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

9 страница из 47

These remarks will explain to a certain degree the nature of the picturesque in regard to architecture, so far at least as the general principles are involved. But in the more minute points, other questions and relations arise, to which the attention of the reader will be fully drawn in the descriptive text and illustrations of this work.

The comparative value of Grecian and Gothic architecture, as practically adopted in the erection of ornamental dwellings, is well discussed by an eminent architect in the following remarks, slightly modified from the original. He observes that the two are better distinguished by an attention to their general effects, than to the minute parts peculiar to each. It is in architecture as in painting—beauty depends on light and shade, and they are caused by the openings or projections in the surface. If these tend to produce horizontal lines, the building must be deemed Grecian, however whimsically the doors and windows may be constructed. If, on the contrary, the shadows give a preference to perpendicular lines, the general character of the building will be Gothic. This is evident from the large houses built in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, where Grecian columns were introduced. Yet they are always considered as Gothic buildings.