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

192

THE ARCHITECTUREOF HUMANISM

Renaissance ideal: and Greece and

Rome,

almost

of

necessity,became itsimageanditssymbol. The

Roman Empire had set

the summit of

achieved

power: the Holy Roman Empirehad preservedits

memory. The names of Greeks and Romans sur-

vived

asnamesofconquest

;

even Virgiland

Ovid

weremagicians,necromancers,

kings. In

theirwords,

ifthedue sorcerybe found, powerstilllayhidden.

Butmostofall,becausemostvisible,thestoneswhich

the Romans had

built endured into the

mediaeval

world, dwarfingitbytheirscaleandovershadowing

it with theirdignity. These weretokens of power

whichallcouldunderstand,andtheireffect

uponthe

awakeningmind ofthe Renaissance may

bejudged

inthesonnets of DuBellay. Humanism,therefore,

inevitably fastened the imagination of architects

uponthebuildingsofRome.

TheRenaissancestyle,wehavealreadyseen,isan

architectureoftaste,seekingnologic,consistency,or

justificationbeyondthatofgivingpleasure. Inthis,

clearly,it followsthenatural bent

ofhumanism,in

itsstressonlibertyofwill. Andthebaroquemanner

withitspsychologicalmethod,its

high-handedtreat-

ment of mechanical fact and

traditional forms,

is

typically humanistic. But

this claim of freedom

involvedarchitectureinadilemma. For

every

art,

andarchitecturemorethanany, requires

a

principle

of

permanence. Itneeds

athemetovary,aresisting