may be made to the great and definitive criteria of merit in suck works of art:-the feelings of those who enter as casual spectators only, and depend for a frame of mind on the character of the scene which they contemplate. The This Some ingenious theoretical calculations have been made, to explain the principles on which the above effects are produced, to so eminent a degree, in churches of this description. most interesting remarks are presented by Dr. Milner.* author reminds his reader, on the authority of Mr. Burke, that height and length are amongst the primary sources of the sublime; and it is well known that these are the proportions chiefly affected by the architects of ancient English structures appropriated to a religious purpose. An artificial height and length are, also, produced by the peculiarities of this style; " for the aspiring form of the pointed arches, the lofty pediments, and the tapering pinnacles with which our cathedrals are adorned, contribute, perhaps, still more to give an idea of height than their real elevation. In like manner, the perspective of uniform columns, ribs, and arches, repeated at equal distances, as they are seen in the aisles of those fabrics, produces an artificial infinite in the mind of the spectator." On the same principle, Dr. Milner believes the effect of cathedral buildings in this style to be greatly augmented by the variety of their constituent parts, and the progressive manner in which these are revealed to the spectator; while all subordinate divisions converge to the choir and sanctuary, as to their centre.† In ⚫ Letter from the Rev. John Milner, M. A. F. S. A. to Mr. Taylor, prefixed to Essays on Gothic Architecture, published by the latter gentleman. + The following observations of Sir James Hall, concerning the different degrees of distance at which structures in the Grecian and English styles may be viewed to the greatest advantage, are worthy of the reader's attention:— "In order to do justice to a building of the Grecian style, it is necessary to look at it from a moderate distance; so far off, that the whole may be taken in at one view, and so near, as to allow all the parts to be distinctly seen. Such In some hasty, but valuable, hints towards the plan of a regular history of this architectural style, contained in a letter of Lord Orford, and printed in Mr. Nichols's Literary Anecdotes,* it is said that in such a work there should be "Observations on the art, proportion, and method of building, and the reasons observed by the Gothic architects for what they did.” This is a literary desideratum, which, as I have already suggested, no industry has hitherto been enabled satisfactorily to supply. It will be recollected that the disappearance of writings on the principles and rules of this order, is chiefly ascribed to two causes. The probable destruction of such papers by the FreeMasons, which is the first of the reasons alleged, has been noticed in a previous page; and the suppression of monasteries is likely to have been equally fatal to many similar manuscripts in this country. The contents of conventual libraries were then consigned to the flames, or to sordid uses, with indiscriminate seve2 I rity. Such a view is the most trying for the Gothic, as in that manner the buttresses, which the Gothic architects have in vain endeavoured altogether to disguise, appear heavy and awkward. The fault too with which Sir C. Wren reproaches the Free Masons, of overloading their abutments, in this view occasions a detriment to the general effect of the edifice; for the side aisles being made large, and their windows approaching to an equality with those of the nave, the height of the building is to the view divided into two, and its unity of plan destroyed. "The beauty and variety of the Grecian style, which reside in the de tails of execution, are lost in the distant view; and the edifice then exhibits the dull and abrupt appearance of its timber original, in its rude and unornamented state. "A distant view is most favourable to the Gothic style; for its form being boldly varied and strongly characterized in the general plan, produces its full effect, as far as the eye can reach. The fault above mentioned is not observable at a distauce, the whole being united in one grand effect; and the spire, a very principal ornament of the style, thus presents its best appearance, as it rises from every village, and diversifies the uniformity of a fertile plain." Essay on Gothic architecture by Sir James Hall, Bart. p. 146 -147. rity. Among the manuscripts which perished on this barbarous consummation of a rational triumph, we cannot doubt but that many were on the subject of architecture, when we remember the zeal with which the art was cultivated by numerous erudite ecclesiastics. These causes, perhaps, sufficiently account for the loss of such documents in England. But the conventual libraries of France experienced no destructive visitation, for several ages after the history of pointed architecture attracted some curiosity. Respecting these we are told, that "in France there were accurate details of ecclesiastical architecture, in MSS. collected from conventual archives, which have been either printed by their antiquaries, or were carefully preserved before the revolution."