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

HUMANIST

VALUES

239

by

mass,space,

andline responds

tohuman physical

delight, and by coherence
answers
toour thought.

The^e

meanssufficed

them.

Giventhese,theycould

dispenseatwillwith
sculptureandwith
colour,with

academic precedents and
poetic f^cies, with the

strictlogicofconstruction

orofuse. All

these,also,

theycouldemploy, butbynone

of themwerethey

bound.

Architecture

based on Humanism became

anindependentart.

This principle of humanism

gives us the links

thatwerequire. Itforms thecommon

tiebetween

thedifferent phases—

^at

first sight

so contradictory

—of Renaissancestyle. It accounts foritsstrange

attitude,

at once obsequious and unruly,

to the

architectureof antiquity. It explains how Renais-

sance architecture

is alliedto the whole tendency

of thought with which it was contemporary

—

^the

humanistattitude

toliteratureandlife.

Man, as the savage firstconceived him, man, as

themindof

sciencestillafiirms,isnotthecentreof

theworldhelivesin,butmerelyoneofhermyriad

products,

more conscious than the rest and more

perplexed. A stranger onthe

indifferent

earth, he

adapts

himself slowly and painfully to inhuman

nature,andatmoments,

notwithout

peril,

compels

inhumannaturetohisneed. Aspectaclesurrounds

him—sometimessplendid,

often

morose,uncouth,and

formidable. He

maycowerbeforeitlikethesavage