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THE
ARCHITECTVRAL
REVI E W
zA Magazine of Architecture & the Arts ofDefim.
EDITED BY MERVYN E. MACARTNEY.
Vol. XXVI. JULY- DEC. 1909.
LONDON
Vapcton cfTouse. Westminster.
INDEX TO VOLUME TWENTY SIX
ARTICLES AND NOTES.
References: (A) Article. (I A) Illustrated Article. (N) Note. (IN) Illustrated Note.
PAGE
“ Aesthetic Conversion, An ” (in) .. .. .. .. 18
Albert Diirer (n) . . .. .... .. .. .. 67
American Periodicals, Current (1 a) . . . . . . . . 75
Architects’ Specifications (n) .. .. .. .. .. 235
Architectural Competitions (n) .. .. .. .. .. 227
Architectural Education ; Containinga Paper by Mr. Charles
Francis Osborne, of the University of Pennsylvania . . 33
Architectural Refinements (n) .. .. .. .. .. 118
Architecture :
Current. See Current Architecture.
Texture in (n) .. .. .. .. .. .. 169
Bath Preservation Society, Old .. .. .. .. .. 17
Birmingham School of Architecture, The (n) .. .. 118
Black Lion Inn, Bridge Street, Hereford (in).. . . . . 174
Books (Reviews of) .. .. .. 102, 154, 205, 257, 303
Bridge, the English, Shrewsbury (1 n) .. .. .. .. 68
British Museum, Greek and Roman Casts at the (n) . . 123
Cambridge Colleges (ia), Maxwell H. H. Macartney.. .. 79
Casts at the British Museum, Greek and Roman (n) . . 123
Chapel, The Pyx (n) . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Charles I., Statue of, at Charing Cross (n) .. .. .. 120
Charles Follen McKim, 1847-1909 (1 a), Francis S. Swales.. 183 Church in Spain, A Visigothic (1 a), Manuel Gomez-Moreno
132, 192
Colleges, Cambridge (1 a), Maxwell H. H. Macartney .. 79
Committee for the Survey of the Memorials of Greater Lon¬ don, The (ia), Walter H. Godfrey 52, 101, 153, 204, 256, 312 Competitions, Architectural (n) . . . . . . . . . . 227
Competitions, The National, 1909 (n) .. .. .. .. 70
Completion of the Mall, The (n) .. .. .. .. 224
Current Architecture (Illustrated) :
Redcourt, Whitfield, Derbyshire (Paul Ogden, Archi¬ tect), 38; The Victoria and Albert Museum (Sir Aston Webb, R.A., C.B., Architect), 41, 98 ; Hammersmith Public Baths (J. Ernest Franck, Architect), 49 ; Addi¬ tions, Glasgow Central Station Hotel (James Miller, A.R.S.A., Architect), 86; Parish Church, Coldstream, Berwickshire (J. M. Dick Peddie, Architect), 92 ; Edin¬ burgh Life Assurance Buildings, Edinburgh (J. M. Dick Peddie, Architect), 94 ; Silverlands, Chertsey (Ronald P. Jones, Architect), 136; Alteration and Extension of Premises, Wigmore Street, London (Walter Cave, Archi¬ tect), 142; University of Birmingham (Sir Aston Webb, C.B., R.A., and E. Ingress Bell, Architects), 142 ; Coldi- cote, Warwickshire (E. Guy Dawber, Architect), 197-201; Natal Government Railways : Engineer-in-Chief's Offices, Maritzburg (H. J. Wellman, Architect), 203; The Canadian Bank of Commerce, Montreal (Frank Darling, Architect), 248; The Pump House, Seddlescombe, Sussex (Mervyn E. Macartney, Architect), 254; The Crematorium, Bradford (F. E. P. Edwards, Architect), 254 ; Interior Decoration, No. 14, Cockspur Street, S.W. (Arthur T. Bolton, Architect), 294 ; Bourne Corner, Farnham, Surrey (Niven, Wigglesworth, and Falkner, Architects), 297 ; House at Westcliff-on-Sea (W. J. Tapper, Architect), 298 ; Little Campden House, Ken¬ sington (John W. Simpson, Architect), 300-302.
Current Periodicals (American) (1 a) . . . . . . 73
Doric Style, The (n) . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Diirer, Albert (n) . . . . . , . . . . . . . . 67
Earthquake, Public Buildings in the Sicilian (1 a), Alfredo
Melani . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Ebberston Lodge, Yorkshire (1 a), Sydney D. Kitson .. 231
Education, Architectural ; Containing a Paper by Mr. Charles
Francis Osborne, of the University of Pennsylvania . . 33
English Bridge, Shrewsbury, The (1 n) . . .. .. .. 68
Evelyn's Plan for the Rebuilding of London, Town Planning
and (in) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Exhibition of the New English Art Club (n) . . . . . . 15
Exhibition, The National Loan (n) . . . . . . . . 174
Fine Arts, A Ministry of (n) . . . . . . . . . . 64
Forerunner of “ Workmen's Compensation,” A (n) .. .. 15
Frith, Mr. W. P., R.A. (n) . . .. .. .. .. 229
Giorgio Vasari, Some Account of the Life of (a) . . . . 244
Glasgow School of Architecture, The (n) .. .. .. 118
Golf Trophy (in) .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 172
Hospital, The Whitgift (n) .. .. .. .. .. 117
Imperial Mosques of Constantinople (1 a), Edwin F. Reynolds 21 Inn, Black Lion, Hereford (1 n) .. .. .. .. .. 174
Italy, Notes from (1 a), A. Romieux .. .. .. .. 125
Laying of the ■' Ghost,” The (n) . . .. .. .. .. 229
Lecce (i a), Martin Shaw Briggs .. .. .. .. 71
Lion Monument, The (n) . . .. .. .. .. .. 172
Liverpool and Town Planning (n) . . . . . . . . 170
PAGE
McKim, Charles Follen, 1847-1909 (1 a), Francis S. Swales.. 183 Mall, The Completion of the (n) .. .. .. .. 224
Memorial, The Rhodes, South Africa (1 n) .. .. .. 122
Memorials of Greater London, The Committee for the Sur¬ vey of the (1 a), Walter H. Godfrey. .52, 101, 153, 204, 256, 312 Memorials of Wren (1 a), Lawrence Weaver, F.S.A. .. 175
Ministry of Fine Arts, A (n) . . . . . . . . . . 64
Modern Sculpture, Some (1 n) .. .. .. .. .. 69
Monument, The Lion (n) . . .. .. .. .. .. 172
Mosques of Constantinople, Imperial (1 a), Edwin F. Reynolds 21 Museum, South Kensington (n) .. .. .. .. .. 19
National Competitions, 1909, The (n) .. .. .. .. 70
National Loan Exhibition, The (n) .. .. .. .. 174
New English Art Club, Exhibition of the (n) . . . . . . 15
Notes lrom Italy (1 a), A. Romieux .. .. .. .. 125
Notes of the Month :
Town Planning, and Evelyn’s Plan for the Rebuilding of London ( Illustrated ), 12; A Forerunner of “Work¬ men’s Compensation,” 15 ; Exhibition of the New English Art Club, 15; Old Bath Preservation Society,
17 ; Art in Everyday Life, 17 ; “ An Aesthetic Conver¬ sion ” (Illustrated), 18 ; South Kensington Museum. 19 ;
A Ministry of Fine Arts, 64 ; The Doric Style, 65 ; Albert ” Diirer, 67 ; English Bridge, Shrewsbury (Illustrated), 68 ; School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, 68 ; Some Modern Sculpture (Illustrated), 69 ; The National Competitions, 1909, 70; The Whitgift Hospital, 117 ; The Glasgow School of Architecture, 118; The Birming¬ ham School of Architecture, 118; Architectural Refine¬ ments, 118; Town Planning, 119 ; San Francisco, 119 ; Statue of Charles I. at Charing Cross, 120; Women, Architecture, and Unemployment, 121 ; Rhodes Memo¬ rial, South Africa (Illustrated), 122; Greek and Roman Casts at the British Museum, 123 ; St. Trophine at Arles, 169; Texture in Architecture, 169; Liverpool and Town Planning, 170 ; The Renaissance in Italy, 171 ; The Lion Monument, 172; Golf Trophy (Illustrated), 172 ; Black Lion Inn, Bridge Street, Hereford (Illus¬ trated), 174; The National Loan Exhibition, 174; The Pyx Chapel, 223 ; The Completion of the Mall, 224 ; Architects’ Specifications, 225 ; Architectural Competi¬ tions, 227 ; The Laying of the “ Ghost,” 229 ; Mr. W. P. Frith, R.A., 229; Mr. Ernest George's Presidential Ad¬ dress, 230 ; “The PracticalExemplar,” Second Series, 230.
Obituary; Mr. W. P. Frith, R.A. (n) .. .. .. .. 229
Old Bath Preservation Society (n) . . . . . . . . 17
Practical Exemplar of Architecture. See Illustrations.
“ Practical Exemplar,” Second Series (n) .. .. .. 230
Presidential Address, Mr. Ernest George’s (n) . . . . 230
Public Buildings in the Sicilian Earthquake (1 a), Alfredo
Melani .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 129
Pyx Chapel, The (n) .. .. .. .. .. .. 223
Refinements, Architectural (n) .. .. .. .. .. 118
Renaissance in Italy, The (n) .. .. .. .. .. 171
Rhodes Memorial, South Africa, The (in) . . . . . . 122
St. Trophine at Arles (n) . . .. .. .. .. .. 169
San Francisco (n) .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 119
Schools of Architecture :
University of Liverpool (n) . . .. .. .. .. 68
Glasgow, The (n) .. .. .. .. .. .. 118
Birmingham, The (n) .. .. .. .. .. 118
Sculpture, Some Modern (in).. . . . . . . . . 69
Some Account of the Life of Giorgio Vasari (a) . . . . 244
Some further Notes on the Old War Office (1 a), W. J. Loftie 286 South Kensington Museum . . . . . . . . . . 19
Specifications, Architects’ (n) .. .. .. .. .. 225
Statue of Charles I. at Charing Cross (n) . . . . . . 120
Survey of the Memorials of Greater London, The Committee
for the (1 a), Walter H. Godfrey . . 52, 101, 153, 204, 256, 312 Texture in Architecture (n) .. .. .. .. .. 169
Town Planning (1 n) .. .. .. .. .. 119
Town Planning, and Evelyn’s Plan for the Rebuilding of
London (1 n) .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 12
Town Planning, Liverpool and (n) .. .. .. .. 170
University of Liverpool, School of Architecture (n) . . . . 68
Vignola (1 a) . . . . . . . . . . • ■ • • 275
Visigothic Church in Spain, A (ia), Manuel Gomez-Moreno
132, 192
War Office, Some further Notes on the Old (1 a), W. J. Loftie 286 Whitgift Hospital, The (n) .. .. .. .. .. 117
“ Workmen's Compensation,” A Forerunner of (n) .. .. 15
Women, Architecture, and Unemployment (n) .. .. 121
Wren, Memorials of (1 a), Lawrence Weaver, F.S.A. .. 175
Yorkshire, Ebberston Lodge (1 a), Sydney D. Kitson. . .. 231
THE J. PAUL GETTY CENTER LIBRARY
Index .
in
ILLUSTRATIONS
Note— In the case of current work the name of the artist is given in parentheses after the name of the luilding.
American Architecture :
Current Periodicals: United States Court House and Post Office, Indianapolis, Indiana (Kellog, Rankin, and Crane, Architects, Philadelphia), 76, 77. Charles Follen McKim : Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, 184 ; Carnegie Branch Library, New York, 184; Interior of Library, New York University, New York, 185 ; Rhode Island State House, Providence, Rhode Island, 186, 187; Knickerbocker Trust Building, Broadway, New York, 188, 189 ; Free Christian Church, Andover, Mass., 189: Metropolitan Club, New York, 190; New Music Hall, Boston, Mass., 191 ; Tiffany House, New York, 191.
Bank Front, Euston Road (Professor Beresford Pite, Architect),
32-
Bank of Commerce, The Canadian, Montreal (Frank Darling, Architect), 249-251.
Bartolommeo Colleoni, 309.
Birmingham University (Sir Aston Webb, C.B., R.A., and E.
Ingress Bell, Architects), 147-152.
Black Lion Inn, Bridge Street, Hereford, measured and drawn by Herbert Skyrme, 173.
Bourne Corner, Farnham, Surrey (Niven, Wigglesworth, and Faikner, Architects), 297.
Bradford Crematorium, The (F. E. P. Edwards, Architect), 254, 255-
Brent House, Brentford, Detail of Frieze, Chimneypiece, 52. Bridge, The English, Shrewsbury, designed by John Gwynne. R.A., in 1774, 68.
Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences (McKim, Mead, and White, Architects), 184.
Cambridge Colleges : Fellows' Buildings at Christ’s College, 79 ; King’s College, 80 ; Magdalene College, Pepysian Library, 81 ; Trinity College Library, River Front, 82 ; Queens’ College, President’s House from the Garden, 83 ; Clare College, from King’s College Lawn, 83 ; Clare College Court, 84 ; Pembroke College New Court, 85.
Canadian Bank of Commerce, Montreal (Frank Darling, Archi¬ tect), 249-251.
Canonbury House, Islington, Ceiling, 256.
Carnegie Branch Library, New York (McKim, Mead, and White, Architects), 184.
Castle at Reggio, Old, 131.
Castle, Warkworth, 305.
Cathedral, Messina, after the Earthquake, 128,
Ceiling, Canonbury House, Islington, 256 ; Ceiling of the Board Room, Lloyd’s Registry, London (T. E. Collcutt, Architect, Paintings by Professor Moira), 228.
Christ’s College, Cambridge, Fellows’ Buildings, 79.
Churches :
Free Christian, Andover, Mass. (McKim, Mead, and White, Architects), 89; Parish, Coldstream, Berwickshire (J. M. Dick Peddie, Architect), 92, 93 ; St. Mark’s, Milverton, Leam¬ ington, 285; of SS. Nicolo e Cataldo, Lecce, Italy, drawn by Martin Shaw Briggs, 74 ; of the Benedettini, Lecce, Italy, drawn by Ralph Thorp, 72 ; of the Teatini, or S. Irene, Lecce, Italy, drawn by Ralph Thorp, 73.
Church in Spain, A Visigothic. See Visigothic.
Clare College, Cambridge, from King’s College Lawn, 83 ; the Court, 84.
Cloisters, Morden College, Blackheath, 204.
Club, Metropolitan, New York (McKim, Mead, and White, Architects), 190.
Coldicote, Warwickshire (E.Guy Dawber, Architect), 197-201. Colleges, Cambridge (see Cambridge).
Colonial Adam, A Detail in, 19.
Crematorium, Bradford (F. E. P. Edwards, Architect), 254, 255. Cross, Memorial (Crosland McClure, Sculptor), 69, 70.
Current Architecture :
Redcourt, Whitfield, Derbyshire (Paul Ogden, Architect), 38-40 ; The Victoria and Albert Museum (Sir Aston Webb, R.A., C.B., Architect), 41-48; Hammersmith Public Baths (f. Ernest Franck, Architect), 49-51; Additions, Glasgow Central Station Hotel (James Miller, A.R.S.A., Architect), 86-91 ; Parish Church, Coldstream, Berwickshire (J. M. Dick Peddie, Architect), 92-93; Edinburgh Life Assurance Build¬ ing, Edinburgh (J. M. Dick Peddie, Architect), 94-97 ; Altera¬ tions and Additions to Silverlands, Chertsey (Ronald P. Jones, Architect), 136-141 ; Alteration and Extension of Premises in Wigmore Street, London (Walter Cave, Architect), 143-146 ; Birmingham University (Sir Aston Webb, C.B., R.A., and E. Ingress Bell, Architects), 147-152 ; Coldicote, Warwickshire (E. Guy Dawber, Architect', 197-201 ; Natal Government Railways: Engineer-in-Chief’s Offices, Maritzburg (H. J. Wellman, Architect), 202, 203 ; The Canadian Bank of Com¬ merce, Montreal (Frank Darling, Architect), 249-251 ; The Pump House, Seddlescombe, Sussex (Mervyn E. Macartney, Architect), 252-254 ; The Bradford Crematorium (F. E. P. Edwards, Architect), 254, 255 ; Interior Decoration, No. 14, Cockspur Street, London (Arthur T. Bolton, Architect), 294- 296; Bourne Corner, Farnham, Surrey (Niven, Wiggles¬ worth, and Faikner, Architects), 297; House at Westcliff- on-Sea (Walter J. Tapper, Architect), 298, 299; Little Camp- den House, Kensington (John W. Simpson, Architect), 300-302
Derwent Hall, Derbyshire, 306.
Detail in Colonial Adam, A, 19.
Dome, St. Peter’s, Rome, 308.
Doorway to Chapel, Magdalen College, Oxford, West (from the Water-Colour Drawing by Leslie Wilkinson), 262.
Ebbersion Lodge, Yorkshire : Plans and Section, measured and drawn by James T. Pilling, 231; South Elevation, measured and drawn by James T. Pilling, 232 ; South Front, 233 ; North Elevation, measured and drawn by James T. Pilling, 234 ; View from the North, 235; General Block Plan, measured and drawn by James T. Pilling, 236; South and East Ele¬ vations (from Old Paintings), 237 ; View from the Loggia looking North (from Old Paintings), 238 ; Details of Inner and Outer Halls, measured and drawn by James T. Pilling, 239 ; Detail of the Parlour, 240 ; Details of the Panelling to the Parlour, measured and drawn by James T. Pilling, 241 ; Detail of Panelling to the Bedroom, measured and drawn by James T. Pilling, 242 ; View up the Dale, 243.
Edinburgh Life Assurance Building, Edinburgh (J. M. Dick Peddie, Architect), 94-97.
English Bridge, Shrewsbury, designed by John Gwynne, R.A., in 1774, 68.
Evelyn's Plan for the Rebuilding of London, 14.
Fawsley, Northamptonshire, 305.
Free Christian Church, Andover, Mass. (McKim, Mead, and White, Architects), 189.
Frieze, Detail of, Chimneypiece, Brent House, Brentford, 52.
Gate Lodge, Gonzaga Palace, Milan, 126.
Gate Pier and Part of Lindsey House, Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields, Lon¬ don, 312.
Glasgow Central Station Hotel, Additions (James Miller, A.R S.A., Architect), 86-91.
Golf Trophy (designed and modelled by James S. Maitland), 172.
Hall, Derwent, Derbyshire, 306 ; Kirby, Northants, 306.
Hammersmith Public Baths (J. Ernest Franck, Architect), 49-51.
Hotel, Additions to Glasgow Central Station (James Miller, A.R.S.A., Architect), 86-91.
House at Westcliff-on-Sea (Walter J. Tapper, Architect), 298, 299.
Inn, Black Lion, Hereford, measured and drawn by Herbert Skyrme, 173.
Institute of Arts and Sciences, Brooklyn (McKim, Mead, and White, Architects), 184.
Interior Decoration, No. 14, Cockspur Street, London (Arthur T. Bolton, Architect), 294-296.
Ironwork, Latimer House, Chiswick, 101.
King's College, Cambridge, 80.
Kirby Hall, Northants, 306.
Knickerbocker Trust Building, Broadway, New York (McKim, Mead, and White, Architects), 188, 189.
Latimer House, Chiswick, Ironwork, 101.
Lecce, Italy :
Triumphal Arch in Memory of the Emperor Charles V., drawn by. Martin Shaw Briggs, 54 ; Church of the Benedet¬ tini, drawn by Ralph Thorp, 72 ; Church of the Teatini, or S. Irene, drawn by Ralph Thorp, 73; Church of SS. Nicolo e Cataldo, drawn by Martin Shaw Briggs, 74.
Libraries :
Carnegie Branch, New York (McKim, Mead, and White, Architects), 184; New York University, New York, Interior (McKim, Mead, and White, Architects), 185 ; St. Mark’s, Venice (from a Water-Colour Drawing by Leslie .Wilkin¬ son), 2.
Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, Gate Pier and Part of Lindsey House, 312.
Little Campden House, Kensington (John W. Simpson, Architect), 300-302.
Lloyd's Registry, London, Ceiling of the Board Room (T. E. Collcutt, Architect, Paintings by Professor Moira), 228.
Lodge, Ebberston, Yorkshire. See Ebberston.
Magdalen College, Oxford, West Doorway to Chapel (from the Water-Colour Drawing by Leslie Wilkinson), 262.
Magdalene College, Cambridge, Pepysian Library, 81.
Marble Pedestal from the National Museum, Palermo (from a Water-Colour Drawing by J. M. W. Halley), 127.
Martin's Bank, Euston Road (Professor Beresford Pite, Archi¬ tect), 32.
Memorial Cross (Crosland McClure, Sculptor), 69, 70.
Memorial, Rhodes, South Africa (Baker and Masey, Architects), 122.
Memorials of Wren :
Portraits, 175, 183 ; Letter to his Father in Latin Verse, 176; Deaf and Dumb Alphabet, 177; The Weather Clock, 177; Letters, 178, 179; Noah’s Ark, 180; Sketch Elevation of the Mausoleum, 18; Goodchild’s Restoration based on the Parentalia, 181 ; Cabinet presented to Wren by Queen Anne, 182.
Messina :
Cathedral after the Earthquake, 128; S. Maria della Scala, 130; Old Castle, Reggio, 131.
Metropolitan Club, New Tork (McKim, Mead, and White, Archi¬ tects), 190.
Milan, Gate Lodge, The Gonzaga Palace, 126.
Morden College, Blackheath, The Cloisters, 204.
IV
Index
Morosini Palace, Venice, The, 123-125.
Mosques of Constantinople, Imperial :
Yeni Valideh, Perspective View, drawn by Edwin F. Reynolds, 20; Plan, 22; Longitudinal Section, 23; Elevation and Half Section, 24 ; Side Elevation, 25 ; Forecourt, 28 ; Fountains of Ablution, 31
Municipio and the Palazza della Ragione, Verona (from the Water-Colour Drawing by Leslie Wilkinson), 210.
Natal Government Railways, Engineer-in-Chief's Offices, Maritz- burg (H. J. Wellman, Architect), 202, 203.
New York :
Carnegie Branch Library (McKim, Mead, and White, Architects), 184; Knickerbocker Trust Building, Broadway (McKim, Mead, and White, Architects), 188, 189; Tiffany House (McKim, Mead, and White, Architects), 191 ; University, New York, Interior of Library (McKim, Mead, and White, Architects), 185.
Palace, The Morosini, Venice, 123-125.
Palais de Caprarola, General View, 283.
Paris :
Residence of M. Lucien Guitry, Detail, 225 ; Residence, Cours la Reine (Charles F. Mewes, Architect), 226.
Pedestal in various Marbles from the National Museum, Palermo (from a Water-Colour Drawing by J. M. W. Halley), 127.
Pembroke College New Court, 85.
Petit Casin de Caprarola, 281, 282.
Plan for the Rebuilding of London, Evelyn’s, 14.
Porch of St. Trophine, Arles, Provence (from a Water-Colour Drawing by Leslie Wilkinson), 158.
Practical Exemplar of Architecture :
XXXV : Doorway, King's Bench Walk, Temple, measured and drawn by Ernst V. West, 3-5 ; Almshouses at Audley End, measured and drawn by H. A. McQueen, 6, 7; Rood Screen, All Saints', Walsoken, measured and drawn by E. H. Bullock, 8, 9 ; Gate and Piers from the Close, Salisbury, measured and drawn by Ernst V. West, 10, n. XXXVI: Wrought-Iron Stair Rail, the Market House, Orta, Italy, measured and drawn by Francis Bacon, Junr., 55-57; Wrought- Iron Gate, Baveno, Italy, measured and drawn by Francis Bacon, Junr., 58, 59 ; Old Staircase, formerly at 28, Margaret Street, W., measured and drawn by Charles D. Carus Wilson, 60-63. XXXVII : Dutch Doorway, from the Normal School, Cape Town, measured and drawn by F. W. Robertson, 108, 109; Clare College, Cambridge, Stair in Passage, measured and drawn by R. L, Wall, in ; Doorway in the Close, Salis¬ bury, measured and drawn by Ernst V. West, 113; Garden Gate, Brampford Speke, near Exeter, measured and drawn by J. M. W. Halley, 114; Wrought-Iron Balcony, Orta, Italy, measured and drawn by Francis Bacon, Junr., 116. XXXVIII : Cranborne Manor, measured and drawn by H. A. McQueen, 160, 161 ; Argyll’s Lodging, Stirling, measured and drawn by Cyril Marchant, 164-167; Gate Pier, "The Priory,” Warwick, measured and drawn by Thomas E. Turner, 168. XXXIX : The Dean’s Door, St. Paul’s Cathedral, measured and drawn by R. L. Wall, 212, 213 ; Library Door, Bourdon House, London, measured and drawn by H. A. McQueen, 216 ; Fire¬ place in Bedroom on Second Floor, Bourdon House, London, measured and drawn by T. G Scott, 218; Doorways, Nos. 2 and 3, King's Bench Walk, London, measured and drawn by Ernst V. West, 220-222. XL: Doorway and Iron Railings, Judges' House, Salisbury, measured and drawn by J. M. W. Halley and H. A. McQueen, 264-267 ; Details of the Front Elevation, measured and drawn by J. M. W. Halley and H. A. McQueen, 268, 269; Porch at VVimborne, Dorset, mea¬ sured and drawn H. A. McQueen and E. V. West, 271 ; Details of Doorway and Ironwork, measured and drawn by H. A. McQueen and E. V. West, 272, 273.
Premises in Wigmore Street, London, Alteration and Extension of (Walter Cave, Architect), 143-146.
Pump House, Seddlescombe (Mervyn E. Macartney, Architect), 252-254.
Quadrangle, Whitgift Hospital, 154.
Queens’ College, Cambridge, President’s House from the Garden 83.
Redcourt, Whitfield, Derbyshire (Paul Ogden, Architect), 38-40.
Reggio, Old Castle, 131.
Residence, Cours la Reine, Paris (Charles F. Mewes, Architect), 226.
Residence of M. Lucien Guitry, Paris, Detail (Charles Mewes, Architect), 225.
Rhode Island State House, Providence, Rhode Island (McKim, Mead, and White, Architects), 186, 187.
Rhodes Memorial, South Africa (Baker and Masey, Architects), 122.
S. Maria della Scala, Messina, 130.
St. Mark's Church, Milverton, Leamington, 285.
St. Mark’s, Venice (from a Water-Colour Drawing by Leslie Wilkinson), 106.
St. Mark’s, Venice, The Library of (from a Water-Colour Drawing by Leslie Wilkinson), 2.
St. Peter’s, Rome, The Dome, 308.
St. Trophine, Arles, Provence, Porch of (from a Water-Colour Drawing by Leslie Wilkinson), 158.
Seddlescombe, The Pump House (Mervyn E. Macartney, Archi¬ tect), 252-254.
Silverlands, Chertsey, Alterations and Additions to (Ronald P. Jones, Architect), 136-141.
State House, Providence, Rhode Island (McKim, Mead, and White, Architects), 186, 187.
Tiffany House, New York (McKim, Mead, and White, Architects), 191-
Tower of the Municipio and the Palazza della Ragione, Verona (from the Water-Colour Drawing by Leslie Wilkinson), 210.
Trinity College Library, Cambridge, River Front, 82.
Triumphal Arch in Memory of the Emperor Charles V., Lecce, Italy (drawn by Martin Shaw Briggs), 54.
Trophy, Golf (designed and modelled by James S. Maitland), 172.
United States Court House and Post Office, Indianapolis, Indiana (Kellog, Rankin, and Crane, Architects, Philadelphia), 76, 77.
Venice, St. Mark’s (from a Water-Colour Drawing by Leslie Wilkinson), 106.
Victoria and Albert Museum, The (Sir Aston Webb, R.A., C.B., Architect), 41-48, 98-100.
Vignola :
Villa Papa Giulio, The Loggia, 274; The Wall Arcade, 275, 276; Details, 277,278; The Fountain Court, 279; Details, 280 ; Petit Casin de Caprarola from the Garden Side, 281 ; General View, 282; General View of the Palais de Caprarola, 283.
Villa Papa Giulio, Rome, 274-280.
Visigothic Church in Spain, A: San Pedro de la Nave, Longitudinal Section, 132; Plan, 133; The Transept, 134; Decoration of the Central Arch and Capilla Mayor, Capitals in the Tran¬ sept, 135 ; Interior View of San Pedro de la Nave, 192 ; Cross Section and Longitudinal Section, 193 ; South Side, 194 ; Details of Ornaments and Inscriptions, 195 ; Church of Santa Comba (Orense), 196.
Warkworth Castle, 305.
War Office, London, The Old: Ante-room, 287; The Committee Room, 288; The Permanent Secretary's Room, 289; The Oval Staircase Hall, 290, 291 ; The former Army Council Room, 292 ; The Door of Gainsborough’s Studio, 293.
Whitgift Hospital, Quadrangle, 154.
Wren, Memorials of. See Memorials.
Yeni Valideh Mosque, Constantinople, 20, 31.
|
ARTISTS, |
AUTHORS, CONTRIBUTORS. Etc. |
||||
|
PAGE |
PAGE |
PAGE |
|||
|
Bacon, Francis, Junr. .. |
56. 57. 59. n6 |
Loftie, W. J . |
.. 286 |
Robertson, F. W. |
108, icg |
|
Baker and Masey |
122 |
Macartney, Maxwell H. H. .. |
79 |
Romieux, A. |
.. 124 |
|
Bolton, Arthur T. |
294-296 |
Macartney. Mervyn E. |
252-254 |
Scott, T. G. |
.. 218 |
|
Briggs, Martin Shaw .. 54, 71, 74, 121, 223 |
McCluer, Crosland ’ . . |
. .69, 70 |
Simpson, John W. |
300-302 |
|
|
Bullock, E. H. . . |
9 |
McKim, Mead, and White |
184-191 |
Skyrme, Herbert |
•• 173 |
|
Cave, Walter |
143-146 |
McQueen, H. A. 7, 160, 161, 216, |
265, 267- |
Spencer, Edward |
.. 142 |
|
Collcutt, T. E. . . |
. . . . 228 |
269, 271-273 |
Swales, Francis S. |
■ ■ 183 |
|
|
Darling, Frank |
249-251 |
Maitland, James S. |
172 |
Tapper, Walter J. |
298, 299 |
|
Dawber, E. Guy |
197-201 |
Marchant, Cyril |
164-167 |
Thorp, Ralph |
72. 73 |
|
Edwards, F. E P. |
254. 255 |
Melani, Alfredo |
• • 131 |
Turner, Thomas E. |
. . 168 |
|
Evelyn, John |
i4 |
Mewes, Charles F. |
225, 226 |
Wall, R. L . |
hi, 212, 213 |
|
Franck. J. Ernest |
50, 51 |
Miller, James, A. R.S. A. |
86-91 |
Watts, G. F. |
122 |
|
Godfrey, Walter H. 52, |
101 , 153, 204, 256, |
Moira, Professor |
. . 228 |
Weaver, Laurence, F.S.A. |
• • i75 |
|
312 |
Niven, Wigglesworth, and Falkner.. 297 |
Webb, Sir Aston, C.B., R.A |
, 41-48, 98- |
||
|
Gomez-Moreno, Manuel |
.. 132,192 |
Ogden, Paul |
38-40 |
100, 147-152 |
|
|
Gwynne, John, R A. |
68 |
Osborne, Charles Francis |
34 |
Wellman, H. J. |
202, 203 |
|
Halley, J. M. W. 114, 127 |
, 214, 265, 267-269 |
Peddie, J. M. Dick |
92-97 |
West, Ernst V., 4, 5, 11, 113, |
220-222, 27I- |
|
Jones, Inigo |
• • H9 |
Pilling, James T. 231, 232, 234, |
236, 239, |
273 |
|
|
Jones, Ronald P. |
136-141 |
241, 242 |
Wilkinson, Leslie ..2, 106 |
158, 210, 262 |
|
|
Kellogg, Rankin, and Crane . . . .76, 77 |
Pite, Professor Beresford |
32 |
Wilson, D. Carus |
61-63 |
|
|
Kitson, Sydney D. |
.. 231 |
Reynolds, Edwin F. . . |
21 |
Wren, Sir Christopher |
• • 3-5 |
Eyre & Spottiswoode, Ltd., His Majesty's Printers, Downs Park Road, Hackney, London, N.E.
THE ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW, JULY, I909. VOLUME XXVI. NO. 152.
From a Water colour Drawing by Leslie Wilkinson [Arthur Cates prize , 1909).
The Practical Exemplar of Architectui
XXXV.
NO. 5, KING’S BENCH WALK, TEMPLE. SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN, ARCHITECT. VOL. XXVI. — A 2
4 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXV.
NO. 5, king’s bench walk, temple.
BUILT OP GAUGED BRICKWORK. CAPITALS AND BASES OF STONE.
SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN, ARCHITECT. MEASURED AND DRAWN BY ERNST V. WEST.
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXV.
NO. 5, KING’S BENCH WALK, TEMPLE.
BUILT OF GAUGED BRICKWORK. CAPITALS AND BASES OF STONE.
SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN, ARCHITECT. MEASURED AND DRAWN BY ERNST V. WEST.
6 Pile Practical Exemplar of Architecture . — XXX J/
VIEW OF FRONT OF ALMSHOUSES. VIEW OF FRONT OF ALMSHOUSES.
ALMSHOVSES . avdley end .
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture . — XXXV , 7
MEASURED AND DRAWN BY H. A. McQUEEN.
ALL SAINTS’, WALSOKEN, NORFOLK.
INTERIOR, LOOKING EAST. THE SCREEN, LOOKING EAST.
Photos : E. H. Bullock.
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXV. 9
« S
SC
W0©u
9^©1
Kl P ££ £
MEASURED AND DRAWN BY E, H. BULLOCK,
io The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXV.
GATE AND PIERS FROM THE CLOSE, SALISBURY.
HE Close at Salisbury is singu¬ larly rich in Georgian work, and gate piers with wrought- iron gates of this period are numerous.
The ironwork of the two gates published in the Prac¬ tical Exemplar XXVIII and XXIX is very similar, although the latter is more simple in design, and is without the light and delicate lamp-carrier that is so pleasant a feature of the former. Scroll panels on each side of the gate, a trifling ornamental cresting, and, for the rest, straight bars, make the design, and fine smithwork gives an added charm. Somewhat similar, though on a larger scale, is the gate XXXI. A fine rail extending for some distance
on each side is composed of plain bars, with scroll panels at intervals, giving the gate import¬ ance. This gate is wider than the others, and the fanciful cresting is not attached to it. The gate illustrated this month is much more severe in treatment ; it is also much larger, and opens in two leaves. All this ironwork is extremely simple. There is no elaborate beaten leaf-work, and all the effect is got by nice distribution of straight bars and simple scrollwork. In their finish there is some diversity. Sometimes the scrolls finish in a little ring, sometimes in a solid round, which occasionally is beaten fiat like a coin, or, more rarely, is worked out like a ram’s horn. The piers to such gates show some variety of design and detail. In Salisbury a common feature is the ornamentation of their faces by sunk panels, and
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXV.
i i
MEASURED AND DRAWN BY ERNST V. WEST.
12 The Practical Exemplar op Architecture. — XXXV.
for a bed mould to the cornice, a coved moulding. Coigns in brick and stone are another kind of decoration, and the finial may take the form of ball or pineapple or lamp. These various finishings are all exemplified in the gates already published. The steps to the gate with the long wings is an extremely interesting piece of design, also the fine walling of brick and Hint with stone copings.
A fire in the Temple gave Wren in 1678 an opportunity to display his hand in a quiet way of design. Several fine doorways in King’s Bench Walk are some of the results. Nothing could be simpler than these quiet brick buildings, with no more ornament than that on the entrances. Built of gauged brickwork, a material of which Wren was fond, they show considerable diver¬ sity, and are all excellent examples of workman¬ ship and design. It will be readily understood that nice workmanship is required to build cor¬ nices and the various members of the entabla¬ tures of this material. But it has been done well, and the joints to-day are quite close; No. 5 is perhaps the best. The bases and capitals are of stone; the rest is of gauged brick¬ work.
The Almshouses at Audley End are a good example of brickwork of quiet design, suitable to its purpose. The houses are built round two courtyards, which are entered by arched gate¬ ways. 1 he brickwork of the windows, of the
small tnullions, and of the arched heads, is excel¬ lent, and so is that of the cornices. The gables and chimneys of this small building are excellent examples of brick design.
The Church of All Saints, Walsoken, is one of the most beautiful in the eastern counties. It belongs mainly to the Norman period. The mouldings of the arches between the nave and the aisles are enriched with zig-zag and fret ornaments, and the piers which carry them are alternately round and octagonal. Although the chancel arch is pointed, the same enrichments have been used, so that it is probably of much the same date. The tower is partly Early English and partly of succeed¬ ing styles. The screen, of the Perpendicular period, of which we publish drawings, was originally the chancel rood-screen, but it now stands at the east end of the south aisle, forming a chapel. On the north side of the chancel arch the rood stair yet remains. The detail and workmanship are both excellent. Remains of colour are still visible on the screen, a feature for which Norfolk work of this kind is noteworthy. A fine font, of the octa¬ gonal sacramental type, is shown in the general view of the church. The seven sacraments are carved on the sides, and the eighth side bears a prayer for the souls of the donors.
One of the entrance doors and the piscina are good examples of Norman work, and the clerestory is a characteristic Perpendicular example.
Notes of the Month.
Town Planning and Evelyn's Plan for the Rebuilding of London — AForerunner of “ Workmen s Compensation " — Exhibition of the New English Art Club— Old-Bath Preservation Society — Art in Everyday Life — “ An Aesthetic Conversion " — South Kensington Museum.
HESE days are not singular in the way of Town-plan¬ ning improvement, as a note in The Courier of Friday evening, September 2, 1825, indicates. We pub¬ lish the extract in full, as its purpose was to draw attention to an improvement round St. Paul’s which would have given that building a set¬ ting not unlike that shown on Evelyn’s plan.
On that plan the place is conceived as a vast amphitheatre, in the midst of which the Cathedral is set. The arrangement of the streets entering the amphitheatre is also not unlike that given in the following description : —
ST. PAUL’S.
{From a Morning Paper.)
Intended Improvement round St. Paul’s.
When the grand edifice which ennobles and adorns the British metropolis was first contemplated by its illustrious architect and his munificent patrons, a spacious area was in-
Notes of the Month .
tended to have surrounded it, but private interests and factious ■cabals prevented the accomplishment of so necessary an accompaniment to the first Protestant cathedral in the world.
It has been the con stant theme of complaint and lamen¬ tation, with both natives and foreigners, that the profound skill and exquisite taste of Sir Christopher Wren, “ the pride and honour of English Art,” should have been so thwarted, that the capo d'opere of modern ecclesiastical archi¬ tecture is crowded into an alley, and his entire design for the new city has not been adopted, which had it fortunately been, its streets would not have been, as they now are, lanes, and its lanes, alleys.
It is not, however, too late to commence the reformation : public spirit and private enterprise are rapidly improving our wealthy metropolis ; and most of the houses which were hurried up after the great fire are now in a state of consider¬ able deterioration, and capable of great improvement.
While other plans of magnitude, utility, and consequence are going on, the attention of the whole British nation is called to the improvement of the area and the streets which surround the Cathedral of St. Paul, the just boast of a public- spirited and liberal age.
Among the modern works of architecture which adorn the world, this magnificent edifice holds a distinguished place- second only to the splendid Basilica of St. Peter of Rome, it has obtained a great and deserved celebrity among persons of taste of every country.
A cultivation of the useful and decorative art of architecture has its political as well as its moral use ; for public buildings are the greatest and most durable ornaments of a country, and testify the greatness of its institutions. It establishes a nation, draws people and commerce, and makes the people love their country, which passion is the origin of all great actions in ■commonwealth.
To improve this just pride of the British metropolis, to accomplish as much of its great architect’s original intentions as is possible, consistent at the same time with profitable economy, is the aim of the present undertaking.
The proposed improvements consist in removing to a proper distance, and rebuilding to a regular plan, all the houses round the present churchyard, and constructing two or three neces¬ sary streets.
The leading feature in the new design is building a semi¬ circus at the west end of the edifice, divided by a handsome square, and a splendid new street at right angles with the meridian of the cathedral, which terminates nearly in the centre of Crescent Place, New Bridge Street. The semi-circus is then continued to the eastward on both sides of the Cathedral, where, joining with St. Paul’s Schools on the east, and to a grand opening near the south end of the new Post Office, it forms an amphitheatre of splendid shops and handsome houses, which it is proposed to name the Amphitheatre of St. Paul’s. Near to the centre of the amphitheatre, parallel to the meridian of the Cathedra], and opposite to the transepts, are two other wide and hand¬ some streets. That on the north crosses Paternoster Row, and terminates in Newgate Street, and that on the south a little below Thames Street, where it is proposed to build a new market, as midway between Hungerford Market and Billingsgate. This market will be appropriated to the sale of fish, poultry, fruit, vegetables, and other similar produce that comes down the river from the neighbourhood of Chelsea, Battersea, Fulham, Putney, Brentford, and Isleworth.
Another new street will be formed opposite to the Old Bailey by widening the passage into Water Lane, and carry¬ ing it obliquely into Earl Street. The importance of this street, leading as it will from Blackfriars Bridge to Smithfield Market, is great and obvious.
13
Among the leading advantages of this improvement to the public will be : widening all the approaches and avenues to and round the Cathedral ; making the north side passable for coaches as well as the south side ; and facilitating the approaches to and from the new Post Office, by which means the splendid Cathedral, which is so justly the boast of our metropolis, will be then thrown open to a proper vista. At the same time a due regard is paid both to profit and economy, as the new streets and amphitheatre will form the handsomest and best streets and sites for business in the city.
This improvement, as we all know, was never carried out. St. Paul’s is still crowded in on the north-east.
In some respects Evelyn’s plan is like Wren’s, and it seems to suggest that some common prin¬ ciples underlie both schemes, although they were drawn up independently. Wren’s plan was pre¬ ferred, and with reason, for it is more practicable, more sane, and perhaps more beautiful. Still, as before mentioned, the plans are somewhat similar : the crescent west of “the New Channel, with radiating and concentric streets ; the great ap¬ proaches to the Cathedral from the north-east and south-west — these are contained in both. Evelyn, however, has a third street bisecting these and running due east, opening out into squares and circuses of noble dimensions. In one of the former was to be the Lord Mayor’s house, and the latter was to be adorned with fountains. It terminated at St. Dunstan’s-in-the-East. The approach to London Bridge was treated some¬ what similarly by both. Evelyn’s streets debouch in a circus at the head of the crescent ; Wren’s radiate to the centre of the crescent itself.
The arrangement of the river front is dissimilar, and although the position of the Custom House is the same, the Royal Exchange is placed on the quay by Evelyn, and is not made the magnificent culmination of splendid vistas as it was by Wren.
From a consideration of these plans it is appa¬ rent that the picturesque holds no place in town planning. It is an accidental quality, and must not be striven after. Sanity and convenience alike demand wide and straight streets for the main thoroughfares, widening out at intervals into open spaces to entrap the sun and enlarge the pro¬ spect.
The principle underlying both plans is simpli¬ city. The great buildings are made centres from which to work; lesser public buildings are used to give a rhythm to streets of uniform height which might otherwise become monotonous ; churches are carefully placed, and natural features are not disregarded — witness the design for the river front. This is true civic planning, that aims at nobility of aspect as well as at utility, and that is autocratic enough to draw a straight line where it is necessary for grandeur, dignity, and use.
Notes of the Month
EVELYN’S PLAN FOR THE REBUILDING OF LONDON AFTER THE GREAT FIRE OF 1 666. Reproduced from an interleaved copy of the Parentalia
Notes of the Month.
HE Courier of Wednesday evening, November 9, 1825, publishes an extract from a scarce tract of the late Isaac Reed. It is headed “ St. Paul’s Cathedral,” and reads as follows : —
but it would not have been impossible to accom¬ plish this in the prescribed time.
After these were finished the only external work undertaken was the erection, some years later, of a balustrading round the building, contrary to Wren’s wishes.
* * * *
An account of monies received and voluntary gifts at the stair-foot going to the top of the church of St. Paul’s, from the 25th of March 1707, when the application of it to charitable uses commenced, to the 22nd of March 1710-1 1, when the Dean and Residentiaries put a stop to such a disposition of the said monies, and directed the monies arising at that and some other doors for the future to be divided among the minor canons, lay vicars, and vergers. Gross receipt within the said time, ,£339 i8j. 4</., which has been paid as follows : —
To several surgeons and apothecaries for the cure of men hurt and maimed in the works . .
To widows whose husbands were killed in the works ........
Putting out and clothing several apprentices . .
To men disabled in the works and past their labours, conveying some of them to the place of their nativity ......
Coroners and funeral charges of men killed in the works .......
£ s. d.
187 13 10
30 o o 75 0 o
35 o o 12 4 6
Z339 18 4
April 16, 1711.
(Signed) Richard Jennings, Master Carpenter.
Is this the record of an elementary forerunner of the “ Workmen’s Compensation Act ” ?
Unfortunately no information is given as to the treatment of the “ men hurt and maimed ” during the preceding thirty-odd years in which the cathe¬ dral was building. But in the years between March 1707 and 1710-11 the “surgeons and apothecaries” seem to have done very well by themselves, and the “widows” very badly.
Of course it may be that by 1711, when the collected moneys were diverted from their chari¬ table uses, all the high scaffolding had been removed, obviating the possibility of further accidents ; and, for the sake of our estimate of the characters of “the Dean and Residentiaries,” we hope that this was the case.
The dome had been covered with lead some time about 1708-9, and the last stone to the lanthorn was laid by Wren’s son in 1710. It was pretended that all the unfinished works about the cathedral would be completed in 1711, for the “standing salaries to any officers employed only for the carrying on and finishing the said building ” were to cease by the end of that year.
After the topmost stone of the lanthorn had been laid, there were still the ball and cross to be erected and various sculptures to be completed,
T may be that the Royal Academy exhibition possesses one or two pictures of surpassing merit; but the New English Art Club has just as many, and maintains besides a high level in the bulk of its work. The great differ¬ ence, however, is in the ideals of the two societies — while the former is content to follow a conventional track with eyes half shut, the other is alert, wide-eyed with surprise at the beauty of the universe, always serious, always trying to win to new goals. In short the latter exhibition is extremely interesting. It is no weariness to go round these pictures ; rather a great pleasure mingled with surprises. It is, perhaps, invidious to single out work for first notice, but it is necessary to make a beginning.
Mr. William Orpen’s portrait group is among the important ones. A fairly large canvas, it shows a group of men seated round a table. The compo¬ sition is fine, and the natural and unconstrained attitudes of the sitters full of art. A subtle atmosphere gives the whole arrangement unity, and its delicate silver tones and quiet colour make it an exquisite harmony in paint. The dead ptarmigan, by the same artist, is extremely fine. A man holds with his outstretched hand the dead bird. Again the main scheme is a quiet grey, enriched by the stronger colour of the man’s face and heightened by the white feathers of the ptarmigan. Strongly painted, the execution is carried to a successful finish.
Mr. Sargent usually exhibits some of his most vigorous work here. Really wonderful in exe¬ cution, dexterous and facile, his pictures are a continual surprise. But, while we are carried away by the dexterous technique, we always feel that the sense for exquisite colour is lacking, and, with this, the perception of subtle tone. “ The Black Brook,” “The Solitary,” “Far niente,” “ Under the Olives,” are amazing pictures, and the handling of the paint in them is little short of miraculous ; yet we miss the exhilaration in our blood which fine colour would cause. Of these, the first leaves the pleasantest impression — dark, mysterious waters are in deep shadow, with a girl sitting beside them, half in the shade and half in the light. In “ Far niente ” there is a wonderful
Notes of the Month.
1 6
passage of painting — a figure lying in the fore¬ ground with head away from the spectator. The face is covered with a veil, and the magic lies in the foreshortening and the rendering of flesh under a veil.
A place of honour has been given to Mr. Philip Connard for his “ May Morning,” which is hung over the mantelpiece in the large room. A lady in white is placing a vase with mimosa on a table dressed with a white cloth and with a few dishes on it. At the far end of the room two figures look out of a window. Perhaps without Monet this picture had never been ; yet it is no copy. The room is full of light, the white dress of the lady dazzling, a wine-glass on the table sparkling. Here is a distinct achievement. Great dexterity in the managing of the paint is displayed, but its great beauty is the painting of light and air.
Several of his other canvases — as “A Spanish Lady,” ‘‘An Dessert ” deal with similar subjects. In the latter a woman is sitting at a table set beside a window. The sun lights up the chintz curtains, illumines one side of the sitter, picks out spots here and there, and fills the room with light.
1 he Way down to the Sea,” by Mr. A. E. John, is a difficult picture to place. Curiously enough, a first impression reminded us of Michel¬ angelo’s “ The Deposition from the Cross,” in the National Gallery. In the main idea the picture is a great one, the figures composing it of noble mould, their pose statuesque and grand. Put beyond this what can we say? — that the painting rather repels us.
His portrait of Mr. William Nicholson is very original in conception, and an attempt has been made, with some measure of success, to get tonal quality; but again the painting is crude. Of the former picture many able studies are shown in the black-and-white room. One, a nude (No. 172), in pencil and charcoal, is most vigorous. The figure is repulsive, but it is so true, is the result of so keen an eye, that we cannot help admiring it. The other studies are draped, and are washed in water-colour.
“ Hunt the Thimble; or, the Little Cheat,” by Mr. Henry Tonks, is a charming little picture. As the name denotes, a group of figures are at play in a room scintillating with firelight. The effect is very good, and the colour is pleasant. The portrait of Mrs. Gamble by Mr. Ambrose McEvoy is striking, but it is rather spoilt by trifling accessories at the base of the dress which might with great advantage be entirely wiped out. Painting from the nude is unfortunately much neglected, and we should be glad to see more of it. “ Carlina,” by Mr. William Nicholson, is a
graceful painting, with fine drawing of the nude. But in colour it does not succeed, and the won¬ derful palpitating flesh has not been caught. Yet it has much to recommend it ; the svelte contours of the body are carefully rendered and with a good deal of vigour.
An exquisite cabinet picture is shown by Mr. F. H. S. Shepherd, “The Bach Player.” A man is seated playing at a piano. The arrangement of the picture, its quiet and lovely tones, give it a rare distinction.
Some fine landscapes are to be noticed. “ Under the Cliff',” by Mrs. Cheston, shows some figures at the base of a cliff. The whole arrangement is pitched in a high key, and the feeling of the open air has been well suggested.
This quality is characteristic of much of the landscape work exhibited. “ Nordenheath,” by Mr. John Everett; “Pasturage,” by Mr. Mark Fisher; “The River Wye near Chepstow,” by Mr. Wilson Steer, are all excellent in their several ways.
“A Woodland Pool,” by David Muirhead, is of a dramatic nature. An arched opening between trees shows the pool illuminated by the rays of the setting sun. His picture of “ The Church in the Fens ” is also good.
We should not like to leave the oil-paintings without mentioning some very good still-life studies. One of the best is called “ Iceland Poppies,” by Mrs. Clive Bell. In tone and colour it is perfect, and of the gentlest harmony.
Mr. Mark Fisher has a more robust painting of flowers, and Mr. Gerard Chowne has one or two pleasant studies.
In the water-colour room the same ability is manifest, the medium is understood, and here is a collecting of quite charming works. Mr. D. S. MacColl has two very dainty drawings. Those of Mr. P. Wilson Steer are more vigorous, and Mr. A. W. Rich has a number of fine studies of interesting bits of architecture.
“The Chalk Pit” and “Cloudy Weather,” by A. H. Fullwood, are two exquisite ex¬ amples of work in the daintiest medium in the world.
Some fine drawings are exhibited — among them a red chalk study of the nude by Mr. W. G. von Glen, and a study of the back view of a nude by Mr. Philip Connard. Mr. Frank Dodd shows several etchings, done in a fine manner of exe¬ cution.
An extremely interesting feature ot the exhibi¬ tion is a number of drawings by Mr. Max Beer- bohm. They are in his usual mocking vein, and are immensely clever. The title of one, “Trien¬ nial negotiations between Mr. Heinemann and Mr. Hall Caine,” renders comment superfluous.
i7
Notes oj the Month.
HE Old - Bath Preservation Society has issued two pam¬ phlets dealing with the pro¬ posed mutilation of Bath Street. This society was formed, in the first instance, with the object of preventing this occurrence ; but, to quote from the foreword to the pamphlets, it further contemplates :
1. Aiding the citizens to maintain their valu¬
able architectural heritage ;
2. Directing attention to places and objects
worthy to be preserved.
3. Fostering a feeling of pride in the historical,
literary, and artistic associations that cling
round the city.
It proposes to itself a wide field of action, and should prove a useful institution. Fortunately the day is past when only mediaeval architecture was considered worthy of protection, and recently a good deal of attention has been directed to the study of Renaissance architecture by the general public, the result of which seems to be a desire on their part to preserve it as far as possible. Isolated letters to the press have protested from time to time, but usually in vain, against various actsof vandalism. From want of organisation, how¬ ever, they have missed their full effect. The aim of this society is to remedy this defect, and by a powerful combination stop at least all unnecessary violence to work of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Bath. The society proposes further to publish from time to time “ pamphlets dealing with Bath, its architecture, historical associations, and objects of interest.”
It seems a curious anomaly if the Bath Corpo¬ ration, ostensibly acting for the citizens, should be able to proceed with an act of destruction con¬ demned by an influential body of residents, who are moreover powerfully supported from outside. But such seems to be the state of affairs that the Corporation cannot or will not withdraw from their position.
The first of these pamphlets contains a brief history of Bath Street and a full description of the Council Meeting of March 2, at which a deputa¬ tion, headed by the Rector of Bath, protested against the threatened mutilation of this street. From the general tone of the discussion at this meeting it was felt that future acts of vandalism would be probable, even if Bath Street were saved, and that it would be advisable to take further steps to prevent them. A provisional committee was instituted, with the Rev. Prebendary Boyd as President, and it was decided to hold a public meeting.
The matter was taken up in the leading London journals, and a unanimous opinion expressed against the proposed mutilation, and many sym¬ pathetic letters from influential sources were re¬ ceived by the Rev. A. S. Boyd.
At the public meeting held at the Assembly Rooms on Saturday, March 27, letters were read which had been received from some of the most distinguished men in architecture and art, and interesting speeches were made by Professor Beres- ford Pite and Mr. D. S. MacColl, of all of which the first pamphlet gives a full report. The second gives at length “ The official statement of the Bath Corporation, examined, criticised, and re¬ futed in every important particular.”
We wish the society every success, and are sure it will do very useful work. “ As old Bath may be tairly considered a national possession,” it was thought advisable to make membership open to all who are in sympathy with the objects of the asso¬ ciation. The minimum subscription is is. (to cover necessary expenses), and contributions should be sent to either of the honorary treasu¬ rers, Mrs. Dominic Watson, Bathampton House, Bath, or Mr. Mowbray A. Green, 5, Princes Build¬ ings, Bath, by persons desirous of joining the society.
* * * *
T is probably true that “ the dicta of the authorities on art and good taste are a little contra¬ dictory and confusing to the lay mind.” But in spite of this it could be shown that there is a common meeting-place where sane and reasonable critics are in agreement ; and this consensus is the more observable the nearer we approach to those phases of art which are termed “ classic.” We doubt, for example, whether two opinions have been expressed, or are possible, about the “Maidens” of the Erechtheum, regarded as sculpture. It is true that architects have been known to condemn them as being architecturally unsuitable ; but we imagine that this criticism was still-born. For ourselves, we can remember, in the whole range of architecture, no more pleasing invention, none more exquisitely wrought to a consummate con¬ clusion, than this portico. Never has sculpture been used more beautifully for the adornment of the Mistress Art. The figures are architectural; they express little or no action ; they balance one another. Yet there is nothing monotonous in the arrangement, for the poses are slightly varied, some of the figures leaning on one leg, some on the other, and of course the draperies are different. Of the positions of the arms it is impossible to
VOL. xxvi. — l!
i 8
Notes of the Month.
speak, as they have all been broken off. One of the “ Maidens ” is in the British Museum, while the other five remain in situ. Deprived of its true setting, placed far otherwise than in the luminous air in which it was born, it is yet one of the finest sculptures in the world. Nothing could be more beautiful than the way the draperies fall over her breast, nothing more perfect than the long vertical lines falling to her feet, forming delicate flutings and concealing the leg over which they hang. The draperies are tightly drawn over the other leg, scarcely concealing it. Her mutila¬ tion cannot conceal her beauty nor can age defile it. Eternal type of maidenhood, she will endure with the terrestrial globe, guarding ever a sphinx- like silence. Not only in Greek art, but in other great periods of artistic activity, is there safe har¬ bourage for the lay mind.
Opinions differ about the roof of the Sistine Chapel, just as they differ about the explanation of natural phenomena ; but through all criticism of the painting of the ceiling there is a note of wonder. Few things that have been made by man possess greater majesty, and there is nothing that awakens a greater feeling of admiration and awe. Michael Angelo becomes as a god, fashion¬ ing at will heroic figures of man and woman, fair shapes of youth, of childhood, of motherhood. One may object to the principle of painting a ceiling and vault ; but here one thinks only of the conception and execution.
It is not so well known as it should be that there is a fine roundel of the Holy Family by Michael Angelo in the Diploma Gallery of the Royal Academy. It is a sculpture of great beauty, unfinished alas, but possessing, perhaps because of that, an elusive beauty. It is like beholding the act of creation to contemplate this marble ; to see, divinely figured, the limbs, body, and arms of a child struggling into life. To study the chisel marks developing round on round of the body, disentangling expression out of the inert stone, is to witness a miracle.
The picture called “ Sacred and Profane Love,” in the Borghese Gallery, is another of those stu¬ pendous performances that make us cherish art as the most beautiful manifestation of man’s activity.
But these are the high places — the mountains touching the sun — and about their altitude there is little diversity of opinion. It is in considering the work of our own day that criticism becomes tentative and uncertain. In painting and sculp¬ ture there are many different schools, but for the layman it is not necessary to take sides. He, more easily than the artist, may see the good of both.
But in spite of all drawbacks, of divided aims
and opposed methods, there is a steadily increas¬ ing body of enlightened public opinion interested in the “arts of life,” if they may be so called — the arts immediately connected with life. Build¬ ings of all kinds, furniture in all its diversity, drawings, paintings, gardens, interest increasing numbers year by year. To this growth of interest the recent revival in craftsmanship, the Renais¬ sance in domestic architecture, the numerous societies formed for the express purpose of repro¬ ducing drawings and paintings, all bear witness.
In recent work there is much with which fault may be found ; yet, on the whole, the outlook is more hopeful. There is a noble simplicity, the outcome of consummate art, the expression of a great idea ; but there is a baldness which is also simple, and is a sort of negation of art. If the latter is too prevalent in modern work, it is probably a revulsion from the heaviness of Victorian methods. It is certain, however, that we are witnessing a renaissance of the “ arts of life.” As a consequent of this revival, books in greater number than ever before are published on all art subjects, and there is no doubt that these will take wider effect as time goes on, and that the apprecia¬ tion of architecture, so necessary to its develop¬ ment, will become general.
In the Renaissance proper, many sumptuous books on architecture were published and directed to amateurs, builders, and architects indifferently. These helped incalculably to keep alive a healthy taste in the art. The result can be seen in the buildings left to us even from the eighteenth cen¬ tury. Leaving out the great buildings, there is scattered all over the country a body of work fairly level in the matter of achievement. It is not necessary to claim for these buildings high invention or genius in the designs. The point is that they were possible because of the taste of the builder and his lay brother.
A barren century intervenes; and now, instead of a well-marked tradition and undivided aims, a sort of anarchy reigns. This shows signs of pass¬ ing, as we suggested above. In the meantime it behoves us all to endeavour to bring back unani¬ mity of aim — that art and architecture may flourish proportionally with the more material activities of life.
* * * *
HAVE, for instance, listened to ravishing music, turned over portfolios of prints rare and beautiful, handled the most exquisite of ivories in rcoms the offence of whose furniture was of the rankest, and smelt, emphatically, to heaven.” It is a
Notes of the Month.
1 9
curious paradox, as the writer, Mr. Joseph T horp, points out, that tine taste for many art pro¬ ducts does not always include a nice taste in furniture. And although we have never “ handled the most exquisite iv> ries ” in rooms that smelt, we have, however, often listened to music, feeling quite unashamed, sitting on “horse¬ hair.”
Most of us by this time have taken a de¬ cided dislike to Victorian furniture, and prefer that from an earlier period. But it would be a pity if our liking for the old and the antique were to blind our eyes to the beauty belonging to our own times. We do not want to be of those who complain that “the time is out of joint.” Among the recent revivals in the domestic arts none was possessed of more vigour than that of the furni¬ ture craftsman. Its purpose has been fulfilled — it has created a distaste for what was undoubtedly a bad period, and an appreciation for a better. That purpose served, it has vanished to unknown limbos, and l’ art nouveau seems to us now, a weary, old, and tiresome fashion, scarcely existing, if it may even be said to do that.
The great drawback of much craftsman’s work is invariably faulty workmanship. For ourselves who love reasonable design, we insist with most ordinary people on sound workmanship.
We dislike mitres that gape, drawers that stick, and open joints; and that is why, for one rea¬ son, our preference is given to furniture about ahundred years old.
The quotation at the head of this note is taken from a book called “ An Aesthetic Conversion,” pub¬ lished by Heal and Son, which is well worth perusal. Like their work, it is a sound production, beautiful paper and type being employed, and the binding is good. If the writing is at times a trifle “ high-falutin,” it is English, at all events, and the illustrations are good.
HE new Victoria and Albert Museum was opened by the King on J une 26, and it is now open to the public. A writer in the Spectator records that he overheard in the galleries, “ I feel as if I had come into a fortune,” and nothing could give a better idea of the impression produced by these vast collections.
The old arrangement gave one the same feeling as an “ old curiosity shop,” where century is heaped on century like Pelion upon Ossa.
It was almost a debauch of the intellect to feast there, to enter in and lose oneself, as frequently happened, among some of the most beautiful things the hand and brain of man have devised.
We stand beside Elizabeth at her spinet, and strains of music from that bright time steal over our spirit with a movement like enchantment. Then we are brought to a pause by a bagpipe or a hurdy-gurdy, or it may be that a dagger or gun, such as Benvenuto would have delighted in, severs one train of thought and suggests another.
Trajan’s Column casts a heavy spell over us, till it is relieved by the dainty carving of a bas- relief.
The terribilita of the greatest master of the
Renaissance strikes us dumb as his “ David ” of heroic mould, or his “ Moses ” who sits guarding an immortal calm, rests on its pedestal over us. More gentle creations of the infinite inven¬ tion of man lying be¬ side these Titans take us in quieter pathways of art. Ever in one’s wan¬ derings there was something strange and beautiful to im¬ press the imagination or move the senses with a quiet plea¬ sure.
Now all is smooth¬ ed out in admirable order and sequence in spacious galleries, where students may cull at pleasure from this treasure-house.
FROM AN AESTHETIC CONVERSION.
B 2
20
Imperial Mosques
of Constantinople .
YENI VALIDEH MOSQUE, CONSTANTINOPLE DRAWN BY EDWIN F. REYNOLDS.
Imperial Mosques of Constantinople.
PART III.
The Yeni Valideh Mosque.
HE development of Turkish mosque building — -changed from its early traditions by the conquest of Constanti¬ nople and the emulation of S. Sophia, gradually involved in such experimental adapta¬ tions of the design of the church as the Bayezid Mosque, and arriving at independent maturity and progressive accomplish¬ ment in the mosques Shah-Zadeh, Suleiman, Ahmed, and Yeni Valideh — has been briefly reviewed in the previous articles, but only in general terms, and barely touching on many essential questions. Perhaps the best way to crystallize the generalities in more definite form will be to select one of these mosques as typical of the others, giving a more detailed description, and illustrating it with more complete measured drawings. For this purpose, I propose to choose the Mosque Yeni Valideh, which has already been mentioned, as summing up very completely the normal characteristics of the fully-developed style.
