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Architectural Theory

13.6.2005 10:18pm

Mallgrave / Architectural

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ARCHITECTURAL THEORY Volume I An Anthology from Vitruvius to 1870

Edited by Harry Francis Mallgrave

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Editorial material and organization ß 2006 by Harry Francis Mallgrave BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Harry Francis Mallgrave to be identified as the Author of the Editorial Material in this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published 2006 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1

2006

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Architectural theory, volume I: an anthology from Vitruvius to 1870 / edited by Harry Francis Mallgrave. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-0257-5 (hard cover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4051-0257-8 (hard cover : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-0258-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4051-0258-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Architecture–Philosophy. I. Mallgrave, Harry Francis. NA2500.A7115 2005 720’.1–dc22 2004030886 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Set in 10/13pt Dante by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall The publisher’s policy is to use permanent paper from mills that operate a sustainable forestry policy, and which has been manufactured from pulp processed using acid-free and elementary chlorine-free practices. Furthermore, the publisher ensures that the text paper and cover board used have met acceptable environmental accreditation standards. For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website: www.blackwellpublishing.com

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CONTENTS

xxi

Preface

xxiii

General Introduction

Part I:

Classicism and the Renaissance

1

A. The Classical and Medieval Traditions

3

Introduction

3

1. 2. 3. 4.

Vitruvius from On Architecture, Book 1 (c.25 Vitruvius from On Architecture, Book 2 (c.25

BC)

BC)

Vitruvius from On Architecture, Book 4 (c.25

BC)

Old Testament from I Kings

6.

Old Testament from The Book of Ezekiel (c.586

8.

9

Vitruvius from On Architecture, Book 3 (c.25

5.

7.

5 BC)

11 12 15 18

BC)

New Testament from The Revelation of Jesus Christ to Saint John (c.95 Abbot Suger from The Book of Suger, Abbot of Saint-Denis (c.1144)

20 AD)

22

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William Durandus from The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments (1286)

24

B. Renaissance and Baroque Ideals

26

Introduction

26

10.

Antonio di Tuccio Manetti from The Life of Brunelleschi (1480s)

28

11.

Leon Battista Alberti from On the Art of Building, Prologue and Book I (1443–52)

30

12.

Leon Battista Alberti from On the Art of Building, Book 6 (1443–52)

32

13.

Leon Battista Alberti from On the Art of Building, Book 9 (1443–52)

34

14.

Il Filarete from Book 1 of his untitled treatise on architecture (1461–3)

36

15.

Il Filarete from Book 8 of his untitled treatise on architecture

39

16.

Sebastiano Serlio from Book 3, The Complete Works on Architecture and Perspective (1540)

42

17.

Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola from Preface to Rules of the Five Orders of Architecture (1562)

44

18.

Palladio from The Four Books of Architecture (1570)

46

19.

Juan Bautista Villalpando from Ezekiel Commentaries (1604)

48

20.

Georgio Vasari from Preface to Lives of the Most Eminent Italian Architects, Painters, and Sculptors (1550, 1568)

50

21.

Georgio Vasari from ‘‘Life of Michelangelo’’ in Lives of the Most Eminent Italian Architects, Painters, and Sculptors (1550, 1568)

53

22.

Peter Paul Rubens from Preface to Palaces of Genoa (1622)

55

VI

C ON T EN T S

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Part II: Classicism in France and Britain

57

A. French Classicism: Ancients and Moderns

59

Introduction

59

23.

Rene´ Descartes from Rules for the Direction of the Mind (1628)

61

24.

Roland Fre´art de Chambray from Preface to A Parallel of the Ancient Architecture with the Modern (1650)

62

25.

Paul Fre´art de Chantelou from Diary of the Cavaliere Bernini’s Visit to France (1665)

65

26.

Franc¸ois Blondel from ‘‘Inaugural Lecture to the Academy of Architecture’’ (1671)

70

27.

Franc¸ois Blondel, from Architecture Course (1675)

72

28.

Rene´ Ouvrard from Harmonic Architecture (1677)

72

29.

Claude Perrault annotations to French translation of The Ten Books of Architecture of Vitruvius (1673)

74

30.

Franc¸ois Blondel from Architecture Course, Vol. II (1683)

76

31.

Claude Perrault from The Ten Books of Architecture of Vitruvius, second edition (1684)

77

32.

Claude Perrault from Ordonnance for the Five Kinds of Columns After the Method of the Ancients (1683)

78

33.

Jean-Franc¸ois Fe´libien from Preface to Historical Survey of the Life and Works of the Most Celebrated Architects (1687)

81

34.

Charles Perrault from Preface to Parallel of the Ancients and Moderns with Regard to the Arts and Sciences (1688)

82

35.

Charles Perrault from ‘‘Design of a Portal for the Church of Sainte-Genevie`ve in Paris’’ (1697)

83

36.

Michel de Fre´min from Critical Memoirs on Architecture (1702)

84

CO N TE N TS

VII

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Jean-Louis de Cordemoy from New Treatise on All Architecture or the Art of Building (1706, 1714)

86

B. British Classicism and Palladianism

88

Introduction

88

38.

Henry Wotton from The Elements of Architecture (1624)

89

39.

Christopher Wren from Tract I on architecture (mid-1670s)

91

40.

Christopher Wren from Tracts II and IV on architecture (mid-1670s)

93

41.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury from Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711)

94

42.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury from ‘‘A Letter Concerning Design’’ (1712)

98

43.

Colin Campbell Introduction to Vitruvius Britannicus, Vol. I (1715)

101

44.

Nicholas Du Bois Translator’s Preface to The Architecture of A. Palladio (1715)

103

45.

William Kent ‘‘Advertisement’’ to The Designs of Inigo Jones (1727)

106

46.

James Gibbs Introduction to A Book of Architecture (1728)

107

47.

Robert Morris from An Essay in Defence of Ancient Architecture (1728)

109

48.

Alexander Pope from Of False Taste (1731)

112

49.

Isaac Ware ‘‘Advertisement’’ to Andrea Palladio: The Four Books of Architecture (1737)

114

50.

Robert Morris from ‘‘An Essay upon Harmony’’ (1739)

115

VIII

C ON T EN T S

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Part III: Neoclassicism and the Enlightenment

119

A. Early Neoclassicism

121

Introduction

121

51.

Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach from Preface to Outline for a Historical Architecture (1721)

122

52.

Voltaire from Philosophic Letters on the English (1733)

123

53.

Jacques-Gabriel Soufflot from ‘‘Memoir on Architectural Proportions’’ (1739)

125

54.

Jacques-Gabriel Soufflot from ‘‘Memoir on Gothic Architecture’’ (1741)

126

55.

Carlo Lodoli from Notes for a projected treatise on architecture (c.1740s)

127

56.

Baron de Montesquieu from Preface to The Spirit of the Laws (1748)

130

57.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau from ‘‘Discourse on the Sciences and Arts’’ (1750)

132

58.

Jean Le Rond D’Alembert from ‘‘Preliminary Discourse of the Editors’’ (1751)

135

59.

Jacques-Franc¸ois Blondel from ‘‘Architecture’’ in Diderot’s Encyclopedia (1751)

138

60.

Charles-E´tienne Briseux from Preface to Treatise on Essential Beauty in the Arts (1752)

140

61.

Marc-Antoine Laugier from Essay on Architecture (1753)

141

62.

Marc-Antoine Laugier from Essay on Architecture (1753)

144

63.

Isaac Ware from A Complete Body of Architecture, Chapter II (1756)

147

64.

Isaac Ware from A Complete Body of Architecture, Chapter IX (1756)

148

65.

William Chambers from A Treatise on Civil Architecture (1759)

150

66.

William Chambers from A Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture (1791)

152

CO NTE N TS

IX

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B. Greece and the Classical Ideal

154

Introduction

154

67.

James Stuart and Nicholas Revett from ‘‘Proposals for publishing an accurate description of the Antiquities of Athens’’ (1748)

155

68.

Robert Wood and James Dawkins from The Ruins of Palmyra (1753)

158

69.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann from Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture (1755)

159

70.

Allan Ramsay from ‘‘A Dialogue on Taste’’ in The Investigator (1755)

163

71.

Julien-David Le Roy from The Ruins of the Most Beautiful Monuments of Greece (1758)

165

72.

Julien-David Le Roy from The Ruins of the Most Beautiful Monuments of Greece (1758)

168

73.

James Stuart and Nicholas Revett from Preface to The Antiquities of Athens (1762)

169

74.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann from History of the Art of Antiquity (1764)

172

75.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann from History of the Art of Antiquity (1764)

174

76.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann from History of the Art of Antiquity (1764)

176

77.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi from ‘‘Observations on the Letter of Monsieur Mariette’’ (1765)

178

78.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi from Opinions on Architecture (1765)

185

79.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi from ‘‘An Apologetical Essay in Defence of the Egyptian and Tuscan Architecture’’ (1769)

188

C. Character and Expression

190

Introduction

190

80.

Germain Boffrand from Book of Architecture (1745)

191

X

C ON T EN T S

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81.

E´tienne Bonnot de Condillac from Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge (1746)

193

82.

Julien-David Le Roy from History of the Arrangement and Different Forms that the Christians Have Given to Their Churches (1764)

195

83.

Jacques-Franc¸ois Blondel from Course of Architecture (1771)

197

84.

Nicolas Le Camus de Me´zie`res from The Genius of Architecture (1780)

199

85.

Nicolas Le Camus de Me´zie`res from The Genius of Architecture (1780)

201

86.

Jean-Louis Viel de Saint-Maux from Letters on the Architecture of the Ancients and the Moderns (1787)

204

87.

A. C. Quatreme`re de Quincy from Methodical Encyclopedia (1788)

206

88.

E´tienne-Louis Boulle´e from Architecture, Essay on Art (c.1794)

210

89.

E´tienne-Louis Boulle´e from Architecture, Essay on Art (c.1794)

213

90.

Claude Nicolas Ledoux from Architecture Considered in Relation to Art, Morals, and Legislation (1804)

216

91.

John Soane from Royal Academy Lectures on Architecture (V and XI; 1812–15)

218

Part IV: Theories of the Picturesque and the Sublime

221

A. Sources of the Picturesque

223

Introduction

223

92.

John Locke from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)

224

93.

William Temple from ‘‘Upon the Gardens of Epicurus; or, of Gardening in the Year 1685’’ (1692)

229

94.

John Vanbrugh from Letter to the Duchess of Marlborough (1709)

230

95.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury from ‘‘The Moralists’’ (1709)

232

CO NTE N TS

XI

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96.

Joseph Addison from The Spectator (1712)

234

97.

Robert Castell from The Villas of the Ancients Illustrated (1728)

239

98.

Batty Langley from New Principles of Gardening (1728)

241

99.

Robert Morris from Lectures on Architecture (1736)

243

William Chambers from Designs of Chinese Buildings (1757)

245

100.

B. Toward a Relativist Aesthetics

249

Introduction

249

101.

John Locke from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, fourth edition (1700)

250

102.

Joseph Addison from The Spectator (1712)

253

103.

Jean Baptiste du Bos from Critical Reflections on Poetry, Painting, and Music (1719)

256

104.

Francis Hutcheson from An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725)

258

105.

George Berkeley from the ‘‘Third Dialogue’’ of Alciphron (1732)

261

106.

David Hume from A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40)

266

107.

Allan Ramsey from ‘‘A Dialogue on Taste’’ in The Investigator (1755)

267

108.

Alexander Gerard from An Essay on Taste (1756)

269

109.

David Hume from ‘‘Of the Standard of Taste’’ (1757)

271

110.

Edmund Burke from A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757)

273

111.

Edmund Burke from A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757)

277

XII

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112.

Lord Kames from Elements of Criticism (1762)

284

113.

Robert and James Adam from Preface to The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam (1773–8)

286

C. Consolidation of Picturesque Theory

290

Introduction

290

114.

Thomas Whately from Observations on Modern Gardening (1770)

291

115.

Horace Walpole from ‘‘The History of the Modern Taste in Gardening’’ (1771)

295

116.

William Chambers from A Dissertation on Oriental Gardening (1772)

298

117.

William Gilpin from Observations on the River Wye (1782)

300

118.

Joshua Reynolds from Discourses on Art (1786)

303

119.

John Soane from Plans, Elevations, and Sections of Buildings (1788)

305

120.

Uvedale Price from Essays on the Picturesque (1794)

307

121.

Richard Payne Knight from ‘‘Postscript’’ to The Landscape, second edition (1795)

312

122.

Humphry Repton from Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening (1795)

316

123.

Uvedale Price from ‘‘An Essay on Architecture and Buildings as connected with Scenery’’ (1798)

319

124.

Richard Payne Knight from An Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste (1805)

322

125.

John Soane from Royal Academy Lectures on Architecture, V, VIII, and XI (1812–15)

325

C ON T EN T S

XIII

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Part V: The Rise of Historicism in the Nineteenth Century

331

A. Challenges to Classicism in France, 1802–34

333

Introduction

333

126.

Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand from Pre´cis of the Lectures on Architecture (1802)

334

127.

A. C. Quatreme`re de Quincy from On Egyptian Architecture (1803)

338

128.

Christian Ludwig Stieglitz from Archaeology of the Architecture of the Greeks and Romans (1801)

340

129.

A. C. Quatreme`re de Quincy from The Olympian Jupiter (1814)

341

130.

Charles Robert Cockerell from ‘‘On the Aegina Marbles’’ (1819)

343

131.

William Kinnard annotations to Stuart and Revett’s The Antiquities of Athens, second edition (1825)

344

132.

Otto Magnus von Stackelberg from The Temple of Apollo at Bassae in Arcadia (1826)

345

133.

Jacques Ignace Hittorff from ‘‘Polychrome Architecture Among the Greeks’’ (1830)

347

134.

Gottfried Semper from Preliminary Remarks on Polychrome Architecture and Sculpture in Antiquity (1834)

348

135.

Le´on Vaudoyer excerpts from three letters of 1829, 1830, and 1831

351

136.

E´mile Barrault from To Artists (1830)

353

137.

Victor Hugo from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1832)

356

138.

Gottfried Semper from Preliminary Remarks on Polychrome Architecture and Sculpture in Antiquity (1834)

357

139.

Le´once Reynaud from ‘‘Architecture’’ in the New Encyclopedia (1834)

359

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B. The Gothic Revival in Britain, Germany, and France

362

Introduction

362

140.

Horace Walpole from Letter to H. Zouch (1759)

363

141.

Horace Walpole from A Description of the Villa of Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill (1774)

364

142.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe from ‘‘On German Architecture’’ (1772)

366

143.

Franc¸ois Rene´ Chateaubriand from The Genius of Christianity (1802)

368

144.

Friedrich von Schlegel from Notes on a Trip through the Netherlands (1806)

370

145.

Joseph Go¨rres from ‘‘The Cathedral in Cologne’’ (1814)

373

146.

Georg Moller from Monuments of German Architecture (1815–21)

375

147.

Thomas Rickman from An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture (1817)

376

148.

William Whewell from Architectural Notes on German Churches (1830)

378

149.

Robert Willis from Remarks on the Architecture of the Middle Ages (1835)

381

150.

A. W. N. Pugin from Contrasts (1836)

383

151.

A. W. N. Pugin from The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture (1841)

385

152.

John Mason Neale and Benjamin Webb from The Ecclesiologist (1841)

386

153.

Victor Hugo from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1832)

388

154.

Le´once Reynaud from ‘‘Architecture’’ in the New Encyclopedia (1834)

390

155.

Euge`ne-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc from ‘‘On the Construction of Religious Buildings in France’’ (1844)

391

C ON T E N T S

XV

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C. The German Style Debate

395

Introduction

395

156.

Immanuel Kant from Critique of Judgment (1790)

396

157.

August Schlegel from Lectures on Literature and the Fine Arts (1801–2)

398

158.

Friedrich Gilly from ‘‘Some Thoughts on the Necessity of Endeavoring to Unify the Various Departments of Architecture . . . ’’ (1799)

399

159.

Karl Friedrich Schinkel Literary fragments (c.1805)

401

160.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel from The Philosophy of Fine Art (1820s)

403

161.

Friedrich von Ga¨rtner from Letter to Johann Martin von Wagner (1828)

406

162.

Heinrich Hu¨bsch from In What Style Should We Build? (1828)

407

163.

Rudolf Wiegmann from ‘‘Remarks on the Book: In What Style Should We Build?’’ (1829)

410

164.

Karl Friedrich Schinkel from Notes for a textbook on architecture (c.1830)

412

165.

Karl Friedrich Schinkel from Notes for a textbook on architecture (c.1835)

414

166.

Rudolf Wiegmann from ‘‘Thoughts on the Development of a National Architectural Style for the Present’’ (1841)

415

167.

Johann Heinrich Wolff from ‘‘Remarks on the Architectural Questions Broached by Professor Stier. . . ’’ (1845)

417

168.

Eduard Metzger from ‘‘Contribution to the Contemporary Question: In What Style Should One Build!’’ (1845)

419

169.

Carl Bo¨tticher from ‘‘The Principles of the Hellenic and Germanic Ways of Building’’ (1846)

421

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D. The Rise of American Theory

425

Introduction

425

170.

Thomas Jefferson Letters (1787, 1791, 1805, 1810)

426

171.

Benjamin Latrobe from Letter to Thomas Jefferson (1807)

432

172.

George Tucker from ‘‘On Architecture’’ (1814)

435

173.

William Strickland from Introductory lecture on architecture (1824)

437

174.

Thomas U. Walter from ‘‘Of Modern Architecture’’ (1841)

439

175.

Arthur Delavan Gilman from ‘‘Architecture in the United States’’ (1844)

440

176.

Thomas Alexander Tefft from ‘‘The Cultivation of True Taste’’ (1851)

443

177.

Ralph Waldo Emerson from ‘‘Self-Reliance’’ (1841)

444

178.

Ralph Waldo Emerson from ‘‘Thoughts on Art’’ (1841)

446

179.

Horatio Greenough from Letter to Washington Allston (1831)

449

180.

Horatio Greenough from ‘‘American Architecture’’ (1843)

452

181.

Horatio Greenough from ‘‘Structure and Organization’’ (1852)

454

182.

Henry David Thoreau from his journal ( January 11, 1852)

456

183.

Andrew Jackson Downing from A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1841)

457

184.

Andrew Jackson Downing from Cottage Residences (1842)

460

185.

Andrew Jackson Downing from Hints to Persons about Building in the Country (1847)

462

C ON T EN T S

XVII

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186.

Andrew Jackson Downing from The Architecture of Country Houses (1850)

464

187.

Calvert Vaux from Villas and Cottages (1857)

465

188.

James Jackson Jarves from The Art-Idea (1864)

468

Part VI: Historicism in the Industrial Age

471

A. The Battle of the Styles in Britain

473

Introduction

473

189.

Thomas Hope from Observations on the Plans and Elevations Designed by James Wyatt (1804)

474

190.

Thomas Hope from An Historical Essay on Architecture (1835)

476

191.

Thomas Leverton Donaldson from ‘‘Preliminary Discourse before the University College of London’’ (1842)

478

192.

John Ruskin from The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849)

479

193.

James Fergusson, A. W. N. Pugin, Edward Lacy Garbett, and Robert Kerr from The Builder (1850)

482

194.

Edward Lacy Garbett from Rudimentary Treatise on the Principles of Design in Architecture (1850)

488

195.

John Ruskin from ‘‘The Nature of Gothic’’ (1851–3)

490

196.

Matthew Digby Wyatt from The Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century (1851)

493

197.

Richard Redgrave from ‘‘Supplementary Report on Design’’ (1852)

495

198.

Owen Jones from The Grammar of Ornament (1856)

497

199.

John Ruskin from ‘‘The Deteriorative Power of Conventional Art over Nations’’ (1859)

499

200.

Robert Kerr ‘‘The Battle of the Styles,’’ from The Builder (1860)

500

201.

James Fergusson from History of the Modern Styles of Architecture (1862)

502

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William Morris Prospectus for Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company (1861)

503

B. Rationalism, Eclecticism, and Realism in France

505

Introduction

505

203.

Albert Lenoir and Le´on Vaudoyer from ‘‘Studies of Architecture in France’’ (1844)

506

204.

Euge`ne-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc from ‘‘On the Construction of Religious Building in France’’ (1845)

508

205.

Ce´sar Daly from ‘‘On Liberty in Art’’ (1847)

510

206.

Le´once Reynaud from Treatise on Architecture (1850)

512

207.

Euge`ne-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc from ‘‘Architecture’’ in Reasoned Dictionary (1854)

513

208.

Gustave Courbet from ‘‘Statement on Realism’’ (1855)

515

209.

Charles Baudelaire from ‘‘The Painter of Modern Life’’ (1859)

516

210.

Euge`ne-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc from Lectures on Architecture, Lecture VI (1859)

518

211.

Ce´sar Daly from Revue ge´ne´rale, Vol. 21 (1863)

521

212.

Ce´sar Daly from Revue ge´ne´rale, Vol. 23 (1866)

522

213.

Bourgeois de Lagny from ‘‘Salon of 1866’’

524

214.

Euge`ne-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc from ‘‘Style’’ in Reasoned Dictionary (1866)

525

215.

Euge`ne-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc from Lectures on Architecture, Lecture XII (1866)

526

216.

E´mile Zola from The Covered Market of Paris (1872)

527

C ON T EN T S

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C. Tectonics and Style in Germany

529

Introduction

529

217.

Karl von Schnaase from Dutch Letters (1834)

530

218.

Karl Bo¨tticher from Greek Tectonics (1843)

531

219.

Eduard van der Nu¨ll from ‘‘Suggestions on the Skillful Relation of Ornament to Untreated Form’’ (1845)

533

220.

Heinrich Leibnitz from The Structural Element in Architecture (1849)

534

221.

Gottfried Semper from The Four Elements of Architecture (1851)

536

222.

Gottfried Semper from Science, Industry, and Art (1852)

540

223.

Jacob Burckhardt from The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860)

545

224.

Jacob Burckhardt from The History of the Italian Renaissance (1867)

546

225.

Gottfried Semper from Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts (1860)

547

226.

Gottfried Semper from Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts (1860)

551

227.

Rudolf Hermann Lotze from History of German Aesthetics (1868)

555

228.

Gottfried Semper from On Architectural Style (1869)

556

229.

Richard Lucae from ‘‘On the Meaning and Power of Space in Architecture’’ (1869)

558

Additional Recommended Readings

561

Acknowledgments

568

Index

583

XX

CO N TE N TS

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PREFACE

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he idea of sketching an architectural cross-section through the lines of Western cultural development is a compelling one, if only because the profile of the ideological continuum is on occasions tenuous at best. Theory possesses no tangible form. It exists in large and heavy tomes as well as in short and spirited manifestoes. It is found in the angle of a molding, the silhouette of a roofline, as well as in the impassioned assertions of the confident practitioner. Theory is at times imbued with revolutionary fervor, and it admittedly emanates or takes its lead from larger cultural sensibilities. Architectural theory, for all its occasional abstraction, is nothing less than the history of our ideas regarding our constructed physical surroundings. If we accept this broad definition of theory, we must also accept a wide-ranging approach to the problem of an anthology, one that responds from many sides. Theory needs its context, just as any history of ideas needs its intellectual framework, and the expense and materiality of architecture perhaps make it even more a closely guarded pawn of political ambition, wars, and economic downturns. But ideas also move with a certain volition and tempo of their own, fascinating in their own right. The famous seventeenth-century ‘‘quarrel’’ between the Ancients and the Moderns, for instance, was not only a learned academic dispute concerning past and present accomplishments, but one whose momentous implications for the sciences and arts required more than a century to unfold. Similarly, the seemingly innocent notion of the ‘‘picturesque’’ in late eighteenth-century Britain demanded the same 100 years of aesthetic cultivation to achieve its subtle refinement. And Ralph Waldo Emerson’s notion of ‘‘self-reliance’’ not only crystallized the pioneering spirit of nineteenth-century America but it also strongly resonated within architectural circles for several generations – and arguably still reverberates in American architecture today. Each idea thus possesses its specific circumstances and points of origin, and to this end we have framed each section of our anthology with a historical overview and provided each entry with an introduction. To further the reader’s understanding, we have also suggested a few additional readings in a section at the end of the book. The decision to include a greater (rather than fewer) number of texts and documents in this anthology as well requires an abbreviated format for each selection and a number of necessary stylistic conventions. The use of simple ellipses, ‘‘ . . . ’’, denotes the omission of

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words or phrases within a sentence. Square brackets, [ . . . ], indicate the omission of a sentence, sentences, or several short paragraphs, and they can be employed at the beginning or end of a text as well. Asterisks, * * * , refer to the lengthier omission of a paragraph or more, although in some (noted) cases they also appear in the original text. We have left all English texts in their original punctuation, spelling, and style. Books are italicized and the use of quotation marks indicate shorter writings. The increasing body of texts within the chronological structure reflects not only the growing number of historical documents but also the growing complexity or nuances of the theoretical debate. The aim of this anthology has been to balance the presentation of texts with the always growing richness of ideas, and to provide an introduction to, and an overview of, the subject matter to be reviewed. No anthology is intended to supplant the teaching of architectural theory or to constitute a course in itself; this anthology is most definitely not presented to discourage the reader from turning to the multitude of sources themselves. Anthologies are by nature restrictive, cursory, subjective, even arbitrary in their selection, and always in need of revision. At their best, anthologies provide a framework for ideas and encourage the reader to study the material and its historical context with greater seriousness and depth.

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GENERAL INTRODUCTION

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rchitectural theory has its unique distinctions. It comprises a broad body of ideas and debates, which over many centuries has not only come to form a substantial literary edifice but also one ever more complex and refined in its details and issues. With the articulate engagement of one generation responding to the ideas of another, architectural theory is more often than not contentious and instructive. It is not born in isolation. It reflects the aspirations of emperors and the whims of kings, and again the insights of lay critics and the pride of competing professionals. As an intellectual enterprise, architectural theory draws upon the larger currents of its time – political, social, scientific, philosophical, and cultural – and in this way it often cannot be understood outside of these insinuating forces. As a constructional art, architecture also speaks to the physical world or more generally to human aspirations and values. The study of these ideas is, in its own way, a lucid compendium of human history. The present volume, which is the first of two, begins with theory in ancient and classical times and concludes in 1870. The different eras within this time span, of necessity, are uneven in their presentation. The earliest records we have of architectural thinking in the West are the lay and religious Hebraic traditions recorded in the Old Testament, which became one of the two cornerstones of the later Christian worldview. The other cornerstone – classicism – is generally taken as synonymous with the Greco-Roman tradition. Although we know aspects of this antique culture extremely well, our knowledge of its architectural dimension is limited to its few surviving monuments and to the treatise of Vitruvius, the lone literary work to come down to us from Roman antiquity. But Vitruvius was operating within a fertile line of theoretical development parallel to and more prolific (in terms of writings devoted to architecture) than that of the Middle East, a tradition of theory that stretches back at least five centuries before him. All of these texts (perhaps hundreds) have unfortunately been lost. Our textual holdings from Late Roman and medieval times – when the Christian and classical traditions merge into the body of beliefs that we define as Western culture – is scarcely much larger. Nevertheless, its glorious architectural monuments testify to a refined body of theoretical knowledge. It is only with the Renaissance that this dearth of textual evidence begins to be remedied. The production of inexpensive paper, the invention of the

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printing press, the use of vernacular languages, and the rise of literacy rates – all conspire to make the transmission of ideas more efficient and therefore more abundant. Renaissance writers, at the same time, prided themselves in recovering what they believed to be the lost ideals of classicism. Western theory now plots a relatively straight course (although with interesting regional variations) down to the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, when secular forces-at-large now openly clash with the religious traditions and political structures inherited from the past. The result is that fascinating shattering of theory along nationalist and ‘‘stylistic’’ lines that we generally subsume under the ambiguous concept of historicism. In contrast to the often pejorative use of this term with respect to architectural practice, we shall employ the idea of historicism in a positive sense as an attempt to resolve the apparent discrepancy between greater historical understanding (increasingly viewed in absolute and teleological terms) and an emerging modern industrial state (bourgeois life) that tended toward relativism in both historical and cultural terms. The nineteenth century became increasingly time rich in its theoretical possibilities. And what emerges from it, of course, is that worldview of more modest persuasion which we – too narrowly – refer to as modernism. The concluding line of 1870 may seem arbitrary but it is chosen for several reasons. First the year, or more correctly the years surrounding it, define a time of significant theoretical change. Theory in its four centuries since the Renaissance had been dominated largely by Italian and French writers and was generally ‘‘academic’’ in its bearing. And even though this system and its body of beliefs was tottering well before 1870, academic principles fall into a sharp decline in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, even though classicism as a formal attitude and vocabulary survive. The year, with the defining moment of the FrancoPrussian War, also has symbolic connotations for both Europe and North America. The French defeat not only ushered in for that country (and its proud culture) both economic and military decline, but it also signaled the beginning of cultural parity in the West. Britain, with its proud intellectual traditions, was now confidently pursuing its path of design reforms through the Arts and Crafts Movement. The United States, whose first independent theoretical stirrings appear only in the previous generation, was embarking during its postbellum years on a period of unparalleled economic and cultural expansion. And the soon to be unified Germany, with its unrivaled system of higher education, had become by 1870 perhaps the dominant player in architectural theory – at least as theory developed in the twentieth century. Cultural identities within the Nordic countries and central Europe, in Austria, Switzerland, Spain, and Italy, were also manifesting themselves around this time. It was thus a period of momentous transformation. Still another reason for choosing the year 1870 to conclude this volume is to respond to earlier intellectual histories that tended to isolate the twentieth century. This study does not represents a ‘‘modernist’’ view of the world, and indeed it rejects the historiographic notion of a divide proffered by so many twentieth-century historians. Intellectual production is rather a continuous and always evolving process, for architecture is sometimes a closed process frequently circling upon relatively few alternative strategies or ideas. Modernism, if it can be defined at all, is a phenomenon that forms itself over centuries, and whether we trace its roots to the Enlightenment, to the seventeenth century, or to the Renaissance is largely a matter of historical preference. The fact that architectural theory is a closed process should also not be interpreted to mean that it can be understood in and of itself. Indeed, this XXIV

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particular field of ideas can be grasped in its outlines only by taking into account the context of the philosophical, political, and cultural world in which it arises. It is therefore hoped that the broad approach of this volume will bring both an overview and something of substance to architectural curricula and add substance to the teaching of history and theory.

G E N E R A L I N T R O D U C TI O N

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PART I

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A.

T H E CL A S S I C A L A N D M E D I E V A L TRADITIONS Introduction

T

he word ‘‘classical’’ in English, like its Latin counterpart classicus, carries with it rich connotations. The Latin word derives from the verb calare, ‘‘to call,’’ but this meaning in the Late Roman Republic gave way to referring to those ‘‘of the first class,’’ as opposed to those of the lower classes. Similar meanings accompanied it until its early English usage in the sixteenth century, when the word more generally came to refer to someone or something of the highest rank or importance, a standard or model to imitate. Around the same time, ‘‘classical’’ also came to be associated with any of the Greek and Roman writers of antiquity who were held up as worthy models for emulation. When we speak of the classical tradition in architecture, we refer to the intellectual and artistic productions of Greek and Roman antiquity, and to the ‘‘rediscovery’’ of this legacy in medieval times, the Renaissance, and in the ensuing centuries. I N T R OD U C T I ON T O PA R T I A

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Classicism in architecture, by happenstance, begins with Vitruvius – or Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c.85–c.20 BC) as he is sometimes called, although only the middle name is certain. Classicism is synonymous with Vitruvius because, of the dozens of treatises written on architecture in classical times, his is the one to have survived into modern times. Only a few details of the life of this architect, engineer, and scholar are known with certainty. He was born probably in the second decade of the first century BC, and his breadth of knowledge suggests a good liberal education, training with architects, and travel to various parts of Asia. The chapters of his treatise on the design of houses suggest some familiarity with this subject, but sometime around mid-century he was hired into the service of Julius Caesar as a military engineer. Over the next decade he traveled with the conqueror during his campaigns into Gaul and probably Africa, where Vitruvius prepared fortifications and engines of war. After the Ides of March in 44 BC the architect was without a patron, but within a few years he found employment as an engineer under Caesar’s adopted son Octavian. His decision proved a wise one, because during the years 42–31 BC the forces of Octavian and those of Marc Anthony were squaring off for the control of Rome – a conflict that ended with the defeat of Anthony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31 BC. Four years later Octavian assumed the honorific title of Augustus Caesar and the Roman Empire was born. The now aged Vitruvius was at this point working hard to complete the treatise on which he had probably worked for many years. He dedicated it to the new Emperor, and shortly thereafter built the one building that he included in his 10 scrolls, the basilica at Fano. His description of this building, of which nothing has survived, would in itself also later shape the idea of classicism. Vitrvuius must have died shortly after completing his treatise in the mid-20s BC. De architectura, or the text generally referred to as the Ten Books of Architecture, embraces many more concerns than what today is considered to fall within the realm of architecture. The last three books deal with water (aqueducts, wells), time-pieces (zodiacs, planets, astrology, sundials), and mechanics (pulleys, screws, catapults, battering rams). The first seven books concern architecture, in both its material, constructional, and theoretical aspects. Perhaps the heart of his treatise is found in Books 3 and 4, in which he presents the proportional rules and description of three types of temples, first and foremost their columns, which later will be construed as ‘‘orders.’’ Books 5 and 6 concern other building types, such as basilicas, treasuries, theaters, gymnasia, and dwellings. In Book 1 he presents the six principles of architecture, which are order, arrangement, eurythmy, symmetry, propriety, and economy. A few pages later he reduces these principles to the more famous Vitruvian triad – following a seventeenth-century translation – of commodity, firmness, and delight. Notwithstanding his rules for proportion and symmetry, Vitruvius was not especially dogmatic in his strictures and he allowed the architect considerable latitude in adjusting proportions where the eye deems it necessary. This freedom would be disallowed in later years as proportional rules often came to be seen as sacrosanct canons. The history of ‘‘classicism’’ in relation to De architectura is an interesting one. Limiting the historical importance of these scrolls is the fact that Vitruvius composed them prior to the reign of Augustus, of whom Suetonius once noted that ‘‘he found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble.’’ Thus many of the major monuments whose ruins still grace the city today were not yet built or even contemplated. And when they later came to be constructed they were not designed to the proportional and design specifications outlined by Vitruvius. Hence his treatise has only a small connection with Roman imperial architecture. Speaking in favor of the treatise of Vitruvius, however, is its relation with the classical past. He was an architect versed not only in such Greek philosophers as Pythagoras, Archimedes, Democritus, Plato, and Aristotle, but also in the work of such contemporaries as Varro and Cicero. Moreover, he makes references to dozens of passages and previous treatises on architecture, the vast majority of which were Greek. Vitruvius’s own taste in architecture tended toward the late-Hellenic style, especially the Ionian work of Hermogenes (late third or early second century) and Hermodorus of Salamis (mid-second century). In this way, Vitruvius actually reveals more of the theoretical body of Greek architecture than of the contemporary Roman situation. The classicism of Vitruvius, however, defines only one foundation stone of the antique tradition upon which Western intellectual development is based; the other derives from the rise and eventual dominance of Christianity in the West. With its roots in Judaism, Christian culture is at least as old as its parallel Hellenistic and Roman counterparts, with which it would become conjoined after Constantine’s defeat of Maxentius in AD 312. From his new 4

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throne in Constantinople (founded 324–30), Constantine granted religious freedom to all, but himself converted to Christianity, which now aligned its fortunes (at this point a religion still with a small number of followers) with that of the new Empire. The fates of both the eastern and western Roman empires, however, were not peaceful ones. The Visigoth Alaric captured Rome in 410 (the western empire had moved its capital to Ravenna in 404), and thus began the centuries of the so-called barbarian invasions (actually tribal migrations) that plagued the political stability of Europe well beyond the crowning of Charlemagne as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the year 800. Seven-hundred Viking longships camped on the Champ de Mars in 885 and laid siege to Paris for 11 months. As the Byzantine empire fell into serious decline in the eleventh century, both Turks and Mongols pressed into Europe from the east, while only the Pyrenees protected the Franks from Muslim incursions moving up through Spain. Pope Gregory VII declared the supreme legislative and judicial power of the Papacy in 1075, and 40 years later the first of the Crusades was raised to wrest Jerusalem from Islamic control. By the time of the fourth Crusade (1198–1216), the Latin Church had achieved its apogee as a political and military power and essentially unified Europe with its language, law, and theology. Moreover, contacts with Arab scholars had reintroduced the fruits of the Greco-Roman classical tradition into the West. Thus the Gothic period appeared at the moment when a classical cultural renaissance was taking place in Europe; scholars renewed historical interest and the production of books increased dramatically. Throughout these years the Church’s relationship with classicism was nevertheless ambiguous, to say the least. On the one hand classicism bore the marks of paganism, and therefore many of its secular practices (such as art) were often viewed with suspicion. On the other hand there was a genuine interest in recapturing, as it were, the legacy of the past. For instance Vitruvius, whose impact on Roman architecture was very slight, gains considerably in stature in the Epistles of Sidonius Apollinarius in the fifth century AD. The oldest existent manuscript of his treatise dates from the ninth century, and from that time forward it was copied and distributed by the monastic route. The Archbishop of Rouen bequeathed a copy of the treatise to his cathedral in 1183 and Vincent of Beauvais quoted Vitruvius on proportions – affirming that De architectura was read during Gothic times. Nevertheless, the book of Vitruvius – until the Renaissance – was by no means an influential text, and the major monuments of Romanesque and Gothic times (even with their reminiscences of classical motifs) followed local traditions and the technical knowledge of vaulting that had been evolving since Late Roman times. Symbolism, a prominent feature of Gothic architecture in particular, remained wedded to theological and pedagogical interests. The great monuments of the Middle Ages were extensions of the Church’s teachings.

1

VITRUVIUS from On Architecture, Book 1 (c.25

BC)

V

itruvius compiled his 10 ‘‘books’’ (actually scrolls) from a variety of sources, almost entirely Greek. We might therefore see him – like his contemporary Cicero – as a champion of a Greek revival that was prominent in the last years of the Roman Republic. This was a movement among the Roman intelligentsia, in all of the liberal arts, to assimilate and transpose concepts or terminology from Greek theory. The problem inherent in such a process of grafting, as Vitruvius’s many interpreters have often pointed out, is that of achieving conceptual clarity and consistency of terms.

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c.9–c.20 BC), from Book 1 of De architectura [On architecture] (c.25 BC), trans. Morris Hicky Morgan, in Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture. New York: Dover, 1960 (orig. 1914), pp. 5, 13–17.

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The following passages from the first and second chapters of Book 1 illustrate this problem. After an initial discussion of the areas of education that the aspiring architect should master, Vitruvius identifies the six principles composing the art and science of architecture. But only the last two principles – propriety and economy – are relatively straightforward in their meaning. Order (Greek taxis) is the ordering of parts alone and as a whole, and thus implies the concepts of a module and symmetry. Arrangement (Greek diathesis), which has also been rendered in English as ‘‘design,’’ is similar to order but also adds the idea of aptness of placement. It is also familiar to architects through his discussion of the floor plan, elevation, and perspective. Eurythmy (Latin eurythmia is a transliteration of Greek eurythmos) and symmetry (Greek symmetros; no Latin equivalent) are more elusive. Symmetry, which for Vitruvius is a key concept, is a proper harmony of the parts to each other and to the whole, defining a kind of beauty. Eurythmy, which has also been translated as ‘‘proportion,’’ is not dissimilar to order and arrangement, and it suggests the use of numerical ratios. It is also the visible coherence of form. In the next section, after his very broad definition of architecture, Vitruvius reduces architecture to the principles of durability (Latin firmitas), convenience (Latin utilitas), and beauty (Latin venustas). These are the three terms that Henry Wotten translated in 1624 (in a different order) as ‘‘commodity, firmness, and delight.’’ The idea of constructing a work in a durable and convenient way is self-evident, and what he means by beauty is made manifest by his invocation of the term ‘‘symmetry.’’

The Education of the Architect 1. The architect should be equipped with knowledge of many branches of study and varied kinds of learning, for it is by his judgement that all work done by the other arts is put to test. This knowledge is the child of practice and theory. Practice is the continuous and regular exercise of employment where manual work is done with any necessary material according to the design of a drawing. Theory, on the other hand, is the ability to demonstrate and explain the productions of dexterity on the principles of proportion. 2. It follows, therefore, that architects who have aimed at acquiring manual skill without scholarship have never been able to reach a position of authority to correspond to their pains, while those who relied only upon theories and scholarship were obviously hunting the shadow, not the substance. But those who have a thorough knowledge of both, like men armed at all points, have the sooner attained their object and carried authority with them. [...]

The Fundamental Principles of Architecture 1. Architecture depends on Order (in Greek Ø), Arrangement (in Greek ØŁØ), Eurythmy, Symmetry, Propriety, and Economy (in Greek NŒ Æ). 2. Order gives due measure to the members of a work considered separately, and symmetrical agreement to the proportions of the whole. It is an adjustment according to quantity (in Greek ). By this I mean the selection of modules from the members of the work itself and, starting from these individual parts of members, constructing the whole

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work to correspond. Arrangement includes the putting of things in their proper places and the elegance of effect which is due to adjustments appropriate to the character of the work. Its forms of expression (in Greek NÆØ) are these: groundplan, elevation, and perspective. A groundplan is made by the proper successive use of compasses and rule, through which we get outlines for the plane surfaces of buildings. An elevation is a picture of the front of a building, set upright and properly drawn in the proportions of the contemplated work. Perspective is the method of sketching a front with the sides withdrawing into the background, the lines all meeting in the centre of a circle. All three come of reflexion and invention. Reflexion is careful and laborious thought, and watchful attention directed to the agreeable effect of one’s plan. Invention, on the other hand, is the solving of intricate problems and the discovery of new principles by means of brilliancy and versatility. These are the departments belonging under Arrangement. 3. Eurythmy is beauty and fitness in the adjustments of the members. This is found when the members of a work are of a height suited to their breadth, of a breadth suited to their length, and, in a word, when they all correspond symmetrically. 4. Symmetry is a proper agreement between the members of the work itself, and relation between the different parts and the whole general scheme, in accordance with a certain part selected as standard. Thus in the human body there is a kind of symmetrical harmony between forearm, foot, palm, finger, and other small parts; and so it is with perfect buildings. In the case of temples, symmetry may be calculated from the thickness of a column, from a triglyph, or even from a module; in the ballista, from the hole or from what the Greeks call the ææ; in a ship, from the space between the tholepins (Ø ª Æ); and in other things, from various members. 5. Propriety is that perfection of style which comes when a work is authoritatively constructed on approved principles. It arises from prescription (Greek Ł ÆØ fiH), from usage, or from nature. From prescription, in the case of hypaethral edifices, open to the sky, in honour of Jupiter Lightning, the Heaven, the Sun, or the Moon: for these are gods whose semblances and manifestations we behold before our very eyes in the sky when it is cloudless and bright. The temples of Minerva, Mars, and Hercules, will be Doric, since the virile strength of these gods makes daintiness entirely inappropriate to their houses. In temples to Venus, Flora, Proserpine, Spring-Water, and the Nymphs, the Corinthian order will be found to have peculiar significance, because these are delicate divinities and so its rather slender outlines, its flowers, leaves, and ornamental volutes will lend propriety where it is due. The construction of temples of the Ionic order to Juno, Diana, Father Bacchus, and the other gods of that kind, will be in keeping with the middle position which they hold; for the building of such will be an appropriate combination of the severity of the Doric and the delicacy of the Corinthian. 6. Propriety arises from usage when buildings having magnificent interiors are provided with elegant entrance-courts to correspond; for there will be no propriety in the spectacle of an elegant interior approached by a low, mean entrance. Or, if dentils be carved in the cornice of the Doric entablature or triglyphs represented in the Ionic entablature over the cushion-shaped capitals of the columns, the effect will be spoilt by the transfer of the peculiarities of the one order of building to the other, the usage in each class having been fixed long ago.

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7. Finally, propriety will be due to natural causes if, for example, in the case of all sacred precincts we select very healthy neighbourhoods with suitable springs of water in the places where the fanes are to be built, particularly in the case of those to Aesculapius and to Health, gods by whose healing powers great numbers of the sick are apparently cured. For when their diseased bodies are transferred from an unhealthy to a healthy spot, and treated with waters from health-giving springs, they will the more speedily grow well. The result will be that the divinity will stand in higher esteem and find his dignity increased, all owing to the nature of his site. There will also be natural propriety in using an eastern light for bedrooms and libraries, a western light in winter for baths and winter apartments, and a northern light for picture galleries and other places in which a steady light is needed; for that quarter of the sky grows neither light nor dark with the course of the sun, but remains steady and unshifting all day long. 8. Economy denotes the proper management of materials and of site, as well as a thrifty balancing of cost and common sense in the construction of works. This will be observed if, in the first place, the architect does not demand things which cannot be found or made ready without great expense. For example: it is not everywhere that there is plenty of pitsand, rubble, fir, clear fir, and marble, since they are produced in different places and to assemble them is difficult and costly. Where there is no pitsand, we must use the kinds washed up by rivers or by the sea; the lack of fir and clear fir may be evaded by using cypress, poplar, elm, or pine; and other problems we must solve in similar ways. 9. A second stage in Economy is reached when we have to plan the different kinds of dwellings suitable for ordinary householders, for great wealth, or for the high position of the statesman. A house in town obviously calls for one form of construction; that into which stream the products of country estates requires another; this will not be the same in the case of money-lenders and still different for the opulent and luxurious; for the powers under whose deliberations the commonwealth is guided dwellings are to be provided according to their special needs: and, in a word, the proper form of economy must be observed in building houses for each and every class.

The Departments of Architecture 1. There are three departments of architecture: the art of building, the making of timepieces, and the construction of machinery. Building is, in its turn, divided into two parts, of which the first is the construction of fortified towns and of works for general use in public places, and the second is the putting up of structures for private individuals. There are three classes of public buildings: the first for defensive, the second for religious, and the third for utilitarian purposes. Under defence comes the planning of walls, towers, and gates, permanent devices for resistance against hostile attacks; under religion, the erection of fanes and temples to the immortal gods; under utility, the provision of meeting places for public use, such as harbours, markets, colonnades, baths, theatres, promenades, and all other similar arrangements in public places. 2. All these must be built with due reference to durability, convenience, and beauty. Durability will be assured when foundations are carried down to the solid ground and 8

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materials wisely and liberally selected; convenience, when the arrangement of the apartments is faultless and presents no hindrance to use, and when each class of building is assigned to its suitable and appropriate exposure; and beauty, when the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste, and when its members are in due proportion according to correct principles of symmetry.

2

VITRUVIUS from On Architecture, Book 2 (c.25

BC)

V

itruvius devotes almost all of Book 2 of his treatise to a discussion of materials, but he introduces these technical matters with his exposition on the origin of architecture. What this story reveals is the extent of Vitruvius’s travels, although it is unclear if he indeed ventured to Spain and Portugal. The vividness of his description of the Phrygians suggests that he visited these parts of central and western Asia Minor, generally what is today Turkey. He also seems to have visited Athens, but the city’s most famous monument – the Parthenon – is unfortunately not mentioned in his treatise. This passage also becomes important in the mid-eighteenth century when Marc-Antoine Laugier, who is seeking to overturn the relevance of Vitruvian theory, again draws on the primitive hut to prove that architecture is a rational art.

The Origin of the Dwelling House 1. The men of old were born like the wild beasts, in woods, caves, and groves, and lived on savage fare. As time went on, the thickly crowded trees in a certain place, tossed by storms and winds, and rubbing their branches against one another, caught fire, and so the inhabitants of the place were put to flight, being terrified by the furious flame. After it subsided, they drew near, and observing that they were very comfortable standing before the warm fire, they put on logs and, while thus keeping it alive, brought up other people to it, showing them by signs how much comfort they got from it. In that gathering of men, at a time when utterance of sound was purely individual, from daily habits they fixed upon articulate words just as these had happened to come; then, from indicating by name things in common use, the result was that in this chance way they began to talk, and thus originated conversation with one another. 2. Therefore it was the discovery of fire that originally gave rise to the coming together of men, to the deliberative assembly, and to social intercourse. And so, as they kept coming together in greater numbers into one place, finding themselves naturally gifted beyond the other animals in not being obliged to walk with faces to the ground, but upright and gazing upon the splendour of the starry firmament, and also in being able to do with ease whatever Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, from Book 2, chapter 1 of De architectura [On architecture] (c.25 BC), trans. Morris Hicky Morgan, in Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture. New York: Dover, 1960 (orig. 1914), pp. 38–41.

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they chose with their hands and fingers, they began in that first assembly to construct shelters. Some made them of green boughs, others dug caves on mountain sides, and some, in imitation of the nests of swallows and the way they built, made places of refuge out of mud and twigs. Next, by observing the shelters of others and adding new details to their own inceptions, they constructed better and better kinds of huts as time went on. 3. And since they were of an imitative and teachable nature, they would daily point out to each other the results of their building, boasting of the novelties in it; and thus, with their natural gifts sharpened by emulation, their standards improved daily. At first they set up forked stakes connected by twigs and covered these walls with mud. Others made walls of lumps of dried mud, covering them with reeds and leaves to keep out the rain and the heat. Finding that such roofs could not stand the rain during the storms of winter, they built them with peaks daubed with mud, the roofs sloping and projecting so as to carry off the rain water. 4. That houses originated as I have written above, we can see for ourselves from the buildings that are to this day constructed of like materials by foreign tribes: for instance, in Gaul, Spain, Portugal, and Aquitaine, roofed with oak shingles or thatched. Among the Colchians in Pontus, where there are forests in plenty, they lay down entire trees flat on the ground to the right and the left, leaving between them a space to suit the length of the trees, and then place above these another pair of trees, resting on the ends of the former and at right angles with them. These four trees enclose the space for the dwelling. Then upon these they place sticks of timber, one after the other on the four sides, crossing each other at the angles, and so, proceeding with their walls of trees laid perpendicularly above the lowest, they build up high towers. The interstices, which are left on account of the thickness of the building material, are stopped up with chips and mud. As for the roofs, by cutting away the ends of the crossbeams and making them converge gradually as they lay them across, they bring them up to the top from the four sides in the shape of a pyramid. They cover it with leaves and mud, and thus construct the roofs of their towers in a rude form of the ‘‘tortoise’’ style. 5. On the other hand, the Phrygians, who live in an open country, have no forests and consequently lack timber. They therefore select a natural hillock, run a trench through the middle of it, dig passages, and extend the interior space as widely as the site admits. Over it they build a pyramidal roof of logs fastened together, and this they cover with reeds and brushwood, heaping up very high mounds of earth above their dwellings. Thus their fashion in houses makes their winters very warm and their summers very cool. Some construct hovels with roofs of rushes from the swamps. Among other nations, also, in some places there are huts of the same or a similar method of construction. Likewise at Marseilles we can see roofs without tiles, made of earth mixed with straw. In Athens on the Areopagus there is to this day a relic of antiquity with a mud roof. The hut of Romulus on the Capitol is a significant reminder of the fashions of old times, and likewise the thatched roofs of temples on the Citadel. 6. From such specimens we can draw our inferences with regard to the devices used in the buildings of antiquity, and conclude that they were similar. Furthermore, as men made progress by becoming daily more expert in building, and as their ingenuity was increased by their dexterity so that from habit they attained to considerable skill, their intelligence was enlarged by their industry until the more proficient 10

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adopted the trade of carpenters. From these early beginnings, and from the fact that nature had not only endowed the human race with senses like the rest of the animals, but had also equipped their minds with the powers of thought and understanding, thus putting all other animals under their sway, they next gradually advanced from the construction of buildings to the other arts and sciences, and so passed from a rude and barbarous mode of life to civilization and refinement. 7. Then, taking courage and looking forward from the standpoint of higher ideas born of the multiplication of the arts, they gave up huts and began to build houses with foundations, having brick or stone walls, and roofs of timber and tiles; next, observation and application led them from fluctuating and indefinite conceptions to definite rules of symmetry. Perceiving that nature had been lavish in the bestowal of timber and bountiful in stores of building material, they treated this like careful nurses, and thus developing the refinements of life, embellished them with luxuries.

3

VITRUVIUS from On Architecture, Book 3 (c.25

BC)

V

itruvian theory is sometimes described as anthropomorphic in the sense that he predicates proportional rules on the ratios of the human body. Here, in this explication of the idea of ‘‘symmetry’’ in Book 3, he supplies this theoretical basis for why proportions are important. His description of a man with outstretched limbs, placed within a circle and square, later becomes the basis for various Renaissance sketches, the most famous of which is that of Leonardo da Vinci. This proportional aligning of architecture with the human figure, or more generally with the proportional rules of nature, will become a cornerstone of classical theory.

On Symmetry: In Temples and in the Human Body 1. The design of a temple depends on symmetry, the principles of which must be most carefully observed by the architect. They are due to proportion, in Greek analg ia. Proportion is a correspondence among the measures of the members of an entire work, and of the whole to a certain part selected as standard. From this result the principles of symmetry. Without symmetry and proportion there can be no principles in the design of any temple; that is, if there is no precise relation between its members, as in the case of those of a well shaped man. 2. For the human body is so designed by nature that the face, from the chin to the top of the forehead and the lowest roots of the hair, is a tenth part of the whole height; the open hand from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger is just the same; the head from the chin to Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, from Book 3, chapter 1 of De architectura [On architecture] (c.25 BC), trans. Morris Hicky Morgan, in Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture. New York: Dover, 1960 (orig. 1914), pp. 72–3.

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the crown is an eighth, and with the neck and shoulder from the top of the breast to the lowest roots of the hair is a sixth; from the middle of the breast to the summit of the crown is a fourth. If we take the height of the face itself, the distance from the bottom of the chin to the under side of the nostrils is one third of it; the nose from the under side of the nostrils to a line between the eyebrows is the same; from there to the lowest roots of the hair is also a third, comprising the forehead. The length of the foot is one sixth of the height of the body; of the forearm, one fourth; and the breadth of the breast is also one fourth. The other members, too, have their own symmetrical proportions, and it was by employing them that the famous painters and sculptors of antiquity attained to great and endless renown. 3. Similarly, in the members of a temple there ought to be the greatest harmony in the symmetrical relations of the different parts to the general magnitude of the whole. Then again, in the human body the central point is naturally the navel. For if a man be placed flat on his back, with his hands and feet extended, and a pair of compasses centred at his navel, the fingers and toes of his two hands and feet will touch the circumference of a circle described therefrom. And just as the human body yields a circular outline, so too a square figure may be found from it. For if we measure the distance from the soles of the feet to the top of the head, and then apply that measure to the outstretched arms, the breadth will be found to be the same as the height, as in the case of plane surfaces which are perfectly square. 4. Therefore, since nature has designed the human body so that its members are duly proportioned to the frame as a whole, it appears that the ancients had good reason for their rule, that in perfect buildings the different members must be in exact symmetrical relations to the whole general scheme. Hence, while transmitting to us the proper arrangements for buildings of all kinds, they were particularly careful to do so in the case of temples of the gods, buildings in which merits and faults usually last forever.

4

VITRUVIUS from On Architecture, Book 4 (c.25

BC)

N

o book reveals the ‘‘Roman’’ character of De architectura better than Book 4, the Preface to which forms this dedication to the Emperor Augustus Caesar. Vitruvius, in his ambition to write a ‘‘complete and orderly form of presentation,’’ obviously felt he was setting a historical precedent. Even more enchanting to later generations is his often-repeated discussion of the origin of the three architectural orders: the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. These stories are sometimes said to compose the ‘‘mythology’’ of architecture, fables that were eventually discredited by the rational forces of the Western Enlightenment, but once again they demonstrate the anthropomorphic basis of Vitruvian theory. One sentence within this passage that should not be overlooked is his admission that the proportions for both the Doric and Ionic columns changed after some ‘‘progress in refinement and delicacy of feeling.’’ Renaissance humanists, operating from a very different aesthetic basis, regarded this

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, from Book 4, chapter 1 of De architectura [On architecture] (c.25 BC), trans. Morris Hicky Morgan, in Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture. New York: Dover, 1960 (orig. 1914), pp. 102–7.

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remark as a fault of his theory and sought to find hard and fast rules for proportions, ones that would not change over time. In the end, this dispute over the invariability of proportions would eventually lead classical theory into a crisis.

The Origins of the Three Orders, and the Proportions of the Corinthian Capital 1. Corinthian columns are, excepting in their capitals, of the same proportions in all respects as Ionic; but the height of their capitals gives them proportionately a taller and more slender effect. This is because the height of the Ionic capital is only one third of the thickness of the column, while that of the Corinthian is the entire thickness of the shaft. Hence, as two thirds are added in Corinthian capitals, their tallness gives a more slender appearance to the columns themselves. 2. The other members which are placed above the columns, are, for Corinthian columns, composed either of the Doric proportions or according to the Ionic usages; for the Corinthian order never had any scheme peculiar to itself for its cornices or other ornaments, but may have mutules in the coronae and guttae on the architraves according to the triglyph system of the Doric style, or, according to Ionic practices, it may be arranged with a frieze adorned with sculptures and accompanied with dentils and coronae. 3. Thus a third architectural order, distinguished by its capital, was produced out of the two other orders. To the forms of their columns are due the names of the three orders, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, of which the Doric was the first to arise, and in early times. For Dorus, the son of Hellen and the nymph Phthia, was king of Achaea and all the Peloponnesus, and he built a fane, which chanced to be of this order, in the precinct of Juno at Argolis, a very ancient city, and subsequently others of the same order in the other cities of Achaea, although the rules of symmetry were not yet in existence. 4. Later, the Athenians, in obedience to oracles of the Delphic Apollo, and with the general agreement of all Hellas, despatched thirteen colonies at one time to Asia Minor, appointing leaders for each colony and giving the command-in-chief to Ion, son of Xuthus and Creusa (whom further Apollo at Delphi in the oracles had acknowledged as his son). Ion conducted those colonies to Asia Minor, took possession of the land of Caria, and there founded the grand cities of Ephesus, Miletus, Myus (long ago engulfed by the water, and its sacred rites and suffrage handed over by the Ionians to the Milesians), Priene, Samos, Teos, Colophon, Chius, Erythrae, Phocaea, Clazomenae, Lebedos, and Melite. This Melite, on account of the arrogance of its citizens, was destroyed by the other cities in a war declared by general agreement, and in its place, through the kindness of King Attalus and Arsinoe, the city of the Smyrnaeans was admitted among the Ionians. 5. Now these cities, after driving out the Carians and Lelegans, called that part of the world Ionia from their leader Ion, and there they set off precincts for the immortal gods and began to build fanes: first of all, a temple to Panionion Apollo such as they had seen in Achaea, calling it Doric because they had first seen that kind of temple built in the states of the Dorians. V I T R U VI U S, ON AR CHI T ECT U R E , B OO K 4

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6. Wishing to set up columns in that temple, but not having rules for their symmetry, and being in search of some way by which they could render them fit to bear a load and also of a satisfactory beauty of appearance, they measured the imprint of a man’s foot and compared this with his height. On finding that, in a man, the foot was one sixth of the height, they applied the same principle to the column, and reared the shaft, including the capital, to a height six times its thickness at its base. Thus the Doric column, as used in buildings, began to exhibit the proportions, strength, and beauty of the body of a man. 7. Just so afterwards, when they desired to construct a temple to Diana in a new style of beauty, they translated these footprints into terms characteristic of the slenderness of women, and thus first made a column the thickness of which was only one eighth of its height, so that it might have a taller look. At the foot they substituted the base in place of a shoe; in the capital they placed the volutes, hanging down at the right and left like curly ringlets, and ornamented its front with cymatia and with festoons of fruit arranged in place of hair, while they brought the flutes down the whole shaft, falling like the folds in the robes worn by matrons. Thus in the invention of the two different kinds of columns, they borrowed manly beauty, naked and unadorned, for the one, and for the other the delicacy, adornment, and proportions characteristic of women. 8. It is true that posterity, having made progress in refinement and delicacy of feeling, and finding pleasure in more slender proportions, has established seven diameters of the thickness as the height of the Doric column, and nine as that of the Ionic. The Ionians, however, originated the order which is therefore named Ionic. The third order, called Corinthian, is an imitation of the slenderness of a maiden; for the outlines and limbs of maidens, being more slender on account of their tender years, admit of prettier effects in the way of adornment. 9. It is related that the original discovery of this form of capital was as follows. A freeborn maiden of Corinth, just of marriageable age, was attacked by an illness and passed away. After her burial, her nurse, collecting a few little things which used to give the girl pleasure while she was alive, put them in a basket, carried it to the tomb, and laid it on top thereof, covering it with a roof-tile so that the things might last longer in the open air. This basket happened to be placed just above the root of an acanthus. The acanthus root, pressed down meanwhile though it was by the weight, when springtime came round put forth leaves and stalks in the middle, and the stalks, growing up along the sides of the basket, and pressed out by the corners of the tile through the compulsion of its weight, were forced to bend into volutes at the outer edges. 10. Just then Callimachus, whom the Athenians called katathjit«xn§ for the refinement and delicacy of his artistic work, passed by this tomb and observed the basket with the tender young leaves growing round it. Delighted with the novel style and form, he built some columns after that pattern for the Corinthians, determined their symmetrical proportions, and established from that time forth the rules to be followed in finished works of the Corinthian order.

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O LD T ES TA M E N T from I Kings

V

itruvius died more than two decades before the birth of Christ, and thus he could not have imagined what would become the Judeo-Christian tradition and its eventual assimilation into the Roman Empire. This religious tradition was, in fact, a parallel world existing alongside Greco-Roman antiquity, with similar yet different ties to the various cultures of the Middle East and Egypt. In Hebrew canon, the two Old Testament books of Kings formed one volume and constituted one of the eight books of the Prophets. Together they compose legendary Jewish history from the time of Ahaziah (c.850 BC) to the release of Jehoiachin from Babylonian imprisonment (c.561 BC). Its author is sometimes said to be Jeremiah, who lived in the late seventh and sixth centuries, although this point has been disputed. I Kings gains its importance to architectural theory because it contains one of the oldest descriptions of architecture that has survived into modern times. Moreover, it describes the famed Temple of Solomon: the temple built in Jerusalem by King Solomon in the mid-tenth century and destroyed by the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. The complex was constructed by Phoenician artisans and its centerpiece was the sanctuary, in front of which stood the two bronze pillars of Yachin and Boaz. The following two passages make clear the importance of costly materials to the chronicler, but equally the importance of numerical proportions (in this case supplied by the Lord himself) to preclassical design. Numeric ratios were thus central not only to the Greco-Roman civilization but also the Judaic and later Christian cultures as well.

Chapter 6 Solomon builds the temple And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD. 2 And the house which king Solomon built for the LORD, the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits. 3 And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house. 4 And for the house he made windows of narrow lights. 5 And against the wall of the house he built chambers round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle: and he made chambers round about: 6 The nethermost chamber was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad: for without in the wall of the house he made narrowed rests round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house.

Old Testament, from I Kings, chapters 6 and 7 in the King James version of the Holy Bible.

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7 And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building. 8 The door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house: and they went up with winding stairs into the middle chamber, and out of the middle into the third. 9 So he built the house, and finished it; and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar. 10 And then he built chambers against all the house, five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar. 11 And the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying, 12 Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father: 13 And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel. 14 So Solomon built the house, and finished it. 15 And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar, both the floor of the house, and the walls of the ceiling: and he covered them on the inside with wood, and covered the floor of the house with planks of fir. 16 And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house, both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar: he even built them for it within, even for the oracle, even for the most holy place. 17 And the house, that is, the temple before it, was forty cubits long. 18 And the cedar of the house within was carved with knops and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen. 19 And the oracle he prepared in the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD. 20 And the oracle in the forepart was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof: and he overlaid it with pure gold; and so covered the altar which was of cedar. 21 So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold. 22 And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house: also the whole altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold. 23 And within the oracle he made two cher-u-bim of olive tree, each ten cubits high. 24 And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing unto the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits. 25 And the other cherub was ten cubits: both the cher-u-bim were of one measure and one size. 26 The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was it of the other cherub. 27 And he set the cher-u-bim within the inner house: and they stretched forth the wings of the cher-u-bim, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house. 28 And he overlaid the cher-u-bim with gold. 16

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29 And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cher-ubim and palm trees and open flowers, within and without. 30 And the floor of the house he overlaid with gold, within and without. 31 And for the entering of the oracle he made doors of olive tree: the lintel and side posts were a fifth part of the wall. 32 The two doors also were of olive tree; and he carved upon them carvings of cher-u-bim and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cher-u-bim, and upon the palm trees. 33 So also made he for the door of the temple posts of olive tree, a fourth part of the wall. 34 And the two doors were of fir tree: the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. 35 And he carved thereon cher-u-bim and palm trees and open flowers: and covered them with gold fitted upon the carved work. 36 And he built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone, and a row of cedar beams. 37 In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the LORD laid, in the month Zif: 38 And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it.

Chapter 7 The other buildings of Solomon [...] 13 And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. 14 He was a widow’s son of the tribe of Naph-ta-li, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass: and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work. 15 For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece: and a line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about. 16 And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits: 17 And nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars; seven for the one chapiter, and seven for the other chapiter. 18 And he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters there were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other chapiter. 19 And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch, four cubits. 20 And the chapiters upon the two pillars had pomegranates also above, over against the belly which was by the network: and the pomegranates were two hundred in rows round about upon the other chapiter. O L D T E S T AM E N T , I KI N GS

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21 And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Ja-chin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Bo-az. 22 And upon the top of the pillars was lily work: so was the work of the pillars finished.

6

O LD T ES TA M E N T from The Book of Ezekiel (c.586

BC)

A

lmost contemporary with the writer of I Kings was the prophet Ezekiel, a Jewish priest who was carried away to Babylonia in captivity in 597 BC. Four years later he followed his call into the prophetic ministry and soon thereafter began warning his fellow exiles about the impending doom of Jerusalem, which he saw as divine punishment for Hebraic sinfulness. The first 33 chapters of Ezekiel were composed before the fall of Jerusalem, but after the city’s destruction in 586 Ezekiel turned his prophetic vision to the rebuilding of the city and its holy shrines. In chapters 40 to 42 he speaks of rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem, now to be constructed on a grander scale equal to the Babylonian temples with which he was familiar. Once again there is a great emphasis on the numerical and mathematical purity of the work (he may indeed have drawn upon I Kings), and again there is the great importance he places on symbolism.

Chapter 41 The measuring of the temple Afterward he brought me to the temple, and measured the posts, six cubits broad on the one side, and six cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the tabernacle. 2 And the breadth of the door was ten cubits; and the sides of the door were five cubits on the one side, and five cubits on the other side: and he measured the length thereof, forty cubits: and the breadth, twenty cubits. 3 Then went he inward, and measured the post of the door, two cubits; and the door, six cubits; and the breadth of the door, seven cubits. 4 So he measured the length thereof, twenty cubits; and the breadth, twenty cubits, before the temple: and he said unto me, This is the most holy place. 5 After he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the breadth of every side chamber, four cubits, round about the house on every side. 6 And the side chambers were three, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which was of the house for the side chambers round about, that they might have hold, but they had not hold in the wall of the house.

Old Testament, from The Book of Ezekiel (c.586 BC), chapter 41, ‘‘The Measuring of the Temple,’’ in the King James version of the Holy Bible.

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7 And there was an enlarging, and a winding about still upward to the side chambers: for the winding about of the house went still upward round about the house: therefore the breadth of the house was still upward, and so increased from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst. 8 I saw also the height of the house round about: the foundations of the side chambers were a full reed of six great cubits. 9 The thickness of the wall, which was for the side chamber without, was five cubits: and that which was left was the place of the side chambers that were within. 10 And between the chambers was the wideness of twenty cubits round about the house on every side. 11 And the doors of the side chambers were toward the place that was left, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south: and the breadth of the place that was left was five cubits round about. 12 Now the building that was before the separate place at the end toward the west was seventy cubits broad; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick round about, and the length thereof ninety cubits. 13 So he measured the house, a hundred cubits long; and the separate place, and the building, with the walls thereof, a hundred cubits long; 14 Also the breadth of the face of the house, and of the separate place toward the east, a hundred cubits. 15 And he measured the length of the building over against the separate place which was behind it, and the galleries thereof on the one side and on the other side, a hundred cubits, with the inner temple, and the porches of the court; 16 The door posts, and the narrow windows, and the galleries round about on their three stories, over against the door, ceiled with wood round about, and from the ground up to the windows, and the windows were covered; 17 To that above the door, even unto the inner house, and without, and by all the wall round about within and without, by measure. 18 And it was made with cher-u-bim and palm trees, so that a palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub; and every cherub had two faces; 19 So that the face of a man was toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side: it was made through all the house round about. 20 From the ground unto above the door were cher-u-bim and palm trees made, and on the wall of the temple. 21 The posts of the temple were squared, and the face of the sanctuary; the appearance of the one as the appearance of the other. 22 The altar of wood was three cubits high, and the length thereof two cubits; and the corners thereof, and the length thereof, and the walls thereof, were of wood: and he said unto me, This is the table that is before the LORD. 23 And the temple and the sanctuary had two doors. 24 And the doors had two leaves apiece, two turning leaves; two leaves for the one door, and two leaves for the other door.

O LD T E ST A M E N T , BOOK OF EZEKIEL

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25 And there were made on them, on the doors of the temple cher-u-bim and palm trees, like as were made upon the walls; and there were thick planks upon the face of the porch without. 26 And there were narrow windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch, and upon the side chambers of the house, and thick planks.

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NEW TESTAMENT from The Revelation of Jesus Christ to Saint John (c.95 AD)

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he book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse, is the last book to have been incorporated into the canon of the New Testament. It is a work of prophecy, and the author identifies himself as John. Earlier biblical scholars accepted that he was the apostle John, but more recent scholarship suggests that he was a Palestinian Christian priest who fled into exile after the First Jewish Revolt against the Romans in 66–73 AD. The Revelation speaks to the Roman persecution of Christians, but more vividly to the second coming of Christ on the day of the Last Judgment. Toward the end of book, after recounting the defeat of Satan, John records his vision of the new earth and the new Jerusalem. The earlier Judaic tradition of numerology and symbolism here takes on a distinct Christian cast. The Revelation would become enormously influential during the Christian Middle Ages.

Chapter 21 The new heaven and the new earth And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

New Testament, from The Revelation of Jesus Christ to Saint John (c.95 AD), chapter 21, in the King James version of the Holy Bible.

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6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. 8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

The new Jerusalem 9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. 10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; 12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: 13 On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. 16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. 17 And he measured the wall thereof, a hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of man, that is, of the angel. 18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. 19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. 22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

N E W T E S TA M E N T , R E V E LAT I O N

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24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. 25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. 26 And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. 27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

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ABBOT SUGER from The Book of Suger, Abbot of Saint-Denis (c.1144)

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he onetime village of Saint-Denis (now a part of Paris) holds a particularly important place within architectural history because it is the birthplace of Gothic architecture. The rebuilding of this Carolingian pilgrimage church (originally founded in the late eighth century) is owed to the efforts of Abbot Suger (1081–1151). The church was a shrine to the spiritual apostle of France, and for this reason Charlemagne and his son Pepin, establishing a precedent, were crowned there as kings. It was because of this dual religious and political significance that Suger, a childhood friend of Louis VI, sought to enhance both his friend’s political standing (royal power in France at this time was second to that of nobles) and the authority of the Church by enlarging the existing abbey church. The important work of building the new narthex on the western front, containing the first rose window, and the enlarged Gothic choir on the eastern end were largely carried out between 1137 and the church’s rededication in 1144. The choir in particular is a masterpiece of structural innovation. With the removal of the traditional walls separating choir chapels in Romanesque churches, Suger and his (unknown) master mason, devising seven radial chapels, created a double ambulatory of pointed arches and vaults supported on slender columns (with quasi-classical capitals), and reinforced the delicacy of the stonework with piers and flying buttresses outside. The curved outside walls of the chapels thus became walls of glass, introducing both abundant light and extreme visual lightness. The new structural solution even achieved the status of a ‘‘miracle’’ when, during construction, a violent storm destroyed many surrounding buildings but left the rib work for the new vaults intact. These passages from Suger’s LIBELLUS ALTER DE CONSECRATIONE ECCLESIAE SANCTI DIONYSII relate to the conception and planning of the all-important choir. The importance of geometry and proportions are made evident, as is some of the basic symbolism of the church. Having thus deliberated with our very devoted brothers – ‘‘Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way’’ – we decided upon deliberation under God’s inspiration . . . to respect the stones themselves, sanctified in this way as much as relics. We endeavored to apply ourselves to ennoble this much-needed new [choir] through the beauty of the length and width. Upon reflection, we thus decided to replace the vault, unequal to the higher one that covered the apse containing the bodies of our Patron Saints,

Abbot Suger (c.1081–1151), from The Book of Suger, Abbot of Saint-Denis (c.1144), trans. Christina Contandriopoulos from the French translation of the Latin text, ed. and trans. Franc¸oise Gasparri, in Les Classiques de l’histoire de France, Vol. 1. Paris: Belles Lettres, 1996, pp. 25–39. Reproduced by permission.

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down to the upper level of the crypt, to which it was connected. In this way, a single crypt would offer its top as a pavement to those arriving by the stairs on both sides, and it would allow the visitors on the upper level a view of the relics of saints adorned with gold and precious stone. With perspicacity and with the help of geometrical and arithmetical tools, we also endeavored to make the center of the old church coincide with the center of the new construction by superimposing the upper columns and median arches over those that were built in the crypt; [we managed] also to adapt the proportions of the ancient side aisles to the new ones – except for that remarkable and elegant addition yielding a crown of chapels, because of which the entire [church] would brilliantly shine with the remarkable and uninterrupted light of the dazzling windows illuminating the interior beauty. [...] Thus at great expense, and thanks to so many workers, we applied ourselves for three years, summer and winter, to the completion of this work . . . In the center [of the building] twelve columns represented the group of twelve Apostles. The second group of the columns represented the same number of prophets in the ambulatory, which suddenly projected the building to another size, according to the Apostle who built spiritually: ‘‘Now therefore,’’ he said, ‘‘ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord.’’ In Him, we too applied ourselves to build an edifice materially as tall and with as much fitness as we could, by us spiritually [to become] the house of God in the Holy Spirit. [...] Here is an event we have thought should not be passed over in silence. When work on the new addition with its capitals and upper arches was reaching the summit of its height, but when the independently constructed main arches were not yet connected to the mass of the vaults, there suddenly arose a terrible, almost intolerable storm. It had accumulations of clouds, pouring rain, and very violent winds, which were severe to the point of shaking not only robust houses but also stone towers and timber donjons. During this storm, on the anniversary of the glorious king Dagobert, the venerable bishop Charles Geoffroy was solemnly celebrating a Mass of thanksgiving at the main altar before the community for the soul of this king. The violence of the opposing winds pushed so hard against these arches, which were not supported by any scaffolding or braced by any prop, that they miserably trembled and oscillated from side to side in such a way that they threatened to fall abruptly into ruin beyond repair. Frightened by the shaking of these arches and roofing, the Bishop frequently extended his hand in that direction in a sign of benediction, and presented with insistence the arm of the old [St.] Sime´on, while making the sign of the cross. Thus it became very clear that the collapse [of the construction] was avoided not because of its own strength but only because of God’s goodness and the glory of the Saints. Whereas in many places the tempest had caused great damage to many well-built buildings, the storm, held in check by divine force, inflicted no damage at all on these isolated, newly constructed arches tottering in the air.

AB B OT SU G E R , T H E B OO K OF S U G E R

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WILLIAM DURANDUS from The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments (1286)

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illiam Durandus was a prominent theorist of canon law in high Gothic times. Born in French Provence, he first studied law at Bologna before teaching canon law at Modena. He was next summoned to Rome by Clement IV, ordained, and given the titular canonries at Beauvais and Chartres. As the secretary to Gregory X, he accompanied him to the Second Council of Lyons in 1274 and later defended papal territories with armies against the Guelphs and Ghibellines. This defense led to his promotion as Bishop of Mende in 1286. Durandus’s Rationale divinorum officiorum was apparently complete in this year, and this treatise of eight books is still today seen as the most complete authority for thirteenth-century liturgical rites and their symbolism. Book 1, which in 1843 was translated as The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments, deals with the symbolism of the church itself and its various parts, and it is evident from this extraordinary excerpt that every architectural component of a Gothic church had its specific meaning or message for the worshippers. 24. The glass windows in a church are Holy Scriptures, which expel the wind and the rain, that is all things hurtful, but transmit the light of the true Sun, that is, God, into the hearts of the faithful. These are wider within than without, because the mystical sense is the more ample, and precedeth the literal meaning. Also, by the windows the senses of the body are signified: which ought to be shut to the vanities of this world, and open to receive with all freedom spiritual gifts. 25. By the lattice work of the windows, we understand the prophets or other obscure teachers of the Church Militant: in which windows there are often two shafts, signifying the two precepts of charity, or because the apostles were sent out to preach two and two. 26. The door of the church is Christ: according to the saying in the Gospel, ‘‘I am the door.’’ The apostles are also called doors. 27. The piers of the church are bishops and doctors: who specially sustain the Church of God by their doctrine. These, from the majesty and clearness of their divine message, are called silver, according to that in the Song of Songs. ‘‘He made silver columns.’’ Whence also Moses at the entering in of the tabernacle, placed five columns, and four before the oracle, that is, the holy of holies. Although the piers are more in number than seven, yet they are called seven, according to that saying, ‘‘Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars’’: because bishops ought to be filled with the sevenfold influences of the Holy Ghost: and SS. James and John, as the Apostle testifieth, ‘‘seemed to be pillars.’’ The bases of the columns are the apostolic bishops, who support the frame of the whole church. The Capitals of the piers are the opinions of the bishops and doctors. For as the members are directed and moved by the head, so are our words and works governed by their mind. The ornaments of the capitals are the words of Sacred Scripture, to the meditation and observance of which we are bound.

William Durandus (c. 1237–96), from Rationale divinorum officiorum (1286), translated in 1843 as The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments. The passage used here is from the third edition (London: Gibbings & Co., 1906), pp. 20–2.

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28. The pavement of the church is the foundation of our faith. But in the spiritual Church, the pavement is the poor of Christ: the poor in spirit, who humble themselves in all things: wherefore on account of their humility they are likened to the pavement. Again, the pavement, which is trodden under foot, representeth the multitude, by whose labors the Church is sustained. 29. The beams which join together the church are the princes of this world or the preachers who defend the unity of the Church, the one by deed, the other by argument.

D U R A N D U S , S Y M B O L I S M O F CH U R C H E S

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B.

R E N A I S S A N C E AN D B A R O Q U E IDEALS Introduction

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lthough the Renaissance was a much broader intellectual upheaval than can be defined by any one region or humanist perspective, there are ample reasons for giving precedent to the developments of central Italy. The very word ‘‘humanist’’ (umanista) first came to be applied there to someone teaching the classical languages and literature, and more specifically to those celebrating the classical authors with their emphasis on human abilities and intellectual accomplishments. Second, the first attempts to revive an architectural language from the imperial Roman past first took place there. Therefore the traditional account of the Italian Renaissance being born in the year 1416 – when the Italian Poggio Bracciolini came upon a Vitruvian manuscript in the Swiss monastery of St. Gall – has a certain symbolic necessity, notwithstanding its anecdotal flavor. The legend also underscores two vitally important points of the fifteenth-century Renaissance. First it was more than an Italic revival

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of a style on Italian soil; it was a startling revelation of a near-forgotten past. Second, it was a recapturing of ideas that was seen as having momentous consequence for the reformation and reconstitution of artistic principles. The treatise of Vitruvius indeed became the cornerstone of this classical revival. If some fifteenth-century humanists, such as Leon Battista Alberti, were critical of the Roman’s lack of philosophical rigor and eloquence – ‘‘his speech such that the Latins might think that he wanted to appear a Greek, while the Greeks would think that he babbled Latin’’ – this viewpoint altogether disappears by the second quarter of the sixteenth century, by which time a veritable cult of scholars had gathered around the words of this particular classical oracle. One interesting technological innovation furthered this process. Alberti had his manuscript of the mid-fifteenth century copied by hand with limited distribution, that is, precisely around the time that Johann Gutenberg in Strasbourg was perfecting the ‘‘tools’’ of his printing press. The proliferation of the printed word allowed the movement to take shape quickly and reverberate with intellectual developments taking place elsewhere in Europe. The treatises of Vitruvius and Alberti were first printed in 1486. The first illustrated Latin edition of Vitruvius was published by Fra Giocondo in 1511, and the first Italian translation of Cesare Cesariano appeared in 1521. A Vitruvian Academy was founded in Rome in 1542, and seven years later the Venetian Daniel Barbaro began a new, annotated translation of Vitruvius. The great architect Palladio joined with him in preparing the illustrations, and their beautifully crafted edition of 1556 really bespeaks the highpoint of Vitruvian adulation. Meanwhile, the classical architectural tradition was greatly expanding, as it were, by an ever-widening circle of humanist architects and scholars. The treatises of Alberti, Antonio Filarete, Francesco di Giorgio, Sebastiano Serlio, Palladio, Giacomo Vignola, and Vincenzo Scamozzi were inspired if not modeled on the treatise of Vitruvius, and all attempted to interpret classical principles in a modern Italian way. From its base in Italy, Vitruvian classicism spread northward where it joined with parallel intellectual and cultural movements. Several books of Serlio’s treatise first appeared in France, in fact, and the first major annotator of Vitruvius was the Frenchman Guillaume Philander, whose work was published in Rome in 1544, in Paris in the following year. The first French translation of Vitruvius by Jean Martin appeared in 1547, and within a few decades classicism had fully established itself in France through such architects as Philibert de L’Orme and Jacques Androuet du Cerceau. The same is true of the German-speaking states. Walther Hermann Ryff’s German translation – Vitruvius Teutsch – appeared in 1548, one year after he published his own treatise on classical architecture. Antwerp, then part of the Netherlands, became another important center of Vitruvian publications and classical learning. By the middle of the seventeenth century classicism has more or less insinuated itself into every corner of the Continent and Great Britain. Laurids Lauridsen de Thurah’s Den Danske Vitruvius (The Danish Vitruvius, 1749), recording a built array of classical buildings in Denmark, testifies to its acceptance in the Nordic countries as well. The star of Vitruvius only began to dim first with the Mannerism of Michelangelo and then with the gathering currents of the Baroque. However one wishes to characterize this last period – as the late phase of the Renaissance or an era distinct – the fact remains that beyond such new concerns with geometry, movement, and plastic expressiveness lie still the vocabulary of classical motifs and many of its ideals. The spirit of antiquity, in fact, would form an important part of architectural thinking for several centuries to come.

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A N TO N I O D I T UC C I O M A NE TT I from The Life of Brunelleschi (1480s)

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he Italian Renaissance commenced in the first two decades of the fifteenth century, and the first and most illustrious architect of this century was Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446), the builder of the Florentine dome. A native of this city, Brunelleschi was originally trained as a goldsmith, although he quickly excelled in other arts. In 1402 he took part in a competition with Lorenzo Ghiberti and Donatello for the design of the new doors of the baptistery of S. Giovanni, a commission won by Ghiberti. In response to this defeat, Brunelleschi and Donatello traveled to Rome for a period, during which time Brunelleschi became the first artist to examine in a serious way the formal and constructional principles of classical Roman architecture – many of whose ruins still lay buried under centuries of debris. He advanced his knowledge of constructional techniques and over the next several years turned his efforts more and more to architecture. He built several classic works of the early Renaissance, including the Hospital of the Innocents (1419), the reconstruction of the church of San Lorenzo (1418–29), and the Pazzi chapel (1425–8). His fame, however, rests chiefly on the dome he constructed for the Florence Cathedral (1417–34), an engineering feat which he was perhaps the only man in fifteenth-century Italy capable of achieving. Antonio Manetti’s biography of Brunelleschi was probably written in the 1480s; Manetti informs us that he met the renowned artist sometime in the mid-1440s, shortly before the master’s death, and he devotes nearly half of his biography to describing the controversy surrounding the dome. This selection concerns Brunelleschi’s first trip to Rome in 1402 with Donatello, after the two men lost the competition in Florence to Ghiberti. Although Manetti could not have known the details of what he writes, this selection nevertheless provides a good indication of how and why Renaissance artists saw the rediscovery of antiquity as an event of great importance.

Thus left out, Filippo seemed to say: my knowledge was not sufficient for them to entrust me with the whole undertaking; it would be a good thing to go where there is fine sculpture to observe. So he went to Rome where at that time one could see beautiful works in public places. Some of those works are still there, although not many; some have been removed, carried off, and shipped out by various popes and cardinals from Rome and other nations. In studying the sculpture as one with a good eye, intelligent and alert in all things, would do, he observed the method and the symmetry of the ancients’ way of building. He seemed to recognize very clearly a certain arrangement of members and structure just as if God had enlightened him about great matters. Since this appeared very different from the method in use at that time, it impressed him greatly. And he decided that while he looked at the sculpture of the ancients to give no less time to that order and method which is in the abutments and thrusts of buildings, [their] masses, lines, and invenzioni according to and in relation with their function, and to do the same for the decorations. Thereby he observed many marvels and beautiful things, since for the most part they were built in diverse epochs by very fine masters, who became so through practical experience and through the opportunity to study afforded by the large compensation of the princes and because they were not ordinary men. He decided to rediscover the fine and highly skilled method of Antonio di Tuccio Manetti (1423–97), from The Life of Brunelleschi (1480s), in the The Life of Brunelleschi by Antonio di Tuccio Manetti, ed. Howard Saalman, trans. Catherine Enggass. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1971, pp. 50, 52, 54. ª 1971 by Pennsylvania State University Press. Reprinted with permission of Pennsylvania State University Press.

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building and the harmonious proportions of the ancients and how they might, without defects, be employed with convenience and economy. Noting the great and complex elements making up these matters – which had nevertheless been resolved – did not make him change his mind about understanding the methods and means they used. And by virtue of having in the past been interested and having made clocks and alarm bells with various and sundry types of springs geared by many diverse contrivances, he was familiar with all or a great number of those contrivances, which helped him a great deal in conceiving different machines for carrying, lifting, and pulling, according to what the exigencies were. He committed some of them to memory and some not, according to how important he judged them to be. He saw ruins – both standing or fallen down for some reason or other – which had been vaulted in various ways. He considered the methods of centering the vaults and other systems of support, how they could be dispensed with and what method had to be used, and when – because of the size of the vault or for other reasons – armatures could not be used. He saw and reflected on the many beautiful things, which as far as is known had not been present in other masters from antique times. By his genius, through tests and experiments, with time and with great effort and careful thought, he became a complete master of these matters in secret, while pretending to be doing something else. He demonstrated that mastery later in our city and elsewhere, as this account will in part make known. The sculptor Donatello was with him almost all the time during this stay in Rome. They originally went there in agreement about strictly sculptural matters, and they applied themselves constantly to these. Donatello had no interest in architecture. Filippo told him nothing of his ideas, either because he did not find Donatello apt or because he was not confident of prevailing, seeing more every minute the difficulties confronting him. However, together they made rough drawings of almost all the buildings in Rome and in many places beyond the walls, with measurements of the widths and heights as far as they were able to ascertain [the latter] by estimation, and also the lengths, etc. In many places they had excavations made in order to see the junctures of the membering of the buildings and their type – whether square, polygonal, completely round, oval, or whatever. When possible they estimated the heights [by measuring] from base to base for the height and similarly [they estimated the heights of] the entablatures and roofs from the foundations. They drew the elevations on strips of parchment graphs with numbers and symbols which Filippo alone understood. Since both were good masters of the goldsmith’s art, they earned their living in that craft. They were given more work to do in the goldsmiths’ shops every day than they could handle. And Filippo cut many precious stones given him to dress. Neither of them had family problems since they had neither wife nor children, there or elsewhere. Neither of them paid much attention to what they ate and drank or how they were dressed or where they lived, as long as they were able to satisfy themselves by seeing and measuring. Since they undertook excavations to find the junctures of the membering and to uncover objects and buildings in many places where there was some indication, they had to hire porters and other laborers at no small expense. No one else attempted such work or understood why they did it. This lack of understanding was due to the fact that during that period, and for hundreds of years before, no one paid attention to the classical method of building: if certain writers in pagan times gave precepts about that method, such as M AN E T T I , L I F E O F B R U N E L L E S C H I

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Battista degli Alberti has done in our period, they were not much more than generalities. However, the invenzioni – those things peculiar to the master – were in large part the product of empirical investigation or of his own [theoretical] efforts. Returning to the excavations of Filippo and Donato: they were generally called ‘‘the treasure hunters’’ as it was believed that they spent and looked for treasure. They said: The treasure hunters search here today and there tomorrow. Actually they sometimes, although rarely, found some silver or gold medals, carved stones, chalcedony, carnelians, cameos, and like objects. From that in large measure arose the belief that they were searching for treasure. Filippo spent many years at this work. He found a number of differences among the beautiful and rich elements of the buildings – in the masonry, as well as in the types of columns, bases, capitals, architraves, friezes, cornices, and pediments, and differences between the masses of the temples and the diameters of the columns; by means of close observation he clearly recognized the characteristics of each type: Ionic, Doric, Tuscan, Corinthian, and Attic. As may still be seen in his buildings today, he used most of them at the time and place he considered best.

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LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI from On the Art of Building, Prologue and Book 1 (1443–52)

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lberti was not only the first great theorist of the Renaissance but he, more than anyone else in this century, personified what came to be known as humanism. He was a man of great classical erudition. Born to a Florentine father-in-exile and to a Genoese mother, he studied Greek and Latin in Padua and earned a doctor of law at the University of Bologna. He seems to have dabbled in the arts in the 1420s, and even considered a literary career before becoming a cleric or secretary, first to Cardinal Carthusian Niccolo Albergati. In 1428 the Florentine ban against the Alberti family was lifted and Leon got to see firsthand early Renaissance works, especially those of Masaccio, Donatello, and Brunelleschi. He responded in 1435 with a treatise on painting, De pictura, dedicated to Brunelleschi. By this date Alberti had already traveled to Rome as a secretary to Pope Eugenius IV, where he became the first humanist to prepare a survey of the classical monuments of the city. These archaeological studies formed but a prelude to further classical studies in Rome after 1443, and it was around this time that he began his architectural treatise, in which he now sought to interpret the principles of classical Roman architecture. Around mid-century he also turned his attention to the practice of architecture with a number of important designs, among them the church of San Francesco in Rimini (1450–60), the facades of the Palazzo Rucellai (1450s) and Santa Maria Novella (1458–71) in Florence, and the church of Sant’ Andrea in Mantua (begun 1470). Alberti possessed literary skills in addition to classical learning, and he was rather critical of the talents of Vitruvius. He disliked in particular the architect’s conceptual ambiguity and, moreover, he felt that classical theory Leon Battista Alberti, from Prologue and Book 1 of De re aedificatoria [On the art of building] (1443–52) in On the Art of Building in Ten Books, trans. Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, and Robert Tavernor. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988, pp. 3, 5–6, 7. ª 1988 by The MIT Press. Reprinted with permission of the MIT Press.

