DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6914#0094
62
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
Though a much more accurate acquaintance with the history and principles of
Pointed architecture is here attributed to Gray than it was likely for him to have
possessed, yet the opinions of such a man are certainly entitled to notice and res-
pect. In one of his letters he says,-—
" Dr. Akenside, I perceive, is no conjuror in architecture ; especially when he
talks of the ruins of Persepolis, which are no more Gothic than they are Chinese.
The Egyptian style (see Dr. Pococke, not his Discourses, but his Prints,) was
apparently the mother of the Greek ; and there is such a similitude between the
Egyptian and those Persian ruins, as gave Diodorus room to affirm, that the old
buildings of Persia were certainly performed by Egyptian artists. As to the other
part of your friend's opinion, that the Gothic manner is the Saracen or Moorish,
he has a great authority to support him, that of Sir Christopher Wren ; and yet I
cannot help thinking it undoubtedly wrong. The palaces in Spain I never saw
but in description, which gives us little or no idea of things ; but the Doge's
Palace at Venice I have seen, which is in the Arabesque manner : and the houses
of Barbary you may see in Dr. Shaw's book, not to mention abundance of other
eastern buildings in Turkey, Persia, &c. that we have views of; and they seem
plainly to be corruptions of the Greek architecture, broke into little parts indeed,
and covered with little ornaments, but in a taste very distinguishable from that
which we call Gothic. There is one thing that runs through the Moorish build-
ings that an imitator would certainly have been first struck with, and would have
tried to copy; and that is the cupolas which cover every thing, baths, apartments,
and even kitchens ; yet who ever saw a Gothic cupola? It is a thing plainly of
Greek original. I do not see any thing but the slender spires that serve for steeples,
which may perhaps be borrowed from the Saracen minarets on their mosques."79
Elsewhere he says, " All the buildings of Henry the Second's time are of a
clumsy and heavy proportion, with a few rude and awkward ornaments ; and this
style continues to the beginning of Henry the Third's reign, though with a little
improvement, as in the nave of Fountain's Abbey, &c. : then all at once come in
the tall picked arches, the light clustered columns, the capitals of curling foliage,
the fretted tabernacles and vaultings, and a profusion of statues, &c. that consti-
tute the good Gothic style ; together with decreasing and flying buttresses, and
pinnacles on the outside."80
79 Letter to Dr. Wharton, in Gray's Works, vol. ii. p. 99, 100.
80 Letter to Mr. Mason, in Gray's Works, vol. ii. p. 183, 184.
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
Though a much more accurate acquaintance with the history and principles of
Pointed architecture is here attributed to Gray than it was likely for him to have
possessed, yet the opinions of such a man are certainly entitled to notice and res-
pect. In one of his letters he says,-—
" Dr. Akenside, I perceive, is no conjuror in architecture ; especially when he
talks of the ruins of Persepolis, which are no more Gothic than they are Chinese.
The Egyptian style (see Dr. Pococke, not his Discourses, but his Prints,) was
apparently the mother of the Greek ; and there is such a similitude between the
Egyptian and those Persian ruins, as gave Diodorus room to affirm, that the old
buildings of Persia were certainly performed by Egyptian artists. As to the other
part of your friend's opinion, that the Gothic manner is the Saracen or Moorish,
he has a great authority to support him, that of Sir Christopher Wren ; and yet I
cannot help thinking it undoubtedly wrong. The palaces in Spain I never saw
but in description, which gives us little or no idea of things ; but the Doge's
Palace at Venice I have seen, which is in the Arabesque manner : and the houses
of Barbary you may see in Dr. Shaw's book, not to mention abundance of other
eastern buildings in Turkey, Persia, &c. that we have views of; and they seem
plainly to be corruptions of the Greek architecture, broke into little parts indeed,
and covered with little ornaments, but in a taste very distinguishable from that
which we call Gothic. There is one thing that runs through the Moorish build-
ings that an imitator would certainly have been first struck with, and would have
tried to copy; and that is the cupolas which cover every thing, baths, apartments,
and even kitchens ; yet who ever saw a Gothic cupola? It is a thing plainly of
Greek original. I do not see any thing but the slender spires that serve for steeples,
which may perhaps be borrowed from the Saracen minarets on their mosques."79
Elsewhere he says, " All the buildings of Henry the Second's time are of a
clumsy and heavy proportion, with a few rude and awkward ornaments ; and this
style continues to the beginning of Henry the Third's reign, though with a little
improvement, as in the nave of Fountain's Abbey, &c. : then all at once come in
the tall picked arches, the light clustered columns, the capitals of curling foliage,
the fretted tabernacles and vaultings, and a profusion of statues, &c. that consti-
tute the good Gothic style ; together with decreasing and flying buttresses, and
pinnacles on the outside."80
79 Letter to Dr. Wharton, in Gray's Works, vol. ii. p. 99, 100.
80 Letter to Mr. Mason, in Gray's Works, vol. ii. p. 183, 184.