The detailed plan shows many points more clearly than was possible on the smaller scale plans already reproduced. One of the features which would first strike a practical architect is the great flights of steps up to the various entrances. The floors of the early mosques were raised above the ground by a few steps, and these were gradu¬ ally increased until, here, the floor level of the mosque and forecourt is raised about io ft. above the surrounding ground. A fine approach and a massive base is thus given to the building, but I have failed to establish any more practical reason for the custom. The Turks repeat vague tales as to vast cisterns beneath the floor, and the well- known cisterns under S. Sophia give point to their probability; but these alone would not account for the height of the floor, and it would seem that aesthetic effect was chiefly considered.
The Forecourt.
The forecourt is set out in accordance with traditional method, so that its outer walls form a continuation of those of the mosque, their thick¬
ness, 6 ft. in., being practically the same also; and their massiveness is somewhat surprising when their comparatively small height is considered. The court forms an exact square, but the wider intercolumnition of the central entrances makes some of the eastern and western bays rectangular, and their cupolas oval in shape. The arcades are raised above the general level of the court on low platforms, which are interrupted for the entrances. Each bay is defined by pointed arches set on columns, and covered by a cupola on pendentives, and the cupolas emerge from a slightly sloping roof, the whole being protected with lead. The cupolas are constructed with a thin shell of brick, and are plastered internally; the wider bays over the two central entrances are brought to the square- by stalactite corbelling, and their cupolas are thus raised above the others. Each bay has a window- in the outer wall, filled with a grille of iron bars; and the wall space above is relieved by a panel, which is a traditional survival of a second window. The floor of the court is paved with large stone flags, and slopes down slightly to the fountain in the centre.
Plan of the Mosque.
The setting out of the mosque is largely con¬ trolled by the relation of the semi-domes to the domes, and the aisles are approximately half the width of the central square, while the width of the external galleries is about half that of the aisles. The four central piers are cruciform in plan, each measuring 13 ft. n in. across. The western aisle is formed by moving the western wall outwards, its place being taken by octagonal piers, and the com¬ partments are covered with four cupolas and two groined vaults, the latter roofing those spaces which remain after setting out the square bays of the cupolas. A curious effect of the independent setting out of the mosque and forecourt is that the windows in the wall, which is common to both, often occur out of centre with the bays of one or the other. As in this case, the effect from the forecourt seems usually to have been considered most important, and the windows have been set out in relation to its bays, with the result that they occur irregularly in the mosque ; and on the plan it is startling to see the main arches coming recklessly over window openings. Another instance
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Imperial Mosques of Constantinople.
of the same kind occurs in the porticoes of the main north and south entrances. These till the spaces between the minarets and the great but¬ tresses, and their three bays are set out quite independently of the internal divisions. At the east end of the mosque are two smaller entrances, that on the north side being reserved for the exclusive use of the Sultan. The external galleries fill up the central spaces between the buttresses, and apparently they have no other present use than to shelter horrible beggars and still more loathsome lepers.
In addition to the mihrab, or Mecca-niche, there are only two other ritualistic fittings : the minber, or pulpit, placed on the right of the niche and used for the preaching of the Friday sermon ; and the mastaba, a raised platform placed against one of the piers and occupied by a choir of trained elocutionists who recite the prayers. Low galleries are set on light arcading around the outer walls, and are used to increase the accommodation for the crowds which assemble at the festivals of Beiram and Ramadan ; while ordinarily the Mohammedan professors teach their classes in them, for the mosques are also educational establishments on a larger scale, secular as well as religious subjects being taught. These galleries were at first intro¬ duced with little relation to the main structure, but in later mosques they were treated as a more integral part of the internal design.
The interior is of high proportions, and the general tendency from the first was toward in¬ creased height in preference to the broad ampli¬ tude of S. Sophia; so that the date of the various mosques may be almost judged by their propor¬ tion of height. The lower gallery is 50 ft. 7 in. from the floor, the gallery around the base of the dome is 91 ft. 3 in. from the floor and the summit of the dome rises to about 132 ft. from the floor, or about 142 ft. from the ground. It should, of course, be remembered that this is one of the smallest of the imperial mosques.
The Central Square.
The walls, piers, and arches are constructed of limestone, and the lower parts are faced with marble and tile-work. The main piers have pro¬ jecting bases of stone, and are covered with blue diapered tiles up to the springing of the aisle arches, a level which is marked by a slight moulding re¬ turned around the whole interior. A deep cor¬ belled cornice marks the springing of the subsidiary apses and follows their curves on plan, and stalac¬ tite corbelling, built out from the walls beneath, prepares for their reception on the square outline of the lower plan. The projection of the cornice is utilised as a gallery which returns without inter¬ ruption around the whole mosque, and its path¬ way is protected by an iron railing.
25
Imperial Mosques of Constantinople.
26
I mperial Mosques
The subsidiary semi-domes are closed over by low four-centred arches, and the pendentives between them bring the plan to a true semi-circle. The great semi-dome above is not a continuation of the pendentives, and there is a distinct break of surface at the junction. The lower part of the semi-dome is buttressed externally and pierced with a range of windows, and a slight cornice above them marks a second break of surface. Above this cornice the semi-dome springs afresh with a two- centred curve, and is completed without further in¬ terruption. These changes from the form of a true semi-dome are unnoticeable from the boor below, and they may be seen properly only on close in¬ spection and especially by observing their inter¬ section against the backs of the main arches. Their effect is to increase the spaciousness of the semi-domes internally, and to give them greater importance externally, and they were doubtlessly introduced to counteract the foreshortening of perspective produced by the high proportions of the building. As may be expected, these refine¬ ments appear only in the later mosques.
The Dome.
The central dome is carried on four great pointed arches, each 7 ft. 7 in. wide, which spring from the lower gallery with a slightly^ stilted curve ;
and their square plan is reduced to a circle by
means of simple pendentives. A deep cornice of stalactite corbelling is set above the pendentives, and its projection forms a narrow gallery around
the base of the dome. Earlier domes usually
spring immediately above the pendentives with a slightly stilted curve, having a range of windows and buttresses at the base after the design of S. Sophia. But with a desire for greater height the dome was gradually raised in the successive mosques until in this mosque the stilting has be¬ come a definite drum, and the windows and but¬ tresses are applied to it instead of to the dome proper. The wall of the drum is slightly inclined inwards and is pierced with twenty-four windows, and above them the inner surface of the dome is slightly projected on three courses of stalactite corbelling. The internal diameter of the dome is 52 ft.
The drum of the dome is built of brick, plastered internally and with its external buttresses covered with lead. The dome is also covered with lead externally, and internally its material is concealed by plaster or repeated whitewashing; but I should surmise that it is also constructed of brick. The pendentives of the dome and the four great arches are built of stone. The semi-domes are covered internally and externally like the dome, and are probably built of brick, while their subsidiary
of Constantinople.
domes and pendentives are built of stone. Brick was obviously used for the sake of its lightness and adaptability, and it was invariably concealed from sight. In the early instance of the Bayezid Mosque the buttresses and windows of the dome and semi-domes were built of stone and remain uncovered. By constant experience of building, the shells of these Turkish, like all Eastern, domes had become reduced to the least possible thickness, and their tenuity also reduced those difficulties of abutment and erection which were experienced in the massive and complex structure of such western domes as those of the Duomo at Florence and St. Peter’s at Rome.
The investigation of the real structure of these great Turkish domes is a problem of the utmost interest, and, at the same time, of the utmost difficulty. In the earlier domes the springing of the curve is considerably below the top of the ring of buttresses, so that some of its possible thrust is absorbed by them ; and certain additional flying buttresses, introduced in many instances, point to this intention. But in the Yeni Valideh Mosque there are no flying buttresses, and the curve of the dome springs above the buttresses around the drum, so that the principle of abutting any thrust is out of the question. The only alternative is to regard the dome as constructed in such a way as to exert no thrust, and I can offer no opinion as to whether this is effected by means of a system of bonding chains or courses of stone, or by some adjustment of the jointing. Byzantine domes were often constructed with their thin bricks laid at a flat inclination, but this method seems to have been employed only for facility of building, for some additional precaution against thrust was invariably adopted. Moreover, later Turkish domes, with their full curve and independence of abutment, are essentially different to the dome of S. Sophia, with its low curve and direct abutment ; and they are perhaps more nearly akin to that general Saracenic type of dome which was de¬ veloped in Persia, Egypt and elsewhere. This Saracenic form seems to have arisen from a corbelled structure with horizontal joints, the curve of the lower part stopping before its excessive inclination would render corbelling impossible, and being carried with a flat curve or a tangential straight line to the apex. Such a construction gives a dome without thrust, and also dispenses with the elaborate centreing necessary for an arcuated structure, the latter a most important consideration where wood is scarce. Many Turkish domes have this four centred outline, but the great domes of the im¬ perial mosques are so slightly^ pointed that they become practically spherical, and an entire system of corbelling would seem to be impossible in this
27
Imperial Mosques of Constantinople.
case. It may be that the lower portion is corbelled with horizontal joints and forms an abutment for the arcuated upper portion,1 or the lightness of the shell may allow some system of chainage to be sufficient to confine the thrust2, but the conceal¬ ment of the structural surfaces by lead and plaster prevent any inspection. Constant familiarity with domical construction had given oriental builders certain traditional methods which, to our inexpert timidity, seem almost impossible; and these methods become the more mysterious and tanta¬ lising in that they are practically inaccessible to investigation, and that the school of dome-builders who inherited the traditions has died out, leaving their secrets hidden in their domes.
Returning to the Yeni Valideh Mosque, the dome is crowned externally with a small solid cupola in which is embedded the base of a large finial of wood, covered with lead and gilded, and surmounted by the crescent of Mohammedanism. Four large octagonal turrets are built over the main piers below the dome, and their weight materially assists in securing the great arches. Between them, the walls of the central square are stepped down over the semi-domes, the steps in¬ tersecting with the circular wall below the drum of the dome.
The Great Buttresses.
The great buttresses over the aisles are stepped up to the octagonal turrets, a small cupola being placed on each offset. A curious point may be noticed with regard to these buttresses. As has already been said, they had always existed within the building, but in the Suleiman Mosque, with its increased scale and height, they appeared for the first time as a conspicuous feature above the roofs. In that mosque, with its two semi-domes, the buttresses were built on the north and south sides only, and in the Ahmed Mosque, with its four semi-domes, they extend on all four sides. In the Yeni Valideh Mosque, however, they extend on the north, south and west sides, but not on the east side. This variation is curious, for if the buttresses were necessary on any of the sides they were equally necessary on all. It can hardly be supposed that such great erections were built merely for effect, and it becomes an interesting question as to how they could have been dispensed with on one side of the dome. The only reason for their omission which suggests itself is that the buttresses block up certain windows of the semi¬ domes, and that a complete range of windows was desired in the eastern semi-dome towards Mecca ■ but, at the same time, this desire for the removal
of the buttresses does not provide the necessary means.
The semi-domes have ranges of windows and buttresses similar to those of the central dome, and below them the subsidiary semi-domes and the cupolas over the aisles rise from the flat roof. The cupolas are here raised on octagonal drums which are pierced with windows, but in earlier mosques the drums were low and unlighted, and were formed by raising the outer walls of the cupolas above the springing, and not in the manner of true drums. Byzantine builders had employed such pseudo-drums to absorb the thrust of their domes, both by direct abutment and also by the weight of the drum walls (as in SS. Sergius and Bacchus at Constantinople, and in S. Vitale at Ravenna); and the Turkish usage was probably derived from this tradition.
North and South Facades.
In all these mosques the square of the outer walls is taken up to a cornice which returns round the whole building at the same level, thus giving a great cubical base from which the domical forms of the roofs spring. At close quarters the north and south sides of the mosque are its most con¬ spicuous fa9ades, for the west side is screened by the forecourt, and on the east is a walled-in garden containing the turbehs, or tombs, of the Sultan and his family. The north and south fa9ades of the Yeni Valideh Mosque are entirely typical in design. The height of the floor level above the ground gives a massive basement to the building, and great flights of steps rise to the principal entrances. On the north side is the entrance for the Sultan, with an enclosed stairway approached by a door, and the base wall between the two entrances is occupied by a series of washing places for ablution before prayers. The great buttresses and the minarets rise from the basement, and the spaces between them are filled with external galleries and porticoes. The galleries are two storeys in height, and their arcades are grouped according to the spacing of the piers in the wall behind them. The shafts are circular, the lower arches are stilted and pointed, and the upper arches four-centred ; and a solid parapet protects the lower gallery, while a pierced balustrade is fitted between the shafts of the upper gallery. The upper gallery extends over the Sultan's en¬ trance, and the portico to the principal entrance rises in a single height, with its triple arcade set on octagonal shafts. The galleries and porticoes are sheltered and covered by a great overhanging roof, supported by iron struts and extending the
1 A parallel instance occurs in Gothic work, where the abutment of the vaulting is often increased by corbelling the lower portion of the ribs.
2 Compare the universal Turkish practice of relying on iron tie-bars for absorbing the thrust of arches.
28
Imperial Mosques of Constantinople .
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Imperial Mosques of Constantinople .
29
whole length of the mosque ; and above it, the main outer wall rises between the buttresses, its windows grouped under arches which correspond with those on the interior.
Windows.
The lower windows of the mosque are square headed and set close to the floor. They are filled with strong iron grilles and usually remain un¬ glazed, and during the colder weather they are closed with wooden shutters. The windows in the upper walls and the domes have arched heads, and, on the inner and outer faces of the wall, they are filled with plates of plaster tracery in which small rounds of glass are embedded. This method of glazing was employed by other Saracenic builders, and also by the Byzantines ; and the principle of minutely subdividing the areas of lighting is characteristic of the east, and due to the need of tempering the heat and excessive brightness of the sunlight. The preference for a large number of smaller windows, scattered more or less equally throughout the building, carries out the same principle on a larger scale.
This traditional tendency is shown in the fore¬ court, where each bay has two openings, although only one storey in height. The lower windows are similar to those of the mosque, square-headed and filled with iron grilles. The upper windows are here represented by an arched panel, but in earlier instances they are open and glazed on the outer face with plaster tracery. The walls of the forecourt have a deep plinth below the floor level, and rise unbroken to the cornice beneath the roof. Owing to the height of the wall, the cupolas emerge direct from the flat-pitched roofs and without the usual octagonal drums. The three entrances have great flights of steps up to the level of the floor, and the doorways are framed with broad architraves which rise to the cornice and are crowned with a richly cusped cresting.
Minarets.
At the junction of the forecourt and mosque, the two minarets rise from their squere bases, a complex arrangement of deep splays producing the polygonal plan of their shafts ; and freeing themselves from the lower buildings they soar upwards high above the dome. The minarets give more character to the mosques and to the whole city of Constantinople than any other single feature. The aesthetic value of their slender height, in contrast with the broad-domed mass of the mosque, has already been mentioned; and the city would lose half its beauty without the fantastic elegance of their clustered groups. No mosque was ritually complete without its minaret,
but their inherent distinction of design soon led to a multiplication of number. Their primary use was to elevate the mueddin who summoned the faithful to prayer, so that his voice might be heard above the surrounding roofs ; but they quickly grew beyond this first necessity, and to the original single balcony a second and a third were often added. The minarets consist of an enclosed winding staircase of stone, which emerges at intervals on balconies projected on corbelling and protected with a parapet. The shafts are polygonal and are slightly reduced in diameter above each balcony ; and above the topmost bal¬ cony they rise again to steeply conical roofs, framed with wood and covered with lead, and terminated with a finial bearing the crescent. The construction is strong, and the minarets rise to prodigious heights, but I have no dimensions of the tallest instances. The minarets of the Yeni Valideh Mosque are 9 ft. 1I5- in. in the lower external diameter, and their total height is about 240 ft. above the ground ; but several in Constantinople must be considerably over 300 ft. in height. The general design of all the minarets to the Imperial mosques is practically the same. The early examples of the Bayezid Mosque have their shafts banded at intervals with a darker stone, and those of the Shah Zadeh Mosque are enriched with a slight carving of tracery ; but the minarets of the Suleiman, Ahmed, and Yeni Valideh Mosques are almost identical in detail, and their settled tradition of design was only broken by the introduction of Rococco variations in the later mosques. The minarets are also used for illumination, and on the nights of the great religious festivals, their balconies glitter with thousands of lamps all over the city, their white shafts gleaming with a strange ghostly light in the darkness.
It has sometimes been said that Turkish minarets are the ugliest form of a singularly beautiful feature, but I think that they may claim to have the relative fitness which is the greater part of beauty. Although in themselves they may not lack the rich outline of Cairene minarets, yet the mosques of Cairo have not that complexity of cupola and dome to which the severer elegance of the Turkish minaret acts as a necessary foil.
Forms of Arch.
The forms of arch used by the Turks varied considerably. At Brusa the earliest form is the two-centred pointed arch, while later arches spring with two segments and are continued to the apex with slight curves or tangential straight lines, a form which was common to all Saracenic building and probably derived from a corbelled construction
30 Imperial Mosques
as in domes already mentioned. In the early mosques at Constantinople the Turkish builders copied the arches of S. Sophia, and in the Bayezid Mosque the four main arches under the dome are semi-circular, although the arches of the forecourt are pointed and described from two centres. In the succeeding mosques all the large arches are pointed, the two arcs meeting at an obtuse angle. But in the smaller arches over the window, no de¬ finite rule was established for some time, and even in the same mosque semi-circular and Saracenic arches were used indiscriminately. Ultimately the semi-circular form was abandoned, and the Saracenic arch came into universal use for the windows, although its proportions often approach the two-centred or semi-circular forms. The segmental arch was also employed, but was almost entirely reserved for the doorways. The various forms of arches were frequently stilted, but their curves were never returned inwards in the manner of the so-called “ Moorish ” arch.
Materials of Construction.
Although brick was used in some of the earlier work at Brusa, yet the later mosques there were constructed of stone and marble; and Turkish building in Constant inople was essentially an art of masonry, the Byzantine tradition of brick con¬ struction being carried on only in the domes. The walls of the mosques are built with large blocks of a limestone quarried from the banks of the Bosphorus, a stone which is close enough in tex¬ ture to be worked with fine detail, and which weathers to a hard snow-white surface. The courses of the masonry are more or less continu¬ ous, and vary considerably in depth, and the mortar joints are fine.
Marble was extensively employed in the mosques, and its structural use is combined with a decora¬ tive intention ; for the same close texture which gives it power to bear great weight also enables it to take a polish which reveals its beauty of colour and texture. The arcades of the forecourt are almost always built wholly of marble, and the shafts and arches of the external galleries and porticoes are frequently of marble. The arcades of the aisles which occur in the earlier mosques have monolithic shafts of marble or porphyry, the columns which sub-divide the aisles of the Sulei¬ man Mosque being some of the largest in Con¬ stantinople. The voussoirs of the arches fre¬ quently alternate with black or soft red varieties, sometimes fitted together with elaborately joggled joints ; and the same principle of alternation is applied to the entrances and often carried down the jambs. The stalactite vaulting over the Mecca-niche and the entrances, the ritualistic
of Constantinople.
fittings and internal galleries, are almost invariably constructed in marble. Turkish marblework generally has a more structural character than Byzantine marblework, and even where it is applied as a facing to the walls it is worked as masonry and not as a veneer.
The roofs, including the domes, are entirely covered with lead, and some such material is necessary to protect them from the violent storms of rain which, at certain seasons, gather in the Black Sea and sweep suddenly over the city. The lead is cast in heavy sheets which assume a beautiful silvery tone, and it is applied with rolls, the water dripping from the edges without gutters. Bronze and iron are used in the grilles of the windows and fountains, but the most important structural use of iron is in ties to the arches. The tying of arches at the springing by bars of wood or iron is a constant tradition throughout the East, and although in many cases the method was used to prevent thrust, it was probably practised so universally as a precaution against the rocking motion of earthquakes.
The mosques are constructed almost entirely without timber. This, however, is due to no scarcity, for there are vast forests within a short distance of Constantinople, and the common houses of the city are built of timber framing and covered with weather-boarding. The complete domical system of the mosques rendered timber almost unnecessary, and, apart from their more monumental character, the development of brick or stone roofs was undoubtedly encouraged by the fear of such fires as had destroyed earlier mosques and churches. Thus it is only the pent roofs over the external galleries and the conical spires of the minarets which are constructed of timber, and the chief use of wood is for the joinery of the doors and the shutters to the lower windows. These are usually of sycamore, divided into small panels to withstand the damp and heat of the climate, and often inlaid with ebony and ivory, and even mother-o’-pearl.
The general setting out of the mosques is ex¬ tremely accurate, and has nothing of that free compromise which is characteristic of western building. The angles are true, and the repeated dimensions agree almost exactly in all the mosques which I have measured. This precision was per¬ haps necessary in view of the complicated inter¬ dependence of the various parts, but it also accords with the natural eastern taste for applied mathe¬ matics. From the time when the subtle propor¬ tions of the Egyptian pyramids were calculated, this quality has pervaded oriental art, and the forms of the Turkish mosque of S. Sophia alike were primarily founded on a basis of purely geometrical combination.
M— L
Imperial Mosques of Constantinople.
3 1
FOUNTAINS OF ABLUTION, YENI VALIDEH MOSQUE.
32
I mperial Mosques
It may be useful to state the degree of accuracy represented in the measured drawings which are reproduced in illustration of these articles. The small-scale plans may be taken as correct so far as they go, that is to say in all the main dimen¬ sions, the thickness of walls, and the spacing of windows and arcades. In some cases I will not vouch for the accuracy of such details as the pro¬ jection of steps, &c., and the non-structural fit¬ tings of the interiors have been omitted. The small-scale sections which accompany the plans are mere explanatory diagrams. The more de¬ tailed drawings of the Yeni Valideh Mosque may be taken as entirely correct in all essentials, and also in such decorative detail as could be shown on a scale of 12 feet to an inch. The dome was measured up to the cornice of the drum, but above that level its height has been judged by observa¬ tion and from distant photographs. The thick¬
of Constantinople.
nesses of the dome and the semi-domes at the base are approximately correct, but the thickness of the upper parts could not be measured. The building generally is remarkably accessible, and probably designedly so for the easy repair of the roofs. Winding staircases are built in the great buttresses, passing within them over the aisles, and emerging from the octagonal turrets at the level of the drum of the central dome ; and other doors at various heights give access to the semi-domes and the lower roofs. Nothing could give a more vivid realisation of the scale and a closer insight into the method of building than to climb among the buttresses and cupolas as though exploring the peaks and crevices of a mountain, or to wander along the narrow internal galleries around the semi-domes, peering downward at the distant depths of the floor, and looking upwards to the vast embracing curvature of the central dome.
Edwin F. Reynolds.
Photo: Bedford Lcmere and Co.
NEW BANK FRONT, EUSTON ROAD. PROFESSOR BERESFORD PITE, ARCHITECT.
Architectural Education.
Containing a Paper by Mr. Charles Francis Osborne , of the University of Pennsylvania.
HE interest taken in theories of Architectural Education, the advent of so many well- equipped schools devoted to the training of architectural students, seems to indicate a feeling of discontent with existing methods of teaching. In this country at least, most of us, in the past, received our education by some kind of apprentice¬ ship in the office of an architect, supplemented by a course of study such as obtains at the Royal Academy Schools. This supplementary course has been in the main artistic. Design, drawing, and modelling are the chief subjects, and we feel, after all is said, that they are the most important. All of them are life-long studies, and the earlier they are started the better it will be for the student. In early youth is the time to train the eye to appreciate the nicest distinctions of form required to draw and model from the life, and its very subtlety makes it an excellent training to the architect.
It is not expected, nor is it necessary for the architect to be a fine figure draughtsman, but the training is useful, giving to the eye added clear¬ ness of vision, to the senses susceptibility to pro¬ portion and form. More than this, he has for fellows, painter and sculptor students, and natur¬ ally, without effort, he becomes familiar with the technique of the sister arts, and is able, when the time comes, to apply them with precision and judgment. Most of all, the architect is working in an atmosphere of art. Not less is it necessary to begin teaching design when the student is young. More severely intellectual than the other arts, whose technique belongs to the hands, it requires of its students long years of sheer hard think¬ ing before the immature blossomings ripen to fruit.
It may be said that although inspiration is essential to great success in design, it “ involves a distinct intellectual process,” and therefore the capacity of any student may be developed by his being led to exercise his intelligence in problems of design. And it seems to us that with a sound training in design even the pedestrian kind of ability should be able to scheme charming enough work. One has only to recollect eighteenth-cen¬ tury work to be sure of this. Flitcroft, with his churches of St. Mary’s, Hampstead, and St. Giles,
working on traditional lines, achieved distinct successes.
Another study which becomes by its nature a relaxation, a study undertaken in the sun and air, and in many lands, is the sketching and measur¬ ing of ancient buildings. Than this there can be nothing more fruitful provided it is undertaken in a proper spirit, and certainly nothing more pleasant.
A critical and analytical rather than an his¬ torical or archaeological spirit is the one in which to work ; to endeavour to differentiate between the essential qualities in great architecture and the extraneous and non-essential things, to analyse the structure as one would a piece of verse. The knowledge drawn from this source is of vast importance. Academic designs are but paper and valueless if not inspired by it.
Our feeling for architecture is real when we understand that it is a thing to stand unsubdued through the centuries, washed and wrinkled by rain and storm, bleached and toned by the sun and wind, a thing of strength, and like the eternal hills themselves, a part of the solid earth. Ima¬ gination will be disciplined to restraint, to use¬ fulness, to real beauty, by this study.
Architecture in its main features was settled long ago, and in this respect the personal equation can count for little, as the student soon discerns. Genius has been the first to accept this limitation, recognising that nevertheless there are fields wide enough to require a man's utmost strength to conquer ; and so genius has been able to impress work with individuality just as the centuries do.
Most difficult of acquirement is a fine and sure taste, without which the greatest ability in design is merely a snare. It is only necessary to ex¬ amine our street architecture to be amazed at the riotous fancy of the inventions laboriously cut out of solid stone or easily repeated in the plastic terra-cotta.
This can be obviated by nothing so much as a sure taste, and although this will be the result in time from the study of old architecture, a general culture also tends to this end. For “ a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither a corrupt tree good fruit.” So the soul must have clear percep¬ tions of all beautiful things, sound and colour and form should be as palpable to the senses, and as much pleasure-giving, as fine wine. Those who have not been strangely moved by exquisite sound,
vol. xxvi. — c
34
4 rch itectura l Ed itca tion.
been given pause by the wonder of marvellous form, or teased out of thought by the pageantry of colour, cannot know the feelings of a creator ! No overwhelming Hood of inspiration will ever sweep over his spirit, drowning it in an ecstasy of pleasure !
As exercise is necessary to the health of the body, so the mind has need of refreshment to maintain its vitality. All the pleasure to be got from the understanding of the sister arts is at once its refreshment and its infinite reward. I hen again, by understanding, may architecture become the Mistress Art.
It is not our intention to underrate the mechani¬ cal part of architecture, but only to keep it from occupying too high a place in our education. All subjects in which exact knowledge is attainable can easily be adjusted in a curriculum. The cause of architectural education lies very much in the hands of the present body of practising architects who are continually in touch with great numbers of aspirants, and who possess the power and the judgment to put their pupils in the right way of study. And the value of this system under favourable circumstances may be judged by the invariable success of the pupils of a few eminent men. The office system also stands this test.
What kind of work has been its result ? As we look around we have no need to feel ashamed — in domestic architecture our superiority is manifest. Good work of a semi-domestic nature is in suffi¬ cient bulk to justify us. It is in the grand manner that we fail, and in this our neighbours, the French, and the Americans excel. The French system of education is magnificent. As M. Gaudet, a pro¬ fessor of the Beaux-Arts, wrote, “ chez nous en effet l'enseignement de l'architecture est d’abord avant tout artistique.” The chief element is the concours, and the French students’ education, till it culminates in the Grand Prix de Rome, is one long struggle. M. Gaudet admits, “ C’est done l’emulation, la lutte de tous les jours, qui est i’ame de l’etude.”
In Germany, where education is reduced to an exact science, architecture fares but ill, and the tendency is to teach everything that touches it, however slightly. The curriculum is, as a con¬ sequence, overburdened with mathematics, phy¬ sics, chemistry, technical mechanics, descriptive geometry, and indeed theories of all kinds. And there all the heaviness of the most wearisome pedantry is expressed in stone, and for a contrast the grotesque abandonment of l' art nouveau.
Modern public work in America possesses, as we have endeavoured to show in these pages, elements of high style, and the education which engenders it is worthy of a great deal of attention. So we direct attention to Mr. Charles Francis
Osborne’s paper on the training of an architect which he read at the Annual Convention of the Ontario Association of Architects, Toronto, on January 13, 1909. Professor Reilly brought it back with him from America, and wishes it to be known that he agrees with the opinions expressed.
Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Association, —
If 1 venture to take part in your discussion this afternoon, it is because your very kind invitation assures me that in Ontario, as elsewhere, the best minds in the profession are aroused to the importance of securing for the architectural student a systematic course of training, and that when your association is ready to suggest such a course, it will carry with it all the weight of your official recognition and support.
I have, therefore, as my contribution to the occasion, en¬ deavoured to embody very briefly in the following paper certain conclusions to which I have been led by my experi¬ ence in the field of architectural education, together with some indications of the reasons which have seemed to support them ; but as time and space alike forbid a detailed considera¬ tion of many difficult questions which are involved in the solution of this problem, it is suggestion rather than argument which I have the honour to offer for your consideration.
Whoever strives to formulate such a programme will soon discover that no progress is possible until one’s objective is clearly defined. It is not enough to say that the training of the architectural student is our objective, because back of that lies the question, “ What is he to be trained to do? ’’and back of that again is the insistent demand for a fundamental definition of architecture itself.
Architecture I would define as the art of building, contrast¬ ing it, for illustration, with engineering, which is the science of building. As for myself, I cannot understand any other defi¬ nition of an architect which will clearly differentiate him from all other professional men than that he is a designer of compositions which are to be executed in building materials. The fundamental difference between the architect and the engineer may be made clear by two examples taken from that vast field of building operations in which both the architect and engineer are engaged at their respective tasks. Let us first consider the case of a great dam, to be erected near the headquarters of a river, miles away in the wilderness. This is a typical engineer’s task, and the only considerations which determine the lines of the structure are those which arise from meeting the stern demands for resistance to the mighty stresses of the stream in flood, taken in connection with the materials available for its construction and the oppor¬ tunity for securing an adequate foundation. Every line of the profiles in plan, section, and elevation is determined by the strictest requirements of utility and economy. Let us take by way of comparison some structure completely typical of the architect’s work — say a memorial monument. Here neither utility (in the engineer’s sense) nor economy is concerned. Any materials the architect may regard as appropriate are at his command, quite regardless, or negligibly so, of considera¬ tions ot the relative hardness or specific gravity of these materials, to each of which qualities the designer of the dam had to pay the closest attention. Every line of the memorial is determined purely as a matter of feeling, the architect having regard only to this question : “What effect or expres¬ sion in the finished monument and its setting will be most appropriate to the time, place, and purpose of its erection ? ” There is, of course, a neutral zone where the interests of the architect and the engineer commingle, and where co-operation is necessary. This has already taken place, under the pres¬ sure of enlightened public sentiment, in such matters as civic bridges, harbour approaches, railway stations, and the like.
A rchitecturai Education .
35
It is interesting to note, for instance, in connection with the gigantic operations of the Pennsylvania Railroad in New York, that the company’s engineers, while engaged in their underground affairs, have encountered some new problems of construction on a scale of unusual magnitude, and have been able to meet them in the most skilful manner, but that as soon as they emerge to the surface, where their operations become visible in the heart of a great city, they call to their aid one of the most distinguished architectural firms in America to give to the great terminal station an expression suitable to the occasion. There were no constructive problems in the build¬ ing of the station which the engineers could not have solved, but the feeling they sought for was beyond their powers of expression, and so it was placed in the hands of men who were professionally trained for such expression.
We are abundantly justified, then, in the conclusion that the faculty which differentiates the architect from all other men engaged in the field of building operations is the faculty of imparting to his structures, by means of the attributes •derivable from form, colour, and texture, such an expression in each particular case as shall stir the beholder to an apprecia¬ tion of the fact that the building is pleasingly and appropri¬ ately indicative of its function. But when 1 say this, I do not refer to the exterior or elevation of the composition alone ; for the elevation is inextricably linked with the plan, and when you have an orderly and convenient plan, a good elevation is more than half accomplished. To those conversant with design methods it is not necessary to call attention to this detail, but I do so because I desire to avoid any interpretation of my point of view as assenting to the idea that architecture is ■construction plus decoration. On the contrary, those qualities which make for good design are fundamental to the solution of the problem, and are developed in the original choice of scheme quite as much as in any details of the plan or elevation.
If ability to design be the distinctive test of the architect, the teaching of design must be the paramount objective of his course. On this point some strange proposals have been made. It has been suggested, for instance, that the theory of design should be taught in the schools, and the practice of design — that is, the working out of design problems— should be under the direction of practising architects in the office. It has not needed some recent experiments in this direction to show that no good results can come from such a course of procedure. It is based upon a fallacy which has been fully exposed by the Engineering Record in a recent editorial dealing with the subject of engineering training. I quote one paragraph : — “ There is a ridiculous idea prevalent that a man who is successful as an engineer is necessarily competent to teach undergraduates in an engineering school ; the fact is, no¬ body can be a successful teacher who does not make a careful study of pedagogics, a subject calling for as much thought and detailed consideration as any course in engineering.” 1 This testimony from an engineering source is specially significant.
Personally I am convinced from long observation that there is only one effective method of stimulating the highest powers of the undergraduate for the solution of any design problem, and that is the method of teaching design which has unfortu¬ nately come to be known as the French method. I say “unfortunately,” because this word “ French ” seems to act as a curious irritant to many people who are not at all familiar with the thing criticised. These, either through unfamiliarity, or because of an inability to understand the system when it is presented to their scrutiny, fail to discern its real spirit, and suffer their attention to be distracted by such superficial •characteristics of the method as might be likely to develop under the skies of France.
This system is based upon the idea that the only way to learn to design is to design. Theories of design are not for undergraduates, and even when discussed by mature minds are usually unfruitful. Good design is purely a matter of feel¬ ing, which eludes definition but which can be cultivated by assiduous practice. Problem after problem must be presented for solution to the student, who must work under the eye of a master whose chief vocation is criticism in the atelier. The problems may be of as practical a character as you like, but worked out without too much consideration of how many tenpenny nails go to a pound.
The second question is, “ What comes next in importance after design ? ” The fact that the architect uses building materials to develop his compositions might seem to place a study of these materials and their combinations next on the list. You may be surprised to hear that I relegate this subject to third place in our curriculum, and rate drawing next. If we assign, on the total number of hours in any undergraduate architectural course, fifty percentum to design, I should allot twenty to exercises in drawing from the cast and from life, with an ancilliary course in modelling. Such prac¬ tice greatly increases the students’ powers in design, and though it is not always true that a good draftsman is a good designer, I have never known a poor draftsman who was so. This fact has so often come under my observation that it is impossible for me any longer to question it. Practice in drawing from the figure and modelling should continue during the entire course, so soon as the student, from his previous practice from the cast, is prepared to take them up.
We now come to the subject of building materials and con¬ struction, and I will explain why I have placed it as third in importance in the undergraduate course of study. Up to this point the subjects in the course have been included in the field of art. Construction, however, lies within the field of science, and from a pedagogical point of view its teaching must be undertaken in a different manner. Where the teach¬ ing of applied science is concerned, all experience goes to show that in his undergraduate studies the student should be thoroughly grounded in fundamental principles and theory, and that no attempt should be made to render him expert in the office sense in their application to all imaginable cases. If we attempt to teach theory by the medium of manifold examples, the average student proves unable to see the forest for the trees. This subject is best taught in an undergraduate course therefore, by courses of lectures, fully illustrated, and supplemented by sketching in the student’s notebook of typical examples. Building materials should be fully developed, so that the student may know the characteristics of each, its usual applications, and what may be expected of it in practice. The study of building construction should proceed from simple to the more complex assemblages in all materials, still with continuous sketching. Finally, there should be a course in theoretical and applied mechanics lasting a full year, with special stress laid on graphical statics. The only stated exercise in drawing that I should recommend in connection with such a course (aside from the exercises in graphical statics) would be just sufficient practice in scale and full-size detail drawing as will enable the student to correctly grasp the principles of such work, and prepare him to take up with confidence that side of the office routine. No attempt should be made to make him familiar with all kinds of possible details, for it is futile to attempt to train the undergraduate, even if it were at all desirable to do so, to a point where he can produce working drawings and scale and full-size detail under office conditions with facility and precision.
The fact should never be lost sight of, and especially in this
C 2
1 Eng. Rec., Dec. 12, 190S, p. 655.
Architectural Education.
36
connection, that the student’s training is to be obtained in two places — one the school, but the other, and equally im¬ portant, the office. It is in the school that he will learn most of his design, but it is in the office that he will acquire most of his practical knowledge of construction. But his under¬ graduate course in this latter subject will enable him, if it has been properly taught, to assimilate very rapidly the practice of whatever office he may happen first to enter after his school- work is completed, and by the end of three years’ office ex¬ perience he should be a first rate all-round man, far in advance of a man of similar capacity who entered the office when the student entered the school. It is matter of common observa¬ tion here that the school man ultimately attains a far higher professional position than is ever possible for the office-trained man. This fact is being so generally recognised with us, that experienced office men are coming to the schools in increasing- numbers, in an endeavour to overcome this handicap. They labour under one disadvantage, however, with regard to the study of design, and that is, most of them have waited too long — for you must catch your designer young.
Allowing twenty per cent, to the subject of building materials and construction, there yet remains ten per cent, of the under¬ graduate’s time to be accounted for. This I would allot for the most part to the history of architecture and the allied arts, reserving a small modicum of the time for a course of lectures dealing with professional ethics, office organisation, contracts, and kindred matters, and in a special course given by practising architects of the highest professional standing, who will present to the student’s attention instances chawn from actual practice. It is of great benefit to the student to bring him in contact with such men.
A brief word may be said as to the amount of preparation which should be required of the student who presents himself to undertake such a course of study as I have here outlined. The lequirements are few, but insistent. Sound training in English ; a good reading knowledge of French ; the funda¬ mentals of general history, ancient, mediaeval, and modern ; mathematics up to and including trigonometry ; the funda¬ mental principles of chemistry and physics, and descriptive geometry, including shades, shadows, and perspective. No further instruction will be given, in any of these subjects, in the professional school, but the student will make use of his knowledge of them from the first.
My paper, gentlemen, would be incomplete, did I not in¬ clude some notice of another theory of architectural education which has had some distinguished advocates, but which I am unable to approve.
No one knows better than those of us who are engaged in the field of architectural education how extensive are the boundaries of that field. Indeed, it seems at times to some of us as if no other profession could be so comprehensive and inclusive.
Mother of the arts and issue of the elemental forces of nature acting upon the varied materials of construction, archi¬ tecture springs from a vast historical background, and touches on every hand the bounds of human knowledge. It is natural therefore that, to some of those who have concerned themselves about the adequate training of the young architect, it should have seemed not only desirable but possible that such a course of study should be devised for the undergraduate as will enable him on its completion to meet any demands which the com¬ plexities of his chosen profession may make upon him. To this end it has been proposed that he be taught not alone the technicalities of his profession, but that he be brought into sympathy, through courses in general academic subjects, with all that is best and most broadening in the world of culture.
To carryout this comprehensive programme several expedi¬ ents have been proposed. It has been suggested, for instance,
that the usual four-year undergraduate course in architecture be lengthened to five years, of which the first two shall be de¬ voted exclusively to academic and cultural subjects, and the last three to professional subjects exclusively. Two, at least, of our universities offer a six-year option in a combined course in arts and architecture, whereby the A.B. degree may be taken at the end of the sixth. This is accomplished by permitting the student to take all of the elective hours in the arts course in the course in architecture. The other university requires the equivalent of two years’ work in the arts course as a preparation for admission to its course in architecture. Still another has the courage to carry this doctrine to its extremest development, and now requires the degree of A.B. of all its architectural matriculates. It is worth while to note that the president of this last institution has recently declared it to be his opinion that the future welfare of that university demands that it be made the most difficult to enter and the most difficult to remain in of any institution of learning in America. Each of these tentative schemes of education strives to attain the same end, viz., to prepare the student not only for the practice of his profession, but for speaking and writing with learning and discernment on all of its collateral interests as well.
It is not difficult to picture for ourselves the paragon of architectural virtues whom the well-meaning promoters of these schemes of professional training have in mind — though the vision of his activities is somewhat overwhelming. Pre¬ pared to discuss with the archaeologist the Semitism of the Sumerians or the significance of the labrys supporting the altar of the gate slab of Mycenae, he is equally at home with the epigraphist in an interpretation of the dowel holes in the Parthenon epistyle. Representing his profession at the annual dinner of the Society of Painters, he takes an intelligent part in a discussion regarding the inexplicable phenomenon of Duccio’s art, and later in the evening makes a formal and eloquent plea for the subordination of the mural decorator to the controlling and directing mind of the architect. With the general historian he holds his own in a discussion regarding the correct definition and interpretation of universal history, and yields nothing to the Egyptologist on the point of Ikna- ton’s brilliant witness to the truth of the Semitic conception of the oneness of the Divine Ruler of the Universe. Descend¬ ing from these transcendental realms to the sphere of practice, at the office next day he learns from his morning’s mail, though without too much surprise, that his design for the new National Art Gallery upon the Mall in Washington has won a famous competition. Annoyed by the appearance of an extensive efflorescence upon the brickwork of his Carnegie Library, to which he has endeavoured to impart a fifteenth- century Veronese air, he writes forthwith to his brickmaker for analyses of his clays and to his cement-maker for an analysis of his cement in order that he may determine the source of the annoyance, and apply the proper remedy. Pending the arrival of this necessary data, he turns his attention to the designing of the reinforced concrete cantilevers for one of the walls of his Mining Building at the impending World’s Fair at Jumeau — a difficulty having arisen from a pocket of quick¬ sand which has manifested itself in a most inconvenient quarter of the site. In his fifty-four storey warehouse for the Universal Providers (Limited) he has devised a new method of wind-bracing for wide panel designs in structural steel, which bids fair to revolutionise engineering practice in that particular as soon as his method becomes known through publication in the professional journals. He next reviews the sketches of his head draughtsman for the ball-room of the American Embassy at Paris, where he points out the incor¬ rect profile of the consoles of the rosace, which strike an incongruous Louis Quatorze note amid a Louis Seize harmony.
Architectural Education.
37
He remembers also to caution his assistant to correct the contour of the buttress weatherings of the new half-million- dollar chapel of ease of St. Simeon-by-the-Waves, where the full-size detail shows them to have taken on a too pronounced Edward III character. Leaving his office for his daily exer¬ cise at the Racket Club, he ruminates on his way thither on the essential points of his paper for the Electrical Engineers’ Club regarding a new method of closing the solenoid and relay circuits of a type of remote control switch which he has devised for large private installations. After a couple of hotly contested games of squash and a bath, he dresses for dinner, but forgoes an evening of relaxation at the opera to dine with the Sculptors’ Society, where he may make an address on the vitality of Donatello’s art, with special refer¬ ence to the qualities of architectural sculpture as exemplified at Reims and Athens. On his return home he concludes his day’s labours by revising proofs of a forthcoming article in The Builder on “ The neutralisation of the action of atmo¬ spheric carbon dioxide on building stones ” ; after which he retires to his virtuous couch, and is soon lost in a profound and well-earned slumber. As he sinks to his repose we awaken from our own dream to a realisation of the fact that he has been but a product of our imagination ; for modern conditions have made him impossible. We part from him with reluctance, for he has been a stimulating companion ; but we have taken his measure, and may allow him to depart in peace.
Do not mistake me, gentlemen : it is not the cultivated architect I ridicule, but the impossible product of an imprac¬ ticable scheme of undergraduate professional training. There is something more fundamental than modern in the condi¬ tions which make him impossible. There are two laws of intellectual development which preclude him. First, because critical ability — the power of mental analysis in any art — bears an inverse relation to the power of execution in that art. There are exceptions, it is true, but they remain exceptions. Turner paints and Ruskin expounds. Whistler does both, but his contemporaries are the first to admit that he w'as rara avis , and posterity will confirm their judgment. If Berenson has painted a masterpiece it has not yet been catalogued, and we have yet to hear of an edition of Lhisle des Pingouins w'ith illustrations from the pencil of the distinguished author. In ancient Egypt the king’s architect was a man of war and of affairs w'hose varied activities make his architectural labours seem incidental. This is possibly where the art of building, as in ancient Egypt, has been reduced to its low'est terms. But as art becomes more complex and refined, it compels undivided attention ; and we do not hear that Ictinus distinguished himself in the Euboean campaign.
The operation of the second law is perhaps exaggerated by modern conditions. It has to do with the direct relation between efficiency and specialisation. It was my good fortune during a recent journey to fall in with a distinguished army officer on detached duty at one of the Government’s advanced schools of instruction for officers. It was evident from his conversation that he was not only a man of the highest character, but very skilled in his profession. As a brother pedagogue, I naturally inquired in what subjects he gave instruction in the school. I must confess that I was momen¬ tarily taken aback by his unexpected reply, “ Retreats.” A brief period of reflection served, however, to make clear the vital importance to the soldier of knowing how to safeguard his command in the event of not attaining his objective, and that it is better to learn before rather than afterward. Napo¬ leon, doubtless, could have given valuable advice in this matter on his return from Moscow, but the more modern is the better way. So it is in our own profession, gentlemen.
Modern environment makes it a condition precedent to our attaining the highest degree of success that, w'hile we may know something of many things, we must endeavour to learn everything of something.
A few words more and I am done. First, to remind you that the vast majority of practising architects in America to-day are men who have received no systematic course of training whatever, and who are consequently forced to rely more and more on the trained men from the schools for assist¬ ance. It is upon the skill of these assistants that they specially depend when the importance of the work in hand must meet the requirements of a rapidly-enlightening public opinion in matters of design. Such a state of affairs should make it quite clear that the immediate task of the architectural school is to fit men for such positions and not to repel students seeking a professional training by a prolonged and exacting course of study containing much irrelevant matter, which, if appropriate at all to such a course, should be relegated to the post-graduate curriculum. Those who have proposed the inclusion of such academic and cultural studies in an under¬ graduate course of architectural studies are evidently unaware of the fact, well known to experienced teachers in that field, that of all the courses of study offered in our universities to-day there is none so well adapted to soften the asperities which may have been acquired by the student in previous unfavourable surroundings, and to develop in him a sym¬ pathetic appreciation of all that is best in the world of culture, as is some such course in architecture as that I have proposed. I repeat, with the greatest deliberation and confidence, that as between a course in arts, for example, and a well-balanced course in architecture, the latter will produce in the under¬ graduate student a much higher degree of fundamental culture than the former. The two courses in design and in the history of architecture and the subsidiary arts will have a marvellous effect in that direction. This has been noted by experienced observers in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and striking cases have repeatedly fallen under my own observation here in America. Moreover, to take the student at the age at which he usually enters our professional schools, and devote even two years to sociologic and cultural studies, as has been proposed in one of the schemes I have recorded, is to lose two of the most vital years at his most impressionable age for artistic training. It is between the ages of fifteen and twenty-one that the student can be taught the funda¬ mentals of design, and the earlier the better if he is ever to develop a first-rate capacity in that field. After that it is too late. And, again, men in the Freshmen and Sophomore years in college are not mature enough to derive much benefit from such “ cultural ” courses. If they are to be given at all it should be in a post-graduate year. It is one of the soundest of pedagogical principles that a student does his most effective work in any subject if it is taught to him only after his previous work has shown him his need of it.
In conclusion, permit me one word on the subject of foreign travel No student should regard his professional training as having completed its first stage unless he has spent at least one year abroad, and has especially studied the archi¬ tecture of Italy. Next in importance I rank France and England, but the student should take as wide a swoop at first as is possible, and include in his preliminary survey Con¬ stantinople, Greece, Egypt, and Spain. At some subsequent time he can look at Vienna and some of the German cities, in order that he may make up his mind as to the real value of the Art Nouveau movement ; but modern architecture in German lands, outside of that influence, is a negligible quantity.
Current Architecture.
“REDCOURT,” WHITFIELD, DERBY¬ SHIRE.
Paul Ogden, Architect.
HIS house was built for Dr. and Mrs. Sidebottom of bricks from the Hep- worth Iron Co., Deepcar, near Sheffield, with stone dressings from C h u n a 1 Quarry, near Glossop (a local quarry re - opened for this house). The roof is covered with Yorkshire Grey slate from George Vint Bros., Idle, near Bradford, Yorkshire. The joiners’ work, including the oak panelling, in the staircase, entrance hall, hall, dining-room and drawing-room, and the mantels in the drawing-room and morning-room, is in oak left clean from the tool. This work, also the stone mantels, was executed by the general con¬ tractors. The stone carving was executed by J. J. Millson, City Road, Manchester. The lead lights and iron casements and casement fasteners and door hinges and dog grates and buckets, &c., <Yc., and the bells were all executed by R. L. Williams, of Chester. Part of the furniture was made by Pearson & Brown, of Weaste, near Manchester; and Waring & Gillow, Ltd., Man¬ chester branch, supplied some of the furniture and practically the whole of the drapery and carpets. In addition to the work generally, the mantels, hinges, fire-dogs, fire-irons, casement fasteners, and the whole of the fitments were designed by the architect and executed under his supervision by the above firms. The general contractors were Groom & Co., Ltd., of Bakewell, Derbyshire.
THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM.
Sir Aston Webb, R.A., C.B., Architect.
HE completing buildings were formally opened by His Ma¬ jesty the King on June 26. Designs for these buildings were invited in 1891 from six selected architects, and those submitted by Sir Aston Webb, R.A., C.B., were adopted. No decisive step was taken, however, until 1898, when the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach (now Lord St. Aldwyn), found himself in possession of a Budget surplus, from which he allotted a sum for the erection of the museum, and Sir Aston Webb was instructed to proceed with the plans. The foundation stone was laid by Queen Victoria on May 17, 1899.
The new buildings have a frontage of 720 ft. to Cromwell Road, and 275 ft. to Exhibition Road. The total length of the perimeter of the site is occupied by three storeys of side-lighted galleries, the fourth-floor galleries being top-lighted, while the remainder of the site is covered with top- lighted courts. The total length of these galleries alone is three-quarters of a mile, and, including the long gallery of two floors that runs down the centre of the building, the galleries in the new buildings are just one mile in length, while the top-lighted courts have a superficial area of 6,500 square yards.
The Cromwell Road front, in the centre of which the main entrance is situated, is in a “ flat ” curve, following the line of the road, partly in order to secure a right angle at the corner of Exhibition Road, and partly to bring the building into line with the Natural History Museum. Other considerations that influenced the design were the great mass and height of the old Science building, which suggested the domes on the new, in order to preserve the scale.
'Red court'. Whitfield , Derbyshire.
PAUL OGDEN, ARCHITECT.
Current A rchitecture
39
REDCOURT,” WHITFIELD, DERBYSHIRE.
4o
Current A rchitecture.
PAUL OGDEN, ARCHITECT.
Current A rckitecture,
4i
W
X
H
&
OO
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM. GENERAL VIEW.
42
Current A rchitecture .
t irimmit
THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM. EAST HALL, LOOKING WEST. SIR ASTON WEBB, R.A., C.B., ARCHITECT.
The front is faced with specially selected Port¬ land stone, red brick being freely introduced in frieze and piers in sympathy with the buildings already erected. The sculptured decoration in¬ cludes statues of thirty-two famous British artists and craftsmen, statues of ten craftsmen being on the Exhibition Road front, while facing Cromwell Road are, in the centre, ten painters ; on the west flank, six sculptors, and on the east flank, six
architects. The statues of Millais, Watts, Leigh¬ ton, and Constable were respectively executed by four students of the College of Art under Professor Lanteri ; and two each of the other statues were entrusted to the following sculptors : Messrs. Lynn Jenkins, Paul Montford, S. W. Babb, G. Bayes, A. Broadbent, W. S. Lrith, J. Gamble, E. G. Gillick, A. H. Hodge, A. B. Pegram, J. W. Rollins, R. Shepherd, A. G. Walker, and O.
Curren t A rch itectu re.
43
Wheatley. The figure of Fame on the lantern, and the two figures in the buttresses below — re¬ presenting respectively Architecture and Sculp¬ ture — are by Professor Lanteri, while Mr. Alfred Drury, A.R.A., executed the statue of Queen Victoria, with her supporters, St. Michael and St. George; the statue of the Prince Consort, under the arch; and the figures of Knowledge and Inspiration, one on each side of the entrance; as well as the carved panels in the archivolt, each panel bearing, in letters of gold, a portion of a quotation from Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Discourses : “ The excellence of every Art must consist in the complete accomplishment of its purpose.” The carved spandrels representing Truth and Beauty are by Sir George Frampton, R.A. ; the statues of King Edward VII. and Queen Alexandra by Mr. Goscombe John, R.A. ; and the general architectural carving on the front has been done by Mr. W. S. Frith.
In planning the interior the architect had by no means a free hand, as he was under the neces¬ sity of “ linking up and adapting to the various levels of the old building.” The vestibule, 40 ft. by 40 ft., runs up through two floors of the build¬ ing. The walls are faced with Portland stone, and the ceiling is of teak, carved and inlaid with a holly motif. The floor, composed of Sicilian black, Irish red, and Swedish green marbles, was laid by Burke & Co., who also laid the mosaic pavement in the Persian Court and in the libra¬ ries, &c. Right and left of the vestibule, the staircases leading to the three floors of the side- lighted galleries are lined with Pavonazza marble in flat slabs. The columns are of Brescia, and the steps of piastraccia. The walls of the gal¬ leries and courts, being intended for the exhibi¬ tion of objects, are of course kept perfectly plain, but “ an attempt has been made to prevent weari¬ ness to the visitor by avoiding galleries of undue
First-floor Plan.
CROMWELL ROAD
Ground-floor Plan.
CROMWELL
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM.
SIR ASTON WFBB, R.A., C.B., ARCHITECT.
44
C u rre nt A rch itectu re.
length, by providing vistas and glimpses through the building in passing, and by varying the sizes, proportions, and design of the various courts and galleries.” The long gallery gives easy access to all the courts on each side, and the courts on the north side of the gallery neither oppose barriers to the visitor, nor confuse him as in a maze.
Flanking the domed central hall are the long eastern and western halls, 50 ft. wide, in which the larger architectural exhibits are being placed. The west and east central courts leading from the central court that forms the main entrance to the older portions of the Museum, have their naves and aisles divided by arcades of Basilican types. The naves have Hat ceilings, and the aisles are vaulted. The great octagon court is no ft. in diameter, and 65 ft. high in the centre.
AND ALBERT MUSEUM,
DESIGNED BY
SIR ASTON WEBB, R.A., C.B.
The galleries are 32 ft. wide and 20ft. high, except in the lower ground floor, where they are 18 ft. high. The windows are carried up close to the ceiling, and on this wall the glass area is equal to the wall area, so that the opposite wall is completely lighted. All the walls are lined with Cranham bricks, so that objects may be easily fixed to them, while all walls towards internal courts are built hollow.
The floors of the galleries are of polished teak, those of the courts being paved with marble mosaic, laid out in squares to facilitate the arrange¬
ment of cases and objects. In all there are 7,000 super yards of the mosaic, each yard representing 5,184 cubes. The whole was carried out by the Art Pavements and Decorations, Ltd.
Naturally, the heating and ventilating arrange¬ ments have been devised with extreme care. The heat will be derived from six Lancashire boilers, which have been placed in the basement between the north-west entrance and the College of Science. The Atmospheric Steam Heating Co.’s vacuum system of heating has been installed. Ventilation is on a plenum system, by means of which the air can be changed four times an hour, or more fre¬ quently if necessary.
The whole of the glazing on the roofs of the various courts, including the domes, was carried out by W. E. Rendle & Co., on their “ Invincible ” system mounted on moulded teak bars. The domes were glazed without the use of bent glass.
The general contractors for the foundations and up to the ground floor were Leslie & Co., of Kensington ; and Holliday and Greenwood, of Brixton, erected the superstructure, exe¬ cuted all the woodwork, including the fine teak ceiling, already mentioned, with its carved and inlaid holly decoration, and all the plumbing work.
The show-cases, made by Gardiner, Sons & Co., Ltd., have frames of steel, welded by the Oxy- Acetylene process, and covered with polished bronze facings. They are designed to be abso¬ lutely dust-proof.
The electrical installation was carried out by T. Clarke & Co., and embodies approximately 5,000 lights, 75 miles of wire, and 95,000 ft. of screw galvanised steel tubing. A feature of the wiring is that any of the cables can be easily with¬ drawn and new wires substituted without inter¬ fering with the decorations or flooring. The electric fittings made by the General Electric Co., comprise 300 six-light coronal electroliers in bronze designed by the architect. An illustration of one of these is given ; the lamps are Osram lamps of special shape. In addition there are over 150 brackets of beaten bronze and many single pendants. The narrower galleries are lit by two-light pendants suspended over the cases, and the whole of the fixtures are arranged specially to light up the cases.
Rapidal water paint, in subdued green and ivory tints, has been very largely used for the interior wall-colour effects.
The chief clerk of works was Mr. H. W. Tanner and the general foreman was Mr. J. Farndon.
The following are some of the sub-contractors : — - Mack fire-resisting partition slabs, J. A. King &
C u rre n t A rch i tectu r e
45
THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM. WEST CENTRAL COURT.
46
Current Architecture,
THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM. ENTRANCE HALL, SHOWING STAIRCASE. SIR ASTON WEBB, R.A., C.B., ARCHITECT.
Co., London ; stoneware pipes, &c., Leeds Fire¬ clay Co., and Doulton & Co. ; interior brick lining to walls, Sankey & Sons ; cement, Asso¬ ciated Portland Cement Co. ; electric installation, including the fixing of fittings, arc lamps, &c., T. Clarke & Co. ; electric fittings, General Electric Co., Ltd., and Strode & Co. ; ornamental metal¬ work and casements, Hart, Son, Peard & Co. ; ironwork, St. Pancras Ironwork Co.; ironmongery
and sliding doors, Chas. Smith, Sons & Co. ; drainage, Burn Brothers ; rain-water pipes, &c., W. Macfarlane & Co. ; armoured fireproof doors, Mather and Platt ; hydrants, Simpson & Co. ; suspended ceilings and steelwork encasing, A. & j. Main, Ltd.; ornamental plasterwork, Broms- grove Guild of Applied Arts, G. P. Bankart, J. Bickley ; paint, R. Gay & Co., Ltd.; water paint, Rapidal Paint Co. ; granite entrance
C urren t A rch it e ctur e.
4 7
THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM. GALLERY ON FIRST FLOOR ( I 1 4 ON PLAN). SIR ASTON WEBB, R.A., C.B., ARCHITECT.
steps, Fenning & Co. ; slates, Old Delabole Slate Co. ; roof glazing, W. E. Rendle & Co. ; general glazing, Pilkington Brothers ; electric lifts, General Electric Co., R. Waygood & Co. ; fireplaces, Shuffrey & Co. ; service lifts, George Johnson ; revolving doors, Van Kannell Revolving Door Co. ; outside paving, Hard York Non-slip Paving Co. ; marble, Farmer and
Brindley, Walton, Goody & Cripps, Burke & Co.; show-cases, Gardiner, Sons & Co.; mosaic work, The Art Pavements and Decorations, Ltd. ; the atmospheric steam heating system, by Jeffrey & Co. ; expanded metal lathing for plasterwork, and three-inch mesh lathing for concrete reinforce¬ ment, Expanded Metal Co. ; “ Silex ” stone for staircases, Brookes, Ltd.
Current A rckitecture
48
THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM. MAIN ENTRANCE. SIR ASTON WEBB, R.A., C.B.,
ARCHITECT.
Current A rchitecture.
49
HAMMERSMITH PUBLIC BATHS.
J. Ernest Franck, Architect.
HE Public Baths and Wash¬ houses built for the Borough Council of Hammersmith occupy a site that is of irre¬ gular shape, though of ample area. While the total depth of the site is about 520 ft., the frontage on the east side is only 70 ft., whereas the width on the west is nearly twice as great ; and the difficulties of plan¬ ning were increased by the necessity for observing certain prescriptive requirements with respect to rights of light, as well as several conditions of an agreement between the London County Council and the Borough Council.
The accommodation comprises : First - class swimming pond, 105 ft. by 34 ft. ; second-class swimming pond, 100 ft. by 30 ft.; sixty-three slipper and lassar baths ; public washhouse fitted with thirty washing stalls, thirty drying horses, and three hydro extractors, ironing room, estab¬ lishment laundry, boiler-house with coal bunkers, engine room, engineers’ workshop and store, three ticket offices, male and female staff mess rooms, club and waiting rooms, superintendent’s resi¬ dence, and engineer’s residence.
The bold design of the main arched-roof princi¬ pals over the first-class pond was rendered possi¬ ble by the adoption of reinforced concrete. The use of steel stanchions would have necessitated projections from the wall ; but with the adoption of reinforced concrete the stanchions or continua¬ tion of the main ribs were divided at the level of the roofs of the corridors, were carried across them in an arched formation, were continued to the ground-floor level on each side of the corridor, and joined again beneath the ground-floor, the lower portions of these stanchions thus becoming box¬ shaped. The architect considered that even if the roof trusses had been carried out in steel and covered with 2 in. of some non-conducting exter¬ nal coating, such a structure would be less fire- resisting than ferro-concrete, and the ribs showing in the ceiling of this bath are true structurally. Moreover, steel roof trusses would have required periodical painting ; but with reinforced concrete the necessity for maintenance hardly arises.
The frontages are faced with red brick with Portland stone dressings. The roof is covered with Precelly slating. The inner wall-faces of the swimming-bath, the public washhouse, and the establishment laundry, are of glazed brickwork, while the cornices, architraves, and dressings to the windows of the first-class bath are of Carrara Ware. The private baths, corridors, and other rooms are
finished with dadoes in glazed bricks to various heights, the upper portions of the walls being finished in sirapite. The front portion of the en¬ trance corridors in Lime Grove, and the entertain¬ ment entrance hall and corridor club-room No. 1, have dadoes carried out in plain coloured tiling from special designs by the architect. The gangways of the swimming-baths are covered with non-slipping rubber tiles.
In the washousesthe sides and backs of the par¬ titions to each stall are constructed for an ex¬ haust vapour pipe to be carried the whole length of each range of stalls into extract ducts formed in the wall, the floor of the washhouse being formed to give a fall to this pipe for draining any condensation water. A separate connection is taken from each boiler into the main exhaust pipe, and by this means the washhouse is kept entirely free from steam.
The general contractors were Dearing & Sons, of Clarence Works, Halliford Street, N. The following are some of the sub-contractors : The Expanded Metal Co., Ltd., of Westminster, were the sub-contractors for the whole of the reinforced concrete construction, except the con¬ crete foundation rafts under the chimney and other portions of the building, which rafts were reinforced with expanded steel, and constructed by the general contractors. The reinforced con¬ crete work comprised the two swimming ponds, an elevated storage tank of 22,850 gallons capacity; nine arched roof principals (50 ft. clear span), cantilever gallery round the pond (without any column supports), and the floors and flat roofs throughout the building. The reinforcement throughout was expanded steel of various strengths, and Kahn trussed bars supplied by the Trussed Concrete Steel Co., of London. The “ Ferro- crete ” brand of Portland cement, supplied by the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers, Ltd., was used throughout. The whole of the bath fittings were supplied by Doulton & Co., of Lam¬ beth. The electric light fittings were supplied by F. & C. Osier, and Fittings, Ltd. Glazed bricks, lining to swimming ponds, and porcelain baths, The Farnley Iron Co. ; T.L.B. facing bricks to front, T. Lawrence & Sons, Bracknell ; tiling to entrance corridors, Craven Dunnill & Co. ; tiling to bath gangways, Pilkington Tile & Pottery Co. ; plasterwork to barrel ceiling over main baths, F. de Jong & Co., Camden Town ; fire¬ grates and mantels, Bratt Colbran & Co. ; light¬ ning conductors, Joseph Lewis; drainage fittings, John Jones (Chelsea), Ltd. The whole of the general engineering scheme, and the fittings to the public washhouse, establishment laundry, ironing room, etc., were in the hands of J. & D. Tullis, Ltd.
