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

88 THE

ARCHITECTURE

OF HUMANISM

savingqualities

whichcanreconcile

itwitha'domi-

nating and insistent

art': the qualities

of reserve,

finality,andrepose.

|

While the

Renaissance was in its

vigour,

the

romanticview of Nature was

no enemyof classic

architecture.

Ofthisthe painters

giveusevidence

enough. The

paintingof ClaudeLorrain

poeticised

Naturein a luminousVirgilian

mood, to whichhis

vision of classic architecture, so

far from being

foreign,wasthealmostnecessarycomplement. With-

out the austerequietofhis

temples, Nature,inits

tranquillity,mightseemlesshumanthanhe

dreamt

;

without their

Corinthian state, less sumptuous.

Poussin,moresylvaninhisinterpretation,

isnotless

classic in his forms. The more dramatic nature-

painters—Salvator and the rest—did not

press the

wildness of their inspiration beyond its natural

confines. It

is perhaps only with Piranesi that a

'^ew

spiritbeginstoshowitsforce. /InPiranesi,the

greatest

master of the picturesque in art. Nature

holdsarchitectureinitsclasp,and,likethe

'

marble-

rootedfigtree,'shattersandtorturesit

initsembrace.'^

Theconsequenceswhichwereinduecourseto

follow

from

the

unionareforeshadowedintheearliestphase

ofthismaster'sart. He conceivedavisionof

infer-

naldungeons,withoutmeaning,exitorhope;archi-

tecture,surrenderedtothepicturesque,wasdoomed

in

twogenerationstofalltothechaoswithoutachieving