace, common in France and with us. This feature also is an inheritance from Gothic times, for stoves of Gothic date still exist in Germany. There is one such in the Castle of lLandshut, another in the Castle of Coburg, made of cast- iron, and a very splendid one in the Rathhaus at Ochsenfurth formed of mould- ed tiles coloured and olazed. Another feature of German house architecture is the frequency, especially in the northern pro- vinces, of houses wholly con- structed of wood. The house at Hildesheim, — of which I give an illustration, for which I am in- debted to the kindness of the Fig. 88. HOUSE AT WURZBURG. proprietors of ‘The Builder, isa notable example (fig. 90). It has, I believe, been destroyed by fire, but others similar still exist in that city and in other towns in the neighbour- dO Re © nS 274 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. hood. It was constructed entirely of chestnut—not like the usual post-and-pan houses of other parts of Germany, England, and northern France, of a wooden framework filled in with plaster panels—It dates probably from about the year 1620, and is similar in its construction and in the ornament of its carved panels to some houses in the Rue de la Grande Horloge at Rouen. But in the tendency the design shows to dwell on the gables and make the most of them, and in the imperfect development of its chimneys it is thoroughly Ger- man; the great gable is peculiarly German in character. Except as an ornamental feature, the second small gable round the corner has no raison détre. This house exhibits another feature, which so far as [am aware is not found in houses of the period in any other district. The upper windows, as will be observed, have sliding sashes. These unmullioned windows are so completely part of the design that it is improbable that they are an alteration of later e date, especially as sash windows are rio RaTHHAUS MaNNHerm, 10UNd in other houses a= in the same district. Sliding sash windows, which have now become a British institution and an important element of English comfort, came to us, like our broad dining tables, with Dutch William from Holland. But they seem to have been in use in north Germany before the Dutch adopted them. A feature of German architecture which strikes an Englishman at first as strange, are the bulbous protu- berances formed of copper which occasionally occur on the ‘ i] \ \ \t 5 Ds | 4M, ~W 7 fe 6 z= Sim I und WV 7 SS. SEuh DS By all > ot its SHAY (cl ‘e 1 @ GEN? i SS = SSS —_—=- + = = SS fe Fig. 90. WOODEN HOUSE AT HILDESHEIM. ORAS SE Tab YUeEL VAWASHU o ‘ ~ 1 & Kr - wre od i . ae nd 3 a x r ri i 4 4 4 5 Z - 5 : .s i ‘ ; RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES. 277 roofs. The tower of the Rathhaus at Mannheim (fig. 89) terminates in one of these ; the lower part of this roof, where the square gathers into the octagon, is of slate. The tower itself is late Classic, not unpicturesque. Much more marked examples are to be found; small spires blossoming into a string of them, like tulip bulbs stuck at intervals on a stick. They are not a peculiarly German feature: we all know the remarkable specimens on the Cathedral of Antwerp. They may not be correct architecture, probably they are not; but they are quaint and interesting and picturesque, and the green colour of the copper is always beautiful. It has been impossible within my limits, to trace the successive developments of the Renaissance style in each province of Germany. Those who wish to gain this know- ledge will find the information, if they can read German, in Wilhelm Liibke’s excellent work, ‘ Die Neuere Baukunst in Deutschland,’ published at Stuttgart in 1873, collected with true German thoroughness, and amply illustrated by excellent woodcuts. My aim has been merely to give some notion of the Renaissance style in Germany, and to show that here, as elsewhere, its peculiar development was influenced and determined by the native Gothic style of the country. ~The Renaissance architecture of Germany has not usually been considered to have great artistic merit, or much interest. Mr. Fergusson says of it (vol. ili. p. 336): “The Germans were not more successful in their attempts at Secular architecture during the period of the Renaissance, than in their Ecclesiastical buildings. The architect wanders in vain through the capitals of Germany in hopes of finding something either so original or so grand that it should dwell on the memory, even if it does not satisfy the rules of taste.” “Nothing (p. 341) can be more unsatisfactory or less interest- ing than the history of German architecture during the Renaissance period.” 278 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. This is partly true if domestic architecture has no interest except in palaces where vast sums are expended. I think, however, that architecture may be interesting and worthy of study even in small houses for middle class people. The German nobles were not generally fortunate in their palace building. In the seventeenth century in their palaces, as in their government and their manners, they attempted clumsy imitations of the glory and elegance of the Court of Versailles, alien from the best characteristics of the people. But Mr. Fergusson’s assertion (p. 841) that, “during the three centuries of the Renaissance period, the German nobles built no city palaces to be compared in any way with those which adorn every town in Italy, nor one single country residence that can match in grandeur the country seats that are found in every county in England,” can be refuted by a number of examples. Liibke’s book gives numerous examples of nobles’ castles, and especially of town houses, which in their own way may fairly ees sn with those of other countries. But the German race has never been remarkable for the display of the highest qualities of art, either in colour or in form. . Even her greatest painters cannot properly be called colourists, like the great Italians. Nor is their work re- markable for beauty of form; their merit lay rather in depth of feeling and an dae tone of truth and morality. The Roniesnes architecture, which the Germans got from Italy, lost in their hands its beauty of line and per fection of proportion ; nor did it, as in France, acquire a special grace and refinement of its own. Jt has a want of elegance, sometimes even an air of clumsiness. But it has a pictur- esqueness and variety, which make German towns more interesting than any others in Europe, and truth and common sense, which is always satisfactory. These old cess streets are certainly more interesting and beautiful than those which we are producing in our Fad RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES. 279 ‘modern towns, and yet they contain no marvels of art, such as we should