50
Current A rclntecture.
ERNEST FRANCK, ARCHITECT.
Current A rchitecture ,
Si
ERNEST FRANCK, ARCHITECT.
The Committee for the Survey of the Memorials of Greater London.
E of the most useful hand¬ maids to all scientific re¬ search, next in importance to the indispensable art of printing, is that arrangement and classification of writings which is known as biblio¬ graphy. Of recent institu¬ tion it has yet had a phenome¬ nal growth, and has become a minor science in i i self with its own special laws and conditions. No sure advance can be made in any department of knowledge unless the great mass of information which has already been collected in printed volumes is made easily available for reference, and although a universal library, arranged in the most perfect manner, will not of itself produce genius or even intelligence in the student, jet the greatest minds need this aid, in order to use profitably the com¬ plicated literature of the present day.
One of the newest sciences, the science— or should we say the philosophy — of history has the greatest need of the help of bibliography, and it is the one that is perhaps the most ill supplied. It is true that there are immense bibliographies of special periods and special personalities, and it is no doubt because of its vast range that historical work still requires so much from the compiler of indexes and calendars. But perhaps nowhere in the whole field of historical research is this lack so much felt as in the department that deals with topography. From their very nature topographi¬ cal writings are spasmodic and ill-arranged. The associations which linger about places and build¬ ings, from the people and the events that have been known or seen within them, have always had sufficient interest to find their chroniclers, but these local historians have hidden their informa¬ tion in obscure books, or have dis| ersed their
observations among volumes dealing with widely different subjects. Yet the facts which have been thus relegated to an undeserved obscurity are often such as serve to determine important points in general and national historv.
The topographical history of London has been written in a thousand different ways. From the time of Stow, unnumbered citizens, who have felt an interest in their great city exceeding that of the parsing moment, have added to its records. And beside this, maps, plans, engravings, and — in the past few years — photographs have been made illustrating the changes that are always taking place. Some efforts have been made, too, towards collecting these things. We have at the British Museum the Crace collection and the numerous drawings in the King’s Library. At the Guildhall is the wonderful grangerised edition of Lysons’ Environs, full of original information. Among the contents of the Soane Museum is a large collection of topographical drawings, and the “ Fauntleroy ” Pennant, another grangerised edition. And at the libraries of the Society of Antiquaries, the Royal Institute of British Archi¬ tects, and those of such local bodies as the Bishopsgate Institute and the Borough of Chelsea, there is a great store of these valuable illustrations. And in addition to these there are many private collections of first-rate if not of paramount importance, such as that left bv the late Mr. Gardner, which even rivals the Crace.
This work of illustration and record, of which the past results are in so many repositories of learning, is still being done by many different organisations, and the need for some attempt at bringing it all together for practical use is becom¬ ing every day more pressing. It is a question that our Survey Committee is anxiously consider¬ ing, and in our notes of next month we may perhaps discuss some possi¬ ble method of solution. Our mostdiffi- cult task is to convince those who are sceptical of the value of this work. It isoften said that the current fashion of admiring the “ antique,” and of treasuring the legacies from past ages — whether of art or of mere ob¬ jects of utility — will die away and give place to a keener interest in the present. But there is something of more permanent and real signifi¬ cance underlying this homage to the past. History is the only teacher of the world, for it is experience writ large, and generalised into great and lasting principles. And as we have said before in these notes, there can never be any true conception of the present without a proper conscious¬ ness of what the past can teach us, when it is intelligently and sympa¬ thetically studied.
Walter H. Godfrey.
Photo : F. R. Taylor (Survey Committee).
DETAIL OF FRIEZE, CHIMNEYPIECE : BRENT HOUSE, BRENTFORD (RECENTLY DEMOLISHED).
THE ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW, AUGUST, I909. VOLUME XXVI. NO. 153.
LECCE: TRIUMPHAL ARCH IN MEMORY OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES V.
DRAWN BY MARTIN SHAW BRIGGS.
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture
xxxvi.
VVROUGHT-IRON STAIR RAIL. THE MARKET HOUSE, ORTA, ITALY.
VOL. XXVI. — D 2
56 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXVI.
Plan.
WROU GHT-IRON STAIR RAIL. THE MARKET HOUSE, ORTA, ITALY. MEASURED AND DRAWN BY FRANCIS BACON, JUN.
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — A AAY 1/ I. 57
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WROUGHT-IRON STAIR RAIL. DETAIL OF PANEL. THE MARKET HOUSE, ORTA, ITALY.
MEASURED AND DRAWN BY FRANCIS BACON, JUN.
58 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXVI ,
WROUGHT-IRON GATE, BAVENO, ITALY.
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXVI.
59
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6o The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXVI ,
OAK STAIRCASE FROM 28, MARGARET STREET, W. DETAILS OF PLASTERWORK, ETC.
PLcrfAQ CSILIJVG.
The Practical Rxemplar of A rchitecture. — XXX VI. 6 1
MEASURED AND DRAWN UV CHARLES D. CARUS WILSON.
62 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXVI.
SCCTIGX af XT- B.
OAK STAIRCASE FORMERLY AT 28, MARGARET STREET, W. MEASURED AND DRAWN BY CHARLES D. CARUS WILSON.
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXVI. 63
UCTX1LS afXCWCL , KJILVSTE%S eft
OAK STAIRCASE FORMERLY AT 28, MARGARET STREET, W. MEASURED AND DRAWN BY CHARLES D. CARUS WILSON.
64 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXVI.
HE wrought-iron stair rail from Orta shows what can be done with limited means. Nothing could be much simpler. Curi¬ ously interesting is the diver¬ sity shown in the design of the panels, and the shifts to work it to the rake of the stair, keeping the middle scrolls horizontal. Clasps fasten the scrolls to the uprights and to one another. A pleasant feature is the little copper hnials. From a constructional point of view the bottom rail is a good idea, doing away with much cutting into the stonework, as only inter¬ mediate standards require to be mortised into the stone. The gate from Baveno is an extremely fanciful piece of ironwork ; the scrollwork at the foot is pleasantly designed, but it is the disposi¬ tion of the great sweeping scrolls that gives the gate its individuality. As a rule Italian ironwork is much more playful than English work, and dis¬ plays an abandon beyond the scope of our black¬ smiths. 1 he window balcony, “ Practical Exem
plar XXV,” from Orta, is typical. Here both on plan and elevation the ironwork runs riot, yet the effect is extremely pleasant. Where the scrolls cross one another they are halved and riveted, and where they merely touch a clasp joins them. Unlike much Georgian ironwork, a bottom rail is always introduced. The railing of the bridge near San Lio, Venice, “ Practical Exemplar XXXI,” is another interesting ex¬ ample. One piece of metal is used to form the main scroll, and little circles are introduced under the handrail, making a kind of border. To-day in many Italian towns blacksmiths are forging iron to these traditional designs.
A fair example of an eighteenth-century stair¬ case is that formerly at 28, Margaret Street. It has been re-erected in Mr. Mervyn Macartney’s house at Woolhampton. The balusters are ar¬ ranged in the usual way in groups of three, and the carved spandrel is another typical feature. A poor section has been used for the handrail. The whole is in oak. Unfortunately the plasterwork was entirely ruined in removal.
Notes of the Month.
A Ministry of Fine Arts — The Doric Style — Albert Diirer — English Bridge , Shrewsbury — School of Architecture , University of Liverpool — Some Modern Sculpture — The National Competitions , 1909.
T the International Congress of Architects held in Vienna last year one of the subjects of debate was the advisability of establishing a Ministry of Fine Arts, and it wasresolved : “ That every government be urgently requested to establish a Ministry of Fine Arts, or at least a Section which shall deal with subjects relating to the arts. To such Ministry or Section shall be attached artists of reputation. Since Architecture can be con¬ sidered the leading art, architects shall be in a majority. The work of this Ministry or of this Section shall be the advancement and encourage¬ ment of the Fine Arts in all their branches.” We did not allow ourselves to entertain any hope for our country, but we did for America. And we think with good reason : for towards the end of the year President Roosevelt took the first step towards the institution of a Bureau of Fine Arts by asking the American Institute of Architects to nominate
thirty men of national reputation to form a Coun¬ cil of P'ine Arts. It was recommended that it should be composed of architects, painters, land¬ scape architects, and laymen, and should have for an executive head the supervising architect of the Treasury. A selection was made immediately by the Institute, and the President issued an execu¬ tive order directing that “all heads of departments take no steps towards formulating plans for any buildings or grounds, the erection or location of any statue,” without first submitting the question to the Council of the Fine Arts.
It should be of interest to us to know the names of the men who compose this Council. We may add that we think the selection a wise one. A few of the names are not exactly of the kind called household, but the majority are more than familiar. They are as follows : — Architects : Cass Gilbert, C. Grant La Farge, Walter Cook, William A. Boring, S. Breck Trowbridge, John Galen Howard, Thomas R. Kimball, George B. Post, Arnold W. Brunner and Charles F. McKim,
Notes of the Month .
of New York ; John Rush Marshall and Glenn Brown of Washington ; John L. Mauran and William S. Eames of St. Louis ; Daniel H. Burnham and William Bryce M undie of Chicago; John M. Donaldson of Detroit ; Robert S. Pea¬ body and C. Howard Walker of Boston ; Abram Garfield of Cleveland ; Frank Miles Day of Phila¬ delphia. Painters : John La Farge, Francis D. Millet, Edwin Howland Blashfield, and Kenyon Cox. Sculptors : Daniel Chester French, Herbert Adams, H. A. MacNiel, and Karl T. Bitter. Landscape Architect: Frederick Law Olmstead, junr.
The province of this body is to advise upon the character and design of all public works of archi¬ tecture, painting, and sculpture, all monuments, parks, bridges, and all works of which design forms an integral part, and to make suggestions and recommendations for all historic monuments.
We have waited eagerly to hear of the enact¬ ment of a law which would have given permanent effect to the President’s order. But instead we hear of the abolition of the Council at the instance of the new President. Whether its abolition is intended to be permanent, or whether President Taft is justifying his reputation for diplomacy, and purposes only a change in methods, time alone will show. We understand there was much opposition to the measure in Congress, and perhaps policy necessitated its withdrawal.
The advisability of the creation of a Minister of the Fine Arts has been considered in this country, but opinion was much divided among architects.
We certainly should not like to see the authority this post would confer in the hands of one man, but in those of a committee we think it would be beneficial and altogether to the advancement of architecture.
* * * *
N nothing more than in the choice of her sites did Greece display her love for the beauti¬ ful. To her, beauty was a vivi¬ fying influence like the sun, therefore she set her gleaming temples high up upon a hill-side, as in Sicily, or on the summit of a rock, as in Athens, to be seen shining from afar off, bestowing a gracious pleasure on the dwellers beneath.
The Akropolis at Athens, the wonderful sites at Girgenti, Segesta, and Silenus in Sicily, show how wise was her choice. The former is a long narrow rock raised above the city. Temples from time immemorial had been built here before the crowning glory of the Parthenon. Segesta was built on a lonely rock nearly a thousand feet above
65
the sea. At Silenus the temples were placed on two hills looking over to Africa, and Girgenti lies on a great hill-side overlooking the Mediterranean.
All were chosen to the end that the temples might be splendidly founded, that the noblest spots on the earth might become their pedestals, whence were raised their fair unsullied fronts facing the dawn.
To no other nation has an aesthetic sense of so much keenness been dowered. In the case of the Greeks their clearness of vision amounted to a new sense.
Rome, with seven hills from which to choose, placed her buildings in a valley. To-day we hide our churches in the midst of mean surroundings.
But to the Greeks beauty was a palpable thing, as we have said, necessary to their life like the sun, and no colony considered itself settled until it had raised a temple to itself. If inferior to the Athenian examples in the last refinements of art, the colonial temples were scarcely less beautiful.
Quite recently a remarkable series of drawings by M. Hulot showing a restoration of Selinus were exhibited in London, and were reproduced by the Royal Institute in their Journal. The temples were in the Doric style, and one of them, probably the largest ever built, was of colossal dimensions, the pillars were over fifty-three feet in height and some eleven feet in diameter.
Now they all lie bestrewing the earth, archi¬ trave, cornice, capital, and pillar, bleaching among the olives and the asphodel. Sitting by the ruins one wonders how they were raised up, how these huge capitals (the abacus and echinus in one) were swung into position sixty feet from the ground, how those gigantic architraves were placed on them, how the crowning cornice and pediment were fixed. Now, where once the bustling activity of man reared these great monuments, silence reigns, and the lizard blinks sleepily on antique marbles under the blazing noontide.
The Doric, the great style of the Greeks, wherever it is found, is marked by a noble simplicity, a quiet grandeur and a lucidity of articulation, which, like all sublime things, impresses the imagination at once.
Other nations have built more ambitiously, none ever half so beautifully. The simplest elements were chosen — a pillar and a beam (the tomb of Beni-Hassan may be a prototype, as may any pre¬ historic builder’s shed raised on two posts) — and out of these raised up a marvel.
The full wonder and beauty of these edifices was scarcely appreciated till Penrose published his elaborate measurements of the Parthenon, which revealed a refinement of proportion and design undreamed of before. A Greek temple has the
66
Notes of the Month.
simplest plan it is possible to conceive — a paral¬ lelogram divided into two unequal chambers and surrounded by a peristyle. The arrangement of the elevations, too, is of the last simplicity, but behind this lies a subtlety far surpassing anything to be found in the art of any other people. Vaster buildings of a more grave simplicity, with gigantic pillars in close serried rows, were raised by the Egyptians to overpower the imagination ; the Romans spanned great spaces with soaring vaults and made vast aqueducts which ran like Titanic galloping horses over leagues of country, and the mediaeval builders, with their aspirations, were al¬ lowed to touch the heavens with their spires ; but only the Greek builders were able by sheer beauty of proportion, by the just disposition and balance of parts, to move the soul, through the senses, to great conceptions of harmony, proportion, sweet¬ ness, and light.
The constructional problem which Greek archi¬ tects set themselves was a simple one and easily solved, but workmanship more accurate than had ever been before or since was required to compass its complete expression. The nice adjustment of stone to stone in the secret chambers of the Great Pyramid is elementary compared to the exactitude displayed in the setting of the marble of the Parthenon. To fit accurately the marbles forming the podium to a rise of a fraction of an inch ; to make the blocks meet accurately, bearing at all points like the voussoirs of an arch ; to com¬ pass the marvel of the gradual curved progression in the reduction of the columns, must have neces¬ sitated a skill in the workmen more perfect than that required to fit the most intricate machinery.
A like refinement is everywhere visible. No¬ thing is exactly what it seems. The pillars appear to be vertical ; in reality they lean inwards. To the eye their spacing is equidistant, but the angle pillars are set closer to their fellows. The sides and ends of the podium on which the peristyle stands is formed with a slight upper curvature (we have always thought the mitring of these two curves an extremely nice undertaking), to which the underside of the architrave runs paral¬ lel in the form of a flat arch. It can easily be imagined that these refinements were not under¬ taken without reason. It had been observed that a long straight line appears to sag in the middle, and the actual convexity given to the platform was to make it appear straight. Pillars with straight sides would appear top heavy, and even if reduced at the capital would seem concave without the added graciousness of an entasis.
These alterations were made to correct a carefully analysed optical illusion.
The labour, the expense, the trouble entailed by these refinements is hardly possible to estimate,
but it was undertaken in that search for perfection which the keen vision of the Greeks demanded. We should expect from this to find the same subtlety displayed in the created forms of the Doric style.
If we examine it we shall find every part inspired by this search after perfection. The curves of the crowning members of the cornice, of the echinus, of the flutes of the pillars, are cut to exquisite profiles. The design of the entablature, its details of triglyph and guttae, are of the utmost reserve and beauty.
It has been said that a Doric temple without its sculpture were nothing ! We cannot admit it. Even lifeless copies — the monument on Calton Hill, Edinburgh, and the front of Euston Station — • are not without dignity.
And the ancient buildings themselves, shorn of their sculpture, riven in sunder by earthquakes, wrecked by the thoughtlessness of man, by their majesty, the lucidity of their expression, still fill us with infinite pleasure.
It may be asked what it will profit a man to study this style. For one thing he will learn to distrust so-called originality. This style was not evolved in a night’s vague dreaming ; for before the Parthenon the Hekatompedos was built, and before that — who knows ?
To one educated in the exuberant fancies of Northern architecture, the Doric style is at first a mockery — till with contemplation its utter naked¬ ness becomes a symbol of the highest art. It is useful to know that by subtraction instead of addition (almost the invariable rule of modern archi¬ tecture) great conceptions are possible, and that through simplicity the senses may be exquisitely moved.
No more beautiful sculptures than those of Phideas have ever been made. His great statue of Athenae has perished, but the external sculp tures exist at our very doors. At present we do not intend to write of these calm and stately figures. They were added graces to the Doric style. The column itself rising direct from its marble platform, soaring upwards in a fine sweep and spreading out delicately under the square abacus, always suggests to us the hand of some huge Titan, for strength ; for beauty we can think of few things to which it may be compared. The curve of the flutings filled with light and shade, their finish under the capital, the contour of the echinus, the strange fancy of the annulets, move us like music. A master-touch is the disposition of the triglyphs at the angle missing the centre of the outermost pillar.
Beyond its refinements a Doric temple is bound together by the noble sweep of its unbroken cor¬ nice and its ends accentuated by the pediments.
Notes of the Month.
The deep shadow steals down among the me¬ topes, across the triglyphs, then the long unbroken sweep of the plain architrave interposes between that shadow and the greater one under the peri¬ style. Lucidity and a calm grandeur are the very essence of the Doric style ; they are qualities which we should endeavour to add to our work.
* * * *
W artists have given more pleasure to generations of men than has Albert Dtirer; certainly no signature in the whole world of art is so familiar as his monogram, the large and wide A with a small D placed within it, with which he invariably signed his work.
He was born at Nuremberg in 1471, some twenty- six years before his great contemporary — Holbein. In the print-room of the British Museum there is at present exhibited a fine collection of Dtirer’s works, consisting of original drawings, engravings on metal, etchings, drypoints, and woodcuts.
Engraving and woodcutting are become to-day purely mechanical, and photography is fast super¬ seding them for the reproduction of paint ings, &c. Such things as original engravings and woodcuts are almost unknown. What splendid vehicles they were in the hands of Dtirer the present exhibition shows.
Melanchthon said that his least merit was his art. The great soul of the artist is expressed through his work ; his devoutness and kindness of heart are apparent in all of it.
Although the new learning holds him in thrall, mediaeval ideals are still strong, and much of his work shows the two influences side by side. That fine engraving, “The Knight, Death, and the Devil ” (1513), is in some sort a memento mori, which it was the desire of the Renascence to forget ; but the delight and power shown in depicting the glorious trappings of life, and the knowledge of form, are far beyond mediaeval strivings. A Knight armed cap-a-pie and strongly mounted on a beau¬ tifully caparisoned horse, both vibrant with the pride and joy of life, is riding out to war, and behind him two ill-favoured attendants ride on equally ill-favoured animals. Death is first, his horrid skull grinning out on the Knight ; behind, grotesque and terrible, comes the Devil, and under the horse the Knight’s dog is running. The background is composed of a fantastic landscape, trees and hills and houses and castles perched perilously on jutting rocks of the kind that Dtirer loved so much.
There is a fine dignity about this work — the serene and noble bearing of the Knight, his courage
67
not to fear Death, his strength to resist the Devil, carry it out of the region of the morbid and terrible.
Splendid in conception, it is in execution no less fine ; power of drawing, power of imagining, power of execution in a most difficult medium, make it one of the memorable things in art.
“Adam and Eve ” is another splendid engraving. A great rarity, a trial proof is shown, and nothing could give a better idea of Diirer’s power of draw¬ ing. Part of the engraving is fairly well advanced — the background and the figure of Adam ; but of Eve only the outline is engraved. There are few things that can vie with this outline, at once so firm, so true, so delicate. The French Ingres had a fine sense for line, but nothing quite so exquisite as this.
Nothing beyond the outline is suggested, yet we feel the pliant Eve to be there. Many of the engravings depict religious subjects — the Virgin on a crescent, with a crown, with a child, &c., all inspired by a tender and devout imagination and a splendid technique.
Dtirer understood the limits of the various vehicles of his expression, consequently he never attempted to reach the minute finish in his wood- cuts that he attained to in his engravings on metal, nor in either of these did he attempt to rival the freedom of his drawings on paper. The largest woodcut is about ten feet by nine feet, made up of ninety-two blocks. This “ Gate of Honour,” in the form ofa Roman triumphal arch, was designed in honour of the Emperor Maximilian and the Hapsburgs, and is a huge monument of mistaken industry. But the others, portraits, history pieces, designs, many and varied as they are, are all excellent. Some drawings copied from the “ Tarocchi di Mantegna,” a series of Ferrarese engravings, are shown, together with engravings made from them. It is curious to notice how much the drawings lose in freedom in their trans¬ lation to the metal.
There are some fine life-studies, “Apollo and Diana ” among them. There is a study in ink for the engraving of “ The Prodigal Son,” and a sheet of drawings of the arms and hands of Adam. A portrait of “ Veronica, wife of the wood engraver Hieronymus Andrea ” (1525), with a black back¬ ground, is characteristic, although it reminds one somewhat of Holbein’s portrait-drawings at Windsor. Three excellent portraits in silver point are also of the collection. He was extremely interested in all manifestations of life, and curious after monstrosities. The “ Monstrous Pig ” is a kind of joined twin animal with additional legs sticking in the air, not at all pleasant to look at. He was, besides, a designer of exuberant fancy in gold and silver — spoons, vases, and ornaments of various kinds he devised ; and his designs for a
68
Notes of the Month.
boathook, a life-belt for a swimming horse, a fan¬ tastic leather shoe, amply testify to the curiosity of his nature.
There is little doubt that the collection is most representative of this great artist, the “ evangelist of art,” and well worth study. There is an oil- painting by Utirer in the National Gallery, but it is necessary to travel to Berlin, Munich, and Vienna to see this side of his genius.
■JK1 ■?[£■
E proposed widening of the English Bridge, Shrewsbury, gives rise to serious misgiv¬ ings. It consists of seven arches with rusticated vous- soirs, with acornice and balus- trading and projecting piers between the arches. The centre of the bridge is marked by a small pedi¬ ment, and each arch is accentuated by an orna¬ mental keystone. It was built in 1774 from designs by John Gwynne, R.A. (whose portrait, by Zoffany, is in the local museum), and is a tine specimen of an eighteenth-century stone bridge.
It is purposed to widen it by throwing out canti¬ levers of reinforced concrete and carrying on them the footwalk and balustrading. It is sincerely to be hoped that before proceeding with the alteration authoritative advice will be sought and that the aesthetic point of view will be considered. The cost of widening the arches and refacing with the old stone is said to be prohibitive. We hope, in spite of this, that some method will be discovered by which utility may be served without any artis¬ tic loss to the ancient town of Shrewsbury.
E have just received the pro¬ spectus of the School of Architecture of the University of Liverpool. The teaching of design at this school is based on the methods of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and on those of the great American Schools of Architecture, adapted to meet our somewhat different requirements. For while' the student is taught design on the basis of academic monumental planning in order to equip him to attack great problems when occasion offers, an attempt is also made to give him an intimate knowledge of materials and construction, which count for so much in our domestic work.
With this double end in view, the student, after his first year spent in the study of construction and the elements of architectural proportion, passes to problems of design, alternately of a constructional and monumental character.
This part of the work is carried out in the studio under instruction, and lecture courses are arranged to run parallel to it.
We feel that too much attention cannot be given by teachers to monumental planning, for by continual practice in this mode of design their students will inevitably acquire an alertness of conception, an easy expression, and a grasp of the essentials of architecture. And they will learn to despise the meritricious and the merely clever. Almost certainly in these days, without the sure direction given by a school such as this, the student will become enamoured of these latter qualities, for most of the work with which he comes in con¬ tact is inspired by them. Professor Reilly is
ENGLISH BRIDGE, SHREWSBURY, WHICH IT IS PROPOSED TO WIDEN.
DESIGNED BY JOHN GWYNNE, R.A., IN 1 774.
69
Notes of
certainly to be congratulated on the lead he is taking in these matters. The architecture of the future lies to a great extent in the hands of teachers, and at least in Liverpool the reins are being admirably guided. A new departure this year is the department of Civic Design, of which Professor Adshead is chief. So that we think we are justified in expecting well of this school, and we shall expect to see its students among the prize-winners at the Royal Institute.
In a great many ways the system of education is a vast improvement on the older one. For nothing here is left to chance, whereas in the other the success or failure depends less on the ability of the individual student than on that of his master; and as he is seldom in a position to judge, in nine cases out of ten he is left to pick up what knowledge he can from working among inferior or bad work. Professor Reilly is an enthusiast, and judging from the work of his students brings them along with him.
# * * *
OT only in the conception of great schemes of building, but also in the smaller designs, in which sculpture forms the chief part, do we lag lamentably behind the French. Our national as well as our individual memorials are as a rule feeble in conception, and there is only one monument of the nineteenth century to which we could direct the attention of a dis¬ criminating foreigner with any feeling of pride.
We refer to Stevens’s monument to the Duke of Wellington in St. Paul's Cathedral. Here is a noble architectural conception, with fine sculpture subordinate to its main idea. A monument of this nature is usually taken by the sculptor as an excuse for an equestrian statue, with, if funds per¬ mit, detached figures placed at random round the base. The Wellington monument at Hyde Park Corner is essentially Britannic in its uninspired dullness. In the St. Paul’s monument, while retaining the usual feature of the equestrian statue, it is made the culminating point of a splendid design. In his conception Stevens was twice able to introduce the figure to whom the monument is dedicated. The recumbent effigy under the canopy fits its position and helps to build up a great design, while the symbolic figures mid¬ way up on either side complete a noble conception. From a study of this monument, as of all the great ones of which we have knowledge, it appears that the idea of a memorial must be in the main architectural, to which the figures give point and
the Month.
meaning. This is not a plea for the architect, but for architecture. The sculptor should realise the necessity fora knowledge of monumental architec¬ ture, for with this his sculptor’s conception would have twice its value.
As a rule detached figures do not make effective monuments, and the French practice of setting a portrait bust on a pedestal gives the sculptor a chance to decorate his base with symbolic figures. Another advantage of this method of design ob¬ viates the necessity of portraying the garments of to-day. Sculpture since its beginning con¬ cerned itself only with beauty of form and ex¬ pression.
To Phideas violent emotion and action seemed incompatible with beauty, and he eliminated it. It is true the scope of sculpture in this respect is enlarged. Strong action and a personal element were added, but its chief end — -beauty of form — is the same for all time.
Thin draperies do not hide, but sometimes enhance form ; but a frock coat hides and destroys
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MEMORIAL CROSS.
CROSLAND McCLURE, SCULPTOR.
VOL. XXVI. — E
7 o
Notes of the Month.
it. This is a fetish of the British public, to see its public men perpetuated in this abominable garment. The French system, while satisfying the public, also fulfils the function of art.
Our war memorials are equally distressing. Soldiers in khaki, posturing violently, disfigure most of our towns, and it is pleasant to find one which departs from these methods. T he Leices¬ tershire Memorial was unveiled at Leicester recently by Field Marshal Lord Grenfell, who found it unusual and the most beautiful with which he had been associated.
The centre figure represents Peace taking away the sword of War and offering the olive branch. The side groups represent War and Grief — in the garments of the first Fire and Famine are hiding, and two figures, one in wild appeal and the other dumb with grief, represent the latter.
The whole idea of the design is, we think, extremely good. The memorial cross, too, is excellent in design, and is a welcome change after the tiresome marbles to which we are accustomed. Mr. Crosland M'Clure apparently owes some of his inspiration to the French School. Perhaps it is a sign of change, and that we are entering a phase of art when the limits of sculpture are properly understood ; perhaps only a detached performance. In the meantime we congra¬ tulate this young sculptor on his taste and ability.
N exhibition of considerable interest to architectural stu¬ dents is that of the drawings and designs entered for the National Competition 1909. Unfortunately the archi¬ tectural works are not of great merit, but the student will see much that may serve as a warning. The ability to make clever coloured drawings does not make an architect. Unfortunately mere cleverness is rampant, and several drawings are quite absurd examples of misdirected tuition. In other de¬ partments much excellent work is shown. Mr. Frederick Carter is the author of some extremely imaginative pen-and-ink drawing, which shows the greatest promise. Fine modelled studies of a grape-vine from nature by William Harding and of the foxglove by Alice Dickinson are exhibited. Some of the jewellery is very good, notably some brooches by Thomas Cuthbertson, Constance Carter, Evelyn Frank, and Bernard Instone, a silver coffee-pot by Albert Gladman, a silver- mounted comb set with stones by Herschel Warnes, and a pretty pendant by Florence Milnes, a silver sugar basin by Clarence Frayn, and a silver cream jug by Kathleen Cavenagh. The exhibits gain by being made in a workmanlike manner, and the usual epithet of amateurishness can¬ not be applied. They are besides inspired by
MONUMENT TO THE MEMORY OF THE LEICESTERSHIRE MEN WHO FELL IN SOUTH AFRICA.
CROSLAND MCCLURE, SCULPTOR.
Notes of the Month.
traditional methods of design and are really pleasant things.
A pretty embroidered cut work is exhibited, a coverlet by Alice Warner, and a pleasant design for an embroidered portiere by Malcolm Gray. A railing of wrought iron by George Skilbeck, a piece of heraldic glass by Margaret Rope, and wine glasses by Amy Greenfield, show the scope of the exhibition. Alfred Hill has a fine tile panel, well painted and glazed, after the manner of De Morgan.
We have mentioned only a few of the exhibits
7 1
that more particularly caught the eye. With mere designs for things we have little interest, for trifles of jewellery, leather works, and all the more dainty manifestations of art depend to a great extent on workmanship. Great ability is displayed in crafts¬ manship, and traditional work is being used more and more for models. L’art nouveau is quite dead. We feel it to be a great pity that all this talent cannot be organised to the improvement of our domestic arts. Many of these exhibits we would willingly possess, to the end that a fragrance be added to our immediate intimate surroundings.
Lecce.— III.
HE church of the Benedettini (Fig. 12) was founded by the Jesuits in 1575 ; it passed to the Benedettini Neri of Montescagliose in 1784, and by various decrees at the sup¬ pression of religious orders, between 1807 and 1816, was given to the city as law courts. The Benedettini on their arrival built the beautiful walnut choir. Thefaqade is saved from the defects of SS. Nicolo and Cataldo by the connecting cornice, and has many good points. The detail is less eccentric than in some of the other buildings, and except for the large broken pediment is very pleasing.
Fig. 13. — Church of the Teatini, or S. Irene.
This church was erected between the years 1591 and 1639. After the last suppression of monasteries, the city took possession of it, and the buildings are now used as the principal state girls’ school. Over the portal is a statue of S. Irene by Mauro Manieri, an artist of whose work no other example remains. This is one of the best churches of the city, and, although baroque, retains much of the pure cinquecento style.
[Other churches of note not illustrated in this paper are S. Chiara, S. Matteo, the Church of the Rosary, and of the Madonna della Carmine. They fluctuate from the correctness of S. Irene to the flamboyance of S. Croce, and, generally speaking, are superior to the work of the same period in Rome and the larger cities. The interiors usually are light, lofty, and lined with stone.]
Fig. 14.' — ■ Church of SS. Nicolo and Cataldo.
This is historically the most interesting church in the Lecce district. It stands in the Campo Santo, a little way outside the city, and is ap¬ proached through avenues of cypress trees. It
was built, as has already been said, by King Tancred of Sicily in 1180, at a time when he was Count of Lecce but had not ascended the Sicilian throne. Formerly the home of the Benedettini Neri, it has now become the poorhouse for the district, and has been created a “ national monu¬ ment.” The church has three aisles, and above it rises a small cupola, oval on plan, and a bell- turret of the same type as prevails in Lombardy. There are some rude and ancient frescoes within, but to an architect the most attractive feature is the magnificent ornamented portal which has been incorporated with the baroque front erected in 1710. This doorway is indeed one of the finest in existence, the sculpture being in excellent pre¬ servation, and bears the following inscription : —
Hac in carne sita quia labitur irrita vita Consule dives ita ne sit pro carne sepita Vite Tancredus Comes eternum sibi fedus Firmat in his donis ditans hec templa colonis.
South of the church lie the cloisters, entered thence by another doorway very similar to the above, now a garden of orange trees. These cloisters, too, are in a debased but picturesque style, and in the middle is a little tempietto. The drawing shows the faqade of yellow stone erected in 1710. Here again the figures are well executed and the other carving is good. For the rest the illustration explains itself. A baroque frontispiece has been attached to a mediaeval building without much necessity and without any success. There is a lack of connection between the two sides of the composition which is explained by these cir¬ cumstances, but which should not have proved an insuperable difficulty. From the back or side this facade is distressingly ugly with its rough- hewn masonry and its shapeless statuary. Here is an example of slack workmanship which would make Ruskin turn in his grave.
Martin Shaw Briggs.
(To be continued.)
j i mil in • ' . . . . - !■
72 Lecce — III.
DRAWN BY RALPH THORP.
Lecce. — ///
73
FIG. 13. — CHURCH OF THE TEATINI, OR S. IRENE, LECCE.
DRAWN BY RALPH THORP.
74
Lecce. — III.
FIG. 14. — CHURCH OF SS. NICOLO E CATALDO. DRAWN BY MARTIN SHAW BRIGGS.
Current Periodicals
A Review of Some Recent American Publications.
N a recent issue of The Western Architect are published photo¬ graphs and a plan of the United States Court House and Post Office, Indianapolis, In¬ diana, which are all here repro¬ duced.
It would be difficult for us to point to a modern budding in the architecture of
which there is more vitality. The tradition of the Renaissance seems to be alive and rejuvenescent. What could be more dignified, more imposing, than the range of great Ionic pillars carrying the weighty entablature and the delicate balustrade ! What could be managed better than the strong end features to stop the colonnade, which while strengthening the corners also give the necessary importance to the entrances, emphasised still
V
J
Current Periodicals
7()
From “ The Western Architect."
DETAIL OF FRONT. UNITED STATES COURT HOUSE AND POST OFFICE, INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. KELLOGG, RANKIN, AND CRANE, ARCHITECTS, PHILADELPHIA.
From “ The Western Architect."
DETAIL OF POST OFFICE CORRIDOR.
DETAIL OF ENTRANCE CORRIDOR FROM LOBBY.
Current Periodicals.
77
From “The Western Architect."
VIEW OF THE NORTH FRONT.
further by the flights of steps flanked by groups of statuary ! The wide terrace with the heavy balus- trading, ornamented with finely designed lamp- pillars, makes an admirable podium for the build¬ ing. A fine air of distinction is the characteristic of this facade ; there is no indiscreet trifling, no futile excrescences to destroy the unity of the main idea; everything is in harmony.
If the north front is less pleasing it is no less skilful in design. The sloping roadway for postal vans and heavy traffic is a useful device, allowing of this front being managed in an academic manner. Bold wings flank a recessed centre part, which is composed of a range of small Doric pillars with round-headed windows placed between ; there is a contrast here, which is very pleasant, between the strong protecting wings and the low nestling build¬ ing lying between, it should be noted in passing
From “ The Western Architect."
DETAIL OF ENTRANCE CORRIDOR.
how well the corners are designed ; instead of coupled pilasters a heavy mass of masonry is used and capped after the manner of Greek ants, very successfully to our idea. In the French and American Renaissance there is often a strong feeling for Greek detail, visible in the present ex¬ ample in the square-headed window of the main facade, the Greek capitals, but more particularly in its exquisite unity and simplicity. The plan is excellent : the carefully-planned approaches, the domed octagonal spaces at their intersections, the long post-office corridor, the great staircases, are all thought out in an architectural way. Of these the photographs give an excellent idea — of the staircase with its winding wrought-iron baluster and handrail, of the marble-lined corridors with their vaults and decorations. Marble and mosaic are used lavishly with fine precision of taste. To the full effect of mosaic rounded surfaces are necessary, so that the vault and dome are ideal shapes for its application. Generally speaking the pictorial panel is never successful, while the play of light and shade caught by rounded sur¬ faces makes it a decoration of the greatest value. Another mark of sure judgment is the manner in which the angles of the vaults are treated, slightly rounded and without any hard bound¬ ing line or architectural moulding of stone or plaster.
The names of the architects are Kellogg, Rankin, & Crane, of Philadelphia, who are to be congratulated on their achievement.
From “ The Western Architect."
DETAIL OF MAIN STAIRWAY.
78
Cambridge
Colleges . — II.
Photo : Arch. Review Photo Bureau.
FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM.
Cambridge Colleges. — II.
E now come to a series of illustrations which, for lack of any specific term, may be grouped together under the general heading of “ Build¬ ings.” The first photo¬ graph (13) shows the large range known as the Fellows’ Buildings at Christ’s College, and though un¬ fortunately the photograph does not take in the whole block, it includes enough to show that the doorway with its ironwork is the centre of the building. The parapet especially is to be noted, being well designed, with solids over solids and voids over voids. The little semicircular pro¬ jections are quite characteristic of Cambridge parapets, and a comparison may be made in this respect with the river front at St. John’s College. In detail the building is not unlike the Pepysian Library at Magdalene College, but the Christ’s College building was completed some
sixtv years the earlier. It was called by the diarist Evelyn “ a very noble erection ... of exact architecture,” and “it presents (say Willis and Clark) a facade of masonry on both sides, the design of which is traditionally attributed to Inigo Jones. It is scarcely in his style, but nevertheless is manifestly the work of a great architect within and without ; and is so completely detached from the other quadrangle as to preclude the slightest effect of incongruity of architectural style.” The two following illustrations (14 and 15) are of the Gibbs buildings at King's College built in 1724, and show respectively the court and river fronts. It will be seen that the two sides are very nearly similar, but the river front is certainly more dignified than the other owing to the wings con¬ taining only seven windows each as against the nine in the court front. The building, it should be added, was part of a plan by Gibbs for an entire court, and it had originally been intended to put recumbent figures on the pediment of the
13. — FELLOWS’ BUILDINGS AT CHRIST’S COLLEGE.
Photo: Arch. Review Photo. Bureau.
So
Cambridge Colleges. — II.
<3 <3
-KING’S COLLEGE. Photo : Arch. Review Photn, Bureau.
Cambridge Colleges. — II.
portico and also a statue upon each of the piers sub-dividing the balustrade. A curious story con¬ cerning the foundation stone is quoted by Willis and Clark from the antiquary Cole. “ When ye News came of ye Founders Deposition ye Labourers who were sawing ye stone in halves and not having finished it, imagining that there would be no further proceeding in y° design by his Successors left of yir work and ye Stone remaining half sawed in two. This was always ye Story ab* ye Stone wch I myself have seen before any design of making ye use of it wch was afterwards thought on ; and a Cut of y4 Stone is in ye Print of this Chapel engraved by David Loggan : in ye cleft part was ye Plate and Inscription, wth ye different Coins put.” The general quaintness of the design is perhaps the thing which most strikes one in the Pepysian Library (16) at Magdalene Col¬ lege. The detail appears to be of the early seventeenth century, but apparently the building was not commenced until about 1670, and was certainly not completed, as the inscription itself shows, until 1724. There was, we know, an intention on the part of the college authorities to build a second court, and the library gives one the impression of having been designed for three sides of a court and of the wings having subsequently been pressed back against the end building so that there is only some four inches projection. Samuel Pepys had contributed to the building, and when
8l
he bequeathed his library to the college he directed that it should be put in this new building. His arms are to be seen in the pediment of the middle window with his motto mens cujusque is est quisque and the inscription bibliotheca pepysiana 1724. Trinity College Library, of which the river front is seen in 17, is quite an early work of Sir Christopher Wren, and is much superior in the logical qualities of design to the more showy front of Nevile’s Court. The exterior here exactly expresses the interior with the low loggia beneath, the blank space for bookcases, and the great row of windows over the bookcases. The library is built of Ketton stone, which is yellow with stains of pink, but the crowning balustrade and the entablature to the ground-floor doorways are, for some reason which it is not easy to perceive, in Portland. Wren evidently took considerable pains over the building, designing even the chairs and tables and giving full-sized sections of all the mouldings. The plaster busts, it may be noted, which stand over the “ classes ” or bookcases and the lime-w'ood wreaths and arabesques were executed by Grinling Gibbons. There is not, perhaps, a pleasanter example of domestic archi¬ tecture in Cambridge than the President’s House at Queens’ College (18), the view shown being that from the garden. When one finds upon analysis of how many very dissimilar features it is composed one is forced to admire the breadth
16. — MAGDALENE COLLEGE, PEPYSIAN LIBRARY.
Photo : Arch. Review Photo. Bureau.
82
Cambridge
Colleges . — II.
■TRINITY COLLEGE LIBRARY, RIVER FRONT.
83
Cambridge Colleges .-—1 1 .
Photo: Arch. Review Photo. Bureau.
l8. — QUEENS’ COLLEGE, PRESIDENT’S HOUSE FROM THE GARDEN.
of treatment, and one can only wish that a photo¬ graph could do the warmth of colour and variety of texture the justice which they deserve. The fish-scale roof over the bay window on the left is particularly worthy of attention, and much more successful than such treatment usually is. The length of the house is traversed by a gallery which is extremely charming, with nicely panelled walls hung with portraits and very pleasantly lighted from either side. On the opposite side to that here shown the gallery is carried over a quaint
old cloister by carved brackets springing from the cloister walls. Of our next illustration, the south front of Clare College as seen from King’s College lawn (19), it may be simply said that anybody who can appreciate the success of such very simple means is well on the way to understanding what architecture is, and that anybody who can obtain such good results is a master in architec¬ ture. For the range of buildings here shown has good claims to be regarded as the noblest specimen of Renaissance architecture which this country
19. — CLARE COLLEGE, FROM KING’S COLLEGE LMVN.
Photo : Arch. Review Photo. Bureau.
Cambridge
Colleges.
II.
20. — CLARE COLLEGE COURT.
Cambridge Colleges . — II.
can produce. The present form of the buildings is, however, distinctly altered from the original design as completed in 1642. The walls then were finished with battlements which gave way to the balustrade a hundred and twenty years later, and the windows were originally arched instead of being square as at present. It is a thousand pities that we do not know the author of the original design, if only to wonder how such a man could have been guilty of such a blunder as 20 displays. This photograph of the eastern range from inside the court illustrates the folly of trying to be clever. The architect had all the materials to hand, and then spoilt everything by the stupid, pretentious gateway. Few colleges have been more painfully unhappy in their new buildings than Pembroke College, and one is therefore pro¬ portionately pleased at being able to point with pride to her most recent venture. The New Court built in 1883 (21) is a good example of Gilbert Scott, junior. But though Scott has caught the spirit and detail of old work he has
85
spoilt the feeling of repose by making the stair¬ cases far too obtrusive with their windows at a different level from those of the actual “ keeping” rooms, and so cutting through the lines of these other windows. The illustration at the beginning of this article is a rather unusual view of the Fitzwilliam Museum. It brings out how carefully the grouping has been considered and how scho¬ larly the detail is, and it also reveals how entirely the bombastic front is a screen and adjunct to the working part of the building. The design differs somewhat from that originally conceived by Basevi, for the entire structure is in Portland, whereas Basevi had intended to use Bath stone for the facade and white brick for the sides and back. Certain minor alterations were also made in the decoration and arrangement of the entrance hall owing to Basevi being killed by a fall through the floor of Ely Cathedral west tower and his work being completed by Cockerell and Edward M. Barry.
Maxwell H. H. Macartney.
{To be continued.)
Photo : Arch. Review Photo, Bureau
21. — PEMBROKE COLLEGE NEW COURT.
VOL. XXVI. — F
Current Architecture
SERVICE ROOMS
SERVICE WINDOWS
*
I
-a
EXISTING WALLS _ -L _ EXTENSION
ADDITIONS, GLASGOW CENTRAL STATION HOTEL. PLANS.
JAMES MILLER, A.R.S.A., ARCHITECT.
Current Architecture.
8
7
Photo : Bedford Lemere and Co.
ADDITIONS, GLASGOW CENTRAL STATION HOTEL. DINING SALOON (FIREPLACE). JAMES MILLER, A.R.S.A., ARCHITECT.
ADDITIONS TO GLASGOW CENTRAL STATION HOTEL.
E additions recently made to the Central Station Hotel consist of a large new dining saloon, billiard-room, and lounge, together with 120 bed- 100ms and suite rooms. The three large apartments are situated on the first floor.
The dining saloon is 105 ft. long by 48 ft. wide and 30 ft. high, and is panelled in Italian walnut to the height of 14 ft., the carving being in lime tree. The walls above are panelled in Keene’s cement with carton pierre ornament, the ceiling being finished in fibre plaster. The main columns are of pavonazzo marble with the exception of the two at musician’s gallery at end of dining saloon, shown in photograph, which are of Greek cipollino. The fender shown in one of the
f 2
88
C urren t A rch i tecture.
Photo : Bedford Lemere and Co.
ADDITIONS, GLASGOW CENTRAL STATION HOTEL. DINING SALOON (ENTRANCE WITH MUSICIANS’ GALLERY OVER). JAMES MILLER, A.R.S.A., ARCHITECT.
fireplaces in the dining saloon is not the perma¬ nent one.
The lounge is elliptical in shape, the shape being determined by the outline of buildings under¬ neath which are occupied as offices in connection with the station accommodation. This apart¬ ment is 66 ft. long by 27 ft. wide, and is panelled
its full height in Austrian oak. The ceiling is of fibre plaster. The small quadrant of a circle which forms part of the lounge in the angle ex¬ isted previous to these alterations, but its internal finishings were renewed to correspond with the new lounge. The floor of the lounge is executed in coloured marbles.
Current A rchitecture.
89
Pho.o : Bedford Lemere and Co.
ADDITIONS, GLASGOW CENTRAL STATION HOTEL. LOUNGE. JAMES MILLER, A.R.S.A., ARCHITECT.
The wood-carving of lounge and dining saloon was executed by Messrs. H. H. Martvn & Co., Cheltenham.
The fibre plasterwork in lounge was executed by the Bromsgrove Guild, and the ornamental work of plaster ceiling in dining saloon was
executed by Messrs. George Jackson & Sons, London.
The contractors for the whole works were Messrs. P. & W. Anderson, Glasgow, and the following were their sub-contractors: — Joiner work, Mr. John Cochrane, Glasgow. Plumber
9°
Current Architecture
JAMES MILLER, A.R.S.A., ARCHITECT.
Ciirrent Architecture.
9 1
ADDITIONS, GLASGOW CENTRAL STATION HOTEL. GRAND LOUNGE.
Photo : Bedford Lernere and Co.
JAMES MILLER, A.R.S.A., ARCHITECT.
work, Mr. William Anderson, Glasgow. Plaster- work, Messrs. McGilvray & Ferris, Glasgow. Slater work, John Anderson, Glasgow. Painter work, Messrs. C. Carlton & Son, Glasgow, and Messrs. John Orr & Sons, Glasgow. Steel case¬ ments, Messrs. H. Hope & Sons, Birmingham. Marble work, Messrs. Galbraith & Winton, Glas¬ gow. Tile work, Messrs. Haddow, Forbes & Co., Glasgow. Heating and ventilating, Messrs. Ash- well & Nesbit, Ltd., Glasgow and Leicester.
The glass work of cupola in lounge was exe¬ cuted by Messrs. Oscar Paterson & Co., Glasgow.
The buildings are of steel construction through¬ out, the contractors for the steelwork being the Motherwell Roof & Bridge Co.
The sanitary fittings throughout the building were supplied by Messrs. Doulton & Co. and Messrs. Shanks & Co.
Architect, Mr. James Miller, A.R.S.A., 15, Blytheswood Square, Glasgow.
92
Curren t A rch i lecture,
PARISH CHURCH, COLDSTREAM, BERWICKSHIRE.
Current Architecture ,
93
PARISH CHURCH, COLDSTREAM, BERWICKSHIRE.
94
Current A rckitecture
EDINBURGH LIFE ASSURANCE BUILDING.
Current A rchitecture .
95
Photo : Bedford Lemere and Co.
EDINBURGH LIFE ASSURANCE BUILDING. BOARD ROOM.
J. M. DICK PEDDIE, ARCHITECT.
PARISH CHURCH, COLDSTREAM.
IS building, situated in the High Street, Coldstream, re¬ places the old parish church, of which the tower and bel¬ fry are incorporated in the new building, whose exterior style is similar to the old building — round-headed win¬ dows with architraves and projecting keyblocks, and the wallhead finished with a simple cornice and parapet. The dressings are of Blackpasture stone, filled in with random rubble. The floor of the church is wood, but the passages and chancel are paved with stone in squares laid diagonally. Whitsomenewton stone columns are used in the interior to support the steel principals carrying the plaster barrel-vault. Doors, seating, &c., are of yellow pine stained and wax-polished, the stalls and communion table in the chancel being oak, and the pulpit is of stone.
The builders were R. Hall & Co., Galashiels, and the following is a list of the other contrac¬ tors : — Steelwork, A. Mather & Son, Edinburgh. Slate and asphalt roofs, Alex. Ogilvy, Leith. Plumbing and sanitary work, Hugh Weir, Edin¬
burgh. Plasterwork, John Walker, Alloa. Joiner and special woodwork, A. Inglis & Son, Hawick. Gas fixtures, Martin Van Straaten, London (these gasfittings are from Dutch models). Door furni¬ ture, locks, &c., Bell, Donaldson & Co., Edin¬ burgh. Heating apparatus, Mackenzie & Moncur, Edinburgh. Ventilating, R. Boyle & Son.
THE EDINBURGH LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY’S NEW HEAD OFFICE, EDINBURGH.
J. M. Dick Peddie, Architect.
HE facades of this building, which is situated at the south¬ east corner of George and Hanover Streets, are built of Portland stone with the ex¬ ception of the base course, which is of Norwegian granite. Messrs. Percy Portsmouth and H. S. Gamley, AA.R.S.A., were the sculptors employed, the former doing the figure of “ Pru¬ dence ” on the dome and the latter the carving on the fa£ades. Offices for the company are pro¬ vided on the ground and part of the first floor and
96
Current Architecture.
Photo : Bedford Lem ere and Co.
EDINBURGH LIFE ASSURANCE BUILDING. GENERAL OFFICE.
J. M. DICK PEDDIE, ARCHITECT.
basement, while the remainder of the building is divided into chambers.
Reinforced concrete was used in the construction of the floors, which are finished with flooring- boards on shallow joists except in the public office and basement, where doloment is laid on the concrete.
Black and white rubber flooring has also been used in the entrance hall. Panels of rose numi- dian, separated by bands of pavonazzo marble, are used to finish the walls of the vestibule, and the columns in the public office are made of the latter marble with gilded caps. The woodwork of the manager’s and secretary’s rooms and the staircase is of Spanish mahogany, French polished.
The building is heated on the “ Barker ” patent system, and the public office has a special arrange¬ ment for extracting air; the incoming air is passed through an ozone-generating apparatus.
Mr. Thomas Macrae was clerk of the works.
The following were the principal contractors : — Mason work, R. Thorburn & Son, Edinburgh. Joiner work, J. Lownie & Son, Edinburgh. Plumber work, Burn & Baillie, Edinburgh. Plaster work, David Fisher, Edinburgh. Glazier work, Dickson & Walker, Edinburgh. Heating, Mackenzie & Moncur, Edinburgh. Painting,
Geo. Dobie & Son, Edinburgh. Marble work, Allan & Son, Edinburgh. Marble columns in public office, Galbraith & Winton, Glasgow. Electric lighting, Middleton & Townsend, Edin¬ burgh (Mr. Norman A. Thomson, Edinburgh, consulting engineer). Electric Fittings, Singer & Son, Frome ; Gray & Son, Edinburgh. Lifts, Archibald Smith & Steven, Ltd., London. Lift enclosure, Mackenzie & Moncur, Edinburgh. Grates, Gray & Son, Edinburgh ; Fraser Walker & Co., Edinburgh. Ventilation, Ozonair, Ltd., London. Furniture and Furnishings, J. & T. Scott, Edinburgh.
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM.
Sir Aston Webb, C.B., R.A., Architect.
E give three further views of this building, supplementing those that appeared last month. The first is a detail of the centre portion of the principal fafade, the second a detail in the entrance vesti¬ bule, and the third a view of one of the ceramics galleries.
Current A rchitecture.
97
Photo : Bedford Lemerc and Co.
EDINBURGH LIFE ASSURANCE BUILDING. GENERAL OFFICE.
J. M. DICK PEDDIE, ARCHITECT.
Among other items of interest it may be men¬ tioned that the building is equipped with four hydraulic lifts, and three non-automatic basement ejectors are also supplied for various purposes. The hre service is supplied by two sets of
Ellington’s patent automatic injectors, which will discharge through hydrants a total of five hundred gallons of water per minute. The power for these services is supplied from the mains of the London Hydraulic Power Co.
98
Current Architecture
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM.
Board of Education.
DETAIL OF CENTRE PORTION OF CROMWELL ROAD FRONT. SIR ASTON WEBB, C.B., R.A., ARCHITECT.
Current Architecture .
99
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VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM. DETAIL IN THE ENTRANCE HALL. SIR ASTON WFBB, C.B., R.A., ARCHITECT.
IOO
Current A rchitecture
THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM. ONE OF THE CERAMICS GALLERIES.
The Committee for the Survey of the Memorials of Greater London.
CARCELY had last month’s notes been written whpn the news came to hand that the famous Gardner collection of topographical prints and drawings relating to London was to be sold. We were reviewing the chief reposi¬ tories of information and illustration regarding the appearance of London in the past, with the idea of suggesting some method of co-ordinating and indexing this in¬ formation for easy reference. It is obvious that if this is to be done, we shall have to make sure that collections which have been made with so much care and expense as that left by the late Mr. Gardner shall not be dispersed or lost to public usefulness. We hear with regret that the City Corporation is not prepared to add this valuable possession to the treasures in the Guild¬ hall Library, and we fear that the London County Council is at present too seriously pledged to economy to consider the purchase, which is never¬ theless the plain duty of such a public body, for the education of our contemporaries, as much as for the information of the future. If, then, failing a purchaser, the collection should be dispersed, would it not be possible to split it up topographi¬ cally, and for each district possessing a public library to acquire the prints and drawings that relate to the streets and buildings within its area ? In this way London might still possess the fruit of Mr. Gardner’s labours, and each neighbourhood
Photo: Ge ■>. Trottnan (Survey Committee). J IRONWORK, LATIMER HOUSE, CHISWICK.
would find the story of its past made ampler by the possession of these valuable docum nts.
Our discussion of the practicability of making a bibliography of London topography must wait over another month. Meanwhile the Survev Committee desires me to issue a revised list of the local secretaries who have undertaken the task of initiating our work in individual parishes. We hope in this way to cover shortly the whole London area, and enlist more representative support. Walter H. Godfrey.
The City.
Parish of St. Helen, Bishopsgate : —
A. W. Clapham, Cobden Hill, Radlett, Herts.
County of London (North of the Thames). Hammersmith (with Brentford) : —
George Trotman, 244, Camberwell Road, S.E.
Kensington : —
Philip Norman, 45, Evelyn Gardens, South Kensington, S.YV.
Chelsea : —
Walter H. Godfrey, 11, Carteret Street, Oueen Anne’s Gate, S.W.
Westminster : — •
Percy W. Lovell, 23, Old Oueen Street, Westminster,
S.W.
Paddington : —
A. Wyatt Papworth, Town Hall Chambers, 374-8, Old Street, E.C.
Marylebone and Soho : —
A. H. Blake, Blenheim Club, St. James’s, S.W.
St. Pancras (with Hornsey) : —
Percy W Lovell, 18, Hampstead Lane, Highgate, N. Parishes of St. Andrew, Holborn, and St. George the Martyr, with Gray’s Inn : —
F. W. Reader, 5, Lamb’s Conduit Street, W.C.
Islington and Clerkenwell : —
H. W. Fincham, 70, Hillfield Avenue, Hornsey. Shoreditch and Bethnal Green : —
Gilbert H. Lovegrove, Town Hall Chambers, 374-8, Old Street, E.C.
Hackney : —
Ernest A. Mann, 89, Ber.thall Road, Stoke Newington, N. Stoke Newington (and Tottenham) : —
Fiancis W. Reader, 17, Gloucester Road, Finsbury Park, N.
County of London (South of the Thames). Clapham : —
W. Plomer Young, 3, Lavender Gardens, Clapham Common.
Lambeth and Camberwell : —
Frank T. Dear, 210, Lambeth Road, S.E.
Deptford, Greenwich, and Lewisham : —
P. K. Kipps, 93, Lewisham High Road, S.E.
Greater London.
Ealing : —
J. O. Foster, 12, Woodville Gardens, Ealing.
Brentford : — •
George Trotman (see above).
Acton and Chiswick : —
Francis R. Taylor, 12, Pleydell Avenue, Stamford Brook, W.
Hendon : —
Edwin Gunn, 27, Richborough Road, Cricklewood, N.W. Hornsey
Percy W. Lovell (sec above).
Tottenham : —
Francis W. Reader (see above).
Leyton and West Ham : — -
A. P. Wire, 168, Birkbeck Road, Leytonstone.
Books
THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY, BY THE LATE W. J. ANDERSON.
An Appreciation.
The Architecture of the Renaissance in Italy. A general view for the use of students and others. By William J. Anderson, Architect, Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Fourth Edition, revised and enlarged, with 70 collotype and other plates , and 110 illustrations in the text. Price 125. 6 d. nett. London: B. T. Batsford, 94, High Holborn. mcmix.
E do not know of any pleasanter introduction to the study of the Italian Renaissance than this book, nor one illumi¬ nated by so much imagination and first - hand knowledge. Although in bulk little bigger than a handbook, it is no mere compilation, no pouring of water from a large vessel into a smaller one, but a genuine book inspired by contemplation and study of the actual buildings of the Renaissance.
We had the fortune to sit under Mr. Anderson, and we remember the enthusiasm which invariably was aroused among his students, as he, with words carefully chosen, carried them with him along the path of the centuries from Egypt to Greece, to Rome, and to Italy. One lecture, the finish of which still lingers in our memory, awakened his class to the wildest enthusiasm. He had been lecturing about the church of St. Mark’s at Venice, and towards the close of his paper he spoke extempore of the glory of the front of this building, rising like a fair vision by the margin of the sea — “ ‘ a stately pleasure-dome ’ pricking with golden cupola and pinnacles the deep blue of heaven.”
Imagination and a nice choice of words became the vehicle of a great deal of knowledge, and his delivery had a power to attract the most indifferent student to attention and enthusiasm. This charm has to a great extent been preserved in his book.
Mr. Anderson won the “Greek Thomson” Scholarship with a measured drawing of one of Thomson’s churches, which took him to Italy for the first time, and it was this visit which saw the genesis of the book under review.
Of all periods of great artistic activity, perhaps
that of the Italian Renaissance is the most fasci¬ nating. It may lack the mystery and austerity of the Egyptian, it possesses less of “ sweetness and light ” than the age of Pericles, and it has not the great power of the Augustan era ; but it can claim to possess elements of freshness, of growth, of modernity, which make it a peculiarly engrossing study.
For the first time the architect steps into the light of day and walks the stage of history. It is true these periods are all steps in a sequence leading to Italy of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but this last touches us; its very near¬ ness brings it home to us.
“ II primo rinascimento,” as the Italians call it, that first fanciful, wayward view of conceiving the Roman manner, possesses a naivete, entirely lacking in later work. Mr. Anderson understood this charm, and devotes about one-half of his book to its exposition.
Brunelleschi makes the prime entrance. “ First in time, he was not second in intellect, in per¬ tinacity, in achievement ; and wherever the arts of form are understood and beloved, the genius of Brunelleschi will not fail of honour and renown.” His dome at Florence will ever be considered his master-work, but it was in his lesser and more intimate work that he laid the foundation of the Renaissance. In those days there was only “one art.” Brunelleschi lost in competition to Ghiberti the commission to execute the Baptistery doors, and, in despite of fortune, set out for Rome with a young friend called Donatello. There he studied for some four years the buildings of ancient Rome, and afterwards crowned St. Mary of the Flower with its great and abiding glory.
The church of the Badia di Fiesole is a perfect little building, and is typical of the early Renais¬ sance, when traditional methods of workmanship still dictated certain forms, in spite of all the zeal for the new learning.
Gothic shapes still linger in the splayed reveals of window and door, but now delicate fanciful arabesques trail a dainty finger over the stone, giving it a wonderful texture. The church of Santo Salvator del Monte, at Florence, is another exquisite example of “ il primo rinascimento ” ; very plain both outside and inside, it is charming because of its fine proportion. Michelangelo called
Books .
[03
it a “fair country maiden.’’ Think of a time when it was possible to speak of architecture in words like these ! Is it any wonder that the best intellects of that age turned to art for their expression ?
Alberti was one of these: an accomplished gentleman, a man of the world, sportsman and author, and gifted with a high genius. One of the three giants of the Renaissance, he, with Leonardo and Michelangelo, gave himself up to art. His great work was his book, “ De Re AEdificatoria,” which until recently was looked on “ as the foundation of all that had been written about architecture and building.” Although he approached architecture from a scholar’s point of view, he was a capable architect, and his church of Sant’ Andrea, at Mantua, is nobly designed, showing a fine appreciation of scale, and possessed of some of the quality of a Roman temple.
Alberti was a law to himself in the matter of learning, but the usual education was somewhat different from ours. The first great Renaissance architect “ came from a Florentine goldsmith’s shop.” In the bottega he was employed in all kinds of art works, making statues and busts, painting the fronts of cassone for Italian brides, painting sign¬ boards for merchants, and generally helping in the production of all beautiful things. In this way a dexterity in design was acquired, a sure taste, and a love for sound workmanship. But the real school of architecture was Rome, and the men of the Renaissance were obsessed by the antique.
We have seen how Brunelleschi learnt in Rome to make his dome; and the antique remains have continued to be the chief school of archi¬ tecture to within the last hundred years. We have, perhaps, dwelt too long on the early work, but the tendency to-day is to glorify Palladio and Vignola, and to forget names and examples like Baldassare Peruzzi, and Bramante. Yet, of all the architects of the Renaissance, Peruzzi was perhaps the finest, and his masterpiece, the Palazzo Massimi alls Colonne, at Rome, one of the chief monuments of that time.
Mr. Anderson’s work pretends to be a general view. It is such a one as might be taken from a high hill ; nothing of moment escapes. In this, notable names are the chief features, and great buildings their pointers. What a rich galaxy do not the names make! Brunelleschi, Bramante, San Gallo, Peruzzi, &c., who in their lives were considered the peers of kings and popes, and whose glory far outshines those whose reigns they adorned. They, indeed, were the salt of the earth, these artists of the Renaissance, full of great ideals, and plentifully endowed with vitality and strength.
In this edition several changes have to be noted. The new plan of the Palazzo Strozzi does not agree with the old one, and we must confess that we miss the pictures of bronze panels from Sant’ Antonio by Donatello, and one or two illustrations from Mr. Anderson s own sketches ; but on the whole the work is improved by additional drawings and photographs. 1 he arrangement of the four early plans of St. Peter’s on one page is good for purposes of comparison. The book is addressed to “ students and others,” and to all who do not know it we heartily recommend it.
