CHAPTER XXIV.

RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN GERMANY, SPAIN, AND PORTUGAL.

Books Recommended: As before, Fergusson, Palustre Also, von Bezold, Die Baukunst der Renaissance in Deutschland, Holland, Belgien und Dänemark (in Hdbuch. d. Arch.). Caveda (tr. Kugler), Geschichte der Baukunst in Spanien. Fritsch, Denkmäler der deutschen Renaissance (plates). Junghändel, Die Baukunst Spaniens. Lambert und Stahl, Motive der deutschen Architektur. Lübke, Geschichte der Renaissance in Deutschland. Prentice, Renaissance Architecture and Ornament in Spain. Uhde, Baudenkmäler in Spanien. Verdier et Cattois, Architecture civile et domestique. Villa Amil, Hispania Artistica y Monumental.

AUSTRIA; BOHEMIA. The earliest appearance of the Renaissance in the architecture of the German states was in the eastern provinces. Before the close of the fifteenth century Florentine and Milanese architects were employed in Austria, Bohemia, and the Tyrol, where there are a number of palaces and chapels in an unmixed Italian style. The portal of the castle of Mahrisch-Trübau dates from 1492; while to the early years of the 16th century belong a cruciform chapel at Gran, the remodelling of the castle at Cracow, and the chapel of the Jagellons in the same city—the earliest domical structure of the German Renaissance, though of Italian design. The Schloss Porzia (1510), at Spital in Carinthia, is a fine quadrangular palace, surrounding a court with arcades on three sides, in which the open stairs form a picturesque interruption with their rampant arches. But for the massiveness of the details it might be a Florentine palace. In addition to this, the famous Arsenal at Wiener-Neustadt (1524), the portal of the Imperial Palace (1552), and the Castle Schalaburg on the Danube (1530–1601), are attributed to Italian architects, to whom must also be ascribed a number of important works at Prague. Chief among these the Belvedere (1536, by Paolo della Stella), a rectangular building surrounded by a graceful open arcade, above which it rises with a second story crowned by a curved roof; the Waldstein Palace (1621–29), by Giov. Marini, with its imposing loggia; Schloss Stern, built on the plan of a six-pointed star (1459–1565) and embellished by Italian artists with stucco ornaments and frescoes; and parts of the palace on the Hradschin, by Scamozzi, attest the supremacy of Italian art in Bohemia. The same is true of Styria, Carinthia, and the Tyrol; e.g. Schloss Ambras at Innsbrück (1570).

GERMANY: PERIODS. The earliest manifestation of the Renaissance in what is now the German Empire, appeared in the works of painters like Dürer and Burkmair, and in occasional buildings previous to 1525. The real transformation of German architecture, however, hardly began until after the Peace of Augsburg, in 1555. From that time on its progress was rapid, its achievements being almost wholly in the domain of secular architecture—princely and ducal castles, town halls or Rathhäuser, and houses of wealthy burghers or corporations. It is somewhat singular that the German emperors should not have undertaken the construction of a new imperial residence on a worthy scale, the palaces of Munich and Berlin being aggregations of buildings of various dates about a nucleus of mediæval origin, and with no single portion to compare with the stately châteaux of the French kings. Church architecture was neglected, owing to the Reformation, which turned to its own uses the existing churches, while the Roman Catholics were too impoverished to replace the edifices they had lost.

The periods of the German Renaissance are less well marked than those of the French; but its successive developments follow the same general progression, divided into three stages:

I. The Early Renaissance, 1525–1600, in which the orders were infrequently used, mainly for porches and for gable decoration. The conceptions and spirit of most monuments were still strongly tinged with Gothic feeling.

II. The Late Renaissance, 1600–1675, characterized by a dry, heavy treatment, in which too often neither the fanciful gayety of the previous period nor the simple and monumental dignity of classic design appears. Broken curves, large scrolls, obelisks, and a style of flat relief carving resembling the Elizabethan are common. Occasional monuments exhibit a more correct and classic treatment after Italian models.

III. The Decline or Baroque Period, 1675–1800, employing the orders in a style of composition oscillating between the extremes of bareness and of Rococo over-decoration. The ornament partakes of the character of the Louis XV. and Italian Jesuit styles, being most successful in interior decoration, but externally running to the extreme of unrestrained fancy.

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FIG. 191.—SCHLOSS HÄMELSCHENBURG.

CHARACTERISTICS. In none of these periods do we meet with the sober, monumental treatment of the Florentine or Roman schools. A love of picturesque variety in masses and sky-lines, inherited from mediæval times, appears in the high roofs, stepped gables and lofty dormers which are universal. The roofs often comprise several stories, and are lighted by lofty gables at either end, and by dormers carried up from the side walls through two or three stories. Gables and dormers alike are built in diminishing stages, each step adorned with a console or scroll, and the whole treated with pilasters or colonnettes and entablatures breaking over each support (Fig. 191). These roofs, dormers, and gables contribute the most noticeable element to the general effect of most German Renaissance buildings, and are commonly the best-designed features in them. The orders are scantily used and usually treated with utter disregard of classic canons, being generally far too massive and overloaded with ornament. Oriels, bay-windows, and turrets, starting from corbels or colonnettes, or rarely from the ground, diversify the façade, and spires of curious bulbous patterns give added piquancy to the picturesque sky-line. The plans seldom had the monumental symmetry and largeness of Italian and French models; courtyards were often irregular in shape and diversified with balconies and spiral staircase-turrets. The national leaning was always toward the quaint and fantastic, as well in the decoration as in the composition. Grotesques, caryatids, gaînes (half-figures terminating below in sheath-like supports), fanciful rustication, and many other details give a touch of the Baroque even to works of early date. The same principles were applied with better success to interior decoration, especially in the large halls of the castles and town-halls, and many of their ceilings were sumptuous and well-considered designs, deeply panelled, painted and gilded in wood or plaster.

CASTLES. The Schloss or Burg of the German prince or duke retained throughout the Renaissance many mediæval characteristics in plan and aspect. A large proportion of these noble residences were built upon foundations of demolished feudal castles, reproducing in a new dress the ancient round towers and vaulted guard-rooms and halls, as in the Hartenfels at Torgau, the Heldburg (both in Saxony), and the castle of Trausnitz, in Bavaria, among many others. The Castle at Torgau (1540) is one of the most imposing of its class, with massive round and square towers showing externally, and court façades full of picturesque irregularities. In the great Castle at Dresden the plan is more symmetrical, and the Renaissance appears more distinctly in the details of the Georgenflügel (1530–50), though at that early date the classic orders were almost ignored. The portal of the Heldburg, however, built in 1562, is a composition quite in the contemporary French vein, with superposed orders and a crowning pediment over a massive basement.