be incapable of producing. I have attempted in a former chapter to give some of the reasons why we do not produce such streets. I have no intention of attempting to give an account and history of the Renaissance style in other countries of Europe, though in some of these, especially Belgium and the Low Countries, more artistic specimens of architecture are to be found than in Germany. Holland, though she produced a notable school of painters, seems to have expended little invention on domestic architecture. The houses are all of brick. The earlier ones have mullioned windows and simple stept gables; a type which prevails generally in the Low Countries. The later houses in Holland, as at Amster- dam, are all of one type, not unlike the older London red- brick houses, the idea of which seems to have been derived from them; but the variations in the Dutch houses though very slight, the life which the water and boats of the canals and the trees which line their sides give them, make the canals of Amsterdam much more interesting than London streets. The style of the interiors is a mild echo of that of Louis Quinze. They are roomy and the workmanship is excellent. In one I visited, the owner told me that the white paint of the drawing-room had not been renewed for a hundred years. Belgium, perhaps in consequence of the Celtic blood of the people, had more art; this was evident in Gothic times, and still more during the Renaissance. The deco- rations, especially of the houses and churches, such as the hammered brass-work, or Dinanderie, so called from the town of Dinan, where it was largely made; the stamped leather for covering walls, and the ornamental sculpture in marble, rival those of Italy, whose type they followed. 280 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. Italian influence was strong and direct. It is difficult of some ornamental work to say, at first sight, whether it is Italian or from the Low Countries. But native genius also gives itself free scope. In the carved wood pulpits of the great churches it revelled in a freedom which sometimes exceeded the bounds of taste and the ee of the material, In Renaissance architecture the Low Countries ndaea a variety of their own, more refined and imaginative than the German. The town hall of Antwerp, erected by Cor- nelius de Vriendt in 1581, is a charming building; the open loggia under the roof gives interest and grandeur by its shadow, and reminds one of the similar feature in Florentine palaces. To this building the town hall of Amsterdam is a melan-_ choly contrast. No expense is spared ; it is of gigantic size, and built of stone in a country where every stone had to be brought from a long distance; but the art to direct the ex- penditure was wanting. It is dull, heavy, and uninteresting. No fancy is displayed, and the proportions are bad. Am- sterdam was rich, but not artistic; she did not care for art, and did not know it when she saw it. She spent the money for brag, not for art, and got what she wanted. In this, she much resembles ourselves. We are anxious to be artistic, because it is the proper thing, and are, therefore, quite willing to spend money on it, but we do not quite know how. In Belgium the influence of its Spanish rulers gave greater sumptousness and magnificence to architecture and the decorative arts; for the Spaniards, in those days, had amongst them artists as great as any in Europe, and they had lordly tastes. Under Spanish influence and to the order of Spaniards the most splended stampt-leather, the richest metal work, the most magnificent stained Bliss were executed. The gr oup of houses in the Market Place, Br uieels (fig. 91), Fig. 91. HOUSKS IN THE MARKET PLACE, BRUSSELS. 5 Cen perae ee RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY AND. THE LOW COUNTRIES. 283 shows this Spanish influence. They exhibit, in a degree rarely attained, the qualities of richness and sumptuousness. There is a playfulness about them which is very charming. Every house has a character of its own. That built by some admiral, with its gable like the stern of his ship, is specially picturesque and interesting. Great artistic skill is needed, when houses are mere tall narrow strips like these, to give them any artistic effect. We give up the attempt and make our houses by the foot run, and cut them off in lengths as required. It was not always so with us, as we shall see in the next chapter. = oie 5 [oii a i. i nit ya ‘ha i i Nit ee Se) ED el Nh css te pert 4 ae nisi 1 —<——s Care Bs pes = — == Fig. 92, OLD HOUSE AT LUCERNE, 984 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. CHAPTER AIII. THE RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND. HE new architecture, in anything approaching the purity of the Italian style, took root m England as the accepted style for ordinary buildings later than in any of the countries I have already spoken of. The English are a conservative people. The native style was strong and vigorous, sensible and suited to do- mestic wants, understood by the builders and liked by the people. They were proud of its achievements in buildings like King’s College Chapel at Cambridge, and of the new magnificence which it had added to almost every church in the country, and they had no thought of such revolutionary change in their habits as the adoption of the new style would have involved. Till our own day, when the Great Exhi- bition of 1851 destroyed the last remnants of traditional art remaining in England, it survived still in some remote parts as the style of village tradesmen, for unimportant buildings such as cottages or barns. Yet there exist still in England pure examples of Classic art, dating from an earlier period than any such in Germany aac Aten Stank mend ' : Bye a ——— SS ET SSS Si ans $= =e — as I6 ees 9] —— Tat = = WY, TOT TTTT V py pe Yi THUMM OTTO Toga Ks = rani’ i TH TTT TT THOT (HTT HTT TCT HO ee aude L_SO2Y YY 2 J Se 1 PNW U NSS CF Zi =z tt | sal, ‘oe 2 = = Ee a = —————— WA ‘ll 4 th — oneal See ey Ch SS mamas ca)! ] = = = == : ee { SS = Lf Ory oy im ND =p wep MI oy AH ‘i Ht if aE | I Hi Palit | : | ih Mi YW} cl I) i ll BP Eee Se i ; ig { \ Wes H | ' aL | | LONGLEAT, WILTSHIRE, FROM AN OLD PRINT. Fig. 93. THE RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND. 287 or even in France. The tomb of Henry VII. in his chapel at Westminster, dating from the first years of his successor’s reign which began in 1509, is the work of the Italian Tor- rigiano, and bears no trace of English Gothic influence. In the Rolls Chapel, Chancery Lane, there is a monument by the same artist to Dr. John Young, Master. of the Rolls, who preceded Sir Thomas More in that office. The ornamental parts of the stained-glass windows of King’s College Chapel at Cambridge, are Classic in design, but