ARTS CONNECTED WITH BUILDING.
7 he Arts connected with Building : Lectures on Crafts¬ manship and Design delivered at Carpenters'1 Hall , London Wall, for the W or shir fu l Company of Car¬ penters. By R. W. Schultz , C. F. A. Voysey , E. Guy Dawber , Laurence A. Turner , F. W. Troup , A. Romney Green , AT. H. Baillie Scott , Chas. Spooner , and f. Star hie Gardner . Edited by T. Raffles Davison. With 98 illustrations of old and modern work. Price 5-v. nett. B. T. Batsford , 94, High Holborn , London. 1909.
mg, as
E are indebted to Mr. Batsford for the publication of a very excellent and able series of lectures on “ The Arts con¬ nected with Building,” given at the instance of the Ancient and Worshipful Company of Carpenters. It is encourag- Mr. Weir Schultz mentions in his first lecture, to find that the Guilds of London are taking up the question of the education of crafts¬ men. For all our labour as architects is in vain if we are not seconded by an able and intelligent body of workmen. And it is the more necessary to emphasise this point of view, as apparently apprenticeship is doomed, and some new system must be devised to take its place. Whilst these lectures were originally written for craftsmen, they may with advantage be read by architects, who, whatever their natural ability, cannot but profit from a knowledge of the various crafts that make up building. They must also be familiar with materials, for to get the best use out of them they must understand their possibilities and limitations.
Yet we cannot but feel that to-day we are inclined to make a fetish of the mechanic part of architecture in our education. Since the sixteenth century in Italy, when the architect appears for the first time in the light of day, he alone has been responsible for the design of buildings, and the workmen who built Brunelleschi's dome in Florence, and the men who worked under Wren at Greenwich, had nothing to do with the effect of
104
Books.
these buildings. It is true they contributed to their strength, and this is the proper function of the workman — to build strong. We willingly admit that the workman had a wider range in mediaeval times, but these are past. And the futility of the late Gothic revival shows how impossible it is to resuscitate them.
Modern architecture is a conscious thing, pre¬ conceived before a stone has left the quarry, and depends for its effect on the skill of one man. The workman, with his materials, is his medium, with which he builds up his conception, just as a painter does his with paint. This, we think, is the greatest quality of the modern architect — to be able to conceive in imagination some great scheme of ordered building, and to give it bodily form in our streets or in the country. This is no mean goal to which a youthful architect may aspire, and if he does not find in these lectures these views, he will at least discover much food for reflection.
Mr. Troup’s lectures dealing with “ External Leadwork,” and “The influence of material on design in woodwork,” are written in a scholarly way and are very fascinating. We cannot help quoting a passage from the latter, as it contains much good advice for us all : “ In designing, above all things avoid being clever merely for the sake of effect. Cleverness is not art— more often it is mere licence and a want of restraint.” Rather be “commonplace ” than “ attempt the clever, the smart, the ‘ up to date.’ ”
But then we find we are all at sea with regard to his meaning, for the lecture is brought to an end by the following sentence: “The theatrical, the inessential, the superficial rules, and leads on to the same end that has been described by a great writer as the vile torrent of the Renais¬ sance.”
Apparently, something very uncomplimentary to the Renaissance is intended, but the sentence as it stands is rather curious, and we leave it to readers to decipher its meaning.
The theatrical, the inessential, the superficial, are qualities which we cannot think belong to the Renaissance, which demands for its success ab¬ stract proportions and reticence of treatment.
We wish Mr. Gardner had given us more infor¬ mation about the smiths contemporary with Tijou. “ If the Roberts or Edney in their more daring flights occasionally lay themselves open to criticism, their work is always grand and impres¬ sive, and as expressive as the best English art in contemporary architecture and painting.” How can we judge ? Bakewell, Robinson, are the names of other smiths, who are introduced in the most airy way as if we knew all about them. Some of the lectures are inclined to be metaphysical, others simply historical. And it goes without saying
that they are all earnest, sincere, and on the whole the book is well worth reading. If there is throughout a strong bias of the craftsman it can¬ not obscure the real issues of architecture.
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
Visitors' Guide to Westminster Abbey. By Francis Bond, M.A., F.G.S., Honorary Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects , author of “ Gothic Architecture in England “ English Cathedrals Illustrated ,” “ Screens and Galleries in English Churches ,” “ Fonts and Font Covers,” &*c. Illus¬ trated by 1 2 plans , 36 photographs , and other illustrations. Price \s. nett. Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press, London, New York, Toronto, and Melbourne. 1909.
This is an excellent little textbook, and well worth consideration by those who take an intelligent interest in the Abbey. For so small a volume, the amount of information it contains is very great. Mr. Bond is to be congratulated upon having successfully introduced into it an interesting element of history. The notes in small print, which, as is suggested in the preface, may be read at home, should make the visit to the Abbey both more profitable and more interesting.
The Key Plan and the numerous small ones are extremely clear and easily read, though in the former we would suggest that a dotted line with occasional arrows would probably be found a clearer guide than the method used; but in every other respect the book is admirable. The information given is concise and to the point, and a word of special praise must be said of the plates at the end ; the subjects are well chosen, and illustrated by very good photographs. The indexing should be revised, as it is not quite accurate. Mr. Bond makes an admirable effort to direct the public taste by pointing out what among the sculpture and architecture is good and what is bad. To some this may seem outside the province of a guide book, but the lay mind is so easily led astray on both subjects that a little guidance in the right direction is of great value.
To the architectural student also this book should prove useful, giving him a brief and accurate description of the notable features of the Abbey ; but we venture to suggest that a welcome addition would be a short sketch of the history of the Abbey itself, with the few important dates and names connected with it. This would enhance its value to both student and visitor, and we hope to see this slight defect remedied in a future edition.
ART IN 1908.
The Year's Art. Published by Messrs. Hutchinson & - Co., 34, Paternoster Row , E.C. 1909.
THIS is the thirtieth annual issue of this extremely useful publication, which comprises not only an epitome of the past year’s doings in painting, sculpture, engraving, and architecture, but also lists of the art sales and of the engravings published during the year, a concise description of the various important art institutions at home and abroad, and a directory of artists and art workers. There are also several illustrations and a diary in which the memoranda are useful and appropriate. The editor is Mr. A. C. R. Carter, who, in a breezy prefatory note, describes the Franco-British Art Exhibition at Shepherd’s Bush as “ the most dominating feature of the exhibition year.
THE ARCHITECTUR A I
REVIEW, SEPTEMBEP, 1909. VOLUME XX vr. NO. 154.
FROM A WATER-COLOUR DRAWING BY LESLIE WILKINSON (ARTHUR CATES PRIZE).
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture.
XXXVII.
DUTCH DOORWAY. FROM THE NORMAL SCHOOL, CAPE TOWN.
VOL. XXVI.— G
io8 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture . — XXXVII.
Scale of Feet
Section
Brass Key Plate, very tmejy engraven, me tat /s thick
DUTCH DOORWAY. FROM THE NORMAL SCHOOL, CAPE TOWN. MEASURED AND DRAWN BY F. W. ROBERTSON.
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — A A AVI I. 109
DUTCH DOORWAY. FROM THE NORMAL SCHOOL, CAPE TOWN. MEASURED AND DRAWN BY F. W. ROBERTSON.
1 1 o
The Practical Exemplar
of A rchitecture. — XXX VII.
CLARE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
STAIR IN PASSAGE,
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXVI 1 .
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MI'ASURIlD and drawn by
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POORWAY IN THE CLOSE, SALISBURY- GARDEN GATE, BRAMPFORP SPEKE, NEAR EXETER,
DGOE^W FfJ TE CLOSE. SAIISBW
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture . — X X XV 1 1 .
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MEASURED AND DRAWN HY ERNEST V. WEST.
14 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — AAA/ II.
GARDEN-GATE
BRAMPFORD SPEKE
near EXETER
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MEASURED AND DRAWN BY J. M. W. HALLEY.
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXVII. 115
WROUGHT-IRON BALCONY, ORTA, ITALY.
i 1 6 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXVII.
Ground Line
WROUGHT-IRON BALCONY, ORTA, ITALY.
MEASURED AND DRAWN BY FRANCIS BACON, JUNR.
The Practical Rxemfilar of Architecture. — XXX V 1 1 . 1 1 7
ST-EN-VREUDE ” (Rest- in-Delight) is the name of the old Dutch building to which this doorway be¬ longs. It stands on a wide stoep to which a flight of steps at the end gives ac¬ cess. Four pillars of the Corinthian order at the front support a balcony. It is difficult to imagine a more charming or more fascinating doorway ; set in the shadow of the balcony, and speckled with brilliant light flecked with shade, it is exquisite, and truly an entrance to Rest-in-Delight. The tracery of the fanlight is of a playfulness to match the dancing shadows on the wide stoep. The house was built as a Governor’s residence in the late eighteenth century and is now used as a Normal School. Andreas Andrydt is the name of the sculptor who did the carving of the doorway — the wood of which is teak.
A very unusual feature is the external stair from Clare College, Cambridge. It is obviously an addition of the eighteenth century, and is a charm¬ ing arrangement for a corner entrance. The design is one of some delicacy and quaintness, to the effect of which the slender pillars and the omission of the architrave and frieze under the cornice no doubt contribute. It was this very abridgment which allowed of the former being attenuated to their frail dimensions.
It is extremely likely, however, that the cornice, having to abut against the window at the side, required the other parts of the entablature to be omitted to make a satisfactory finish, and from that concession to necessity the slender columns took their proportion. The door is unusual — it is not framed; the styles, &c., are quite thin, and are nailed on to the boards forming it.
This doorway from the Close, Salisbury, is
another good example of the Georgian work of that town. It is more simple and much more robust in execution than most of them, and if less interest¬ ing, possesses a quality of its own. The pedi¬ ment, ornamented with plain console blocks, is extremely effective, and the Doric capitals are excellent. But the bases are meagre and ineffec¬ tive. A curious feature of the pilasters is the omission of the flutes at the sides. The deep panelled reveals and the door itself are effective. The effect is gained by the distribution of the panels, which is nice, and is helped by an ex¬ tremely fine moulding.
Of the accessories to gardens, nothing is pleasanter than a wrought-iron gate; nothing can open up a view half so well, and form a sufficient bar, at the same time, to separate the various parts of a garden. The little gate from Brampford Speke is a lovely piece of wrought-iron work. Generally these things are quite simple, but here the smith has given his fancy rein and achieved a little gem. The scantlings of the iron are small, and would scarcely be applicable to a larger design ; but in a small gate they give an effect of lightness and bring it akin to the delicacy of the flowers and the phan¬ tasy of the curving of slender tendrils of hedge and tree in the midst of which it is set. The scrollwork is beautifully wrought and forged to¬ gether, and finished in tiny volutes of solid metal ; the small cross pieces are tenoned and riveted through the uprights, and clasps join the scrolls where they come together.
The balcony railing from Orta, Italy, is of a different type of design, for much of the scroll¬ work intersects, and is halved at the crossings. The manner in which the same design is adapted to fit panels of varying sizes is interesting ; and the use of stone forming the base, coping, and piers is a pleasant feature.
Notes of the Month.
The Whitgift Hospital — The Glasgow School oj Architecture — The Birmingham School of Architecture — Architectural Be fine meats — Town Planning — San Francisco — Statue of Charles I at Charing Cross — Women , Architecture , and Unemployment — Rhodes Memorial , South Africa — Greek and Roman Casts at the British Museum ,
E are reviewing elsewhere Mr Sherrill’s book on English stained glass. Meanwhile he has rescued a fragment ol history which has a topical significance. He quotes Aubrey’s “ History of Sur¬ rey ” as follows : — “ At a later date, one Blesse was hired for half a crown
a day to break the painted glass windows of Croydon.” How queerly history and local man¬ ners repeat themselves ! Mr. Sherrill is very angry with those Croydon Puritans, and with such gentlemen as “ Blue Dick ” Culmer of Canterbury Cathedral. Culmer was the minister during the Commonwealth, and took some pleasure in “ rat¬ tling down proud Becket’s glassie bones ” from the north transept window. Mr. Sherrill, in his
Notes of the Month.
1 1 8
frank American way, discusses remedies for modern vandalism — for instance, the cutting up of medi¬ aeval glass by modern glaziers. “It is one of the instances,” he says, “which cause one to query if it be always wise to impose a punishment for murder.”
But we must get back to Mr. Blesse, who earned half a crown a day at Croydon. His pay¬ masters and “ Blue Dick ” had the motive of religious enthusiasm. It was unhappy in its operation, but nowice disrespectable. The atti¬ tude of the City Fathers of Croydon in the matter of the Whitgift Hospital seems to lack every ground of defence not essentially ignoble. It can only be hoped that the time will, by per¬ sistent agitation, be made far distant, when they will be able to hire their Blesses at half a crown a day to break down Croydon’s greatest interest, and with it to destroy the town’s reputation for possessing some rags of common sense.
* * * *
HE Glasgow School of Archi¬ tecture is one of the most advanced in the kingdom. A great deal of the credit for its formation and growth is due to Mr. Fra H. Newbery, an artist-painter and director of the School of Art. He has gradually built up one of the most vital schools of art, and the School of Architecture is no less vital. The Diploma course, admittance to which is gained by examination in English, mathematics, drawing, and Latin or a modern foreign language, is a four years one. An idea of the course of study which is pursued may be gained from the following figures : — In each week of the first year, nine hours is given to architectural design, eight hours to the history of architecture, six hours to drawing, five hours to mathematics, two hours to de¬ scriptive geometry. In the last year the pro¬ portion of time given to design is much larger (twenty-one hours), and mathematics disappears in the second year and its place is taken by other science subjects less academic. In April a fortnight is set apart (daily from nine o’clock till twelve) for modelling, and architectural measur¬ ing is taught on six afternoons in May and June.
M. Eugene Bourdon, who was trained in Paris and had the rare advantage of two years’ practice in the United States, is the Director of Architec¬ tural Studies and Professor of Design.
The subjects of design vary from simple prob¬ lems to complex problems such as Parliament Houses, Exhibitions, &c. One great feature of this school is the excellent tuition given in drawing
along with painting and sculptor students, so that the arts are brought together and under¬ stood by all. Another excellent feature is the admission, to certain of the architectural classes, of furniture designers, garden and landscape architects, scenic artists, students of painting and sculpture, and students from certain departments in the Technical College — surveyors, engineers, &c., who might benefit by some instruction in architecture.
On the whole an excellent school, and one to be congratulated on its staff and achievement. The late W. J. Anderson, author of “ The Renaissance in Italy,” &c., was one of the first lecturers in this school.
* * * *
)AY School of Architecture has been founded at the Muni¬ cipal School of Art, Birming¬ ham. The school course will be spread over four or five years, of which the first two will be composed of day classes. These first years will take the place of articled pupilage for the same length of time, and the latter two or three years will be spent at evening classes concurrently with attendance at an office. Architectural history,, building construction, elementary physics and geometry, demonstrations and practical work in stonemasonry, carpentry, &c., will be taught dur¬ ing the first year. The subject of design is intro¬ duced in the second year, and becomes the main subject of the later years. The general director is Mr. ]. L. Ball; Mr. E. F. Reynolds is the assistant director and lecturer in design ; lecturer in history, Mr. W. H. Bidlake ; lecturer in physics, Mr. F. B. Andrews. A good deal of the work done by Birmingham architects is excellent, and we hope this new school may be the means of widening a good influence.
N the Architectural Record (New York) for August an article is- published on “ Architectural Refinements in Mediaeval Churches Computed,” by Mr. Charles S. Hastings, Professor of Physics in the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale Uni¬ versity. This gentleman has become a convert to Mr. Goodyer's views, and he writes to establish a method of investigating, from the photograph, the extent of these so-called refinements.
It will be remembered that 1 he Architec¬ tural Review (Volume XVIII) published photo-
Notes of the Month.
graphs of Italian and other mediaeval churches which Mr. Goodyer had been exhibiting in various places. Mr. Goodyer has done for the architecture of the Middle Ages what Mr. Penrose did for the Parthenon — discovered refinements. Alas ! as we have learnt from the Greek temple, the skill required to adjust their subtle variations to correct certain definitely analysed optical illusions was infinite. This skill was beyond the dreams of mediaeval workmen, and the refinements reduce themselves into accidents caused unconsciously by different generations of workmen, by settlements, inaccurate setting out and the like. And we cannot help quoting Mr. Prior: “Yet on any conscious examination of the question, I incline to the thought that exactness, smoothness, and certainty are the refinements which come into the making of a great work of architecture, as in everything else. And I believe the mediaeval builders just thought so too. They had no aesthetic ambition in making walls knock-kneed and facades round-backed. They made the best of their conditions; and as practical men do now, they concealed the ugliness of accident, and still, in spite of it, and in disregard of it, strove after perfection. No more then than now could the craftsman be persuaded to bungle his work. There are two classes of mind to whom the appeals of art are made — the practical and the mystic. Has not the connoisseurship of modern art in our days unhealthily stimulated this latter? . . . Mr. Goodyer’s gospel will be good tidings to the mystic and the idealist, but to the craftsman it is foolishness.”
For ourselves we feel this to be right. The more apparent refinements of classic art — the entasis of pillars, their proportion and so on — have been grafted on to art, but those delicate curv- ings of stylobate and entablature by their very subtlety have proved unnecessary to our grosser vision. Now to be asked to build piers and walls out of the plumb, walls on a bulge, is too much, and would but give scope to that enemy of true architecture — the lover of the picturesque.
However, to whose who are converted to this new gospel Mr. Hastings’s essay may prove inter¬ esting.
* * * *
HE example set by Washing¬ ton in civic planning is being rapidly followed by many other cities in America. Pitts¬ burg, Cleveland, St. Louis, and Chicago, cities whose populations increase by leaps and bounds, have met the issue fairly, and are preparing plans for present
I l9
and future development. Cities like Washington, St. Paul, and Baltimore, which have already been admirably planned, are no less awake, and even the less important centres are alive to the neces¬ sity for comprehensive planning. But under the leadership of men such as Messrs. McKim, Gilbert, Burnham, Carrere, Brunner, Nolen, and Manning, much is possible. And if the fame is posthumous, all the more credit is due to these pioneers in what promises to be the greatest movement in architec¬ ture of the twentieth century — -in America at least. We are content to muddle along with petty utilitarian schemes of improvement in our cities on the one hand, and very self-conscious “garden suburbs ” on the other. And ihe great issues of city planning are lost. Stateliness, dignity, and restraint we have bartered for the licence which is called cleverness.
We can only hope to get these qualities back by the right education of our students. Schools like those at Liverpool and Glasgow, where methods of education are similar to those of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, will, we hope, in the future, help to raise the standard of taste among architects them¬ selves. We do not lack ability, but it is too often misdirected.
*•¥■*-*
HERE is a probability of Burn¬ ham’s plan for San Francisco being revived, to the extent, at least, of the creation of a Civic Centre. In the evolu¬ tion of the plan it was found impossible, after a great deal of study, to use the old City Hall as a focal point, and eventually Mr. Burnham1 gave it up, and worked his scheme regardless of it. And then it was destroyed in the great earthquake.
At a dinner of the Merchants’ Association held recently in San Francisco, it was pointed out that in locating the New City Hall and its accom¬ panying Civic Centre, there was a great chance of realising the crux of Burnham’s plan. This asso¬ ciation represents an important section of public opinion, and the advocation by them of this scheme carries great weight. It was pointed out by one of the speakers at the dinner, Mr. Thos. Magee, who before deemed the plans imprac¬ ticable from a financial point of view, that the suggested bond issue to carry out the Civic Centre would make a net addition of one cent a year to the tax rate. And he added : “ Who would object to paying a penny to start for San Francisco the very hub of the Burnham plans ? ” Closing his speech, he said : “ I beg you to hitch your wagon to a star, and rise, and rise.” The vote on the bond issue takes place this summer.
I 20
Notes of the Month.
While we have from time to time pointed out that America, in the matter of public spirit, is far ahead of England, we do not wish it to be thought there is no ignorance in high places. There is both crass ignorance and strong opposition to be overcome. The opposition to the revival of L’Enfant’s plan of Washington is a case in point. But America’s great advantage lies in the fact that she possesses an increasing number of highly- trained architects, who, in the pursuit of the “ Grand Manner,” conceive the necessity of town planning on grandiose lines more than we do.
We sincerely hope that San Francisco will go forward from the Civic Centre in a manner worthy of its magnificent situation. In The Architec¬ tural Review (Volume XX) are given plans and a description of this “ City Beautiful.”
E hope the proposal to remove the statue of Charles 1 which looks down Whitehall to the Banqueting House from Charing Cross will be opposed by everyone who loves his London. Croydon is not alone in being in the hands of vandals. Barnard’s Inn, off Holborn, a quiet quad¬ rangle surrounded by pleasant old houses with exceptionally interesting doorways, is threatened. But that is not so drastic a piece of vandalism as the proposed removal of the equestrian statue. Besides, we have still much Georgian work, and in the gradual reconstruction of our streets much of it is bound to go.
We have few statues of real merit in London, and this weather-worn pedestal with its rather stiff horse and rider is one of the best we have. The stone base with its vigorous carving is from the design of Sir Christopher Wren, and the carving itself is in the style of Grinling Gibbons. The statue suffered many vicissitudes. It was cast in the reign of Charles, but the outbreak of the Civil War prevented its erection. A trades¬ man bought it as old metal and made a large sum by the sale of bronze ornaments purporting to be taken from its substance. The statue, however, was kept intact and set up after the Restoration on the site of Old Charing Cross. There can be little doubt that to remove this memorial would be to destroy utterly the pedestal. For nearly two and a half centuries the statue has stood there, and time has worn and bleached the Portland stone to such an extent that any attempt to take it down would be fatal to the old carving and stone.
Day by day old buildings and memorials dis¬ appear at the instance of so-called improvements, which are at most disfigurements, and the quiet¬
ness, the charm of old streets gives place to restlessness and vulgarity.
Until recently nothing later than the sixteenth century was considered worthy of preservation, but to-day Ruskin’s strictures on the Renascence are discounted and the dignity and essential use¬ fulness of this style are being more and more understood, with a consequent reviving of interest and appreciation.
It is a curious thing that most English guide books entirely neglect this period of architecture, and charming examples of domestic architecture, which are invariably in this style, are passed over in silence or dismissed as unworthy. When most modern work gives a version of the Renascence the omission is noteworthy.
But to return to the statue. There are in London several equestrian statues, and the more recent they are the more uninteresting they become. The equestrian statue to the Black Prince opposite Henry the Seventh’s Chapel shows a modern “ blood horse” carrying a heavily armoured man. Apart from the anachronism, the whole composition is restless, the execution poor and uninspired. And the new statue opposite the Horse Guards is no better.
The whole trend of art is towards “ the life.” Sculptors and painters spend laborious apprentice¬ ships studying from nature, and apparently neglect tradition ; otherwise why is it that in all this scientific preparation and study Art flies away ?
We do not wish to suggest that “life and nature ” should be neglected. On the contrary, we realise that the neglect of these leads inevitably to the brown tree ; but, on the other hand, their too scientific pursuit, taking no account of that vivi- fying quality which may be termed the soul, leads to nothing.
For ourselves, twice in the realms of art has the horse been realised magnificently and superbly. When the poet was inspired to say “ he clothes his neck in thunder ” he for all time fixed an ideal to which our aim continually points. With thought it were possible to discover a figure to express his fleetness of foot, the nobility of his movement ; but the old quotation, with its brevity, its imagination, brings before the mind’s eye the horse, his speed, his nobility of cast, heightened by the suggestion that in his neck resides a power like that of Nature’s most awe-inspiring manifestations.
The horse's head from the east pediment of the Parthenon is of ideal mould. He draws with Selene beneath the horizon so that little more than the head is shown, but the poet might have contemplated it when his inspiration suggested “ thunder.” In that neck is hidden a power as of thunder, the nostrils dilate with the breath of life, the wide eye contains lightning.
I 2 I
Notes of the Month.
Verrocchio’s horse in Venice is perhaps an¬ other, and Leonardo’s, which perished. The neck clothed with thunder is one of the great essentials in a horse, not the careful delineation of protruding veins. Modern art is troubled too much with accessories, which not only do not count, but detract the attention from essential qualities.
The horse from Charing Cross is a far-off descendant of Verrocchio’s noble charger — much diminished in grandeur and fire, but still retaining traces of the “grand manner.’’ And we hope that the utmost opposition will be offered to its removal.
* * * *
N the Daily Chronicle for August 19 appears an article with the significant title — “Woman as an Architect: a profession that calls for re¬ cruits.” It is placed on the page usually devoted to femi¬ nine matters, is apparently the work of a lady, and is adorned with a fanciful pic¬ ture of the damsel working at her drawing-board, certainly attractive and workmanlike enough. There is so much in this article that is sound and sensible that an architect’s view may interest those who have read the views of the Chronicle's •contributor.
The time has passed when men could claim a monopoly of intellect, and most of us have to confess a reverse in our university or professional career, where we found some maiden’s name a few places higher than our own on college or institute examination list. We no longer take a futile revenge by accusing these fair victors of spectacles or blue stockings, but recognise them as fair competitors. We have admitted them to the ranks of our Institute, although the Law still bars its doors.
Nevertheless there is a great deal to be said in reply to this anonymous writer’s invitation to her sex to swell the vast army of architects. She fortunately spares us the necessity of misty gene¬ ralising or of odious comparisons. She does not mention that much-abused word “ intuition ” — which seems to allow a woman perfect freedom of speech on any subject to which she has devoted no attention whatever.
In fact she defines her position clearly enough, that a woman possesses by instinct and training certain knowledge in regard to a certain class of building which a man, by reason of his mode of life, cannot have in the same degree, and that on this account she is particularly fitted to bean architect. She instances as an example of lack of male fore¬ sight the following frequent defects in house design :
omission or insufficiency of cupboard accommoda¬ tion, arrangement of hot-water pipes against larder wall, steep stairs between basement and ground-floor, bathroom being near scullery (and hence in a chilly situation), omission of lobby or passage at front door, and use of small window- panes involving heavy labour in cleaning. An architect has no difficulty in replying to these charges. The first three points are time-worn complaints. We have heard of the lady critic at a recent housing exhibition who wrote to the papers reviling architects in general, setting forth ideas for improvement (chiefly cupboards) which would have added 20 per cent, to the cost of building these designedly cheap cottages, and which must have been obvious to an architect’s office boy. The Chronicle writer in this case has evidently been unfortunate enough to have only seen houses designed by architects of no repute or more probably by a speculative builder. No man can afford to make mistakes of this sort habitually, nor is it conceivable that he could so far forget the elementary rules of domestic plan¬ ning. The fourth and fifth defects plainly refer to cottages which are seldom designed by architects and are usually the work of an untrained builder’s clerk. Her last point is a tacit admission of a popular preference for plate-glass over small panes, for after all the architect plans his building with the full cognisance of his client. The latter does not awake some morning to find that his new home has suddenly blossomed forth into leaded lights. To think that the said client’s wife cannot persuade her husband to adopt her plate- glass ideal would imply a loss of the influence which has been hers since the days of Eve; to imagine that she had not grasped “ the full meaning and intent of the plans ” would indeed argue her unfitness for the practice of archi¬ tecture.
But there is a stronger answer still which must not be overlooked. The unknown contributor bases her claims on the hypothesis that women are fitted by domestic training to practise house¬ building. Yet she admits that a long course of training in an office is necessary. How then can a girl whose life is spent in office-work have any more intimate knowledge of such things than her brother in like case, the very personification of “ male ignorance ” ?
She makes no mention of the relatively small part that is played by design in the routine of an office, of the drudgery of specification-writing, tracing, and similar mechanical work. And as she limits her remarks to domestic architecture there is happily no need for us to hazard sur¬ mises as to feminine suitability for any other class of building.
VOL. xxvi. — H
1 22
Notes of the Month.
We are told that “already many fully-qualified men cannot find anything to do to-day” ; we are reminded of the remarkable experience of “ one young fellow who has lately emigrated to Canada because there seemed no opening for him in England ” ; and finally that “ I don’t think any woman should enter the profession unless she has genuine talent and is prepared to work exceedingly hard.” All of which is perfectly true, but is under¬ drawn. She should have spoken of the shocking conditions in the architectural world to-day, of the long lists of unemployed capables at the Institute or the A. A. ; of the hundreds of qualified applicants for a minor post in an unhealthy climate abroad. She should have described the piti¬ less scramble of competitions, the vain striving of the man without influence to found a practice, the awful and increasingly frequent tragedy of the superannuated assistant. The present is no time for idle doubts as to whether our venerable calling is sufficiently attractive for new recruits. The stern fact confronts us that there are no vacancies.
We have welcomed women into the Institute, and it is significant that after some years’ experi¬ ence of office-life they have decided “ to confine their attention to the literary and abstract side of the profession.”
A man assumes no air of intellectual superiority when he brings forward such admitted obstacles to an aspiring lady architect ; he may point to
hundreds of his colleagues who cannot afford to marry, and to thousands who are married and in straitened circumstances, and he may without fear of appearing pessimistic or unsympathetic ask her if she fully realises that this seductive art has a graver side, that it is recognised to be the most overcrowded profession in England.
M. S. Briggs.
* * * #
HE Rhodes Memorial, South Africa, is situated on high ground commanding an ex¬ tensive view, and is backed by mountains. It is such a site as the Greeks would have loved. The architects have conceived their memorial in an Attic style, quiet and dignified, and suitable to its noble position. The great flight of steps enhances the design, and the placing of the statue of “ Physical Energy,” by the late G. F. Watts, is well chosen.
We understand that a South African granite is used in the building, and that the details are very simple, as a hard stone requires. The monument is extremely effective, and the architects are to be congratulated on making a departure fromVictorian ideals in the design of monuments.
BAKER AND MASEY, ARCHITECTS.
THE STATUE OF “PHYSICAL ENERGY IS BY THE LATE G. F. WATTS.
1 23
Notes of the Month.
NEW gallery was opened the other day in the British Museum for the exhibition of Greek and Roman casts. Five and twenty years ago Mr. W. Copeland Perry presented a collection of casts to the South Kensington Museum, and it is from this that the casts are taken. They are arranged in chronological order so as to show the develop¬ ment of ancient sculpture. There is much of interest to architectural students. One of the earliest pieces is a fine cast of the Lion’s Gate at Tiryns. A group of metopes from the Thesion at Athens — somewhat like those from the Parthenon, in little — give one a good idea of the scale of the Temple. Some of the fine sculptures from the balustrade of the Temple of the Wingless Victory are shown — exquisitely draped figures — one of them, “ Victory unloosing her Sandal,” is justly famous. Her graceful attitude, the grace of the draperies, remind one of the noble Demeter, or the fragment of a charioteer from the Mausoleum. A metope from the Temple of Zeus, which contains a bull’s head executed with great vigour, and models to a small scale of the two pediments of this temple, should be interesting to students.
La Dame d’Elcbe, in facsimile, finds a place in this gallery. We published a photograph, in Vol. XXIV, page 158, of this strange and bewitch¬
ing bust. No sculpture found of late years has given rise to more discussion. It is held by some to be a brilliant forgery — like Michelangelo’s Cupid — but the general consensus of opinion is that this unique fragment belongs to the fifth century B.C., and is the work of some Iberian sculptor. However that may be, it is a strange and fascinating work, and somehow, in our mind, ranks with “ La Giacondo.” Both are inspired with a kind of cynical melancholy and an elusive charm.
Many fine casts of Greco-Roman copies of origi¬ nals by Praxiteles are shown — two of Aphrodite, in a pose suggestive of the Venus de' Medici, but more beautiful, and in a way approaching the dignity of the Venus de Milos. The Apollo Sauroktonos, from the original of the same sculptor, is also incomparably lovely. Specimens of the work of Scopas, Polyclitus, and Myron are also exposed. A cast of Laocoon, and a fine panel from Pergamon, of somewhat barbaric splendour, are worth study. A reproduction of the massive sarcophagus of Alexander Severus is one of the most important exhibits. Some fine sculpture is wrought round the base, and reclining figures of the Emperor and his lady are placed on the top. The original is now in the Capitoline Museum.
The collection is one of vast interest, and should prove a useful addition to the splendid collections already housed in the Museum.
4. — PLAN OF THE COURTYARD OF THE MOKOSINI PALACE, VENICE. [See next page.)
The parts blacked in are the remains of the original work, and the hatched parts show the succeeding alterations and changes.
11 c
Notes from Italy.
THE COURTYARD OF THE MOROSINI PALACE, VENICE.
E buildings of Venice have a peculiar charm, in perfect har¬ mony with the atmosphere of the place ; their disappear¬ ance would be a calamity, and all praise must be ac¬ corded to the work of pre¬ serving these artistic trea¬ sures. The Morosini Palace is well known as the finest and most celebrated house in Venice, the centre in the sixteenth century of the intellectual life of the Republic. The courtyard of this palace has become a public right of way and deplorably neglected, so that it is scarcely possible to see the vestiges of its former grandeur.
Professor Aristide Naccari, of Venice, a clever architect and a jealous guardian of the beauties of his town, presented a project for restoration, which is now in hand. He carefully examined, for data, the documents of the epoch, and diligently studied and compared contemporary buildings ; for some of the work he found evidences in the building itself, as, for instance, the embattled wall, the limits of the courtyard, the window on the left hand, and the acroteria of the door upstair-. The
5. — PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF STAIRS.
I. — COURTYARD OF THE MOROSINI PALACE, VENICE. PRESENT STATE.
Notes from Italy.
\ 25
( OI(TC- C- S( AlLSl '0(4. \'<MM7A) WOI(()SIMs<l>|MVIlMl
'oiSHWrekLki i:oi{®vi
ir/ pomitewi s.hiovhom lvith(viivi) m vi-r/t-L'isi
I’lji^mvvi ik-'l sekuj) xiv xv.
mesa
MM
2. — COURTYARD O K THE MOROSINI PALACE, VENICE. ORIGINAL STATE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
ORIGINAL STATE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
Notes from Italy.
i 26
illustrations we publish give an exact idea of this interesting project. Fig. 1 represents the present and bad condition of the courtyard ; Fig. 2 shows the original state in the fifteenth century, which it is desired to restore ; Fig. 3 shows sections, and will give an idea of the construction ; Fig. 4 (p. 123) is the plan, on which may be seen the various
alterations and additions introduced at different dates; the parts blacked in are the remains of the original work, and the hatched parts the succeeding alterations and changes ; Fig. 5 is a perspective study of the stairs rid of the under¬ lying wall and of the wooden enclosure seen in the photograph No. 1.
A. Romieux.
GATE LODGE : THE GONZAGA PALACE, MILAN. PROFESSOR ARPESANI, ARCHITECT.
(For Views of the Palace, see page 102, Vol. XXIV.)
E architecture of the later Renascence, which is called Barocco, has often been stig¬ matised as degraded. Judged on its merits, however, how much of it seems the reverse !
Santa Maria della Salute, the gem of the Decline, stands almost as much for Venice as St. Paul’s does for London. Not without reason this fine church is celebrated. In one of the fairest cities of the world it raises its shapely dome over the limpid waters of the Grand Canal, from which the eye rises in sheer delight, tracing its fine pyramidal
form from plinth to finial, tarrying by the way in a plenitude of ornaments. In Venice the exuber¬ ance of the Barocco finds expression in multitu¬ dinous line and decoration, to which is added in some Palermitan churches the most gorgeous colour.
San Salvatore, in the Corso Vittorio Emanuele in Palermo, was built (1628) by Amato a few years before the Venice church, and is a good example of architecture in colour in the interior. In plan it is oval with a recess on each axis, the entrance being in one opposite the high altar, in the length of the church. The side recesses are made use of as chapels. Between each opening are two smaller
Notes from Italy
i 27
PEDESTAL IN VARIOUS MARBLES FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUM, PALERMO.
FROM A DRAWING IN WATER-COLOUR BY J.
M. W. HALLEY.
i 2 8
Notes from Italy.
MESSINA CATJiEDRAJj AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE,
Notes from Italy.
ones, with square windows above protected by grilles. Up to the dome everything is marble of different colours, the pilasters being inlaid with garlands and scrolls and angels, and indeed every¬ thing that a Barocco invention could fancy. There is a great lustre candelabra hanging in the centre. Usually the church is dimly lighted, and then the effect is most fantastic, for the pilasters seem to be full of little climbing angels, climbing in a fan¬ tastic wilderness of flowers; yet not in a sunlit garden, but one subterranean, where each flower makes its own light — making the dimness visible only to discover untold richness. And the lighted candles at the altar gleam out with a quietness in keeping with the dim light, scarcely illuminating the high arch over it, above which, under the cor¬ nice of the dome, are vaguely seen dim crowds of waving figures. In the spandrels over the arches are figures; in the frieze under the cornice are more figures. The painting of the oval dome is not particularly good, but the effect is one of great richness and splendid beyond words ; and it seemed to us, as we looked at it, to be a kind of fairy palace, wrought by magic in a night — of the Arabian Nights.
On saints’ days the effect is different; the great central lustre gleams with a hundred lights, and
I 29
candles sparkle from each corner, so that every cornice and niche and figure has a new value — perhaps more fantastic. The marbles take on definite hues and shine like precious stones. What a material is this for the architect, that gives him a palette like a painter’s — rainbow-hued !
An idea of this kind of decoration may be ob¬ tained from the water-colour drawing of a pedestal to a pilaster, taken from the museum in Palermo. The “ putti ” are carved in full relief in white marble, so is the eagle and riband, while the back¬ ground is black, the flames red, and the flowers yellow and red. The carving itself is in very good style, vigorous and well executed, and the inlay is finished with great precision.
In these decorations the sacred and profane are mingled together in the true manner of the “ Humanistic ” Renascence — virgins and saints, gods and goddesses, in a riotous confusion — just as when the bishop in the ordering of his tomb commands —
“ The bas-relief in bronze ye promised me,
Those Pans and Nymphs ye wot of, and perchance Some tripod, thyrsus, with a vase or so,
The Saviour at his sermon on the mount,
St. Praxed in a glory, and one Pan
Ready to twitch the Nymph’s last garment off.”
Public Buildings in the Sicilian Earthquake.
( Concluded from page 131, Vol. XXV.)
HE church of S. Maria della Scala, erected in 1347, imme¬ diately after the completion of the cathedral, is in ruins, as well as that of S. Francesco, dating from the thirteenth century, which had been mal¬ treated by restorations ; and a sculpture of Antonello Gagini, which was specially worthy of notice. S. Niccolo, a church of the sixteenth century, with chapels covered with rich mosaic decorations, is in ruins; and so are the beautiful church of Catalani and the elegant church of the “ Alemanna,” both of the thirteenth century. The curious clock tower of S. Gregorio (six¬ teenth century), however, remains standing, look¬ ing as forlorn as the unsubmerged mast of a sunken ship.
You must also be aware that Messina contained an unheard-of number of frescoes of the eighteenth
century in the churches of S. Caterina de Valverde, S. Biagio, S. Elia, S. Maria e Gesu in S. Leone, S. Maria la Nuova, and S. Elena. The decorative beauty of these is not referred to in the guide-books, and yet they are worthy of attention for the very reason that they were characteristic features of the unfortunate city.
As regards civil buildings, scarcely anything of interest from the archaeological and artistic point of view remains in Messina. The “ Mont de Piete,” in seventeenth-century style, can claim for its authorship one of the masters of Italian architecture of the “ Baroque” and Rococo period, a scion of artistic Messina, P'ilippo Juvarra (1685-1736), who laboured principally at Turin, where he played an important pare in the renova¬ tion of the Piedmont capital.
This might conduct us to Antonello of Messina, four of whose works belong to the National Gallery in London, as well as the supposed portrait of
130 Public Buildings in the Sicilian Rarthquake.
the master, possibly the fruits of British sovereignty over Messina exercised from 1806 to 1815. His powerful art of portraiture is marked bv a wealth of paintings in the Venetian Giambellino style, which are fortunately preserved outside Messina, the master’s home, whose history has been com¬ pletely reconstituted by researches recently con¬ ducted in the archives of his place of birth.1
Two fountains by Fra Giovanni Angelo Montor- soli (1506-1565), a Florentine sculptor, who was a pupil of Michael Angelo, and who came to Sicily after working at the celebrated fountain on the Piazza Pretoria at Palermo, have been destroyed.
Near Messina lie places such as Ali, Caronia, Casalvecchio, Castelmola, Castroreale, Condro, Frazzano, Galati, Mamertina, Giardini, Milazzo,
Mistretta, Patti, S. Angelo in Brolo, and Taormina. Taormina more than the other spots mentioned, which retain monuments of local rather than general interest, is rich in monuments of art. The ancient Greek theatre of Taormina, situated beside this town, which is the most peaceful one in the island, has not been ravaged by the frightful disaster. Taor¬ mina, in the immediate vicinity of these archaeo¬ logical masterpieces, has brought together some exquisite mediaeval monuments, from the palace of Corvaja to that of the Duke of S. Stefano, with¬ out mentioning the Badia Vecchia (sixteenth centurj), the “ Porta Catania,” and the cloisters of S. Domenico (seventeenth century).
And as these places carry us across the Straits to Reggio in Calabria, and into the region bearing
1 Happily the Antonello paintings preserved at the Civic Museum of Messina were not numerous, and some of them were even disputed. Of two Virgins attributed to the Messinese master, at least one may not have been his at all, although one of them is reputed to be the first painting painted in oils in Italy towards 1450.
S. MARIA DELLA SCALA, MESSINA (DESTROYED IN THE SICILIAN EARTHQUAKE).
Public Buildings in the Sicilian Rarthquake. i 3 1
that name, we must rejoice, knowing that here the beauty of Nature is dominant above man’s. Reggio, on the other side of the water, which is the principal town of the department, preserves a limited number of buildings exciting our interest. The remains of a thermal establishment of the Roman period will not be forgotten by archaeo¬ logists ; artists will rather be interested in the fate of the church of S. Gregorio Magno and of its chapel named the “Ottimati,” which, according to the inspector of the monuments of the district, has had a different fate from the thermal baths which have been destroyed, as well as the Castle of Reggio, which had a certain amount of fame attaching to it. The same un¬ happy fate has overtaken Reggio Cathedral, beauti¬ fied with a chapel called after the Sacrament, which is worthy of notice. In the vicinity of Reggio, as well as near Messina, some spots of the greatest artistic interest are not re¬ cognisable to-day. We have Caulonia, with the tomb of the Carafas in the parish church ; we have Gerace with the tower of that name, and an Ionic temple ; above all we have Gioiosa Ionica,
with Roman traces, which are not of prime im¬ portance, viz. the Roman theatre, a Roman temple (remains), a Roman bathing establishment (traces). And if from Gioiosa Ionica we travel to Mammola, Delianova, Portigliola, Pellaro, Villa S. Giovanni, San Luca, Seminara, Sinopoli, Stilo, although sight and thought may suffer, it is not proved that what was accidentally destroyed here reduces the monumental heritage of Italy in any appreci¬ able degree.
In conclusion, Messina represents the most serious artistic loss. For it is not necessary to confine oneself to ancient monuments ; and with the glance turned towards modern buildings, one must deplore the overthrow of the streets and squares of Messina, of this city built in the form of an amphitheatre, of its old mansions, its white villas, and of the famous “ Palazzata,” a long and regular line of modern buildings on the quay, a line not without grandeur, with its sun-lit back¬ ground of mountains, of which rough spurs pro¬ ject into the sea, which widens here to unite two equally unfortunate towns, Messina and Calabrian Reggio.
Alfredo Melani.
OLD CASTLE, REGGIO.
A Visigothic Church in Spain.
HE little Church of San Pedro de la Nave stands on a small plateau be¬ neath the shelter of rugged over¬ hanging cliffs, almost encircled by the River Esla. In the neighbour¬ hood on the right and left banks of the river are five poor little villages which acknowledge San Pedro as their parish church and cemetery.
The name of ‘‘La Nave” probably does not arise from the boat {nave) which is stationed there for the crossing of the Esla, but is more likely topographical, meaning a nava, or plain between heights. From Zamora on a summer’s day it is possible to go and return easily if well mounted, or even by carriage, though this last route is somewhat exposed. It is about twenty kilometres distant, following the Alcanices road as far as the hill of Consejo, and thence about half the distance is by an unused road over level ground, following a mere track until you reach the little village of Campillo, thence by a steep descent with beautiful views to the end of the journey. At the first turn here we come in sight of the reddish-coloured building, the graceful lines of which are spoiled by an ugly bell-tower. It is partly surrounded by the rude walls of the cemetery ; on the right is the Rectory, on the left a huge mul¬ berry tree, at the back is the River Esla, while in front the ground rises, wild and uncultivated, showing the windings of the river to the right, where the horizon widens, and in the distance is La Pueblica, one of the dependencies of San Pedro. Higher up the river, on the high ground of San Martin, have been found ancient bronzes and coins.
The first notice of this church, that of Yepes (“ Cronica de la Orden de San Benito ”), tells us that in 902 Alfonso III gave to it the property of Valdeperdices, which it still holds ; later on the Priory was annexed to Celanova. Both circumstances are corroborated by a compact made in 1222 between the Abbot of this great monastery and the Archdeacon of Zamora (Archives of Zamora Cathedral), concerning the tributes of “ Llaldeperdizes ” and “ Sco Petro de Estula,” thus called, as it would appear, from its proximity to the Esla. Eventually it became a dependency of the Cluniac monks of Zamora.
The knowledge of this edifice among the learned is confined to two engravings in the “ Monumentos Arquitectonicos de
Espana,” signed by R. Arredondo. On these depend the short and erroneous description of Quedrado, and the very summary references of Oliver, Serrano Fatigati, Tubino, Lamperez,. Ltizaro, Agapito, Hiibner, &c., not one of whom speaks from personal knowledge, or anything more than is gained from these two prints. So far good, if these illustrations had been correct ; but if the decoration of the church has been reproduced with some amount of fidelity, the same cannot be said for the ground plan, for the sectional drawings, nor for those of the exterior. It is sad to see the knowledge of so monumental a work confined to mere sketches, at once deficient, incorrect, and therefore misleading ; many of the details, in fact, relating to ideal restorations more or less fanciful.
On this basis there is an admirable concordance of opinion among our critics when they pass judgment on the building as being of the tenth century, without a single inscription or document which might serve as authority. They are, how¬ ever, quite unanimous. The problem, according to them, is absolutely clear ; but it never appeared to me to be so, and if now, after two visits and a most careful study of the building on the spot, I have arrived at some sort of certainty on the subject, it is in contradiction both to the dictum of the learned and the vulgar tradition which ascribes the foundation to Saints Julian and Basil during the ninth century.
I am convinced that it belongs to the seventh or the begin¬ ning of the eighth century. It is impossible to suppose it to have been built during the Mussulman occupation and before the Duero formed the Christian frontier and Zamora was repopulated in 893. There is therefore a distinct dilemma : either it was built by the Goths, or between the years 893 and 907, when, as we know, it was in existence.1 Churches of this second period are not wanting, and are well known ; but I find it difficult, in comparing them with San Pedro, to infer a prox¬ imity of date. The masonry of all these later buildings is of rubble, brick, or earth ; San Pedro is of wrought stone of the Roman type, even in the vaulting. In the one case there is either no ornament at all, or it is of an extremely barbaric type with traces of Saracenic influence, or it has been taken from other Visigothic buildings ; in San Pedro the decoration is abundant, it has been wrought on the site, and resembles the Italian work of the seventh and eighth centuries.
In the later edifices the horseshoe arch follows the Arab type.
1 Since this was written I have been able to see the “privilege ” of Alfonso III cited by Yepes in the tomb at Celanova (fol. 149, Archivo historio r.acional). Its date is 907 — not 902, as he states. It relates that it was then a monastery, and describes it in these terms: in locum quern dicitur Tunis, territorio Camore. The name Tunis is unknown and is difficult of explanation, but it is evident that what the King gave at that time is the site of the existing church.
SAN PEDRO DE LA NAVE.
LONGITUDINAL SECTION.
i33
A Visigothic Church in Spain.
PLAN OF SAN PEDRO DF. LA NAVE.
while in this church it is identical with those of San Juan de Banos, and of Santa Comba. In those the inscriptions are Mozarabic, in this Visigothic. San Pedro reveals a style which -was still full of classical tradition, mixed with a tinge of Byzantine influence ; the Asturian churches of the ninth cen¬ tury show the first dawn of mediaeval architecture, the taste for the antique already lost ; those of the tenth century still greater irresolution in their variation from tradition, which arose from the interposition of monks emigrating from Anda- lucia. Everything would thus lead to a conclusion that the hypothesis referred to is based only on a paucity of exact information and the consequent following of a routine opinion; -while in place of it we are justified in attributing this edifice to the closing years of the Visigothic kingdom of Toledo, as -we shall be able to show later on.
Its isolated position saved it from the fury of the Mussul¬ man, and its poverty from modern patchings and restorations ; but it has very nearly come to ruin through defects in con- -struction, misfortunes which only at the cost of serious mutilation has it been possible to remedy. Apart from these it has remained sound enough, and we may gladly overlook the tawdry ornaments of an uncivilised village, its abandon¬ ment, damp, and defects, with complacency in finding it at least free from inartistic restoration.
The ground plan is founded on one of the primitive types of early Christian architecture, that of a cross with arms slightly unequal, like the Mausoleum of Placida at Ravenna and Santa Cruz de Nona (Istria); also, according to the old records, similar to San Roman “ with its cross of four arms,” the beautiful Romanesque Church of Santa Marta de Tesa, ■erected probably over an older foundation, and that of Santa Comba de Bande near Orense, which dates from the seventh century. But the fact that the cross in San Pedro is enclosed -within quadrangular walls gives it a certain singularity, and it vaiies from the usual Byzantine model in being much lighter. Its length is 1975 metres and the width i6'oo, with 81 cen¬ timetres depth of the walls added — dimensions which, though small, equal if they do not surpass those of other vaulted churches erected in Spain and in France at the same date, jts symmetry is absolute and its plan perfect.
From the wall, which faces exactly east, stands out a rect¬ angular chapel, according to Spanish custom, with small windows in its side walls, having no recess ; these must have been closed with slabs of perforated marble as in the basilicas and churches just mentioned. It is to be noted that the recess¬ ing of windows in the inside was a general custom in the tenth
century. On the north and south sides are two porches corre¬ sponding to the two arms of the cross, with small lateral windows divided into two arches, and this form of entrance doorway is, so far as I know, only to be found in the Byzantine churches of the Caucasus. The north porch has been closed, and now forms the sacristy.
Of the naves which form the cross, the central one measures 3-45 m., and the transepts 3-20 in width ; the crossing is squared with four massive arches, above which has been a sort of “ cimborio ” 2 or lantern, the excessive thrust of which, badly provided for, has caused great displacement, especially at the base, with deformation, and even probably the fall of parts of the arches and vaults. It appears that the vaulting of one of the transepts has fallen, and one of the arches been rebuilt. That at the entrance to the Capilla Mayor appeared so dan¬ gerous some eleven years ago that it was thought necessary to rebuild its centre. The lantern at some time disappeared, and the base of the column which was weakest suffered a recon¬ struction which has disfigured it altogether. The doorways made at this time, having arches slightly pointed, suggest that these works date from the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth centuries, but the mutilations of the transept might be of much later date. The nave and aisles of the lower end evidently had wooden, not vaulted roofs, because if there had been such there must be some indications of them on the flat surface of the lateral walls above each of the arches which used to open to the transept, but which are now built up. The other arches dividing off the aisles, three on each side, can only now be traced by their bases ( arranques ), and by one of the square piers from which they sprang, the immense displacement of which is sufficient evidence of the urgent necessity there was for their removal. At this time the falling portions were rebuilt, leav.ng the two doorways already mentioned, and above them were built up massive walls with the stones of the decayed building and slate, with small win¬ dows splayed towards the inside ; these became useless later on when the w alls of the aisles were raised so as to come under the pitched roof of the nave. The main east walls have been rebuilt in many places with the old hewn stones badly put together, and have narrow lancet windows in them, and the surface of the flooring, showing little trace of the original woik, makes one doubt whether there may not have been another entrance with its corresponding porch. Personally I incline to the negative, believing that the want of it determined the ruin, since had it existed its inert mass would have checked the excessive thrust from the crossing.
The two lateral portions of the east end of the church now open from the wide arches which are indubitably modern, which gives them the appearance of chapels ; their vaults are not of great height, and they are lighted by three windows in their outer walls. Originally they must have been more com¬ pletely closed in, like those at Pehalva, with entrance provided with wooden doors, and at the side an opening with three arches, giving a view of the interior from the church, which would make one suspect that they were intended to be used as cells for anchorites rather than as a sacristy.
The little rooms or cells which appear to have been above the vault of the capilla and over the porches are another notable peculiarity of this church. In effect the walls of these rise a metre and a half above the others, leaving a space which has had an entrance from the inside through a small arch still to be traced, although built up above the main arch, and they have been covered by a roof, the traces of which are still to be seen on the wall in form of a “cartabon,” set square, or tympanum of hewn stones, in line with the extrados of the vaults of the interior of the building. With regard to the entrances, on each side within are stones jutting out from
A “ cimborio ’’ is not quite the same as a lantern, being peculiar to Spain (see Street).
134
A Visigothic Church in Spain
THE TRANSEPT, LOOKING TOWARDS CAPILLA MAYOR. THE TRANSEPT, SHOWING FLOORING.
A Vi si got hie Church in Spain.
3 5
DECORATION OF THE CENTRAL ARCH AND CAPILLA MAYOR.
the masonry to form supports for the rafters of a floor — not for the roof frame, for the walls are wide enough for this. It may be presumed therefore that there has been a kind of loft with access by the little arches over each doorway, whose use on any other hypothesis is very questionable. Furthermore, we know that other primitive churches of Asturias, such as San Julian de los Prados, Valdedios, Tuhon, and Priesca, had above the vaults of their respective chapels cells which had no other opening than a window of two or three arches in the inner wall, which were only accessible by rope or ladder. There is this difference, that the latter have some ventilation and have external openings ; but these may have been im¬ provements made with time, and what in the beginning served only as a loft or cupboard for storing things belonging to the church, or in which to secrete its treasures, or to serve as a temporary hiding place for a man in times of peril, might later on be transformed into a dwelling, more or less penitential, for ascetics, recluses, or fugitives.
This general description of the church serves to explain the accompanying drawings of the ground plan and section,
which show it free from all restorations, the dotted lines marking where such have probably been made ; beyond these the photographs represent the present condition of the building.
Both materials and workmanship show the leisurely care with which this church was built. Neither have the slate dabs used for the flooring, nor the broken quartz of Zamora, been used in the main building, but throughout a very fine sandstone of a slightly reddish-yellow tinge, resembling the soft stone of Salamanca, very pleasant to work, especially while it retains its natural moisture. The quarries of this stone, in fact, still exist on the other side of the Duero, about five leagues dis¬ tant. Herein we find another argument for the antiquity of the building, since in the tenth century, according to the description of the battle of Zamora by el Masudi, the bridge of the old Roman road across the Duero no longer existed.
Manuel Gomez-Moreno.
Translated from the original Spanish by L. Higgin.
{To be concluded.)
CAPITALS IN THE TRANSEPT.
Current Architecture
SILVERLANDS, CHERTSEY.
HE additions and alterations to Silverlands, Chertsey, for the Rt. Hon. Sir John Brunner, Bart., M.P., consist of a new entrance porch and vestibule on the north side, an extension of the garden loggia, and the rebuilding and enlargement of the billiard-room. Several small rooms were de¬ molished to form a large entrance hall, rising through two lloors, with a broad central stair¬ case. New doors were provided in the dining-room and corridors, and the interior of the loggia was panelled. In the billiard-room some of the old panelling had to be reused ; its extension west¬ ward was fitted up as a library, and a case was provided for an organ. The ceiling was entirely reconstructed, and decorated with fibrous plaster.
All the interior woodwork is in oak, elaborately carved and enriched. Cipollino and white marble
floors are used in the vestibule and loggia. The whole house was renovated inside and out. A complete new system of electric wiring, sanitation, and heating was installed. Fixed lavatory basins and hot towel-rails were fitted in each bedroom and dressing-room. An electric lift was placed in the well of the back stairs.
Architect, Ronald P. Jones, M.A., 7, Stone Buildings, Lincoln’s Inn. General Contractor, J. A. Hunt, Hoddesdon, Herts. Woodwork¬ carving by A. Aumonier. Stone, Bath Stone Firms. Plumbing and sanitary work, heating and ventilating, Matthew Hall & Co., London. Mosaic, marble and stone, marble-work, mantel¬ pieces, Farmer & Brindley. Electric wiring, Easton Courtney & Darbishire, London. Plaster- work, G. Jackson & Sons, London. Art metal work, Artificers Guild, London. Art metal work and door furniture, Birmingham Guild of Handi¬ craft. Electric light fixtures, Veritys. Electric lifts, Wavgood & Co., London.
SILVERLANDS, CHERTSEY. RONALD T. JONES, ARCHITECT.
Current A rchiteciure
'37
VOL. XXVI. — 1
GARDEN ENTRANCE TO BILLIARD-ROOM, SILVERLANDS, CHERTSEY.
133
Current Architecture
VESTIBULE, SILVERLANDS, CHERTSEY.
RONALD P. JONES, ARCHITECT.
Current A rc kite dure
139
UPPER HALL, SII.VERLANDS, CHERTSEY. RONALD P. JONES, ARCHITECT.
I
140
Cu rren t A rch 1 tec tit re ,
RONALD P. JONES, ARCHITECT.
Current Architecture ,
141
IHLLIARD-ROOM, SILVERLANDS, CHERTSEY. RONAl.D P. JONES, ARCHITECT.
142
Current A rckitecture.
ALTERATION AND EXTENSION OF PREMISES, WIGMORE STREET, LONDON, FOR MR. C. PECHSTEIN.
Walter Cave, Architect.
HE works consisted of altera- tionstotheold premises of this firm, No. 40, Wigmore Street, and the addition of Nos. 38 and 36 to the business pre¬ mises, with show-rooms, of¬ fices, &c., on the ground and first floors, and music-teach¬ ing rooms above. Steel and concrete construction was adopted, with hollow “ Mack ” partitions sup¬ plied by J. H. King & Co. The terra-cotta facings were supplied by Doulton & Co., and the steel construction work was carried out by Richard Moreland & Son. Oak floors have been laid on the ground floor, and maple floors in the show¬ rooms and on the first floor, &c. The ground floor rooms are panelled in mahogany, inlaid with ebony and satin-wood. Pavonazza pilasters, sup¬ plied by Farmer and Brindley, Ltd., have been introduced into the decorative scheme. The first-floor show-rooms have white woodwork and modelled plaster ceilings, &c. The general con¬ tractors were Simpson & Son, of Paddington Street, W. The casements and fittings were supplied by George Wragge, Ltd.; the special grates and the art-metal work by W. Bainbridge Reynolds, Ltd.; the lifts by the Otis Elevator Company; the modelled plaster-work and the stone-carving were executed by Mr. Frith; the electric wiring by Middleton Brothers; and the heating and ventilating by R. Crittall & Co. Mr. E. Wingfield Bowles was the consulting engineer.
UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM.
Sir Aston Webb, C.B., R.A., and E. Ingress Bell, Architects.
E buildings are situated at Bournbrook on a site of 39 acres, the gift of Lord Calthorpe, the main entrance being from University Road. In the centre of the frontage is the library, the gift of Mr. Charles Harding and family, with the Chamberlain tower, the gift of an anonymous donor, commemorating the in¬ ception of the scheme by the Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain. The tower forms a landmark for miles around. Facing this is the Great
Hall, with the various blocks branching east and west. When completed there will be nine blocks ; at present only six have been erected. Situated on the north-west portion of the site is the power station, comprising engine and boiler- house, with steel-melting laboratories, foundry, smithy, battery-house, gas plant, &c.,and connected with the main building by a subway carrying the electric mains and pipes. The whole of the space formerly occupied as a rifle range, 14 acres in extent, has been laid out as a sports ground for cricket, football, hockey, and tennis.
The stone figures for the entrance are the work of H. Pegram, A.R.A. The ceramic frieze for the entrance was done by R. Anning Bell. The stone carving is the work of W. S. Frith. The general contractor for the main buildings was T. Row-
ELECTROLIER DESIGNED BY EDWARD SPENCER.
Pendants for light are things in the design of -which we do not as a rule excel. In America they order these things much better than we do, and several excellent hanging lamps may be seen in some of the American interiors which we have published recently. The pendant illustrated, from the design of Mr. Edward Spencer, is made of brass and steel, pierced and chased, for a modern house of a Georgian character. The dimensions are 2 ft. 3 in. across by 18 in. high. It is quite simple in design, slightly reminiscent of Dutch candelabra, and makes a charming fitting.
Current Architecture,
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UMI
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Current Architecture
ALTERATION AND EXTENSION OF PREMISES, W1GMORE STREET, LONDON. THE HALE
Current Architecture
145
ALTERATION AND EXTENSION OF PREMISES, WIGMORE STREEP, LONDON. DETAIL IN SHOWROOM. WALTER CAVE, ARCHITECT.
Current Architecture ,
1 4^
ALTERATION AND EXTENSION OF PREMISES, WIG MO RE STREET, LONDON. DETAILS.
Current Architecture.
147
148
Current A rchitecture.
BIRMINGHAM UNIVERSITY. GENERAL VIEW OF THE FRONT.
Photo: Topical.
SIR ASTON WEBB, C.B., R.A., AND E. INGRESS BELL, ARCHITECTS.
botham ; for the tower, Waring & White, Ltd. ; for the power station, Smith & Pitts ; and for the grounds and roads, Currall Lewis & Martin.
The quantity surveyors were Corderoy & Co. ; surveyors for roads and grounds, Thomas & Bet- tridge ; electrical engineers, Henry Lea & Sons; experimental electrical engineer, G. A. Steinthai. The testing of steel and other materials was carried out by R. H. Harry Stanger, and the con¬ sulting engineer for the steelwork was E. L. Hall. The clerk of the works was H . Gray, and C. Laven¬ der was foreman of the works. The following are some of the sub-contractors : — Terra-cotta, Gibbs & Canning, Tamworth ; asphalt, Pilkington & Co ; gates and railings, Hart, Son, Peard & Co., Ltd., and Bayliss, Jones & Bayliss. The entrance gates, by Hart, Son, Peard & Co., Ltd., are of wrought iron, with panels in cast bronze on either side showing the arms of the University. The gates are 13 ft. 6 in. high in the centre. The organ in the Great Hall was built by Norman & Beard, of Norwich. Facing bricks, The Accring¬ ton Brick Co.; building bricks, Hadley & Co. and Johern & Son ; glazed bricks, Burmantofts Co. ; stone (generally), the Dailey Dale Stone Co. ; York stone, Powson Bros. ; stone granolithic paving, Stuart's Granolithic Co. ; steelwork (steel construction, girders), Eastwood, Swindler & Co.,
Hill & Smith, C. Wade & Co. ; fireproof parti¬ tions, C. Picking & Co. ; slates, the Tilberthwaite Green Slate Co., Kendal ; casements and case¬ ment fittings, Henry Hope & Son ; patent glazing and fittings, Henry Hope & Son ; stoves, grates, mantels to architects’ designs, Shuffrey & Co. ; sanitary ware and fittings, Doulton & Co., W. George ; marble flooring, Arthur Lee & Bros., Hayes ; plasterwork (enriched), The Bromsgrove Guild ; stained glass and leaded lights, T. R. Spence; art metal-work (special designs), The Birmingham Guild of Handicraft, Bromsgrove Guild ; electric light fixtures, The Birmingham Guild of Handicraft, Bromsgrove Guild ; door furniture, Charles Smith, Sons & Co., throughout ; marble-work (not floors), Arthur Lee & Bros. ; lifts and cranes, Otis Elevator Co., G. Johnson (service lifts) ; laboratory fittings, benches, tables, &c., T. Rowbotham ; clocks, clock bells, &c., Joyce & Co. (clock), Taylor & Son (clock bells) ; special furnishings, Lucy & Co. (book fittings), Brown & Co. (laboratory fittings, i.e. taps, &c.), Hamp¬ ton & Sons, W. Harris, Harris & Sheldon, Cham¬ berlain, King & Jones, Lee, Longland & Co.; pavement lights, St. Pancras Ironworks Co., Ltd. ; cement, Associated Portland Cement Manufac¬ turers, Ltd., Greaves, Bull & L.akin ; lime, Buxton Lime Co., J. Board & Co.
