DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29898#0074
38
HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE.
Part I.
while the plain walls of the cella were admirahly adapted for paintings
below and for a sculptured frieze above.
The deeqily recessed portals of our Gothic cathedrals, their galleries,
their niches and pinnacles, were equally appropriate for the exuberant
display of this class of sculpture in a less refined or fastidious age ;
while the mullion-framed windows were admirably adapted for the
exhibition of a mode of coloured clecoration, somewhat barbarous, it
must be confessecl, but wonderfully brilliant.
The system was carried further in India than in any other country
except perhaps Egypt. Probably no Hinclu temple was ever erected
without being at least intended to be adornecl with Phonetic sculpture,
and many of thern are covered with it from the plinth to the eaves, in
strong contrast with the Mahomedan buildings that stand sicle by
side with them, ancl which are wholly devoid of any attempt at this
kind of decoration. The taste of these Hindu sculptures may be
questionable, but such as they are they are so used as never to inter-
fere with the architectural effect of the building on which they
are employed, but always so as to aicl the clesign irrespective of the
story they have to tell. There is probably no instance in which
their removal or their absence would not be felt as an injury from an
architectural point of view.
It is diflicult now to ascertain whether Phonetic painting was usecl
to the same extent as sculpture in ancient times. From its nature it is
infinitely more perishable, and a bucket of whitewash will in half an
hour obliterate the work of years, and, strange to say, there are ages,
both in the East ancl the West, where rnen’s minds are so attuned that
they consider whitewash a more fitting clecoration than coloured
paintings of the most elaborate and artistic character. While this is
so we neecl hardly wonder that our means of forming a clistinct opinion
on tliis subject are somewhat limitecl.
Be this as it may, it is still one of the special privileges
of architecture that she is able to attract to herself these phonetic
arts, ancl one of the greatest merits a building can possess is its
affording appropriate places for their clisplay without interfering in
any way with the sjoecial department of the architect. But it is
always necessary to distinguish carefully between what belongs to the
province of each art separately. The work of the architect ought to
be complete and perfect without either sculpture or painting, and
must be judgecl as if they were absent ; but he will not have been
entirely successful unless he has provided the means by which the
value of his design may be doublecl by their introduction. It is on]y
by the combination of the Phonetic utterance with the Technic ancl
AEsthetic elements that a perfect work of art has been produced, ancl
that architecture can be saicl to have reached the highest point of
perfection to which it can aspire.
HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE.
Part I.
while the plain walls of the cella were admirahly adapted for paintings
below and for a sculptured frieze above.
The deeqily recessed portals of our Gothic cathedrals, their galleries,
their niches and pinnacles, were equally appropriate for the exuberant
display of this class of sculpture in a less refined or fastidious age ;
while the mullion-framed windows were admirably adapted for the
exhibition of a mode of coloured clecoration, somewhat barbarous, it
must be confessecl, but wonderfully brilliant.
The system was carried further in India than in any other country
except perhaps Egypt. Probably no Hinclu temple was ever erected
without being at least intended to be adornecl with Phonetic sculpture,
and many of thern are covered with it from the plinth to the eaves, in
strong contrast with the Mahomedan buildings that stand sicle by
side with them, ancl which are wholly devoid of any attempt at this
kind of decoration. The taste of these Hindu sculptures may be
questionable, but such as they are they are so used as never to inter-
fere with the architectural effect of the building on which they
are employed, but always so as to aicl the clesign irrespective of the
story they have to tell. There is probably no instance in which
their removal or their absence would not be felt as an injury from an
architectural point of view.
It is diflicult now to ascertain whether Phonetic painting was usecl
to the same extent as sculpture in ancient times. From its nature it is
infinitely more perishable, and a bucket of whitewash will in half an
hour obliterate the work of years, and, strange to say, there are ages,
both in the East ancl the West, where rnen’s minds are so attuned that
they consider whitewash a more fitting clecoration than coloured
paintings of the most elaborate and artistic character. While this is
so we neecl hardly wonder that our means of forming a clistinct opinion
on tliis subject are somewhat limitecl.
Be this as it may, it is still one of the special privileges
of architecture that she is able to attract to herself these phonetic
arts, ancl one of the greatest merits a building can possess is its
affording appropriate places for their clisplay without interfering in
any way with the sjoecial department of the architect. But it is
always necessary to distinguish carefully between what belongs to the
province of each art separately. The work of the architect ought to
be complete and perfect without either sculpture or painting, and
must be judgecl as if they were absent ; but he will not have been
entirely successful unless he has provided the means by which the
value of his design may be doublecl by their introduction. It is on]y
by the combination of the Phonetic utterance with the Technic ancl
AEsthetic elements that a perfect work of art has been produced, ancl
that architecture can be saicl to have reached the highest point of
perfection to which it can aspire.