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

170 THEARCHITECTURE OFHUMANISM

climax.

When there is prominence

there is soon

prestige. The coldest scrutiny must recognise one

value—^namely,

intellectual

interest

;

and interest

takes
by degrees the place of worth.

Thus

the

ennobled cult becomes for us the bloody sacrifice,

civilised

usage asavage rite, andthe

Doric

temple

justifies
itsclaimon ourattentionby remindingus

that

it wasonce the wooden hut. The questionis

nolonger

whatathingoughttobe, nolongereven

what

itis

;

butwithwhatitisconnected.

ButRenaissancearchitectureisaveryunfortunate

fieldfortheexercise

ofthiskindofcriticism,forthe

reason,

already established, that it was an archi-

tecture of taste

;

an architecture,

that is to

say,

which was not left

to develope itself at the blind

suasionofanevolutionarylaw. Itcastoffitsimme-

diatepast'and,byan

act of will,chose

—

^and chose

rightly—

^its own parentage. It scorned heredity

;

and,ifitsometimesreflecteditsenvironment,

it

also

did much

to createit. It could change its course

in mid-career

;

itwas summonedhitherandthither

atthe bidding ofindividual

wills. Brunelleschi,

at

itsbirth, searching

with Donatelloamongthe ruins

of

Rome,couldundermine

tradition. Michael

Angelo,

independentofthe

lawasPrometheusofZeus,con-

trolled

itsprogressmoresurelythandidanyprinciple

of sequence. And the

forceswhich he set loose,

a

laterwill

—Palladio's—couldstem,andtheeighteenth