Another important series of castles or palaces are of more regular design, in which the feudal traditions tend to disappear. The majority belong to the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. They are built around large rectangular courts with arcades in two or three stories on one or more sides, but rarely surrounding it entirely. In these the segmental arch is more common than the semicircular, and springs usually from short and stumpy Ionic or Corinthian columns. The rooms and halls are arranged en suite, without corridors, and a large and lofty banquet hall forms the dominant feature of the series. The earliest of these regularly planned palaces are of Italian design. Chief among them is the Residenz at Landshut (1536–43), with a thoroughly Roman plan, by pupils of Giulio Romano, and exterior and court façades of great dignity treated with the orders. More German in its details, but equally interesting, is the Fürstenhof at Wismar, in brick and terra-cotta, by Valentino di Lira and Van Aken (1553); while in the Piastenschloss at Brieg (1547–72), by Italian architects, the treatment in parts suggests the richest works of the style of Francis I. In other castles the segmental arch and stumpy columns or piers show the German taste, as in the Plassenburg, by Kaspar Vischer (1554–64), the castle at Plagnitz, and the Old Castle at Stuttgart, all dating from about 1550–55. Heidelberg Castle, in spite of its mediæval aspect from the river and its irregular plan, ranks as the highest achievement of the German Renaissance in palace design. The most interesting parts among its various wings built at different dates—the earlier portions still Gothic in design—are the Otto Heinrichsbau (1554) and the Friedrichsbau (1601). The first of these appears somewhat simpler in its lines than the second, by reason of having lost its original dormer-gables. The orders, freely treated, are superposed in three stories, and twin windows, niches, statues, gaînes, medallions and profuse carving produce an effect of great gayety and richness. The Friedrichsbau (Fig. 192), less quiet in its lines, and with high scroll-gabled and stepped dormers, is on the other hand more soberly decorated and more characteristically German. The Schloss Hämelschenburg (Fig. 191) is designed in somewhat the same spirit, but with even greater simplicity of detail.

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FIG. 192.—THE FRIEDRICHSBAU, HEIDELBERG.

TOWN HALLS. These constitute the most interesting class of Renaissance buildings in Germany, presenting a considerable variety of types, but nearly all built in solid blocks without courts, and adorned with towers or spires. A high roof crowns the building, broken by one or more high gables or many-storied dormers. The majority of these town halls present façades much diversified by projecting wings, as at Lemgo and Paderborn, or by oriels and turrets, as at Altenburg (1562–64); and the towers which dominate the whole terminate usually in bell-shaped cupolas, or in more capricious forms with successive swellings and contractions, as at Dantzic (1587). A few, however, are designed with monumental simplicity of mass; of these that at Bremen (1612) is perhaps the finest, with its beautiful exterior arcade on strong Doric columns. The town hall of Nuremberg is one of the few with a court, and presents a façade of almost Roman simplicity (1613–19); that at Augsburg (1615) is equally classic and more pleasing; while at Schweinfurt, Rothenburg (1572), Mülhausen, etc., are others worthy of mention.

CHURCHES. St. Michael’s, at Munich, is almost the only important church of the first period in Germany (1582), but it is worthy to rank with many of the most notable contemporary Italian churches. A wide nave covered by a majestic barrel vault, is flanked by side chapels, separated from each other by massive piers and forming a series of gallery bays above. There are short transepts and a choir, all in excellent proportion and treated with details which, if somewhat heavy, are appropriate and reasonably correct. The Marienkirche at Wolfenbüttel (1608) is a fair sample of the parish churches of the second period. In the exterior of this church pointed arches and semi-Gothic tracery are curiously associated with heavy rococo carving. The simple rectangular mass, square tower, and portal with massive orders and carving are characteristic features. Many of the church-towers are well proportioned and graceful structures in spite of the fantastic outlines of their spires. One of the best and purest in style is that of the University Church at Würzburg (1587–1600).

HOUSES. Many of the German houses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries would merit extended notice in a larger work, as among the most interesting lesser monuments of the Renaissance. Nuremberg and Hildesheim are particularly rich in such houses, built either for private citizens or for guilds and corporations. Not a few of the half-timbered houses of the time are genuine works of art, though interest chiefly centres in the more monumental dwellings of stone. In this domestic architecture the picturesque quality of German design appears to better advantage than in more monumental edifices, and their broadly stepped gables, corbelled oriels, florid portals and want of formal symmetry imparting a peculiar and undeniable charm. The Kaiserhaus and Wedekindsches Haus at Hildesheim; Fürstenhaus at Leipzig; Peller, Hirschvogel, and Funk houses at Nuremberg; the Salt House at Frankfurt, and Ritter House at Heidelberg, are a few of the most noted among these examples of domestic architecture.

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FIG. 193.—ZWINGER PALACE, DRESDEN.

LATER MONUMENTS. The Zwinger Palace at Dresden (Fig. 193), is the most elaborate and wayward example of the German palace architecture of the third period. Its details are of the most exaggerated rococo type, like confectioner’s work done in stone; and yet the building has an air of princely splendor which partly atones for its details. Besides this palace, Dresden possesses in the domical Marienkirche (Fig. 194) a very meritorious example of late design. The proportions are good, and the detail, if not interesting, is at least inoffensive, while the whole is a dignified and rational piece of work. At Vienna are a number of palaces of the third period, more interesting for their beautiful grounds and parks than for intrinsic architectural merit. As in Italy, this was the period of stucco, and although in Vienna this cheap and perishable material was cleverly handled, and the ornament produced was often quaint and effective, the results lack the permanence and dignity of true building in stone or brick, and may be dismissed without further mention.

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FIG. 194.—CHURCH OF ST. MARY (MARIENKIRCHE), DRESDEN.

In minor works the Germans were far less prolific than the Italians or Spaniards. Few of their tombs were of the first importance, though one, the Sebald Shrine, in Nuremberg, by Peter Vischer (1506–19), is a splendid work in bronze, in the transitional style; a richly decorated canopy on slender metal colonnettes covering and enclosing the sarcophagus of the saint. There are a large number of fountains in the squares of German and Swiss cities which display a high order of design, and are among the most characteristic minor products of German art.

