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

242

THEARCHITECTURE OF

HUMANISM

imposed
a

harmonyuponthe plan.

Divorcedfrom

this ritual,

Gothic, asitsdomesticbuilding

and

its

streetssufficetoprove,admitsits

deepindifferenceto

ordered form. It is entangled, like the mediaeval

minditself,inaweb

ofidlethoughtsofwhichmanas

heishasceasedtobethecentre.

When,

intheRenaissance,thatcentrewasrecovered,

andhumanismbecameoncemoreaconscious

principle

ofthought, Romandesigninarchitecturecamewith

itasofright. Buttherewasnowadifference

in

its

intent. Humanism has two enemies—chaos and

inhuman

order.

In

antiquity humanism strove

principally against the primitive confusion of the

world: itsemphasiswas laidonorder: itclungto

discipline

andrule. Hence'Greekarchitectureisthe

strictestofallstylesofbuilding,andRome,inwhat-

ever outpostsof Spain or

Britain her legions were

remotely quartered, there set a tiny Forum, and

preserved without concession

the imperial order of

its

plan. But in the thought of the Renaissance

humanismwaspitted,not

againstchaos,butagainst

the inhuman

rigour of a dead scholastic

scheme,

whose fault was not lack

of logic, but its lackof

relevancetoman. Thus

theemphasisofRenaissance

humanism

waslesson order

than onliberty. And

thisdistinctionis

apparent initsarchitecture. Re-

naissancearchitecture

clings

toorder asa method,

butmakesitservethe keen

varietyoflife. Itisno