THE
ROMANTIC FALLACY 8i
conclusionexactly
paralleltotheromanticismofHis-
tory. Thelatter,faswesaw,becomingantiquarian,}
emphasiseddetail
at theexpense ofthe whole,
and
allowed architectural detail to deteriorate into a
stylistic symbol. So, in this
case, sculpture
takes
theplaceof
architectureanddeterioratesintorealism.
All this was necessarily fatal to the Renaissance
style.
Here there was little sculpture, and that
littleforthemostpartwasconventional. Artificial
indetail,artificialindesign,herewasan
'
unnatural
'
architecture.
Further condemnation could not be
required.
Ill
Nofashioncouldhavesosecurelyestablisheditself
that
was rooted in preferences altogether irrational
orevennew. Naturalisminarchitectureispartlya
poeticaltaste
;
partlyitisanethicalprejudice,
and
ineachcaseithasbeenshowntobefallacious. But
naturalismisalsofranklyaesthetic: apreferencenot
merely
ofthefancyortheconscience,but
of
theeye.
Itmayhaveenteredmodernarchitecturebyakind
offalseanalogy,andmaystillderivefrompoetrya
half-unreal
support; but
ithasasolidfootingofits
own. For the place of what is unexpected, wild,
fantastic,
accidental,
doesnotbelongtopoetryalone.
Theseare thequalities which constitute
the pictur-
esque—
qualitieswhich
have always been recognised