SPAIN. The flamboyant Gothic style sufficed for a while to meet the requirements of the arrogant and luxurious period which in Spain followed the overthrow of the Moors and the discovery of America. But it was inevitable that the Renaissance should in time make its influence felt in the arts of the Iberian peninsula, largely through the employment of Flemish artists. In jewelry and silverwork, arts which received a great impulse from the importation of the precious metals from the New World, the forms of the Renaissance found special acceptance, so that the new style received the name of the Plateresque (from platero, silversmith). This was a not inept name for the minutely detailed and sumptuous decoration of the early Renaissance, which lasted from 1500 to the accession of Philip II. in 1556. It was characterized by surface-decoration spreading over broad areas, especially around doors and windows, florid escutcheons and Gothic details mingling with delicately chiselled arabesques. Decorative pilasters with broken entablatures and carved baluster-shafts were employed with little reference to constructive lines, but with great refinement of detail, in spite of the exuberant profusion of the ornament.

To this style, after the artistic inaction of Philip II.’s reign, succeeded the coldly classic style practised by Berruguete and Herrera, and called the Griego-Romano. In spite of the attempt to produce works of classical purity, the buildings of this period are for the most part singularly devoid of originality and interest. This style lasted until the middle of the seventeenth century, and in the case of certain works and artists, until its close. It was followed, at least in ecclesiastical architecture, by the so-called Churrigueresque, a name derived from an otherwise insignificant architect, Churriguera, who like Maderna and Borromini in Italy, discarded all the proprieties of architecture, and rejoiced in the wildest extravagances of an untrained fancy and debased taste.

EARLY MONUMENTS. The earliest ecclesiastical works of the Renaissance period, like the cathedrals of Salamanca, Toledo, and Segovia, were almost purely Gothic in style. Not until 1525 did the new forms begin to dominate in cathedral design. The cathedral at Jaen, by Valdelvira (1525), an imposing structure with three aisles and side chapels, was treated internally with the Corinthian order throughout. The Cathedral of Granada (1529, by Diego de Siloe) is especially interesting for its great domical sanctuary 70 feet in diameter, and for the largeness and dignity of its conception and details. The cathedral of Malaga, the church of San Domingo at Salamanca, and the monastery of San Girolamo in the same city are either wholly or in part Plateresque, and provided with portals of especial richness of decoration. Indeed, the portal of S. Domingo practically forms the whole façade.

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FIG. 195.—DOOR OF THE UNIVERSITY, SALAMANCA.

In secular architecture the Hospital of Santa Cruz at Toledo, by Enrique de Egaz (1504–16), is one of the earliest examples of the style. Here, as also in the University at Salamanca (Fig. 195), the portal is the most notable feature, suggesting both Italian and French models in its details. The great College at Alcala de Heñares is another important early monument of the Renaissance (1500–17, by Pedro Gumiel). In most designs the preference was for long façades of moderate height, with a basement showing few openings, and a bel étage lighted by large windows widely spaced. Ornament was chiefly concentrated about the doors and windows, except for the roof balustrades, which were often exceedingly elaborate. Occasionally a decorative motive is spread over the whole façade, as in the Casa de las Conchas at Salamanca, adorned with cockle-shells carved at intervals all over the front—a bold and effective device; or the Infantada palace with its spangling of carved diamonds. The courtyard or patio was an indispensable feature of these buildings, as in all hot countries, and was surrounded by arcades frequently of the most fanciful design overloaded with minute ornament, as in the Infantado at Guadalajara, the Casa de Zaporta, formerly at Saragossa (now removed to Paris; Fig. 196), and the Lupiana monastery. The patios in the Archbishop’s Palace at Alcala de Heñares and the Collegio de los Irlandeses at Salamanca are of simpler design; that of the Casa de Pilatos at Seville is almost purely Moorish. Salamanca abounds in buildings of this period.

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FIG. 196.—CASA DE ZAPORTA: COURTYARD.

THE GRIEGO-ROMANO. The more classic treatment of architectural designs by the use of the orders was introduced by Alonzo Berruguete (1480–1560?), who studied in Italy after 1503. The Archbishop’s Palace and the Doric Gate of San Martino, both at Toledo, were his work, as well as the first palace at Madrid. The Palladio of Spain was, however, by Juan de Herrera (died 1597), the architect of Valladolid Cathedral, built under Philip V. This vast edifice follows the general lines of the earlier cathedrals of Jaen and Granada, but in a style of classical correctness almost severe in aspect, but well suited to the grand scale of the church. The masterpiece of this period was the monastery of the Escurial, begun by Juan Battista of Toledo, in 1563, but not completed until nearly one hundred and fifty years later. Its final architectural aspect was largely due to Herrera. It is a vast rectangle of 740 × 580 feet, comprising a complex of courts, halls, and cells, dominated by the huge mass of the chapel. This last is an imposing domical church covering 70,000 square feet, treated throughout with the Doric order, and showing externally a lofty dome and campaniles with domical lanterns, which serve to diversify the otherwise monotonous mass of the monastery. What the Escurial lacks in grace or splendor is at least in a measure redeemed by its majestic scale and varied sky-lines. The Palace of Charles V. (Fig. 197), adjoining the Alhambra at Granada, though begun as early as 1527 by Machuca, was mainly due to Berruguete, and is an excellent example of the Spanish Palladian style. With its circular court, admirable proportions and well-studied details, this often maligned edifice deserves to be ranked among the most successful examples of the style. During this period the cathedral of Seville received many alterations, and the upper part of the adjoining Moorish tower of the Giralda, burned in 1395, was rebuilt by Fernando Ruiz in the prevalent style, and with considerable elegance and appropriateness of design.

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FIG. 197.—PALACE OF CHARLES V., GRANADA.

Of the Palace at Madrid, rebuilt by Philip V. after the burning of the earlier palace in 1734, and mainly the work of an Italian, Ivara; the Aranjuez palace (1739, by Francisco Herrera), and the Palace at San Ildefonso, it need only be said that their chief merit lies in their size and the absence of those glaring violations of good taste which generally characterized the successors of Churriguera. In ecclesiastical design these violations of taste were particularly abundant and excessive, especially in the façades and in the sanctuary—huge aggregations of misplaced and vulgar detail, with hardly an unbroken pediment, column, or arch in the whole. Some extreme examples of this abominable style are to be found in the Spanish-American churches of the 17th and 18th centuries, as at Chihuahua (Mexico), Tucson (Arizona), and other places. The least offensive features of the churches of this period were the towers, usually in pairs at the west end, some of them showing excellent proportions and good composition in spite of their execrable details.

Minor architectural works, such as the rood screens in the churches of Astorga and Medina de Rio Seco, and many tombs at Granada, Avila, Alcala, etc., give evidence of superior skill in decorative design, where constructive considerations did not limit the exercise of the imagination.

