International studio (27.1905/1906(1906))

A Glance at the Holiday Art Books

exerted on an unpopulär side and therein probably
lies the reason of its insistence. The Celebrators of
the Renaissance having set down the “Gothic” of
the Middle Ages as barbarous in comparison, the
counterblow strikes at the barbarism of the Renais-
sance, the mistaken overlaying on mediseval forms,
of a “facing of details derived, indeed, frorn classic
sources, but altered, mixed and misapplied in all
manner of unclassic ways.” The objection is not
one of the mere purist in styles. Deliberate and
careful examination is made of church and palace
and derivations traced to prove the argument that
ancient, or theoretical
summaries of ancient,
methods were improp-
erlyused by men whose
knowledge of building
was insufhcient, whose
instincts and aimswere
thoseof thepainterand
sculptor, and whose ar-
chitectural achieve-
m e n t s consequently
were inconsistent.
Striking among the
ampliücations of this
argument is the discus-
sion of thedomesof the
Baptisteryat Florence,
St. Peter’s, St. Paul’s
and others. Michael-
angelo attempted the
impossible and sacri-
hced stability, first of
constructional necessi-
ties, to outward effect;
Wren produced, in his
false timber dorne
round an inner cone,
a safe but deliberate
fraud: these are in
brief the conclusions
of a detailed analysis
of structure and of
the progress of threat-
ened breakdown. In-
deed, the problem
which the Renaissance
builders set themselves,
to go beyond the Ro-
man and Byzantine
limits of safety, in
springing a large un-
buttressed dorne from

the top of a drum, is declared to be incapable
of a satisfactory solution. The illustrations are
from drawings by the author and from old wood-
cuts with a dozen hne photogravure plates.
To bring to more general acquaintance an archi-
tecture that is practically unknown, difficult to
understand, but remarkable for a steady develop-
ment over twelve centuries, and unique in being
a style developed from the exigencies of wood
construction, is the aim of Ralph Adams Cram in
his “Impressions of Japanese Architecture and the
Allied Arts.” (The Baker and Taylor Company, 8vo,


Copyright, 1905, by The Baker and Taylor Company

THE PAGODA OF HORIUJI
FROM “IMPRESSIONS OF JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE”
(THE BAKER AND TAYLOR COMPANY)

XXXV