DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1457#0135
ir
ESSAY. 107
opinion"1; and it has been subscribed to by
most writers who have treated on«this sub-
naked of gaudy sculpture, trite and busy carvings, it is such as
gluts the eye rather than gratifies and pleases it with any rea-
sonable satisfaction. For proof of this without travelling far
abroad, I dare report myself to any man of judgment, and that
has the least taste of order and magnificence, if, after he has
looked awhile upon king Henry the Seventh's chapei at West-
minster, gazed on its sharp angles, jetties, narrow lights, lame
statues, lace, and other cut work and crinkle-crankle, and shall
then turn his eyes on the Banqueting-house, built at White-
hall by Iirigo Jones, after the ancient manner; or on what his
Majesty's surveyor, Sir Christopher Wren, has advanced at
St. Paul's, and consider what a glorious object the cupola,
porticos, colonnades, and other parts present to the beholder;
or compare the schools and library at Oxford with the theatre
there; or what he has built at Trinity College in Cambridge;
and since ail these, at Greenwich and other places, by which
time our home traveller will begin to have a just idea of the
ancient and modern architecture; I say, let him well consider
and compare them judicially, without partiality and prejudice,
and then pronounce which of the two manners strikes the
understanding as well as the eye with the more majesty and
solemn greatness; though in so much a plainer and simple
dress, conform to the respective orders and entablature: and
accordingly determine to whom the preference is due: not as
we said, that there is not something of solid, and oddly artificial
too, after a sort. But then the universal and unreasonable
thickness of the walls, clumsy buttresses, towers, sharp-
pointed arches, doors, and other apertures without proportion;
nonsensical insertions of various marbles impertinently placed;
turrets and pinnacles thick set with monkies and chimeras, and
abundance of busy work, and other incongruities, dissipate and
break the angles of the sight, and so confound it, that one can-
lot consider it with any steadiness, where to begin or end;
taking off from that noble air and grandeur, bold and graceful
manner, which the ancients had so well and judiciously
established. But in this sort have they and their followers
ev_er since filled not Europe alone, but Asia and Africa besides,
with mountains of stone; vast and gigantic buildings indeed!
out not worthy the name of architecture, &c." Wren's Pareii-
ta"», p. 300.
" This wc now call the Gothic manner of architecture
ESSAY. 107
opinion"1; and it has been subscribed to by
most writers who have treated on«this sub-
naked of gaudy sculpture, trite and busy carvings, it is such as
gluts the eye rather than gratifies and pleases it with any rea-
sonable satisfaction. For proof of this without travelling far
abroad, I dare report myself to any man of judgment, and that
has the least taste of order and magnificence, if, after he has
looked awhile upon king Henry the Seventh's chapei at West-
minster, gazed on its sharp angles, jetties, narrow lights, lame
statues, lace, and other cut work and crinkle-crankle, and shall
then turn his eyes on the Banqueting-house, built at White-
hall by Iirigo Jones, after the ancient manner; or on what his
Majesty's surveyor, Sir Christopher Wren, has advanced at
St. Paul's, and consider what a glorious object the cupola,
porticos, colonnades, and other parts present to the beholder;
or compare the schools and library at Oxford with the theatre
there; or what he has built at Trinity College in Cambridge;
and since ail these, at Greenwich and other places, by which
time our home traveller will begin to have a just idea of the
ancient and modern architecture; I say, let him well consider
and compare them judicially, without partiality and prejudice,
and then pronounce which of the two manners strikes the
understanding as well as the eye with the more majesty and
solemn greatness; though in so much a plainer and simple
dress, conform to the respective orders and entablature: and
accordingly determine to whom the preference is due: not as
we said, that there is not something of solid, and oddly artificial
too, after a sort. But then the universal and unreasonable
thickness of the walls, clumsy buttresses, towers, sharp-
pointed arches, doors, and other apertures without proportion;
nonsensical insertions of various marbles impertinently placed;
turrets and pinnacles thick set with monkies and chimeras, and
abundance of busy work, and other incongruities, dissipate and
break the angles of the sight, and so confound it, that one can-
lot consider it with any steadiness, where to begin or end;
taking off from that noble air and grandeur, bold and graceful
manner, which the ancients had so well and judiciously
established. But in this sort have they and their followers
ev_er since filled not Europe alone, but Asia and Africa besides,
with mountains of stone; vast and gigantic buildings indeed!
out not worthy the name of architecture, &c." Wren's Pareii-
ta"», p. 300.
" This wc now call the Gothic manner of architecture