Curve n t A rch i iectu re .
149
BIRMINGHAM UNIVERSITY. 'I HE MAIN ENTRANCE. DETAIL OF MAIN ENTRANCE.
!5o
Current A rchiiecture ,
Photo; Topical.
BIRMINGHAM UNIVERSITY. THE ENTRANCE HALL.
SIR ASTON WEBB. C.B..
R. A.
AND E. INGRESS BELL, ARCHITECTS,
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BIRMINGHAM UNIVERSITY. THE GREAT HALT.
SIR ASTON WEBB, C.B., R.A., AND E. INGRESS BELL, ARCHITECTS.
Photo : Topical.
Current A rchitecture
i
3
BIRMINGHAM UNIVERSITY. THE ENTRANCE GATE,
The Committee for the Survey of the Memorials of Greater London.
RCHBISHOP WHITGIFT’S
“ Hospital of the Holy Trinity” at Croydon is now not only threatened, but is actually “ scheduled for de¬ struction ” by the vote of the Borough Council, which will seek parliamentary powers before the end of the year to sacrifice the hospital to the supposed needs of the town. We have already, in these notes, pointed out the peculiar value and significance of this beautiful building to the Croydon of the present and the future, and we have shown how needless was the policy which has been pursued in the widening of the streets — a policy which went out of its way to prepare the fatal blow at the continuance of Whitgift’s trust, and the existence of the little quadrangle in North End. But the enemies of the hospital have done their work only too well, and we have to consider the problem as it stands to-day.
The accompanying plan will show, however, that notwithstanding what has already been done, there is really no case for those who demand the setting back of the frontage in North End. The street curves at this point, and the hospital is on the outside of the curve, so that the line of the present revised frontage, if continued, actually coincides with the outside wall of the old building. Clearly therefore the proper course would be to set back the frontage of the Crown Hotel opposite, from the practical considerations of utility as well as from those of aestheticism.
George Street presents, however, quite a dif¬ ferent problem. The widening, commenced on the wrong side of the street, has been carried right down to the hospital archway, and the chapel and south wing project into the street. But if it were possible for the people of Croydon to realise the value of the building to them and their chil¬ dren, it would not be difficult to devise a way to meet the requirements of the traffic. There is
i 54 Committee for Surrey of Memorials of Greater London.
already a wide passage between the hospital and the buildings which ad¬ join it on the east, and if this were continued round the angle into North End, it would provide a safe and in¬ teresting course for all foot passen¬ gers. A little widening on the south side of the street would then be all that would be required for ordinary vehicles and even for trams.
It is hardly to be expected, perhaps, that a town of the size and nature of Croydon should have much corporate consciousness of what has been called the historic sense. But this is a case in which public opinion must tell, and it is incumbent upon those who feel these things, and upon those who re¬ flect upon the value of our ancient monuments, to do their utmost to ward off the hand of destruction. Some public authorities have been influenced already by the arguments of those who defend these objects of beauty from the violence offered them, and even Parliament has shown a languid concern in establishing a Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments. A little more effort will turn the scale, and then the unbelievers will be ashamed that they ever stood in the opposite camp, in which sheer ignor¬ ance and insensibility had detained them.
Walter H. Godfrey.
QUADRANGLE, WHITGIFT HOSPITAL.
DRAWN BV EDMUND L. WRATTEN, SURVEY COMMITTEE.
Books.
A PAGEANT OF GARDEN WORDS.
On the Making of Gardens. By Sir George Sitwell , Baronet. 8i in. by 5J in. pf. viii, 109. 5.?. nett.
London : John Murray , Albemarle Street , IV.
IR GEORGE SITWELL has taken up his parable in praise of Italian Gardens with so great a wealth of phrase and with so expansive an appre¬ ciation of beauty in all its forms, that the practical value of his sermon is a little hidden. In effect, however, he sends us to Italy that we may be purged on the one hand of the dreary futilities of Capability Brown, and on the other of “ the baneful influence of Versailles.”
As far as the landscape heresy goes, he is surely preaching to the converted, but we can hardly go so far as to believe that “ Le Notre stole the formulas of garden-making from Rome and Flor¬ ence, but left the poetry behind.” “ The great secret of success in garden-making is the pro¬ found platitude that we should abandon the struggle to make nature beautiful round the house, and should rather move the house to where nature is beautiful.”
We rather doubt whether our author is giving us very helpful advice. Doubtless in more Utopian times architects will be allowed to roam over England and Italy, and choose ideal sites where Nature shall “call the tune and the melody be found in the prospect of blue hill or shimmering
Books.
r 5 5
lake, or mystery-haunted plain ...” We would humbly represent that a long-suffering profession has to build on the site their clients provide, with a prospect not so much of “ mystery-haunted plain ” as of increment tax on undeveloped gardens exceeding five acres.
1 he next maxim is directed more specifically to the architect’s address. The house must be sub¬ ordinated to the landscape, not the landscape to the house. Here we are plunged into generalities. The house is to be
vast and austere where the note is one of grandeur or rugged¬ ness ; sweet and low where nature is in a smiling mood ; tall in a level plain ; rich with coupled shafts and sculptured friezes and cool colonnades if it faces a quiet prospect ; great and dignified in a country of mighty trees.
We have the feeling that Sir George Sitwell’s pen a little runs away in the pursuit of rolling phrases, and could have desired a greater economy of epithet. It was Rossetti who used to read at the British Museum to find “ stunning words” to use in his poems. We frankly enjoy Sir George’s stunning words, but we do not see why coupled shafts belong more to a quiet prospect than (say) to a country of mighty trees.
We trust it is not harsh in another matter to apply the test of the deadly parallel : —
Page 6.
Over the countryside in the neighbourhood of the great houses there broke out a dread¬ ful eruption of Gothic temples and Anglo-Saxon keeps . . .
Page 94.
(If it be that you desire) a wall garden, throw round it a grey ring of castle walls, for in art it is only appear¬ ances that matter, and for¬ gery is not a crime, unless it fails to deceive.
We agree with Sir George Sitwell’s page six dislike of Gothic temples and the like shams, but we must therefore repudiate the Sir George Sitwell of page gq.
It is perhaps unreasonable to be critical, for our author’s pleasure in the effects of garden craft is so obvious that he infects us with his own rich appreciation. Of the use of sculpture in the garden he writes with dignity and a just intuition. Winding through the pages is a sense of wonder at the psychological mysteries which are behind our perception of the beauties of nature. Sir George Sitwell is a student of the type of Grant Allen and Maeterlinck, who does not allow his sensor)' pleasure to overcome his intellectual grasp and to dull his search for the springs of knowledge. His aim is to inspire the making of great gardens that shall enshrine great ideas and conquer magnificent opportunities.
We may read him therefore for the stimulus that is born of his large pleasure in things beauti¬ ful, and use our own judgment to translate it into practical applications.
We will close this review with a strong word of praise for the following happy tribute to the mistress art : —
Architecture, the most unselfish of the arts, belongs to the passer by, and every old house and garden in which the ideal has been sought is a gift to the nation, to be enjoyed by future generations, who will learn from it more of history, art,, and philosophy than may be found in books.
THE MAKING OF THE CITY BEAUTIFUL.
Town-planning , Past , Present , and Possible. Dy H. Iniga Triggs, A.R.IB.A. With 173 illustrations. Price 15.S'. nett. Methuen Sr* Co., 36 , Essex Street , London , W.C. 1909.
NCREASED attention has of late been given to the question of town-planning, to which the imminent passing of the Hous¬ ing and Town-planning Bill gives point. In its scope, how¬ ever, the Bill is utilitarian, and there is danger of the aesthetic side being overlooked. Yet it seems to us that the latter is quite as important, for most of us spend the greater part of our lives in towns, and there is no doubt but we are affected by our environ¬ ment.
Mr. Triggs does not neglect any aspect of the question, and his book is inspiring to all who are interested in the making of the City Beautiful. He has a wide knowledge of the towns of Europe, and speaks with some authority of their various aspects. Paris, Vienna, and Berlin all furnish numbers of examples of monumental planning, and (we admit it with shame) London not a single one.
Mr. Triggs shows how South Kensington might have been designed in a great manner if some forethought had been taken. Town-planning amounts to this — foresight. Nothing can be done in a day, and any improvement must be the work of years. Paris has not arrived suddenly at its magnificence of aspect, but in the course of a century. Although the author seems to approach his subject with a bias for the picturesque, he makes a strong case for monumental planning ■ — straight streets and uniform buildings — for his numerous and best examples display this quality.
He asks us to compare the Rue de Rivoli with the High Street, Oxford, to the detriment of the latter. We ourselves love the High Street, but, as we have pointed out before, it has nothing to do with conscious effort — it has really grown in that way. It is this mistaken admiration for the picturesque that continually works our undoing —
Books.
156
it is responsible for much of the artificiality cf modern design (by artificiality we mean a breaking away from the natural course of tradition). Real picturesqueness is begotten by time. We hope common sense will guide the direction of new thoroughfares and drive them straight. We do not admire streets like those in the Hampstead Suburb, which if they are straighter than a cork¬ screw are less so than a rainbow.
The best examples of to-day — Paris, Vienna — - show the effectiveness of wide and straight streets taken home to great focal points ; the finest plans ■ — that of Wren for London and of L’Enfant for Washington- — show the same. Unfortunately the literature of this subject is small and is chiefly confined to the Continent, so that this new volume is a welcome one; for the civic spirit, which alone is able to overcome the obstacles placed in the way of all improvement, requires to be developed, and the possibilities which this book opens up should help to do this. At present municipalities are content to confine themselves to matters of hygiene only, instead of attempting the larger issues of providing for wide streets, open spaces, gardens, &c., which in the nature of things bring sweet air, cleanliness, and health along with them.
Town-expansion, street-planning, the radiation of traffic, squares and open spaces, are all dealt with, and the whole work is splendidly illustrated with many fine views and plans, and should prove immensely useful to all interested in this most fascinating subject — the making of the City Beautiful.
HAMPSTEAD GARDEN SUBURB.
Town Planning and Modern A rchitecture at the Hampstead Garden Suburb: with contributions by Raymond Unwin and M. H. Bail lie Scott. 1 1 in. by 9 in. pp. 106. Illustrations 121. ij. nett. London : T. Fisher Unwin, Adelphi Terrace , IV. C.
Perhaps the title of this publication is a thought too pre¬ tentious. It is really a trade catalogue setting forth the merits of the Garden Suburb Development Company (Hampstead) Ltd. This company is the buffer state between the Trust Company, which owns and leases the land of the suburb, and the tenants. It has proceeded on very wise lines by employ¬ ing architects of standing only, with admirable results. The suburb is yet in the making, but enough has been done to show that in architectural quality and coherence it is greatly in advance of previous experiments in this direction. It has an air of reasonableness. The Garden City at Letchworth is too experimental. Bournville is admirable, but the type and value of the houses is somewhat restricted. Port Sunlight has the air of an architectural museum, and was not built with a view to economic rents. Hampstead, we think, is the best that England can yet show, and we doubt not will prove the harbinger of a better order.
STORIED WINDOWS RICHLY DIGHT.
Stained Glass Tours in England. By Charles Hitchcock Sherrill. C)in. by 6 in. pp. xvi, 254. Illustrations and maps 2r. ys. 6 d. nett. London: John Lane , The Bodley Head , Vigo Street , W.
Mr. Sherrill’s enthusiasm for stained glass, which pro¬ duced a book on French windows last year, has led him into print again, on English work this time, and with agreeable results. We can hardly accept his views as authoritative, but he claims to give no more than a guide-book to those who are as keen as he is. Were we critical, we should point out that it is hardly accurate to say that the Renaissance reached England through France. We think that Mr. Sherrill has overlooked one very potent influence that worked for grisaille as against heavily-coloured glass. He regards it as simply a question of illumination. The Cistercian statutes forbade colours in windows, and as the Cistercian influence on archi¬ tectural development was strongly marked, their views as to glass doubtless travelled beyond their own buildings.
Mr. Sherrill also might have mentioned that the brilliance of some old windows, their jewel-like quality, is due to their very misfortunes. Small breakages here and there have been repaired in careless times with white glass, and these give a sparkle that is lost after careful restoration. Our author has manfully resisted Americanisms, but our eyebrows were fain to lift at the reference to twining vine tendrils as “bits of flora.”
Among excellent features of the book are maps for tours and brief and handy rules for differentiating the main periods of glass.
TWO GALLERIES AND SOME SPLEEN.
Notes from a Painter’s Life : including the founding of two galleries. Bv C. E. Halle. 8 in. by 5 h in. pp. viii, 254. Illustrations 9. 6s. nett. London : John
Murray, 50^, Albemarle Street , IV.
“ Campbell is a good man, a pious man. I am afraid he has not been in the inside of a church for many years ; but he never passes a church without pulling off his hat. This shows that he has good principles.” (Dr. Johnson.)
“ In all Christian charity one could wish that all literature upon Art might be collected, and a huge bonfire lighted with it in the middle of Hyde Park, on which the writers might be roasted.” (C. E. Halle). When Mr. Halle tells us that he avoids reading what these sad fellows, the art critics, have to say, it is apparent at once that he has good principles.
However, his book is not made up entirely of these examples of his Christian charity. He has done real service in setting out the story of the inception of the Grosvenor and New Galleries, for the founding and management of which he was largely responsible. That these galleries have been of im¬ mense importance to the English art and artists of the last thirty-four years is apparent enough. It is largely to Sir Courts Lindsay, who found the money for the Grosvenor Gallery, and to Mr. Halle and his coadjutors who managed it so successfully, that Rossetti, Burne-Jones, and Holman Hunt have taken that place in the admiration of the public which they could hardly have won if the walls of the Royal Academy alone had been open to them.
Of his own life and friends, of his friendship with Ingres and others, of his hatred of impressionism, etc., Mr. Halle talks with a pleasant forcefulness and egotism which make his book eminently readable and informing.
THE ARCHITECTURAL
REVIEW, OCTOBER, 1909. VOLUME XXVI. NO. 155.
PORCH OF ST. TROPHINE, ARLES, PROVENCE. (See p. 169.)
FROM A WATER-COLOUR DRAWING BY LESLIE WILKINSON (ARTHUR CATES PRIZE).
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture.
XXXVIII.
CRANBORNE MANOR. WEST WING.
CRANBORNE MANOR. WEST WING. CRANBORNE MANOR. WEST WING.
INIGO JONES, ARCHITECT.
VOL. XXVI. — K 2
160 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXVIII.
CRANBORNE MANOR elewion of west wing.
MEASURED AND DRAWN BY H. A. M°QUEEN
DETAIL of WINDOW.
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXVIII. 161
MEASURED AND DRAWN BY H. A. MCQUEEN.
1 62 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXVIII.
ARGYLL'S LODGING, STIRLING, A.D. 1632. GENERAL VIEW TOWARDS COURTYARD.
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture.
XXX VII I. 163
ARGYLL’S LODGING, STIRLING, A.D. 163
164 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture — XXXVIII.
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1 68 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXVIII.
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MEASURED AND DRAWN BY THOMAS E. TURNER.
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture . — XXXVIII. 169
"There is no doubt that he [Inigo Jones] did design many additions and alterations to existing houses, of which no documentary record exists ; but in the case of such tradition the evidence of the building itself is the only clue. This at once eliminates the Jacobean work at Cranborne Manor, executed for Cecil soon after 1604, but will include among the list of Ms works the west wing with its great quoins and boldly projecting eaves, which in scale can only be compared with St. Paul’s, Covent Garden. This wing was built in 1647, and is almost certainly by Inigo Jones.” — Blomfield.
[N the arrangement of every line of this small building the greatest skill is displayed — ‘the [•tarn fPflW TOj contrast between the delicate Pi! JJBJJ Sis mullioned windows and the bold coigns and splendid cor¬ nice is very marked, but there is no incongruity in their arrange¬ ment — the delicacy of the one rather enhances the vigour of the other. The roof is stone nearly three-quarters of the way up, tiles forming the upper part. However, it is to the cornice and the coigns that the building owes its character of strength and restraint. The chimneys belong to a later date.
Argyll’s Lodging was built in 1632 by William Alexander, first Earl of Stirling, whose arms are carved over the porch. The late William David M ‘Gibbon considered it “probably the finest specimen of an old town residence remaining in
Scotland.” Anthony Alexander, who was emi¬ nent in his day and Master of the Works to King James for Scotland, was the architect of the build¬ ing. The house fell into the hands of the Duke of Argyll in 1664, who added to it extensively in 1764, and who was beheaded in 1685. Charles II lived in it in 1650, and the Duke of York, after¬ wards James II, in 1681.
The old Glasgow College which once stood in the High Street was built in 1658, and in many respects is very similar to Argyll’s Lodging. The design of the heads of the dormer and other win¬ dows is in both cases curiously alike, the panel con¬ taining the arms over the entrance is very like the Stirling example, and various details are similar.
The gate pier from “the Priory,” Warwick, is a simple and effective piece of eighteenth-cen¬ tury design — its panels, imitated from woodwork, make a charming effect, and are curiously reminis¬ cent of some of the Salisbury work.
Notes of the Month.
St. Trophine at Arks— Texture in Architecture — -Liverpool ana Town Planning— The Renaissance in Italy — The Lion Monument— Golf Trophy— Black Lion Inn , Bridge Street , Hereford — The National Loan Exhibition.
HE porch of St. Trophine at Arles in Provence is one of the most interesting examples of French Romanesque work. It was built in the eleventh century and possesses a great wealth of fine sculpture. In the tympanum is represented Christ enthroned, with the symbols of the Evan¬ gelists on either side and contained by the pointed arch, the main member of which is beautifully decorated with a choir of angels. On the quasi¬ frieze is illustrated the procession to the Last Judgment, the lost souls being dragged towards a dragon with gaping jaws. And in the arches between the detached columns are placed statues of the Apostles. The whole composition is curiously like what is known as the motif -Palladio ; but its chief claim to distinction is the carving, which is wonderfully effective. The triple door¬ ways to the neighbouring church of St. Gilles are still more rich, although similar in design.
F proportion may be called the soul of architecture, the texture of its walls may well be the body, through which its immediate appeal to the eye is made. The latter becomes a medium to express more or less clearly the idea at the back of it. That perfection to which the Greeks attained in their architecture is clearly exposed in the texture of the walls of their temples - — -nothing so fresh or beautiful has ever been elsewhere attempted — the flutings of the pillars, the grace of the Attic base, the Doric capital, have a new meaning when executed in white marble and placed in the translucent air of Greece.
A like perfection of surface was attained in Sicily, where the rude stone, found unsuitable to the perfect sight of the Greeks, was coated with plaster. The texture of white marble, or plaster wrought to an equally hard and fair face, would
No/es of the Month.
i 70
seem to us, under Southern skies, perfection. But the Greeks chose to tone down its glare by the addition of colour, and consequently the pediment sculpture gleamed forth from a blue ground as if it were set against the sky ; fretted ornaments were picked out in black, yellow, and red from capital and cornice, to the infinite delight of the eye. That and the play of light and shade was alone capable of expressing exquisitely the soul of that architecture.
In all architectures the hand of man working intimately in stone, brick, or marble was found sufficient to express beautifully the idea contained in it. As long as the workman worked intimately, texture came as a matter of course.
Only in these latter days have materials been so degraded by machinery that texture requires to be carefully sought. We do not write despond- ingly, but rather to congratulate our contempo¬ raries on the stand they are making for sound materials.
In the recent Building Trades Exhibition hand¬ made bricks and tiles of fine workmanship and colour were shown, proving there is a market for these things. As a matter of fact the possibility of getting fine material is reacting on our archi¬ tecture to its simplification. For it follows that if interest can be imparted to the walls of a building, fewer ornaments are required, and in smaller buildings at least the plain materials themselves are sufficient to speak intimately like music.
If this truth were more generally grasped it would tend more than anything else to the improvement of our domestic work — this and the necessity for reasonable workmanship. It would entirely kill the type of villa called by a humorist “ Queen Anne in front and Mary Ann behind ” ; and it would obviate the self-conscious efforts of the very young man, who with some precious natures never contrives to grow up, and whose immaturity grows nauseous with age.
Lately in London an attempt has been made to introduce colour into architecture. Glazed bricks, tiles, and various forms of terra-cotta are used frequently in public buildings. But, however interesting theexperiment, we find it too artificial — - artificial in the sense that it does not follow a natural course or tradition, and is a complete break with the past. And although this innovation is the result of an attempt to get texture, we think it defeats its object. For these highly glazed surfaces, if impervious to the weather and indiffer¬ ent to the passage of time, are supposed to possess the gift of eternal youth, and will remain always cold and frigid. Neither the sun nor the rain can make any impression ; the sun cannot warm it, nor the rain delve wrinkles in it. As a matter of fact,
it becomes shabby. Its cast-iron rigidity can never move us with any pleasant emotion ; it will always be disappointing.
In architecture, nothing we can remember that is of much value is outre either in design or material, and it is scarcely likely that any real development is possible along other lines.
The traditional materials — marble, brick, and stone — are of the very texture of the globe, various, durable, and lovely to a great degree in their proper use, and impart to building something of the dura¬ bility of the earth. With these materials man has raised up in every corner of the habitable globe fair creations in architecture ; and although the fine texture given by marble to Greek buildings is separated by ages from the homely texture of our quiet brickwork, each in its own way was sufficient to its purpose. The marble veneer of Venetian palaces has toned and weathered to a lovely colour. Like an antique beauty, it is but a faint ghost of former loveliness — the life-blood is faded like an aged cheek ; but it still pulsates quietly, the feverish passion is almost burnt out, and a quiet peacefulness reigns in its place.
On lonely hillsides pale ghosts of Greek temples are mellowed to a golden hue like the sky at the twilight — pale and majestic they lie out under the blazing sun and through the quiet nights for ever. These materials, being akin to the earth, take the weather kindly and the passage of time, and mel¬ low to exquisite beaut}' of texture. Whether in a garden, in a city, or in now uninhabited regions by the sea, they have become one with their surround¬ ings, and impress us, we know not why, like works of Nature.
After the main conception of a building is settled it should be the architect’s endeavour to raise it so that every brick and stone may build up beautifully the main conception, and clothe it as the web of harmony does a central melody, to the end that, out of the whole, may arise that com¬ pleteness which is a work of art.
% * *
T will be no longer possible, in a few years, to reproach us with being ignorant of the whole art of Town Planning. For the University of Liverpool, thanks to the generosity of Mr. W. H. Lever, M.P., has founded a School of Civic Design, and next term the school will begin its work. The matter is one of great importance, alike from an aesthetic as from a sociological point of view. This school is the first of the kind
Notes of the Month .
in England. As a matter of fact — as a school exclusively designed to give instruction and stimulate research in the problems of civic design — we believe it to be the first of its kind in the world. It is magnificently equipped, and the machinery of the school is very complete and comprehensive.
Two courses are provided, a certificate and a diploma course ; and — -an unusual arrangement — these courses are designed not only for archi¬ tectural students, but for laymen sufficiently interested to undergo lectures and instruction in the studio. The lectures will include Town Planning (the development of cities and the influences affecting their growth), Civic Architec¬ ture (composition, materials, &c.), Civic Decora¬ tion (dealing with statuary, monuments, street refuges, &c., and other incidents of the streets, squares, and parks), and Landscape Design.
Instruction in allied subjects, Civic Engineer¬ ing and Civic Law, will also be included in the syllabus. It will be seen therefore that it is proposed to treat town-planning not merely as a department of aesthetics, but as a matter intimately connected with sociology of the most practical nature. It is now recognised that in the general laying-out of our cities we are behind France, Germany, and America. We are too much inclined to let towns develop at random — a growth which may be picturesque, but too often results in disorder.
All those who wish to see the English nation possessing cities worthy of its greatness realise that they must grow, and where necessary and possible be reformed, according to the dictates of common sense and beauty. And it is much to the credit of the University of Liverpool, and of Mr. Lever, that the first organised attempt towards rational and beautiful town-planning should be initiated in that city. To quote from the school’s prospectus: “Just as it is necessary for the medical officer of health to obtain his diploma before taking an official position, so it is hoped that the possession of the diploma in civic design will be regarded as the necessary qualification for those officials engaged in the making of the town plan.” The school possesses in Professor S. D. Adshead as desirable a head as could be imagined. Three schemes of his for the improving of town sites — two of them in London, the space in front of the British Museum and the Marble Arch, and one in Liverpool, a proposed laying-out of St. Michaels and F ulwood Park — are reproduced in the prospectus. As showing the kind of work the Liverpool school will stimulate, these designs are extremely gratifying ; and they also give to the prospectus a value to anyone who is concerned with town-planning.
i 7 i
We are glad that at last we have wakened from our lethargy, and hope that the movement will gather momentum as it proceeds, and take away the stigma from our national character.
* * * *
LTHOUGH it is probably true that no city possesses such a collection of Renaissance monuments as London, we continually turn our eyes to Italy. Fascinated perhaps by its very remoteness, we send our youth to study there, and hope in our maturity to return thither to walk again the old familiar ways, with eyes dimmed perhaps, but no less critical. Besides, in art there is no nationality. We can claim kinship with Peruzzi, Raphael, and Michelangelo; and if we be only pigmy relations, it is even something to be of that race — to be able to walk in their footsteps, humbly as is the wont of poor relatives, but not without pride. For we, if we may not impress emperors, popes, and kings, may yet give pleasure to infinite numbers of ordinary people, the chief thing — to ourselves. That is the reward of art — the pleasure to ourselves in its execution.
The English Renaissance, too, falls naturally into its place after the Italian — the beginning of modern architecture. It has become our heritage to-day along with the Western nations. In the Italian Renaissance, for the first time, the archi¬ tect steps into the light of history, and his buildings bear a stamp of personality, as if his passions were able to impress themselves on the dumb stones, or through rules fixed, yet elastic enough to the master, express his character, whether rugged or urbane. It is this quality which gives vitality to what were otherwise a mere petrification of the past. It is affirmed with truth, that the rebirth of the day, that exquisite dayspring when nature awakes out of its deep sleep, surpasses in freshness and in beauty the rest of time. So in architecture. That rebirth in Italy possesses a fragrance, a sweet freshness, a melodiousness, that no fortunate con¬ junction of circumstances can ever compass again. So we have reason to turn our thoughts thither. What a galaxy of names does not Italy spell for us ! — names household in the realms of art. They become realities to us, more than the Heroes, for we have their work, manifold, personal, and beau¬ tiful, to delight our eyes. We do not slight our own masters — Inigo Jones and Wren — by turn¬ ing our eyes to Italy. We learn to understand them, and to read of temperament expressed in stone.
172
Notes of the Month.
We must not be supposed to deprecate medi¬ aeval architecture ; but its study does not equip us adequately to our practice as architects. Its recent revival has proved its futility, and pseudo- mediaevalism is now as dead as the Dodo. What good the movement possessed has survived, and renewed strength now invigorates the handi¬ crafts.
Modern architecture seems more and more to point to the tradition which was inaugurated in the fifteenth century in Italy, and which fizzled out during the eighteenth in this country, and it will be well for the future if this fact is ac¬ cepted.
We can see with what vigour the Renaissance tradition in America is animated. Splendid build¬ ings and great schemes of building are being inaugurated in all the great cities, each emulating the other which shall be first, and a greater unanimity prevails than here. For, to the Ameri¬ can student, Europe, and Italy especially, are pointed out as the happy hunting-grounds.
Unfortunately we have fewer prizes to take our students away; but on the other hand — for us in England it is but a stone’s throw to Italy. F'or our¬ selves, we cannot help thinking of Italy without a great longing to return there — to walk again the old familiar paths, and let the beauty of it en¬ wrap the senses with joy.
GOLF TROPHY.
DESIGNED AND MODELLED BY JAMES S. MAITLAND.
HE famous Lion Monument executed from the design of Thorvaldsen by the Swiss sculptor Ahorn is stated to be in such a dangerous condi¬ tion that little hope is enter¬ tained of its preservation. The figure of the lion, which is twenty-eight feet in length by some eighteen feet high, is carved out of the solid rock, and it was thought to be an eternal monument like the Sphinx, which nothing but an earthquake could move. But the action of the water falling over the sandstone in which the figure is cut is fast wearing it away, and large pieces of stone have become detached and broken, threatening the memorial with destruction. Hitherto all efforts to stay the ruin have proved ineffectual. It has been the custom for some time to board it up in the winter to minimise the danger to which its exposure makes it liable, but all precautions have hitherto proved in vain. A suggestion for its removal to a museum, which at one time was mooted, would preserve it, but its whole effect would be lost under cover.
The monument was erected in memory of the Swiss Guards who fell defending the Royal family of France during the attack on the Tuileries in 1792, at the time when the Swiss were still smarting from the French revolutionary invasion.
For nearly a century it has commemorated a gallant action, and with its countless models in wood and ivory is one of the best known of me¬ morials and of Thorvaldsen’s works. We hope some scheme may be found which may at least retard its ruin, but it is far better for the noble animal to perish slowly than to board it up like something exotic. For in its utter ruin it will not cease to be a lasting monument to a noble action.
^
ROPHIES, cups, &c., are usu¬ ally of the kind called trade. Lately, however, the design¬ ing of such things has got into better hands, to their great improvement. In the design of this trophy for a golf club in Lanarkshire, N.B., free use has been made of the arms of that county — the double-headed eagle, the lions, fish, and rings ; and twenty discs, about the size of six¬ pences, are appended to the circuit to take the names of successful competitors. 1 he whole trophy is only ten and a half inches high, and was designed and modelled by Mr. James S. Maitland, a pupil of Mr. Wm. Leiper of Glasgow.
Notes of the Month.
173
BLACK LION INN, BRIDGE STREET, HEREFORD. MEASURED AND DRAWN BY HERBERT SKYRME.
VOL. XXVI. — L
1 74
Notes of the Month.
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BLACK LION INN, BRIDGE STREET, HEREFORD (SHOWING THE OLD TIMBER WORK).
RATHER interesting dis¬ covery was made at Hereford some few months ago. An old public-house known as the Black Lion Inn was undergoing repairs, part of which consisted of taking off the decayed lath-and-plaster front facing the street, and renewing the same. During the building operations an oak half-tim¬ bered front was exposed to view (see photograph), showing four small mullioned windows which are rather unique ; there is no doubt they are the original windows of the inn, as they are framed up together as shown in the detail ; the mullions are moulded and the intermediate bars are of oak. The lions’ heads from which the old inn takes its name are introduced in the apex of the gables in plaster- work painted black. Before the new plastering to the front was commenced an effort was made to induce the owner to restore and expose the old timber framing, but this was unsuccessful : the new plasterwork has been carried out, and the old work is again hidden from view.
'HAT promises to be one of the most important exhibitions of Old Masters held in this country, in recent years, will be opened this month at the Grafton Galleries. The National Loan Exhibition is inaugurated in aid of the National Gallery funds, and it will probably re¬ main open until January. Although the owners of many notable pictures have expressed their in¬ ability to contribute, there is no doubt that the exhibition will prove a notable event to all picture- lovers in bringing together a number of inacces¬ sible pictures.
A final selection has not yet been made by the committee, but the pictures hitherto unexhibited will include a “Portrait of a Doge of Venice’’ by Bellini, lent by Mr. Lewis Harcourt ; a “ Por¬ trait of a Man selling Fish’’ by Juan de Pareja, from the collection of Mrs. Bischoffsheim ; and a “ Pieta ” by Moretto, in the possession of Sir Frederick Cook. Lady Cowper has sent her two Raphael “ Madonnas,” of 1505 and 1508 respec¬ tively, which have not been exhibited for nearly thirty years, as well as three portraits by or ascribed to Andrea del Sarto. Other contributors include the Duke of Leeds, the Duke of Welling¬ ton, the Duke of Grafton, the Duke of Abercorn, Earl Bathurst, the Earl of Ilchester, the Earl of Plymouth, Lord Darnley, Sir J. Stirling-Maxwell, the Hon. Edward Wood, Lady Wantage, Sir Julius Wernher, Mrs. Joseph, Mr. Herbert Cook, the National Gallery of Scotland, the Glasgow Gallery, Mr. J. P. Heseltine, Sir Hugh Lane, Mr. Fairfax Murray, Mr. Edmund Davis, Captain Abdy, Mr. Leopold Hirsch, the Dilettanti Society, Mrs. Lionel Phillips, and Sir Edgar Vincent. A selection of the pictures of the recently dispersed Kann collection will also be shown.
An edition de luxe of the catalogue, which is being compiled by Mr. Herbert Cook and Mr. Maurice W. Brockwell, will be published by Mr. Heinemann in due course.
It is to be hoped that the exhibition will be supported by the public as it deserves, and that it will be a real aid to what are certainly very neces¬ sitous — the National Gallery funds. It gives a chance to everybody to subscribe in a small way to the purchase of notable pictures for the nation.
Memorials of Wren
FIG. I.
HE Parentalia, or memoirs of the Wrens, by Christopher, the son of Sir Christopher, is as ill-constructed a book as one may meet, yet it possesses a charm of its own. Christo¬ pher’s idea of a biography seems to have been to print notes, letters, and discourses as they came to his hand, without any thread of text to give coherence to very diverse material. The result is a rather forbidding publication, which demands of the reader no little resolution. The Parentalia deals not only with Sir Christopher, but with his father, Dean Christopher, and his uncle, Bishop Matthew. The father as Registrar of the Order of the Garter and Dean of Windsor, and the uncle as Bishop of Ely, filled no small parts in the Church history of their day ; but we are not concerned with them here.
The life and works of Sir Christopher are dealt with by his son under the following main head¬ ings : — (i) Mathematics (including all manner of experiments in physics), (2) Anatomy, and (3) Architecture (including notes on St. Paul’s, the City churches, &c., and tracts on architectural questions).
This ill-compiled miscellany was completed by
the younger Christopher, who died in 1747, and was published by his son Stephen in 1750. It served as a mine for Elmes, Miss Phillimore, and Miss Milman, in their biographies of Wren, and has necessarily been consulted freely by all who have made him the subject of their pens. In 1903 that part of the Parentalia which referred to Sir Christopher was reprinted by Mr. C. R. Ashbee at the Essex House Press, and twenty drawings of Wren’s churches by E. H. New were reproduced. It is finely printed, but the editing (by Mr. Ernest J. Enthoven) was confined to ensuring an accurate transcript of the original edition as published by Stephen Wren. Now Stephen was unmarried, but contrived to beget a daughter, Margaret, who took the name of Wren. For her a copy of the Paren¬ talia was bound sumptuously in red leather, tooled and gilt. It bears the initials “ M. W.,” and Margaret's autograph appears on the title page. Interleaved in this delightful and unique volume are many manuscripts, autograph letters, and en¬ gravings. Some are in connection with the Dean and the Bishop. This article deals with those that relate to Sir Christopher.
On the death of Margaret the book came back into the direct line, and is now in the possession of Mrs. Pigott, nee Miss Wren-Hoskyns, the last survivor of Sir Christopher's lineage. To her kindness I owe the permission for my recent ex¬ hibition of the volume at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, and for the reproduction here of the more important of the inserted matter.
I cannot claim entire novelty for these personal memorials of Wren, for both Miss Phillimore and Miss Milman had the great advantage of access to the book while engaged on their biographies of the master. I believe, however, that none of the autograph letters has been produced in facsimile, and in one important particular, the sketch of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the significance of the volume has been overlooked, even by those careful biographers.
It is necessary, so that these memorials may be fitted into their place, to set out a few dates. Wren was born in 1632 at East Knoyle. His early education he received (by reason of tender health) at home. In 1642 he was entered at West¬ minster School under the redoubtable Dr. Busby. In 1643 his sister Susan Wren married Dr. William Holder, afterwards a Canon of St. Paul’s, who initiated the boy (presumably during his holidays) in the principles of mathematics. That an “ un¬ common Genius ” (to use the words of Paren¬ talia) made its early appearance is obvious from
l 2
M emon a Is of If rren .
i 76
the excellence of some Latin and English verse which young Christopher wrote to the Dean in 1641, when he was nine.
In 1645 he is writing again to his father in Latin verse (reproduced in Fig. 2). The MS. differs slightly from the version printed in Paren- talia. The rising scientist dedicates to the Dean an instrument called “ Suum Panorganum Astro- nomicum,” anda tract, “ De OrtuFluminum.” His views on the rise of rivers are lost, and the nature of the Panorganum does not appear.
Pasted alongside the verses in the interleaved copy is the drawing which forms part of Fig. 2. There is nothing save juxtaposition to connect
that Wren made friendships which flung him into the world of science, and his wide and eager mind was soon astir with every sort of physical experi¬ ment. A list of fifty-three inventions “exhibited by Mr. Wren at the first Assemblies at Wadham College ” is printed in Parentalia.
The original MS. states that these assemblies took place “about the year 1650 and after,” but these words have been erased, and while 165- is clear, the last figure may or may not be -0 ; it is little more than a guess.
It is an amazing catalogue of inventions, start¬ ing with views about the Pleiades, and ranging through embroidery for beds, hangings cheap and
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FIG. 2.
verse with drawing, but it may be that the well- developed lady is holding up the Panorganum.
Equally possibly, however, this may be the sketch for a design on the ceiling of a room which he did when he was sixteen. It included “ two figures representing Astronomy and Geometry and their Attributes, artfully drawn with his pen.” I cannot affirm that the lady is a piece of his artful drawing, but it seems more than likely*.
In Wren's day boys went to the University early, and in 1646 he was entered at Wadham College when fourteen years old — at the age when a modern boy is in the fourth form of a public school. By 1650 he was B.A., and in 1653 M.A. and Fellow of All Souls. It was at Wadham
fair, new musical instruments, and so on, to easier ways of whale-fishing and ingenious devices for making folks vomit.
Oddly enough there is no reference to a deaf and dumb language, but in the interleaved copy there are two sheets of sketches for one, and the smaller is illustrated here. The notes on the larger drawing show the method Wren invented. Though more complicated than the system now in use, it is another evidence of the agility of his mind and of his practical interest in varying problems.
The drawing in ink of the weather clock (Fig. 4) brings us to a subject which seems to have interested Wren over a long period.
In 1647 Christopher wrote to his father that he
Memorials of Wren.
1 77
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was enjoying the society of Sir Charles Scarborough, the famous physician, and had imparted to him “ one of these Inventions of mine, a Weather clock namely, with Revolving Cylinder, by means of which a Record can be kept through the night.”
Scarborough asked to have an example in brass constructed at his expense. Birch’s “ History of the Royal Society,” Vol. I., re¬ cords that on January 8, 1661-2,
“ Dr. Wren brought in a scheme of a Weathercock.”
Under date December 9, 1663,
Birch notes “ Dr. Wren’s descrip¬ tion of his weather clock con¬ sisting of two wings that may be added to a pendulum clock was read.” The en¬ graving published by Birch shows a far simpler arrangement than that now illustrated.
The printed Parentalia gives a description of a device more complicated than Birch’s description of Wren’s communication of 1663, and refers to a circular thermometer designed to correct the error caused by the weight of the liquid.
This, however, does not appear in our drawing, for the thermometer is the ordinary air type. The printed Parentalia refers to Robert Hook’s im¬ provements on Wren’s design, but they only partly appear in the drawing. It would seem that this drawing shows an intermediate development
between Wren’s original device and Hook’s latest achievements.
The MS. reproduced in Fig. 5 has a peculiar interest, as being the only extant writing of Sir Christopher’s in the nature of a love letter. It is undated, but we may assume it to be of about 1669, as on December 7 of that year Faith Coghill became his wife. The letter is so well written that it need not here be transcribed, par¬ ticularly as Miss Milman has done so. It is con¬ ceived in a spirit of stately humour with a euphuist touch which is altogether charming. Unhappily we know nothing of its answer, and indeed nothing of the lady herself. The letter
FIG. 4.
Memorials of Wren.
i 78
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perhaps is to be dated rather early in Wren’s courtship. His subscription is hardly passionate, and we know from the enchanting letters of Dorothy Osborne that even in Puritan days such letters were signed, “ I am perfectly yours.”
The interleaved copy contains two letters to the younger Christopher (both transcribed by Miss Phillimore). One is undated, but as it is addressed
to him in Paris, it must be of 1698. The other is reproduced in Fig. 6, and shows the young man again on his travels in 1705. The 1698 letter is not without a note of rebuke, for Paris had led apparently to extravagance, and the father replied to a request for more money as fathers will. By 1705 his taste had changed — Holland wooed him rather to the buying of “ good Bookes,” a traffic the
Memorials of Wren.
‘79
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old man cannot disapprove. It is pleasant to think that we need no longer contemplate the buying of Gronovius in twenty-six volumes.
At the end of the interleaved copy, bound among the tracts on classical architecture which appear in the printed Parentalia, is a long MS. Discourse ■on Architecture in the writing of Sir Christopher’s son. It has been printed by Miss Phillimore in
an appendix. The interleaved illustrations include drawings of Noah’s Ark (see Fig. 7), the Tower of Babel, the Pyramids, the Sepulchre of Absalom, a plan of Solomon’s Temple, and a view of the City of Babylon. These appear to have been cut out of other publications.
Miss Phillimore thought that Noah’s Ark and the Tower of Babel were engraved by Wren him-
Memorials of Wren.
180
self or from his drawings, as they “tally so exactly with the descriptions in the Discourse .” As they are engraved Plates 7 and 9 respectively, they obviously belong to a series, and there is no evidence that Wren ever prepared such a series of prints to illustrate any projected book. I do not find, moreover, that they tally so closely with the text as Miss Phillimore suggests.
A more reasonable explanation is that they were bound in as appropriate illustrations by Margaret Wren or whoever grangerised the book. We may also dismiss the claim made for Wren in the Parentalia that he was the inventor of mezzotint engraving.
The most interesting feature of the unpublished documents, from the architectural standpoint, is the sketch of Wren’s conjectural restoration of the Mausoleum of Plalicarnassus.
The last note of the printed Parentalia is headed, “ Of the sepulchre of Mausolus, King of Caria.” It ends with the words, “ The plate of the above is omitted, on account of the drawing being imperfect.”
This imperfect drawing is now brought to light (Fig. 8). It is pasted on the last page of the Discourse, and so neatly that at first sight it appears to be drawn on that page, but it is quite distinct and in an ink of a different colour.
We must admit at once that Wren shows him¬ self by this restoration to be less sound as an archaeologist than might have been anticipated. Incidentally we get further and pungent proof of
the extreme difficulties and pitfalls that await those who rely on literary evidence for the restora¬ tion of ancient buildings. “ The Sepulchre,” says Wren, “ is so well described by Pliny that I have attempted to design it accordingly, and also very open, conformable to the Description in Martial, Acre vacuo Pcndentia Mausolea, and yet it wanted not the solidity of the Dorick order,” and he goes on to say, on very insufficient grounds, “ I con¬ clude this work must be the exactest Form of the Dorick.”
The odd thing is that Wren had not noticed the statement of Vitruvius that Pythios, the architect of the Mausoleum and the sculptor of the chariot group, gave up the Doric order because of the incongruous arrangements which arose in its use. Wren’s great blunder, however, was in the misreading of one word in Pliny’s description, “ Pteron.” He says it is an unusual term. Russell Sturgis gives its meaning as “that which forms a side or Hank, as the row of columns along the side of a temple, or the side wall itself.” It is the odder that Wren boggled over the word Pteron, seeing that he used the word dipteron in his description of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. At Ephesus there was no question in his mind of an “ Attick order rising above the cornice,” but he takes the Pteron at Halicarnassus to have that meaning, and to be “ a word of Greek Authors of Architecture now lost.” Anyhow, it pleasantly exemplifies on how insubstantial a foundation can rest architectural criticism which is based on literary evidence alone.
FIG. 7.
Memorials of Wren.
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FIG. 8.— WREN’S SKETCH ELEVATION OF THE MAUSOLEUM.
His mistake naturally vitiates the whole restora¬ tion, apart from the fact that the Mausoleum was of the Ionic order. The late Mr. j. J. Stevenson published in 1899 a conjectural restoration of open type without a cell a, a feature which Wren also omitted on the strength of the epigram “ hanging
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in void air,” and the Stevenson sche ne, though quite different from Wren's, wa-, to use the latter’s words of his own scheme, “ very open.” Perhaps I may add here that the consideration of Wren’s drawing has sent me again, and with renewed satis¬ faction, to Professor Lethaby's illuminating mono¬ graphs on “ Greek Buildings represented by frag¬ ments in the British Museum.” They make one
FIG. 10. — GOODCHILD’S RESTORATION BASED ON the Parentalia.
realise again, and more sensitively, the importance of going to the stones, and setting aside even Pliny (or perhaps especially Pliny) if he does not confirm their evidence.
On the wall of the Mausoleum Room at the British Museum is a drawing lettered “ Design by Sir C. Wren from Pliny’s description of the Tomb of Mausolus copied from Wren’s book, the Paren¬ talia ,” and signed J. E. Goodchild, 1893 (Fig. 10).
HG. 9.
182
Memorials of Wren .
Goodchild is dead. He was a pupil of Cockerell, who also did a restoration represented at the British Museum both by a drawing and a model. In the MS. of the Parentalia at the Royal Society is a sheet with a rough sketch-plan, a copy of which is reproduced in Fig. 9. It is doubtless from Wren’s hand. From it and from Wren’s description, Goodchild presumably made his drawing. The sketch elevation in the interleaved copy gives an infinitely better proportioned and more reasonable building than Goodchild’s. Wren’s “ Attick storey,” as he calls it, is very open, whereas Good- child shows it solid and dreary to a degree. Wren, moreover, shows the building on a platform, where¬ as Goodchild, without any authority from the rough plan, starts the descent of steps from the bases of the columns. There is the possibility that the imperfect drawing referred to in the Parentalia is the sketch-plan bound up with the MS., but I feel sure the elevation bound with the interleaved copy is indicated. Anyhow, it seems clear that
Goodchild had access to the plan and built up his drawing on that. His description on the drawing suggests that he had merely copied from the Parentalia. It would have been more correct had he said “based on indications in the Parentalia.”
While on the subject of Wren’s restorations, perhaps a word may be added about Wren’s description (printed in the Parentalia ) of the Arte- mision at Ephesus. There are bound in the ordi¬ nary copies engravings of a plan and elevation of the Temple, and also a plan and elevation of Wren’s conjectural restoration of the shrine of the goddess.
The odd feature of this restoration is again Wren’s reliance on Pliny’s figures, which would have made what Professor Lethaby calls a temple of “ enormous and impossible size.” In order to fit in Pliny’s 127 columns, Wren has to make the fronts decastyle. To absorb the odd number of columns he invents a quite enchanting shrine which has small claim to credibility, and rather
FIG. II. — CAEINET PRESENTED TO WREN BY QUEEN ANNE.
Memorials of Wren.
183
recalls the garden temples of the eighteenth cen¬ tury. He again neglects the safer guidance of Vitruvius, who states that the temple was octa- style.
Amongst various heirlooms remaining in Mrs. Pigott’s possession are two, of which photographs are reproduced here. One is an early portrait in oils of Sir Christopher, of a day when his whole attention was given to matters scientific and mathematical, and his genius had not yet found its true vocation. The other is a cabinet presented to Wren by Queen Anne.
It is symptomatic of the gratitude of the Stuart kings and queens that the glories shed on their reigns by the architectural triumphs of Sir Chris¬ topher Wren should have no more costly or enduring monument of royal appreciation than an inlaid cabinet. The magnificently brief appeal of the epitaph in Saint Paul’s Cathedral, however, the universal admiration of his contemporaries in science and art, and the verdict of Time, are surer witnesses to the outstanding gifts and personality of the English Leonardo.
FIG. 12. — PORTRAIT OF SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN
AS A YOUNG MAN. LAWRENCE WEAVER, F.S.A.
Charles Follen McKim.
I 847—1909.
HE death of Charles Follen McKim, which occurred on the 14th of September, is a great loss to the world of Art. To him perhaps more than almost any other architect of the present generation justly belongs a niche in the hall of fame. He was born in Chester County, Pennsyl¬ vania, 24 August 1847. Twenty years later he graduated from the Scientific School of Harvard University and proceeded to Paris to study in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Atelier Daumet, where he remained for three years, and then re¬ turned to America to enter an office of a New York architect to obtain some practical experience before commencing practice on his own account. In this office he met his partner Mead. In the year 1880 the late Stanford White returned to America from Europe, and the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White was founded.
The work of the firm of which McKim was senior partner has perhaps exceeded in extent and cost that of any other architect of the present time. It includes every class of buildings, from the tiny bungalow of the late Madame Modjeska, in California, to the vast pile of buildings for the
New York Depot of the Pennsylvania Railway; as to style, from the rugged, picturesque Casino at Naragansset Pier to the grave and stately Library of Columbia University; as to use, from the gates of Harvard University to the skyscraping new Municipal Offices of the City of New York. It comprises the rebuilding of the University of Virginia, the several buildings of Columbia University, and the University of New York, gates and buildings at Harvard University, some of the buildings of Brown and Cornell Uni¬ versities ; several public libraries, of which that at Boston is the most popularly known, and one of the best of their earlier designs ; the mag¬ nificent houses of the University, Metropolitan, Harvard, Lamb’s, Freundschaft, and Century clubs at New York, the Mount Royal Club at Montreal, and the Algonquin Club at Boston ; the Brooklyn Museum of Arts and Sciences, the Walker Art Museum at Bowdain College, Maine, the New York Post Office, the War College, and the interior designs of the Executive Mansion at Washington ; the Rhode Island State Capitol at Providence, Nangatuck High School, the Madi¬ son Square Garden buildings, Boston Symphony Music Hall, the Washington Arch ; Farragut, Cooper, and Hale monuments in New York, Logan
Charles Fallen Me Kim.
i 84
BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. McKIM, MEAD AND WHITE, ARCHITECTS.
and Lincoln monuments at Chicago, the Battle Monument and Culloni Hall at West Point; churches at Stockbridge, Mass., Nangatuck, Rhode Island, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Morristown, New Jersey, and the Judson Memorial and Dr. Park- hurst's churches in New York. Two of the best buildings at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893 — the Agricultural Palace and the New York State Building — were from their designs. Numerous city residences in New York, such as the Villard, Robb, Morton, Vanderbilt, and Tif¬ fany houses, and at Buffalo, Chicago, Boston, and Washington, as well as almost countless country houses, testify to their artistic skill. Among the latter the houses of Mrs. Elliot F. Shepard at Scarborough, N.Y., of Mrs. Herman Oelrichs and Mr. E. D. Morgan at Newport, Rhode Island, of Mrs. Clarence Mackay at Roslyn, N.Y., of Mr. Frederick Vanderbilt at Hyde Park, N.Y., and of Mr. Ogden Mills at Staatsburg, N.Y., may be numbered among the most notable of America’s modern palaces. A list of their most important commercial buildings and hotels includes the original Imperial Hotel, the Savoy, and the Yose- mite Apartment House in New York, the office buildings of the New York Life Insurance Com¬ pany at New York, Kansas City, and Omaha ; the Goelet and Warren buildings, the Tiffany and Gorham shops, the New York Herald and Judge buildings in New York, the great Niagara Power¬ house at Niagara Falls, N.Y., the printing house of the Cosmopolitan at Irvington-on-the-Hudson, the Cable Building, the huge “ Sherry’s ” restaurant at Forty-fourth Street and Fifth Avenue, New York, the Girard Trust Company's bank at Philadelphia, the State Savings Bank at Detroit, the Bank of Montreal in Canada, the National City Bank, the Bowery Savings Bank, and the two buildings of the Knickerbocker Trust Com¬ pany — one in Wall Street and the other in Fifth Avenue, New York.
Such a list as given above, long as it is, is, however, necessarily very incomplete — it is only the more prominent works which are easily re¬ membered. Yet what a list it is ! What is most impressive in this long moving picture of impor¬ tant modern structures is the evidence, in almost every instance, of a real genius for design, of intelligence, of resource.
The earlier of their works seem to have been influenced somewhat by those of both Hunt and Richardson, but possess a charm not always so apparent in the work of either of the latter; at a later time — there are perhaps a half-dozen examples — their designs showed a marked resem¬ blance to well-known European models of the time of the Renaissance ; but, as one writer at that time said, “ Whatever criticism has been made at length on the use of precedent in their buildings, separately considered, it must be acknowledged that the firm of McKim, Mead & White have always possessed an exact estimate of the value of ancient forms as stimulants to the imagination. Theirs is a method of selection — a choosing of the beautiful and useful- -a rejecting of the inartistic and commonplace of former architectures. It is not, as some would suggest, a blind groping after a harmonious effect, but it is marked by the scientific element which distinguishes the artist
CARNEGIE BRANCH LIBRARY", NEW YORK. McKIM, MEAD AND WHITE, ARCHITECTS.
Charles I'ollen McKim.
'85
INTERIOR OF LIBRARY, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK. McKIM, MEAD AND WHITE, ARCHITECTS.
1 86
Charles Pollen Me Kim.
RHODE ISLAND STATE HOUSE, PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND. McKIM, MEAD AND WHITE, ARCHITECTS.
from the artisan. They seem able “out of a senseless Nothing to evoke a conscious Some¬ thing . . . their adaptations have taught them in their maturer work to add soul and grace to purely modern products.” The work of the firm for some years past, whatever its source of inspiration — whether harking back to Greece or Rome, France or England, or to America's own “ Colonial style ” — has taken a place in the front rank with the best modern architecture of the world, and for much of its great qualities the credit was due to McKim personally — at least the writer has had so much said to him by more than one of the former leading assistants in the office whose judg¬ ment could be relied upon. It was he who suited foreign successes to American needs, and drew the attention of America to the riches of European architectures — especially of the adaptability of Classic and Renaissance design to modern prob¬ lems. With all attempts to relate the best there is of the past to the present, Mr. McKim’s interest in the progress of the world about him was unfail¬ ing. He was patriotic, as was his father — James Miller McKim, a prominent anti-slavery leader — before him; he was at once an American and an artist to the core. In painting and sculpture his taste was as discriminating, his valuation as exact,
as in architecture. He introduced mural decoration into America by providing for it in the halls of the Boston Public Library, and made the opportunities for Sargent, Abbey, and Puvis de Chavannes of which they acquitted themselves so well. The sculptor, Augustus St. Gaudens, was an intimate friend from his student days until his death, and the work of McKim, Mead, and White and this artist is inseparable — there are so many instances of joint authorship. Martiny and MacMonnies also owe much of their fame to the early recog¬ nition of their abilities by McKim. It was he who offered the beautiful “ Bacchante ’’ by MacMonnies as an ornament to the court of the Boston Library which the Puritanical section of the population was possessed of enough “ pull ” to have refused. The judgment of McKim was endorsed when the French Government ordered a replica — which stands just outside the museum— for the Luxem¬ bourg. It is with the Boston Library, the Library of Columbia University, the University Club, the Metropolitan Club, and the Brooklyn Museum that the name of McKim is especially associated by his American confreres.
It would, however, be improper to ascribe to him alone any of the work of the firm, because the influence of the opinion of his partners, Mead and
Charles Follen McKim
187
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if ■ |
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II |
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DOME OF THE RHODE ISLAND STATE HOUSE.
McKIM, MEAD AND WHITE, ARCHITECTS.
1 88
Charles Follen McKnn
KNICKERBOCKER TRUST BUILDING, BROADWAY, NEW YORK, McKIM, MEAD AND WHITE, ARCHITECTS.
Charles Follen Me Kim
i 89
KNICKERBOCKER TRUST BUILDING, OFFICERS’ ROOM McKIM, MEAD AND WHITE, ARCHITECTS.
FREE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, ANDOVER, MASS. McKIM, MEAD AND WHITE, ARCHITECTS.
VOL. XXVI. — M
Charles Follen McKim.
1 90
METROPOLITAN CLUB, NEW YORK.
McKIM, MEAD AND WHITE, ARCHITECTS.
the late Stanford White, must always be reckoned with. At the time of the death of White his admirers seem to have sought to attribute to him practically the whole artistic ability of McKim, Mead, and White, but the work of the firm since his death has undergone no perceptible change of character. To either McKim or White has been given the credit of one or another design, the work of Mead being seldom if ever mentioned; it being accepted as a matter of course that his time is fully occupied and his attention centred in the organisation of the large office and business management of their extensive practice ; but I predict, even now that Mr. McKim has passed away, that as long as Mr. Mead lives the work of McKim, Mead, and White will continue un¬ changed; but it will not be solely due to the native artistic abilities of Mr. Mead. He and his partners have worked beautifully together in life — at least, during the years since the completion of the Boston Library. The whole of their work must be known to posterity as that “of McKim, Mead, and White.”
But the prying, questioning mind must be answered upon one point : it must know who took the lead — who had the final, determining word —
whose judgment was deferred to by his associates. The truth would probably reveal the answer: “ Sometimes one, sometimes another; but if any¬ one more than the others it would be that of Charles Follen McKim.”
McKim’s life was a full and busy one; work, honours, distinctions, were crowded upon him ; he was not less distinguished as a patron of art, connoisseur, and clubman than as an architect. He was a friend and patron of Columbia Univer¬ sity and a founder of the American School at Rome. As a benefactor of art in the most mate¬ rial way he took a leading part, and deserved the greatest praise for what he accomplished. He has advanced a few stages further the taste of the whole of the practitioners of architecture in America. He has had a mighty part in laying out the straightest path to the throne of Beauty, and pointed the way that is being followed by many of the young American architects of to-day.
F. S. Swales.
Note. — In our recent articles on American architecture several other buildings by McKim, Mead and White were illustrated, viz. : — New York Life Insurance Buildings, September 1908 ; Tiffany and Gorham Buildings, February 1909 ; National City and New York City Banks, March 1909 ; State Savings Bank, Detroit, May 1909.
Charles Follen McKivt.
191
NEW MUSIC HALL, BOSTON, MASS. McKIM, MEAD AND WHITE, ARCHITECTS.
TIFFANY HOUSE, NEW YORK.
McKIM, MEAD AND WHITE, ARCHITECTS.
M 2
A Visigothic Church in Spain.— II,
( Concluded .)
iNG the fine sandstone, we find the masonry not poor and rough like that of the Middle Ages, but preserving all the regularity and grandeur of Roman building in hewn blocks of 50 cm. in height, many of them of great size, very well hewn, and placed probably by weight only, at any rate without mortar. The columns appear to have been wrought specially for the church ; the large ones of the chancel arch are of greyish marble with extensive black veins ; those of the crossing, four in number, are of excellent quarried marble, but they are very imperfectly rounded, each having its upper moulding. Of white marble also are the small columns of the arched openings into the
chancel already described, having base, shaft, and capital all worked in one piece of marble. Those of the same kind in the entrance porches are of soft stone.
Exhibiting their Spanish origin, the arches are of horseshoe form, but not with the hideous curve of the tenth century, which reached its extreme in Mazote, but with a moderate curve not extending more than one-third of the radius beyond the semicircle ; this proportion may be observed in all the arches of this description dating earlier than the ninth century.
The same proportions will be found also in the arches of the transept, in the central arch, and in the twin arches of the aisles, as well as in the small double windows in the porches and in those admitting to the chancel, which have no imposts, the jambs falling in line with the arch like those of San Juan de Banos, which may be taken as another sign of their early date.
INTERIOR VIEW OF SAN PEDRO DE I.A NAVE.
i93
A Visi gothic Church in Spain. — II.
The external arches of the porches are not alike, one being of a very slight horseshoe form, the extension beyond the half-circle not being more than one-sixth of the radius; the other, though stilted, has its curve simply and evenly carried out.
The joints of the voussoirs radiate towards the centre, with the exception of the lower blocks in those of the chancel, which are directed to a point somewhat lower down without altering the number of the voussoirs. The extrados, in place of following the curve of the intrados, diverges into right lines towards the spring of the arch, thus increasing the size of the springers and the stability of the work, as in the entrance arch of San Juan de Banos and in one of the gates of Cordoba. Lastly the imposts which project somewhat beyond the face of the arch are wide bands covered with ornament, or else returning towards the arch with the graceful “nacela” or semi-scotia, the only moulding used in the edifice.
The entrance arches, which used to have wooden doors, appear now of a strange form, with stilted arches set back as much as 30 cms. on the jambs, which I can only understand by supposing that originally there were lintels on which the sockets for the hinges were fixed, and that, the part above these having been built up, the arches have served only to carry the weight — a device not without precedent, and having advantages easy to imagine. One of these doorways, that of the south transept, is enlarged in segmental form, but otherwise preserves the original dimensions ; its voussoirs are widened towards the springers, and being built without a keystone its safety is thus provided for.
The workmanship of this edifice does not go beyond the Roman system in providing resistance for the thrust of the vaulting, which is of small well-cut stones, trusting everything to the well-wrought masonry of its walls, and to the equilibrium of all the parts, without the addition either of the makeshifts of the Byzantines or the visible squinches so prodigally used later under the successors of Pelayo in Asturias. Although there are supports in all the angles, in the majority of cases they are idle and useless. Nevertheless, the result of the calculations was disastrous, both arches and vaults having cracked, owing to the displacement of the walls, and, as we have seen, a considerable portion has fallen.
The vaults are barrel-shaped, that of the Capilla Mayor being somewhat stilted, and set back on a graceful frieze which serves as an impost. Those of the lateral chapels spring at once without this ornament, and those of the arms and head of the cross from a “ nacela ” moulding, now mostly destroyed. With regard to the centre of the crossing, I think it must have had another kind of vault, because that of a barrel gives no justification for the work that has been done in restoring the base with quadrangular supports when the arches on which it was erected gave way ; and with this its columns probably
agree. We have an exactly analogous example in Santa Combade Bande (p. 196), a simplification of that of San Pedro, having as plan a cross with vaulted nave and transepts and horseshoe arches like the lateral ones of this church, enclosing a quadrangular lantern or surrounded by a cornice, with windows above and a groined vault : the lantern of San Pedro may very well have been similar to this. Neither it, Santa Comba, nor San Juan preserves any sign of an external cornice for support of the roof.
The decoration corresponds absolutely to the style of the seventh and eighth centuries, balancing between the Classic form still in use in the time of Justinian, and the Byzantine which arose in the Carlovingian period, and it develops into two very distinct styles. The first is shown in the frieze which runs from the capilla to the arms of the cross, also in the wdndows of the former, the capitals, or more properly the mouldings of its arch, the imposts of its doorways, and the small columns of its windows, in all of which the style is of a barbaric and poor character, but having an affinity with that of Andalucia, examples of which may be seen in some parts of the Mosque and the Museum at Cordoba. This ornament is all based on intersecting circles, combinations of crosses, rosettes, stars, spirals, and bunches of grapes which hang from undulating bands. These are accompanied by scales, reels, and chevrons, most of them chiselled in the stone, and within the capilla itself there are even representations of men and animals of the rudest and most barbaric description ; such as a nude figure attacking, lance in hand, and some kind of creature on a horse with a small quadruped by the side (Figs. 3, 4, p. 195).
The work of the other decorator, who came later, on the contrary, commends itself by good taste, richness, and ability, being in fact the most notable that has been preserved in Spain, also as being the only example of pictorial relief. As these decorations are localised in the upper portions of the transepts (see September number, pp. 134, 135) they probably denote a restoration which rendered useless the frieze previously existing lower down, and perhaps added the four columns not contemplated in the original plan, whose utility is obvious.
