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

84 THE

ARCHITECTURE OF

HUMANISM

are commensurable at least in this:

that each in

some

degree

makesademandonour

attention. Some

works of art affect us, as it

were, by mfiltration,

andarecalculated toproduce

animpressionthatis

slow,pervasive, and profound. Theseseekneither

tocapture theattention nortoretain it

;

yetthey

satisfyitwhenitisgiven. Other

worksarrestus,and

by asharpattackuponthesensesorthe curiogjty,

insistonoursurrender. Theirfunctionistostimu-

lateandexcite. Butsince,asiswellknown,wecannot

long

reacttoastimulusofthistype, it isessential

that the attention should, in these cases, be soon

enough

released. Otherwise,held

captive

and

pro-

voked,

we are confronted with aninsisteaJLjjppeql

which, since wecan no longer respond to it, must

becomeintimefatiguingorcontemptible.

Ofthese

twotypesof aestheticappeal,eachcom-

mands its own dominion

;

neither is essentially

superiortotheother,although,

sincementendtoset

ahighervalueonthat

whichsatisfiesthemlongest,

it

is

art of the former kind which

has most

often

been called great. But they

do both possess an

essentialfitnesstodifferent

occasions. Whereveran

occasioneither

refusesorcompelsa

sustained

atten-

tion,arightchoicebetweenthe

twotypeswillbeafirst

condition ofsuccess.

• 
  

Fantasticarchitecture, archi-

tecture

thatstartlesanddelights

thecuriosityand

is

not dominated by a

broad repose, may sometimes