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had achieved much greater heights of refinement in such writers as Cicero, whose rhetorical concepts he gladly redirected toward architectural theory. Nevertheless, he borrowed the 10-book structure of Vitruvius and even organized his study around the three Vitruvian concepts of durability, convenience, and beauty. As the first Renaissance treatise on architecture, Alberti’s effort stands alongside that of Vitruvius as one of the twin pillars of classical theory. The first selection from the opening pages of Book 1 presents a few of the basic definitions of architecture and its general elements of practice. His definition of building as ‘‘a form of body’’ consisting of both matter and lineaments (lines, or more generally design) maps out a philosophical distinction on which his theory of beauty will reside. Matter relates to nature, but the power to wield lineaments (or make designs) resides in the architect’s mind. Before I go any farther, however, I should explain exactly whom I mean by an architect; for it is no carpenter that I would have you compare to the greatest exponents of other disciplines: the carpenter is but an instrument in the hands of the architect. Him I consider the architect, who by sure and wonderful reason and method, knows both how to devise through his own mind and energy, and to realize by construction, whatever can be most beautifully fitted out for the noble needs of man, by the movement of weights and the joining and massing of bodies. To do this he must have an understanding and knowledge of all the highest and most noble disciplines. This then is the architect. [ . . . ] First we observed that the building is a form of body, which like any other consists of lineaments and matter, the one the product of thought, the other of Nature; the one requiring the mind and the power of reason, the other dependent on preparation and selection; but we realized that neither on its own would suffice without the hand of the skilled workman to fashion the material according to lineaments. Since buildings are set to different uses, it proved necessary to inquire whether the same type of lineaments could be used for several; we therefore distinguished the various types of buildings and noted the importance of the connection of their lines and their relationship to each other, as the principal sources of beauty; we began therefore to inquire further into the nature of beauty – of what kind it should be, and what is appropriate in each case. As in all these matters faults are occasionally found, we investigated how to amend and correct them. [ . . . ] Let us therefore begin thus: the whole matter of building is composed of lineaments and structure. All the intent and purpose of lineaments lies in finding the correct, infallible way of joining and fitting together those lines and angles which define and enclose the surfaces of the building. It is the function and duty of lineaments, then, to prescribe an appropriate place, exact numbers, a proper scale, and a graceful order for whole buildings and for each of their constituent parts, so that the whole form and appearance of the building may depend on the lineaments alone. Nor do lineaments have anything to do with material, but they are of such a nature that we may recognize the same lineaments in several different buildings that share one and the same form, that is, when the parts, as well as the siting and order, correspond with one another in their every line and angle. It is quite possible to project whole forms in the mind without any recourse to the material, by designating and determining a fixed orientation and conjunction for the various lines and angles. Since that is the case, let lineaments be the precise and correct outline, conceived in the mind, made up of lines and angles, and perfected in the learned intellect and imagination.

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LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI from On the Art of Building, Book 6

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lberti’s theory of absolute beauty is of paramount importance to Renaissance theory in that it lays an intellectual foundation that will remain largely intact for almost three centuries. The issue of beauty had been problematic for Vitruvius. On the one hand he made allusions to the harmonic ratios of Pythagorean musical theory, suggesting there was a higher cosmic order underlying the judgment of beauty. On the other hand he gave architects the right to vary proportions if the ‘‘eye’’ calls for corrections, or as the arts make progress. Such freedom assumes that judgments of beauty are relative and even subjective – a logical inconsistency unacceptable to Alberti and Renaissance aesthetics. From his classical perspective, Alberti prefers the Platonic belief that there is a higher reality to the physical or phenomenal world, namely Ideas; he accepts as well the Neoplatonic argument that art and architecture can symbolize these higher Ideas through their adherence to universal mathematical laws or harmonic proportions. Beauty is thus the correct mirroring of transcendent Ideas, and – as his reference to a passage of Cicero shows – it is rarely found, even in nature. The mediating element between raw nature (materials) and the ordering lines of the architect is ornament. This term possesses a meaning for Alberti quite different than its general meaning today. It is indeed something ‘‘attached or additional,’’ but it is not inessential or something that can be dispensed with. Ornament is the correct orchestration of the lineaments of design, the judicious choice of the material, and the polishing and refinement of appearance – in short, the corporal manifestation of those higher Ideas. Of the three conditions that apply to every form of construction – that what we construct should be appropriate to its use, lasting in structure, and graceful and pleasing in appearance – the first two have been dealt with, and there remains the third, the noblest and most necessary of all. Now graceful and pleasant appearance, so it is thought, derives from beauty and ornament alone, since there can be no one, however surly or slow, rough or boorish, who would not be attracted to what is most beautiful, seek the finest ornament at the expense of all else, be offended by what is unsightly, shun all that is inelegant or shabby, and feel that any shortcomings an object may have in its ornament will detract equally from its grace and from its dignity. Most noble is beauty, therefore, and it must be sought most eagerly by anyone who does not wish what he owns to seem distasteful. What remarkable importance our ancestors, men of great prudence, attached to it is shown by the care they took that their legal, military, and religious institutions – indeed, the whole commonwealth – should be much embellished; and by their letting it be known that if all these institutions, without which man could scarce exist, were to be stripped of their pomp and finery, their business would appear insipid and shabby. When we gaze at the wondrous works of the heavenly gods, we admire the beauty we see, rather than the utility that we recognize. Need I go further? Nature herself,

Leon Battista Alberti, from Book 6 of De re aedificatoria [On the art of building] (1443–52) in On the Art of Building in Ten Books, trans. Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, and Robert Tavernor. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988, pp. 155–7. ª 1988 by The MIT Press. Reprinted with permission of the MIT Press.

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as is everywhere plain to see, does not desist from basking in a daily orgy of beauty – let the hues of her flowers serve as my one example. But if this quality is desirable anywhere, surely it cannot be absent from buildings, without offending experienced and inexperienced alike. What would be our reaction to a deformed and ill-considered pile of stones, other than the more to criticize it the greater the expense, and to condemn the wanton greed for piling up stones? To have satisfied necessity is trite and insignificant, to have catered to convenience unrewarding when the inelegance in a work causes offense. In addition, there is one particular quality that may greatly increase the convenience and even the life of a building. Who would not claim to dwell more comfortably between walls that are ornate, rather than neglected? What other human art might sufficiently protect a building to save it from human attack? Beauty may even influence an enemy, by restraining his anger and so preventing the work from being violated. Thus I might be so bold as to state: No other means is as effective in protecting a work from damage and human injury as is dignity and grace of form. All care, all diligence, all financial consideration must be directed to ensuring that what is built is useful, commodious, yes – but also embellished and wholly graceful, so that anyone seeing it would not feel that the expense might have been invested better elsewhere. The precise nature of beauty and ornament, and the difference between them, the mind could perhaps visualize more clearly than my words could explain. For the sake of brevity, however, let us define them as follows: Beauty is that reasoned harmony of all the parts within a body, so that nothing may be added, taken away, or altered, but for the worse. It is a great and holy matter; all our resources of skill and ingenuity will be taxed in achieving it; and rarely is it granted, even to Nature herself, to produce anything that is entirely complete and perfect in every respect. ‘‘How rare,’’ remarks a character in Cicero, ‘‘is a beautiful youth in Athens!’’ That connoisseur found their forms wanting because they either had too much or too little of something by which they failed to conform to the laws of beauty. In this case, unless I am mistaken, had ornament been applied by painting and masking anything ugly, or by grooming and polishing the attractive, it would have had the effect of making the displeasing less offensive and the pleasing more delightful. If this is conceded, ornament may be defined as a form of auxiliary light and complement to beauty. From this it follows, I believe, that beauty is some inherent property, to be found suffused all through the body of that which may be called beautiful; whereas ornament, rather than being inherent, has the character of something attached or additional. This granted, I continue: Anyone who builds so as to be praised for it – as anyone with good sense would – must adhere to a consistent theory; for to follow a consistent theory is the mark of true art. Who would deny that only through art can correct and worthy building be achieved? And after all this particular part concerning beauty and ornament, being the most important of all, must depend on some sure and consistent method and art, which it would be most foolish to ignore. Yet some would disagree who maintain that beauty, and indeed every aspect of building, is judged by relative and variable criteria, and that the forms of buildings should vary according to individual taste and must not be bound by any rules of art. A common fault, this, among the ignorant – to deny the existence of anything they do not understand. I have decided to correct this error; not that I shall attempt (since I would need detailed and extended argument for it) to explain the arts from their origins, by what A LB E R T I , O N T H E ART O F B U I L D I N G , B OO K 6

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reasoning they developed, and by what experience they were nourished; let me simply repeat what has been said, that the arts were born of Chance and Observation, fostered by Use and Experiment, and matured by Knowledge and Reason.

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LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI from On the Art of Building, Book 9

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he fullest elaboration of Alberti’s theory of beauty, and indeed of his whole architectural conception, comes in Book 9, when he introduces the Ciceronian notion of concinnitas or concinnity. In his Orator (xxiii), Cicero notes that ‘‘words when connected together embellish a style if they produce a certain symmetry (concinnitas) which disappears when the words are changed, though the thought remains the same’’ (Loeb trans.). Concinnity is that perfect harmony or grace that appears when the architect has perfectly composed his design, in such a way that it demonstrates the three qualities of correct number, outline, and position. Number relates to the addition or taking away of parts; outline controls their size and configuration; position adds the criteria of correct placement. Alberti was convinced that in concinnity he had found the ‘‘absolute and fundamental rule of Nature’’ as well as the design secret known to classical antiquity. And like a good Platonist, Alberti next draws upon the numerical ratios of Plato’s Timaeus to gather the harmonic ratios that should also underlay architecture. Alberti’s belief in an absolute numerical scheme for beauty and proportion was his most important contribution to Renaissance theory. Through these passages, architectural beauty now comes to reside principally in proportions. Now I come to a matter with which we have promised to deal all along: every kind of beauty and ornament consists of it; or, to put it more clearly, it springs from every rule of beauty. This is an extremely difficult inquiry; for whatever that one entity is, which is either extracted or drawn from the number and nature of all the parts, or imparted to each by sure and constant method, or handled in such a manner as to tie and bond several elements into a single bundle or body, according to a true and consistent agreement and sympathy – and something of this kind is exactly what we seek – then surely that entity must share some part of the force and juice, as it were, of all the elements of which it is composed or blended; for otherwise their discord and differences would cause conflict and disunity. This work of research and selection is neither obvious nor straightforward in any other matter, but it is at its most ambiguous and involved in the subject about to be discussed; for the art of building is composed of very many parts, each one, as you have seen, demanding to be ennobled by much varied ornament. Yet we shall tackle the problem to the best of our ability, as we have undertaken. We shall not inquire as to how a sound understanding of the whole might be gained from the numerous parts, but, restricting ourselves to what is relevant, we shall begin by observing what produces beauty by its very nature. The great experts of antiquity, as we mentioned earlier, have instructed us that a building is very like an animal, and that Nature must be imitated when we delineate it. Let us Leon Battista Alberti, from Book 9 of De re aedificatoria [On the art of building] (1443–52) in On the Art of Building in Ten Books, trans. Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, and Robert Tavernor. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988, pp. 301–3. ª 1988 by The MIT Press. Reprinted with permission of the MIT Press.

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investigate, then, why some bodies that Nature produces may be called beautiful, others less beautiful, and even ugly. Obviously, among those which we count as beautiful all are not such that there is no difference between them; in fact it is precisely where they most differ that we observe them to be infused or imprinted with a quality through which, however dissimilar they are, we consider them equally graceful. Let me give you an example: one man might prefer the tenderness of a slender girl; yet a character in a comedy preferred one girl over all others because she was plumper and more buxom; you, perhaps, might prefer a wife neither so slender of figure as to appear sickly nor so stout of limb as to resemble a village bully, but such that you might add as much to the one as you could take away from the other without impairing dignity. Yet, whichever of the two you prefer, you will not then consider the rest unattractive and worthless. But what it is that causes us to prefer one above all the others, I shall not inquire. When you make judgments on beauty, you do not follow mere fancy, but the workings of a reasoning faculty that is inborn in the mind. It is clearly so, since no one can look at anything shameful, deformed, or disgusting without immediate displeasure and aversion. What arouses and provokes such a sensation in the mind we shall not inquire in detail, but shall limit our consideration to whatever evidence presents itself that is relevant to our argument. For within the form and figure of a building there resides some natural excellence and perfection that excites the mind and is immediately recognized by it. I myself believe that form, dignity, grace, and other such qualities depend on it, and as soon as anything is removed or altered, these qualities are themselves weakened and perish. Once we are convinced of this, it will not take long to discuss what may be removed, enlarged, or altered, in the form and figure. For every body consists entirely of parts that are fixed and individual; if these are removed, enlarged, reduced, or transferred somewhere inappropriate, the very composition will be spoiled that gives the body its seemly appearance. From this we may conclude, without my pursuing such questions any longer, that the three principal components of that whole theory into which we inquire are number, what we might call outline, and position. But arising from the composition and connection of these three is a further quality in which beauty shines full face: our term for this is concinnitas; which we say is nourished with every grace and splendor. It is the task and aim of concinnitas to compose parts that are quite separate from each other by their nature, according to some precise rule, so that they correspond to one another in appearance. That is why when the mind is reached by way of sight or sound, or any other means, concinnitas is instantly recognized. It is our nature to desire the best, and to cling to it with pleasure. Neither in the whole body nor in its parts does concinnitas flourish as much as it does in Nature herself; thus I might call it the spouse of the soul and of reason. It has a vast range in which to exercise itself and bloom – it runs through man’s entire life and government, it molds the whole of Nature. Everything that Nature produces is regulated by the law of concinnitas, and her chief concern is that whatever she produces should be absolutely perfect. Without concinnitas this could hardly be achieved, for the critical sympathy of the parts would be lost. So much for this. If this is accepted, let us conclude as follows. Beauty is a form of sympathy and consonance of the parts within a body, according to definite number, outline, and position, as dictated by concinnitas, the absolute and fundamental rule in Nature. This is the main object of the art of building, and the source of her dignity, charm, authority, and worth. A LB E R T I , O N T H E ART O F B U I L D I N G , B OO K 9

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I L FI L A RE T E from Book 1 of his untitled treatise on architecture (1461–3)

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he second Renaissance treatise was composed less than a decade after Alberti completed his 10 books and it discloses just how new and foreign classical ideas were to the well-established Gothic building traditions of northern Italy. Averlino’s assumed name of Il Filarete means ‘‘lover of virtue.’’ He was born in Florence, trained as a bronzesmith, and around 1450 he became involved with architecture. In the first capacity he gained fame for executing a pair of bronze doors for the old church of St. Peter’s in Rome (1433–45), which were later reworked into the larger central doors of the new cathedral in 1620. He was also the first architect of the Ospedale Maggiore (great hospital) in Milan (1460–5), now part of the university, which he designed while writing this treatise. The building of brick and richly colored stone brings the Tuscan forms of the Renaissance to Lombardy, but it also retains many of the structural and decorative aspects of the Gothic tradition still very strong in northern Italy. His treatise makes very much the same point, and it differs from that of Alberti (whom Filarete probably knew personally) in several respects. For one thing, Filarete was not a humanist and did not have the intellectual command of classical sources so evident in Alberti’s writings. Second, Filarete did not try to emulate the 10-book structure of Vitruvius. He knew of the latter’s treatise, but Filarete was smitten in particular with the work of Brunelleschi. His treatise rather takes the form of a dialogue, essentially a polemic, in which Filarete tries to convince the members of the Sforza family (the rulers of Milan between 1450 and 1535) of the superiority of ‘‘ancient art’’ (classicism) over and above ‘‘modern art’’ (the prevailing Gothic style). Filarete manages to sway Francesco Sforza, in particular, by designing an ideal city called Sforzinda, with its major monuments in the arte antica. The first two selections are from Book 1, in which Filarete introduces himself and establishes what he deems to be the proportional basis of the classical style. Taking the proportions of the Doric order back to Adam also underscores the Christian side of this style. Once I was in a place where a noble and many others were eating. In the course of a conversation about many different things they entered on architecture. One of them said, ‘‘It certainly seems to me that you have a high opinion of architecture, yet it doesn’t seem as great a thing as many make it out to be. They say you have to know so many kinds of geometry, drawing, and many other things. It seems to me I heard someone speak the other day of a certain Vitruvius and of another who seems to have been named Archimedes. [He said,] ‘‘They have written about building, measure, and many other bits of information that one ought to know. I don’t search out all these measurements and other things when I have something built. I don’t go looking for as many principles of geometry as they advise, and still it comes out all right.’’ Then one of the others who seemed to speak more seriously said, ‘‘Don’t talk that way. I think that anyone who wants to construct a building needs to know measure very well and also drawing in order to lay out a large house, a church, or any other sort of building. I do

Il Filarete (Antonio di Piero Averlino) (c.1400–70), from his untitled treatise on architecture (1461–3) in Filarete’s Treatise on Architecture, 2 vols, ed. and trans. John R. Spencer. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965, pp. 4–8 (Book I, 1v–2r; 2v–3v). ª 1965 by Yale University Press. Reprinted with permission of Yale University Press.

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not believe he could do it at all correctly if he does not have drawing, measuring, and the other things. I also believe that anyone who commissions a building should know these things. Nevertheless, do not say that, since it is not my craft, I only know enough to argue about it. I would pay a great deal to find someone who would teach me what it takes and what measure should be used to make a building [well] proportioned, the source of these measurements, and why one reasons and builds in this manner. I would also like to know what their origins are.’’ On hearing this conversation I stepped forward, because it pertained to my profession and because there was no one else there who practiced it. I said, ‘‘Perhaps you will think me presumptuous for attempting to tell you these modes and measures, since other capable men both ancient and modern have written very elegant works about this discipline. For instance, Vitruvius, among others, wrote a worthy treatise on this subject, [as did] Batista Alberti. The latter is one of the most learned men of our times in many disciplines, very skilled in architecture and especially in design which is the basis and means of every art done by the hand. He understands drawing perfectly and he is very learned in geometry and other sciences. He has also written a most elegant work in Latin. For this reason and also because I am not too experienced in letters or in speaking, but rather in other things, I have applied myself. Perhaps I shall seem [to have been] too rash and presumptuous in attempting to describe the modes and measure of building. I do this in Italian and [only] because I am pleased by and experienced in these skills – drawing, sculpture, and architecture – in several other things, and in investigations. At the proper place I shall make mention [of them]. For this reason I am bold enough to think that those who are not so learned will be pleased by it, and that those who are more skilled and learned in letters will read the above-named authors. Because these matters are a little arduous and difficult to understand, I beg your excellency to be attentive while he listens to my arguments to the same extent that he would if he had ordered his troops to reconquer or defend one of his dearest possessions, and as if letters had been sent from them to him telling that they had reconquered or, better, defended that thing and with no small difficulty had enjoyed a victory over the enemy. To this degree, turn your ears to this. If you do so, I think that it will please you and it will not be at all tedious for me to talk. While enjoying it, you will derive some utility from it. In order that you can better understand it, I will divide my talk into three parts. The first will recount the origin of measure; the building, its sources, how it ought to be maintained, and the things necessary to construct the building; what one should know about building to be a good architect; and what should be noted about him. The second will narrate the means and the construction for anyone who wants to build a city, its site, and how the buildings, squares, and streets ought to be located so that it will be fine, beautiful, and perpetual according to the laws of nature. The third and last part will tell how to make various forms of buildings according to antique practice, together with things I have discovered or learned from the ancients that are almost lost and forgotten today. From this it will be understood that the ancients built more nobly than we do today.’’ [ . . . ] As everyone knows, man was created by God; the body, the soul, the intellect, the mind, and everything was produced in perfection by Him. The body [was] organized and measured and all its members proportioned according to their qualities and measure. He allowed them to produce each other, as is seen in nature. He granted the mind of man [the I L F I LA R E T E , U N T I T L E D T R E A T I S E , B OO K 1

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power] to do various things for his existence and pleasure. As is seen, [some] have more intellect than others, some in one discipline and some in another, some more, some less, according to the way it occurs among men. This is due, many times, to the celestial constellations and to the planets, so that nature produces one who is more industrious than another, as it pleases her. Many times it happens according to the needs of man that through necessity his intellect becomes much more acute in many things and especially in that which he needs most. As they say, necessity makes man clever. The first need and necessity of man, after food, was habitation; thus he endeavored to construct a place where he could dwell. From this, then, public and private buildings were derived, as will be seen below. Since man is made with the measure stated above, he decided to take the measures, members, proportions, and qualities from himself and to adapt them to this method of building. In order that you can understand every part and its source, I will relate to you first of all the measures, members, and proportions of man. When a man is well formed and every member is in harmony with every other, then we say he is well proportioned. You well know that when one has a twisted shoulder and misformed members he is badly proportioned. Of this I will treat more fully in its place. It is true, as Vitruvius says, that in order to understand well this art of building one has to know the seven sciences, or at least participate in them as much as possible. Let us look briefly at quality and measure and their parts. So far as I understand from the measure of man, there are five qualities. Let us leave aside two of them, because one cannot take true or perfect measure from them. These are dwarfs and overly large men who depart from the normal like the species of giants. Perhaps I should say something about the origin of these giants, according to what I have read. I will not enlarge on it, because I do not believe it; it seems fictional and poetic rather than true history. They say that long ago there were some [women] who gave birth to giants in this manner. There were handsome young men of great stature and whose seed [was brought together] in an indirect manner. There were some large women with whom one of these young men lay. It happened that his seed was received together with that of others who lay with this girl. As a result of this libidinousness she conceived, became pregnant with much seed, and gave birth to many large men. In this way they say giants were born. For this reason they are rarely found and are also a travesty of nature. Even if you should find some, do not take your measure from them. Let us leave them and lay down the three principal ones. They are the following: small, medium, and large men, and from them we will take our measures, proportions, and members. You can say that I too have seen some large men, like Niccolo` of Parma, who was with the Emperor Sigismund when he came to Rome to be crowned in the time of Eugene IV. I also saw another in Rome who came from Ascoli in the Marches. He was a man of great size and quite malformed. You speak the truth, because I also saw both of them. Because of their size they were malformed, so let us leave them aside. Since the large, small, and medium are universal in their proportions, from them we shall take the measure. I believe the ancients took it from them. We shall also take this rule as the best way and explain it part by part in such a way that I believe everyone will be able to understand it. Because we first have this measure from the Greeks – as they had it from Egypt and from others – we shall use their terms. Vitruvius also named them thus, so we shall follow their order, naming these measures, proportions, and qualities Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, and explaining them as much as we can. Therefore, our first measures will be 38

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these – proportion and quality. For the present, we will leave the principal measures of man for another place. I [will] speak of the three qualities. Their measures are these. The first, which we call Doric, that is, large, they measure with the head. It is nine heads. This quality is called Doric, that is, large. The small one is called Ionic and it is seven heads. The third is called common, or medium, that is, Corinthian, and is eight heads. The two other qualities we will let stand for the reason mentioned above. The origins of these measures [which explain] why the Greeks called them Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, will be treated in another place. We have begun with the largest as is fitting. First of all, we will begin with the largest. Because it seems fitting that the large things should precede the smaller, we will begin with these. It is to be believed that the inventors of these things must have taken these measures, that is, quality, from the best-formed large men. It is probable that this quality was taken from the body of Adam, because it cannot be doubted that he was handsome and better proportioned than any other [man] who has ever lived, since God formed him. Nature has since transformed [man] into large, small, medium, and other sorts. You can say that the discoverers of these measures did not see Adam. Perhaps they did see him. Perhaps he was even the inventor. This is not known with certainty. We believe that the first inventors, whoever they were, looked at the most worthy and beautiful form, whatever it was. Since Adam’s was the most beautiful, as has been stated [above] with various reasons, it is credible that it was taken from him, and [with] his head the first measure was made. They began with the head, which was a worthy thing to do, for the head is the most noble and most beautiful member. They did well, therefore, to begin with it, since it is moreover the most outstanding and most commensurate member and divisible into many various parts. The reason I believe it should be called the first measure and why they divided it into many parts and what its division[s] are will be seen below. They measured the whole man and then composed and divided and increased the measure, and from it all are derived. It seems to me we should treat of these measures as they are found in and derived from their origins.

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IL FILARETE from Book 8 of his untitled treatise on architecture

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hese selections indicate the resistance with which early Florentine artists met as they were attempting to introduce the elements of the classical style to other regions of Italy. Rome, with its antique ruins and the great papal wealth, more quickly embraced the new classicism, and Alberti stands at the beginning of a line of Tuscan classicists (culminating with Michelangelo) who spent much of their time in Rome. Northern Italy, however, was a very different story, as cities such as Milan were only marginally ‘‘Italian.’’ Originally a Celtic city, it was

Il Filarete (Antonio di Piero Averlino), from his untitled treatise on architecture (1461–3) in Filarete’s Treatise on Architecture, 2 vols., ed. and trans. John R. Spencer. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965, pp. 101–3 (Book VIII, 59r–60r). ª 1965 by Yale University Press. Reprinted with permission of Yale University Press.

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conquered after much resistance by the ancient Romans, but was one of the first cities overtaken by the so-called barbarian invasions from the north. For much of medieval and early Renaissance times the city was a pawn of the power centers of the north (France and the Habsburg Empire) and the papacy in the south. Architecturally, and as its great cathedral demonstrates, the city was Gothic in its building traditions. Filarete thus had a delicate task before him. As a Tuscan he had to convince this enlightened ruler of Milan how and why the classical style was superior to the Gothic architecture with which he was more familiar. This entailed many arguments, but perhaps the most ingenious is this physiological argument of why the rounded arch is superior to the pointed one. ‘‘My lord, your lordship does not ask a little. I will tell you what I have heard. The arch was discovered when the person who built the first dwelling, either of straw or something else, came to making the door. I think he took a piece of pliable wood, bent it, and thus made a half circle. [Either that] or he tied it to two other perpendicular pieces of wood that he had planted in the place where he had decided the door should be. I think the arch was discovered in the first way. Then someone else made one a little better. He made a circle and cut it in half and then perhaps put it atop two pieces of wood and made a door with a half circle above. The rectangular door was discovered in almost the same way. Someone stuck two pieces of wood in the ground to make an entrance perpendicular to the ground. Then he tied another across them. Perhaps he nailed them or tied them; however he did it, it seems reasonable that this is its origin. It makes no difference whether it was done in one way or another. ‘‘We will now examine their rules and see in what way they are best. [We will also see] how the ancients used them, how they refined them and reduced to rules all these things pertaining to building. Thus, by following their practice, I will [be able to] help anyone who has to build, or to have built, a building and who wishes to follow the ancients and to avoid the notions that are practiced almost everywhere today. ‘‘I freely praise anyone who follows the antique practice and style. I bless the soul of Filippo di ser Brunellesco, a Florentine citizen, a famous and most worthy architect, a most subtle follower of Dedalus, who revived in our city of Florence the antique way of building. As a result no other manner but the antique is used today for churches and for public and private buildings. To prove that this is true, it can be seen that private citizens who have either a church or a house built all turn to this usage, as for example the remodeled house in the Via Contrada that is called Via della Vigna. The entire facade [is] composed of dressed stone and all built in the antique style. This is encouraging to anyone who investigates and searches out antique customs and modes of construction in architecture. If it were not the most beautiful and useful [fashion], it would not be used in Florence, as I said above. Moreover, the lord of Mantua, who is most learned, would not use it if it were not as I have said. The proof of this [is in] a house that he had built at one of his castles on the Po. ‘‘I beg everyone to abandon modern usage. Do not let yourself be advised by masters who hold to such bad practice. Cursed be he who discovered it! I think that only barbaric people could have brought it into Italy. I will give you an example. [There is the same comparison] between ancient and modern architecture [as there is] in literature. That is [there is the same difference] between the speech of Cicero or Virgil and that used thirty or forty years ago. Today it has been brought back to better usage than had prevailed in past times – during at least several hundred years – for today one speaks in prose with ornate language. This has 40

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happened solely because they followed the antique manner of Virgil and other worthy men. I give you architecture in the same comparison, for whoever follows antique practice participates precisely in the above comparison, that is, the one on Ciceronian and Virgilian letters. I do not wish to say more, but I beg of your lordship that he at least not use [modern forms] in what he has built. I am quite certain that when you understand drawing a little better you will see that what I say is true.’’ ‘‘It is true that I do not fully understand these differences, but I have seen some things that I like more than others, as for example certain columns, arches, doors, and vaults.’’ ‘‘Which columns do you like most?’’ ‘‘Some I have seen that appear to be very old. [Some] arches are pointed and some are round; I liked the round ones more than the pointed. I do not know, however, which are better. I have seen some doors that are perfectly square. Others have these small arches and other things that break the square. I preferred the perfectly square. Tell me, which are the ancient and which are better?’’ ‘‘My lord, your lordship begins to have taste and understanding. The pointed [arches] and the doors, with some impediment in the square that you describe, are these poor modern [examples]. ‘‘You have understood the derivation of the arch and the rectangular door. You have heard about their origins. Now understand the [reason] why the round ones are most beautiful, how they should be used, and how they should be constructed according to antique usage. ‘‘The reason round [arches] are more beautiful than pointed. It cannot be doubted that anything which impedes the sight in any way is not so beautiful as that which leads the eye and does not restrain it. Such is the round arch. As you have noticed, your eye is not arrested in the least when you look at a half-circle arch. It is the same when you look at a circle. As you look at it, the eye or, better, the sight, quickly encompasses the circumference at the first glance. The sight moves along, for it has no restraint or obstacle whatsoever. It is the same with the half circle, for as you look at it, the eye, or the sight, quickly runs to the other side without any obstacle, impediment, or other restraint. It runs from one end to the other of the half circle. The pointed is not so, for the eye, or sight, pauses a little at the pointed part and does not run along as it does on the half circle. This is because it departs from its perfection. The pointed is, so to speak, as if you had cut a circle into six parts and then continued one of the pieces in such a way that you would make two circles touching each other. The internal sixth cuts the center of the circle it touches. This, joined to the first circle, will make you two pointed arches by the swinging of the compasses. You can make as many of them [as you want by] draw[ing] circles in this manner. Even though I am teaching this to you, I do not advise you to use it. [I only do it] so you can see that they are neither good nor beautiful. You could perhaps say that pointed [arches] are strong and satisfactory. This is true, but if you make a round arch, that is, a half circle, with a good haunch, it too will be strong. To prove that this is true: I have seen large round arches in Rome that remained strong, especially in the baths, in the Antoniana, and many other buildings. If the Romans had doubted [their strength] at all, they would have made two arches one above the other, but they would never have used any of these pointed [arches]. Since they did not use them, we should not use them.

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SEBASTIANO SERLIO from Book 3, The Complete Works on Architecture and Perspective (1540)

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s the Renaissance movement entered into the sixteenth century, the stylistic battle that had been waged by Alberti, Filarete, and others had largely been won and its theory was now ready to be codified for practicing architects. Fra Giocondo’s annotated and illustrated Latin edition of Vitruvius came out in 1511, and Cesare Cesariano’s Italian translation of Vitruvius appeared in 1521. The last book proved to be an enormous boon to the Roman’s popularity and it led eventually – in 1542 – to the founding of the Vitruvian Academy in Rome. One of the leaders of this Vitruvian revival, the architect who would attempt to translate Vitruvian theory into practical terms, was the Bolognan Sebastiano Serlio. This architect was originally trained as a painter, but by 1514 he was working in Rome in the Vatican workshop of Bramante. There his principal teacher was the Siennese architect and painter Baldassare Peruzzi (1481–1536), who from 1520 onward was at least partly in charge of the construction of the new church of St. Peter’s. It was Peruzzi who conveyed to Serlio a love for classical antiquity, but this period ended in 1527, when the armies of Charles V sacked Rome. Serlio retreated to the north, to the area around Venice, and there he began what amounted to a modest architectural career. He may have designed the villa in Cricoli for Giangiorgio Trissino, the first patron of Palladio. In 1539 he also prepared a design for rebuilding the basilica at Vicenza; the competition was won by Palladio. Serlio by this date had already committed himself to composing an architectural treatise of seven books, the first of which (Book 4) actually appeared in Venice in 1537. Three years later Book 3 was published, and in 1541 Serlio – unable to find a patron in Italy – left for France at the invitation of Franc¸ois I, where he published Books 1, 2, and 5. Book 6 appeared in Lyons in 1551, and the final volume of his literary enterprise, Book 7, appeared posthumously in 1575 in Frankfurt. Serlio’s treatise differs from its predecessors in several important ways. First it was written in Italian for the architect rather than for the educated nobility. It is not especially scholarly or theoretical but is rather heavily illustrated and is intended to be a practical guide in the codification of classical architectural principles. There are books on the principles of geometry and perspective, the orders, churches, and domestic design, all of which make it far-reaching in scope. The selection below is from his third book on Roman antiquities, and it underscores the central dilemma facing Renaissance architects. On the one hand, the text – which refers to the unearthing of the foundations for the Theater of Marcellus in Rome – underscores the fact that Renaissance architects were now aware that the proportional rules given by Vitruvius were not reflected in existing Roman ruins. On the other hand, there was a need to have such a classical authority, and thus the treatise of Vitruvius must be accepted as the ‘‘infallible guide and rule.’’ Such allegiance, however, should not be absolute. Like Peruzzi himself in his later years, Serlio was much affected by the Mannerist tendencies of his time, and thus he allowed the architect a certain freedom in interpreting the Roman architect. . . . Augustus had this theatre built in the name of his nephew, Marcellus, and hence it is called the Theatre of Marcellus. It is in Rome. Part of it, that is, the external part of the Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554), from Book 3 (69v) of Tutte l’opere d’architettura et prospettiva [The complete works on architecture and perspective] (1540) in Sebastiano Serlio on Architecture, Vol. 1., ed. and trans. Vaughan Hart and Peter Hicks. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996, p. 136. ª 1996 by Yale University Press. Reprinted with permission of Yale University Press.

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portico, is to be seen still standing. It is of two Orders only, that is, Doric and Ionic, highly praised work even though the Doric columns do not have their bases or even their collar below, but simply rest upon the pavement of the portico, without anything beneath. Not much was known about the plan of this theatre. However, just recently the noble Roman family, the Massimi, wanted to build a house, the site for which turned out to be above part of this theatre – the said house was designed by that outstanding architect, Baldassare from Siena. While they were excavating the foundations they found the remains of many different parts of the ornamentation of this theatre and clear traces of the ground plan were unearthed. As a result Baldassare deduced the whole from the part uncovered, and thus measured it very carefully and set it in the form which is shown on the following page. Since I happened to be in Rome at the same time, I saw many of those parts of the ornamentation and had an opportunity to measure them, and truly there I found forms as beautiful as any I have ever seen in ancient ruins, especially in the Doric capitals and the imposts of the arches which I thought conformed very closely to the writings of Vitruvius. In, the same way the frieze, the triglyphs and the metopes all corresponded very well. However, even though the Doric cornice was extremely rich in members and highly carved, nonetheless I found it very far from Vitruvian doctrine, very licentious in its members and of such a height that, in proportion to the architrave and frieze, two-thirds of that height would have been enough. Nevertheless I think that modern architects should not err (by err I mean go against Vitruvian precepts) by adducing the licence of this or other ancient things, or be so presumptuous as to carve a cornice or other element in exactly the same proportion that they have seen and measured and then to build it into a work. The fact is that it is not enough to say ‘I can do it because the ancients did it’ without considering whether the element is otherwise in proportion to the rest of the building. Furthermore, even if the ancient architect was licentious, we must not be so. We should uphold the doctrines of Vitruvius as an infallible guide and rule, provided that reason does not persuade us otherwise, because from the worthy ancients up to our times there has been no one who has written better or more learnedly on architecture than he. If in every other noble art we can see that there is a founder to whom is ascribed so much authority that his pronouncements are given full and perfect trust, who would deny – unless he were very foolhardy and ignorant – that in architecture Vitruvius was at the highest level? Or that his writings (where reason does not dictate otherwise) ought to be sacrosanct and inviolable? Or that we should trust him more than any works by the Romans: although they learned the true order in building from the Greeks, nevertheless later, as conquerors of the Greeks, perhaps some of them became licentious? Certainly, anyone who had seen the wonderful works built by the Greeks – nearly all of which have disappeared, demolished by time and wars – would judge that the Greek works were better by far than those of the Romans. And so all those architects who might condemn the writings of Vitruvius, especially in those parts which can be clearly understood – like the Doric Order which I am discussing – would be architectural heretics, refuting that author who for so many years has been, and still is, approved of by men of discernment.

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GIACOMO BAROZZI DA VIGNOLA from Preface to Rules of the Five Orders of Architecture (1562)

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uilding upon the efforts of Serlio was the compendium of Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola. Initially trained as a painter, this artist likely turned to architecture in the 1520s under the influence of Peruzzi and Serlio, although his illustrious career (which would include the design of the Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola and the church of II Gesu` in Rome) would take another two decades to unfold. In 1538 he moved to Rome, and it was there that he became involved with the Vitruvian Academy. It is no doubt from this involvement came his ambition to write a rule book on the orders, in a simpler and easier illustrated format than had previously existed. His Regola delli cinque ordini was written during the 1550s, but did not appear until 1562. Its success can be measured by the fact that it became the architect’s principal reference book on the orders well down into the twentieth century. Vignola’s rules (modules) are not based on a philological reading of Vitruvius or other sources, but rather on the archaeological study of the most highly regarded Roman models in Rome. It is, moreover, a composite or idealized version of the orders, one also slenderer in its overall proportions than those proposed by either Vitruvius or Serlio. It fully complies with the Renaissance desire to regulate or bring design decisions into a simpler format.

To the Readers The reason why I was moved to make this little work, good readers, and then to dedicate it (such as it is) to the general service of he who delights in it, I shall briefly explain for clearer understanding. Having practised the art of architecture for many years in different countries, it has always been a pleasure for me to look at the opinion of as many writers as I could about the practice of ornament, and comparing them with each other and with ancient works still in existence, to try to extract a rule with which I could be content, and which I could be sure would completely satisfy, or at least nearly so, every scholar of this art. And this was solely to serve my own requirements, nor was there any other aim. To do this, leaving aside many things of the writers, where differences of no little consequence are born, and to achieve greater certainty, I decided first to study those ancient ornaments of the five Orders which appear in the antiquities of Rome. And considering all of them carefully and examining their measurements accurately, I found that those which in the general opinion are the most beautiful and appear the most graceful to our eyes also have a certain numerical agreement and proportion which is the least complex: indeed you can measure precisely the large members in all their parts with each minute member. Hence, considering further how much our Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola (1507–73), from Preface to Regola delli cinque ordini d’architettura [Rules of the five orders of architecture] (1562), trans. Richard J. Tuttle in his essay ‘‘On Vignola’s Rule of the Five Orders of Architecture,’’ from Paper Palaces: The Rise of the Renaissance Architectural Treatise, ed. Vaughan Hart and Peter Hicks. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998, pp. 361–2. ª 1998 by Yale University Press. Reprinted with permission of Yale University Press.

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senses take pleasure in this proportion, and how much the things outside it are unpleasant, as the musicians prove in their science through sensation, I undertook this task many years ago, namely to reduce the said five Orders of architecture to a concise and quick rule which was easy to use, and the method I kept to was as follows. Wishing to put in this rule (by way of example) the Doric Order, I considered that of all the examples of Doric, the one in the Theatre of Marcellus was the most highly praised by everyone. This, then, I took as the basis of the rule for the said Order, that is, determining its principal parts. If some minor member did not entirely obey the numerical proportions (which often happens owing to the work of the stonecutters or other accidents that frequently occur with such details) I accommodated it to my rule not by altering anything of importance but by harmonising this slight licence on the authority of other examples of Doric which are also considered beautiful. From these examples I took other small parts whenever I needed to supplement the one from the Theatre of Marcellus, not as Zeuxis did with the maidens among the Crotons, but rather as my judgment directed. I made this choice for all the Orders, extracting only from ancient works and adding nothing of my own save the distribution of their proportions which were based on simple numbers, using not the braccia, or feet, or palms of whatever locality, but an arbitrary measurement called the module, divided into those parts which will be seen from Order to Order in the appropriate place. And I have made an otherwise difficult part of architecture so easy that every ordinary talent, provided he has some enthusiasm for this art, can at a glance and without much bothersome reading, understand the whole and make use of it at opportune moments. And although I was far from interested in publishing this, nevertheless it has been made possible by the entreaties of many friends desiring it, and even more by the generosity of my perpetual lord, the illustrious and most reverend Cardinal Farnese. From him not only have I received the courtesies of his honorable house which have allowed me to work diligently, but he has also given me the means to satisfy my friends and in addition to present to you shortly other, greater things on this subject, if you accept this part in the spirit in which I believe you will. And as it is neither my wish nor my intent to respond here to those objections that I know will be made by some, I leave this task to the work itself which by pleasing the more judicious will lead them to take up my defence. I would only add that should someone judge this a vain effort by saying that one cannot lay down a fixed rule, since, according to the opinion of all and especially of Vitruvius, it is often necessary to enlarge or to diminish the proportions of ornamental members in order to remedy with art where our vision has been deceived by some occurrence, to him I reply that concerning this matter it is necessary to know how much should appear to the eye – this should always be the firm rule which others have proposed to observe – and then proceed in this by certain good rules of perspective, whose practice is fundamental both here and in painting, such that I am sure you will be pleased, [and] I also hope to present that to you soon.

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PALLADIO from The Four Books of Architecture (1570)

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alladio holds a most exalted place in the history of Renaissance architecture. Generally regarded as the greatest Italian architect of the Renaissance, he is also quite possibly the most influential architect who ever lived – if one dares to count the many allusions to aspects of his style. His numerous buildings across the northeastern Italian landscape compose a virtual Mecca to which every architect yearns or promises to make a pilgrimage. His literary corpus comprises a body of writings both educated and classical in their bearing. Andrea de Pietro della Gondola was born in Padua in 1508 and at the age of 13 was apprenticed to a stone carver. At 16, however, he broke his contract and moved to nearby Vicenza, where he continued his training in stone-cutting. By the early 1530s he had advanced to the status of master and then set his sights on practicing architecture. This ambition was realized in a dramatic way in 1537, when, as a worker, he became engaged in remodeling the villa of Count Giangiorgio Trissino – a distinguished scholar, dramatist, poet, and humanist. He was invited to join the count’s household (which functioned as an academy) and thus began his classical education, which he christened by assuming the name Palladio. Through Trissino, Palladio became familiar with the work of Serlio (whom Trissino knew well), and in addition he met Jacopo Sansovino, Michele Sanmicheli, and Alvise Cornaro. In 1541 Palladio joined Trissino on his first trip (the first of three in the 1540s) to Rome, where he was able to study the ruins of antiquity, in addition to the fruits of the high Renaissance. All of these experiences combined to create one of the best educated and talented architects of the Renaissance. The theoretical side of Palladio’s development was also enhanced with his meeting of Daniele Barbaro around 1550. Barbaro was another prominent humanist who had just returned from a two-year ambassadorship in England. In the countryside of Maser in the 1550s, Palladio designed for Barbaro perhaps the most famous of his grand villas. Since 1547, Barbaro had been involved in preparing a new critical translation of Vitruvius, for which Palladio was encouraged to make the illustrations. The result, which was issued in 1556, was a treatise unsurpassed in the sixteenth century for its beauty and scholarship. This success no doubt encouraged Palladio to compose his own tome on architecture, of which four books appeared in 1570. This heavily illustrated work (consisting largely of classical monuments and his own designs) immediately became one of the great documents of the Renaissance and represents the apogee of fascination with the Vitruvian tradition. The two passages presented here testify to his quintessential classical reasoning. In the first, taken from the opening chapter of Book 1, Palladio re-presents the Vitruvian triad of convenience, duration, and beauty – the last of which is now defined as Vitruvian symmetry. In the second, the Preface to Book 4, Palladio states his belief in absolute beauty or cosmic proportions, which should underlay all good design.

Chapter I: Of the Several Particulars that ought to be Consider’d and Prepar’d before we Begin to Build Great care ought to be taken, before a building is begun, of the several parts of the plan and elevation of the whole edifice intended to be raised: For three things, according to VITRUVIUS, Andrea Palladio (1508–80), from I quattro libri dell’architettura [The four books of architecture] (1570), trans. Isaac Ware (1738), in Andrea Palladio: The Four Books of Architecture, ed. Adolf K. Placzek. New York: Dover Publications, 1965 (reissue), pp. 1, 79–80.

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ought to be considered in every fabrick, without which no edifice will deserve to be commended; and these are utility or convenience, duration and beauty. That work therefore cannot be called perfect, which should be useful and not durable, or durable and not useful, or having both these should be without beauty. An edifice may be esteemed commodious, when every part or member stands in its due place and fit situation, neither above or below its dignity and use; or when the loggia’s, halls, chambers, cellars and granaries are conveniently disposed, and in their proper places. The strength, or duration, depends upon the walls being carried directly upright, thicker below than above, and their foundations strong and solid: observing to place the upper columns directly perpendicular over those that are underneath, and the openings of the doors and windows exactly over one another; so that the solid be upon the solid, and the void over the void. Beauty will result from the form and correspondence of the whole, with respect to the several parts, of the parts with regard to each other, and of these again to the whole; that the structure may appear an entire and compleat body, wherein each member agrees with the other, and all necessary to compose what you intend to form. ***

The Preface to the Reader If upon any fabrick labour and industry may be bestowed, that it may be comparted with beautiful measure and proportion; this, without any doubt, ought to be done in temples; in which the maker and giver of all things, the almighty and supream God, ought to be adored by us, and be praised, and thanked for his continual benefactions to us, in the best manner that our strength will permit. If, therefore, men in building their own habitations, take very great care to find out excellent and expert architects, and able artificers, they are certainly obliged to make use of still much greater care in the building of churches. And if in those they attend chiefly to conveniency, in these they ought to have a regard to the dignity and grandeur of the Being there to be invoked and adored; who being the supream good, and highest perfection, it is very proper, that all things consecrated to him, should be brought to the greatest perfection we are capable of. And indeed, if we consider this beautiful machine of the world, with how many wonderful ornaments it is filled, and how the heavens, by their continual revolutions, change the seasons according as nature requires, and their motion preserves itself by the sweetest harmony of temperature; we cannot doubt, but that the little temples we make, ought to resemble this very great one, which, by his immense goodness, was perfectly compleated with one word of his; or imagine that we are not obliged to make in them all the ornaments we possibly can, and build them in such a manner, and with such proportions, that all the parts together may convey a sweet harmony to the eyes of the beholders, and that each of them separately may serve agreeably to the use for which it shall be appointed. For which reason, although they are worthy to be much commended, who being guided by an exceeding good spirit, have already built temples to the supream God, and still build them; it does not seem, nevertheless, that they ought to remain without some P A L L AD I O, T HE FO U R B OO K S

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little reprehension, if they have not also endeavoured to make them in the best and most noble form our condition will permit. Hence, because the antient Greeks and Romans employed the utmost care in building the temples to their Gods, and composed them of the most beautiful architecture, that they might be made with so much greater ornaments, and in greater proportion, as that they might be suitable for the God to whom they were consecrated; I shall shew in this book the form and the ornaments of many antient temples, of which the ruins are still to be seen, and by me have been reduced into designs, that every one may know in what form, and with what ornaments churches ought to be built. And although there is but a small part of some of them to be seen standing above-ground, I nevertheless from that small part, (the foundations that could be seen being also considered) have endeavoured, by conjecture, to shew what they must have been when they were entire. And in this VITRUVIUS has been a very great help to me; because, what I saw, agreeing with what he teacheth us, it was not difficult for me to come at the knowledge of their aspect, and of their form. But to the ornaments, that is, the bases, columns, capitals, cornices, and such like things, I have added nothing of my own; but they have been measured by me with the utmost attention, from different fragments, found in the places where these temples stood. And I make no doubt, but that they, who shall read this book, and shall consider the designs in it carefully, may be able to understand many places, which in VITRUVIUS are reputed very difficult, and to direct their mind to the knowledge of the beautiful and proportionable forms of temples, and to draw from them various very noble inventions; making use of which in a proper time and place, they may shew, in their works, how one may, and ought to vary, without departing from the precepts of the art, and how laudable and agreeable such variations are. But before we come to the designs, I shall, as I usually do, briefly mention those advertences, that in building of temples ought to be observed; having also taken them from VITRUVIUS, and from other very excellent men, who have written of so noble an art.

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JUAN BAUTISTA VILLALPANDO from Ezekiel Commentaries (1604)

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enaissance theory up to this point has been viewed largely as a secular phenomenon, but its biggest supporter in Italy had indeed been the Papacy, which quickly adopted the style as a mark of its universal ecclesiastical authority. What remained for sixteenth-century theory, then, was to forge a more compelling synthesis of classical theory with the biblical elements of the Christian religion. This was the task attempted by Juan Bautista Villalpando. This Spanish Jesuit was a native of Cordoba, and he had been trained in architecture under Juan de Herrera, who was in charge of building the Escorial. After entering the Jesuit order, however, Villalpando

Juan Bautista Villalpando (1552–1608), from In: Ezekielem Explanationes [Ezekiel commentaries] (1604), trans. Daniel Pfeiffer, from the Spanish edition, El tratado de la arquitectura perfecta en la u´ltima visio´n del profeta Ezequiel, Madrid: Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos, Patrimonio Nacional, 1990, p. 129.

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entered the service of the Jesuit Jero´nimo Prado, who had begun a commentary on the Old Testament book of Ezekiel. One Spanish theologian, Benito Arias Montano, had earlier challenged the authenticity of Ezekiel’s account, and Prado and Villalpando, in response, started a theological refutation on Montano, in support of the vision of Ezekiel. First they had to defend themselves (successfully) against the charge of heresy, but in Rome in 1596 Prado and Villalpando published the first volume of their study. After Prado’s death in 1597, Villalpando began the second volume of the commentary, which contains his gloriously illustrated reconstruction of Solomon’s Temple. Villalpando’s case for the temple rests on two premises. First that the proportions of the temple were absolute and perfect because they were given to Solomon by God himself. Second that the three orders later developed by the Greeks derived from these Solomonic orders, thus squaring Biblical accounts with the classical tradition. The following passage is from the introduction to volume II, in which Villalpando is describing the efforts of Prado and himself to undertake the reconstruction, and their success – as measured by the response of King Philip II and the architect Juan de Herrera. Because we thought it necessary that the copy should correspond to the example, or that the image should correspond to what it portrays, we reached the conclusion that the prophet with his inner eye saw a certain building complete and perfect in all its details, in which every part responded to the whole in a miraculous way and with incredible artistic skill, proportioned to itself, a building whose facade or aspect had nothing to disturb the mind or the eyes. It had the most solid doors, the widest porticoes, and the most spacious atriums, that is to say, it was a palatial complex sustained by marble columns and a golden roof, adorned at the top with gilded balustrades. Scrupulously he considered the dimensions, the number, order, and proportions of all elements, and such superior things as certain symbols. To his inner eye came the vision of the House of God: its economy, order, and disposition, and the levels and ministries of Christ’s Church that were represented by the corresponding ornaments of that building. Guided only by a certain conjecture, suspecting rather than knowing, we applied our minds and all our knowledge to understanding this unique vision of the prophet. Through the singular blessing of God Almighty we found the power, in large part, to bring this project to a happy conclusion and to give visible form to the temple described by Ezekiel. We no longer have to believe in this vision with only the inner eyes of the mind, but now with the eyes of the body. And we think the diligent reader will be persuaded of the same thing when he reads our commentaries. He will understand that this is the building described by Ezekiel, in which every part follows the measurements of the prophet with no exceptions, where all the rules of perfect architecture are observed, and in which no part deviates from or opposes these rules. As proof, I will offer some unique testimony, which to me at least is quite important. And if everyone finds it as authoritative as I do, I am confident it will convince any adversary that I may have. This is the testimony of Juan de Herrera, my master and the first architect to the Catholic King Philip II. After viewing our visual reconstruction and its proportions, the dimensions of the parts, its convenience and beauty, its strict use of means, he appreciated just these features and confessed ingenuously to have detected divine intervention in the proportions of the architecture, such that – even if he had only seen the visual evidence and had not read that they were part of the Holy Scriptures – he would have judged that the building could not have been thought up by the human mind but had to be designed by the infinite wisdom of God himself. V IL L AL P AN D O , EZE KIE L COMMENTARIES

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This wise and prudent man noted this to me on several occasions and I do not doubt that he did so in front of the Royal Majesty, whose close friend he was. Through his recommendation, and in fact through the approval of the king himself, our modest study was crowned with the greatest benevolence and honors, without which it would scarcely have become known to the public. If these things seem far-fetched, let us come to the essential aspects and concede those things that are known. This building consists of three parts that are so contrary to one another that they cannot be reduced to a single fabric. Therefore they cannot be reduced to a single visual perspective, since the drawings and figures should present a possible edifice. And Vitruvius judges that these are not the only criteria that should be applied to the art of rendering; he also thinks that visual art should treat those things that can or could exist, which implies that such a building that cannot exist or be represented cannot be reduced to the rule of a graphic description. What, then, does the prophet see: Thou son of man, show the house to the house of Israel . . . the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof . . . (Ezekiel, 43.10–11)

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GEORGIO VASARI from Preface to Lives of the Most Eminent Italian Architects, Painters, and Sculptors (1550, 1568)

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iorgio Vasari, like so many of the sixteenth-century artists, was both a painter and architect. But he possesses one other distinction that makes him truly unique among his peers – he lays claim to being the first art historian of modern times. Vasari was born in Arezzo, educated by the Medici family in Florence, and from the beginning of his career was very much under the spell of Michelangelo, with whom he felt himself privileged to share a friendship. Upon coming of artistic age in the 1540s, he worked mostly as a painter and traveled throughout much of Italy: completing commissions and gathering material for his book. In 1550, under the patronage of Pope Julius III in Rome, he began to turn his attention to architecture, and he renewed this interest when he returned to Florence in 1554 and entered the service of Duke Lorenzo I. Here he designed a number of rooms within the Palazzo Vecchio and built what is considered his masterwork, the Uffizi Gallery (started in 1550). Originally it housed municipal offices, but now it is one of the great museums of Europe. The two editions of Le vite – 1550 and 1568 – almost take the form of two different books. The first edition was drafted in 1546–7 from his travels and research, and it shows the influence of Ghiberti’s Commentaries (1447–55)

Georgio Vasari (1511–74), from Preface to Le vite de piu eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani [Lives of the most eminent Italian architects, painters, and sculptors] (1550, 1568), trans. Mrs. Jonathan Foster, in Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Vol. 1. London: George Bell and Sons, 1888, pp. 300–3.

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and Pliny the Elder’s chapters on classical art in Books 34 and 35 of The Natural History. It also displays the Ciceronean ambition to elevate historical writing beyond a mere chronicle of events. From the start Vasari intended to add to his first edition, but in the 1560s his rewriting became more extensive as he sought to make his book more historical, more theoretical, and somewhat more impersonal in its tone; he also vastly expanded its earlier length. The Preface to part II of his study relates his historical method and his tripartite scheme of artistic development during the Renaissance. Already in his Preface to part I he had compared a historical period or style (he employs the Italian term maniera) to a human being, who is born, grows up to maturity, and becomes old and dies. The three stages or periods of Renaissance development noted in the second Preface are defined not strictly by temporal limits but rather by the artists’ views of art. The last two stages evolve, as it were, from the renewed naturalistic footing of the first (achieved by Giotto) in a kind of dialectical manner, with each generation both learning from and correcting the faults of the previous one, while also rediscovering classical norms. Thus Masaccio lifted Renaissance painting into its second phase by perceiving that painters should follow nature as closely as possible, while Brunelleschi did the same for architecture by rediscovering the ancient proportions and the orders. Andrea Mantegna’s late second-stage insight that the ancients copied not one model but combined the best of several models to eliminate natural defects allowed the artists of the third state – beginning with Leonardo da Vinci – to achieve productions of unparalleled grace and beauty. When I first undertook to write these lives, it was not my purpose to make a mere list of the artists, or to give an inventory, so to speak, of their works. Nor could I by any means consider it a worthy end of my – I will not say satisfactory – but assuredly prolonged and fatiguing labours, that I should content myself with merely ascertaining the number, names, and country of the artists, or with informing my reader in what city or borough precisely, their paintings, sculptures, or buildings, were to be found. This I could have accomplished by a simple register or table, without the interposition of my own judgment in any part. But I have remembered that the writers of history, – such of them, that is to say, as by common consent are admitted to have treated their subject most judiciously, – have in no case contented themselves with a simple narration of the occurrences they describe, but have made zealous enquiry respecting the lives of the actors, and sought with the utmost diligence to investigate the modes and methods adopted by distinguished men for the furtherance of their various undertakings. The efforts of such writers have, moreover, been further directed to the examination of the points on which errors have been made, or, on the other hand, by what means successful results have been produced, to what expedients those who govern have had recourse, in what manner they have delivered themselves from such embarrassments as arise in the management of affairs; of all that has been effected, in short; whether sagaciously or injudiciously, whether by the exercise of prudence, piety, and greatness of mind, or by that of the contrary qualities, and with opposite results; as might be expected from men who are persuaded that history is in truth the mirror of human life. These writers have not contented themselves with a mere dry narration of facts and events, occurring under this prince or in that republic, but have set forth the grounds of the various opinions, the motives of the different resolutions, and the character of the circumstances by which the prime movers have been actuated; with the consequences, beneficial or disastrous, which have been the results of all. This is, without doubt, the soul of history. From these details it is that men learn the true government of life; and to secure this effect, therefore, with the addition of the pleasure which may be derived from having past events presented to the view as living and present, is to be considered the legitimate aim of the historian. V AS A R I , L IV E S

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Moved by these considerations, I determined, having undertaken to write the history of the noblest masters in our arts, to pursue the method observed by these distinguished writers, so far as my powers would permit; imitating these ingenious men, and desiring, above all things, to honour the arts, and those who labour in them. I have endeavoured, not only to relate what has been done, but to set forth and distinguish the better from the good, and the best from the better, the most distinguished from the less prominent qualities and works, of those who belong to our vocation. I have further sought, with diligence, to discriminate between the different methods, manners, and processes adopted and displayed by the different painters and sculptors, not omitting to notify their various phantasies, inventions, and modes of treatment, all which I have investigated to the best of my ability, that I might the better make known to those who could not pursue the enquiry for themselves, the sources and causes of the different methods, as well as of that amelioration and deterioration of the arts which have been seen to take place at different periods, and by the agency of different persons. In the First Part of these Lives I have spoken of the nobility and antiquity of these our arts, as at that point of our work was desirable, omitting many remarks by Pliny, and other writers, of which I might have availed myself, if I had not preferred – perhaps in opposition to the opinion of many readers – rather to permit that each should remain free to seek the ideas of others in their original sources. And this I did to avoid that prolixity and tediousness which are the mortal enemies of attention. But on this occasion it appears to me beseeming that I should do what I did not then permit myself – namely, present a more exact and definite explication of my purpose and intention, with the reasons which have led me to divide this collection of Lives into Three Parts. It is an indubitable fact, that distinction in the arts is attained by one man through his diligent practice; by another, from his profound study; a third seeks it in imitation; a fourth, by the acquirement of knowledge in the sciences, which all offer aid to the arts; others arrive at the desired end by the union of many of these; some by the possession of all united. But as I have sufficiently discoursed, in the lives of various masters, of the modes, processes, and causes of all sorts, which have contributed to the good, the better, or the excellent results of their labours, so I will here discuss these matters in more general terms, and insist, rather, on the qualities which characterize periods, than on those which distinguish individuals. To avoid a too minute inquiry, I adopt the division into three parts, or periods – if we so please to call them – from the revival of the arts, down to the present century, and in each of these there will be found a very obvious difference. In the first, and most ancient, of these periods, we have seen that the three formative arts were very far from their perfection; and that, if it must be admitted that they had much in them that was good, yet this was accompanied by so much of imperfection, that those times certainly merit no great share of commendation. Yet, on the other hand, as it is by them that the commencement was made; as it was they who originated the method, and taught the way to the better path, which was afterwards followed, so, if it were but for this, we are bound to say nothing of them but what is good – nay, we must even accord to them a somewhat larger amount of glory than they might have the right to demand, were their works to be judged rigidly by the strict rules of art. In the second period, all productions were, obviously, much ameliorated; richer invention was displayed, with more correct drawing, a better manner, improved execution, and more careful finish. The arts were, in a measure, delivered from that rust of old age, and that 52

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coarse disproportion, which the rudeness of the previous uncultivated period had left still clinging to them. But who will venture to affirm that there could yet be found an artist perfect at all points? or one who had arrived at that position, in respect of invention, design, and colour, to which we have attained in the present day? Is there any one who has been able so carefully to manage the shadows of his figures, that the lights remain only on the parts in relief ? or who has, in like manner, effected those perforations, and secured those delicate results, in sculpture, which are exhibited by the statues and rilievi of our own day? The credit of having effected this is certainly due to the third period only; respecting which it appears to me that we may safely affirm the arts to have effected all that it is permitted to the imitation of nature to perform, and to have reached such a point, that we have now more cause for apprehension lest they should again sink into depression, than ground for hope that they will ever attain to a higher degree of perfection.

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GEORGIO VASARI from ‘‘Life of Michelangelo’’ in Lives of the Most Eminent Italian Architects, Painters, and Sculptors (1550, 1568)

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everal selections in this section have portrayed the sixteenth century as a Vitruvian hymn, in which architecture was made to conform ever more to rules of convenience, proportion, and decorum. Against this tendency marched one artist who took little notice of the Vitruvian tradition. This person was Michelangelo (1475–1564), whom Vasari regarded as an artist of such stature that his unworldly talent could only have been created by divine decree. But the life of Michelangelo is also where the biographer’s historical model runs into problems. In Vasari’s celebrated passage concerning Michelangelo’s design for the new sacristy (Medici Chapel, 1519–34) for the church of San Lorenzo (balancing Brunelleschi’s Old Sacristy of 1421–9), he notes that Michelangelo ‘‘broke the barriers and chains’’ that had previously been established by Vitruvius and approved works of classical antiquity. Architecturally, the period of 1520–60 is sometimes called ‘‘Mannerist,’’ indicating that architects were not averse to playing with the classical rules and examples laid down by Alberti, Bramante, and others. In Vasari’s scenario, Michelangelo’s overt violation of classical norms would seem to indicate the acme of this style, from which only the decline of old age can ensue. Vasari’s prophecy was, in retrospect, only a little premature. The example of Michelangelo notwithstanding, the Vitruvian phase of the Italian Renaissance would not end until the seventeenth century, with the appearance of such great baroque architects as Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini (1598– 1680) and Francesco Borromini (1599–1667). But to return to Michelagnolo, who had now again repaired to Florence. Losing much time, first in one thing and then in another, he made a model, among other things, for those

Georgio Vasari, from ‘‘Life of Michelangelo’’ in Le vite de piu eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani [Lives of the most eminent Italian architects, painters, and sculptors] (1550, 1568), trans. Mrs. Jonathan Foster, in Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Vol. 5. London: George Bell and Sons, 1888, pp. 270–2.

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projecting and grated windows with which are furnished the rooms at the angle of the Palace, in one of which Giovanni da Udine executed the paintings and stucco-work which are so much and so deservedly extolled. He also caused blinds, in perforated copper, to be made by the goldsmith Piloto, but after his own designs, and very admirable they certainly are. Michelagnolo consumed many years, as we have said, in the excavation of marbles; it is true that he prepared models in wax and other requisites for the great undertakings with which he was engaged at the same time, but the execution of these was delayed until the monies, appropriated by the Pontiff for that purpose, had been expended in the wars of Lombardy; and at the death of Leo the works thus remained incomplete, nothing having been accomplished but the foundations of the Fac¸ade, and the transport of a great column from Carrara to the Piazza di San Lorenzo. The death of Pope Leo X. completely astounded the arts and artists, both in Rome and Florence; and while Adrian VI. ruled, Michelagnolo employed himself in the last-named city with the Sepulchre of Julius. But when Adrian was dead, and Clement VII. elected in his place, the latter proved himself equally desirous of establishing memorials to his fame in the arts of sculpture, painting, and architecture, as had been Leo and his other predecessors. It was at this time, 1525, that Giorgio Vasari, then a boy, was taken to Florence by the Cardinal of Cortona, and there placed to study art with Michelagnolo; but the latter having been summoned to Rome by Pope Clement, who had commenced the Library of San Lorenzo; with the New Sacristy, wherein he proposed to erect the marble tombs of his fore-fathers, it was determined that Giorgio should go to Andrea del Sarto, before Michelagnolo’s departure; the master himself repairing to the workshop of Andrea, for the purpose of recommending the boy to his care. Michelagnolo then proceeded to Rome without delay, being much harassed by the repeated remonstrances of Francesco Maria, Duke of Urbino, who complained of the artist greatly; saying that he had received sixteen thousand crowns for the Tomb, yet was loitering for his own pleasure in Florence without completing the same: he added threats, to the effect that if Michelagnolo did not finish his work, he, the Duke, would bring him to an evil end. Arrived in Rome, Pope Clement, who would gladly have had the master’s time at his own command, advised him to require the regulation of his accounts from the agents of the Duke, when it seemed probable that they would be found his debtors, rather than he theirs. Thus then did that matter remain; but the Pope and Michelagnolo taking counsel together of other affairs, it was agreed between them that the Sacristy and New Library of San Lorenzo in Florence should be entirely completed. The master thereupon, leaving Rome, returned to Florence, and there erected the Cupola which we now see, and which he caused to be constructed in various orders. He then made the Goldsmith Piloto prepare a very beautiful ball of seventy-two facettes. While he was erecting his cupola, certain of his friends remarked to him that he must be careful to have his lantern very different from that of Filipp Brunelleschi: to which Michelagnolo replied, ‘‘I can make a different one easily; but as to making a better, that I cannot do.’’ He decorated the inside of the Sacristy with four Tombs, to enclose the remains of the fathers of the two Popes, Lorenzo the elder and Giuliano his brother, with those of Giuliano the brother of Leo, and of Lorenzo his nephew. Desiring to imitate the old Sacristy by Filippo Brunelleschi, but with new ornaments, he composed a decoration of a richer and more varied character than had ever before been adopted, either by ancient or modern masters: the beautiful 54

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cornices, the capitals, the bases, the doors, the niches, and the tombs themselves, were all very different from those in common use, and from what was considered measure, rule, and order, by Vitruvius and the ancients, to whose rules he would not restrict himself. But this boldness on his part has encouraged other artists to an injudicious imitation, and new fancies are continually seen, many of which belong to grottesche rather than to the wholesome rules of ornamentation. Artists are nevertheless under great obligations to Michelagnolo, seeing that he has thus broken the barriers and chains whereby they were perpetually compelled to walk in a beaten path, while he still more effectually completed this liberation and made known his own views, in the Library of San Lorenzo, erected at the same place. The admirable distribution of the windows, the construction of the ceiling, and the fine entrance of the Vestibule, can never be sufficiently extolled. Boldness and grace are equally conspicuous in the work as a whole, and in every part; in the cornices, corbels, the niches for statues, the commodious staircase, and its fanciful divisions – in all the building, at a word, which is so unlike the common fashion of treatment, that every one stands amazed at the sight thereof.

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P ET ER P AU L R UB E N S from Preface to Palaces of Genoa (1622)

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s the Renaissance style and humanistic principles began to make their way northward in the sixteenth century, interpretations of its forms and meaning often differed from those in the south. The German Walther Ryff not only translated Vitruvius into German in 1548, but in a theoretical text of the preceding year he codified the formulas of Serlio and Cesariano. Hans Blum published the first of the northern ‘‘column books’’ in 1550, Von den fu¨nff Seu¨len (On the five columns), which sought to transmit to his German readers both this ‘‘great and useful treasure’’ of antique principles, first devised in ‘‘the time of Solomon,’’ but also which has come north of the Alps only in the last ‘‘eight years.’’ To the west, and beginning in 1555, the Flemish artist and Vitruvian scholar Vredeman de Vries began producing his engravings of hypothetical classical designs, which brilliantly captured the range of early northern Renaissance designs. His successor was the incomparable Wendel Dietterlin (c. 1550–99), who in 1593–4 produced his self-styled column book, Architectura von Ausstheilung, Symmetria und Proportion der fu¨nff Seulen (Architecture of distribution, symmetry, and proportion of the five columns). It is no column book at all but a highly fanciful visual exploration of the human figures, threatening demons, exotic creatures, and mythological beasts that he associates with the expressive limits of each order. Nevertheless, one of the most influential of the books introducing the Italian models to the north was that of the painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640). A native of Antwerp, he made his way to Italy in 1600 to serve as a painter at the court of Vincenzo Gonzaga, the Duke of Mantua. During two stays in Rome he read the writings of Serlio and viewed the buildings of Vignola and Carlo Maderno. In 1607 he visited Genoa for seven weeks, where he stayed at the Palazzo Grimaldi and studied the Renaissance palaces of the city. All of this came in handy some years later – in 1615 – when he became involved with designing a Jesuit church in Antwerp. Although the overall design is attributed to Pieter Huyssens, Rubens did considerable work in the interior and (according to Anthony Blunt) was Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), from Preface to Palazzi di Genova [Palaces of Genoa] (1622), trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave.

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responsible for the Italianate features of the exterior. It is this church to which Rubens also alludes in the preface to his Palazzi di Genova, which appeared in 1622. The interesting thing about this brief passage is that the style that Rubens is introducing to his northern colleagues is not the Italian Renaissance but the baroque. The translation is made from the preface to the original edition, written in Italian. In this small book I give the plans, elevations, and two sections of some palaces that I collected at Genoa, not without trouble and expense, although I had the good luck to avail myself in part of the work of another. [ . . . ] We see in our country the architecture that is called barbaric or Gothic slowly perishing and disappearing. We see several enlightened men introducing into our country, for its embellishment and decorative glory, a true symmetry that follows the rules of the ancient Greeks and Romans. We find these examples in the magnificent churches built by the Holy Society of Jesus in the towns of Antwerp and Brussels. Because of the dignity of the divine office, we begin to change the temples to a better style.

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PART II

CLASSICISM IN FRANCE AND BRITAIN

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F R E N C H C L A S S I C I S M : AN C I E N T S AND MODERNS Introduction

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he relationship of France and Italy during the Renaissance is defined by the geographical proximity of the two areas and by the interactions of the two cultures. Italy, to begin with, was not a country in any sense of the term. A map of the area at the start of the sixteenth century shows the entire southern half of the Italian peninsula largely under the control of Spain, the republics of the middle region and (an often hostile) Venice composing the Papal States, and parts of Lombardy and Piedmont forming the southern extension of the Holy Roman Empire. France during the same years had geographic borders much smaller than today and was still making its political passage from a monarchy controlled by feudal lords to a centralized state. The religious reformations of the first part of the sixteenth century further complicated this picture. In 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of Wittenberg castle’s church; in 1529 Henry VIII of England began the process of separating his church I N T R OD U C T I O N T O P AR T I I A

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from that of Rome; and in 1541 Jean Calvin forcefully assumed control of the city-state of Geneva. Catholic France was thus drawn into alliances and conflicts with the papacy but also into continuous military competition with Britain, Spain, and with the various territorial centers of the Habsburgs. Thus the French monarch Charles VIII initiated the Italian wars in 1494 in pursuit of Naples. Louis XII led a French army south in 1499 in pursuit of Milan, and Franc¸ois I led yet another French army into Italy in 1515 – both to press dynastic claims and to challenge the Habsburgs for control of the Continent. These wars at least served the purpose of cultural exchange. After Franc¸ois’s victory at Marignano in 1515 he possessed Milan (for a while), where he became impressed with the splendor of the new Italian residences. Shortly thereafter he invited Leonardo da Vinci to France to design a royal palace at Romorantin (1515–17), and around the same time he began work on his Loire-valley chaˆteaux at Bois (1515–24) and Chambord (begun 1519). The French king especially appreciated the cultural life of Italian humanism and based his own court on its model. This fascination soon became a trend. The same king, as we have seen, invited Serlio to France in the early 1540s, and Vignola eventually followed. French artists and scholars by this date were also regularly making their way to Italy. Scholarly annotations to the treatise of Vitruvius were published by the Frenchman Guillaume Philander in Rome in 1544, the following year in Paris. In 1547 Jean Martin made the first French translation of Vitruvius, and in 1553 he published a translation of Alberti’s treatise. It was a little over a decade later – in 1567 – that the first French treatise of the Renaissance appeared. Its author was the architect Philibert Delorme (c. 1510–70), an almost exact contemporary of Palladio. Over the next century Renaissance forms became the basis of an emerging French classicism. Architects such as Pierre Lescot (d. 1578), Salomon de Brosse (1571–1626), Jacques Lemercier (1582–1654), and Franc¸ois Mansart (1598–1666) established a refined Renaissance manner of building with a distinct French coloration. The political situation of the country was also changing. The bloody religious wars between Catholics and Calvinists that had wreaked havoc in the last third of the sixteenth century had been brought to a tentative (but not permanent) halt by the Edict of Nantes of 1598, which acknowledged at least the principle of religious toleration. The economic devastation wrought by the strife now slowly came to be repaired over the first half of the seventeenth century, despite the instability the Thirty Years War (1618–48). By the end of this continental conflict, France had succeeded Habsburg Spain as the leading military power on the Continent and was poised for greater things in the cultural field. The architect Louis Le Vau (1612–70) was developing a style of classicism with distinct overtones of the Italian baroque. Painters such as Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorraine were beginning to rival the efforts of Italian painters. And in 1648 a petition was presented to the 10-year-old Dauphin to create a Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. The glorious Age of Louis XIV was poised to begin. For architecture, French classicism takes its decisive turn in 1671 with the founding of the Royal Academy of Architecture. The Academy was one of several founded by Louis XIV as a way to codify theory and advance the country’s standing in the arts. For France these institutions also became a means to define an artistic path independent from that of Italy. French classicism, along every front, now became hostile to the ‘‘baroque’’ turn of the Renaissance, and the various academies advocated a sterner and more rigid interpretation of classicism. The person most responsible for defining this position in architecture was the Academy of Architecture’s first director, Franc¸ois Blondel, who in 1674–83 published his two-volume Cours d’architecture (Course of architecture). The theory of Vitruvius was central to Blondel’s version of classicism, but he nevertheless allowed the Renaissance interpretations of Alberti, Serlio, Vignola, Palladio, and Scamozzi in certain matters. Blondel’s view of antiquity and the aesthetic underpinnings of his teachings, however, would not go unchallenged. As in every instance when an institutional authority is set in place, dissenting voices are soon to be heard. Blondel found his protagonist and able opponent in the person of Claude Perrault, a surgeon, scientist, part-time architect, and translator. Squaring off in the 1670s and 1680s – they would initiate the first round of a debate that famously became known as the ‘‘quarrel between the Ancients and Moderns.’’ The Renaissance tradition of classicism now came under its first challenge. 60

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R EN E´ D E S C A R T E S from Rules for the Direction of the Mind (1628)

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enaissance theory, as it became assimilated into France, was predicated on the belief that the arts, like the sciences, participated in the greater order of the universe, in an eternal grammar of mathematical forms, numbers, and relations. This belief, architecturally reinterpreted by Villalpando at the start of the century, was central to Renaissance theory, and it is this belief that will first come under attack in the second half of the seventeenth century. The initial soundings of disquiet, however, are heard not from an architect but rather from the young French mathematician living in Holland, Rene´ Descartes. He had spent much of the previous decade traveling around Europe, and was at the time turning from mathematics to philosophy. In embarking on his deductive ‘‘system’’ or method of reasoning – later known as Cartesianism – he, in the late-1620s, compiled a notebook of rules that would guide him through his logical deliberations. The skeptical note voiced in rule 3 – later published as the first principle of his Discourse on the Method (1637) – came to be referred to as ‘‘Cartesian doubt’’ and would be widely embraced by scientists intent on advancing knowledge. The implied challenge here to the theories of Plato and Aristotle could be transposed into architecture as skepticism toward the teachings of Vitruvius.

Rule Three Concerning objects proposed for study, we ought to investigate what we can clearly and evidently intuit or deduce with certainty, and not what other people have thought or what we ourselves conjecture. For knowledge can be attained in no other way. We ought to read the writings of the ancients, for it is of great advantage to be able to make use of the labours of so many men. We should do so both in order to learn what truths have already been discovered and also to be informed about the points which remain to be worked out in the various disciplines. But at the same time there is a considerable danger that if we study these works too closely traces of their errors will infect us and cling to us against our will and despite our precautions. For, once writers have credulously and heedlessly taken up a position on some controversial question, they are generally inclined to employ the most subtle arguments in an attempt to get us to adopt their point of view. On the other hand, whenever they have the luck to discover something certain and evident, they always present it wrapped up in various obscurities, either because they fear that the simplicity of their argument may depreciate the importance of their finding, or because they begrudge us the plain truth.

Rene´ Descartes (1596–1650), from Regulae ad Directionen Ingenii [Rules for the direction of the mind] (1628), trans. John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff, and Dugald Murdoch in The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, Vol. I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, p. 13.

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But even if all writers were sincere and open, and never tried to palm off doubtful matters as true, but instead put forward everything in good faith, we would always be uncertain which of them to believe, for hardly anything is said by one writer the contrary of which is not asserted by some other. It would be of no use to count heads, so as to follow the view which many authorities hold. For if the question at issue is a difficult one, it is more likely that few, rather than many, should have been able to discover the truth about it. But even if they all agreed among themselves, their teaching would still not be all we need. For example, even though we know other people’s demonstrations by heart, we shall never become mathematicians if we lack the intellectual aptitude to solve any given problem. And even though we have read all the arguments of Plato and Aristotle, we shall never become philosophers if we are unable to make a sound judgement on matters which come up for discussion; in this case what we would seem to have learnt would not be science but history.

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R O LA N D FR E´ A R T D E C H A M B R A Y from Preface to A Parallel of the Ancient Architecture with the Modern (1650)

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t is within this skeptical context – and as a reaction to the Italian baroque – that we must consider the treatise of Roland Fre´art de Chambray (Sieur de Chambray). This diplomat and connoisseur had honed his artistic interests in Italy in the 1630s, where he was close to the circle of painters and savants that had gathered around Poussin. In 1640, while he was accompanying the Paris superintendent of building on a tour of the south, he was asked to write a treatise that would summarize for his countrymen the architectural teachings of antiquity and the Renaissance. He chose to limit his subject to the orders, and to do so in a comparative manner that would pit one example from classical times against several Renaissance examples. He also brought to his study a full classical bearing: a belief in absolute beauty and the importance of geometry (he was also a translator of Euclid) and numerical proportions. The book, as a result, is a study of contrasts. On the one hand, it is a reining in of French classicism from the dangers of the Italian baroque and an attempt to ground theory once again on Vitruvian or antique principles. On the other hand, Fre´art de Chambray – with his recognition that there was no universally accepted proportional system – allowed the modern French architect the same freedom to invent ‘‘as the Antients,’’ thereby preparing the way for other French departures from Italian taste.

Roland Fre´art de Chambray (1606–76), from Preface to Parallele de l’architecture antique et de la moderne (1650), trans. John Evelyn in A Parallel of the Antient Architecture with the Modern, printed in London by The Roycroft for John Place’s shop in Holborn, 1664, pp. 1–3.

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READER, Before I do altogether resign this Book to thy judgement, I advertise thee, that ’twas not my design in compiling it to teach any man, much less yet to satisfie those Critical spirits which the World so much abounds with: nor, is the Publique at all beholding to me; I have no thought of obliging it, an envious, and evil Judge: In a word, being nothing inclin’d to give them satisfaction, I have easily gratified my labour with the desir’d success: My principal drift was, First, to satisfie my self, nor has it cost me much trouble; though we sometimes find certain humors that are more averse, and difficult to themselves, then they would prove to others: For my part, I do not so use to treat my self: We have Enemies enough besides; and whatever I were able to do, I expect that men should presently say of me, all that Jealousie does commonly suggest in reproach of Novelty. That being no Artisan, it did not become me to prescribe to others the rules of their Mystery; That I teach nothing particular and extraordinary here; That the Books from whence I have gather’d all that I say being common and much ampler then mine, there was no need to have scumm’d them thus superficially over; That it had been better to have search’d, and produc’d something which the World had not yet seen: That the mind is free, not bound, and that we have as good right to invent, and follow our own Genius, as the Antients, without rendring our selves their Slaves; since Art is an infinite thing, growing every day to more perfection, and suiting it self to the humor of the several Ages, and Nations, who judge of it differently, and define what is agreeable, every one according to his own mode, with a world of such like vain and frivolous reasonings, which yet leave a deep impression on the minds of certain half-knowing people, whom the practice of Arts has not yet disabus’d; and on simple Workmen, whose Trade dwells all upon their fingers ends onely: but we shall not appeal to such Arbiters as these. There are others to be found (though truely very rarely) that having their first studies well founded on the Principles of Geometry before they adventur’d to work, do afterward easily, and with assurance arrive to the knowledge of the perfection of the Art: It is to such onely that I address my self, and to whom I willingly communicate the thoughts which I have had of separating in two branches the five Orders of Architecture, and forming a body a part of the Three which are deriv’d to us from the Greeks; to wit, the Dorique, Ionique, and the Corinthian, which one may with reason call the very flower and perfection of the Orders; since they not onely contain whatsoever is excellent, but likewise all that is necessary of Architecture; there being but three manners of Building, the Solid, the Mean, and the Delicate; all of them accurately express’d in these three Orders here, that have therefore no need of the other two (Tuscan, and Composita) which being purely of Latine extraction, and but forrainers in respect to them, seem as it were of another species; so as being mingl’d, they do never well together, as those to whom I discourse will soon perceive, when they shall have once put off a certain blind respect and reverence, which Antiquity, and a long custome (even of the greatest abuses) does commonly imprint in the most part of men, whose judgements they so preoccupate, that they find it afterwards a difficult matter to undeceive themselves; because they deferr too much, and hardly dare to examine what has been receiv’d by the vulgar approbation for so long a time: Let them but consider, that we find no antique example where the Greek Orders are employ’d amongst the Latine, and that so many ages of ignorance have pass’d over us, especially in the Arts of Architecture, and Painting, which the Warr, and frequent inundations of Barbarians had almost extinguish’d in the very Country of their Originals; and which were in a manner new born again but a few years since, when those FRE´ AR T D E CH A M BR A Y , A PA RA L LEL

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great Modern Masters, Michael Angelo, and Raphael, did as it were raise them from the Sepulchers of their antient ruines, under which, these poor Sciences lay buri’d; and I shall have fair hopes of their Conversion, and to see them of my opinion. It is the very least of my thoughts to broach Novelties; on the contrary, I would (were it possible) ascend even to the very sourse of the Orders themselves, and derive from thence the Images, and pure Ideas of these incomparable Masters, who were indeed their first Inventors, and be instructed from their own mouths; since doubtless the farther men have wander’d from their Principles, transplanting them as it were into a strange soile, the more they are become degenerate, and scarce cognoscible to their very Authours. For to say truth, have we at this present any reason in the World to call those three by the name of Orders, viz. Dorique, Ionique, and Corinthian, which we daily behold so disfigur’d, and ill treated by the Workmen of this age? to speak seriously, remains there so much as a simple Member, which has not receiv’d some strange and monstrous alteration? Nay, things are arrived to that pass, that a man shall hardly find an Architect who disdains not to follow the best and most approved examples of Antiquity: Every man will now forsooth compose after his own fansie, and conceives, that to imitate Them, were to become an Apprentise again; and that to be Masters indeed, they must of necessity produce something of new: Poor men that they are, to believe, that in fantastically designing some one kind of particular Cornice, or like Member, they are presently the Inventors of a new Order, as if in that onely consisted, what is call’d Invention; as if the Pantheon, that same stupendious and incomparable Structure (which is yet to be seen at Rome) were not the Invention of the Architect who built it, because he has vary’d nothing from the Corinthian Ordinance of which it is intirely compos’d? ’Tis not in the retail of the minuter portions, that the talent of an Architect appears; this is to be judg’d from the general distribution of the Whole Work. These low and reptile Souls, who never arrive to the universal knowledge of the Art, and embrace her in all her dimensions, are constrain’d to stop there, for want of abilities, incessantly crawling after these poor little things; and as their studies have no other objects, being already empty, and barren of themselves; their Ideas are so base and miserable, that they produce nothing save Mascarons, wretched Cartouches, and the like idle and impertinent Grotesks, with which they have even infected all our Modern Architecture. As for those other to whom Nature has been more propitious, and are indu’d with a clearer imagination, they very well perceive that the true and essential beauty of Architecture consists not simply in the minute separation of every member apart; but does rather principally result from the Symmetry and Oeconomy of the whole, which is the union and concourse of them all together, producing as ’twere a visible harmony and consent, which those eyes that are clear’d and enlightned by the real Intelligence of Art, contemplate and behold with excess of delectation.

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P AU L FR E´ A R T DE C H A N T E L O U from Diary of the Cavaliere Bernini’s Visit to France (1665)

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f the issue of an independent artistic path for France was first suggested by the activities of the various French academies as well as by the treatise of Roland Fre´art de Chambray, the matter was given further encouragement by the contentious events surrounding the completion of the Louvre. Louis XIV ascended to the throne in 1661 and three years later he appointed Jean-Baptiste Colbert as his Minister of Finance and Superintendent of Building. Colbert, in turn, initially focused his attention on the completion of the Louvre, which was proposed to be the urban palace of the young king. Work on removing and rebuilding a turreted medieval castle on this site had begun 1557 with Pierre Lescot’s design of the pavilion in the southwest corner of the existing square court. In 1624 Jacques Lemercier doubled the length of Lescot’s building and added northern and southern wings at each end, which in turn were to be joined by an eastern wing, forming a square with an interior courtyard. As the Dauphin approached the governing age in the late 1650s, the architect Louis Le Vau was given the task of completing the (largely Italianate) work by designing the east wing. He only got as far as laying the foundations in 1664 when the newly appointed Colbert, unhappy with the design, stepped in and halted the project. Colbert solicited various proposals from French and Italian architects, and in December 1664 the king made the decision to appoint the aging Bernini – Italy’s greatest artist – as the architect. The Cavaliere undertook the arduous trip by carriage to Paris and arrived on June 1 with much pomp and fanfare. He spent five months finalizing his design for the east wing, while the foundation stone was laid on July 1, 1665. The civil servant Paul Fre´art, the brother of Roland Fre´art de Chambray, was given the task of escorting Bernini’s entourage into Paris, and during the artist’s stay Fre´art, who too had been active in Poussin’s artistic circle in Rome, recorded in his diary the events that transpired. The following two excerpts convey both the loud acclaim with which Bernini was received, and the bitterness surrounding his departure. Opposition to Bernini’s Louvre design seems to have been orchestrated by Colbert, but, as the entry of October 6 shows, it was carried out by Charles Perrault, Colbert’s personal secretary, who in an audience with Bernini had the audacity to criticize the final design. Behind this criticism was considerable resentment among French architects at having an Italian brought to France to prepare the design. The project was, in effect, doomed well before Bernini left Paris on October 20, and Colbert would next seek a design more ‘‘French’’ in its overall character.

I June During the evening one of the minister’s servants was sent to look for me. I went over to him, and he told me that the King had chosen me to welcome the Cavaliere Bernini, not in my capacity as maıˆtre d’hoˆtel1 but as a special emissary to entertain and accompany him

Paul Fre´art de Chantelou (1609–94), from Diary of the Cavaliere Bernini’s Visit to France (1665) in Fre´art’s Diary of the Cavaliere Bernini’s Visit to France, ed. Anthony Blunt, trans. Margery Corbett. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985, pp. 7–9, 260–2. ª 1985 by Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press.

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while he was in this country. I said this was a great honor but that it gave me cause for some anxiety; the Ambassador Extraordinary of the Knights of Malta2 was arriving at court the next day, the King was going to entertain him, and I was solely responsible for the arrangements as I was the only maıˆtre d’hoˆtel at Saint-Germain, both for ordinary and special duties.3 M. Colbert replied that I must send a note that evening to the other maıˆtres d’hoˆtel in waiting to come at once to relieve me, and that I should without further delay, leave very early the next morning. I then went to see the grand maıˆtre,4 to inform him of this decision, and to take my leave of His Highness. As he was not at home I went to the King’s apartments to look for him. There I found the marquis de Bellefonds,5 the chief maıˆtre d’hoˆtel, and I told him my difficulties. He begged me not to worry, saying that he and M. Sanguin6 would take over my duties. He added that, while they were having refreshments in the park, the King had asked him whether in his opinion he had not made a very good choice in appointing me, and that he had replied as befitted a good friend. I had decided to remain so that I could attend the King at dinner, but M. Colbert sent for me again and told me that I must depart for Paris in the morning; I must leave again at midday and travel towards Essonne until I met the Cavaliere who was to dine there. He asked me if I had a coach-and-six; I told him no, whereupon he said, ‘‘You must take my brother’s7 I will let him know.’’ He then told me that I should be present at the King’s evening toilet, when His Majesty would give me his direct command. I said it was not necessary, that I would write to the maıˆtres d’hoˆtel who were in waiting, and would start next day early, which I did.

2 June I took the carria´ge belonging to M. Colbert and started on the road for Essonne. On leaving Juvisy8 I met the Cavaliere’s party. I signalled to his litter to stop and got down from my carriage. He had also alighted and I went to greet him addressing him in French. I realized at once that he did not understand a word and I said in Italian that I would not risk making compliments in his tongue, but begged him to get into the carriage that I had brought. His son9 and Signor Mattia10 also got out and came up to greet me. Having exchanged civilities, the Cavaliere and I, as well as my nephew, your son,11 whom I had taken with me, got into M. Colbert’s carriage. Once installed I repeated my speech to him in as good Italian as I could muster. I explained to him the King’s orders and with what pleasure I had received them, on account of the very great admiration I had always felt for him and for his talent. I reminded him that he had once done me the honor of giving me some of his figure studies which I treasured dearly.12 I then recalled to him several maxims on the subject of portraiture in marble, which I had heard him express and had carefully remembered because I had always greatly esteemed his opinions; he could judge for himself, therefore, of my eagerness to obey His Majesty’s command to meet him and remain with him during his stay in France. He thanked me most courteously, and said that it was a great honor to be asked to serve a king of France; moreover the Pope, his master, had commanded him. Had it not been for these considerations he would still be in Rome. He had heard on all sides that the 66

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King was a great prince with a great heart and a great intelligence, as well as the greatest gentleman in his kingdom. It was this that had chiefly induced him to set out, for he was curious to make his acquaintance and eager to serve him; he only regretted that his gifts were not sufficient to justify the honor done him, nor the high opinion in which he was held. He then turned to the business that had brought him. Beauty in architecture, he declared, as in all else, lay in proportion, the origin of which it might be said was divine; for did it not derive from the body of Adam which not only was shaped by divine hands but was made in the likeness and image of God? The difference between the male and female forms and proportions was the source of the various orders in architecture, and he added many other observations on the same subject, with which we are familiar.13 [ . . . ]

6 October [ . . . ] When we got back, M. Perrault had arrived. My brother was with us, as he had wished to be present. The Cavaliere opened the conversation by saying that he hoped the foundations would be ready by Saturday for the laying of the foundation stone. M. Perrault replied that the medals would not be ready by that day. The Cavaliere said they could be put under other stones, since he wished to leave by Tuesday as the weather was getting cold; as regards the foundation they should not have to excavate any lower than the foundations of the pavilion, ‘‘not more than that,’’ he said, showing his spectacle case. M. Perrault replied that so far they had never had buildings subsiding in Paris. Then he brought forward a number of things on which he wanted enlightenment before the departure of the Cavaliere, all of which seemed trifling matters, such as the arrangement of quarters below, really the business of the mare´chal des logis, as the Cavaliere said; it was quite enough if he made a plan for the piano nobile, as he had said in the beginning, when he and Signor Mattia were working on it, and he added to M. Perrault, ‘‘Every time there is a new pope all the apartments in the Vatican are rearranged, according to the wishes of the new papal officials who want everything changed to suit them.’’ Then M. Perrault brought up the question of the arches in the fac¸ade towards the service courtyard, saying that there would be a difficulty in closing them. The Cavaliere took a pencil and showed him how it should be done. I repeated that these were all small difficulties about which there was no urgency; they could be settled in three or four years’ time; anyway in the Queen Mother’s new apartments there were similar arches for which shutters had been made. He replied that it had caused a lot of trouble. I repeated again that these were all little things that did not matter now, and that everything was clear on the plan. He then told me that he had a notebook with all the difficulties he wanted to bring forward. The Cavaliere had the plans brought in so that he could show him the problems. Whereupon he said there was one thing that required explaining; not only he himself but a hundred others wanted to know why that part of the new wing that runs along the riverside is shorter than the other, it being quite against the laws of symmetry, as each should be in relation to the cupola which is in the center of this fac¸ade.14 M. Perrault demonstrated what he meant, and from this and from the few words that he understood in spite of knowing little French, the Cavaliere realized he was talking about his F R E´ A R T D E C H A N T E LO U , D I A RY OF T H E C AVAL I E R E BE R N I N I

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work and suggesting there were faults in his design. He told two Italians, who were standing by, to leave the room. Then taking a pencil he said that if he had extended this pavilion to the line of the return of the main block of his fac¸ade, it would have been a great error of judgment; it was only necessary for this part of the pavilion to correspond with the other, although it was not so long. He would like M. Perrault to know that it was not for him to make difficulties; he was willing to listen to criticism in what concerned matters of convenience, but only someone cleverer than himself could be permitted to criticize the design; in this respect he was not fit to wipe his boots; anyway the matter did not arise as the designs had been passed by the King; he would complain to the King himself and was going now to M. Colbert to tell him how he had been insulted. M. Perrault, seeing what effect his words had had, was very much alarmed. He begged me to soothe the Cavaliere and to say that he had not wished to be critical of his work, but had merely wanted to have something to reply to those who raised this particular objection. I told the Cavaliere this and added that if he carried things so far, he would ruin the career of a young man, and I was sure that he would not wish to be the cause of his downfall. His son and M. Mattia, who were there, tried to calm him down but without success. He went into the next room saying at one moment he was going to M. Colbert, at the next, he would go to the Nuncio, and meanwhile M. Perrault was beseeching me to tell him that he had not intended to offend him. ‘‘To a man like me,’’ the Cavaliere was saying, ‘‘whom the Pope treats with attention and to whom he even defers, such usage is a gross insult, and I shall complain of it to the King. If it costs me my life, I intend to leave tomorrow, and I see no reason after the contempt that has been shown me, why I should not take a hammer to the bust. I shall go to see the Nuncio.’’ He seemed to be really going off, and I begged M. Mattia to stop him. He replied it would be better to let him unburden his heart; in the end, this would help to soothe him, and I could rely on him to handle the matter. Signor Paolo was also trying to make excuses for M. Perrault, who had besought him to do so, repeating that what he had said was not intended to offend him. Finally instead of going out they took him upstairs, and my brother and I accompanied M. Perrault as far as M. Colbert’s. He said he was going to tell him about the outburst. I told him to be very guarded; it would be as well to know first whether the whole business could be hushed up; it would be better if he mentioned it to no one, and my brother and I would also keep quiet about it, which he entreated us to do.

