DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29898#0073
Sect. XIII.
INTRODUCTION.
37
ludeous if situated on a sandy plain, and relieved only by the warm
glow of a setting sun. A building of white stone or white brick is as
inappropriate among the trees, and may look bright and cheerful in
the other situation.
In towns colours might be used of very great brilliancy, and if
done constructively, there could be no greater improvement to our
architecture; but its application is so ditficult that no satisfactory
•'e.sult has yet been attained, and it may be questioned whether it will
be ever successfully accomplished.
With regard to interiors there can be no doubt. All arcliitects in
all countries of the world resorted to this expedient to harmonise and
to give brilliancy to tlieir compositions, and have depended on it for
their most important effects.
The Gothic architects carried this a step further by the introduc-
tion of painted glass, which was a mode of colouring more brilliant
than had been ever before attempted. This went beyond all previous
efforts, inasmuch as it coloured not only the objects themselves, but
;dso the light in which they were seen. So enamoured were they of
*ts beauties, that they sacrificed much of the constructive propriety
°f their buildings to admit of its display, and paid more attention
to it than to any other part of their designs. Perhaps they carried
this predilection a little beyond the limits of good taste; but colour
in itself so exquisite a thing, and so admirable a vehicle for the
oxpression of architectural as well as of sesthetic beauty, that it is
difficult to find fault even with the abuse of what is in its essence so
ffgitimate and so beautiful.
XIII.-SCULPTURE AND PAINTING.
Carved ornament and decorative colour come within the cspecial
provineo of the architect. In some styles, such as the Saracenic, and in
JRany buildings, they form the Alpha and the Omega of the decoration.
^ut, as mentioned above, one of the great merits of architecture as an
ui't is that it affords room for the display of the works of the sculptor
aud the painter, not only in such a manner as not to interfere with its
°wn decorative construction, but so as to add meaning and value to
the whole. No Greek temple and no Gothic cathedral can indeed bo
Said to be perfect or coinplete without these adjuncts ; and one of the
Prineipal objects of the architects in Greece or in the Middle Ages was
t° design places and devise means by which these could be displayed
t° advantage, without interfering either with the construction or con-
structive decoration. This was perhaps effected more successfully in
the Parthenon than in any other building we are acquainted with.
the pediments at either end were noble frames for the exhibition of
Sculpture, and the metopes were equally appropriate for the purpose ;
INTRODUCTION.
37
ludeous if situated on a sandy plain, and relieved only by the warm
glow of a setting sun. A building of white stone or white brick is as
inappropriate among the trees, and may look bright and cheerful in
the other situation.
In towns colours might be used of very great brilliancy, and if
done constructively, there could be no greater improvement to our
architecture; but its application is so ditficult that no satisfactory
•'e.sult has yet been attained, and it may be questioned whether it will
be ever successfully accomplished.
With regard to interiors there can be no doubt. All arcliitects in
all countries of the world resorted to this expedient to harmonise and
to give brilliancy to tlieir compositions, and have depended on it for
their most important effects.
The Gothic architects carried this a step further by the introduc-
tion of painted glass, which was a mode of colouring more brilliant
than had been ever before attempted. This went beyond all previous
efforts, inasmuch as it coloured not only the objects themselves, but
;dso the light in which they were seen. So enamoured were they of
*ts beauties, that they sacrificed much of the constructive propriety
°f their buildings to admit of its display, and paid more attention
to it than to any other part of their designs. Perhaps they carried
this predilection a little beyond the limits of good taste; but colour
in itself so exquisite a thing, and so admirable a vehicle for the
oxpression of architectural as well as of sesthetic beauty, that it is
difficult to find fault even with the abuse of what is in its essence so
ffgitimate and so beautiful.
XIII.-SCULPTURE AND PAINTING.
Carved ornament and decorative colour come within the cspecial
provineo of the architect. In some styles, such as the Saracenic, and in
JRany buildings, they form the Alpha and the Omega of the decoration.
^ut, as mentioned above, one of the great merits of architecture as an
ui't is that it affords room for the display of the works of the sculptor
aud the painter, not only in such a manner as not to interfere with its
°wn decorative construction, but so as to add meaning and value to
the whole. No Greek temple and no Gothic cathedral can indeed bo
Said to be perfect or coinplete without these adjuncts ; and one of the
Prineipal objects of the architects in Greece or in the Middle Ages was
t° design places and devise means by which these could be displayed
t° advantage, without interfering either with the construction or con-
structive decoration. This was perhaps effected more successfully in
the Parthenon than in any other building we are acquainted with.
the pediments at either end were noble frames for the exhibition of
Sculpture, and the metopes were equally appropriate for the purpose ;