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

42

THE ARCHITECTURE

OF

HUMANISM

introduce contradicted

each of

these

conditions.

It had a

poetic interest in

mediaevalism;

but the

forms of mediaevalism

were radically

incongruous

with

those of the Renaissance;

they

required an

irrecoverable

organisationanda

losttechnique

;

and

theywere invokedat

amoment

when architectural

vigour was shaken by

deep changes

in the social

order

onwhichithaddepended.

|

'"'*

Thepurpose

ofromanticismshould

havebeenthe

fusion of a poetical

interest with the forms and

^principles of an existing art. Had

the Romantic

Movement

complied, eveninsome degree,

with the

essential conditions, a genuine

architectural style

mighthavebeen

created,formed, asitwere,out

of

thematerialsofthat

whichitsuperseded. Insome

directions,

while the good sense of the eighteenth

centurystillcontrolledthe

situation,thiswasindeed

accomplished. Forthe firstsignsofthechange

had

been innocentenough.

In the middle oftheeigh-

teenth century, that romantic attitude,

which later

was to culminate in a wholly false aesthetic,.can

already be recognised in a

certain restlessnessand

satiety with native and traditional forms, and

in

a tendencyto takeinterest in remote kindsofart.

Oneoftheearliestindicationsofthisspirit

isthe

taste,

prevalentatthattimeinFrench

society,andimitated

toalessdegreeinEngland andinItaly, for

the

art

of China,which Easterncommerce

andthemission-