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

126 THEARCHITECTURE

OF

HUMANISM

Romanticism, it is true, was

concerned with

the

imaginative or poetic associations

of style. But

whenonce thishabitof

criticism was

established

—

whenonceitseemedmorenaturalto

attendtowhat

architecture

indirectly signified than to

what it

immediatelypresented—^nothing

was requiredbuta

slightalterationinthepredominanttemper

ofmen's

minds,

anincreased

urgency ofinterestoutside the

fieldofart,tomakethemseekinarchitecturefora

moral

reference.

Romanticism had made architec-

turespeakalanguagenotits

own

—

a

languagethat

couldonlycommunicate
to

thespectatorthethoughts

he himself might bring. Architecture had become

amirrortoliterarypreferencesandliterarydistastes.

Now, therefore, whenthe preoccupations

inevitable

to a time of social changeand theological dispute

had become predominantly moral, the language of

art,reflectingthem,wasrifewithethicaldistinctions.

Thestyles

of architecture

came

to symbolise those

statesofhumancharacterinthecraftsman,thepatron

or
the publicwhich theycouldbe arguedtoimply.

Theywerepraisedorblamedinproportionasthose

statesweremorally
approved.

But this was something more than romanticism.

Nodoubt,whenalltheimageryof

natureisemployed

to
heightenthecontrastbetweentheruggedintegrity

ofthemediaevalbuilders
andtheservileworldliness

of the
modern; then, indeed, the ethical criticism