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

202 THE ARCHITECTURE

OF

HUMANISM

niseditselfinthehopesand

habitsof

itsimmediate

past; itdidrecogniseitself,onthe

contrary,inthat

remoter

andmorecivilisedsocietyin

whichithadits

origin. The mediaeval styles had

run their course

andoutlivedtheirusefulness. Tohaveresisted

the

logic
of

events,

to

haveclungtothevestigesoflocal

Gothic—vital and

'

rational' as in their

timethey

had been, picturesque and romanticas theyarein

their survival

—

^this in

truth would have been an

artificial actofstyle. Itwouldhave led,

in a few

generations,toastateofarchitectureasunalive,as

falselyacademic, aswere the

shams ofarchaeology

threehundredyearslater.

ThatRenaissancearchitecturewasbuiltuparound

an academic tradition—that it was, in a measure,

imitative

—

^will not, if we understand aright the

historicalandaestheticconditionsofthecase,appear

tobea fault. Theacademic traditionwill, onthe

contrary, be realised as a positive force that was

natural, necessary, and

alive. The

Renaissance

architects

deviated from the canon whenever their

instinctive taste prompted them

to

do so

;

they

returnedtothecanon

whenevertheyfeltthat their

creative

experiment had overreached its profitable

bounds. Anditshouldberealisedthat

a

convention

of form in

architecture has a valueeven when itis

neglected. It

is present in the spectator's mind,

sharpening his perception

of what is new in the