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

38

THEARCHITECTURE

OF

HUMANISM

and to explain.

\

So it

was with the

theory

of

architecture. How far, in

this change ofthought,

has it been strengthened and

enriched

;

how

far

encumbered and confused? A clear view of Re-

naissance

architecture requires an answer to this

question.

Although,in every department of thought,there

areprinciplespeculiar

to

it, necessary

toitsunder-

standing,andwith referencetowhich itshouldpro-

perlybeapproached, yetalltheelementsof

human

culturearelinkedinsocloseand
naturalafederation,

that when one among them becomespredominant,

the others are affected to an instantaneous sym-

pathy, and the standards appropriate

to the one

are transferred, with

however little suitability, to

all.

v'^Such,'towardsthe

closeoftheeighteenth century,

was the

case

of

the Romantic Movement, which,

frombeingan enlargementof the

poetic

sensibility,

came, in the course

of itsdevelopment, to modify

the dogmas andcontrolthe practiceof politicsand

of architecture.

By the stress which it laid

on

qualitiesthat

belongappropriately

to

literature,and

find place in architecture,

if at all, then onlyin

a

secondary degree,

itsofalsified the

real

significance

of the art that,

even at the

present time,

when

the Romantic

Movement is less

conspicuous

in