these also are foreign importations, and had no influence on the general architecture. The fittings of the chapel, the altar-screen and stalls are also Classic; but the old tradition of English art was too strong for such small and isolated examples to make any impression on it. They remained mere foreign importations. By the quarrel between the King and the Pope in 1533, when Cranmer pronounced the divorce of the marriage between Henry and Catherine, Italian ideas in this as in other spheres were deprived in England, as in the Protestant parts of Germany, of the influence they would otherwise have had. The Classic style was first introduced into the architec- tural construction of buildings, apart from mere decorative adjuncts, in Elizabeth’s reign (1558-1603), in Longleat in Wiltshire; it is said, by John of Padua, between 1567 and 1537: The accompanying view of this house (fig. 93) I copied from an old print, for the purpose of showing the arrange- ment of the gardens, which are now destroyed. It does not accurately represent the present condition of the house. The square projecting bays are in reality wider and flatter than shown; their cornices are of pure Classic contour, without the corbels shown in the drawing, and the pilasters are broader and shorter in proportion. The aprons under the windows are different in form. The great door as it exists now is more purely Classic in character. It has only 288 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. one column on each side, a broken Italian pediment the full width of the door, with a shield in the centre; but this looks like a later alteration made when the terrace leading to it was destroyed to give space for a carriage-drive to the door, and the present great flight of steps made leading directly to it. In its essential features the building is late English Gothic, ornamented with a few Classic details, and so little impression had these made, and so thoroughly did the art of the country remain Gothic in principle that this drawing of a much later date Gothicises even its Classic features. To the influence of an Italian designer we probably owe the pilasters of the bays, with their entablature and cornice, which are designed in the actual building in excellent Classic proportions. In the spaces left between these are inserted, instead of the round arch of Classic architecture, English mullioned and transomed windows, obviously not due to the suggestion of an Italian artist, but to the English master mason of the period. This seems a scarcely adequate result for the employment of an artist specially brought from Italy. But in England as in France the Italian artists found a sphere for their art in the fittings and sculpture of the internal decorations. The external building was wisely left to the skill of the native workmen, who knew how to build to suit English habits and the English climate. . In the time of King James the authority of the Classic orders had become an accepted article of faith, and a part of the ordinary building style of the country. This was due in some degree to the influence of the new literature. The Classic orders were part of the new light which the Re- naissance brought to mankind. ‘The treatise of Vitruvius became the Bible of architecture. In it, and other books, and in buildings abroad, the new art was studied by many yentlemen, who doubtless tried, as country gentlemen some- THE RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND. 289 times try now, to get their workmen to carry out their ideas, == = ~~ — ore Fig 113. TOWN HALL, SOUTH SHIELDS. tural pretensions, and more in accordance with Classic rule. | | In the lower story we have the Classic arrangement of filling in the space formed by the Greek column and archi- trave with the Roman arch, which is certainly less logical than the simple arcade in the Shields building. In the upper story Gothic influence appears in the similar space THE RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND. 339 being filled in with a mullioned window. Over the entrance is a statue of Charles II., in whose reign the building was erected. The general treatment recalls the Arundel Museum at Oxford, and the buildings of the later style of Francis I. in France. | The gradual pro- gression towards greater simplicity in the English Re- naissance, which can be traced es- pecially in more ordinary buildings, was occasionally in- terrupted by the greater learning and better know- ledge of some archi- tect or even by the introduction of a foreign style. The screen of Montague House, the old British Mu- seum (fig. 115), is obviously French in its architecture. It Fig. 114. CUSTOM HOUSK, KING’S LYNN. occupied the site of the present high railing which dwarfs the height of its Grecian successor, and shuts it up inacage. This French character, shown specially in the tall slated roofs, is due to its architect having been a Frenchman, Peter Paget, of Marseilles. The fashion of these tall French roofs never Z 2 340 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. took root in England till lately, in consequence, I believe, of the Gothic revival. This English Renaissance style, to which accident hag given the name of Queen Anne, but which commenced before her reign, and continued long after it, became the characteristic style of London. The Great Fire destroyed old London with its “post and 99: pan” houses of SSS SS eee wood and_ plaster, whitewashed every three years ; which had in old. times given it the name of the White Town. That terrible lesson made peremptory the orders which had been frequently passed, but little observed, since the time of James I., that all houses should be of brick. Fig. 115. MONTAGUE HOUSE—THE OLD BRITISH MUSEUM. London es its eee mous growth, which began after the Restoration and has continued ever since, spread itself over the country, and absorbed outlying villages and towns. All the houses were built in the new style, which applied the rules of Classic, as far as they would conveniently go, to building in brick. This style continued in a process of natural change and growth till the time of George IV. At first it retained something of Gothic picturesqueness, as appears in the old street (fig. 116), now destroyed, which ——= == = = ——— eR cheat THE RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND. 341 led from the Strand to the river, near Waterloo Bridge. The narrow windows, at the corner of the house to the right, show a common feature of the style, due to the old Gothic ideas still influencing the builders, quite at variance with the Classic rule that all windows in a row should be equidistant and of equal size irrespective of the size of the apartment which they lit. Gradually the style became more correct. The windows