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On The Nature Of Design And Decoration In Architecture.
ON THE NATURE OF DESIGN AND DECORATION IN ARCHITECTURE .
ARCHITECTURE is one of those arts , which necessity has made universal : From the time that men first felt the inclemencies of the seasons , it had its beginning ; and , accordingly , it has spread wheresoever the severities of the climate demanded shelter or shade : It is to be traced in the Indian ' s hutand the Greenlander's cave and still shewsin those
, ; , barbarous parts of the globe , from what mean original ir arose to its present glory . The ravages of the Visigoths , in the fifth century , destroyed all themost beautiful monuments of antiquity ; and architecture thenceforward became so rude and' artless , that their professed architects understood nothing of just designingwherein its whole beauty consists : hence
, , that species of building , called the Gothic , took its rise . Charlemagne did his utmost to restore architecture , and the French applied themselves to it with success , under the encouragement of Hugh-Capet ; his son Robert , succeeded him in this design , till by degreesthe modern architecture was run into as great an excess of delicacy , as the Gothic had before into massiveness .
During the two last centuries , the architects of Italy , France , and ' England , were wholly bent upon retrieving the simplicity and beauty of the ancient architecture , in which they did not fail of success ; so that we have various structures now wholly built in the taste of the ancients . By dividing architecture into beauty and use , it will be demonstrable to every reader , that it is partly an art , andpartly a science ; that the first
is mechanical , and the last the result of genius and superior understanding : One calls in ail the aid of fancy and imagination , grows poetical in design , and picturesque in decoration ; the other lays down fixed and : stated rules , proceeds in the same invariable tract of reasoning , and comes always to the same conclusions . To make a thorough master , therefore , both must be united ; for the propriety of a plan is seldom -attended to , and seldomer understood ; and a glaring pile of beauty with- - ont use ; but mocks the possessor with a dream of grandeur , he
cannever enjoy . But , if the science of designing is not in the genius , it is never to be learned : To be able to enter into this secret , the student must have great natural parts , a noble and fruitful imagination , a thorough insight and acquaintance with beauty , a judgment sedate , and cool enough , to fonjiajust and delicate taste . Without taste , even genius itself wanders blindfold , and spends itself in vain . Genius is , indeed , the first q / i . ality of the soul ; but taste must be added , or we shall censure the wiklnefs , instead of admiring the beauty ; we shall be dissatisfied with , the irregularity , instead of being pleased with the magnificence .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Nature Of Design And Decoration In Architecture.
ON THE NATURE OF DESIGN AND DECORATION IN ARCHITECTURE .
ARCHITECTURE is one of those arts , which necessity has made universal : From the time that men first felt the inclemencies of the seasons , it had its beginning ; and , accordingly , it has spread wheresoever the severities of the climate demanded shelter or shade : It is to be traced in the Indian ' s hutand the Greenlander's cave and still shewsin those
, ; , barbarous parts of the globe , from what mean original ir arose to its present glory . The ravages of the Visigoths , in the fifth century , destroyed all themost beautiful monuments of antiquity ; and architecture thenceforward became so rude and' artless , that their professed architects understood nothing of just designingwherein its whole beauty consists : hence
, , that species of building , called the Gothic , took its rise . Charlemagne did his utmost to restore architecture , and the French applied themselves to it with success , under the encouragement of Hugh-Capet ; his son Robert , succeeded him in this design , till by degreesthe modern architecture was run into as great an excess of delicacy , as the Gothic had before into massiveness .
During the two last centuries , the architects of Italy , France , and ' England , were wholly bent upon retrieving the simplicity and beauty of the ancient architecture , in which they did not fail of success ; so that we have various structures now wholly built in the taste of the ancients . By dividing architecture into beauty and use , it will be demonstrable to every reader , that it is partly an art , andpartly a science ; that the first
is mechanical , and the last the result of genius and superior understanding : One calls in ail the aid of fancy and imagination , grows poetical in design , and picturesque in decoration ; the other lays down fixed and : stated rules , proceeds in the same invariable tract of reasoning , and comes always to the same conclusions . To make a thorough master , therefore , both must be united ; for the propriety of a plan is seldom -attended to , and seldomer understood ; and a glaring pile of beauty with- - ont use ; but mocks the possessor with a dream of grandeur , he
cannever enjoy . But , if the science of designing is not in the genius , it is never to be learned : To be able to enter into this secret , the student must have great natural parts , a noble and fruitful imagination , a thorough insight and acquaintance with beauty , a judgment sedate , and cool enough , to fonjiajust and delicate taste . Without taste , even genius itself wanders blindfold , and spends itself in vain . Genius is , indeed , the first q / i . ality of the soul ; but taste must be added , or we shall censure the wiklnefs , instead of admiring the beauty ; we shall be dissatisfied with , the irregularity , instead of being pleased with the magnificence .