THE RENAISSANCE AND LATER.
So far we have been considering Gothic churches, but we now come to the
time when, from a variety of causes, the Italian architects, among them
Palladio and Vitruvius, began to revive classical architecture, a
movement which gradually spread over other parts of Europe.
[Side note: The Classic Revival.]
The various causes which led to this apparently retrograde movement are
still involved in considerable obscurity. The commercial prosperity of
the age produced a class who travelled abroad and cultivated the fine
arts, with the result that they desired to see erected in England
buildings such as they had seen in Rome, Florence, Genoa and Padua. It
is generally admitted that the ramifications of Gothic architecture had
reached their utmost limit, and the style was getting out of hand, as
is seen by the flamboyant buildings on the continent. The revival of
classical literature in western Europe gave an impetus to the movement
which was largely intended to enfold art within the shelter of an
enlightened taste, and protect it from the licence of unordered
enthusiasm. How far it succeeded is not a question that can be discussed
at length here, but, however good their intentions may have been, the
architects used little discrimination in the selection of buildings
which were to serve as models for Christian churches, and although
subsequently considerable improvements were made, yet, most of the
defects in the pagan buildings of the ancients were retained in such as
were intended to be utilized for Christian worship, and even considered
purely as exercises in architecture it was not until the more chaste
remains of antiquity began to be studied that the spirit and harmony of
the good examples were attained. A greater contrast than the methods
employed by the Gothic mason and the Renaissance architect could not
well be imagined. The former shaped his material with his own hands; the
foster mother of his art was tradition and its cradle the craftsman's
bench; whereas the latter, with no builder's training, worked out his
flawless and precise plans in the exotic atmosphere of the office and
the study. The practice of making working drawings for every detail
of the building was the cause of the decline of ornamental sculpture,
with the result that all life and growth in the building ceased. Some
authorities are very severe on the Renaissance movement. Dr. Fergusson,
in his "_Modern Styles of Architecture_," says: "During the Gothic era
the art of building was evolved by the simple exercise of man's reason,
with the result that the work of this period is the instinctive natural
growth of man's mind. The buildings, on the other hand, which were
designed in the imitative styles, and produced on a totally different
principle, present us with an entirely different result, and one
which frequently degrades architecture from its high position of a
quasi-natural production to that of a mere imitative art."
[Side note: Inigo Jones and Wren.]
Be this as it may, the severe classical style introduced into England by
Inigo Jones (who studied in Italy under Palladio), and continued by Sir
Christopher Wren, soon swept everything before it.
Our most remarkable church in this style is S. Paul's Cathedral, which
in style has two very adverse circumstances to struggle against. In the
first place, it bears so great a similarity to the great church of
S. Peter, at Rome, that one cannot help comparing it with that fine
example, and secondly, it is the only English cathedral which is not in
the Gothic style. It must, of course, be acknowledged that S. Paul's
falls far short of S. Peter's, especially in its lighting, but it does
not deserve the condemnation of a great German critic, who said, "It is
a building marked neither by elegance of form nor vigour of style."
Although the interior of its dome and clerestory of the nave and choir
are extremely gloomy when compared with those of S. Peter's, the church
is generally acknowledged to be far superior to the latter in its
architectural details, and few, if any, Italian churches can be said to
surpass it, either in general composition or external effect, although
it must be admitted that everything having been sacrificed to attain the
latter quality, S. Paul's taken as a whole, is neither worthy of its
fine situation nor of its great architect.
Other churches which are excellent examples of this style are S.
Stephen's, Walbrook, and S. Mary Abchurch, London. Both show remarkable
skill. The former is divided into a nave and four aisles, transepts, and
a shallow chancel, by four rows of Corinthian columns, with a small dome
over the intersection. The interior is very beautiful, and this church
is generally considered to be Wren's masterpiece. S. Mary Abchurch, is
nearly square in plan, has no columns and is covered with a domical
ceiling, but so skilfully treated that the effect is singularly
pleasing.
[Side note: Hawkesmore.]
Of the Elizabethan and Jacobean buildings it is necessary to say little,
as at best they are but clumsy imitations of the Flemish, French and
Italian Renaissance, while the style which we now call Queen Anne came
in towards the close of the XVIIth century, and belongs of right to the
reign of Charles II. Hawkesmore, a pupil and follower of Wren, was a
strong architect who has left us Christ Church, Spitalfields, and S.