were made uniform, not only in the same house, but in the Fig. 116. OLD STKEET IN LONDON. whole row. As the houses were built by the yard for sale, there was no reason for making one different from another. They lost their individuality, and the process was encouraged by the foolish building conditions of ground landlords, in- sisting that streets should be built uniform, according to an elevation which they furnished; so that in time the style was degraded to the dreary uniformity of Gower Street. Yet it is a true style, correct and in harmony, to the smallest particular. Every moulding is nght in its own ase HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. ean PDE Sm = ra Se fi ‘lili an Aol thes PRON LCN meee “iy nl i maLuTN Hai at NS (OU elo ome ih SS SSE | Fig. 11%, Fig. 118. DOORWAYS IN ESSEX STREET, STRAND. way, and tells its place and date in the gradual progress. It avoided bad taste. The highest compliment that could be paid to art or ornament in that age, was that it should be “chaste,” till architecture in fear of offending became absolutely dull and colourless. _ In its dullest examples there is character and even dignity, as in the tall wrought-iron railings, the delicate balconies, and especially the entrance doors, on which was con- centrated what little architectural ornament was expended on each house. | These doorways were different in every house, giving each house individuality, notwithstanding the general sameness of the street—and they were beautiful, sometimes even noble examples of design. In this respect these houses were better than those of our builders, which are ornamented all over—with stucco only, it is true—but 2 J THE RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND. 343 _ = = = ~ Mors ———_— OD). yh a xs EZ az = c i Ht WP y ti Hie mg ae it ( d Nos RN Siler = : \))) a TAS (ne o = wO———— = (l —_i_ 2 Ral Xi SS 1m Fay = 5 + ‘ f rast aT: a ‘ = We ~ ttl ll He SL inviiyagsr ! H AMES : _ a } | \ ' | = i it e Wy =I WM vi SRAM va ] RRA | |W he Besa JORGE V1 bi eS | t 3 ———¥ —s, > = TTT NLS = = ilk ENS SA we TT MN OAT SES Se aT ESSE Fig. 119. DOORWAY IN ESSEX STREET, STRAND. all in the row absolutely alike, so that a man knows his own house only by the number on the door. Of these doors I give three specimens, all from one little street, Cecil Street; Strand. They date from early in the eighteenth century, and very fairly illustrate the general character (figs. 117, 118, 119). Except in some few more magnificent examples, these doorways in the old houses are always made of wood. This is forbidden now, by the London Building Act ; some- what needlessly, I. think; the danger of their spreading fire not being obvious. The joiner work in the style, as in the internal fittings, is generally architectural, and more Classic than the brick and stone building. A universal feature in all these doors is the window above, lighting the passage, filled with delicate wooden tracery; always of playful and pretty design, and in many cases showing 344 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. marvellous examples of delicate wood-work. These windows are part of the architecture of the door, and essential to its beauty. By a rule of the Portman estate, before a new lease was granted by the ground landlord, the tenant was compelled to improve the property, by clearing out this tracery and substituting a single sheet of plate glags—a curious instance of stupid destructiveness. But the street architecture of the style was governed, to an extent Lord Bacon never meant, by his maxim that “houses are built to live in, not to look on.” With the exception of the doorways (and when the style was dying out in the beginning of the century, no trouble was taken even with them), the fronts were absolutely plain. In the interiors neither trouble nor expense is spared in the design and ornament. The ceilings are covered with delicately moulded plaster ornaments of leaves and sprays, and figures, specially designed for each room. The chimney-pieces are of marble inlaid in different colours, and excellently carved. The doors are of solid mahogany, the panel mouldings carved with egg and. tongue, the architraves and cappings painted white like the other wood-work of the room, which brings out the contour of the mouldings. Every room is designed and treated architecturally, with a panelled surbase or dado round it, which was seen through the open carved backs of the chairs, and with an enriched and well- proportioned frieze and cornice. People cared more for these things then than they do now. They gave them thought and care, and spent their money on them. It was easier then than now to get them well-designed and all in keeping; for the style was a living one, understood by every workman, who worked ag he had been trained, in harmony with his fellows. Some designers may have been better than others; acknowledged as masters of the style and setting new fashions, like the. Brothers Adam. But the eas is ae ae ssa THE RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND. 345 work which is not theirs is similar in style, and they could not have carried out the work they are credited with, all over the three kingdoms, so completely, unless the style had been everywhere familiar to the workmen. There are still in London many such interiors as I have described, some turned to base uses, in districts now unfashionable, while others, alas! have been improved by the modern builder, the surbase torn down, the delicate white marble chimney- piece replaced by one of enamelled slate, with a gigantic shelf and clumsy consoles; and a new cornice substituted, with coarse mouldings and vulgar ornament, for the old one which had been proportioned to the room. The Adam style of interior decoration has of late become fashionable again. It is chaste and elegant, but rather feeble. The same attenuated ornament is used in every position and in every material; for plaster cornices and ceilings, the mantle-pieces and fire-grates and the wood-work of doors and surbases. In the modern revival of the style the examples frequently miss one chief merit of the older work, the consistency with which it was carried out into every detail of ornament and furniture. During the Regency (1811-1819), there was a revival of street architecture; a part of that general awakening from eighteenth century dulness, which the French Revolution everywhere caused. By this time Greek architecture, which Stuart and Revett had discovered, had come to be under- stood, and was perceived to be different in principle and form from the Roman, with which, since the Renaissance, it had been supposed to be identical. It was seen to be more refined and beautiful ; that it rejected the use of the arch, and of brick as a building material, and