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

8o THEARCHITECTURE

OF

HUMANISM

and,therefore,

againstthe

Renaissance—^forhowever

deeply Orderand Proportion

may

characterise the

lawsofNature,

theyarefartoseek

initsarrangement;

secondly,anemphasison

representation, on

fidelity

tothe naturalfact.

|

This

wassoonmade

apparent

inpainting—first, in themicroscopic

realismofthe

Pre-Raphaelites

;

later,withmoreregard

tothefacts

of vision, in

impressionism. Architecture

—^an

ab-

stractor,attheleast,a

utilitarianart

—

^mighthave

been expected

to escape. But it contained

one

element which exposed

it to attack: it contained

architectural sculpture. It

followed,therefore, that

thiselement, whichadmitted of representationand

couldbepresseddirectly

intothecultandserviceof

Nature,shouldbecomesupreme.

'

The

onlyadmira-

tion worth having,' it is said in TheSevenLamps,

'

attaches

itselfwhollytothe meaningofthesculp-

tureandthecolourofthebuilding.'

'

Proportionof

massesismeredoggerel.' Andnotonlywassculpture

thus

thrust

out

of its true relation and made the

chief end and criterion ofarchitecture, but itwas

required,bythesameargument,toberealistic. But

architecture,
ifit meansanything,meansasupreme

controlover all the element? ofa design, with the

righttoarrange,tomodify,toeliminateand
tocon-

ventionalise. Here, instead, arrangement becomes

• doggerel'andconventionablasphemy.

^

In

this,it

willbenoticed,theromanticism of
Naturereacheda