PORTUGAL. The Renaissance appears to have produced few notable works in Portugal. Among the chief of these are the Tower, the church, and the Cloister, at Belem. These display a riotous profusion of minute carved ornament, with a free commingling of late Gothic details, wearisome in the end in spite of the beauty of its execution (1500–40?). The church of Santa Cruz at Coimbra, and that of Luz, near Lisbon, are among the most noted of the religious monuments of the Renaissance, while in secular architecture the royal palace at Mafra is worthy of mention.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE CLASSIC REVIVALS IN EUROPE.

Books Recommended: As before, Fergusson. Also Chateau, Histoire et caractères de l’architecture en France; and Lübke, Geschichte der Architektur. (For the most part, however, recourse must be had to the general histories of architecture, and to monographs on special cities or buildings.)

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. By the end of the seventeenth century the Renaissance, properly speaking, had run its course in Europe. The increasing servility of its imitation of antique models had exhausted its elasticity and originality. Taste rapidly declined before the growth of the industrial and commercial spirit in the eighteenth century. The ferment of democracy and the disquiet of far-reaching political changes had begun to preoccupy the minds of men to the detriment of the arts. By the middle of the eighteenth century, however, the extravagances of the Rococo, Jesuit, and Louis XV. styles had begun to pall upon the popular taste. The creative spirit was dead, and nothing seemed more promising as a corrective for these extravagances than a return to classic models. But the demand was for a literal copying of the arcades and porticos of Rome, to serve as frontispieces for buildings in which modern requirements should be accommodated to these antique exteriors, instead of controlling the design. The result was a manifest gain in the splendor of the streets and squares adorned by these highly decorative frontispieces, but at the expense of convenience and propriety in the buildings themselves. While this academic spirit too often sacrificed logic and originality to an arbitrary symmetry and to the supposed canons of Roman design, it also, on the other hand, led to a stateliness and dignity in the planning, especially in the designing of vestibules, stairs, and halls, which render many of the public buildings it produced well worthy of study. The architecture of the Roman Revival was pompous and artificial, but seldom trivial, and its somewhat affected grandeur was a welcome relief from the dull extravagance of the styles it replaced.

THE GREEK REVIVAL. The Roman revival was, however, displaced in England and Germany by the Greek Revival, which set in near the close of the eighteenth century. This was the result of a newly awakened interest in the long-neglected monuments of Attic art which the discoveries of Stuart and Revett—sent out in 1732 by the London Society of Dilettanti—had once more made known to the world. It led to a veritable furore in England for Greek Doric and Ionic columns, which were applied indiscriminately to every class of buildings, with utter disregard of propriety. The British taste was at this time at its lowest ebb, and failed to perceive the poverty of Greek architecture when deprived of its proper adornments of carving and sculpture, which were singularly lacking in the British examples. Nevertheless the Greek style in England had a long run of popular favor, yielding only during the reign of the present sovereign to the so-called Victorian Gothic, a revival of mediæval forms. In Germany the Greek Revival was characterized by a more cultivated taste and a more rational application of its forms, which were often freely modified to suit modern needs. In France, where the Roman Revival under Louis XV. had produced fairly satisfactory results, and where the influence of the Royal School of Fine Arts (École des Beaux-Arts) tended to perpetuate the principles of Roman design, the Greek Revival found no footing. The Greek forms were seen to be too severe and intractable for present requirements. About 1830, however, a modified style of design, known since as the Néo-Grec, was introduced by the exertions of a small coterie of talented architects; and though its own life was short, it profoundly influenced French art in the direction of freedom and refinement for a long time afterward. In Italy there was hardly anything in the nature of a true revival of either Roman or Greek forms. The few important works of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were conceived in the spirit of the late Renaissance, and took from the prevalent revival of classicism elsewhere merely a greater correctness of detail, not any radical change of form or spirit.

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FIG. 198.—BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON.

ENGLAND. There was, strictly speaking, no Roman revival in Great Britain. The modified Palladian style of Wren and Gibbs and their successors continued until superseded by the Greek revival. The first fruit of the new movement seems to have been the Bank of England at London, by Sir John Soane (1788). In this edifice the Greco-Roman order of the round temple at Tivoli was closely copied, and applied to a long façade, too low for its length and with no sufficient stylobate, but fairly effective with its recessed colonnade and unpierced walls. The British Museum, by Robert Smirke (Fig. 198), was a more ambitious essay in a more purely Greek style. Its colossal Ionic colonnade was, however, a mere frontispiece, applied to a badly planned and commonplace building, from which it cut off needed light. The more modest but appropriate columnar façade to the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, by Bassevi, was a more successful attempt in the same direction, better proportioned and avoiding the incongruity of modern windows in several stories. These have always been the stumbling-block of the revived Greek style. The difficulties they raise are avoided, however, in buildings presenting but two stories, the order being applied to the upper story, upon a high stylobate serving as a basement. The High School and the Royal Institution at Edinburgh, and the University at London, by Wilkins, are for this reason, if for no other, superior to the British Museum and other many-storied Anglo-Greek edifices. In spite of all difficulties, however, the English extended the applications of the style with doubtful success not only to all manner of public buildings, but also to country residences. Carlton House, Bowden Park, and Grange House are instances of this misapplication of Greek forms. Neither did it prove more tractable for ecclesiastical purposes. St. Pancras’s Church at London, and several churches by Thomson (1817–75), in Glasgow, though interesting as experiments in such adaptation, are not to be commended for imitation. The most successful of all British Greek designs is perhaps St. George’s Hall at Liverpool (Fig. 199), whose imposing peristyle and porches are sufficiently Greek in spirit and detail to class it among the works of the Greek Revival. But its great hall and its interior composition are really Roman and not Greek, emphasizing the teaching of experience that Greek architecture does not lend itself to the exigencies of modern civilization to nearly the same extent as the Roman.

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FIG. 199.—ST. GEORGE’S HALL, LIVERPOOL.