used great stone lintels as the only means of spanning openings. People had become tired of the meanness to which brick architecture had degenerated, and the wilderness of grey stocks which London had become. But stone, especially of the dimensions 346 , HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. which Greek architecture required, was impossible in London houses; but the appearance of it could be got by stucco, for which hens is Roman and even Greek authority. The brightness of the new white buildings charmed every one ; and if, in looking at examples of them (such as the terraces round the Regent’s Park or on the cliffs of Brighton, which were among the first fruits of the movement), we can divest ourselves for the moment of our present ideas and forget that they are shams, we must admit that they exhibit something of the brightness, and even of the grandeur of Classic architecture. The builders, as usual, followed the fashion, and carried out the new style, in their rows of houses, in worse architecture and meaner design. Ground landlords, in letting their land for building, insisted on its adoption in the new streets, and for the next thir ty or forty years it was the common London style. One element of grandeur was sought for by assigning a row of houses as if it were one single great building, with a great pediment in the centre and symmetrical wings on each side flanked by propylea. This grand design was apportioned equally among the several houses, the division giving perhaps to one house two windows out of the wings, and another under a corner of the pediment. To prevent this absurdity being apparent, which would have spoiled the effect of the architecture, a clause was inserted in each lease that the owners should all use the same colour in painting their houses. But the workman was not always successful in matching the colour, or the houses being painted in different years the various degrees of dirtiness made the deception obvious. 7 This palatial style was carried out with better effect in the squares and crescents of Edinburgh, which were built about the same time. Greek architecture was studied there with enthusiasm, and reproduced with knowledge and in- vention in adapting it tomodern use. The splendid quarries THE RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND. 347 of Craigleith furnished blocks of stone large enough for the columns and lintels of an order occupying the height of two stories. The result, as in Moray Place, has nothing of the meanness which their material gives to the London examples, but there is an air of gloomy aristocratic grandeur which the present age has found depressing. Hven here a difference in the colour of the window-blinds exposed the deception of the design. Internally the requirements of the architecture were inconvenient, restricting the ap- parent number of stories, and making the windows of the upper floors look out on a gutter ae blank parapet wall in order to conceal them. In London, the brightness of the clean white-painted fronts of the new architecture was an improvement on the dinginess of the mean fronts of grey stock bricks, But the obligation on the owners to paint the outside of their houses once in every three years (for which there was precedent in a similar rule in old white-washed London) was found onerous.. The stucco or cement occasionally fell off in great flakes, and was expensive to repair. Of late the builders have got.over this difficulty, still keeping the houses white, which was supposed to be the only proper colour for architecture, by facing the walls with white bricks and limiting the stucco to the architrave mouldings round the windows, the cornices, the corners, and the Classic columns of the porticos. The ingenuity of man has never produced a form of architecture more dismal and contrary to common sense; for the bricks, white at first, soon become a dirty grey, like dirty linen; and the meaning of architraves and cornices in architecture is, that being the exposed parts, they should be of harder and better materials than the walls of the building, But stucco.is meaner than brick, and more easily chipped. The right arrangement of the materials would be to cover the walls with stucco, where it is useful to keep out the damp, and to make the corners 348 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. . and cornices of brick or stone. Some noble buildings, like the Palace of the Uffizzi, at Florence, have been designed on this principle. The Gothic revival of the last twenty years, though a whole generation of architects have been trained in it and practised it, has had no appreciable influence on street architecture. The builders would not risk building Gothic houses for sale, and, I think they were right. Artistic publicans have occasionally adopted it for public-houses ; but the result has not been gratifying to the lovers of the style. Within the last year or two there has been a revival of the “Queen Anne” style for town houses, and even for streets. The fashion seems to be spreading. It has received - some accession of force from the schools of the London School Board, planted in every district of London, having been mostly built in that style. For the architecture of a few of the earliest of these 1 am responsible, having found by the practical experience of a house I built for myself. in this manner, that the style adapts itself to every modern necessity and convenience. In that case I made no attempt to follow any particular style, the style grew naturally from using the ordinary materials and modes of work, and trying to give them character and interest. It is as pliable as Gothic, having inherited its freedom. Large windows or small, wide or narrow, with mullions or without them, arched or square-headed, with sliding sashes or hinged casements, with sash-bars or leaded glazing may be used in it as convenience or fancy dictates. | Though some of its forms are adapted for stone, it is properly a brick style, and therefore specially suited for London houses. Ground landlords have favoured it and encouraged its adoption, insisting that the new houses on their estates should be built in red brick. But red brick is by no means essential. Great masses of it, especially THE RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND. 349 when pointed with black mortar which gives the building a purple hue, almost hurt the eyes with their glare. Pleasant colour, I think, is got by dark brown stock bricks for the walls, and red bricks for the angles and cornices. The addition of black completes the harmony. But there is no need to use black bricks for the purpose, as the London atmosphere may be trusted to supply it. The black does not give an impression of dirt, for it is not, as Lord Palmerston