This style has much of Oriental in the elegance and rhythm of its composition, recalling Italian work of the same period, and more especially the Visigothic fragments of Guerrazar, others of Toledo and Merida, and the rich marbles found at Escalada. They chiefly show graceful undulations of branches with large leaves, flowers, and bunches of grapes, with birds among them picking ; some have human heads, others peacocks and lambs surrounded by foliage. Of the same class of orna¬ ment are the sculptured bands which serve as imposts to the arches of the crossing. The “nacela ” from which the vaults spring, and a fragment built into the outside wall of the church near the ground, all have similar decoration, though in these last only vegetable forms are used. As to the columns
194
A Visigothic Church in Spain. — //.
above mentioned, they are prototypes of those which adorn the Asturian churches built by Ramiro I.
The very original pyramidal bases are ornamented with leaves, palms, and huge human heads between decorated bands of thoroughly Visigothic character. The capitals follow the form of those of the main arch, and deviate from the Classical type towards the Byzantine; two of them are covered with foliage, birds, heads surrounded by a shell as nimbus, and busts with crosses. The other two are wholly iconographical ; on one is represented Daniel praying between two lions which are licking his feet : the inscription above his head explains the situation ; the other illustrates the sacrifice of Isaac, who is laid on an altar which is upheld by columns ; on the other sides of the capitals are the Apostles, Peter with cross and book, Paul with a volume and in act of speaking, Philip holding a label above his head, and Thomas with another book. These subjects, the same as those sculptured on the sarcophagus at Ecija, correspond with the era of Constantine, typifying by the story of Daniel the resurrection of the just, and the sacrifice of Isaac that of the Eucharist ; the interpretation of the latter being evident by the altar on which the victim is laid. We need not wonder at the poverty of the figures, seeing the absence of even the most rudimentary trace of classical culture, and the miserable condition to which the plastic arts were reduced, at this period.
The iconographical value of these capitals as regards Spain is very great, for with the exception of the sarcophagi, generally imported, I know of no sculptured representations of scriptural subjects anterior to the eleventh century, giving ex¬ pression to one of the most remarkable and profound distinc¬ tions of Spanish religious culture, already sanctioned by the Council of Eliberri. Moreover, historical capitals did not be¬ come general, even in Italy, until the Romanesque period, so that these early ones of ours constitute a most valuable prece¬ dent. It is worthy of note that the fibulas and brooches of the Merovingian Period published by Le Blant represent in identical form the scene of Daniel, and with the same form of lettering.
The descriptions on the capitals are as follows, transcribed literally : —
-f VBI DANIEL MISSVS EST IN LACVM LEONVM.
+ HVBI ABRAAM OBTVLIT f ISAC Sfr FILIVM SVVM OLOCAVPSTVM DNO f
+ ALTARE (in which Isaac is about to be sacrificed).
+ SCS PETRVS APOSTOLVS
(Fig. 2, p.195) LIBER (which S. Pedro holds in his hand).
+ SCS PAULUS APOSTOLVS (Fig. 6, p. 195).
+ SCS TOMAS
Most of these were included by Hiibner in his “ Inscrip- tiones Hispaniae Christianae ” under the number 466, with errors for which the blame rests on the “ Monumentos Arqui- tectonicos de Espana,” from which he copies. Note the form “ hubi,” and also that of the correct “ ubi,” in the phrase which is repeated in a contemporary diptych in the Museum of Antiquities in Brussels, whose legend begins : “ Ubi dns am- bulabit super aspidem,” &c. More remarkable is it to find “ olocaupstum ” for “ holocaustum,” and “ Eumanuel ” for “ Emmanuel.”
The type of letter offers another argument for the antiquity of this church, which is easily corroborated by simply com¬ paring its epigraphy with that of dated inscriptions. There a close analogy will be found with that of Bailen, A.D. 691 which shows it to be earlier than others in Castile. The very well-marked triangular tops always ending the vertical strokes, are peculiarly characteristic of the epigraphy of the Visigoths and the Merovingians, the lenticular or rhomboidal form of O is proper to the seventh century, the square D is of the sixth and seventh, the P with its somewhat open and low curve is not seen after the beginning of the eighth, and the interpositions in form of leaves are already very rare in the Asturian in¬ scriptions of that date. Another proof is to be found in that after the beginning of the reconquest these letters are not found in Asturian inscriptions later than that of Cangas, A.D. 738, nor in those of the Mozarabes ; for example, the recti¬ lineal C, the T with large crossing hanging down on the left¬ side, the lunar E, the A without crossing, &c., &c.
SOUTH SIDE OF SAN PEDRO DE LA NAVE.
1 95
A Visigothic Clmrch in Spain. — II.
Cut in the stones on the outside wall of the Capilla Mayor may be read some epitaphs hitherto unpublished, the charac¬ ters of which show them to be of about the date of the erection of the edifice (Fig. i below). The word which has been purposely half obliterated was certainly “ Celanova ” ; but there is this difficulty : that no Alvaro is known as Abbot of Celanova at any time, still less in that century, when the history of the monastery is perfectly known. In 950 a “Caballero Alvaro” made a donation to S. Rosendo, of which he was founder, of certain property in Moreruelo, which Yepes supposes to have been annexed to San Pedro de la Nave.
The monogram, which may read “ Stevano,” may be older (Fig. 5). The form Stevano is found in a signature of Escalada of the tenth century. On the same stones may be seen in four places the five-pointed star so common later as a mason’s mark.
San Pedro is not at present considered a national monument; but as its great merits make it well worthy of being regaided as such, no doubt before long the competent authorities will concede it the title, and sooner or later will fall into the temp¬ tation to rebuild or restore the edifice, making with its stones something of what I have done on inoffensive paper.
We need be under no illusions, however. The church is unrestorable ; remembering the enormous expense it would involve, and the small means at our disposal, it will continue in its present condition until it finally falls to ruins. The enormous bulging of its walls obliges it to be left untouched or rebuilt almost entirely, and this is neither possible nor desir¬ able at a time when the mystifications of archaeologists, how¬ ever learned they may be, are becoming worse and worse. It would be very much better to build a copy with all the details and restorations possible. I recommend the suggestion to any one having sufficient good taste and the requisite means, and who wishes, for example, to build a private chapel or a mausoleum.
This is by no means to say that it should be left in statu quo. Its present condition is disgraceful, whether considered as an artistic treasure or simply as a parish church ; but any interference would have to be of the most careful and artistic nature if it were to be entirely satisfactory. We might be content with cleaning the lime off the inside walls (a very simple task if the friezes and capitals are left untouched), filling
up all the old cavities, taking down the bell tower and stair¬ case and one modern doorway, renewing the parts of the roof which are falling, restoring as far as possible the old lines, and removing all accessories which are not indispensable to worship.
As regards the significance of this edifice to our national art, it is decisive. It serves to confirm what we already know of Visigothic architecture, the peculiar type of which was some¬ what uncertainly defined while we had only San Juan de Banos to serve as authority. It shows a tendency to repulsion against the basilica and progress towards the pitched roof, a number of wholly new departures, and a plethora of inven¬ tion and of freedom of treatment in our early artists. Among the twenty churches which are in existence, dating from before the eleventh century, scarcely any grouping is possible, and from that date forward no fixed form of development, only a number of happy indications, which if they had been well carried for¬ ward might perhaps have eclipsed the Romanesque style by anticipating it. It is very curious that in Auvergne, where the Romanesque architecture seems to have had its birth, one finds a moulding which, in spite of the ingenious suggestion of origin by Viollet le Due, we must recognise as an evident pla¬ giarism of our Cordovese art of the tenth century, which spread to the Mozarabic churches in Leon, and this not being the only point of contact leaves one to infer some kind of Spanish influence in that region. But if in the case of San Pedro we find signs of great workmanship, it was neither collective nor fecund, owing to internal dissensions and the want of disci¬ pline — always the fault of our nation — which stood in the way of our establishing a distinctive Christian art ; while France, so backward throughout the Merovingian period, and lacking in initiative later on, did develop one by insisting upon a form at once methodical and progressive, so that if its monotony often wearies, at last it reached its apogee of perfection.
In our first attempt at a distinctive style a certain originality appears, not only in the disuse of the semi-circular apse and the use of the horseshoe arch, but in originating the cruci¬ form church ; not despising the basilican form as at Banos and Cabeza del Griego, at Bamba we find an advance already more harmonious and free, in Santa Comba,3 or with the two types perfectly combined, as in San Pedro de la
s Referring to Santa Comba de Bamba being an advance on San Pedro, Seiior Gomez-Moreno writes: “According to studies made since this was written, this church appears rather to be of the tenth century than of Visigothic origin.”
Fig. 1
DETAILS OF ORNAMENTS AND INSCRIPTIONS.
A Visigothic Church in Spain. — II.
1 96
Nave, where both ideals are concentrated. As regards the vaulted roofs, they entered on the scene as the basilica left it, showing conclusively the influence which we have agreed to call Byzantine.
The question is, then, do we owe to the East directly this development of Gothic architecture ? No single edifice can be said to demonstrate the assumption definitely, but as those existing are so few and of so secondary a type we may suppose the destruction of many which might perhaps have done so. Moreover, Andalucia shows proofs of Byzantine influence very marked and capable of explanation, seeing that the Roman imperialists dominated the country until the end of the sixth century, and even much later on we find that the intercourse with the East was not closed.
In effect, the workmanship of the jewellery of Guarrazar, so superior to the other jewels of the Barbarians, carries this influence to their date. Also the decorative sculpture at Banos is full of Latin reminiscences ; but, on the contrary, at la Nave the grace and rhythm is altogether Oriental, and even the figures show an exotic origin.
It is not necessary, however, to suppose that the hand of a stranger intervened in the actual workmanship, for a sufficient education would have been obtained from the pieces of white marble brought from beyond the sea to adorn the rich edifices which show the like designs, as we have already pointed out.
The Asiatic type of ornament is to be seen most completely in a series of capitals dispersed, or made use of in other build¬ ings which recall Syrian work, such as the Golden Gate of Jerusalem, in the modelling of the foliage leaning towards the Acanthus of the Greeks. Among those in the Museum at Leon which came from Sahagun are some typical ones, others in Hornija are more in character with the period in which they were executed, and there are others in Escalada, Maxote, Penalba, Zabeho, Ayoo de Vidreales, Toro, &c. The rich columns of Hornija, similar to those of Cordoba and Carta¬ gena, are evidi ntly Byzantine.
To conclude, San Pedro de la Nave represents perhaps the last phase of Visigothic architecture in Spain with special characteristics, on which are founded local traditions, traces of Latin instruction, and echoes of the East, and is a faithful embodiment of the social vitality which was in full develop¬ ment in Spain when it was cut short by the Arab invasion.
Manuel Gomez-Moreno.
Translated from the original Spanish by L. Higgin.
Current Architecture
COLDICOTE, WARWICKSHIRE.
HIS house is situated some few miles from Moreton in Marsh, on a slope overlook¬ ing a wide tract of undulating country backed by a range of hills which rise from the plain to the west. It is built of the local oolite stone, quarried near the site, which laminates freely into thin layers. The walls are in coursed rubble with similar stone for the angle quoins and dress¬ ings, with the joints raked out with a stick to emphasise the character of the local walling. The only dressed ashlar work is in the entrance porch and gable over, with a carved panel by
Mr. A. Broadbent. The roofs are of stone slates from the Eyford pits, coarse in texture and varied in colour, and the chimney-stacks are of red sand¬ faced bricks from Berkshire.
All the windows are of oak, with lead lights and iron casements from Mr. John Pye, of Moreton in Marsh.
The floors, fittings, and joinery, &c., to the principal rooms are of oak, and the ceilings are emphasised with modelled plasterwork.
The stable buildings, entrance lodge, garden buildings, and terrace walls, &c., are all treated in a similar manner, so that the whole scheme is complete. The builders were Messrs. Hayward & Wooster, of Bath, and Mr. E. Guy Dawber was the architect.
COLDICOTE, WARWICKSHIRE. GROUND PLAN.
E. GUY DAWBER, ARCHITECT.
198
C nrren t A rch itecture .
COLDICOTE, WARWICKSHIRE. GARDEN FRONT.
C urren t A rch i teciure.
199
COLDICOTE, WARWICKSHIRE. THE ENTRANCE FRONT, E. GUY DAWBER, ARCHITECT.
2 00
Curren t A rch i tcctu re
• * •
p™
_ JvAx» \ v
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Photo : A rch. Review Photo. Bureau.
Current Architecture .
20 i
COLDICOTE, WARWICKSHIRE. THE LODGE,
202
Current Architecture.
WELLMAN, ARCHITECT.
Curren t A rch itecture.
203
NATAL GOVERNMENT RAILWAYS: ENGINEER-IN-CHIE b :S OFFICES, MAR1TZBURG. H. J. WELLMAN, ARCHITECT.
The Committee for the Survey of the Memorials of Greater London.
HEN Dr. Emil Reich, the well- known professor of history, published his historical atlas, he prefaced his work with the significant motto : Est locus in rebus. The student of topography could have no better aphorism to sum up the true inwardness and meaning of his work. The genius of the Latin language confines in a few words ideas of great magnitude, and by the very simplicity of its form controls the central meaning without limiting the sphere of its appli¬ cation. To the trained and educated mind every¬ thing has its proper locus, its position in time and in space, and the application of this is the test of such training and education. And even those transcendentalists who deny the existence of time
Photo : G. H. Lovegrove ( Survey Committee). THE CLOISTERS, MORDEN COLLEGE, BLACKHEATH.
and space, arrive at their conclusions through a very real sense of these qualities which they inter¬ pret as the necessary conditions of human thought. Certain it is that to the historian the place — whether in time or space — of any given action or occurrence is all-important, and constitutes the kernel, as it were, of his knowledge. The mere statement of a fact does not imply in itself the possession of real knowledge, but the ability to place that fact in its proper environment and in its proper perspective is the real proof of the under¬ standing. The place — its character, surroundings, and inherent possibilities, and the time— its posi¬ tion as the outcome or the forerunner of entirely different events, these give a fact its true signifi¬ cance, and it is in this spirit that we should read the words Est locus in rebus.
There are two stages of freedom in thought, the one that precedes and the one that follows a proper course of train¬ ing. The former being untrained is for the most part unfruitful, in that it does not perceive the limitations of its subject, and cannot discover any coherence in the things which the mind has not grasped. No better illustration of this is to be found than in the unfettered foolishness that pro¬ ceeds from the lips of the man-in-the- street when he criticises architecture. He has no knowledge to guide, re¬ strain, or liberate his thought. The well-trained architect has, however, studied the limitations and conven¬ tions of his art. He has sought the locus, the meaning, the form of every style ; and having gained that know¬ ledge, he enters a world wherein the mind has freer play of imagination, fancy, and criticism than was ever known to him before he passed its threshold.
The training which an architect has in precision of thought should fit him in a special way for the topographical research which our Society has under¬ taken. So many historical writers are still in the first stage of which we have spoken ; they seem possessed of no power to make their writings lucid ; north, south, east, and west are alike to them, and they describe buildings
Committee for Survey of Memorials of Greater London. 205
with no reference to a plan. There are many articles in the Dictionary of National Biography which do not trouble to identify their subjects with the districts in which they lived. But an architect has been trained to feel that he does not grasp any material object until he can draw it in plan, eleva¬ tion, and section ; and since he can control the whole form and design by these three things, so he learns to control historical facts by their place and time. In this way he should make the best topo¬
grapher, and the infusion of architectural blood into the “ body topographical ” should be attended with very great results. We are well aware that beyond the mere mechanical grasp of things attained by this training in precision, there is required some power of intelligence and even of genius. But of this we do not speak now, except to say that the locus in rebus needs much hard work — with or without genius — for its discovery.
Walter H. Godfrey.
Books.
CHELSEA.
The Parish of Chelsea (Part /.). By Walter H. Godfrey , Architect ; being the Second Volume of the Survey of London , and the eleventh publication of the Com¬ mittee for the Survey of the Memorials of Greater London. Price to Non-Subscribers , i guinea {Free to Subscribers). Published in England by the C 0711- mitt ee for the Survey of the Memorials of Greater London , 23, Old Street , Westminster, S.W., and to be obtained from B. T. Batsford, 94, Pligh Holborn , W.C. Only 600 copies have been printed.
HE object of the Committee for the Survey of Greater London has been made plain in these pages month by month, but it may be pointed out again that its object is to register or record whatever may be deemed of historic or sesthetic interest. In this connection a large and fine collection of drawings, photographs, sketches, and measured drawings has been compiled by the active members of the Committee. Besides this work, the Committee also publish monographs of more important work, and it is intended to write, from the extensive survey being made, volumes on the different parishes. The first of these dealt with that of Bromley, and the second (that under re¬ view) deals with Chelsea.
It may be pointed out that the work of the Committee cannot be carried out without money, and therefore a large body of honorary or sub¬ scribing members is wanted. The active mem¬ bers, besides their subscriptions, help in the preparation of drawings, &c. Too much praise cannot be given to this society, and to the members of it who have devoted so much time in a voluntary way. The delays experienced in the preparation of a book like this will be understood when it is realised that eight years have gone to its completion.
No part of London is more fascinating than Chelsea ; it, more than perhaps any other parish of comparatively confined area, guards still the eighteenth century — a century beginning to be highly prized. To architects especially it is a period full of suggestion and interest, and this Survey should appeal very strongly to them. “ This first volume of our Survey of Chelsea in¬ cludes all that part of the parish looking towards the river which lies between the Royal Hospital on the east and the Old Church on the West.”
The method adopted in the Survey is to illus¬ trate by photographs and drawings all that is of historic or sesthetic value. Brief letterpress accompanies the illustrations, and the historical references are placed as footnotes. The text is, however, of secondary importance to the plates, which are of unusual interest, and show very fully how charming the work of the eighteenth century can be. Interiors and exteriors are illustrated by photographs, and a few measured drawings give additional interest.
Besides these plates a few illustrations of plans are set with the text, which is further enhanced by heraldic drawings placed in the margins. The bulk of the examples are taken from Paradise Row and Cheyne Walk, and we know of no streets where such a wealth of quiet and delightful archi¬ tecture is to be found. Besides the general views of the houses, many excellent illustrations are shown of doorways, ironwork, lead cisterns, in¬ teriors of panelled rooms, staircases, fireplaces, &c. And one cannot hope to find anywhere more de¬ lightful examples of panelled rooms than those from No. 6, Cheyne Walk and the Queen’s House. A beautiful spiral stair is illustrated from the latter house. The ironwork of Chelsea is as good as the rest of the work, and some fine gates and railings are shown.
On the whole the book is a noteworthy achieve-
2o6
Books.
ment, and brings together in small compass much to interest and a great deal to instruct those of us who care for unobtrusive and gentle architecture.
MODERN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.
Modern Homes. By T. Raffles Davison, pp. 248. Illus¬ trated with sketches by the Author. 15^. nett. London : George Bell Sons.
is a pleasant task to one who remembers the domestic archi¬ tecture of thirty and forty years ago, when good work was scarce, to look through the pages of Mr. Raffles Davison’s “ Modern Homes,” and com¬ pare the houses that are built now with the bulk of those built in the seventies. Yet, great though this advance has been, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that the great body of the public still remains unmoved. Architecture, sacred or profane, is a matter of supreme indiffer¬ ence to the man in the street, and the speculating builder provides all he needs or asks.
If the history of a nation is inexorably written on its buildings, future ages may be puzzled to account for the fact that, contemporary with a domestic architecture expressing the highest refinement of individual taste and a character peculiar to its time, is found a type of house build¬ ing which is its direct antithesis. It may perhaps be that in every age these two streams have flowed side by side, and that only the worthy buildings have survived. It would be comforting to believe this : to believe that all the abominations which now offend the eye would be swept away, leaving not even a memory behind. But evidence is all against such an assumption, and our successors will see the good and the bad together. It will no doubt be clear to them that serious architects of to-day are really, and in a sense consciously, outside the current of modern ideas, and are keeping alive with some effort the traditions and ideas of the past.
It is impossible to forecast the future of our domestic architecture. An architect can have no influence except through the medium of his build¬ ings, and he cannot build without a client. The whole matter is in the hands of the public.
To architects Mr. Davison’s book will appeal strongly, as they will be able to see how different men have handled the problems which have also been presented to them ; but to the building public the book is invaluable. Mr. Davison has made it clear that the client gets something by em¬ ploying a competent architect which he gets in no other way. This is an excellent first lesson. He then leads him by easy stages to a clear under¬
standing of the principles underlying good house design, and shows how these principles have guided the architects whose work he illustrates.
It is difficult not to believe that this book must have a great educative influence on the public. It is just possible, and it is a danger to be guarded against, that we are a little too apt to identify simplicity with what may be called the “ farmhouse tradition.” Roughly adzed oak, coarse wobbly plaster, cavernous fireplaces, and an exterior naive sometimes to the verge of childishness, have of course a certain charm, the charm of the sampler and the little story in words of one syllable. It is a form of art which makes a very direct appeal to the homely emotions, and it is quite legitimate, as far as it goes ; but for all that it is, or should be, strictly limited to small and really simple houses. It is wilfully curtailing our powers of design, and altogether too easy, just to take the cottage form and blow it out bigger, like a bladder, for a bigger house. Of course there are a good many people who like this sort of thing; but there is something a little pathetic in the spectacle of an ordinary large commonplace Briton sitting, a little forlorn, in a sort of kitchen with a gritty stone floor and a ceiling so low and heavily beamed that it only wants the dangling hams to prevent his standing upright in any part of it. It is one of our conditions to make the house fit the man : to have one type of house for many types of men is to ignore this condition.
Mr. Davison has produced a most interesting book — interesting as a record of the architectural achievement of the present day, and no less inter¬ esting in that all the sketches are from his own pen. It is inevitable, of course, in these circumstances, that a little flavour of the draughtsman attaches itself to each of the houses illustrated — we see them through Mr. Davison’s own eyes, and it is quite possi¬ ble that some of them gain by being seen through so good a medium. It is, too, a matter for con¬ gratulation to British architects that in no other country in Europe could so interesting a collec¬ tion of current domestic architecture be gathered together, nor could we find anywhere on the Continent a draughtsman with just the peculiar gift of representing architecture which Mr. Davi¬ son exhibits. No doubt in subsequent editions the few little mistakes which have crept in, such as the plan of one house with the title of another, and a drawing here and there referred to in the text but absent from the book, will be corrected, and it might also be possible to include the work of some architects who are conspicuous by their absence, and even to add a few plates, so as to give rather more representative work of some of the architects whose characteristic work is not perhaps quite adequately presented.
Books.
207
HERALDRY.
A Coz/iplete Guide to Heraldry. By Arthur Charles Fox- Davies. g| in. by 6\ in. ftp. xii, 647. Illustrations by Graham Johnston, 800, in chiding 9 plates in colour. ioj. 6 d. nett. London : T. C. &= E. C. lack, 16, Hen- rietta Street. IV. C.
Mr. Fox-Davies appears to write on the principle of never using one word when two will do. Hence his book is bulky, and the reading of his more than 600 pages has been a labour. Mr. Fox-Uavies’s attitude to the Heralds’ Collegein this volume is more reasonable than in his earlier writings. He does not now make such high claims on its behalf.
The College acts for the Sovereign, who is the Fountain of Honour. If, let us say, a contractor desires to be granted a shield blazoned with a Scotch derrick, he may get it on paying the proper fees to the College, and may not properly use such a device armorially without a grant from the College.
We have, however, always been impatient with those who denied to ancient families, whose ancestors bore arms for generations before the College was invented, the right to use such arms unless they have been at some time registered or confirmed by the College.
As to modern grants, we may be allowed a laugh at one made in 1898 to the Great Central Railway. The shield of arms is uninteresting but innocuous. The crest, “ a representa¬ tion of the front of a locomotive engine proper, between two wings or,” if mounted on the top-hat of the chairman of the line (for crests are intended to be worn on helmets), would create interest at some Pageant of Rapid Transit. We confess to surprise that Mr. Fox-Davies should gravely illustrate and describe so preposterous an example of commercial heraldry.
ROME.
The Monuments of Christian Rome. By Arthur L. Fro¬ th ing ha zn, Ph.D. 7% in. by 5J in. pp. viii, 412. Illustrated. 10 s. 6d. London: Macmillan cF5 Co., Ltd.
This is one of a series of archaeological handbooks for American students. Professor Frothingham has a wide field, from Constantine to the Renaissance, and his facts are neces¬ sarily condensed. The arrangement of the book is good. Part I. consists of a rapid historical survey; Part II. of a classification of the monuments ; while the indexes are suffi¬ ciently full. In days when the arts trip tremulously down the side streets of modern life, and have so little influence on the people, it is refreshing to remember that the eighth century made a revolution out of an aesthetic controversy, and empha¬ sised its arguments by the slaying of an imperial duke. The modern, when he feels iconoclastic, writes in the Evening Standard. Perhaps it is better so. If we felt strongly on art, as a nation, our Dreadnoughts might cost us more.
Professor Frothingham lias produced a useful reference book which will be of practical value to the visitor to Rome.
FOR THE ANTIQUARY.
The Reliquary and Illustrated Archceologist : Vol. xiv. 10 \in.by q\in. pp 302. Illustrated. 12 s. nett. Lon¬ don : Bemrose iS-5 Sons, Ltd., 4 Snow Hill , E.C.
The bound volume of our interesting contemporary contains many good things. “ The Dawn of Architecture ” deals with the Pueblo region of New Mexico and thereabouts. From it one may learn how the climax of aboriginal architecture at Taos is a building to house over 400 persons. And yet blocks of flats are thought to be modern !
Other useful papers on out-of-the-way subjects are on the
Alaoui Museum, Tunis (a fine example of A’-ab stucco work is illustrated), and on the Cathedral of Abo, Finland.
We suggest that a table of contents would be a desirable addition, and the index could with advantage be fuller.
STEVENSON ON HALICARNASSUS.
A Restoration of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. By f.J. Stevenson, F.S. A. 10 in. by 6f in. pp. 35. With plan, elevation , section, and coloured plate. 2.f. 6 d. ziett. Lo7ido7i : B. T. Batsford, 94, High Holborn , W.C.
The late Mr. Stevenson was an enthusiastic antiquary as well as an architect of scholarship and taste, and while his restoration of the Mausoleum is unlikely to win a wide assent, this republication of his views will be welcomed as a pleasant memorial of an interesting and able man. The essence of his scheme is the adoption of the small plan with a double row of columns, as against the large plan with a single row. In this he differs from the majority of students, and in our opinion is wrong. He is obliged to admit that the stones at the British Museum prove that part of the pyramidal roof was to a flat slope, and as his contracted plan would not allow for the twenty-four steps mentioned by Pliny, he is driven to postu¬ late a break in the roof line and to treat the meta as separate from the pyramid and built to a steeper pitch. The idea is ingenious, but it seems based on too subtle an interpretation of Pliny’s words, on which too great stress surely ought not to be laid, and it produces a disposition of roof lines which seems anything but Greek in idea. We are especially grateful for the printing of Guichard's account (first published in 1581) of the destruction of the Mausoleum by the Knights of Rhodes in 1522 in their last struggle against the Turks before Solyman purged Asia of Christian presence. It is a dreadful thought that the priceless marbles carved by Scopas, Bryaxis, Timo- theus, and Leochares were burnt to make lime, but the whole story takes its place among the Arabian Nights of architecture.
THE PORTLAND ART CLUB.
Portla7ul Art Associatio7i. Portlazid Architectural Club Year Book. Second Amiual Exhibitio7i in the Galleries of the Museu/zi of Fi/ie Arts, March izzid to April 10 th, 1909.
This book is a kind of souvenir of the exhibition. It is well got up, and the work itself is of a fairly high level of excellence with the exception of the Gothic work. Fine Renaissance work in public buildings is illustrated by a few notable designs. Considerable vigour of setting out is shown in some of the plans, notably in that of the Wisconsin State Capitol, by George Post and Sons, and the Pacific Union Club Building, San Francisco, by Macdonald and Applegarth. This latter building has a fine fagade, a great colonnade of coupled half pillars raised upon a strong basement or stylobate. Over the cornice a balustrade half hides the attic. Another fine design, in a somewhat similar manner, is the competitive drawing for the U.S. Custom House, San Francisco. A single pillar is substituted in the colonnade, large windows are introduced in the stylobate. It is broadly treated, with the result of some dignity. Whidden and Lewis are the architec.s. Bliss and Faville show a view of a singularly handsome dining-room in the Hotel St. Francis.
We cannot recommend American domestic architecture, but the interior of a room in F. H. Ranson’s residence strikes us as quiet and restful. Jos. Jacoberger is the architect of this last.
We do not pretend to have noted everything of merit in the book, and our chief desire here is to congratulate the Western architects on their esprit de corps, and to wish their architectural clubs every success.
208
Books
PALACES AND PICTURES.
The Private Palaces of London : Past and Present. By E. Beresford Chancellor , ALA. 9! in. by 7\ in. pp. xx, 390. Illustrations 44. Price 20 s. nett. London : Kegan Paul, Trench , Triibner and Co., Ltd., Gerrard Street, W.
A VAST amount of industry has gone to the making of this book, but it is not altogether satisfactory. Mr. Chancellor is so interested in the splendid figures who have inhabited the great houses, and in the multitudes of pictures which adorn their walls, that the houses come in for rather slight attention.
The book is rather for the “ nobility and gentry ” on one side, and for the student of pictures on the other, than for the archi¬ tect. This is not a complaint in the manner of “ nothing like leather,’’ but fair comment, when it is noted that only three of the forty-four illustrations are of exteriors. The interior views are excellent, but we think the illustrations hardly generous in number.
Mr. Chancellor should have read his proofs. We are grieved to know of “ Sweet Molly Lepel, who married Lord Hervey, and who resided in a house built for her in 1747, but was subsequently divided into two residences” — but perhaps it was the house and not sweet Molly who suffered this drastic operation. We suspect Mr. Chancellor is more interested in the pictures than anything, and we confess that we did not realise the amazing artistic wealth that is treasured in the not too beautiful houses of London. The poverty of the metropolis architecturally is nowhere more marked than in the houses of its great families. Perhaps Mr. Chancellor has worked on the principle of the least said the soonest mended. The index is of palatial proportions.
OLD LONDON.
The Gilds and Companies of London. By George Unwin. (. In the “ Antiquary's Books ” Series .) 8f in. by 55 in. fp. xvi, 397. Illustrations 37. 7s. 6 d. nett. London : Messrs. Methuen, 36, Essex Street, Strand, llr.C. Old London. Compiled by Walter L. McNay. 9 in. by 6f in. Fifty reproductions of Old Engravings illustrative of the London of our Ancestors , with Notes and Index. 3 s. 6 d. nett. London: Alex. Aloring, Ltd., De La More Press , 32, George Street, Hanover Square , W.
London Topographical Record, Vol. V. 8f in. by 5 h in. pp. 190. Illustrations 15. Issued by the London Topographical Society, 32, George Street, Hanover Square, W.
Mr. George Unwin has added to the debt that we owed him for his Industrial Organisation in the 16th and 1 7th Centuries. That book was based largely on his researches amongst the records of the City. This new volume not only sets down masses of facts culled by laborious reference to the great store of London documents, but gives a reasoned history of the growth of the gilds and companies as they appear in the light of economic science. In considering the relationship between the old companies and fraternities and the trade unions of to-day, it is clear from Mr. Unwin’s narrative that the old organisations were essentially individualistic, and the disputes between one gild and another the quarrels of capital¬ ists. Nothing could be further from the fact than to regard the mediaeval gilds merely as associations of craftsmen, all working with their hands. A large proportion of the hand work was done by inferior workmen who never had a chance of rising to any position of eminence in their craft.
But we must commend readers to Mr. Unwin’s many and valuable pages.
An interesting series ot prints has been gathered for Mr. McNay’s volume, and not the least attractive are those which
show St. Magnus in its rightful place at the end of old London Bridge. We could have wished that Mr. McNay had re¬ produced some parts of the older prospects of London to give an idea of the mediaeval city, though the scale of the book prevented their being shown entire.
We must join issue with the compiler in his dictum that “ the fashion of decorating the fronts of houses with compo¬ sitions in plaster ” was a French custom adopted here when Henrietta Maria came over. Mr. McNay should read Mr. Bankart.
The London Topographical Society’s good work has further evidence in their Record for 1908. In his presi¬ dential address Mr. Fairman Ordish took up his parable with Stow’s Survey. 1'he table of contents makes us feel again how few in numbers and how fit are the real workers in the cause of London’s antiquities. There are contributions in this volume by Professor Lethaby, on Wren’s Drawings of Old St. Paul’s ; by Mr. Philip Norman, on the London City Churches that escaped the Great Fire ; and by Mr. Hilton Price, on the Signs ot Old London. Yet none of them is of the Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments ! So much the worse for the Commission.
P.S. — Since the above was written all lovers of Old London have had to mourn a grievous loss in the death of Mr. Hilton Price, for many years the genial and able director of the Society of Antiquaries.
GREEK BUILDINGS,
Great Buildings and How to Enjoy Them : Greek Archi¬ tecture. By Edith A. Browne. 8f in. by 6i in. pp. x, 13 1. Illustrations 48. 3 s. 6d. nett. London: Adam and Charles Black, Soho Square, IV.
Handbook of Greek Architecture. By Allan Marquand, Ph.D.,L.H.D. 7 f in. by 5 in. pp. x, 425. Illustra¬ tions 392. 10s. net/. London: Macmillan &• Co.,
Ltd.
MISS Browne so far resembles Truthful James in that she tells in simple language what she knows about Greek build¬ ings. She introduces the excellent illustrations with thirty-six pages which seem to have begun life as a lecture. It is all much more like speaking than writing — Miss Browne should not address us as “ My fellow pleasure-seekers ” — a hint which we offer for the further volumes contemplated.
It is an admirable production for 3s. 6d., and deserves a good sale amongst the increasing public that takes its archi¬ tecture gently and in small doses.
Dr. Marquancl’s book is something quite different. It is a serious and scholarly study of materials, construction, propor¬ tion, style, &c., and a general review of the varying types of public and piivate buildings. The illustrations are numerous and well chosen. We have, however, a complaint to make. Dr. Marquand has set out to write a handbook which is pre¬ sumably intended for the student, but we think will be useful only to those who are already somewhat advanced, because his terminology is elaborate and he provides no glossary. The index is complete, and when the reader stumbles at an un¬ known Greek word he can find the meaning by looking up other contexts, but the method of multiplying technical words is hardlv helpful to the student. We notice with interest a restoration by an American student, Mr. Dinsmoor, of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. He shows it standing on a great base similar to that which appears in the late Mr. Stevenson’s restoration. Mr. Dinsmoor, however, puts the lions facing inwards on to. a flight of steps in the base leading up to the Mausoleum, whereas Mr. Stevenson put them in pairs round the top of the base, and Professor Adler placed them at the bottom of the meta.
THE ARCHITECTURAL
REVIEW, NOVEMBER, 1909. VOLUME XXVI. NO. 156.
THE TOWER OE THE MUNICIPIO AND THE PALAZZO DELLA RAG ION E, VERONA.
FROM A DRAWING BY LESLIE WILKINSON. (ARTHUR CATES PRIZE.)
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture.
xxxix.
VOL. XXVI. — N 2
2i2 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXIX.
Q)oor
XCcuJct/ ny
DETAIL c y
BRACKET.
MEASURED AND DRAWN BY R. L. WALL.
The Practical Rxemplar of Architecture. — XXXIX. 213
MEASURED AND DRAWN BY R. L. WALL.
2 14 7 he Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXIX.
HE Dean’s doorway at St. Paul’s is certainly one of the most beautiful details of the cathedral ; it gives access to the base of the geometrical staircase which is contained in the clock or southern tower. A certain squatness of proportion, a boldness, vigour, and simplicity in its lines, render it peculiarly suitable as an entrance in a basement storey. These latter quali¬ ties are enhanced by the application of excellent carving — the tympanum is filled with winged heads of children, pendent flowers and fruits of divers kinds ; but perhaps the brackets more than anything else give peculiar distinction to the door. They are extremely vigorous, in perfect keepingwith therest of the work, and beautifully carved with cherubs’ heads and flowers; the scrolls forming the upper parts of the brackets consist of splendid volutes with widely project¬ ing eyes, and the lower parts are cut down to admit the little heads in full relief. A profusion of delicate carving joins the lower parts to the pilasters from which they spring.
Although exactly similar in design to the corresponding doorway on the north side of the cathedral, the carv¬ ing of the Dean’s door is greatly supe¬ rior and the work of a finer craftsman. These doors are very accurately delineated to a small scale on Wren’s own drawings of the side eleva¬ tions of the cathedral, exactly as they are executed. It seems likely, too, in view of the similarity in the design of the brackets, that Wren gave a draft for the details. The points of difference are slight, but sufficient to suggest, as we have done above, the work of different hands. In the door to the north tower the scrollwork is less virile, having neither the grace nor the vigour of the other ; its reduction at the foot is less
graceful, and in many ways seems almost clumsy after the exquisite examples of the Dean’s door. I'he cherubs’ heads of the former have expressions less pleasant and tender than the latter.
We published drawings of No. 5, King’s Bench Walk (Practical Exemplar XXXV.), and signalised it as being perhaps the richest of the Temple door¬ ways.1 These present examples (Nos. 2 and 3) are less ornate, but are nevertheless excellent examples of Wren’s use of brickwork and versatility in design. The latter has a plain unbroken circular pediment and regular entablature supported by Doric pilas¬ ters, whose bases have probably been worn away ; the moulded archivolt springs from a square im¬ post, and the whole is a fairly regular application of the order, like No. 5. But No. 2 is quite different ;
theflat pilastershave neither capital nor base, nor do they carry any entabla¬ ture, but only a cor¬ nice and a triangular pediment. The archivolt is un¬ moulded except for a bead in the arris of fair dimensions, and is defined by the brick arch, and springs from an im¬ post beautifully moulded. Leaded glass in this case fills the lunette, and a wood frame of a favourite late seven¬ teenth-century form carries the door. These doorways are all built in gauged brickwork.
A most unusual doorway is illustra¬ ted from Bourdon House, in Berke¬ ley Square — it is in pine, unpainted, curved on plan, and contains above a kind of transom a niche with a circular head of sufficient dimensions to take a life-size bust. Nothing can exceed the beauty of the workmanship— the close joints, the delicate carved enrichments, the vigorous carving of the architrave. The ornaments are quite as delicate as those of Adam, which are usually done in composition. It may be from his design, as several fittings of the house belong to his style, notably the chimnevpiece illustrated, which is typical. J. M. W. Halley.
DETAIL OF BRACKET, THE DEAN’S DOOR, ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL
1 Built about 1678.
The Practical Rxemplar of A rchitecture. — XXXIX. ' 2 1 5
Photo : E. Dockree.
BOURDON HOUSE. LONDON. LIBRARY DOOR.
216 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXIX.
MEASURED AND DRAWN BY H. A. MCQUEEN.
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXIX. 2 1 7
t'twto : E. Dockree.
BOURDON HOUSE, LONDON : FIREPLACE IN BEDROOM ON SECOND I- LOOK.
2 1 8 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXIX.
The Practical Rxemplar of Architecture. — XXXI X.
2 1 9
DOORWAY : NO. 2, KING’S BENCH WALK, TEMPLE. DOORWAY : NO. 3, KING’S BENCH WALK, TEMPLE.
220 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture.— XXXIX.
The Practical Exemplar of A rchitedure. — XXXIX.
2 2 I
N°P> KING'S BENCH WALK, E.C.
51 K CHRISTOPHER^ WR£N AR£X
MEASURED AND DRAWN BY ERNST V. WEST.
222 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XXXIX.
Notes of the Month.
The Pyx Chapel — T he Completion of the Mall — Architects’ Specifications — Architectural
Competitions — The Laying of “ The Ghost T
N event of special interest to architects and archaeologists, but surely also to every lover of things venerable and his¬ toric, occurred last month by the decision of the authori¬ ties to open to the public the Pyx Chamber in Westmin¬ ster Abbey. Hitherto a heavy door in the cloisters has been the only indication to passers-by of its existence.
To any man who knows his Westminster well the quiet stretches of vaulted passage and the succession of shady courtyards lying south of the great church itself form a more attractive place to wander in than the tourist-haunted nave. Moreover the importance of this part of the Abbey is great. When Edward the Confessor, on the eve of the Norman Conquest, was pre¬ vailed upon to forgo the saintly satisfaction of a toilsome journey to Rome, he salved his own and the Papal conscience by rebuilding this, now the most historic of English abbey churches.
On the marshy island of Thorney, enclosed by the two branches of Tyburn Brook, his monks set to work on the site of the present choir and southwards along the “ Dark Cloister ” towards Westminster School, thus including the Pyx Chamber.
“ He makes then a cloister, a chapter house in front Towaids the east vaulted and round,
Where his ordained ministers May hold their secret chapter ;
Frater and dorter
And the offices round about.”
Here, then, we may see one of the very earliest examples of English architecture in London, still in good preservation, still standing in relation to the adjoining church as its founder intended.
But although noteworthy as an historical land¬ mark, the Pyx Chamber or Chapel has also undergone remarkable vicissitudes. We have no record as to when the king first began to use it for hoarding his treasure, but its position in the heart of the Abbey buildings and beneath the monks’ dormitory seemed to ensure security.
“Hither,” says Dean Stanley, “were brought the most cherished possessions of the State : the regalia of the Saxon monarchy ; the Black Rood of St. Margaret from Scotland ; the ‘ Crocis Gneyth’ from Wales deposited here by Edward I.; the Sceptre or Rod of Moses ; the Ampulla of Henry IV. ; the sword with which King Athel- stane cut through the rock at Dunbar; the sword
of Wayland Smith, with which Henry II. was knighted ; the sword of Tristan presented to John by the Emperor; the dagger which wounded Edward I. at Acre; the iron gauntlet worn by John of France when taken prisoner at Poitiers.”
More productive of robbery, because of its portability, was a sum of £100,000 amassed by Edward I. to pay for his Scotch wars, which suddenly disappeared one day in May 1303.
Richard de Podlicote and his merry men were responsible, but the abbot and forty monks were clapped in gaol for supposed complicity. This event caused considerable alteration to be made in the arrangement of the chamber. Sir Gilbert Scott, who restored the Abbey buildings some fifty years ago, considers that the entrance was from the adjoining bay containing the dormitory stairs. On this old door he discovered fixed some pieces of white leather, and with uneasy recollec¬ tions of stories regarding the skins of slaughtered Danes, he sent them to a surgeon for analysis. They were pronounced to be undoubtedly human, and Scott seems to imagine that they were prob¬ ably relics of captured thieves nailed up to terrify would-be imitators.
Edward I. appears to have made the new door¬ way into the cloisters, which, with its double doors, each four inches thick, massively framed and heavily barred, resisted all future burglaries. He also walled up the access to the dormitory stairs.
At the Restoration the Regalia were transferred to the Tower, and in recent times the “ pyx ” (a box containing the standard coins of the realm) was transferred to the Mint. Up to this date the “ trial of the pyx ” in this chapel formed an in¬ teresting custom surrounded by various mediaeval regulations.
Sir Gilbert Scott himself had the greatest diffi¬ culty in obtaining entrance, and describes it as “a formidable visit, requiring the presence of representatives of the Exchequer and Treasury, with their attendants bearing boxes which con¬ tain six mighty keys.”
This was in 1849, and he also relates his experiences in the adjoining staircase chamber: —
“ I have one more tale to tell about this cham¬ ber of mystery. There is between the walls which carry the stairs and the wall of the cham¬ ber itself a long and very narrow interval, just wide enough to squeeze through. When I gained access to this chamber, on going along this narrow crevice I found its floor heaped up several feet deep apparently with stones and rubbish. While standing on this heap, I was puzzled by finding
224
Notes of the Month.
it spring beneath my feet, and stooping down and clearing away a little rubbish, what was my aston¬ ishment at finding that I was standing on a large heap of parchment rolls! ... An unhappy accident intervened. 1 happened suddenly to be called away from this newly-discovered record office, and forgetting to lock the door, a party of Westminster schoolboys got in, and, unmindful of the human skins, made free with the parchments. A little disturbance ensued, a fresh padlock was shortly afterwards put to the door, and I have been excluded for ten long years from my trea¬ sury ; though, as I understood that the parch¬ ment had been cleared away, I soon ceased to stand disconsolate at the gate of this dusty Eden.’’
With the new rules all restrictions are removed, that is to say, on Tuesdays and Fridays only, the chapel remaining locked on the other days of the week.
The Pyx Chamber occupies two of the seven and a half bays of vaulted cellarage under the dormitories, a block altogether no ft. long, vaulted in two spans of plain groining on massive round columns 3 ft. 6 in. in diameter and 3 ft. 4 in. high, with a huge abacus. The column in the centre of the chamber is carved with flutings.
In the eastern part of the north bay below the small heavily-barred window is a stone altar, said to be the tomb of Hugolin, the Confessor’s trea¬ surer. On the flat stone lid is a shallow circular depression, and to the right of it stands a piscina in columnar form, apparently of the thirteenth century.
The uneven floor, two steps below the level of the cloisters, is partly covered with mediaeval glazed tiling, and the walls are partly plastered.
The authorities of the Office of Works are to be congratulated on at last admitting the public to a shrine with such rich associations, and inci¬ dentally upon the very artistic way in which they have lighted the chamber, by means of iron flam¬ beaux carrying diffused electric light.
M. S. Briggs.
* * * *
E future art historian will write England down as the land of lost opportunities. In dealing with questions of Civic Design no other country is so affected with the spirit that lets “ I dare not ” wait up¬ on “I would.” The removal of the scaffolding at the east end of the Mall discloses the new entrance into Charing Cross, another piti¬ able example of National parsimony in Art. Only in our own land would a Government be found to
demand the combination of a triumphal arch, an office building, and an official residence in a block that shall be both convincing and expressive. The new building is neither. The official resi¬ dence might be the offices, and vice versa, and no archway can soar to grandiloquence when crushed under a row of offices. It is time some one took up the cudgels for the architects, for the evils of Government cheeseparing react no less seriously upon them than upon our national art. Other nations laugh at our puny efforts, and the public, seeking a scapegoat, bestows, with its usual facility, the blame upon the wrong man. What architects thought of this Mall problem is best exemplified by a reference to the illustrations in our issue of December 1901. What the Govern¬ ment has forced the selected architect to do is now disclosed for all to see. It cannot be said that the scheme at the east end of the Mall has been properly thought out at all. On the south side of Trafalgar Square is a heterogeneous col¬ lection of shops and offices, some of which block the way to the new entrance. These might have been swept away, together with the useless road¬ way behind them, and a fine new block erected from Trafalgar Square to the Mall. On the other side Drummonds Bank might have been set back (there is a piece of vacant ground behind it) and a front erected to the new Admiralty buildings in alignment with the south side of the Mall. The architects of the latter building can sc ireely be expected to take much pride in it since the Admiralty decked their flagstaffs with wires like so many clothes lines on a tenement building. The exigencies of science may demand some sacrifice of art ; but even wireless telegraphy apparatus is susceptible of more satisfactory treatment. There are other points about the new Mall that seem to demand explanation. The present electric lamp standards are very poor, and we have drawn attention to them before. We believe that it has been officially explained that they are only tem¬ porary. But other things as firmly rooted as these lamps, have, in the past, become a perma¬ nent infliction; and we have not much hope that these standards will eventually make way for anything better. Why, too, has so large a gap been left in the trees by the Duke of York steps ? It cannot be pretended that any particular view or vista is to be seen from this point of vantage ; but even if the steps form a suitable stand for Royal processions, there is no reason why the trees should have been stopped so far on either side. It gives a ragged and unfinished appear¬ ance to this end of the Mall, for which there is no adequate excuse. If there is to be an avenue the trees should at least be planted at the same time, so that they may be of equal growth.
Notes of the Month.
225
|
.6,0.0 .0 .c c |
.0 ,0 cj |
DETAIL OF RESIDENCE, M. LUCIEN GUITRY, PARIS. CHARLES MEWES, ARCHITECT.
S it not about time that British architects paid a little more attention to the details of their specifications ? Their American confreres have, seemingly, come to the conclusion that a de¬ lightful vagueness in the terms of what should be a very definite document does not conduce either to good work¬ manship or to the proper carrying out of their ideas. That comprehensive phrase, “ equal to the manufacture of,” which so frequently figures in the modern specification, and which obviates so much investigation and trouble on the part of the writer, has been defended on the ground that it protected the contractor from unscrupulous manu¬ facturers who would raise their prices if they knew their goods were definitely ordered. How the manufacturers were to know this unless the contractor told them is not stated.
As might be foreseen, this provision simply promoted a discussion of the relative merits of similar goods and raised the question of the VOL. xxvi. — o
manner in which the equality of one product with another was to be established. Still another attempt to secure the articles sought, and retain an appearance of impartiality, consisted of the practice of adding to each clause designating a particular device or material the phrase “ or equal approved by the architect.” Such practice, again, only postponed the day when decision had to be rendered, with the certainty that the full price of the article mentioned would be included in the estimates submitted, and the possibility that an article of somewhat less cost would even¬ tually gain approval as approximately equal. Of course, the object sought by these various forms was to avoid the appearance of favouritism and yet retain some measure of control over a work for the success of which the architect is invariably held responsible. It was argued that to specify a single manufacturer’s goods without possibility of change or alternate, tended to create a mono¬ poly, to unduly increase cost, and to invite the suspicion that the architect was actuated by ul¬ terior motives. As to the first objection, it has
226
Notes of the Month.
Notes of the Month.
227
apparently developed that there exists a sufficient variety of opinions among architects concerning the relative merits of various articles to prevent anything like universal use of one for any given purpose. Moreover, goods of such transcendent qualities as to gain the exclusive approval of a sufficient number of architects to constitute any¬ thing like a monopoly would perhaps be entitled to any benefits accruing from such a situation. In considering the possibility of increasing the cost of an article by specifying it without alternate, it is pertinent to call attention to the attitude of numerous prominent manufacturers. They are to-day expending vast sums of money in an attempt to convince architects in general that specification of their products does not have this effect — that their prices are standard and uni¬ form — that, in fact, by specifying their goods, an architect may know to a certainty what the cost will be, whereas the more indefinite specification would leave the matter somewhat indoubt. Their statements in this regard are readily susceptible of verification, and should, it would seem, merit attention.
Concerning the third objection, which at one time was possibly the most formidable of all, we are happily arriving at a point where, as professional men, architects rank with members of any other calling. An architect’s reputation to-day is ordinarily sufficient to render unnecessary resorting to any form merely to give the appear¬ ance of impartiality. He must, to serve his client ably and intelligently, come sooner or later to a decision in these matters, and it is difficult to understand why this could not be done, at least as well at the time the specification is written as afterward. To do so would apparently save considerable time and expense, both to the archi¬ tect and to contractors estimating. Probably no one would think of suggesting that a physician was actuated by any but the highest motives in prescribing a particular drug when there are several the pharmacodynamic properties of which are similar. It would scarcely enhance his reputation if he were to write a prescription requiring “ such or such a drug, or equal ” ? And yet this, in effect, is what architects were doing in their specifications until recently — in fact, what is still being done to a large extent. Of course, it is impossible, in some classes of work, to specify by name the exact article desired. But even here the ingenious methods frequently devised by adroit architects in attempting to secure only what, in their judgment, is necessary in order to ensure the best results, appear in themselves strong indications of the tendency toward a definite specification. We expect this tendency to increase.
^OUNSEL'S opinion has been obtained with respect to the competition for the proposed library at Middlesbrough, and the eighty-three unsuc¬ cessful competitors who con¬ tributed the funds for this object have no other reward than the satisfaction of knowing that they have set the position of competitors in a clearer light. Two barristers — Mr. C. A. Russell, K.C., and Mr. C. E. Brackenbury — were consulted, and each arrived at the conclusion that the competitors in this particular case had no ground of action. The dissatisfaction arose from a supposition that two of the premiated designs owed their superiority to the disregard of certain instructions, and that therefore the competitors who faithfully adhered to those instructions were placed at a serious disadvantage. Some of them declared that they had realised quite clearly that their designs would have been better for violation of conditions. This confession seems to betray the weakness of the position. It at once raises the vital question, Why are such competitions held ? Surely not altogether in the interest of architects, but with the primary object of obtaining the most suitable design that the competition can yield. They are held in the implicit belief that in the multitude of counsellors there is wisdom, and thence arises the fatuity of preventing the free play of that wisdom by hedging it in with over-elaborate conditions.
Counsel’s opinion on the legal position at Middlesbrough would seem to admit of general application. From it may be inferred the broad principle that the organisers of competitions can usually shelter themselves behind the assessor, who, having no contract with the competitors, cannot be sued. “ In order to establish a cause of action,” says Mr. C. A. Russell, K.C., “the unsuccessful competitors must show that there was an undertaking by the committee either (1) that only such designs as complied with the Instructions should be submitted to the assessor, or (2) that the assessor in making his award would disregard all designs which did not comply with the Instructions, or (3) that the assessor would correctly decide the question whether a design did or did not comply with the Instructions.” Mr. Russell further thinks “ the provision that the judgment of the assessor shall be final excludes any right of the committee to override or disregard the award of the assessor on any ground what¬ ever ” — - a point that the organisers of competitions will not fail to note for their own continuance in the paths of peace.
A further indication of the helplessness of com¬ petitors is contained in Mr. Russell’s remark that
o 2
228
Notes of the Month.
“ Even if there has been a breach of contract, I think an unsuccessful competitor could not recover as damages any expenses or loss caused by his work in preparing a design, as such expense or loss would not be a consequence of the breach.” There is possible, however, an exiguous oppor¬ tunity for the authors of premiated designs lower than the first. “The competitor to whom third place was awarded might perhaps recover as damages the difference between first and third premium.” It would be a Pyrrhic victory.
Mr. Russell throws out the suggestion that “possibly it would be some protection to competi¬ tors if ... it was made a definite instruction to the assessor that he was to treat as disqualified for a prize any design (however excellent in other respects) which did not fully comply with the conditions of the competition.” The organisers of architectural competitions in Utopia might be expected to assume this charitable attitude. There is both wisdom and comfort, however, in
counsel’s concluding observation that “ the only effectual protection of the competitors is the com¬ petence and fairness of the assessor.” That is the conclusion of the whole matter.
Mr. C. E. Brackenbury is equally clear that the competitors who consulted him have no ground of action. He also offers a word of advice that will keep seasonable for all com¬ petitions : “ Unless there are distinctly obligatory provisions, non-compliance with which it is stated will be held to be a disqualification, it will be well [for competitors] to allow themselves a reasonably large latitude in the production of the best design.”
That is surely a rational view. It is not new, because it shows precisely the attitude that has been generally adopted by assessors ; but its independent statement, or restatement, is not without value. It may help competitors to a clearer understanding of the functions of the assessor, whose chief duty is not to award prizes
THE CEILING OF THE BOARD ROOM, LLOYD’S REGISTRY, LONDON. T. E. COLLCUTT, ARCHITECT. PAINTINGS BY PROFESSOR MOIRA.
Notes of the Month.
229
in a competition, but to secure to the best of his ability the objects for which the competition is instituted. It should surely be very obvious that neither the organisers nor the assessor can affect to have much interest in rejecting, upon what may be regarded as mere punctilio, a design that, while breaking the strict rules, happens neverthe¬ less to be — or is perhaps for that very reason — -the most suitable solution of the problem propounded. The over-elaboration and the too literal interpre¬ tation of conditions are the twin causes of the present discontents ; and it might be useful if the R.I.B.A. were to draw up, for the guidance of corporations, as well as of its own members, a very brief note setting the whole subject on a rational basis.
* * * *
HAT complex professional subject, architectural com. petitions, has received an added complexity in the suggestion that the “ghost ” adjunct, that sometimes ap¬ pears, should be laid. A “ necessary evil ” at best, with a code of ethics scarcely understood and still more rarely complied with, the “ghost ” feature walks the night occasionally, and, like most ghosts, only affrights the nervous and timid Probably the entrance of the “ ghost ” is called for because the public, and some of the profession, understand that the object of a competition is to obtain a plan, and “ the plan’s the thing.’1 The more enlightened say that its purpose is to aid in the selection of an architect. In the former case a plan by any other designer would give just as much chance for graft, and in the latter it does not seem to make much difference whether the design was furnished by an independent “ghost” or was executed by the “ head draftsman ” in the office, as neither name is ever publicly associated with the design when executed. When a “ ghost ” is employed, as he often is, and by both honest and capable architects, it is because the employer knows that he has not as great a talent for design, or is not familiar with plan requirements of the structure competed for, and instead of hiring a special draftsman for the purpose, consults and engages the “ghost,” who is always an architect of more than average ability. When architecture becomes an art instead of a business, and each building in its detail as well as mass is the sole product of the architect’s hand, the “ ghost ” will disappear, both because there will be no demand for his services and because the work will be so distributed that all artists will be employed on their own commissions. While the firm name stands for the art expressed in the building, no
matter how much or how little it may be respon¬ sible for it, the “ ghost ” will exist in competitions, and as far as we can see to the betterment of some designs produced. The honesty of claiming authorship of a design whether produced by an independent “ ghost ” or an employe in the office is another matter.
* * * *
(HE death of Mr. William Powell Frith, R.A., on No¬ vember 2, at the age of ninety, removes from our midst a singularly interesting person¬ ality, who in his long life saw many changes of phase in the estimation of art, and whose work had risen and fallen with the tide. Frith’s first Academy picture was “ Malvolio before the Countess Olivia,” for which a dealer was willing to give £20 ; but his first striking success was achieved in 1843, when his “ Scene from ‘ The Vicar of Wakefield,’ ” having been hung on the line, was sold for £100 at the private view. It has since reached 850 guineas at a public sale. Two years later he was elected A.R.A., attaining full rank in 1852. It was in 1854 that the Queen purchased his “ Life at the Sea Side,” which was at once the most extravagantly praised and the most violently vituperated canvas of its year. In 1858 appeared the “ Derby Day,” over which the controversy was renewed with increased fury. Whether it was worth all the fuss cannot, perhaps, be determined by simply regarding the picture on its merits, as it hangs to-day in the Tate Gallery. In its youth it stood for a portent and an influence. Its appear¬ ance caused Frith to be hailed as the redeemer and denounced as the destroyer of art. To paint a landscape as you see it is one thing, to paint people as you see them, quite another, because they wear clothes, and because the fashions of their garments change with the changing moon. There¬ fore Frith’s daring realism was revolting. Simply to take people as you found them was to eliminate imagination, invention, emotion. Was it? Frith seems almost to have attempted to take up this challenge by painting his “ Railway Station,” in which he certainly succeeds in showing that the most commonplace of subjects is not necessarily destitute of poetry and pathos. It is true that these elements are perhaps rather cheap ; but it was for that very reason that they reached the hearts of a vast public for whom the emotions cannot be interpreted in classical terms. Frith gave them the “joy of recognition.” It is only among the fastidious that familiarity breeds contempt ; and so the immense popu¬ larity of Frith’s faithfully and vigorously drawn
230
Notes of the Month.
transcripts from the life of his own times endured until the camera rendered them unneces¬ sary. Then for a time his pictures were scorned and contemned ; but the estimation in which they are held to-day probably represents the reasoned and final judgment upon them. As an excellent critic has said, it is now realised that “ he painted sincerely, according to his power and his limita¬ tions, the life of his day, and came nearer in spirit to Carpaccio and the Dutch masters of genre than some of his contemporaries, who wasted their talents in delineating a fairyland that had no relation to the nineteenth or any other century.” He was, at all events, a strong and an excellent draughtsman, and his work showed the redeeming merits of simplicity and sincerity. These are themselves elements of vitality; and because of them, and because of the documentary value that they imply, Frith’s pictures are secure of one kind of immortality.
* * * *
R. ERNEST GEORGE’S presidential address at the opening of the seventy- fifth session of the Royal Institute of British Architects did not depart very widely from the traditional character of such utterances. It was the usual agreeable olio. As Mr. George felicitously said, “ In our art we do not make history so rapidly that there is a new story to be told each year.” In reporting progress, he was able to say but little more than that the outlook for architecture is distinctly hopeful : the young men, upon whom the hopes of the art are fixed, show the modesty and receptivity that, while not to be confounded with want of spirit or lack of individuality, have always seemed to be a distinctive note of a general forward movement. “ There is,” Mr. George observes, “ the desire to fall into line rather than for strong self-assertion.”
From what has been or is being done, Mr. George proceeded to consider what is immediately to do. A British Architectural School of Rome is to be founded, with presentation to it as the highest academic prize ; and some day Sir Brum- well Thomas’s conception of a “ Diploma School,” for the higher education of architects, may pos¬ sibly materialise. Civic design or town planning is not likely to remain much longer merely a subject to talk about. The inadequate representa¬ tion of architecture at Burlington House is to be remedied, the Royal Academy having consented to the arrangement, in the winter months, of an exhibition of architecture and the contributory arts. The last item in Mr. George’s address was
the most important, so far as “practical politics” are involved. 1 he Institute is awaiting sanction to new by-laws and a new charter, which will enable it to gather into its fold virtually the whole of the profession, and when it has become thus fully representative, it will ask Parliament for “ higher powers and a more secure position.” At last !
HE second series of “The Practical Exemplar of Archi¬ tecture ” is just ready. It is a neat and handy portfolio, containing 112 plates, with eight pages of explanatory letterpress. The list of plates comprises iron and stone balustrading, chimneypieces, cornices, doors and doorways, exteriors, garden gates, gates and gate- piers, gateways, market crosses, panelling, plaster ceilings, screens, tombstones, and well-houses. In each case the object photographed, measured, and drawn has been selected with taste and judg¬ ment, its intrinsic merit and its representative character being the sole considerations in making the choice, so that everything included should be worthy of close study. The result is a collection of objects that, while they are more or less closely related, yet exhibit considerable variety as well as beauty and interest, the pictorial element being supplied by a series of superb photographic repro¬ ductions ; while the detailed drawings, by various hands, provide an exceedingly useful series of examples of some of the best and most typical work that has been done in each class that is represented — work that will well repay serious attention by all lovers of the Mistress Art. The portfolio form is obviously the most convenient that could have been adopted, as it admits of any plate being instantly detached for reference or study. The First Series of the Exemplar was warmly welcomed. Doubtless the Second Series will be equally well received ; and there seems to be no reason why the work should not be extended until it covers the whole field ; so that the lover of architecture may in course of time find himself in possession of a neat, compact, and portable library of examples; each section comprising a representative liber studiorum of more or less closely related work, and the whole forming a comprehensive cyclopaedic survey of the art. That it is being built up, as it were, on the unit system renders it not only easy of acquisition, but most convenient for housing and comfortable in the handling. The editor is Mr. Mervyn E. Macart¬ ney, B.A., F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A., and the work is published from the offices of this magazine.
Ebberston Lodge, Yorkshire.
HERE are few places in Eng¬ land more wild and solitary than the moorland which stretches for miles to the east¬ ward of the Pickering and Whitby Railway. Innumer¬ able valleys intersect the moors, some clothed with wind-swept scrub, and others as bare as the higher land. Here and there are burial mounds and dykes, the memorials of prehistoric man ; and towards the southern edge of the moorland there are lines of earthworks, some of them five and six deep, which extend for several miles from north to south. They would seem to form part of a great system of fortification intended to protect the inhabitants from an invading body advancing from the east. They are called the Scamridge Dykes, but their makers and their history can only be dimly surmised.
Farther south again the hills dip down to meet the Vale of Pickering, once, it is said, a great lake hemmed in on its eastern side by glaciers, but now a wide and fertile plain. The hillside is furrowed by dales, and by following one of these from the Scamridge Dykes southward to the vale one comes suddenly upon a little stone-built eighteenth-century house, prim even in its decay, and surrounded by traces of formal gardens, canals, ponds, and cascades. There is something pathetic in its aspect if approached for the first
*
s
time from above, as it lies below in the little dale, with the pale sunlight of a winter’s afternoon reflecting in the water the stark boughs of the copses which grow on either bank. The place seems almost as desolate and remote as the pre¬ historic mounds and dykes of the moorland above ; yet it was built only so lately as 1718. Local knowledge of the builders and the early owners of the house has vanished completely, and the build¬ ing itself is gradually disappearing; not long ago the fine lead-covered gazebo or cupola was taken down to save the cost of repairs, the stone cor¬ nice has been taken from the stables to be used elsewhere, and the east side wing has been pulled down. Yet there is still a stately classical air about the place. The broad flight of steps to the terrace in front of the house, the carefully wrought stonework, the excellence of the mouldings, and the now neglected pleasaunce to the north, all bespeak a former splendour and elegance. It seems strange to find this curious bit of eighteenth- century finery hidden away in a fold of the hills
SECTION
PLAN
SCALE OF FEET
232
libber ston Lodge , Y or ks hire.
