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

THE

ROMANTIC

FALLACY

41

A.

have said

thatonly upon

fixed conditionscan

romanticism

expressitself

throughthemoreconcrete

arts. In

architecturethese

conditionsarethreefold.

First,

there should be

no fundamentalincongruity

betweentheforms

suggestedbytheromanticimpulse

and

thosecustomary

toarchitectureatthetimeof

their introduction.

For, since the architect can

never

whollyoverridecustomnor

contradicttradition,

andsincethe

transformationofstyleisconsequently

slow,it

followsthat the oldelements and

the

new

will have to exist, in

somesense, sidebyside.

/

So

long,

therefore,asthese remain incongruous,theex-

perimentwillbeendangered.

Secondly,itisessential

thattheromanticimpulseshouldcomeatamoment

whentheartofformisvigorous

enoughforthework

ofassimilation,

andcapableoftranslatingthepoetic

materialintoplasticshape. Finally,as

a

thirdcon-

dition,itisessential

thatthetechniqueandorganisa-

tion

required bythe newidealshould be, asfaras>

possible, identical with those of the existent art.

Forneithertechniquenororganisationcan

be

called

intobeingsuddenlyandatwill: yetontheseboth

the existence and the character of architectural

style

depend. The instruments, therefore, which

theromanticimpulsefindstoitshandmustbesuited

to

theformswhichit

seekstoimpose.

|

4,

."

Now

theidealof

architecturewhichthe Romantic

Movement in the nineteenth century attempted to