defined dirt: ‘Matter in the wrong place,” and an effect of cleanness and brightness is given to the building by the white window frames and sash-bars, which can be re-painted at trifling cost, their whole surface being small. It is a first condition of good architecture that the build- ing should weather well, that the effects on it of the atmosphere it is placed in should improve rather than spoil it. It should be like a part of its natural surroundings. Weather-worn stones, moss and grey lichens give many an old building a beauty which it had not when first built, and which it loses when it is restored. Even in towns, where smoke kills the lichens, it is possible to design so that it shall improve the building. St. Paul’s is grander in the rich black of its base and the more than marble white- ness into which the weather has bleached it where it towers above the houses than it can have been when fresh and new. Polished granite or marble is soon dimmed and looks dirty. To keep them right they should be cleaned as often as the windows, which is impossible. I do not claim for this style that it is perfect, or that it expresses greatness and nobleness as some of the great styles of the world have done. It is rather simple and homely, “ not too great or good, For human nature’s daily food.” 350 IOUSE ARCHITECTURE. — CHAPTER XIV. THE RENAISSANCE IN SCOTLAND. JT was a remarkable series of historical accidents which made the northern portion of our island a separate country from England, and its people a separate nation with a different national character, different laws, and a different form of religion. This was not caused by difference of race. The differences. between Celts and Saxons within Scotland in race and character, and, what is even of more importance, in language, were far greater than those between the English and the Lowland Scots, who were in reality one people. The boundaries of the countries were long undefined. During the Heptarchy, the kingdom of Bernicia extended from the Humber to the Forth, and included Edinburgh. The Scottish crown in King Stephen’s time had nearly acquired Northumberland and Cumberland. After the Norman Conquest, many barons held land in both countries, and did fealty to both kings. By a strange fatality, the project common in these days of uniting the whole island under one crown by a royal marriage was never realised. THE RENAISSANCE IN SCOTLAND. 361 The wisdom of such a union was evident to statesmen, especially to one of the greatest, Edward I. But he took the wrong way to accomplish it; the title on his tomb is Malleus Scotorum ; his attacks on Scotland: and the centuries of war they gave rise to, were the chief instruments which welded by hard blows the different races of the country into one nation, The names of its mountains and rivers show that Scotland had at some early period been overspread, like England and other countries, by the wave of Celtic immigration which passed over EHurope. The ancient kingdom of Strath Clyde extended over Cumberland, and had relations, from com- munity of race and language, with Cornwall and Brittany. From another branch of the Celtic race, the Scots of Ireland, who conquered it about the sixth century, the country has its name. The name is now lost to its original land; but to Bede Scotland means Ireland. Duns Scotus was an Irishman. The Scots of Ireland established them- selves on the coast of Argyll, at the island fortress of Dun- staffnage, where, it is said, was first placed the stone seat on which the kings were crowned; afterwards removed, as they pushed their conquests, to Scone, and by Edward I. to Westminster, in token of the transferrence to England of the royal power. The invasion of the Saxons only partially overspread the country. They did not readily amalgamate with the Celts. The boundaries of the two races were often sharply defined ; neighbouring villages spoke different languages, and did not understand each other. In Nairn, till lately, English was spoken in one half and Gaelic in the other half of the town. In. Orkney and Sutherland—the southern land from Norway—the population was Norse, and on the west coast there were constant inroads of Norsemen. To these marked varieties of race, which are still apparent, 352 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. is due the marked diversity of Scotch character. The Saxon steadiness and perseverance fostered by the struggles against a rugged soil and hard climate, which has conquered good positions everywhere, shows itself at times in the matter-of-factness, which cannot understand a joke, but oftener in a perfervid intensity of character which unites Teuton depth and toughness with Celtic fire. Left to themselves, without the pressure of foreign attacks, these discordant elements of the population would Fig. 120. TILQUHILLIE CASTLE, ABERDEENSHIRE. have split asunder or been successively absorbed into the stronger kingdom of the south. That the attempts to subdue Scotland called out the resistance it did indicated a strength, even a grimness, which found expression in her religion, her art, and especially in her architecture. This severity of national character has generally been attributed to Calvinism and the Shorter Catechism. It would be truer to attribute the adoption of these to the national character, formed by the influence of a rugged land, by the struggles against a bleak climate, and grim THE RENAISSANCE IN SCOTLAND. 353 centuries of fighting for national existence, which forged light-hearted Celt and stolid Saxon into one stern nation. Scotch architecture gives the impression of grimness and severity which is usually credited to the character of the people. We see it in the solid windowless walls of this Fig. 121. COURTYARD OF HOUSE AT LINLITHGOW. old castle (fig. 120), and even the squalor of the back yard of a town slum (fig. 121) has a character and dignity which redeem it from vulgarity. Though they are full of windows, the walls like precipice cliffs of old Edinburgh houses—of which the sketch in fig. 130, p. 374, shows a fragment—somehow produce the same impression. They VOL. I. 2A 354 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. are not ugly like Manchester cotton-mills, though quite as plain and devoid of ornament. Arrange their buildings as they would, plain as a eotton-mill or elaborate in ornament, the walls unbroken masses of stone or riddled with windows, in lord’s castle or in back street, they all expressed the same national character. The form which the national Scotch style of architecture adopted was determined by political circumstances. The natural course would have been that the style should have spread over to Scotland from her richer and more civilised neighbours in the south, and for a time this was