NOTES 1 2 3

4

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That is, one of the royal stewards responsible for serving the King’s table. Lomellini, Bailey of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and Grand Prior of England, who entered Paris on 2 June and took leave of the King on 27 July. Although the multiplication of offices during the minority of Louis XIV had greatly increased the number of stewards in the King’s Household – there were 318 in 1660 – only twelve were normally in service during the year, three for each quarter. Henri-Jules de Bourbon (1643–1709), duc d’Enghien, son of the Grand Conde´, whom he succeeded as prince de Conde´ at the latter’s death in 1686. From 1660, he was grand maıˆtre of France and, as head of the King’s Household, was therefore Chantelou’s superior. FR E´ A R T D E C H A N T E L O U, D I A RY OF T H E C AVA L I E R E B E R N I N I

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Bernardin Gigault (1630–94), marquis de Bellefonds and Marshal of France (1668). As premier maıˆtre d’hoˆtel du roi (from 1663), he ranked immediately below the grand maıˆtre. Jacques Sanguin (d. 1680), seigneur de Livry and, like Chantelou, a maıˆtre d’hoˆtel to the King. In 1676 Sanguin purchased from the marquis de Bellefonds the office of premier maıˆtre. Charles-Franc¸ois Colbert (1629–96), later marquis de Croissy, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and Minister of State, who appears in person later in the diary. Having a carriage drawn by six horses placed at his disposal was a mark of the honor being accorded Bernini, and Chantelou rarely forgets to give the number of horses whenever the coach is mentioned. A village about 15 km. south of Paris on the road to Fontainebleau. Paolo Valentino Bernini (1648–1728), trained as a sculptor by his father. Although he became a member of the Accademia di San Luca in 1672, he never seems to have been more than a mediocre artist, who is chiefly documented as an assistant to his father. Mattia de’ Rossi (1637–95), an architect and Bernini’s longtime assistant to whom Leone Pascoli (Vite de’ pittori, scultori, ed architetti moderni, Rome, 1730–31, 1, pp. 322–30) dedicated a biography. In 1661 misuratore of the Papal Camera, he succeeded Bernini as architect of St. Peter’s (1680). In 1672 he became a member of the Accademia di San Luca, which he served as Principe in 1681 and from 1690 to 1693. Roland, son of Jean Fre´art de Chantelou, who later became a maıˆtre d’hoˆtel du roi (1675). Chantelou, then secretary to Sublet de Noyers, had been sent to Rome in 1640, in part to bring Poussin back to France. In 1642–3 he was again in Rome, this time to get the Pope’s blessing for the gifts being offered by the King and Queen to the Madonna di Loreto in gratitude for the unexpected birth of Louis XIV. In fact, these first comments by Bernini on beauty and proportion repeat traditional Renaissance beliefs that had been formulated from both ancient and mediaeval ideas. See the now classic statements of E. Panofsky, ‘‘The History of the Theory of Human Proportions as a Reflection of the History of Styles,’’ in Meaning in the Visual Arts, Garden City, NY, 1955, pp. 55–107, and R. Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism, 2d ed., London, 1952. However, as will appear below, Bernini developed a typically Baroque interpretation of proportions on the basis of this inherited foundation. This passage is not altogether easy to interpret, but it appears that Perrault was criticizing the fact that the river fac¸ade was not symmetrical, having a much larger pavilion on the right than on the left. Perrault’s reference to the dome in the middle of the front is puzzling because in the elevation as engraved this would have disappeared. This almost suggests that even at this late stage Bernini was considering incorporating at least the central pavilion of Le Vau’s river front.

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F RA N C¸ O I S B L O N D E L from ‘‘Inaugural Lecture to the Academy of Architecture’’ (1671)

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he young ‘‘Sun King’’ came into office in 1661 with a vision of himself as a monarch destined for greatness, and he saw France as a modern-day state fated to reign supreme in the arts and sciences. To this end Louis XIV and Colbert set about establishing royal academies to train the country’s youth and provide them with the rudiments of greatness. The Academy of Painting and Sculpture was reformed in 1664 with a new constitution mandating formal courses of instruction. A French Academy in Rome was opened in 1666 to reward the most gifted students with advanced schooling. Academies in other fields were founded: Dance (1661), Inscriptions and Belles Lettres (1663), Sciences (1666), and Music (1669). The crowning jewel to this unparalleled educational system was the Royal Academy of Architecture, which opened its doors late in 1671. The first director of the Academy of Architecture was the 53-year-old Franc¸ois Blondel. He had enjoyed a distinguished career as a military leader, diplomat, engineer, and mathematician, and had been elected to the Academy of Sciences. As the director of the Architectural Academy he was charged with writing a curriculum for the new school (codifying the principles of classical design in line with those taught in the other fine arts) and disseminating these principles to students in two weekly lectures. Vitruvian theory constituted the core of the teachings, but other treatises of the Renaissance could also be consulted on some issues. The perceived excesses of the baroque era were now officially condemned, and an undying faith in absolute beauty and harmonic proportions were other foundation stones of Blondel’s academic teachings. His inaugural lecture of 1671 – a formal ceremonial address – itself contains little theory, but it nevertheless conveys the expectations for which the new institution was founded. The passage picks up as Blondel is assuring his student audience of the resources that the crown (both the King and Colbert) have put at their disposal and of the great tasks for which they are to be trained. No one has had so many advantages or such means to succeed in this endeavor than will you. The King, through the magnitude of his virtue and his actions, fills your heart with vast and grand sentiments. His liberality frees you of those importune troubles that have traditionally plagued the unrelenting self-application that architecture demands. He provides abundant resources through the quest for rare and precious materials, through the efforts of excellent workers, and by the choice of advantageous building sites. He spares nothing in putting you in a position to immortalize your designs. Indeed, Messieurs, can we doubt the love that this Prince holds for architecture, when we consider that to oversee his buildings he has chosen this same genius to whom he has entrusted so wisely the most important affairs of the State. And what fruit has architecture not received from the wisdom of this great man! (I am speaking of the Superintendent of Building) and of his laborious efforts to realize the glorious projects of our invincible Monarch?

Franc¸ois Blondel (1618–86), from ‘‘Discours prononce´ par Mr Blondel a l’ouverture de l’Academie d’Architecture’’ [Inaugural lecture to the Academy of Architecture] (1671), published at the beginning of the first volume of his Cours d’architecture (Paris, 1675), trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave.

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Has anyone ever seen building projects that are so grand and useful, so soon, and in so many places at the same time? Have we ever had so many resources and such art to employ in the defense of our frontiers? In the construction of quays and dikes to contain the river beds? In building bridges over rivers? In repairing provincial roads? In excavating ports and constructing sea jetties? What can I say of that more benevolent enterprise, by this I mean the junctions of the sea, on which Colbert has so happily supported the designs of the King? I mean those naval dockyards at Rochefort, Brest, Marseilles, Toulon, and other places. They yield nothing to those that the Athenians formerly had at Port de Pyre´e, nor to those that the Romans had at Ostia and Ravenna, nor even to those that are presently found in Venice, Holland, and Constantinople. What cannot be said, finally, of that prodigious naval fleet, which we have built up into such large numbers? Is there anything more dazzling to see, anything more luxurious and more sumptuous than what has been made for the royal houses? Or in the admirable construction of that Arch of Triumph, which by the grandeur and magnificence of the work and by the quality of construction surely surpasses everything that has ever been made in this manner. Messieurs, the viewpoint that I dare to convey in this course of instruction is founded on some of the experience that I have acquired by the study and practice of architecture over a long time. And by the opportunities to employ them, for which I have been honored by service to the crown in every part of the world, which has given me the chance to see and to examine almost every ancient and modern building of reputation in our hemisphere. Let us therefore work, Messieurs, under so illustrious protection to merit the graces provided for us by the King, and to render ourselves worthy of the tasks for which his Majesty calls us. Let us confer together with good faith and sincerely communicate our ideas for the advancement of architecture. Because to be true architects, it is not enough to have a mediocre understanding of the rules of this excellent art; this qualification demands a conjunction of so many virtues and different kinds of knowledge that an entire lifetime is insufficient to acquire it. Through our study, work, and manner of noble, generous, and unselfish devotion, let us restore the name of architecture to its ancient luster. And let us make known by our works that this beautiful art was with justice honored among the ancients, where it was held in a scarcely imaginable esteem as far back in time as the Sacred Books. God, after having made that horrible menace for his people to punish them for their impiety, stripped them of his wisdom and abandoned them to their folly; to add to their unhappiness, he even deprived them of their architects.

BLONDEL, ‘‘INAUGURAL LECTURE’’

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F RA N C¸ O I S B L O N D E L from Architecture Course (1675)

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he content of Blondel’s lectures composed his Cours d’architecture (1675–83), which became the first architectural textbook of French academic theory. The director approached his task with a careful, comprehensive, and essentially conservative spirit, yet not in an excessively dogmatic way. As this opening page of the text shows, his definition of architecture and the architect’s task was virtually indistinguishable from the conceptions of Vitruvius or Alberti. Architecture is the art of building well. A good building is one that is solid, commodious, healthy, and pleasing. The first thing that the architect must do is to locate a proper site to place his building, the choice of which is made by good water, clean and pure air, a wellexposed site that is not subject to vapors and gases that render habitations unhealthy or infected. It is for the architect to dispose and to divide his particular spaces in such a way that the parts relate to each other with an agreeable proportion and justness, each being convenient and separated without encumbrance. He must know the nature of the terrain, the stone, wood, lime, and other materials, and employ them with such prudence and care that the foundations will be solid, the walls strong, the wood well-joined, and everything so well laid that nothing contradicts it. Then he must take care to embellish the facades of his building with ornaments that are proper and disposed with regard to the doors, windows, and other parts; in their arrangement they must please and satisfy the eyes that regard them.

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nother aspect of Blondel’s teachings was the Neo-Platonic notion – also favored in the Italian Renaissance – that beauty derives principally from proportions, and that architectural proportions, like musical tonalities, emanate from and must reflect the cosmic order of numbers and ratios. This old idea of ‘‘harmonic proportions’’ for architecture was reaffirmed for the French academic system by this book of Rene´ Ouvrard. This Oratorian priest was both a friend of Blondel and a music master at Sainte Chapelle, and he was apparently encouraged by the architectural director to write a discourse on this aspect of architectural theory – as Blondel in his textbook refers his students to it. Ouvrard’s insistence on the infallibility of these rules was perhaps stated more

Franc¸ois Blondel, from Cours d’architecture: enseigne´ dans l’Academie Royale d’Architecture [Architecture course: instruction at the Royal Academy of Architecture] (Paris: The Author, 1675), trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave. Rene´ Ouvrard (1624–94), from Architecture harmonique, ou application de la doctrine des proportions de la musique a` l’architecture [Harmonic architecture, or the application of the doctrine of musical proportions to architecture] (1677), trans. Christina Contandriopoulos and Harry Francis Mallgrave, from La theorie architecturale a` l’age classique, ed. Franc¸oise Fichet, Paris: Pierre Mardaga, 1979, pp. 176–8.

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strongly than Blondel himself would do, and they allow the architect no leeway in making ‘‘optical adjustments,’’ as Vitruvius had permitted. It is nevertheless a succinct pronouncement of this important cornerstone of academic theory that would later come under strong attack. There is no precept more universal in the arts than that which prescribes proportion, symmetry, and fitness (or ratio) for the different parts of the same body – and this is especially true in architecture. The masters of this art did not fail to rank this precept among the foremost rules, as Vitruvius did at the beginning of book 1, chapter 22, and in book 3, chapter 1. But even if architects say that they have to imitate the natural proportions that have been so exactly observed in the fabric of the human body, they seem to heed these rules in practice only in an arbitrary way, as something dependent on the wishes of the designer and not on the principles of art. In effect, when they want to put these rules into use, they have employed other measures and have not regarded the harmony of proportions. We assume the contrary – that there is an analogy between the proportions of music and architecture, that what displeases the ear in the first art offends the eye in the second art, and that a building cannot be perfect if it does not follow the same rules as composition or the harmonizing of musical chords. To understand this claim, we must presume here the law of proportions [ . . . ] of which we will present the basics for those who have not studied this matter [ . . . ] It is enough to know that all harmonies or possible consonances are contained in the proportional values of the first six numbers, or in multiples of these first six numbers. [ . . . ] Those who have not heard of the ratio of proportional numbers with musical sounds may have trouble understanding, for example, that the octave is in the proportion of 1:2, the fifth in the proportion of 2:3. In a few words here, let us say that these proportions have been rendered visible on the instrument called the monochord, where we see that a chord being shortened by one-half makes a sound to the ear one octave higher than the chord at full length. Or that putting one part of the same chord against two other parts creates an octave, while putting two parts of the same chord against three of its parts makes a fifth. Thus we have a right to say that the proportions of an octave are 1:2, and that those of a fifth are 1:3. Similarly, to get the proportion of the fourth, one must divide the chord into seven equal parts, putting three one side and four on the other. And the three parts against the four will make us hear the fourth, because its proportions are 3:4. [ . . . ] And just as in music all sounds that are not of these proportions or that do not have these ratios are disagreeable and offensive to the ear, we assume also in architecture that all the dimensions or measures that are not of these proportions, or that do not have these ratios, will offend the eye for lack of agreement. [ . . . ] In order to complete this comparison of the sensations of the two senses, it is important to know that in music only the sounds that play together or that one hears at the same time must accord and make a harmony with the others, and not those that follow after or that are not heard at the same time. Similarly in architecture, that which presents itself to the eye at the same time must have these proportions – for example, the casements or windows on a building’s facade, or the height and width of the same facade, or at least of each story. However, sight embraces many more things simultaneously than one is able to hear, and it can perceive simultaneously all the parts of a building’s facade. If all of these parts together O U VR A RD , H AR M ON I C AR CH I T E CT U R E

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have their proportions in the ratios that we have said will create a harmony, then the building would be charming and its beauty would make itself felt. Nevertheless, it is vital that the height and length of the same part have harmonic proportion, that is to say, one of those ratios mentioned above. And if, as we said, all the parts presented from a single vantage point were to have concordant proportions, even if there were no other ornaments, the viewer would sense charms that could even be represented to the ear, as we will see. [ . . . ]

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CLAUDE PERRAULT annotations to French translation of The Ten Book of Architecture of Vitruvius (1673)

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s Blondel was taking control of the architectural curriculum, he would soon be confronted by someone who would directly undermine the academic teachings that he was putting forth. Only a few years earlier, Claude Perrault – the older brother of Colbert’s personal secretary Charles – would have been an unlikely opponent. Up to the middle of the 1660s this Cartesian scientist had paid little attention to architecture, and in fact had made his reputation as a surgeon and anatomist, with further interests in botany, geology, mechanics, and physics. Two events would redirect his efforts toward architecture. Sometime toward the end of 1666 Colbert, acting on behalf of Louis XIV, commissioned Perrault to prepare a new French translation of Vitruvius – a project whose completion was no doubt planned for the opening of the Royal Academy of Architecture, where it was to serve as a textbook. In the spring of 1667 Perrault was also appointed to a three-man committee in charge of preparing another design for the east wing of the Louvre, work on which had been suspended since Bernini’s departure. Although Perrault joined Louis Le Vau (still the king’s first architect) and Charles Le Brun (the king’s first painter) on the committee, he later had no qualms about claiming complete credit for the final design of 1668. The new building of the Louvre was altogether unique within French classical architecture. Instead of a palatial design with load-bearing walls fortified with pilasters (as Bernini had designed), Perrault and the other committee members proposed a colonnaded main story along the eastern front, with the exterior wall recessed behind. The colonnade was also unique in that columns were not regularly spaced but grouped in pairs with a larger spacing between each group – against any accepted antique precedent. An innovative system of iron reinforcing bars (concealed in the columns and ceiling) was also devised (probably by Perrault) to tie the Corinthian colonnade to the recessed wall and entablature; the effect was one of overall lightness and unusually thin visual proportions. Perrault provided the rationale for the design in a footnote that appeared in his translation of Vitruvius – one of the most important documents of all architectural theory. Throughout the text and in other notes he had repeatedly stressed the flexibility of Vitruvius and his openness to innovation and change. In the particular passage to which this note was attached – where Vitruvius lauds the Hellenistic architect Hermogenes for the innovation of removing the

Claude Perrault (1613–88), annotations to French translation of Les dix livres d’architecture de Vitruve [Ten books of architecture of Vitruvius]. Paris: Coignard, 1673, trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave and Christina Contandriopoulos.

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inner row of the double range of columns of a dipteral temple (Book 3, ch. 3) – Perrault seizes the occasion to demand the same freedom for French architects. His reference to ‘‘a little of the Gothic’’ in the Louvre design refers not to the decorative or formal language of Gothic architecture, but rather to the structural and visual lightness of Gothic churches. This particular footnote in effect instigates the seventeenth-century quarrel between the ‘‘Ancients’’ and ‘‘Moderns.’’ Perrault now defines the ‘‘Modern’’ position, while Blondel will respond by defending the ‘‘Ancients.’’ The taste of our century, or at least of our nation, is different from that of the ancients and perhaps it has a little of the Gothic in it, because we love the air, the daylight, and openness (de´gagemens). Thus we have invented a sixth manner of disposing of columns, which is to group them in pairs and separate each pair with two intercolumniations. [ . . . ] This has been done in imitation of Hermogenes, who in the Eustyle enlarged the middle intercolumniation because it was too narrow for the temple’s entrance, and also opened up the Dipteral arrangement, which was choked by the confusion of the two ranges of crowded columns. He invented the Pseudodipteral, eliminating one of the two aisles that the two ranges of columns formed with the wall surrounding the temple. What he did by removing a range of columns in each aisle, we do within a colonnade by removing a column from the middle of two columns and pushing it toward the adjacent column. This manner could be called the Pseudosystyle, by analogy with Hermogenes’s Pseudodipteral, or Araeosystyle, because the spacing of some columns is stretched as in the Araeostyle, while others are close together as in the Systyle. Several disapprove of this manner because it has not been authorized by the Ancients. But it is permitted to add something to the inventions of the Ancients by following their example. For if Hermogenes was not faulted for having changed something in architecture, and for not having strictly observed all the precepts of those who preceded him, we can argue that this new manner should not be rejected because it alone has all the advantages that the others have only separately. Because in addition to the beauty of the lively aspect and the ranging of columns that the Ancients liked so much, it has the openness that the moderns look for without sacrificing solidity. Because the single stone of the Ancients’ architrave spanning between columns rested only on half a column, it lacked strength. When, however, the architrave lies on a whole column and both the beams and columns are doubled, they have greater strength to support the floors. This manner has been used with great magnificence on the two large porticos of the Louvre facade [ . . . ]

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F RA N C¸ O I S B L O N D E L from Architecture Course, Vol. II (1683)

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errault’s insistence on the freedom of modern-day architects to depart from antique precedent certainly called for academic clarification, but Blondel did not respond immediately. When this passage and Perrault’s footnote were read at the Architectural Academy in December 1674 (as part of a reading of the entire book), it passed without any comment. But as the Louvre advanced in stages of construction and Perrault became more prominent within the looming debate, a response became imperative. It took the form of an extended censure of Perrault’s argument in part III of Blondel’s Cours d’architecture, which was published in 1683. Blondel, over three entire chapters, contested Perrault on nearly every point. Although an engineer, he was suspicious of the reinforcing iron that had been used in the Louvre colonnade, because the ancients did not have to rely on such contrivances. He questioned the structural advantage of the paired-column solution, and also noted that the Ancients, who knew how to build well, did not resort to such inventions. But his greatest anger was directed to Perrault’s almost casual remark that modern-day sensibilities had ‘‘a little of the Gothic’’ in them. Here, he felt, Perrault had clearly crossed the line: not only by departing from antique or Renaissance precedent, but also by invoking false architectural tendencies as a justification for his departure. Blondel believed that the proportions of modern architecture must conform to those of classical times, while the extremely light proportions of the Gothic style should never be emulated. Innovation might be allowed but only in the rarest of circumstances and by an architect of undisputed genius. I have nothing to say of that love for daylight and openness that he attributes to our nation, because we can admit at the same time that it [our love] still partakes of the Gothic, and in this it is indeed very different from the taste of the Ancients. And when it is said that we must also be allowed to add to the inventions of the Ancients, as Hermogenes was allowed to add to the practices of those who had preceded him, I respond that there is nothing truer. Without doubt it is for the Hermogeneses of the world to produce bold new ideas in every century; they are entitled to correct the defects of others, and their inventions become infallible rules for posterity. It is also very true that this same reasoning has opened the door at all times to the disorder that is found in architecture and in the other arts. We have almost no workers who do not have a rather good opinion of themselves and who do not believe that they are as equally talented as Hermogenes. Gothic architects only filled their edifices with such impertinences because they believed it was permitted to add to the inventions of the Greeks and Romans. And those ridiculous cartouches, those colorful grotesques, and those extravagant ornaments that are still so pleasing to German [Gothic] architects, in addition to the great scorn that they had for the legitimate measures of the parts of architecture – all came from the conviction that they had as much right to produce novelties and add to the practices of the Ancients as the Ancients had had in creating theirs, and adding to those that had been created by the architects who had preceded them. This would lead me to state unequivocally that necessity requires one to submit oneself to certain rules and stop being capricious if one wants to reestablish beautiful architecture – if this reasoning has not be treated at greater length in another place.

Franc¸ois Blondel, from Cours d’architecture, Vol. II (1683), trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave from 1698 Paris edition, part III, p. 235.

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CLAUDE PERRAULT from The Ten Book of Architecture of Vitruvius, second edition (1684)

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errault, a Cartesian skeptic and rationalist, wasted little time in joining the battle, now along several fronts. His most succinct response was an expanded footnote to the second edition of his translation of Vitruvius. The nature of the response is again fascinating. On the one hand, he insists that a blind adherence to antique ways would effectively halt all modern innovations (he was a scientist); on the other hand he almost proudly accepts the taint of Blondel’s Gothic slur. These were serious words and it would take French theory more than a century to extricate itself from the dilemma posed in these remarks. Entirely new is the argument regarding Gothic structural efficiency, that is, the interior openness and greater daylight allowed by the more slender interior pillars.

Monsieur Blondel in his learned Lec¸ons d’architecture, from which he has composed his Cours, employs three entire chapters, which are 10, 11, and 12 of the first book of part three, to show that the universal usage seen today for doubling columns is a license that must not be tolerated [ . . . ] The principal objection upon which he leans the most is founded on prejudice and on the false assumption that it is not permitted to depart from the practices of the Ancients, that everything which does not imitate their manners must be bizarre and capricious, and that if this rule is not inviolably protected the door is opened to license, which leads the arts into disorder. But just as this reasoning proves too much it cannot prove anything at all, because it is much more disadvantageous to close the door to beautiful inventions than to open it to those that are so ridiculous that they will destroy themselves. If this rule were in effect, architecture would never have appeared at the time at which we take the inventions of the Ancients, which were new in their time. And it would not be necessary to search for new means to acquire the understanding that we lack, and that we acquire every day in agriculture, navigation, medicine, and the other arts, for the perfection on which the Ancients had worked. [ . . . ] But the greatest reproach that he makes against our Pseudosystyle is to say that it resembles the Gothic. I might hesitate to agree with this fact in my note, but assuming that the Gothic in general (and taking into account everything that composes it) is not the most beautiful style of architecture, I do not think everything in the Gothic must be rejected. The daylight in their buildings and the openness that results are things in which the Gothic people are different from the Ancients, but they are not something for which the Gothic is to be disdained.

Claude Perrault, from Les dix livres d’architecture de Vitruve [Ten books of architecture of Vitruvius], second edition (Paris, 1684), pp. 79–80, trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave.

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CLAUDE PERRAULT from Ordonnance for the Five Kinds of Columns after the Method of the Ancients (1683)

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errault did not limit his attack on academic authority to the issues thus far noted. A few months before the second edition of his translation of Vitruvius appeared, he published his own architectural treatise relating to the proportioning of column orders. The book grew out of a problem long known to Renaissance architects and raised again by Fre´art de Chambray – namely, that architects in both antiquity and in the Renaissance had worked with proportional ratios that were almost never the same. Even the Academy recognized this problem. In 1674 Colbert sent a talented young student, Antoine Desgodetz (1653–1728), to Rome with the missions of making a comprehensive measurement of the principal Roman monuments, in the hope that some classical system might be found. The trip started badly, as Desgodetz and his traveling companion were immediately kidnapped by pirates; yet once ransomed, and after three years of labor, they returned home with disappointing results. No system had been found and, moreover, the measurements published by such notable writers as Serlio and Palladio were filled with errors. The findings no doubt intrigued the skeptical Perrault. In response, he came up with the ‘‘scientific’’ solution to the problem by collecting the columnar ratios used on buildings in antiquity and Renaissance times, and then calculating the proportional or numerical mean between the extremes. These ‘‘mediocre’’ or average numbers, he argued, should then be accepted by the Academy and all architects should work within their strict limits. Underlying such a system, however, were two premises that flouted academic theory. First Perrault argued there were no such things as harmonic ratios; that is to say, the eye and ear function on a physiological level in very different ways when perceiving visual and audible harmonies. Second, he insisted that proportions were by no means absolute, but were rather based on custom or habit. He also modified classical theory by suggesting that there were two types of beauty: ‘‘positive’’ and ‘‘arbitrary.’’ The former relates only to obvious beauties upon which everyone can agree, such as symmetry, the magnificence of a building, its quality of execution. The latter is a matter of custom, and here – in the realm of relative beauty – is where proportions reside. The Ancients rightly believed that the proportional rules that give buildings their beauty were based on the proportions of the human body and that just as nature has suited a massive build to bodies made for physical labor while giving a slighter one to those requiring adroitness and agility, so in the art of building, different rules are determined by the different intentions to make a building more massive or more delicate. Now these different proportions together with their appropriate ornaments are what give rise to the different architectural orders, whose characters, defined by variations in ornament, are what distinguish them most visibly but whose most essential differences consist in the relative size of their constituent parts.

Claude Perrault, from Ordonnance des cinq espe`ces de colonnes selon la me´thode des Anciens (1683), trans. Indra Kagin McEwen, in Ordonnance for the Five Kinds of Columns after the Method of the Ancients. Santa Monica: Getty Publications Program, 1993, pp. 47–8, 49, 50–1. ª 1993 by Getty Publications. Reprinted with permission of Getty Publications.

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These differences between the orders that are based, with little exactitude or precision, on their proportions and characters are the only well-established matters in architecture. Everything else pertaining to the precise measurement of their members or the exact outline of their profiles still has no rule on which all architects agree; each architect has attempted to bring these elements to their perfection chiefly through the things that proportion determines. As a result, in the opinion of those who are knowledgeable, a number of architects have approached an equal degree of perfection in different ways. This shows that the beauty of a building, like that of the human body, lies less in the exactitude of unvarying proportion and the relative size of constituent parts than in the grace of its form, wherein nothing other than a pleasing variation can sometimes give rise to a perfect and matchless beauty without strict adherence to any proportional rule. A face can be both ugly and beautiful without any change in proportions, so that an alteration of the features – for example, the contraction of the eyes and the enlargement of the mouth – can be the same when one laughs as when one weeps, with a result that can be pleasing in one case and repugnant in the other; whereas, the dissimilar proportions of two different faces can be equally beautiful. Likewise, in architecture, we see works whose differing proportions nevertheless have the grace to elicit equal approval from those who are knowledgeable and possessed of good taste in architectural matters. One must agree, however, that although no single proportion is indispensable to the beauty of a face, there still remains a standard from which its proportion cannot stray too far without destroying its perfection. Similarly, in architecture, there are not only general rules of proportion, such as those that, as we have said, distinguish one order from another, but also detailed rules from which one cannot deviate without robbing an edifice of much of its grace and elegance. Yet these proportions have enough latitude to leave architects free to increase or decrease the dimensions of different elements according to the requirements occasioned by varying circumstances. It is this prerogative that caused the Ancients to create works with proportions as unusual as those of the Doric and Ionic cornices of the Theater of Marcellus or the cornice of the Facade of Nero, which are all half again as large as they should be according to the rules of Vitruvius. It is also for this very reason that all those who have written about architecture contradict one another, with the result that in the ruins of ancient buildings and among the great number of architects who have dealt with the proportions of the orders, one can find agreement neither between any two buildings nor between any two authors, since none has followed the same rules. This shows just how ill-founded is the opinion of people who believe that the proportions supposed to be preserved in architecture are as certain and invariable as the proportions that give musical harmony its beauty and appeal, proportions that do not depend on us but that nature has established with absolutely immutable precision and that cannot be changed without immediately offending even the least sensitive ear. For if this were so, those works of architecture that do not have the true and natural proportions that people claim they can have would necessarily be condemned by common consensus, at least by those whom extensive knowledge has made most capable of such discernment. And just as we never find musicians holding different opinions on the correctness of a chord, since this correctness has a certain and obvious beauty of which the senses are readily and even necessarily convinced, so would we also find architects agreeing on the rules capable of perfecting the proportions P E R R AU L T , O R D O N N A N C E

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of architecture, especially when, after repeated efforts, they had apparently explored all the many possible avenues to attaining such perfection. [ . . . ] But we cannot claim that the proportions of architecture please our sight for unknown reasons or make the impression they do of themselves in the same way that musical harmonies affect the ear without our knowing the reasons for their consonance. Harmony, consisting in the awareness gained through our ears of that which is the result of the proportional relationship of two strings, is quite different from the knowledge gained through our eyes of that which results from the proportional relationship of the parts that make up a column. For if, through our ears, our minds [esprit] can be touched by something that is the result of the proportional relationship of two strings without our minds being aware of this relationship, it is because the ear is incapable of giving the mind such intellectual knowledge. But the eye, which can convey knowledge of the proportion it makes us appreciate, makes the mind experience its effect through the knowledge it conveys of this proportion and only through this knowledge. From this it follows that what pleases the eye cannot be due to a proportion of which the eye is unaware, as is usually the case. [ . . . ] In order to judge rightly in this case, one must suppose two kinds of beauty in architecture and know which beauties are based on convincing reasons and which depend only on prejudice. I call beauties based on convincing reasons those whose presence in works is bound to please everyone, so easily apprehended are their value and quality. They include the richness of the materials, the size and magnificence of the building, the precision and cleanness of the execution, and symmetry, which in French signifies the kind of proportion that produces an unmistakable and striking beauty. For there are two kinds of proportion. One, difficult to discern, consists in the proportional relationship between parts, such as that between the size of various elements, either with respect to one another or to the whole, of which an element may be, for instance, a seventh, fifteenth, or twentieth part. The other kind of proportion, called symmetry, is very apparent and consists in the relationship the parts have collectively as a result of the balanced correspondence of their size, number, disposition, and order. We never fail to perceive flaws in this proportion, such as on the interior of the Pantheon where the coffering of the vault, in failing to line up with the windows below, causes a disproportion and lack of symmetry that anyone may readily discern, and which, had it been corrected, would have produced a more visible beauty than that of the proportion between the thickness of the walls and the temple’s interior void, or in other proportions that occur in this building, such as that of the portico, whose width is three-fifths the exterior diameter of the whole temple. Against the beauties I call positive and convincing, I set those I call arbitrary, because they are determined by our wish to give a definite proportion, shape, or form to things that might well have a different form without being misshapen and that appear agreeable not by reasons within everyone’s grasp but merely by custom and the association the mind makes between two things of a different nature. By this association the esteem that inclines the mind to things whose worth it knows also inclines it to things whose worth it does not know and little by little induces it to value both equally. This principle is the natural basis for belief, which is nothing but the result of a predisposition not to doubt the truth of something we do not know if it is accompanied by our knowledge and good opinion of the person who assures us of it. It is also prejudice that makes us like the fashions and the patterns of speech that 80

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custom has established at court, for the regard we have for the worthiness and patronage of people in the court makes us like their clothing and their way of speaking, although these things in themselves have nothing positively likable, since after a time they offend us without their having undergone any inherent change.

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J E A N - F R A N C¸ O I S F E´ L I B I E N from Preface to Historical Survey of the Life and Works of the Most Celebrated Architects (1687)

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n raising the issue of Gothic architecture with respect to the design of the Louvre, Perrault introduced an entirely new element into classical theory – that of structural innovation. He did so not in an accidental way, for on a trip to Bordeaux in 1669 (which he made to examine some Roman-Gallic works) he was struck by the comparative structural efficiencies of several Gothic churches, in particular the thinness and visual lightness of what he termed the ‘‘l’ordre gothique.’’ This appreciation of Gothic architecture was alien to the classical theory of the Renaissance, which of course regarded the Middle Ages as a period of darkness and artistic barbarity. Slowly this attitude would change. An early sign of this reassessment is the fourth book of the historical survey of Jean-Franc¸ois Fe´libien, the son of the first secretary to the Architectural Academy, Andre´ Fe´libien. The young architect first distinguishes between the gothique ancien and the gothique moderne, roughly coinciding with the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Like Perrault, he also appreciates the structural efficiency of the latter, although he terms it ‘‘a rather grand excess of delicacy.’’ Such an appraisal prepares the ground for more serious studies of Gothic architecture, which in France will almost always focus on its structural efficiency. Finally, the fourth book is almost entirely devoted to what one has been able to learn of the particulars related to the architects who appeared in Italy and France from the beginning of the eleventh century until the end of the fourteenth century, and who built most of the ancient churches and the other edifices that are called Gothic or modern. I felt the need to say something of the different manners of building as the occasion presented itself, that is to say, of the antique manner that was used among the ancient Greeks and Romans, and the Gothic manner, which one assumes to have been introduced by the Goths. The Saracens as well had a particular taste that one calls Arabesque, because in fact the Arabs seem to have been the principal authors. Antique architecture is nothing other than that of which Vitruvius and his interpreters have spoken. With regard to Gothic buildings, there are no authors who have given any rules: but we notice two kinds of Gothic buildings: ancient and modern. The more ancient have nothing more commendable than their solidity and grandeur. As for the modern, they are of a taste so opposed to that of the ancient Goths, that one can say those who made them Jean-Franc¸ois Fe´libien (1658–1733), from Preface to Recueil historique de la vie et des ouvrages des plus ce´lebres architectes [Historical survey of the life and works of the most celebrated architects] (1687). Paris: Sebastien Mabre-Cramoisy, trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave.

FE´ LI B IEN, H I ST O R I C A L S U R VE Y

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have applied a rather grand excess of delicacy that equals the ancient’s extreme heaviness and coarseness, particularly with regard to the ornaments. It is not difficult to find in France and many other places examples of these two kinds of architecture.

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CHARLES PERRAULT from Preface to Parallel of the Ancients and the Moderns with Regard to the Arts and Sciences (1688)

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he first round of the quarrel of the ‘‘Ancients’’ and ‘‘Moderns,’’ exemplified by the dispute between Blondel and Perrault, ended in 1686 with the death of Blondel. Perrault would follow him into posterity in 1688 – like the conscientious scientist that he was – from a fatal infection incurred while dissecting a camel. He was thus still alive to witness the second and better known round of the quarrel that exploded on the afternoon of January 27, 1687, when his brother Charles had his poem, ‘‘The Century of Louis the Great,’’ read before a general assembly of the French Academy. The poem, in which Charles lauded the artistic deeds of Louis XIV and compared them favorably with those of the Age of Augustus, created an uproar within the Academy. A contentious debate ensued within literary circles, with Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, among others, defending the honor of the Ancients. Charles Perrault, who between 1662 and 1682 had been the personal secretary to Colbert, had held a number of prestigious and influential academic positions. He was a writer of considerable esteem, and in fact wrote many of the fairytales later collected by the Grimm brothers. Charles responded to his critics on this occasion with a four-part Socratic dialogue, Parallel of the Ancients and the Moderns (1688–97), in which he remained adamant in defending the right of his age to create its own art apart from the sanction of the past. His central theme is that his era had not only equaled the achievements of antiquity and the Renaissance, but (as progress in the sciences had shown) had even surpassed them. Nothing is more natural or reasonable than to show the utmost veneration for whatever is possessed of true merit in itself and has the additional merit of age. This sentiment, so right, proper and universal, redoubles the respect that we feel for our ancestors; by virtue of it, laws and customs show themselves still more authoritative and inviolable. But destiny has always decreed that the best things become prejudicial by excess, and this in proportion to their original excellence. Honourable in its inception, this reverence has subsequently become a criminal superstition, at times extending even to idolatry. Princes of extraordinary virtue secured the happiness of their people, and the earth resounded to the fame of their exploits; they were beloved in their lifetime and their memory was revered by posterity. But as time went by, people forgot that these were mere men, and began to offer them incense and sacrifice. The same thing happened to those who first excelled in the arts and sciences.

Charles Perrault (1628–1703), from Preface to Paralle`le des anciens et des modernes en ce qui regarde les arts et les sciences [Parallel of the ancients and the moderns with regard to the arts and sciences] (1688), trans. Christopher Miller from Paralle`le des anciens et des modernes, Vol. 1 (Paris: Jean-Baptiste Coignard, 1688) and published in Art in Theory 1648–1815: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, ed. Charles Harrison, Paul Wood, and Jason Gaiger. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000. Translation ª 2000 by Christopher Miller. Reprinted with permission of Christopher Miller.

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The prestige that accrued to their century, and the utility that it derived from their inventions, brought them much glory and renown in their own lifetimes, and their works were admired by posterity, which made of them its greatest delight, and celebrated them in praises boundless and immoderate. Respect for their memory so increased that no taint of human weakness could be attributed to them, and their very faults were deemed sacred. A thing had only to be done or said by these great men to become incomparable, and even today, for certain scholars it is a sort of religion to prefer the least production of the Ancients to the finest works of any modern author. I confess to a sense of injury at this injustice; there seems to me such blind prejudice and ingratitude in the refusal to open one’s eyes to the beauty of our century, on which heaven has bestowed a thousand distinctions altogether refused to Antiquity, that I have been unable to restrain a sense of veritable indignation. Of this indignation came the little poem, The Century of Louis the Great, which was read to the French Academy when it assembled to thank the Lord for the complete recovery of its august protector. All those present at that illustrious assembly seemed quite satisfied with it, save two or three fanatical admirers of Antiquity, who asserted that it had greatly offended them. It was hoped that their discomfiture might give rise to criticisms such as would disabuse the public; but their sense of offence has boiled away in protest at my attack, and in empty and ill-defined words. [ . . . ] So many honourable persons have informed me, with a most tactful and gracious air, that I had, in their eyes, ably defended a bad cause, that I have taken it upon me to state unequivocally, and in prose, that there is nothing in my poem that is not seriously intended. That I am, in short, utterly convinced that, excellent as the Ancients are – on this point there is no disagreement – the Moderns are no whit inferior, and indeed surpass them in many respects. This is a clear statement of my position, which I claim to demonstrate in my dialogues.

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C H A R L E S PE R R A U L T from ‘‘Design of a Portal for the Church of Sainte-Genevie`ve in Paris’’ (1697)

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n the mid-1670s both Charles and Claude Perrault were involved with a proposal to renovate and enlarge the church of Saint Genevie`ve in Paris, for which Claude made several drawings. Claude had worked out the structural problems for the colonnade of the Louvre, and at Saint Genevie`ve he proposed an iron-reinforced colonnaded system for the front porch and nave of the church. For the entrance he sketched – instead of arches – a free-standing colonnade supporting an uninterrupted flat entablature. For the interior, he proposed rows of columns supporting the central nave walls with a false ceiling-vault above. Once again his proposal defied contemporary structural beliefs. Many Christian basilicas and early Renaissance churches had columns between the nave and side Charles Perrault, from the memorandum ‘‘Dessin d’un portail pour l’E´glise de Sainte-Genevie`ve a` Paris’’ [Design of a portal for the church of SainteGenevie`ve in Paris] (1697), trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave from Bulletin monumental, 115:2 (1957), pp. 94–6.

P E RR A U LT , ‘ ‘ D E S I G N O F A P O RT A L’ ’

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aisles, but they also had timber roofs. These roofs were both lighter and the lateral forces could be negated by (truss) triangulation. When Alberti, for instance, chose to vault the central nave of Sant’ Andrea in Mantua in 1470, he resorted to a series of massive piers and side chapels to resist the lateral (outward) thrust of the vault. Gothic architects had earlier solved the problem by adding flying buttresses to the outside of churches. The two Perrault brothers, as this memorandum says, believed the problem could be solved by employing the reinforced masonry system that had been used at the Louvre. The use of a tall, slender colonnade (as opposed to heavy piers) recalls Claude’s earlier footnote to the translation of Vitruvius, where he notes France’s love of daylight and spatial openness. The cited passage begins as Charles Perrault explains how the iron rods were designed at the Louvre. The memorandum was only published in 1957. If the peristyle of the Louvre were not built, and in a manner more solid than any building in the world, it would be necessary to respond to all of the objections that people made to my brother and myself on the virtual impossibility of having ceilings supported only on columns. We have also been told that it is beautiful in painting but impossible in reality. We no longer fear these objections. The 12-foot ceilings that stand at the Louvre are sufficient for the ceilings of 8 feet that we propose. But because construction might be postponed for a long time and because there are only a few workers left from that time who fully possess this knowledge, I feel obliged to mention here what must be observed in the construction of these peristyles. The drums that compose the shafts of the columns must be pierced for two-thirds the height of the column, and an iron bar from Normandy, two or two-and-a-half inches square, should be placed inside them. This bar must extend above the capital by a foot or a foot-and-a-half, or there about, where its end is looped by another bar of the same thickness, which crosses over to the wall opposite through and through, where it is tied into the church by an iron anchor, which either descends or runs the length of the wall. There should be another transverse bar of the same size as the other that ties the column diagonally to the opposite wall. [ . . . ] The peristyle of the Louvre is a beautiful example. It will be good before covering the bars with the second stone course to apply two or three coats of oil to protect them against rust.

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M I C H E L D E F R E´ M I N from Critical Memoirs of Architecture (1702)

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t did not take long for Perrault’s admiration for Gothic structural efficiency to find its way into public discourse, although it is still surprising that the debate was first raised outside, rather than within, the academy’s walls. This small tract written by a little-known builder, financial administrator, and engineer, is an interesting interpretation of the argument. Fre´min chose the format of 48 (somewhat salty) letters, he tells us at the start of his book, so that his argument can be understood even by people ‘‘a little short on intelligence.’’ He eschews the Michel de Fre´min (c. 1631–1713), from Me´moires critiques d’architecture [Critical memoirs on architecture] (1702), trans. Christina Contandriopoulos and Harry Francis Mallgrave from a facsimile edition published by Gregg Press, Farnborough, 1967, pp. 26–8, 30–1, 33–4, 37.

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idea that architecture is simply a matter of applying columns, and his architectural concerns are largely with practical issues. He makes, however, some very compelling points in his sixth letter, when he compares two Gothic churches (Notre-Dame and Sainte-Chapelle) with two hybrid Gothic/Classical churches (St. Eustache and St. Sulpice). The interior of the two former churches, where the supports are slender Gothic piers, are both spacious in plan and filled with interior daylight. The two latter churches, begun in 1532 and 1645 respectively, are by contrast dark, poorly ventilated, and difficult to move about or find lateral sightlines in because of their massive structural piers. This criticism effectively posed a challenge to architects, as Fre´min, like Perrault before him, was not suggesting a return to Gothic forms but rather to lighter proportions for church interiors. The challenge had actually been taken up in part in 1698 by Jules Hardouin Mansart, in his design for the chapel at Versailles; here he employed heavy piers and arcades on the ground story, but at the second level (where the king sat) Mansart used widely spaced Corinthian columns that supported a straight entablature and vaulted ceiling. In this case the ceiling was plaster, not stone, but still he was forced to strengthen his classical work outside with flying buttresses. Among the public works that are in Paris, I will choose to examine the churches of NoˆtreDame, Saint Chapelle, Saint Eustache, and Saint Sulpice. [ . . . ] In the building Noˆtre-Dame [ . . . ] What does this architect do? Respecting the future, he makes a large nave and doubles the floor area by the galleries. With regard to the harmony of the choir, which becomes fuller and more melodious when sound is concentrated, he reduces the vaults of the side aisle relative to their need for light, and in this way he enlarges the high crossing and thereby multiplies the overall daylight. For the spectacle of the Sacrifice, he narrows his pillars to a moderate dimension; he rounds them so as not to block the view by the angles, as they are when the piers are square. *** I will speak of Sainte Chapelle. Again it is a model of true architecture, that is to say, it is a work where the prudent planning of the architect has furnished a number of lessons for building private chapels. This building in its genre is one of the most convenient and most intelligent that there is in Paris. [ . . . ] He makes large windows, knowing that the glass will be painted and that the colors that one will put there will darken the room. He determines that the windows need to be enlarged, so that by the shape of the openings more daylight would come in and it would be brighter. He makes small piers in order to increase the light, thus he treated his work according to the objective and according to the place. He does not fear that gales of wind would come to knock down his work; the buttressing piers assure against this. [ . . . ] This is what I call good and sound architecture, and with the idea that I set out for you, it will be easier to judge works of the same kind. But in order to judge bad architecture, let us take, as I said, the examples of Saint Eustache and Saint Sulpice, whose construction is quite different from the church of Noˆtre-Dame and that of the Bernadins. In the mass of piers that are in Saint Eustache, you will find a crudeness that – despite the charity that one must have for one’s neighbor – stirs up ill-feeling toward the architect who made the design. What dreadful stiltedness in the vaults of the side aisles, by means of which the crossings of the high vaults are reduced to simple braces! What an enormous mass of stone in the first

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piers that support the organs, for which more than half of the ground area is taken up by stonework! [ . . . ] *** Saint Sulpice is another kind of false architecture, which along with Saint-Eustache proves that the massing or piling up of stones do not make a building. It is surprising to see the extent of the distrust of our architects for what they build nowadays. If, as at the church of Petits Pe`res or at the chapel of . . . they pile up entire quarries in order to support a small pedestal, then tremble lest the work will collapse when they remove their hands. This prejudice is so great and so widespread that as soon as you propose to do any delicate work, you will immediately be assailed by a group of masons who will denounce you. [ . . . ]

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JEAN-LOUIS DE CORDEMOY from New Treatise on Architecture or the Art of Building (1706, 1714)

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ean-Louis de Cordemoy was the son of a Cartesian philosopher and historian, and a canon at the church of Saint Jean des Vignes in Soissons. He seems to have had no architectural training, which makes his architectural treatise the first one to be written by a layman. He admired Perrault’s design for the Louvre, and was very Perraultian in his demand for the reform of church design – for using columns in church interiors instead of piers and arcades. In this first passage of the two passages presented here, Cordemoy criticizes the church of St. Peter’s in Rome because of its massive pier supports. The church of Val-de-Grace in Paris is better, he argues, but it too could be improved with the use of interior columns instead of piers. These remarks evoked a sharp response from Ame´de´e Franc¸ois Fre´zier (1682–1773), a young architect and engineer, who in a review of Cordemoy’s book in 1709 accused Cordemoy of being naive with respect to structural theory, especially with the suggestion that a dome the size of St. Peter’s in Rome could be supported on columns. In the second passage from the second edition of Cordemoy’s book of 1714, the author responds to Fre´zier by reiterating his faith in the ancients and his belief that Bramante and Michelangelo took a wrong turn in the Renaissance with their use of piers and pilasters, instead of columns. Cordemoy in this way carries Perrault’s ideas into the eighteenth century, and his rationalist perspective would have great appeal to such Enlightenment French theorists as Marc-Antoine Laugier. One esteems the church of St. Peter’s in Rome as the most beautiful piece of architecture that has ever existed in the world, showing to better advantage the grandeur and the sanctity of our religion. For me, I do not have precisely the same idea. Perhaps the vast expanse, the prodigious height of the nave, the boldness and the propriety in the ornamental execution

Jean-Louis de Cordemoy (dates unknown), from Nouveau traite´ de toute l’architecture ou l’art de bastir [New treatise of all architecture or the art of building] (1706, second edition 1714), trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave from a facsimile edition of the 1714 edition published by Gregg Press, Farnborough, 1966, pp. 108–9, 139–40.

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have thus far struck the imagination of everyone who has seen it, and they have believed that the other elements in it are equally beautiful. But in order to evaluate it properly, one has only to cast a glance at the new churches built in France, which make it clear that the ideas that our architects were formed after that of St. Peter’s in Rome. They are practically all made on the same model. They are designed with a large number of very massive arcades, of which the piers on the rear side of the pilasters are also massive. Often, the same arcades that form the crossing also support a round dome of great height. We have never seen anything better since we have had reason to renounce Gothic architecture; we have become accustomed to this kind of beauty. But if we look at them closely, we will find that these piers are not particularly beautiful. For example the church of Val-de-Grace, which is without doubt the best built, is lighter and better arranged than anything else we have in this genre. Would it not be infinitely more beautiful if, instead of all those useless and ponderous arcades, those pilasters and large piers that occupy so much space and necessarily create gloom, we had placed there columns to carry the rest of the edifice of which they are? Would not its dome have been more beautiful if it were supported by a colonnade, instead of by the square arcades on which it falsely rests? I think, as do many others, that this work as it is built gives great honor to its architect and to the memory of the great princess who commissioned it. It gives pleasure to all those who come every day to admire it. Yet I doubt that St. Peter’s in Rome would have procured the honor for Michelangelo that has since been accorded this architect were it not for the colonnade that is placed in front of this temple, which renders the entry so agreeable and so majestic. We are convinced that this church would be the most beautiful piece of architecture in the world if one had built it in the taste of that colonnade. The colonnade’s inventor [Bernini] was attracted in his design to the taste of the Ancients, who very much loved columns and who utilized them so well. In truth Michelangelo has become esteemed for returning to the taste of ancient architecture, but he would have been even more so if he had retained at the same time what was good in the Gothic, that is to say, the openness and visual tension of the intercolumniation that pleases us so much. [ . . . ] *** For the ‘‘treatise on stone cutting’’ that he [Fre´zier] demands of me once again, it is already found in the excellent portico of the Louvre, of which the architraves have at least 14 feet of span or of length. When M. Perrault showed the design to the king, most of the connoisseurs believed that it was more a decoration for a theater than something that could actually be executed. It was nevertheless built in a manner as solid as it is beautiful. And I am persuaded that in following the ‘‘treatise on stone cutting’’ of this capable architect, we could create spans for architraves of 16, 18, or 20 feet without risking anything. Would this distance between columns not be sufficient in a large edifice, such as that of St. Peter’s in Rome, and even more so in the Val-de-Grace in Paris, to render them at the same time more open and more magnificent? I therefore insist, despite all of the objections of M. Fre´zier, that without changing the plan in general or the barrel vault of the two churches, we would have been able to use a peristyle there.

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B.

BRITISH CLASSICISM AND PALLADIANISM Introduction

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lassicism in Britain during the later stages of the Renaissance shows some parallels, but also some differences, with respect to France and Italy. Throughout the fifteenth century the British Isles were scarcely concerned much with art. They were engaged on the home front with the very formidable issue of England seeking control over Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, and abroad with France and the Hundred Years War (1337–1453). The sixteenth century was again largely taken up with issues of economic expansion and warfare. The biggest event of the first half of the century was the Church of England making its break from the Roman Catholic Church, while one of the most telling events of the second half of the century – after Britain had colonized much of North America – was the British Navy’s sinking of the Spanish Armada (1588), which now gave the country control of the seas. Art scarcely had time to catch up. The Tudor buildings of Henry VIII (r. 1509–47), for instance,

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were entirely Gothic in character, when not derivative of the battlement styles of earlier medieval times. One of the first instances of classical decoration (not building style) is found in the wood-carved screen at King’s College, Cambridge (1533–5), presumably the work of Italian artisans. The first building with recognizable classical features (although known only from a drawing) is John Thynne’s design for Old Somerset House (1547–52), which was probably based on a French model. Things began to change somewhat in the second half of the century, beginning with the reign of Elizabeth I (r. 1558–1603). The first buildings displaying the Renaissance style – Longleat, Wiltshire (begun 1570), Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire (1580–8), and Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire (1590–7) – all show a knowledge of Serlio, probably deriving from texts published in Flanders and France. John Shute’s The First and Chief Groundes of Architecture (1563) cites not only Serlio but also Vitruvius and Philander. Copies of books by Vredeman de Vries, Wendel Dietterlin, and Hans Blum were also making their way to Britain during these years, and in fact the translation of Blum’s The Booke of Five Columnes of Architecture (1601) actually precedes by 10 years Robert Peake’s production of The first (-fith) Booke of Architecture, made by Sebastian Serly. It was not until the seventeenth century, however, that classicism truly arrived in Britain, and it did so with a certain zest. The first great British classicist was Inigo Jones, who met Scamozzi and discovered the work of Palladio on a trip to Italy in 1613–14. Shortly thereafter, the former British ambassador to Venice, Henry Wotton, compiled his version of classical theory in The Elements of Architecture (1624). The major British classicist of the second half of the century was Christopher Wren, who turned to architecture in a serious way only after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Wren’s classicism had elements of the baroque in it and, moreover, he occasionally made designs in the Gothic style – an act that would have been almost unthinkable among classicists in France. After yet another round of baroque elements in the work of John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor, classical opposition reformed itself in the first part of the eighteenth century under the guise of a British Palladian movement. In the 1720s Lord Burlington emerged as the leader of this rather strict vision of Palladian classicism, which remained strong until midcentury. Its forces eventually dissipated not so much from without as within. Always an important aspect of British architectural development of the seventeenth century and most of the eighteenth century – with respect to France – was the absence of an official academy to codify the principles of design. This absence cultivated, on the one hand, a rather strict cultural dependence on such imported models as the classicism of Palladio. It also allowed, on the other hand, a certain freedom in design as well as challenges to emerge with regard to classical theory – challenges that would become fully manifest in the mid-eighteenth century.

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HENRY WOTTON from The Elements of Architecture (1624)

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he Renaissance movement in Britain is chiefly owed to the efforts of two men. One is Inigo Jones (1573–1652), a near contemporary of William Shakespeare, who first visited Italy around 1600 as a costume designer and court artist. On a second trip to Italy in 1613, Jones (his interests now turning to architecture) met Vincenzo Scamozzi, visited Palladio’s buildings, and purchased a number of his drawings. Jones would go on to have a spectacular career as a classical architect of the first half of the century, beginning with his

Henry Wotton (1568–1639), from the Preface and Part I of The Elements of Architecture. London: John Bill, 1624.

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Palladian design for London’s Banqueting House, in Whitehall (1619–22). The second person to promote Renaissance architecture in Britain was the diplomat Henry Wotton. He had long resided in Italy after James I appointed him to be the ambassador to Venice in 1604, and upon retiring to London in 1624 he quickly wrote The Elements of Architecture, which summarized what he believed to be the rudiments of classical architecture. The small book is perhaps best known for the happy translation of the Vitruvian triad as ‘‘Commoditie, Firmenes, and Delight,’’ but it is also a solid and scholarly recapitulation of Vitruvian theory augmented with the input of various Renaissance writers, chiefly Alberti, Palladio, and Philibert de l’Orme. I shall not neede (like the most part of Writers) to celebrate the Subject which I deliver. In that point I am at ease. For Architecture, can want no commendation, where there are Noble Men, or Noble mindes; I will therefore spend this Preface, rather about those, from whom I have gathered my knowledge; For I am but a gatherer and disposer of other mens stuffe at my best value. Our principall Master is Vitruvius and so I shall often call him; who had this felicitie, that he wrote when the Roman Empire was neere the pitch; Or at least, when Augustus (who favoured his endeavours) had some meaning (if he were not mistaken) to bound the Monarchie: This I say was his good happe; For in growing and enlarging times, Artes are commonly drowned in Action: But on the other side, it was in truth an unhappinesse, to expresse himselfe so ill, especially writing (as he did) in a season of the ablest Pennes; And his obscuritie had this strange fortune; That though he were best practised, and best followed by his owne Countrymen; yet after the reviving and repolishing of good Literature, (which the combustions and tumults of the middle Age had uncivillized) he was best, or at least, first understood by strangers: For of the Italians that tooke him in hand, Those that were Gramarians seeme to have wanted Mathematicall knowledge; and the Mathematicians perhaps wanted Gramer: till both were sufficiently conjoined, in LeonBatista Alberti the Florentine, whom I repute the first learned Architect, beyond the Alpes; But hee studied more indeede to make himselfe an Author, then to illustrate his Master. [...] In Architecture as in all other Operative arts, the end must direct the Operation. The end is to build well. Well building hath three Conditions: Commoditie, Firmenes, and Delight. A common division among the Deliverers of this Art, though I know not how, some what misplaced by Vitruvius himselfe . . . whom I shall be willinger to follow, as a Master of Proportion, then of Methode.

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C H RI S T OP H E R W R E N from Tract I on architecture (mid-1670s)

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enaissance architecture in Britain in the second half of the seventeenth century is today synonymous with the name of Christopher Wren, who built upon the classicism of Jones. Wren was a man of commanding intelligence, having established his reputation in his early years as a classical scholar, mathematician, founding member of the Royal Society (of science), and as a professor of astronomy at Gresham College in London. His interest in architecture very much grew out of his scientific endeavors. In 1663 he was asked to give structural advice on the remodeling of the old church of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London; around the same time he was also asked to prepare designs for two buildings at Oxford. In 1665, in order to enhance his architectural knowledge, Wren made a trip to France, where he was able to meet Bernini, Franc¸ois Mansart, and Louis Le Vau. The great London fire of 1666 essentially mandated his change of profession. He was first appointed to a six-member committee charged with rebuilding the city; in 1669 he was appointed Surveyor General of all new construction. Over the next half century his architectural imprint on London (the new St. Paul’s Cathedral and 45 churches), Greenwich (Royal Naval Hospital), Oxford, and Cambridge would become enormous. Wren published no treatise of his ideas but he composed pages of notes toward that end, which were posthumously published by his son. His theory is an interesting blending of Platonic thought with classical theory, to which he adds the rudiments of a developing British empiricism. The first selection is from Tract I and is notable for his distinction between ‘‘natural’’ and ‘‘customary’’ beauty. It seems to recall Perrault’s distinction between positive and arbitrary beauty, except that first category for Wren derives from the mathematical truth of geometry and also encompasses the matter of proportions. Architecture has its political Use; publick Buildings being the Ornament of a Country; it establishes a Nation, draws People and Commerce; makes the People love their native Country, which Passion is the Original of all great Actions in a Common-wealth. The Emulation of the Cities of Greece was the true Cause of their Greatness. The obstinate Valour of the Jews, occasioned by the Love of their Temple, was a Cement that held together that People, for many Ages, through infinite Changes. The Care of publick Decency and Convenience was a great Cause of the Establishment of the Low-countries, and of many Cities in the World. Modern Rome subsists still, by the Ruins and Imitation of the old; as does Jerusalem, by the Temple of the Sepulchre, and other Remains of Helena’s Zeal. Architecture aims at Eternity; and therefore the only Thing uncapable of Modes and Fashions in its Principals, the Orders. The Orders are not only Roman and Greek, but Phœnician, Hebrew, and Assyrian; therefore being founded upon the Experience of all Ages, promoted by the vast Treasures of all the great Monarchs, and Skill of the greatest Artists and Geometricians, every one emulating each other; and Experiments in this kind being greatly expenceful, and Errors incorrigible,

Christopher Wren (1632–1723), from ‘‘Tracts’’ on architecture (mid-1670s), in Wren’s ‘‘Tracts’’ on Architecture and Other Writings, ed. Lydia M. Soo. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 153–5 (Tract I).

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is the Reason that the Principles of Architecture are now rather the Study of Antiquity than Fancy. Beauty, Firmness, and Convenience, are the Principles; the two first depend upon the geometrical Reasons of Opticks and Staticks; the third only makes the Variety. There are natural Causes of Beauty. Beauty is a Harmony of Objects, begetting Pleasure by the Eye. There are two Causes of Beauty, natural and customary. Natural is from Geometry, consisting in Uniformity (that is Equality) and Proportion. Customary Beauty is begotten by the Use of our Senses to those Objects which are usually pleasing to us for other Causes, as Familiarity or particular Inclination breeds a Love to Things not in themselves lovely. Here lies the great Occasion of Errors; here is tried the Architect’s Judgment: but always the true Test is natural or geometrical Beauty. Geometrical Figures are naturally more beautiful than other irregular; in this all consent as to a Law of Nature. Of geometrical Figures, the Square and the Circle are most beautiful; next, the Parallelogram and the Oval. Strait Lines are more beautiful than curve; next to strait Lines, equal and geometrical Flexures; an Object elevated in the Middle is more beautiful than depressed. Position is necessary for perfecting Beauty. There are only two beautiful Positions of strait Lines, perpendicular and horizontal: this is from Nature, and consequently Necessity, no other than upright being firm. Oblique Positions are Discord to the Eye, unless answered in Pairs, as in the Sides of an equicrural Triangle: therefore Gothick Buttresses are all illfavoured, and were avoided by the Ancients, and no Roofs almost but spherick raised to be visible, except in the Front, where the Lines answer; in spherick, in all Positions, the Ribs answer. Cones and multangular Prisms want neither Beauty nor Firmness, but are not ancient. Views contrary to Beauty are Deformity, or a Defect of Uniformity, and Plainness, which is the Excess of Uniformity; Variety makes the Mean. Variety of Uniformities makes compleat Beauty: Uniformities are best tempered, as Rhimes in Poetry, alternately, or sometimes with more Variety, as in Stanza’s. In Things to be seen at once, much Variety makes Confusion, another Vice of Beauty. In Things that are not seen at once, and have no Respect one to another, great Variety is commendable, provided this Variety transgress not the Rules of Opticks and Geometry. An Architect ought to be jealous of Novelties, in which Fancy blinds the Judgment; and to think his Judges, as well those that are to live five Centuries after him, as those of his own Time. That which is commendable now for Novelty, will not be a new Invention to Posterity, when his Works are often imitated, and when it is unknown which was the Original; but the Glory of that which is good of itself is eternal.

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C H RI S T OP H E R W R E N from Tracts II and IV on architecture (mid-1670s)

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ren’s classicism is clearly different from that of France and Italy. He opens ‘‘Tract II,’’ for instance, by warning against reducing architecture to ‘‘too strick and pedantick’’ rule-making, which (although essentially Vitruvian) opens the door to a cultural relativism that is similar to that allowed by Perrault. Also unclassical in Wren’s thinking is his respect for the Gothic style, which may derive from his own use of this style in such works as Tom Tower, Christ Church, Oxford. Wren’s archaeological and scholarly desire to augment the classical inventory of forms with a consideration of Jewish and Egyptian architecture is also somewhat foreign to the more academic approach of the Continent. This catholicity of taste, in fact, would be viewed by eighteenth-century Palladians in Britain as both old-fashioned and hopelessly compromised in its taste.

Modern Authors who have treated of Architecture, seem generally to have little more in view, but to set down the Proportions of Columns, Architraves, and Cornices, in the several Orders, as they are distinguished into Dorick, Ionick, Corinthian, and Composite; and in these Proportions finding them in the ancient Fabricks of the Greeks and Romans, (though more arbitrarily used than they care to acknowledge) they have reduced them into Rules, too strict and pedantick, and so as not to be transgressed, without the Crime of Barbarity; though, in their own Nature, they are but the Modes and Fashions of those Ages wherein they were used; but because they were found in the great Structures, (the Ruins of which we now admire) we think ourselves strictly obliged still to follow the Fashion, though we can never attain to the Grandeur of those Works. Those who first laboured in the Restoration of Architecture, about three Centuries ago, studied principally what they found in Rome, above-ground, in the Ruins of the Theatres, Baths, Temples, and triumphal Arches; (for among the Greeks little was then remaining) and in these there appeared great Differences; however, they criticised upon them, and endeavoured to reconcile them, as well as they could, with one another, and with what they could meet with in the Italian Cities: and it is to be considered, that what they found standing was built, for the most part, after the Age of Augustus, particularly, the Arches, Amphitheatres, Baths, &c. The Dorick Order they chiefly understood, by examining the Theatre of Marcellus; the Ionick, from the Temple of Fortuna Virilis; the Corinthian, from the Pantheon of Agrippa; the Composite, from the triumphal Arch of Titus, &c. I have seen among the Collections of Inigo Jones, a Pocket-book of Pyrrho Ligorio’s, (an excellent Sculptor, and Architect, employed by Pope Paul the third, in the building of the Vatican Church of St. Peter in Rome, about the Year 1540) wherein he seemed to have made it his Business, out of the antique Fragments, to have drawn the many different Capitals, Mouldings of Cornices, and Ornaments of Freezes, &c. purposely to judge of the great Liberties of the ancient Architects, most of which had their Education in Greece. Christopher Wren, from ‘‘Tracts’’ on architecture (mid-1670s), in Wren’s ‘‘Tracts’’ on Architecture and Other Writings, ed. Lydia M. Soo. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 157–8 (Tract II), 188 (Tract IV).

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But although Architecture contains many excellent Parts, besides the ranging of Pillars, yet Curiosity may lead us to consider whence this Affectation arose originally, so as to judge nothing beautiful, but what was adorned with Columns, even where there was no real Use of them; as when Half-columns are stuck upon the Walls of Temples, or Basilicæ; and where they are hung-on, as it were, upon the Outside of triumphal Arches, where they cannot be supposed of any Use, but merely for Ornament; as Seneca observed in the Roman Baths: Quantum columnarum est nihil sustinentium, sed in ornamentum positarum, impensæ causaˆ! It will be to the Purpose, therefore, to examine whence proceeded this Affectation of a Mode that hath continued now at least 3000 Years, and the rather, because it may lead us to the Grounds of Architecture, and by what Steps this Humour of Colonades came into Practice in all Ages. *** Whatever a mans sentiments are upon mature deliberation it will be still necessary for him in a conspicuous Work to preserve his Undertaking from general censure, and to aim to accommodate his Designs to the Gust of the Age he lives in, though it appears to him less rational. I have found no little difficulty to bring Persons of otherwise a good Genius, to think anything in Architecture could be better then what they had heard commended by others, and what they had view’d themselves. Many good Gothick forms of Cathedrals were to be seen in our Country, and many had been seen abroad, which they lik’d the better for being not much differing from Ours in England: this humour with many is not yet eradicated, and therefore I judge it not improper to endeavour to reform the Generality to a truer tast in Architecture by giving a larger Idea of the whole Art, beginning with the reasons and progress of it from the most remote Antiquity; and that in short, touching chiefly on some things, which have not been remark’d by others.

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ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER Third Earl of Shaftesbury, from Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711)

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espite Wren’s eclectic success in the second half of the seventeenth century, the stricter classicism of Jones did not entirely lose its following. Upon Jones’s death in 1652 his drawings and library were passed on to his capable assistant John Webb (1611–72), who used them to carry out several Palladian designs in the 1650s and 1660s. Interest in Jones also remained high at Oxford, where Dr. Henry Aldrich (1648–1710), the Dean of Christ Church, and Dr. George Clarke (1661–1736), fellow at All Souls College, were fascinated both with Jones

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury (1671–1713), from Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711) in Characteristics, ed. John M. Robertson. London: Grant Richards, 1900, I: pp. 225–9, II: pp. 136–7, II: pp. 267–72.

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and with the Palladian ideas that he had espoused. What was lacking for architects, however, was a philosophical foundation on which to ground the Renaissance aesthetics of the Italian master. This rationale would be supplied by Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Third Earl of Shaftesbury. The grandson of the First Earl of Shaftesbury – famed parliamentarian and foe to Richard Cromwell – the younger Shaftesbury had every advantage in life. He was schooled at home by no less a person than the philosopher John Locke (1632– 1704), whose empiricism he would ultimately embellish with his own belief in innate ideas. Next came three years in Italy in the late 1680s to cultivate his aesthetic sensibilities. He followed this travel with five years of private studies, during which time he mastered Greek philosophy. After a brief bout with politics, poor health forced him in the late 1690s to retire to the life of a ‘‘virtuoso,’’ that is to say, a gentleman in pursuit of refined or higher aesthetic pleasures. Shaftesbury’s philosophy, in fact, can be described as a metaphysical moralism, in that he placed great importance on the inward development of private morality as a means to experience and understand the outward harmony and order of the universe. Higher ideas of truth, beauty, proportions, and goodness are intrinsic or innate values to be cultivated through the moral sense. The following three selections are from three different essays of his Characteristics. The first, from his ‘‘Advice to an Author’’ outlines his general aesthetics and indicates his disdain for all that is ‘‘Gothic.’’ The second passage, from the dialogue ‘‘The Moralists, A Philosophical Rhapsody,’’ briefly articulates his Neo-Platonic views regarding visual forms and proportions. The third passage, which again returns to the theme of the coincidence of beauty and harmony, is extracted from the third of his ‘‘Miscellaneous Reflections.’’ One would imagine that our philosophical writers, who pretend to treat of morals, should far out-do mere poets in recommending virtue, and representing what was fair and amiable in human actions. One would imagine that if they turned their eye towards remote countries (of which they affect so much to speak) they should search for that simplicity of manners and innocence of behaviour which has been often known among mere savages, ere they were corrupted by our commerce, and, by sad example, instructed in all kinds of treachery and inhumanity. ’Twould be of advantage to us to hear the causes of this strange corruption in ourselves, and be made to consider of our deviation from nature, and from that just purity of manners which might be expected, especially from a people so assisted and enlightened by religion. For who would not naturally expect more justice, fidelity, temperance, and honesty from Christians than from Mahometans or mere pagans? But so far are our modern moralists from condemning any unnatural vices or corrupt manners, whether in our own or foreign climates, that they would have vice itself appear as natural as virtue, and from the worst examples would represent to us ‘‘that all actions are naturally indifferent; that they have no note or character of good or ill in themselves; but are distinguished by mere fashion, law, or arbitrary decree.’’ Wonderful philosophy! raised from the dregs of an illiterate mean kind, which was ever despised among the great ancients and rejected by all men of action or sound erudition; but in these ages imperfectly copied from the original, and, with much disadvantage, imitated and assumed in common both by devout and indevout attempters in the moral kind. Should a writer upon music, addressing himself to the students and lovers of the art, declare to them ‘‘that the measure or rule of harmony was caprice or will, humour or fashion,’’ ’tis not very likely he should be heard with great attention or treated with real gravity. For harmony is harmony by nature, let men judge ever so ridiculously of music. So is symmetry and proportion founded still in nature, let men’s fancy prove ever so barbarous, or their fashions ever so Gothic in their architecture, sculpture, or whatever other designing art. ’Tis the same case where life and manners are concerned. Virtue has the same fixed CO O PE R, C H A RA C T E R I ST I C S

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standard. The same numbers, harmony, and proportion will have place in morals, and are discoverable in the characters and affections of mankind; in which are laid the just foundations of an art and science superior to every other of human practice and comprehension. This, I suppose therefore, is highly necessary that a writer should comprehend. For things are stubborn and will not be as we fancy them, or as the fashion varies, but as they stand in nature. Now whether the writer be poet, philosopher, or of whatever kind, he is in truth no other than a copyist after nature. His style may be differently suited to the different times he lives in, or to the different humour of his age or nation; his manner, his dress, his colouring may vary; but if his drawing be uncorrect or his design contrary to nature, his piece will be found ridiculous when it comes thoroughly to be examined. For Nature will not be mocked. The prepossession against her can never be very lasting. Her decrees and instincts are powerful and her sentiments inbred. She has a strong party abroad, and as strong a one within ourselves; and when any slight is put upon her, she can soon turn the reproach and make large reprisals on the taste and judgment of her antagonists. Whatever philosopher, critic, or author is convinced of this prerogative of nature, will easily be persuaded to apply himself to the great work of reforming his taste, which he will have reason to suspect, if he be not such a one as has deliberately endeavoured to frame it by the just standard of nature. Whether this be his case, he will easily discover by appealing to his memory; for custom and fashion are powerful seducers; and he must of necessity have fought hard against these to have attained that justness of taste which is required in one who pretends to follow nature. But if no such conflict can be called to mind, ’tis a certain token that the party has his taste very little different from the vulgar. And on this account he should instantly betake himself to the wholesome practice recommended in this treatise. He should set afoot the powerfullest faculties of his mind, and assemble the best forces of his wit and judgment, in order to make a formal descent on the territories of the heart; resolving to decline no combat, nor hearken to any terms, till he had pierced into its inmost provinces and reached the seat of empire. No treaties should amuse him; no advantages lead him aside. All other speculations should be suspended, all other mysteries resigned, till this necessary campaign was made and these inward conflicts learnt; by which he would be able to gain at least some tolerable insight into himself and knowledge of his own natural principles. [ . . . ] *** I allow your expression, said Theocles, and will endeavour to show you that the same preconceptions, of a higher degree, have place in human kind. Do so, said I, I entreat you; for so far am I from finding in myself these pre-conceptions of fair and beautiful, in your sense, that methinks, till now of late, I have hardly known of anything like them in Nature. How then, said he, would you have known that outward fair and beautiful of human kind, if such an object (a fair fleshly one) in all its beauty had for the first time appeared to you, by yourself, this morning, in these groves? Or do you think perhaps you should have been unmoved, and have found no difference between this form and any other, if first you had not been instructed? I have hardly any right, replied I, to plead this last opinion, after what I have owned just before. Well then, said he, that I may appear to take no advantage against you, I quit the dazzling form which carries such a force of complicated beauties, and am contented to consider separately each of those simple beauties, which taken all together create this wonderful 96

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effect. For you will allow, without doubt, that in respect of bodies, whatever is commonly said of the unexpressible, the unintelligible, the I-know-not-what of beauty, there can lie no mystery here, but what plainly belongs either to figure, colour, motion or sound. Omitting therefore the three latter, and their dependent charms, let us view the charm in what is simplest of all, mere figure. Nor need we go so high as sculpture, architecture, or the designs of those who from this study of beauty have raised such delightful arts. ’Tis enough if we consider the simplest of figures, as either a round ball, a cube, or dye. Why is even an infant pleased with the first view of these proportions? Why is the sphere or globe, the cylinder and obelisk preferred; and the irregular figures, in respect of these, rejected and despised? I am ready, replied I, to own there is in certain figures a natural beauty, which the eye finds as soon as the object is presented to it. Is there then, said he, a natural beauty of figures? and is there not as natural a one of actions? No sooner the eye opens upon figures, the ear to sounds, than straight the beautiful results and grace and harmony are known and acknowledged. No sooner are actions viewed, no sooner the human affections and passions discerned (and they are most of them as soon discerned as felt) than straight an inward eye distinguishes, and sees the fair and shapely, the amiable and admirable, apart from the deformed, the foul, the odious, or the despicable. How is it possible therefore not to own ‘‘that as these distinctions have their foundation in Nature, the discernment itself is natural, and from Nature alone’’? *** ’Tis impossible we can advance the least in any relish or taste of outward symmetry and order, without acknowledging that the proportionate and regular state is the truly prosperous and natural in every subject. The same features which make deformity create incommodiousness and disease. And the same shapes and proportions which make beauty afford advantage by adapting to activity and use. Even in the imitative or designing arts (to which our author so often refers) the truth or beauty of every figure or statue is measured from the perfection of Nature in her just adapting of every limb and proportion to the activity, strength, dexterity, life and vigour of the particular species or animal designed. Thus beauty and truth are plainly joined with the notion of utility and convenience, even in the apprehension of every ingenious artist, the architect, the statuary, or the painter. ’Tis the same in the physician’s way. Natural health is the just proportion, truth, and regular course of things in a constitution. ’Tis the inward beauty of the body. And when the harmony and just measures of the rising pulses, the circulating humours, and the moving airs or spirits, are disturbed or lost, deformity enters, and with it, calamity and ruin. Should not this (one would imagine) be still the same case and hold equally as to the mind? Is there nothing there which tends to disturbance and dissolution? Is there no natural tenour, tone, or order of the passions or affections? No beauty or deformity in this moral kind? Or allowing that there really is, must it not, of consequence, in the same manner imply health or sickliness, prosperity or disaster? Will it not be found in this respect, above all, ‘‘that what is beautiful is harmonious and proportionable; what is harmonious and proportionable is true; and what is at once both beautiful and true is, of consequence, agreeable and good?’’ Where then is this beauty or harmony to be found? How is this symmetry to be discovered and applied? Is it any other art than that of philosophy or the study of inward numbers and proportions which can exhibit this in life? If no other, who then can possibly CO O PE R, C H A RA C T E R I ST I C S

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have a taste of this kind, without being beholden to philosophy? Who can admire the outward beauties and not recur instantly to the inward, which are the most real and essential, the most naturally affecting, and of the highest pleasure, as well as profit and advantage? In so short a compass does that learning and knowledge lie on which manners and life depend. ’Tis we ourselves create and form our taste. If we resolve to have it just, ’tis in our power. We may esteem and resolve, approve and disapprove, as we would wish. For who would not rejoice to be always equal and consonant to himself, and have constantly that opinion of things which is natural and proportionable? But who dares search opinion to the bottom, or call in question his early and prepossessing taste? Who is so just to himself as to recall his fancy from the power of fashion and education to that of reason? Could we, however, be thus courageous, we should soon settle in ourselves such an opinion of good as would secure to us an invariable, agreeable, and just taste in life and manners.

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ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER Third Earl of Shaftesbury, from ‘‘A Letter Concerning Design’’ (1712)

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n 1711 Shaftesbury, who was dying of a respiratory illness, left England to spend the final months of his life in Naples. In a letter written to his friend Lord Somers, he made known in a more concrete way his views on the state of the arts and architecture. His negative reference to ‘‘one single court-architect’’ alludes to (the stillliving) Wren, and it can be interpreted as Wren’s dethronement within certain intellectual circles. Shaftesbury’s equally negative reference to ‘‘a new palace spoilt’’ is undoubtedly aimed at the baroque character of Blenheim Palace, designed by John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor between 1705 and 1716. Notwithstanding these criticisms, Shaftesbury is optimistic about the ‘‘rising genius of our nation,’’ and to this end he pleads for a national academy to improve the education of artists, similar to the training students receive in France. Such an academy would eventually be instituted, but not until 1768. [ . . . ] This in the meantime I can, with some assurance say to your Lordship in a kind of spirit of prophecy, from what I have observed of the rising genius of our nation, That if we live to see a peace any way answerable to that generous spirit with which this war was begun, and carried on, for our own liberty and that of Europe; the figure we are like to make abroad, and the increase of knowledge, industry and sense at home, will render united Britain the principal seat of arts; and by her politeness and advantages in this kind, will shew evidently, how much she owes to those counsels, which taught her to exert herself so resolutely on behalf of the common cause, and that of her own liberty, and happy constitution, necessarily included. Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury, ‘‘A Letter Concerning Design’’ (1712) in Second Characters or the Language of Forms, ed. Benjamin Rand. London: Thoemmes Press, 1995 (a reprint of the 1914 edition), pp. 19–24.

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I can myself remember the time, when, in respect of music, our reigning taste was in many degrees inferior to the French. The long reign of luxury and pleasure under King Charles the Second, and the foreign helps and studied advantages given to music in a following reign, could not raise our genius the least in this respect. But when the spirit of the nation was grown more free, though engaged at that time in the fiercest war, and with the most doubtful success, we no sooner began to turn ourselves towards music, and enquire what Italy in particular produced, than in an instant we outstripped our neighbours the French, entered into a genius far beyond theirs, and raised ourselves an ear, and judgment, not inferior to the best now in the world. In the same manner, as to painting. Though we have as yet nothing of our own native growth in this kind worthy of being mentioned; yet since the public has of late begun to express a relish for engravings, drawings, copyings, and for the original paintings of the chief Italian schools (so contrary to the modern French), I doubt not that, in very few years we shall make an equal progress in this other science. And when our humour turns us to cultivate these designing arts, our genius, I am persuaded, will naturally carry us over the slighter amusements, and lead us to that higher, more serious, and noble part of imitation, which relates to history, human nature, and the chief degree or order of beauty; I mean that of the rational life, distinct from the merely vegetable and sensible, as in animals, or plants; according to those several degrees or orders of painting, which your Lordship will find suggested in this extemporary Notion I have sent you. As for architecture, it is no wonder if so many noble designs of this kind have miscarried amongst us; since the genius of our nation has hitherto been so little turned this way, that through several reigns we have patiently seen the noblest public buildings perish (if I may say so) under the hand of one single court-architect; who, if he had been able to profit by experience, would long since, at our expense, have proved the greatest master in the world. But I question whether our patience is like to hold much longer. The devastation so long committed in this kind, has made us begin to grow rude and clamorous at the hearing of a new palace spoilt, or a new design committed to some rash or impotent pretender. It is the good fate of our nation in this particular, that there remain yet two of the noblest subjects for architecture; our Prince’s Palace and our House of Parliament. For I cannot but fancy that when Whitehall is thought of, the neighbouring Lords and Commons will at the same time be placed in better chambers and apartments, than at present; were it only for majesty’s sake, and as a magnificence becoming the person of the Prince, who here appears in full solemnity. Nor do I fear that when these new subjects are attempted, we should miscarry as grossly as we have done in others before. Our State, in this respect, may prove perhaps more fortunate than our Church, in having waited till a national taste was formed, before these edifices were undertaken. But the zeal of the nation could not, it seems, admit so long a delay in their ecclesiastical structures, particularly their metropolitan. And since a zeal of this sort has been newly kindled amongst us, it is like we shall see from afar the many spires arising in our great city, with such hasty and sudden growth, as may be the occasion perhaps that our immediate relish shall be hereafter censured, as retaining much of what artists call the Gothic kind. Hardly, indeed, as the public now stands, should we bear to see a Whitehall treated like a Hampton Court, or even a new cathedral like St Paul’s. Almost every one now becomes concerned, and interests himself in such public structures. Even those pieces too are brought C O OP E R, ‘ ‘ A LE T T E R CO N C E RN I N G D E SI GN ’ ’

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under the common censure, which, though raised by private men, are of such a grandeur and magnificence, as to become national ornaments. The ordinary man may build his cottage, or the plain gentleman his country house according as he fancies: but when a great man builds, he will find little quarter from the public, if instead of a beautiful pile, he raises, at a vast expense, such a false and counterfeit piece of magnificence, as can be justly arraigned for its deformity by so many knowing men in art, and by the whole people, who, in such a conjuncture readily follow their opinion. In reality the people are no small parties in this cause. Nothing moves successfully without them. There can be no public, but where they are included. And without a public voice, knowingly guided and directed, there is nothing which can raise a true ambition in the artist; nothing which can exalt the genius of the workman, or make him emulous of after fame, and of the approbation of his country, and of posterity. For with these he naturally, as a freeman, must take part: in these he has a passionate concern, and interest, raised in him by the same genius of liberty, the same laws and government, by which his property and the rewards of his pains and industry, are secured to him, and to his generation after him. Everything co-operates, in such a State, towards the improvement of art and science. And for the designing arts in particular, such as architecture, painting, and statuary, they are in a manner linked together. The taste of one kind brings necessarily that of the others along with it. When the free spirit of a nation turns itself this way, judgments are formed; critics arise; the public eye and ear improve; a right taste prevails, and in a manner forces its way. Nothing is so improving, nothing so natural, so congenial to the liberal arts, as that reigning liberty and high spirit of a people, which from the habit of judging in the highest matters for themselves, makes them freely judge of other subjects, and enter thoroughly into the characters as well of men and manners, as of the products or works of men, in art and science. So much, my Lord, do we owe to the excellence of our national constitution, and legal monarchy; happily fitted for us, and which alone could hold together so mighty a people; all sharers (though at so far a distance from each other) in the government of themselves; and meeting under one head in one vast metropolis; whose enormous growth, however censurable in other respects, is actually a cause that workmanship and arts of so many kinds arise to such perfection. What encouragement our higher powers may think fit to give these growing arts, I will not pretend to guess. This I know, that it is so much for their advantage and interest to make themselves the chief parties in the cause, that I wish no court or ministry, besides a truly virtuous and wise one, may ever concern themselves in the affair. For should they do so, they would in reality do more harm than good; since it is not the nature of a court (such as courts generally are) to improve, but rather corrupt a taste. And what is in the beginning set wrong by their example, is hardly ever afterwards recoverable in the genius of a nation. Content therefore I am, my Lord, that Britain stands in this respect as she now does. Nor can one, methinks, with just reason regret her having hitherto made no greater advancement in these affairs of art. As her constitution has grown, and been established, she has in proportion fitted herself for other improvements. There has been no anticipation in the case. And in this surely she must be esteemed wise, as well as happy; that ere she attempted to raise herself any other taste or relish, she secured herself a right one in government. She has now the advantage of beginning in other matters on a new foot. She has her models yet to seek, her scale and standard to form, with deliberation and good choice. Able enough she is 100

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at present to shift for herself; however abandoned or helpless she has been left by those whom it became to assist her. Hardly, indeed, could she procure a single academy for the training of her youth in exercises. As good soldiers as we are, and as good horses as our climate affords, our Princes, rather than expend their treasure this way, have suffered our youth to pass into a foreign nation, to learn to ride. As for other academies, such as those for painting, sculpture, or architecture, we have not so much as heard of the proposal; whilst the Prince of our rival nation raises academies, breeds youth, and sends rewards and pensions into foreign countries, to advance the interest and credit of his own. Now if, notwithstanding the industry and pains of this foreign court, and the supine unconcernedness of our own, the national taste however rises, and already shews itself in many respects beyond that of our so highly assisted neighbours; what greater proof can there be of the superiority of genius in one of these nations above the other?

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COLIN CAMPBELL Introduction to Vitruvius Britannicus, Vol. I (1715)

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ith Shaftesbury’s aesthetics serving as a foundation, a new Palladian movement began to take hold in Britain in the second decade of the century. Two literary enterprises, in particular, popularized the Italian architect and Renaissance classicism in general. Sometime in 1713 or 1714 the Italian architect Giocomo Leoni (1686?–1746) immigrated to England with plans (and plates) for an English translation of Palladio’s Four Books. Around the same time a group of London booksellers began planning an illustrated book of classical designs by British architects. The two projects were viewed by their originators as contending with each other, and both were timed to coincide with the ascension of King George I. In April 1715 (and shortly before the projected publication date) the architect Colin Campbell was named author of the second project, to be entitled Vitruvius Britannicus. Knowing that Leoni’s work would shortly appear, he wrote a brief introduction that emphasized the greatness of Palladio – and by extension the equal or even superior talents of his English student Inigo Jones. Campbell likewise seems to have arranged the previously prepared plates in a way that contrasted the modern works of such baroque architects as Thomas Archer and John Vanbrugh with the more restrained classicism of Jones, Campbell, and others. Thus he used the book to launch his own career and become one of the most popular architects in Britain. The general Esteem that Travellers have for Things that are Foreign, is in nothing more conspicuous than with Regard to Building. We travel, for the most part, at an Age more apt to be imposed upon by the Ignorance or Partiality of others, than to judge truly of the Merit of Things by the Strength of Reason. It’s owing to this Mistake in Education, that so many of

Colin Campbell (1676–1729), Introduction to Vol. I of Vitruvius Britannicus, or the British Architect (3 vols., 1715–25). New York: Benjamin Blom, 1967 (facsimile edition).

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the British Quality have so mean an Opinion of what is performed in our own Country; tho’, perhaps, in most we equal, and in some Things we surpass, our Neighbours. I have therefore judged, it would not be improper to publish this Collection, which will admit of a fair Comparison with the best of the Moderns. As to the Antiques, they are out of the Question; and, indeed, the Italians themselves have now no better Claim to them than they have to the Purity of the Latin. We must, in Justice, acknowledge very great Obligations to those Restorers of Architecture, which the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centurys produced in Italy. Bramante, Barbaro, Sansovino, Sangallo, Michael Angelo, Raphael Urbin, Julio Romano, Serglio, Labaco, Scamozzi, and many others, who have greatly help’d to raise this Noble Art from the Ruins of Barbarity: But above all, the great Palladio, who has exceeded all that were gone before him, and surpass’d his Contemporaries, whose ingenious Labours will eclipse many, and rival most of the Ancients. And indeed, this excellent Architect seems to have arrived to a Ne plus ultra of his Art. With him the great Manner and exquisite Taste of Building is lost; for the Italians can no more now relish the Antique Simplicity, but are entirely employed in capricious Ornaments, which must at last end in the Gothick. For Proof of this Assertion, I appeal to the Productions of the last Century: How affected and licentious are the Works of Bernini and Fontana? How wildly Extravagant are the Designs of Boromini, who has endeavoured to debauch Mankind with his odd and chimerical Beauties, where the Parts are without Proportion, Solids without their true Bearing, Heaps of Materials without Strength, excessive Ornaments without Grace, and the Whole without Symmetry? And what can be a stronger Argument, that this excellent Art is near lost in that Country, where such Absurdities meet with Applause? It is then with the Renowned Palladio we enter the Lists, to whom we oppose the Famous Inigo Jones: Let the Banquetting-house, those excellent Pieces at Greenwich, with many other Things of this great Master, be carefully examined, and I doubt not but an impartial Judge will find in them all the Regularity of the former, with an Addition of Beauty and Majesty, in which our Architect is esteemed to have out-done all that went before; and when those Designs be gave for Whitehall, are published, which I intend in the Second Volume, I believe all Mankind will agree with me, that there is no Palace in the World to rival it. And here I cannot but reflect on the Happiness of the British Nation, that at present abounds with so many learned and ingenious Gentlemen, as Sir Christopher Wren, Sir William Bruce, Sir John Vanbrugh, Mr. Archer, Mr. Wren, Mr. Wynne, Mr. Talman, Mr. Hawksmore, Mr. James, &c. who have all greatly contributed to adorn our Island with their curious Labours, and are daily embellishing it more. I hope, therefore, the Reader will be agreeably entertained in viewing what I have collected with so much Labour. All the Drawings are either taken from the Buildings themselves, or the original Designs of the Architects, who have very much assisted me in advancing this Work: And I can, with great Sincerity, assure the Publick, That I have used the utmost Care to render it acceptable; and that nothing might be Wanting, I have given the following Explanation to each Figure.

