On Architectural Art.

gases which greatly deteriorated and interfered with the effect of colouring . What was required was something that would g ive outlines of beauty in colours , and which would at the same time resist the atmosphere ancl tbe smoke . And bad tliey not that in the vitreons materials which retained the colours which were imprihted on them , under any circumstances of fog or haze , jn March winds and November clouds , and whose service only required the pelting shower to cleanse it again ancl restore its

beauty . They should make use of the opportunity thus afforded , and grasp at tbe growing appreciation of the truth , that colour , no less than form , was one of God ' s good gifts . The world of colour was co-extensive with the world of form . Great study should be devoted to the working out of detail . The day was going when strips of colour stuck up and clown at hap-hazard were considered sufficient . Something holder—something bigger—something more constructionalwas now required .

, Architecture iu burnt earth should be as completely architectural art , as architecture in carved stone . Here also originality and copying should go hand-in-liand . The materials might be original , but the principles of design were old ancl immutable . So it was , also , with architecture in iron , in which there was great scope for the exercise of invention ancl originality , but in which much might be acquired by existing

precedents . It might be thought that he had spoken more against than for the purposes tf the museum , for , as he had stated , the museum had no systematic teaching of its own ; it had no classes ; it had merely its collection of casts and models ; but it was in the consciousness that these materials would work together for good that they had adopted that line of action . They held strong convictions—prejudices some might consider them , —but they proclaimed what they believed

to be the truth in art , leaving all others to fight their own way , and knowing that truth was great and would prevail . They believed in reality of materials , playing with the sky-line , attention to symmetry of form , and infinite variety in dealing with wood and stone , and now with pottery and iron . They believed that architecture had produced its most glorious development in the Gothic of the thirteenth ancl fourteenth centuries . Much had been light and beautiful in tbe centuries since . Many

mechanical inventions had been produced ; many new forms of beauty and infinite resources in design had been developed ; a new world with its flora and fauna had been thrown in ; the revival of classical art , which seemed to deal a death-blow to the Gothic , hut which , if properly handled , would have been the font of its regeneration ; all these were consistent with the free architecture of Europe . AVe have everything the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries could give to ustogether with all that is

, our own and all the invention of printing and the spread of literature have opened up . Art is in a transitional state ; the minds of men aren are in a transitional state ; politics are in a transitional state ; we live in a century that some years since we used glibly to say was an unventful age , but it has , on the contrary , proved to be a century of revolutions—of which even the sixteenth or seventeeth century no similitude . Empires are

crushing , new worlds are forming—the strong are being made weak , ancl the weak are becoming unexpectedly strong . Ancl in the midst of all this zeal and turmoil , there is the grand figure of Christian , progressive , European , and especially English art , rising higher and higher from the dark ancl surging waves of the ocean ; and we shall in the future be noted with a good or bad mark according as ive perform well or ill our sworn service to that good majestic mistress of ours .

Expression Is Art.

EXPRESSION IS ART .

At the ordinary meeting cf the Bristol Society of Architects , on the 9 th ult ., Mr , Ponton read a paper on " Expression in Art . " Mr . Ponton said that he held expression in art to be that power which the artist possesses of conveying ideas through his art . It mi ght be of two kinds—the one definite and certain , the other conventional and capricious . The former was dependent upon natural princilesthe latter association of

p , upon ideas . It was desirable to separate these two kinds of expression , and to confine attention more especially to that which is dependent upon natural principles , in order to ascertain how these can be best applied to the noble art of architecture . It might be convenient , however , in the first place , briefly to illustrate the expression which is due to association of ideas . Eor

example—an Englishman who has opportunities from childhood of worshipping in a Gothic cathedral , would probably be more religiously impressed with the cathedral at Cologne , than with St . Peter's at Rome ; while , on the other hand , a Roman , who frequented St . Peter's would not be so religiously impressed with the cathedral at Cologne . This difference between the Roman and Englishman was owing entirely to association of ideas . The different power of expression of the two buildings

upon these two individuals was accidental , yet there was that , both in the cathedral of Cologne and of St . Peter ' s at Rome , which tended to produce an expression consonant with religious idea ; and it was this latter expression which he found to be dependent upon natural principles . The principles and laws of expression could be discovered only by observation and experiment ; by observation , in searching through nature , and trying

to ascertain upon what the expression of ideas conveyed by natural objects depended ; by experiment , in trying to imitate , in art , expressions similar to those which were found in nature , using the means which observation of nature pointed out as being the most likely to succeed . Mr . Ponton then proceeded to enumerate and enlarge upon the principles of volume , form , colour , stability , uniformity and symmetry , variety , equal spaced repetition ,

proportion , general harmony , fitness or means to an end , contrast arid gradation , and distinct view . Speaking of the principle of form , he said ; Form , like volume , is common to all material objects . In nature there are two different characters of form expressive of different qualities , namely , angular forms and curvilinear forms—the first expressive of hardness , strength or durability ; the second of softness , delicacy , or fragility . By

one writer forms have been divided into five classes—1 st , the rectilinear ancl rectangular ; 2 nd , rectilinear , but obliqued angled ; 3 rd , curvilinear forms without contrary flexure ; 4 th , curvilinear forms with geometrical contrary flexure ; aud 5 tb , curvilinear forms with natural contrary flexures . In most objects we find several of these classes of forms , and it is only by a process of comparison between a great number of natural objects—as for example , the rocky mountains , the roaring torrents , the rugged oak , the rough rhinoceros with the swelling hill , the smooth lake , the slender lily , the slight gazelle—that we are able to discover the means by which natural expression is given to objects .

The great difference between the two classes of objects above enumerated , certainly consists in the prevalence of angularity of form in the first class , and of curvilinear form in the second ; ancl the expression of the one is hardness , strength , or durability , ancl of the other , softness , delicacy , or fragility . We imitate this principle of form for the purpose of giving expression in architecture , when we employ rectangular and rectilinear forms , for the structural features of the buildingas cubes for large

, masses , horizontal or vertical lines for principal divisions in a building . It is this principal which would suggest the Greek type of form , as we find it tbe in Parthenon ( which is almost exclusively rectangular and rectilinear in its structural parts ) to express sublimity . It would also suggest the Italian semicircular arched opening type of form , to express playfulness and delicacy . With regard to colour this was also used largely in nature as

a means of expression . The best results were obtained in a building by using a light coloured stone , but not too dazzling in whiteness , but with a warm orange tint . For those those buildings in . which form , can be made the essential feature —as for example , the triumphal arch , the Greek temple , the Gothic cathedral , the historical monument—it appeared to him one material ought to be used , having a fair even tint , for the

sake of giving value to the form , and preventing the spectator from being confused between two different impressions . In such cases , colour might be employed externally for the mere purpose of heightening the ornamental decorative features , and increasing distinct views of the parts , but not in such masses as would destroy or even approach to balance tbe pervading colour of the material . In the interiorcolour was better adapted to ive

ex-, g pression , partly from the modified light , which prevents or excludes the beauty arising from strongly contrasted light and shade , and partly owing to the materials best suited to carry out the requirements of convenience , needing paint either to preserve them , or conceal their natural colours , which are too sombre . In interiors , he would be more inclined to make form subservient to colouras was done in the Alhambra . In London

, , the smoke nuisance was destructive of any attempt to introduce buildings dependent upon fine form for expression . The smoke rendered the stone so dark , that the effect , which ought to be produced by light and shade , was almost obliterated , or so modified as to destroy beauty . If we could not get rid of the smoke