the case. The Norman style in the two countries is identical. The nave of Dunfermline Abbey is a copy of Durham Cathedral. The Norman castles in England and in Scotland are alike in plan and style. But the wars of England against both France and Scotland threw these two countries into an alliance, which would otherwise have been unnatural. The first evidence of a treaty between them is in 1326, twelve years after the battle of Bannockburn, but -friendly com- munications had been commenced by Wallace, and it was fondly believed that the “ancient league” had originated in the time of Charlemagne. Before the. time of Edward there are traces in the early Gothic architecture of Scotland of a sympathy with France rather than with England. In the groined roof of the crypt of Glasgow Cathedral, the filling-in of the vaulting is in the French, not in the English manner. A special peculiarity of Scotch architecture—the steps running up the sides of the gables, forming their sky line into a series of nicks called “crow steps,’ in Scotch ““corbie” steps—has probably a French origin. The name seems French. It is possible that Scotland may have in- vented this feature for herself, but I have seen an earlier instance of it in France than any I know in Scotland. In THE RENAISSANCE IN SCOTLAND. 855 France it was soon given up; French domestic architecture, as we have seen, abandoning gables and preferring high conical slated roofs. In Scotland it continued and became a feature of her Renaissance style. Almost all the drawings which I give of Scotch buildings illustrate this feature. (See the gable in fig. 128, p. 369, of the first court of Glasgow College.) The courses of stone are left square at the ends, forming a row of steps up the side of the gable instead of being cut to its slope. It 1s a feature which could only have been developed in a stone country, where stone in courses was used for the commonest buildings in which no refinement was attempted, and the gables were left ragged in their outline without the finish of a ‘“‘water-table,” as it is called, of large flat stones, covering the top of the wall to protect it from wet. Like many other peculiarities of architecture, springing at first from mere rude workmanship, it became a feature of the style carried out at times with expense and elaboration, as when a projecting moulding is worked on each stone following the sky line of the gable. In this form of stept gable each step is a single stone, the outside stone of a_ course, differing therein from the steps of German gables which are larger, each being a piece of wall covered in with a flat water-table. In French architecture, gables, as we have seen, were superseded by slated roofs. But in Scotland a strong preference was always shown for them. Even when (as in Tilquhillie Castle, fig. 120, p. 352) the angles are rounded for defence, they are corbelled out to the square at the top to allow their being roofed with a gable. The gables with eaves projected over the face of the wall, to defend them from the wet, a special characteristic of wooden construction, were almost unknown in Scot- land. The country was being perpetually harried and burnt, generally by the Scotch themselves, as a means pa ae 356 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. of defence. Bruce’s advice was, not to give battle to the English invaders, but to burn the country before them, so as to starve them out. The houses therefore were built of stones without lime, and a thatched roof, like highland cottages now, and burning them was little loss. The towers of the gentry, being built for defence, were. stronger, but they were constructed so that, when burnt, little harm was done, the floors, resting on corbels independent of the wall, being easily replaced, and the roofs being sometimes of solid stone, which would not burn. Kcclesiastical build- ings were considered sacred from such destruction, and though they were not always safe from the wild fury of the times, they were made as splendid as the poverty of the country could afford. In the later development of her Goths arohivedtaien Scotland, from the circumstances which determined her growth and existence as a nation, followed France rather than England. No great divergence is observable in the earlier varieties of Gothic. In all the northern countries of Kurope, including Norway even, as shown by Drond- heim Cathedral, the styles are similar, but as soon as the peculiarly national styles became formed, Scotch Gothic becomes Flamboyant like the French, ruder perhaps and less elegant, with more of strength and severity. | In both countries the high pointed vaulting was retained so long as the Gothic style lasted. In the shapes of the arch openings we find occasional examples of the flattened arch and depressed gable of the English Perpendicular, as was unavoidable from the proximity and occasional peace and friendship between the two countries; but they are ex- ceptions. The prevailing form of the pate is moderately steep, not so sharp as the tall slated roofs of France. The arch openings are usually sharp-pointed as in the con- temporary French style, and the tracery has the flowing lines of the #lamboyant, not the straight bars of the Perpendicular. THE RENAISSANCE IN SCOTLAND. SOT In Scotland, as in France, the east end of the churches was frequently terminated by an apse. Both in church and castle the style retained its medieval character of height and aspiration. For churches it was not subjected to the influence which in England flattened the roofs and arches. The castles, from the unsettled state of the country, could not become manor-houses, spread out over the ground, but continued lofty towers capable of defence. Late Scotch Gothic has a characteristic peculiar, I think, to itself in the frequent use of round arched open- ings, especially for doorways. Mr. Billings thinks this is a remaining trace of Norman. But that style had been abandoned centuries before, and revivals were not thought of in these days. It probably arose from the perception that, when the necessities of vaulting did not require a pointed arch, the semicircular form, especially for a door, was stronger and more suitable, more easily closed by bars, and avoided the high point hanging above the hinge. Another peculiarity of Scotch Gothic is the prevalence of square-headed windows without mullions, sometimes of fair width, without any attempt to disguise the straight lintel, as was usual in the Gothic of other countries, by cutting-on it an ornamental pointed arch. These square- lintelled windows are found in monastic buildings and also in churches, though naturally they are more common in the castles. Borthwick Castle (fig. 122, p. 358), about thirteen miles from Edinburgh, was built in