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NICHOLAS DU BOIS Translator’s Preface to The Architecture of A. Palladio (1715)

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ometime in 1714 or early 1715 Leoni became aware of the project for Vitruvius Britannicus, and he feared that its focus on British architecture might hamper the sale of his own book. To strengthen his project, Leoni promised on the title page also to include annotations that Inigo Jones had made in his edition of Palladio’s I quattro libri during his trip of 1613–14 – a promise he was unable to fulfill. Leoni was also interested is distancing his project from that of Campbell, and to this end his translator of Palladio, Nicholas Du Bois, chided the ‘‘ingenious Mr. Campbell’’ for including buildings containing a ‘‘ridiculous mixture of Gothick & Roman.’’ Leoni’s trilingual publication (Italian, French, and English) was a great success in its early sales, and the architecture of Palladio (some of whose designs Leoni actually sought to improve) now became a touchstone and a focus for a generation of British architects. Buoyed by his success, Leoni next set out to prepare a translation of Alberti’s treatise. One of the most judicious Remarks that have been made upon the Variety of Opinions, which prevail among those Authors, who have written concerning Architecture, and given us the proportions of its Orders, is in my judgment, that of Mons. le Clerc in a new Treatise lately publish’d by him on that Subject. If the orders of Columns (says he) had real and undisputable beauties, the Architects, both Ancient and Modern, would have agreed among themselves about their rules and proportions: but those beauties, being only arbitrary, as not being grounded upon demonstrations, the Authors, who have treated of them, have given us different rules, according to their Taste and Genius. And indeed, so great is this Variety, that it may be perceiv’d, even in those stately remains of ancient Buildings, which are recommended to us, to this very day, by the greatest Masters, as so many Models. However, if it be true, as Mons. le Clerc adds, that among those several beauties, some are certainly more pleasing and more universally approv’d; till somebody is so happy, as to be able to demonstrate that such, or such a rule, or proportion, ought to be preferr’d to another, no reasonable Man will scruple to follow those great and noble Ideas, those magnificent Ordinances, those learned and judicious Observations, those just and exact proportions which the most famous Architects have left us, and which have gain’d a general applause. Among those great Masters of Civil Architecture, Palladio, whose Work I have undertaken to translate, is doubtless the most eminent. If therefore the Book of that Learned Man has been admir’d all over Europe, tho his Designs have only been coursly engrav’d in Wooden Cuts; will any one deny that the generous Foreigner, who has spent several years in preparing the Designs, from which the following Cuts have been engrav’d, makes a very considerable Present to the Publick? No body was certainly better qualified than he, to bestow upon the Designs of Palladio that gracefulness and strength, which can only be imitated by the Graver, with a perfection unknown to the Artists of the XVIth Century. For besides that he is a very good Architect, and has in a particular manner applied himself to the reading of Palladio, and studied his method more Nicholas Du Bois, Translator’s Preface to Giocomo Leoni’s edition of The Architecture of A. Palladio; in Four Books, containing A short Treatise of the Five Orders, and the most necessary Observations concerning all Sorts of Buildings. London, John Watts, 1715.

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carefully than that of any other Author; he has also seen most of the Originals of those Designs that are in the second, third, and fourth Books of this Work; that is, the Houses, Palaces, Churches, and other Buildings, both publick and private, raised by Palladio himself, or designed by him, as being built by other Architects for whom he had an Esteem: and as he’s an Excellent Designer, so he has taken Care to add to all those original Designs many Ornaments, which could not appear in Wooden Cuts. It would have been no easy thing for him to do this with exactness, had he not seen those Edifices, and made the necessary Observations for that end. Besides, that several faults had crept into the Italian Edition; which could not have been so well mended by another hand. Thus the Reader may see how much the Publick is indebted to Mr. Leoni. As for what concerns my own Performance, I was very well pleas’d to find an Opportunity of translating an Author whom I always admir’d: being of Opinion that an intent reading of the two Translations published in this Volume, would very much contribute to fix in my mind the Rules of an Art which has always been my most delightful Study. I was still the more willing to undertake that painful Task, because I had already observ’d that Monsieur de Chambray’s Translation, tho pretty exact, began to grow obsolete, and that besides many ungrateful expressions (as being now out of use) there are several terms of Art, which have been alter’d with the Language, and which requir’d a greater accuracy. I shall say nothing of the Version made by Mons. le Mue¨t, who only translated the first Book. One may very well wonder that so Learned an Architect should have so little regard to the Reputation of his Author, as to lend him his own Notions, by inserting (as he has done in many places) several rules and proportions, which he lik’d, instead of those of his original; under pretence, as he himself says, that the measures and proportions of Palladio are different from those that are used in France. Besides, that Translation is so imperfect, and the References from the text to the Cuts are so confused and inaccurate, that those who begin to learn Architecture (for whom that Book seems chiefly to have been written) cannot read it with any advantage. I shall pass over in silence another French Translation made (according to Moreri) by one Roland Friart. I never could light on that Version; and therefore I can’t judge of it: but it must needs be written in very old French, since it was Printed long before that of Mons. de Chambrai. However it be, what I have said of the Translation of the first Book of Palladio by Mons. le Mu¨et, may very well be apply’d to a like Translation in English. The Author of which, who, in all probability did not understand the Italian Tongue, does altogether depend upon Mons. le Muet, and follows him so closely, that he has only translated the first Book, as Mons. le Muet did, and even transcrib’d the most palpable faults of the French Translator. Besides, in his imitation, he has added so many things of his own, and so much alter’d the work of Palladio, that the latter is hardly to be known. Nevertheless, such has always been the Reputation of this great Man, that this last Translation of the most material part of his book, though never so imperfect, or rather unworthy of him, has been reprinted six or seven times. Every one may rest satisfy’d that the two new Translations publish’d in this Volume, and join’d to the Italian Original, are very faithful, and that I have left nothing unattempted to make them as perfect as could be wish’d, and answerable to the Beauty of the Cuts, with which they are attended, and which have been engrav’d by the best Masters. But I leave this to the judgment of the Publick. All good Judges must needs own that we wanted a Work of this Nature; and there is no doubt, but it will prove very useful, as much to Architects and 104

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Workmen, as to those who design to build for themselves; since it contains the necessary Rules for raising the plainest Buildings, as well as the most adorn’d. Every body cannot build Palaces, nor enrich their Houses with Columns, Pilasters, and so many other Ornaments of Architecture, which require great charges. But since there are no Houses, tho never so small, without doors and windows, and some of the other parts, first invented by necessity, and then adorn’d that they might be more graceful, it is not more chargeable to make them according to their just proportions, by following the directions of some intelligent Person, than to leave them to the management and discretion of the workmen, who generally mind nothing but what is profitable to them. But as most of those who undertake to build, neglect to make use of any Architect, in order to raise a House, in which they will have none of those Ornaments, as being, in their judgment, either needless, or too expensive; they also neglect the other parts, which are the most material in a building. And because they don’t understand the Rules of an Art, that affords those beautiful proportions, which, even in the plainest buildings, do often raise the admiration of the most unskilful, without their knowing the reason of it; they look upon them as inconsiderable things, and frequently prefer their own fancies to the judgment of the most learned and experienc’d Architects: or, at most, they rely upon Workmen, who are often very ignorant, or dare not find fault with any plan, tho never so bad, for fear of displeasing, and so losing their Work. Hence it is that we see so many bungled Houses and so oddly contriv’d, that they seem to have been made only to be admir’d by ignorant Men, and to raise the laughter of those who are sensible of such imperfections. Most of them are like Bird-cages, by reason of the largeness and too great number of windows; or like prisons, because of the Darkness of the rooms, passages and stairs. Some want the most essential part, I mean the Entablature, or Cornice; and tho it be the best fence against the injuries of the Weather, it is left out to save charges. In some other Houses, the rooms are so small and strait, that one knows not where to place the most necessary furniture. Others, through the oddness of some new and insignificant ornaments, seem to exceed the wildest Gothick. It were an endless thing to enumerate all the absurdities, which many of our Builders introduce every day into their way of building. I shall be contented to apply to them what the ingenious Mr. Campbell says of the Architecture of Boronimi, in his Vitruvius Britannicus, the first part whereos he has newly published with a labour and exactness equal to his skill in Architecture. They are, says he, chimerical beauties, where the Parts are without proportions, solids without their true bearing, heaps of materials without strength, excessive ornaments without grace. I add, and a ridiculous mixture of Gothick and Roman, without Judgment, Taste, or Symmetry. I confess that the imperfections observable in our buildings, are often to be ascrib’d to the Caprice and Infatuation of those for whom they are made: but I think it cannot be denied that they do also proceed, in a great measure, from the ignorance and ill taste of the Designers, Undertakers, or Builders. Nevertheless, we have good reason to hope, more than ever, that those absurdities will be laid aside, and that the noble and majestick simplicity of the Ancients will prevail again. Many Persons, even among the most illustrious Nobility, begin to relish Architecture. They take delight in learning its most beautiful proportions; and by comparing the buildings of eminent and experienc’d Architects with those that have been rais’d by unskilful Men, they easily perceive what a vast difference there is between the noble productions of the former, and the extravagant performances of the latter. And indeed, they are most concern’d in it: there is hardly any body else that can bear the Charges of a D U B O I S , P R E F A C E T O T H E A RC H IT EC TU R E OF PA L LA D IO

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beautiful and perfect Architecture, and undertake those great and stately buildings, wherein the Work and the Matter seem to contend about the preference, and strive to immortalize the memory of their Masters. Tis therefore very proper for them to be able to judge of the Plans that are propos’d to them. I hope this Work will meet with a general approbation: if those, who have no skill in Architecture, read it, their curiosity will perhaps move them to learn an Art, which several great Princes did not think unworthy of their application. Those who begin to study Architecture, and whose taste is not come yet to its perfection, will be cur’d of their wrong notions; and finding in this Work a method no less experienc’d than beautiful and safe, they will learn by it to work with good success, and without any fear of being mistaken. As for those Learned Architects, who are better known by the reputation of their works, than by any thing I could say of them, tis not doubted but they will be glad to see Palladio come out under a form more suitable to the nobleness of his Designs, and the great Esteem the Publick has always had for him.

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WILLIAM KENT ‘‘Advertisement’’ to The Designs of Inigo Jones (1727)

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ith the ground prepared by Shaftesbury, Campbell, and Leoni – the Palladian movement in Britain began to flourish in the 1720s. Its intellectual leader was Richard Boyle, Third Earl of Burlington and Fourth Earl of Cork (1694–1753). His rise to prominence also largely defines the Palladian movement in Britain as one inextricably bound with aristocratic pretensions. Born into wealth and high circumstance (George Frideric Handel lived for a while in the Burlington household), Burlington assumed his titles in 1715 shortly after returning from his grand tour of Italy. As a youth he was enthused by Shaftesbury’s ideal of a ‘‘virtuoso’’ and his first interests were music, the theater, and the acquisition of paintings. The two books of Leoni and Campbell seemed to have piqued his architectural interest, and shortly after reading them he dismissed his architect James Gibbs, who had been employed in making renovations for Burlington House in Piccadilly. In his place, Burlington hired Campbell, but this relationship would prove to be short-lived, as Burlington detected a lack of classical purity in his style. Burlington left for a second tour of Italy in 1719, this time with the explicit purpose of studying Palladio’s architecture at its source. He also purchased all the surviving drawings of the master and, upon returning to London, began to acquire the literary estate and drawings of Inigo Jones. He also moved to his second ancestral estate in Chiswick, renovated the old house, and in 1725 began work on his famed Palladian villa, based on the Villa Rotunda in Vicenza. From this white seat he commanded the movement and those around him by commissioning or financially supporting a score of studies and publications devoted to Palladio, Jones, and aesthetic theory. In one of his first acts, in 1724 he commissioned William Kent to prepare – from the drawings now owned by Burlington – The Designs of Inigo Jones, which appeared in two volumes in 1727. Burlington had met the painter Kent in Italy in 1715, and after his second

William Kent (1685–1748), ‘‘Advertisement’’ to The Designs of Inigo Jones, Consisting of Plans and Elevations for Publick and Private Buildings, Vol. I (1727).

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trip to the south in 1719 he invited him to live in his own households in London and Chiswick. During these years with Burlington, Kent was making a transition from painter to architect and landscape architect, for which he would achieve considerable fame in his own right.

Advertisement The Character of INIGO JONES is so universally known, that his Name alone will be a sufficient Recommendation of the following Designs; the Originals of which (drawn by himself and Mr. Webb) belong to the Earl of Burlington. No better Account can be given of his Life than what Mr. Webb hath already done in the Preface of his excellent Defence of that judicious Treatise, entitled, Stonhenge restor’d, there being scarce any Materials left, from whence to compile it. Palladio’s Design of the famous Church of Santo Georgio at Venice, (so deservedly admired by all good Architects) is added to this Work, to shew that as great a Rival as that Restorer of Architecture was to the Antients, his Disciple was in no respect inferior to him. If the Reputation of this Great Man doth not rise in proportion to his Merits in his own Country, ’tis certain, in Italy, (which was his School) and other Parts of Europe, he was in great esteem; in which places, as well as in England, his own Works are his Monument and best Panegyrick; which, together with those of Palladio, remain equal Proofs of the Superiority of those two Great Masters to all others. To this Collection are added Designs of Doors, Windows, Gates, Peers, Chimneys, Insides of Rooms, and Ceilings; as also some few Designs of Buildings by the Earl of Burlington. The other Particulars will be shewn in the following Tables annex’d to each Volume.

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J AM E S G I BB S Introduction to A Book of Architecture (1728)

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ne of the indications of the persuasiveness of Burlington is the influence he exerted on James Gibbs, the architect that he had dismissed in 1715. Born near Aberdeen in Scotland, Gibbs had first studied architecture in Rome at the start of the century under the baroque architect Carlo Fontana (a pupil of Bernini). After returning to Britain in 1708, Gibbs set up his practice, and in 1713 joined the staff of Nicholas Hawksmoor, whose office was charged with building 50 new churches in London. The most famous of Gibbs’s designs during these years was for Saint Martin-in-the-Field (1720–6) – where, in a much emulated design, he joined a classical temple front with a lofty, baroque-inspired steeple. Already by this date, however, Gibbs had brought his personal style into line with the early efforts of the Palladian movement, and his designs for Sudbrook Park James Gibbs (1682–1754), Introduction to A Book of Architecture, Containing Designs of Buildings and Ornaments (1728), pp. i–iii.

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(1717–28), Down Hall (1720–1), and the Fellows’ Building at King’s College, Cambridge (1724–49) are fully Palladian in character. He disseminated his designs in A Book of Architecture (1728).

Introduction What is here presented to the Publick was undertaken at the instance of several Persons of Quality and others; and some Plates were added to what was at first intended, by the particular direction of Persons of great Distinction, for whose Commands I have the highest regard. They were of opinion, that such a Work as this would be of use to such Gentlemen as might be concerned in Building, especially in the remote parts of the Country, where little or no assistance for Designs can be procured. Such may be here furnished with Draughts of useful and convenient Buildings and proper Ornaments; which may be executed by any Workman who understands Lines, either as here Design’d, or with some Alteration, which may be easily made by a person of Judgment; without which a Variation in Draughts, once well digested, frequently proves a Detriment to the Building, as well as a Disparagement to the person that gives them. I mention this to caution Gentlemen from suffering any material Change to be made in their Designs, by the Forwardness of unskilful Workmen, or the Caprice of ignorant, assuming Pretenders. Some, for want of better Helps, have unfortunately put into the hands of common workmen, the management of Buildings of considerable expence; which when finished, they have had the mortification to find condemned by persons of Tast, to that degree that sometimes they have been pull’d down, at least alter’d at a greater charge than would have procur’d better advice from an able Artist; or if they have stood, they have remained lasting Monuments of the Ignorance or Parsimoniousness of the Owners, or (it may be) of a wrongjudged Profuseness. What heaps of Stone, and even Marble, are daily seen in Monuments, Chimneys, and other Ornamental pieces of Architecture, without the least Symmetry or Order? When the same or fewer Materials, under the conduct of a skilful Surveyor, would, in less room and with much less charge, have been equally (if not more) useful, and by Justness of Proportion have had a more grand Appearance, and consequently have better answered the Intention of the Expence. For it is not the Bulk of a Fabrick, the Richness and Quantity of the Materials, the Multiplicity of Lines, nor the Gaudiness of the Finishing, that give the Grace or Beauty and Grandeur to a Building; but the Proportion of the Parts to one another and to the Whole, whether entirely plain, or enriched with a few Ornaments properly disposed. In order to prevent the Abuses and Absurdities above hinted at, I have taken the utmost care that these Designs should be done in the best Tast I could form upon the Instructions of the greatest Masters in Italy, as well as my own Observations upon the antient Buildings there, during many Years application to these Studies: For a cursory View of those August Remains can no more qualify the Spectator, or Admirer, than the Air of the Country can inspire him with the knowledge of Architecture. If this Book prove useful in some degree answerable to the Zeal of my Friends in encouraging and promoting the Publication of it, I shall not think my Time mis-spent, nor my Pains ill bestow’d. 108

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ROBERT MORRIS from An Essay in Defence of Ancient Architecture (1728)

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erhaps the most prolific writer of the Palladian movement was Robert Morris, whose work also chronicles its rise and decline. Morris was a ‘‘kinsman’’ of the architect Roger Morris (1695–1749), a well-respected Palladian designer who was closely allied with the Earl of Pembroke. Robert Morris was also a native of Twickenham, which suggests a connection to Alexander Pope, whose poetry he often cites. In his dedication to An Essay in Defence of Ancient Architecture, he credits first Burlington and then Pembroke and Andrew Fountaine for being ‘‘the principal Practitioners and Preservers’’ of classicism. The subtitle of Morris’s book alludes of course to Fre´art de Chambray’s earlier work (see ch. 24 above) as well as to the French quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns. Morris is religiously on the side of the former, and in his writings he emphasizes the necessity of mathematical precision in proportions, symmetry, order, and above all the harmony that is produced where there is a full concordance of parts with one another. This passage from his third chapter relates the conventional history of architectural practice, which declines under the Goths and Vandals but then is resurrected in Renaissance times. His reference to the fact that ‘‘no Footsteps of the Grecian Buildings now remain’’ dates the chronicle prior to the 1750s, when indeed some existing Greek buildings were ‘‘rediscovered.’’ Morris is also appreciative of Wren.

Of the Antiquity and General Causes of the Decay of Architecture As Architecture has no Limits nor Bounds to its Beauties, so likewise its Continuance hitherto has no Determination of Time affixed, from Records, to its Rise and Foundation. Should we trace it back to the suppos’d Time of its first Invention, should we search the greatest Writers of all Ages who have endeavour’d to clear this Point; they so disagree in their Sentiments and Conjectures, that it will be impossible to discover the Certainty of the Time of its primitive Institution. But beyond dispute, the Grecians were the first happy Inventers, they extracted the beauteous Ideas of it from rude and unshapen Trees, the Product of Nature, and embellish’d it, by degrees of Perfectness, with those necessary Ornaments, which have been since practised by those of the most sublime Genius’s in all Ages. From hence Rome herself was furnished with all those excellent Gifts she so anciently enjoy’d; those divine Ideas of moral Virtue and Philosophy, seem to have been first modell’d and fram’d by the Directions and Rules of the ancient Grecians: Or whatever else has stamp’d on it the distinguishing Character of Virtue and Beauty, here, and here only had its original Perfections. As no Footsteps of the Grecian Buildings now remain, we must of necessity have recourse to the Antiquities of the Romans, who received the Rules and Methods immediately from the Robert Morris (1701–54), from An Essay in Defence of Ancient Architecture; or, a Parallel of the Ancient Buildings with the Modern: Shewing the Beauty and Harmony of the Former and the Irregularity of the Latter (1728). Farnborough: Gregg International Publishers, 1971 (facsimile edition), pp. 19–25.

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Grecians. When the just Sense due to Virtue began to decline in the Grecians, so did their Nation, Sciences, and Architecture sink, and were over-whelm’d with it in its Ruins; till the industrious Vigilance of the Romans transferr’d it to Rome, where it continued long in its native Dress, free from all the false Glosses introduced since, in all its natural Innocency it was adorn’d with all the Perfections which Art or Nature were capable of furnishing her with. How beautifully pleasing and perfect are the never-dying Remains of its endless Glories, collected by the indefatigable Care and Industry of Palladio? How bold and engaging in the Appearance? How pure and innocent in the Execution, withal mix’d with an Air of Delicacy and Sweetness in the whole Performance. Such are evident Proofs how preferable the Beauties of ancient Architecture are to the illegal Practices of our modern Builders. Thus long it continued in its primitive Purity till about the fifth Century, when the barbarous Inhumanity of the Goths and Vandals (who over-run the greatest part of Christendom) and the continual Divisions amongst themselves, totally eras’d all the Remains of its Beauties. But with these was fatally mix’d the most prejudicial and destroying Enemies of it, Novelty and Singleness: Those began to spread and extend themselves, and the soft Infection easily gain’d upon the Minds of the Multitude. Its Professors being so prejudiced and byass’d by Interest and popular Applause, and their own unhappy restless Tempers, and depress’d with the Insensibility of what was truly great and noble; they utterly, nay, shamefully and openly declared against it, rejected its sublime Principles, and treated it with so much malicious Barbarity, that the original Beauties of Architecture were almost extinct and lost. Thus the decaying Principles of Novelty and Singleness were as destroying in their Nature to Art, as all the Barbarism and Ruins of the destructive Wars of the Enemies of the Romans; and were more conducive to the Decay of all Sciences, than the unhappy Divisions among themselves. It may not be unseasonable, in this place, by way of Remark, to explain the true Sense and Intention of those open Enemies to our Subject, by considering, that in nothing we seem more effeminate than by being so blindly fond of every little Novelty offer’d to our view. Some set such an inestimable Value upon any thing which has the least appearance of Novelty, that the most indefatigable Industry is not wanting to attain their Desires of something which has a Correspondency or Resemblance to it in its formal Disposition. Thus are they led insensibly into erroneous Principles by the prejudicial Sentiments of others: A Thirst after every thing which has the Character of Original imprinted on it, is justly, by the Enemies to Art, adapted to the general changeable Dispositions of Mankind; for this reason, such Success always attends those Productions, whose Birth and Appearance is of the latest Date. Singleness is likewise as dangerous in its Tenets, and as prejudicial in its Principles, as the other. Some appear single in their selfish Opinions, by being ever contradictory to the Evidences of Truth and natural Reason: Some there are who appear single in Opinion, only to be continually opposite to the common Judgment of Mankind. Some again, by the Instability of Fortune, a View to Preferment or Favour, or even a publick Applause, appear single in their Judgments, and act reverse to their own Ideas and Sentiments. Many more Instances of both kinds might be enumerated: But to hasten to my Subject, I shall only observe, that doubtless that which has been by Practice and convincing Arguments from Nature and Reason, prov’d by many in all Ages to be perfect and pure in 110

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its Principles, must be preferable to a Novelty directly opposite; and which is spread by one (perhaps) whose Judgment is as short and limited as the Date of the Infection he spreads; and to appear single for the sake of Singleness or Necessity, falls farther short of Perfection, and leaves us no room to imagine that any thing but Folly can be produc’d by those who have the Agreement of no other (skilful) Judgment but their own; and that too so contradictory to Truth and the commonly received Opinion of the opposite Virtue: and where Constraint obliges us to act, we can certainly expect nothing but what is lame and disorder’d. This has so true a resemblance of our present Condition, that I cannot but believe, that the farther we appear to be from the Centre and Original of Truth, or the Institution of those just and pure Rules prescrib’d by the Ancients in the Perfection of their Sciences, the farther we deviare from the true Path itself, till it leads us at length through so many mystick Ways, and such unsearchable Labyrinths, that we unhappily mistake the fleeting Shadow for the real Substance. But to return again to our Subject. Architecture, by these uniting Causes, fell a Victim (with its Fellow-Sciences, Painting and Sculpture, & c.) to the sacrilegious Barbarians, and lay long buried in the Ashes of Oblivion, till about the latter end of the thirteenth Century, without the least Pity or Affection; till the Love of Virtue encouraged that great Genius Bramante´, in the Time of Pope Julius II. to revive the Beauties of it, by a due Observation of the ancient Edifices, and the Practice of it in a Conformity to the Rules and Methods he found made use of in the Execution. Michael Angelo, Ligorio, and many others were great Assistants and Encouragers of the Revival and Practice of it; amongst whom Palladio bears away the Palm. How great is his Manner, how elevated his Ideas, and how bold in the Execution, is best discover’d in those noble Productions he left as Examples for our Imitation. He flourish’d with a Grandeur equal to the infinite Beauties of his Studies, which was in the sixteenth Century, and died in the Year 1580. In them we see the lively Images of Antiquity rising from Heaps of Ruins, where all the Lustre of Beauty and Art conspire to raise our Sentiments and Ideas to that height, that we may easily perceive the immense difference between those ancient beautiful Productions, and the lame and disorder’d Performances of our Moderns. All who have the least Taste of Art, cannot be insensible how great a Degree of Pleasure arises from a bare Reflection of the Imagination alone, in relation to the Nobleness and Grandeur of the former, and the depress’d Ideas of the latter. These, though unregarded by the unthinking part of Mankind, nevertheless cannot detract from the lasting Tokens of their Greatness, where even the most piercing Causes of Decay, nor even Time itself will hardly ever deface their Memory in the Breasts of the Practitioners of ancient Architecture. At length, through various Scenes and Changes, it (being again revived) safely arrived on these distant Shores; yet not so far placed from Nature’s Eye are we, but some Notions of Art sprung or at least remain’d in the Breasts of her polite Sons. Barbarity and Ignorance were shook off, and a due Sense of Virtue and Knowledge were placed in their room. Here, in her Infancy (to us) Architecture was nourish’d with a degree of Tenderness and Care, suitably adapted to its Nobleness and Value, cherish’d with an agreeable Fondness, solid, sincere, and naturally apply’d to the real Beauty of the Object itself; first, like true Friendship, it gradually found success in the open Frankness of its Nature; and by its Beauties and engaging Aspects, it at last so far remov’d all its Enemies, that nothing seem’d wanting (except Encouragement for its Professors from M O RR I S, D E F E N C E O F A N C I E N T A R C H I T E C T U R E

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Men of Wealth and Power) to make it appear in such a Degree of Perfection, that it might even vie with the Ancients, in respect of its Correctness; though as yet little appear’d of it dispers’d amongst the British Genius’s. But not out of due time arose that Ever-renowned Professor, who traced back all the pleasing Paths of Antiquity in Architecture, with all the Care and industrious vigilance that was possible to give him any Ideas more conducive to Pleasure and Beauty in the Survey, in which his Imagination surpass’d even a Description, his Judgment arriv’d to the most elevated Height of Perfectness, his Soul being aptly fram’d for the reception of all those noble Sciences and Beauties of the Mind, which human Nature can be capable of receiving: He had in himself something peculiar, a fine Manner of introducing those Master-Strokes of Art, which are the more beautiful and pleasing, as they most resemble Nature in the Design and Execution; in short, he has left such lively Representations of a sublime Genius, that none amongst the Worthy but acknowledge him to be an Example fit for our Imitation, and Guide to lead us through the unerring Rules of ancient Architecture: I mean, the British Palladio, INIGO JONES. Not to detract from the just Honour due to that great Genius, but rather to add Lustre to his Name, I must beg leave to remark upon the deserving Character of a Competitor of his, which was Sir CHRISTOPHER WREN. It is not a little conducing to the Justice due to so great and noble a Soul, to see one of so prodigious an Extent of Knowledge as the Latter, guided as it were, or in some measure confirm’d in his Judgment by the Examples of the Former. Behold with what daring Flights of Art he raises his own and Country’s Fame! and that too even in his Youth, what he attempted he happily executed. In a word, there’s nothing which has imprinted on it the true Character of Great and Noble, but was centred and lodg’d in the Breast of this venerable and worthy Man.

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ALEXANDER POPE from Of False Taste (1731)

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ne of Burlington’s closest friends was the poet Alexander Pope, who lived for a few years in Chiswick before moving upstream in 1719 to nearby Twickenham. Pope, a poet and translator of Homer, shared Burlington’s love for classical literature, and his design of his own garden with a grotto seems to have stirred Burlington’s interest in what would later be known as picturesque garden design. The precise circumstances of this somewhat ironic poem written on behalf of Burlington are not well-known, although Pope employs the subtitle ‘‘Occasion’d by his Publishing Palladio’s Designs of the Baths, Arches, Theatres, etc. of Ancient Rome’’ – a book on Palladio that Burlington published in Italian in 1730. Pope nevertheless tempers his blandishment of Burlington with the caveat that ‘‘Imitating Fools’’ will also appear to turn the new classical movement into a pedantic exercise.

Alexander Pope (1688–1744), last two verses from Of False Taste: An Epistle to the Right Honourable Richard Earl of Burlington, third edition, pp. 13–14. London: L. Gilliver, 1731.

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The poem still captures the sense that Britain was experiencing a classical renaissance in both its literary and artistic endeavors. Around 1733 Pope even turned his house into a proper Palladian villa with the addition of a portico.

[...] I curse such lavish Cost, and little Skill, And swear, no Day was ever past so ill. In you, my Lord, Taste sanctifies Expence, For Splendor borrows all her Rays from Sense. You show us, Rome was glorious, not profuse, And pompous Buildings once were things of use. Just as they are, yet shall your noble Rules Fill half the Land with Imitating Fools, Who random Drawings from your Sheets shall take, And of one Beauty many Blunders make; Load some vain Church with old Theatric State; Turn Arcs of Triumph to a Garden-gate; Reverse your Ornaments, and hang them all On some patch’d Doghole ek’d with Ends of Wall, Then clap four slices of Pilaster on’t, And lac’d with bits of Rustic, ’tis a Front: Shall call the Winds thro’ long Arcades to roar, Proud to catch cold at a Venetian door; Conscious they act a true Palladian part, And if they starve, they starve by Rules of Art. Yet thou proceed; be fallen Arts thy care, Erect new Wonders, and the Old repair, Jones, and Palladio to themselves restore, And be whate’er Vitruvius was before: Till Kings call forth th’ Idea’s of thy Mind, Proud to accomplish what such hands design’d, Bid Harbors open, publick Ways extend, And Temples, worthier of the God, ascend; Bid the broad Arch the dang’rous Flood contain, The Mole projected break the roaring Main; Back to his bounds their Subject Sea command, And roll obedient Rivers thro’ the Land: These Honours, Peace to happy Britain brings, These are Imperial Works, and worthy Kings.

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ISAAC WARE ‘‘Advertisement’’ to Andrea Palladio: The Four Books of Architecture (1737)

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nother scholar and architect associated with the Burlington circle was Isaac Ware. He was first trained under Thomas Ripley and then worked in the London Office of Works. Toward the end of the 1720s, Ware met the lord and subsequently made several drawings for Burlington’s Fabbriche Antiche (1730). Next Ware began working on his own version of Designs of Inigo Jones and Others, and in the mid-1730s he also began a new translation of Palladio’s Four Books – both at Burlington’s prompting. The latter had long been dissatisfied with Leoni’s and Du Bois’s edition (especially the changes Leoni had made to Palladio’s designs), and in the 1720s in fact he had encouraged James Gibbs to start a new translation of Palladio. Ware’s translation, which was dedicated to Burlington, not only had the lord’s financial support, but Burlington also revised the text line by line to ensure its accuracy. Leoni’s effort of two decades earlier was thus now superseded in a much more demanding classical climate. The book was published by Ware in London in 1737; it has since been reprinted in New York by Dover Publications, 1965. The works of the famous ANDREA PALLADIO, published by himself at Venice in the year 1570. have been universally esteemed the best standard of architecture hitherto extant. The original work written in Italian being very scarce, several have attempted to translate the same into English, and to copy his excellent and most accurate wooden prints on copper plates. In particular, two persons have published what they honour with the title of PALLADIO’s works: The first, and in all respects the best of the two, was done in the year 1721. by Mr. LEONI; who has thought fit not only to vary from the scale of the originals, but also in many places to alter even the graceful proportions prescribed by this great master, by diminishing some of his measures, enlarging others, and putting in fanciful decorations of his own: and indeed his drawings are likewise very incorrect; which makes this performance, according to his own account in the preface, seem rather to be itself an original, than an improvement on PALLADIO. The other work (published in the year 1735.) is done with so little understanding, and so much negligence, that it cannot but give great offence to the judicious, and be of very bad consequence in misleading the unskilful, into whose hands it may happen to fall. To do justice therefore to PALLADIO, and to perpetuate his most valueable remains amongst us, are the principal inducements to my undertaking so great and laborious a work; in executing of which, I have strictly kept to his proportions and measures, by exactly tracing all the plates from his originals, and engraved them with my own hands: So that the reader may depend upon having an exact copy of what our author published, without diminution or increase; nor have I taken upon me to alter, much less to correct, any thing that came from the hands of that excellent artist. From the same motive I have chosen to give a strict and literal translation, that the sense of our author might be delivered from his own words. Isaac Ware (d. 1766), ‘‘Advertisement’’ to Andrea Palladio: The Four Books of Architecture (1737). New York: Dover Publications, 1965 (facsimile edition).

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ROBERT MORRIS from ‘‘An Essay upon Harmony’’ (1739)

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n this important explication of the classical notion of harmony, Morris – like Shaftesbury and Burlington before him – co-mingles two very distinct threads of eighteenth-century British aesthetic thought. On the one hand his definition of ‘‘Ideal’’ and ‘‘Oral’’ harmony coincides with conventional Renaissance aesthetics, and in particular with the Albertian notion of concinnity. On the other hand his description of inanimate ‘‘Ocular’’ harmony of nature echoes the relativist aesthetics of association that would play such a major role in the development of picturesque theory. It is particularly apparent in his discussion of ‘‘situation,’’ and we will see this particular topic later developed by Morris (see ch. 99 below). A third idea that works its way into these two passages is that of ‘‘character,’’ which will take center stage later in the century. Harmony is that which, in other Words, we express by Symmetry, Order, Exactness, Elegance, Beauty, Propriety, Perfection, and the like; and these Terms are used according to the Difference of the Composition: Briefly it is the nice Assemblage of Parts proportion’d to each other and justly connected together, in one general Form, Structure, or Arrangement. In Harmony, there are three general Divisions, which may be distinguish’d by the Terms, Ideal, Oral, and Ocular. The Ideal ariseth from such Numbers, Parts, or Proportions, which may be revolved in the Mind, and ranged together in Order, by Contemplation. It may arise from an elegant Description, a beautiful Representation, a Flow of eloquent Images; which may be conveyed to us, by Writing, Discourse, &c. Or it may spring from the mental Idea of the divine Nature; his Attributes and Perfections in the Visible, or the Invisible Parts of the Creation. Oral Harmony ariseth from the just Connection, Analogy, and Agreement of Sounds, the Sympathetick Concurrence of the Parts in Concert to each other, the Variety, and Changes, and Symphony; of Notes and Tones, their rising and faling in due Distance and Proportion, in Strength and Appropriation, or in Language, Eloquence, or Rhetorick. These are the Branches, from which Oral Harmony spring, and of which it is compos’d. Ocular Harmony is the most pleasing and extensive, and its Perfections arise from a Multitude of Causes. The General are two, Nature and Art. That Ocular Harmony which flows from Nature is various, it consists in Things Animate and Inanimate. The Animate Harmony is in Man, in Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Insects, &c. in infinite Degrees and Forms of Magnitude, Beauty, Propriety, and Perfection. The Inanimate Harmony is in the Prospects of Hills, Woods, Rivers, Vales, &c. Scenes noble, rural, and pleasing. Robert Morris, from ‘‘An Essay upon Harmony as it Relates Chiefly to Situation and Building.’’ London: T. Cooper, 1739 and Farnborough: Gregg International Publishers, 1971 (facsimile edition), pp. 7–14, 31–2.

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The Soul by Sympathy to Scenes of perfect Beauty, of Proportion and Elegance, is insensibly drawn and attracted; the murmuring Rivulets, the silent Grove, the verdant Meads, the particolour’d Gaieties of Nature, have their Charms which Harmoniously please. The Inanimate consists likewise in the peculiar Form of Mountains, Trees, Stones, &c. in the Variety and Disposition of the Parts of which they are particularly compos’d and in Colours. Ocular Harmony, arising from Art, flows from the nice Occurrence and Affinity with Nature: Whether it be in copying her, or forming a System of Beauties, which may spring from Fancy; in these, and in every thing Harmonious, one general Observation is to be regarded: The nearer we approach to Nature in Form, Colour, or Number, or from the Nature and Occurrence of Things, the more agreeable will that Harmony be. In Musick there is some sympathetick Force, in the Melody of the Sounds, which tremblingly shoots itself through us, a kind of feeling Sensibility of Harmony, which Words cannot describe; which ariseth from the Concurrence and Affinity of Numbers and Sounds, which tally with those Organs of Sensation, which Nature implants in Mankind. The Harmony of Art is very extensive, though it is to be seen in Sculpture, in Painting, and Architecture, in a more distinguish’d Manner, than in other Sciences, because these are practis’d Universal; and the Theory of them is not difficult to attain a Knowledge of: Though, among the Multitude of Professors, Phidias, Raphael, and Palladio are the only Produce of many Ages; few are Competitors of their Fame, or fewer deserve a Memorial, to perpetuate their Names to Posterity. That Harmony in Sculpture, which best represents Nature, which best describes the Form, Composure, and Texture of the Objects which it is intended to be a Pattern of; which figures out the Beauty, Symmetry, and Proportion, and displays the Exactness of the Original, is of all others the most agreeable; and such Representation, as it is most Natural, will also be most Harmonious. In Painting, the Fineness of Shades, of Keeping, of Propriety, of Elegance, and Disposition of Beauty, and Exactness in Copy, or Invention, is most just and pleasing, where it more immediately resembles those Beauties which we admire in Nature. In Architecture, the Form, Magnitude, Dress, Decoration and Arrangement; the Fitness and Proportions, as they are most analogous to Numbers and Nature, are most perfect and agreeable, most beautiful and harmonious. The Professors of Sculpture and Painting have long contested the Excellence of those rival Arts: the one claiming the Priority of the other, for these Reasons: The Sculptors say, it is more difficult, from rude Matter, to take away the rough Particles, which secrete a beautiful Statue, in a Block of Stone; to give Likeness, and even to represent the Passions, in lifeless Matter, they say this is more difficult than any part of Painting. On the other hand the Painter pleads, that he excells the Sculptor, who upon a flat Surface can make the Representation of a Ball; can preserve Keeping and Distance, can shew an Object near, and afar off, upon the same Plane: can form a Likeness too, and, by his Art, shew the same Image, which the Sculptor can; and as for Keeping, and Distance, by Lights and Shades, claim the Pre-eminence. I shall not here enter into a Disquisition of the Excellence of these great Arts: The Harmony, and Symmetry, I intend to speak of, is a Compound of Art and Nature; and which chiefly relates to Situation, and Architecture, it is the nice Assemblage and Conjunction of 116

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Things applicable and appropriate to each other: It is the Affinity of each Part to the Whole, in the Fineness, Texture, and Composition, so regulated and fitted, that they may appear joint Assistants, to embellish, decorate, and mutually add to each other’s Graces. Architecture is one easy uniform Harmony; its Compositions are of a greater Magnitude than the preceding; and Invention is the principal Talent of the Professor: The Painter and the Scultor may, with their own Hands, finish the Performance or Design: The Architect, in the Execution, calls the Assistance of a Number of Artificers; among these, many will be unacquainted with Symmetry and Proportion, with Elegance and Propriety; therefore the greater is his Care to inspect, appropriate, and perfect the Design. Choice of Situation, of Proportion, Decoration, Materials, and even Artificers, is the Care of the Architect; and in every Branch a Sameness should be blended together, to perfect the Performance; the Situation should be consider’d as it respects the Convenience, Pleasure, or other Advantage of the Spot: The Proportion should be with respect to the Situation; the Dress, Decoration, and Materials should be adapted to the Propriety and Elegance of the Situation and Convenience; the Artificers Judgments should square and tally with each other; there should be an Affinity of Knowledge, a Sameness of Taste reign through the whole Class who are to compleat it; one uniform Sympathy should attract, and be attracted to each other, through the Execution. *** I come now to speak of the Appropriation of Art, as it relates to Building, or Architecture. Architecture is an Art useful and extensive, it is founded upon Beauty, and Proportion, or Harmony, are the great Essentials of its Composition: It is divided into three Classes, the Grave, the Jovial, and the Charming; the Grave is the Effect of the Dorian Modus; the Jovial of the Ionian; and the Charming of the Corinthian; these are designed to be fitted, and appropriated, to the several Scenes which Art or Nature have produced, in different Situations. We are to consider the Extent of the Spot, its Beauties and Fertility; what Improvements may be made, in each of these, before the Design can be form’d; agreeable to this, likewise it is necessary, the Genius, and Fortune of the Builder; be consulted, before the Plan is made. Any of the beforementioned Scenes are capable of having Designs of any Magnitude, appropriated to them; but the Capaciousness of the Spot should be the Standard of it: I mean for such Parts as are intended for Pleasure only: And for such Plantations as are design’d for Delight, it would be necessary the Spot be first planted, and laid out, for the Advantage of intended Beauties, that the several Trees, &c. should come to some Perfection, before the Seat be compleated; the Scenes will be by far less agreeable, if Maturity has not grac’d the Walks, and Avenues and Retreats, before you make it your Residence. It will be endless, to trace Harmony through all the little Clues and Labyrinths of Planting, and the nice Appropriation of Art, where little Seats, or Temples, for Beauty, Ease, and Retirement, may be placed in them. But of these, no Pattern can give us a more agreeable Idea, than those of Lord Burlington at Cheswick.

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PART III

NE O C L A S S I C I S M A N D T H E ENLIGHTENMENT

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EARLY NEOCLASSICISM Introduction

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he classical and Christian traditions that were architecturally mediated during the Renaissance once again come to meet strong resistance in the second half of the eighteenth century. The challenges this time, however, came first not within architectural circles but rather from a more pervasive and commanding cultural upheaval. For this was the period more generally referred to as the Enlightenment: a time of momentous intellectual, political, and social change. Born of such elusive epithets as reason and toleration, human and scientific progress, political and religious liberty – the Enlightenment is a difficult phenomenon to encapsulate in a few words, but its political consequences can be readily intuited in the American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789. It was a time in which ever widening circles of people became interested in ever broader reaches of history and culture. It was as well a time in which nearly every political, religious, and philosophical idea inherited from the past came under I N T RO D U C T I O N T O P A RT I I I A

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scrutiny. Modern notions of social equality and human freedom were born in the excesses of these times. The first encyclopedias attempted to summarize the depth of human knowledge and make it available to every reader. And reason and human liberty became important touchstones of the new outlook. The sum of what is referred to as the ‘‘Western’’ system of ethical, aesthetic, and legal values here has its modern foundation. In architectural theory these challenges are generally considered under the term ‘‘neoclassicism,’’ which while aptly characterizing a new fascination with Greek antiquity is not especially an appropriate appellation. Classicism, it is true, was once again revisited (this time directly on Greek soil), but it is also now reconstituted in new and surprisingly innovative ways. The hegemony of a single stylistic vocabulary begins to break down, although in a slow and methodical manner. Its former aesthetic grounding in absolute beauty is now severely undercut by art’s rather sudden secularization, and even by the new public nature of the widening debate. The desire to expand the formal vocabulary of the designer, while at the same time subjecting design rigorously to the laws of reason, affords new freedoms but at the same time imposes new restraints. To all of these elements one might add the relatively novel idea of a ‘‘nation’’ or national characteristics, and the possibility of a new stylistic synthesis, equal to those attained in Greek, Roman, or Gothic times, becomes pushed beyond the realm of possibility – however much architects might still dream otherwise.

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J O H A N N B E R N H A R D F I S C H E R VO N ERLACH from Preface to Outline for a Historical Architecture (1721)

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ischer von Erlach was the greatest Austrian architect of the baroque period. Born in Graz and trained in Rome in the late-baroque era of Pietro da Cortona and Domenico Fontana, he returned to the Habsburg capital of Vienna in 1687 and almost immediately gained favor with the imperial crown. Among his many monumental commissions for Vienna were his designs for the Scho¨nbrunn Palace (1696–1711) and the Karlskirche (1715–38) – the last a masterpiece of spatial drama and historical acumen. But Fischer von Erlach was also the author of what is perhaps the most stupendous architectural study ever produced. Despite its early publication date, his Entwurf einer historischen Architektur rightfully might be considered the first architectural textbook of the Enlightenment. This colossal study, started in 1705, consists of five books and features his extraordinary reconstructions of world architecture: from the Temple of Solomon and the Seven Wonders of the ancient world to the architecture of Assyria, India, China, Egypt, Constantinople, Greece, Rome, to mention but a few peoples. Even Stonehenge and modern baroque examples find their way into his visual anthology. The short preface is also of importance, because it defines its author as straddling two eras. As a baroque architect he could not imagine monumental architecture without such basic principles as symmetry. At the same time his cultural relativism, indeed the breadth of his historical scope, seems to be at least a halfcentury ahead of its time. The ‘‘scientific’’ cast of these remarks is also a feature of the Enlightenment. In such a way may the present outline of every kind of architecture not only please but also further the sciences and serve the arts. For in historical thinking not everything should be Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (1656–1723), from Preface to Entwurf einer historischen Architektur [Outline for a historical architecture] (1721), pp. 4–5., trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave.

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left to the imagination or based on mere descriptions. By consulting illustrations the eyes themselves can draw conclusions and strengthen memory: even if only to gain the chance, exercised in drawings, of comparing the different national tastes (which, as in foods, is also dissimilar in clothing and in architecture) and selecting the best. In this way we can recognize that in architecture, indeed, something can be based on custom not bound by rules . . . that a nation’s judgment cannot be contested any more than its taste. Still, in architecture – all variation aside – there are certain general principles that cannot be neglected without evident harm. Symmetry is one of them; or, that the weaker must be supported by the stronger, etc. There are also certain conditions that can always be distinguished and that please in every style of building, such as a building’s overall size, its attractiveness, and precision in the handling and laying of stone, etc.

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VOLTAIRE from Philosophic Letters on the English (1733)

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f France possesses one godfather of the Enlightenment, it is surely the contentious yet prodigious spirit of Voltaire. A virtual lifetime lived in exile – Voltaire was at home in the salons of kings, queens, and princes, against whom he often could not resist turning his satirical pen. He was a strong supporter of Diderot’s encyclopedia project, and when things looked darkest he pleaded with Diderot to bring the project to Potsdam, where Voltaire was enjoying the hospitality of Frederick the Great. In addition to his comedies and other literary works, Voltaire was a prolific historian, and in fact deserves to be named among the Enlightenment’s major historians. His Lettres philosophiques sur les Anglais is among the earliest of his published writings. He barely got the book past French censors, and even then it suffered the fate of so many of his writings. It was denounced as heretical in 1734; the publisher was sent to the Bastille; a warrant of arrest was issued for Voltaire himself; and the Parliament of Paris had the book publicly burned by the executioner. Voltaire, however, had already fled Paris for the independent duchy of Lorraine and was living with E´mile de Breteuil, the Marquise du Chaˆtelet. If Voltaire’s public immorality was not so unusual for this period, the fact that in this book he championed the British Parliament and the notion of political liberty was unique, and therefore was seen as a direct threat to the sovereignty of the French king.

The English Parliament The members of the English Parliament are fond of comparing themselves, on all occasions, to the old Romans. Not long since, Mr. Shippen opened a speech in the house of commons with these words: ‘‘The majesty of the people of England would be wounded.’’ The singularity of this Voltaire (Franc¸ois-Marie Arouet, 1694–1778), from Lettres philosophiques sur les anglais [Philosophic letters on the English] (1733), trans. William F. Fleming, in The Works of Voltaire: A Contemporary Version, Vol. XIX, pp. 5–6. New York: Dingwall-Rock, 1927.

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expression occasioned a loud laugh; but this gentleman, far from being disconcerted, repeated the statement with a resolute tone of voice, and the laugh ceased. I must own, I see no resemblance between the majesty of the people of England and that of the Romans, and still less between the two governments. There is in London a senate, some of the members whereof are accused – doubtless very unjustly – of selling their votes, on certain occasions, as was done at Rome; and herein lies the whole resemblance. In other respects, the two nations appear to be quite opposite in character, with regard both to good and to evil. The Romans never knew the terrible madness of religious wars. This abomination was reserved for devout preachers of patience and humility. Marius and Sulla, Cæsar and Pompey, Antony and Augustus, did not draw their swords against one another to determine whether the flamen should wear his shirt over his robe, or his robe over his shirt; or whether the sacred chickens should both eat and drink, or eat only, in order to take the augury. The English have formerly destroyed one another, by sword or halter, for disputes of as trifling a nature. The Episcopalians and the Presbyterians quite turned the heads of these gloomy people for a time; but I believe they will hardly be so silly again, as they seem to have grown wiser at their own expense; and I do not perceive the least inclination in them to murder one another any more for mere syllogisms. But who can answer for the follies and prejudices of mankind? Here follows a more essential difference between Rome and England, which throws the advantage entirely on the side of the latter; namely, that the civil wars of Rome ended in slavery, and those of the English in liberty. The English are the only people on earth who have been able to prescribe limits to the power of kings by resisting them, and who, by a series of struggles, have at length established that wise and happy form of government where the prince is all-powerful to do good, and at the same time is restrained from committing evil; where the nobles are great without insolence or lordly power, and the people share in the government without confusion. The house of lords and the house of commons divide the legislative power under the king; but the Romans had no such balance. Their patricians and plebeians were continually at variance, without any intermediate power to reconcile them. The Roman senate, who were so unjustly, so criminally, formed as to exclude the plebeians from having any share in the affairs of government, could find no other artifice to effect their design than to employ them in foreign wars. They considered the people as wild beasts, whom they were to let loose upon their neighbors, for fear they should turn upon their masters. Thus the greatest defect in the government of the Romans was the means of making them conquerors; and, by being unhappy at home, they became masters of the world, till in the end their divisions sank them into slavery. The government of England, from its nature, can never attain to so exalted a pitch, nor can it ever have so fatal an end. It has not in view the splendid folly of making conquests, but only the prevention of their neighbors from conquering. The English are jealous not only of their own liberty, but even of that of other nations. The only reason of their quarrels with Louis XIV. was on account of his ambition.

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J AC Q U ES -G A BR I E L S O U FF LO T from ‘‘Memoir on Architectural Proportions’’ (1739)

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he first great architect of the Enlightenment in France was Jacques-Gabriel Soufflot. He was born near Auxerre, educated himself for the most part in Rome, and returned to Lyons to begin practice in 1738. During the 1740s his career prospered with commissions for several important buildings, among them the extension of the city’s hospital, the Hoˆtel Dieu (1739–48). As a scholar, he also presented several papers to the Socie´te´ Royale des Beaux-Arts in Lyons. In general, Soufflot opposed the prevailing trend of rococo design and was seeking an alternative. This search received an unexpected impetus in 1749 when he was asked by Madame de Pompadour, the mistress to Louis XV, to accompany her brother – the future Marquis de Marigny – on his grand tour of Italy. The lengthy sabbatical allowed Soufflot a chance to revisit classical buildings and undertake new studies, the most important of which were the measurements that he, together with Gabriel-Pierre-Martin Dumont, made of the early Greek temples at Paestum. With this, he became the first Frenchman to study authentic Greek buildings. The same trip proved enormously beneficial in another regard. In 1751 Marigny assumed his new post of director of royal buildings in Paris, and he invited Soufflot to the capital to become the municipal architect. Four years later Soufflot received the commission for the grandest building project of eighteenth-century France, the new church of Sainte Genevie`ve in Paris (replacing the earlier church on which the Perraults had proposed renovations). The task would occupy him for the rest of his life and become the first great monument to French neoclassicism. The first selection from Soufflot is from a lecture he gave to the Lyons Academy in 1739, and it forms perhaps his first theoretical statement. Two things are of interest. First, he resurrects the Perrault/Blondel dispute and thus places these issues once again on the table. Second, with his youthful support for absolute proportions, he sides with the position of Blondel. This support will later wane when Soufflot, with his design of Sainte Genevie`ve (1755–80), reverses his earlier position and takes a stand for proportional innovation. Two of the most able architects of the last century had a most lively dispute on architectural proportions. Their writings on that art, and the superb monuments built from their designs and under their guidance, will stand for posterity (as they do for us) as a measure of their true merit. And it is somewhat difficult to understand how two architects with differing views on such an essential part of their art, have produced things of equal beauty – even if we know well that learned men on occasions, and even too often, possess the bad quality of not wanting to retract something that they have said on one occasion, even if inside they feel they were wrong and are therefore acting contrary to principles to which they declaim. The two learned men of which I wish to speak are M. Franc¸ois Blondel, professor and director of the Royal Academy of Architecture, and M. Perrault, architect of the king. We are indebted to the latter for the well-known translation of Vitruvius and to the former for his learned textbook of architecture, which in my view is sufficient to train a young man in this art of building. In several chapters at the end of this excellent work Blondel asserts and proves, as

Jacques-Gabriel Soufflot (1713–80), from ‘‘Me´moire sur les proportions de l’architecture’’ [Memoir on architectural proportions] (1739), trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave from Michael Petzet (ed.), Soufflots Sainte-Genevie`ve und der franzo¨sische Kirchenbau des 18. Jahrhunderts. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1961, pp. 131–2.

SOUFFLOT, ‘‘MEMOIR’’

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far as he is able, that architectural proportions are based on natural principles, as they are in the other arts. It is for this reason that we are compelled to feel – even without understanding them – admiration and a liking for the buildings in which they are found, and to form a certain disgust for those buildings where certain proportions are not found, even when these other buildings are superior either in their honesty of execution or in the delicacy of their ornaments. It is also in the notes to the translation of Vitruvius (Book 4, ch. 1) that M. Perrault announced that architectural proportions are based only on custom and do not have the necessary and convincing positive beauty that surpasses the beauty of other proportions, like the beauty of a diamond surpasses that of a pebble. Instead, positive beauty is found in those works that have additional convincing beauties, such as that of the material or the justness of execution. We approve of the beauty of these proportions because there is nothing more positive than this reason to prefer things by the association or habit that is found almost in all things that please, which one does not believe it a fault to have reflected upon it. He speaks more on proportions in several other places in almost the same terms, and in the end it is easy to find the views of these two men elsewhere in the works that I have cited. I need not say more. For me, I have always deferred to the sentiments of M. Blondel more so than to those of M. Perrault, at least regarding proportions in general and even with regard to several specific proportions. [ . . . ]

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J A C Q U E S GA B R I E L S O U F F L O T from ‘‘Memoir on Gothic Architecture’’ (1741)

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otwithstanding Soufflot’s initial reluctance to follow Perrault on the issue of proportions, he shared the latter’s respect for the structural ingenuity of Gothic architecture. This very important issue, in fact, never went away after Perrault. Early in the eighteenth century, as we have seen, both Michel de Fre´min and Jean-Louis de Cordemoy pressed Perrault’s argument further, and others followed suit. In 1736 the architect Ferdinand Delamonce, who would later work with Soufflot on the extension of the Hoˆtel Dieu, defended the delicacy of Gothic proportions, and in 1738 the engineer Fre´zier – the one-time opponent of Cordemoy – praised the ingenuity of the Gothic system of vaulting in his structural treatise. Soufflot’s ‘‘Me´moire sur l’architecture gothique’’ follows in the same vein. In this lecture he summarizes various dimensional studies he has made of Gothic churches, and at one point concedes that the lightness of Gothic construction is ‘‘more ingenious, more daring, and even more difficult than our method of construction.’’ As the following concluding passage makes clear, this admiration for the Gothic structural system does not extend to Gothic forms and ornaments; academic teachings remained firmly and specifically opposed to them. In arguing for the suppression of the entablature above the columns of a church nave, Soufflot is searching for the ‘‘right mean’’ between the heaviness of classical forms and the lightness of Gothic construction. He will later

Jacques-Gabriel Soufflot, from ‘‘Me´moire sur l’architecture gothique’’ (1741), trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave from Michael Petzet (ed.), Soufflots SainteGenevie`ve und der franzo¨sische Kirchenbau des 18. Jahrhunderts. Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, 1961, p. 142.

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implement this ambition in his design for the church of Sainte Genevie`ve, where, as one contemporary commentator noted, he sought ‘‘to join under one of the most beautiful forms the lightness of the construction of Gothic edifices with the purity and magnificence of Greek architecture.’’ The partially cited Latin phrase Omne tulit punctum [qui miscuit utile dulci] is from Horace: ‘‘he has gained every vote who blends the useful with the agreeable.’’ I could provide details of many of the parts that once again tend to make Gothic churches appear grander than our own, but I have only promised an essay and my talk is already too long. All I wish to say in conclusion is that – disregarding entirely the chimerical and bizarre ornaments of the Goths – we are able to profit from a study of the Gothic without giving in to the extreme nature of its proportions. We should be able to find the right mean between their style and our own, which repairs the defect of the first glance and might perhaps let us say to him who should have this good fortune: Omne tulit punctum. This may not happen, I admit, without breaking our rules and without making use of some of those Gothic rules. I risk saying it, but an academy like that in Paris or in Rome, it seems to me, does have the right to make changes in artistic rules that, all prejudice aside, may be both useful and necessary. Learned men have established rules; learned men can assemble to reformulate them. Vitruvius in his basilica at Fano employed neither a frieze nor a cornice. The ancients also suppressed friezes and cornices in the first order of the Egyptian hall. The Goths, without wanting to imitate them, recognized that these projections break the visual lines and clutter the general contour of their churches; they did not put them in their works although without entirely suppressing them. I believe that we are at least able to give them less projection and greater lightness. Why do we hold to our rules so strictly if, by departing from them, we can give trained eyes (and what is rare, unprejudiced eyes) more satisfaction than by following them? If some barriers avert us from the middle of the road of perfection, we know how to step over them. This liberty, if not being accorded to all architects, should at least be extended to those who through long experience and much prudence have arrived at a profound theory.

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C A R L O LO D O L I from Notes for a projected treatise on architecture (1740s)

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ne of the characteristics of the Enlightenment was a rationalist willingness to question authority, and in architecture this would mean questioning of the relevance of the teachings of Vitruvius. One of the first individuals to do so was the Franciscian friar Carlo Lodoli. Born in Venice, Lodoli studied in Dalmatia and Rome before moving to Verona in 1715, where he participated in a society of antiquarians well versed in areas of classical learning. Lodoli was a progressive in the sense that he was an admirer of Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Carlo Lodoli (1690–1761), from Notes for a projected treatise on architecture (c. 1740s), trans. Edgar Kaufmann Jr., from Memmo’s Elementi d’architecturra lodoliana (Zara, 1834) and first published in The Art Bulletin 46:1 (March 1964), pp. 162–4.

LODOLI, NOTES ON ARCHITECTURE

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Giambattista Vico. Sometime after moving back to Venice in 1730, he opened a private seminar on architectural theory for sons of Venetian nobles. He ran the seminar in a peripatetic fashion until 1748. Lodoli left no writings of his ideas, but he apparently did leave behind notes for a projected treatise, which were recorded by one of his students, Andrea Memmo (1729–93). Although these notes, actually two different sets of notes, were not published until 1833, they were even then seen as remarkable for the spirit of their functionalist rigor. The following two passages are two outlines for Books 1 and 2 of the projected treatise. Notable in the first is both the opening assault on Vitruvius and the demand for ‘‘new forms and new terms’’ responsive to present needs. Notable in the second is his insistence that ‘‘proper function and form are the only two final, scientific aims’’ of architecture.

Prefatory Discourse On the Origin and Development of the Building Art. Examination of various hypotheses about the first structures built, in diverse climates and of different materials. Possible difficulties to be overcome in reaching a sensible and correct approach to civil architecture; and remarks on the author’s fatal disadvantage in having to reveal the short-sightedness of so many famous practitioners and theorists; architectural systems used up to now.

Book I I An impartial, philosophical examination of the chief known [architectural] systems, beginning with the Egyptian, Etruscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, then on to the Composite, and finally the French and Spanish ones. Reasons why no other architectural styles whatever are considered, but only those derivable from Vitruvius, the one authoritative source among the ancients and the late Romans. Enumeration of the obvious theoretical errors contained in his [Vitruvius’s] works.

II An exposition of the faults, indeed the inadequacies and contradictions of the five orders: blemishes and defects both physical and practical which result, and convincing demonstrations of the wrongfulness [of the orders] when built in stone.

III About the need for new rules [instituto], so that civil architecture shall not remain limited by those effects and memberings, compositions and terminologies, that have been usual up to now; and further, about the resulting necessity for new forms and new terms responsive to the need, as fully as may be necessary to satisfy it completely.

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Book II Prologue About the new rules, showing the importance of the method which informs them; about the first principles of the theory of reason, and about the theory of experiment and demonstration, with indications of the best writers on geometry for use by architects, as well as on mechanics, statics, stereotomy, and others such as have dealt with arithmetic, design, hydraulics, hydrostatics, physics, etc., together with two new essays on the practical knowledge of the horizontal and vertical compressibility of woods, that is, zilology, and of various stones, that is, lithology [insofar as these materials] exist in the Venetian State, particularly [meant] for the use of unlettered builders, with various remarks on the separate and distinct properties of one and the other material. Decisive knowledge required for architects, for those who act as architects, or those who build without architectural guidance, and for others who are requested, now and again, to give their opinion on models or on unbuilt buildings, and who [are wont to] rely on their socalled good taste or on knowledge entirely removed from the craft [of building], and who are in search of some solid support.

I Since civil architecture should take the guise of a science, and should be considered such, and since apparently others have so treated it, one should demand principles that lead with certainty to the fulfillment of those final aims toward which architecture tends, whatever these aims may be, or however many. The integral parts [of architecture] need to be put in order, to be clarified (since so far none of its laws have proven incontrovertible, nor its norms rational and effective in the parts and in the whole).

II What parts [of architecture] are integral and immutable, capable of being considered primary and demonstrably eternal; and what integral parts may be considered secondary, calling for norms consonant with the unalterable qualities of the primary integral parts. [...]

Book I Proem Definition of civil architecture. Definition of proper function and form. —— of soundness —— of proportion —— of convenience —— of ornament LODOLI, NOTES ON ARCHITECTURE

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Corollaries Proper function and form are the only two final, scientific aims of civil architecture. What is meant by one and the other, and why they should be so merged as to become one single thing. Soundness, proportion, and convenience are essential properties of form. Ornament is not essential but accessory to proper function and form; furthermore, no architectural beauty can be found that does not issue from the truth; cut off, it is no longer harmonious. Authority and habit can never yield more than a borrowed beauty, only such as is relative to unduly vague ideas arising from transitory stimuli and varying from place to place. Proportion, convenience, and ornament can take shape only through the application of mathematics and physics guided by rational norms.

Book II The function of a material well suited to building is the repeated and modified effect of this material as it is demonstratively used according to its nature and according to the proposed design; it will always harmonize soundness, proportion, and convenience one with the others. Form is the indivisible and complete expression resulting from materials employed according to geometric, arithmetic, and optical rules, to reach an intended result. Architectural soundness is that total and individual strength which arises in buildings from the application of static, physical, and chemical theories to selected materials, simple and composite. Proportion is that regular correspondence between parts and the whole which should arise in buildings from stereometric and arithmetic theories allied to rational norms, and applied to the shape and dimensions of architectural elevations, members, openings, and spaces [vasi].

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BARON DE MONTESQUIEU from Preface to The Spirit of the Laws (1748)

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he Enlightenment hit its stride in the 1750s, but many of its historical premises (and its limitations) are found in this grand historical study of Baron de Montesquieu, a native and long-time resident of Bordeaux. In his early writings he, like Voltaire, was a satirist of the social, political, and ecclesiastical follies of his day, but in this lengthy and mature study of laws and forms of government (numbering 31 books), he – now from a quite moderate position – attempts to analyze the difference between different nations and different cultures. His

Baron de Montesquieu (Charles Louis de Secondat, 1689–1755), from Preface to L’Esprit des Lois (1748), trans. Thomas Nugent, in The Spirit of the Laws. New York: Hafner Press, 1949, pp. lxvii–lxix. ª 1949 by Hafner Publishing Company. Reprinted with permission of The Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group.

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explanation for differences is not so much based on free will or human reason (as would shortly become in vogue) but rather on the premise that human culture, in all of its manifestations, is a product of nature, and specifically of the geographical and climatic conditions under which it is nurtured. Again, this is an early search for the science of history, for an anthropological model under which to evaluate human culture and its various transformations. I have first of all considered mankind, and the result of my thoughts has been, that amidst such an infinite diversity of laws and manners, they were not solely conducted by the caprice of fancy. I have laid down the first principles, and have found that the particular cases follow naturally from them; that the histories of all nations are only consequences of them; and that every particular law is connected with another law, or depends on some other of a more general extent. When I have been obliged to look back into antiquity I have endeavored to assume the spirit of the ancients, lest I should consider those things as alike which are really different, and lest I should miss the difference of those which appear to be alike. I have not drawn my principles from my prejudices, but from the nature of things. Here a great many truths will not appear till we have seen the chain which connects them with others. The more we enter into particulars, the more we shall perceive the certainty of the principles on which they are founded. I have not even given all these particulars, for who could mention them all without a most insupportable fatigue? The reader will not here meet with any of those bold flights which seem to characterize the works of the present age. When things are examined with never so small a degree of extent, the sallies of imagination must vanish; these generally arise from the mind’s collecting all its powers to view only one side of the subject, while it leaves the other unobserved. I write not to censure anything established in any country whatsoever. Every nation will here find the reasons on which its maxims are founded; and this will be the natural inference, that to propose alterations belongs only to those who are so happy as to be born with a genius capable of penetrating the entire constitution of a state. It is not a matter of indifference that the minds of the people be enlightened. The prejudices of magistrates have arisen from national prejudice. In a time of ignorance they have committed even the greatest evils without the least scruple; but in an enlightened age they even tremble while conferring the greatest blessings. They perceive the ancient abuses; they see how they must be reformed; but they are sensible also of the abuses of a reformation. They let the evil continue, if they fear a worse; they are content with a lesser good, if they doubt a greater. They examine into the parts, to judge of them in connection; and they examine all the causes, to discover their different effects. Could I but succeed so as to afford new reasons to every man to love his prince; his country, his laws; new reasons to render him more sensible in every nation and government of the blessings he enjoys, I should think myself the most happy of mortals. Could I but succeed so as to persuade those who command to increase their knowledge in what they ought to prescribe, and those who obey to find a new pleasure resulting from obedience – I should think myself the most happy of mortals.

M O N T E S Q U I E U , T H E SP I RI T O F T H E L AW S

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The most happy of mortals should I think myself could I contribute to make mankind recover from their prejudices. By prejudices I here mean, not that which renders men ignorant of some particular things, but whatever renders them ignorant of themselves. It is in endeavoring to instruct mankind that we are best able to practice that general virtue which comprehends the love of all. Man, that flexible being, conforming in society to the thoughts and impressions of others, is equally capable of knowing his own nature whenever it is laid open to his view, and of losing the very sense of it when this idea is banished from his mind.

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JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU from Discourse on the Sciences and Arts (1750)

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he Enlightenment in France in the 1750s is often synonymous with two events: Rousseau’s literary appearance, and the great encyclopedia project of Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond D’Alembert. The events were not unrelated, as all three were close friends. Together, however, their critiques conspired to produce a broad attack on the status quo: the king and the aristocracy, the church, education, and art. The political attacks subsequently gathered momentum and ultimately culminated in the French Revolution. Rousseau never lived to see the storming of the Bastille (politically he much preferred the concept of a small citystate to an international power), but he was always hailed as one of the revolution’s intellectual heroes. Born in Geneva, he wandered for much of his youth before arriving in Paris in 1744, where he eventually joined the bohemian circle of Diderot. For some years he worked on a new system of musical notation, but obviously his strengths lay elsewhere. His break came in the summer of 1749 when the Dijon Academy announced an essay competition on the question: ‘‘Has the restoration of the sciences and art tended to purify morals?’’ Rousseau not only won the contest but he also took a position quite contrary to most other competitors by insisting that the advancement of the sciences and arts only leads to national and personal corruption. Here begins his life-long assault on existing social mores. The following excerpt deals with the personal affectation fostered by a cultured society, which stands in contrast to the idealized social vision of earlier times, where – in Rousseau’s view – simplicity, honesty, and reason were virtues to be cultivated. Has the restoration of the sciences and arts tended to purify or corrupt morals? That is the subject to be examined. Which side should I take in this question? The one, gentlemen, that suits an honorable man who knows nothing and yet does not think any the less of himself. It will be difficult, I feel, to adapt what I have to say to the tribunal before which I appear. How can one dare blame the sciences before one of Europe’s most learned Societies, praise ignorance in a famous Academy, and reconcile contempt for study with respect for the truly

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–88), from Discours sur les sciences et les arts [Discourse on the sciences and arts] (1750), trans. Roger D. Master and Judith R. Master, in Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The First and Second Discourses. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1964, pp. 36–9. ª 1969 by Bedford/St. Martin’s. Reprinted with permission of Bedford/St. Martin’s.

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learned? I have seen these contradictions, and they have not rebuffed me. I am not abusing science, I told myself; I am defending virtue before virtuous men. Integrity is even dearer to good men than erudition to the scholarly. What then have I to fear? The enlightenment of the assembly that listens to me? I admit such a fear; but it applies to the construction of the discourse and not to the sentiment of the orator. Equitable sovereigns have never hesitated to condemn themselves in doubtful disputes; and the position most advantageous for one with a just cause is to have to defend himself against an upright and enlightened opponent who is judge of his own case. This motive which encourages me is joined by another which determines me: having upheld, according to my natural intellect, the cause of truth, whatever the outcome there is a prize which I cannot fail to receive; I will find it at the bottom of my heart.

First Part It is a grand and beautiful sight to see man emerge from obscurity somehow by his own efforts; dissipate, by the light of his reason, the darkness in which nature had enveloped him; rise above himself; soar intellectually into celestial regions; traverse with giant steps, like the sun, the vastness of the universe; and – what is even grander and more difficult – come back to himself to study man and know his nature, his duties, and his end. All of these marvels have been revived in recent generations. Europe had sunk back into the barbarism of the first ages. The peoples of that part of the world which is today so enlightened lived, a few centuries ago, in a condition worse than ignorance. A nondescript scientific jargon, even more despicable than ignorance, had usurped the name of knowledge, and opposed an almost invincible obstacle to its return. A revolution was needed to bring men back to common sense; it finally came from the least expected quarter. The stupid Moslem, the eternal scourge of learning, brought about its rebirth among us. The fall of the throne of Constantine brought into Italy the debris of ancient Greece. France in turn was enriched by these precious spoils. Soon the sciences followed letters; the art of writing was joined by the art of thinking – an order which seems strange but which is perhaps only too natural; and people began to feel the principal advantage of literary occupations, that of making men more sociable by inspiring in them the desire to please one another with works worthy of their mutual approval. The mind has its needs as does the body. The needs of the body are the foundations of society, those of the mind make it pleasant. While government and laws provide for the safety and well-being of assembled men, the sciences, letters, and arts, less despotic and perhaps more powerful, spread garlands of flowers over the iron chains with which men are burdened, stifle in them the sense of that original liberty for which they seemed to have been born, make them love their slavery, and turn them into what is called civilized peoples. Need raised thrones; the sciences and arts have strengthened them. Earthly powers, love talents and protect those who cultivate them.1 Civilized peoples, cultivate talents: happy slaves, you owe to them that delicate and refined taste on which you pride yourselves; that softness of character and urbanity of customs which make relations among you so amiable and easy; in a word, the semblance of all the virtues without the possession of any. R OU S S E A U , D I S C O U R S E

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By this sort of civility, the more pleasant because it is unpretentious, Athens and Rome once distinguished themselves in the much vaunted days of their magnificence and splendor. It is by such civility that our century and our nation will no doubt surpass all times and all peoples. A philosophic tone without pedantry; natural yet engaging manners, equally remote from Teutonic simplicity and Italian pantomime: these are the fruits of the taste acquired by good education and perfected in social intercourse. How pleasant it would be to live among us if exterior appearance were always a reflection of the heart’s disposition; if decency were virtue; if our maxims served as our rules; if true philosophy were inseparable from the title of philosopher! But so many qualities are too rarely combined, and virtue seldom walks in such great pomp. Richness of attire may announce a wealthy man, and elegance a man of taste; the healthy, robust man is known by other signs. It is in the rustic clothes of a farmer and not beneath the gilt of a courtier that strength and vigor of the body will be found. Ornamentation is no less foreign to virtue, which is the strength and vigor of the soul. The good man is an athlete who likes to compete in the nude. He disdains all those vile ornaments which would hamper the use of his strength, most of which were invented only to hide some deformity. Before art had moulded our manners and taught our passions to speak an affected language, our customs were rustic but natural, and differences of conduct announced at first glance those of character. Human nature, basically, was no better, but men found their security in the ease of seeing through each other, and that advantage, which we no longer appreciate, spared them many vices. Today, when subtler researches and a more refined taste have reduced the art of pleasing to set rules, a base and deceptive uniformity prevails in our customs, and all minds seem to have been cast in the same mould. Incessantly politeness requires, propriety demands; incessantly usage is followed, never one’s own inclinations. One no longer dares to appear as he is; and in this perpetual constraint, the men who form this herd called society, placed in the same circumstances, will all do the same things unless stronger motives deter them. Therefore one will never know well those with whom he deals, for to know one’s friend thoroughly, it would be necessary to wait for emergencies – that is, to wait until it is too late, as it is for these very emergencies that it would have been essential to know him. What a procession of vices must accompany this uncertainty! No more sincere friendships; no more real esteem; no more well-based confidence. Suspicions, offenses, fears, coldness, reserve, hate, betrayal will hide constantly under that uniform and false veil of politeness, under that much vaunted urbanity which we owe to the enlightenment of our century. The name of the Master of the Universe will no longer be profaned by swearing, but it will be insulted by blasphemies without offending our scrupulous ears. Men will not boast of their own merit, but they will disparage that of others. An enemy will not be grossly insulted, but he will be cleverly slandered. National hatreds will die out, but so will love of country. For scorned ignorance, a dangerous Pyrrhonism will be substituted. There will be some forbidden excesses, some dishonored vices, but others will be dignified with the name of virtues; one must either have them or affect them. Whoever wants to praise the sobriety of the wise men of our day may do so; as for me, I see in it only a refinement of intemperance as unworthy of my praise as their cunning simplicity.2 Such is the purity our morals have acquired. Thus have we become respectable men. It is for literature, the sciences, and the arts to claim their share of such a wholesome piece of work. 134

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I will add only one thought: an inhabitant of some faraway lands who wanted to form a notion of European morals on the basis of the state of the sciences among us, the perfection of our arts, the decency of our entertainments, the politeness of our manners, the affability of our speech, our perpetual demonstrations of goodwill, and that tumultuous competition of men of all ages and conditions who seem anxious to oblige one another from dawn to dark; that foreigner, I say, would guess our morals to be exactly the opposite of what they are.

NOTES 1

2

Princes always view with pleasure the spread, among their subjects, of the taste for arts of amusement and superfluities which do not result in the exportation of money. For, besides fostering that spiritual pettiness so appropriate to servitude, they very well know that all needs the populace creates for itself are so many chains binding it. Alexander, desiring to keep the Ichthyophagi dependent on him, forced them to give up fishing and to eat foodstuffs common to other peoples; but the American savages who go naked and live on the yield of their hunting have never been subjugated. Indeed, what yoke could be imposed on men who need nothing? ‘‘I like,’’ says Montaigne, ‘‘to argue and discuss, but only with a few men and for myself. For to serve as a spectacle to the great and to show off competitively one’s wit and one’s babble is, I find, a very inappropriate occupation for an honorable man.’’ It is the occupation of all our wits, save one.

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JEAN LE ROND D’ALEMBERT from ‘‘Preliminary Discourse of the Editors’’ (1751)

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enis Diderot’s encyclopedia project, one of the great intellectual monuments to the Enlightenment, had a speckled and difficult history. Diderot was originally hired in 1743 to prepare a French translation of Ephraim Chambers’s two-volume Cyclopaedia, published in London in 1728. In 1745, when Diderot took over as managing editor, he convinced the French publisher to abandon the earlier work and embark on an entirely new and up-to-date project. The Prospectus of 1750 promised at least 10 volumes and 600 illustrative plates, following the spirit of rigorous logical analysis and scientific methods of reason. The royal academician d’Alembert, who was noted for his work in mathematics and physics, was asked by Diderot to write the philosophical discourse introducing the encyclopedia, as well as various articles related to the sciences. The first two volumes appeared in June 1751 and January 1752, but immediately ran afoul of the law. The French government, operating under rigid censorship laws, objected to the tone of many articles and banned further publication. Through the intercession of the Marquise de Pompadour (the former Madame who had assisted Soufflot) the ban was lifted, and Diderot produced four more volumes between 1753 and 1756, but under strict censorship. The seventh volume of 1759, which had highly controversial articles by Voltaire (Fornication) and d’Alembert (Calvinism), resulted in a royal Jean Le Rond d’Alembert (1717–83), from ‘‘Discours pre´liminaire des editeurs’’ [Preliminary discourse of the editors] (1751), trans. Richard N. Schwab, in Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia of Diderot. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1963, pp. 3–6.

D ’ A LE M B E R T , ‘ ‘P R E L I M I N A RY D I SC O UR S E ’ ’

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condemnation and many of the participants fled Paris in fear of arrest (Rousseau had already left the city in 1756). Against governmental strictures, Diderot privately produced another 10 volumes over the next 6 years, and he followed these with 11 volumes of plates. It was the greatest compilation of knowledge ever achieved up to that time, and it became the model for the more specialized encyclopedias of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. D’Alembert’s ‘‘Preliminary Discourse,’’ sometimes called the best short introduction to the Enlightenment, is divided into four parts. The first part provides an overview of the project of the encyclopedia, while the second part presents the history of ideas since the Renaissance (including such intellectual heroes as Francis Bacon, Rene´ Descartes, John Locke, and Isaac Newton). Part III speaks to the methodology that has been followed, and part IV addresses the particular articles to appear. What is notable throughout is the emphasis placed on reason and the idea of intellectual progress. The following selection from the opening pages underscores the discerning, almost mechanistic metaphysics underlying the outlook of the two editors. The Encyclopedia which we are presenting to the public is, as its title declares, the work of a society of men of letters. Were we not of their number, we might venture to affirm that they are all favorably known or worthy of being so.1 But, without wishing to anticipate a judgment which should be made only by scholars, it is at least incumbent upon us, before all else, to remove the objection that could most easily prejudice the success of such a large undertaking as this. We declare, therefore, that we have not had the temerity to undertake unaided a task so superior to our capabilities, and that our function as editors consists principally in arranging materials which for the most part have been furnished in their entirety by others. We had explicitly made the same declaration in the body of the Prospectus,2 but perhaps we should have put it at the beginning of that document. If we had taken that precaution we would doubtless have replied in advance to a large number of gentlemen – and even to some men of letters – who had unquestionably glanced at our Prospectus, as their praises attest, but who, nevertheless, have asked us how two persons could treat all the sciences and all the arts.3 This being the case, the only way of preventing the reappearance of their objection once and for all is to use the first lines of our work to destroy it, as we are doing here. Our introductory sentences are therefore directed solely to those of our readers who will decide not to go further. To the others we owe a far more detailed description of the execution of the Encyclopedia, which they will find later in this Discourse, together with the names of each of our colleagues. However, a description so important in its nature and substance must be preceded by some philosophical reflections. The work whose first volume we are presenting today4 has two aims. As an Encyclopedia, it is to set forth as well as possible the order and connection of the parts of human knowledge. As a Reasoned Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Trades, it is to contain the general principles that form the basis of each science and each art, liberal or mechanical, and the most essential facts that make up the body and substance of each.5 These two points of view, the one of an Encyclopedia and the other of a Reasoned Dictionary,6 will thus constitute the basis for the outline and division of our Preliminary Discourse. We are going to introduce them, deal with them one after another, and give an account of the means by which we have tried to satisfy this double object. If one reflects somewhat upon the connection that discoveries have with one another, it is readily apparent that the sciences and the arts are mutually supporting, and that consequently there is a chain that binds them together. But, if it is often difficult to reduce each 136

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particular science or art to a small number of rules or general notions, it is no less difficult to encompass the infinitely varied branches of human knowledge in a truly unified system.7 The first step which lies before us in our endeavor is to examine, if we may be permitted to use this term, the genealogy and the filiation of the parts of our knowledge, the causes that brought the various branches of our knowledge into being, and the characteristics that distinguish them. In short, we must go back to the origin and generation of our ideas.8 Quite aside from the help this examination will give us for the encyclopedic enumeration of the sciences and the arts, it cannot be out of place at the head of a work such as this. We can divide all our knowledge into direct and reflective knowledge. We receive direct knowledge immediately, without any operation of our will; it is the knowledge which finds all the doors of our souls open, so to speak, and enters without resistance and without effort. The mind acquires reflective knowledge by making use of direct knowledge, unifying and combining it.

NOTES 1

2 3

4 5

6 7 8

A list of some men who had contributed in one way or another to the first volume of the Encyclopedia makes up the last part of the Discourse. With each new volume until the final official suppression of the work in 1759, the number of contributors grew in proportion to the enthusiasm for the project among the members of the republic of letters. Very few of the contributors to the first volume of the Encyclopedia, except d’Alembert, had achieved a widespread reputation by 1751, and neither Voltaire nor Montesquieu had yet been recruited to the encyclopedic project. D’Alembert’s note as follows: ‘‘This Prospectus was published in the month of November, 1750.’’ Most of that Prospectus of November, 1750, which announced the enlarged Encyclopedia and invited subscribers, is incorporated into the last part of the Discourse. D’Alembert refers to the attacks of the Journal de Tre´voux. Diderot had promised Father Berthier that d’Alembert would answer all the questions raised in the Journal, and many others. See Diderot, Correspondance, ed. G. Roth, I, 106. Later editions: ‘‘The work which we are beginning (and which we wish to finish). . . . ’’ It is essential to remember throughout this work that the word ‘‘science’’ is by no means restricted to natural science. According to Diderot’s definition in the Encyclopedia, if the object of a discipline is only contemplated from different approaches, the technical collection and disposition of observations relative to that object are called ‘‘science.’’ Thus theology, history, and philosophy, as well as physics and mathematics, are sciences. If the object of a discipline is something executed, the technical collection and disposition of rules according to which it is executed is called ‘‘art.’’ By this definition ethics is an art. See ‘‘Art,’’ Encyclope´die, I, 713–14. I.e., ‘‘Systematic’’ Dictionary. The rationalist assumption of the unity of knowledge here makes its appearance at the outset of the Discourse and, indeed, is the very foundation of the encyclopedic project. A comparison of d’Alembert’s wording with the following lines in Condillac’s Essai sur l’origine des connoissances humaines (Essay Concerning the Origin of Human Knowledge, 1746) gives one indication among many of d’Alembert’s debt to the work of Condillac throughout the Discourse: Our first object, which we should never lose from sight, is the study of the human mind – not to discover its nature, but to learn to know its operations, to observe how they are combined and how we ought to use them in order to acquire all the intelligence of which we are capable. It is necessary to go back to the origin of our ideas, to work out their generation, D ’ A LE M B E R T , ‘ ‘P R E L I M I N A RY D I SC O UR S E ’ ’

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to follow them to the limits which nature has prescribed for them, and by these means to establish the extent and limits of our knowledge and renew all of human understanding. [Œuvres philosophiques de Condillac, ed. Georges Le Roy (Paris, 1947), I, 4.] Condillac’s essay, in turn, was inspired by Locke’s great Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), translated in 1700 into French under Locke’s supervision by the Huguenot refugee, Pierre Coste.

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J A C Q U E S - F R A N C¸ O I S B L O N D E L from ‘‘Architecture’’ in Diderot’s Encyclopedia (1751)

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he article on ‘‘Architecture’’ for Diderot’s encyclopedia was written by the relatively young teacher JacquesFranc¸ois Blondel. Born in Rouen, Blondel had first studied architecture under his uncle Jean-Franc¸ois Blondel, before taking an apprenticeship under the rococo architect Gilles-Marie Oppenord. With his first book of 1737–8, De la distribution des maisons de plaisance et de la de´coration des edifices en general (On the planning of country houses and the decoration of edifices in general), he showed himself to be a gifted engraver. In 1743 Blondel opened a private architectural school in Paris, which was initially opposed by the Royal Academy of Architecture. With the studio program that he devised, which allowed students a structured progression of courses, the program nevertheless became very successful, and Blondel attracted numerous talented students. In 1755 the Architectural Academy appointed him to the second class, and seven years later Blondel’s school was formally incorporated into the Academy. He was at that time the most renowned architectural teacher in France. For all of his curricular progressiveness, Blondel was quite conservative as a teacher, as the excerpt from this article demonstrates. His historical summary could have been written a century earlier. Moreover, Blondel knew very little of Greek architecture, the whole period between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance (which he labels Gothic) is a virtual historical void, and the ideals of classicism (such as the importance of proportions and the orders) are firmly avowed as academic truths. Its importance is thus in a reverse sense – in that he wrote the essay on the cusp, as it were, of the dramatic changes of the 1750s and 1760s that would challenge so many of these tenets. Architecture . . . is in general the art of building. We ordinarily distinguish three kinds: civil, which we simply call architecture, military, and naval. [ . . . ] We understand by civil architecture the art of designing and constructing buildings for commodity and for the different usages of life, such as sacred edifices, royal palaces, private residences, as well as bridges, public squares, theaters, triumphal arches, etc. [ . . . ] In speaking of civil architecture, which is our subject, let us say in general that its origin is as ancient as the world; that necessity taught the first men to build huts, tents, and cabins;

Jacques-Franc¸ois Blondel (1705–74), from the entry ‘‘Architecture,’’ trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave from a facsimile edition of Diderot’s Encyclope´die, ou Dictionnaire raisonne´ des sciences, des arts et des me´tiers, Vol. 1 (1751). New York: Readex Microprint Corporation, 1969, pp. 616–18.

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that because of the times and pressures for selling and buying, as they came together or lived under communal laws, they began to make their lodgings more regular. The ancient authors credit the Egyptians with having raised the first symmetrical and proportioned buildings; which being done, they say, Salomon appealed to them to build the temple of Jerusalem, although Villalpando assures us that he only brought coppersmiths and silversmiths from Tyre, and that it was God himself who instilled in this king the precepts of architecture (what was, according to this author, a very honorable deed for this art). But without entering into this discussion, let us regard Greece as the cradle of good architecture [ . . . ] What inclines us to believe that we are beholden to the Greeks for the proportions of architecture are the three orders: the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, which we have retained from them. The Romans produced only two others, which are rather imperfect imitations but still useful in our buildings for expressing perfectly the genres of rustic, solid, medium, delicate, and composite architecture, known under the names of Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite. [ . . . ] But without speaking here of Greek works, which are very remote from us and of which several celebrated authors have given descriptions, let us pass to a time less distant and speak of the architecture of Rome, which attained its highest degree of perfection during the reign of Augustus. Already it began to be neglected under his successor Tiberius, and even Nero, who had an extraordinary passion for the arts despite all the vices that he possessed, did not avail himself of the taste that he had for architecture, and chose to display his luxury and vanity with the greatest prodigality, rather than his magnificence. Trajan also evinced much affection for the arts, and despite the decline of architecture it was under his reign that Appollodorus raised that famous column which still today in Rome carries the name of this emperor. Finally Severus Alexander also nurtured a love for the arts and architecture, but he was unable to prevent them from being swept away with the fall of the Roman Empire, and thus they fell into oblivion from which they were not able to raise themselves for several centuries. During this period the Visigoths destroyed the most beautiful monuments of antiquity and architecture found itself reduced to such barbarity that those who practiced it entirely neglected justness of proportions, fitness, and propriety of design, in which resides all the merit of this art. From that abuse formed a new manner of building, which we call Gothic, and which existed until Charlemagne undertook to reestablish the ancient art. Then France applied itself with some success, encouraged by Hugh Capet, who also had much taste for this science. His son Robert, who succeeded him, had the same inclinations, so that gradually architecture, in taking another turn, gave into the opposite excess of becoming too light; the architects of this time made the beauties of their architecture consist of a delicacy and a profusion of ornaments unknown until then. It was an excess into which they fell no doubt by opposing the Gothic that had preceded them, or by the taste that they had received from the Arabs and the Moors, who brought this genre into the Meridional areas of France, just as the Vandals and the Goths had brought the heavy taste and Gothic manner to the northern regions. It is scarcely in the last two centuries that architects of France and Italy have tried to return to the first simplicity, beauty, and proportion of ancient architecture; it is also only since this time that our edifices have been executed in imitation, and following the precepts, of antique architecture. Let us point out at this time that civil architecture differs with regard to these different epochs and their variations into antique, ancient, Gothic, and modern B L O N D E L , ‘ ‘ A R C H I T E C T U R E ’ ’ IN T H E E N C YC LO PE D IA

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manners. It can also be distinguished by its different proportions and its uses, following the different characters of the orders of which we have spoken: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite.

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C H A R L E S - E´ T I E N N E B R I S E U X from Preface to Treatise on Essential Beauty in the Arts (1752)

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nother indication of the academic conservatism still common to the period around 1750 is this short treatise by the architect Charles-E´tienne Briseux. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this book is that it was written at all, since Briseux was approaching his ninety-second birthday and had therefore witnessed the original debate between the Ancients and the Moderns firsthand. These very issues, for Briseux, were still alive, and this treatise is an attempt to reaffirm the existence of ‘‘essential beauty’’ and harmonic proportions in architecture – even if he admits that as yet no ‘‘fixed’’ proportions have been found. In defending the honor of Franc¸ois Blondel, Briseux blames the skeptical Perrault for nearly everything that has gone wrong in architecture since this time, most especially for the entire rococo period. It is nevertheless a rearguard attempt to save the academic status quo, which would soon meet strong opposition. In this passage Briseux cites a footnote from Perrault’s annotations to Vitruvius, and the Preface to which he refers is Perrault’s preface to his Ordonnance for the Five Kinds of Columns. The diversity of opinions is advantageous to the sciences and the arts. It hastens their progress by the rivalry that it nurtures; it sheds light on their principles by the examination and discussion that it occasions. But what in these fields is most excellent in its own accord can become prejudicial by an abuse that is only too common. Diversity becomes dangerous when – by a stubborn commitment to it literally, or by the false honor of supporting an odd system – someone resists evidence and inward conviction. This is what happened in a debate that arose between Franc¸ois Blondel and Claude Perrault, the origin of which is as follows. Franc¸ois Blondel wrote in the fourteenth chapter, part V, of his learned Cours d’architecture that we will soon have a work by M. Perrault on the subject of architectural proportions, which may perhaps be excellent coming from him, although in the notes that he made on Vitruvius he appears to hold a viewpoint quite different from this author, when he said that ‘‘architectural proportions, which according to the opinion of most architects are something natural, have only been established by a consensus of architects, who have imitated in their works one or another proportion, or who have followed the proportions that leading architects have chosen. It is not at all like having real, convincing, and necessary beauty, which surpass in their beauty other proportions, but only because these proportions are found in works that have other real and convincing beauties, such as found in the material and the correctness of execution, etc.’’ Charles-E´tienne Briseux (1660–1754), from Preface to Traite´ du beau essentiel dans les arts [Treatise on essential beauty in the arts] (1752), trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave from original edition. Paris, 1752, pp. 1–2.

