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

70 THE

ARCHITECTURE OF

HUMANISM

Whatmeasure of beautymay

belong to

such an

architecturewilllaterbeconsidered..

Itisirrelevant

heretoinsistonthe

unfortunateeffectit

iscalculated

toproducewhenreiterated,

withhow

monotonousa

variety, on eitherside ofacontinuous

street. But

certainly,whateverbeits

merits, thehabit

oftaste

which it implies is hardly

favourable toan under-

standing of the Renaissance. •''Order and

subtleties

ofproportionrequirean

habitualtrainingintheeye.

TheGreeks,assomeofthe

'

optical

'

correctionsof

the Parthenon have revealed,

responded here to

distinctions of which to-day evena

practised taste

willbe

almostinsensible. TheRenaissanceinherited

their ideal, if not their delicacy

of sense. But a

'

natural' architecture, so far from

affording such

practiceto

theeye, raisesaprejudiceagainst

order

itself

;

becausewhatever

qualitiesa

'

natural'archi-

tecturemaypossessare dependent

on the negation

of

order.

Atasteformedupon thisviolent and

ele-

mentaryvariousnessof

form,conceivesaRenaissance

frontasablankmonotonybecausethat,by

contrast,

isallitcandiscern. Whatwonder,then,ifit

accepts

theverdictofthepoetryofNature,anddeclaresthe

Renaissance style to be a weary and

contemptible

pomp, while it endows its own incompetence

with

the

natural

'

dignity

'

ofthefieldsandwoods.

)

^Two duties, then, were required of architecture

whenthepoetryofNaturehaddoneitswork. First,