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Article OUR ARCHITECTURAL CHAPTER. ← Page 2 of 3 →
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Our Architectural Chapter.
Brodrick ' s building are the portico and wings on the grand front , but these are obtained by a considerable loss of space and construct ! A e material , after allowing for all benefit from the use of the portico . The frieze is plain , and thereby much of the richness of the Corinthian order is lost , if not the feeling of completeness , and the
sculptural decorations of the building lessened . Under each column or intercolumniation is a tablet , which is paltry . Over each column , rising above the balustrade , is a pinnacle or vase , a miserable device of the Italian school , and two patterns supply Mr . Brodrick ' s whole structure . There are about a hundred of these things , and they have been turned out from the mills of the Marble Company with as small design as
may be . The tower is similarly decorated with blank tablets on the stylobate , and pinnacles on the c 6 rnice . The whole structure is , in fact , made dependent for its ornamentation on mechanical reproduce tion ; the stonecutter lias work , but the sculptor is excluded ; and , beyond what the design of the building itself may claim , art itself is banished . This is why this building , so great , and with such display of
splendour , fails to give satisfaction- —because there is about it as small evidence of mind as may be . There is a vulgar ostentation of pomp and expense—there is not even the redeeming grace of the luxurious indulgence of art . It is poor , though the builders are rich , because it wants mind . The town council of Leeds may have felt
satisfied—^ they had a Corinthian building , of the value of which they have vague notions . ; but as they cared not for art , so neither have they achieved it . The difference between the Leeds Town Hall and a plain brick house is this- —in the latter , bricks are stuck together , and there are chimney pots on the top ; in the former , columns and pinnacles , and vases , of which a stock has been laid in , are stuck together
with some regard to symmetry , and because columns and pilasters cost more than plain bricks . The aldermen of Leeds believe they have obtained a noble architectural monument , and yet there is many a brick building , where the bricks are Avell disposed , which displays more evidence of design , and affords ' greater interest , than this palatial structure .
Were there even inscriptions on the tablets of the Town Hall of the dealers having stalls in the market , they would have more interest , because they would be more human , than these dead blanks . Such a common device as employing the letter cutter would have given better evidence of thought than this display of stone affords . Were even the names of the heroes of the Indian war inscribed , the Leeds Town Hall would become a monument of the time , interesting to all
times . It would he linked with history ,, and now it has no history , being a foundling of uncertain parentage , found in England , but which might have been erected in Florence , Sienna , Paris , or London , in this century , or the last , or four centuries ago . It has nothing even to say that it is English , or that it is of the age of Victoria ; but the aldermen and schoolmasters of Leeds will remedy tins , for on tlie frieze , or somewhere , will be fulsome inscriptions , setting forth in Latin of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Our Architectural Chapter.
Brodrick ' s building are the portico and wings on the grand front , but these are obtained by a considerable loss of space and construct ! A e material , after allowing for all benefit from the use of the portico . The frieze is plain , and thereby much of the richness of the Corinthian order is lost , if not the feeling of completeness , and the
sculptural decorations of the building lessened . Under each column or intercolumniation is a tablet , which is paltry . Over each column , rising above the balustrade , is a pinnacle or vase , a miserable device of the Italian school , and two patterns supply Mr . Brodrick ' s whole structure . There are about a hundred of these things , and they have been turned out from the mills of the Marble Company with as small design as
may be . The tower is similarly decorated with blank tablets on the stylobate , and pinnacles on the c 6 rnice . The whole structure is , in fact , made dependent for its ornamentation on mechanical reproduce tion ; the stonecutter lias work , but the sculptor is excluded ; and , beyond what the design of the building itself may claim , art itself is banished . This is why this building , so great , and with such display of
splendour , fails to give satisfaction- —because there is about it as small evidence of mind as may be . There is a vulgar ostentation of pomp and expense—there is not even the redeeming grace of the luxurious indulgence of art . It is poor , though the builders are rich , because it wants mind . The town council of Leeds may have felt
satisfied—^ they had a Corinthian building , of the value of which they have vague notions . ; but as they cared not for art , so neither have they achieved it . The difference between the Leeds Town Hall and a plain brick house is this- —in the latter , bricks are stuck together , and there are chimney pots on the top ; in the former , columns and pinnacles , and vases , of which a stock has been laid in , are stuck together
with some regard to symmetry , and because columns and pilasters cost more than plain bricks . The aldermen of Leeds believe they have obtained a noble architectural monument , and yet there is many a brick building , where the bricks are Avell disposed , which displays more evidence of design , and affords ' greater interest , than this palatial structure .
Were there even inscriptions on the tablets of the Town Hall of the dealers having stalls in the market , they would have more interest , because they would be more human , than these dead blanks . Such a common device as employing the letter cutter would have given better evidence of thought than this display of stone affords . Were even the names of the heroes of the Indian war inscribed , the Leeds Town Hall would become a monument of the time , interesting to all
times . It would he linked with history ,, and now it has no history , being a foundling of uncertain parentage , found in England , but which might have been erected in Florence , Sienna , Paris , or London , in this century , or the last , or four centuries ago . It has nothing even to say that it is English , or that it is of the age of Victoria ; but the aldermen and schoolmasters of Leeds will remedy tins , for on tlie frieze , or somewhere , will be fulsome inscriptions , setting forth in Latin of