Читать книгу The Englishman's House: A Practical Guide for Selecting and Building a House онлайн

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Such is a brief, and necessarily very imperfect resumé of the progress of architecture. The styles of Eastern Europe, ancient Mexico, and many others, have not been described, because unnecessary, in this Introduction, which has only for its object to call general attention to the causes which have led to the present state of the art. Like all others it has been the subject of alternating prosperity and adversity. At one time fostered by men eminent in their profession, and by those whose means permitted them to lavish riches on magnificent piles, fountains, villas, &c.; and at others, degraded by its students, and neglected by those who should have been its patrons.

In all branches of architecture direct reference should be had to the objects for which the building is intended. An eminent architect, already quoted, has well set forth this essential point in the following remarks:—“The art of characterizing, that is to say, of rendering evident by material forms the intellectual qualities and moral ideas required to express in edifices, or to make known by the harmony and suitableness of all the constituent parts that enter into their composition the use for which they are intended, is perhaps of all the secrets of architecture the most difficult to develope or to attain. This happy talent of conceiving and of communicating the conception in the physiognomy suitable to each edifice; this sure and delicate discernment, which exhibits the distinguishing parts of such edifices, that at first appear susceptible of no characteristic distinctions; this judicious employment of the different styles which are as the tones of architecture; this skilful application of the signs which the art employs to affect the sight and understanding; this exquisite feeling, which errs neither in the just disposition of the masses and employment of the details, nor in the just dispensation of richness and simplicity, and which is able to combine true expression of character with the harmonious accord of all the qualities susceptible of being represented by architecture—all this requisite talent, which study perfects, but does not produce, is a gift possessed by few. This suitable expression presents itself under two relations, the one appertaining to architecture in general, and the other to edifices in particular. The first consists in the expression of the qualities or intellectual ideas which are the results of the art metaphysically considered; the second, in the true indication of the uses for which edifices are designed, that is, in considering architecture as a certain mode of expressing or painting. This expression, according to the nature of the buildings and edifices, may be produced by the gradation of richness and greatness proportionate to the nature and the object for which they are erected; by the indication of the moral qualities attached to each edifice, the manner of expressing which is beyond the reach of rules; by the general and particular form of architecture; by the species of the construction and the quality of the materials that may be employed in the execution; and lastly, by the resources of decoration.” In these remarks will be found a highly valuable précis of the excellence to which the art of the architect should be directed, and the means that must be adopted to obtain pleasing and successful results.