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

262 THEARCHITECTURE

OF HUMANISM

a classical repose. The

architecture of

humanism

hasonitssidetheoldworldandthe

new

;

ithasthis

repose and this energy. The spirit

of perpetual

change—afertilegift

ofthelaterMiddleAges—made

itinconstanttoits

ownsolutions. Agreatermemory

keptitconstanttoitsproblem,anditsasceticpractice

won,forthe

commonuseandfabricoftheworld,a

shapeofpaganbeauty. Abeauty

ofpaganism,but

not

its echo. Renaissance architecture is miscon-

striiedwholly

when

we

dismissitasanimitativeart.

Itservedantiquity, not with the abjectduty

of

a

slave,

noralwaysevenwithascholar'spatience,but

masterfully,like alover,

with

a

like kindlingofits

proper powers. Brunelleschi, Bramante, Michael

Angelo,

Bernini had,asfewcanhaveit,theirorigi-

nality. Buttheyfollowedonthepast. The

soilthey

builtinwasheavywiththecrumblingofitsruins.

Yeteveryartthatfindsapenetrating

pathwayto

themind,andwhosefoundationsareprofoundlyset,

must needshave precedent and parallel, ancestors

andheirs.
Forthepenetratingpathsarefew; and,

despitetheirbaroquelibertyoffancy,wecanforget,

asfromthePalatine

wewatjchthedomesthatover-

peerthe
Forum, andsee the frontof SanLorenzo

risethroughthegreyporticoofAntoninus,howsheer

aninterval,with

howvastachangeoflife, sunders

two

forms

ofartsocongruousandfamiliar. Where

classic poweronce stood,its
shadowlingered: Man-