SOUTH ELEVATION.
and neighbour to the scenery of the moors ; almost as strange as it would be to find the Petit Trianon built in a Highland glen instead of in the gardens of Versailles.
Ebberston Lodge is very small, consisting only of a raised ground floor and a basement storey. This latter runs also under the broad terrace on the southern front, and the approaching flight of steps is flanked at either side with stone obelisk lamp standards, and there are iron railings of simple design. The present front door is obviously a later insertion, but the whole of the stonework of the front is beautifully wrought of the local limestone of the dale ; it is grey in colour, with golden patches where the lichen has grown upon it. The half-columns of the doorway are boldly rusticated and finished with a stalactite pattern. The heavy keystones above the windows are finely carved, and the cornice and balustrade with their crowns of urns are well proportioned. Within there is a room on either side of the hall; the
parlour on the west side is panelled to the ceiling- in pine painted over. The panels are wide with bolection moulds and Corinthian pilasters between them, and above is a carved frieze and cornice, and a simple plaster cove, dying pleasantly into the ceiling. For so small a room — it is only 19 ft. by 14 ft. — a wonderfully dignified effect has been secured by fine design and proportion. The room on the east side was probably the principal bed¬ room, and is panelled in a simpler manner. In the centre of the north front is a stone-lined loggia,, originally open to the air, and overlooking the series of formal ponds and cascades which descend from the dale. The spaces between the columns have been closed in with windows, probably shortly after the house was built, for this loggia with its north aspect must have been bitterly cold. On either side are small bedrooms, and below are the offices and servants’ bedrooms. The house was evidently designed for only occasional habita¬ tion as a summer-house or hunting lodge, and it:
Ebberston Lodge , Yorkshire
233
THE SOUTH FRONT.
234
Rbberston Lodge , Yorkshire.
THE NORTH ELEVATION.
forms a relic of the elaborate manner in which “the quality” of the eighteenth century led the simple life.
In the third volume of “ Vitruvius Britannicus” Colin Campbell illustrates the design for Ebberston Lodge. The plate contains an elevation of the south front, and a statement that he is the author of the design. The engraving does not do justice to the house, for the terrace is not shown, nor are the wings. Campbell’s description is worth quot¬ ing at length : “ This small rustick edifice stands in a fine park, well planted, with a river which forms a cascade and canal 1,200 ft. long, and runs under the loggio in the back front.”
Further evidence of the original appearance of the “rustick edifice” has been preserved in the shape of four old oil-paintings, which are in the possession of Lord Hotham at Dalton Hall in the East Riding of Yorkshire. They are very faded and wrinkled with age, and the trees stand out from the canvas with a tint of ghostly blue. The
costumes of the figures are those of the early part of the eighteenth century, so that the pictures show us the place as it was soon after com¬ pletion.
The first painting represents the south front : the water from “the long canal ’ is shown bubbling up in the foreground in a most curious manner. The fronts of the two wings are shown facing the south, parallel with the front of the house ; in Campbell’s plan these wings are at right angles to the house, whereas in reality the remain¬ ing block is at an angle of 135 degrees with the main front. It is impossible to believe that this substantial building was bodily removed and differently orientated at a later date, so that we are forced to conclude that the painter either shirked the difficulty of perspective, or thought his arrangement to be an improvement. And in another view taken from the east side, the west wing, which would really appear from this point, is omitted altogether.
Ebberston Lodge , Yorkshire
235
VIEW FROM THE NORTH.
236
Ebberston Lodge , Yorkshire
SPRINGS
CANAL
CANAL
HOUSE
f ectic o ii, 40 40 so >oc iso wk. i»c >60 .oortc-?
SCALE OF FEET
GENERAL BLOCK PLAN.
Rbberston Lodge , Yorkshire.
237
THE SOUTH AND EAST ELEVATIONS. FROM OLD PAINTINGS.
VIEW FROM THE LOGGIA, LOOKING NORTH. VIEW FROM THE NORTH.
Rbberston Lodge , Yorkshire.
239
240
Ebberston Lodge , Yorkshire
DETAIL
IN THE PARLOUR.
Ebb erst on Lodge , Yorkshire. 24 1
VOL. XXVI. — P
DETAIL OF PAMLLLiriG TO PARLOUR
242
Rbberston Lodge , Yorkshire ,
SCALE OF FEET &— £ - £ - * - * - f - l - i - l - £ - £ - X - " - 1 ¥ . f - £ - 5 - £ - i- - . - £ SCALE FOR DETAILS
Rbberston Lodge , Yorkshire ,
24 3
p 2
VIEW UP THE DALE,
Ebb erst on Lodge , Yorkshire.
244
The second picture is very interesting as ex¬ plaining Campbell’s description of the canal “ running under the loggio in the back front.” There remain the rusticated voussoirs of an arch, now built up, in the centre of the north front. The arch was puzzling, as it is too low for a doorway ; but here we can see how the waters of the canal above disappeared under the base¬ ment through this archway. The effect must have been delightful, and the resulting dampness in the cellars inconvenient beyond belief. And the great mass of water in the canal at a higher level than the basement floor cannot have enhanced the dryness of the house. People in the eighteenth century appear to have tolerated any amount of inconvenience and discomfort to obtain a stately and elegant environment, whereas nowadays any amount of ugliness is condoned so long as comfort and convenience are consulted.
The third picture is taken from “ the loggio in the back front ” ; the cast-iron finials of the railings appear in the foreground, and the loggia columns frame the view at the sides. We look up the dale over the long perspective of the canal, which ter¬ minates in front in a cascade ; while the banks are buttressed with steps descending to the fore¬ court. In the middle distance the canal widens out with a circular sweep, and there is a round islet, from which rises a pyramid, surmounted by
the Flying Mercury of Giovanni da Bologna. Stone urns flank the lower cascade, and lead statues of children the middle one. The canal is fed from springs which rise out of the limestone about 500 yards from the house.
Ebberston in its small way is reminiscent of two other places in Yorkshire which came into being a few years earlier. The water gardens of Bram- ham Park, though planned on an altogether different scale, have much in common with the canal at Ebberston, for there also the water falls from level to level over stone steps into ponds and canals, and the effect obtained is very similar. Then, again, in the details of the house, in the stonework and the heavy keystones, we are reminded of Castle Howard, which in 1718 would have been almost completed. Castle Howard is not more than fifteen miles away from Ebberston as the crow flies, and it is probable that the same masons were employed upon both buildings.
This little Yorkshire hunting lodge forms an interesting example of the excellent workmanship and refined detail which characterise English architecture in the early part of the eighteenth century. It is also an instance of the influence of fashion upon planning, for the detached side wings which were employed in all the great houses of the time are reproduced here in miniature.
Sydney D. Kitson.
Some Account of the Life of Giorgio Vasari.
W artists have done more for art than did Giorgio Vasari of Arezzo ; yet few artists of the high Renais¬ sance painted worse pictures. In that one sentence might be epito¬ mised the whole story of the man who, while he hoped to strike all Rome dumb with the wonder of his paintings, secured for himself a niche in the temple of Immortality by what is little better than an accident.
That accident, the “ Vite de’ piii eccellenti Pittori, Scul- tori ed Architetti,” fills so large a space that his pictures and buildings, even his very personality, have almost been lost to sight through the greater fame of his book. Could he revisit the earth it is not to be doubted that little Giorgio would be somewhat crestfallen to learn what is thought of his art, and astonished beyond measure to find that as an author he stands among the immortals.
It was his misfortune to be born just when the Renaissance had passed its meridian, and that his studies were disturbed by the vicissitudes through which his patrons, the Medici, passed between 1527 and 1537. Fortune declared against him from the outset, for at the age of sixteen Giorgio was left fatherless, with a widowed mother to provide for, as well as three young sisters and two little brothers.
His artistic training previous to his first visit to Rome was
of the slightest. As a boy he profited by watching Guglielmo da Marsiglia at work upon the stained-glass windows for the Duorno at Arezzo ; then, when Cardinal Silvio Passerini passed by on his way to Florence in the spring of 1524 he took the lad with him, and for a space Vasari was allowed to share in the studies of the Cardinal’s young proteges, Ippolito and Alessandro de’ Medici. This state of well-being came suddenly to an end, for after passing all too rapidly from the fatherly care of Michelangelo to Andrea del Sarto, and thence into the workshop of the turbulent, arrogant Baccio Bandi- nelli, Giorgio was again obliged to shift for himself when the Medici were expelled from Florence in 1527. But the Medici came back, besieging the city in 1529-30, and Giorgio, who liked not the sights and sounds of war, prudently fled before the storm and wandered about the country until, probably at the end of 1531, Ippolito de’ Medici offered him a place in his suite in Rome. We catch a glimpse of these years from a letter to Niccolo Vespucci, in whose house he resided while in Florence, and who had been the means of his going to Rome. “You already know,” he says, “how in August 1527 the cruelty of the plague snatched my father from us, and how I, not being able to remain in the city, wandered through the country districts painting saints for the village churches.” He draws a vivid comparison between the ease he enjoyed during his father’s life and the discomforts he had to bear after his death ; “ until at length here in Rome I came once more into the service of the great Ippolito c!e’ Medici, as once before I
245
Some A ccount of the Life of Giorgio V asari.
had served him and his brother (sic) the Duke Alessandro.1 2 I find his lordship more inclined than ever to help and en¬ courage not only my own insignificant self (che sotio un ombra), but all who show any inclination to study. How much ought I, after thanking God, to thank you, Signor mio onorato ! For in gaining me the favour of one so highly placed as the Cardinal I believe you will be the instrument by which my family, now on the verge of extinction, will be enabled to make a fresh beginning and may even become rich.” He tells his benefactor that he is being well treated, and shows that even at the age of nineteen his mind is already set upon winning honours and distinctions. “ Perhaps they [the Medici] realise how much I desire to be among the number of those who earn pensions (piombi)‘i and the splendid rewards of our art, if by any means I can compass it. Of a truth my mind is firmly set upon winning these prizes, for the time passes quickly and there is no one now to provide dowries for my sisters, unless by my efforts I can win an honourable position.” With this laudable object in view Giorgio studied so assidu¬ ously in Rome that he subsequently became ill and had to be transported to Arezzo in a litter. This illness, however, was also in part caused by his disappointment when Ippolito was called away on an expedition against the Turks in Hungary.
Vasari was left in Rome ; and he would fain have us be¬ lieve that the Cardinal placed him under the august care of Pope Clement VII.3 himself. But while his Autobiography states that the Pope transferred him to the keeping of his maestro di camera , Geronimo Montaguto, we learn from one of Vasari’s letters that the Cardinal had instructed his own majordomo, Domenico Canigiani, to look after the young painter. The letter adds that “his most reverent lordship has left a letter for me addressed to the lord duke Alessandro, asking him to take me into his service, as he wishes me to go to Florence for the summer, both to escape the air of Rome and to continue my studies until he returns victorious from Hungary.” Towards the end of October he presented his credentials to Alessandro and was taken into his service, remaining there in peace and security until the dagger of Lorenzino left him once more without a patron. During these years Giorgio made rapid progress both in knowledge and reputation. His chief work lay in completing the decoration of the great hall Giovanni da Udine had begun, and for this the Duke promised to give him the dowry of one of his sisters, a promise which does not seem to have been fulfilled. About the same time his second sister became a nun, and by wav of donation Vasari agreed to paint a picture for the convent. Of this event we have an account in a letter to Pietro Turini, an old friend of the family, written in 1535 : “ Since my second sister desires to give herself to God I am quite willing that she should enter the convent of the Murate, and I am obliged to you for having persuaded the nuns to accept my offer of a picture in lieu of a donation in money. What other friend would have exerted himself to ease the burden of another as you have done for me when, weighed down by so many adversities, I was well-nigh worried into the grave ! ” With the impetuosity that was one of his characteristics Giorgio set to work, enclosing a sketch of the proposed picture in his letter. It is to be an “Annunciation,” and “if the nuns, being women, think our Lady appears too much frightened at the angelic salutation, please remind them that Gabriel especially told her not to be a/raid.,'‘ At this
period h's salary was six crowns a month with board and lodgings for himself and a servant.4 The favour with which Alessandro regarded him helped to develop the belief in his own powers which, scarcely concealed in the Autobiography, is abundantly manifest in his correspondence. “ If heaven grant me the strength, as you see it has given me the oppor¬ tunity,” he says in one letter, “ doubt not that Arezzo, which so far as I have been able to ascertain has never produced an artist above the level of mediocrity, shall, if it be in my power, break the ice (rompere il ghiaccio ) with me.”
It is needless to discuss his immature efforts while working in Florence for Duke Alessandro, but it should be noted that it was owing to his patron’s consuming interest in building and fortifications that Vasari was led to the study of architecture. He tells us that Alessandro’s wedding afforded him an oppor¬ tunity for distinguishing himself, and he tells us also that he seized the opportunity, finishing his allotted portion, in spite of extraordinary obstacles placed in his path by his fellow crafts¬ men, in time for the ceremony. For this he received the personal thanks of the Duke — who went so far as to kiss- him — and his stipulated payment was augmented by the addition of the fines which all the other painters whose work was not finished to time were obliged to pay. This sum enabled him to supply the marriage portion of another sister, thus leaving only the third to be provided for.
In the midst of this prosperity Alessandro de’ Medici was assassinated, on January 5, 1537, and Vasari was rudely awakened from dreams of advancement. Some sorrow he seems to have felt at the untimely death of a patron whom he describes, without a shadow of justification, as “ truly worthy to be the Prince not only of this city, which is the greatest in all Tuscany, but of the whole of this unfortunate) miserable, weak, and troubled Italy ” ; but his real grief lay in the misfortune which had overtaken himself. His view of the situation is summed up in a letter to his uncle, written a few days after the tragedy. “ Here am I, most respected uncle, with all my hopes in this world, all the favours of fortune, the enthusiasm engendered by the confidence of a prince and the rewards of my labours — all, all extinguished with a single breath. Duke Alessandro my patron lies dead, stretched upon the ground with his throat slit as though he were one of the beasts that perish .... My mortification is the greater because Cardinal Ippoljto de’ Medici and his uncle Clemente, whose favour first set my ambition soaring high, have both of them been ruthlessly snatched away by death.” So long as Alessandro remained Giorgio did not feel their loss very keenly ; but when, following the death of Pope Clement VII. in 1534 and of Cardinal Ippolito, poisoned by order of Alessandro in 1535, came the murder of the Duke, he deter¬ mined to forsake all courts, “ whether of ecclesiastics or of princes,” and to wander at large, making a sort of bargain with the Almighty by assuming that if he kept himself in a condition of intensely obvious submission to the Divine will his mouth would be filled with good things, especially as, in his own words, he “ might have obtained the same position and salary as before under the new Duke, Cosimo de’ Medici.”
There is some uncertainty as to Vasari’s movements during the next four years. He returned to Arezzo at first, and gave way to a fit of melancholy which only left him after he had spent the summer, either of 1537 or 1538, at Camaldoli. To this retreat he returned for the two succeeding summers, and
1 They were cousins, though both were illegitimate.
2 Sebastiano Viniziano, better known as Sebastiano del Piombo, had recently been appointed Frate del Piombo, and the possibility of succeeding him may have been in Vasari’s mind.
3 Giulio de’ Medici, kinsman of Ippolito.
4 " At this time, although I was little more than eighteen, the
Duke gave me six crowns a month, board for myself and a ser¬ vant, with lodging and other conveniences.” Throughout his whole account Vasari seems to be groping in a mist with regard to his age. He was born on July 30, 1511, so that at the period to which he refers he had attained the not altogether immature age of twenty-four.
246 Some Account of the Life of Giorgio Vasari.
executed several frescoes in the monastery. One of the winters was spent in Rome, where we find him “resolved to forget the years that are past ” and “ determined to remain among the stones which have become living things in the hands of craftsmen long since dead.” He passed the time in Rome in assiduous study, for we learn from his autobiography that he made more than three hundred drawings during his stay. The eight months spent in Bologna account for another of these winters, and as one of the three large panels painted by him for San Michele in Bosco near the city bears the date 1540, 5 the exact date of his visit to Bologna is established. Previous to this, and, to judge from the autobiography, im¬ mediately after the winter in Rome, he was called to Monte San Savino, where he painted an “ Assumption of the Virgin,” a picture which undoubtedly shows the beneficial effects of his recent studies.
Throughout these years we see him keeping resolutely to his determination not to seek the patronage of “those whom poison or the dagger are likely to remove when one has most need of them.” While he ceases to regard the hard names which Ottaviano de’ Medici hurls at him for his obstinacy as so many “ crowns, not of laurel or myrtle, but of pure gold,” he still avoids the Tuscan Court, and only when he finds the opposition of the Bolognese painters threatening his safety does he return to Florence, in the autumn of 1 540, having so far prospered as to be able to find a dowry — and a husband — for his third sister and to purchase a house in Arezzo.
Still preferring to remain his own master, his unsettled spirit led him to visit Giulio Romano at Mantua towards the end of 1541, and travelling thence to Venice he picked up incidentally much of the information which formed the basis of the “ Vite.” He seems to have contemplated a prolonged stay in Venice, but after painting several pictures for Giorgio Cornaro he suddenly became disgusted with a city “ where good drawing was neglected for the sake of brilliant colour¬ ing,” and went back to Arezzo to decorate his own house.
His numerous friends in Rome [meanwhile continued to hold out alluring promises of lucrative employment, and at the end of 1542 or beginning of 1543 he turned his steps southwards. This visit to Rome is of the greatest import¬ ance, leading as it did to tremendous results. A “ Deposition from the Cross” which he painted for Altoviti attracted the notice of Cardinal Farnese, who forthwith gave him employ¬ ment ; and it was at the table of that prelate that, two years later, the historic discussion arose regarding the collection of portraits made by Paolo Giovio, Bishop of Nocera, which led to the writing of the “Vite.” In Rome, too, Michelangelo urged him to continue the study of architecture, “which,” says the autobiography, “I might not have done if that excellent man had not said what he did to me, which for modesty I will not repeat.” This modesty seldom stands between Giorgio and his true opinion of himself, however, for we read else¬ where that he considered himself to be already one of the best architects in Rome.6
Finding that the climate made it impossible for him to remain in Rome during the summer, he went back to Florence early in 1544, and from thence to Pisa, where a picture for the church of San Pier Cigoli and two others for the Duomo kept him fully occupied until the hottest months were over and it was safe for him to return to Rome. Before he had time to set to work he was summoned to Naples, to work for the monks of Monte Oliveto. “ It is a remarkable fact,” he
writes, “ that from Giotto’s time down to our own this great and noble city has not produced one artist whose works are of importance, although some pictures by Perugino and Raffaello have found their way there. On that account I endeavoured, so far as lay in my power, to awaken the intellect of the inhabitants.” Instead of exciting the admiration of the Neapolitans, Vasari found himself in the midst of a squabble between the monks and the viceregal soldiery ; and as his fifteen (!) assistants took the part of the monks in resisting an attack on their convent, they were obliged to fly for their lives as soon as the doors were battered down, leaving Giorgio to face the storm alone. Disconsolate at the turn events had taken, he retraced his steps to Rome, taking with him twenty- four pictures which had still to be completed.
He then began the decoration of the Sala della Cancelleria in the Palazzo San Giorgio, and completed it so rapidly that he was able to boast of having finished it in a hundred days. Michelangelo, on seeing the inscription to that effect which had been placed over the work, is said to have summed up the whole in three words, E ’ si conosce — “ It looks like it.” 7 Giorgio discovered his error in time to apologise for it in the autobiography, but ungenerously lays the blame on his assis¬ tants. “ I resolved that in future I would execute no more works unless they were carried out entirely by myself, my assistants being only permitted to draw the rough outlines from my designs.” It would have been better “to have taken a hundred months and to have done it all myself.”
Yet, while Vasari was thus engaged in a work which even he admitted to be far from satisfactory, he was unconsciously standing upon the threshold of immortality. It is needless to do more than refer to that evening when the Cardinal Farnese sat at supper and listened to the learned discussion which arose from the casual mention of Giovio’s collection. The story is one that has been told often enough, and nothing material can be added to the account which the writer of the “Vite” himself has given us. It is enough that Vasari was asked to collect such information concerning the lives of the artists as he could, and that when he carried his notes to Giovio that dignitary was so pleased with their rough form that he refused to rob him of the honour of completing the work.
The production of the “ Vite” occupied the greater portion of the next four years. Before the end of 1547 a section of the book was submitted to Annibale Caro, and he, writing on December 11, tells Giorgio that he considers it “ written in a pure style and with great care.” “ I like to see a book of this sort,” he adds, giving the budding author a little profes¬ sional advice, “ written exactly as one speaks : it should be natural rather than stuffed with metaphor and hyperbole, and chatty rather than stilted. Your book is just what it ought to be except for a few little things here and there which you will readily discover and correct as you read it through. I rejoice to think that you have done so great and useful a work, and I am confident that it will live for ever.” The spirit of prophecy was heavy on Caro when he wrote those words. Vasari does not seem to have had sufficient confidence in himself on this occasion, for having met a certain Don Gian Matteo Faetani, abbot of the monastery of Sta. Maria di Scolca, he agreed to go to Rimini and paint an “ Adoration ” over the high altar while the abbot in return undertook to revise the book and give it to one of his monks to copy out in a clerkly hand. Then after painting a “ Stigmata” in the church of San Fran-
5 This is the “ St. Gregory at supper with Twelve Poor Men," now in the Pinacoteca at Bologna.
6 See his life of Antonio da San Gallo, where he speaks of
the competition for the cornice of the Palazzo Farnese. He says that the Pope voleva un cornicione il piii hello che mai fusse stata a qualsivoglia altro palazzo ; voile, oltre quelli \_disegtii~\ che aveva fatto
Antonio, che tutti i migliori avchitetti di Roma facessino ciascuno il suo. He informs us casually that he was himself one of them, and that by order of the Pope and the Cardinal he made two separate designs.
7 The same story, however, is told by Vasari with reference to Michelangelo's criticism of another artist’s work.
247
Some Account of the Life of Giorgio Vasari.
cesco in the same city, and a “ Deposition from the Cross ” in Sant’ Apoliinare in Classe at Ravenna, Giorgio returned to Arezzo and settled down with the intention of devoting the summer of 1548 to the decoration of his own house. Here he set to work busily, and in the ceiling of the chief room executed frescoes of allegorical subjects : also “ as a sort of joke ( quasi burlandd) a picture of a bride carrying in one hand a rake — • to show that she has collected and carried off everything that she could lay her hands on before leaving her father’s house — and in the other a lighted torch— to show that as soon as she enters the home of her husband she becomes a veritable fire¬ brand.”
While thus engaged with his own affairs he was commis¬ sioned to paint a “Feast of Ahasuerus ” for the church of Santa Fiore e Lucilla in Arezzo, a work which is universally considered his masterpiece. It won from his critics a greater meed of praise than generally fell to his lot, and Vasari does not fail to notice this in the autobiography. “ If I were to believe all that I heard said about it at the time I might persuade myself that I had accomplished something : I know full well how it ought to be done, and how it would have been done if my hand had been capable of carrying out the con¬ ception of my brain. In very truth — -this at least I can say with all frankness — I put the utmost diligence and care into it.” This was followed by several unimportant pictures, and a design for the vast garden which the Cardinal del Monte wished to lay out at the foot of Monte San Savino.
Shortly afterwards Vasari repaired to Florence and began a picture for Annibale Caro, the same who had criticised the advance pages of the “ Vite.” The picture had been “ in the air ” for more than a year, and there is a letter from Caro to Giorgio concerning it in which we find much enlightenment as to the views of his contemporaries concerning his art. “ I should like,” writes Caro, “ to possess an important picture painted by you, partly for my own satisfaction, and partly for your benefit, so that I can show it to those who say you are a rapid rather than a good painter. I spoke to Botto about it, but I do not want to trouble you until you are free. Now that you offer to do it at once you can guess how delighted I am ; but whether it be done speedily or at your leisure I shall leave to you, for I fully believe that it is possible to work both quickly and well when the spirit moves. In this respect painting resembles poetry. I admit that people say you would paint better if you painted more slowly ; but, though in this case they are probably right, it does not follow as a necessary conclusion. It is also true that a laboured work, one that lacks conviction and is not finished with the same enthusiasm that marked its commencement, is equally bad.” This picture, apparently a “ Venus,” was sent to France together with a “ Psyche and Cupid ” which was painted about the same time.
Vasari had now attained the age of thirty-eight, and had steadfastly remained a bachelor. When he did marry, in 1 549? we are t0 suppose that it was not to please himself that he introduced the “ fire-brand ” into his home, but solely in order to satisfy the wishes of the Cardinal del Monte, then Papal Legate at Bologna. Here Giorgio visited him and was persuaded into taking a wife. “ As the result of his solicita¬ tions I decided to do what I had hitherto carefully avoided, that is, to get married. So, in accordance with his wishes, I took to wife a daughter of Francesco Bacci, one of the Aretine nobility.” Few people will deny after this that Vasari was prepared to go to considerable lengths to please his friends. This Niccolosa Bacci — '“la Cosina,” as he came to call her when they wei e better acquainted — seems to have been related to Pietro Aretino, the poet.
Leaving his bride in Arezzo with the rest of his worldly acquisitions, Vasari went to Florence, executing numerous commissions, and bringing his works to completion with such unusual rapidity as to justify the remark of Benvenuto Cellini,
that, “if he lived long enough he would cover the whole world with his paint.” Meanwhile the “ Vite ” were nearly finished, and by order of Duke Cosimo the business of printing them was put into the hands of Lorenzo Torrentino, the Court printer. In the midst of revising the sheets Paul III. died, and Cardinal del Monte, the same who was responsible for his recent marriage, passing through Florence on his way to attend the conclave, instructed Vasari to hold himself in readi¬ ness to follow him to Rome should he be raised to the vacant see. The Cardinal was elected Pope on February 8, 1550, under the title of Julius III., and shortly afterwards Vasati presented himself at the Vatican full of hopes for the future which were destined not to be realised. Julius III., he found, was a man who changed his mind upon the smallest provo¬ cation, and whatever decision was arrived at was, upon some pretext or other, reversed with bewildering rapidity. It is not surprising to learn that Giorgio, “ having to be perpetually at the beck and call of the Pope, was always on the move.” His chief occupation lay in designing the tomb for the first Cardinal del Monte, and in this Vasari had the benefit of the advice of Michelangelo, with whom he spent a portion of each day. Apart from this he tells us very little of the events of these years, and there are few of his letters still in existence which were written at this time. We know that he went to Carrara to select marbles for the tomb of the Cardinal, and that he paid two flying visits to Florence. We catch glimpses of him in his letters, disconsolate and lonely amid all the splendours of the papal court. “As soon as I have satisfied all the whims of his Holiness I shall return to Tuscany with the utmost pleasure. I am more tired than rich, far from my wife, my household possessions, and all my friends.” “Instead of the distinctions of Court" service, I could do very well with a house with a little garden, where I could be lazy when I wanted to, if It were coupled with employment that would occupy several years, something that I could finish or that would end in finishing me (che o finisse me, 0 io finis si lei)-, with food enough for my old mother, my wife, myself, one servant, and the boy who looks after a worn-out nag unable to draw its own water and curry itself.” Above all, he is desirous of leaving Rome, and his unwavering faith in his own powers leads him to believe that, were he in Florence, he would do something extraordinary. He implores the Bishop of Cortona, in the letter just quoted, to secure his return. “ If you who have already earned the name of benefactor should enable me to come home, and if I were to accomplish something remark¬ able, what would the world in general, and artists in particular, say of you then ? I do not want to press you, nor do I ask more than your affection for the prince demands.” The problematic gratitude of posterity does not seem to have been sufficient inducement ; for, either through the Bishop's negli¬ gence or some other cause, Vasari remained in Rome, yearning to be employed by the same duke whose service he had spumed but a short while before. As time wears on we see him growing angry with Rome, expressing his opinion of her ecclesiastics in unmeasured terms. He refers to them as “ asses dressed out in silk ” — an unusual outburst of naughty temper — and says that he is obliged to fetch and carry for people who are incapable of appreciating either merit or faith¬ ful service. Yet it must be confessed that the delay appears to have been his own fault, at least in part ; for, when he was on the very point of setting out, he was offered a fresh com¬ mission, and accepted it. “ I should already be several days on my journey,” he says, “if Messer Bindo Altoviti, whom I have promised to serve to the utmost of my limited capa¬ bilities, had not detained me with the erection of a loggia, which is to be built on to his house beside the Tiber. I have been obliged to superintend the execution of the stucco work, and to paint the whole of it with my own hands, within the space of three weeks. ... I am absolutely determined
248 Some Account of the Life of Giorgio Vasari.
(risolutissimo) to get away from here. Four loads of my personal belongings are already on the road, and 1 have bidden farewell to all the Signori.
In the following year Giorgio returned safely to Arezzo, and, after a short but well-earned rest, betook himself to Florence to kiss the hand of Cosimo, by whom he was received with “marked cordiality and affability,” being imme liately taken into the service of the Court as painter in ordinary, a position he continued to hold for the remainder of his life. Giovanni Batista Tasso, a carpenter whom Cosimo had raised to the position of architect to the Palazzo Vecchio, was then engaged in planning the S /arise Nuove, and Vasari was retained to decorate them as soon as the walls were ready. The period of waiting was spent at Arezzo, but it would seem that the war then raging in the Val di Chiana not only caused him to hurry back to the safe walls of Florence, but brought in its train the destruction of his little patrimony. Writing to Michelangelo in August, he says that the French have burnt his “ houses, cottages, and granaries,” and have carried off all the livestock, a disaster he bore with remarkable fortitude, and attributed to divine retribution for the sins of the Tuscans. If we are to believe his autobiography, he was sufficiently well off to support these losses, as he was “splendidly and generously rewarded by the magnanimous liberality of this great duke, not only with a salary and presents of money, with houses in the country and in Florence where he might work with greater comfort, but also with the supreme magis¬ tracy of the gonfaloniere of Arezzo,” a position he might dele¬ gate to a substitute. Unfortunately for his veracity, there are several letters which directly controvert a part of this declara¬ tion, and it is evident that at times he became seriously involved in debt through the non-payment of moneys due
The death of Tasso, in May 1555, led to the appointment of Vasari as architect in his place, and the internal alterations which had been projected in the Palazzo Vecchio were carried out by him. “ To this work, although it seemed to be an undertaking beyond my abilities, I set hand, and made, as best I might, a very large model, which is now in the posses¬ sion of his Excellency.” Five years later, 1 560, he was still deep in the designs for this work, the steady progress of which
was broken by a visit to Rome in the suite of Giovanni de’ Medici, son of the duke, who, having recently been elected to the cardinalate, set out, in March 1560, to receive the red hat from the hands of the Pope. Vasari describes the triumphal progress of his young patron in a series of letters to his friend Vincenzo Borghini, Prior of the Ospedale degli Innocenti ; and in the “Life of Francesco Salviati ” we learn something of how he occupied himself in Rome. The Pope had in con¬ templation the decoration of the Sala Regia, but could not make up his mind whether to employ Salviati or Daniello da Volterra. When Vasari arrived, Salviati hastened to pour out all his troubles into the sympathetic ear of his friend, “who, greatly appreciating the abilities of the man, told him that he had managed his affairs very badly indeed, and that for the future he had better leave everything for Giorgio to arrange.” According to a marginal note, which Milanesi says is to be seen in a copy of the “ Vite ” preserved in the Corsini library, this remark gave rise to a saying in Rome — Lascia fare a Giorgio , “You leave Giorgio to manage it.”
Vasari’s good opinion of himself had led him into arro¬ gance. If further proof were needed we have only to follow up the story of the Sala Regia. Being asked by the Pope to decorate a portion of it, he replied that “ he had one to do for Duke Cosimo which was three times as large, and that he had been treated so badly by the late Pope, Julius III., for whom he had done much work at the Vigna, Monte San Savino, and elsewhere” — and the fact that Julius had been the cause of his saddling himself with a wife may have had something to do with it — “ that he no longer knew what to expect from certain people.” Michelangelo, who did not know of his arrival in Rome, received an early visit from Vasari, and, says Giorgio, “ fell upon my neck and kissed me a thousand times, weeping for happiness like an old man over a long-lost son.” Michelangelo, though very infirm, was able to ride with him to St. Peter’s to show him the model for the dome, “ il quale e una cosa bizarissima e straordinaria ” — a most remark¬ able and extraordinary piece of work. For the rest, Vasari found Rome during his brief stay less pleasant than ever, and says that this Rornaccia “ is a living lie, and a scandal in the eyes of all who seek the paths of virtue.”
Current Architecture.
THE CANADIAN BANK OF COMMERCE, MONTREAL.
Frank Darling (Darling and Pearson) Architect.
HE Canadian Bank of Com¬ merce has celebrated the forty-second year of its life by moving its Montreal branch into one of the most modern and substantial bank buildings in North America. The construction of this building was one of the largest building con¬ tracts yet performed in Montreal. On May 5, 1907, wrecking was commenced on the old Temple building, which was for many years situated on this site. The wrecking was completed in two months, so that work on the excavation for the new building was begun about July 5, 1907.
The actual time of construction has been about twenty-two months.
The building follows the Corinthian style of architecture. Granite was used in the stonework. The result is that a most imposing structure has been erected. The six granite columns sixty feet in height and eight feet in diameter stand well in front of the entrance. The granite facade behind extends across the entire width of the site one hundred and eighteen feet. Flights of stairs ascend from the street between the columns, which stand on granite plinths, the largest weighing twenty-six tons. In fact, the blocks forming this colonnade average twenty-six tons in weight, and the work of placing them in position was no mean engineering feat. The colonnade forms a loggia to the main wall, setting back fifteen feet from the street line. The blocks on the screen wall vary in thickness from two feet to two feet and three- quarters. To support this massive pile of stone, excavations were made to a depth of thirty-one feet below the level of the sidewalk on St. James Street. These excavations were far below any
C u rren i A rch i ted lire .
249
THE CANADIAN BANK OF COMMERCE, MONTREAL. GENERAL VIEW OF THE EXTERIOR.
FRANK DARLING, ARCHITECT.
250
C urren t A rch iiecture
THE CANADIAN BANK OF COMMERCE, MONTREAL. INTERIOR OF THE BANKING HALL.
FRANK DARLING, ARCHITECT.
Ctirrent Architecture.
251
previous cuttings on this site, and near the bottom the cuttings ran into the bed of an old stream that passed through this spot ages ago. It was also shown in digging that a burying-ground had formerly been on this site. The walls of the building are entirely of solid masonry. The furring is of tile and terra-cotta, the plastering of cement, the only wood in use being that which was necessary to fasten some of the wood flooring.
The main doors of the building are of plain beaten bronze. On entering the main building the banking hall is directly in front. This rises to the full height of the building, the only break being the windows on the sides. Corinthian pilasters reach to the top of the walls, relieving the plainness of the walls. At either side of the western end of the counting room are heroic-sized figures, standing boldly out in relief. The flooring of the public space of the banking hall is of marble squares. Within the staff enclosure, the flooring is covered with cork blocks, three-quarters of an inch in thickness, making a noiseless and restful footing.
The grillwork dividing the counting room is of
beaten bronze. The desks are of teak wood, with trimmings of ormolu bronze.
There are five vaults in the building. The safety deposit vault is seventeen feet wide by forty-eight feet in depth. This is the largest of the vaults.
The total weight of the strong-room doors is ten and a half tons. The weight of the doors and their lining is thirty tons. The day gate is of burnished bronze, the frames and hinges being also brought to a bright finish, which contrasts well with the entire vault surroundings.
Six trusses span the banking room to support the roof and ceiling, the skylight situated directly over this room being go ft. long by 47 ft. in width. There is a second skylight situated 15 ft. above the one seen from the banking room. On the north side of the counting room five windows are placed. In these windows the glass has been treated to present a cloudy effect. The edges of the windows are of stained glass, a shield over each window. On the opposite side of the wall there are no windows, but glass doors lead to the board room and directors’ room.
The lighting in the building is by electricity.
THE CANADIAN BANK OF COMMERCE, MONTREAL. INTERIOR OF BANKING HAT.L.
FRANK DARLING, ARCHITECT.
252
Current Architecture
Photos : A rch. Review Photo. Bureau.
THE PUMP HOUSE, SEDDLESCOMBE, SUSSEX. MERVYN F. MACARTNEY, ARCHITECT.
Current Architecture .
253
MERVYN E. MACARTNEY, ARCHITECT.
254
Curren t A rch itecture.
THE LEAD PUMP, SEDDLESCOMBE, SUSSEX. MERVVN E. MACARTNEY, ARCHITECT.
THE PUMP HOUSE, SEDDLESCOMBE, SUSSEX.
Mervyn E. Macartney, Architect.
HIS little building stands on the village green and is con¬ structed with pillars of local stone and roofed with local stone slates. The floor is paved with pebbles in a border of stone. The seats and wood¬ work are of oak. The pump in the centre is of cast lead, embellished with a decor¬ ation of cherubs’ heads and delicate mouldings.
THE CREMATORIUM, BRADFORD.
F. E. P. Edwards, Architect.
chamber is of concrete on steel joists, covered with asphalt. A columbarium for the reception of cinerary urns has been constructed in the side walls of the chapel below the windows, with Carrara marble fronts in bronze frames. The walls above are plastered, and the chapel has an open timber roof, treated with “ solignum ” ; the remainder of the joiners’ work being in Baltic oak. The walls of the furnace chamber are lined with buff-pressed bricks, and the ceiling is panelled in plaster. The floors are tiled with red and black quarries. The furnace, which is heated by means of lighting gas through atmospheric burners, has been constructed by Messrs. Toisoul, Fradet & Co., of Paris, and is the second installation of this type in use in this country. The main upcast shaft of brick is enclosed in the masonry tower, which is 80 ft. in height above the ground. The cost of the building and complete equipment has been £5,097, and it has been carried out from the designs of the former City Architect, now City Architect of Sheffield.
HIS building stands on the hill¬ side overlooking the Thorn¬ ton Valley. The walls are of local stone ; the pitched roofs are covered with green Westmorland slates, and the flat roof over the furnace
BRADFORD CREMATORIUM. PLAN. F. F. P. EDWARDS, ARCHITECT.
Current A rchitecture ,
255
THE BRADFORD CREMATORIUM, F. E. P. EDWARDS, ARCHITECT,
VIEW FROM THE NORTH-EAST
The Committee for the Survey of the Memorials of Greater London.
E efforts of our Committee, already recorded in these notes, to commence simul¬ taneous survey work in various local centres throughout Lon¬ don, are now beginning to bear fruit. This part of our enterprise, which is scarcely second in importance to the central organisation, has been placed on a secure footing by the appoint¬ ment of our local secretaries, who are now, to¬ gether, responsible for an area of more than half the County of London (within the county boundary) and for a very considerable district beyond. The register of ancient buildings and monuments should thus be rapidly completed, and will form the basis of the further volumes of the survey, which will be issued as quickly as our future public support will warrant.
Meanwhile it will be to the interest of our own survey and the occasion of a great service to London topography if our local secretaries will
make it their business to seek out all kindred work (whether of survey or research) which has been done by other societies or which is still in progress in their districts. It would be un¬ necessary to point out that we are not the first in the field, but our aim is to record accurately whatever remains unrecorded, and to systematise and check the records that have already been made. An illustration of the unobtrusive but excellent work which is being done by local effort is to be found in the achievements of the North Middlesex Photographic Society, which formed as far back as 1893 a Records Committee at the instance of Mr. }. C. S. Mummery. One of our own active members, Mr. H. W. Fincham, the Presi¬ dent of the Society, is also the Chairman of the Records Committee. Systematic work has been carried on through the whole of North Middle¬ sex, and, under the title of the North Middlesex Photographic Survey, the collection has been housed in the Hornsey Public Library. This excellent precedent has been followed else¬ where, and is worthy of many more imitators. The photographs have been well mounted on cards of uni¬ form size, information regarding the subjects has been written on the back of the mounts, and the whole collec¬ tion has been carefully indexed.
This furnishes a good example of the way in which much pioneer work has been done. It will be the duty of the local secretary to seek out such work, to make complete lists for re¬ ference, to obtain copies of the records if possible, and to follow up all the clues which these may afford. He may also be able to press the local society into more direct service in our cause. The ideal for a Photographic Society is not quite the same as that of a Survey Committee. The former is too much concerned with pictorial effect, and is a little too fond of throw¬ ing the subject out of focus to soften the hardness of the outline. To us, however, the value of a record is en¬ hanced by its clearness and sharp¬ ness, and large-scale views of details are essential to our work.
By the kindness of Mr. Fincham we are allowed to reproduce one of the records of the North Middlesex Photographic Survey.
Walter H. Godfrey.
Photo: H. W. Fincham.
CEILING : CANONBURY HOUSE, ISLINGTON.
Books.
OLD MIDDLESEX.
Memorials of Old Middlesex. 'Memorials of the Counties of England Series.) Edited by J. Tavenor-Perry , author of A Chronology of Mediaeval and Renaissance Architecture , The Mediaeval Antiquities of the County of Durham , The Priory of St. Martin , Dover, etc. With many Illustrations. Price 15-r. nett. London : Bemrose Sons , Ltd., 4, Snow Hill ,
E.C., and Derby. 1909.
HE Rev. j. Charles Cox writes briefly on “ The An¬ cient Churches of Middlesex,” “ The Monastery and House of Syon,” and “ The Parks and Historic Houses,” with learning and discrimination- We could wish him, however, a little more catholic in his tastes, for his refer¬ ences to Renaissance work are usually of the slightest. The prejudice against the “ foul torrent of the Renaissance,” as a great writer called it, dies hard, and it is no new thing to hear plainness characterised as painful. We are used to that, but not to hear it uttered with authority, and we read with regret, “ Isleworth Church (All Saints) is a painfully plain building of red brick,” &c. If we leave out the italicised word the description applies to much work of this despised period. We should have thought that only a crooked eye would be painfully impressed by plainness in itself. We shall look with interest to see how many visitors are writhing about in front of Kensington Palace and other painfully plain buildings the next time we pass. This taste usually dislikes many other pleasant things — for example, the clipping of yews, and plain old formal gardens. A “ range of plant glasshouses, 400 ft. in length, with a dome 65 ft. high in the centre. The kitchen gardens, which cover four acres, also contain much glass. On the whole, the gardens of Syon House may be safely pronounced to be among the best in the kingdom.” With this statement we entirely dis¬ agree. For ourselves, we have always thought that gardens were for flowers and fruit and gra- s, and not for glass.
Fine monographs are contributed by the Earl of Ilchester (Holland House) and Mr. R. Phene Spiers (Chiswick House). They are both succinct accounts of two most interesting Lon¬ don houses of widely different types. Both accounts are beautifully illustrated. The plan of Holland House from the Soane Museum is published as well as a modern one, and Chiswick House has several plans, and the fine section in the library of the Royal Institute is also reproduced. Further contributors are Mr. Aymer Vallance (Roods, Screens, and Lofts
in Middlesex), Mr. J. Charles Wall (The Battle¬ fields of Middlesex), Mr. S. W. Kershaw (Fulham Palace and the Bishops of London), The Rev. W. Done Bushel! (Hirrow-on-the- Hill), and Mr. Warwick Draper (Riverside Haunts of Poets and Painters), and the editor has written “ The County of Middlesex,” “The Story of Chelsea,” and “ The Pilgrimage of the Brent.”
Copious and fine illustrations help to make the book attractive. If the editor’s drawings are a trifle, he ivy, they are fairly good as records. We should like to see future volumes give more atten¬ tion to Queen Anne and Georgian work. At present it is extremely difficult to get information about these periods from county books.
But on the whole the volume is attractive not only to architects but to everybody, and we recommend it, as our old copy of Ovid’s “ Meta¬ morphoses ” has it, “ to the use of gentlemen and students.”
A PRINCE OF SURVEYORS.
A Survey of London. By John Stow. Reprinted from the text of 1603, with introduction and notes by Charles Lethbridge Kingsford, M.A. In two volumes. 8% in. by %iin. I.,pp. xciv, 352, with portrait and facsimile. II., pp. 476, illustration 1, and large ?nap. 30 s. nett. Oxford : at the Clarendon Press.
ET us now praise famous men and our fathers that begat us.” It is in this spirit of reverence that we should approach the work of Stow, for he may be regarded as the Father of British Archae¬ ology. We do not often accord to an antiquarian book the space of a review in large type, but Stow fills a place of his own, and we desire to do honour to a model work of editing. Mr. Kingsford’s attainments need no praise from us, but we have rarely met an edition which was at once so truly needed and so entirely meets all the requirements. Mr. Emery Walker deserves his share of praise for the admirable map which accompanies the volumes. The late Pro¬ fessor Henry Morley’s edition has been most generally used during the last twenty years, but it threw no new light and copied the mistakes of Thoms.
The Survey fascinates like a good novel, and as we follow Stow in his observant travels through the City wards, old familiar street names take on a new and living significance.
Of Stow’s life Mr. Kingsford writes with charm and quiet humour. We are diverted by Stow’s quarrels with his brother Thomas, of which
b 2
Books.
25S
pungent records remain. The latter’s wife was a sad trial to the Stow family ; a pot of straw¬ berries and cream as a peace offering did not efface the bitterness which followed the bandying of such pleasant names as “ harlot ” and “ prick- louse knave.”
The lover of London may do worse than make a pilgrimage to the monument of Stow in St. An¬ drew’s Undershaft, but not the least of his memorials will always be this definitive edition by Mr. Kings ford.
POET. MYSTIC. AND DRAUGHTSMAN.
William Blake. By Basil de Selincourt. 7j in. by 5J in. pp. xi, 298. Illustrations 40. 7s. 6 d. nett. London :
Duckworth &* Co ., 3, Henrietta Street , Covent Garden , W.C.
“The great and golden rule of art, as well as of life, is this: That the more distinct, sharp, and wiry the bounding line, the more perfect the work of art.” Thus William Blake on the supreme merit of vigorous draughtsmanship, and it serves us with a phrase to describe Mr. Basil de Selincourt’s biographical and critical method. He has drawn a “ sharp and wiry ” line round the character and ait of Blake, and if he seems some¬ times too unsympathetic to the mystical side of Blake’s charac¬ ter, he at least escapes the charge of exaggerating his subject’s praises. Blake stands alone amongst British artists in the high claims he made to special revelation, in his attempt to state mysticism in terms of art, and in his passionate attach¬ ment to Nature at a time when Sir Joshua Reynolds was arbiter artium. We forget his extravagances in the recogni¬ tion of his peculiar achievement in the mastery of light and d irkness, in the power to ] resent high and moving things, and in a large and powerful draughtsmanship. Mr. de Selin¬ court has done more than give his view of Blake : he has scattered up and down the book pronouncements on the rela¬ tionship between art and other great realities, which make his pages very stimulating. He writes so well that we regret his failure occasionally to resist the desire for phrases which run smartly from his pen, for their own sake, rather than for any light they throw. But it is a good book and worthy of Messrs. Duckworth’s Red Series. Need a book-lover say more ?
LIGHT ON GREEK VASES.
Douris and the Painters of Greek Vases. By Edmond Pot tier. Translated by Bettina Kalinweiler. Pre¬ face by Jane Ellen Harrison. 8% in. by 5J in. pf. xv, 91. Illustrations 25. 7s. 6 d. nett. London : John
Murray , 50A, Albemarle Street, IV.
Here is a monograph of extraordinary interest. M. Pottier has not only identified Douris with twenty-eight examples of the characteristic industrial art of Athens, but re-creates for us the work-benches of the Kerameikos so vividly that we see Douris working. We are accustomed to learned pronounce rnents on the art of Pheidias and Praxiteles, but this frank examination of the commercial and advertising aspects of Greek art side by side with its more heroic services to beauty is of a sanity quite alluring. We are directed to the Greek vessels to see the reflection of a lost art, to regard the red and black line of the vase as the equivalent of our black and white reproductions of coloured pictures. We see the solidarity of art in all ages proved by a comparison which leaps to the eye. Eos carrying Memnon on a kylix in the Louvre is the direct ancestor of a hundred Italian Pietas. The industrial art of Greece was as frank in its adaptation of its subjects and as devoted <o genre as English art of to-day. From the spirit
of the Mater Dolorosa we are swung round to the indecent pranks of the Sileni. There are in these vases most of the defects that are inherent in uneducated workmen, yet running through them the devotion to pure draughtsmanship and the mastery of simple line touched in with infinite judgment and pains. Above all, these vases were not bric-h-brac to the Greeks, but household needs, the ordinary things of life. But space fails. We must, however, add praise to Miss Kahnweiler for an admirable translation.
MORE ABOUT SPAIN.
Royal Palaces of Spain. By Albert F. Calvert {in the Spanish Series ). 7\ in. by 5 in. pp. xiv, 164.
Illustrations 164. 3.5-. 6 d. nett. London: John
Lane , the Bodley Head, logo Street , W.
Mr. Calvert’s industry is unceasing and his camera tire¬ less. This volume is smaller than some of its predecessors, and the text and illustrations are in better proportion. The seven palaces dealt with are the Escorial, San lldefonso at La Granja, El Pardo, Aranjuez, Miramar, Seville, and the Royal Palace at Madrid. San lldefonso and Aranjuez are, perhaps, the most interesting by mason of their wonderful gardens and fountains. The extravagance of the formal gardens at La Granja, with their sumptuous flowers and elaborate fountains, suggests a Versailles run mad. The pictures of the Escorial well suggest its gloomy coldness. The account of the splendours of the Palace at Madrid is im¬ pressive, and its great size makes one the more glad that Buckingham Palace is no larger than it is, and adds a pang to the remembrance of what Whitehall might have been if the Banqueting Hall had been a part of a magnificent whole.
ALTARS. PASTE. AND SCISSORS.
Some Notable Altars. By Rev. John Wright, D.D., LL.D. i oj in. by 7% in. pp. x, 383. Full-page plates 114 25J'. nett. London: Macmillan Sr* Co., Ltd.
An interest in the altar and the reredos does not of itself constitute a qualification, even in an American clergyman, for the compiling of a bulky book. Cuttings from the Globe, local newspapers, parish magazines, &c., do not make up adequate letterpress to accompany ill-chosen photographs many of which are extremely indistinct. We imagine Dr. Wright made a few holiday visits to England, consorted with some marble masons, made a circular tour or two (we can trace the American round trip through Bristol and up the Severn and Avon valleys to Stratford-on-Avon by the illustra¬ tions), plied his scissors not too cleverly, and lo ! this book.
G. F. Bodley is sometimes Mr. Bodley, but more often Sir G. F. Bodley. The London Common Council destroyed St. Mary’s, Soho, in 1898. In the church of St. Mary’s, Redcliffe, Bristol, “ The Reredos is modern, having been erected in 1866-7. If was designed by Mr. Godwin, the architect oj the church." Shades of Canynge and Chatterton !
Rather more than a third of the examples are American. Had the English altars illustrated been chosen with any reasonable care we should think badly of American work but we prefer to blame Dr. Wright. Some are extravagantly ugly. We hope American architecture is not always as this extract indicates : — “ The statues were carved at Munich in Bavaria. The architects were Brielmaier & Sons, Milwaukee. They were also the builders.”
To one grievous thing we draw attention, with the more regret seeing that Dr. Wright is apparently not entirely lesponsible. The photograph ot the altar of St. Mary the Virgin, Primrose Hill, has beneath it : “ By permission of the Vicar,” and shows the celebrant standing in eucharistic vest¬ ments and with open missal, while the server kneels beside.
The taste of publishing such a photograph we leave out- readers free to qualify.
Books.
259
THE POVERELLO.
Assisi of S aint Francis. By Mrs. Robert Goff j illustrated by Colonel R. Goff. Together with The Influence of the Franciscan Legend on Italian Art , by J. Kerr- Lawson. gj in. by 6 in. pp. xvi, 290. Plates in colour , 40 g in sepia , 12. 20J. nett. London : Chatto F Windus, in, St. Martin's Lane, W.C.
As this review is written there lie on the table some faded carnations from the garden of Saint Clara. As the pages of this enchanting book are turned, they seem to exhale some of the exquisite fragrance that belongs to her memory and to the story of the Little Poor One. Mrs. Goff tells of Saint Francis with reverence, and if we prefer the wider view of the supreme saint of the Middle Ages that M. Paul Sabatier has given us, we respect Mrs. Goff’s presentment of him. Ruskin ■once apologised for being “morbidly Franciscan,” but if we may smile at the extravagances of Brother Giles as the joyous unrestraint of God’s Jongleur, we may hope that modern Christendom is Franciscan at the heart. Colonel Goff’s drawings are a rich paraphrase of the beauties of Assisi, and he is happy with the buildings he depicts. We could, how¬ ever, wish for a view of the church and monastery of S. F ran- cesco which would show the noble range of arches which rises stark from the hillside. His colour has that tender quality that fits so well the subjects of his brush. Mr. Kerr- Lawson’s contribution to the influence of the legend on Italian art is serious and useful, and it is difficult to praise too highly the reproductions of historic pictures which illustrate it.
We feel sure that Mrs. Goff will feel justified in her labours if their result is to send more people to the original legends, to read the “ Fioretti,” the “Mirror of Perfection,” and “The Three Companions.”
Altogether it is a book to be possessed and cherished.
ENGLISH HERALDRY.
English Heraldry. By Charles Boutell, M.A., with addi¬ tional matter by A. C. Fox-Davies. yf in. by 5 in. pp. xxiii, 343, with nearly 500 Illustrations, ys. 6d. Lotidon : Reeves F Turner.
Mr. Fox-Davies has not edited Boutell in the sense that he has altered him where he disagrees with him, but has simply added particulars of such novelties as the Royal Vic¬ torian Order. There is therefore nothing to say except that the book is a plain and not too attractive statement of the facts of Heraldry from which the friends of those who use heraldic stationery may learn what it is all about. The pub¬ lisher sends it out with the pages cut at the top very roughly-- we imagine by a hasty office boy — -a device we do not under¬ stand, unless it be to hearten the reviewer in his task.
THE BURIED PAST.
Herculaneum : Past , Present , and Future. By Charles IValdstein, Litt.D., Ph.D., L.H.D. , and Leonard Shoobridge , M.A. 11 in. by y\ in. pp. xxii, 324. Heliogravures and Colour Prints , 11 ; Half-tone Plates , 48. Price 2 1 s. nett. London: Macmillan IF Co ., Ltd., St. Martin’s Street.
This spirited work is more than a resume of the long, •difficult, and finally unsuccessful negotiations for international •excavation at Herculaneum on the grand scale. It is a Tract. Professor \V aldstein writes with a fine enthusiasm in defence of his scheme for the revelation of the innumerable treasures which lie fathoms deep beneath lava and ashes. While we ■deplore the decision of the Italian Government to attempt the work without European or American aid, we cannot help the
feeling that the Waldstein scheme, in its entirety might easily have broken down by its own weight and complexity, and still more from the need of ,£40,000 a year to keep it going.
Meanwhile, Professor Waldstein and his co-worker, Mr. Shoobridge, have given us a valuable record of the finds to date, with sumptuous illustrations. It can only be hoped that Commendatore Boni and his Italian colleagues will be strenuous in proving that the international scheme was not needed. But we think that Time will be on the side of some wider effort such as Professor Waldstein fought so ably to achieve ; in any case, his exhortations to a more scientific spirit in excavation are full of sound sense, and deserve to win the respectful heed of archaeologists everywhere.
AMERICAN PAINTING.
The Story of American Painting. By Charles H. Caffin.
8 \in. by 6 in. pp. xiii. Plates 14 7. io.r. 6d. nett.
London: Hodder F Stoughton, Warwick Square,
E.C.
Mr. Caffin is well known in the States as a lecturer on matters artistic, and in this very liberally illustrated volume he traces the development of the art of his country. One may doubt, however, whether there can be fairly said to exist a national American art. The “ Hudson River School ” got a certain spaciousness into their landscapes, and the largeness of their subjects gave some individuality to their work. Later years have shown American painters the followers of those schools which suited their fancy, and the cosmopolitan feel¬ ing is intensified in the remembrance that Whistler, Abbey, and Sargent are claimed by both countries. Mr. Caffin. attaches great importance to the work of John La Farge, and particularly to his stained glass. We are inclined to think the latter more theatrical than beautiful. The over¬ whelming power of eclecticism was surely never more largely exhibited than by Mr. Sargent’s almost Byzantine decoration in the Boston Library. It is almost unthinkable that it is from the hand that gave us the Wertheimer portraits. The present hindrance to American art seems to be the craze for prettiness ; but we can tell Mr. Caffin of another country where the public feeds either on indifferent reproductions of the old masters, or on the beauties that eye us from the covers of magazines.
CHEOPS.
The Great Pyramid of Gizeh : Its Riddle Read, its Secret Metrology fully revealed as the Origin of British Measures. By M. W. H. Lombe Brooke, gin. by 5 i in. pp. vii, 218. Illustrations 4. ys. 6d. London: R. Banks F Son, Racquet Court, Fleet Street, E.C.
Mr. Lombe Brooke has spent thirty years in comparing the published measurements of the various parts of the Great Pyramid, and this book is to show that the purpose of its building was to enshrine in a permanent form a divinely- appointed system of weights and measures. The Pyramid inch is within one-thousandth of the British inch, and other comparisons produce curious correspondences. All this is very interesting to folk who like their mathematics flavoured with mysticism ; but when Mr. Brooke urges us to put our metrological house in order, and “ replace by this grand revelation our hereditary measures in their ancient purity,” we do not find the suggestion very useful. “ The doctrinaire, the merchant, and the man of science” are joined in a vigorous condemnation because they desire the decimal system. They may not get their wish, but they have more chance than Mr. Lombe Brooke.
26o
Books.
ALCUIN CLUB COLLECTIONS.
Alenin Club Collections : XII. Pontifical Services. Vol. IV. With Notes by A thelstan Riley , AI.A. i oh in. by 6h in. pp. viii, 149. 21 s. London : Longmans , Green IXs
Co., 39, Paternoster Row.
This volume continues the series of illustrations of rites m which a bishop takes the chief part, and woodcuts are reproduced from pontificals of 1520 and 1572, both printed at Venice.
Though the Alcuin Club exists to encourage the study of the liturgiology of the Church of England, the editor very reasonably points out “that it is impossible to study the English use to proper advantage historically without an examination of foreign uses.” Mr. Athelstan Riley's notes descriptive of the woodcuts are brief and clear. There is a considerable series of pictures dealing with the building and consecration of a church, and in two the architect is depicted in quite spirited fashion.
We wish the Alcuin Club a long life and the continued eal which goes to the production of such interesting volumes as this.
THE DECORATION OF GLASS.
Decorative Glass Processes. By Arthur Louis Duthie. 8ij in. by pj in. pp. xii, 267. Illustrations 38. Price 6s. nett. London: Archibald Constable Sr* Co., Ltd., 10, Orange Street, Leicester Square, W.C.
This new volume in the “Westminster” series of books on practical subjects for the non-technical render is a com¬ plete guide to the decoration of glass. It deals with the mysteries of embossing, brilliant cutting, and what are gene¬ rally regarded as the less artistic treatments of glass. The technique of stained glass is fully described, with lists of the glasses available. We are glad to note that Mr. Duthie says of Rolled Cathedral glass that a large proportion of the colours in which it is made cannot be commended. It is an evil material responsible for the befouling of much day¬ light.
INSCRIPTIONS.
House Mottoes and Inscriptions : Old and New. By S. F. A. Caulfeild. 7 in. by 5 in. pp. vi, 150. New and Revised Edition. Illustrated. 5 s. London : Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, E.C.
If this be a revised edition, the original edition must have been a wonderful production. An accurate and full book on this subject would be useful and attractive. This seems hardly to meet the case. The splendid epitaph by Simonides is represented on page 6 by the following grossly inaccurate translation : —
“ Stranger of Sparta, say her faithful band Here lie in death, remembering her command.”
The whole point of the epitaph was an exhortation to the passing stranger to take the news to the Spartans. It crops up again on page 146 in a correct translation. We should suppose that Sir William “ Site ” as the architect of the Royal Exchange was a humorous quip, were it not the only amusing thing in the book.
Over the cellar at Loseley House is siti non ebrietati, which the authoress quaintly translates “ Sufficient, not drunkenness.” It is generally held that satis and sills are different words.
It is carefully explained to us that glis — a dormouse — “ is not classical Latin.” We seem to remember from our school¬
days a jingle about the genders of nouns in is that did not reject glis.
Long Wittenham and Bramhall masquerade as “ Long Whittenham” and “ Bramall.” “ H ” is a troublesome letter. The gem of the book is on page 116. “A few curious dials are still extant in London, and amongst them that in the garden of Clement’s Inn, Strand, may be worth a visit. It represents a Moor. ... It is supposed to have been brought from Italy and placed there by John Holies, 2nd Earl of Clare. . . . The statue is believed to be of bronze, though disfigured with paint.”
It is perhaps not impertinent to point out to the authoress that the garden has disappeared these many years ; that the blackamoor lives now in the gardens of the Temple ; that he was never brought from Italy by Lord Clare or anybody else ; that he is not only not of bronze but is the best-known of all lead garden-figures.
The authoress, who signs herself at large a member of the Incorporated Society of Authors, should follow two of the late Lord Salisbury’s warnings, “ Verify your references,” and, “Use a large-scale map.”
We fear no map has a scale big enough to show us the "ay to the garden of Clement’s Inn, or to lead Miss Caulfeild to Lord Clare’s bronze Moor from Italy.
A GREAT COUNTY.
Memorials of Old Lancashire. Edited by Lt.-Col. Fishwick, F.S.A., and the Rev. P. II. Ditchfield, AI.A., F.S.A. In two volumes. 25^. nett. 8% in. by 5 1 in. Vol. /., pp. viii, 28oy illustrations 30. Vol. II, pp. viii, 314/ illustrations 55. London: Bemrose <2 r-8 Son, Ltd., 4, Snow Hill, E.C.
That Lancashire should share with London the honour of having a pair of volumes in this series is fair evidence of the wealth of its archaeological remains and of its great place in English history. There are thirty-one monographs in all. One by Mr. W. F. Price on the Homes of the Yeomen and Peasantry is a pleasant revelation of the simple solidity of the vernacular building of the county. The profusion of initials and dates on porches, &c., is explained by the need of record¬ ing “ three-life leases.” It was not a sign of personal satis¬ faction merely. Mr. Aymer Vallance writes with his usual learning of Roods, Screens, and Lofts. It seems incredible that he should have to say that the Dean and Chapter of Manchester Cathedra] refused him permission to photograph or measure the screenwork. This seems a case of clerical obscurantism with a vengeance. Mr. Ellis deals with Fonts and Mr. Ditchfield with Crosses, while Witches, a Poaching Parson, Hoghton Tower, Old Local Authors, and many other interesting by-ways are pleasantly recorded.
Books such as these serve to increase our knowledge of and pride in the local aspects of our national growth, and bid us remember that the seed of imperial development was sown in the parochial life of by-gone days.
DEVOTED TO THE PAST.
The Antiquary. Vol. XL1V. January to December 1908. 9! in. by 7! in. pp. 480. Fully illustrated. Bound half-rox. 7s. 6 d. London : Elliot Stock, 62, Pater¬ noster Row.