Mary Woolnoth. He also designed the western towers of Westminster Abbey,
often wrongly ascribed to Wren, and the second quadrangle of All Souls'
College, Oxford. This architect, like the majority of his contemporaries,
misunderstood and despised the Gothic style, with which he had little
real sympathy; he drew out designs, which still exist, for converting
Westminster Abbey into an Italian church, just as Inigo Jones had done
with the exterior of the nave of old S. Paul's, but we cannot be too
thankful that this abominable suggestion was never carried out.
[Illustration: An English Renaissance Church.
S. Stephen's, Walbrook, London. Generally considered to be
Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece. _From an Engraving dated 1806._]
With King George III. on the throne our ancestors contented themselves
with dull, but substantial, buildings of which some hard things have
been written, but they were at least respectable and free from sham,
while the churches, although not elegant, were well-built and occasionally
picturesque, as we see by the perfect little building of this date at
Billesley, Warwickshire.
The eighteenth century pseudo-classical abominations and sham Gothic, so
favoured by Horace Walpole and his admirers, can be briefly dismissed.
A more rampant piece of absurdity than that of erecting imitations of
portions of Greek temples and adapting them for Christian worship it
is difficult to imagine, and in the Pavilion at Brighton, Marylebone
Church, and the "Extinguisher" Church in Langham Place we even surpassed
in bad taste and vulgarity all the absurdities of the Continental
architecture produced by the French Revolution.
[Side note: Barry and Pugin.]
Two men now came on the scene who, united, were destined to bring some
kind of order out of this chaos. Barry and Pugin were both scholars and
architects, for while the former rather favoured the classical style he
thoroughly understood the Gothic, while Pugin was a thorough mediævalist,
a true artist, and a bold exponent in his "_Contrasts_" of a complete
return to mediæval architecture as the only possible cure for the evils
which had crept into the art of building.
Barry's idea, which was perhaps the more practical, was to correct by
careful study the errors into which the later exponents of both Classic
and Gothic architecture had fallen, and endeavour by well thought out
modifications to evolve a style more suitable to modern requirements.
Pugin, however, would have none of the evil thing, and although he
supplied his friend with designs for the details and woodwork of the
Houses of Parliament which Barry was rebuilding, they did not collaborate
in any further way, and both died before the Houses of Parliament
were completed, in which, as a matter of fact, Barry's designs were
completely ignored. The Reform Club is considered to be the best of
Barry's classical buildings.
Pugin's earlier works were mostly Roman Catholic churches, and they are
acknowledged to be an immense advance on any Gothic work which had been
seen for centuries. In the Roman Catholic Cathedral of S. Chad, at
Birmingham, there is a dignity, loftiness and simplicity surpassed by
few Gothic buildings when that style was at its zenith, and from the
time Pugin designed this building, architecture--notwithstanding our
exhaustive study of archæology, our immense resources of capital and
labour, our science and labour-saving appliances, and the comparative
accessibility of the finest materials--has neither developed nor advanced.
The most erudite Gothic mason could have possessed but little art
knowledge as compared with the modern architect, and yet with our
learned societies, wonderful libraries, easily obtained photographs and
plans of the best buildings in the world; with writers far superior in
intellectual acquirements to those of the Middle Ages, our vast wealth,
with our tools such as the mediæval craftsman could never have dreamed
of, and with the experience of twenty centuries to guide us we have
made no advance during more than half a century. Our best architects
acknowledge that until we get a new method of building, originality in
architecture is an impossibility, mainly because all the existing styles
of architecture have been worked out to their legitimate conclusion,
and have been perfected under circumstances and conditions with which
we have entirely broken; the originality in detail which pervades and
permeates our Gothic buildings and gives them the greater part of their
charm, must, of necessity, be out of our reach until we blend the spirit
of what we are pleased to call our practical age, with a certain amount
of that spirit of poetry and romance, religious fervour and devoutness,
which animated the builders and craftsmen of the past.
[Illustration: A Typical Cornish Font.
Probably of the late Norman period. Now at Maker, near Plymouth.]