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This citation makes it clear that M. Perrault was not then opposed to proportions, but simply that the proportions selected by the leading architects could be substituted for others and varied to infinity and that the choice we make regarding them depends more or less on the taste, experience, and intelligence of those who compose their modulation. If the truth of this viewpoint were in doubt, it should be easy to prove it, just as music does each and every day. This is what eluded M. Blondel, who also accused M. Perrault of an odd and extraordinary line of reasoning. Perrault, out of revenge, then composed a preface of 27 large pages to destroy, or at least to obscure through capricious paradoxes, the learned lectures that Blondel had given in his Cours d’architecture. This preface is remarkable by the mass of contradictions that are found there, and by the continual obscurity that reigns there. It is a bizarre and inconsistent piece, where the author seems to have forgotten himself. But when one’s pride is offended, does it not lead him astray? Every day he sacrifices his true interests for his vanity. In such a way Perrault became insensible to proper reasoning, to the testimony of authors, and to the authority of experience in order to maintain that proportions have no part in the beauty of buildings, and that beauty derives only from the material and the correctness of execution. Still, he often returns to the argument of the preceding citation; the force of truth and his real conviction bring him back there, despite himself. But after clouding and obscuring the true and the evident, he argues that ‘‘the reasons for admiring a beautiful work have no other foundation than chance and caprice of the workers, who are not looking for reasons to behave or to fix something for which precision has no importance.’’ Is it therefore not surprising that such a paradox was able to have had the effect that Perrault himself did not dare to expect, even though he had the boldness to risk it? As a result, the professors of the academy who succeeded Blondel ceased to teach the fundamental principles of architecture. For their students believed them useless and abandoned the principle in order to cling to the accessory, and dazzle the eyes by a confusion of ornaments [ . . . ]

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MARC-ANTOINE LAUGIER from Essay on Architecture (1753)

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f Briseux in 1752 reiterated what was in essence the old academic position, the rationalist critique of the Abbe´ Marc-Antoine Laugier that appeared one year later was written very much in the language and spirit of the Enlightenment. Laugier’s short polemical book had an extraordinary effect on architectural theory both inside and outside of France, which is surprising in view of the fact that the author was not an architect. It is a masterfully written study, arguably the most important architectural book of the century. Part of its success had much to do with Laugier’s intellectual rearing. He was born in Provence and in 1727 entered a seminary to become a Jesuit. This lengthy process did not conclude until his final vows of 1745, after he Marc-Antoine Laugier (1713–69), from Essai sur l’architecture (1753), trans. Wolfgang and Anni Herrmann, in An Essay on Architecture. Los Angeles: Hennessey þ Ingalls, 1977, pp. 11–13, 14–15. ª 1977 by Hennessey þ Ingalls. Reprinted with permission of Hennessey þ Ingalls.

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completed university studies at Avignon, Lyons, Besanc¸on, and Marseilles. In the same year he was appointed to the Paris church of Saint Sulpice, where he earned distinction for his oratorical skills. Beginning in 1749 he was commanded, on occasions, to Fontainebleu and Versailles to sermonize before the king – a rare honor. He published his Essai sur l’architecture anonymously in 1753, and seems by this date already to have been making plans to leave the Jesuits. But his break did not formally come until Easter Sunday of 1754, when – in the midst of a major political crisis – he openly deplored the king’s moral indiscretions and political lapses from his pulpit at Versailles. Laugier was immediately recalled by his order to Lyons, where he completed the paperwork for his transfer to the Benedictine order, now as an abbe´. He soon returned to Paris, where he became active again in literary circles and later would become known for his 12-volume history of the Venetian republic, which appeared between 1759 and 1768. In 1765 he also published another architectural treatise, Observations sur l’architecture (Observations on architecture) but by this date his moment in the architectural spotlight had passed. Laugier’s Essai of 1753 proved so effective (a second edition appeared in 1755) in part because Laugier was a layman, one with a shrewd eye. His classical knowledge was essentially limited to his personal familiarity with the Maison Carre´e, a late-Roman monument in Nıˆmes. He was, at the same time, a great admirer of the architecture of Perrault, most especially of the east wing of the Louvre. He was also quite familiar with the Perrault/Blondel dispute, as well as Cordemoy’s book, and from these few sources he reintroduced the earlier issues that had not been previously resolved – only now within a quite different intellectual framework. In his rationalism he is the first Frenchman to deny the relevance of Vitruvius – ‘‘Vitruvius has in effect taught us only what was practiced in his time’’ – and thus seeks to remove this cornerstone of academic theory since Blondel. In its place he substitutes the notion of ‘‘reason’’: now to be the sole guide for architectural decision-making. From this rationalist spirit comes the logical creation of a primitive hut, and Laugier deduces from it three essential elements (the column, the entablature, and pediment), which will now constitute all that is essential to architecture. Some building parts, such as walls, doors, and windows, are allowed back because they are functionally necessary; all else, however, is simple caprice and therefore a fault. In effect, Laugier, from his purist position, is purging architecture of its rococo excesses. It was a popular prescription because it fell in line with the efforts of a group of talented students of the 1750s, who were also seeking similar reforms. The first passage is taken from the opening pages of his first chapter and depicts the primitive hut. The second article, regarding the column and entablature, displays his ruthlessly logical method, which he used in subsequent chapters to deprive architecture of nearly all of its baroque motifs.

General Principles of Architecture It is the same in architecture as in all other arts: its principles are founded on simple nature, and nature’s process clearly indicates its rules. Let us look at man in his primitive state without any aid or guidance other than his natural instincts. He is in need of a place to rest. On the banks of a quietly flowing brook he notices a stretch of grass; its fresh greenness is pleasing to his eyes, its tender down invites him; he is drawn there and, stretched out at leisure on this sparkling carpet, he thinks of nothing else but enjoying the gift of nature; he lacks nothing, he does not wish for anything. But soon the scorching heat of the sun forces him to look for shelter. A nearby forest draws him to its cooling shade; he runs to find a refuge in its depth, and there he is content. But suddenly mists are rising, swirling round and growing denser, until thick clouds cover the skies; soon, torrential rain pours down on this delightful forest. The savage, in his leafy shelter, does not know how to protect himself from 142

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the uncomfortable damp that penetrates everywhere; he creeps into a nearby cave and, finding it dry, he praises himself for his discovery. But soon the darkness and foul air surrounding him make his stay unbearable again. He leaves and is resolved to make good by his ingenuity the careless neglect of nature. He wants to make himself a dwelling that protects but does not bury him. Some fallen branches in the forest are the right material for his purpose; he chooses four of the strongest, raises them upright and arranges them in a square; across their top he lays four other branches; on these he hoists from two sides yet another row of branches which, inclining towards each other, meet at their highest point. He then covers this kind of roof with leaves so closely packed that neither sun nor rain can penetrate. Thus, man is housed. Admittedly, the cold and heat will make him feel uncomfortable in this house which is open on all sides but soon he will fill in the space between two posts and feel secure. Such is the course of simple nature; by imitating the natural process, art was born. All the splendors of architecture ever conceived have been modeled on the little rustic hut I have just described. It is by approaching the simplicity of this first model that fundamental mistakes are avoided and true perfection is achieved. The pieces of wood set upright have given us the idea of the column, the pieces placed horizontally on top of them the idea of the entablature, the inclining pieces forming the roof the idea of the pediment. This is what all masters of art have recognized. But take note of this: never has a principle been more fertile in its effect. From now on it is easy to distinguish between the parts which are essential to the composition of an architectural Order and those which have been introduced by necessity or have been added by caprice. The parts that are essential are the cause of beauty, the parts introduced by necessity cause every license, the parts added by caprice cause every fault. This calls for an explanation; I shall try to be as clear as possible. Let us never lose sight of our little rustic hut. I can only see columns, a ceiling or entablature and a pointed roof forming at both ends what is called a pediment. So far there is no vault, still less an arch, no pedestals, no attic, not even a door or a window. I therefore come to this conclusion: in an architectural Order only the column, the entablature and the pediment may form an essential part of its composition. If each of these parts is suitably placed and suitably formed, nothing else need be added to make the work perfect. We still have in France a beautiful ancient monument, which in Nıˆmes is called the Maison Carre´e. Everybody, connoisseur or not, admires its beauty. Why? Because everything here accords with the true principles of architecture: a rectangle where thirty columns support an entablature and a roof – closed at both ends by a pediment – that is all; the combination is of a simplicity and a nobility which strikes everybody. [ . . . ]

The Column (1) The column must be strictly perpendicular, because, being intended to support the whole load, perfect verticality gives it its greatest strength. (2) The column must be freestanding so that its origin and purpose are expressed in a natural way. (3) The column must be round because nature makes nothing square. (4) The column must be tapered from bottom to top in imitation of nature where this diminution is found in all plants. (5) The L AU G IER , E S S AY O N A R C H I T E C T U R E

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column must rest directly on the floor as the posts of the rustic hut rest directly on the ground. All these rules find their justification in our model; all deviations from this model without real necessity must, therefore, be considered as so many faults. 1. Fault: when columns, instead of standing free, are engaged in the wall. The column certainly loses much of its grace when even a small obstacle obscures its outline. I admit that circumstances frequently seem to rule out the use of free-standing columns. People want to live in closed spaces, not in open halls. Therefore, it becomes necessary to fill in the space between the columns and consequently to engage them. In this case, an engaged column will not be regarded as a fault, but as a license sanctioned by necessity. It should, however, always be remembered that any license points to an imperfection and must be used cautiously and only when it is impossible to find a better way. If, therefore, the columns have to be engaged, the degree of engagement should be as small as possible – a quarter at most or even less so that, even when constrained, they retain some quality of the freedom and ease which gives them so much grace. We must avoid getting into the awkward situation where engaged columns have to be employed. It would be best to reserve the use of columns for peristyles where they can be completely free-standing and to omit them altogether whenever necessity compels us to back them onto a wall. After all, even though we have to submit to biense´ance why should we not disengage the column so that it can be seen in the round? Would the facade of St. Gervais not be improved if the Doric columns were free-standing like those of the upper Orders? Is there anything impossible in this?

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MARC-ANTOINE LAUGIER from Essay on Architecture (1753)

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he column, entablature, and pediment were deemed by Laugier to be the three essential elements of architecture, and this premise carried with it design implications. Columns were to be free-standing, entablatures were to be flat (no arches), and pediments were only appropriate along the short side of a building. What Laugier had in mind as the ideal prototype for architecture was the Roman monument of the Maison Carre´e in Nıˆmes, as well as the east front of the Louvre. In his fourth chapter Laugier turns to the issue of designing churches, and once again he reverts to the arguments of Perrault and Cordemoy by insisting on the use of columns in the nave – instead of arches and piers – to support the vaulted ceiling and roof above. Laugier’s model here is the second story of the chapel at Versailles, begun in 1698 by Jules Hardouin Mansart. Contemporary critics, as with Cordemoy before him, were quick to point out Laugier’s lack of structural expertise. What is different now is that Laugier makes his argument precisely at the moment that Soufflot was beginning to think about the design of the church of Sainte Genevie`ve in Paris, where he too (in 1755) would propose interior columns to support a vaulted nave. Soufflot did so by studying the iron techniques employed at the Louvre, and devising a similar masonry system reinforced with iron bars.

Marc-Antoine Laugier, from Essai sur l’architecture (1753), trans. Wolfgang and Anni Herrmann, in An Essay on Architecture. Los Angeles: Hennessey þ Ingalls, 1977, pp. 100–2, 103–4. ª 1977 by Hennessey þ Ingalls. Reprinted with permission of Hennessey þ Ingalls.

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On the Style in Which to Build Churches Of all buildings churches give architects the best opportunity to display the marvels of their art. Since our churches are meant to receive into their midst a multitude bringing with them the religious image of the God they are going to worship, these churches give the architect scope for working on a large scale and do not in any way restrict the nobility of his concepts. It is surprising that, whereas in any other class there are buildings worthy of admiration, so few of our churches deserve our enlightened interest. For myself, I am convinced that until now we have not developed the right style for this class of building. Our Gothic churches are still the most acceptable. A mass of grotesque ornaments spoils them, and yet, we are awed by a certain air of greatness and majesty. Here we find ease and gracefulness; they only lack simplicity and naturalness. We have rightly renounced the follies of Gothic (l’architecture moderne) and have returned to the antique, but it seems we have lost good taste on the way. Moving away from the Gothic architects (Modernes) we deserted gracefulness; turning towards the antique we encountered clumsiness; this happened because we have gone half the way. We have halted between two styles, and the result is a new kind of architecture that is only half antique and may make us regret having abandoned Gothic architecture altogether. A simple critical comparison will make this clear. I enter Notre Dame, the most eminent of our Gothic buildings in Paris, though not by far as beautiful as certain others in the provinces which everybody admires. Nevertheless, at first glance my attention is captured, my imagination is struck by the size, the height and the unobstructed view (de´gagement) of the vast nave; for some moments I am lost in the amazement that the grand effect of the whole stirs in me. Recovering from the first astonishment and taking note now of the details, I find innumerable absurdities, but I lay the blame for them on the misfortunes of the time. For all that I am still full of admiration when after my thorough and critical examination I return to the middle of the nave and the impression which remains with me makes me say: ‘‘How many faults, but how grand!’’ From there I go to St. Sulpice, the most eminent of all churches we have built in the antique style. It neither strikes me nor impresses me; I find the building to be far below its reputation. I see nothing but thick masses. There are heavy arches set between heavy pilasters of a very heavy and coarse Corinthian Order, and over the whole lies a heavy vault the weight of which makes you fear that the heavy supports may be insufficient. What shall I say of the screen ( jube) which conceals the main entrance to the church? It is a pretty piece of architecture, but is as little in its proper place as a small house is inside a large one. What shall I say of the main facade? It is an excellent idea which, however, has not come off. M. Servandoni almost reached perfection, yet stopped just short of it. In order to make something out of the facade, the columns should not have been coupled in depth but lengthwise; the enormous Doric cornice of the main entablature, difficult to protect from damage caused by weather, should have been suppressed and the free-standing columns of the first Order repeated in the second, an arrangement that would at least have saved the building from its extreme coarseness. The towers should have been separated from the central part of the facade and been given a less dry and heavy form. [ . . . ]

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I have tried to find if, in building our churches in the good style of classical architecture, there is not a way to give them an elevation and a lightness equal to those of our beautiful Gothic churches. After much thought it seemed to me that not only would it be possible but that it would be much easier for us to succeed in this with the architecture of the Greeks than with all the fretwork of Gothic architecture. By using free-standing columns we will achieve lightness and by setting two Orders one above the other we will reach the required height. Here is how I should like my idea to be carried out. Let us choose the most common form, that of the Latin cross. I place all around the nave, transept and choir the first Order of isolated columns standing on low socles; they are coupled like those of the portico of the Louvre in order to give more width to the intercolumniations. On these columns I place a straight architrave terminated by an ogee of moderate projection and erect over this a second Order, consisting, like the first one, of free-standing and coupled columns. This second Order has its complete straight entablature and, directly over it without any sort of attic, I erect a plain barrel vault without transverse ribs. Then, around the nave, crossing, and choir I arrange columned aisles which form a true peristyle and are covered by flat ceilings placed on the architraves of the first Order. Beyond this peristyle I arrange chapels with an opening as wide as the intercolumniations. The form of these chapels is a perfect square with four columns in the corners supporting an architrave and flat ceiling. Each chapel has two open and two closed sides. The two which are open are those of the entrances with only a simple grille, and those opposite completely glazed. The two other sides, separating one chapel from the other, are taken up one by the altar, the other by a correspondingly large piece of painting or sculpture. Finally, I have the great vault supported by flying buttresses, based on the walls separating one chapel from the other and abutting on a point just above the capitals of the second Order. This then is my idea and here are the advantages: (1) A building like this is entirely natural and true; everything is reduced to simple rules and executed according to great principles: no arcades, no pilasters, no pedestals, nothing awkward or constrained. (2) The whole building is extremely elegant and delicate; the plain wall is nowhere to be seen, therefore, nothing is superfluous, nothing is bulky, nothing is offensive. (3) The windows are placed in the most suitable and most advantageous position. All intercolumniations are glazed, above and below. There are no more plain lunettes cutting into the vault as in ordinary churches, but ordinary large windows. (4) The two Orders placed one above the other bring nave, crossing and choir to the height that produces the majestic effect, a height which is in no way irregular and does not require columns of an exorbitant scale. (5) The vault, although a barrel vault, loses all heaviness through this height, especially since it has no transverse ribs which would appear to weigh down heavily. (6) Splendor and magnificence could easily be added to the de´gagement, simplicity, elegance and dignity of such a building. All it needs is for the different parts to be decorated in good taste.

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ISAAC WARE from A Complete Body of Architecture, Chapter II (1756)

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hereas the neoclassical movement in France was to some extent a rerun of the issues first raised by Perrault/Blondel dispute, the neoclassical movement in Britain rather emanated from the British tradition of Palladian classicism. This movement remained strong up until 1750, but then began to decline significantly, as other intellectual forces were also coming into play around this time. The British picturesque movement and the empiricist tradition (see part IV below) were in essence contrary to the rules or absolute tenets of Renaissance classicism. Thus in a certain respect, it was easier for British architects – lacking an academic authority – to challenge classical principles than it was for their French counterparts. Isaac Ware is very much a transitional figure in this regard. He was, as we have seen, a prominent member of the earlier Palladian movement, but his one definitive theoretical statement, A Complete Body of Architecture, does not appear until 1756 or when Palladianism was clearly on the wane. The idea of harmonic proportions in Britain is now a troubling issue, and if Palladio is not to be dethroned, he is also not to be accepted blindly.

Of the Proportions of the Order As it was from the works of the antient architects that the several orders were deduced, those who had studied and found their different characters, then became desirous of establishing from the same source their proportions. From the beauties and excellencies they saw in these remains, they took up an almost enthusiastick veneration for the architects who invented them, and from this they fell into an implicit admiration of them which led them into mistakes. Perceiving consummate beauty in what they saw, they sought to build upon that perfection, certain fixed and invariable rules, by the observing of which others might be sure of attaining the same excellence. At first this appeared easy, but when they came to examine more of those works they found the antients themselves had not confined themselves to any such laws; and therefore that it was impossible to build such rules upon their works. As they became perplexed in studying a variety of antient remains, the young student is confused by reading a variety of authors on the subject. Among a number of the best of these each delivers what he esteems to be the most true and perfect proportion, but in each this differs. All have founded their maxims upon something in the antique, but some having taken in the same order one piece, and some another, those proportions vary extremely; for the antients so varied in their works. We shall endeavour, in an account of the orders, to set this matter in a more equal light. Palladio is understood to be the best and greatest of these authors, we shall therefore deliver Isaac Ware (d. 1766), from A Complete Body of Architecture, Adorned with Plans and Elevations, from Original Designs, printed in London for T. Osborne and J. Shipton, 1756, p. 131 (Chapter II).

WA R E , A C O M P L E T E B O D Y O F A R C H I T E C T U R E, II

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his as the general and received authentic proportion in each order; but, upon a general review of the several remains in which that order is preserved, we shall add what is the mean or middle proportion of the several parts, calculating from them all. The modern architects too strictly and scrupulously follow these antients; they did not so closely or servilely copy one another. They were conscious that beauty in any order was not restrained to an exact proportion of parts: hence they indulged their genius in its regulated flights, and from that liberty produced those several great works in the same order, which are all beautiful, though extremely different one from another. We who tie ourselves down to a severe observance of some one proportion, are but copyists at best; while they, though they preserved the character of the order one after another, yet were each an original. We seem to imagine that but one proportion of features can constitute a beautiful face: they, following where nature led the way, have shown us that very differently proportioned features can constitute beauty, provided a proper harmony be preserved among them. This may give us an idea of the difference between antient and modern architects: they restrained genius by rules; we propose working by rules in the place of genius: they were in every thing originals, we seem to establish it as a principle, that it is not needful to invent in order to deserve praise.

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his notion of artistic liberty that Ware so tentatively puts forward early in his treatise becomes more prominent as he nears the end of his lengthy work. This particular chapter of book IX, ‘‘Of Retrenching Errors,’’ concerns the appropriateness or inappropriateness of using Italian models in England. It is a virtual British declaration of independence from classical thought – well almost, as Palladio, now not ‘‘above error,’’ is still there. The reference near the end of the chapter to a dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant is an invocation of a metaphor used repeatedly in the seventeenth-century quarrel of the Moderns and Ancients, by such modern supporters as Blaise Pascal and Isaac Newton. It is in fact a compromise to the problem: self-depreciation of the Moderns (dwarfs) who can nevertheless see farther than the giants of the past.

Of Retrenching Errors If this be the case where the designs are most correct and unexceptionable, much more must it be so where they are liable to exception. Isaac Ware, from A Complete Body of Architecture, Adorned with Plans and Elevations, from Original Designs, printed in London for T. Osborne and J. Shipton, 1756, pp. 694–5 (Chapter IX).

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The Custom among English architects has been to observe these too implicitly. To transfer the buildings of Italy right or wrong, suited or unsuited to the purpose, into England; and this, if done exactly, the builder has been taught to consider as merit in his profession. We have pointed out to him a worthier and better plan; let him study those designs, but with some regard to his own Genius. It is not in these he learns the rudiments of the science, though he sees the rules by which he has been taught exemplifyed in them: let him therefore read with more freedom, and regard these structures as they are, as works of great men, but of men: the greatest are not out of the reach of error, nor above improvement. It was thus the antients studied one another: and thus the science became improved; thus Vitruvius formed his principles; and thus Palladio followed them. The Roman laid down rules which he illustrated by examples; but he did not suppose every thing he saw in the old buildings worthy to be made the principle of a maxim added to the science: and the Italian has shewn in many of his edifices that, altho’ he held his master in high reverence, he did not esteem him above error; or think he carried the science beyond improvement. In studying a design of Palladio’s, which which we recommend to the young architect as his frequent practice, let him think, as well as measure. Let him consider the general design and purpose of the building, and then examine freely how far, according to his own judgment, the purpose will be answered by that structure. He will thus establish in himself a custom of judging by the whole as well as by parts; and he will find new beauties in the structure confidered in this light. He will improve his knowledge and correct his taste by such contemplation; for he will find how greatly the designer thought, and how judiciously he has done many things; which, but for such an examination, would have passed in his mind unnoticed; or at best not understood. Possibly, when he has thus made himself a master of the author or designer’s idea, he will see wherein it might have been improved. Now that he understands the work, he will have a right to judge thus: and what would have been absurdity in one who knew not the science, or presumption in such as had not enough considered the building, will be in him the candid and free use of that knowledge he has attained in the art. Therefore let him never check these sallies of his fancy; but with due candour, and a modest sense of his own rank in the science, compared with his whose work he studies, let him indulge them freely. Let him consider himself as a dwarf placed upon the giant Palladio’s shoulders; as seeing not with his own eyes singly, but with the borrowed light of that great master’s; and thus indulge his genius. Let him commit to paper his thoughts on these subjects; not in words only, but in lines and figures. He will be able to reconsider them at leisure; and thence adopting or condemning his first thought, he will either way improve his judgment, and probably introduce new excellences in his practice.

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WILLIAM CHAMBERS from A Treatise on Civil Architecture (1759)

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are is not the name normally associated with the British neoclassical movement. This distinction more generally is given to William Chambers, who – along with Robert Adam – dominates British architecture in the second half of the century. Chambers was actually born in Sweden of parents of Scottish extraction, and in his youth he had the exceedingly rare distinction of making three trips to China and the Far East, while working for the Swedish East India Company. It was during these lengthy periods at sea that he acquired much of his education and the rudiments of architectural theory. In 1749 the 23-year-old world traveler retired from the family business and moved to Paris to study at the private architectural school of Jacques-Franc¸ois Blondel. There he was a classmate of several architects who would become very active in the French neoclassical movement. This period was capped off with four years in Rome, beginning in 1751. There Chambers married an English lady, and after cultivating the friendship of the Prince of Wales and other British aristocrats he moved to London in 1755. Two years later he was appointed architect to the Dowager Princes Augusta, for whom he also served as a tutor to her son, King George III, who ascended the throne in 1760. A Treatise on Civil Architecture (1759) is an early work in the career of Chambers, and was written in the midst of the revolutionary events of the 1750s. It was originally intended to be a small volume of designs, but Chambers transformed it with a series of commentaries in which he, for his English audience, largely recapitulates the lessons of French theory. But Chambers differs from French academic theory in one important respect: his belief in the relativity of proportions. In forming this view, Chambers had been attracted to the aesthetic ideas of the Irishman Edmund Burke (see chs. 110 and 111 below), especially his argument regarding the relativity of perception. In this first passage concerning the Ovolo of a Doric order, Chambers voices his discomfort with the idea of harmonic relations. The second passage, taken from his chapter ‘‘Of Gates, Doors, and Piers,’’ makes the same point, but Chambers now concludes his comment essentially by assuming Perrault’s position that proportions are not only relative but should be calculated by taking the mean between two extremes.

Of the Doric Order De Chambray, in his Parallel, gives three Profiles of the Doric Order; one taken from the Theatre of Marcellus, and the others copied by Pietro Ligorio from various fragments of Antiquity, in and near Rome. Vignola’s second Doric Profile bears a near resemblance to the most beautiful of these, and was not improbably collected from the same Antique which Ligorio copied: though it must be owned that Vignola hath, in his composition, far exceeded the original; having omitted the many trivial and insignificant mouldings, with which that is overloaded, and in many respects, amended both its form and proportions.

William Chambers (1723–96), from A Treatise on Civil Architecture, in which The Principles of that Art are Laid Down, and Illustrated by a Great Number of Plates, published in London for the author by John Haberkorn, 1759, pp. 17–18, 64.

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As this Profile of Vignola’s is composed in a greater style, and in a manner more characteristic of the Order, than any other, I have made choice of it for my model; having, in the general form and proportions, adhered strictly to the original; though in particular members I have not scrupled to vary, when observation taught me they might be improved. Vignola, as appears by the preface to his Orders, imagined that the graceful and pleasing aspect of Architectonic objects, was occasioned by the harmony and simplicity of the relations between their parts; and, in composing his Profiles, he constantly adjusted his measures by these simple affinities, supposing the deviations from them, in his antique originals, to proceed rather from the inaccurate execution of the workmen, than from any premeditated design in the contriver. To this notion may be ascribed many little defects, in the proportions of his mouldings, and minuter members; which, though trifling in themselves, yet, from the smallness of the parts where they happen to be, are of consequence, and easily perceivable by a judicious eye. These I have therefore endeavoured to correct, not only in this, but in others of his Orders; which, from their conformity to the best Antiques, I have in the course of this work chosen to imitate. It has been already observed, that the real relations, subsisting between dissimilar figures, have no connection with the apparent ones; and it is a truth too evident to require demonstration. No one will deny, for instance, that the Ovolo, in the annexed Doric Cornice, viewed in its proper elevation, will appear much larger than the Capital of the Triglyph under it; though, in reality, they are nearly of the same dimensions: and, if the same Ovolo were placed as much below the level of the spectator’s eye, as it is above it in the present case, it is likewise clear that it would appear considerably less than any flat member of the same size. These things being so, a strict attachment to harmonic relations seems to me unreasonable; since what is really in perfect harmony, may in appearance produce the most jarring discord. Perfect proportion in Architecture, if considered only with regard to the relations between the different objects in a composition, and as far as it relates merely to the pleasure of the sight, seems to consist in this, that those parts, which are either principal or essential, should be so contrived as to catch the eye successively, from the most considerable to the least, according to their degrees of importance in the composition, and impress their images on the mind before it is affected by any of the subservient members; yet that these should be so conditioned, as not to be intirely absorbed by the former, but capable of raising distinct ideas likewise, and such as may be adequate to the purposes for which these parts are designed. The different figures and situations of the parts may, in some degree, contribute toward this effect: for simple forms will operate more speedily than those that are complicated, and such as project will be sooner perceived than those that are more retired. But dimension seems to be the predominant quality; or that which acts most powerfully on the sense: and this, as far as I know, can only be discovered by experience; at least to any degree of accuracy. When therefore any number of parts, arranged in a particular manner, and under particular proportions, excite, in the generality of judicious spectators, a pleasing sensation, it will be prudent on every occasion, where the same circumstances subsist, to observe exactly the same proportions; notwithstanding they may in themselves appear irregular and unconnected. *** CHA M BE RS, C I V I L A R C H I T E C T U R E

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We may look for the origin of many proportions in Architecture in the same source; particularly with relation to objects of real use: and the pleasure or dislike, excited in us at their sight, must, I believe, be ascribed either to prejudice, or to our habit of connecting other ideas with these figures, rather than to any particular charm inherent in them, as some people are apt to imagine. Thus, with regard to elevations, if the breadth be predominant, we are struck with the ideas of majesty and strength; and, if the height predominates, with those of elegance and delicacy: all which occasion pleasing sensations. An excess of the former degenerates into the heavy; and an excess of the latter into the meagre: either of which are equally disgustful. When objects are low, and much extended, we naturally conceive an idea of something mean, abject, and unwieldy: and when they are extremely elevated and narrow, they seem fragile and unstable. Perfect proportion consists in a Medium between these Extremes: which Medium the rules of Architecture tend to fix. Sometimes too the aptitude of a figure to the purpose it was intended for endears it to us: and what at first only gained our approbation, in time commands our love; as we see men become enamoured of a woman’s person, whose mind was at first the only attractive power. But this last is not a general rule; and seldom or ever can happen, either when there is any thing disagreeable in the figure, or any thing remarkably defective or deformed in the person.

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WILLIAM CHAMBERS from A Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture (1791)

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n 1759 the young William Chambers stood apart from most of his colleagues in that he believed architectural proportions were relative and unrelated to musical harmonies. Near the end of his career in 1791, when he published the third edition of his earlier treatise, he surprisingly took a different perspective – now seemingly siding with the Ancients and harmonic proportions. Curiously, he did so at a time when this issue of classical theory had all but disappeared and aesthetic relativism had clearly won the day. Our Saxon and Norman fore-fathers, ultimate corruptors of the almost effaced Roman architecture; sufficiently prove, by the remains of their churches, monasteries, and castles; to what extent barbarism may carry deformity, gloom, unwieldy grandeur, and clumsy solidity. And their successors of the thirteenth century, though following a manner infinitely more scientifick and regular; often carried elegance, lightness, and excessive decoration, far beyond their proper limits: till, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, that manner had its last polish among us; was cleared of its redundancies; improved in its forms; simplified

William Chambers, from A Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture, third edition. London: Joseph Smeeton, 1791 and New York: Benjamin Blom, 1968 (reissue), p. 107.

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and perfected in its decorations: in short, made what it is, in some of the last structures of that stile; the admiration of all enlightened observers. Amongst the restorers of the ancient Roman architecture, the stile of Palladio is correct and elegant; his general dispositions are often happy; his outlines distinct and regular; his forms graceful: little appears that could with propriety be spared, nothing seems wanting: and all his measures accord so well, that no part attracts the attention, in prejudice to any of the rest. Scamozzi, in attempting to refine upon the stile of Palladio, has over-detailed, and rendered his own rather trifling; sometimes confused. Vignola’s manner, though bolder, and more stately than that of Palladio; is yet correct, and curbed within due limits; particularly in his orders: but in Michael Angelo’s, we see licence, majesty, grandeur, and fierce effect; extended to bounds, beyond which, it would be very dangerous to soar. But whether there be any thing natural, positive, convincing and self amiable, in the proportions of architecture; which, like notes and accord in musick, seize upon the mind, and necessarily excite the same sensations in all; or whether they were first established by consent of the ancient artists, who imitated each other; and were first admired, because accompanied with other real, convincing beauties; such as richness of materials, brilliancy of colour, fine polish, or excellence of workmanship; and were after, only preferred through prejudice or habit; are questions which have much occupied the learned. Those who wish to see the arguments for, and against, these respective notions; are referred to Perrault, Blondel, and other writers upon the subject. To the plurality of students in the profession, it may be sufficient to observe; without attempting to determine in favour of either side; that both agree in their conclusion: the maintainers of harmonick proportions, proving their system, by the measures observed in the most esteemed buildings of antiquity; and the supporters of the opposite doctrine allowing, that as both artists and criticks, form their ideas of perfection, upon these same buildings of antiquity; there cannot be a more infallible way of pleasing, than by imitating that, which is so universally approved.

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B.

G R E E C E A N D TH E C L A S S I C A L IDEAL

Introduction

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till another factor affecting architectural theory in the 1750s was the growing awareness of classical Greece – essentially a dramatic ‘‘rediscovery’’ of the country and its architecture. Greece and its ancient culture was certainly long known and appreciated within Western culture, but only in abstraction; educated people had for centuries read and praised the writings of Aristotle, Plato, and the Greek historians. Vitruvius himself had championed Greek theory as the ultimate authority to be emulated, yet up until 1750 Westerners had no accurate image of what constituted Greek architecture or the nuances of its temples. Thus the first detailed drawings of Attic ruins in this decade created a sensation with their formal simplicity and heavier proportions (in relation to Roman works). These images at the same time created a crisis for academic classicism. If classical theory since the

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Renaissance had been predicated on Roman forms and models, what would happen to this body of thought if – as some would now argue – Greek forms and proportions were deemed aesthetically superior? Working hand and hand with these archaeological discoveries were the new and broadening historical perspectives. Greece was ‘‘Eastern’’ in the sense that it was an Ottoman territory, but also because of its known roots and points of contact with the cultures of the Middle East and Egypt. Thus Greece became a doorway to peer back into the past and attempt to discern the stages of historical development. On the basis of these insights, one of the first fruits of the new perspective was the first history of art (by J. J. Winckelmann) and its ambition to stage the development of ancient art. Still, a third consequence of the rediscovery of Greek architecture were the controversies and debates that ensued. The new-found fashion of ‘‘Greek taste’’ invited a ‘‘Roman’’ response. Thus Giovanni Battista Piranesi, in defending the greatness of Latin culture, was ultimately led to another form of cultural relativism: architectural eclecticism or the architect’s right to draw upon different cultures and styles for his creations. If such a position could be considered heretical within academic circles, it also underscores the momentous implications of this new stylistic discovery.

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J A M E S ST U A R T A N D N I C H O L A S R E V E T T from ‘‘Proposals for publishing an accurate description of the Antiquities of Athens’’ (1748)

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n book six of his On the Art of Building in Ten Books, Leon Battista Alberti began his historical remarks by noting that ‘‘Building, so far as we can tell from ancient monuments, enjoyed her first gush of youth, as it were, in Asia, flowered in Greece, and later reached her glorious maturity in Italy.’’ This scenario of ancient architecture achieving its glorious maturity in the Roman Empire became a cornerstone of academic theory between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. The French Academy in Rome, which essentially served as a graduate school for France’s best students, was founded in that city so that students would have the opportunity to examine the approved monuments of ancient Rome firsthand. Very little was actually known about Greek architecture, because the country was part of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire and for centuries had remained nearly inaccessible to Western travelers. Only slowly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries did knowledge of Greek art begin to emerge. Colbert arranged an exploration of the Aegean islands in 1673 and it was on this trip that the artist Jacques Carrey made his famous sketches of the Parthenon sculptures (35 sketches have survived), sketches that somewhat remarkably ignored the architecture of the building itself. The Frenchman Jacob Spon and the Englishman George Wheler made a follow-up visit in 1674, but they published a very inaccurate drawing of the building. The Parthenon was still more or less intact at this time, having survived its transformation into a church and later into a mosque. It was housing Turkish powder kegs in 1687 when a Venetian canon shot exploded in the center of building, reducing it to its familiar ruins of columns. When Venice retreated from its short rule of Greece shortly thereafter, the country was again closed to travelers and it was only James Stuart (1713–88) and Nicholas Revett (1720–1804), from ‘‘Proposals for publishing an accurate description of the Antiquities of Athens’’ (1748) in a footnote to The Antiquities of Athens, Vol. I. London: John Haberkorn, 1762, Preface, v.n.

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with a relaxation of political tensions a half-century later that travel to Greece once again became possible. The time was now right to explore Greek architecture in a serious way, and this first proposal was put forth toward the end of 1748 by the Englishmen James Stuart and Nicholas Revett. Stuart was a painter, who had been studying in Rome since 1742. At some point he became interested in Greek antiquity, and on a trip to Sicily in 1748 he discussed the possibility of a trip to Greece with Gavin Hamilton and Nicholas Revett. Hamilton, a noted antiquarian, dropped out of the venture, and Stuart and Revett eventually procured funding for their trip through subscriptions and from the Society of Dilettanti in London. They did not sail out of Venice until January 1751; they arrived in Athens on March 18, where they spent almost two years recording the ruins scattered about Attica. The great historical irony of their well-publicized trip was that Stuart and Revett, after returning to London in 1754, were in no particular hurry to publish their results. The first volume of The Antiquities of Athens came out in 1762, but the most important second volume, which contained their careful reconstruction of the Parthenon, was not published until 1788. Thus the honor of being the first to publish a book on Greek architecture fell to a traveler who arrived in Athens after they departed – the Frenchman David Le Roy. (a) This Account of our undertaking, was as follows. Rome 1748. PROPOSALS for publishing an accurate description of the Antiquities of Athens, &c. by James Stuart, and Nicholas Revet. ‘‘There is perhaps no part of Europe, which more deservedly claims the attention and excites the curiosity of the Lovers of polite Literature, than the Territory of Attica, and Athens its capital City; whether we reflect on the Figure it makes in History, on account of the excellent Men it has produced in every Art, both of War and Peace; or whether we consider the Antiquities which are said to be still remaining there, Monuments of the good sense and elevated genius of the Athenians, and the most perfect Models of what is excellent in Sculpture and Architecture.’’ ‘‘Many Authors have mentioned these Remains of Athenian Art as works of great magnificence and most exquisite taste; but their descriptions are so confused, and their measures, when they have given any, are so insufficient, that the most expert Architect could not, from all the Books that have been published on this subject, form a distinct Idea of any one Building these Authors have described. Their writings seem rather calculated to raise our Admiration, than to satisfy our Curiosity or improve our Taste.’’ ‘‘Rome who borrowed her Arts, and frequently her Artificers from Greece, was adorned with magnificent Structures and excellent Sculptures: a considerable number of which have been published, in the Collections of Desgodetz, Palladio, Serlio, Santo Bartoli, and other ingenious Men; and altho’ many of the Originals which they have copied are since destroyed, yet the memory, and even the form of them, nay the Arts which produced them, seem secure from perishing; since the industry of those excellent Artists, has dispersed Representations of them through all the polite Nations of Europe.’’ ‘‘But Athens the Mother of elegance and politeness, whose magnificence scarce yielded to that of Rome, and who for the beauties of a correct style must be allowed to surpass her; has been almost entirely neglected. So that unless exact copies of them be speedily made, all her beauteous Fabricks, her Temples, her Theatres, her Palaces, now in ruins, will drop into Oblivion; and Posterity will have to reproach us, that we have not left them a tolerable Idea of what was so excellent, and so much deserved our attention; but that we have suffered the perfection of an Art to perish, when it was perhaps in our power to have retrieved it.’’

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‘‘The reason indeed, why those Antiquities have hitherto been thus neglected, is obvious. Greece, since the revival of the Arts, has been in the possession of Barbarians; and Artists capable of such a Work, have been able to satisfy their passion, whether it was for Fame or Profit, without risking themselves among such professed Enemies to the Arts as the Turks are. The ignorance and jealousy of that uncultivated people may, perhaps, render an undertaking of this sort, still somewhat dangerous.’’ ‘‘Among the Travellers who have visited these Countries, some have been abundantly furnished with Literature, but they have all of them been too little conversant with Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, to give us tolerable Ideas of what they saw. The Books therefore, in which their Travels are described, are not of such utility nor such entertainment to the Public, as a person acquainted with the practice of these Arts might have rendered them. For the best verbal descriptions cannot be supposed to convey so adequate an Idea, of the magnificence and elegance of Buildings; the fine form, expression, or proportion of Sculptures; the beauty and variety of a Country, or the exact Scene of any celebrated Action, as may be formed from drawings made on the spot, with diligence and fidelity, by the hand of an Artist.’’ We have therefore resolved to make a journey to Athens; and to publish at our return, such Remains of that famous City as we may be permitted to copy, and that appear to merit our attention; not doubting but a work of this kind, will meet with the Approbation of all those Gentlemen who are lovers of the Arts; and assuring ourselves, that those Artists who aim at perfection, must be more pleased, and better instructed, the nearer they can approach the Fountain-Head of their Art; for so we may call those examples which the greatest Artists, and the best Ages of antiquity have left them. ‘‘We propose that each of the Antiquities which are to compose this Work, shall be treated of in the following manner. First a View of it will be given, faithfully exhibiting the present Appearance of that particular Building and of the circumjacent Country; to this will follow, Architectural Plans and Elevations, in which will be expressed the measure of every Moulding, as well as the general disposition and ordonnance of the whole Building; and lastly will be given, exact delineations of the Statues and Basso-relievos with which those Buildings are decorated. These Sculptures we imagine will be extremely curious, as well on account of their workmanship, as of the subjects they represent. To these we propose adding some Maps and Charts, shewing the general situation and connection of the whole Work. All this perhaps may be conveniently distributed into three folio Volumes, after the following manner.’’ ‘‘The first Volume may contain the Antiquities belonging to the Acropolis, or ancient fortress of Athens; the second those of the City; and the third, those which lye dispersed in different parts of the Athenian Territory: of all which the annexed Catalogue will give a more distinct Idea.’’

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ROBERT WOOD AND JAMES DAWKINS from The Ruins of Palmyra (1753)

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reece was not the only land under exploration at this time, as there was a burst of archaeological activity during the 1750s. Greek colonies and Etruscan sites in Italy and Sicily were being investigated, as were other areas of the eastern Mediterranean. In 1750 Robert Wood and James Dawkins set out to explore Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, and Egypt. In Athens they even came upon those ‘‘two English painters’’ recording Greek architecture, but took little note of the buildings they saw. Instead, Wood and Dawkins focused their efforts on the sites of two Roman colonies: Baalbek in Lebanon and Palmyra in Syria, the origins of which they rightly found confusing. Palmyra was an ancient city along a trade route high in the desert of Syria, possibly dating back to the sixth century BC. Wood was dubious of the account that it was built on the site where David slew Goliath, but he accepted the biblical story that the city had been founded by Solomon, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and rebuilt in Roman times. This becomes the basis for his brief summary of early artistic development. How far the taste and manner of the architecture may give any light into the age which produced it, our engravings will put in every person’s power to judge for himself; and in forming such judgment, the reader will make what use he thinks proper of the following observations, thrown together, without any view to order. We thought we could easily distinguish, at Palmyra, the ruins, of two very different periods of antiquity; the decay of the oldest, which are mere rubbish, and incapable of measurement, looked like the gradual work of time; but the later seemed to bear the marks of violence. There is a greater sameness in the architecture of Palmyra, than we observed at Rome, Athens, and other great cities, whose ruins evidently point out different ages, as much from the variety of their manner, as their different stages of decay. The works done during the republican state of Rome are known by their simplicity and usefulness, while those of the emperors are remarkable for ornament and finery. Nor is it less difficult to distinguish the old simple dorick as Athens from their licentious corinthian of a later age. But at Palmyra we cannot trace so visible a progress of arts and manners in their buildings; and those which are most ruinous seem to owe their decay rather to worse materials, or accidental violence, than a greater antiquity. It is true, there is in the outside of the sepulchral monuments, without the town, an air of simplicity very different from the general taste of all the other buildings, from which, and their singular shape we at first supposed them works of the country, prior to the introduction of the Greek arts; but we found the inside ornamented as the other buildings. It is remarkable, that except four ionick half columns in the temple of the sun, and two in one of the mausoleums, the whole is corinthian, richly ornamented with some striking beauties, and some as visible faults. In the variety of ruins we visited in our tour through the east, we could not help observing, that each of the three Greek orders had their fashionable periods: The oldest

Robert Wood (1716–71) and James Dawkins (1717–c.1771), from The Ruins of Palmyra, otherwise Tedmor, in the Desart. London, 1753, pp. 15–16.

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buildings we saw were dorick; the ionick succeeded, and seems to have been the favourite order, not only in Ionia, but all over Asia Minor, the great country of good architecture, when that art was in it’s highest perfection. The corinthian came next in vogue, and most of the buildings of that order in Greece seem posterior to the Romans getting footing there. The composite, and all its extravagancies followed, when proportion was entirely sacrificed to finery and crowded ornament. Another observation we made in this tour, and which seems to our present purpose, was, that in the progress of architecture and sculpture towards perfection, sculpture arrived soonest at it, and soonest lost it. The old dorick of Athens is an instance of the first, where the bas-reliefs on the metopes of the temples of Theseus and Minerva, (the first built soon after the battle of Marathon, and the latter in the time of Pericles) shew the utmost perfection that art has ever acquired, though the architecture of the same temples is far short of it, and in many particulars against the rules of Vitruvius, who appears to have founded his principles upon the works of a later age. That architecture out-lived sculpture we had several instances in Asia Minor, and no where more evident proofs of it, than at Palmyra.

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JOHANN JOACHIM WINCKELMANN from Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture (1755)

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hereas the English and the French provided many of the first travelers to Greece, it was left to a German – one who would never travel to Greece – to attempt to place Greek art within its historical context. Johann Joachim Winckelmann is sometimes called the ‘‘father’’ of modern art history, but he was at the very least the first major historian to ponder what the Greeks achieved artistically. He was born of humble circumstances in the Prussian town of Stendel and pursued a few university studies in the classics in Halle and Jena. After serving as a private tutor and as a school teacher for several years, he was hired by Count von Bu¨nau of Saxony as his librarian. This appointment allowed him access to the count’s superb classical library and it allowed him his first contact with classical sculptural works (mostly Roman copies of Greek works), which had been assembled by Electors of Saxony in Dresden. On the basis of these few pieces, Winckelmann composed his first book, Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture, which appeared in Dresden in 1755. The success of the book encouraged Winckelmann to leave Germany for Italy, where within a few years he would become recognized as the world’s foremost authority on Greek art.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–68), from Gedanken u¨ber die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Mahlerey und Bildhauer-Kunst (1755), trans. Elfriede Heyer and Roger C. Norton, in Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture. La Salle: Open Court, 1987. ª 1987 by Open Court Publishing Company. Reprinted by permission of Open Court Publishing Company, a division of Carus Publishing Company, Peru, IL.

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This particular book thus preceded the later studies that lay behind his great history of ancient art, but many of his later themes are already present here. Foremost is his belief in the superiority of Greek art over that of the Romans, which Winckelmann credited in part to their idealized aesthetic philosophy. Also contributing to this superiority – and here drawing upon Montesquieu – were the moderate Greek climate, the physical beauty of the Greek people, their democratic politics, and above all their highly refined artistic sensibilities, which exalted ‘‘noble simplicity and quiet grandeur’’ over ruder and more vulgar artistic expression. Winckelmann’s locution in this regard became a catchphrase for a generation that intensely followed this new artistic discovery.

I.

Natural Beauty

Good taste, which is becoming more prevalent throughout the world, had its origins under the skies of Greece. Every invention of foreign nations which was brought to Greece was, as it were, only a first seed that assumed new form and character here. We are told that Minerva chose this land, with its mild seasons, above all others for the Greeks in the knowledge that it would be productive of genius. The taste which the Greeks exhibited in their works of art was unique and has seldom been taken far from its source without loss. Under more distant skies it found tardy recognition and without a doubt was completely unknown in the northern zones during a time when painting and sculpture, of which the Greeks are the greatest teachers, found few admirers. [ . . . ] The only way for us to become great or, if this be possible, inimitable, is to imitate the ancients. What someone once said of Homer – that to understand him well means to admire him – is also true for the art works of the ancients, especially the Greeks. One must become as familiar with them as with a friend in order to find their statue of Laocoon just as inimitable as Homer. In such close acquaintance one learns to judge as Nicomachus judged Zeuxis’ Helena: ‘Behold her with my eyes,’ he said to an ignorant person who found fault with this work of art, ‘and she will appear a goddess to you.’ With such eyes did Michelangelo, Raphael, and Poussin see the works of the ancients. They partook of good taste at its source, and Raphael did this in the very land where it had begun. We know that he sent young artists to Greece in order to sketch for him the relics of antiquity. The relationship between an ancient Roman statue and a Greek original will generally be similar to that seen in Virgil’s imitation of Homer’s Nausicaa, in which he compares Dido and her followers to Diana in the midst of her Oreads. Laocoon was for the artist of old Rome just what he is for us – the demonstration of Polyclitus’ rules, the perfect rules of art. [ . . . ] In the masterpieces of Greek art, connoisseurs and imitators find not only nature at its most beautiful but also something beyond nature, namely certain ideal forms of its beauty, which, as an ancient interpreter of Plato teaches us, come from images created by the mind alone. The most beautiful body of one of us would probably no more resemble the most beautiful Greek body than Iphicles resembled his brother, Hercules. The first development of the Greeks was influenced by a mild and clear sky; but the practice of physical exercises 160

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from an early age gave this development its noble forms. Consider, for example, a young Spartan conceived by a hero and heroine and never confined in swaddling clothes, sleeping on the ground from the seventh year on and trained from infancy in wrestling and swimming. Compare this Spartan with a young Sybarite of our time and then decide which of the two would be chosen by the artist as a model for young Theseus, Achilles, or even Bacchus. Modelled from the latter it would be a Theseus fed on roses, while from the former would come a Theseus fed on flesh, to borrow the terms used by a Greek painter to characterize two different conceptions of this hero. The grand games gave every Greek youth a strong incentive for physical exercise, and the laws demanded a ten-month preparation period for the Olympic Games, in Elis, at the very place where they were held. The highest prizes were not always won by adults but often by youths, as told in Pindar’s odes. To resemble the god-like Diagoras was the fondest wish of every young man. Behold the swift Indian who pursues a deer on foot – how briskly his juices must flow, how flexible and quick his nerves and muscles must be, how light the whole structure of his body! Thus did Homer portray his heroes, and his Achilles he chiefly noted as being ‘swift of foot’. These exercises gave the bodies of the Greeks the strong and manly contours which the masters then imparted to their statues without any exaggeration or excess. [ . . . ] Moreover, everything that was instilled and taught from birth to adulthood about the culture of their bodies and the preservation, development, and refinement of this culture through nature and art was done to enhance the natural beauty of the ancient Greeks. Thus we can say that in all probability their physical beauty excelled ours by far. The most perfect creations of nature would, on the other hand, have become only partially and imperfectly known to the artists in a country where nature was hindered by rigid laws, as in Egypt, the reputed home of the arts and sciences. In Greece, however, where people dedicated themselves to joy and pleasure from childhood on, and where there was no such social decorum as ours to restrict the freedom of their customs, the beauty of nature could reveal itself unveiled as a great teacher of artists. The schools for artists were the gymnasia, where young people, otherwise clothed for the sake of public modesty, performed their physical exercises in the nude. The philosopher and the artist went there – Socrates to teach Charmides, Autolycus, and Lysias; Phidias to enrich his art by watching these handsome young men. There one could study the movement of the muscles and body as well as the body’s outlines or contours from the impressions left by the young wrestlers in the sand. The nude body in its most beautiful form was exhibited there in so many different, natural, and noble positions and poses not attainable today by the hired models of our art schools. Truth springs from the feelings of the heart, and the modern artist who wants to impart truth to his works cannot preserve even a shadow of it unless he himself is able to replace that which the unmoved and indifferent soul of his model does not feel or is unable to express by actions appropriate to a certain sensation or passion. Many of Plato’s dialogues, beginning in the gymnasia of Athens, portray to us the noble souls of these youths and at the same time suggest a uniformity of action and outward carriage developed in these places and in their physical exercises. The most beautiful young people danced nude in the theaters, and Sophocles, the great Sophocles, was the first who in his youth presented such dramas for his fellow-citizens. W I N C K E L M A N N , R E F L E CT I O N S

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Phryne bathed before the eyes of all the Greeks during the Eleusinian Games, and, as she emerged from the water, became for the artists the prototype of Venus Anadyomene. It is also known that girls from Sparta danced completely naked before the eyes of the young people at certain festive occasions. What might seem strange to us here becomes more acceptable when considering that the early Christians, both men and women, were totally unclothed when they were submersed in the same baptismal font. Thus every festival of the Greeks was an opportunity for the artists to become intimately acquainted with the beauty of nature. [ . . . ] These frequent opportunities to observe nature prompted Greek artists to go still further. They began to form certain general ideas of the beauty of individual parts of the body as well as of the whole – ideas which were to rise above nature itself; their model was an ideal nature originating in the mind alone. ***

IV. Noble Simplicity and Quiet Grandeur The general and most distinctive characteristics of the Greek masterpieces are, finally, a noble simplicity and quiet grandeur, both in posture and expression. Just as the depths of the sea always remain calm however much the surface may rage, so does the expression of the figures of the Greeks reveal a great and composed soul even in the midst of passion. Such a soul is reflected in the face of Laocoon – and not in the face alone – despite his violent suffering. The pain is revealed in all the muscles and sinews of his body, and we ourselves can almost feel it as we observe the painful contraction of the abdomen alone without regarding the face and other parts of the body. This pain, however, expresses itself with no sign of rage in his face or in his entire bearing. He emits no terrible screams such as Virgil’s Laocoon, for the opening of his mouth does not permit it; it is rather an anxious and troubled sighing as described by Sadoleto. The physical pain and the nobility of soul are distributed with equal strength over the entire body and are, as it were, held in balance with one another. Laocoon suffers, but he suffers like Sophocles’ Philoctetes; his pain touches our very souls, but we wish that we could bear misery like this great man. The expression of such nobility of soul goes far beyond the depiction of beautiful nature. The artist had to feel the strength of this spirit in himself and then impart it to his marble. [...] All movements and poses of Greek figures not marked by such traits of wisdom, but instead by passion and violence, were the result of an error of conception which the ancient artists called parenthyrsos. The more tranquil the state of the body the more capable it is of portraying the true character of the soul. In all positions too removed from this tranquillity, the soul is not in its most essential condition, but in one that is agitated and forced. A soul is more apparent and distinctive when seen in violent passion, but it is great and noble when seen in a state of unity and calm. The portrayal of suffering alone in Laocoon would have been parenthyrsos; therefore the artist, in order to unite the distinctive and the noble qualities of soul, showed him in an action that was closest to a state of tranquillity for one in such pain. But in this 162

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tranquillity the soul must be distinguished by traits that are uniquely its own and give it a form that is calm and active at the same time, quiet but not indifferent or sluggish. The common taste of artists of today, especially the younger ones, is in complete opposition to this. Nothing gains their approbation but contorted postures and actions in which bold passion prevails. This they call art executed with spirit, or franchezza [sincerity, frankness]. Their favorite term is contrapposto, which represents for them the essence of a perfect work of art. In their figures they demand a soul which shoots like a comet out of their midst; they would like every figure to be an Ajax or a Capaneus.

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inckelmann’s book appeared in German in Dresden in 1755, and thus it would take a few years for its ideas to become known throughout Europe. This was not the case with The Investigator, published by the Scottish painter Allan Ramsay, which appeared in the same year. Ramsay was a native of Edinburgh and had studied art in London, and by the late 1730s he had emerged as one of Britain’s greatest portrait painters. He made his first trip to Italy in 1736–8, but he became an international figure during his second stay in Rome between 1754 and 1757. During this time he formed part of an artistic circle that included the traveler Robert Wood, the architect Robert Adam, and the architect and engraver Giovanni Battista Piranesi. With this standing, his ‘‘Dialogue on Taste,’’ with its insistence on the superiority of Greek architecture over that of ancient Rome, would soon create a furor in Rome. In essence it was the first round of a ‘‘Greco-Roman’’ debate that would soon escalate into an international controversy. The two antagonists in this dialogue are Lord Modish, who represents the traditional academic viewpoint; his counterpart is Colonel Freeman, a freethinker who challenges accepted opinions on a variety of topics. The argument presented here is but part of a larger argument on the relativity of judgments of beauty (see ch. 107 below), and begins with Colonel Freeman having just compared architecture, as Fischer von Erlach did earlier, with fashions in clothing. LORD MODISH. My dear George, this is a lamentable sinking from architecture to cuffs. COL. FREEMAN. I do that, my Lord, in imitation of some great men of our acquaintance, who let themselves down very low in order to rise with the more security. The progress of fashion in dress, and the feelings which are the consequence of that progress, being the most familiar, and having at the same time the quickest revolutions, are of all others the fittest to explain the nature of fashion in general. The fashions in building, tho’ more durable than those in dress, are not for that the less fashions, and are equally subject to change. But as

Allan Ramsay (1713–84), from ‘‘A Dialogue on Taste’’ (1755) in the journal The Investigator (London, 1762), pp. 37–8.

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stones and bricks are more lasting than silk and velvet, and as people do not make up churches and palaces so often as they do coats and capuchines, we must have recourse to history for the knowledge of those changes, which we can learn but very imperfectly from our own proper experience. In history we shall find that every nation received its mode of architecture from that nation which, in all other respects, was the highest in credit, riches, and general estimation. The admiration that attends whatever is great in its dimensions, costly in its materials, and precise in its execution, is, as far as our experience goes, universal; and naturally inclines the mind in favour of any form which accident has combined with those admirable qualities. The Egyptians were the first people we know of who were so rich, and at their ease, as to build with grandeur, cost, and neatness; and from thence inspired the Greeks with a love for those ornaments which their caprice had added to the useful part of architecture. The Greeks, in their turn, becoming for many ages a free, a rich, and a happy people, had an opportunity of practising those arts in many sumptuous buildings; where, beside the invention of arches, and other solid improvements in the art of building, they made many changes, as their fancy led them, upon the Egyptian ornaments. In this state was architecture when it was transplanted to Rome, by a people who, by perpetual wars, had in a short time attained from the meanest origin, to the greatest height of power. Destitute of money, and profoundly ignorant of all the arts of peace, they had never raised any buildings of which they could boast; and no sooner had they an opportunity of considering the Grecian temples and other public works, great in themselves, and set off with all that costly materials and the genius of their excellent painters and sculptors could add to the skill of the mason, but struck with the complex object, they decreed the Greeks to be the only architects in the world, and submitted willingly to receive laws in the arts from those whom their Arms had subdued. Perhaps the philosophy, poetry, and music of Greece, for which they began at the same time to take a relish, served not a little to raise the reputation of the Greeks, and might strengthen their authority in architecture; tho’ not necessarily connected with them. An admiration, to a degree of bigotry seized the Roman artists and connoiseurs, and put an effectual stop to any farther change or improvement in architecture. Their sole study was to imitate the Grecian buildings, and the being like or unlike to them became soon the measure of right and wrong. Rules so compiled were committed to writing, and continue to this day, together with some of the antient buildings upon which they were formed, to be the standard of taste all over christendom. Time may possibly produce on it insensible changes, but there is almost nothing which can be imagined to give it a total overthrow, unless Europe should become a conquest of the Chinese.

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JULIEN-DAVID LE ROY from The Ruins of the Most Beautiful Monuments of Greece (1758)

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he first visual images of Greek architecture, as we noted above, came not from the expedition of Stuart and Revett but from the efforts of David Le Roy. This son of a royal clockmaker had attended the Royal Academy of Architecture in Paris and in 1750 won the prestigious Prix de Rome, which enabled him to spend five years at the French Academy. Midway through his stay there, he heard of Stuart and Revett’s trip to Greece and he applied to the French government for official assistance to make his own trip to Athens and sketch the major monuments. He sailed out of Venice in May 1854 aboard a French navy vessel, and first had to go to Constantinople to receive permission from the Ottoman government. He was only in Athens for a little under three months, but he must have worked exceedingly hard to carry out his task of surveying and sketching the principal classical monuments. By July 1854 he was back in Rome, and the following year he returned to Paris to prepare his publication. At this point, at least as far as the French were concerned, it was now a race to publish Le Roy’s book before Stuart and Revett could publish their findings. In Paris Le Roy had the assistance of the noted antiquarian Comte de Caylus, as well as the delineators Jean-Joseph Le Lorrain and Philippe La Bas. The finished volume, with its impressive plates of Greek ‘‘ruins,’’ appeared in 1758, to high praise within French artistic circles. Le Roy did more than simply present his visual impressions; he also sought to place them within a historical context. The book was another salvo in the emerging Greco-Roman controversy, and it was the first to buffer the claim for Greece’s artistic superiority with powerful visual evidence. In the following passages, taken from his introductory ‘‘Discourse on the History of Civil Architecture,’’ Le Roy recasts much of classical history by suggesting that the Greeks were the inventors of everything beautiful in classical architecture, and that the Romans were little more than epigones who were incapable of similar inventive spirit. Such a view was also, in effect, an attack on the French academic system and its long reliance on Roman models. The translation of these four passages picks up at the point where Le Roy turns from Egypt to a consideration of Greece. The first steps made by the Greeks in architecture were so happy that they never deviated from them, and for this they merit perhaps their greatest praise. Too often reflection spoils the simple productions of the first efforts of genius. They designed their huts with such wisdom that they were able to preserve the form even in their most magnificent temples. Their richest entablatures had no other origin than in the arrangement or spacing of the roof joists that they observed on the sides of the huts, and from the width of the joist they formed the module – first serving to give those parts of the building the necessary dimension for solid construction, but later giving these same parts the forms and grandeur that they must have in order to produce a pleasing effect on the eyes. Columns seem first to have been used not long after the discovery of the module. Here is what we conjecture on their origin. After the first temples built by the Greeks had become too small for the crowds of people who came to the sacrifice there, the architects probably foresaw that if they built the temples larger, the excessive span of the beams supporting the

Julien-David Le Roy (1724–1803), from Les Ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Gre`ce [The ruins of the most beautiful monuments of Greece]. Paris: H. L. Guerin and L. F. Delatour, 1758, trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave.

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roof would bend or weaken the new monuments. Perhaps, as seems more likely, they did not perceive this problem until the larger temples were built. To resolve this problem, they came up with the solution of cutting trunks of trees, arranging them vertically and at equal intervals along the length of the temple. Each column supported at its center the lateral joists and thus relieved the entire structure. The first rules of proportion were established by the Athenians who crossed over into Asia Minor under the lead of Ion, son of Xuthus. After their conquests they built several temples to the gods. In general they imitated those that they had seen among the Dorians, and for this reason they called them Doric. But then they introduced a refinement: the idea of making the columns resembled the force and beauty of a man’s body, which they determined to be six diameters. This first step was without doubt the greatest discovery that has been made in the decorative regard of architecture, and it was the foundation and the basis of all the other discoveries of this type. After imitating the proportions of the body of a man in the massive proportions of the columns in some of their temples, the Ionians in other buildings easily changed to lighter columns in imitation of the more elegant proportions of the female body. They named this new order Ionic, because they themselves were the inventors. They enriched the columns with bases, and even imitated the women’s coiffure in ornamenting the capital. But what served again to distinguish it from the Doric was the novel form that they gave to its entablature. Whereas the Doric was decorated with triglyphs, they simplified the frieze of this order and replaced the wide mutules of the Doric with small dentils. With these last two discoveries they opened a vast field for new reflections and advanced at a rapid pace toward perfection. Freed from Doric severity, which by placing the columns directly under the triglyphs makes the intercolumniations either too large or too narrow, they devised a variety of intercolumniations for the Ionic order and determined the proportions of columns and entablatures accordingly. Not wanting to limit themselves to general discoveries for this order, the Greeks looked to the history of their country and replaced columns with caryatides or statues representing the women of Caryates, who were punished by the Greeks for betraying their nation in the war with the Persians. They even investigated the nuances of optics, when they noticed that in a temple with a colonnade, those columns at the corners appear the thinnest because they are most surrounded with air. Thus they slightly enlarged them. For the same reason they lightened the columns of the second row, because they receive less light and therefore appear larger. Finally, they enriched the columns of the Ionic order with different fluting from that of the Doric and added several beautiful ornaments to the moldings of the entablature. [ . . . ] After these discoveries of the Greeks, they gradually made the two orders more distinct with several beautiful arrangements of temples, and through the different proportions that one must observe in them, it seems that there remained nothing very important to discover in architecture, either with this sort of monument or with regard to the orders. Calimachus, however, in seeing a basket covered with a tile, around which by chance some Acanthus leaves had grown and folded under the angle of the tile, designed the admirable Corinthian capital. But the Greeks, who were only impressed by great things, and who did not accept it as a new order, except for the little enrichment to the capital or the entablature, never 166

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regarded the Corinthian order as entirely independent of the other two, and only slightly distinguished it from the Ionic, which in many features it resembled. But they found for it a special character and used it for buildings of the greatest magnificance. Ascending to the most sublime ideas and descending to the most subtle refinements, they fronted Corinthian temples with eight columns, ornamented with the most perfect bas-reliefs and statuary – sculpture always following the progress of architecture. They even acquired an understanding of perspective, whose rules they practiced on the smallest parts of their buildings. On the Doric Temple of Minerva [Parthenon], built by Pericles in Athens, they made the metopes taller than their widths, so that they might appear square at a distance of twice the height of the temple. Eventually the Greeks were able to discover everything in architecture that is beautiful and ingenious, and the Romans, who subjugated them by force of arms, were obliged to recognize the superiority of their intellect. We learn this from the mouths of the Romans. If the Greeks gave their laws to Italy, they also imposed their arts. Under their first kings the Romans only built monuments in the Tuscan manner, more notable for their size than for their beauty. We do not know if they learned the way of constructing their strong walls directly from the Egyptians, but it seems clear that they took the forms of their temples and the Tuscan order from the Greeks. It is also clear that they found perfection in the arts only when they began to have open trade with the Greeks. In truth, as long as the Republic lasted, the Romans were focused on their plan to make themselves masters of the world, and they never aspired to make admirable things in architecture. Under their emperors, however, they made a great effort to distinguish themselves. They employed the most celebrated Greek architects to build monuments in Rome, Athens, Cyzicus, Palmyra, Baalbec, and in other famous cities of their empire, some of which we still admire for their grandeur and for their beautiful ornaments, although some are too embellished with ornaments. Hadrian prided himself in his great understanding of architecture and distinguished himself above all other emperors by the prodigious number of edifices he built, the chronicle of which he published in the famous Pantheon he built in Athens. He was no less determined to excel than Nero was in music, or Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, in poetry. And just as this last ruler put the poet Philoxenes to death for having criticized his verses, Hadrian had Apollodorus killed for having mocked the Temple of Venus that he had designed. In the end, though, it seems the Romans lacked the creative genius that led the Greeks to so many discoveries. With regard to the orders, they invented nothing of any value. The one invention that they do claim, the Composite order, is only a rather imperfect combination of the Ionic and Corinthian. By increasing the proportions of the columns of the Doric order and multiplying the moldings within its entablature, they perhaps caused it to lose much of the male character that distinguished it in Greece.

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JULIEN-DAVID LE ROY from The Ruins of the Most Beautiful Monuments of Greece (1758)

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fter presenting his historical account and providing some general background on the founding of Athens and the Acropolis, Le Roy presents an engraving of the Parthenon, which he calls the Temple of Minerva – the last the Latin name for the Greek goddess Athena. The engraving shows this building from the side, lying amid debris and overgrown vegetation, with its center columns and cella walls destroyed by Venetian canons. What are still present, at least on the parts of the entablature still existent, are the glorious frieze reliefs of Phidias; these were not removed by Lord Elgin and taken to London until the nineteenth century. Le Roy’s two-page summary of the temple is somewhat perfunctory and does not really speak of it as one of the great artistic masterpieces of human history. In a second edition of this book, issued in 1770, Le Roy greatly augments this description with artistic information that scholars and antiquarians had been able to piece together over the preceding decade. What follows is therefore the first introduction of this building to the history of Western art – the first solid indication of the greatness of Greek art. Le Roy is off by ten years in recounting the date of its destruction. The Temple of Minerva, called the Parthenon or the Temple of the Virgin, also the Hecatompedon, is situated in the middle of the rock of the Acropolis, whose height dominates the plain of Athens. We see this superb edifice from a great distance on some of the roads that lead into the city, and we glimpse it from the entrance of the Gulf of Engia. If its grandeur and the whiteness of the marble of which it is built evoke from afar a feeling of admiration, the elegance of its proportions and the beauty of the bas-reliefs that decorate it please us no less when we examine it up close. One sees that Ictinus and Callicrates made every effort to distinguish themselves in architecture by raising this temple to Minerva, who invented this beautiful art. This temple forms a parallelogram in plan, like almost all other Greek and Roman temples. Its length, which is oriented east and west, is 221 feet (not counting the stylobate); its width is 94 feet. It is in the Doric order, peripteral octostyle, that is to say, surrounded by columns detached from the cella or body of the temple, which forms a portico all around and has eight columns at the front. The sides of the body of the temple had two smooth walls, without pilasters between the corners. The large Doric columns that surround the exterior of the temple are 5 feet, 8 inches in diameter, 32 feet high. There were 46 of these in all. They have no base, but the extremely tall steps that come close to the base of the columns seem to serve this purpose. They support a Doric entablature that is almost one-third of the height of the columns; the metopes of the frieze are decorated with bas-reliefs representing the combat of the Athenians against the Centaurs. On the smooth walls of the body of the temple we find the remnants of a beautiful frieze that ran around it; the figures on the outside appear to represent the sacrifices and the processions of the ancient Athenians. The sculpture of this frieze is shallower in relief than the Centaurs that are on the exterior of the temple, which Julien-David Le Roy, from Les Ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Gre`ce [The ruins of the most beautiful monuments of Greece]. Paris: H. L. Guerin and L. F. Delatour, 1758, pp. 9–10, trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave.

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proves less a different date for these works than the skill of the architects, who gave much more projection to the exterior bas-reliefs because they must be seen at a greater distance. It even seems that they followed this principle in the sculpture that adorns the pediment. The pediments were filled with groups of beautiful marble figures, of which the remnants appear life-size, carved in the round, and marvelously well executed. Pausanias informs us that the birth of Minerva was represented in the pediment of the main facade [ . . . ] The Athenians made solemn sacrifices to this divinity in the festivals celebrated in her honor, every three years according to some authors, every five years according to others. In these festivals the elders bearing olive branches proceeded to the sanctuary of the temple and raised the veil that covered the deity, on which was depicted, as some people have reported, her heroic actions. While the ox was being sacrificed to Minerva, a procession encircled the temple, and when the sacrifice was done a trumpet was sounded and a cursor announced the start of the games, from which women were excluded. Minerva was the divinity most respected by the Athenians, and the olive was sacred to her. They crowned her effigies with the branches of this tree, which the Athenians believed to be immortal, and a crown of olives was given to the winners of the Olympic games. The magnificent Temple of Minerva was long preserved in all of its beauty, even though Athens had many rulers. The Christians who took over this city turned this profane monument into a temple to the true God, and the Turks who followed them changed the building into a mosque. Messrs. Spon and Wheler, during their stay in Attica, had the good fortune to see it in its entirety in 1676. But in 1677 the Proveditor Morosini, leading 8,800 Venetian soldiers, besieged Athens and a bomb fell on the temple. It ignited munitions stored there by the Turks and instantly reduced most of the building to ruin. This General, in his desire to enrich his country with the spoils of this superb monument, again contributed to its ruin. He wanted to remove the statue of Minerva from the pediment, together with her chariot and horses, but to his great regret as well as to ours, he disfigured this masterpiece without succeeding in his task. A part of the group fell to the ground and shattered. Inside the Turks have since built a mosque, surmounted with a low dome, which we see amid the ruins of this temple.

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he first volume of Stuart and Revett’s book, as we noted earlier, did not contain their reconstructions of the principal Greek monuments; instead, the two authors decided – against their original proposal – to delineate first the smaller classical works in Attica, as well as some temples built during Roman times. But their engravings were nevertheless quite beautiful, almost magical in their ‘‘Oriental’’ character, and in their Preface they provided their own account of their discoveries. If the tone is not as severe in its anti-Roman bias as that of Le Roy,

James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, from Preface to The Antiquities of Athens. London: John Haberkorn, 1762, pp. i–v.

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Stuart and Revett nevertheless came to the same conclusion with their view that the Athenians attained the highest excellence in sculpture and architecture, while the Romans never quite equaled their accomplishments. The ruined Edifices of Rome have for many years engaged the attention of those, who apply themselves to the study of Architecture; and have generally been considered, as the Models and Standard of regular and ornamental Building. Many representations of them drawn and engraved by skilful Artists have been published, by which means the Study of the Art has been every where greatly facilitated, and the general practice of it improved and promoted. Insomuch that what is now esteemed the most elegant manner of decorating Buildings, was originally formed, and has been since established on Examples, which the Antiquities of Rome have furnished. But altho’ the World is enriched with Collections of this sort already published, we thought it would be a Work not unacceptable to the lovers of Architecture, if we added to those Collections, some Examples drawn from the Antiquities of Greece; and we were confirmed in our opinion by this consideration principally, that as Greece was the great Mistress of the Arts, and Rome, in this respect, no more than her disciple, it may be presumed, all the most admired Buildings which adorned that imperial City, were but imitations of Grecian Originals. Hence it seemed probable that if accurate Representations of these Originals were published, the World would be enabled to form, not only more extensive, but juster Ideas than have hitherto been obtained, concerning Architecture, and the state in which it existed during the best ages of antiquity. It even seemed that a performance of this kind might contribute to the improvement of the Art itself, which at present appears to be founded on too partial and too scanty a system of ancient Examples. For during those Ages of violence and barbarism, which began with the declension, and continued long after the destruction of the Roman Empire, the beautiful Edifices which had been erected in Italy with such great labour and expence, were neglected or destroyed; so that, to use a very common expression, it may truly be said, that Architecture lay for Ages buried in its own ruins; and altho’ from these Ruins, it has Phenix-like received a second birth, we may nevertheless conclude, that many of the beauties and elegancies which enhanced its ancient Splendor, are still wanting, and that it has not yet by any means recovered all its former Perfection. This Conclusion becomes sufficiently obvious, when we consider that the great Artists, by whose industry this noble Art has been revived, were obliged to shape its present Form, after those Ideas only, which the casual remains of Italy suggested to them; and these Remains are so far from furnishing all the materials necessary for a complete Restoration of Architecture in all its parts, that the best collections of them, those published by Palladio and Desgodetz, cannot be said to afford a sufficient variety of Examples for restoring even the three Orders of Columns; for they are deficient in what relates to the Doric and Ionic, the two most ancient of these Orders. If from what has been said it should appear, that Architecture is reduced and restrained within narrower limits than could be wished, for want of a greater number of ancient Examples than have hither-to been published; it must then be granted, that every such Example of beautiful Form or Proportion, wherever it may be found, is a valuable

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addition to the former Stock; and does, when published, become a material acquisition to the Art. But of all the Countries, which were embellished by the Ancients with magnificent Buildings, Greece appears principally to merit our Attention; since, if we believe the Ancients themselves, the most beautiful Orders and Dispositions of Columns were invented in that Country, and the most celebrated Works of Architecture were erected there: to which may be added that the most excellent Treatises on the Art appear to have been written by Grecian Architects. The City of Greece most renowned for stately Edifices, for the Genius of its Inhabitants, and for the culture of every Art, was Athens. We therefore resolved to examine that Spot rather than any other; flattering ourselves, that the remains we might find there, would excel in true Taste and Elegance every thing hitherto published. How far indeed these Expectations have been answered, must now be submitted to the opinion of the Public. Yet since the Authorities and Reasons, which engaged us to conceive so highly of the Athenian Buildings, may serve likewise to guard them, in some measure, from the overhasty opinions and un-unadvised censures of the Inconsiderate; it may not be amiss to produce some of them in this place. And we the rather wish to say something a little more at large on this subject, as it will be at the same time an apology for ourselves, and perhaps the best justification of our undertaking. After the defeat of Xerxes, the Grecians, secure from Invaders and in full possession of their Liberty, arrived at the height of their Prosperity. It was then, they applied themselves with the greatest assiduity and success to the culture of the Arts. They maintained their Independency and their Power for a considerable space of time, and distinguished themselves by a pre-eminence and universality of Genius, unknown to other Ages and Nations. During this happy period, their most renowned Artists were produced. Sculpture and Architecture attained their highest degree of excellence at Athens in the time of Pericles, when Phidias distinguished himself with such superior ability, that his works were considered as wonders by the Ancients, so long as any knowledge or taste remained among them. His Statue of Jupiter Olympius we are told was never equalled; and it was under his inspection that many of the most celebrated Buildings of Athens were erected. Several Artists of most distinguished talents were his contemporaries, among whom we may reckon Callimachus an Athenian, the inventor of the Corinthian Capital. After this, a succession of excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects appeared, and these Arts continued in Greece, at their highest perfection, till after the death of Alexander the Great. Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, it should be observed, remained all that time in a very rude and imperfect State among the Italians. But when the Romans had subdued Greece, they soon become enamored of these delightful Arts. They adorned their City with Statues and Pictures, the Spoils of that conquered Country; and, adopting the Grecian Style of Architecture, they now first began to erect Buildings of great Elegance and Magnificence. They seem not however to have equalled the Originals from whence they had borrowed their Taste, either for purity of Design, or delicacy of Execution. For altho’ these Roman Edifices were most probably designed and executed by Grecians, as Rome never produced many extraordinary Artists of her own, yet Greece herself was at that time greatly degenerated from her former excellence, and had long ceased to display S T U A R T & R E V E T T , T H E A N T I Q U I T I E S O F AT H E N S

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that superiority of Genius, which distinguished her in the Age of Pericles and of Alexander. To this a long series of Misfortunes had reduced her, for having been oppressed by the Macedonians first, and afterwards subdued by the Romans, with the loss of her Liberty, that love of Glory likewise, and that sublimity of Spirit which had animated her Artists, as well as her Warriors, her Statesmen, and her Philosophers, and which had formed her peculiar Character, were now extinguished, and all her exquisite Arts languished and were near expiring. They were indeed at length assiduously cherished and cultivated at Rome. That City being now Mistress of the World, and possessed of unbounded Wealth and Power, became ambitious also of the utmost embellishments which these Arts could bestow. They could not however, tho’ assisted by Roman Munificence, reascend to that height of Perfection, which they had attained in Greece during the happy period we have already mentioned. And it is particularly remarkable, that when the Roman Authors themselves, celebrate any exquisite production of Art; it is the work of Phidias, Praxiteles, Myron, Lysippus, Zeuxis, Apelles, or in brief of some Artist, who adorned that happy Period; and not of those, who had worked at Rome, or had lived nearer to their own times than the Age of Alexander. It seemed therefore evident that Greece is the Place where the most beautiful Edifices were erected, and where the purest and most elegant Examples of ancient Architecture are to be discovered.

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JOHANN JOACHIM WINCKELMANN from History of the Art of Antiquity (1764)

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ith the publication of J. J. Winckelmann’s History of the Art of Antiquity in 1764 – following in the wake of the publications of Le Roy and Stuart & Revett – the third and seemingly final nail had been driven into the coffin of Roman classicism. The learned scholar had made his way to Rome in 1755, where he first worked as a librarian to Cardinal Archinto, and eventually he became the custodian to the library and antiquities collection of Cardinal Alessandro Albino. In this last capacity he also had access to the collections of classical antiquities at the Vatican. It was on the basis of this research that he began writing his history of art in the late 1750s and early 1760s, a book whose encyclopedic breadth owes much in its conception to Montesquieu’s legal history. The principal theme of Winckelmann’s book is Greek statuary, but Winckelmann’s treatment is broad enough to encompass all of the arts within his aesthetic perspective. The first of our selections is taken from the fourth chapter of section 1, and depicts Winckelmann’s highly idealized image of the Greek people: healthy, strong, and politically free, bred and nurtured in a perfect climate, enamored with their intellectual capacities and sense of beauty. It was, once again, a clear and attractive vision that enchanted many of the connoisseurs of his generation.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann, from Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums [History of the art of antiquity] (1764), trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave.

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Greece achieved its excellence in art in part because of its climate, in part because of constitution and form of government, and in part because of the way of thinking deriving from it. No less important was the respect for artists in Greece, and the use and application of art. The influence of climate must endue the seed from which art sprouts, and Greece was select soil for this seed. The talent for philosophy that Epicurius wanted to concede solely to the Greeks could with great justification have been claimed for art. Much that we might imagine as ideal was natural for them. Nature, after having passed gradually through the cold and heat, established herself in Greece; here where the temperature is balanced between winter and summer she chose her middle point. And the closer she approaches it the more cheerful and joyous she becomes, and the more generally do we find in her works those spirited and intelligent conformations with distinguished and roseate features. Where nature is less enveloped in clouds and heavy vapors, she precociously gives the body a mature form. She elevates herself with strong creations, especially female ones, and in Greece she also perfected men to the finest degree. The Greeks were conscious of this and, as Polybius says, of their superiority to other peoples generally; among no other people was beauty so highly esteemed as with them. For this reason nothing was concealed that could enhance it, and the artist confronted beauty daily. Beauty was even, as it were, in the service of fame, and we find the most beautiful people recorded in Greek histories. Some were specifically named – as Demetrius Phalereius was for his eyebrows – for beautiful parts of their conformations. Thus there were contests for beauty organized already in the earliest times, such as that arranged by the Arcadian king Cypselus along the banks of the Alpheus in Elia, at the time of the Heraclidae. At the festival of Philesian Apollo, prizes were bestowed on youths for the most exquisite kiss. It was decided by a judge, as was probably also the case in Megara, at the tomb of Diocles. In Sparta, at the temple of Juno on Lesbos, and among the Parrhasians, there were beauty pageants for women. With regard to the constitution and government of Greece, freedom was the chief reason for their art’s superiority. Freedom always had a seat in Greece, even beside the paternal rule of the royal throne, before the enlightenment of reason allowed the people to taste the sweetness of full freedom. Homer calls Agamemnon a shepherd of the people in order to indicate the latter’s love and concern for their welfare. Though tyrants later installed themselves, they succeeded only in their own regions and the nation never recognized a lone ruler. Thus one person never had the only right to greatness among his people, or could immortalize himself to the exclusion of others. In very early times art was used to commemorate a person through his figure, and this path was open to every Greek. Just as the earliest Greeks far preferred natural advantages to learning, so the first rewards were bestowed on physical prowess, and we find – in the thirtyeighth Olympiad – a statue of a Spartan wrestler Eutelides set up in Elis. Presumably this was not the first occasion. In the lesser games at Megara a stone was erected with the name of the victor. Thus the greatest Greek men sought to distinguish themselves in their youth in contests. Chrysippus and Cleanthes were famed in this way before they were known for their philosophy. Plato himself appears as a wrestler in the Isthmian games at Corinth, and in the Pythian games at Sicyon. Pythagoras was a victor at Elis, and he instructed Eurymenes, who was victorious at the same place. Physical prowess was a way to preserve a name even among the Romans, and Papirius, who avenged the Samnites for the shame of the Romans W I N C K E L M A N N , T H E A RT O F AN T I Q U I T Y

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at Furculas Caudinas, is known less for this victory than for his epithet, ‘‘the runner,’’ which Homer also gave to Achilles. A statue in the likeness of a victor, erected on the holiest spot in Greece, was seen and revered by the whole nation, and it was a powerful incentive – no less to fashion it than to achieve the honor of its erection. And no artist of any nation has since had such ample opportunity to display his work, to say nothing of the statues of deities, priests, and priestesses in the temples. Statues were erected to the victors in the great games (following the number of victories) not only at the spot of the games but also in their own lands, and this honor extended as well to other deserving citizens. Dionysius mentions statues of citizens of Cuma in Italy that Aristodemus, the tyrant of this city, ordered to be removed from the temple in which they stood and thrown into unclean places; this happened during the twenty-second Olympiad. Some victors of the first Olympic games, before the arts had flourished, had statues erected long after their deaths to preserve their feats. In the eighteenth Olympiad this honor was conferred on Oibotas, a victor in the sixth Olympiad. It was rare that someone would have his statue commissioned before he was victorious, yet it was done by one individual so confident of his success. To honor a victor, the city of Aegium in Achaea even built a special hall or covered passage to practice gymnastic exercises. Through freedom the mental attitude of an entire people rose up like a fine branch from a healthy trunk. For just as the human mind accustomed to reflection tends to lift itself higher in a broad field, along an open path, or at the top of a building than in a lowly chamber or any restricted place, so also must the free Greek spirit have been very different in its attitude from that of a subjugated people.

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JOHANN JOACHIM WINCKELMANN from History of the Art of Antiquity (1764)

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entral to Winckelmann’s historical view of ancient art is his theory of absolute beauty. This notion for Winckelmann, despite a strong sensual coloration, is ideal in that he argues that a work of sculpture in antiquity was not based on a single model but on the piecing together of the most perfect features from several models. It is also ideal in the sense that rules for it cannot be ascertained. Like the purest water drawn from a spring, its taste is determined as much from the absence of any foreign parts and in the way in which its recognition arises within the human soul without any intermediary concepts. The harmonic quality of its notes is never slurred; instead, its tone is ‘‘simple and long sustained.’’ Architecturally this conception of beauty is similar to the Renaissance concept of harmony or concinnity, but without the specific mathematical basis.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann, from Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums [History of the art of antiquity] (1764), trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave.

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Beauty, as the highest aim and focus of art, requires some preliminary and general remarks through which I should wish to please myself and the reader, but this is a difficult thing to accomplish in a few pages. Beauty is one of the great mysteries of nature, whose effect we all see and feel, but for which a universal and clear concept of its essence belongs among the undiscovered truths. Were this concept purely geometrical, human judgments on it would not differ and it would be easy to form a consensus on true beauty. Still less would there be men of either unfortunate sensibility or inimical vanity, such that the former would form a false notion of beauty while the latter would refuse a proper conception of it. [ . . . ] The wise who have pondered the causes of universal beauty – explored its presence in created things and sought to reach the source of highest beauty – have located it in the perfect harmony of the being with its purpose, and of the parts with each other and with the whole. But as this is synonymous with perfection, of which the human vessel is incapable, our idea of universal beauty remains indefinite. It is formed in us through individual bits of knowledge, which, when correct, are collected and brought together, giving us the highest idea of human beauty. We elevate this the more we raise ourselves above the material. Moreover, as this perfection was given by the Creator to all creatures in the degree suitable to them, and as every concept resides in a cause that must be sought not in the concept but in something else, the cause of beauty cannot be found outside itself, as it exists in all created things. Thus arises the difficulty – because our conceptual knowledge is comparative and beauty cannot be compared with anything higher – of achieving a universal and clear explanation of beauty. The highest beauty is in God, and the idea of human beauty approaches perfection the more it can be conceived in conformity and harmony with the highest Existence, which we distinguish from matter in our concept of unity and indivisibility. This concept of beauty is like a spirit extracted from matter by fire; it seeks to create a being conforming to the image of the first rational creature sketched in the mind of God. The forms of such an image are simple and uninterrupted, manifold in their unity; thus they are harmonious, like a sweet and pleasing tone produced from the body whose parts are uniform. All beauty is enhanced by unity and simplicity, just as everything we say and do. For what is great in itself is enhanced when expressed and done with simplicity; it will not be narrowly constrained or lose any of its greatness if our mind can survey and measure it with a glance, surround and grasp it with a single concept. Its full greatness is represented just by this conceivability, and the mind is expanded and at the same time elevated by its comprehension. For everything divided that we consider, or everything that we cannot survey at a glance because of the number of assembled parts, loses its greatness, just as the long road is shortened by many objects presented along it, or by many inns in which stops can be made. The harmony that delights the soul resides not in broken, stitched, or slurred notes, but in simple and longsustained tones. This is why a large palace appears small when overlaid with decoration, and a house seems large when it is simply and elegantly executed. From this unity proceeds another attribute of high beauty – its indeterminateness, that is, its forms are described only by the points and lines that shape beauty, and thus produce a figure that is unique to neither this or that particular person, nor that expresses any one state of mind or sensation of passion, because these would mix foreign tendencies into beauty and disturb the unity. According to this conception, beauty should be like the purest water drawn from the source of the spring; the less taste it has the healthier it is seen to be, because it is cleansed of all W I N C K E L M A N N , T H E A RT O F AN T I Q U I T Y

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foreign parts. Just as the state of happiness – the removal of pain and the pleasure of contentment – is the easiest condition of nature, and the path to it is the straightest and can be maintained without trouble or cost, so also does the idea of the highest beauty appear in the simplest and easiest things, and requires no philosophical knowledge of man, no investigation of the soul and its expression. Yet as – according to Epicurus – there is in human nature no middle point between pain and pleasure, and as the passions are the winds that propel our ship into the sea of life, by which the poet sets sail and the artist elevates himself, so pure beauty alone cannot be the only object of our consideration. We must also place it within the condition of action and emotion, which in art we understand by the word expression. We shall therefore treat first the conformation of beauty, and second its expression. The conformation of beauty is either individual, that is, directed to the individual, or it is a selection and combination of beautiful parts from many individuals, which we call ideal. Initially the conformation of beauty had to do with individual beauty, that is, with the imitation of a beautiful subject or with the representation of gods. Still in the period of art’s flourishing goddesses were modeled on beautiful women, even on those whose favors were common and venal. The gymnasia and other places where naked youths practiced wrestling and other sports, and to which one went to see a beautiful youth – they were the schools where the artists examined the beauty of the human body. The daily opportunity to view the most beautiful naked youths heated the imagination and the beauty of forms became particular and ingrained as mental images. In Sparta even young girls exercised undressed, or nearly so. Also known to Greek artists, as they began to consider the beauty of the two sexes, was a mixed kind of manly youth. It was produced by the removal of the seminal vessels, a licentious practice that Asiatic peoples used on handsome boys in order to inhibit the rapid course of fleeting youth. Among the Ionian Greeks in Asia Minor, the creation of these equivocal beauties was consecrated as a religious practice in the eunuch priests of Cybele.

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JOHANN JOACHIM WINCKELMANN from History of the Art of Antiquity (1764)

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erhaps the most important contribution that Winckelmann makes to art history is his framework of stylistic evolution. He delineates four stylistic phases for classical art: the Ancient Style, the Grand Style, the Beautiful style, and the Style of the Imitators. Such an organic concept of a style had already been suggested by Vasari, but Winckelmann brings to it a very specific aesthetic and stylistic process of development. Art passes from its initial crude situation to naturalistic imitation, and then elevates itself into the higher plane of ideal beauty. The Grand Style for Winckelmann is still characterized by a certain hardness of features, but this is not a quality to be disdained, as the art of Phidias demonstrates. The Beautiful Style, which for Winckelmann is defined from the period

Johann Joachim Winckelmann, from Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums [History of the art of antiquity] (1764), trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave

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of Praxiteles (mid-fourth century BC) to that of Lysippus and Apelles (mid-third century BC) achieves a more graceful bearing, but at the same time it borders on excessive refinement and over-elaboration. The fourth phase of classical art, the Art of the Imitators, is by definition a period of decline, and this period includes the entire artistic production of the Romans – a harsh condemnation of Latin culture. Greek art had, as Scaliger attributed to their poetry, four main periods, and we can even distinguish five. For just as every action or event has five parts or stages – the beginning, progress, rest, decline, and the end, which is the reason for the five scenes or acts in theatrical pieces – so it is with the chronological succession of Greek art. But as the end lies outside of the bounds of art, there are actually only four periods to consider here. The more ancient style lasted until the time of Phidias. Art achieved its greatness through him and the artists of his time, and we can call this next period the grand or high style. Art acquired more grace and favor from the period of Praxiteles to that of Lysippus and Apelles, and this style can be called the beautiful style. Sometime after these artists and their schools, art began to sink into imitation. We can thus define a third style of imitators, which lasted until art gradually listed to its fall. [ . . . ] Finally, at the time of full enlightenment and freedom in Greece, art became freer and more elevated. The more ancient style was built on a system consisting of rules that, though taken from nature, later departed from it and became idealistic. The artist worked more from the prescription of these rules than from the nature that was imitated; art had formed its own nature. Those seeking improvement raised themselves above this accepted system and approached the truth of nature. They learned to transform the hard, projecting, and abrupt parts of the figures into flowing contours, to make the violent positions and actions more well-mannered and intelligent, and to display less learning and more beauty, elevation, and grandeur. Through this improvement in art Phidias, Polycletus, Scopas, Alcamenes, and Myron became famous. The style itself can be called the grand style, because – aside from beauty – the intention of the artist seems to have been to achieve grandeur. Here we should distinguish hardness from sharpness in rendering, so that someone will not mistake the sharply drawn indication of the eyebrows that one always sees in the most beautiful forms, for instance, with the unnatural hardness that remained from the more ancient style. For sharpness has its basis in ideas of beauty, as was already noted. [ . . . ] After the loss of the works of these great reformers of art, it is impossible to define clearly the insights and characteristics of this high style. Of the style of their successors, which I shall call the beautiful style, we can speak with more assurance. For some of the most beautiful figures in antiquity were undoubtedly made in the period in which this style blossomed; and many others of which this cannot be said were at least imitations of them. The beautiful style commences with Praxiteles, and attained its highest splendor with Lysippus and Apelles, the proofs of which will be demonstrated below. It is therefore the style of the period not long before the time of Alexander the Great and his successors. The chief characteristic distinguishing this style from the high style is grace; in this regard the artists just mentioned have the same relation to their predecessors as Guido, among the moderns, has to Raphael. This will become clearer in considering the rendering of this style, and the grace that forms a special part of it. [ . . . ] Because the proportions and forms of beauty had been so intensively studied by artists in antiquity, and because the contours of the figures had been so defined that they could not be W I N C K E L M A N N , T H E A RT O F AN T I Q U I T Y

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shifted outwardly or inwardly without error, the idea of beauty could not be driven higher. As art could not go forward, and as in all natural effects a resting point is inconceivable, it had to go backward. The representation of deities and heroes had been fashioned in every possible way and pose, and it was difficult to invent new ones. Thus the path lay open to imitation, which cramps the spirit. And if it is not possible to surpass a Praxiteles or an Apelles, it is difficult to equal them, thus in all times the imitator has remained inferior to the imitated. Art thus followed philosophy, in that eclectics or compilers arose among them who, lacking a personal force, sought to combine the individual beauty of many into one. Yet just as eclectics are regarded only as copyists of philosophies of particular schools and have produced little or nothing original, so art could not expect something whole, unique, or harmonious when it took such a path. And just as in compiling excerpts from the great writings of the ancients something gets lost, so through the work of compilers in art the great original works came to be neglected. Imitation advances the lack of personal knowledge, whereby rendering becomes timid. What the artist lacked in knowledge, he tried to obtain by diligence, which displayed itself more and more in details that in flourishing periods of art were omitted or regarded as detrimental to the grand style. Here it is true what Quintilian says – many artists would have made the decorative details of the Jupiter better than Phidias did. By trying to avoid any supposed hardness and to make everything soft and delicate, the parts that were made imposing by previous artists became rounder but dull, charming but insignificant. Corruption has always crept into writing in the very same way; and in renouncing the manly, music has declined like art into the effeminate. The good is often lost in the artificial, because one always wants to make it better.

