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

THE ACADEMIC

TRADITION 187

is a backward vision, a preoccupation
with the

antique. Somuchmust

beconcededevenbythose

whohavestudiedthevarietyandrealisedthevigour

whichthe Renaissancestyle

displays,whoseemost

clearlyhowinevitablewasthisimitativeimpulseand

howdeeptheinventivegeniusthat

accompaniedit.

But,

while

this

main

factisundeniable,thededuc-

tionswhichcriticismhasdrawnfromitareopposite

enough. On the one hand it is said, Renaissance

architecture,being
imitative,haslosttouchwithlife.

It isadead, anartificial, an

'

academic

'

style. It

lackstheoriginality,anditlacksthefitness

ofastyle

whichspringsunconsciously

tosuitapresentneed,

asthemediaevalstylesprangtosuitmonasticorcivic

institutions, orastheclassicstylesthemselves, fitly

and

withoriginality,suitedtheancientstate.

'

There

isnotperhapsasinglebuildingofanyarchitectural

pretension erectedin Europesince the Reformation

.

.

.

whichisnotmoreor

less

acopy,eitherinform

ordetail,fromsomebuildingeitherofadifferentclime

oradifferentagefromthoseinwhichitwaserected.

There
is no

building,

infact,the

design of

whichis

notborrowedfromsomecountryorpeoplewithwhom

ouronlyassociationsarethose derivedfrom educa-

tion
alone, wholly irrespective of either

blood

or

feeling.'

^

Thatis tosay. Renaissancearchitecture,

like

our modem

'

revivals,'

lacks the merit that

*

Fergusson,History

of

ModernArchitecture.