GERMANY. During the eighteenth century the classic revival in Germany, which at first followed Roman precedents (as in the columns carved with spirally ascending reliefs in front of the church of St. Charles Borromeo, at Vienna), was directed into the channel of Greek imitation by the literary works of Winckelmann, Lessing, Goethe, and others, as well as by the interest aroused by the discoveries of Stuart and Revett. The Brandenburg Gate at Berlin (1784, by Langhans) was an early example of this Hellenism in architecture, and one of its most successful applications to civic purposes. Without precisely copying any Greek structure, it was evidently inspired from the Athenian Propylæa, and nothing in its purpose is foreign to the style employed. The greatest activity in the style came later, however, and was greatly stimulated by the achievements of Fr. Schinkel (1771–1841), one of the greatest of modern German architects. While in the domical church of St. Nicholas at Potsdam, he employed Roman forms in a modernized Roman conception, and followed in one or two other buildings the principles of the Renaissance, his predilections were for Greek architecture. His masterpiece was the Museum at Berlin, with an imposing portico of 18 Ionic columns (Fig. 200). This building with its fine rotunda was excellently planned, and forms, in conjunction with the New Museum by Stuhler (1843–55), a noble palace of art, to whose monumental requirements and artistic purpose the Greek colonnades and pediments were not inappropriate. Schinkel’s greatest successor was Leo von Klenze (1784–1864), whose more textual reproductions of Greek models won him great favor and wide employment. The Walhalla near Ratisbon is a modernized Parthenon, internally vaulted with glass; elegant externally, but too obvious a plagiarism to be greatly admired. The Ruhmeshalle at Munich, a double L partly enclosing a colossal statue of Bavaria, and devoted to the commemoration of Bavaria’s great men, is copied from no Greek building, though purely Greek in design and correct to the smallest detail. In the Glyptothek (Sculpture Gallery), in the same city, the one distinctively Greek feature introduced by Klenze, an Ionic portico, is also the one inappropriate note in the design. The Propylæa at Munich, by the same (Fig. 201), and the Court Theatre at Berlin, by Schinkel, are other important examples of the style. The latter is externally one of the most beautiful theatres in Europe, though less ornate than many. Schinkel’s genius was here remarkably successful in adapting Greek details to the exigent difficulties of theatre design, and there is no suggestion of copying any known Greek building.

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FIG. 200.—THE OLD MUSEUM, BERLIN.

In Vienna the one notable monument of the Classic Revival is the Reichsrathsgebäude or Parliament House, by Th. Hansen (1843), an imposing two-storied composition with a lofty central colonnade and lower side-wings, harmonious in general proportions and pleasingly varied in outline and mass.

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FIG. 201.—THE PROPYLÆA, MUNICH.

In general, the Greek Revival in Germany presents the aspect of a sincere striving after beauty, on the part of a limited number of artists of great talent, misled by the idea that the forms of a dead civilization could be galvanized into new life in the service of modern needs. The result was disappointing, in spite of the excellent planning, admirable construction and carefully studied detail of these buildings, and the movement here as elsewhere was foredoomed to failure.

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FIG. 202.—PLAN OF PANTHÉON, PARIS.

FRANCE. In France the Classic Revival, as we have seen, had made its appearance during the reign of Louis XV. in a number of important monuments which expressed the protest of their authors against the caprice of the Rococo style then in vogue. The colonnades of the Garde-Meuble, the façade of St. Sulpice, and the coldly beautiful Panthéon (Figs. 202, 203) testified to the conviction in the most cultured minds of the time that Roman grandeur was to be attained only by copying the forms of Roman architecture with the closest possible approach to correctness. In the Panthéon, the greatest ecclesiastical monument of its time in France (otherwise known as the church of Ste. Genéviève), the spirit of correct classicism dominates the interior as well as the exterior. It is a Greek cross, measuring 362 × 267 feet, with a dome 265 feet high, and internally 69 feet in diameter. The four arms have domical vaulting and narrow aisles separated by Corinthian columns. The whole interior is a cold but extremely elegant composition. The most notable features of the exterior are its imposing portico of colossal Corinthian columns and the fine peristyle which surrounds the drum of the dome, giving it great dignity and richness of effect.

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FIG. 203.—EXTERIOR OF PANTHÉON,
PARIS.

The dome, which is of stone throughout, has three shells, the intermediate shell serving to support the heavy stone lantern. The architect was Soufflot (1713–81). The Grand Théâtre, at Bordeaux (1773, by Victor Louis), one of the largest and finest theatres in Europe, was another product of this movement, its stately colonnade forming one of the chief ornaments of the city. Under Louis XVI. there was a temporary reaction from this somewhat pompous affectation of antique grandeur; but there were few important buildings erected during that unhappy reign, and the reaction showed itself mainly in a more delicate and graceful style of interior decoration. It was reserved for the Empire to set the seal of official approval on the Roman Revival. see caption and text
FIG. 204.—ARC DE L’ÉTOILE, PARIS. The Arch of Triumph of the Carrousel, behind the Tuileries, by Percier and Fontaine, the magnificent Arc de l’Étoile, at the summit of the Avenue of the Champs Elysées, by Chalgrin; the wing begun by Napoleon to connect the Tuileries with the Louvre on the land side, and the church of the Madeleine, by Vignon, erected as a temple to the heroes of the Grande Armée, were all designed, in accordance with the expressed will of the Emperor himself, in a style as Roman as the requirements of each case would permit. All these monuments, begun between 1806 and 1809, were completed after the Restoration. The Arch of the Carrousel is a close copy of Roman models; that of the Étoile (Fig. 204) was a much more original design, of colossal dimensions. Its admirable proportions, simple composition and striking sculptures give it a place among the noblest creations of its class. The Madeleine (Fig. 205), externally a Roman Corinthian temple of the largest size, presents internally an almost Byzantine conception with the three pendentive domes that vault its vast nave, but all the details are Roman. However suitable for a pantheon or mausoleum, it seems strangely inappropriate as a design for a Christian church. To these monuments should be added the Bourse or Exchange, by Brongniart, heavy in spite of its Corinthian peristyle, and the river front of the Corps Législatif or Palais Bourbon, by Poyet, the only extant example of a dodecastyle portico with a pediment. All of these designs are characterized by great elegance of detail and excellence of execution, and however inappropriate in style to modern uses, they add immensely to the splendor of the French capital. Unquestionably no feature can take the place of a Greek or Roman colonnade as an embellishment for broad avenues and open squares, or as the termination of an architectural vista.

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FIG. 205.—THE MADELEINE, PARIS.

The Greek revival took little hold of the Parisian imagination. Its forms were too cold, too precise and fixed, too intractable to modern requirements to appeal to the French taste. It counts but one notable monument, the church of St. Vincent de Paul, by Hittorff, who sought to apply to this design the principles of Greek external polychromy; but the frescoes and ornaments failed to withstand the Parisian climate, and were finally erased. The Néo-Grec movement already referred to, initiated by Duc, Duban, and Labrouste about 1830, aimed only to introduce into modern design the spirit and refinement, the purity and delicacy of Greek art, not its forms (Fig. 206). Its chief monuments were the remodelling, by Duc, of the Palais de Justice, of which the new west façade is the most striking single feature; the beautiful Library of the École des Beaux-Arts, by Duban; the library of Ste. Genéviève, by Labrouste, in which a long façade is treated without a pilaster or column, simple arches over a massive basement forming the dominant motive, while in the interior a system of iron construction with glazed domes controls the design; and the commemorative Colonne Juillet, by Duc, the most elegant and appropriate of all modern memorial columns. All these buildings, begun between 1830 and 1850 and completed at various dates, are distinguished by a remarkable purity and freedom of conception and detail, quite unfettered by the artificial trammels of the official academic style then prevalent.

