DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6914#0082
50
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
what had given birth even to classical magnificence. For this northern people
having been accustomed, during the gloom of Paganism, to worship the Deity in
groves (a practice common to all nations), when their new religion required covered
edifices, they ingeniously projected to make them resemble groves as nearly as the
distance of architecture would permit ; at once indulging their old prejudices, and
providing for their present conveniences, by a cool receptacle in a sultry climate ;
and with what skill and success they executed their project, by the assistance of
Saracen architects, whose exotic style of building very luckily suited their purpose,
appears from hence, that no attentive observer ever viewed a regular avenue of well
grown trees, intermixing their branches overhead, but it presently put him in mind
of the long vista through the Gothic cathedral ; or even entered one of the larger
and more elegant edifices of this kind, but it presented to his imagination an avenue
of trees ; and this alone is what can be truly called the Gothic style of building."51
Dr. Mllner has satisfactorily shewn, that the theory proposed by Warburton is
inconsistent with Chronology and History. The Goths and Vandals, when they
entered Spain, in the beginning of the fifth century, were already Christians, and
consequently did not derive their religion from the old inhabitants. With the Sa-
racens, after their invasion of the country in the eighth century, their intercourse
was of a hostile description ; so that it was not likely they should have borrowed
their architecture from them. It may be added, that the remains of Moorish
buildings in Spain, where they display any features of Pointed architecture, were
built after the period when that style was certainly in use, both in France and in
England ; so that it was probably derived by the Moors from the Christians, and
not by the latter from the former.53
As for the theory which deduces Christian pointed architecture from the imitation
of an avenue of trees, it can only be regarded as an ingenious reverie, and there-
fore undeserving of serious refutation.54
51 Notes to " Pope's Works." London, 1760, 8vo. vol. iii. p. 327.
sz "Treatise on Ecclesiastical Architecture," p. 65, 66. 53 Ibid. p. 67.
54 In an Italian Treatise on Architecture, published anonymously at Bassano, in 1785 (Principj di
Architettura Civile, 3 T. torn. i. p. 203,) the theory of Warburton is adopted. The author makes a
distinction between what has been termed Saxon architecture and the Pointed style which succeeded it:
applying to the former the designation of Gotica antica, and to the latter that of Gotica moderna. In
reference to the opinion, that the " modern Gothic" was derived from the imitation of groves, it is obser-
ved, that " it assumes an air so much more plausible, as this kind of architecture was used chiefly in
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
what had given birth even to classical magnificence. For this northern people
having been accustomed, during the gloom of Paganism, to worship the Deity in
groves (a practice common to all nations), when their new religion required covered
edifices, they ingeniously projected to make them resemble groves as nearly as the
distance of architecture would permit ; at once indulging their old prejudices, and
providing for their present conveniences, by a cool receptacle in a sultry climate ;
and with what skill and success they executed their project, by the assistance of
Saracen architects, whose exotic style of building very luckily suited their purpose,
appears from hence, that no attentive observer ever viewed a regular avenue of well
grown trees, intermixing their branches overhead, but it presently put him in mind
of the long vista through the Gothic cathedral ; or even entered one of the larger
and more elegant edifices of this kind, but it presented to his imagination an avenue
of trees ; and this alone is what can be truly called the Gothic style of building."51
Dr. Mllner has satisfactorily shewn, that the theory proposed by Warburton is
inconsistent with Chronology and History. The Goths and Vandals, when they
entered Spain, in the beginning of the fifth century, were already Christians, and
consequently did not derive their religion from the old inhabitants. With the Sa-
racens, after their invasion of the country in the eighth century, their intercourse
was of a hostile description ; so that it was not likely they should have borrowed
their architecture from them. It may be added, that the remains of Moorish
buildings in Spain, where they display any features of Pointed architecture, were
built after the period when that style was certainly in use, both in France and in
England ; so that it was probably derived by the Moors from the Christians, and
not by the latter from the former.53
As for the theory which deduces Christian pointed architecture from the imitation
of an avenue of trees, it can only be regarded as an ingenious reverie, and there-
fore undeserving of serious refutation.54
51 Notes to " Pope's Works." London, 1760, 8vo. vol. iii. p. 327.
sz "Treatise on Ecclesiastical Architecture," p. 65, 66. 53 Ibid. p. 67.
54 In an Italian Treatise on Architecture, published anonymously at Bassano, in 1785 (Principj di
Architettura Civile, 3 T. torn. i. p. 203,) the theory of Warburton is adopted. The author makes a
distinction between what has been termed Saxon architecture and the Pointed style which succeeded it:
applying to the former the designation of Gotica antica, and to the latter that of Gotica moderna. In
reference to the opinion, that the " modern Gothic" was derived from the imitation of groves, it is obser-
ved, that " it assumes an air so much more plausible, as this kind of architecture was used chiefly in