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

(Ben Green) #1
270 THEARCHITECTURE

OF HUMANISM

CHAPTERVI

THEBIOLOGICALFALLACY

Evolutionandtheinterestinsequence

Pre-evolutionarycriticismandtaste
;

itsnarrowness
;

the

PresidentdeBrosses;Goethe

Widercuriosityofmoderncriticismandtaste

Vague and confused sense of value entailed in this

enlargement.....


Substitutionofhistoricalinterestforaestheticvalue

FailureofRenaissancearchitecturetoconformto

'
evolu-

tionary

'
prescriptions

Biologicalmetaphorsinthecriticismofart

Ji.ttempttorepresentRenaissancearchitecturein


thesemetaphors

Itsplausibilityandfalseness

Evolutionarymisinterpretation


ofBrunelleschianarchitecture

ofBramantesquearchitecture

ofBaroquearchitecture

oftheEmpirestyle.

Theconceptionof
decadence;

its
generalinapplicability

t-


termsof

FACE

167

168

i6g

170

171

172

172

J7S

176

178

180

182

182

CHAPTER

VII

THEACADEMICTRADITION

Renaissancearchitectureasan

'
imitative
style'.. 186

Sometimesaccusedofexcessive
imitation.. 187

Sometimesofinexact

orinsufiScientimitation. .188

Differentwaysof
understanding'imitation.' Brunelleschi,

Bramante,
Sixtus v., the eighteenth century, the

Empire

......


189

Humanism,
andthecultofpower.

. .191

Itsnecessaryidealisationofantiquity

.. .192

Estheticnecessityforaprincipleof
permanenceinart.
192

(Consequentdilemmaofan
architectureofpure


'

taste'.
193

nencethecanonisation
ofclassicform...
193
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