BOID's HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE.
THE appearance of a new edition of this admirable little work— which is not known as it deserves to be—is peculiarly well-timed. The building of the new Houses of Parliament is an event in the annals of our architecture that may be expected to excite public attention in no ordinary degree; not only on account of the mag- nitude and importance of the edifice, but the great number of competitors for its erection,—upwards of a hundred architects, it is said, being engaged in making designs. Their relative merits will form a lively subject for discussion in the public prints and in private circles. In Parliament next session, the stale topics of O'CONNELL and the Orangemen will give place to the more novel and peaceable one of Ssa Mau and the Architects. Nay, who knows but the Rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament may even take precedence of the Reform of the Lords ? Now, as every intelligent person likes to understand something of a subject which forms the topic of conversation, especially if be should be called upon to give an opinion upon it,—and as architecture is, to say the least, a science whose principles are as little known as those of any of the other branches of the fine arts,—it follows that there will be a simultaneous rush to the encycloptedias, and the volume contain- ing ARC will be in general requisition. Without wishing, how- ever, in the slightest degree to disparage the cycloptedian infor- mation, we will venture to recommend to all who desire to be enlightened on the subject, at a small expense of time and money, the perusal of Mr. BOID'S book. It gi; es a clear and comprehen- sive view of the history of architecture ; tracing the origin of the several styles, and their various modifications in different countries and at various periods; mentioning the most famous architects and remarkable edifices; commencing with an introductory essay which develops the leading principles of the science, and con- cluding with a sketch of the progress of architecture in England. To make the work complete, plates of the distinguishing charac- teristics of each style are given. Mr. Bon) is not an architect by profession, but an amateur : he has investigated the subject with the patient research of an antiquarian and the enlarged views of a man of taste; and, having been a traveller, he has moreover seen with his own eyes many of the edifices which he instances. Though sufficiently accurate to form a very useful introductory manual tor the professional student, the author is not so technical as to be unintelligible to the Un- learned: on the contrary, he treats the subject in a broad and massive style, and gives it a popular interest. His opinions are in general sound, being the result of diligent research and fair Seasoning; and his taste and judgment will seldom be called in uestion
The origin of architecture as a science, Mr. BOID refers to the Egyptians; from whom the Greeks, Persians, and Hindoos, im- mediately derived their respective styles,—which were modifi- cations of the Egyptian, varying with the genius and religion of each nation. With respect to Gothic, which has given rise to many fanciful theories, Mr. BoiD adopts the opinion of FENELON, that it originated with the Visigoths of Spain ; who employed Aral:ian architects to build Christian churches, in which the crescent or horse-shoe arch was forbidden to be used, as being the symbol of Mahommedanism; and the pointed arch was exclu- sively adopted. Mr. Bolo condemns the exuberance of dacoration in what is called Florid Gothic ; but, we think, rather needlessly : for surely there never was a style—scarcely excepting the Moorish, from which it is said to have been derived—which admits of, nay tempts, a profuse display of ornament, so much as the Gothic, and which when so enriched has such a beautiful and picturesque effect Henry the Seventh's Chapel alone:is, in our opinion, a sufficient answer to all such objections. The author contends for the purity of Gothic architecture; yet he passes almost uncensured the ex- cess of decoration with which the Romans overlaid the classic orders of the Greeks. That only can be conaidered a vicious ex- cess of ornament which offends the eye, or which sacrifices the character of the style : and we do not think that either effect is produced by the enrichments of Florid Gothic. To the modifi- cation of one style, or the blending of two, Mr. BOID does not object where the result is beauty as well as novelty. Indeed, it is by the effect alone that the propriety of innovation is to be de- termined. Pedants, who slavishly copy what has been done before, as often fall short of their great originals from defective compre- hension. as those who strive at originality fail from want of power. To apply the principles of a particular style of architecture to buildings whose purposes were never contemplated by the in- ventors of the style, requires originality of mind : for what is the discovery of new combinations and modes of application of old principles, but invention?
Walking the other day through the Sculpture Gallery of the British Museum, we instinctively turned aside to go down the stairs leading to the temporary building in which the Elgin Marbles were formerly deposited,—forgetting at the moment that they had been removed to a gallery more worthy of them. The old place is bricked up ; but a sort of vestibule still remains, which is now filled with plaster casts of fragments of ancient architecture. The massiveness, noble proportions, and bold pro- jections of the entablatures, and the grandeur and elegance of the Corinthian capitals—seeming as if they would burst the walls with the magnificence of their beauty—struck us anew with a sense of the majesty of Greek architecture. How puny and in- significant in comparison are our imitations of their colossal sym- metry! beauty degenerated into prettiness, elegance into neatness, simplicity into baldness. The difference seems as great as be- tween the marbles of the Parthenon and the sculptures in St. Paul's. We miss the grandeur of design, the graceful involu- tions of the curves, the relief of the ornaments. If, then, the imitation be so inferior, where the architect has the model before him to copy from by measurement, how much further removed from the original may we not expect to find the adaptation of the style to a different class of structures ? This alone should be a sufficient justification—if any be required—of those modifica- tions of other styles, which all nations have in turn adopted to suit the purposes for which their buildings were designed. In- different originality is at least better than bad imitation. All great nations have a style of architecture of their own: why not England ? How PeiticLes would stare to see the temples of his gods distorted into dwelling-houses, and decorated with rows of windows and stacks of chimney-pots—our public buildings orna- mented with sculptures of Greek warriors, and Christian churches decorated with symbols of Heathen worship! The beauty of archi- tecture is based upon utility. The steep slant of our gable-roofs throws off the rain of our moist clima:te: the stacks of tall twisted chimnies appropriately ornament the home of the Englishman, whose snug fireside is at once his boast and his comfort. Blend these with the round-headed arch and machiolated battlements of the Normans, who built our first churches and castles—for Saxon buildings, as Mr. BOID proves, do not exist in this country—or with the angular arch and pinnacles of the Gothic style, which has become naturalized in England,—and you have the old Eng- lish domestic architecture, which all the modem n adaptations of Greek will not equal in fitness, and scarcely surpass in picturesque beauty. Such is the style in which we hope the new Houses of Parlia- ment will be erected. Whatever be the result of the competition, however,—whether it prove honourable to the genius of our archi- tects and the taste of the nation, or the reverse,—it cannot but be productive of incidental benefit, by drawing out the talent of archi- tects whom jobbing may have kept in obscurity, and by directing public attention to the subject of architecture. A science so identified with national greatness—upon which the beauty and magnificence of a metropolis almost wholly depend—whose pro- ductions are regarded by the foreigner as evidences of the wealth and refinement of a country, and address the eye of the people more frequently and strikingly than any other—deserves more attention than it has hitherto received among us. The invention of architects will always be influenced by the enlightened judg meat of men of taste.; and public opinion, in matters of fine art
as well as politics, is the best check to those " extravagant fanta- sies which architects are too apt," as Mr. BoID says, "to fall into."
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