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

28 THEARCHITECTURE

OF

HUMANISM

'

theSpiritof the

time

'

wehavein

thiscasedemon-

stratedameretautology.

^

Norshallwe fare much

betterinthe attemptto

find the key to Renaissance architecture

in

con-

structive science. There havebeen occasions when

thediscoveryof

a

newstructuralprinciple,ortheuse

of a new material, hasstarted

architectural

design;

uponapathwhichithasfollowed,asitwereofneces-

sity, unable to desist fromitscourse until the

full

possibilities of the innovation

had been explored.

Each step

is determined by a scientific logic

; and

beauty lingers in the art by a fortunate

habit, or

comes,insome

newform,byaccidenttolight. Such,

insomesense,

wasthecasewiththemediaeval

Gothic

;

andsoitmight bewithsome

future architectureof

steel. But

suchwasnotthecasewiththe

architec-

ture of the Italian Renaissance.

No constructive

innovation

explains the course which

iF~pursued.

The dome of Brunelleschi,

unquestionably, by its

audacity and grandeur,

the effective starting-point

of the

Renaissance, wasindeed

agreat triumphof

engineering

skill

;

but it

involved no fundamental

principlewhich

wasnotalreadydisplayedin

the

dome

ofPisaor

theBaptisteryof

Florence. On the con-

trary, although

the

constructionofthe Renaissance

wasoftenvastin

extentandcourageous

inconception,

it wasat the same
time simpler
andless scientific;

than that of
the centuries
immediately
preceding,