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

HUMANIST

VALUES 231

ence, and our unconscious mimetic
instinct impels

usto

identifyourselves

with apparentweight,pres-

sure, and resistance exhibited in the forms

we see\

Every

object,

bythe dispositionof thebulkwithin

its contours, carries with it suggestions of weight

easily

orawkwardly

distributed, ofpressures within

itselfand upon the ground, which havefound—or

failed to find

—

secure and

powerful adjustment.

Thisis trueofany blockofmatter, andtheartof

sculpture is built upon this fact.

But when such

blocksarestructurallycombined,complexsuggestions

of

physicalfunctionareinvolved

—

greaterinnumber,

larger and more

obvious

in scale. Architecture

1

selects

foremphasisthosesuggestionsofpressureand

|

resistancewhichmostclearly

answer

to,andcan

most

vividly awaken, our own remembrance ofphysicalI

security and strength.

In

the

unhumanised world

ofnaturalforms,thisstandardofourbodyisonall

hands contradicted. Not only are we surrounded

byobjectsoftenweakanduncompacted,but

alsoby

objectswhich,beingstrong,

areyetnotstronginour

ownway,andthusincapableofraising

inourselves

anechooftheirstrength.

Nature,likethescience

of

theengineer,requires fromobjectssuch

securityand

powerasshallinfactbe

necessarytoeach

;

butart

requiresfromthemasecurityandpower

whichshall

resemble and confirm

our own. Architecture,

by

thevalue of mass,gives tosolid forms

thishuman