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FIG. 206.—DOORWAY, ÉCOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS, PARIS.

THE CLASSIC REVIVAL ELSEWHERE. The other countries of Europe have little to show in the way of imitations of classic monuments or reproductions of Roman colonnades. In Italy the church of S. Francesco di Paola, at Naples, in quasi-imitation of the Pantheon at Rome, with wing-colonnades, and the Superga, at Turin (1706, by Ivara); the façade of the San Carlo Theatre, at Naples, and the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican (1817, by Stern) are the monuments which come the nearest to the spirit and style of the Roman Revival. Yet in each of these there is a large element of originality and freedom of treatment which renders doubtful their classification as examples of that movement.

A reflection of the Munich school is seen in the modern public buildings of Athens, designed in some cases by German architects, and in others by native Greeks. The University, the Museum buildings, the Academy of Art and Science, and other edifices exemplify fairly successful efforts to adapt the severe details of classic Greek art to modern windowed structures. They suffer somewhat from the too liberal use of stucco in place of marble, and from the conscious affectation of an extinct style. But they are for the most part pleasing and monumental designs, adding greatly to the beauty of the modern city.

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FIG. 207.—ST. ISAAC’S CATHEDRAL, ST. PETERSBURG.

In Russia, during and after the reign of Peter the Great (1689–1725), there appeared a curious mixture of styles. A style analogous to the Jesuit in Italy and the Churrigueresque in Spain was generally prevalent, but it was in many cases modified by Muscovite traditions into nondescript forms like those of the Kremlin, at Moscow, or the less extravagant Citadel Church and Smolnoy Monastery at St. Petersburg. Along with this heavy and barbarous style, which prevails generally in the numerous palaces of the capital, finished in stucco with atrocious details, a more severe and classical spirit is met with. The church of the Greek Rite at St. Petersburg combines a Roman domical interior with an exterior of the Greek Doric order. The Church of Our Lady of Kazan has a semicircular colonnade projecting from its transept, copying as nearly as may be the colonnades in front of St. Peter’s. But the greatest classic monument in Russia is the Cathedral of St. Isaac (Fig. 207), at St. Petersburg, a vast rectangular edifice with four Roman Corinthian pedimental colonnades projecting from its faces, and a dome with a peristyle crowning the whole. Despite many defects of detail, and the use of cast iron for the dome, which pretends to be of marble, this is one of the most impressive churches of its size in Europe. Internally it displays the costliest materials in extraordinary profusion, while externally its noble colonnades go far to redeem its bare attic and the material of its dome. The Palace of the Grand Duke Michael, which reproduces, with improvements, Gabriel’s colonnades of the Garde Meuble at Paris on its garden front, is a nobly planned and commendable design, agreeably contrasting with the debased architecture of many of the public buildings of the city. The Admiralty with its Doric pilasters, and the New Museum, by von Klenze of Munich, in a skilfully modified Greek style, with effective loggias, are the only other monuments of the classic revival in Russia which can find mention in a brief sketch like this. Both are notable and in many respects admirable buildings, in part redeeming the vulgarity which is unfortunately so prevalent in the architecture of St. Petersburg.

The MONUMENTS of the Classic Revival have been referred to in the foregoing text at sufficient length to preclude the necessity of further enumeration here.

CHAPTER XXVI.

RECENT ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE.

Books Recommended: As before, Chateau, Fergusson. Also Barqui, L’Architecture moderne en France.—Berlin und seine Bauten (and a series of similar works on the modern buildings of other German cities). Daly, Architecture privée du XIXe siècle. Garnier, Le nouvel Opéra. Gourlier, Choix d’édifices publics. Licht, Architektur Deutschlands. Lübke, Denkmäler der Kunst. Lützow und Tischler, Wiener Neubauten. Narjoux, Monuments élevés par la ville de Paris, 1850–1880. Rückwardt, Façaden und Details modernen Bauten.—Sammelmappe hervorragenden Concurrenz-Entwurfen. Sédille, L’Architecture moderne. Selfridge, Modern French Architecture. Statham, Modern Architecture. Villars, England, Scotland, and Ireland (tr. Henry Frith). Consult also Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and the leading architectural journals of recent years.

MODERN CONDITIONS. The nineteenth century has been pre-eminently an age of industrial progress. Its most striking advances have been along mechanical, scientific, and commercial lines. As a result of this material progress the general conditions of mankind in civilized countries have undoubtedly been greatly bettered. Popular education and the printing-press have also raised the intellectual level of society, making learning the privilege of even the poorest. Intellectual, scientific, and commercial pursuits have thus largely absorbed those energies which in other ages found exercise in the creation of artistic forms and objects. The critical and sceptical spirit, the spirit of utilitarianism and realism, has checked the free and general development of the creative imagination, at least in the plastic arts. While in poetry and music there have been great and noble achievements, the plastic arts, including architecture, have only of late years attained a position at all worthy of the intellectual advancement of the times.

Nevertheless the artistic spirit has never been wholly crushed out by the untoward pressure of realism and commercialism. Unfortunately it has repeatedly been directed in wrong channels. Modern archæology and the publication of the forms of historic art by books and photographs have too exclusively fastened attention upon the details of extinct styles as a source of inspiration in design. The whole range of historic art is brought within our survey, and while this has on the one hand tended toward the confusion and multiplication of styles in modern work, it has on the other led to a slavish adherence to historic precedent or a literal copying of historic forms. Modern architecture has thus oscillated between the extremes of archæological servitude and of an unreasoning eclecticism. In the hands of men of inferior training the results have been deplorable travesties of all styles, or meaningless aggregations of ill-assorted forms.

An important factor in this demoralization of architectural design has been the development of new constructive methods, especially in the use of iron and steel. It has been impossible for modern designers, in their treatment of style, to keep pace with the rapid changes in the structural use of metal in architecture. The roofs of vast span, largely composed of glass, which modern methods of trussing have made possible for railway stations, armories, and exhibition buildings; the immense unencumbered spaces which may be covered by them; the introduction and development, especially in the United States, of the post-and-girder system of construction for high buildings, in which the external walls are a mere screen or filling-in; these have revolutionized architecture so rapidly and completely that architects are still struggling and groping to find the solution of many of the problems of style, scale, and composition which they have brought forward.

