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

86 THE

ARCHITECTURE OF

HUMANISM

itself. Thetwo

wereblendedinthe

Baroque. Itis

nottheleastamong

theparadoxesofthat

profoundly

greatstylethatitpossesses,in

completeaccord,these

contrary elements. To give the

picturesque

its

grandestscope,

andyettosubdueittoarchitectural

law—this was the baroque

experiment and it

is

achieved.'The baroqueisnot

afraid tostartle

and

arrest. Like Nature, it is fantastic, unexpected,

varied and grotesque. It is allthis in the highest

degree. But, unlike Nature,

it remains subject

rigidly to the laws of scale and composition

.|

It

enlarged their scope, but would not modify their

stringency. It is not, therefore, in any true sense

accidental, irregular, or wild. It makes—^for the

parallelisexact

—

a.morevarioususeofdiscordsand

suspensions,anditstandsin

a

closelysimilarrelation

tothesimplerandmorestaticstylewhichpreceded

'^it,asthelatermusictotheearlier.
vA.t

enlargedthe

classicformulabydevelopingwithinittheprinciple

of movement. But the movement is logical. For

baroquearchitectureis

always^logical: itis

logical

as an aesthetic construction, even where it most

neglects the

logic of material construction. It

in-

sistedoncoherent

purpose,anditsgreatestextrava-

'

Iamspeakingthroughoutofbaroquearchitectureatitsbest.

Naturally,in

somecasesthereischarlatanism,oranignorantattempt,

to

imitate

theformswithoutperceivingthetheoryoftheart. But

theessenceofthe

modern

'

picturesque'tasteinarchitectureisits

absenceoftheory,

itsinsistenceonthecasual.