tlbe

VOL. VI. JANUARY-MARCH, 1897. NO. ?

MODERN DECORATION.

nineteenth century will leave tastes. The Palace of Versailles, its no landmark in the of THE history architecture, its vast and noble halls, decoration and the arts of or- which are majestic, though in a the- namentation. Modern society has, so atrical sort of way, its marbles, its far, been unable to create any new mirrors, its brasswork, its pictures forms of decoration, or to furnish and and its furniture, sufficiently demon- embellish its dwelling in an original strate the very special and distinc* style. This is a curious fact, and one conception which the society of tha that is difficult to explain. period had of ornamental decoration The people of every epoch that has in all its branches. preceded our own were able to adorn In the same way, the society of tht themselves with a decorative garb to eighteenth century, intelligent but their taste. At the good periods, frivolous, reasoning but sentimental, there has always been harmony be- free and learned, created for itself a tween society and its surroundings new decorative form which enabled its between the picture and the frame. elegancies and its fashions to appear Furniture and decoration under Louis to the best advantage. The Louis XIV., for example, indicate the same XV. style, in spite of its affectation tendencies, the same principles and and its deformities, will remain the the same elegancies, which, in higher most perfect style that a refined socie- domains, governed the development ty has ever produced. That society of the literature and art of that period. was, in a marked degree, worldly, rich Racine's plays, Moliere's comedies, and elegant. Living artificially, Bourdaloue's sermons, Le Brun's knowing little about family life or paintings, Coysevox's groups and calm, peaceful leisure, it naturally at- busts in fact, all the works of that tached special importance to the re- .time, proclaim a society fully con- ception rooms drawing-rooms and scious of itself, and of the beauty boudoirs with the result that Louis which it wishes to attain. That society XV. decoration and furniture are pre- has a character which it shows in the eminently drawing-room decoration most diverse spheres; it distinguishes and furniture, and they were remark- of the itself from the society which preceded, ably appropriate to the needs and from that which followed it; and society of that time. just as it created a literature and an It should also be noted that, at art of its own, so, without groping or those periods, which we call style art did not re- hesitation, did it evolve a style of dec- periods, the movement oration adequate to itself and in per- main confined to painting and sculp- to all branches of fect conformity with its' needs arid ture, but extended All reserved. Copyright, 1897, by THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD COMPANY. rights Vol. VI. 3. 1. No. 1. FIREPLACE IN THE "ROTONDE BESNARD. Hotel de 1'Art Nouveau. No 2.-CEILING IN THE "ROTONDE BESNARD. Hotel de 1'Art Nouveau 246 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

No. 3. DECORATION. Hotel de 1'Art Nouveau. By M. Isaac.

the slightest productions of the vari- tions of the past; that we sit, according ous trades which contribute to decora- to the occasion, on a Gothic bench, on tion: wood, bronze, iron, tapestry, a Louis XV. chair, or in a morocco stuffs, silks, pottery, etc. One same easy-chair; that the walls of our rooms tradition was followed and respected may consist of Louis XVI. panels, at all stages by the art worker. Hence Renaissance wainscoting, or be per- the unity of the productions of a good fectly plain; that there is no trace of epoch, as illustrated by the finished any dominant taste and no unity in and perfect character of a Louis XV. the manner in which we decorate our drawing-room, that of the Archives, apartments; that we accept an English for instance. dining-room contiguous to an en- In this manner, proceeding on par- trance-hall after the fashion of the allel lines, we might, by consulting the Middle Ages, and a drawing-room of furniture and the apartments of past the eighteenth century; that we burn times, compile a philosophy of decor- gas in antique lamps, and that our ation and furnishing, for the harmony candelabra in the style of a hundred between the society and the frame years ago are traversed by electric which surrounds it is so perfect that light conductors. Hardly ever will the latter leads up to the former and one find an article made for the new reveals to us its life and spirit. If this purpose which it has to serve. We experiment were made in regard to live on the past. our own time, what story would mod- The decoration of some of the richest ern decoration tell as to the tastes and of modern apartments reminds one of character of contemporary society? It the ceiling of a theatre. The Paris would say that we are well-informed Opera House has too often inspired and inquisitive; that we like with an the decorators of the present day. On equal ardor or regard with an equal both continents we see the same sub- indifference the most diverse produc- jects in gilded pasteboard, uncouth MODERN DECORATION. 247

No. 4. THE DINING ROOM. Hotel de 1'Art Nouveau.