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G I O V A N N I B A T T I S T A PI R A N E S I from ‘‘Observations on the Letter of Monsieur Mariette’’ (1765)

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he efforts of the Scot Ramsey, the Frenchman Le Roy, the Englishmen Stuart and Revett, and the German Winckelmann – all living in Rome – to portray Latin classicism as vastly inferior to Greek classicism quite naturally invited a response. It came in the form of a sustained and spirited defense by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, one of Italy’s greatest artists of the eighteenth century. Born in Venice, Piranesi first studied architecture in that city, where he became familiar with the teachings of Carlo Lodoli. In 1740 he moved to Rome and turned his attention to engraving. During this decade and the next he also came into contact with several students at the French Academy in Rome, as well as with other visitors to the city, such as William Chambers, Robert Adam, and Allan Ramsay. He thus witnessed the growing fascination with Greece firsthand. His first response in 1756 took the form of four volumes of engravings, Le antichita` romane (Roman antiquity), which boasted of the colossal feats of Roman architects and engineers. In 1761 he produced a visual and polemical work, Della magnificenza ed architettura de’

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–80), from ‘‘Osservazioni di Gio. Battista Piranesi sopra la Lettre de Monsieur Mariette aux Auteurs de la Gazette Litte´raire de l’Europe’’ (1765), trans. Caroline Beamish and David Britt, in Giovanni Battista Piranesi: Observations on the Letter of Monsieur Mariette. Los Angeles: Getty Publications Program, 2002, pp. 87–9, 95–6. ª 2002 by Getty Publications. Reprinted with permission of Getty Publications.

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Romane (On the magnificence and architecture of the Romans), which responded more directly to the arguments of Ramsay and Le Roy. Drawing from Vico’s earlier defense of the autonomy of Roman civilization, Piranesi now makes the point that the Romans actually inherited their artistic traditions from the Etruscans, and the arts were well advanced prior to their first contacts with the Greeks. And next to the greatness and physical dimension of Roman works, the Greeks were only able to affect an ‘‘empty elegance.’’ In 1764 this book was reviewed by the French collector and connoisseur Pierre-Jean Mariette in a French newspaper. In an impolite, even hectoring tone, Mariette sets out to destroy all of Piranesi’s statements about Roman history. Mariette not only (incorrectly) claims that the Etruscans (here called Tuscans) were in fact Greek colonists, but he also smugly insists that whatever good architecture the Romans eventually produced had been carried out by Greek slaves. The Greeks, for Mariette, practiced the architecture of ‘‘beautiful and noble simplicity’’ – to use a phrase current at this time – while the Romans practiced a debased architecture of decorative excess. Piranesi was moved to respond the next year with a three-part polemical and visual refutation, of which the first was a line-by-line response to the points made in Mariette’s review. The following two excerpts convey the spirited nature of the debate. In one vertical column Piranesi publishes Mariette’s review; beside it he pens his response as ‘‘observations’’ (speaking of himself in the third person).

Observations

Monsieur Mariette’s Letter

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Dear Messieurs, Monsieur Piranesi, the author of a number of works on Roman antiquities that have been reviewed in your pages, has recently published another, which may perhaps be unknown to us,A in which he sets out to write a defense of the Romans and to show – contrary to your opinion, which I share – that in the arts, and in architecture in particular, not only does that nation owe nothing to the GreeksB but also it is greatly superior to them by virtue of the solidity, the size, and the magnificence of the buildings that formerly adorned its capital city. He contrasts these buildings with those properly pertaining to the Greeks, some vestiges of which are still to be seen in Athens and elsewhere in Greece.C He finds none that can bear comparison, in either solidity or size, with the Cloaca Maxima [(sewer system)] of Rome, the foundations of the ancient Capitolium, and the emissarium [(drainage outlet)] of Lago Albano – not to mention sundry other ancient structures built of huge ashlars from the earliest days of the

To Signor Mariette this work is unknown, no perhaps about it.

B To my mind, there is a difference between saying As far as architecture is concerned, the Romans owe nothing to the Greeks and saying, as one reads in Piranesi’s preface to the published edition of his work, In the matter of architecture, the Romans owed little or nothing to the Greeks. Italians understand that the phrase poco o nulla [(little or nothing)] is intended to belittle the nature of the debt incurred by the Romans, not to deny that there was any such debt; anyone who has read Piranesi’s book knows whether this is true. On page 93 he demonstrates that Greek architecture conferred no advantage, public or private, on Rome, which had long taken its lead from Etruscan architecture; and that

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Greek architecture had been preferred to Etruscan not on merit but out of caprice. There is the little or nothing that came to Rome from Greece.

C In his book, Piranesi makes no comparison with the buildings properly pertaining to the Greeks, some vestiges of which are still to be seen in Athens and in other parts of Greece. He does make a comparison with those vestiges, because he has seen them, not the buildings of which they formed part.

D And, in comparing those vestiges with those of ancient Rome, he draws no distinction whatever between what was constructed in that city in the earliest days of the republic and what was done later.

E Which are the plates in Piranesi’s work in which he has collected a considerable number of capitals, bases, column shafts, entablatures, . . . , all varying in shape as well as in the ornaments with which they are laden? Plates VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, and XX, I imagine. Now, what does he have to say about all this? That, these being the things brought into Latium by the Greeks, this would seem to indicate the methods of construction used by the Tuscans (page 129), and consequently by the Romans, before they knew the Greeks. How is it, then, that these diverse fragments, all varying in shape as well as in the ornaments with which they are laden are 180

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republic onwardD that still serve the purpose for which they were first built. The same Monsieur Piranesi has collected a considerable number of capitals, bases, column shafts, entablatures, and so forth. These diverse fragments, which vary in shape as well as in the ornament with which they are laden, furnish him – or so he claims – with convincing proof of the fecundity of the genius of the Romans.E That genius, in the opinion of this author, also manifests itself in the size and the scale of the spacious edifices that, though now in ruins, cover vast tracts of land in Rome today. His argument is as follows.

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claimed by Piranesi as convincing proof of the fecundity of the genius of the Romans? Listen to what he has to say about these architectural members elsewhere in the same work: Many of these things are likewise to be seen in Rome, either because they were transported there from Greece, or because they were the work of Greek architects; some of these have been collected by me in plates VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, and so on. So Piranesi, after having made this concession to the Greeks, avails himself of it as convincing proof of the fecundity of the genius of the Romans? But on what page, on what line? May Signor Mariette excuse me for saying that by writing such a review of Piranesi’s book, he has insulted the public even more than he has offended the author. How does Piranesi describe the building methods handed on by the Etruscans to the Romans? He says that the Etruscans thought wisely and used little adornment on their architecture. And what does he say of the Greeks? That by dividing their architectural members too much by carving, they achieved too much vain prettiness and too little gravity, page 101. That the ornaments in their architecture are for the most part monstrous and run counter to the truth, ibid. All which would entitle us to say that the reviewer has not read one word of Piranesi’s book. But let us continue.

F What chicanery! Where exactly, in his book, does Piranesi state that the more recent buildings of the Romans, laden with ornaments, can be recognized by architectural members of bizarre shape that in no way resemble the same members as invented by the Greeks? How could he assert such a thing, after having attributed not to the taste of the Romans but to

The earliest buildings of the Romans were built before any communication took place between their nation and that of the Greeks. The more recent buildings are laden with ornaments and can be recognized by architectural members of bizarre shape that in no way resemble the same members as invented by the Greeks.F Therefore the Romans borrowed nothing and learned nothing from the Greeks; they owe them neither the science of P I RA N E S I , ‘ ‘ O BS E R VATI ON S’ ’

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that of the Greeks these same architectural members of bizarre shape, and after having said, as I mentioned above, that these things are to be seen in Rome, either because they were transported there from Greece, or because they were the work of Greek architects? It is quite true that Piranesi draws a comparison between the ruins of ancient Greece and the monuments (including the most recent) of ancient Rome, including the buildings laden with ornament, a considerable number of capitals, bases, column shafts, entablatures, . . . , all varying in their shapes as well as in the ornamentation upon them; but to what purpose? Here it is: If anyone, he says on page 195, travels to Greece for the purpose of study, what will Greece provide for his instruction? It will not teach him about capitals, because, aside from those of the Erechthion, there are none that bear comparison with Roman capitals; it will not teach him about columns, because there are so many more in Rome of every sort and size; it will not teach him about statues or basreliefs – one finds these in Rome in the greatest abundance and elegance, in comparison to those of the Greeks; finally, it will not teach him about work of any other kind, Italy being so chock-full that – as can well be said – to find Greece we should look no further than Italy. Let no one object, at this point, that many of these monuments were taken from the Greeks, or else made by the Romans in the Greek manner; we are trying not to establish the makers of the works in question, whether Greek or Roman, but to determine which is the most appropriate place to learn these arts, Rome or Greece. We have already seen what Rome has to offer to foreign visitors; but what will Greece have to teach those who make their way there, exhausted by the sea crossing, by travel, and by architectural campaigning, if neither the things adduced by us nor ancient or modern architecture can teach them? Now, such being his

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construction and good building practice nor taste in ornamentation.

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P In his book. Piranesi has asserted (and this I repeat for the last time that the Romans had already been instructed in the arts of peace by the Tuscans. That they (that is, they, the citizens) cultivated those arts after building Rome. That they (the citizens) were excellent in mathematics before they ever came into contact with the Greek arts. That they (they, the citizens) had practiced sculpture and painting before they ever became acquainted with the Greeks. That in matters of construction, once acquainted with the Greeks, they did not adopt the practices of the latter but persevered with their own: that in architecture they (they, the citizens) built things that it had never crossed the minds of the Greeks could be built by a living soul. That very many Romans (that is, of the citizens) were from time to time able architects. That they corrected many of the innumerable defects that they found in the architecture of the Greeks. That they achieved a magnificence equal to that of the Egyptians and the Greeks, and thereafter greater than that of any other nation. What more could the Romans have done to honor the fine arts? What more could they have done, to relieve Signor Mariette of the need to say that they never had either the leisure or the inclination to distinguish between these arts and the purely mechanical trades? Did not their emperors, and many illustrious citizens before them, condescend to cultivate the arts and to become practitioners? Nero was a talented painter and sculptor; Hadrian, besides having been an architect, was a painter, as were Severus Alexander, Valentinian, and others, and in Rome they left behind public evidence of their condescension. What more could they have done to distinguish between these arts and the purely mechanical trades? Was it their duty to speak

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They never had either the leisure or the inclination to distinguish between these arts and the purely mechanical trades;P they left the cultivation of the arts to mercenary Greeks who, attracted by the promise of gain, did not hesitate to expatriate themselves and to quit a country where, after the Roman conquest, there were undoubtedly fewer opportunities to establish and maintain a reputation. Before long, the arts came to be practiced in Rome exclusively by slaves. People rich enough to keep a large number of slaves purchased them with both profit and utility in mind; they therefore sought out, by preference, slaves with artistic talent.

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in praise of those who had cultivated those arts, as [Claude] Perrault says in the preface to his Vitruvius, giving them a place among the illustrious. If anyone ventures to deny that they did so, I appeal to the authority of Cossutius, Varro, Pliny, Vitruvius himself, and many other Roman authors. At the same time, the greater part of the practitioners of the fine arts in Rome were slaves. Without wasting time in the attempt to disabuse Signor Mariette of this hasty supposition, I have this to say: Were they slaves because the Romans had decreed that the fine arts were to be practiced only by slaves? Or were they slaves because the slaves were poor and this was a way in which they sought to become rich? Now, in our own time – a time when the fine arts are separated from the purely mechanical trades – who are most of their practitioners? The poor who seek to become rich, or grandees who condescend to practice the arts? If the laws of slavery had not been abolished, even now that these arts are flourishing once more, and have been separated from the purely mechanical trades, how many practitioners would be counted among the slaves! So many that a person who shared Signor Mariette’s opinions would say that the arts are practiced only by slaves. Furthermore, if in a country full of persons of taste – as was Greece – after the Roman conquest, there were undoubtedly fewer opportunities to establish and maintain a reputation, how could such opportunities have arisen in a country or in a city of men lacking in taste? And these men, ignorant and lacking in taste, how were they able to choose slaves with artistic talent? Perhaps they relied on the praises that they heard from connoisseurs? And were those connoisseurs Greek or Roman? They were Greek; Signor Mariette has already given us to understand as much. So the Romans purchased Greek slaves, and had them practice 184

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the fine arts, not because they knew the value of such slaves or of the works that they created but because those works were appreciated by the Greeks? So they attributed none of the genius to themselves, but to the Greeks? So the Romans stripped the Greek buildings of their principal ornaments, transported to Rome countless masterpieces of art, obliged all Greeks with artistic talent to expatriate themselves, made slaves of them all, and reduced Greece to a desert, not in order to please themselves but to please the Greeks? If this was the case, why does Signor Mariette say that the Romans shamelessly stripped the Greek buildings of their principal ornaments? This was no cause for shame; it was a boon.

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G I O V A N N I B A T T I S T A PI R A N E S I from Opinions on Architecture (1765)

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he second part of Piranesi’s published response of 1765 takes the form of a Socratic dialogue between the characters Protopiro (who represents the classical ‘‘rigorists’’ seeking to simplify and limit ornamentation) and Didascalo (the mouthpiece for Piranesi). It is a dialogue of the greatest importance to architectural theory because it opens up an entirely new line of theoretical development and reflects the crisis of academic theory in the 1760s – a crisis that would continue until the end of the century. Piranesi wrote it when he himself was making his way back into architectural practice, and he now shifts from his earlier archaeological argument into an architectural one. His villain here is actually Laugier and his reform-minded rationalism. In the first part of the dialogue Protopiro has his way, and in the spirit of Laugier he points out the many abuses of contemporary practice with its overreliance on ornamentation. Didascalo then usurps Protopiro’s reformative purism and sarcastically eliminates nearly everything else from architectural usage, leading him to conclude that if Protopiro and Laugier had their way, everyone would once again be living in primitive huts. In short, Didascalo’s argument is a defense of the various traditions of architecture, including its baroque tradition, against the simplicity of classicism, and it rallies around the architect’s freedom to invent and re-use traditional forms – in short, eclecticism. Protopiro. I have given you my opinion. Didascalo. So it is Greece and Vitruvius? Very well: tell me, then, what do columns represent? Vitruvius says they are the forked uprights of huts; others describe them as tree

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, from Parere su l’Architettura [Opinions on architecture] (1765), trans. Caroline Beamish and David Britt, in Giovanni Battista Piranesi: Observations on the Letter of Monsieur Mariette. Los Angeles: Getty Publications Program, 2002, pp. 105–6, 107–8. ª 2002 by Getty Publications. Reprinted with permission of Getty Publications.

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trunks placed to support the roof. And the flutes on the columns: what do they signify? Vitruvius thinks they are the pleats in a matron’s gown. So the columns stand neither for forked uprights nor for tree trunks but for women placed to support a roof. Now what do you think about flutes? It seems to me that columns ought to be smooth. Therefore, take note: smooth columns. The forked uprights and tree trunks should be planted in the earth, to keep them stable and straight. Indeed that is how the Dorians thought of their columns. Therefore they should have no bases. Take note: no bases. The tree trunks, if they were used to support the roof, would be smooth and flat on top; the forked props can look like anything you like, except capitals. If that is not definite enough, remember that the capitals must represent solid things, not heads of men, maidens, or matrons, or baskets with foliage around them, or baskets topped with a matron’s wig. So take note: no capitals. Never fear; there are other rigorists who also call for smooth columns, no bases, and no capitals. As for architraves, you want them to look either like tree trunks placed horizontally across the forked props or like beams laid out to span the tree trunks. So what is the point of the fasciae or of the band that projects from the surface? To catch the water and go rotten? Take note: architraves with no fasciae and no band. What do the triglyphs stand for? Vitruvius says that they represent the ends of the joists of ceilings or soffits. When they are placed at the corners of the building, however, not only do they belie this description but they can never be placed at regular intervals, because they have to be centered over the columns. If they are moved away from the corners, they can then be placed symmetrically only if the building is narrowed or widened with respect to the triglyphs. It is madness that a few small cuts on stone or mortar should dictate the proportions of a building, or that all or some of the due requirements of the building should be sacrificed to them. Thus, the ancient architects cited by Vitruvius held that temples ought not to be built in the Doric manner; better still, the Romans used the Doric without the added clutter. So take note: friezes without triglyphs. Now it is your turn, Signor Protopiro, to purge architecture of all the other ornaments that you disparaged just now. Protopiro. What? Have you finished? Didascalo. Finished? I have not even started. Let us go inside a temple, a palace, wherever you choose. Around the walls we shall observe architraves, friezes, and cornices adorned with those features that you just described as standing for the roof of a building – triglyphs, modillions, and dentils. And when those features are absent, and the friezes and cornices are smooth, even then the architraves and friezes will seem to support a roof and the cornices seem to be the eaves. These eaves, however, will drip rain inside the temple, the palace, or basilica. So the temple, the palace, or the basilica will be outside, and the outside inside, will they not? To rectify such anomalies, such travesties of architecture, take note: internal walls of buildings with no architraves, friezes, and cornices. And then, on these cornices, which stand for eaves, vaults are erected. This is an even worse impropriety than those episke¯nia on the roofs that we discussed a little while ago and that Vitruvius condemns. Therefore take note: buildings with no vaults. Let us observe the walls of a building from inside and outside. These walls terminate in architraves and all that goes with them above; below these architraves, most often we find engaged columns or pilasters. I ask you, what holds up the roof of the building? If the wall, then it needs no architraves; if the columns or pilasters, what is the wall there for? Choose, 186

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Signor Protopiro, Which will you demolish? The walls or the pilasters? No answer? Then I will demolish the whole lot. Take note: buildings with no walls, no columns, no pilasters, no friezes, no cornices, no vaults, no roofs. A clean sweep. [ . . . ] Didascalo. You would like me to agree with you that the architectural manners laid down by Vitruvius are rational? That they imitate truth? Protopiro. Rational – highly rational – by comparison with the unbridled license that prevails in construction today. Didascalo. Aha! Rational by comparison with current practice? And so, if we leave current practice out of it, your rationality disappears at once. The critics, who never let up, will still want the last word; deprive them of the wide scope for indignation that present-day practice affords them, and they will soon turn against the little that you and your friends are prepared to accept. Then, go ahead and say that extremes are dangerous, that too much rigor is really abuse; all the same, the manners in which you build will be judged just as they were or might have been judged when first invented. You call me excessively severe, on the grounds that I am going too far by taking you back to huts in which people have no desire to live; but you would yourselves be condemned for monotonous buildings that people would detest just as much. Protopiro. Monotonous? Didascalo. Yes, monotonous, architecturally always exactly the same. As architects, you think yourselves extraordinary, but you would soon become utterly ordinary. When your simple manners of building were first established, why did the successors of those who established them soon begin to find different ways of decorating their buildings? Was it for want of the capacity to equal their predecessors? Surely not, since they had been trained as their pupils; and, all around them, they could see an architecture that was simple enough to be easy to reproduce. Protopiro. I am not saying that we should do nothing but follow those early manners of building. I don’t blame the successors of those first architects for wanting to innovate. But I do blame them for the quality of their innovations, and I blame all those architects who have vied with each other ever since in devising more and more of them. Didascalo. I suppose you mean architects like [Gian Lorenzo] Bernini and [Francesco] Borromini, and all those others who have failed to bear in mind that ornament must derive from the components of architecture. But, in criticizing them, whom do you think you criticize? You criticize the greatest architect who ever was or ever will be. You criticize the experience of all those many practitioners who from the moment when this kind of architecture was first invented until it was buried beneath the ruins always worked in this way; and the experience of those many who ever since this kind of architecture was first revived have been and are unable to work in any other way. You criticize the very spirit that invented the architecture that you praise; the spirit that, seeing the world still unsatisfied, has found itself obliged to seek variety by the very same ways and means that you dislike. Now if, over the centuries, among all those countless practitioners, the experience of the totality of architecture to date has failed to produce what you are looking for, then how can we avoid concluding that, if everything you dislike were removed from architecture, we would be left with buildings of unendurable monotony? What word other than foolish can we apply to those who flatter themselves that they are destined to find in this art something that has never been found in all these centuries? All the more foolish, in that they cannot even salve their own self-esteem by finding what they are looking for. P I RA N E S I , O P I N I O N S O N A R C H I T E C T U R E

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G I O V A N N I B A T T I S T A PI R A N E S I from ‘‘An Apologetical Essay in Defence of the Egyptian and Tuscan Architecture’’ (1769)

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iranesi’s final say in the matter – one of the more audacious architectural statements of the eighteenth century – was presented in a trilingual publication published in 1769, whose English title is Divers Manners of Ornamenting Chimneys and All Other Parts of Houses. The book is for the most part a series of drawings displaying decorative designs for mantelpieces; attached to it, however, is Piranesi’s ‘‘Apologetical Essay in Defence of the Egyptian and Tuscan Architecture.’’ The argument is now exceedingly simple: the architect should be able to borrow from any or every style (including the Greek, Egyptian, Roman, and Etruscan), mix these borrowings, as well as invent new forms. His only limitation should be his acquired taste. What I pretend by the present designs is to shew what use an able architect may make of the ancient monuments by properly adapting them to our own manners and customs. I propose shewing the use that may be made of medals, cameos, intaglios, statues, bassorelieves, paintings, and such like remains of antiquity, not only by the critics and learned in their studies, but likewise by the artists in their works, uniting in an artful and masterly manner all that is admired and esteemed in them: whoever has the least introduction into the study of antiquity must plainly see how large a field I have by this laid open for the industry of our artists to work upon: and such as have not that advantage will easily comprehend it on casting an eye over the following plates. I flatter my self that the great and serious study, I have made upon all the happy remains of ancient monuments, has enabled me to execute this useful, and if I may be allowed to say it, even necessary project. The study of Architecture, having been carried by our ancestors to the highest pitch of perfection, Seems now on the decline, and returning again to barbarism. What irregularities in columns, in architraves, in pediments, in cupolas; and above all what extravagance in ornaments! one would think that ornaments are used in works of architecture, not to embelish them, but to render them ugly. I know indeed that in this the caprice of those, for whom the buildings are made, has often more part then the architect who makes the design. A military man will have arms and instruments of war every where, wether they be proper or not. A sea-faring man will have ships, Tritons, Dolphins, and shells. An antiquarian will have nothing but ruins of ancient Temples, broken Columns, Statues of Gods, and Emperours. Let them have their will, for no curb ought to be put on such caprices of men, but then let them be executed according the rules of art. Let Tritons and fish be placed on chimneys, if it be so required, but let them not so cover the frame as entirely to hide it, or take away its character. Let the architect be as extravagant as he pleases, so he destroy not architecture, but give to every member its proper character. Let the artist be free to drape a

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, from ‘‘An Apologetical Essay in Defence of the Egyptian and Tuscan Architecture’’ (1769) in Divers Manners of Ornamenting Chimneys. Rome: Generoso Salomoni, 1769, pp. 2–3, 32–3.

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statue, or figure in painting as he likes best, let him adjust the folds and garments with the greatest variety he is able; but let it be always so that it may appear an human body and not a block covered with drapery. Let all the variety of graces be given to architecture that can be desired, but let them be such as agree with it. This the ancients had in view: we ought to follow their manner, and observe the kinds of ornaments used by them, the manner in which they disposed them to make them harmonise with the whole, and the modifications by which the Egyptian and Tuscan manners were adapted to another species of architecture. But this knowledge is not to be acquired but by a long frequenting of the ruins and remains of ancient buildings. And I am sorry that the want of this study has deprived even the greatest men of a certain abundance of Ideas; whence many of their works are wanting in that uniformity of character and stile, which so much pleases. Some who excelled in the great parts of architecture, are wanting In the small ones; others have boldly raised themselves, and shewed the greatness of this genius in the daring flights they have taken in imitation of the ancients, but they have not always been able to sustain themselves, but have lost sight of the antique, to give themselves up to the bad taste of the times in which they lived. Who for instance is more noble than Palladio, when the question is concerning works of magnificence? yet this great man is not equally happy in the internal ornaments of houses, which either shew a poverty of ideas, or a want of knowledge, hence there is a sameness in the doors, windows, and chimneys; or there is no correspondance and the thread is broken, as may be seen in the pannels of the ceilings, which do not correspond with the external design, and are far from the good taste of the ancients. *** I might add much more in praise of the ancient Tuscans, and of our Italy, which was not so much indebted to the Greeks, as some may perhaps imagine: but it is now time to put an end to this argument. I flatter my self that, by what I have hitherto said, I have at the same time vindicated the Egyptian, and Tuscan architecture from those undeserved aspersions which they lye under, and justified my self for having in these designs united the Grecian with the Egyptian and Tuscan manners. The law which some people would impose upon us of doing nothing but what is Grecian, is indeed very unjust. [ . . . ] The human understanding is not so short and limited, as to be unable to add new graces, and embellishments to the works of architecture, if to an attentive and profound study of nature one would likewise join that of the ancient monuments. Whoever thinks that these are exhausted, and that nothing more is to be discovered in them is very much mistaken. No, this vein is not yet exhausted; new pieces are daily dug out of the ruins, and new things pre´sent themselves to us, capable of fertilizing, and improving the ideas of an artist, who thinks, and reflects. Rome is certainly the most fruitful magazine of this kind, and notwithstanding that several Nations strive which shall most enrich themselves with our spoils, the arts will here have helps, which they will scarcely find elsewhere. The Roman school, founded upon these monuments, will continue to be the mother of good taste, and perfect design, which are the distinctive marks of her superiority over all others, and which bring such a number of hopeful youths from different nations into her bosom, there to learn the perfection of design.

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C.

CHARACTER AND EXPRESSION

Introduction

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till another dimension of the crisis of theory in the second half of the eighteenth century can be found in discussions relating to the well-established academic notions of expression or character. For painting the rules in this regard go back to a lecture given to the Academy of Painting and Sculpture of 1668 by Charles Le Brun, entitled ‘‘The Expression of the Passions.’’ Le Brun’s principal concern was with individual expressions in historical paintings, and he drew upon both classical and modern sources to devise rules for finding the proper expression. For the arts the rhetorical concept of decorum, for instance, translated into a theory of literary styles or musical modes, such as Phrygian, Dorian, Aeolian, and Lydian. The architectural parallels to these styles, of course, were the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders. Such an approach was first strengthened in the mid-eighteenth century at the hands of Germain Boffrand and Jacques-Franc¸ois Blondel, but with the push of Soufflot and others for lighter

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proportions and less detailing on the one hand, and with the heavier proportions of Greek architecture on the other hand, these rules and their meanings were suddenly destabilized. Architects now began to see the idea of character in more abstract terms, as well as the possibility for expressions beyond the earlier range of characters. Hence we have a direction of theory in the last several decades of the eighteenth century that proffered different approaches to the idea of character and alternative modes of expression. For instance, in the theory of A. C. Quatreme`re de Quincy, character is now viewed as a multifaceted concept with quasi-organic and anthropological dimensions, while with the formal explorations of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux the idea of character transposes itself into a formal symbolism that came to be known as architecture parlante or ‘‘speaking architecture.’’

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GERMAIN BOFFRAND from Book of Architecture (1745)

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he decade of the 1750s began a period of architectural experimentation in which many of the academic rules, canons, and forms established over the preceding century were openly reconsidered. For the idea of character, the starting point in terms of classical theory was the treatise of Germain Boffrand, perhaps the most important French architect of the first half of the eighteenth century. Born in the era of Perrault and Blondel, he was a student of Jules Hardouin Mansart in the 1690s, where he learned the highly ornate, rococo style first used at Versailles. Likewise, his chateaux and Parisian residences of the first half of the eighteenth century were renowned for their elaborate interiors. In the 1740s, as Boffrand was withdrawing from practice, he began assembling a monograph of his designs, which he prefaced with an essay entitled ‘‘Principles Derived from Horace’s Art of Poetry.’’ It was based on a lecture he had presented to Royal Academy in 1734, and in it he – like Le Brun before him – attempted to draft architectural rules of character from the body of classical theory. His method was to take passages from Horace’s work (italicized in the text) and replace the literary terms with architectural terms. He then adds a short paragraph of explanation. What is notable in his endeavor is his attempt to expand the idea of character beyond its three major modalities related to the three primary orders. Boffrand now considers the idea of character in more subtle ways, such as in the curve of a molding or other nuances of detailing. He thus brings this old idea of character or expression to the fore, where it will find new currency over the next several decades. So close is the affinity between science and art that the principles of the one are the principles of the other. All the divisions of mathematics are closely allied; geometry is the foundation of all the sciences, and the study of one subject adds new knowledge to the other. Painting, sculpture and poetry are sisters: the first two address the eye, the third the ear. Music paints the various incidents of Nature; it expresses and arouses the tenderest and the most violent passions. Architecture, although its object may seem to be no more than the use of material, falls into a number of genres, in which its component parts are so to speak

Germain Boffrand (1667–1754), from Livre d’architecture (1745), trans. David Britt in Book of Architecture Containing the General Principles of the Art, ed. and introduced by Caroline van Eck. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2003, pp. 21–2, 28–9, 35, 36, 39. ª 2003 by Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Reprinted with permission of Ashgate Publishing Ltd.

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brought to life by the different characters that it conveys to us. Through its composition a building expresses, as if in the theatre, that the scene is pastoral or tragic; that this is a temple or a palace, a public building destined for a particular purpose or a private house. By their planning, their structure and their decoration, all such buildings must proclaim their purpose to the beholder. If they fail to do so, they offend against expression and are not what they ought to be. [ . . . ] Elegance and grace in a building consist in putting everything in its place, and leaving out all that ought not to be there.

Inside a building, do not use ornaments that ought only to be on the outside. Arrange every room as best suits the master of the house, with the dimensions and decoration becoming to its use; take care to keep your most precious ornaments in reserve, and find the right places for them as you progress. Much care is called for in using new words.

The profiles of mouldings, and the other members that compose a building, are in architecture what words are in a discourse. All edifices are made up of only three sorts of line: straight, concave and convex. These three also compose all the mouldings that enter into profiles. Be wary of introducing new mouldings, and use them only where appropriate. [...] It is not enough for a building to be handsome; it must be pleasing, and the beholder must feel the character that it is meant to convey; so that it must appear cheerful where it is intended to communicate joy, and serious and melancholy where it is meant to instil respect or sadness.

If you are setting out to build a music room, or a salon in which to receive company, it must be cheerful in its planning, in its lighting, and in its manner of decoration. If you want a mausoleum, the building must be suited to its use, and the architecture and decoration must be serious and sad; for Nature makes us susceptible to all these impressions, and a unified impulse never fails to touch our feelings. [ . . . ] The Muses taught the Greeks the art of speaking well.

It was they who first erected beautiful buildings; their works are our models; their proportions have been applauded and adopted by most nations, and have been handed down to us. From those proportions we cannot depart without relapsing into barbarism – as several nations have done, either because they had no knowledge of them or because, with the presumption that commonly attends on ignorance and folly, they wanted to be free of them. Precisely observed, those principles leave vast scope for genius in the composition of buildings. Genius may exercise itself in any number of ways, but by those principles it must be sustained; and in the absence of genius those same principles decline into aridity and inanition. 192

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E´ T I E N N E B O N N O T D E C O N D I L L A C from Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge (1746)

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offrand’s theory of character permitted architectural forms to be considered primarily for their expressive possibilities, rather than for some adherence to a stylistic canon. Another influence that would shortly come into play in this regard was the empiricism of John Locke, which bypassed the classical issue of proportions by giving primacy to the senses (see chapters 92 and 101 below). The translator of Lockean theory in France was E´tienne Bonnot de Condillac, a friend of both Diderot and Rousseau, who also composed several articles for the Encyclopedia. Condillac’s Essay on the Origins of Human Knowledge is the first great philosophical text of the French Enlightenment and it shares many of the ideas of the encyclopedists. A few years earlier Voltaire had pointed to Locke’s ideas as an alternative system to the metaphysics of Rene´ Descartes and Nicolas Malebranche, which were based on the existence of a few innate ideas. Condillac departs from Descartes by more systematically interpreting Locke’s thought from a strict psychological perspective. What he will ultimately argue (in his Traite´ des sensations, 1754) is that all human understanding, including the emotions and the reasoning of the intellect, are dependent solely on the five senses – a theory known as sensationalism. But in this book, as these two selections demonstrate, he does not go quite so far. While he reduces human understanding to sensations, which he calls our ‘‘first thoughts,’’ he accepts Locke’s thesis of ‘‘connection’’ or ‘‘association of ideas’’ and thus still allows ‘‘reflection’’ to enter the process of human understanding. With or without this allowance, the result is a relativist aesthetics, that is, all judgments are inherently subjective in nature. If we substitute the idea of a building for his discussion of human physiognomy, we can also see how such a model of association might also be applied to architecture. §1 Whether we raise ourselves, to speak metaphorically, into the heavens or descend into the abyss, we do not go beyond ourselves; and we never perceive anything but our own thought. Whatever the knowledge we have, if we wish to trace it to its origin, we will in the end arrive at a first simple thought, which has been the object of the second, which has been the object of the third, and so on. It is this order of thoughts we must explore if we wish to know the ideas we have of things. §2 It would be useless to inquire into the nature of our thoughts. The first reflection on oneself is enough to convince us that we have no means of conducting that inquiry. We are conscious of our thought; we distinguish it perfectly from all that it is not; we even distinguish among all our thoughts, each from every other, and that is sufficient. If we stray from that, we stray from something that we know so clearly that it cannot lead us into any error. §3 Let us consider a man at the first moment of his existence. His soul first has different sensations, such as light, colors, pain, pleasure, motion, rest – those are his first thoughts. §4 Let us follow him in the moments when he begins to reflect on what these sensations occasion in him, and we shall find that he forms ideas of the different operations of his soul, such as perceiving and imagining – those are his second thoughts. E´tienne Bonnot de Condillac (1714–80), from Essai sur l’origine des connaissances humaines (1746), trans. Hans Aarsleff in Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 11–12, 56.

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Thus, according to the manner in which external objects affect us, we receive different ideas via the senses, and, further, as we reflect on the operations which the sensations occasion in our soul, we acquire all the ideas which we would not have been able to receive from external objects. §5 Thus the sensations and operations of the soul are the materials of all our knowledge, materials that are employed by reflection as it explores the relations they contain by making combinations of them. But the whole success depends on the circumstances we pass through. The most favorable are those that provide us with the greatest number of objects that may exercise our reflection. The great circumstances in which those who are destined to govern mankind find themselves constitute, for example, an occasion to form very extensive views; and those which continually repeat themselves in the world at large produce the sort of disposition we call natural because, since they are not the fruit of study, we cannot identify the causes that produce them. Let us conclude that there are no ideas that have not been acquired: the first come directly from the senses, the others from experience and increase in proportion to the capacity for reflection. *** §80 In general the impressions we have in different circumstances make us connect ideas we are no longer able to separate. In our dealings with other human beings, for instance, we imperceptibly connect ideas of certain turns of mind and character with the most notable outward aspects. That is why people with a marked physiognomy please or displease us more than others, for the physiognomy is merely a collection of features to which we have connected ideas that do not come to life unless they are accompanied by pleasure or dislike. Thus it is not surprising that we judge other people by their physiognomy and that we sometimes even at first sight find them off-putting or attractive. Owing to these connections, we often feel excessive attraction to some people, while we are altogether unjust to others. That is because what strikes us in our friends as well as our enemies naturally connects with the agreeable or disagreeable sentiments they have raised in us; and furthermore, because the shortcomings of the former always borrow something agreeable from what we find most amiable in them, just as the better qualities of the latter seem infected by their defects. For these reasons these connections have an enormous influence on our conduct. They nourish our love or our hate, arouse our esteem or contempt, excite our approval or resentment, and produce the sympathies, antipathies, and all the bizarre inclinations we often find it so hard to account for. I believe I have read somewhere that Descartes always had a liking for the squint-eyed because the first woman he fell in love with had this defect.

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JULIEN-DAVID LE ROY from History of the Arrangement and Different Forms that the Christians Have Given to Their Churches (1764)

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fter his large work on Greece had appeared in 1758, Le Roy’s future was assured. Toward the end that year he presented a copy of the book to Jacques-Franc¸ois Blondel, acting on behalf of the Academy of Architecture, and by the end of the year Le Roy was elected to the second class of that august body of architects. In 1762 he became an adjunct professor of history at the Academy. And by 1764 he had joined forces with Soufflot in preparing the way for the domed church of Sainte Genevie`ve in Paris (now the Panthe´on). Soufflot, as we have noted, had sought to marry classical forms with the structural lightness of the Gothic style, and he was most intrigued with the idea of replicating the visual effect of the colonnade with the flat lintel that Perrault had employed at the Louvre. To this end, he worked from a Greek-cross plan for the large church and used freestanding Corinthian columns with smaller domed nave vaults. He also fronted the church with a colossal porch of columns (four deep), again surmounted with a flat lintel and pediment. For the church’s dedication in 1764, Le Roy wrote his small study of Christian churches, which attempts to justify Soufflot’s design by showing it to be the latest development in the drive toward perfection in church design. Le Roy’s history is important in a historiographic sense in that he was first to trace the genealogy of church designs with a comparative plate of different plans and sections drawn at the same scale. It is very important for aesthetic theory, because in the third article or chapter of his study, Le Roy pauses to reflect on the psychological effect of viewing rows of columns or colonnades. This reflection on architectural sensations certainly owes something to Condillac, but it also advances the idea that architecture can indeed be considered beyond the limits of its classical vocabulary – that is, simply as forms, lights, and shadows that have certain aesthetic qualities in themselves. Most of this chapter was later incorporated verbatim into the second edition of Les Ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Grece of 1770. Whatever the cause of the sensations that architecture inspires, it is undoubtedly the nature, force, or quantity of those sensations that prompts our judgment of those buildings that come to our attention. Often when the fine proportions of the parts of a building attract the eye, we traverse it from end to end, we observe all its parts and its details with a delight almost equal to that inspired by the most beautiful sights in nature. Sometimes, again, the grandeur of the divisions of the exterior or the interior of a building, the relief of its parts, the great space that it occupies, and its prodigious height produce a strong impression on the soul. Again, a multitude of small and disparate objects offered all at once to the eye affords us a multiplicity of mild sensations; while a small number of large objects presented

Julien-David Le Roy, from Histoire de la disposition et des formes differentes que les chre´stiens ont donne´es a` leur temples, depuis le Re`gne de Constantin le Grand, jusqu’a` nous [History of the arrangement and different forms that the Christians have given to their churches from the reign of Constantine the Great until today] (1764), trans. David Britt, in The Ruins of the Most Beautiful Monuments of Greece. Los Angeles: Getty Publications Program, 2003, pp. 368, 372–3 (excerpts). ª 2003 by Getty Publications. Reprinted with permission of Getty Publications.

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from new aspects multiply the pleasing or strong sensations that we receive from the most beautiful decorations. These three qualities – the pleasantness, the strength, and the variety of the sensations conveyed to us by architecture – though rarely combined in a single building, are the causes that make architecture beautiful. We shall show how they are to be found in peristyles in particular and how some peristyles reveal more of these qualities than others. *** Run your eye along the full extent of the colonnade of the Louvre while walking the length of the row of houses opposite; stand back to take in the whole; then come close enough to discern the richness of its soffit, its niches, its medallions; catch the moment when the Sun’s rays add the most striking effects by picking out certain parts while plunging others in shadow: how many enchanting views are supplied by the magnificence of the back wall of this colonnade combined in a thousand different ways with the pleasing outline of the columns in front of it and with the fall of the light! The rich variety of this spectacle appears to its greatest advantage when we compare it with the riverside elevation. Try to find new views in that array of pilasters, which are set at very much the same intervals as the columns of the peristyle; you will see, in contrast, only a kind of frigid and monotonous ornament that even sunlight, which brings all nature to life, can hardly change. Even after several hours, the spectator will not exhaust the prospects afforded by the colonnade of the Louvre; indeed, new ones will appear at every hour of the day. Every new position of the Sun causes the shadows of the columns or of the soffit they support to fall on different parts of the wall; just as every change in its altitude will cause their shadows to rise or fall against the back of the colonnade. This last-named source of variety in colonnades, born of the effects of light, is almost enough in itself, when they are well situated and built in good climates. There, lit by sunlight through almost every hour of the day, they have less need of richly decorated rear walls to hold the spectator’s attention. In contrast, in those countries where the sky is always overcast, nature supplies less animation; and the architect must draw on other resources for the variety that will cause his colonnades to give constant pleasure. By enriching the walls behind them, he succeeds in overcoming the monotony that might arise when their decorations are uniformly lit. To these general remarks on the beauty of the views that colonnades offer to the spectator who sees them from different angles, we shall add some important and detailed reflections concerning his perceptions on seeing them from a great distance, on drawing close, and on walking beneath them. When we want to appreciate a colonnade as a whole, we are obliged to stand well back, in order to embrace the whole mass of it; then our movements make little apparent change in the positions of the discrete solids of which it is composed. As we come closer, our view alters. The mass of the building as a whole escapes us, but we are compensated by our closeness to the columns; as we change position, we create changes of view that are more striking, more rapid, and more varied. But if we enter beneath the colonnade itself, an entirely new spectacle offers itself to our eyes: every step we take adds change and variety to the relation between the positions of the columns and the scene outside the colonnade, whether this be a landscape, or the picturesque disposition of the houses of a city, or the magnificence of an interior. 196

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These two last classes of beauty, born of the spectator’s closeness to the columns of the colonnade, are characteristic of the colonnade as it is used in interiors. Inside a temple or a church, however large, the spectator generally takes in almost the entire volume of the space at a glance; and, as he is always standing very close to a number of rows of columns, and as the walls that he sees beyond are commonly far richer and more complicated than those of external colonnades, his slightest movements produce the most striking changes in his view of the interior. In short, so universal is the beauty derived from such colonnades that it would remain apparent even if their constituent pillars were not superb Corinthian columns but mere trunks of trees, cut off above the roots and below the springing of the boughs; or if they were copied from those of the Egyptians or the Chinese; or even if they represented no more than a confused cluster of diminutive Gothic shafts or the massive, square piers of our porticoes. The effect of these supports is indeed enhanced or diminished by their form, by the number of them within a set space, by their relationship to the intervals that separate them, by their varying distances from the backgrounds from which they project, and above all by the quantity of divisions created in the backgrounds. They compel us to vary the proportions of the principal parts of the interior according to the form and spacing of the pillars that mark its divisions; and their general effect, combined with other causes that we shall now examine, may tend to make those interiors seem either smaller or larger than they are.

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J AC Q U ES -F RA N C¸ OI S B L O N D E L from Course of Architecture (1771)

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n 1762 Jacques-Franc¸ois Blondel was appointed a professor at the Royal Academy of Architecture, where he was now required to give regular lectures. These became the basis for his definitive text of theory, the Cours d’architecture or course on architecture, which he published in nine volumes between 1771 and 1777. Once again, Blondel in his teachings tended to be conservative. He emphasized the importance of studying and learning from the masterpieces of architectural history. He stressed reason and taste in the process of design. But he also gave new importance to the issue of character, which in the end constituted a very flexible and open-ended approach to design. This may help to explain his great popularity as a teacher, even among students who would boldly challenge the academic conventions of the day. Blondel begins his section on character by laying down some general rules, and then goes on to define – over some 30 pages – these ‘‘imperceptible nuances,’’ in which he distinguishes such styles or characters as the manly, firm, virile, elegant, delicate, rustic, feminine, mysterious, and grand. After having spoken of the numerous members of architecture and of the sculptural ornaments related to architecture, let us offer some new and no less interesting observations. They are concerned with the manner of recognizing – with regard to our French edifices – the true beauties that are widespread in the most celebrated examples and the Jacques-Franc¸ois Blondel, from Cours d’architecture, ou traite´ de la decoration, distribution & construction des baˆtiments [Course of architecture, or treatise on the decoration, distribution and construction of buildings]. Paris: Chez Desaint, 1771, pp. 373–4, 411–12, 419–20, trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave.

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mediocrities of which some others are not always exempt. Let us give the precise idea that is produced in the imagination of the spectators by the different architectural members that we have come to define. Finally, let us discuss the different means by which we choose to assemble them in our productions: methods that are able to lead to those imperceptible nuances that the ignorant cannot perceive, that the artist sees and that the enlightened amateur applauds. Do not doubt that it is by the assistance of these imperceptible nuances that we are able to make a real distinction in the design of two buildings of the same genre, but which nevertheless should announce themselves differently: preferring in one a style sublime, noble, and elevated; in the other a character naive, simple, and true. Distinct and particular expressions that are never confused or synonymous, that need to be felt and later discussed, they contribute more than one ordinarily imagines in assigning to each building the character that is proper to it. ***

On the Difference between a Character Male, Firm, or Virile in Architecture One imagines by a male architecture that which, without being heavy, preserves in its arrangement a character of firmness matched to the grandeur of the lines and to the genre of the building; it is that which is simple in its general composition, discreet in its forms, and sparse in the details of its ornaments. It is that which announces itself by rectilinear plans, by right angles, by projecting bodies that throw large shadows; it is that which is designed for public markets, fairs, hospitals, and for military buildings in particular. It should be composed of beautiful masses in which one is careful to avoid mixing small, puny, and large parts within the ensemble. Often when one tries to make masculine architecture, one makes it with heavy, massive, material; one takes the word for the thing. One tries to make something new, and one reverts to the heaviness of the beautiful productions of Michelangelo, Le Brun, or Le Pautre, without suspecting that the de Brosses, the Hardouin Mansarts, and the Franc¸ois Blondels have left us immortal examples in this genre, in the composition, grandeur, and solidity of the Luxembourg Palace, in the stables and the orangerie of Versailles, in the triumphal arch of St. Denis. They are admirable productions that incontestably must serve as authorities for the arrangement of the different edifices that require the male character of which we wish to speak. ***

On the Feminine Genre in Architecture One calls architecture feminine in those cases in which the expression displays the proportions of the Ionic order; where the expression is more naive, more charming, less robust than 198

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that of the Doric order. Thus the feminine order must be conveniently and judiciously placed in the decoration of buildings. Taken in a bad sense, feminine architecture will be that which, instead of being virile – in keeping with the genre that the edifice seems to demand – presents a contrary Ionic order; it is true but much less suitable than the precedent because of the usage and the particular purpose of the building. Once again, taken in a bad sense, one again calls architecture feminine when, instead of indicating some rectilinear body (as the style of architecture will be solid), it offers some fore-buildings composed of sinuous parts. The building will thus display an uncertainty in the masses and in the details that one intends to admire, and for this reason feminine architecture must be rejected in all military monuments, in all the edifices raised to the glory of heroes, for princely lodgings, etc. But it can be applied suitably to the exterior decoration of a country pleasure house, of a petit Trianon, in the interiors of a queen’s apartments, in those of an empress, in baths, fountains, and other edifices consecrated to maritime or terrestrial divinities, of which one has derived the dedication from sacred or profane history.

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N I C O L A S L E CA M U S D E M E´ Z I E` R E S from The Genius of Architecture (1780)

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londel’s system of classifying building characters was taken to the next stage of development by Nicholas Le Camus de Me´zie`res, the designer of the famed Halle au Ble´ (1763–7) in Paris. Le Camus also wrote on several topics but he is known principally for this one book, two-thirds of which is little more than a roomby-room analysis of the French hoˆtel or residence. But serving as a preface to this study is his theory of character, in which Le Camus de Me´zie`res again brings the sensationalism of Condillac into architecture, when speaking of the psychological experience of moving through space and how all of the senses can be exploited in a successful design. The defense of Ouvrard’s theory of harmonic proportions against the attack of Perrault is almost an oddity at this late date, and it points to one of several contradictions in French theory in these pre-revolutionary years. No one has yet written on the analogy of the proportions of Architecture with our sensations; we find only scattered fragments, superficial and, as it were, set down by chance. These may be regarded as diamonds in their rude covering, which require the aid of Art to assume their full splendor. This is a new subject; and we offer this study as no more than a sketch, with a view to inciting more fortunate spirits to take up the same point of view and to compose on this topic a finished Work worthy of the enlightened age in which we live. Hitherto it has been customary to work in accordance with the proportions of the five Orders of Architecture, used in the ancient Buildings of Greece and Italy: this is a priceless model, and we cannot do better. But how many Artists have employed these Orders

Nicolas Le Camus de Me´zie`res (1721–89), from Le ge´nie de l’architecture; ou, l’analogie de cet art avec nos sensations [The genius of architecture; or, the analogy of that art with our sensations] (1780), trans. David Britt, in The Genius of Architecture. Santa Monica: Getty Publications Program, 1992, pp. 69– 70, 73–4. ª 1992 by Getty Publications. Reprinted with permission of Getty Publications.

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mechanically, without taking the opportunity to combine them into a whole with a character all its own, capable of producing certain sensations; they have not been inspired by the analogy and relation of those proportions with the affections of the soul. We sometimes see examples of Architecture that surprise and impress, but leave the judgment uncertain: there remains something to be desired. Why is this so? Because these are the offspring of caprice: good taste may prevail in them, and they may bear the marks of genius; but we find, on inspecting them, that the execution is uncertain, and that the true principles of Art have been mistaken or neglected. At the same time, there are the happy creations of those men of genius who are the wonder of their age: let us take these works as our models. Let us discuss them with reasoned application, distinguish the causes of their effect on our souls, and in this way establish our principles. Our purpose is to enlarge upon these causes through our Observations on the most remarkable Buildings, those that have most impressed us, in accordance with the sensations that we have ourselves experienced. Nature and art will jointly guide us; theirs is the path that we intend to follow; we shall count ourselves fortunate if this undertaking does not exceed our strength. Occupied with such observations since my youth, my zeal has sustained itself by fixing my attention upon the works of nature. The more closely I have looked, the more I have found that every object possesses a character, proper to it alone, and that often a single line, a plain contour, will suffice to express it. The faces of the lion, the tiger, and the leopard are composed of lines that make them terrible and strike fear into the boldest hearts. In the face of a cat, we discern the character of treachery; meekness and goodness are written on the features of a lamb; the fox has a mask of cunning and guile: a single feature conveys their character. The celebrated Le Brun,1 whose talents do honor to his country, has proved the truth of this principle through his characterization of the passions; he has expressed the various affections of the soul, and has rendered joy, sadness, anger, fury, compassion, etc., in a single line. Similarly, in inanimate objects, it is their form that makes some pleasing to us, others unpleasing. A flower charms the eye: a gentle sympathy attracts us, and the disposition of its parts delights us. Why should not the productions of the Art that forms my theme enjoy the same advantages? A structure catches the eye by virtue of its mass; its general outline attracts or repels us. When we look at some great fabric, our sensations are of contradictory kinds: gaiety in one place, despondency in another. One sensation induces quiet reflection; another inspires awe, or maintains respect, and so on. What are the causes of these various effects? Let us try to distinguish them. Their existence is in no doubt; and this becomes still more apparent if we combine Painting and Sculpture with Architecture. Who can resist this threefold magic, which addresses almost all the affections and sensations known to us? *** But let us leave this digression and say only that a close affinity exists between colors and sounds, that they move the passions to an equal degree, and that they produce the same effects. At the sight of a fine building, the eyes enjoy a pleasure as sweet as any that the ears can receive from the sublime art of sounds. Music, the divine Art that enchants us, bears the closest relation to Architecture. The consonances and the proportions are the same. The City of Thebes, or so legend has it, was built to the strains of Amphion’s lyre: a fiction 200

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that teaches us, at least, that the Ancients felt how intimately Architecture was allied to harmony, which is none other than the combination of different parts to form a concordant whole. Architecture is truly harmonic. The ingenious M. Ouvrard, Master of the Music at the Sainte-Chapelle and one of the ablest musicians of the age of Louis XIV, proves it so in the most victorious manner in his Treatise.2 To sustain his system, he shows that the dimensions of Solomon’s Temple are related by the harmonic numbers; these dimensions conform to those that Scripture has given us and Villalpanda has so finely elucidated.3 He does not stop at this one Building: he has applied his principles to several ancient Buildings and to all the precepts of Vitruvius; a number of pleasing works, all marked with the seal of genius, have come from his pen. All cavils against his systems have been in vain. M. Perrault4 was in the wrong when he wrote that there should be no fixed proportions and that taste alone must decide; that genius must have its flights; that too many and too strict rules seemed to circumscribe it and, as it were, to make it barren.

NOTES 1 2 3

4

Charles Le Brun, who died in Paris in 1690, was first Painter to Louis XIV and has left the Public a characterization of the passions, simply drawn in line. Architecture harmonique; ou, Application de la doctrine des proportions de la Musique a` l’Architecture [Harmonic architecture; or, Application of the doctrine of musical proportions to architecture]. Juan Bautista Villalpanda, an able Jesuit and a native of Cordova, Author of a learned Commentary on Ezekiel, in three volumes in folio, which is particularly esteemed for its description of the City and Temple of Solomon. He died in 1608. Claude Perrault, of whom Boileau speaks so frequently in his Satires, and who died in Paris in 1688, has left us a Translation and a learned Commentary on Vitruvius. His were the Designs for the Porte Saint-Bernard, the Observatory, and the famous Colonnade of the Louvre. This celebrated Artist commenced with the study of Medicine; he was a Doctor of the Paris Faculty.

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n this excerpt from the beginning of Le Camus’s chapter on ‘‘Exterior Decoration’’ another influence with regard to character is making itself felt: the idea of the ‘‘sublime’’ as it was developing in British aesthetic theory. Le Camus in fact dedicated his book to Claude-Henri Watelet (1718–86), the author of the Essai sur les jardins (Essay on gardens, 1774) – one of the first French texts to discuss British garden theory. This passage may also owe something to Thomas Whateley’s Observations on Modern Gardening (1870; see chapter 114 below), which Nicolas Le Camus de Me´zie`res (1721–89), from Le ge´nie de l’architecture; ou, l’analogie de cet art avec nos sensations [The genius of architecture; or, the analogy of that art with our sensations] (1780), trans. David Britt, in The Genius of Architecture. Santa Monica: Getty Publications Program, 1992, pp. 93–5. ª 1992 by Getty Publications. Reprinted with permission of Getty Publications.

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was translated into French in 1771. Le Camus is analyzing building forms, as Le Roy had suggested, entirely from the point of view of the emotions they invoke within us. True harmony in Architecture depends on the consonance between the masses and between the various parts. The style and the tone must be relative to the character of the whole, and the whole must be founded on nature, on the kind of Building that is to be built, and on its purpose. The part of Architecture that we call by the name of fitness is defined and may be learned not so much by the study of rules as by a perfect understanding of the manners and customs of the age and country in which one lives. Even so, let us essay some general laws, which taste will develop and experience confirm. This will, moreover, be the subject of reflections that will lead us toward perfection by an easier path. Let us begin with the masses of the building. Their proportion, their mutual relation, gives rise to the sound ensemble, elegant arrangement, and delightful harmony, without which nothing can satisfy. To this end, all excessively small parts must be avoided; they create confusion, consonance is destroyed, and there is no proportion left; or the proportion is nebulous and doubtful and fails to produce the desired effect. It is an established principle that there can be no proportion between incommensurable quantities and that good proportions in general are founded on correct, immediate, and apprehensible relations. Permit yourself no lapses; for any neglect of the principles of union leads to confusion; it offends the eyes, as the ears are offended by a false note in music. The true Artist pays the closest attention to this; if he be an accurate observer, he will discern in every form the marks that distinguish it from every other; he will understand that if he wishes his building to set a calm and gentle scene, he must combine masses that do not differ too widely; he will see that they must not have too much variety and relief and that the prevailing tone must be one of tranquility and majesty; the contrasts of light and shade must be well regulated, for any excess of either would be harmful. Nothing better conveys the character of mildness than shadows that become less dense as they grow longer. In a building of a kind in which more harshness is called for, the succession will be less regular, and the transitions more frequent. If a building is to be marked by simplicity, too many divisions will be avoided. Another, where no pretension to elegance is wanted, may still be rendered notable by the use of numerous masses and divisions to create an effect of richness and profusion. An air of vivacity and gaiety may be imparted by similar means: stringcourses and cornices provide enhancement and variety. The harsh effects produced by excessive relief, the unduly strong impressions caused by contrasts of light and shade, all, in short, that seems to spring from immoderate effort, disturbs the enjoyment of a scene intended only for amusement and pleasure. The majestic character, even at its calmest, is never languid. In a building of this sort, a happy mean prevails: harmony must be found in every part; magnificent objects, grand in their dimensions and in their style, suffice to fill and satisfy the soul; it is only where these are too few that recourse may be had to those ornaments that are proper and relative to beautiful Architecture. These are riches that may be employed; but much art is needed, together with great tact and unfailing prudence. 202

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Terror is the effect of magnitude combined with power. The terror inspired by a natural scene may be likened to that which springs from a scene in a play; the soul is powerfully moved, but its sensations are pleasurable only when they partake of terror without repugnance. The resources of Art may be used to render these sensations more lively. The aim is to amplify those objects whose character is in their size and to give added vigor to those distinguished by power; take care to accentuate those that convey terror, while dispensing scattered hints of sadness. Projecting bays may be employed; recessions terminating in a dim obscurity, into which the eye can scarcely penetrate, will be a great resource. Where the occasion arises, afford a glimpse of some distant, vague, and indeterminate vista, in which no object meets the eye. Nothing could be more terrible; the soul stands amazed; it trembles. The stately, bold masses on which the eye first rested have prepared the soul for such a sensation. Even the majesty of the Ocean itself scarcely mitigates its measureless vastness; to become a pleasing prospect, it requires a shore, a cape, or an island in the middle distance. These varied objects give shape and life to the whole. This genre of the terrible is enhanced by suitable ornaments; but observe that these accessories, though they may serve to designate the character, will do nothing to convey the expression. This bears the stamp of nobler qualities, which nothing can replace. Great size is indispensable to the genre of the terrible, just as stately and clear-cut masses are the province of majesty. When we are on the banks of a river, the motion of the water in itself numbs our senses and lulls us to sleep; a quicker motion rouses us and animates us. When carried to excess, this rapidity alarms our senses; it becomes a torrent whose noise, force, and impetuosity inspire terror, a sensation closely allied to the sublime, whether as a cause or as an effect. Such is the progression of our sensations: the proportion between one part and the whole determines the natural placing of an object, indicates its kind, and supplies the style appropriate to every scene. It is impossible to pay too much attention to the masses in a building, to their intended effect in elevation, and to the greater or lesser degree of light that may result; the shadows must temper the light, and the light must temper the shadows. In this principle, success resides; here alone true beauty is to be found; this is a subject of great importance, which has yet to receive due attention. If only this can be considered and discussed, the truth will come to light, and the greatest benefits will ensue. This observation, we repeat, is essential. Even the most intelligent Architect can hope to succeed only by adapting his design to the exposure of the Sun to the principal parts of his building. Like the skillful Painter, he must learn to take advantage of light and shade, to control his tints, his shadings, his nuances, and to impart a true harmony to the whole. The general tone must be proper and fitting; he must have foreseen the effects and be as careful in considering all the parts as if he had to show a picture of them. Just as in a play a single action occupies the stage, similarly in a building the unity of character must be observed, and this truth must capture the imagination by presenting itself to the eye. Never depart from fitness and decorum in relation to the genre to which the intended building belongs.

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JEAN-LOUIS VIEL DE SAINT-MAUX from Letters on the Architecture of the Ancients and the Moderns (1787)

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ittle is known of this architect and writer, other than he was a younger brother of the more famous architect Charles-Franc¸ois Viel (1745–1819). The significance of these letters is that they reveal another side of French architectural theory in the closing years of the Ancien Re´gime. Viel de Saint-Maux was a caustic critic of the Vitruvian tradition and of the French Academy. In a footnote to one letter, he refers to Jacques-Franc¸ois Blondel as ‘‘the Charlatan of architecture,’’ and he was equally dismissive of Paris’s most celebrated architect, Claude-Nicholas Ledoux, whom he accuses of plagiarism. He faults modern practice for lacking a ‘‘distinctive character,’’ and this freemason counters with a highly symbolic interpretation of architecture. In reviewing ancient architecture, he devotes much of his discussion to the still little-known architecture of India, Japan, China, Babylonia, and Persia. He underscores the cosmogony, cosmology, and fertility rituals originally giving rise to the range of symbolic forms. Whereas Laugier had earlier interpreted the pediment as based on an imitation of the rustic hut, Viel de Saint-Maux views the triangle as the near universal symbol of the Supreme Being in ancient religions. Architecture for him thus functions in an entirely expressive and intensely symbolic manner. Filled with these ideas and persuaded that architecture must have an origin more true, more noble, and more useful than what is attributed to it, I have searched to find it and to discard everything that has until now prevented us from making this discovery. I have wanted to penetrate those very motives that had persuaded the Greeks and the Romans to cover the primordial ideas with a veil, out of which arose, at its origin, the art of architecture. It is in the temples related to cults that ancient architecture developed all of its richness and achieved its greatest heights. It is therefore relative to that which the cult requires that one must analyze this art; then and only then will we arrive at its august origin. It is by not having done this that we have substituted great errors for truth. We have supposed, for example, that these temples were primarily intended for sacrificing victims; as proof we point to the heads of bulls with which they were decorated. But if these edifices were only conceived as sacred butcher’s houses, why were their soffits and their vaults adorned with astronomical objects? Why did these temples everywhere present symbols relating to the health and the subsistence of man? What relations did all of these things have with the animal sacrifices? What could have caused such astonishing and irrational disparities? *** The origin of what has been attributed to the different parts of buildings is worthy of these silly ideas. The base of a column, it has been said, represents ropes; the column’s shaft is derived from a trunk or a piece of wood that supports the structure of our garrets; the capital, according to some of us, is an assemblage of iron hoops or cords with which tree

Jean-Louis Viel de Saint-Maux, from Lettres sur l’architecture des anciens et celles des modernes [Letters on the architecture of the ancients and the moderns] (1787), trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave from facsimile edition. Geneva: Minkoff Reprint, 1974, pp. 7–8, 10–13, 16–18.

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trunks were tied. According to others, it is a large shelf forcefully placed atop the pretended trunk, and in this ridiculous system the cornice becomes an awning. That which we call ornament in each order has a no more distinguished origin. Some plants, they say, grew between the cords and the wood that formed either the base or the capital. One found these plants to be a marvelous ornament, and they were imitated in marble when more durable edifices were built. Is this not indulging oneself in calumny and disparaging these buildings and those who invented the different parts? In some way is it not stripping antiquity of any merit? *** It [the classical temple] is a masterpiece that honored and really honors the human race. Its sublime origin, to the great astonishment of those who claim to be the wisest in these matters, is agriculture itself and the cult that was behind it. It is thus a speaking poem; in its ensemble it was how the ancients instructed themselves, as in a book – not only in matters of primitive theogony but also of the combinations of their cosmogony. In a word, in its full complement it was that which came to reunite all knowledge and it was refined by ingenious allegories and emblems that one was not able to misinterpret. It was not simply a base or a capital of so many modules that they assessed for this type of monument, but rather objects relating to agricultural science, of which the column revealed its interesting origin. The entablature retraced the history of the godsend: the happy influences of the sun on the fecundity of the soil. It came about because of the gratitude of man, which completed this ex voto or theological construction. Although we believe that this genius was manifested only in the sculpture of ancient monuments, sometimes a rough stone produced the same effect. The appearance of the edifice, its ensemble and elevation, also offered the ideas that they wanted to transmit to posterity by constructing them. In ancient temples everything is open to analysis, everything presents some symbols and mysterious types; everywhere we discover the great attributes of the divinity. In effect, the temple celebrates only the marvels of creation, the perpetual miracles of fertility, structural feats, the laws of movement, etc. On temple walls we even find geographic maps of the known world with the different revolutionary epochs that had passed. We also find represented there lessons for tilling the soil, the annual seasons, and the orbit of the sun, under the guise of characters or under the form of the country’s production. These same seasons – the sun itself – have always been considered as the attributes of the divinity; thus, the people became enlightened, diligent, and grateful.

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A . C . Q U A T R E M E` R E D E Q U I N C Y from Methodical Encyclopedia (1788)

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he most extensive exposition on the notion of character in the late eighteenth century was that presented by Antoine Chrysosthoˆme Quatreme`re de Quincy, whose ideas on this and other issues would later have an enormous impact on architectural thinking. Born in Paris, he first studied law before switching his interest to sculpture. He did not win the grand prix but traveled to the south in 1776, where he remained until 1784. During his stay he befriended the grand-prix winning painter Jacques-Louis David, met Piranesi and Canova, and visited the classical sites at Pompei, Paestum, and Sicily. Upon returning to France he wrote a competition essay on Egyptian architecture in 1785, for which he won a prize. Shortly thereafter, he was commissioned to write an architectural encyclopedia, the first volume of which (Abajour to Colonne) he completed in 1788. This 52 page essay on ‘‘Character’’ was written a little more than a decade after Blondel had presented his elaborate discussion of this concept, but Quatreme`re de Quincy takes the idea an entirely different direction. It is much broader and at the same time more grounded in his rational vision of classical architecture, which was opposed to what he regarded as the expressionist excesses of the day – for instance, the fanciful visions of Claude-Nicholas Ledoux. The article opens with an etymological discussion of the Greek term ‘‘character,’’ which literally means ‘‘a mark or figure traced on stone, metal, paper, or any other material with the chisel, the burin, the brush, the pen, or any other instrument.’’ Quatreme`re de Quincy next distinguishes between physical character and moral character, and it is here that the first of our two passages commences. After these rather general remarks on the three kinds of each character, Quatreme`re goes off, over many more pages, to analyze architectural character with respect to these distinctions and to the climatic, racial, national, and personal variables affecting character. In essence it is largely an anthropological consideration of character, although underlain with Quatreme`re de Quincy’s own classical preferences.

A More Precise Definition of the Word Character This first definition of character leads us to another more precise distinction, and one very important for understanding the nuances of this word. One must recognize, be it physical or moral, three kinds of character: essential character, distinctive or accidental character, and relative character. In a physical sense, essential character is the type by which nature makes its works recognizable; it is that complex indication of large traits that constitute above all the general divisions of the three kingdoms of nature, especially the distinctions of different classes of being, of the proper nuances of species, of gender, of age, and of all the apparent and grandly impressed exterior marks that oppose the confusion of one species with another. Distinctive or accidental character is that which depends on all the particular accidents, on all the varieties of development that a multitude of visible or invisible causes impress on the same species, following the diversity of their circumstances, thus on individuals of a A. C. Quatreme`re de Quincy (1755–1849), from Encyclope´die me´thodique: architecture. Paris: Panckouke, 1788, pp. 478–9, 500, trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave.

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same species, following the diversity of elements that modify their forms, and of the influences that have some effect on them. Relative character is a most particular indication of faculties relative to different genres of properties of which nature has endowed certain species or certain individuals, and which makes known for what use they are especially destined. In a moral sense, essential character resides in the uniformity of general habits that form the particular instinct of each species of being, and that always indicates in a constant way their inclinations, their dominant tastes, and their tendencies, which – adhering to nature even in their organization – can never be averted by accidental causes. Distinctive character is that in which the particular accidents of organization, circumstances, social institutions, and all exceptions that are in the same order of nature render appropriate to such or such individual, or to such or such part of the same species. Indeed it is only a local or momentary modification of essential character. Relative character is the stamp or the particular development of certain analogous qualities to such or such an end, and to such or such a manner of being, and that indicates what is appropriate to such or such a being; it denotes a correlation between how one appears and what is appropriate. These distinctions and definitions have clarified for us the different acceptances of the word character and we will see that these different meanings, which usage so often confuses, respond precisely to the established distinctions.

Significations and Acceptances of the Word Character In speaking of the same object, the same being, or the same work, one says that it has some character, it has a character, or it has its character. They are not the same thing, although in ordinary language they are misused. As we will see – and especially with works of art – something can have some character or a character without having its character. When one says something about an object, it has some character, or rather, there is some character in it that one is able to express by some manner of speaking, whether the indefinable something of greatness, strength, or importance that one is always at pains to determine. In this accepted sense of character, one is able to say character par excellence, that of force, which is how I have defined essential character – that is, these traits energetically articulate what is taken for the essence of something. Thus in a physical sense when you say this man has some character, it is as if you say this man is conformed in such a way that his traits are very striking and pronounced, which distinguishes him in very distinct ways from the traits of a woman or of an infant. It is in this sense that a mature man has more character than a young man. The man who has no character will be he whose traits are little or badly developed, and thus his equivocal conformation approaches more the rotundity of the infant or the softness of the woman. When one says in a moral sense that a man has some character, it is as if one says this man has some habits strongly pronounced, and particularly those that constitute the moral essence of a man. This kind of character especially resides in force, gravity, seriousness, severity, inflexibility, in short, in all the qualities that depart from playfulness,

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grace, and the frivolity that constitutes the character of age or gender, that is to say, having none of it. Thus in this sense, some character signifies character par excellence, character of force or the essential. When one uses this word in its second acceptance, as when one says that this object or that being has a character, one simply speaks of those infinite nuances that modify all the objects of the same genre, all the individuals of a species. Let me explain. We have seen that character, in its etymology, signifies only a mark or distinctive sign of something. We have seen that essential character, which one expresses by some character, refers to the indicative marks of essential qualities that constitute in an energetic and pronounced manner the large distinctions of nature. Now when you say that a being physically has a character, you are no longer speaking of these large distinctions, but of the individual nuances more or less distinct in each being of the same species. It is as if you say he has a distinctive sign, which indicates faculties strong or weak, large or small, but which are unique to him. Although each being in reality has a configuration distinct from others, and therefore a character, you only use this expression when a particular modification is more expressly marked. For example in speaking of physiognomy, each man has his own; but one says that a man has a physiognomy when his offers something rather remarkable apart from the commonality of physiognomies. A being thus has a character when one observes in him an individual modification that differs in a striking way from others. There are a large number of people who are similar in exterior conformation, of whom one might say that among them there is a character. When one speaks of a man in a moral sense and says that he has a character, one understands that the genre of his formed habits is distinct in its nuances from other men, without having to explain of what nature they are. One may speak of a particular combination of tastes, of inclinations, or remark on his moral organization as very distinct from others. In this sense one is able to have a character without having some character. There are some men who have both; there are many more, especially in urban societies, who have neither one nor the other. Thus under this acceptance, character conveys of a person no particular relation of such or such quality, such or such property; it is as if one simply says this person has a sign that distinguishes him from others. Character then relates to that which I have called distinctive character. When one says that an object or a being has its character, especially when one joins it with the word appropriate (and it is always this that one understands even when one suppresses this epithet), one wants to say that such an object or such a being carries within him the indicative mark of that which is appropriate. This acceptance carries the idea of propriety for something, or for some use. Thus in this third usage, when you say that a man physically has his appropriate character it supposes that you already understand the faculties with which he is gifted, and that you find an exact correlation between what he is and what he seems. Suppose a man capable of some kind of force, of address, of exercise, of swiftness. You say that he has his appropriate character when his proportions, his conformation, his musculature, etc. appear to conform to the use to which he is destined by nature, and you are capable of understanding what is proper. In a moral sense, you say that a man has his appropriate character when his habits or his moral conformation correspond to the place, the state, the profession, the manner of 208

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being for which he seems born, and for which he has accepted. One understands, without necessarily explaining it, that one applies the word character in this last sense when one says of a warrior, of an artisan, of a poet, of a master, of a slave that he has his character. It is as if one says the development of his moral qualities indicate that he is appropriate to what he is, to what he does. Thus character, when one speaks of his appropriate character, never says that the character that one has is proper in itself, but that it is appropriate to the use for which it is formed. And this is what I call relative character. ***

Essential Character, or of Force and Grandeur [ . . . ] The energetic expression of force and all the sentiments that derive from this essential virtue depend in particular on the same expression of the essence of architecture, or on the types that brought it into being. Therefore, of the three accepted orders that architecture is rightly deemed to have, the Doric order has the most character. It is the primitive order in which the expression of carpentry and of the constitutive types of art are expressed and rendered with the most force and evidence. It is for this reason that Greek architecture, where this expression essentially dominates, has more character than Roman architecture, in which the characteristic impression of these types begins to disappear and become confused. It is for this reason that modern architecture will always have lost some character – to the extent that this faithful imitation of the type of carpentry has been effaced and altered to the point of becoming unrecognizable. Do you want to restore this characteristic virtue to your works? Then always have your eyes fixed on the real or ideal model that has brought architecture into being. All the constitutive parts of your edifices should articulate the intention for making them, and as much as possible conform to the parts of the models of which they represent. Never lose sight of their origin, the needs that served as a motive for their shapes, in short, the reality of the objects that you necessarily render – in some way – as the image. This primitive model for which you are merely the copyist will deter you from all those bizarre compositions and details that lessen and weaken the appearance and the effects of buildings. It will save you from these equivocal and bastard forms that leave the mind uncertain of their usefulness, from those weak and indecisive forms of which no design or no motif seems to have made itself felt. It will especially save you from all those nonsensical forms and ornaments that work in a contrary sense to the necessary forms of construction, setting up a perpetual lie between the appearance and reality of objects.

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E´ T I E N N E - L O U I S B O U L L E´ E from Architecture, Essay on Art (c.1794)

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etween 1760 and 1789 French architecture enjoyed a most creative period. Part of its success had to do with an unprecedented building boom initiated by the crown and city government. Part also had to do with a loss of authority within the academic system, the new knowledge of Greece, and the general desire to experiment with new aesthetic ideas. A third and very important component of the formal innovation also had to do with the quality of young architects who emerged. Joining Soufflot as his generation’s most gifted designer were a number of highly talented architects, among them Pierre Contant d’Ivry, Jacques Gabriel, Marie-Joseph Peyre, Charles De Wailly, Jacques-Denis Antoine, Jacques Gondoin, and Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. E´tienne-Louis Boulle´e was a prominent member of this professional generation. In his early years he was known principally as the architect of a number of elegant townhouses, beginning with the Hoˆtel Alexandre (1763–6) and culminating with the grand Hoˆtel de Brunoy (1774–9) along the Champs-Elyse´es. But he was also highly regarded as a teacher and elevated to the first class of the Architectural Academy in 1780. Two years later, he resigned from his official governmental offices and devoted himself to painting and to architectural theory. In the first regard – for which today he is most famous – he produced a bevy of ‘‘visionary’’ and highly imaginative designs, of which over 100 drawings still survive. In the second regard, as a theorist, he composed an explanatory essay, which he planned to publish with his drawings. The French Revolution interrupted these plans and it was only in 1957 that his essay was published, although it was widely known in its day. Boullee´ considers character in a way different from Quatreme`re de Quincy, and in fact his ideas derive very much from the substance of his drawings. On the one hand he was very skeptical of Vitruvius (whom he regards as little more than a technician), the issues of the Blondel/Perrault dispute, and academic culture itself. He was also a sensationalist in his aesthetics and spoke of architecture as poetry, by which he meant a kind of poetry composed of symmetry, regularity, varied form, and character. This first selection of passages outlines what is essentially a theory of volumes under the play of light; its expression is its character. In my search to discover the properties of volumes and their analogy with the human organism, I began by studying the nature of some irregular volumes. What I saw were masses with convex, concave, angular or planimetric planes, etc., etc. Next I realized that the various contours of the planes of these volumes defined their shape and determined their form. I also perceived in them the confusion (I cannot say variety) engendered by the number and complexity of their irregular planes. Weary of the mute sterility of irregular volumes, I proceeded to study regular volumes. What I first noted was their regularity, their symmetry and their variety; and I perceived that that was what constituted their shape and their form. What is more, I realized that regularity alone had given man a clear conception of the shape of volumes, and so he gave them a definition which, as we shall see, resulted not only from their regularity and symmetry but also from their variety. E´tienne-Louis Boulle´e (1728–99), from Architecture, Essai sur l’art [Architecture, essay on art] (c.1794), edited and annotated at the Bibliothe`que Nationale in Paris by Helen Rosenau, trans. Sheila de Valle´e, published in Boulle´e & Visionary Architecture, New York: Harmony Books, 1976, pp. 86, 87, 89.

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An irregular volume is composed of a multitude of planes, each of them different and, as I have observed above, it lies beyond our grasp. The number and complexity of the planes have nothing distinct about them and give a confused impression. How is it that we can recognize the shape of a regular volume at a glance? It is because it is simple in form, its planes are regular and it repeats itself. But since we gauge the impression that objects make on us by their clarity, what makes us single out regular volumes in particular is the fact that their regularity and their symmetry represent order, and order is clarity. It is obvious from the above remarks that man had no clear idea of the shape of volumes before he discovered the concept of regularity. Once I had observed that the shape of a regular volume is determined by regularity, symmetry and variety, then I understood that proportion is the combination of these properties. By the proportion of a volume, I mean the effect produced by its regularity, its symmetry and its variety. Regularity gives it a beautiful shape, symmetry gives it order and proportion, variety gives it planes that diversify as we look at them. Thus the combination and the respective concord which are the result of all these properties, give rise to volumetric harmony. [ . . . ] What then is the primary law on which architectural principles are based? Let us consider an example of Architecture that has been imperfectly observed and lacks proportion. This will certainly be a defect but the defect will not necessarily be such an eyesore that we cannot bear to look at the Building; and nor will it necessarily have the same effect on our eyes that a discord has on our ears. In architecture a lack of proportion is not generally very obvious except to the eye of the connoisseur. It is thus evident that although proportion is one of the most important elements constituting beauty in architecture, it is not the primary law from which its basic principles derive. Let us try, therefore, to discover what it is impossible not to admit in architecture, and that from which there can be no deviation without creating a real eyesore. Let us imagine a man with a nose that is not in the middle of his face, with eyes that are not equidistant, one being higher than the other, and whose limbs are also ill-matched. It is certain that we would consider such a man hideous. Here we have an example that can readily be applied to the subject under discussion. If we imagine a Palace with an off-centre front projection, with no symmetry and with windows set at varying intervals and different heights, the overall impression would be one of confusion and it is certain that to our eyes such a building would be both hideous and intolerable. It is easy for the reader to surmise that the basic rule and the one that governs the principles of architecture, originates in regularity and also that any deviation from symmetry in architecture is as inconceivable as failing to observe the rules of harmony in music. [ . . . ]

Character Let us consider an object. Our first reaction is, of course, the result of how the object affects us. And what I call character is the effect of the object which makes some kind of impression on us. B O U LL E´ E, A R C H I T E C T U R E

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To give a building character is to make judicial use of every means of producing no other sensations than those related to the subject. In order to understand what I mean by the character or expected effect of different objects, let us take a look at some of the beauties of nature and we shall see that we are forced to express ourselves in accordance with the effect they have on our senses. What a charming spectacle delights our eyes! What an agreeable day! How pleasant it is! The image of a good life extends over the whole Earth! Nature is bedecked with the charms of youth and is a work of love! Sweet harmony reigns over all our impressions on such a delightful day; and its charm intensifies the colours and our senses are drunk with their freshness, their delicate nuances, their smooth, rich tones. What a pleasure it is to run our eyes over all these things and how agreeable they are; their adolescent forms have a je ne sais quoi that emphasizes the smooth flowing curves that barely indicate their presence and adds new charms. The beauty of their elegant proportions lends them grace and unites in them all things that have the gift of pleasing us! But summer comes and forces a change of mood. The glorious light makes us drunk with joy and our sense of wonder has no limits. This pleasure is truly divine! What pure happiness we feel in the bottom of our hearts at this spectacle! What ecstasy! No, we cannot possibly give expression to it! At this season nature’s work is done; everything is the image of perfection; everything has acquired a clearly defined form that is full-blown, accurate and pure. Outlines are clear and distinct; their maturity gives them noble, majestic proportions; their bright, vivid colours have acquired all their brilliance. The earth is decked out with all its riches and lavishes them on our gaze. The depth of the light enhances our impressions; its effects are both vivid and dazzling. All is radiant! The God of day seems to inhabit the earth. Nature is adorned with a multitude of beautiful things and offers us a splendid vista of magnificence. But autumn has already taken the place of summer and raises our spirits with new pleasures; it is a time of fulfilment; spring had already awakened our desire for it. The earth, still adorned with Flora’s dazzling gifts, is now covered with Pomona’s treasures. How varied are the images! How gay and smiling! Bacchus and the gentle Goddess of Folly have taken over the earth. The God of mirth, the spirit of our pleasures, makes our hearts drunk with joy! It is as if the Goddess wanted to give pleasure to the God by disguising the earth. Colours are mixed, variegated, mottled. Forms are picturesque and have the appealing attraction of novelty; variety had added to their spice and the play of light and shadow produces countless surprise effects which are all delightful. But fine days are superseded by the dark winter season. What a sad time! The torch of heaven has disappeared! Darkness is all around us! Hideous winter comes and chills our hearts! It is brought by the weather! Night follows in its wake, unfurls her sombre shades over the earth and spreads darkness everywhere. The shining crystal of the ocean is already tarnished by the blast of the north wind. What remains of the pleasant forest are no more than skeletons and nature is in mourning. The image of the good life has faded to be succeeded by that of death! Everything has lost its brilliance and colour, forms sag, outlines are hard and angular and to our eyes the denuded earth resembles an all-embracing tomb! Oh, Nature! How true it is that you are the book of books, universal knowledge! No, we can do nothing without you! But although each year you begin again the most interesting 212

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and instructing course of study that exists, how few men pay attention to your lessons and know how to benefit from them! It follows from these remarks occasioned by the seasons of the year that to create something beautiful we must, as in nature, ensure that the general impression given is gentle; colours must be soft and muted, their shades delicate; shapes must be flowing with light, elegant proportions. The art of making things agreeable stems from Good Taste. Good Taste is a delicate, aesthetic discernment with regard to objects that arouse our pleasure. It is not enough to simply put before us objects that give us pleasure. It is when we choose among them that our pleasure is aroused and we feel delight in the depths of our being. Let us concentrate on architecture and we shall see that here Good Taste consists of providing more delicacy than opulence, more subtlety than strength, more elegance than ostentation. Thus it is grace that is indicative of Good Taste. We have observed that during the summer season the whole of nature is bathed in light which produces the most magnificent effects; that this life-giving light was diffused over an extraordinary multitude of objects all with the most beautiful forms, all shining with the brilliance of the brightest colours, all of them developed to the full; and that the result of this beautiful assembly was a vista of magnificent splendour. As in nature, the art of giving an impression of grandeur in architecture lies in the disposition of the volumes that form the whole in such a way that there is a great deal of play among them, that their masses have a noble, majestic movement and that they have the fullest possible development. The arrangement should be such that we can absorb at a glance the multiplicity of the separate elements that constitute the whole. The play of light on this arrangement of volumes should produce the most widespread, striking and varied effects that are all multiplied to the maximum. In a large ensemble, the secondary components must be skilfully combined to give the greatest possible opulence to the whole; and it is the auspicious distribution of this opulence that produces splendour and magnificence.

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E´ T I E N N E - L O U I S B O U L L E´ E from Architecture, Essay on Art (c.1794)

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erhaps the most famous of Boulle´e’s visionary designs is his cenotaph for Isaac Newton, a gigantic spherical monument dedicated to his theories and lit by apertures cut into the upper portion of the vault. It plays perfectly into Boulle´e’s symbolism of forms and exploitation of mysterious sources of light. These two excerpts are followed by concluding remarks to his essay, entitled ‘‘Summary Reflections on the Art of Teaching Architecture.’’

E´tienne-Louis Boulle´e, from Architecture, Essai sur l’art [Architecture, essay on art] (c.1794), edited and annotated at the Bibliothe`que Nationale in Paris by Helen Rosenau, trans. Sheila de Valle´e, published in Boulle´e & Visionary Architecture, New York: Harmony Books, 1976, pp. 107, 115.

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Sublime mind! Prodigious and profound genius! Divine being! Newton! Deign to accept the homage of my feeble talents! Ah! If I dare to make it public, it is because I am persuaded that I have surpassed myself in the project which I shall discuss. O Newton! With the range of your intelligence and the sublime nature of your Genius, you have defined the shape of the earth; I have conceived the idea of enveloping you with your discovery. That is as it were to envelop you in your own self. How can I find outside you anything worthy of you? It was these ideas that made me want to make the sepulchre in the shape of the earth. In imitation of the ancients and to pay homage to you I have surrounded it with flowers and cypress trees. [ . . . ] The form of the interior of this monument is, as you can see, that of a vast sphere. The centre of gravity is reached by an opening in the base on which the Tomb is placed. The unique advantage of this form is that from whichever side we look at it (as in nature) we see only a continuous surface which has neither beginning nor end and the more we look at it, the larger it appears. This form has never been utilized and it is the only one appropriate to this monument, for its curve ensures that the onlooker cannot approach what he is looking at; he is forced as if by one hundred different circumstances outside his control, to remain in the place assigned to him and which, since it occupies the centre, keeps him at a sufficient distance to contribute to the illusion. He delights in it, without being able to destroy the effect by wanting to come too close in order to satisfy his empty curiosity. He stands alone and his eyes can behold nothing but the immensity of the sky. The tomb is the only material object. The lighting of this monument, which should resemble that on a clear night, is provided by the planets and the stars that decorate the vault of the sky. The arrangement of the planets corresponds to nature. These planets are in the shape of and resemble funnel-like openings which transpierce the vaulting and once inside assume their form. The daylight outside filters through these apertures into the gloom of the interior and outlines all the objects in the vault with bright, sparkling light. This form of lighting the monument is a perfect reproduction and the effect of the stars could not be more brilliant. It is easy to imagine the natural effect that would result from the possibility of increasing or decreasing the daylight inside the monument according to the number of stars. It is also easy to imagine how the sombre light that would prevail in this place would favour the illusion. ***

Summary Reflections on the Art of Teaching Architecture I have long meditated on the profession I teach and I have concentrated on devising methods for accelerating its progress. It seemed to me that the manner in which architecture was taught was in some respects defective and for this reason I decided to try and find a more suitable method than the usual one. Man can only learn by proceeding from the simple to the complicated. The first Lesson that painters give their Students is how to draw eyes. Language teachers do not begin their lessons by demonstrating the richness of a language to their students. Why then do 214

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Architects make their Students begin by drawing the [‘five’ erased] orders of Architecture which constitute all the opulence of this art? Let us proceed with order, so that the methods we are proposing follow from all that can be obtained by a method that will favour the study of this great Art. Let us first ascertain what we mean and what architecture should incorporate. Let us give a definition! It is the art of bringing any building to perfection. What does this perfection consist of ? A building can be considered perfect when its decoration corresponds to the kind of building to which it is applied and when its layout corresponds to its function. In the light of this explanation, if we want to proceed methodically with our teaching, we should place in front of a new student the most simple building in existence such as the country cabin mentioned by Vitruvius. Since evidence is based on what strikes us most, we should make the student draw the fac¸ade of the cabin, and then make him familiar with a plan by showing him how to draw one. In the same way, the section and cross-section of the Cabin will teach him the art of combining interior and exterior. After this Cabin he will progress successively to buildings that are a little more complicated and finally to an apartment building. Why? Because the dividing up it necessitates requires special techniques which will teach him good organization and will shape his understanding. After making a beginning with this practical teaching, it is necessary to develop his concept of the artistic side, properly so called. The theory of volumes will serve to demonstrate that the basic principles of his art are established in nature. And by applying these volumes to art, he will learn to recognize Poetry. What does this Poetry consist of ? It lies in the art of creating perspectives through the effect of volumes. But what causes the effects of volumes? It is their mass. And so it is the mass of these volumes that gives rise to our sensations. Without doubt. And it is the effect that they have on our senses that has enabled us to give them appropriate names and to distinguish massive forms from delicate ones, etc., etc. Again it is the various sensations that we experience that make us realize that volumes that drag on the ground make us sad; those that surge up into the heavens delight us; that we find gentle volumes pleasant whereas those that are angular and hard we find repugnant. The examples taken from art that the teacher places before his students will make this even more evident. As a result of this method the student will become a student of nature for he will be forced to recognize that this is the source of beauty in art.

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CLAUDE-NICOLAS LEDOUX from Architecture Considered in Relation to Art, Morals, and Legislation (1804)

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laude-Nicolas Ledoux was the most famous and indeed the most gifted architect of his generation. No one better represents the dynamic energy of this era, and no one more seriously challenged the boundaries of classicism in both built and visionary works. But his life and his career were not always filled with happy moments; in fact he was arrested during the infamous Reign of Terror in 1793–4 and nearly lost his head on the guillotine. Forced into retirement after his release, he wrote this apologia of his career to vindicate his reputation. He published the first of four projected volumes two years before his sudden paralysis and death. Ledoux’s career falls into two well-defined phases. He was born in the province of Champagne and moved to Paris in the first half of the 1750s to study at the private school of Jacques-Franc¸ois Blondel. Ledoux entered private practice in the early 1760s, where he quickly established his reputation as the fashionable designer for aristocratic townhouses for the city’s elite. In 1771 his interests shifted when he was given a government post as the inspector of saltworks for the eastern province of Franche-Comte´. Between 1775–80, he built the small factory community at Arc-et-Senans, where he first explored an abstract, geometric, and rustic classicism that he simultaneously pursued in ideal designs for the city of Chaux. His building of the (hated) Paris toll houses between 1784–9 allowed another outlet for his experiments in reducing the classical language – at times to the point of pure abstraction – but they at the same time made him a very unpopular figure in revolutionary France. Ledoux’s only published work, L’architecture conside´re´e sous le rapport de l’art, des moeurs, et de la legislation, was started in 1780 and conceived as a collection of plates that brought together his utopian designs for the city of Chaux with his various built works at the saline. The project with its magnificent plates grew in his mind during the 1780s, but the French Revolution of 1789 stalled the project. In the meantime Ledoux expanded upon the idea with a highly ornate allegorical foreword and introduction to his architectural fantasies. These introductory pieces are the closest Ledoux came to defining his theoretical outlook. The theory of sensationalism composes one base of his theory. Another is the inclusion of ‘‘morals’’ (moeurs) and ‘‘legislation’’ in the book’s title, which – after his harrowing experience in prison – underscores his overall didactic or social-regulative conception of practice. Also prominent in his thinking is the role that freemasonry plays in his highly charged symbolism of forms. Critics of his work – especially of the rhetorical power of forms and ornamental elements – characterized his approach as architecture parlante or ‘‘speaking architecture.’’ The selection of passages from the introduction discusses architecture as the art most useful in shaping the morality and happiness of the human race. It is a utopian and utilitarian conception, certainly moderated by the social consciousness of the French Revolution. Let nations raise the trumpet that sounds a general call to this beneficent competition! The architect will be prompt in coming, and his active and generous hand will pour forth to society the treasures for which he will be paid only with his ashes. Like the dew that brilliantly nourishes our fields, which is no longer celebrated after it has fertilized the

Claude Nicolas Ledoux (1736–1806), from L’architecture conside´re´e sous le rapport de l’art, des moeurs et de la legislation [Architecture considered in relation to art, morals, and legislation]. Paris: C. F. Patris, 1802, pp. 9–12, trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave.