Within the last thirty years, however, architecture has, despite these new conditions, made notable advances. The artistic emulation of repeated international exhibitions, the multiplication of museums and schools of art, the general advance in intelligence and enlightenment, have all contributed to this artistic progress. There appears to be more of the artistic and intellectual quality in the average architecture of the present time, on both sides of the Atlantic, than at any previous period in this century. The futility of the archæological revival of extinct styles is generally recognized. New conditions are gradually procuring the solution of the very problems they raise. Historic precedent sits more lightly on the architect than formerly, and the essential unity of principle underlying all good design is coming to be better understood.26

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FIG. 208.—PLAN OF LOUVRE AND TUILERIES, PARIS.
A, A, the Old Louvre, so called; B, B, the New Louvre.

FRANCE. It is in France, Germany (including Austria), and England that the architectural progress of this period in Europe has been most marked. We have already noticed the results of the classic revivals in these three countries. Speaking broadly, it may be said that in France the influence of the École des Beaux-Arts, while it has tended to give greater unity and consistency to the national architecture, and has exerted a powerful influence in behalf of refinement of taste and correctness of style, has also stood in the way of a free development of new ideas. French architecture has throughout adhered to the principles of the Renaissance, though the style has during this century been modified by various influences. The first of these was the Néo-Grec movement, alluded to in the last chapter, which broke the grip of Roman tradition in matters of detail and gave greater elasticity to the national style. Next should be mentioned the Gothic movement represented by Viollet-le-Duc, Lassus, Ballu, and their followers. Beginning about 1845, it produced comparatively few notable buildings, but gave a great impulse to the study of mediæval archæology and the restoration of mediæval monuments. The churches of Ste. Clothilde and of St. Jean de Belleville, at Paris, and the reconstruction of the Château de Pierrefonds, were among its direct results. Indirectly it led to a freer and more rational treatment of constructive forms and materials than had prevailed with the academic designers. The church of St. Augustin, by Baltard, at Paris, illustrates this in its use of iron and brick for the dome and vaulting, and the College Chaptal, by E. Train, in its decorative treatment of brick and tile externally. The general adoption of iron for roof-trusses and for the construction of markets and similar buildings tended further in the same direction, the Halles Centrales at Paris, by Baltard, being a notable example.

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FIG. 209.—PAVILION OF RICHELIEU, LOUVRE.

THE SECOND EMPIRE. The reign of Napoleon III. (1852–70) was a period of exceptional activity, especially in Paris. The greatest monument of his reign was the completion of the Louvre and Tuileries, under Visconti and Lefuel, including the remodelling of the pavilions de Flore and de Marsan. The new portions constitute the most notable example of modern French architecture, and the manner in which the two palaces were united deserves high praise. In spite of certain defects, this work is marked by a combination of dignity, richness, and refinement, such as are rarely found in palace architecture (Figs. 208, 209). The New Opera (1863–75), by Garnier (d. 1898), stands next to the Louvre in importance as a national monument. It is by far the most sumptuous building for amusement in existence, but in purity of detail and in the balance and restraint of its design it is inferior to the work of Visconti and Lefuel (Fig. 210). To this reign belong the Palais de l’Industrie, by Viel, built for the exhibition of 1855, and several great railway stations (Gare du Nord, by Hitorff, Gare de l’Est, Gare d’Orléans, etc.), in which the modern French version of the Renaissance was applied with considerable skill to buildings largely constructed of iron and glass. Town halls and theatres were erected in great numbers, and in decorative works like fountains and monuments the French were particularly successful. The fountains of St. Michel, Cuvier, and Molière, at Paris, and of Longchamps, at Marseilles (Fig. 211), illustrate the fertility of resource and elegance of detailed treatment of the French in this department. Mention should also here be made of the extensive enterprises carried out by Napoleon III., in rectifying and embellishing the street-plan of Paris by new avenues and squares on a vast scale, adding greatly to the monumental splendor of the city.

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FIG. 210.—GRAND STAIRCASE OF THE OPERA, PARIS.

THE REPUBLIC. Since the disasters of 1870 a number of important structures have been erected, and French architecture has shown a remarkable vitality and flexibility under new conditions. Its productions have in general been marked by a refined taste and a conspicuous absence of eccentricity and excess; but it has for the most part trodden in well-worn paths. The most notable recent monuments are, in church architecture, the Sacré-Cœur, at Montmartre, by Abadie, a votive church inspired from the Franco-Byzantine style of Aquitania; in civil architecture the new Hôtel de Ville, at Paris, by Ballu and Déperthes, recalling the original structure destroyed by the Commune, but in reality an original creation of great merit; in scholastic architecture the new École de Médecine, and the new Sorbonne, by Nénot, and in other branches of the art the metal-and-glass exhibition buildings of 1878, 1889, and 1900. In the last of these the striving for originality and the effort to discard traditional forms reached the extreme, although accompanied by much very clever detail and a masterly use of color-decoration. To these should be added many noteworthy theatres, town-halls, court-houses, and préfectures in provincial cities, and commemorative columns and monuments almost without number. In street architecture there is now much more variety and originality than formerly, especially in private houses, and the reaction against the orders and against traditional methods of design has of late been growing stronger. The chief excellence of modern French architecture lies in its rational planning, monumental spirit, and refinement of detail (Fig. 212).

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FIG. 211.—FOUNTAIN OF LONGCHAMPS, MARSEILLES.

GERMANY AND AUSTRIA. German architecture has been more affected during the past fifty years by the archæological spirit than has the French. A pronounced mediæval revival partly accompanied, partly followed the Greek revival in Germany, and produced a number of churches and a few secular buildings in the basilican, Romanesque, and Gothic styles. These are less interesting than those in the Greek style, because mediæval forms are even more foreign to modern needs than the classic, being compatible only with systems of design and construction which are no longer practicable. At Munich the Auekirche, by Ohlmuller, in an attenuated Gothic style; the Byzantine Ludwigskirche, and Ziebland’s Basilica following Early Christian models; the Basilica by Hübsch, at Bulach, and the Votive Church at Vienna (1856) by H. Von Ferstel (1828–1883) are notable neo-mediæval monuments. The last-named church may be classed with Ste. Clothilde at Paris (see p. 371), and St. Patrick’s Cathedral at New York, all three being of approximately the same size and general style, recalling St. Ouen at Rouen. They are correct and elaborate, but more or less cold and artificial.