* No important information, however, concerning the principles of pointed architecture, is obtained from such writings as have been published by the antiquaries of that country. Mystery, like the Gordian knot, may be severed by a bold hand when it cannot be disentangled. Unable to discover any written principles, Mr. Knight,† therefore, suggests that the architects who used the pointed style, were, in fact, not governed by any rules, or principles of ordination, but attended "to effect only." The improbability of this conjecture, if extended to its utmost import, must be denied by all who reflect on the coustituent uniformity preserved in this style, although it passed, to use the words of Sir James Hall, "through a multitude of hands, eager to outdo their predecessors and their rivals, by the novelty, as well as by the elegance, of their compositions."+ Even architects, while, doubtless, perplexed to meet with unfathomable obscurity, have not attempted to deny the existence of a ruling system, because it eluded their detection.-"From the observations which I have made, at various times, on these churches," • Dallaway's Observations on English Architecture, p. 44. Sir James Hall on Gothic architecture, p. 107. churches," writes Mr. Murphy, "I am led to suppose that the general configuration, internally, was usually designed agreeable to some definite rules, or proportions, notwithstanding the component quantities were not invariably distributed, in every edifice, in the same comparative degree of relation, but were modified according to local circumstances, or the architect's conception of optical effects."* The above remarks of Mr. Murphy may be thought to convey a fair notion of the degree of scientific restraint to which ancient architects were subject, in the use of this order. It is possible that some elucidative manuscript may yet be discovered in a foreign library; and it is imperative on the architects of the present day, since imitations of the pointed style are now so greatly encouraged, to apply themselves to an investigation of the purest models, with a view of retrieving the rules on which such buildings were constructed, and by an attention to which, alone, they can become respectable, except as mere copyists. Some curious observations on this subject have lately been communicated to the public by Mr. Hawkins, in his "History of the Origin of Gothic Architecture." This writer brings forward certain particulars of information conveyed by an architect named Cæsar Cæsarianus, in notes appended to a translation of Vitruvius, printed in the year 1521. The annotator, in an endeavour to explain more fully some passages of Vitruvius, says, "that when a building is to be erected, a design or drawing of the intended edifice is to be made by measure, which is called a sketch; and that afterwards a model should be constructed, by which the principal parts of the edifice are to be regulated." After mentioning other circumstances connected with, the process, he adds "that the Germant architects pursued this method in the church of Milan, the symmetry of which is regulated by the length." Plans, elevations, &c. of the church of Batalha, p. 17. ↑ Pointed architecture was frequently termed German in the 16th century The church of Milan appears to have been built in 1387; and Cæsar Cæsarianus gives a plan of the structure,* together with a wood cut of its orthography (or elevation) and another cut, of the same description, containing the scenographic+ representation of that edifice. These cuts exhibit the geometrical principles on which respective parts of the building are said to have been designed. For particulars concerning the rules promulgated by the above writer, the reader is necessarily referred to the publication of Mr. Hawkins. The future enquirer into the principles of this style will, assuredly, find them worthy of careful consideration, however insufficient to explain the whole of the system which forms the object of his research. Mr. Hawkins has collected, and stated in his work, many of those varieties of proportion which are observable in the arches and columns of buildings erected in this mode: but he observes "that the proportions of Gothic architecture, as it is termed, may, still, perhaps, in some instances be found to approach nearer to those of Grecian than persous little acquainted with the subject would be inclined to suppose, or the advocates for this last-mentioned style be disposed to admit." In a subsequent -page he contends" that in every Gothic cathedral as yet known, the extent from north to south of the two transepts, including the width of the choir, if divided into ten, as Vitruvius directs, would exactly give the distribution of the whole. Three arches form the north, and three the south transept; the other four give the breadth from one transept to the other. Que division of the four being taken for each of the side-aisles of the nave, and The explanatory title which C. Cæsarianus affixes to his plan is thus translated by Mr. Hawkins: "The plan of the foundation of a sacred building, with columns at a distance asunder, constructed after the German manner, by means of a triangle and square, like that which is now to be seen at Milan." By the term Scenography is generally understood a perspective view of the ont and side of an edifice. |