IN DEFENCE OF BAROQUE.* THE present generation is fond of
boasting that it has out- grown Ruskin. Whether this be true or not, it has certainly grown tired of him. His nobility of thought is forgotten, his petulance magnified; the champion of Turner is remembered as the man who preferred the poetry of Mrs. Browning to that of Shelley. Mere repudiation, however, will not over- throw a philosophy that has obtained so firm a hold on popular sentiment. It will be the work of many years to disentangle our theories of aesthetics from the ethical parallels to which Ruskin has bound them, and at present we are very liable to the inconsistency of rejecting his premisses without questioning his conclusions.
The common attitude towards the architecture and sculpture of the Baroque period is a case in point. No words are con- sidered too harsh to express fairly the enormities of this
• In the Heel of Italy: a Study of an Unknown City. By Martin Shaw Blinn, A.B.I.B.A. London: Andrew Melrose. Cgs. 6d.) echoed of design. The works of Bernini are regarded with derision or disgust Fergusson's mid-Victorian cant about the "absurdity" of Borromini and of Guarini is accepted without a moment's doubt of its rationality, and a year never passes without some busybody of the public Press condemning Roubiliac's fine tombs in Westminster Abbey.
This could not have been but for The Stones cf Venice. Baroque was no favourite with the critics before Ruskin became their leader, but never had it been subjected to censure such as this. The violence of the new point of view was the outcome of a theory according to which all Renaissance art was held to show the birth of false principles and all post- Renaissance art their triumph. From the neo-mediaeval standpoint, if Bramante were bad, Borromini was certainly worse; if in Raphael be acme the beginning of the end, in Pietro da Cortona is the end itself. But those to whom, as to the present writer, the Renaissance appears as having been Art's renascence indeed, to whom Bramante seems a king among architects and Raphael the inaugurator of a new era in painting, what right have they to echo the denunciations of a prophet whose message in the main we reject P Surely, if the Baroque style be condemned, it must 'be condemned for showing the post-Renaissance tendencies, not at their culmination, but in their decadence. And the essential decadence of Baroque art is as hard to demonstrate as it is easy to assume.
These reflections have been induced by the illustrations of a book called In the Heel of Italy. It is written by an English architect, Mr. Martin Shaw Briggs, who is anxious to acquaint his countrymen with the history and with the buildings of Lecce, a city near Brindisi. Judging from the descriptions, photographs, and drawings that the author has put together, this University town—for such it is—must be a very charming place, and a mine of wealth for the lover of Baroque. Here are the sparkling little palaces, the gay and splendid churches, the exuberantly ornate public buildings, in which that fantastic style delights, a style that may almost be described as architecturally witty,—every pediment a paradox, every column a conceit. The Baroque of Lecce appears to have peculiarities of its own, which, according to Mr. Briggs, are due to the geographical position of the locality,—its remoteness from the rest of Italy, and its maritime connexion with Greece, perhaps even with Asia. This may well be true. The buildings that he illustrates, however, are as typical of their period as of their place, and if it be impossible to deny their claims on our admiration, we mast be prepared to reconsider the merits and demerits of the art of that period.
In order to judge rightly in this matter it is necessary to define as far as possible the new principles introduced into architecture at the time of the Renaissance. Of these the most important is the employment of features which, to borrow a phrase from Sauvageot, jouent un vile. Architecture, hitherto dumb when unallied with sculpture, now strives for dramatic expression and the power of narration, that it may tell romances of stress and strain in the language of pillar, arch, and beam. Whereas the Mediaeval building is a statement of fact, the post-Renaissance building is an essay in fiction: the Gothic buttress avows the vault within, the Italian portico tells a legend of when men built temples to false gods.
This may seem to be unduly fanciful, a far-fetched apology for the simulation and allusiveness of post-Renaissance art. But those who can accept the theory will find in it an adequate explanation both of the peculiar genius and of the essential inferiority of the styles which have succeeded the downfall of Gothic. Of these styles it may be said, not that they have the defects of their qualities, but that their qualities are their defects. The eager pursuit of beauty which characterises the works of the last three or four centuries often captures less of that elusive quality than came, welcomed but un- sought, to the craftsman of an earlier age. The introduction of architectural features that serve no end but decoration is a practice which, although condemned only by the thoughtless, is certainly apt to carry the art beyond its natural bounds, and to lead to an illogical system of design.
On the other band, it is always possible to conventionalise an incident of construction so that it may be applicable as pure decoration in a manner analogous to that employed by the sculptor in the treatment of natural objects. For
example, a portico of columns or pilasters attached to a wall is nothing more nor less than a conventionalised representa- tion of the front of a temple in high or low relief, anti as an ornament is fully as defensible as a conventionalised repre- sentation of an acanthus-leaf or of a human figure. The danger of recognising this fact too fully lies in the tempta- tion that it brings to the designer of undervaluing the natural expression of his construction, an expression often more valuable than any obtainable by the application of decorative features. This danger cannot have appeared very formidable to the fertile brain of the Baroque architect, who had enough decorative material ready to his hand for any possible occasion, and would have scorned to seek inspiration from the nature of the materials with which he worked. He was less architect than sculptor, and demanded little more from the builder than a plain field, on which his broken pediments, twisted columns, and gesticulating personages could disport themselves without restraint His appeal was to the eye, and by the eye alone can his work be judged. The effects of skilful poise and nice adjustment of thrust and counterthrust, which play so large a part in Gothio design, are here deliberately abjured in order to give full play to an architecture purely abstract. If we divest the word of its acquired suggestion of opprobrium, the typical Baroque building may be described as completely and triumphantly artificial. It speaks of a struggle between the artist and his materials rather than an alliance, and its artistic qualities depend on the measure of his victory. There can be no greater mistake than to condemn the style without full under- standing, and this mistake is one of which English critics are very generally guilty. Mr. Briggs considers that greater tolerance prevails now in this matter than formerly, and instances an " unblushingly 'baroque' church " that has lately arisen in Kingsway as a portent. Such confidence is hard to share, as the Church of SS. Anselm and Cecilia (which must be the building to which Mr. Briggs refers) is Baroque in no particular whatever. It is more nearly referable to Cinque- cents than any other style of antiquity, but is in actual fact a charming example of the individual manner of its architect, Mr. F. Walters. But if we reject this token of a fancied. change in taste, we may predict also that books like this of Mr. Briggs may do a great deal towards bringing it about. Before taking leave of a readable and pleasant volume it may be stated that the illustrations are well reproduced and the type satisfactory.
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