B OOKS.
GWILT'S ARCHITECTURE.*
As this is a book containing fifteen hundred very closely printed pages, it is scarcely a book for the most industrious reviewer to read from beginning to end ; and if he did it, we are sure the public would shrink from following his example. It is a book to be tested, not read from the first page to the last. But any one pretending to really test such a book as this, which Mr. Gwilt, now dead, has left behind him, should have professional and technical knowledge almost equal to that of the compiler of this big volume, who had spent a long life in the study and practice of architec- ture. Fortunately the book is a standard book. To a very great extent, amateurs and the profession have accepted it in its earlier editions ; and what we have to do, in noticing the new and im- proved issue which Mr. Wyatt Papworth has superintended, is to tell the general public what sort of a book it is, and to show—if we can do so—how far Joseph Gwilt is to be trusted when he leaves technical details aside, and pronounces his verdict on the best styles of architecture.
A very short memoir of the author is prefixed to this edition of his work. From it, it will be seen that he was not strictly speak- ing a modern man, we mean a modern man of the day. He was born in 1784, and died four years ago, having survived many of the theories of taste which in early manhood and middle age he had approved. The very first years of the century were his years of apprenticeship to his craft. He was practising it for himself all through the days of the Regent, and through the times that followed those, up to about the middle of this century. But though his period of practice was long his works were few, and for the most part unimportant. He competed in 1822 for the New London Bridge, and his designs were twice placed first by the judges. However, he did not get the task. The Committee bestowed their patronage elsewhere. Mr. Gwilt felt aggrieved, and published a pamphlet on the subject, which did him very little good, we suspect. It was to the literature of his profession that he had early devoted himself. Several papers and treatises of his had been read with success before various associations ; and what had been printed on the "Equilibrium of Arches and the Origin of Caryatides" had been received with favour. In 1842 he brought out the Encyclopedia, a new edition of which is now before us. It was his chief work, and the one by which he will be remembered.
The Encyclopxdia of Architecture is intended, we believe, to supply every want which the amateur who is not a mere dabbler in the art could feel, and to be at the same time a sufficient guide and help to the professional student. It is in many respects exhaustive, the author having imparted in these pages that full- ness of knowledge which a long life had been spent in acquiring. We have, first of all, a history of architecture—short accounts of the styles adopted in countries which have influenced our own but little, and longer notices of the styles of Greece and Rome. There is a chapter of some sixtypages (very copiously illustrated) on "The Architecture of Britain ;" tracing its whole course from the ancient Briton's days to our own, through the Norman, the proper Gothic, the Elizabethan, the days of Anne and the first Georges—of which, we may observe, Kensington more than any other subtirb
• An Encyclopaedia of ilrehiledure. By Joseph Owili, F.S.A. New editio3. -Revised by Wyals Papworth. London: Longmans, Green, and Go. 1867.
of London retains the marks, which any reader may notice for- himself. There is a chapter on" Pointed Architecture," in general,. supplied—and very properly supplied—by Mr. Papworth, who. has done more justice to this branch of the subject than Mr. Gwilt is likely to have done. Wisely not content with allowing the story of our own styles, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, to be all the book should contain on the history of that Gothic architecture which is widely spread over Europe, in ever varying forms, Mr. Papworth has supplied accounts of the pointed styles, as they arose and developed themselves to meet the require- ments of climate, life and manners in France, Belgium, Germany, North Italy, and Spain.
By the amateur, this story of the pointed styles will probably be found the most interesting, and indeed the most useful part of the volume. It is amply and charmingly illustrated ; and it enables the reader to compare the rise, progress, and decline of Gothic architecture in the different countries. He will see in, what points the style of one district resembled that of another at starting ; and how the resemblance gradually diminished, the individuality of each country being stamped upon its buildings. He will see how clustered column, gable roof, and pointed arch were modified by the genius of the people who used them. He can compare the domestic Gothic of some Flemish and North German towns, quaint and precise as the figures of the burghers who dwelt in them, with the domestic Gothic of Venice, full of imagination, adaptability, and sunny grace. He can look first at the ordered splendour of the cathedrals of York, Salisbury, or Cologne ; and then at the more fantastic, the more bizarre beauty of St. Stephen's at Vienna. He can turn from the little doors of the churches of Kent, to the "soaring gates" of St. Wulfran, at Abbeville ; and learn that English Gothic—graceful or grand though it may be—is not equal to the Gothic of the men who wrought the charm of the Sainte Chapelle, and the seeming perfection of Rheims, and Chartres, and Amiens.
In accordance with the opinion now generally held, that Gothic. art was received into the North of Europe from France, though altered during the time of naturalization, the usual division of the styles accords with that made in France. But the periods do not always correspond. The Gothic of France was in advance of that of England and that of Germany, a few exceptions apart. Thus, while examples of pure first pointed work occur in some of the churches of Paris as early as 1163, they are not found in Germany until 1225. Dr. Whewell, in his Architectural Notes on German Churches, makes a remark that is worth recording here. He first suggested the fact that English and German architects, beginning- from the same point, and arriving at the same result (the complete Gothic or Decorated period, with geometrical tracery), made the transition each through a separate style ; one of these, the earlier English, being decidedly Gothic ; the other, which he calls "Early German," being rather Romanesque than Gothic. The sugges- tion is followed out in detail in the Encyclopmdia. We shall not- further consider it here, having chiefly been induced to give what space we have already given to some words on Gothic, in order to. indicate that justice has been done to it in the new issue of Joseph. Gwilt's volume. It is to Mr. Papworth that this is due. Mr. Gwilt formed his opinions before Ruskin wrote, or Barry, Scott, and Street began to build. He was an admirer of the classic- styles, almost to the exclusion of Gothic, and it was the works of the Renaissance, the designs of Wren, that he was fond of praising.
The second book in his volume is devoted to anexposition of " The- Theory of Architecture," and is full of information and technical details, useful sometimes to the hearty amateur, and invaluable to. the professional student. In his third book, which is on "The Prac- tice of Architecture," much that is serviceable is stated with respect to the Grecian and Italian styles (Palladio was, after all, Mr. Gwilt's greatest hero) ; but much that can also be serviceable concerning medireval architecture would have been wanting, had not Mr. Papworth supplied it in the nick of time. Public: and private buildings, adapted to the wants of the day, are treated of very ably and sensibly ; and there is a glossary, which adds. greatly to the value of the work by its fullness and clearness.. The compilation of such a book is a task which an intellectual. Hercules might not have despised. Joseph Gwilt undertook it,. and, what is more, he fulfilled it.
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