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

142 THE

ARCHITECTURE OF

HUMANISM

interest

in sculptureasopposed to

architecture,

the

causesofwhichhave

alreadybeentracedtoRomanti-

cismandthe cultofNature. But

justassculpture

isnotthe

aestheticendofarchitecture,

so,

too,sculp-

tureisbutasmallpartofits

practicalconcern.

The

foundationsaretobelaid,thewallsandpierserected,

the

archesandthevaultingsset. Inallthislabour

there wasnothingto choosebetween the Mediaeval

and the Renaissance style: neither more nor less

liberty,neithermorenorlessjoyinthework. The

Renaissance,too,had

itspaintingand

itsminorarts

—

^itsgoldsmiths,carversandembroiderers—destined

indue

course

to

enrich whathadbeen

built. Here,

ifwetrust the pagesofVasari and Cellini, wasno

lackoflifeandindividualstir.

The Renaissance

'

slave' toiling

at

his

ungrateful

and mechanical task is, no less,
a myth. Such

personsasmayhaveformed anyintimacywith his

successor, the Italian mason, onhis native
ground,

willrealisethatheiscapableoftaking
asvitalapride

andaslivelyasatisfactioninthecarvingof
hisIonic

capitalasthemediaeval workermay

besupposedto

havederived fromthe manufacture
of a gargoyle

;

thathebynomeansrepeats
himself inservile
itera-

tion butfindsmeans to renderthe
products of his

labour

'

tuttivariati

'

;

and

thatsofarfromslavishly

surrendering
to

the

superiorwillofhis

architect, he

permits

himselfthewidestliberty

perchhcrededi

far