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FIG. 212.—MUSÉE GALLIÉRA, PARIS.

More successful are many of the German theatres and concert halls, in which Renaissance and classic forms have been freely used. In several of these the attempt has been made to express by the external form the curvilinear plan of the auditorium, as in the Dresden Theatre, by Semper (1841; Fig. 213), the theatre at Carlsruhe, by Hübsch, and the double winter-summer Victoria Theatre, at Berlin, by Titz. But the practical and æsthetic difficulties involved in this treatment have caused its general abandonment. The Opera House at Vienna, by Siccardsburg and Van der Null (1861–69), is rectangular in its masses, and but for a certain triviality of detail would rank among the most successful buildings of its kind. The new Burgtheater in the same city is a more elaborately ornate structure in Renaissance style, somewhat florid and overdone.

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FIG. 213.—THEATRE AT DRESDEN.

Modern German architecture is at its best in academic and residential buildings. The Bauschule, at Berlin, by Schinkel, in which brick is used in a rational and dignified design without the orders; the Polytechnic School, at Zürich, by Semper; university buildings, and especially buildings for technical instruction, at Carlsruhe, Stuttgart, Strasburg, Vienna, and other cities, show a monumental treatment of the exterior and of the general distribution, combined with a careful study of practical requirements. In administrative buildings the Germans have hardly been as successful; and the new Parliament House, at Berlin, by Wallot, in spite of its splendor and costliness, is heavy and unsatisfactory in detail. The larger cities, especially Berlin, contain many excellent examples of house architecture, mostly in the Renaissance style, sufficiently monumental in design, though usually, like most German work, inclined to heaviness of detail. The too free use of stucco in imitation of stone is also open to criticism.

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FIG. 214.—BLOCK OF DWELLINGS (MARIE-THERESIENHOF), VIENNA.

VIENNA. During the last thirty years Vienna has undergone a transformation which has made it the rival of Paris as a stately capital. The remodelling of the central portion, the creation of a series of magnificent boulevards and squares, and the grouping of the chief state and municipal buildings about these upon a monumental scheme of arrangement, have given the city an unusual aspect of splendor. Among the most important monuments in this group are the Parliament House, by Hansen (see p. 360), and the Town Hall, by Schmidt. This latter is a Neo-Gothic edifice of great size and pretentiousness, but strangely thin and meagre in detail, and quite out of harmony with its surroundings. The university and museums are massive piles in Renaissance style; and it is the Renaissance rather than the classic or Gothic revival which prevails throughout the new city. The great blocks of residences and apartments (Fig. 214) which line its streets are highly ornate in their architecture, but for the most part done in stucco, which fails after all to give the aspect of solidity and durability which it seeks to counterfeit.

The city of Buda-Pesth has also in recent years undergone a phenomenal transformation of a similar nature to that effected in Vienna, but it possesses fewer monuments of conspicuous architectural interest. The Synagogue is the most noted of these, a rich and pleasing edifice of brick in a modified Hispano-Moresque style.

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FIG. 215.—HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, WESTMINSTER, LONDON.

GREAT BRITAIN. During the closing years of the Anglo-Greek style a coterie of enthusiastic students of British mediæval monuments—archæologists rather than architects—initiated a movement for the revival of the national Gothic architecture. The first fruits of this movement, led by Pugin, Brandon, Rickman, and others (about 1830–40), were seen in countless pseudo-Gothic structures in which the pointed arches, buttresses, and clustered shafts of mediæval architecture were imitated or parodied according to the designer’s ability, with frequent misapprehension of their proper use or significance. This unintelligent misapplication of Gothic forms was, however, confined to the earlier stages of the movement. With increasing light and experience came a more correct and consistent use of the mediæval styles, dominated by the same spirit of archæological correctness which had produced the classicismo of the Late Renaissance in Italy. This spirit, stimulated by extensive enterprises in the restoration of the great mediæval monuments of the United Kingdom, was fatal to any free and original development of the style along new lines. But it rescued church architecture from the utter meanness and debasement into which it had fallen, and established a standard of taste which reacted on all other branches of design.

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FIG. 216.—ASSIZE COURTS, MANCHESTER. DETAIL.

THE VICTORIAN GOTHIC. Between 1850 and 1870 the striving after archæological correctness gave place to the more rational effort to adapt Gothic principles to modern requirements, instead of merely copying extinct styles. This effort, prosecuted by a number of architects of great intelligence, culture, and earnestness (Sir Gilbert Scott, George Edmund Street, William Burges, and others), resulted in a number of extremely interesting buildings. Chief among these in size and cost stand the Parliament Houses at Westminster, by Sir Charles Barry (begun 1839), in the Perpendicular style. This immense structure (Fig. 215), imposing in its simple masses and refined in its carefully studied detail, is the most successful monument of the Victorian Gothic style. It suffers, however, from the want of proper relation of scale between its decorative elements and the vast proportions of the edifice, which belittle its component elements. It cannot, on the whole, be claimed as a successful vindication of the claims of the promoters of the style as to the adaptability of Gothic forms to structures planned and built after the modern fashion. The Assize Courts at Manchester (Fig. 216), the New Museum at Oxford, the gorgeous Albert Memorial at London, by Scott, and the New Law Courts at London, by Street, are all conspicuous illustrations of the same truth. They are conscientious, carefully studied designs in good taste, and yet wholly unsuited in style to their purpose. They are like labored and scholarly verse in a foreign tongue, correct in form and language, but lacking the naturalness and charm of true and unfettered inspiration. A later essay of the same sort in a slightly different field is the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, by Waterhouse (1879), an imposing building in a modified Romanesque style (Fig. 217).

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FIG. 217.—NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, LONDON.

OTHER WORKS. The Victorian Gothic style responded to no deep and general movement of the popular taste, and, like the Anglo-Greek style, was doomed to failure from the inherent incongruity between modern needs and mediæval forms. Within the last twenty years there has been a quite general return to Renaissance principles, and the result is seen in a large number of town-halls, exchanges, museums, and colleges, in which Renaissance forms, with and without the orders, have been treated with increasing freedom and skilful adaptation to the materials and special requirements of each case. The Albert Memorial Hall (1863, by General Scott) may be taken as an early instance of this movement, and the Imperial Institute (Colonial offices), by Collcutt, and Oxford Town Hall, by Aston Webb, as among its latest manifestations. In domestic architecture the so-called Queen Anne style has been much in vogue, as practised by Norman Shaw, Ernest George, and others. It is really a modern style, originating in the imitation of the modified Palladian style as used in the brick architecture of Queen Anne’s time, but freely and often artistically altered to meet modern tastes and needs.