The architecture of humanism; a study in the history of taste

THE ROMANTIC FALLACY

85

beappropriate. On asubduedscale,andhiddenin

agarden,itmaybepleasantenough

;

butthen, to

bevisitedandnotlivedin. Atatheatricalmoment

itwillberight. Itmaybegay

;

itmaybecurious.

Butit is unfitted, aesthetically,for

the normaluses

oftheart,forit fatigues theattention; andarchi-

tecture once

again is insistent,dominating and not

tobeescaped.!

fr- The

practiceofthe Renaissancewascontrolled,if

notbythisreasoned

principle,atleastbyaninstinc-

tivesenseforitsapplication. Even

in

the

picture

—

sincethis,/too,

musthaveitsmeasureofattention

—

the

'

picturesque'

elementis madesubordinate

;

it is

subduedto

that widercomposition oflineandtone

and colour which

contains it.\ And the complete

pictureitselfis,orshouldbe,subordinateoncemore

tothe formal

scheme of thearchitecture, whereit

fills an appointed place.

Consequently, the

*

acci-

dental

'

element, in the final result,

is adequately

submerged within

the formal; it gives, without

insistence,thecharmof

strangenessandvarietytoa

generalideawhich

itisnotsufferedto

confuse.

',yThis the

Renaissance allowed

;

but the

Renais-

sancewent

further. Itwas

notonlyinpaintingthat

thepicturesque

couldbefavourably

included

;

itwas

not only

in its farms and

hill-town buildings, pic-

torialastheirbeauty

is. TheRenaissance

endedby

reconcilingthe

picturesque

with classic architecture