OUR contemporary’s yearly volume keeps up its reputation. The news of archaeological doings is full and useful ; the articles are from capable pens ; a feature is made of book reviews. There are interesting papers on the Comacines, an obscure subject, and on Forged Antiquities, which should save some collectors and their money from being too easily parted, while architectural subjects are adequately represented.
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FROM THE DRAWING BY LESLIE WILKINSON (ARTHUR CATES PRIZE).
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture.
XL.
VOL. XXVI.— Q 2
264 Ike Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XL.
HE small stone building in the Close, Salisbury, known as “The Judges’ House,” is of extraordinary interest. It was built for Charles Mom- pesson in 1701, “ and is there¬ fore contemporaneous with some of Wren’s finest work, and may itself be the work of one of his pupils.” Instead of the usual construction in wood, the cornice is stone of fine dimensions and enriched with console blocks, each decorated with a leaf. The cornice is given a slight break round the central feature, adding to its importance. This feature, consisting of a doorway with a window
OUTLINE, JUDGES’ HOUSE, SALISBURY.
carefully adjusted over it, enriched with fine heraldic carving, given a delicate upward move¬ ment by the scrolls at the sides of the windows, is the subject of our chief illustration. It will be noticed that the lintel of the central window is lower than the others. This variation is neces¬ sitated by the introduction of the architrave, and this in its turn allows of the breaks in the main cornice. The wave-moulding forming the door architrave is of splendid dimensions and in keeping with the vigorous detail employed throughout. A curious feature is the flatness of the sides of the brackets, the scrolls of which are sunk instead of protruding in the usual way. The door and frame
are of oak, beautifully enriched. The key eleva¬ tion shows the disposition of the windows, which are not all the same width, narrow ones being required at the side of the door by the exigen¬ cies of the plan and the simple roof. There is a plain bead finish to the reveals instead of the orthodox architrave. The lead heads and down- pipes are contemporaneous with the building, the monogram of the original owner being displayed on the former. A small forecourt is enclosed by a railing standing on a stone plinth terminating in stone piers. The railing is composed of bars placed angle-wise, and enriched with a few panels of more elaborate design, and the gate is com¬ paratively simple. A large overthrow contains an oval shape with the monogram C. M. within it. The monogram is repeated twice in the gate itself. It appears to us, however, that the ironwork lacks the suavity which is so marked a characteristic of work done after the advent of Tijou, and it is evident that his influence had not then reached Salisbury.
Not the least charming example of eighteenth- century work is the porch from Wimborne, Dorset. It is boldly projected from the house, and gives considerable dignity to the entrance. A sight extra projection of the centre pillars allows the entabla¬ ture to be returned, and gives the pediment more importance than it would otherwise have. It has been objected to this example — the flatness of the pediment ; but we like it, and feel that it agrees well with the flanks. Unfortunately the pediment has been badly repaired and looks clumsy in the view. It has been restored in the drawing. The soffit of the porch is panelled in simple squares. Curious details mark the execution of its various parts and remind one of a doorway in Salisbury (seethe Practical Exemplar of Architecture XXXI).
The lead fanlight is another typical and charm¬ ing feature.
The ironwork is quite unlike the usual work of the period, the scrolls turned on their sides giving it a pleasant distinction. An interesting cresting worked out with some ingenuity makes a suitable finish to it, to which varied iron finials give point.
The Practical Exemplar of A rckitecture. — XL. 265
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266 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XL.
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XL. 267
JUDGES’ HOUSE, SALISBURY.
MEASURED AND DRAWN BY J. M. W. HALLEY AND H. A. MCQUEEN.
268 The Practical Rxemptar of Architecture. — XL.
I he Practical Kxemplar of Architecture. — XL. 269
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S'mONl P 31V3S
MEASURED AND DRAWN BY J. M. W. HALLEY AND H. A. MCQUEEN.
2/0 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XL.
PORCH AND IRONWORK AX WIMBORNE, DORSET.
Note. — The pediment has been badly repaired, but is shown in the measured drawings in its original state.
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XL.
27 1
272 The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XL.
IRONWORK AT WIMBORNE. DORSET
The Practical Exemplar of Architecture. — XL. 273
MEASURED AND DRAWN BY H. A. McQUEEN AND E. V. WEST.
VILLA PAPA GIULIO. THE LOGGIA,
V ignola.
HE work of the architects of the later Renaissance, if it lacks the force and power which distinguishes that of the early Renaissance, is marked none the less both by grace and charm ; and if it is open to the reproach of being artificial, it can yet boast the merit of good plans and careful detail. The work of Vignola has perhaps especial claims to distinction, because while the greatest of his contemporaries were painters before they were architects, and im¬ pressed on to the architecture of their age a painter’s spirit, which it has perhaps never completely lost since, Vignola was by nature far rather inclined to building than to painting ; and though he studied painting as a boy and learnt in the studio the importance of per¬ spective design and a sense of decorativeness which marked his work in common with that of his contemporaries, yet his style was consistently subdued to a proper moderation by his under¬ standing of the medium in which he worked. Hence his buildings, while they continue the tradition of Bramante and are not in essentials unlike those of Michelangelo, Raphael, and the other painters who turned direct from the palette to the compass, have yet elements of stability and
permanence which are somewhat wanting in some of the grander designs of his contemporaries. Moreover, his knowledge of ancient monuments was a practical builder’s knowledge, which im¬ posed on him a sense of the limits of his art; so that, while attempting no tricks, he came more nearly than any other artist of his day to express again in stone the lost art of Rome. Possibly he would have been a greater architect if his inspira¬ tion and ideal had not been so completely limited to the reproduction of antique art ; but certainly no other artist of his day came so near fulfilling the ideal of the age. Nor, though he formulated rigid rules, was he a pedant, because his enthusiasm for his art kept him as free from being lifeless as his good taste and sound knowledge preserved him from being grandiose. It was with a sure instinct that the French artists of the next generation made him their model ; because there was very little work of Renaissance origin quite so pure and so nearly approaching perfection within its limits as his. To a very large extent it is true to say that the more he is studied the more his ability as an architect is proved. Nor, as we shall see, was he merely an architect. In the study of detail work he was unequalled, and he was also almost the first to carry architecture into the garden and to design those falls of water, cascades, grottoes, terraces, and stone balustrades, in which land-
THE VILLA PAPA GIULIO, ROME.
THE WALL ARCADE.
Photo : Mrs.*E’ le Blond.
2
Vignola.
THE VILLA PAPA GIUL10, ROME. THE WALL ARCADE.
Photo : Mrs. E. le Blond.
scape gardeners and architects for the two cen¬ turies following the Renaissance so much de¬ lighted and indulged. In this work Bramante and Raphael to some extent perhaps preceded him, but it is accurate to say that the gardens of Caprarola, with their many stone fantasies and their little summer palace, were the first com¬ pleted ones of their kind, and not only preceded the gardens of the Lante, Aldobrandini, and d’Este villas, but inspired them ; and that through their influence on these palaces and the tradition thus set up they have influenced palace building and landscape gardening over all those parts of Europe where artists have studied and opulent patrons have attempted to imitate the art of Italy.
Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola was born in the year 1507 in the little town which gives him his name, in the territory of the Modenese; and was the son of a Milanese gentleman of birth and a German mother. His father was a refugee from Milan — which side he took in the civic distur¬ bances of the day history does not relate — and died when his son was still a child : his mother was the daughter of a German leader of condottieri. As a boy he was brought up at Bologna to study painting ; but he showed from the first a pre¬ ference for architecture. While still young he made his way to Rome and obtained an intimate knowledge of Roman art in the course of his employment — that of measuring the antiquities of Rome for a society of cultured Roman gentle¬
men who met to read Vitruvius. Palladio Serlio, and at a later date Inigo Jones, spent their appren¬ ticeship to architecture in the same practical manner. He was also engaged by Primaticcio the Bolognese architect and agent of Francis I to make casts of the principal statues of Rome, and when Primaticcio returned to France in 1537, Vignola, then about thirty years old, accompanied him, and was employed to set up the casts in bronze for the gardens of Fontainebleau, and was otherwise engaged with the band of Italian asso¬ ciates in the erection of that famous palace. Here he stayed two years, obtaining experience of build¬ ing on a big scale and imbibing by contact with a foreign people that freshness of ideas which distinguishes his later work. No trace of his handiwork is recognisable on the present fabric of Fontainebleau ; but his own palace of Caprarola would probably never have taken the shape it has now if it had not been for this journey to France.
On his return to Bologna in 1539 he was asked to design a front for the cathedral of San Petronio; but his design was not made use of, and he con¬ sumed some years, according to Vasari, in disputes with his competitors. He also constructed a canal which enabled vessels to reach the city from the sea; “no more useful or praiseworthy under¬ taking,” says Vasari, “was ever executed”; but for this, too, he was poorly remunerated.
The one important work now extant and dating from this period is the Farnese Palace at Placentia,
Vignola.
THE VILLA PAPA G1UL10, ROME.
DETAIL OF LOGGIA.
which he designed for one of the Farnese family, but left to his son to execute ; it resembles very closely the Farnese Palace at Rome, and is an obvious imitation without merit or originality of its own except a sense of proportion. It is clear that Bologna afforded him insufficient scope for his art, and about 1546 he again found his way to Rome.
Here he became associated with Vasari and Michelangelo, and soon became famous. Being appointed architect to Pope Julius III through Vasari’s good offices, he built for that Pontiff the villa known as the Papa Giulio in conjunction with other artists, and the little chapel of St. Andrew, both lying about a mile beyond the Porta di Popolo. The latter building was erected as a thank-offering to St. Andrew for the Pope’s escape on St. Andrew’s Day twenty years before from the soldiers of Charles V during the sack of Rome, and is a very characteristic example of Vignola’s work, being a neat and happy imitation of a Roman temple, and by no means devoid of originality of its own. While still engaged on the villa of Papa Giulio he was asked by the Cardinal Alessandro Farnese to build for him a palace at Caprarola, a small town lying amid the Umbrian hills, about thirty miles from Rome and ten from Viterbo, the plans for which had been begun by Antonio San Gallo
and left incomplete at his death. He accepted this commission, which proved a heavy one, and the result was the famous pentagonal palace of Caprarola, which is, in the words of Percier and Fontaine, one of the “ finest monuments of modern Italy.” The building of this palace established his reputation. On the death of Michelangelo he was set in charge both of the unfinished Farnese Palace at Rome and of St. Peter’s. The first he entrusted to his pupil Giacomo della Porta, who added, very much in Vignola’s manner, the open facade at the rear of the building, which, though delightful in itself, spoils the symmetry of the wall. At St. Peter’s he adhered strictly to Michel¬ angelo’s plans during the ten years that he was in charge of the building, and added the two small cupolas at the rear of the dome, both elegant pieces of work which would take a more important part in the general scheme of the building if his successors had adhered as scrupulously as he did himself to the original design. In 1568 he designed, for the newly-established order of the Jesuits, the body of the present church of the Gesu, but the fagade and dome were afterwards added by Giacomo della Porta. The interior is now so overlaid with trumpery decoration that it is difficult to obtain a true idea of its proportions, but it remains a well¬ spaced and handsome erection.
THE VILLA PAPA GIULIO, ROME. DETAIL.
VOI.. XXVI. — R
Vignola.
278
In addition to his larger works Vignola was also responsible for the Porta di Popolo, a gateway to the Cancellaria, and for the details which adorn a number of Roman palaces. His reputation for exact classical knowledge was so great, and his style so popular, that there can be no doubt that he either inspired or contributed to the decorating of many buildings the designs for which cannot be entirely ascribed to him. Moreover, he did not become famous until late in life, and he must have done much work for other architects before he was able to put his own name to it. Michelangelo certainly made use of his talents at the Farnese Palace, and probably at St. Peter's; and an inter¬ esting question has arisen in this connection whether he or Michelangelo was the true creator of the celebrated cornice to the Farnese Palace which so took Rome by storm, and which has been so often imitated and repeated. Michel¬ angelo we know to have been a careless architect, not very exact in his knowledge of classical detail, and not very successful in his treatment of classical style ; but tremendous in conception and design. The Farnese cornice, besides being magnificent in plan, is also conspicuously classical and uniform in
its detail, so much so indeed as to lead a celebrated French critic to argue that it could not have been the work of Michelangelo, but could only have come from the tasteful and fastidious Vignola. M. Charles Gamier, again, agrees that it is ex¬ tremely probable that while the idea was Michel¬ angelo’s the execution of the work was given to Vignola, who worked out the details in his own way. However that may be, Vignola did even a greater work in establishing the course of the classic revival through his little book on the “ Five Orders of Architecture.” This little book, though modest in itself and meagre in its letter- press, had, however, a most tremendous vogue throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth cen¬ turies, and became a kind of text-book to which subsequent authorities appended their commen¬ taries. The theory of the work is that antique art conformed to established canons in the measure¬ ment and construction of the orders; or in other words, that there was a standard for the size and measurement of each individual part of the classic orders from which the ancient builders only de¬ viated by error or exception. Vignola professed tentatively to have discovered this standard or
THE VILLA PAPA GIULIO, ROME.
Vignola.
279
THE VILLA PAPA GIULIO, ROME. THE FOUNTAIN COURT.
2(So
Vignola.
Vignola.
28 1
norm by observation and study of existing Roman art, and the illustrations to the book are designed to enable subsequent builders to erect pediments, pillars, architraves, and cornices of any of the Five Orders according to correct standards and models. The work thus begun by Vignola in regard to the orders was extended by his followers and successors, and became in the hands of Serlio and Palladio even more of a science than it had been in his own. The effect was ultimately, as it were, to standardise architecture, and to make the erection of a building in the classical style within the power of a builder of the very meanest under¬ standing.
Another work on perspective was found in manuscript, and published after his death by his son-in-law and biographer, Danti. He died in 1574, when he had attained a reputation which reached far beyond Rome ; and he was buried in the Pantheon with the same honours as had been accorded to Michelangelo.
The villa of Papa Giulio lies in a charming site about a mile beyond the Porta di Popolo, with a full view of Rome and the windings of the Tiber. It was erected by Julius III at great expense; and most of the talent of Rome was engaged in its erection. Vasari sketched the plans in outline as the Pope explained them, Vignola made the finished designs, and Michelangelo revised them; moreover, scarcely a day passed without the Pope changing his mind and sending new instructions through a chamberlain nicknamed by Michel¬ angelo the Busybody. All this must have greatly hampered the architects, and makes it difficult to decide where one man’s work began and another’s ended. The main fagade and the inner court are, however, almost certainly of Vignola’s design. The first is of a formal and
stately design, embodying in Fraser's words “those peculiarities of design which produced such an effect through Europe that every detail of this building may be found repeated over and over again on this side of the Alps.”
The interior court is of charming design ; it is semicircular, with an upper storey above a loggia composed of alternate pillars and piers, and en¬ closes a space for dancing, shows, or pleasure¬ taking. Below it stretch a rather elaborate array of stone-walls and fountains embodying many of the Pope’s own conceptions, and designed partly by Vasari and partly by Ammanato, who com¬ pleted the building. In this work, Vasari tells us, “ Barozzi underwent great fatigues, but was, as before, very poorly remunerated.” Better fortune, however, awaited him in the next undertaking, the building of the palace of Caprarola.
The building here erected is Vignola’s master¬ piece. It stands on a rock, dominating like a fortress the little town of Caprarola. The site, a most difficult one for the erection of a palace, has been treated in a masterly fashion, and though the building has by reason of this difficulty a most unusual form, being pentagonal, it is at once both imposing and palatial. The lower storey is fitted with bastions, and faces a moat spanned by a drawbridge. The upper storeys, facing five ways on the exterior, conceal within their five angles a lavishly decorated circular court, and themselves present the Ionic order rising above the Doric. The apartments within the house are commodious and lofty, and the upper storey was reached by a circular staircase of marble of extreme richness of design. The approach to the palace up the face of the rock distantly resembles the circular stair¬ way at Fontainebleau, although of larger and more complicated design. On the whole the palace
VIEW OF PETIT CASIN DS CAPRAROLA FROM THE GARDENS SIDE. (PERCIF.R AND FONTAINE.)
282
Vignola
GENERAL VIEW OF PETIT CASIN DE CAPRAROLA. (FROM PERCIER AND FONTAINE.)
Vignola.
o
28
0
appears to answer to the description of a feudal fortress in which the fortifications have been exchanged for the embellishments of stone decora¬ tions, and the castellated parts have been replaced by skilfully contrived palatial architecture in the classical style. In its day the palace must have been one of the grandest in Italy, because both in its exterior architecture and interior decoration it was completed in a most lavish and splendid manner. As has been said, the erection of this house established Vignola’s reputation and won for him his place as Michelangelo’s successor. Nor is it surpiising that it was long considered with the Farnese Palace at Rome one of the finest monuments in Italy.
The palace communicates at the rear with formal gardens, embellished in what was then considered the Roman style, with fountains, grottoes, steps, and a wealth of grotesque figures. These again extended into a park which rises behind the palace like an amphitheatre, and terminates on the sum¬ mit of the hill in one of the most charming little buildings ever erected, the little Palace of Caprarola. This little building, which is quite unlike anything built before, formed a kind of retreat, and com¬ manded a prospect over a wide stretch of moun¬ tainous scenery. Its architecture is so ornate and characteristic of Vignola’s most fanciful style that we venture to translate and reproduce the descrip¬ tion of the group of stonework of which it forms part given by Percier and f'ontaine in their book on Italian Mansions.
“ One cannot imagine anything more ingenious
and more agreeable than the ensemble of this com¬ position ; or anything more graceful and more elegant than the details with which it is orna¬ mented. Everything around it is, in fact, pic¬ turesque ; it is a charming retreat, built in a very fine position in the middle of woods. Two figures, representing Shame and Silence, serve as termi¬ nals to the first enclosing wall, and seem to indicate the use to which the place was destined ; the pedestals are ornamented with fountains, a circular basin fed by a jet of water spouted by a Triton vanquished by Love occupies the middle or the first space. At the foot of the grand staircase which leads to the Casino are two pavilions in the form of grottoes, decorated with rocks and foun¬ tains ; at the top of the stairway stand colossal statues representing two rivers resting on urns, whence escape torrents, which, emptying them¬ selves in the middle of the great stairway, form a rich and abundant cascade. A parterre orna¬ mented with fountains and planted with flowers lay at the top of the stairway ; it is surrounded by a balustrade decorated with figures holding vases ; two great staircases lead to the last terrace, whence is obtained a view of a vast stretch of land, and on which are some reservoirs whose waters fall and escape in cascades. The little Casino, whose ground floor is 011 a level with the last ter¬ race, is composed of two compartments which are joined by a loggia. There reigns in the whole of this charming building, and in all its details, a refinement and correctness of taste which one cannot praise too highly, and we think that of all
GENERAL VIEW OF THE PALAIS DE CAPRAROLA. (FROM PERCIER AND IONTAINE.)
284
Vigno/a.
the works of Vignola that which has most contri¬ buted to gain for him the great fame he enjoys is, perhaps, after the construction of the great palace, the Palazzuola of Caprarola.”
Vignola united in a high degree the capacity to draw original plans with good taste and style. He began life as a follower of Antonio San Gallo, as his work at Placentia shows, but he ended by entirely abandoning that architect’s heavy and massive style. The reason is not far to seek. San Gallo belonged, like all his early compeers, to the school of architects who were forced by the exi¬ gencies of the time to study defence as well as habitation. The Farnese Palace is, for instance, only the culmination of a type of building of which the Ricci and Rucellai are the originals, and the mediaeval castle the prototype. The square mas¬ sive form, the plain front, and the heavily embat- tlemented windows, were dictated not by choice, but necessity; and the architect, while he studied symmetry for the exterior, permitted luxury only in the protected inner court. Vignola was among the first to carry architecture in a securer and more luxurious age from the town to the country, and to build houses for habitation and show alone. Hence he had no hesitation in making free use of lighter material and exterior decoration ; and his buildings are frankly more artificial and tricked out by fancy. It was greatly to his merit that he had the boldness to adapt himself to changed con¬ ditions, and by making use of new and original designs to effect the transition from the old palace to the modern villa, and it is to be regretted that his followers did not while adopting his freedom preserve also his good taste. It was not, however, only in the house that Vignola was a pioneer ; he was almost the first of garden architects, and while the gardens of Caprarola are now ruined, their in¬ fluence is very perceptible in such famous gardens as the Aldobrandine and the d'Este. One finds there the same free use made of long rows of steps, fountains and jets of water, cascades, grottoes, and elaborately-arranged parterres. It was in this work particularly that Vignola and his followers gave freest and best range to the fancy which distinguishes them everywhere.
The predominant note of Vignola's work was his imitation of classical forms. In reality it was only skin-deep, and penetrated no further than the ex¬ terior of the building. This is, indeed, the great difference that divided him from Palladio. Palladio aimed at reproducing classical proportions in the building as well as the decorations; Vignola was satisfied in fixing the proportions for the pillars, architrave, frieze, or capitals, which he added in marble or stucco to ornament his building ; the interior structure and the plan belongs entirely to his own age. He himself compared architecture to music, and the orders to the notes; a compari¬ son only possible, it would seem, to those who regard external decoration as the most important function of an architect.
A word must be said as to Vignola’s influence, which was, after his death, very considerable. His immediate followers were Giacomo della Porta and Fontana, who imitated his designs and pre¬ served the restraint of his decorations ; and he was indeed the first and chief of the purely Roman school of architects. His details were very famous, and have been imitated all over Europe, and he undoubtedly had some influence on Palladio. Where he has, however, most affected subsequent generations was by means of his book on the “ Five Orders,” which was nearly as much studied in France as Palladio’s in England. The two, indeed, by establishing the rules of classical art, and popularising as it were the whole work of the Renaissance, made the way easy for builders in the classical style ; and they may be said to have advanced hand in hand through Europe, driving out wherever they went the last relics of Gothic style, and substituting in its place what they and their followers truly thought the most beautiful of all arts, the Roman art. Unfortunately, as we know now, the Roman style is in itself neither pure nor perfect, and Vignola’s and Palladio’s work is in that respect nothing more than very beautiful imitation. In our opinion, however, Vignola deserves far more credit as being the first of villa builders and of garden architects, and the emancipator of architecture from the style of the fortress than as the revivalist of classical forms.
ST. MARKS CHURCH, MILVERTON, LEAMINGTON.
Some Further Notes on the Old
War Office.
OME months ago a chapter of architectural and historical notes appeared in our pages on a row of houses in Pall Mall. They dealt chiefly with the exterior of what for nearly sixty years were used by vari¬ ous departments of the War Office. Certain of these buildings, as, for exam¬ ple, that known as Schomberg House, and half of the central building behind the place of the statue of Herbert, have been preserved ; but the larger portion of the site has been covered by the latest addition to the stately palaces of clubs, which stand w I ere two hundred and fifty years ago King Charles and his courtiers plajed at pall-mall. The War Office within the lading has ail but dis¬ appeared, and with it the houses immediately to the east as far as the Carlton Club.
The exteriors were described and photographed in our article. With regard to the interior a few further notes may not be amiss, although no description is needed of the sitting-rooms on the first floor of the former War Office. They were appropriated to the Financial Secretary, the Council Room, and the large room of the Secre¬ tary of State for War, which looked to the south with five windows, from which there was only a view of roofs and chimney-tops, but which formerly, as Woolfe and Gandon say, commanded an agreeable and pleasant pro¬ spect over the county of Surrey. At the death of the Duke of York the house was transferred to the king’s third brother, Henry Frederick, created Duke of Cumberland in 1766, when he seems to have occupied Schomberg House fur a time. As Cumberland House the former York House was chiefly known until the duke’s death in 1790. It was then for a short time occupied by a club, according to some accounts by the Carlton Club, while their own house was being built. Before 1849 it had been appropriated to the Ordnance Office, and became the War Office in 1850. The statue, by Foley, of Lord Herbert of Lea, Secretary for War from 1852 to i860, who died in 1861, was placed in front in 1867, and justly admired as most graceful, being an accurate likeness of a man of classical proportions, as well as one of the few single figures among our public statues which is in itself a work of the highest art. It has been removed to the courtyard of the new War Office in Whitehall.
Between Cumberland and Buckingham Houses there were three of smaller size — each, that is,
of three windows in the front. They have all their history, but it is not architectural, except perhaps that over the garden door of one the owner, an ancestor of the Wagner family well known at Brighton, in 1810 recorded in a Latin inscription that he restored it for himself, his children, and his successors. The stone tablet was broken, and though the door remained, the garden was gone. One of these houses used to be annexed to the office of Master General of the Ordnance. At the extremity of the wings which had been added to the original York House were, on the east wing a lion and on the west wing a unicorn “ seiant,” under which were covered passages to the entrance-hall of the central building.
We now arrive at Buckingham House, the last of the thirteen which constituted the War Office. In many of the books describing this part of London we are told “ it was built by Sir John Soane for George Grenville, Earl Temple and first Marquis of Buckingham, who let it in 1788 to Alexander, Duke of Gordon, the husband of Pitt’s celebrated Duchess.” This statement con¬ veys a wrong impression. There remained in the house a few features, chiefly in the basement, which seem to have been preserved from an older building ; and it must have been this older build¬ ing that was let to the Duke of Gordon in 1785. It may, to judge from a panelled chamber, have resembled Schomberg House, and have been of the same period, for apparently the first of the family to live in Pall Mall was Sir William Temple, who had a house probably on this site, or part of it, in 1681. In the old house, if not perhaps that of 1681, the Duchess of Gordon entertained Pitt and his Ministerial fiiends. The Duke, who was brother of the mad Lord George Gordon, and of Lord William, whose little daughter sat to Reynolds in 1786 for his “Angels’ Heads,” now in the National Gallery, relinquished Buckingham House in 1789. In 1790 Soane, who was not knighted for some forty years, commenced operations, which went on till 1794. Soane was at this time rising into fame, his extremely correct and strictly classical work at the Bank of England in 1788 having been universally admired. Unfortunately, he almost immediately commenced to try for originality, an ignis fatuus which leads astray greater genius than Swan, otherwise Soane, could boast. \ an- brugh occurs to the memory at once, and in our own day a still more popular architect, lately de¬ ceased, disfigured some of the most conspicuous
Some Further Notes on the Old War Office. 287
Phoio: Arch, heview.
ANTE-ROOM.
288
Some
Further Foies
on the Old War
THE COMMITTEE ROOM. PJioto : Arch. Rcvie;
™v~'
289
Some further Notes on the Old War Office.
290 Some Further Azotes on the 0/d War Office.
Phuto : Area. Ktview.
THE OVAL STAIRCASE HALL, FROM THE GROUND FLOOR. SIR JOHN SOANE, ARCHITECT.
Some further Notes on the Old War Office. 291
hksm 4xU
T< A ,
Photo : A rch. Review.
THE OVAL STAIRCASE HALL, FROM THE TOP LANDING.
SIR JOHN SOANE, ARCHITECT.
2 l) 2 Some Further Notes on the Old War Office.
THE FORMER ARMY COUNCIL ROOM
293
Some Further Notes on the Old War Office.
VOL. XXVI. — §
THE DOOR OF GAINSBOROUGH’S STUDIO.
294 Some Further ATotes on the Old War Office.
sites in London and Manchester, our two greatest cities, with “ original ” work. Here at Pall Mall the portico first catches the eye. It may prob¬ ably, from its situation, be accounted the last part of what Soane designed, while the staircase may be taken to be the earliest. In the stair¬ case accordingly we have a clear reminiscence of some good Vitruvian or Palladian building which Soane had seen and studied in Italy. There are faults in his interpretation of the Ionic order, and there are mistakes in the appli¬ cation of a design suited to the sunshine of a Southern climate to a dark London street ; but the whole effect, of which a considerable part is preserved in the photographs, difficult as it was to catch in sufficient light, was extremely pleasing, and had less of the Soane mannerism than any other part of the work. The oval plan was happily carried out, with a single flight of stairs of studi¬ ously plain design, dividing at the first landing and rising on either side to a most picturesque
Current r
first-floor gallery, with Ionic columns, a series of cameo-like reliefs forming a fringe, with a row of Caryatides above, a graceful design, supporting a plain sky-lighted dome — the whole effect being very satisfactory, though difficult to describe, and scarcely more easy to photograph.
The front of the house in Pall Mall in its dis¬ regard of the most ordinary rules of proportion almost resembled the work of Vanbrugh. The pillars, already mentioned, of the portico con¬ trasted unpleasantly with some neighbouring examples of Wren’s treatment of the Tuscan Doric, and the whole elevation was singularly dull and gloomy.
In conclusion, warm thanks are due to the officials of the War Office for the kindness and attention with which our visits were received, and particularly to Mr. Leland Duncan, M.V.O., whose special knowledge of the history of the buildings was freely placed at our disposal.
W. J. Loftie.
rehiteeture.
Interior Decoration, No. 14, Cockspur Street, London, S.W.- — The illustrations are of the interior of an agency which has been carried out in wood and plaster for S. J. Waring, Esq. The work has been executed by Waring & Gillow at their Hammersmith works, Mr. Redmond being particularly responsible for the modelling and carving of the decorative portion from the archi¬ tect’s designs. The suspended metal-lathed plaster ceiling was carried out by Wheater & Co., and the stained glass leaded lay-light by Harvey & Ashby, of Birmingham. Dent & Hellyer were responsible for the plumbing and heating, and Prior’s antique glass has been utilized for the glazing. Mr. Roscoe was the general foreman in charge of the work.
Bourne Corner, Farnham, Surrey. — This is a new house, built of stock brick, rough-cast, and the roof is covered with old tiles. The principal rooms face south, and the entrance is at the north¬ west. Old beams have been used for the timber work. The house is very simply finished inside ; but there is a certain amount of oak panelling. The appearance has toned down a good deal since the photograph was taken, and the garden, now well grown, is there shown just after being laid out. It is not an expensive house, but is probably cheaper per foot cube than any other house the architects have built. The builders were Kent & Hall of Chinch Crookham ; the grates, &c., were supplied by the London Warming -and Ventilating Co., and by Robbins & Co., Dudley; Staal & Co. executed the oak panelling and Flemish balustrade. The lead rainwater heads, gutters, &c., were cast by the architects and owner.
C urren t A rchiteciure
295
INTERIOR OF AGENCY. . . 14, COCKSPUR STREET, S.W.
ARTHUR T. BOLTON, Architect.
296
Current A rchitecture.
INTERIOR OF AGENCY. . . 14. COCKSPUR STREET, S.W.
ARTHUR T. BOLTON, Architect.
Current Architecture.
297
This house is built of brick, rough-cast, and the roofs are covered with old tiles. In this view the gardens, now well grown, had only just been laid out. The house faces due south.
BOURNE CORNER, .
FARNHAM, SURREY.
NIVEN, WIGGLESWORTH, and FALKNER, Architects.
Photo : T. Lewis.
Current A r chi lecture.
298
House at Westcliff-on-Sea. — This house was built for Dr. Walter Morgan, at the corner of Anerley-road, Westcliff-on-Sea. A feature of the plan is the entrance hall, and from it are directly entered the various rooms. A separate entrance to the surgery is arranged on the west side, with waiting-room adjacent. The plan up¬ stairs works out economically, as from the landing are entered the various bedrooms with no passages. The hall is paved with marble, and its walls are panelled their whole height and painted white. The ceiling has applied plaster ornament in the
shape of wreaths and sprigs. The best rooms have oak floors, and the fireplaces have bolection moulded surrounds and tiled interiors with basket grates. Architecturally the house is after the manner of those of the early eighteenth century. Red bricks are used for ordinary facings, with rubbers for dressings. On the south side Venetian shutters are introduced, giving a pleasing effect of colour. The builders were Cross & Sons, of Hutton, Essex. Laurence Turner did the plaster ornament, and Elsley & Co., Ltd., supplied the grates, doors, and window furniture.
HOUSE AT WESTCLIFF-ON-SEA. GROUND PLAN. .
WALTER J. TAPPER. Architect.
Current A rchitecture ,
299
This house is built in the manner of those of the early eighteenth century. Red bricks have been used for ordinary facings with rubbers for dressings. On the south side Venetian shutters are introduced, giving a pleasing effect of colour.
HOUSE AT WESTCLIFF-ON-SEA.
GENERAL VIEW .
WALTER J. TAPPER, Architect
300
C urrent A rch itecture.
Photo: Can pbell Gray.
The work consisted of a remodelling and restoration of a fine Georgian house and the addition of a portrait-painter’s studio. W. Johnson and Son were the builders.
LITTLE CAMPDEN HOUSE, .
KENSINGTON. THE STUDIO.
JOHN W. SIMPSON, Architect.
Current A rchitecture
301
LITTLE CAMPDEN HOUSE, . KENSINGTON. THE STUDIO.
JOHN W. SIMPSON, Architect,
Cur ren t A rch itectu re
3
0 2
LITTLE CAMPDEN HOUSE, . KENSINGTON. THE STUDIO.
JOHN W. SIMPSON, Architect.
Books
MR. UNWIN ON TOWN PLANNING.
Town Planning in Practice. An Introduction to the Art of Designing Cities and S uburbs. By Raymond Unwin, pp. 416, with 300 illustrations and 7 folded maps. 21s. nett. T. Fisher Unwin — London : A delphi Ter¬ race j Leipzig j Inselstrasse, 20. 1909.
HE debates on the Housing and Town Planning Bill make the appearance of this book extremely seasonable. Text¬ books are required, if the opportunity promised by the passing of the Bill is to be improved.
Fortunately, through the generosity of Mr. W. H. Lever, M.P., in founding a School of Civic Design at the University of Liverpool, the educa¬ tion of the younger generation of architects is cared for. It is to be hoped that other schools will be opened, to remove entirely the reproach of our crass ignorance of the art of town-planning.
In the meantime we have too few books, and this one is a welcome addition. Mr. Unwin is in the van of this movement. Of some of the aspects of the art he speaks with considerable authority, notably of the planning of suburbs. He is responsible for the laying-out of Letchworth and the Hampstead Garden Suburb ; and, however self- conscious these may seem to many people, it must not be forgotten that they are pioneer works, and mark a great advance on the usual method of developing land. And some of the smaller squares and the fine central one at Hampstead preserve the tradition, as we understand it, of clear geometrical planning. The author considers that the designer must cherish in his heart a love for all natural beauty. “ His regard for a type of beauty which it is beyond his power to create will cause him to approach the site with reverence, will fit him to receive from it all the suggestions which it has to offer.” “It will save him from rashly destroying trees,” &c. It is pointed out at the same time that the importance of design should not be sacri¬ ficed to less important features of the site. This of course can only apply to the urban village or small town.
For what might be considered a trifling sacrifice in the planning of a suburb becomes a great one in the laying out of a city, in the too rigid acceptance of customs and accidents of site. Common sense demands that a street be driven fair and straight to its goal ; tradition and the conditions of modern architecture demand the same. Mr. Unwin is not a Palladian, and is more
concerned with the picturesque, the creation of what he terms “street pictures,” than with re¬ strained architecture, which we believe to be alone suitable for cities. That restraint, that Attic calm to which the Renaissance strove to attain, and which the English architects of the seven¬ teenth century displayed in their works, is mono¬ tony to our author — the sweetness and light of its spirit escapes him, and we can read : “ A straight street leading up to a terminal feature, if a simple and obvious arrangement, nevertheless often pro¬ duces a very pleasing effect. It is stiff and formal in character, no doubt, but it is at least safe.” And so we learn that what might be considered a fundamental principle in town-planning is stiff, formal, and safe, &c.
Writing “ of formal and informal beauty,” the author, summing up his arguments for and against, prefers, as he says himself, not a via media, but a via latior, which we suppose is something like “ the primrose path of dalliance,” which in archi¬ tecture means the wide way of licence.
We shall expect next to be told by some other mentor that the use of the “ Orders ” is stiff, formal, and safe. It is a curious fact that the plan the rejection of which is our greatest archi¬ tectural loss should consist entirely of straight streets. We refer of course to Wren’s plan for the rebuilding of London. Evelyn’s was some¬ what similar. The former is reproduced and described at some length from Elmes’s “ Life of Sir Christopher Wren,” and Mr. Unwin sums up : “ The plan is indeed laid out in the grand manner, and depends for its effect on the largeness of its scale and the length of its vistas, while no attempt is made to reproduce the enclosed places and the limited street pictures so characteristic of the mediaeval towns.”
Why he should be required to reproduce the “ limited street pictures ” and the “ enclosed places ” which had just harboured a dreadful plague, and had fortunately been cleansed by fire, we do not know.
For the planning of cities we feel very strongly that Palladianism is the only course which can bring about that unanimity which is essential to its success. In this opinion we are not unsup¬ ported, for the best ability of our profession in America has already endorsed it by its practice. Under the leadership of men like McKim, Gilbert, Burnham, Carrere, Brunner, Nolen, and Manning, the great cities of America promise to grow in stateliness, dignity, and restraint. And the prac¬ tice in France is along similar lines. Not so
304
Books.
Germany, whose schemes, though properly legal¬ ised and organised, are not of such a nature as should commend themselves to us, and the most modern school is attempting the reproduc¬ tion of mediaeval types, whose beauty lies in “ varying widths of streets, and irregular places planned with roads entering them at odd angles.”
It would seem that our author is more interested in details, picturesque effects, and so on — in a word, “ street-pictures,” than in great schemes of town-planning. He is fond of dallying with nature and arranging theatrical effects. He describes how he arranged a pond to catch and reflect last gleams of the setting sun. “ The great value of water in such a scheme, as introducing life, light, and colour, should be remembered : and where, as was arranged in one of the open spaces in the Hampstead Garden Suburb, the pond can be so placed that the rosy hues of the sunset will be reflected in the water, and be seen from different streets and groups of houses as the sun changes its setting point with the changing seasons, a natural decoration of the greatest beauty will be provided.”
He has the same fancy in planting trees : “ If we can give to our streets some individua¬ lity, may we not find that our people, going to and from their work, will change their route, taking the almond-planted street in the early spring, the plum, the crab, and the hawthorn streets later ? and later still the streets planted with trees most noted for the colour of their berries and fading leaves — the rowan, the haw¬ thorn, the beech, and many others — will be pre¬ ferred.”
In spite of what we consider drawbacks like this, however, there is much of value in the book — the photographs of many fine towns and places, and the maps, will always make it a useful reference book.
Of the City Survey, Mr. Unwin writes that collections of maps should be made showing the past development of the town, public buildings, and buildings of historical interest. It may be said in passing that very little can be done to increase the amenity and beauty of our towns till this is accomplished. Besides this, it is important to prepare detailed maps showing the different plots of land which come within the scope of any improvement, that measures may be taken to negotiate with the owners.
The various parts that go to make up towns and cities are all treated of separately, as — boundaries and approaches, centres and enclosed places, the arrangement of main roads, &c.
The penultimate chapter — of co-operation in site-planning, and how common enjoyment benefits the individual — shows the great advantage of this system in securing considered planning. For
whereas the planner working for the ordinary co-operative society divides up the land into well- marked plots, he cannot provide plots for his public buildings or design any amenities for the small community, for these will be chosen only when the need for them has arisen. On the other hand, being employed by such a body as the Tenants’ Society, the site-planner can think of the schemes as a whole. “ The shops, schools, institutes, and places of worship can all be con¬ sidered, and the most suitable sites for each re¬ served.”
In a word he may consider his problem from an aesthetic point of view, and after all that is the province of the designer. Lastly, the author draws attention to the inflexibility of our build¬ ing by-laws, and suggests that authorities should devote more care to their framing or revision. And there can be little doubt that a more elastic code would add to the interest of suburban archi¬ tecture.
ENGLISH DOMESTIC PLANNING.
The Growth of the English House : A Short History op its Architectural Development Jrom 1000 to 1800. By J. Alfred Gotch , F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A. 8 in. by 5 i in. pp. 302, illustrations 215. 7/6 nett. London: B. T. Bats ford, 94, High Holborn , W.C.
HE debt we owe to Mr. Gotch as author and to Messrs. Batsford as publishers is already considerable, but the result of their latest joining of forces increases it. In January last we reviewed a book called “ The English House,” and had occasion to comment on its containing plans to the number of three, a quantum hardly excessive. We then said, “ This is not a book for architects.” It is the peculiar value of Mr. Gotch’s book on the same subject that not only does it contrive to be a book for architects, and very informing at that, but also it is conceived on lines sufficiently popular to make it intelligible to the architecturally-minded layman, if he will use the glossary which is provided as a lamp unto his feet. The story of English Domestic Architecture as Mr. Gotch succinctly yet read¬ ably states it, is, up to Elizabethan times, a gradual shedding of the defensive idea, and a slow groping after a higher standard of comfort. The growth of complexity in planning centres round the great hall, and the most obvious feature of development, was bound up with its gradual degradation to the purposes of a lobby. With its re-creation in modern days our author does not deal, since he stops, and wisely, with the year 1800 ; but it is pardonable to imagine the astonishment of the
Books.
305
From “ The Growth of the English House," by permission of Mr. B. T. Batsford.
shade of Thorpe if he could see the atavism involved in the arrangement of many a week-end cottage of 1909. Mr. Gotch takes Aston Hall, Birmingham, as the best example of the parting of the ways. Thorpe’s plan shows the entrance at one side giving on to “ the screens,” whereas the house as finished in 1635 was built with the front door placed centrally both with the facade and the hall. The latter thus became a glorified vesti¬ bule, and ceased to be fit for the purposes of a living-room. With the great access of wealth in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries caused by the gathering of the great monastic revenues into the hands of powerful and ambitious laymen, and by the beginnings of imperial adventure, the spirit of ostentation tended in the direction not only of greater magnificence, but also of an elaborated privacy of living. The spirit of the Renaissance gave the death-blow to feudalism in its material as well as its artistic aspects. The economic basis of planning has the oddest history. The neces¬ sarily narrow limits of Norman keeps, dictated by defensive reasons, expanded into the haphazard and wasteful grouping of smaller rooms in relation to the great hall of fourteenth-century houses. The Elizabethan plans show a marked improve¬ ment in convenience of arrangement over such fanciful translations of the keep as Warkworth Castle (1435-40), and Tudor work like Horham Hall (c. 1520), still on the old lines. This develop¬ ment went hand in hand with a growth in the conscious art of grouping and design. Another turn of the wheel brought in Palladian ideas, which in their turn trampled on reasonableness of plan. The comfort of the dwellers was stretched on the Procrustean bed of the taste of noble amateurs
and men like Vanbrugh, who provided a long open colonnade between kitchen and dining-room. Up and down the book are scattered numberless little facts of interest which show the wide range of Mr. Gotch’s researches. As Pepys would say, “ it is pretty to see” the curious eclecticism that went to the making of Tattershall Castle, and the sudden change from circular staircases of stone, the habit of centuries, to the wide-going and large and frequent landings of the timber stairs of Elizabethan times. One notes with philological pleasure how our word “ pastry ” is derived from the adjunct to the kitchen where the ovens were built, and how thoughtlessness in Elizabethan buildings overcame the earlier dictates of sanitary common sense in the unintelligent placing of the garde-robes. Mr. Gotch, keen as he is on discuss¬ ing the functions of such men as Thorpe and Smithson, has wisely touched on that aspect of the
FAWSLEY, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE :
BAY WINDOW OF THE HALL.
LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
From “ The Growth of the English House."
Books.
306
KIRBY HALL, NORTHANTS : ANGLE OF THE COURTYARD.
From “ The Growth of the English House,'' hy permission of Mr. B. T. Batsford.
H question with a light hand, so as not to check the current of his narrative, which is not concerned with the organising of the building arts, but with their results. He has some cogent things to say about enthusiastic pro¬ prietors who are carried back two centuries earlier than the facts warrant by a cusped window light. An entertaining book is yet to be written on popular architectural fallacies, on the lines of the “ What is Believed ” articles on heraldic matters which made the pages of The Ancestor (now unhappily defunct) a feast of fat things. On such purely architec¬ tural questions as the influence on design of the introduction of sash windows Mr. Gotch writes shortly and clearly. For the illustra¬ tions of the book there can be nothing but praise. From the enchanting frontispiece, a view of Sheldons, Wiltshire, to a picture of the elliptical staircase at Baddow House, which closes the last chapter, all are chosen aptly to illustrate the tide of tendency, and England has been ransacked for little-known houses to adorn the tale. Perhaps we may say by way of final commendation that the publishers have been wise to produce this admirable book in a shape and at a price which must make it widely acceptable, and bring it into the possession of the architec¬ tural student whose purse, never at any time deep, is in these days less well furnished than usual.
DERWENT HALL, DERBYSHIRE.
From “ The Growth of the English House," by permission of Mr. B. T. Batsford.
Books.
307
CABINET WORK.
Modern Cabinet Work, Furniture, and Fitments. An ac¬ count of the theory and practice in the production of all kinds of cabinet work and furniture, with chapters on the growth and progress of design and construc¬ tion, illustrated by over one thousand practical workshop drawings, photographs, and original de¬ signs . By Percy A. Wells, Plead of Cabinet De¬ partment, L.C.C. Shoreditch Technical Institute j Advisory Instructor, L.C.C. Central School of Arts and Crafts; Silver Medallist , Royal Society of Arts ; and John Hooper, Honours Silver Medallist, City and Guilds of London Institute; Silver Medal, Carpenters'' Company, Cabinet Section. London: B. T. Batsford, 94, High Holborn , W.L. 1909.
CE many of the eighteenth- century books, this title-page gives one a good idea of its contents; but whereas in the old days the author would be Abraham Swan, Carpenter, or Batty Langley, with the ad¬ dition of carpenter or archi¬ tect indifferently, or plain Edward Oakley, the authors of this volume have their names swollen out into lines of type which are not particularly illuminating to us. Unfortunately it is customary to trick out names in this fashion, so we will not cavil at it. The book itself is an excellent one, and we should like to see it in the hands of all craftsmen who work in wood. In these days of the infinite sub-division of labour, such a work as this might easily counterbalance the loss of a wider practical experience which it is seldom possible to obtain, and adequately equip the young cabinet-maker to meet any demands which might be made on him.
After a short introductory chapter which pre¬ tends to give an historical resume of the develop¬ ment of the craft, the book becomes thoroughly practical, and the chapters which follow are admirable, taking account of tools and materials, of geometry and design, and the manifold details which go to make up “ a craft which has taken a place in the front rank of skilled trades.” In fact, there is scarcely an article of furniture but what is shown by some diagram or photograph. The chapter on” Foreman’s Work” shows how fully the whole work has been considered from an educa¬ tional point of view. Chapter the eleventh deals swiftly with the historical styles, and is admirably illustrated. The chapter dealing with “Chair¬ making,” which nowadays is a separate craft, gives a lot of information about the various styles, and includes a chronological chart, giving names, periods, general characteristics of chairs and seats of various styles, and advice about prac¬ tical work. And the last chapter deals compre¬ hensively with English, Foreign, and Colonial
woods. A glossary is added, giving the book additional usefulness ; the constructional drawings illustrating the various points are among the clearest and most legible we can remember, and give to the book a great part of its value. Generally, too, the designs for furniture are reasonably good, and it would be ungracious to criticise too severely one or two efforts showing sides of rooms in the “Georgian” style. A good many of the ill ustra- tions are from old work, in the shape of measured drawings and photographs, and give the book a character of comprehensiveness.
The old books by Swan, Langley, Oakley, and many others, were addressed chiefly to workmen, but they have found their way to many an archi¬ tect’s bookshelf, and this volume may with ad¬ vantage to us find a similar resting-place.
MICHELANGELO AND HIS AR.TISTIC FORBEARS.
Michelangelo. By Gerald S. Davies. 10 in. by 7 in.
pp. xviii, 228. Plates 126. 12 s. 6d. nett.
One Hundred Masterpieces of Sculpture. By G. F. Hill. 8J in. by 5J in. pp. xiv, 212. Illustrations 102. ioj. 6 d. nett.
London : Methuen iS-5 Co., 36 Essex Street , W.C.
4EW book on Michelangelo needs to have some marked merit to escape the charge of being superfluous, and to be framed well to bring into right perspective the output of an amazing life. Mr. Gerald Davies has given us a book which at once takes its own very excellent place. It is written out of a large knowledge and sympathy, and, what is perhaps rarer, the different aspects of Michelangelo’s life and works may be seen in their right proportion. Mr. Davies gives us a convincing picture of the intellectual and artistic giant, strange medley' as he was of master¬ ing will, fierceness, tender charity, despondency, courage, and underlying humility. But it is a picture which baffles us. We feel our own capa¬ cities and sympathies shrinking to the proportions of the people of Lilliput surveying Gulliver. Of Michelangelo as architect Mr. Davies writes with temperate discernment. Just now when Civic Design is much discussed, it is worthy of remem¬ brance that the master designed the buildings which crown the Capitol of Rome on its northern side for a society which existed for the worthy' adornment of the city. It is not a little melancholy that the idea of such a body now strikes one as utopian. The National Art Collec¬ tions Fund can make heroic struggles to save a Holbein, while a Crosby' Hall goes down to destruction. The prodigious doings which went to the building of St. Peter’s, the slough
3°8
Books.
CUPOLA OF ST. PETER’S, ROME (FROM THE WEST).
From “ Michelangelo," by permission of Messrs. Methuen & Co.
of jobbery and corruption, the procession of different plans by men all great in their way, and the final grasp of the situation by Michelangelo, make a story always enthralling, which loses nothing by Mr. Davies’s telling of it. It is with almost a savage glee that one reads of the magni¬ ficent contempt which he meted out to the com¬ mittee of control, so called because for thirteen years he disregarded their very existence. His righteousness and wrath made short work of the crowd of parasites to whom St. Peter’s had for years meant a substantial income. The art com¬ mittee gnashed their teeth, but his disregard of their earnest desire to see plans meant that there
were few delays. To Michelangelo we at least owe the dome, while his successors are responsible for the ruin of the plan caused by the lengthened nave.
It would be less than justice to abstain from saying that not only has Mr. Davies done his work well, but that the publishers offer to the public a finely printed and illustrated book at a very small cost.
Of the “ Hundred Masterpieces of Sculpture” Mr. G. F. Hill claims no more than the merit that belongs to a picture-book. Still, that is not small, if so be that the choice of subjects is good and the connecting thread of text intelligent and
Books.
3°9
stimulating. By Messrs. Methuen’s courtesy we reproduce the Colleoni. It is well known, but cannot be too often shown. Surely this work of Verrocchio and Leopardi is the last word in perfection as an equestrian monument. It is only after one has looked at it awhile, and then thinks of the successful generals whose statues occupy our sites, that the low ebb of modern monumental sculpture becomes so sensitively felt. The more,
forms of presentment, on account of its almost immutable principles, which are subject to but slight modification — in spite of the introduction of new combinations of materials. Hence it comes about that there is a strong family likeness between the numberless books on the subject ; for beams, columns, and arches must ever remain such, and so-called progress is powerless to influence the constancy of their several types, or render obsolete their inherent qualities. Mr. Allen’s book, which has now reached its fifth edition, once more illustrates the truth of these statements, for it contains the old familiar diagrams of brick-bonding, timber
BARTOLOMMEO COLLEONI.
From "A Hundred Masterpieces of Sculpture," by permission of Messrs. Methuen &■ Co.
therefore, that the public acquaint themselves with what has been and can be done, the sooner are they likely to demand a higher standard of achievement.
PRACTICAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTION.
Practical Building Construction. By J. P. Allen. 5 th Edition , revised and enlarged. Price ps. 6 d. nett. London : Crosby Lockwood Co., Stationers' Hall Court , E.C.
The science of building construction— one of the most ancient crafts in the world — does not lend itself to novel
floors, kingpost roof trusses, and the hundred-and-one other stereotyped examples whose acquaintance we made in our student days. Here are to be found the customary scarfed tie-beams, cogged wall -plates, tusk -tenons, all in their appointed places, and illustrated with, perhaps, a little less than the ordinary precision. As has been suggested in the foregoing remarks, this is more or less inevitable ; yet it does occur to us that a few good photographs of the various kinds of stone-walling— such as random and coursed rubble— would have been preferable, and of far more service than the some¬ what crude and altogether unconvincing diagrams given in the book.
b 2
3io
Books.
The chapter on fireproof floors needs revision where men¬ tion is made of one or two systems which, though patented, have never yet been actually employed, and consequently can have no practical utility in a work of this description.
A few pages are devoted towards the end of the book to the architectural styles, which are illustrated with some good photographs and several sketches.
Taken as a whole, the book is one which may be recom¬ mended to all those engaged in building. Its chief merit lies in the completeness and general excellence of the chapter on carpentry and joinery, which could not well be improved upon.
MARBLE AND MARBLE WORKING.
Marble ami Marble Working. A handbook for Architects, Sculptors , Marble Quarry Owners and Workers , etc. By W. G. Renwick. pp. x, 226. 13 plates
and 72 illustrations in text. 15J. London: Crosby Lockwood Son, 7, Stationers'' Hall Court, E.C.
In the preface to this book the author, Mr. Renwick, makes a statement concerning the widespread ignorance on the part of the architects and builders of this country respecting marble generally, and in particular the sources at present available for its employment as an article of commerce. All this is true enough, but the explanation of a state of things which cannot justly be laid to our discredit lies in the simple fact that England is not a marble-producing country.
The book now under review is an attempt to augment the very incomplete information which at present obtains respect¬ ing this material, and the chief aim has been to indicate in a systematic manner what marbles are to be had and the sources of their production. Instances of their application in this country are also given in the Supplementary Chapter, accompanied by descriptive notes and a list of over 130 varie¬ ties in ordinary use.
Chapters on the chemistry and geological formation of marble ; the ancient quarries and methods of working ; modern quarrying methods and machinery used : marble sub¬ stitutes, &c., &c., form instructive reading, while the illustra¬ tions contribute largely to the general value of the work. Among these are thirteen coloured plates showing the mark¬ ings of fifteen representative marbles. Plate VII gives a good idea of the wonderful beauty of Alomite (from Ontario, Canada). The colour of the material is a brilliant blue, occasionally interspersed with thin red veins and spots.
As a work of reference this book would have an increased value to architects if the number of these coloured plates was considerably increased.
EAST AND WEST.
The Colour of Rome : Historic, Personal, and Local. By Olave Muriel Potter. With an introduction by Doug¬ las S laden. Illustrated by Yosliio Mar kino, gl in. by 6 J in. pp. xxx, 262. Plates in colour, 48 ; in sepia, 12. 20s. nett. London: Chat to IM Windus, St.
Martin's Lane, W.C.
We have no word for this book but “ enchanting.” Miss Potter writes with an easy eloquence of the splendours of the Eternal City, and her eleven chapters give us vivid word- pictures of imperial and papal Rome as she sees its history reflected in the buildings. It is, then, in no disrespect to her that we devote our space rather to the artist whose brilliant brush makes the pages glow. It is surely a piquant juxta¬ position, a painter from Japan realising for English eyes the colour of Rome. Mr. Markino is, however, strangely Western in his art ; indeed, save in a few touches here and there, it is
difficult to recognise the school from which he springs. His painting is full of atmosphere ; the softness of The Palaces of the Ccesars (for example) is a triumph of cool beauty. His sunlight effects are brilliant without hardness ; but perhaps he is at his best, whether in colour or sepia, with scenes lit by flickering gas-lamps and when the sun goes down to his rest. Understanding of the pictures and the artist is made the clearer to us by an essay which Mr. Markino contributes ; indeed, it is the most engaging feature of the book. It shows us the swift and quaint perception which he brings to his work. Here is a pearl of price — “ Once while I was walking .... to my great astonishment a carriage-horse came out suddenly from a crossing street and kissed my face- The driver shouted a few words loudly ; I was thankful I did not understand the Italian — I was sure they were not the parliamcntal words." We are grateful for parliamental. Mr. Markino’s first impressions of Rome were disappointing. He went to Monte Riccio. “ It was a little raining the effect was awfully bad. I prefer Newcastle-on-Tyne far better . . . . The Roman people are no different from us. They are all fed with cow’s milk, just as we are, and no one takes the wolf’s milk nowadays.” Who shall say the Japanese are a serious race ? Nor does Mr. Markino hold back from architectural criticism. “ I did not know until I saw St. Peter’s that most of the modern fashionable restaurants or hotels are such faithful copies of the inside of St. Peter’s .... Those Baroque churches everywhere in Rome were my nightmare. They are as ugly as could be, just like the heads of stag-beetles .’’ But it would be indecent to quote more, though it pains us to hold our hand. We can clo no more than commend a book in all ways delightful.
BUNGALOWS.
Bungalow Residences. By Percival T. Harrison. in. by 5 \in. pp. viii, 76. Various Ulus trations and plans. 3.?. 6 d. nett. London : Crosby Lockwood & Son , 7 Stationers' Hall Court, E.C.
This is a little book with a few notes, plans, and elevations of bungalows for the seashore, &c. It seems a doubtful policy to issue handbooks of this kind. They tell architects nothing that they do not know already, and they give to the layman that amount of knowledge which is a dangerous thing. Moreover the thoughtless individual is likely to go to the builder, book in hand, and say, “ Build me one like that.”
The designs shown call for no remark, save as to one porch, the columns of which recall Sir Henry Wotton’s observation : “ And here I must take leave to blame a practice growne (I know not how) in certaine places too familiar, of making Pillars swell in the middle, as if they were sicke of some Tym¬ pany of Dropsie .... and unseemely to the very judgement of sight.”
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
Westminster Abbey. By Francis Bond. gin. by 5! in. pp. xvi, 332. Illustrations 270. 10s. nett. Londo7i :
Henry Frowde , Oxford University Press, Amen Corner, E.C.
The Nave of Westminster. By the Rev. R. B. Rackham, M.A. 9 jin. by 6 in. pp. 64. Illustrations 6. 5J.
nett. Published for the British Academy by Henry Frowde.
IN our issue for August 1909 we noticed a “ Visitors’ Guide to the Abbey ” by Mr. Francis Bond, a fragment taken from the larger work now under review. It is not a little extraordinary that since Sir Gilbert Scott’s Gleanings, published in 1863,
Books.
there has been no book about the Abbey which could be put into the hands of the student desiring a simple and compact presentment of its architectural story.
Professor Lethaby’s great book was written from a special point of view and examined a new series of facts, the spoil of his research and a text for his luminous criticism.
There are many merits in Mr. Bond’s book, but we would draw attention to two in particular. Though it is written out of a full knowledge, Mr. Bond does not take it for granted that his readers know all about architecture. He begins at the beginning, explains the conditions and needs which led to the building of the Abbey, and unfolds in plain language how the highly-complicated plan developed during the centuries. While an expert in the subject may learn from Mr. Bond, the uninformed amateur may do so none the less. It is the great defect of most descriptive books of this type that if they escape the Scylla of platitude and anecdote they fall into the Charybdis of specialised technicalities. Mr. Bond’s book sails through the Straits unscathed by either criticism. The second point which earns our gratitude is that the author is not afraid or ashamed to write of the Abbey as a great Christian monument. Some critics are apt to talk fluently of plans and elevations, of dates and attributions, while others drown us in the gush of sentimental rhapsody. Mr. Bond gives us sixteen chapters packed with well-assorted knowledge well expressed and illuminated by very full illustrations. In the seventeenth, “ The Mainspring of Gothic Architecture,” he urges us not to think of the Abbey as a Public Cemetery and Sculpture Gallery* but as “ the abiding place of an indwelling God, whose man¬ sion it was on earth, the pattern of the palace of the City of God Immortal in the heavens.”
By all means let us continue to think of Westminster as “ The Abbey,” the focus of all that is noblest in our national life, and the supreme monument of English art. It will, how¬ ever, be an evil day when it no longer represents to the passer¬ by spiritual realities, or brings the reminder of the mysteries whose celebration it was built to shelter. Its half-hidden recesses and dim distances are the reflex (imperfectly expressed if you will) of the infinity of the Godhead. Let us remember, in Mr. Francis Bond’s words, that “To Him it was at once a thankoffering and a sacrifice.”
Mr. Rackham’s nmnograph, to the forthcoming issue of which Mr. Bond refers in his book, is now in our hands. It is a valuable contribution to the history of the Abbey, and deals with the building of the Nave from 1376 to 1528. It is the result of a re-reading of those of the Fabric Rolls which form the account of the Warden of the Novum opus. We have no space to follow Mr. Rackham’s lucid story in detail, but would remark on the value of the work still to be done, and being done with the help and encouragement of the Dean of West¬ minster. The history aims at being documentary rather than architectural. This is perhaps the reason why it was read before the British Academy, though the subject seems rather to fall within the scope of the Society of Antiquaries, whose publication of the Islip Roll has more especially identified that Society with the history of the Abbey.
HOSPITALS IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
The Mediaeval Hospitals of England. By Rotha Mary Clay. {In the Antiquary'' s Books.) 8J in. by 5 J in. pp. xvi,357. Illustrations 78. ’js.6d.nett. London: Methuen &-* Co., 36 Essex Street , IV. C.
This book is an admirable example of the unhurried, thorough archaeological work which is being quietly done by women. Miss Rotha Clay has done more than write a good book, she has found a new subject. The Dissolution of Monasteries led not only to the Poor Law, but to the rise of Modern Philan¬ thropy. The hospital of pre-Dissolution days covered a large
31 *
field, and included the activities of the modern asylums for deaf, dumb, blind, and insane, almshouses, industrial homes, and lazarettos. The leading principle was religious control, land the care of the soul took precedence of the healing of the body. They understood the former better than the latter.
Of the plan and arrangement of hospitals Miss Clay writes clearly and at sufficient length.
The Antiquary's Books are all good, for Messrs. Methuen have included only those authors who have a grasp of their subject. We need say no more of Miss Clay’s volume than that it is as good as the best.
DUTCH MASTERS, OLD AND NEW.
Great Masters of Dutch and Flemish Painting. By W. Bode. Translated by Margaret L. Clarke. 7! in. by 5! in. pp. ix, 358. Illustrations 39. js. 6 d. nett. London : Duckworth and Co., 3, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, IV. C.
Dutch Paititing in the Nineteenth Century. By G. Her mine Marius. Translated by A lexander Texeira de Mattos. 9 in. by 6 in. pp. xi, 203. Illustrations 131. 15 s. nett. London: Alexander Moring, Ltd., De La More Press, 32, George Street, Hanover Square, IV.
There is no figure in English art criticism of cpiite the commanding position that Dr. Wilhelm Bode fills in Germany. Whether in sculpture or painting he is almost a dictator, and his reputation rests no less on his eloquence in critical appre¬ ciations than on his fundamental knowledge. We write thus though we are not ignorant of the comedy which is being played round the Lionardo bust. If, however, it should be proved conclusively that Dr. Bode has been mistaken, it is only one blemish on a reputation deservedly great. We there¬ fore welcome the growing freedom with which English pub¬ lishers are issuing translations of his books. The volume under review covers a wide field. Rembrandt is naturally in the forefront, and Dr. Bode insists on his special position as the artistic representative of Northern Protestantism and the supreme hand in the graphic realisation of the Bible narratives. The amazing perfection of genre painting in the Low Countries is attributed to the patriotism, both national and local, which informed the Dutch artists.
When we turn to the book by G. H. Marius on modern Dutch art, we are impressed by a consideration which finds no place there, but is none the less worthy to be set out. To what strange motions of the national spirit are we to attribute the magnificent renaissance of painting in Holland during the last century, a new birth which has renewed the splendours of the age of Rembrandt, while in Italy there is nothing at all comparable ? Yet Italy has won a great place among the nations, and by a movement of patriotic fervour which should have stimulated her art. The name of Josef Israels is a standing protest against the foolish opinion that the Jewish race has produced many critics of and dealers in art, but no great creators. It is not too much to say that his name is worthy to be writ with his great forerunners of whom Dr. Bode treats.
We wish we had free space to enlarge on the work of the Brothers Marius, of Mesdag, de Jong, and the other artists, over ninety in all, whose pictures are reproduced.
We cannot too strongly recommend these two admirable books, each in its way an ornament to any art lover’s library, and each the more acceptable for being really well translated.
ADDENDUM.
In our article last month on Ebberstoti Lodge it should have been stated that the very excellent measured drawings were made by Mr. James T. Pilling.
GETTY CENTER LIBRARY
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