accordance with a licence obtained from James I. in 1430. It is a Gothic building, the roof of the great hall is a pointed waggon vault, and the details of the interior are late Gothic in character. The openings are not pointed, but square-headed and without mullions, and where an arch is needed, it is round. In Scotland, as in other countries, the characteristics of her Gothic style were inherited by her Renaissance. Some 358 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE: of them were already steps in the direction of the forms of classic, and they tended to make its adoption easier. The mullions, which are nota classic feature, were only gradually got rid of in France and England, as the classic tyranny <= a= <>) = B | iN | Ned ! (ast A i ma i . SS a S\ SS Y SSS WS SSSESSASS SSaek Fig. 122. BORTHWICK CASTLE. became established and the styles lost something of their national character; but, as they were dispensed with in Scotch Gothic, there was no question of introducing them into her Renaissance. We find them occasionally, but they are not a characteristic of the style. The want of mullions in the style deprived it of the THE RENAISSANCE IN SCOTLAND. 359 effect of continuous surface characteristic of Gothic, especially of late English Gothic, in which wall was carried over win- dow by mullions and tracery, and these mullions and tracery again carried over the wall, so that the whole building wag one continuous surface. In Scotland, on the contrary, the windows are deeply recessed. The effect of the archi- tecture is obtained by their contrast with the walls, which is the principle of classic. This sketch (fig. 123), of an old house in Glasgow High Street, illustrates this treatment of the windows in the style, while at the same time the charming irregularity of their arrangement is thoroughly Gothic. The Renaissance in Scot- land, though we can trace in it many features of her Gothic style, was an importation from France of the Renaissance style of Francis I., after it had cast out Gothic features. Seotland had remained bar- vg. 123. OLD HOUSE IN GLASGOW barous longer than other parts Meant aioe of Europe, and when at last the new light of the Renais- sance reached her it came to her in French form. During the sixteenth century there was constant inter- course between the two countries, of which the marriage of James V. to the daughter of Francis I. and afterwards to Mary of Guise; the upbringing of Mary Queen of Scots in France, and her marriage to the Dauphin was as much consequence as cause. In other spheres than architecture, Scotland was indebted to France for her civilisation; she had not, like England, a 360 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. common law the growth of old rights and customs; this was prevented by the difference of race and language in her inhabitants, the Gaelic portion having their own tribal customs ; and by the barbarism consequent on the continual state of war with England, and the arbitrary power which this gave to the nobles as military leaders, who had too frequently the vices as well as the virtues of savages; so that the country was kept almost in a state of anarchy. When at length she got laws, the complete system of Roman civil law was adopted as in France. . In the Scotch language there are many traces of French influence, especially for articles of civilisation and luxury, -and for terms of building. I have heard a Scotch work- man call the clock-face in a steeple, the otlgeee evidently - from the French “ horloge.” , The Scotch “ Baronial” architecture, as it - called, resembles that of the Renaissance chateaux of France, and we are frequently told that such a noble built his castle in the French manner, or even employed a French architect. Newark Castle, on the Clyde, near Port Glasgow, is a fair example of the style. It dates probably from the end of the sixteenth or beginning of the seventeenth century, as the initials of the laird who held it at that time are intro- duced into its architecture. -The round pepper-box turrets with conical roofs are common features in French Renais- sance. In both styles there is the same semblance of fortification, useless against cannon or even against the war engines of medisval times, though capable of withstanding a sudden attack from a Tecan neighbour or a rising of the peasantry. The machicolations and the angle turrets have no openings at the bottom for throwing molten lead and missiles on assailants. The windows of the turrets are on the outer angle, not where they could enfilade the walls. It is a dwelling-house with large windows, unlike the medieval fortress. The lower part, being used for cellarage, THE RENAISSANCE IN SCOTLAND. 361 is a solid base with only a few small openings, which is a chief element in the character and dignity of the style; but this is as much from old habit and from a preference for upper rooms for living in, as for defence. Fig. 124. NEWARK CASTLE, ON THE CLYDE. The details of the building are classic, treated with considerable freedom, and are but a rude reminiscence of French work; but in its general character, in the pleasing irregularity of its windows, and in its effect of springing from the ground and expanding as it grows upwards, there are evident traces of the old Gothic influence, possibly 362 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. borrowed anew from the French Renaissance, though more probably a remaining tradition of the country. The castle, illustrated in fig. 125, shows small trace af French Renciten ee influence. It is eminently Scotch in character. The prominence of the perpendicular lines over the horizontal give it the growth and aspiration of Gothic. It. is not a fortress; the angle turrets are merely ornaments, a reminiscence or tradition which gives castellated dignity Fig, 125. SCOTCH CASTLE. to a dwelling-house. The style has features of its own, not Tne from the French Renaissance. It did ae adopt its tall pyramidal roofs, but retained stone gables and crow-steps, and it has a sternness and grandeur impressed on it by the country and.the race, very cifexeam from the grace and elegance of the French style. : It was during the seventeenth century that the eieauee number of the houses in the Scotch castellated style were built, the union of the crowns under James I. (1603) having at length given the country some repose and ft i iN th i i =e : i 1 f =e ie 1 ase | E 1 whet i Lb yh Qie Sa oe Pt i ii Ai ae 4 I Whi cal = Hi ‘Ail Eon ge | a || = } All) Wy | vi a \\ i iy fh 2 f « Maal } ‘uy i Mi : ML i] ni \4t ae Tea. Ae nsiee'' Wye = —= i = t Se SP = SS = SSS => Ss HN In wie ; arin wy 4 cd i be i ui OLD GLASGOW UNIVERSITY: NORTH SIDE OF INNER COURT. { TA (| iat UNH {i ae i) in ! 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