DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5273#0061
i.
with the Modern. ^
Soil, the more they are become degenerate, and fcarce cognofcible to their very
Authors. For to say Truth, have we at this prefent any Reafon in the World to
call those Three by the Name of Orders, viz. Darkly lomck and Corinthian
which we daily behold fo disfigured, and ill treated by the Worlqnen os this
Age ? To speak seriously, remains there fo much as a simple Member which
has not receiv'd some strange and monstrous Alteration ? Nay, things' are ar-
riv'd to that pafs, that a Man (hall hardly find an Architect who disdains not
to sollow the beft and moft approved Examples os Antiquity. Every Man
will now sorfooth compose after his own Fancy, and conceives, that to imi-
tate Them, were to become an Apprentice again 5 and that to be Majlers in-
deed, they muft of neceffity produce fomething os New ; Poor Men that
they are, to believe that in fantaftically Defigning fome one kind of particular
Cornice, or like Member, they are prefently the Inventors of a New Order,
as if in that only confided what is call'd Indention 5 as if the Pantheon, that
fame ftupendious and incomparable Structure which is yet to be feen at
<fto?ne, were not the Invention of the Architect who built it, because he has
vary'd nothing from the Corinthian Order, of which it is intirely composed ?
9Tis not in the (Retail of the minuter (portions, that the Talent of an Archi-
tetl appears : This is to be judg'd from the general Diftribution of the Whole
Work. These low and reptile Souls, who never arrive to the univerfal Know-
ledge os the Art, and embrace her in all her Dimenfions, are conftrain'd to slop
there for want os Abilities* inceffantly crawling aster these poor little Things 5
and as their Studies have no other Objects, being already empty and barren
os themselves 3 their Ideas are fo base and miserable, that they produce no-
thing fave Majcarons, wretched Cartouches, and the like idle and impertinent
Grotesque, with which they have even insected all our Modern Architecture.
As sor those others to whom Nature has been more propitious, who are in-
du'd with a clearer Imagination, they very well perceive that the true arid ef-
fential Beauty os Architecture consists not fimply in the minute Separation os
every Member apart 3 but does rather principally refult from the Symmetry
and Oeconomy os the Wholey which is the Union arid Concourfe os them all
together^ producing as it were a visible Harmony and Confent, which those
Eyes that are clear'd and enlightened by the real Intelligence os Art, contem-
plate and behold with Excefs of Delectation* The Mifery is, that thefe noble
Genius's are in very small Numbers, whereas the vulgar Workmen, like'to Ants,
swarm prodigioufly in all Places. Would but our Grandees once deveffc them-
felves os that Prejudice and Difdairi which they conceive os the Arts, and os
thofe who apply themfelves unto them, and but consider the Necessity which
they, above all others, particularly have of this of Architecture, there would
be great Hopes we fliould yet fee them ressourifli, and be born again as 'twere
from New to Antique. We have had frefh Experience of this under the
Qteign of Francis the Firft, one of the moft Illuftrious (princes that Hiftory has
recorded 3 and who from an Afsection extraordinary which he bore to Vir-
tue and great Attempts, Peopled his Stdte with Perfons the moft Rare and
Accomplifh'd of the Age wherein he liv'd, who erected those glorious Mo-
numents to the Memory of this incomparable Monarch. It is, in my Opini-
on, the only Expedient to re-eftablish all the Arts in that primitive Splendor
from
with the Modern. ^
Soil, the more they are become degenerate, and fcarce cognofcible to their very
Authors. For to say Truth, have we at this prefent any Reafon in the World to
call those Three by the Name of Orders, viz. Darkly lomck and Corinthian
which we daily behold fo disfigured, and ill treated by the Worlqnen os this
Age ? To speak seriously, remains there fo much as a simple Member which
has not receiv'd some strange and monstrous Alteration ? Nay, things' are ar-
riv'd to that pafs, that a Man (hall hardly find an Architect who disdains not
to sollow the beft and moft approved Examples os Antiquity. Every Man
will now sorfooth compose after his own Fancy, and conceives, that to imi-
tate Them, were to become an Apprentice again 5 and that to be Majlers in-
deed, they muft of neceffity produce fomething os New ; Poor Men that
they are, to believe that in fantaftically Defigning fome one kind of particular
Cornice, or like Member, they are prefently the Inventors of a New Order,
as if in that only confided what is call'd Indention 5 as if the Pantheon, that
fame ftupendious and incomparable Structure which is yet to be feen at
<fto?ne, were not the Invention of the Architect who built it, because he has
vary'd nothing from the Corinthian Order, of which it is intirely composed ?
9Tis not in the (Retail of the minuter (portions, that the Talent of an Archi-
tetl appears : This is to be judg'd from the general Diftribution of the Whole
Work. These low and reptile Souls, who never arrive to the univerfal Know-
ledge os the Art, and embrace her in all her Dimenfions, are conftrain'd to slop
there for want os Abilities* inceffantly crawling aster these poor little Things 5
and as their Studies have no other Objects, being already empty and barren
os themselves 3 their Ideas are fo base and miserable, that they produce no-
thing fave Majcarons, wretched Cartouches, and the like idle and impertinent
Grotesque, with which they have even insected all our Modern Architecture.
As sor those others to whom Nature has been more propitious, who are in-
du'd with a clearer Imagination, they very well perceive that the true arid ef-
fential Beauty os Architecture consists not fimply in the minute Separation os
every Member apart 3 but does rather principally refult from the Symmetry
and Oeconomy os the Wholey which is the Union arid Concourfe os them all
together^ producing as it were a visible Harmony and Confent, which those
Eyes that are clear'd and enlightened by the real Intelligence os Art, contem-
plate and behold with Excefs of Delectation* The Mifery is, that thefe noble
Genius's are in very small Numbers, whereas the vulgar Workmen, like'to Ants,
swarm prodigioufly in all Places. Would but our Grandees once deveffc them-
felves os that Prejudice and Difdairi which they conceive os the Arts, and os
thofe who apply themfelves unto them, and but consider the Necessity which
they, above all others, particularly have of this of Architecture, there would
be great Hopes we fliould yet fee them ressourifli, and be born again as 'twere
from New to Antique. We have had frefh Experience of this under the
Qteign of Francis the Firft, one of the moft Illuftrious (princes that Hiftory has
recorded 3 and who from an Afsection extraordinary which he bore to Vir-
tue and great Attempts, Peopled his Stdte with Perfons the moft Rare and
Accomplifh'd of the Age wherein he liv'd, who erected those glorious Mo-
numents to the Memory of this incomparable Monarch. It is, in my Opini-
on, the only Expedient to re-eftablish all the Arts in that primitive Splendor
from