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abundant harvest of grain, his works will be reimbursed only through the immortality of his name. Posterity will conserve and honor his memory. In his works – propagators of art – it will admire the great principles. The entire falsified amalgam, the particular fruit of circumstances, will disappear. There, as with an elementary textbook, these principles will develop with their different results, everything will be confirmed by experience. We will find there a series of simple and positive ideas, benevolent principles of the operations of genius; in the men fated to follow these tracks, it will powerfully assist their judgment in the choice of means and in the reasoning used to do it. Note those immutable rules that have been collected there. The salutary effect of the wind, the most favorable site must always precede and determine the manner and order of construction; we must build according to the temperature. The dependence that too long perpetuated the vices of the conception will count for nothing, and we will not subordinate the favor of the site to comply with a usage that is considered dangerous. We will not separate the unity of the thought from the variety of forms, laws of fitness, propriety, or economy. Unity, a type of beauty – omnis porro pulchritudinis est – resides in the relation of the masses to the details or the ornaments, in uninterrupted lines that do not allow the eye to be distracted by harmful accessories. Variety gives to each building the physiognomy that is proper to it. It multiplies and changes this physiognomy according to the adjacent situations and to the planes leading to the horizon, and a satisfied desire in fact hatches a thousand others. Fitness, which values richness and disguises adversity, will subordinate ideas to the localities, will reassemble the different needs with suitable and inexpensive exteriors. Propriety will offer us the analogy of proportions and ornaments; it will indicate at first glance the motive of the construction and its use. Economy of materials will deceive us about the real cost, thanks to the enchanting illusion that tricks the eye by the prudent combinations of art. We will not forget symmetry; imbibed from nature it contributes to solidity and establishes parallel relations that do not exclude the picturesque, I say further, the bizarre that it must reject. Who can neglect taste? To which we owe so many enjoyments, or the method specific to every idea. Taste demonstrates what is good or bad of he who exercises it. True taste is without all mannerisms; it is not, as one believes, attached to the fugitive wings of the arbitrary or founded in fantastic conventions. It is the produce of an exquisite discernment which nature has placed in its favorite minds. Method offers infinite meanings; it teaches us to connect the simplest things with the complex; it gives us the means to draw logical consequences. Who has not experienced the despotism of beauty? That unexpected and thoughtless sympathy that commands our admiration and forces our senses into its empire. [ . . . ] Decoration is the expressive character, more or less simple, more or less compound, that we give to each edifice. It distinguishes the altars that play for eternity with the Supreme Being, LEDOUX, ARCHITECTURE CONSIDERED

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from the fragile palace that transitory power sustains. It breathes life into surfaces, immortalizes them with the imprint of every sensation and passion. It modifies the irregularities of fate, humbles presumptuous opulence, and relieves timid misfortune. It blackens ignorance, promotes knowledge, and in its just apportionment it gives to nations the luster that makes them shine, while plunging into barbarity those ungrateful or careless peoples who neglect its favors. This artful coquette, supported by the sweet arts of civilization, plays every role; it is alternatively severe or facile, sad or gay, calm or carried away. Her deportment is imposing or seductive; she is jealous of everyone, and supports neither the neighbor who offends her nor the comparison that would destroy her charms. Always surrounded by desires that group themselves within her rays, she isolates herself from the world. In her methodical retreat, she accentuates her rhythms with equal movements.

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JO H N S O AN E from Royal Academy Lectures on Architecture (V and XI; 1812–15)

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hat Ledoux’s formal innovations represented for French architecture in the last years of the eighteenth century, John Soane’s designs did for British architecture. Soane was in fact a close student of French theory. Born the son of a builder, he slowly worked his way up through the generally aristocratic nature of the British profession. After apprenticeships with George Dance and Henry Holland, he won the gold medal at the Royal Academy in 1776 and with this stipend he traveled to France and Italy. There he saw the work of Ledoux, Boulle´e, and Goindoin, and in Italy met Piranesi a few months before his death. In his early career, Soane mostly focused on renovations and additions to country estates as well as to publishing his designs. His fame came in 1792, when he was appointed architect to the Bank of England. There, from the existing complex of buildings in London, he carved out a series of extraordinary halls and courtyards that were much admired. Three years later, in 1795, he gained an associate membership to the Royal Academy in Britain, and seven years later was elevated to the first class, where he occupied the vacant chair of the late William Chambers. In 1806 he successfully lobbied for the professorship of architecture, for which he was required to give an annual cycle of lectures. Soane possessed a quiet, intense, and somewhat withdrawn personality, and in his architectural tastes he combined both his liking for French theory and design with the formal exuberance that British picturesque theory allowed. He was thus a classicist but at the same time rather unclassical in his personal preferences. In his lectures he paid homage to such well-worn phrases as ‘‘good taste’’ and ‘‘sound judgment,’’ but he also stressed the need for character and expression – indeed freedom – in architectural design. In this regard he was more an eclectic in his tastes than a pedagogue, and he was a firm upholder of the concept of architecture parlante in the French tradition. The first of these two excerpts, where he praises the ‘‘bold flights of irregular fancy’’ of the English baroque architect John Vanbrugh, speaks to the exuberance with which Soane himself approached design. The second excerpt succinctly encompasses his notion of character, which again owes something to French theory.

John Soane (1753–1837), from Royal Academy Lectures on Architecture (V and XI; 1812–15) in Sir John Soane: Enlightenment Thought and the Royal Academy Lectures, ed. David Watkin. London: Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 563, 648.

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Contemporary with Sir Christopher Wren was Sir John Vanbrugh whose numerous and extensive works show the versatility of his talents: and, if he wanted the grace and elegance of Palladio, he possessed in an eminent degree the powers of invention. His works are full of character, and his outlines rich and varied: and although few of his compositions show any great knowledge of classical correctness, yet the mausoleum in the park at Castle Howard executed by his pupil, and the Temple of Concord and Victory at Stowe1 are proofs that he occasionally felt the force of the simplicity of the ancients, whilst his house at Whitehall, in spite of the alterations and additions it has undergone, shows that he had the power of making small things interesting. His great work is Blenheim. The style of this building is grand and majestically imposing, the whole composition analogous to the war-like genius of the mighty hero for whom it was erected. The great extent of this noble structure, the picturesque effect of its various parts, the infinite and pleasing variety, the breaks and contrasts in the different heights and masses, produce the most exquisite sensations in the scientific beholder, whether the view be distant, intermediate, or near. The delightful scenery on first entering this noble park, the immense sheet of water, which so entrancingly enriches the landscape, the princely palace, the great Column, and that magnificent feature, the Bridge, taken altogether produce the very climax of excellence. It was once, sarcastically, said that the Bridge at Blenheim designated the ambitious mind of the Duke of Marlborough, whilst the rivulet beneath (alluding to what it was originally) indicated the smallness of his liberality. Such were the observations of a peevish satirist. How unlike the noble-minded Bolingbroke who, being asked his opinion of the Duke’s failings, replied, with all the feelings of a great mind that ‘he was so fully impressed with the good qualities of the Hero of Blenheim that he could not recollect that he had any faults.’2 It is impossible to contemplate the works of Sir John Vanbrugh without feeling those emotions which the happy efforts of genius alone can produce. In his bold flights of irregular fancy, his powerful mind rises superior to common conceptions, and entitles him to the high distinctive appellation of the Shakespeare of architects. To try the works of such an artist by the strict rules of Palladian tameness would be like judging the merits and mighty darings of the immortal bard by the frigid rules of Aristotle. *** So requisite did the ancients consider this attention to distinctive character to make a perfect and beautiful composition, that even in the very steps to their buildings they regarded it. Those to the temples of the early Doric order were of larger dimensions, both as to rise and tread than those which were afterwards used when the Doric order became less massive. In like manner the steps to the temples of the Ionic order were still less, and upon the same principle those of the Corinthian were lower in their rise and narrower in the tread. Too much attention cannot be given to produce a distinct character in every building, not only in the great features but in the minor details likewise: even a moulding, however diminutive, contributes to increase or lessen the character of the assemblage of which it forms a part. Character is so important that all its most delicate and refined modifications must be well understood and practised with all the fine feelings and nice discrimination of the artist. He who is satisfied with heaping stone upon stone, may be a useful builder, and increase his fortune. He may raise a convenient house for his employer, but such a man will never be an SO A N E , R OY AL A C AD E M Y L E C T U R E S

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artist, he will not advance the interests or credit of the art, nor give it importance in public estimation. He will neither add to its powers to move the soul, or to speak to the feelings of mankind. Notwithstanding all that has been urged to the contrary, be assured my young friends, that architecture in the hands of men of genius may be made to assume whatever character is required of it. But to attain this object, to produce this variety, it is essential that every building should be conformable to the uses it is intended for, and that it should express clearly its destination and its character, marked in the most decided and indisputable manner. The cathedral and the church; the palace of the sovereign, and the dignified prelate; the hotel of the nobleman; the hall of justice; the mansion of the chief magistrate; the house of the rich individual; the gay theatre, and the gloomy prison; nay even the warehouse and the shop, require a different style of architecture in their external appearance, and the same distinctive marks must be continued in the internal arrangements as well as in the decorations. Who that looks at the interior of St. Martin’s church, and observes its sash-windows and projecting balconies at the east end, but is inclined rather to imagine himself in a private box in an Italian theatre than in a place of devotion? Without distinctness of character, buildings may be convenient and answer the purposes for which they were raised, but they will never be pointed out as examples for imitation nor add to the splendour of the possessor, improve the national taste, or increase the national glory.

NOTES 1 2

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The design of the Temple of Concord and Victory at Stowe is now attributed to Richard Grenville and Giambattista Borra, not to Vanbrugh. This seems to be a paraphrase of a passage in Bolingbroke’s essay on Marlborough in The Craftsman, no. 252, Saturday 1 May 1731.

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A.

S O U R C E S O F TH E P I C T U R E S Q U E Introduction

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ighteenth-century British architectural theory, while always taking heed of artistic developments in France, at the same takes a very different tack. To understand why and how this divergence of ideas came about, it is important to understand the different philosophical basis of Anglo-Saxon thought as well as unique circumstances affecting it, such as its novel ideas regarding garden design. If French philosophical traditions are often characterized as rationalist and deductive (a reliance on reason, conclusions deduced from preestablished premises), British philosophy is often said to be empirical or inductive. Empiricism, in its most general sense, argues that sensory or practical experience has primacy in human knowledge (over that of reflective reason). In its purest form, it opposes the notion of ‘‘innate ideas,’’ as espoused by such earlier philosophers as Descartes, and it argues that the mind is essentially a blank slate (tabula rasa) at birth, one that subsequently fills out, as it were, by the recordings of the senses. The strict dependence of all mental states on sensations (and the mental ‘‘associations’’ I N T RO D U C T I O N T O P A R T I V A

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they give rise to) is known as ‘‘sensationalism,’’ yet not all empiricists are sensationalists. John Locke, for instance, emphasized the primacy of sense experience, but he also argued that the mind’s reflections on its own mental operations were another source of ideas. Empiricism, by its very premises, stands in opposition to the aesthetic norms of classicism. When Alberti argued that judgments of beauty were formed from ‘‘a reasoning faculty that is inborn in the mind,’’ he was equating beauty with universal and innate ideas essentially of divine origin; objects are beautiful to the extent to which they mirror perfectly these preordained ideas. When Winckelmann insisted that Greek artists had attained the most perfect beauty possible, he too was establishing an idealized norm against which all subsequent artistic efforts should be measured. Empirical thought, however, essentially deprives art of any such norms. As we are born without innate ideas of beauty, we can only make judgments of beauty from the sensations of pleasure or displeasure that arise from the objects we contemplate. When we try to penetrate the cause of this pleasure or displeasure, we can only point to certain attributes or qualities associated with objects and our perception of them – often culturally ingrained. Therefore some empiricists argue that judgments of beauty are relative or lack any other standards than our own subjectivity, while others argue that the correctness of these judgments, while intrinsically subjective, is universal because people share common experiences and judgments as human beings. We can see how these philosophical distinctions might translate into architectural theory by considering garden design. One might view a Renaissance or French classical garden and judge it beautiful, because nature is arrayed in a mathematical order and displays such attributes as symmetry, regularity, and hierarchy of forms. These attributes are aesthetic premises that the gardener brings to the design in the desire to create something beautiful. Someone else, however, might come upon a natural stream or wooded glen and judge it beautiful precisely because it lacks such attributes. Here the judgment is made intuitively on the scene or ‘‘picture’’ one sees, and not on the presence of preconceived mathematical rules. The development of the so-called English garden exploited nature in the latter sense, and as we shall see this innovation in garden design also carries with it major aesthetic implications.

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JOHN LOCKE from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)

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lthough several earlier thinkers – such as William Ockham (c.1285–1347), Francis Bacon (1561–1626), and Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) – developed models of empirical thought, John Locke was the first modern philosopher to raise it into a coherent and logical system. A friend of Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton, Locke originally studied scholastic philosophy at Oxford in the 1650s, but chose medicine and science as a profession. He became an avid defender of civil and religious freedom, and this interest attracted him in 1666 to the politician Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, later the first Earl of Shaftesbury. The next year Locke moved into the lord’s household as both his physician and personal secretary; he tutored Ashley’s children, among them the third Earl of Shaftesbury. Locke’s political sympathies proved dangerous, however. When the first Earl of Shaftesbury fell from power in 1675, Locke was forced to join him in exile in Paris. And although Locke returned with Ashley to London John Locke (1632–1704), from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), ed. Alexander Campbell Fraser. New York: Dover, 1959, Vol I: pp. 37–8, 121–4.

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four years later, another charge of insurrection in 1682 led both men once again into political exile, this time to the Netherlands. It was here in Holland (as with Descartes earlier) that Locke wrote the first draft of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which he published shortly after his return to England in 1689. The two passages below, taken from the beginning of Books 1 and 2, outline his system. Book 1 opens with his rejection of innate ideas, which Locke follows by arguing that all ideas (knowledge) come from sensation (the senses) and reflection (mental operations). The remainder of the two books, as well as Books 3 and 4, develop in great detail the arguments for and implications of such a model.

No Innate Speculative Principles 1. It is an established opinion amongst some men,1 that there are in the understanding certain innate principles; some primary notions, koinad nnoiai, characters, as it were stamped upon the mind of man; which the soul receives in its very first being, and brings into the world with it.2 It would be sufficient to convince unprejudiced readers of the falseness of this supposition, if I should only show (as I hope I shall in the following parts of this Discourse) how men, barely by the use of their natural faculties,3 may attain to all the knowledge they have, without the help of any innate impressions; and may arrive at certainty, without any such original notions or principles. For I imagine any one will easily grant that it would be impertinent to suppose the ideas of colours innate in a creature to whom God hath given sight, and a power to receive them by the eyes from external objects: and no less unreasonable would it be to attribute several truths to the impressions of nature, and innate characters, when we may observe in ourselves faculties fit to attain as easy and certain knowledge of them as if they were originally imprinted on the mind. [ . . . ] the constant impressions4 which the souls of men receive in their first beings, and which they bring into the world with them, as necessarily and really as they do any of their inherent faculties. 3. This argument, drawn from universal consent, has this misfortune in it, that if it were true in matter of fact, that there were certain truths wherein all mankind agreed, it would not prove them innate, if there can be any other way shown how men may come to that universal agreement, in the things they do consent in, which I presume may be done.5 4. But, which is worse, this argument of universal consent, which is made use of to prove innate principles, seems to me a demonstration that there are none such: because there are none to which all mankind give an universal assent. I shall begin with the speculative, and instance in those magnified principles of demonstration, ‘Whatsoever is, is,’ and ‘It is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be’; which, of all others, I think have the most allowed title to innate. ***

Of Ideas in General, and their Original 1. EVERY man being conscious to himself that he thinks; and that which his mind is applied about whilst thinking being the ideas that are there,6 it is past doubt that men have in LO CK E, E S S AY CO N C E R N I N G H U M A N U N D E R S TA N D I N G

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their minds several ideas, – such as are those expressed by the words whiteness, hardness, sweetness, thinking, motion, man, elephant, army, drunkenness, and others: it is in the first place then to be inquired, How he comes by them? I know it is a received doctrine, that men have native ideas, and original characters, stamped upon their minds in their very first being. This opinion I have at large examined already; and, I suppose what I have said in the foregoing Book will be much more easily admitted, when I have shown whence the understanding may get all the ideas it has; and by what ways and degrees they may come into the mind; – for which I shall appeal to every one’s own observation and experience. 2. Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper,7 void of all characters, without any ideas: – How comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge?8 To this I answer, in one word, from EXPERIENCE.9 In that all our knowledge is founded; and from that it ultimately derives itself. Our observation employed either, about external sensible objects, or about the internal operations of our minds perceived and reflected on by ourselves, is that which supplies our understandings with all the materials of thinking.10 These two are the fountains11 of knowledge, from whence all the ideas we have, or can naturally have, do spring. 3. First, our Senses, conversant about particular sensible objects, do convey into the mind several distinct perceptions12 of things, according to those various ways wherein those objects do affect them. And thus we come by those ideas we have of yellow, white, heat, cold, soft, hard, bitter, sweet, and all those which we call sensible qualities; which when I say the senses convey into the mind, I mean, they from external13 objects convey into the mind what produces there those perceptions. This great source of most of the ideas we have, depending wholly upon our senses, and derived by them to the understanding, I call SENSA14 TION. 4. Secondly, the other fountain from which experience furnisheth the understanding with ideas is, – the perception of the operations of our own mind within us, as it is employed about the ideas it has got; – which operations, when the soul comes to reflect on and consider, do furnish the understanding with another set of ideas, which could not be had from things without. And such are perception, thinking, doubting, believing, reasoning, knowing, willing, and all the different actings of our own minds; – which we being conscious of, and observing in ourselves, do from these receive into our understandings as distinct ideas as we do from bodies affecting our senses. This source15 of ideas every man has wholly in himself; and though it be not sense, as having nothing to do with external objects, yet it is very like it, and might properly enough be called internal sense.16 But as I call the other Sensation, so I call this REFLECTION, the ideas it affords being such only as the mind gets by reflecting on its own operations within itself. By reflection then, in the following part of this discourse, I would be understood to mean, that notice which the mind takes of its own operations, and the manner of them, by reason whereof there come to be ideas of these operations in the understanding.17 These two, I say, viz. external material things, as the objects of SENSATION, and the operations of our own minds within, as the objects of REFLECTION, are to me the only originals from whence all our ideas take their beginnings. The term operations here I use in a large sense, as comprehending not barely the actions of the mind about its ideas, but some

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sort of passions arising sometimes from them, such as is the satisfaction or uneasiness arising from any thought.

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Locke does not name the ‘men’ of ‘innate principles’ whose ‘opinion’ he proceeds to criticise; nor does he quote their words in evidence of what they intended by the opinion. He says (ch. ii. § 15) that after he had argued out objections to the ‘established opinion,’ his attention was directed to the arguments in its defence in the De Veritate of Lord Herbert, which thereupon he proceeds to controvert. From the first, Descartes, with whose writings he was early familiar, was probably in his view. According to Descartes there are three sources of ideas: ‘Entre ces ide´es, les unes semblent eˆtre ne´es avec moi; les autres eˆtre e´trange`res et venir de dehors; et les autres eˆtre faites et invente´es par moi-meˆme.’ (Me´d. iii. 7.) But even the ‘ide´es ne´es avec moi’ of Descartes were not regarded by him as in consciousness until ‘experience’ had evoked them from latency – a position which Locke’s argument always fails to reach. Though Locke nowhere names More, Hale, or Cudworth, he might have found expressions of theirs which, on a superficial view, appear to countenance the sort of innateness which he attributes to the ‘established opinion.’ See Hume’s Inquiry concerning Human Understanding, in Note A, on ‘innate ideas,’ and Locke’s ‘loose sense of the word idea.’ The impossibility of resolving the intellectual necessities, which govern and constitute knowledge and existence, into transitory data of sense; or of explaining, by means of nature and its evolutions, the spiritual elements in human experience, which connect man with the supernatural, the infinite, the divine – has suggested that those elements, presupposed by experience, must have been innate, or born with the mind; thus potentially belonging to it, antecedently to all acquired knowledge. This hypothesis has found expression in many forms; and it has waxed or waned, as the spiritual or the sensuous was most developed in the consciousness of the philosopher or of the age. Locke assails it in its crudest form, in which it is countenanced by no eminent advocate; according to which the ideas and principles which ultimately constitute knowledge are supposed to be held consciously, from birth, or even before it, in every human mind, being thus ‘stamped’ on us from the beginning, and ‘brought into the world’ with us. It is easy to refute this; for it can be shown that there are no principles of which all men are aware as soon as they are born, or even in which all mankind are agreed when they are adult. That data of experience are needed, to awaken what must otherwise be the slumbering potentialities of man’s spiritual being; and that human knowledge is the issue of sense when sense is combined with latent intellect, is an interpretation of the ‘established opinion,’ which Locke does not fairly contemplate. Locke recognises the innateness of ‘faculties’ in calling them ‘natural’; but without examining whether any, and if so what, ideas and judgments are (consciously or unconsciously) presupposed in a rational exercise of the innate faculties. ‘Constant impressions,’ i. e. of which there is a conscious impression in all human beings from birth, and about which all, even infants and idiots, are agreed. Conscious consent on the part of every human being cannot be alleged on behalf of any abstract principle, as Locke is easily able to show. There is no proposition which some one has not been found to deny. A better criterion of the supernatural or divine, in man and in the universe, than this of ‘universal consent,’ which Locke makes so much of, is found, when it is shown, – that the full and adequate exercise of our faculties in experience necessarily presupposes principles of which the mass of mankind may be only dimly conscious, or wholly unconscious. Locke ignores the main issue; and when he explains his meaning is found nearer than he supposes to those who hold the innateness of reason in experience. He acknowledges innateness of faculty. Also that knowledge LO CK E, E S S AY CO N C E R N I N G H U M A N U N D E R S TA N D I N G

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involves and is based upon what is self-evident is a prominent lesson of the Fourth Book. ‘That there can be any knowledge without self-evident propositions,’ he assures Stillingfleet that he is so far from denying, ‘that I am accused by your lordship for requiring more such in demonstration than you think necessary’ (Third Letter, p. 264). ‘I contend for the usefulness and necessity of selfevident propositions in all certainty, whether of intuition or demonstration’ (p. 286). ‘I make selfevident propositions necessary to certainty, and found all knowledge or certainty in them’ (p. 340). Cf. Introd. § 8. It must be remembered that ‘ideas,’ as treated of in the Second Book, are not regarded as cognitions (the subject reserved for the Fourth Book), but as phenomena considered in abstraction from affirmation and denial, truth and falsehood, as simple apprehensions in short. And he here asks, in the ‘historical plain method,’ under what conditions the phenomena of real existence begin to appear, and gradually multiply, in new combinations, in a human understanding? ‘White paper’ might suggest that we are originally void of ideas or appearances of which there is consciousness; but not necessarily void of latent capacities and their intellectual implicates. He means by the metaphor that we are all born ignorant of every thing. Assuming, then, that the human mind is at first ignorant of everything, – what, he asks, is the explanation of the state in which adult human understanding may now be found, with its often rich stores of varied and elaborated ideas? ‘Experience.’ The ambiguity of this term is a main source of the controversies which the Essay has occasioned. Locke did not see that innateness (in a different meaning) and experience are not contradictories, but are really two different ways of regarding the possessions of the understanding. ‘Our attitude towards the philosophy of Experience must entirely depend upon the meaning we put into the term experience. . . . The point on which issue should be joined is, – the identification of Experience with mere sense. If we prove that this is not so, and that, on the contrary, mere sense is an abstraction, impossible in rerum natura, Experientialism is at once shorn of all its supposed terrors.’ (Seth, Scottish Philosophy, pp. 142, 3.) What Locke argues for is, that, in respect of the time of its manifestation in the conscious life of each man, no knowledge that he possesses can precede awakening of intellectual life into (at first dim and imperfect) exercise through impressions on the senses. He thus makes our adult understanding of things the issue of the exercise of the faculties in ‘experience’; but he does not get in sight of Kant’s question, or try to disengage the elements of reason through which a scientific or intelligible experience is itself possible, – the problem of the next great critique of a human understanding of the universe. But the ‘materials of thinking’ presuppose, for their conversion into scientific experience, intellectual conditions, which conditions Locke either leaves in the background, or mixes up with the ‘materials,’ i. e. with those gradually accumulated data without which our notions would be empty, and our common terms meaningless. The exordium of knowledge, back to which the contents of all our concepts may be traced, and apart from which they would be empty; not its origo, or the elements in the intellectual products that are found, after critical analysis of its logical constitution. Locke means by ‘origin,’ ‘exordium,’ which alone has relation to his ‘historical’ method. The acquired contents of our real knowledge, he goes on to show, must be either ideas of the qualities of matter, or ideas of the operations of mind. Here perception is virtually equivalent to idea – but regarded from the point of view of the apprehensive act, not of the phenomena apprehended. For the three cognate meanings of ‘perception’ in the Essay, see ch. xxi. § 5, the second and third of these being those only which ‘use allows us’ to attribute to the ‘understanding.’ In its third meaning ‘perception’ plays a great part in the Fourth Book. ‘External objects,’ i. e. extra-organic objects.

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This is one of Locke’s definitions of sensation, which he here treats as incapable of analysis – passive impression of extra-organic phenomena upon the organism. Cf. § 23; also ch. xix. § I. These metaphorical terms, ‘source,’ ‘fountain,’ ‘channel,’ which he employs here and elsewhere, are ambiguous. Is their equivalent exordium or origo? The former alone is properly within the scope of the ‘historical plain method’ of psychology: the critical analysis which finds intellectual necessities presupposed in the operations of mind belongs to metaphysical philosophy, to which Locke’s historical method is inadequate, if ‘reflection’ is limited to contingent ideas of ‘internal sense.’ That Locke applies the term sense to ‘perception of the operations of our own mind,’ seems to confine ‘reflection’ to empirical apprehension of mental states. But his use of this term is not conclusive on the point. Reid and Hamilton, along with many other philosophers, call the a priori or Common Reason a sense – the ‘Common Sense.’ Whether reflection should be interpreted in the Essay empirically or intellectually, is a primary question for the interpreter, since on the answer depends whether it includes ref lex consciousness of reason proper, with the judgments therein necessarily presupposed as conditions of our having more in experience than the momentary data. The alternative was not contemplated by Locke.

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WILLIAM TEMPLE from ‘‘Upon the Gardens of Epicurus; or, of Gardening, in the Year 1685’’ (1692)

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deas of far-reaching consequence are not always presented in formal and well-reasoned treatises. Diaries, personal correspondence, and travel accounts on occasions not only provide novel speculations but they also often summarize succinctly aesthetic proclivities of the age. This small essay by William Temple, written in 1685 during a period of great colonial expansion, is a case in point. Temple, a close friend of Jonathan Swift, built a successful career as a diplomat under Charles II, but in 1681 he quit his missions for the king and retired to his country estate in Surrey to devote himself to letters. Here he also focused much of his attention on his garden, which he ponders both from the point of view of his worldly travels and the gardens of antiquity. What is of great importance to his deliberations, however, is his flirtation with non-Western aesthetic values: in this case, with the aesthetics of the Chinese garden. Much of this essay will prove to be of little consequence, but this particular passage, following his discussion of Moor Park, will reverberate throughout the eighteenth century and help give rise to a ‘‘picturesque’’ aesthetics. To put the essay into perspective, the reader should also note that it was written during the period in which the quintessential formal garden of Versailles was being planned and executed. This was Moor Park when I was acquainted with it, and the sweetest place, I think, that I have seen in my life, either before or since, at home or abroad; what it is now I can give little account, having passed through several hands that have made great changes in gardens as William Temple (1628–99), from ‘‘Upon the Gardens of Epicurus; or, of Gardening in the Year 1685’’ (1692), in Five Miscellaneous Essays by Sir William Temple, ed. Samuel Holt Monk. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1963, pp. 29–30.

T E M PL E , ‘ ‘ U PO N T H E G A RD E N S OF EP I C U RU S ’ ’

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well as houses; but the remembrance of what it was is too pleasant ever to forget, and therefore I do not believe to have mistaken the figure of it, which may serve for a pattern to the best gardens of our manner, and that are most proper for our country and climate. What I have said of the best forms of gardens is meant only of such as are in some sort regular; for there may be other forms wholly irregular, that may, for aught I know, have more beauty than any of the others; but they must owe it to some extraordinary dispositions of nature in the seat, or some great race of fancy or judgment in the contrivance, which may reduce many disagreeing parts into some figure, which shall yet upon the whole be very agreeable. Something of this I have seen in some places, but heard more of it from others who have lived much among the Chineses; a people whose way of thinking seems to lie as wide of ours in Europe, as their country does. Among us, the beauty of building and planting is placed chiefly in some certain proportions, symmetries, or uniformities; our walks and our trees ranged so as to answer one another, and at exact distances. The Chineses scorn this way of planting, and say a boy that can tell an hundred may plant walks of trees in straight lines, and over against one another, and to what length and extent he pleases. But their greatest reach of imagination is employed in contriving figures, where the beauty shall be great, and strike the eye, but without any order or disposition of parts that shall be commonly or easily observed: and though we have hardly any notion of this sort of beauty, yet they have a particular word to express it, and where they find it hit their eye at first sight, they say the sharawadgi is fine or is admirable, or any such expression of esteem. And whoever observes the work upon the best India gowns, or the painting upon their best screens or porcelains, will find their beauty is all of this kind (that is) without order. But I should hardly advise any of these attempts in the figure of gardens among us; they are adventures of too hard achievement for any common hands; and though there may be more honour if they succeed well, yet there is more dishonour if they fail, and it is twenty to one they will; whereas in regular figures it is hard to make any great and remarkable faults.

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JOHN VANBRUGH from Letter to the Duchess of Marlborough (1709)

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he predominant architectural direction of the first half of the eighteenth century in Britain, as we have seen, was the neo-Palladian movement that attempted to resurrect the aesthetics of absolute beauty as defined by Renaissance classicism. Alongside this development, however, were baroque sensibilities of the seventeenth century that had not fully subsided, and that found a natural outlet in what can only be described as an early phase of stylistic eclecticism. The various stylistic works of the architects Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661–1736) and John

John Vanbrugh (1664–1726), Letter to the Duchess of Marlborough (June 11, 1709) in The Complete Works of Sir John Vanbrugh, Vol. 4, ed. Geoffrey Webb. London: The Nonesuch Press, 1928, pp. 29–30.

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Vanbrugh illustrate these tendencies. Both have ties back to the classical and baroque architecture of Christopher Wren, and both collaborate at the start of the century on two of Britain’s late-baroque masterpieces, Castle Howard (1699–1712) and Blenheim Palace (1705–25). But even the stylistic freedom of this formal vocabulary did not satisfy the expressive yearnings of the two men. Hawksmoor was perhaps at his scenographic best as an architect with his design for All Souls College, Oxford (1718–25), which combined classical interiors with the exterior Gothic forms of a pinnacled roofline with bold romantic towers. Vanbrugh, also a playwright by profession, celebrated his succession to Wren as Surveyor to Greenwich Hospital in 1716 by constructing nearby his medieval ‘‘Vanbrugh Castle,’’ replete with a crenellated gateway and a false ‘‘Nunnery.’’ While overseeing the construction of Blenheim Palace in 1709, Vanbrugh was also engaged in making changes to the grounds – a large, partially wooded estate outside of Oxford. The Duchess instructed him to remove the ruins of the ‘‘Old Manour’’ and chapel existing on the site. Vanbrugh responded with this letter, in which he argued for the preservation of these ruins for their historical ‘‘Affections,’’ but also for the ‘‘Variety’’ that they provide the landscape, when mixed ‘‘Promiscuously’’ with untamed nature. Here is another early manifestation of a picturesque aesthetic, in this case a sensibility relying not on classical rules but on ideas or impressions ‘‘that the best of Landskip Painters can invent.’’ Note the response by someone on the Duchess’s staff. June 11th.—1709 There is perhaps no one thing, which the most Polite part of Mankind have more universally agreed in; than the Vallue they have ever set upon the Remains of distant Times Nor amongst the Severall kinds of those Antiquitys, are there any so much regarded, as those of Buildings; Some for their Magnificence, or Curious Workmanship; And others; as they move more lively and pleasing Reflections (than History without their Aid can do) On the Persons who have Inhabited them; On the Remarkable things which have been transacted in them, Or the extraordinary Occasions of Erecting them. As I believe it cannot be doubted, but if Travellers many Ages hence, shall be shewn The Very House in which so great a Man Dwelt, as they will then read the Duke of Marlborough in Story; And that they Shall be told, it was not only his Favourite Habitation, but was Erected for him by the Bounty of the Queen And with the Approbation of the People, As a Monument of the Greatest Services and Honours, that any Subject had ever done his Country: I believe, tho’ they may not find Art enough in the Builder, to make them Admire the Beauty of the Fabrick they will find Wonder enough in the Story, to make ’em pleas’d with the Sight of it. I hope I may be forgiven, if I make some faint Application of what I say of Blenheim, to the Small Remains of ancient Woodstock Manour. It can’t indeed be said, it was Erected on so Noble nor on So justifiable an Occasion, But it was rais’d by One of the Bravest and most Warlike of the English Kings; And tho’ it has not been Fam’d, as a Monument of his Arms, it has been tenderly regarded as the Scene of his Affections. Nor amongst the Multitude of People who come daily to View what is raising to the Memory of the Great Battle of Blenheim; Are there any that do not run eagerly to See what Ancient Remains are to be found. of Rosamonds Bower. It may perhaps be worth some Little Reflection Upon what may be said, if the Very footsteps of it Are no more to be found. But if the Historicall Argument Stands in need of Assistance; there is Still much to be said on Other Considerations. That Part of the Park which is Seen from the North Front of the New Building, has Little Variety of Objects Nor dos the Country beyond it Afford any of Vallue, It therefore Stands in Need of all the helps that can be given, which are only Five; Buildings, And Plantations V A N B R U G H , L E T T E R T O T H E DU C H E S S O F M A R L B O R O UG H

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These rightly dispos’d will indeed Supply all the wants of Nature in that Place. And the Most Agreable Disposition is to Mix them: in which this Old Manour gives so happy an Occasion for; that were the inclosure filld with Trees (principally Fine Yews and Hollys) Promiscuously Set to grow up in a Wild Thicket. So that all the Building left, (which is only the Habitable Part and the Chappel) might Appear in Two Risings amongst ’em, it wou’d make One of the Most Agreable Objects that the best of Landskip Painters can invent. And if on the Contrary this Building is taken away; there then remains nothing but an Irregular, Ragged Ungovernable Hill, the deformitys of which are not to be cured but by a Vast Expence; And that at last will only remove an Ill Object but not produce a good One, whereas to finish the present Wall for the Inclosures, to forme the Sloops and make the Plantation (which is all that is now wanting to Compleat the Whole Designe) wou’d not Cost Two Hundred pounds. I take the Liberty to offer this Paper with a Picture to Explain what I endeavour to Describe, That if the Present Direction for destroying the Building, shou’d happen hereafter to be Repented of, I may not be blam’d for Neglecting to set in the truest Light I cou’d, a Thing that Seem’d at least to me so very Matteriall, J VANBRUGH [Endorsed by Duchess of M., tho’ not in her hand.] This paper has something ridiculous in it to preserve the house for himself, ordered to be pulled down; but I think there is something material in it concerning the occasion of building Blenheim.

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ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER Third Earl of Shaftesbury, from ‘‘The Moralists’’ (1709)

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he concurrence of classical ideals with the early development of picturesque aesthetics is perhaps no better demonstrated than in the opinions of the third Earl of Shaftesbury. In part II (chapter 42) we saw his ‘‘Letter Concerning Design,’’ in which he both castigated the ‘‘Gothic’’ works of Wren and Vanbrugh and called for the founding of a national academy of architecture and art – presumably to be based on classical principles of design. Yet in his Platonic dialogue ‘‘The Moralists,’’ written a few years earlier, Shaftesbury voiced a very different side of his thought: his love for wild nature untamed by the straight rule of the human hand. This philosophical homily, revised and published in 1709, recounts a number of discussions relating to Shaftesbury’s theistic vision of ethical and aesthetic harmony. His preference for unkempt nature over the ‘‘formal mockery of princely gardens’’ would become widely quoted over the next several decades, in fact become etched into British eighteenth-century consciousness.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury, from ‘‘The Moralists’’ (1709) in Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, etc., (orig. 1711), ed. John M. Robertson. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1900, Vol. II: pp. 124–5.

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Methinks, said he, Philocles (changing to a familiar voice), we had better leave these unsociable places whither our fancy has transported us, and return to ourselves here again in our more conversable woods and temperate climates. Here no fierce heats nor colds annoy us, no precipices nor cataracts amaze us. Nor need we here be afraid of our own voices whilst we hear the notes of such a cheerful choir, and find the echoes rather agreeable and inviting us to talk. I confess, said I, those foreign nymphs (if there were any belonging to those miraculous woods) were much too awful beauties to please me. I found our familiar home-nymphs a great deal more to my humour. Yet for all this, I cannot help being concerned for your breaking off just when we were got half the world over, and wanted only to take America in our way home. Indeed, as for Europe, I could excuse your making any great tour there, because of the little variety it would afford us. Besides that, it would be hard to see it in any view without meeting still that politic face of affairs which would too much disturb us in our philosophical flights. But for the western tract, I cannot imagine why you should neglect such noble subjects as are there, unless perhaps the gold and silver, to which I find you such a bitter enemy, frighted you from a mother-soil so full of it. If these countries had been as bare of those metals as old Sparta, we might have heard more perhaps of the Perus and Mexicos than of all Asia and Africa. We might have had creatures, plants, woods, mountains, rivers, beyond any of those we have passed. How sorry am I to lose the noble Amazon! How sorry — Here, as I would have proceeded, I saw so significant a smile on Theocles’s face that it stopped me, out of curiosity, to ask him his thought. Nothing, said he; nothing but this very subject itself. Go on – I see you’ll finish it for me. The spirit of this sort of prophecy has seized you. And Philocles, the cold indifferent Philocles, is become a pursuer of the same mysterious beauty. ’Tis true, said I, Theocles, I own it. Your genius, the genius of the place, and the Great Genius have at last prevailed. I shall no longer resist the passion growing in me for things of a natural kind, where neither art nor the conceit or caprice of man has spoiled their genuine order by breaking in upon that primitive state. Even the rude rocks, the mossy caverns, the irregular unwrought grottos and broken falls of waters, with all the horrid graces of the wilderness itself, as representing Nature more, will be the more engaging, and appear with a magnificence beyond the formal mockery of princely gardens. . . . But tell me, I entreat you, how comes it that, excepting a few philosophers of your sort, the only people who are enamoured in this way, and seek the woods, the rivers, or seashores, are your poor vulgar lovers? Say not this, replied he, of lovers only. For is it not the same with poets, and all those other students in nature and the arts which copy after her? In short, is not this the real case of all who are lovers either of the Muses or the Graces?

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JOSEPH ADDISON from The Spectator (1712)

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lose to the circle of Shaftesbury was the gifted essayist and poet Joseph Addison. Like Shaftesbury, Addison devoted much of his life to politics and political writings, but beginning in 1709 he became active with his friend and former classmate, Richard Steele, in founding the semipolitical journal Tatler. When this enterprise folded in 1711, Addison and Steele combined to start the daily journal The Spectator, which ran only from March 1711 to December 1712. Despites the brevity of its run, it was a highly successful literary paper that fulfilled its pledge to bring ‘‘Philosophy out of Closets and Libraries, Schools and Colleges, to dwell in Clubs and Assemblies, at Tea-tables, and in Coffee-houses’’ (Spectator no. 10). In the summer of 1712, Addison prepared a series of 11 essays entitled ‘‘Pleasures of the Imagination,’’ which summarized his aesthetic views regarding the various arts and nature. Much of what we have previously seen in parcel is here consolidated in these highly influential essays: Lockean empiricism applied to aesthetics, Shaftesbury’s fondness for untamed nature, but also much more. In his essay of June 23, for instance, he makes the important distinction between ‘‘Greatness, Novelty, or Beauty,’’ the first term of which would later be conceptualized under the notion of the ‘‘sublime.’’ In his following essay of June 25, he follows William Temple in discussing Chinese garden design, which serves as a veritable manifesto for developing the idea of the picturesque garden. Addison was, above all, a master of English prose. Saturday, June 21, 1712. Avia Pieridum peragro loca, nullius ante Trita solo; juvat integros accedere fonteis; Atque haurire: —Lucr.

Our Sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our Senses. It fills the Mind with the largest Variety of Ideas, converses with its Objects at the greatest Distance, and continues the longest in Action without being tired or satiated with its proper Enjoyments. The Sense of Feeling can indeed give us a Notion of Extension, Shape, and all other Ideas that enter at the Eye, except Colours; but at the same time it is very much streightned and confined in its Operations, to the number, bulk, and distance of its particular Objects. Our Sight seems designed to supply all these Defects, and may be considered as a more delicate and diffusive kind of Touch, that spreads it self over an infinite Multitude of Bodies, comprehends the largest Figures, and brings into our reach some of the most remote Parts of the Universe. It is this Sense which furnishes the Imagination with its Ideas; so that by the Pleasures of the Imagination or Fancy (which I shall use promiscuously) I here mean such as arise from visible Objects, either when we have them actually in our View, or when we call up their Ideas in our Minds by Paintings, Statues, Descriptions, or any the like Occasion. We cannot indeed have a single Image in the Fancy that did not make its first Entrance through the Sight; but we have the Power of retaining, altering and compounding those Images, which we have once received, into all the varieties of Picture and Vision that are most agreeable to Joseph Addison (1672–1719), from The Spectator (1712), reprinted in The Spectator. London: George Routledge & Sons, 1868, pp. 593–5 and 597–8.

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the Imagination; for by this Faculty a Man in a Dungeon is capable of entertaining himself with Scenes and Landskips more beautiful than any that can be found in the whole Compass of Nature. There are few Words in the English Language which are employed in a more loose and uncircumscribed Sense than those of the Fancy and the Imagination. I therefore thought it necessary to fix and determine the Notion of these two Words, as I intend to make use of them in the Thread of my following Speculations, that the Reader may conceive rightly what is the Subject which I proceed upon. I must therefore desire him to remember, that by the Pleasures of the Imagination, I mean only such Pleasures as arise originally from Sight, and that I divide these Pleasures into two Kinds: My Design being first of all to Discourse of those Primary Pleasures of the Imagination, which entirely proceed from such Objects as are [before our] Eye[s]; and in the next place to speak of those Secondary Pleasures of the Imagination which flow from the Ideas of visible Objects, when the Objects are not actually before the Eye, but are called up into our Memories, or formed into agreeable Visions of Things that are either Absent or Fictitious. The Pleasures of the Imagination, taken in the full Extent, are not so gross as those of Sense, nor so refined as those of the Understanding. The last are, indeed, more preferable, because they are founded on some new Knowledge or Improvement in the Mind of Man; yet it must be confest, that those of the Imagination are as great and as transporting as the other. A beautiful Prospect delights the Soul, as much as a Demonstration; and a Description in Homer has charmed more Readers than a Chapter in Aristotle. Besides, the Pleasures of the Imagination have this Advantage, above those of the Understanding, that they are more obvious, and more easie to be acquired. It is but opening the Eye, and the Scene enters. The Colours paint themselves on the Fancy, with very little Attention of Thought or Application of Mind in the Beholder. We are struck, we know not how, with the Symmetry of any thing we see, and immediately assent to the Beauty of an Object, without enquiring into the particular Causes and Occasions of it. A Man of a Polite Imagination is let into a great many Pleasures, that the Vulgar are not capable of receiving. He can converse with a Picture, and find an agreeable Companion in a Statue. He meets with a secret Refreshment in a Description, and often feels a greater Satisfaction in the Prospect of Fields and Meadows, than another does in the Possession. It gives him, indeed, a kind of Property in every thing he sees, and makes the most rude uncultivated Parts of Nature administer to his Pleasures: So that he looks upon the World, as it were in another Light, and discovers in it a Multitude of Charms, that conceal themselves from the generality of Mankind. There are, indeed, but very few who know how to be idle and innocent, or have a Relish of any Pleasures that are not Criminal: every Diversion they take is at the Expence of some one Virtue or another, and their very first Step out of Business is into Vice or Folly. A Man should endeavour, therefore, to make the Sphere of his innocent Pleasures as wide as possible, that he may retire into them with Safety, and find in them such a Satisfaction as a wise Man would not blush to take. Of this Nature are those of the Imagination, which do not require such a Bent of Thought as is necessary to our more serious Employments, nor, at the same time, suffer the Mind to sink into that Negligence and Remissness, which are apt to accompany our more sensual Delights, but, like a gentle Exercise to the Faculties, awaken them from Sloth and Idleness, without putting them upon any Labour or Difficulty. A D D I S O N , F R O M T H E SP E C TATO R

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We might here add, that the Pleasures of the Fancy are more conducive to Health, than those of the Understanding, which are worked out by Dint of Thinking, and attended with too violent a Labour of the Brain. Delightful Scenes, whether in Nature, Painting, or Poetry, have a kindly Influence on the Body, as well as the Mind, and not only serve to clear and brighten the Imagination, but are able to disperse Grief and Melancholy, and to set the Animal Spirits in pleasing and agreeable Motions. For this Reason Sir Francis Bacon, in his Essay upon Health, has not thought it improper to prescribe to his Reader a Poem or a Prospect, where he particularly dissuades him from knotty and subtile Disquisitions, and advises him to pursue Studies that fill the Mind with splendid and illustrious Objects, as Histories, Fables, and Contemplations of Nature. I have in this Paper, by way of Introduction, settled the Notion of those Pleasures of the Imagination which are the Subject of my present Undertaking, and endeavoured, by several Considerations, to recommend to my Reader the Pursuit of those Pleasures. I shall, in my next Paper, examine the several Sources from whence these Pleasures are derived. Monday, June 23, 1712. Divisum sic breve fiet Opus. —Mart.

I shall first consider those Pleasures of the Imagination, which arise from the actual View and Survey of outward Objects: And these, I think, all proceed from the Sight of what is Great, Uncommon, or Beautiful. There may, indeed, be something so terrible or offensive, that the Horror or Loathsomeness of an Object may over-bear the Pleasure which results from its Greatness, Novelty, or Beauty; but still there will be such a Mixture of Delight in the very Disgust it gives us, as any of these three Qualifications are most conspicuous and prevailing. By Greatness, I do not only mean the Bulk of any single Object, but the Largeness of a whole View, considered as one entire Piece. Such are the Prospects of an open Champain Country, a vast uncultivated Desart, of huge Heaps of Mountains, high Rocks and Precipices, or a wide Expanse of Waters, where we are not struck with the Novelty or Beauty of the Sight, but with that rude kind of Magnificence which appears in many of these stupendous Works of Nature. Our Imagination loves to be filled with an Object, or to grasp at any thing that is too big for its Capacity. We are flung into a pleasing Astonishment at such unbounded Views, and feel a delightful Stillness and Amazement in the Soul at the Apprehension[s] of them. The Mind of Man naturally hates every thing that looks like a Restraint upon it, and is apt to fancy it self under a sort of Confinement, when the Sight is pent up in a narrow Compass, and shortned on every side by the Neighbourhood of Walls or Mountains. On the contrary, a spacious Horizon is an Image of Liberty, where the Eye has Room to range abroad, to expatiate at large on the Immensity of its Views, and to lose it self amidst the Variety of Objects that offer themselves to its Observation. Such wide and undetermined Prospects are as pleasing to the Fancy, as the Speculations of Eternity or Infinitude are to the Understanding. But if there be a Beauty or Uncommonness joined with this Grandeur, as in a troubled Ocean, a Heaven adorned with Stars and Meteors, or a spacious Landskip cut out into Rivers, Woods, Rocks, and Meadows, the Pleasure still grows upon us, as it rises from more than a single Principle. 236

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Every thing that is new or uncommon raises a Pleasure in the Imagination, because it fills. the Soul with an agreeable Surprize, gratifies its Curiosity, and gives it an Idea of which it was not before possest. We are indeed so often conversant with one Set of Objects, and tired out with so many repeated Shows of the same Things, that whatever is new or uncommon contributes a little to vary human Life, and to divert our Minds, for a while, with the Strangeness of its Appearance: It serves us for a kind of Refreshment, and takes off from that Satiety we are apt to complain of in our usual and ordinary Entertainments. It is this that bestows Charms on a Monster, and makes even the Imperfections of Nature [please] us. It is this that recommends Variety, where the Mind is every Instant called off to something new, and the Attention not suffered to dwell too long, and waste it self on any particular Object. It is this, likewise, that improves what is great or beautiful, and makes it afford the Mind a double Entertainment. Groves, Fields, and Meadows, are at any Season of the Year pleasant to look upon, but never so much as in the Opening of the Spring, when they are all new and fresh, with their first Gloss upon them, and not yet too much accustomed and familiar to the Eye. For this Reason there is nothing that more enlivens a Prospect than Rivers, Jetteaus, or Falls of Water, where the Scene is perpetually shifting, and entertaining the Sight every Moment with something that is new. We are quickly tired with looking upon Hills and Vallies, where every thing continues fixed and settled in the same Place and Posture, but find our Thoughts a little agitated and relieved at the Sight of such Objects as are ever in Motion, and sliding away from beneath the Eye of the Beholder. But there is nothing that makes its Way more directly to the Soul than Beauty, which immediately diffuses a secret Satisfaction and Complacency through the Imagination, and gives a Finishing to any thing that is Great or Uncommon. The very first Discovery of it strikes the Mind with an inward Joy, and spreads a Chearfulness and Delight through all its Faculties. There is not perhaps any real Beauty or Deformity more in one Piece of Matter than another, because we might have been so made, that whatsoever now appears loathsome to us, might have shewn it self agreeable; but we find by Experience, that there are several Modifications of Matter which the Mind, without any previous Consideration, pronounces at first sight Beautiful or Deformed. Thus we see that every different Species of sensible Creatures has its different Notions of Beauty, and that each of them is most affected with the Beauties of its own Kind. This is no where more remarkable than in Birds of the same Shape and Proportion, where we often see the Male determined in his Courtship by the single Grain or Tincture of a Feather, and never discovering any Charms but in the Colour of its Species. Wednesday, June 25, 1712. Alterius sic Altera poscit opem res et conjurat amice`. —Hor.

If we consider the Works of Nature and Art, as they are qualified to entertain the Imagination, we shall find the last very defective, in Comparison of the former; for though they may sometimes appear as Beautiful or Strange, they can have nothing in them of that Vastness and Immensity, which afford so great an Entertainment to the Mind of the Beholder. The one may be as Polite and Delicate as the other, but can never shew her self A D D I S O N , F R O M T H E SP E C TATO R

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so August and Magnificent in the Design. There is something more bold and masterly in the rough careless Strokes of Nature, than in the nice Touches and Embellishments of Art. The Beauties of the most stately Garden or Palace lie in a narrow Compass, the Imagination immediately runs them over, and requires something else to gratifie her; but, in the wide Fields of Nature, the Sight wanders up and down without Confinement, and is fed with an infinite variety of Images, without any certain Stint or Number. For this Reason we always find the Poet in Love with a Country-Life, where Nature appears in the greatest Perfection, and furnishes out all those Scenes that are most apt to delight the Imagination. [ . . . ] But tho’ there are several of these wild Scenes, that are more delightful than any artificial Shows; yet we find the Works of Nature still more pleasant, the more they resemble those of Art: For in this case our Pleasure rises from a double Principle; from the Agreeableness of the Objects to the Eye, and from their Similitude to other Objects: We are pleased as well with comparing their Beauties, as with surveying them, and can represent them to our Minds, either as Copies or Originals. Hence it is that we take Delight in a Prospect which is well laid out, and diversified with Fields and Meadows, Woods and Rivers; in those accidental Landskips of Trees, Clouds and Cities, that are sometimes found in the Veins of Marble; in the curious Fret-work of Rocks and Grottos; and, in a Word, in any thing that hath such a Variety or Regularity as may seem the Effect of Design, in what we call the Works of Chance. If the Products of Nature rise in Value, according as they more or less resemble those of Art, we may be sure that artificial Works receive a greater Advantage from their Resemblance of such as are natural; because here the Similitude is not only pleasant, but the Pattern more perfect. The prettiest Landskip I ever saw, was one drawn on the Walls of a dark Room, which stood opposite on one side to a navigable River, and on the other to a Park. The Experiment is very common in Opticks. Here you might discover the Waves and Fluctuations of the Water in strong and proper Colours, with the Picture of a Ship entering at one end, and sailing by Degrees through the whole Piece. On another there appeared the Green Shadows of Trees, waving to and fro with the Wind, and Herds of Deer among them in Miniature, leaping about upon the Wall. I must confess, the Novelty of such a Sight may be one occasion of its Pleasantness to the Imagination, but certainly the chief Reason is its near Resemblance to Nature, as it does not only, like other Pictures, give the Colour and Figure, but the Motion of the Things it represents. We have before observed, that there is generally in Nature something more Grand and August, than what we meet with in the Curiosities of Art. When therefore, we see this imitated in any measure, it gives us a nobler and more exalted kind of Pleasure than what we receive from the nicer and more accurate Productions of Art. On this Account our English Gardens are not so entertaining to the Fancy as those in France and Italy, where we see a large Extent of Ground covered over with an agreeable mixture of Garden and Forest, which represent every where an artificial Rudeness, much more charming than that Neatness and Elegancy which we meet with in those of our own Country. It might, indeed, be of ill Consequence to the Publick, as well as unprofitable to private Persons, to alienate so much Ground from Pasturage, and the Plow, in many Parts of a Country that is so well peopled, and cultivated to a far greater Advantage. But why may not a whole Estate be thrown into a kind of Garden by frequent Plantations, that may turn as much to the Profit, as the Pleasure of the Owner? A Marsh overgrown with Willows, or a Mountain shaded with Oaks, are not 238

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only more beautiful, but more beneficial, than when they lie bare and unadorned. Fields of Corn make a pleasant Prospect, and if the Walks were a little taken care of that lie between them, if the natural Embroidery of the Meadows were helpt and improved by some small Additions of Art, and the several Rows of Hedges set off by Trees and Flowers, that the Soil was capable of receiving, a Man might make a pretty Landskip of his own Possessions. Writers who have given us an Account of China, tell us the Inhabitants of that Country laugh at the Plantations of our Europeans, which are laid out by the Rule and Line; because, they say, any one may place Trees in equal Rows and uniform Figures. They chuse rather to shew a Genius in Works of this Nature, and therefore always conceal the Art by which they direct themselves. They have a Word, it seems, in their Language, by which they express the particular Beauty of a Plantation that thus strikes the Imagination at first Sight, without discovering what it is that has so agreeable an Effect. Our British Gardeners, on the contrary, instead of humouring Nature, love to deviate from it as much as possible. Our Trees rise in Cones, Globes, and Pyramids. We see the Marks of the Scissars upon every Plant and Bush. I do not know whether I am singular in my Opinion, but, for my own part, I would rather look upon a Tree in all its Luxuriancy and Diffusion of Boughs and Branches, than when it is thus cut and trimmed into a Mathematical Figure; and cannot but fancy that an Orchard in Flower looks infinitely more delightful, than all the little Labyrinths of the [more] finished Parterre. But as our great Modellers of Gardens have their Magazines of Plants to dispose of, it is very natural for them to tear up all the beautiful Plantations of Fruit Trees, and contrive a Plan that may most turn to their own Profit, in taking off their Evergreens, and the like Moveable Plants, with which their Shops are plentifully stocked.

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ROBERT CASTELL from The Villas of the Ancients Illustrated (1728)

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he parallel development of English Palladianism and aesthetic relativism even continues in the 1720s within the circle of Lord Burlington. In 1718 the poet Alexander Pope, who had been a close friend to Addison, leased a villa along the banks of the Thames near Twickenham and began altering his garden, based on the premise that ‘‘all gardening is landscape painting.’’ Pope’s new style, especially his artificial grotto and serpentine paths, may have encouraged Burlington, sometime after 1725, to relax the formal garden around his Palladian villa at Chiswick, which was still under construction. Burlington’s change of direction was also certainly influenced by a book being written (at least in part under his aegis) by Robert Castell, of whom we know very little. His book, The Villas of the Ancients Illustrated, is a scholarly attempt to reconstruct the gardens at Pliny’s villas at Laurentinum and Tuscum, but Castell in his reasoning goes much further, as in theory he attempts to square classical theory with a still evolving knowledge of Chinese gardens. He does so by establishing three stages of development for the Roman garden. The first stage consisted of little more than selecting a pleasing site; in the second stage a classical symmetry

Robert Castell (d. 1729), from The Villas of the Ancients Illustrated, printed by the author, 1728, pp. 116–18.

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and order was sought. This phase, Castell goes on to argue, was superseded by a third and more refined stage whereby gardening ‘‘consisted in a close Imitation of Nature’’ that exploited the attribute of visual irregularity. In essence, he formulates or constructs a classical source for picturesque landscape design. Before any Notice be taken of that Part that lay beyond the Hippodrome, which is the only Roman Garden whose Description is come down to us, it may not be improper to enquire into the first Rise of Gardens, and of what they at first consisted, by which a Judgment may be the better passed on this before us. The Invention of this Art seems to have been owing to the first Builders of Villas, who were naturally led to search for the most beautiful Places in which to build them; but as it was hardly possible to meet with any, that within the Compass designed for the Pleasure of the Villa, should contain every thing that was compleatly agreeable, it was necessary to supply by Care and Industry whatever was wanting in the natural Face of the Country: but at first they aimed at nothing further than the Disposition of their Plantations, for by the small Knowledge we can arrive at, in the Gardens of the first Ages, they seem to have been no more than select, well-water’d Spots of Ground, irregularly producing all sorts of Plants and Trees, grateful either to the Sight, Smell, or Taste, and refreshed by Shade and Water: Their whole Art consisting in little more than in making those Parts next their Villas as it were accidentally produce the choicest Trees, the Growth of various Soils, the Face of the Ground suffering little or no Alteration; the Intent of Gardens being within a fixt Compass of Ground, to enjoy all that Fancy could invent most agreeable to the Senses. But this rough Manner, not appearing sufficiently beautiful to those of a more regular and exact Taste, set them upon inventing a Manner of laying out the Ground and Plantations of Gardens by the Rule and Line, and to trim them up by an Art that was visible in every Part of the Design. By the Accounts we have of the present Manner of Designing in China, it seems as if from the two former Manners a Third had been formed, whose Beauty consisted in a close Imitation of Nature; where, tho’ the Parts are disposed with the greatest Art, the Irregularity is still preserved; so that their Manner may not improperly be said to be an artful Confusion, where there is no Appearance of that Skill which is made use of, their Rocks, Cascades, and Trees, bearing their natural Forms. In the Disposition of Pliny’s Garden, the Designer of it shews that he was not unacquainted with these several Manners, and the Whole seems to have been a Mixture of them all Three. In the Pratulum Nature appears in her plainest and most simple Dress; such as the first Builders were contented with about their Villas, when the Face of the Ground it self happened to be naturally beautiful. By the Care used in regulating the turning and winding Walks, and cutting the Trees and Hedges into various Forms, is shewn the Manner of the more regular Gardens; and in the Imitatio Ruris, he seems to hint at the third Manner, where, under the Form of a beautiful Country, Hills, Rocks, Cascades, Rivulets, Woods, Buildings, &c. were possibly thrown into such an agreeable Disorder, as to have pleased the Eye from several Views, like so many beautiful Landskips; and at the same time have afforded at least all the Pleasures that could be enjoy’d in the most regular Gardens. The main Body of this Garden was disposed after the Second of these three Manners; through its winding Paths One as it were accidentally fell upon those Pieces of a rougher Taste, that seem to have been made with a Design to surprize those that arrived at them, through such a Scene of Regularities, which (in the Opinion of some) might appear more beautiful by being near those plain Imitations of Nature, as Lights in Painting are heightened by Shades. The Intent of this Garden (besides pleasing the Eye, being to 240

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afford Shade and Coolness in the hotter Season of the Year) required it to be well stockt with Trees and Water; which last we may suppose took its seeming natural Course through the rougher Parts of the Garden, and in the regular appeared in a more artful Disposition; as did also the Trees, which both here and in those Parts on the South Side, or Front of the Villa, were cut into unwarrantable Forms, if the Ornaments of Gardens are allow’d to be only Imitations of Nature’s Productions; for it cannot be supposed that Nature ever did or will produce Trees in the Form of Beasts, or Letters, or any Resemblance of Embroidery, which Imitations rather belong to the Statuary, and Workers with the Needle than the Architect; and tho’ pleasing in those Arts, appear monstrous in this.

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BATTY LANGLEY from New Principles of Gardening (1728)

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angley’s book, which appeared in the same year as Castell’s classical history, testifies to how widely the new approach to garden design was spreading by this date. Langley, even though he lived in nearby Twickenham, was not connected with the Burlington circle at Chiswick; in fact, he was a defender of the eclectic tradition of Hawksmoor and Vanbrugh and he vehemently opposed the severity of the new classicism that was taking root. Langley was a prolific writer on architecture and garden design. He is perhaps best known for his Ancient Architecture (1742), in which he played to the emerging interest in Gothic forms by codifying five Gothic ‘‘orders.’’ As a son of a gardener, however, he was perhaps more at home with garden design. His New Principles of Gardening (1728) is a landmark text in the sense that it is the first attempt to define the principles of the new style. In the Introduction, he – following Addison – decries the ‘‘stiff, regular Garden’’ and suggests instead that one imitate nature ‘‘with the greatest Accuracy that can be’’ (pp. v–vi). He goes on to place great emphasis on the quality of the visual experience of the garden, especially its novelty and unaffected irregularity. The excerpt presented here is toward the end of the book, where he attempts to summarize the new principles of design. His suggestions for the exploitation of dales, streams, canals, grottos, and serpentine meanders would within a few years become standard features of the English garden.

Of the Disposition of Gardens in General On this very Point depends the whole Beauty or Ruin of a Garden, and therefore every Gentleman should be very cautious therein; I must needs confess, that I have often been surprized to see that none of our late and present Authors did ever attempt to furnish Gentlemen with better Plans and Ideas thereof, than what has hitherto been practised.

Batty Langley (1696–1751), from New Principles of Gardening (1728). Farnborough: Gregg International Publishers, 1971 (facsimile edition), pp. 193–5.

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The End and Design of a good Garden, is to be both profitable and delightful; wherein should be observed, that its Parts should be always presenting new Objects, which is a continual Entertainment to the Eye, and raises a Pleasure of Imagination. If the Gentlemen of England had formerly been better advised in the laying out their Gardens, we might by this Time been at least equal (if not far superior) to any Abroad. For as we abound in good Soil, fine Grass, and Gravel, which in many Places Abroad is not to be found, and the best of all Sorts of Trees; it therefore appears, that nothing has been wanting but a noble Idea of the Disposition of a Garden. I could instance divers Places in England, where Noblemen and Gentlemens Seats are very finely situated, but wretchedly executed, not only in respect to disproportion’d Walks, Trees planted in improper Soils, no Regard had to fine Views, &c. but with that abominable Mathematical Regularity and Stiffness, that nothing that’s bad could equal them. Now these unpleasant forbidding Sort of Gardens, owe their Deformity to the insipid Taste or Interest of some of our Theorical Engineers, who, in their aspiring Garrets, cultivate all the several Species of Plants, as well as frame Designs for Situations they never saw: Or to some Nursery-Man, who, for his own Interest, advises the Gentleman to such Forms and Trees as will make the greatest Draught out of his Nursery, without Regard to any Thing more: And oftentimes to a Coxcomb, who takes upon himself to be an excellent Draughtsman, as well as an incomparable Gardener; of which there has been, and are still, too many in England, which is witness’d by every unfortunate Garden wherein they come. Now as the Beauty of Gardens in general depends upon an elegant Disposition of all their Parts, which cannot be determined without a perfect Knowledge of its several Ascendings, Descendings, Views, &c. how is it possible that any Person can make a good Design for any Garden, whose Situation they never saw? To draw a beautiful regular Draught, is not to the Purpose; for altho’ it makes a handsome Figure on the Paper, yet it has a quite different Effect when executed on the Ground: Nor is there any Thing more ridiculous, and forbidding, than a Garden which is regular; which, instead of entertaining the Eye with fresh Objects, after you have seen a quarter Part, you only see the very same Part repeated again, without any Variety. And what still greatly adds to this wretched Method, is, that to execute these stiff regular Designs, they destroy many a noble Oak, and in its Place plant, perhaps, a clumsey-bred Yew, Holley, &c. which, with me, is a Crime of so high a Nature, as not to be pardon’d. There is nothing adds so much to the Pleasure of a Garden, as those great Beauties of Nature, Hills and Valleys, which, by our regular Coxcombs, have ever been destroyed, and at a very great Expence also in Levelling. For, to their great Misfortune, they always deviate from Nature, instead of imitating it. There are many other Absurdities I could mention, which those wretched Creatures have, and are daily guilty of: But as the preceding are sufficient to arm worthy Gentlemen against such Mortals, I shall at present forbear, and instead thereof, proceed to General Directions for laying out Gardens in a more grand and delightful Manner than has been done before. But first observe, That the several Parts of a beautiful Rural Garden, are Walks, Slopes, Borders, Open ‘Plains, Plain Parterres, Avenues, Groves, Wildernesses, Labyrinths, Fruit-Gardens, Flower-Gardens, Vineyards, Hop-Gardens, Nurseries, Coppiced Quarters, Green Openings, like Meadows: Small Inclos242

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ures of Corn, Cones of Ever-Greens, of Flowering-Shrubs, of Fruit-Trees, of Forest-Trees, and mix’d together: Mounts, Terraces, Winding Valleys, Dales, Purling Streams, Basons, Canals, Fountains, Cascades, Grotto’s, Rocks, Ruins, Serpentine Meanders, Rude Coppies, Hay-Stacks, Wood-Piles, Rabbit and Hare-Warrens, Cold Baths, Aviaries, Cabinets, Statues, Obelisks, Manazeries, Pheasant and Partridge-Grounds, Orangeries, Melon-Grounds, Kitchen-Gardens, Physick or Herb-Garden, Orchard, Bowling-Green, Dials, Precipices, Amphitheatres, &c.

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ROBERT MORRIS from Lectures on Architecture (1736)

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y the 1730s the new English garden movement was clearly taking shape. The first significant representative of the new trend was William Kent (1685–1748), a painter whom Lord Burlington had lured back from Italy in 1715. During the mid-1720s Kent was commissioned by Burlington to write a book on Inigo Jones, and by the end of this decade he was assisting Burlington in redesigning his own garden. Kent would also turn to architecture (as a classicist) in the 1730s, but at the same time he gained considerable renown for his relaxed or informal garden designs, first manifesting itself in his masterpieces at Stowe (1731–5) and Rousham (beginning in 1737). Kent left no literary record of his ideas of garden design, but we can gain an insight into his design sensitivities by turning to another contemporary book by Robert Morris. The latter, as we have already seen, was at least loosely connected with the Burlington circle, and in his classical theory he places great emphasis on the notion of harmony. In his Lectures on Architecture, however, we have the emerging ‘‘picturesque’’ side of his thought, which Morris obviously felt to be fully consistent with classicism. Again, many of the elements of later British theory are evident here: the preference for rural living, for convenience of the plan (over beauty), for the prospect of gardens from the house, and for a freer treatment of nature as a painter might arrange a landscape painting. There are, however, still echoes of the classical tradition as well, such as the preference for a classical design of the residential seat, embellished with the three Greek orders (depending on the characteristics of the landscape). The lecture is thus an interesting transitional piece between the earlier classicism and mature picturesque theory, in which geometric and symmetric architecture and the informal garden are regarded as complementary features. The great emphasis on the situation, however, presages the later step of seeking to make the design of the house also more ‘‘picturesque.’’ When I speak of Situation, it must not be suppos’d that I mean proper Choice of it in Towns or Cities, where every Order is promiscuously perform’d, and, perhaps, in the same Pile of Building; but I would be understood, such Situations which are the proper Choice of Retirements, where a Sameness should be preserv’d between Art and Nature. Convenience is certainly the first Thing to be consider’d in Choice of Situation; what Supplies of Water, of Provision, of Carriage, &c. can easily and speedily be attain’d: For without these principal and necessary Conveniences, for the Support of little Commonwealths of Families, a Structure would soon be deserted, and left a Residence only for the Fowls of the Air to retire to, from the Inclemencies of the Seasons, and a Place of Repose. Robert Morris, from Lectures on Architecture (1734–6). Farnborough: Gregg International Publishers, 1971 (facsimile edition), pp. 63–70.

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But it is at the same time to be observ’d, such Situations which produce such Supplies, are not difficult to be found: And, perhaps, with the Additions of a healthy and fertile Soil, uninterrupted Vistas and Avenues, an agreeable River, or some opening Lawn, or at least a distant Groupe of Hills and Vales diminishing from the Eye by a pleasing Gradation: I say such an agreeable Spot of Ground, where Nature wantons in Luxuriancy, is the first Care of a Builder; and by a proper Design compos’d to blend Art and Nature together, must consequently render it the Delight of the Inhabitant, and give an unspeakable Pleasure to the Eye of every Beholder. A Person who builds on such a useful and delightful Glebe, must doubtless not only agreeably improve that Fortune which Providence has supplied him with, but likewise perpetuate his Judgment to his Posterity; it must render his Off-spring a Happiness and Pleasure, which gives a true Relish to Life. But he who, on the contrary, lays the Foundation of his Fabrick on a barren or unpleasant Soil, or on a bleak Wild which Nature seems to have deserted, is, consequently, only perpetuating his Folly to future Ages. But it is to be observ’d, that every one that builds has not an equal Felicity in the Opportunity of chusing a fine Situation; therefore some must fall into little Errors and Inconveniences: But it were better to have an ill-shap’d Hand or Leg, than to have none. Therefore Conveniency must he preferr’d to Beauty; and the fine Prospect, the opening Lawns, the distant Views, must give way to a more healthy, a more temperate, or more convenient Soil. I might here descend to shew you by what Methods you must proceed to distinguish a healthy Soil, such as by the Complexion of the Inhabitants, the Health of Cattle, and even by the Soundness of Stones and Trees, are known; and in the choice of Water, concerning its Goodness, by being in running Streams, not stagnated, muddy, or leaving any Sediment in the Vessel, its Remoteness from Lakes or Ponds of Water, &c. But as this would divert your Thoughts from the Application of Buildings, to a proper Situation; I shall refer it to another Lecture, or to Alberti, or Andrea Palladio, who has said what is necessary on this Subject, in his first and second Books of Architecture. As Nature requires a Sameness, when Art is made use of to add Lustre to her Beauty; so Art never more agreeably pleases us, than when she has a Resemblance of Nature: Therefore, by a kind of Sympathy and Attraction, when both are blended or mingled together, so as to be preserv’d without starting into Extreams, they must necessarily give that Pleasure to the Senses, which alone can flow from the nice Hand and Skill of the Designer. In this, I think, our modern Way of planning Gardens is far preferable to what was us’d 20 Years ago, where, in large Parterres, you might see Men, Birds, and Dogs, cut in Trees; or, perhaps, something like the Shape of a Man on Horseback – (pardon this Digression.) – In Architecture Men have fell into Methods equally absurd. In some Places, may be seen little Boys supporting a Burden of a Monument that had been the Labour of 10 or 12 Persons to place there; or a Corinthian Column set in a Fish-pond, and a Tuscan at the Entrance of a Summer-house. I say, such Inconsistencies in Nature always hurt the Imagination, and we view such Objects with more Pain and Surprize than any Pleasure they can possibly give us. A champaign open Country, requires a noble and plain Building, which is always best supplied by the Dorick Order, or something analogous to its Simplicity. If it have a long extended View, it were best to range the Offices in a Line with the Building; for at distant Views it fills the Eye with a majestick Pleasure. A Situation near the Sea requires the same, or rather a Rusticity and Lowness: The Vapours of the Sea, by its saline Qualities, expand 244

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themselves some Distance, and always are a decaying Principle; and with the boisterous Winds which blow from it, must, consequently, require a Power forcible enough to withstand its corrosive Quality. The chearful Vale requires more Decoration and Dress; and if the View be long, or some adjacent River runs near it; the Ionick Order is the most proper; where Nature seems to wanton in Dress, and is gay in Verdure, she requireth Art to assist and embellish her, and the Liveliness of the Ionick Order can deck and garnish the Glebe. If the Spot be an Ascent, and some distant Hills or Wood environ the back Part, (in which I suppose the Front a South Aspect) then a few Ornaments may be scatter’d in proper Parts, to give it an enlivening Variety; – but Care must be had not to use Superfluity. If it be on an Eminence, and surrounded with Woods, the principal Avenues should be spacious: Portico’s give a grateful Pleasure to us in the View, and more so, if the Front is not contracted by the Avenue, nor continue too near it, to take off the proper Shades and keeping of Design. The Ionick Order is of the three Greek Orders the most applicable to Situations of various Kinds; and if I say her Measures and Proportions more pleasingly attract the Eye, it is not without Reason: The Parts are analogous to Nature, in which she has been so nicely pois’d between the Rusticity of the Dorick and the Luxuriancy of the Corinthian, that I am more apt to believe the Ionick Order was invented as a Mean between the Dorick and the Corinthian, than that the Ionick was in so beautiful Proportion before the Corinthian Order was invented. The silent Streams, the gay, the wanton Scene, requires the Corinthian Order; where Nature is gilded with lively Landskips, where the Verdure is blended with Flowers, which she decks herself with, and where the party-colour’d Painting of some opening Lawn garnishes her in all her Pride; then the Architect must have Recourse to Fancy, must mingle his Flowers with Nature, his Festoons of Fruits, &c. must deck the Fabrick, and be Nature in every thing but Lavishness; the same Chain of Similitude should run through the Design, rising from one Degree of Dress to another, still preserving the Consistency of the Parts with the Whole, and keeping that Mediocrity in Ornament which the Nature of the Design requires.

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W I L L I A M CH A M B E R S from Designs of Chinese Buildings (1757)

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his first book by the architect William Chambers voices a sub-theme lurking in the background of picturesque theory – the Chinese garden. This book of Chambers owes everything to the circumstances of his early years, the three trips to China and the Orient in the 1740s. This fascination with China later found an outlet when, during his architectural training in Paris, he met the Prince of Wales. As the story goes, the latter encouraged him to design a Chinese building for the garden at Kew, and Chambers indeed built a ‘‘House of Confuscius’’ there in the

William Chambers, from Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines, and Utensils, published by the author, 1757. New York: Benjamin Bloom, 1968 (reissue), pp. 14–18.

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early 1750s, even before the architect had settled in England. After moving to London in 1755, as architect to Princess Augusta, Chambers further transformed the gardens at Kew. The gardens today are still best known for the 10-story Great Pagoda, laid out by Chambers in 1761. Chambers published all of his designs for Kew in his Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings at Kew in Surry (1763), and he would also later publish A Dissertation on Oriental Gardening (1772). His Designs of Chinese Buildings is an earlier book, and it captures Chambers at the moment when he was most attracted to what he regarded as the Chinese style. The passages are from the chapter, ‘‘Of the Art of Laying Out Gardens among the Chinese.’’ The gardens which I saw in China were very small; nevertheless from them, and what could be gathered from Lepqua, a celebrated Chinese painter, with whom I had several conversations on the subject of gardening, I think I have acquired sufficient knowledge of their notions on this head. Nature is their pattern, and their aim is to imitate her in all her beautiful irregularities. Their first consideration is the form of the ground, whether it be flat, sloping, hilly, or mountainous, extensive, or of small compass, of a dry or marshy nature, abounding with rivers and springs, or liable to a scarcity of water; to all which circumstances they attend with great care, chusing such dispositions as humour the ground, can be executed with the least expence, hide its defects, and set its advantages in the most conspicuous light. As the Chinese are not fond of walking, we seldom meet with avenues or spacious walks, as in our European plantations: the whole ground is laid out in a variety of scenes, and you are led, by winding passages cut in the groves, to the different points of view, each of which is marked by a seat, a building, or some other object. The perfection of their gardens consists in the number, beauty, and diversity of these scenes. The Chinese gardeners, like the European painters, collect from nature the most pleasing objects, which they endeavour to combine in such a manner, as not only to appear to the best advantage separately, but likewise to unite in forming an elegant and striking whole. Their artists distinguish three different species of scenes, to which they give the appellations of pleasing, horrid, and enchanted. Their enchanted scenes answer, in a great measure, to what we call romantic, and in these they make use of several artifices to excite surprize. Sometimes they make a rapid stream, or torrent, pass under ground, the turbulent noise of which strikes the ear of the new-comer, who is at a loss to know from whence it proceeds: at other times they dispose the rocks, buildings, and other objects that form the composition, in such a manner as that the wind passing through the different interstices and cavities, made in them for that purpose, causes strange and uncommon sounds. They introduce into these scenes all kinds of extraordinary trees, plants, and flowers, form artificial and complicated ecchoes, and let loose different sorts of monstrous birds and animals. In their scenes of horror, they introduce impending rocks, dark caverns, and impetuous cataracts rushing down the mountains from all sides; the trees are ill-formed, and seemingly torn to pieces by the violence of tempests; some are thrown down, and intercept the course of the torrents, appearing as if they had been brought down by the fury of the waters; others look as if shattered and blasted by the force of lightning; the buildings are some in ruins, others half-consumed by fire, and some miserable huts dispersed in the mountains serve, at once to indicate the existence and wretchedness of the inhabitants. These scenes are generally succeeded by pleasing ones. The Chinese artists, knowing how powerfully contrast 246

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operates on the mind, constantly practise sudden transitions, and a striking opposition of forms, colours, and shades. Thus they conduct you from limited prospects to extensive views; from objects of horrour to scenes of delight; from lakes and rivers to plains, hills, and woods; to dark and gloomy colours they oppose such as are brilliant, and to complicated forms simple ones; distributing, by a judicious arrangement, the different masses of light and shade, in such a manner as to render the composition at once distinct in it’s parts, and striking in the whole. Where the ground is extensive, and a multiplicity of scenes are to be introduced, they generally adapt each to one single point of view: but where it is limited, and affords no room for variety, they endeavour to remedy this defect, by disposing the objects so, that being viewed from different points, they produce different representations; and sometimes, by an artful disposition, such as have no resemblance to each other. In their large gardens they contrive different scenes for morning, noon, and evening; erecting, at the proper points of view, buildings adapted to the recreations of each particular time of the day: and in their small ones (where, as has been observed, one arrangement produces many representations) they dispose in the same manner, at the several points of view, buildings, which, from their use, point out the time of day for enjoying the scene in it’s perfection. As the climate of China is exceeding hot, they employ a great deal of water in their gardens. In the small ones, if the situation admits, they frequently lay almost the whole ground under water; leaving only some islands and rocks: and in their large ones they introduce extensive lakes, rivers, and canals. The banks of their lakes and rivers are variegated in imitation of nature; being sometimes bare and gravelly, sometimes covered with woods quite to the water’s edge. In some places flat, and adorned with flowers and shrubs; in others steep, rocky, and forming caverns, into which part of the waters discharge themselves with noise and violence. Sometimes you see meadows covered with cattle, or rice-grounds that run out into the lakes, leaving between them passages for vessels; and sometimes groves, into which enter, in different parts, creeks and rivulets, sufficiently deep to admit boats; their banks being planted with trees, whose spreading branches, in some places, form arbours, under which the boats pass. These generally conduct to some very interesting object; such as a magnificent building, places on the top of a mountain cut into terrasses; a casine situated in the midst of a lake; a cascade; a grotto cut into a variety of apartments; an artificial rock; and many other such inventions. Their rivers are seldom streight, but serpentine, and broken into many irregular points; sometimes they are narrow, noisy, and rapid, at other times deep, broad, and slow. Both in their rivers and lakes are seen reeds, with other aquatic plants and flowers; particularly the Lyen Hoa, of which they are very fond. They frequently erect mills, and other hydraulic machines, the motions of which enliven the scene: they have also a great number of vessels of different forms and sizes. In their lakes they intersperse islands; some of them barren, and surrounded with rocks and shoals; others enriched with every thing that art and nature can furnish most perfect. They likewise form artificial rocks; and in compositions of this kind the Chinese surpass all other nations. The making them is a distinct profession; and there are at Canton, and probably in most other cities of China, numbers of artificers constantly employed in this business. The stone they are made of comes from the southern coasts of China. It is of a bluish cast, and worn into irregular forms by the action of the waves. The CHA M BE RS, D E S I G N S O F C H I N E S E B U I L D I N G S

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Chinese are exceeding nice in the choice of this stone; insomuch that I have seen several Tael given for a bit no bigger than a man’s fist, when it happened to be of a beautiful form and lively colour. But these select pieces they use in landscapes for their apartments: in gardens they employ a coarser sort, which they join with a bluish cement, and form rocks of a considerable size. I have seen some of these exquisitely fine, and such as discovered an uncommon elegance of taste in the contriver. When they are large they make in them caves and grottos, with openings, through which you discover distant prospects, They cover them, in different places, with trees, shrubs, briars, and moss; placing on their tops little temples, or other buildings, to which you ascend by rugged and irregular steps cut in the rock. When there is a sufficient supply of water, and proper ground, the Chinese never fail to form cascades in their gardens. They avoid all regularity in these works, observing nature according to her operations in that mountainous country. The waters burst out from among the caverns, and windings of the rocks. In some places a large and impetuous cataract appears; in others are seen many lesser falls. Sometimes the view of the cascade is intercepted by trees, whose leaves and branches only leave room to discover the waters, in some places, as they fall down the sides of the mountain. They frequently throw rough wooden bridges from one rock to another, over the steepest part of the cataract; and often intercept it’s passage by trees and heaps of stones, that seem to have been brought down by the violence of the torrent. In their plantations they vary the forms and colours of their trees; mixing such as have large and spreading branches, with those of pyramidal figures, and dark greens, with brighter, interspersing among them such as produce flowers; of which they have some that flourish a great part of the year. The Weeping-willow is one of their favourite trees, and always among those that border their lakes and rivers, being so planted as to have it’s branches hanging over the water. They likewise introduce trunks of decayed trees, sometimes erect, and at other times lying on the ground, being very nice about their forms, and the colour of the bark and moss on them. Various are the artifices they employ to surprize. Sometimes they lead you through dark caverns and gloomy passages, at the issue of which you are, on a sudden, struck with the view of a delicious landscape, enriched with every thing that luxuriant nature affords most beautiful. At other times you are conducted through avenues and walks, that gradually diminish and grow rugged, till the passage is at length entirely intercepted, and rendered impracticable, by bushes, briars, and stones: when unexpectedly a rich and extensive prospect opens to view, so much the more pleasing as it was less looked for. Another of their artifices is to hide some part of a composition by trees, or other intermediate objects. This naturally excites the curiosity of the spectator to take a nearer view; when he is surprised by some unexpected scene, or some representation totally opposite to the thing he looked for. The termination of their lakes they always hide, leaving room for the imagination to work; and the same rule they observe in other compositions, wherever it can be put in practice.

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T O W A R D A R E L A T I V I S T AE S T H E T I C S

Introduction

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hese implications of empiricism, combined with the development of the English garden, become more visible at mid-century, as British theory enters the flowering phase of its Enlightenment. The crucial texts in this regard appear, almost entirely, along a philosophical front. Locke’s philosophical successors, George Berkeley and David Hume, had advanced more elaborate empirical models, which now began to consider the foundation of aesthetic beliefs. Various writers, among them Edmund Burke, began to see the ‘‘new’’ aesthetics as a distinct alternative to Continental rationalism and its theory of beauty, while at the same time many European intellectuals – such as Voltaire, Condillac, and Diderot – became much attracted to British theory as a way to ground their aesthetic ideas within more scientifically rigorous and modern systems. Also of crucial importance here is the almost sudden elevation of the idea of the ‘‘sublime’’ to aesthetic importance: now a concept having a different yet equal I N T RO D U C T I O N T O P A R T I V B

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importance to the idea of the ‘‘beautiful.’’ This expansion of aesthetic enjoyment into other areas in itself allows an alternative vision of what constitutes pleasing aesthetic sensations. The period around mid-century is a rich and productive time of conceptual innovation. In the third quarter of the century, a recognizable relativist aesthetics not only takes hold but in Britain largely overtakes the absolute underpinnings of classicism.

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JO H N L O CK E from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, fourth edition (1700)

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s such exotic phenomena as the Chinese garden were affecting British aesthetic thought, philosophers were also more directly approaching the issue of relative beauty. Once again the line of development can be traced back to John Locke. In his Essay he never addressed the question of beauty and proportions directly, but in a chapter added to the fourth edition of his work in 1700, ‘‘On the Association of Ideas,’’ he provides a way to consider the problem of beauty within the philosophical system he had set out. The world, he argues, is perceived through the senses, and these sensations spark ideas; these ideas are then mentally associated with other ideas, from which we derive our like or dislike of things we experience. This chain reaction of ideas is actually philosophically close to Perrault’s notion of ‘‘custom,’’ in that certain proportions are pleasing to our senses not because of any inherent mathematical properties but because we have become habituated to them and their associations are found to be pleasing. But there is one crucial distinction inherent to Locke’s argument, and this is the increasing emphasis that he places on sensation and the mental stimulation that is derived from it. This theory of association will become the cornerstone of eighteenth-century British aesthetics, and it will be applied not only to the ‘‘associations’’ connected with the perception of beauty, but also with such concepts as the sublime and the picturesque. On the Continent, as we have already seen, it also dovetails with the expanding architectural notion of ‘‘character.’’

5. Some of our ideas have a natural correspondence and connexion one with another: it is the office and excellency of our reason to trace these, and hold them together in that union and correspondence which is founded in their peculiar beings. Besides this, there is another connexion of ideas wholly owing to chance or custom. Ideas that in themselves are not all of kin, come to be so united in some men’s minds, that it is very hard to separate them; they always keep in company, and the one no sooner at any time comes into the understanding, but its associate appears with it; and if they are more than two which are thus united, the whole gang, always inseparable, show themselves together.1 6. This strong combination of ideas, not allied by nature,2 the mind makes in itself either voluntarily or by chance; and hence it comes in different men to be very different, according to their different inclinations, education, interests, &c. Custom settles habits of thinking in the understanding, as well as of determining in the will, and of motions in the body: all John Locke, from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (fourth edition, 1700), ed. Alexander Campbell Fraser. New York: Dover, 1959, Vol. I, ch. XXXIII, pp. 529–33.

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which seems to be but trains of motions in the animal spirits, which, once set a going, continue in the same steps they have been used to; which, by often treading, are worn into a smooth path, and the motion in it becomes easy, and as it were natural. As far as we can comprehend thinking, thus ideas seem to be produced in our minds; or, if they are not, this may serve to explain their following one another in an habitual train, when once they are put into their track, as well as it does to explain such motions of the body.3 A musician used to any tune will find that, let it but once begin in his head, the ideas of the several notes of it will follow one another orderly in his understanding, without any care or attention, as regularly as his fingers move orderly over the keys of the organ to play out the tune he has begun, though his unattentive thoughts be elsewhere a wandering. Whether the natural cause of these ideas, as well as of that regular dancing of his fingers be the motion of his animal spirits, I will not determine, how probable soever, by this instance, it appears to be so: but this may help us a little to conceive of intellectual habits, and of the tying together of ideas. 7. That there are such associations of them made by custom, in the minds of most men, I think nobody will question, who has well considered himself or others; and to this, perhaps, might be justly attributed most of the sympathies and antipathies observable in men, which work as strongly, and produce as regular effects as if they were natural; and are therefore called so, though they at first had no other original but the accidental connexion of two ideas, which either the strength of the first impression, or future indulgence so united, that they always afterwards kept company together in that man’s mind, as if they were but one idea.4 I say most of the antipathies, I do not say all; for some of them are truly natural, depend upon our original constitution, and are born with us; but a great part of those which are counted natural, would have been known to be from unheeded, though perhaps early, impressions, or wanton fancies at first, which would have been acknowledged the original of them, if they had been warily observed. A grown person surfeiting with honey no sooner hears the name of it, but his fancy immediately carries sickness and qualms to his stomach, and he cannot bear the very idea of it; other ideas of dislike, and sickness, and vomiting, presently accompany it, and he is disturbed; but he knows from whence to date this weakness, and can tell how he got this indisposition. Had this happened to him by an over-dose of honey when a child, all the same effects would have followed; but the cause would have been mistaken, and the antipathy counted natural. 8. I mention this, not out of any great necessity there is in this present argument to distinguish nicely between natural and acquired antipathies; but I take notice of it for another purpose, viz. that those who have children, or the charge of their education, would think it worth their while diligently to watch, and carefully to prevent the undue connexion of ideas in the minds of young people. This is the time most susceptible of lasting impressions; and though those relating to the health of the body are by discreet people minded and fenced against, yet I am apt to doubt, that those which relate more peculiarly to the mind, and terminate in the understanding or passions, have been much less heeded than the thing deserves: nay, those relating purely to the understanding, have, as I suspect, been by most men wholly overlooked. 9. This wrong connexion in our minds of ideas in themselves loose and independent of one another, has such an influence, and is of so great force to set us awry in our actions, as

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well moral as natural, passions, reasonings, and notions themselves, that perhaps there is not any one thing that deserves more to be looked after. 10. The ideas of goblins and sprites have really no more to do with darkness than light: yet let but a foolish maid inculcate these often on the mind of a child, and raise them there together, possibly he shall never be able to separate them again so long as he lives, but darkness shall ever afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas, and they shall be so joined, that he can no more bear the one than the other. 11. A man receives a sensible injury from another, thinks on the man and that action over and over, and by ruminating on them strongly, or much, in his mind, so cements those two ideas together, that he makes them almost one; never thinks on the man, but the pain and displeasure he suffered comes into his mind with it, so that he scarce distinguishes them, but has as much an aversion for the one as the other. Thus hatreds are often begotten from slight and innocent occasions, and quarrels propagated and continued in the world. 12. A man has suffered pain or sickness in any place; he saw his friend die in such a room: though these have in nature nothing to do one with another, yet when the idea of the place occurs to his mind, it brings (the impression being once made) that of the pain and displeasure with it: he confounds them in his mind, and can as little bear the one as the other. 13. When this combination is settled, and while it lasts, it is not in the power of reason to help us, and relieve us from the effects of it. Ideas in our minds, when they are there, will operate according to their natures and circumstances. And here we see the cause why time cures certain affections, which reason, though in the right, and allowed to be so, has not power over, nor is able against them to prevail with those who are apt to hearken to it in other cases. The death of a child that was the daily delight of its mother’s eyes, and joy of her soul, rends from her heart the whole comfort of her life, and gives her all the torment imaginable: use the consolations of reason in this case, and you were as good preach ease to one on the rack, and hope to allay, by rational discourses, the pain of his joints tearing asunder. Till time has by disuse separated the sense of that enjoyment and its loss, from the idea of the child returning to her memory, all representations, though ever so reasonable, are in vain; and therefore some in whom the union between these ideas is never dissolved, spend their lives in mourning, and carry an incurable sorrow to their graves. 14. A friend of mine knew one perfectly cured of madness by a very harsh and offensive operation. The gentleman who was thus recovered, with great sense of gratitude and acknowledgment owned the cure all his life after, as the greatest obligation he could have received; but, whatever gratitude and reason suggested to him, he could never bear the sight of the operator: that image brought back with it the idea of that agony which he suffered from his hands, which was too mighty and intolerable for him to endure.

