Part 3 (1/2)

57 The delivery of the foregoing lectures excited, as itthe architects who happened to hear them, and elicited various attempts at reply As it seemed to have been expected by the writers of these replies, that in two lectures, each of the not much more than an hour, I should have been able completely to discuss the philosophy and history of the architecture of the world, besidesevery apparent contradiction, which est itself to the minds of hearers hole exactly correspondent idea relating to the matters under discussion, it seems unnecessary to notice any of them in particular But as this volume may perhaps fall into the hands of readers who have not time to refer to the works in which e, and as I shall now not be able to write or to say anything more about architecture for some time to come, it may be useful to state here, and explain in the shortest possible coist of the propositions which I desire tothat art; and also to note and answer, once for all, such arguments as are ordinarily used by the architects of the modern school to controvert these propositions

They may be reduced under six heads

1 That Gothic or Romanesque construction is nobler than Greek construction

2 That ornamentation is the principal part of architecture

3 That ornamentation should be visible

4 That ornamentation should be natural

5 That ornahtful

6 And that therefore Gothic ornamentation is nobler than Greek ornamentation, and Gothic architecture the only architecture which should now be built

58 Proposition 1st--_Gothic or Romanesque construction is nobler than Greek construction_[20] That is to say, building an arch, vault, or do a flat stone or beam over the space to be covered It is, for instance, a nobler and e over a stream, than to lay two pine-trunks across from bank to bank; and, in liketo build an arch over a , door, or roole flat stone over the same space

[Footnote 20: The constructive value of Gothic architecture is, however, far greater than that of Romanesque, as the pointed arch is not only susceptible of an infinite variety of forht to be sustained, but it possesses, in the outline given to its masonry at its perfect periods, the ree than the round arch I pointed out, for, I believe, the first ti and constructive value of the Gothic cusp, in page 129 of the first volume of the ”Stones of Venice” That statee of, by ed that I have no _practical_ knowledge of architecture, it cannot but be matter of some triumph to me, to find ”The Builder,” of the 21st January, 1854, describing as a new invention, the successful application to a church in Carlow of the principle which I laid down in the year 1851]

No architects have ever attempted seriously to controvert this proposition So, the best and most perfect is not always to be adopted, for therean inferior one” This I arant, only let them show their reasons in each particular case Sometimes also they say, that there is a charm in the simple construction which is lost in the scientific one This I ae which there is not in Ae which there is not in the Ponte della Trinita at Florence, and, in general, a chareness which there is not in science But do not let it be said, therefore, that savageness _is_ science

59 Proposition 2d--_Ornamentation is the principal part of architecture_ That is to say, the highest nobility of a building does not consist in its being well built, but in its being nobly sculptured or painted

This is always, and at the first hearing of it, very naturally, considered one of my most heretical propositions It is also one of the most important I have to maintain; and it th The first thing to be required of a building--not, observe, the _highest_ thing, but the first thing--is that it shall answer its purposes completely, permanently, and at the smallest expense If it is a house, it should be just of the size convenient for its owner, containing exactly the kind and number of rooms that he wants, with exactly the number of s he wants, put in the places that he wants If it is a church, it should be just large enough for its congregation, and of such shape and disposition as shall make them comfortable in it and let them hear well in it If it be a public office, it should be so disposed as is most convenient for the clerks in their daily avocations; and so on; all this being utterly irrespective of external appearance or aesthetic considerations of any kind, and all being done solidly, securely, and at the smallest necessary cost

The _sacrifice_ of any of these first requirements to external appearance is a futility and absurdity Rooes of s sys s on the other, but the house built with one wing, if the owner has no need of two; and so on

60 But observe, in doing all this, there is no High, or as it is commonly called, Fine Art, required at all There ether with the lower form of art, or ”handicraft,” but there is as yet no _Fine Art_ House-building, on these ter It indeed will generally be found that the edifice designed with this masculine reference to utility, will have a charm about it, otherwise unattainable, just as a shi+p, constructed with siainst powers of wind and wave, turns out one of the loveliest things that human hands produce Still, we do not, and properly do not, hold shi+p-building to be a fine art, nor preserve in our memories the na as the arded, is architecture to be held a fine art, or are the names of architects to be reht to build the shi+p, or (thus far) the house, and there is nothing deserving of iht to do

But when the house, or church, or other building is thus far designed, and the forms of its dead walls and dead roofs are up to this point determined, comes the divine part of the work--na ones Only Deity, that is to say, those who are taught by Deity, can do that

And that is to be done by painting and sculpture, that is to say, by ornamentation Ornamentation is therefore the principal part of architecture, considered as a subject of fine art

61 Now observe It will at once follow froreat sculptor or painter_

This is a universal law No person who is not a great sculptor or painter _can_ be an architect If he is not a sculptor or painter, he can only be a _builder_

The three greatest architects hitherto known in the world were Phidias, Giotto, and Michael Angelo; with all of who their work All great works of architecture in existence are either the work of single sculptors or painters, or of societies of sculptors and painters, acting collectively for a series of years A Gothic cathedral is properly to be defined as a piece of the ed on the noblest principles of building, for the service and delight of multitudes; and the proper definition of architecture, as distinguished fro sculpture for a particular place, and placing it there on the best principles of building”

Hence it clearly follows, that in modern days we have no _architects_

The term ”architecture” is not so much as understood by us I a this fact, but a fact it is, and a fact which it is necessary to state strongly

Hence also it will follow, that the first thing necessary to the possession of a school of architecture is the formation of a school of able sculptors, and that till we have that, nothing we do can be called architecture at all

62 This, then, being my second proposition, the so-called ”architects”