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

34

THE

ARCHITECTUREOF

HUMANISM

• 
  

to

disown its authority, and to

be guided, if it is

guidedatall, by

instinctsofwhich

theintellectcan

give no immediate account.

It is an unconscious

attempt

todrillart into the ready-made

categories

whichwehave

foundusefulinquiteotherfields,and

toexplain theunfamiliarby

the familiar. Itisthe

application toart ofthe methods ofscience, which

sometimesarelessconcernedwiththeultimatetruth

about

itsfactsthan with bringingthem within the

range of a given intellectual formula. But it is

unscientific to persist in the application when itis

clearthattheformula

doesnotfit.

f'Wehavedealtinthischapterwithapointofhis-

toricalfact. Itishistoricallytruethatthedistinctive

controlin

Renaissance architecture

lay notin con-

struction or materials or politics, but, chiefly and

typically,

inthetasteforform. 1 Itfollows

that

itis

reasonable to analyse the Italian styles primarily

intermsoftaste: toask,howfardotheyfulfilthat

third

*

condition of well-building

' which WottOH

names

'

delight.'

Butitisonethingtostatehow

Renaissancearchi-

tecturearose

;

itis

quiteanothertoestimateitsvalue,*

Foritmayberejoinedthatgoodtasteinarchitecture

consists in approving what is

truthfully built—ex-

pressive

alike of the

methods and materials ofits

construction

on

theonehand,and,

on the other,

of

the

ends

it

hastoserve

; andthatifthe

taste

ofthe