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So far from trying to explain reason, by means of ‘association of ideas,’ Locke here expressly contrasts the ‘natural’ or rational relations of things with that connexion among ideas which is gradually generated, by their accidental coexistences and sequences in the mental experience of

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individuals. ‘Inseparable’ association, in an individual experience, is thus distinguished from intrinsic necessity of reason, and also from objective causality. Again Locke opposes association of phenomena according to the reason that is in nature – what he elsewhere calls ‘the visible agreement that is in the ideas themselves’ – to those associations which issue from ‘the prevailing custom of the individual mind joining them together.’ See Conduct of the Understanding, § 41. Locke thus makes little of those physiological ‘explanations’ of the associations among our ideas that refer them to motions in the nerves, which have played so large a part in materialistic psychology since Hartley. The cause therein supposed to explain why ideas, when often united, are apt ever after to keep company, in the individual mind in which they were so united, is alleged to be certain motions in the nerves; ‘ideas’ themselves being our feeling of those motions, and thus dependent for their order upon mechanical causes. The connexions thus formed, by accidents in the history of the individual, and so in unreason, give rise to Bacon’s idols of the human mind, which fail to correspond to the objective connexions in nature that express Ideas of the Divine Mind. The complex ideas of substances that possess our minds thus come to be at cross purposes with the substances themselves, as they exist in the intelligible system of nature.

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JOSEPH ADDISON from The Spectator (1712)

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n the essay by Addison of June 23, which we cited in the last section, we saw him make the distinction between the ‘‘Great, Uncommon, or Beautiful.’’ If the Chinese garden represents for him an example of the uncommon, here architecture is considered under the mental association of ‘‘greatness’’ – later to be renamed the sublime. This is a pivotal essay with respect to eighteenth-century aesthetic theory. Not only will the idea of the ‘‘sublime’’ eventually emerge as a major aesthetic category alongside ‘‘beauty,’’ but Addison’s discussion of this idea with respect to architecture will also help to displace architectural theory’s former preoccupation with beauty and proportions. One could very well argue, for instance, that the so-called visionary architecture of the late-eighteenth century – seen in the spectacular drawings of Boulle´e – has its starting point in this particular essay. Thursday, June 26, 1712. Adde tot egregias urbes, operumque laborem. Virg.

Having already shewn how the Fancy is affected by the Works of Nature, and afterwards considered in general both the Works of Nature and of Art, how they mutually assist and compleat each other, in forming such Scenes and Prospects as are most apt to delight the Joseph Addison, from The Spectator (June 26, 1712), reprinted in The Spectator. London: George Routledge & Sons, 1868, pp. 598–600.

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Mind of the Beholder, I shall in this Paper throw together some Reflections on that Particular Art, which has a more immediate Tendency, than any other to produce those Pleasures of the Imagination, which have hitherto been the Subject of this Discourse. The Art I mean is that of Architecture, which I shall consider only with regard to the Light in which the foregoing Speculations have placed it, without entring into those Rules and Maxims which the great Masters of Architecture have laid down, and explained at large in numberless Treatises upon that Subject. Greatness, in the Works of Architecture, may be considered as relating to the Bulk and Body of the Structure, or to the Manner in which it is built. As for the first, we find the Ancients, especially among the Eastern Nations of the World, infinitely superior to the Moderns. Not to mention the Tower of Babel, of which an old Author says, there were the Foundations to be seen in his time, which looked like a spacious Mountain; what could be more noble than the Walls of Babylon, its hanging Gardens, and its Temple to Jupiter Belus, that rose a Mile high by Eight several Stories, each Story a Furlong in Height, and on the Top of which was the Babylonian Observatory; I might here, likewise, take Notice of the huge Rock that was cut into the Figure of Semiramis, with the smaller Rocks that lay by it in the Shape of Tributary Kings; the prodigious Basin, or artificial Lake, which took in the whole Euphrates, ‘till such time as a new Canal was formed for its Reception, with the several Trenches through which that River was conveyed. I know there are Persons who look upon some of these Wonders of Art as Fabulous, but I cannot find any [Ground] for such a Suspicion, unless it be that we have no such Works among us at present. There were indeed many greater Advantages for Building in those Times, and in that Part of the World, than have been met with ever since. The Earth was extremely fruitful, Men lived generally on Pasturage, which requires a much smaller number of Hands than Agriculture: There were few Trades to employ the busie Part of Mankind, and fewer Arts and Sciences to give Work to Men of Speculative Tempers; and what is more than all the rest, the Prince was absolute; so that when he went to War, he put himself at the Head of a whole People: As we find Semiramis leading her [three] Millions to the Field, and yet over-powered by the Number of her Enemies. ’Tis no wonder, therefore, when she was at Peace, and turned her Thoughts on Building, that she could accomplish so great Works, with such a prodigious Multitude of Labourers: Besides that, in her Climate, there was small Interruption of Frosts and Winters, which make the Northern Workmen lie half the Year Idle. I might mention too, among the Benefits of the Climate, what Historians say of the Earth, that it sweated out a Bitumen or natural kind of Mortar, which is doubtless the same with that mentioned in Holy Writ, as contributing to the Structure of Babel. Slime they used instead of Mortar. In Egypt we still see their Pyramids, which answer to the Descriptions that have been made of them; and I question not but a Traveller might find out some Remains of the Labyrinth that covered a whole Province, and had a hundred Temples disposed among its several Quarters and Divisions. The Wall of China is one of these Eastern Pieces of Magnificence, which makes a Figure even in the Map of the World, altho’ an Account of it would have been thought Fabulous, were not the Wall it self still extant. We are obliged to Devotion for the noblest Buildings that have adorn’d the several Countries of the World. It is this which has set Men at work on Temples and Publick Places 254

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of Worship, not only that they might, by the Magnificence of the Building, invite the Deity to reside within it, but that such stupendous Works might, at the same time, open the Mind to vast Conceptions, and fit it to converse with the Divinity of the Place. For every thing that is Majestick imprints an Awfulness and Reverence on the Mind of the Beholder, and strikes in with the Natural Greatness of the Soul. In the Second place we are to consider Greatness of Manner in Architecture, which has such Force upon the Imagination, that a small Building, where it appears, shall give the Mind nobler Ideas than one of twenty times the Bulk, where the Manner is ordinary or little. Thus, perhaps, a Man would have been more astonished with the Majestick Air that appeared in one of [Lysippus’s] Statues of Alexander, tho’ no bigger than the Life, than he might have been with Mount Athos, had it been cut into the Figure of the Hero, according to the Proposal of Phidias, with a River in one Hand, and a City in the other. Let any one reflect on the Disposition of Mind he finds in himself, at his first Entrance into the Pantheon at Rome, and how his Imagination is filled with something Great and Amazing; and, at the same time, consider how little, in proportion, he is affected with the Inside of a Gothick Cathedral, tho’ it be five times larger than the other; which can arise from nothing else, but the Greatness of the Manner in the one, and the Meanness in the other. I have seen an Observation upon this Subject in a French Author, which very much pleased me. It is in Monsieur Freart’s Parallel of the Ancient and Modern Architecture. I shall give it the Reader with the same Terms of Art which he has made use of. I am observing (says he) a thing which, in my Opinion, is very curious, whence it proceeds, that in the same Quantity of Superficies, the one Manner seems great and magnificent, and the other poor and trifling; the Reason is fine and uncommon. I say then, that to introduce into Architecture this Grandeur of Manner, we ought so to proceed, that the Division of the Principal Members of the Order may consist but of few Parts, that they be all great and of a bold and ample Relievo, and Swelling; and that the Eye, beholding nothing little and mean, the Imagination may be more vigorously touched and affected with the Work that stands before it. For example; In a Cornice, if the Gola or Cynatium of the Corona, the Coping, the Modillions or Dentelli, make a noble Show by their graceful Projections, if we see none of that ordinary Confusion which is the Result of those little Cavities, Quarter Rounds of the Astragal and I know not how many other intermingled Particulars, which produce no Effect in great and massy Works, and which very unprofitably take up place to the Prejudice of the Principal Member, it is most certain that this Manner will appear Solemn and Great; as on the contrary, that it will have but a poor and mean Effect, where there is a Redundancy of those smaller Ornaments, which divide and scatter the Angles of the Sight into such a Multitude of Rays, so pressed together that the whole will appear but a Confusion. Among all the Figures in Architecture, there are none that have a greater Air than the Concave and the Convex, and we find in all the Ancient and Modern Architecture, as well in the remote Parts of China, as in Countries nearer home, that round Pillars and Vaulted Roofs make a great Part of those Buildings which are designed for Pomp and Magnificence. The Reason I take to be, because in these Figures we generally see more of the Body, than in those of other Kinds. There are, indeed, Figures of Bodies, where the Eye may take in two Thirds of the Surface; but as in such Bodies the Sight must split upon several Angles, it does not take in one uniform Idea, but several Ideas of the same kind. Look upon the Outside of a Dome, your Eye half surrounds it; look up into the Inside, and at one Glance you have all the Prospect of it; the entire Concavity falls into your Eye at once, the Sight being as the Center A D D I S O N , F R O M T H E SP E C TATO R

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that collects and gathers into it the Lines of the whole Circumference: In a Square Pillar, the Sight often takes in but a fourth Part of the Surface: and in a Square Concave, must move up and down to the different Sides, before it is Master of all the inward Surface. For this Reason, the Fancy is infinitely more struck with the View of the open Air, and Skies, that passes through an Arch, than what comes through a Square, or any other Figure. The Figure of the Rainbow does not contribute less to its Magnificence, than the Colours to its Beauty, as it is very poetically described by the Son of Sirach: Look upon the Rainbow, and praise him that made it; very beautiful it is in its Brightness; it encompasses the Heavens with a glorious Circle, and the Hands of the [most High] have bended it. Having thus spoken of that Greatness which affects the Mind in Architecture, I might next shew the Pleasure that arises in the Imagination from what appears new and beautiful in this Art; but as every Beholder has naturally a greater Taste of these two Perfections in every Building which offers it self to his View, than of that which I have hitherto considered, I shall not trouble my Reader with any Reflections upon it. It is sufficient for my present Purpose, to observe, that there is nothing in this whole Art which pleases the Imagination, but as it is Great, Uncommon, or Beautiful.

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JEAN BAPTISTE DU BOS from Critical Reflections on Poetry, Painting, and Music (1719)

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lthough born in Beauvais and schooled in theology in Paris, the Abbe´ du Bos traveled widely within Europe and in fact met Locke while visiting England. He knew also the ideas of Shaftesbury and Addison, and like them he was a man of letters and critic of the arts. This book, first published in 1719 in France, was popular for a growing class of dilettanti for whom he attempted to serve as a guide to these matters. In his introduction, du Bos promises to ‘‘explain the origin of that pleasure which we receive from poems and paintings,’’ that is to say, to instruct the reader as to ‘‘the nature of his own sentiments, how they rise and are formed within him.’’ These sentiments are different from the logical workings of human reason, he argues, and indeed du Bos’s contribution to eighteenth-century theory lies in the importance that he attaches to human passions or feelings as the primary vehicle for aesthetic enjoyment. Here, in fact, is the counterpoint to Addison’s discussion of ‘‘greatness’’ with respect to architecture, only now applied to poetry and painting. Since the most pleasing sensations that our real passions can afford us, are balanced by so many unhappy hours that succeed our enjoyments, would it not be a noble attempt of art to endeavour to separate the dismal consequences of our passions from the bewitching pleasure we receive in indulging them? Is it not in the power of art to create, as it were, beings of a new nature? Might not art contrive to produce objects that would excite artificial Jean-Baptiste du Bos (1670–1742), from Critical Reflections on Poetry, Painting, and Music (orig. 1719), trans. Thomas Nugent from the fifth edition of du Bos’s work. London: John Nourse, 1748, pp. 21–8.

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passions, sufficient to occupy us while we are actually affected by them, and incapable of giving us afterwards any real pain or affliction? An attempt of so delicate a nature was reserved for poetry and painting. I do not pretend to say, that the first painters and poets, no more than other artists, whose performances may not perhaps be inferior to theirs, had such exalted ideas, or such extensive views, upon their first sitting down to work. The first inventers of bathing never dreamt of its being a remedy proper for the curing of certain distempers; they only made use of it as a kind of refreshment in sultry weather, though afterwards it was discovered to be extreamly serviceable to human bodies in several disorders: In like manner, the first poets and painters had nothing more in view perhaps, than to flatter our senses and imagination; and in labouring with that design, they found out the manner of exciting artificial passions. The most useful discoveries in society, have been commonly the effect of hazard: Be that as it will, those imaginary passions which poetry and painting raise artificially within us, by means of their imitations, satisfy that natural want we have of being employed. Painters and poets raise those artificial passions within us, by presenting us with the imitations of objects capable of exciting real passions. As the impression made by those imitations is of the same nature with that which the object imitated by the painter or poet would have made; and as the impression of the imitation differs from that of the object imitated only in its being of an inferior force, it ought therefore to raise in our souls a passion resembling that which the object imitated would have excited. In other terms, the copy of the object ought to stir up within us a copy of the passion which the object itself would have excited. But as the impression made by the imitation is not so deep as that which the object itself would have made; moreover, as the impression of the imitation is not serious, inasmuch as it does not affect our reason, which is superior to the illusory attack of those sensations, as we shall presently explain more at large: Finally, as the impression made by the imitation affects only the sensitive soul, it has consequently no great durability. This superficial impression, made by imitation, is quickly therefore effaced, without leaving any permanent vestiges, such as would have been left by the impression of the object itself, which the painter or poet hath imitated. The reason of the difference between the impression made by the object, and that made by the imitation, is obvious. The most finished imitation hath only an artificial existence, or a borrowed life; whereas the force and activity of nature meet in the object imitated. We are influenced by the real object, by virtue of the power which it hath received for that end from nature. In things which we propose for imitation, says Quintilian, there is the strength and efficacy of nature, whereas in imitation there is only the weakness of fiction. Here then we discover the source of that pleasure which poetry and painting give to man. Here we see the cause of that satisfaction we find in pictures, the merit whereof consists in setting before our eyes such tragical adventures, as would have struck us with horror, had we been spectators of their reality. For as Aristotle in his Poetics says, Tho’ we should be loth to look at monsters, and people in agony, yet we gaze on those very objects with pleasure when copied by painters; and the better they are copied, the more satisfaction we have in beholding them. The pleasure we feel in contemplating the imitations made by painters and poets, of objects which would have raised in us passions attended with real pain, is a pleasure free from all impurity of mixture. It is never attended with those disagreable consequences, which arise from the serious emotions caused by the object itself. D U B O S , C R I T I C A L R E F LE C T I O N S

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A few examples will illustrate, better than all my arguments, an opinion, which, methinks, I can never set in too clear a light. The massacre of the innocents must have left most gloomy impressions in the imaginations of those, who were real spectators of the barbarity of the soldiers slaughtering the poor infants in the bosom of their mothers, all imbrued with blood. Le Brun’s picture, where we see the imitation of this tragical event, moves indeed our humanity, but leaves no troublesome idea in our mind; it excites our compassion, without piercing us with real affliction. A death like that of Phædra, a young princess expiring in the midst of the most frightful convulsions, and accusing herself of the most flagitious crimes, which she has endeavoured to expiate with poison; such a death, I say, as that, would be one of the most frightful and most disagreable objects. We should be a long time before we could get rid of the black and gloomy ideas which such a spectacle would undoubtedly imprint in our imagination. The tragedy of Racine, wherein the imitation of that event is represented, touches us most sensibly, without leaving any permanent seed of affliction. We are pleased with the enjoyment of our emotion, without being under any apprehension of its too long continuance. This piece of Racine draws tears from us, though we are touched with no real sorrow; for the grief that appears is only, as it were, on the surface of our heart, and we are sensible, that our tears will finish with the representation of the ingenious fiction that gave them birth.

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FRANCIS HUTCHESON from An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725)

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he philosophical argument of whether the sensation of beauty is absolute, relative, or a combination of both was largely fought out in the second decade of the eighteenth century. And as with the parallel or complementary acceptance of classical and (an emerging) picturesque aesthetics in architecture, the solutions were initially composite or hybrid. Shaftesbury, with his ‘‘moral’’ sense theory, had been the first to attempt to graft aspects of Lockean metaphysics onto a classical framework of goodness and harmony, and this too was the approach of Francis Hutcheson, a Scottish philosopher who taught both in Dublin and Glasgow. His Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725) was the most comprehensive attempt up to this time to apply the Lockean system of sensation to the subject of beauty, while at the same time retaining the morality explicit in Shaftesbury’s arguments. Hutcheson, in fact, sides more with the latter in defining the perception of beauty as an ‘‘internal sense,’’ that is to say, an innate sense of harmony that is evoked in thinking about certain natural or manmade objects. Hence his ultimate formulation – and one that we have seen earlier – is that beauty is both absolute and relative, with the one crucial distinction being that absolute beauty is not a quality of the object but rather a feature of the human mind. While ingenious as a solution, such a result would soon come under critical scrutiny. To make the following Observations understood, it may be necessary to premise some Definitions, and Observations, either universally acknowledg’d, or sufficiently prov’d by

Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746), from An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue in Two Treatises, fourth edition (1738, orig. 1725). London: D. Midwinter et al., 1738, pp. 1–2, 4–6, and 8–10.

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many Writers both antient and modern, concerning our Perceptions called Sensations, and the Actions of the Mind consequent upon them. Art.I. Those Ideas which are rais’d in the Mind upon the Presence of external Objects, and their acting upon our Bodys, are call’d Sensations. We find that the Mind in such Cases is passive, and has not Power directly to prevent the Perception or Idea, or to vary it at its Reception, as long as we continue our Bodys in a State fit to be acted upon by the external Object. II. When two Perceptions are intirely different from each other, or agree in nothing but the general Idea of Sensation, we call the Powers of receiving those different Perceptions, different Senses. Thus Seeing and Hearing denote the different Powers of receiving the Ideas of Colours and Sounds. And altho’ Colours have great Differences among themselves, as also have Sounds; yet there is a greater Agreement among the most opposite Colours, than between any Colour and a Sound: Hence we call all Colours Perceptions of the same Sense. All the several Senses seem to have their distinct Organs, except Feeling, which is in some Degree diffus’d over the whole Body. III. The Mind has a Power of compounding Ideas, which were receiv’d separately; of comparing Objects by means of the Ideas, and of observing their Relations and Proportions; of enlarging and diminishing its Ideas at Pleasure, or in any certain Ratio, or degree; and of considering separately each of the simple Ideas, which might perhaps have been impress’d jointly in the Sensation. This last Operation we commonly call Abstraction. [ . . . ] *** VIII. The only Pleasure of Sense, which many Philosophers seem to consider, is that which accompanys the simple Ideas of Sensation: But there are far greater Pleasures in those complex Ideas of Objects, which obtain the Names of Beautiful, Regular, Harmonious. Thus every one acknowledges he is more delighted with a fine Face, a just Picture, than with the View of any one Colour, were it as strong and lively as possible; and more pleas’d with a Prospect of the Sun arising among settled Clouds, and colouring their Edges, with a starry Hemisphere, a fine Landskip, a regular Building, than with a clear blue Sky, a smooth Sea, or a large open Plain, not diversified by Woods, Hills, Waters, Buildings: And yet even these latter Appearances are not quite simple. So in Musick, the Pleasure of fine Composition is incomparably greater than that of any one Note, how sweet, full, or swelling soever. IX. Let it be observ’d, that in the following Papers, the Word Beauty is taken for the Idea rais’d in us, and a Sense of Beauty for our Power of receiving this Idea. Harmony also denotes our pleasant Ideas arising from Composition of Sounds, and a good Ear (as it is generally taken) a Power of perceiving this Pleasure. In the following Sections, an Attempt is made to discover ‘‘what is the immediate Occasion of these pleasant Ideas, or what real Quality in the Objects ordinarily excites them.’’ X. It is of no Consequence whether we call these Ideas of Beauty and Harmony, Perceptions of the External Senses of Seeing and Hearing, or not. I should rather choose to call our Power of perceiving these Ideas, an INTERNAL SENSE, were it only for the Convenience of distinguishing them from other Sensations of Seeing and Hearing, which Men may have without Perception of Beauty and Harmony. It is plain from Experience, that many Men have, in the common Meaning, the Senses of Seeing and Hearing perfect enough; they perceive all the Simple Ideas separately, and have their Pleasures; they distinguish them H U T C H E S O N , A N I N Q U I RY

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from each other, such as one Colour from another, either quite different, or the stronger or fainter of the same Colour, when they are plac’d beside each other, altho’ they may often confound their Names when they occur apart from each other, as some do the Names of Green and Blue: they can tell in separate Notes the higher, lower, sharper or flatter, when separately sounded; in Figures they discern the Length, Breadth, Wideness of each Line, Surface, Angle; and may be as capable of hearing and seeing at great Distances as any Men whatsoever: And yet perhaps they shall find no Pleasure in Musical Compositions, in Painting, Architecture, natural Landskip; or but a very weak one in comparison of what others enjoy from the same Objects. This greater Capacity of receiving such pleasant Ideas we commonly call a fine Genius or Taste: In Musick we seem universally to acknowledge something like a distinct Sense from the External one of Hearing, and call it a good Ear; and the like Distinction we should problably acknowledge in other Objects, had we also got distinct Names to denote these Powers of Perception by. [ . . . ] *** XIV. Hence it plainly appears, ‘‘that some Objects are immediately the Occasions of this Pleasure of Beauty, and that we have Senses fitted for perceiving it; and that it is distinct from that Joy which arises upon Prospect of Advantage.’’ Nay, do not we often see Convenience and Use neglected to obtain Beauty, without any other Prospect of Advantage in the beautiful Form, than the suggesting the pleasant Ideas of Beauty? Now this shews us, that however we may pursue beautiful Objects from Self-love, with a View to obtain the Pleasures of Beauty, as in Architecture, Gardening, and many other Affairs; yet there must be a Sense of Beauty, antecedent to Prospects even of this Advantage, without which Sense these Objects would not be thus advantageous, nor excite in us this Pleasure which constitutes them advantageous. Our Sense of Beauty from Objects, by which they are constituted good to us, is very distinct from our Desire of them when they are thus constituted: Our Desire of Beauty may be counter-balanc’d by Rewards or Threatnings, but never our Sense of it; even as Fear of Death may make us desire a bitter Potion, or neglect those Meats which the Sense of Taste would recommend as pleasant; but cannot make that Potion agreeable to the Sense, or Meat disagreeable to it, which was not so antecedently to this Prospect. The same holds true of the Sense of Beauty and Harmony; that the Pursuit of such Objects is frequently neglected, from Prospects of Advantage, Aversion to Labour, or any other Motive of Interest, does not prove that we have no Sense of Beauty, but only that our Desire of it may be counter-balanc’d by a stronger Desire. XV. Had we no such Sense of Beauty and Harmony, Houses, Gardens, Dress, Equipage, might have been recommended to us as convenient, fruitful, warm, easy; but never as beautiful: And yet nothing is more certain, than that all these Objects are recommended under quite different Views on many Occasions: ’Tis true, what chiefly pleases in the Countenance, are the Indications of Moral Dispositions; and yet were we by the longest Acquaintance fully convinc’d of the best Moral Dispositions in any Person, with that Countenance we now think deform’d, this would never hinder our immediate Dislike of the Form, or our liking other Forms more: And Custom, Education, or Example could never give us Perceptions distinct from those of the Senses which we had the Use of before, or recommend Objects under another Conception than grateful to them. But of the Influence of Custom, Education, Example, upon the Sense of Beauty, we shall treat below. 260

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XVI. Beauty, in Corporeal Forms, is either Original or Comparative; or, if any like the Terms better, Absolute, or Relative: Only let it be observ’d, that by Absolute or Original Beauty, is not understood any Quality suppos’d to be in the Object, which should of itself be beautiful, without relation to any Mind which perceives it: For Beauty, like other Names of sensible Ideas, properly denotes the Perception of some Mind; so Cold, Hot, Sweet, Bitter, denote the Sensations in our Minds, to which perhaps there is no Resemblance in the Objects, which excite these Ideas in us, however we generally imagine otherwise. The Ideas of Beauty and Harmony being excited upon our Perception of some primary Quality, and having relation to Figure and Time, may indeed have a nearer Resemblance to Objects, than these Sensations, which seem not so much any Pictures of Objects, as Modifications of the perceiving Mind; and yet were there no Mind with a Sense of Beauty to contemplate Objects, I see not how they could be call’d Beautiful. We therefore by Absolute Beauty understand only that Beauty which we perceive in Objects without Comparison to any thing external, of which the Object is suppos’d an Imitation, or Picture; such as that Beauty perceiv’d from the Works of Nature, artificial Forms, Figures. Comparative or Relative Beauty is that which we perceive in Objects, commonly considered as Imitations or Resemblances of something else.

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he first sustained criticism of Hutcheson’s position came from the pen of the Irishman George Berkeley, a Bishop in the Anglican Church of Ireland. Berkeley was a native of Kilkenny, a Fellow of Trinity College in Dublin, who first laid the ground for his idealist philosophical system (we know not the world but only our ideas of it) in Towards a New Theory of Vision (1709) and Principles of Human Knowledge (1710). While fully accepting Lockean empiricism, he in fact strengthened it by discounting Locke’s belief in abstract ideas and thereby placing even greater emphasis on the perceptual side of experience on the one hand, and human reasoning (the mental operations of sifting through perceptual data) on the other. In his late dialogue Alciphron – actually written in Rhode Island – Berkeley criticizes the innate or ‘‘internal sense’’ of Hutcheson (Alciphron’s argument in the dialogue), and counters with his contention (articulated by Euphranor) that since utility or fitness is a necessary component of beauty, the perception of the latter is a mental judgment arrived at through the reasoning of the mind, and is not a product of the sensation or perception in itself. Beauty is therefore relative and logical, not absolute or innate.

8. Euph. What you now say is very intelligible: I wish I understood your main principle as well. George Berkeley (1685–1753), from the ‘‘Third Dialogue’’ of Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher in Seven Dialogues (1732), in Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher in Focus, ed. David Berman. London: Routledge, 1993, pp. 65–71.

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Alc. And are you then in earnest at a loss? Is it possible you should have no notion of beauty, or that having it you should not know it to be amiable – amiable, I say, in itself and for itself ? Euph. Pray tell me, Alciphron, are all mankind agreed in the notion of a beauteous face? Alc. Beauty in humankind seems to be of a mixed and various nature; forasmuch as the passions, sentiments, and qualities of the soul, being seen through and blending with the features, work differently on different minds, as the sympathy is more or less. But with regard to other things is there no steady principle of beauty? Is there upon earth a human mind without the idea of order, harmony, and proportion? Euph. O Alciphron, it is my weakness that I am apt to be lost in abstractions and generalities, but a particular thing is better suited to my faculties. I find it easy to consider and keep in view the objects of sense: let us therefore try to discover what their beauty is, or wherein it consists; and so, by the help of these sensible things, as a scale or ladder, ascend to moral and intellectual beauty. Be pleased then to inform me, what is it we call beauty in the objects of sense? Alc. Everyone knows beauty is that which pleases. Euph. There is then beauty in the smell of a rose, or the taste of an apple? Alc. By no means. Beauty is, to speak properly, perceived only by the eye. Euph. It cannot therefore be defined in general that which pleaseth? Alc. I grant it cannot. Euph. How then shall we limit or define it? Alciphron, after a short pause, said that beauty consisted in a certain symmetry or proportion pleasing to the eye. Euph. Is this proportion one and the same in all things, or is it different in different kinds of things? Alc. Different, doubtless. The proportions of an ox would not be beautiful in a horse. And we may observe also in things inanimate, that the beauty of a table, a chair, a door, consists in different proportions. Euph. Doth not this proportion imply the relation of one thing to another? Alc. It doth. Euph. And are not these relations founded in size and shape? Alc. They are. Euph. And, to make the proportions just, must not those mutual relations of size and shape in the parts be such as shall make the whole complete and perfect in its kind? Alc. I grant they must. Euph. Is not a thing said to be perfect in its kind when it answers the end for which it was made? Alc. It is. Euph. The parts, therefore, in true proportions must be so related, and adjusted to one another, as that they may best conspire to the use and operation of the whole? Alc. It seems so. Euph. But the comparing parts one with another, the considering them as belonging to one whole, and the referring this whole to its use or end, should seem the work of reason: should it not? Alc. It should. 262

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Euph. Proportions, therefore, are not, strictly speaking, perceived by the sense of sight, but only by reason through the means of sight. Alc. This I grant. Euph. Consequently, beauty, in your sense of it, is an object, not of the eye, but of the mind. Alc. It is. Euph. The eye, therefore, alone cannot see that a chair is handsome, or a door well proportioned. Alc. It seems to follow; but I am not clear as to this point. Euph. Let us see if there be any difficulty in it. Could the chair you sit on, think you, be reckoned well proportioned or handsome, if it had not such a height, breadth, wideness, and was not so far reclined as to afford a convenient seat? Alc. It could not. Euph. The beauty, therefore, or symmetry of a chair cannot be apprehended but by knowing its use, and comparing its figure with that use; which cannot be done by the eye alone, but is the effect of judgment. It is, therefore, one thing to see an object, and another to discern its beauty. Alc. I admit this to be true. 9. Euph. The architects judge a door to be of a beautiful proportion, when its height is double of the breadth. But if you should invert a well-proportioned door, making its breadth become the height, and its height the breadth, the figure would still be the same, but without that beauty in one situation which it had in another. What can be the cause of this, but that, in the forementioned supposition, the door would not yield convenient entrances to creatures of a human figure? But, if in any other part of the universe there should be supposed rational animals of an inverted stature, they must be supposed to invert the rule for proportion of doors; and to them that would appear beautiful which to us was disagreeable. Alc. Against this I have no objection. Euph. Tell me, Alciphron, is there not something truly decent and beautiful in dress? Alc. Doubtless, there is. Euph. Are any likelier to give us an idea of this beauty in dress than painters and sculptors, whose proper business and study it is to aim at graceful representations? Alc. I believe not. Euph. Let us then examine the draperies of the great masters in these arts: how, for instance, they use to clothe a matron, or a man of rank. Cast an eye on those figures (said he, pointing to some prints after Raphael and Guido, that hung upon the wall): what appearance do you think an English courtier or magistrate, with his Gothic, succinct, plaited garment, and his full-bottomed wig; or one of our ladies in her unnatural dress, pinched and stiffened and enlarged, with hoops and whale-bone and buckram, must make, among those figures so decently clad in draperies that fall into such a variety of natural, easy, and ample folds, that cover the body without encumbering it, and adorn without altering the shape? Alc. Truly I think they must make a very ridiculous appearance. Euph. And what do you think this proceeds from? Whence is it that the eastern nations, the Greeks, and the Romans, naturally ran into the most becoming dresses; while our BE RK ELE Y, ‘ ‘ T HI R D DIA L OGUE ’’ O F AL CI P HR O N

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Gothic gentry, after so many centuries racking their inventions, mending, and altering, and improving, and whirling about in a perpetual rotation of fashions, have never yet had the luck to stumble on any that was not absurd and ridiculous? Is it not from hence that, instead of consulting use, reason, and convenience, they abandon themselves to irregular fancy, the unnatural parent of monsters? Whereas the ancients, considering the use and end of dress, made it subservient to the freedom, ease, and convenience of the body; and, having no notion of mending or changing the natural shape, they aimed only at showing it with decency and advantage. And, if this be so, are we not to conclude that the beauty of dress depends on its subserviency to certain ends and uses? Alc. This appears to be true. Euph. This subordinate relative nature of beauty, perhaps, will be yet plainer, if we examine the respective beauties of a horse and a pillar. Virgil’s description of the former is – Illi ardua cervix, Argutumque caput, brevis alvus, obesaque terga, Luxuriatque toris animosum pectus.1

Now, I would fain know whether the perfections and uses of a horse may not be reduced to these three points: courage, strength, and speed; and whether each of the beauties enumerated doth not occasion or betoken one of these perfections? After the same manner, if we inquire into the parts and proportions of a beautiful pillar, we shall perhaps find them answer to the same idea. Those who have considered the theory of architecture tell us, the proportions of the three Grecian orders were taken from the human body, as the most beautiful and perfect production of nature. Hence were derived those graceful ideas of columns, which had a character of strength without clumsiness, or of delicacy without weakness. Those beautiful proportions were, I say, taken originally from nature, which, in her creatures, as hath been already observed, referreth them to some end, use, or design. The gonfiezza also, or swelling, and the diminution of a pillar, is it not in such proportion as to make it appear strong and light at the same time? In the same manner, must not the whole entablature, with its projections, be so proportioned, as to seem great but not heavy, light but not little; inasmuch as a deviation into either extreme would thwart that reason and use of things wherein their beauty is founded, and to which it is subordinate? The entablature, and all its parts and ornaments, architrave, frieze, cornice, triglyphs, metopes, modiglions, and the rest, have each a use or appearance of use, in giving firmness and union to the building, in protecting it from the weather and casting off the rain, in representing the ends of beams with their intervals, the production of rafters, and so forth. And if we consider the graceful angles in frontispieces, the spaces between the columns, or the ornaments of their capitals, shall we not find, that their beauty riseth from the appearance of use, or the imitation of natural things, whose beauty is originally founded on the same principle? which is, indeed, the grand distinction between Grecian and Gothic architecture; the latter being fantastical, and for the most part founded neither in nature nor in reason, in necessity nor use, the appearance of which accounts for all the beauty, grace, and ornament of the other. Cri. What Euphranor hath said confirms the opinion I always entertained, that the rules of architecture were founded, as all other arts which flourished among the Greeks, in truth, and nature, and good sense. But the ancients, who, from a thorough consideration of the 264

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grounds and principles of art, formed their idea of beauty, did not always confine themselves strictly to the same rules and proportions; but, whenever the particular distance, position, elevation, or dimension of the fabric or its parts seemed to require it, made no scruple to depart from them, without deserting the original principles of beauty, which governed whatever deviations they made. This latitude or licence might not, perhaps, be safely trusted with most modern architects, who in their bold sallies seem to act without aim or design; and to be governed by no idea, no reason, or principle of art, but pure caprice, joined with a thorough contempt of that noble simplicity of the ancients, without which there can be no unity, gracefulness, or grandeur in their works; which of consequence must serve only to disfigure and dishonour the nation, being so many monuments to future ages of the opulence and ill taste of the present; which, it is to be feared, would succeed as wretchedly, and make as mad work in other affairs, were men to follow, instead of rules, precepts, and morals, their own taste and first thoughts of beauty. Alc. I should now, methinks, be glad to see a little more distinctly the use and tendency of this digression upon architecture. Euph. Was not beauty the very thing we inquired after? Alc. It was. Euph. What think you, Alciphron, can the appearance of a thing please at this time, and in this place, which pleased two thousand years ago, and two thousand miles off, without some real principle of beauty? Alc. It cannot. Euph. And is not this the case with respect to a just piece of architecture? Alc. Nobody denies it. Euph. Architecture, the noble offspring of judgment and fancy, was gradually formed in the most polite and knowing countries of Asia, Egypt, Greece, and Italy. It was cherished and esteemed by the most flourishing states and most renowned princes, who with vast expense improved and brought it to perfection. It seems, above all other arts, peculiarly conversant about order, proportion, and symmetry. May it not therefore be supposed, on all accounts, most likely to help us to some rational notion of the je ne sais quoi in beauty? And, in effect, have we not learned from this digression that, as there is no beauty without proportion, so proportions are to be esteemed just and true, only as they are relative to some certain use or end, their aptitude and subordination to which end is, at bottom, that which makes them please and charm? Alc. I admit all this to be true.

NOTE 1

[That is: ‘He has a proud neck, a finely chiselled head, a short belly, well-rounded flanks, and his fiery chest ripples with muscles’ (Virgil, Georgics, III, line 79 ff.)]

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DAVID HUME from A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40)

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he Scottish philosopher David Hume holds an exalted place in British thought, in both positive and negative senses. On the one hand, he is regarded as the last of the triumvirate of major British empiricists – following Locke and Berkeley – and the one who brought the system to completion. On the other hand, his insistence that philosophy cannot go beyond human experience led him into a skepticism that caused later thinkers, such as Immanuel Kant, to reformulate entirely the problem of human knowledge and perception. Within his portfolio of ideas, A Treatise of Human Nature is an early work, begun when he was still in his teens and completed at the age of 29. The inspiration for his treatment of the theme of beauty are the two books of du Bos and Hutcheson. But Hume clearly takes the problem of beauty in a new direction. Like his two predecessors, he assumes beauty to be a special ‘‘power’’ of objects that provokes certain sensations in our minds – a ‘‘form’’ that produces pleasure – but he gives it as well a more relative cast. Not only are certain forms pleasing in some animals and not in others (suggesting a necessary utilitarian or functional component to beauty), but he will also argue that the sensation of beauty is, in effect, relative to our own level of experience. What, for Hume, prevents the relative nature of aesthetic judgments from falling into pure subjectivity is simply the argument that there is a universal psychological make-up to the human mind, and that we can train our minds to acquire those higher gleanings of beauty.

Of Beauty and Deformity Whether we consider the body as a part of ourselves, or assent to those philosophers, who regard it as something external, it must still be allow’d to be near enough connected with us to form one of these double relations, which I have asserted to be necessary to the causes of pride and humility. Wherever, therefore, we can find the other relation of impressions to join to this of ideas, we may expect with assurance either of these passions, according as the impression is pleasant or uneasy. But beauty of all kinds gives us a peculiar delight and satisfaction; as deformity produces pain, upon whatever subject it may be plac’d, and whether survey’d in an animate or inanimate object. If the beauty or deformity, therefore, be plac’d upon our own bodies, this pleasure or uneasiness must be converted into pride or humility, as having in this case all the circumstances requisite to produce a perfect transition of impressions and ideas. These opposite sensations are related to the opposite passions. The beauty or deformity is closely related to self, the object of both these passions. No wonder, then, our own beauty becomes an object of pride, and deformity of humility. But this effect of personal and bodily qualities is not only a proof of the present system, by shewing that the passions arise not in this case without all the circumstances I have requir’d, David Hume, from A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40). Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1992, pp. 298–9.

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but may be employ’d as a stronger and more convincing argument. If we consider all the hypotheses, which have been form’d either by philosophy or common reason, to explain the difference betwixt beauty and deformity, we shall find that all of them resolve into this, that beauty is such an order and construction of parts, as either by the primary constitution of our nature, by custom, or by caprice, is fitted to give a pleasure and satisfaction to the soul. This is the distinguishing character of beauty, and forms all the difference betwixt it and deformity, whose natural tendency is to produce uneasiness. Pleasure and pain, therefore, are not only necessary attendants of beauty and deformity, but constitute their very essence. And indeed, if we consider, that a great part of the beauty, which we admire either in animals or in other objects, is deriv’d from the idea of convenience and utility, we shall make no scruple to assent to this opinion. That shape, which produces strength, is beautiful in one animal; and that which is a sign of agility in another. The order and convenience of a palace are no less essential to its beauty, than its mere figure and appearance. In like manner the rules of architecture require, that the top of a pillar shou’d be more slender than its base, and that because such a figure conveys to us the idea of security, which is pleasant; whereas the contrary form gives us the apprehension of danger, which is uneasy. From innumerable instances of this kind, as well as from considering that beauty like wit, cannot be defin’d, but is discern’d only by a taste or sensation, we may conclude, that beauty is nothing but a form, which produces pleasure, as deformity is a structure of parts, which conveys pain; and since the power of producing pain and pleasure make in this manner the essence of beauty and deformity, all the effects of these qualities must be deriv’d from the sensation; and among the rest pride and humility, which of all their effects are the most common and remarkable.

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ALLAN RAMSEY from ‘‘Dialogue on Taste’’ in The Investigator (1755)

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he translation of Hume’s empirical skepticism into architectural terms did not take too many years. It was soon voiced by the Scottish painter Allan Ramsey, whom we saw earlier in the spirited dispute over the superiority of Greek art over Roman art in classical times. His ‘‘Dialogue on Taste’’ (1755), in fact, defines a landmark in architectural theory because it is the first clear articulation of relativist aesthetics. Ramsay and Hume, in fact, were the best of friends. In 1754 the two men (together with Adam Smith, Alexander Gerard, and Robert Adam, among others) founded the Select Society of Edinburgh, a debating forum that became the cornerstone of what is generally referred to as the Scottish Enlightenment. The following year the Select Society offered a prize for the best essay on the problem of ‘‘taste.’’ Ramsay was the first of the participants to publish his views (the next two entries follow from the same contest), which he actually wrote during a 9-month stay in Edinburgh in 1754. And rather than being a formal essay, it takes the form of a dialogue in which the defender of the classical tradition (Lord Modish) is pitted against a free-thinking modernist (Colonel Freeman), who is said to

Allan Ramsey, from ‘‘A Dialogue on Taste’’ (1755) in the journal The Investigator (London, 1762), pp. 32–5.

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have been modeled on the character of Hume. The work is intentionally provocative in its comparison of architectural taste with clothing fashions and cookery. COL. FREEMAN. The fame, my Lord, that I should say to a good taste in dress or cookery, that, abstracted from health and conveniency, which are the objects of reason, it is one of those tastes which custom, a second nature, has bestowed upon us; and is so much mere taste that it can never, with any propriety, become a matter of dispute or comparison. To insist upon one form of dress, or one form of building, being in itself more beautiful than another, must appear to a philosopher entering upon as sensless a controversy, as the pretending that one dish was in itself more palatable than another, and that he who preferred the one had a better taste than he who preferred the other. LORD MODISH. But sure, Colonel, there are rules for the beauties of architecture, and not the smallest ornament of a base or cornish without its settled proportion. COL. FREEMAN. Were that strictly the case, my Lord, we should call it knowledge or judgment in architecture, not taste; for, as far as these rules go, no taste is required, either good or bad. An Artist may, by a Palladian receipt alone, without any taste, form a very elegant Corinthian pillar; as a cook, without any palate, and by the help of the housewife’s vade mecum only, makes an unexceptionable dish of beef a la daube. These rules are plainly no more than the analysis of certain things which custom has rendered agreeable; but do not point out to us any natural standard of beauty or flavour, by which such things, whether pillars or dishes, could have been originally contrived to answer the purpose of pleasing. I should be exceedingly glad to hear a reason why a Corinthian capital clapt upon its shaft upsidedown should not become, by custom, as pleasing a spectacle as in the manner it commonly stands. I know this would be look’d upon as a sort of blasphemy by some of our dilettanti; but so is every opinion, however reasonable, which opposes what is by custom established in any country. Perhaps there are countries in the world where my capital is so much in taste, that their virtuosi would be surprized to hear that there was any nation so absurd as to put the volutes uppermost. At least there is no imagination of that sort so odd that some similar experience is not sufficient to justify and render probable. LORD MODISH. How then came the present fashion (since you will have it to be no better) of architecture to be so universally embraced? COL. FREEMAN. It’s universality, my Lord, does not extend beyond Christendom; and, if it should become the taste of the whole universe, the same means, which have procured it a reception among us, will account for its further progress, without our giving ourselves the trouble of searching for any standard in nature for its recommendation. It is the nature of all fashions (I except only those of a religious kind) to take their rise from the sovereign will and pleasure 268

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of the rich and powerful. Men in such circumstances are known from thence to acquire a presumption, which naturally induces them to take the lead in every thing; while those very circumstances which engage them to indulge their caprices, enable them at the same time to render those caprices respectable. As for instance, let a man of ordinary rank or figure appear in publick in a coat whose cuffs are triangular, when the mode is square; and there is no doubt he will meet with many to despise, but none to imitate him. Let the same be tried by a man blest with title, riches, youth, and all the trappings of prosperity; let the sleeve be of velvet, curiously embroidered, and part of a suit of cloaths in all other respects fashionable and rich, the triangle will then be found to meet with a quite different reception, and tho’ feeble in itself, will be so powerfully seconded by, being incorporated with, the title, the embroidery, the coach, and the footman, as to become part of the august idea of his grace; and so far from being able to render him ridiculous, will receive a share of respect by being part of him; and from being tolerable, will soon become an object of imitation, especially to the persons who are the most intimate with him and his cloaths. The more those imitations encrease, the more the sensation of their beauty is confirmed; till, in a short time, all other cuffs but the triangular are detestable. City taylors bribe his Lordship’s valet de chambre to let them take it’s shape and proportions; and here is, at last, a precise rule established.

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ALEXANDER GERARD from An Essay on Taste (1756)

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he winner of the Select Society’s essay competition of 1755 was Alexander Gerard. A precocious child and professor of the classics, philosophy, and the sciences, Gerard was teaching at Marischal College in Aberdeen in 1756 when he wrote this essay. It is a highly structured and somewhat classically conceived work that draws upon many of the discussions of the previous 30 years. The faculties of the human mind for Gerard are four: the external senses, memory, judgment, and imagination. Taste resides in the last faculty, and Gerard follows both Hutcheson and Hume in viewing imagination as an ‘‘inner sense,’’ which he now reduces to the sensations (tastes) of novelty, sublimity, beauty, imitation, harmony, ridicule, and virtue. The following two excerpts are taken from his chapters on ‘‘grandeur and sublimity’’ and ‘‘beauty.’’ The philosophical and psychological problem he is addressing is really how or why certain objects evoke or suggest certain ideas in the mind. The distinction between sublimity (greatness) and beauty in aesthetic thought, which had been suggested by Addison earlier in the century, had been more recently addressed by John Baillie in An Essay on the Sublime (1747). It would soon have a more comprehensive treatment at the hands of Edmund Burke. Gerard’s discussion of ‘‘proportion’’ also underscores the central architectural dilemma with regard to relative beauty. Grandeur or sublimity gives us a still higher and nobler pleasure, by means of a sense appropriated to the perception of it; while meanness renders any object to which it adheres,

Alexander Gerard (1728–95), from An Essay on Taste (1756, published 1759), facsimile edition published by Walter J. Hipple for the Scholars’ Facsimiles & Reprints, Gainesville, 1963, pp. 11–14 and 33–5.

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disagreeable and distasteful. Objects are sublime, which possess quantity, or amplitude, and simplicity, in conjunction. Considerable magnitude, or largeness of extension, in objects capable of it, is necessary to produce sublimity. It is not on a small rivulet, however transparent, and beautifully winding; it is not on a narrow valley, though variegated with flowers of a thousand pleasing hues; it is not on a little hill, though cloathed with the most delightful verdure, that we bestow the epithet sublime: but on the Alps, the Nile, the ocean, the wide expanse of heaven, or the immensity of space uniformly extended without limit or termination. We always contemplate objects and ideas with a disposition similar to their nature. When a large object is presented, the mind expands itself to the extent of that object, and is filled with one grand sensation, which totally possessing it, composes it into a solemn sedateness, and strikes it with deep silent wonder and admiration: it finds such a difficulty in spreading itself to the dimensions of its object, as enlivens and invigorates its frame: and having overcome the opposition which this occasions, it sometimes imagines itself present in every part of the scene which it contemplates; and from the sense of this immensity, feels a noble pride, and entertains a lofty conception of its own capacity. Large objects can scarce indeed produce their full effect, unless they are also simple, or made up of parts in a great measure similar. Innumerable little islands scattered in the ocean, and breaking the prospect, greatly diminish the grandeur of the scene. A variety of clouds, diversifying the face of the heavens, may add to their beauty, but must take from their grandeur. Objects cannot possess that largeness which is necessary for inspiring a sensation of the sublime, without simplicity. Where this is wanting, the mind contemplates, not one large, but many small objects; it is pained with the labour requisite to creep from one to another; and is disgusted with the imperfection of the idea with which, even after all this toil, it must remain contented. But we take in with ease one entire conception of a simple object, however large: in consequence of this facility, we naturally account it one: the view of one single part suggests the whole, and enables fancy to extend and enlarge it to infinity, that it may fill the capacity of the mind. [ . . . ] *** Proportion consists not so much in relations of the parts precisely measurable, as in a general aptitude of the structure to the end proposed: which experience enables us instantaneously to perceive, better than any artificial methods can determine it. Its influence on beauty is therefore derived from fitness, a principle which will be illustrated presently. A very small disproportion in any of the members of the human body produces deformity. The least deviation, in the productions of the fine arts, from the natural harmony of the parts, always occasions a blemish. There is another kind of proportion, at least not wholly dependent on utility, which is preserved in the appearances of things, when none of the parts are so small, in respect of one another, and of the whole, as to disappear through their smallness, while we contemplate the whole; and when none of them are so large, that, when we fix our view on them, we cannot distinctly perceive at the same time their relation to the whole, and to the other parts. Figures, the sides of which are very numerous, lose a great part of the beauty which would arise from this variety, by the want of proportion between the sides and the diameter. 270

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Works in the Gothic taste, crowded with minute ornaments, fall as much short of perfect beauty, by their disproportion, as by their deviation from simplicity. As nothing gives us greater pleasure than what leads us to form a lofty conception of our own faculties, so nothing is more disagreeable than what reminds us of their imperfection. On this account it is, that the want of this kind of proportion disgusts us. It leads us to entertain a low, and consequently ungrateful, opinion of our capacity, by rendering it impossible to form one entire distinct conception of the object. The variety of its parts may amuse us, and keep us from attempting to comprehend the whole; and then, especially if it be joined with uniformity, it will yield us some degree of pleasure, and constitute an inferior and imperfect species of beauty. But still proportion is necessary for perfecting the beauty and fully gratifying a correct and improved taste. Thus the absence of any one of these ingredients, the want either of uniformity, of variety, or of proportion, diminishes the beauty of objects: but where all of them are in a great measure wanting, deformity must prevail. Figures may be desirable or valuable on other accounts; but without these qualities they cannot be beautiful.

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ume’s contribution to the problem of taste was his essay ‘‘Of the Standard of Taste,’’ which he published in 1757 as the fourth of his Four Dissertations. Again it derives from his earlier empirical system in which ‘‘Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.’’ And thus for Hume the matter became the question of whether there are in fact any rules behind these judgments of taste concerning beauty, or whether we each live only in our own solipsistic world, that is, a private and subjective space unknown to each other. The great diversity of opinions in matters of taste, Hume argues, speaks to the latter proposition, but at the same time over centuries a consensus has generally formed regarding the superiority of one work of art over another. If this consensus cannot be found within the rules of artistic composition (which Hume rejects), then it must reside in the universality of the human mind – the mind rightly formed to allow just these ‘‘tender and delicate’’ emotions of beauty to arise. But though all the general rules of art are founded only on experience and on the observation of the common sentiments of human nature, we must not imagine, that, on every occasion, the feelings of men will be conformable to these rules. Those finer emotions of the mind are of a very tender and delicate nature, and require the concurrence of many favourable circumstances to make them play with facility and exactness, according to their general and established principles. The least exterior hindrance to such small springs, or the David Hume, from ‘‘Of the Standard of Taste’’ (1757) in a facsimile edition of Four Dissertations, ed. John Immerwahr. Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1995, pp. 212–17.

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least internal disorder, disturbs their motion, and confounds the operation of the whole machine. When we would make an experiment of this nature, and would try the force of any beauty or deformity, we must choose with care a proper time and place, and bring the fancy to a suitable situation and disposition. A perfect serenity of mind, a recollection of thought, a due attention to the object; if any of these circumstances be wanting our experiment will be fallacious, and we shall be unable to judge of the catholic and universal beauty. The relation, which nature has placed betwixt the form and the sentiment, will at least be more obscure; and it will require greater accuracy to trace and discern it. We shall be able to ascertain its influence not so much from the operation of each particular beauty, as from the durable admiration, which attends those works, that have survived all the caprices of mode and fashion, all the mistakes of ignorance and envy. The same Homer, who pleased at Athens and Rome two thousand years ago, is still admired at Paris and at London. All the changes of climate, government, religion, and language have not been able to obscure his glory. Authority or prejudice may give a temporary vogue to a bad poet or orator; but his reputation will never be durable or general. When his compositions are examined by posterity or by foreigners, the enchantment is dissipated, and his faults appear in their true colours. On the contrary, a real genius, the longer his works endure, and the more wide they are spread, the more sincere is the admiration which he meets with. Envy and jealousy have too much place in a narrow circle; and even familiar acquaintance with his person may diminish the applause due to his performances: But when these obı´tructions are removed, the beauties, which are naturally fitted to excite agreeable sentiments immediately display their energy; and while the world endures, they maintain their authority over the minds of men. It appears then, that amidst all the variety and caprices of taste, there are certain general principles of approbation or blame, whose influence a careful eye may trace in all operations of the mind. Some particular forms or qualities, from the original structure of the internal fabric, are calculated to please, and others to displease; and if they fail of their effect in any particular instance, it is from some apparent defect or imperfection in the organ. A man in a fever would not insist on his palate as able to decide concerning flavours; nor would one, affected with the jaundice, pretend to give a verdict with regard to colours. In each creature, there is a sound and a defective state; and the former alone can be supposed to afford us a true standard of taste and sentiment. If in the sound state of the organs, there be an entire or a considerable uniformity of sentiment among men, we may thence derive an idea of the perfect and universal beauty; in like manner as the appearance of objects in day-light to the eye of a man in health is denominated their true and real colour, even while colour is allowed to be merely a phantasm of the senses. Many and frequent are the defects in the internal organs, which prevent or weaken the influence of those general principles, on which depends our sentiment of beauty or deformity. Though some objects, by the structure of the mind, be naturally calculated to give pleasure, it is not to be expected, that in every individual the pleasure will be equally felt. Particular incidents and situations occur, which either throw a false light on the objects, or hinder the true from conveying to the imagination the proper sentiment and perception. 272

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One obvious cause, why many feel not the proper sentiment of beauty, is the want of that delicacy of imagination, which is requisite to convey a sensibility of those finer emotions. This delicacy every one pretends to: Every one talks of it; and would reduce every kind of taste or sentiment to its standard. But as our intention in this dissertation is to mingle some light of the understanding with the feelings of sentiment, it will be proper to give a more accurate definition of delicacy, than has hitherto been attempted. And not to draw our philosophy from too profound a source, we shall have recourse to a noted story in Don Quixote. ’Tis with good reason, says Sancho to the squire with the great nose, that I pretend to have a judgment in wine: This is a quality hereditary in our family. Two of my kinsmen were once called to give their opinion of a hogshead, which was supposed to be excellent, being old and of a good vintage. One of them tastes it; considers it, and after mature reflection pronounces the wine to be good, were it not for a small taste of leather, which he perceived in it. The other, after using the same precautions, gives also his verdict in favour of the wine; but with the reserve of a taste of iron, which he could easily distinguish. You cannot imagine how much they were both ridiculed for their judgment. But who laughed in the end? On emptying the hogshead, there was found at the bottom, an old key with a leathern thong tied to it.

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he aesthetic development that can be traced through the writings of Addison, Hutcheson, and Hume comes to a head in this most important book of Edmund Burke, the Irish statesman, political writer, and essayist. This book appeared in 1757 only a few months after Hume’s essay, and in fact Burke seems to have held back the introductory essay of his book, ‘‘On Taste,’’ until the second edition of 1759, in order to respond more fully to Hume’s position. Burke also notes in the preface of 1757 that he had actually finished the manuscript in 1753. Whatever the case, Burke’s solution would eclipse the efforts of his contemporaries and largely chart the direction of British aesthetic theory for the remainder of the century. Much of the reason for the book’s success lies in its simple ambition. If Hume had attempted to salvage judgments of taste by arguing, in essence, that they could be justly displayed only by people of superior or purified imagination, Burke takes a more systematic or scientific approach. He believes that there are indeed ‘‘some invariable and certain laws’’ underlying judgments of taste, which he defines as ‘‘that faculty or those faculties of the mind, which are affected with, or which form a judgment of, the works of imagination and the elegant arts.’’ His approach is to describe more comprehensively the range of emotions that are evoked by objects as well as to eliminate many of the vestiges of classical theory, such as the connection of fitness or utility with aesthetic judgments

Edmund Burke (1729–97), from A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757) in The Works of Edmund Burke, Vol. I, London: G. Bell & Sons, 1913, pp. 118–22.

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(which requires the intervention of reason). It is in the last regard that this first selection from his study is presented. Appearing under the heading ‘‘Proportion Not the Cause of Beauty in the Human Species,’’ this passage is a masterpiece of Burkean prose that cuts to the chase by quickly disposing of all classical conceptions. Note, for instance, his use of the famous Renaissance and Vitruvian image of a man standing in a square – how he not only rejects its relevance but also exploits its meaning to strengthen his own comments on architecture and garden design. There are some parts of the human body that are observed to hold certain proportions to each other; but before it can be proved that the efficient cause of beauty lies in these, it must be shown, that wherever these are found exact, the person to whom they belong is beautiful: I mean in the effect produced on the view, either of any member distinctly considered, or of the whole body together. It must be likewise shown, that these parts stand in such a relation to each other, that the comparison between them may be easily made, and that the affection of the mind may naturally result from it. For my part, I have at several times very carefully examined many of those proportions, and found them hold very nearly or altogether alike in many subjects, which were not only very different from one another, but where one has been very beautiful, and the other very remote from beauty. With regard to the parts which are found so proportioned, they are often so remote from each other, in situation, nature, and office, that I cannot see how they admit of any comparison, nor consequently how any effect owing to proportion can result from them. The neck, say they, in beautiful bodies, should measure with the calf of the leg; it should likewise be twice the circumference of the wrist. And an infinity of observations of this kind are to be found in the writings and conversations of many. But what relation has the calf of the leg to the neck; or either of these parts to the wrist? These proportions are certainly to be found in handsome bodies. They are as certainly in ugly ones; as any who will take the pains to try may find. Nay, I do not know but they may be least perfect in some of the most beautiful. You may assign any proportions you please to every part of the human body; and I undertake that a painter shall religiously observe them all, and notwithstanding produce, if he pleases, a very ugly figure. The same painter shall considerably deviate from these proportions, and produce a very beautiful one. And indeed it may be observed in the master-pieces of the ancient and modern statuary, that several of them differ very widely from the proportions of others, in parts very conspicuous and of great consideration; and that they differ no less from the proportions we find in living men, of forms extremely striking and agreeable. And after all, how are the partisans of proportional beauty agreed amongst themselves about the proportions of the human body? Some hold it to be seven heads; some make it eight; whilst others extend it even to ten; a vast difference in such a small number of divisions! Others take other methods of estimating the proportions, and all with equal success. But are these proportions exactly the same in all handsome men? or are they at all the proportions found in beautiful women? Nobody will say that they are; yet both sexes are undoubtedly capable of beauty, and the female of the greatest; which advantage I believe will hardly be attributed to the superior exactness of proportion in the fair sex. Let us rest a moment on this point; and consider how much difference there is between the measures that prevail in many similar parts of the body, in the two sexes of this single species only. If you assign any determinate proportions to the limbs of a man, and if you limit human beauty to these proportions, when you find a woman who differs in the make and measures of almost every part, you must conclude her not to be 274

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beautiful, in spite of the suggestions of your imagination; or, in obedience to your imagination, you must renounce your rules; you must lay by the scale and compass, and look out for some other cause of beauty. For if beauty be attached to certain measures which operate from a principle in nature, why should similar parts with different measures of proportion be found to have beauty, and this too in the very same species? But to open our view a little, it is worth observing, that almost all animals have parts of very much the same nature, and destined nearly to the same purposes; a head, neck, body, feet, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth; yet Providence, to provide in the best manner for their several wants, and to display the riches of his wisdom and goodness in his creation, has worked out of these few and similar organs and members, a diversity hardly short of infinite in their disposition, measures, and relation. But, as we have before observed, amidst this infinite diversity, one particular is common to many species: several of the individuals which compose them are capable of affecting us with a sense of loveliness; and whilst they agree in producing this effect, they differ extremely in the relative measures of those parts which have produced it. These considerations were sufficient to induce me to reject the notion of any particular proportions that operated by nature to produce a pleasing effect; but those who will agree with me with regard to a particular proportion, are strongly prepossessed in favour of one more indefinite. They imagine, that although beauty in general is annexed to no certain measures common to the several kinds of pleasing plants and animals; yet that there is a certain proportion in each species absolutely essential to the beauty of that particular kind. If we consider the animal world in general, we find beauty confined to no certain measures: but as some peculiar measure and relation of parts is what distinguishes each peculiar class of animals, it must of necessity be, that the beautiful in each kind will be found in the measures and proportions of that kind; for otherwise it would deviate from its proper species, and become in some sort monstrous: however, no species is so strictly confined to any certain proportions, that there is not a considerable variation amongst the individuals; and as it has been shown of the human, so it may be shown of the brute kinds, that beauty is found indifferently in all the proportions which each kind can admit, without quitting its common form; and it is this idea of a common form that makes the proportion of parts at all regarded, and not the operation of any natural cause: indeed a little consideration will make it appear, that it is not measure, but manner, that creates all the beauty which belongs to shape. What light do we borrow from these boasted proportions, when we study ornamental design? It seems amazing to me, that artists, if they were as well convinced as they pretend to be, that proportion is a principal cause of beauty, have not by them at all times accurate measurements of all sorts of beautiful animals to help them to proper proportions, when they would contrive anything elegant; especially as they frequently assert that it is from an observation of the beautiful in nature they direct their practice. I know that it has been said long since, and echoed backward and forward from one writer to another a thousand times, that the proportions of building have been taken from those of the human body. To make this forced analogy complete, they represent a man with his arms raised and extended at full length, and then describe a sort of square, as it is formed by passing lines along the extremities of this strange figure. But it appears very clearly to me, that the human figure never supplied the architect with any of his ideas. For, in the first place, men are very rarely seen in this strained posture; it is not natural to them; neither is it at all becoming. Secondly, the view of the human figure so disposed, does not naturally suggest the idea of a square, but rather of a B U RK E , A P H I L OS O P H I CA L I N Q U I RY

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cross; as that large space between the arms and the ground must be filled with something before it can make anybody think of a square. Thirdly, several buildings are by no means of the form of that particular square, which are notwithstanding planned by the best architects, and produce an effect altogether as good, and perhaps a better. And certainly nothing could be more unaccountably whimsical, than for an architect to model his performance by the human figure, since no two things can have less resemblance or analogy, than a man and a house, or temple: do we need to observe, that their purposes are entirely different? What I am apt to suspect is this: that these analogies were devised to give a credit to the works of art, by showing a conformity between them and the noblest works in nature; not that the latter served at all to supply hints for the perfection of the former. And I am the more fully convinced, that the patrons of proportion have transferred their artificial ideas to nature, and not borrowed from thence the proportions they use in works of art; because in any discussion of this subject they always quit as soon as possible the open field of natural beauties, the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and fortify themselves within the artificial lines and angles of architecture. For there is in mankind an unfortunate propensity to make themselves, their views, and their works, the measure of excellence in everything whatsoever. Therefore, having observed that their dwellings were most commodious and firm when they were thrown into regular figures, with parts answerable to each other; they transferred these ideas to their gardens; they turned their trees into pillars, pyramids, and obelisks; they formed their hedges into so many green walls, and fashioned their walks into squares, triangles, and other mathematical figures, with exactness and symmetry; and they thought, if they were not imitating, they were at least improving nature, and teaching her to know her business. But nature has at last escaped from their discipline and their fetters; and our gardens, if nothing else, declare we begin to feel that mathematical ideas are not the true measures of beauty. And surely they are full as little so in the animal as the vegetable world. For is it not extraordinary, that in these fine descriptive pieces, these innumerable odes and elegies, which are in the mouths of all the world, and many of which have been the entertainment of ages, that in these pieces which describe love with such a passionate energy, and represent its object in such an infinite variety of lights, not one word is said of proportion, if it be, what some insist it is, the principal component of beauty; whilst, at the same time, several other qualities are very frequently and warmly mentioned? But if proportion has not this power, it may appear odd how men came originally to be so prepossessed in its favour. It arose, I imagine, from the fondness I have just mentioned, which men bear so remarkably to their own works and notions; it arose from false reasonings on the effects of the customary figure of animals; it arose from the Platonic theory of fitness and aptitude. For which reason, in the next section, I shall consider the effects of custom in the figure of animals; and afterwards the idea of fitness: since, if proportion does not operate by a natural power attending some measures, it must be either by custom, or the idea of utility; there is no other way.

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EDMUND BURKE from A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757)

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s the title of Burke’s book shows, the primary intention of his investigation is to elevate the notion of the ‘‘sublime’’ to an aesthetic category equal to the idea of the ‘‘beautiful.’’ This is, once again, an anticlassical approach to aesthetics from the start, in the sense that beauty is central to all classical conceptions of art. In Vitruvian theory, for instance, it was named as one of the three essential principles of good design. It is also an anticlassical approach in that in divorcing beauty from such traditional concepts as proportion, fitness, perfection, and virtue, Burke must define it anew on the basis of sensations alone. Thus he comes to define beauty as arising from the object’s qualities: smallness, smoothness, gradual variation, delicacy, clean and fair but not especially strong colors. Beauty is therefore inherent in things and is not, as Berkeley argued, a construct of the mind. These qualities or attributes of beauty are visual sensations; therefore the idea of beauty in the mind is caused by the body’s neurological responses to objects rather than by mental operations. Hence, the play of the association of ideas gives way in this instance to a physiological explanation. Alongside the notion of the beautiful, there is now also the aesthetic category of the sublime. What is its cause? Burke’s answer of ‘‘pain or danger’’ may at first seem startling, but what he is really referring to is the exhilarating emotion of danger that a mountain climber might feel in standing on the edge of a cliff and surveying the world far below him, or the painful emotion of isolation that someone might experience in staring out into the vast expanse of the ocean. Burke goes to speak of the passions roused by the sublime over many pages; he begins his treatment with the emotions of terror, obscurity, power, privation (vacuity, darkness, solitude, and silence). The second excerpt below picks up the discussion with the notion of ‘‘vastness,’’ and continues through to his discussion of ‘‘Light in Building.’’ The architectural implications, when not explicitly stated, are fully transparent; the architect might in some instances now seek to exploit the emotions of the sublime rather than those of the beautiful.

Of The Sublime Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling. I say the strongest emotion, because I am satisfied the ideas of pain are much more powerful than those which enter on the part of pleasure. Without all doubt, the torments which we may be made to suffer are much greater in their effect on the body and mind, than any pleasures which the most learned voluptuary could suggest, or than the liveliest imagination, and the most sound and exquisitely sensible Edmund Burke, from A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757) in The Works of Edmund Burke, Vol. I, London: G. Bell & Sons, 1913, pp. 74–5, 100–8.

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body, could enjoy. Nay, I am in great doubt whether any man could be found, who would earn a life of the most perfect satisfaction, at the price of ending it in the torments, which justice inflicted in a few hours on the late unfortunate regicide in France. But as pain is stronger in its operation than pleasure, so death is in general a much more affecting idea than pain; because there are very few pains, however exquisite, which are not preferred to death: nay, what generally makes pain itself, if I may say so, more painful, is that it is considered as an emissary of this king of terrors. When danger or pain press too nearly, they are incapable of giving any delight, and are simply terrible; but at certain distances, and with certain modifications, they may be, and they are, delightful, as we every day experience. The cause of this I shall endeavour to investigate hereafter. [ . . . ]

Vastness Greatness of dimension is a powerful cause of the sublime. This is too evident, and the observation too common, to need any illustration: it is not so common to consider in what ways greatness of dimension, vastness of extent or quantity, has the most striking effect. For certainly, there are ways and modes, wherein the same quantity of extension shall produce greater effects than it is found to do in others. Extension is either in length, height, or depth. Of these the length strikes least; an hundred yards of even ground will never work such an effect as a tower an hundred yards high, or a rock or mountain of that altitude. I am apt to imagine likewise, that height is less grand than depth; and that we are more struck at looking down from a precipice, than looking up at an object of equal height; but of that I am not very positive. A perpendicular has more force in forming the sublime, than an inclined plane; and the effects of a rugged and broken surface seem stronger than where it is smooth and polished. It would carry us out of our way to enter in this place into the cause of these appearances; but certain it is they afford a large and fruitful field of speculation. However, it may not be amiss to add to these remarks upon magnitude, that, as the great extreme of dimension is sublime, so the last extreme of littleness is in some measure sublime likewise: when we attend to the infinite divisibility of matter, when we pursue animal life into these excessively small, and yet organized beings, that escape the nicest inquisition of the sense; when we push our discoveries yet downward, and consider those creatures so many degrees yet smaller, and the still diminishing scale of existence, in tracing which the imagination is lost as well as the sense; we become amazed and confounded at the wonders of minuteness; nor can we distinguish in its effects this extreme of littleness from the vast itself. For division must be infinite as well as addition; because the idea of a perfect unity can no more be arrived at, than that of a complete whole, to which nothing may be added.

Infinity Another source of the sublime is infinity; if it does not rather belong to the last. Infinity has a tendency to fill the mind with that sort of delightful horror, which is the most genuine effect 278

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and truest test of the sublime. There are scarce any things which can become the objects of our senses, that are really and in their own nature infinite. But the eye not being able to perceive the bounds of many things, they seem to be infinite, and they produce the same effects as if they were really so. We are deceived in the like manner, if the parts of some large object are so continued to any indefinite number, that the imagination meets no check which may hinder its extending them at pleasure. Whenever we repeat any idea frequently, the mind, by a sort of mechanism, repeats it long after the first cause has ceased to operate. After whirling about, when we sit down, the objects about us still seem to whirl. After a long succession of noises, as the fall of waters, or the beating of forge-hammers, the hammers beat and the water roars in the imagination long after the first sounds have ceased to affect it; and they die away at last by gradations which are scarcely perceptible. If you hold up a straight pole, with your eye to one end, it will seem extended to a length almost incredible. Place a number of uniform and equi-distant marks on this pole, they will cause the same deception, and seem multiplied without end. The senses, strongly affected in some one manner, cannot quickly change their tenor, or adapt themselves to other things; but they continue in their old channel until the strength of the first mover decays. This is the reason of an appearance very frequent in madmen; that they remain whole days and nights, sometimes whole years, in the constant repetition of some remark, some complaint, or song; which having struck powerfully on their disordered imagination in the beginning of their phrensy, every repetition reinforces it with new strength; and the hurry of their spirits, unrestrained by the curb of reason, continues it to the end of their lives.

Succession and Uniformity Succession and uniformity of parts are what constitute the artificial infinite. 1. Succession; which is requisite that the parts may be continued so long and in such a direction, as by their frequent impulses on the sense to impress the imagination with an idea of their progress beyond their actual limits. 2. Uniformity; because if the figures of the parts should be changed, the imagination at every change finds a check; you are presented at every alteration with the termination of one idea, and the beginning of another; by which means it becomes impossible to continue that uninterrupted progression, which alone can stamp on bounded objects the character of infinity.1 It is in this kind of artificial infinity, I believe, we ought to look for the cause why a rotund has such a noble effect. For in a rotund, whether it be a building or a plantation, you can nowhere fix a boundary; turn which way you will, the same object stil seems to continue, and the imagination has no rest. But the parts must be uniform, as well as circularly disposed, to give this figure its full force; because any difference, whether it be in the disposition, or in the figure, or even in the colour of the parts, is highly prejudicial to the idea of infinity, which every change must check and interrupt, at every alteration commencing a new series. On the same principles of succession and uniformity, the grand appearance of the ancient heathen temples, which were generally oblong forms, with a range of uniform pillars on every side, will be easily accounted for. From the same cause also may be derived the grand effect of the aisles in many of our own old cathedrals. The form of a cross used in some churches seems to me not so eligible as the parallelogram of the ancients; B U RK E , A P H I L OS O P H I CA L I N Q U I RY

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at least, I imagine it is not so proper for the outside. For, supposing the arms of the cross every way equal, if you stand in a direction parallel to any of the side walls, or colonnades, instead of a deception that makes the building more extended than it is, you are cut off from a considerable part (two-thirds) of its actual length; and to prevent all possibility of progression, the arms of the cross, taking a new direction, make a right angle with the beam, and thereby wholly turn the imagination from the repetition of the former idea. Or suppose the spectator placed where he may take a direct view of such a building, what will be the consequence? The necessary consequence will be, that a good part of the basis of each angle formed by the intersection of the arms of the cross, must be inevitably lost; the whole must of course assume a broken, unconnected figure; the lights must be unequal, here strong, and there weak; without that noble gradation, which the perspective always effects on parts disposed uninterruptedly in a right line. Some or all of these objections will lie against every figure of a cross, in whatever view you take it. I exemplified them in the Greek cross, in which these faults appear the most strongly; but they appear in some degree in all sorts of crosses. Indeed there is nothing more prejudicial to the grandeur of buildings, than to abound in angles; a fault obvious in many; and owing to an inordinate thirst for variety, which, whenever it prevails, is sure to leave very little true taste.

Magnitude in Building To the sublime in building, greatness of dimension seems requisite; for on a few parts, and those small, the imagination cannot rise to any idea of infinity. No greatness in the manner can effectually compensate for the want of proper dimensions. There is no danger of drawing men into extravagant designs by this rule; it carries its own caution along with it. Because too great a length in buildings destroys the purpose of greatness, which it was intended to promote; the perspective will lessen it in height as it gains in length; and will bring it at last to a point; turning the whole figure into a sort of triangle, the poorest in its effec`t of almost any figure that can be presented to the eye. I have ever observed, that colonnades and avenues of trees of a moderate length, were, without comparison, far grander, than when they were suffered to run to immense distances. A true artist should put a generous deceit on the spectators, and effect the noblest designs by easy methods. Designs that are vast only by their dimensions, are always the sign of a common and low imagination. No work of art can be great, but as it deceives; to be otherwise is the prerogative of nature only. A good eye will fix the medium betwixt an excessive length or height, (for the same objection lies against both,) and a short or broken quantity; and perhaps it might be ascertained to a tolerable degree of exactness, if it was my purpose to descend far into the particulars of any art.

Infinity in Pleasing Objects Infinity, though of another kind, causes much of our pleasure in agreeable, as well as of our delight in sublime, images. The spring is the pleasantest of the seasons; and the young of 280

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most animals, though far from being completely fashioned, afford a more agreeable sensation than the full-grown; because the imagination is entertained with the promise of something more, and does not acquiesce in the present object of the sense. In unfinished sketches of drawing, I have often seen something which pleased me beyond the best finishing; and this I believe proceeds from the cause I have just now assigned.

Difficulty Another source of greatness is Difficulty. When any work seems to have required immense force and labour to effect it, the idea is grand. Stonehenge, neither for disposition nor ornament, has anything admirable; but those huge rude masses of stone, set on end, and piled each on other, turn the mind on the immense force necessary for such a work. Nay, the rudeness of the work increases this cause of grandeur, as it excludes the idea of art and contrivance; for dexterity produces another sort of effect, which is different enough from this.

Magnificence Magnificence is likewise a source of the sublime. A great profusion of things, which are splendid or valuable in themselves, is magnificent. The starry heaven, though it occurs so very frequently to our view, never fails to excite an idea of grandeur. This cannot be owing to the stars themselves, separately considered. The number is certainly the cause. The apparent disorder augments the grandeur, for the appearance of care is highly contrary to our idea of magnificence. Besides, the stars lie in such apparent confusion, as makes it impossible on ordinary occasions to reckon them. This gives them the advantage of a sort of infinity. In works of art, this kind of grandeur, which consists in multitude, is to be very courteously admitted; because a profusion of excellent things is not to be attained, or with too much difficulty; and because in many cases this splendid confusion would destroy all use, which should be attended to in most of the works of art with the greatest care; besides, it is to be considered, that unless you can produce an appearance of infinity by your disorder, you will have disorder only without magnificence. There are, however, a sort of fireworks, and some other things, that in this way succeed well, and are truly grand. There are also many descriptions in the poets and orators, which owe their sublimity to a richness and profusion of images, in which the mind is so dazzled as to make it impossible to attend to that exact coherence and agreement of the allusions, which we should require on every other occasion. I do not now remember a more striking example of this, than the description which is given of the king’s army in the play of Henry the Fourth: – All furnished, all in arms, All plumed like ostriches that with the wind Baited like eagles having lately bathed: B U RK E , A P H I L OS O P H I CA L I N Q U I RY

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As full of spirit as the month of May, And gorgeous as the sun in Midsummer, Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls. I saw young Harry with his beaver on Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury; And vaulted with such ease into his seat, As if an angel dropped from the clouds To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus.

In that excellent book, so remarkable for the vivacity of its descriptions, as well as the solidity and penetration of its sentences, the Wisdom of the Son of Sirach, there is a noble panegyric on the high priest Simon the son of Onias; and it is a very fine example of the point before us: How was he honoured in the midst of the people, in his coming out of the sanctuary! He was as the morning star in the midst of a cloud, and as the moon at the full; as the sun shining upon the temple of the Most High, and as the rainbow giving light in the bright clouds: and as the flower of roses in the spring of the year, as lilies by the rivers of waters, and as the frankincense tree in summer; as fire and incense in the censer, and as a vessel of gold set with precious stones; as a fair olive tree budding forth fruit, and as a cypress which groweth up to the clouds. When he put on the robe of honour, and was clothed with the perfection of glory, when he went up to the holy altar, he made the garment of holiness honourable. He himself stood by the hearth of the altar, compassed with his brethren round about; as a young cedar in Libanus, and as palm trees compassed they him about. So were all the sons of Aaron in their glory, and the oblations of the Lord in their hands, &c.

Light Having considered extension, so far as it is capable of raising ideas of greatness; colour comes next under consideration. All colours depend on light. Light therefore ought previously to be examined; and with its opposite, darkness. With regard to light, to make it a cause capable of producing the sublime, it must be attended with some circumstances, besides its bare faculty of showing other objects. Mere light is too common a thing to make a strong impression on the mind, and without a strong impression nothing can be sublime. But such a light as that of the sun, immediately exerted on the eye, as it overpowers the sense, is a very great idea. Light of an inferior strength to this, if it moves with great celerity, has the same power; for lightning is certainly productive of grandeur, which it owes chiefly to the extreme velocity of its motion. A quick transition from light to darkness, or from darkness to light, has yet a greater effect. But darkness is more productive of sublime ideas than light. Our great poet was convinced of this; and indeed so full was he of this idea, so entirely possessed with the power of a well-managed darkness, that in describing the appearance of the Deity, amidst that profusion of magnificent images, which the grandeur of his subject provokes him to pour out upon every side, he is far from forgetting the obscurity which surrounds the most incomprehensible of all beings, but

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– With majesty of darkness round Circles his throne. –

And what is no less remarkable, our author had the secret of preserving this idea, even when he seemed to depart the farthest from it, when he describes the light and glory which flows from the Divine presence; a light which by its very excess is converted into a species of darkness. Dark with excessive light thy skirts appear.

Here is an idea not only poetical in a high degree, but strictly and philosophically just. Extreme light, by overcoming the organs of sight, obliterates all objects, so as in its effect exactly to resemble darkness. After looking for some time at the sun, two black spots, the impression which it leaves, seem to dance before our eyes. Thus are two ideas as opposite as can be imagined reconciled in the extremes of both; and both, in spite of their opposite nature, brought to concur in producing the sublime. And this is not the only instance wherein the opposite extremes operate equally in favour of the sublime, which in all things abhors mediocrity.

Light in Building As the management of light is a matter of importance in architecture, it is worth inquiring, how far this remark is applicable to building. I think then, that all edifices calculated to produce an idea of the sublime, ought rather to be dark and gloomy, and this for two reasons; the first is, that darkness itself on other occasions is known by experience to have a greater effect on the passions than light. The second is, that to make an object very striking, we should make it as different as possible from the objects with which we have been immediately conversant; when therefore you enter a building, you cannot pass into a greater light than you had in the open air; to go into one some few degrees less luminous, can make only a trifling change; but to make the transition thoroughly striking, you ought to pass from the greatest light, to as much darkness as is consistent with the uses of architecture. At night the contrary rule will hold, but for the very same reason; and the more highly a room is then illuminated, the grander will the passion be.

NOTE 1

Mr. Addison, in the Spectators concerning the pleasures of imagination, thinks it is because in the rotund at one glance you see half the building. This I do not imagine to be the real cause.

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L OR D K A M ES from Elements of Criticism (1762)

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he innovative aspects of Burke’s arguments for the beautiful and the sublime can also be judged by the contemporary account of beauty and sublimity by Lord Kames, who was born Henry Home. Kames was another figure of the Scottish Enlightenment and a member of the Select Society of Edinburgh. He labored over the writing of Elements of Criticism throughout the 1750s and thus was able to incorporate many of the insights put forth in this decade. The starting point for his system, however, was older, and thus the study owes more to Shaftesbury than to Hume. The result is a curious mixture of old and new ideas. Kames defines beauty, for instance, as both intrinsic (the object of sensation without mental reflection; the beauty of a river, for instance) and relative (an object when seen in relation to utility and goodness). He accepts the notion of the sublime, but – following Addison – defines it simply as the experience of dimension or grandeur. Toward the end of his lengthy study he also turns his attention to the landscape and to architecture. In the first regard he disapproves of the stiffness and artificiality of regular designs, except very near the house. In the second regard he allows regularity in monumental architectural works and irregularity in more utilitarian structures, such as dwellings. Kames wants to have it both ways. For example, he can defend the idea of proportion and criticize Perrault for trying to ground ratios in custom, yet he can admit to the aesthetic pleasure of employing the Gothic style in such rough and uncultivated regions as Scotland. It provokes a smile to find writers acknowledging the necessity of accurate proportions, and yet differing widely about them. Laying aside reasoning and philosophy, one fact, universally allowed, ought to have undeceived them, that the same proportions which are agreeable in a model, are not agreeable in a large building; a room 40 feet in length, and 24 in breadth and height, is well proportioned; but a room 12 feet wide and high, and 24 long, approaches to a gallery. Perrault, in his comparison of the ancients and moderns, is the only author who runs to the opposite extreme; maintaining, that the different proportions assigned to each order of columns are arbitrary, and that the beauty of these proportions is entirely the effect of custom. This betrays ignorance of human nature, which evidently delights in proportion as well as in regularity, order, and propriety. But, without any acquaintance with human nature, a single reflection might have convinced him of his error, That if these proportions had not originally been agreeable, they could not have been established by custom. To illustrate the present point, I shall add a few examples of the agreeableness of different proportions. In a sumptuous edifice, the capital rooms ought to be large, for otherwise they will not be proportioned to the size of the building; and, for the same reason, a very large room is improper in a small house. But in things thus related, the mind requires not a precise or single proportion, rejecting all others; on the contrary, many different proportions are made equally welcome. In all buildings accordingly, we find rooms of different proportions equally agreeable, even where the proportion is not influenced by utility. With respect to the height of a room, the proportion it ought to bear to the length and breadth is arbitrary; and

Lord Kames, (Henry Home, 1696–1782), from Elements of Criticism (1762). London: Vernor and Hood, 1805 (eighth edition), pp. 370–4.

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it cannot be otherwise, considering the uncertainty of the eye as to the height of a room when it exceeds 17 or 18 feet. In columns, again, even architects must confess, that the proportion of height and thickness varies betwixt eight diameters and ten, and that every proportion between these extremes is agreeable. But this is not all. There must certainly be a farther variation of proportion depending on the size of the column: a row of columns 10 feet high, and a row twice that height, require different proportions; the intercolumniations must also differ according to the height of the row. Proportion of parts is not only itself a beauty, but is inseparably connected with a beauty of the highest relish, that of concord or harmony; which will be plain from what follows. A room, of which the parts are all finely adjusted to each other, strikes us with the beauty of proportion. It strikes us at the same time with a pleasure far superior: the length, the breadth, the height, the windows, raise each of them separately an emotion: these emotions are similar; and though faint when felt separately, they produce in conjunction the emotion of concord or harmony, which is extremely pleasant. On the other hand, where the length of a room far exceeds the breadth, the mind, comparing together parts so intimately connected, immediately perceives a disagreement or disproportion which disgusts. But this is not all: viewing them separately, different emotions are produced; that of grandeur from the great length, and that of meanness, or littleness, from the small breadth, which, in union, are disagreeable by their discordance. Hence it is, that a long gallery, however convenient for exercise, is not an agreeable figure of a room: we consider it, like a stable, as destined for use, and expect not that in any other respect it should be agreeable. Regularity and proportion are essential in buildings destined chiefly, or solely, to please the eye, because they produce intrinsic beauty. But a skilful artist will not confine his view to regularity and proportion: he will also study congruity, which is perceived when the form and ornaments of a structure are suited to the purpose for which it is intended. The sense of congruity dictates the following rule, That every building have an expression corresponding to its destination: a palace ought to be sumptuous and grand; a private dwelling neat and modest; a play-house gay and splendid; and a monument gloomy and melancholy.1 A Heathen temple has a double destination: It is considered chiefly as a house dedicated to some divinity; and, in that respect, it ought to be grand, elevated, and magnificent: it is considered also as a place of worship; and, in that respect, it ought to be somewhat dark or gloomy, because dimness produces that tone of mind which is suited to humility and devotion. A Christian church is not considered to be a house for the Deity, but merely a place of worship: it ought, therefore, to be decent and plain, without much ornament. A situation ought to be chosen low and retired; because the congregation, during worship, ought to be humble and disengaged from the world. Columns, besides their chief service of being supports, may contribute to that peculiar expression which the destination of a building requires: columns of different proportions serve to express loftiness, lightness, &c. as well as strength. Situation, also, may contribute to expression; conveniency regulates the situation of a private dwelling-house; but, as I have had occasion to observe, the situation of a palace ought to be lofty. And this leads to a question, Whether the situation, where there happens to be no choice, ought, in any measure, to regulate the form of the edifice? The connection between a large house and the neighbouring fields, though not intimate, demands however some congruity. It would, for example, displease us to find an elegant building thrown away upon a wild K AM E S , E L E M E N T S O F C R I T I C I S M

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uncultivated country: congruity requires a polished field for such a building: and besides the pleasure of congruity, the spectator is sensible of the pleasure of concordance from the similarity of the emotions produced by the two objects. The old Gothic form of building seems well suited to the rough uncultivated regions where it was invented: the only mistake was, the transferring this form to the fine plains of France and Italy, better fitted for buildings in the Grecian taste; but by refining upon the Gothic form, every thing possible has been done to reconcile it to its new situation. The profuse variety of wild and grand objects about Inverary demanded a house in the Gothic form; and every one must approve of the taste of the proprietor, in adjusting so finely the appearance of his house to that of the country where it is placed.

NOTE 1

A house for the poor ought to have an appearance suited to its destination. The new hospital in Paris for foundlings errs against this rule; for it has more the air of a palace than of an hospital. Propriety and convenience ought to be studied in lodging the indigent; but in such houses splendour and magnificence are out of all rule. For the same reason, a naked statue or picture, scarce decent anywhere, is in a church intolerable. A sumptuous charity-school, besides its impropriety, gives the children an unhappy taste for high living.

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R O B E R T A N D JA M E S A D A M from Preface to The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam (1773–8)

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he final member of the Edinburgh Select Society to be considered in this section is Robert Adam, who with his younger brother James, would go on to become one of Britain’s most successful neoclassical architects of the third quarter of the eighteenth century. Robert Adam was very much a central figure within the artistic excitement of the 1750s in both Britain and Italy. He was a close friend of David Hume, and when he left Scotland for his grand tour of Italy in 1754 he was accepted into the circle of Ramsay in Rome, and thus became a friend of Piranesi as well. Adam was also attracted to the circle of students at the French Academy in Rome. In the summer of 1757 Adam traveled to Spalatro (in Croatia) to record the ruins of Diocletian’s Palace, and thus he contributed the archaeological flurry of this decade. James Adam, who followed Robert to the south, also regularly corresponded with Lord Kames, and in 1762 spoke to Kames about the possibility of writing a discourse on ‘‘sentimental’’ architecture, that is, espousing an architecture appealing principally to the senses and feelings rather than to classical rules.

Robert Adam (1728–92) and James Adam (1732–94), from Preface to The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Esquires (1773–8), ed. Robert Oresko. London: Academy Editions, 1975 (facsimile edition), pp. 45–7.

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Near the end of the 1750s the two brothers set up their practice in London and began to build a highly successful architectural practice in what is now known simply as the ‘‘Adam style.’’ In contrast to the severity of some Greek classicists, the Adam brothers took their inspiration from the more permissive eclectic outlook of Piranesi, from the lighter decorative styles of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and – most importantly – from the baroque propensities of John Vanbrugh, who for the past half-century had been much out of favor. Effectively, the Adam brothers resurrected his reputation by outfitting his designs with the new aesthetic principles. Their preface to the first volume of Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam constitutes their lone theoretical statement, and it is only in the footnotes that we find an articulation of their ideas. It is not unfair to call the ‘‘Adam style’’ a classical and baroqueinspired picturesque style, influenced (as the footnote on ‘‘Movement’’ suggests) by the innovations in landscape design. The actual term ‘‘picturesque’’ is still a decade or two away from widespread use, but the Adams brothers allude to it in their reference to composing ‘‘like a picture.’’ Some apology may, perhaps, be requisite, for giving to the world a book of architecture, after so many works of this kind have been published in Italy, France and England during the tow last centuries. The novelty and variety of the following designs, will, we flatter ourselves, not only excuse, but justify our conduct, in communicating them to the world. – We have not trod in the path of others, nor derived aid from their labours. In the works which we have had the honour to execute, we have not only met with the approbation of our employers, but even with the imitation of other artists, to such a degree, as in some measure to have brought about, in this country; a kind of revolution in the whole system of this useful and elegant art. These circumstances induced us to hope, that to collect and engrave our works would afford both entertainment and instruction. To enter upon an enquiry into the state of this art in Great Britain, till the late changes it has undergone, is no part of our present design. We leave that subject to the observation of the skilful; who we doubt not, will easily perceive, within these few years, a remarkable improvement in the form, convenience, arrangement, and relief of apartments; a greater movement (A) and variety, in the outside composition, and in the decoration of the inside, an almost total change. The massive entablature (B), the ponderous compartment ceiling (C), the tabernacle frame, almost the only species of ornament (D) formerly known, in this country, are now universally exploded, and in their place, we have adopted a beautiful variety of light mouldings, gracefully formed, delicately enriched and arranged with propriety and skill. We have introduced a great diversity of ceilings, freezes, and decorated pilasters, and have added grace and beauty to the whole, by a mixture of grotesque (E) stucco, and painted ornaments, together with the flowing rainceau (F), with its fanciful figures and winding foliage. [ . . . ] (A) Movement is meant to express, the rise and fall, the advance and recess, with other diversity of form, in the different parts of a building, so as to add greatly to the picturesque of the composition. For the rising and falling, advancing and receding, with the convexity and concavity, and other forms of the great parts, have the same effect in architecture, that hill and dale, fore-ground and distance, swelling and sinking have in lanscape: That is, they serve to produce an agreeable and diversified contour, that groups and contrasts like a picture, and creates a variety of light and shade, which gives great spirit, beauty and effect to the composition. RO B E RT AN D JA M E S A D A M, T H E W OR K S I N A R C H I T E C T U R E

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It is not always that such variety can be introduced into the design of any building but where it can be attained without encroaching upon its useful purposes, it adds much to its merit, as an object of beauty and grandeur. The effect of the height and convexity of the dome of St. Peter’s, contrasted with the lower square front, and the concavity of its court, is a striking instance of this sort of composition. The college and church des quatre nations at Paris, is though small, another of the same kind; and with us, we really do not recollect any example of so much movement and contrast, as in the south front of Kedleston house in Derbyshire, one of the seats of the Right Honourable Lord Scarsdale, of which building we shall have occasion to speak more at large hereafter. We cannot however allow ourselves to close this note without doing justice to the memory of a great man, whose reputation as an architect, has been long carried down the stream by a torrent of undistinguishing prejudice and abuse. Sir John Vanburgh’s genius was of the first class; and, in point of movement, novelty and ingenuity, his works have not been exceeded by any thing in modern times. We should certainly have quoted Blenheim and Castle Howard as great examples of these perfections, in preference to any work of our own, or of any other modern architect; but unluckily for the reputation of this excellent artist, his taste kept no pace with his genius, and his works are so crouded with barbarisms and absurdities, and so borne down by their own preposterous weight, that none but the discerning can separate their merits from their defects. In the hands of the ingenious artist, who knows how to polish and refine and bring them into use, we have always regarded his productions, as rough jewels of inestimable value. [...]

(E) By grotesque is meant that beautiful light stile of ornament used by the ancient Romans, in the decoration of their palaces, baths and villas. It is also to be seen in some of their amphitheatres, temples and tombs; the greatest part of which being vaulted and covered with ruins, have been dug up and cleared by the modern Italians, who for these reasons, give them the name of grotte, which is perhaps a corruption of the Latin Criptæ, a word borrowed from the Greeks, as the Romans did most of their terms in architecture; and hence the modern word grotesque, and the English word grotto, signifying a cave. In the times of Raphael, Michael Angelo, J