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

i82 THE

ARCHITECTURE OF

HUMANISM

ence. So

littleisit truethat the

energy

of arace

risesandfallsinordered

sequencethateveninartistic

activitythemostdivergentresultsweresimultaneous

;

andwhile

architecturesprangforward, paintinglost

itsnerve

asanindividualart,anditssolelight

was

reflectedfromtheconflagrating

splendour

ofbaroque

architecture.

EvenfortheEmpire

stylethechargeof

decadence

—

thoughheremoreplausible

—^isnotconvincing.

Here,

indeed, isdisplayed a preoccupationwith aliterary

idealthat

isneverwithoutmenacetoanart

ofform.

Yettheformsofthestylewerecongruous toalive

tradition
;

they were beautiful

;

they wereconsis-

tentlyapplied.

Thejudgment

of

decadence ishere

anexpostfactojudgment. TheEmpirestyledid,in

factandasapointofhistory,markthedissolution

of

Renaissance architecture. It hadno future

; it

linked itselftono results. But thismightwellbe

accounted foron purely social grounds. Achange

ofpatronagein the arts, a profound changeinthe

preoccupationofsociety, acollapseofold organisa-

tions, werenecessarily, in France,the sequelofthe

Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. France, not

Italy,,wasatthismomenttheholderofthetorchof

architecture. Ifthetorchfellandwasextinguished,

weneednotargue

thatitwasburntout.

Decadenceis abiological metaphor. Withinthe

fieldofbiologyitholds

trueasafact,andis

subject