DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31821#0011
INTRODUCTION.
The present work originated in the following circumstance :—on
visiting the studio of Mons. Durlet, the architect of Antwerp Cathe-
dral and designer of the new stalls, I was exceedingly struck by the
beauty of a capital cast in plaster, hanging amongst a variety of
models, which appeared to be a hne work of the thirteenth century.
On asking if he would allow me to have a squeeze from it, he
readily consented, but at the same time informed me, to my great
surprise, that the foliage of which it was composed had been
gathered from his garden, and by him cast and adjusted in a geo-
metrical torm round a capital composed of pointed mouldings.
This gave me an entirely new view of mediaeval carving; and, pur-
suing the subject, I became fully convinced that the finest foliage
work in the Gothic buildings were all close approximations to
nature, and that their peculiar character was chiefly owing to the
manner of their arrangement and disposition. # During the same
journey I picked up a leaf of dried thistle from a foreign ship un-
loading at Havre, and I have never seen a more beautiful specimen
* See the cloorway into the chapter-house at Southwell Minster, where the capitals, hollows,
&c., are encircled with leaves of various plants, most naturally wrought. Many of the capitals of
the lateral shafts in the Sainte Chapelle at Paris are composed of branches of rose trees, exquisitely
worked from the natural plants. Instances of similar enrichments can be multiplied without
number, from the first pointecl down to the latest period.
The present work originated in the following circumstance :—on
visiting the studio of Mons. Durlet, the architect of Antwerp Cathe-
dral and designer of the new stalls, I was exceedingly struck by the
beauty of a capital cast in plaster, hanging amongst a variety of
models, which appeared to be a hne work of the thirteenth century.
On asking if he would allow me to have a squeeze from it, he
readily consented, but at the same time informed me, to my great
surprise, that the foliage of which it was composed had been
gathered from his garden, and by him cast and adjusted in a geo-
metrical torm round a capital composed of pointed mouldings.
This gave me an entirely new view of mediaeval carving; and, pur-
suing the subject, I became fully convinced that the finest foliage
work in the Gothic buildings were all close approximations to
nature, and that their peculiar character was chiefly owing to the
manner of their arrangement and disposition. # During the same
journey I picked up a leaf of dried thistle from a foreign ship un-
loading at Havre, and I have never seen a more beautiful specimen
* See the cloorway into the chapter-house at Southwell Minster, where the capitals, hollows,
&c., are encircled with leaves of various plants, most naturally wrought. Many of the capitals of
the lateral shafts in the Sainte Chapelle at Paris are composed of branches of rose trees, exquisitely
worked from the natural plants. Instances of similar enrichments can be multiplied without
number, from the first pointecl down to the latest period.