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

INTRODUCTION

5

this more complicated

and more restricted instru-

ment. And

wecanask,stillfurther,whetherthere

maynot be aestheticinstincts,for

whichthisinstru-

ment, restricted

as it is, may furnish the soleand

peculiar expression. This is to study

architecture,

inthestrictsense,

asanart.

Here,then,arethree

'

conditionsof

well-building,'

andcorresponding

tothemthreemodesofcriticism,

andthreeprovincesof

thought.

Now

what, in fact, is the result? The material

dataofourstudywecertainly

possessinabundance:

the statisticsofarchitecture,

the historyofexisting

works,

their shape and size and authorship, have

long been investigated

with the highest scholar-

ship. But

whenweasktobegivennothistorybut

criticism, when weseekto knowwhatis the value

ofthese works

of art, viewed in themselves or by

comparison with oneanother, and whytheyareto

be considered

worthy of this exactattention, and

whetheroneistobeconsideredmoredeservingofit

thananother,

and

on

what

grounds,

the

answers

we

obtain may be ready and numerous, but they are

certainlyneitherconsistentnorclear.

Thecriticismofarchitecturehasbeenoftwo

kinds.

Thefirst

ofthese

remainsessentiallyhistorical. It

is

content to describe the

conditions under which

the

stylesofthepast

arose. Itacceptsthe

confused

and partly fortuitous

phenomenon which architec-