rubbish and trash which comes to us they have not the slightest artistic in a direct line from the rococo Ital- character, and do not reveal any ten- ian style. dency towards the creation of a dec- The best we are capable of is an orative style. imitation of the ancients, and even in Thus, an examination of our apart- this we have lost the knack of that ments would lead to the following clever handiwork which gives a price- discouraging conclusion: that mod- less value to trivial objects. We do ern society, confused and divided, has not know how to work iron, nor chase not yet succeeded in forming an idea bronze, nor carve wood, as it was of its tastes and requirements, and- done a century ago. The workman- that, finding it impossible to discover ship has become coarser. It is nec- any new form of decoration, it is re- essary nowadays to manufacture on duced to living, so to speak, in other a large scale and supply a new class people's houses, and to reviving in its of customers, who are easily satisfied, own behalf furniture and decorations were and do not place artistic qualities made for other circles, and which all because : above else. Consequently, far from perfect only they correspond of producing anything new we cannot exactly to the needs and the taste

, even copy in anything but an inferior their day. manner. Whence will the new style come? it birth? We If our style of decoration is not his- What nation will give so torical, that is to say, borrowed from Europeans are trammeled by many ,the past, then it can almost certainly old memories that we shall, perhaps, be said that we have no decoration at be slow in evolving any original idea. iall. We have very comfortable rooms, Will it be America, freer, younger, whom the less jOf which heaven preserve me from and upon past weighs ^peaking any evil. They fulfil the pur- heavily? What has the fast-approach- in store for us? pose for which they are intended, but ing twentieth century THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

No. 5. CHINA DECORATION. By M. Vuillard.

"Will it, too, continue to clothe itself to apply themselves to decoration in old-fashioned garments? These properly called, to the study of spe- questions are full of interest, and reach cial processes, and to visiting factor- further than they seem to, for a ies and workshops in search of new society worthy of the name and truly decorative forms. As a matter of fact, great cannot exist without art, which we shall have no modern decoration outlives everything, dead nations as until all prepossessions in regard to well as extinct grandeurs. the past are altogether dissipated : the However indifferent modern so- new style must be wholly created by ciety may have been in these matters, the free mind of the artist, who is not it is right to state that there have re- a copyist, nor a literal interpreter of cently appeared signs of an awakening. styles already known. Everything, as yet, is in the prepara- We should like here to mention a is settled few of the latest efforts made in tory stage ; nothing ; nothing, very so stands forth are different to indicate the idea far, clearly ; but we domains, seeking, which is already a great of the artist, and to say, if necessary, point, and we shall find. Artists are the special process employed in these ridding themselves of the false idea attempts at modern decoration. The formed during the present century house which M. S. Bing has just re- that there is an absolute distinction fitted in order to consecrate it entire- between what are called the fine arts ly to L'Art Nouveau has given a num- architecture, painting and sculpture ber of people a desire to try to intro- and the decorative arts, and that duce innovations into the rich and in- ^nly to the former can an artist de- teresting field of decorative forms, vote his life. They do not disdain now and in future L'Art Nouveau will give MODERN DECORATION. 249

No. 6. CHINA DECORATION. By M. Vuillard.

a welcome to all hearty endeavors in general form of the room, and the this direction. panels. The most charming part is cer- As will be the readily imagined, tainly the ceiling, on which is represent- so formulated programme intelligently ed a circle of women holding each by M. has been the of Bing object other's hands and dancing. With much criticism. These searchers af- great skill the painter has succeeded ter new forms have to encounter had in keeping his figures in a ring and the of opposition preconceived ideas, filling it with them only. The move- and have been greeted with a great deal ments of the women and the very dec- of banter. In my opinion, the crit- orative line of their whirling skirts ics are wrong. It is evident that at make this work a completely success- the outset, we cannot expect to see a ful ceiling picture, and painters who style that is harmonious and complete have attempted a similar task know in every point, and whatever mistakes well enough how difficult it is. This and blunders may have been commit- drawing-room is lighted by electric ted, it is, nevertheless, certain that the lamps, placed out of sight on the cir- efforts of artists have been turned into cular cornice; the light is diffused by a new and excellent channel. Any- passing through a screen of yellow that will deliver us from the ob- It the thing silk. is, therefore, painting session, the unintelligent copying, of which constitutes the decoration, and the past, ought to be received kindly we reproduce the figures merely to and studied with interest. provide food for reflection for artists Here is a drawing-room, decorated who may undertake a like task, and by A. Besnard, in which painted dec- to show them the elegant manner in oration plays the principal part. The which M. Besnard has solved a dif- room is round, and the walls are di- ficult problem. vided into long panels separated by Another artist, M. Isaac, has dif- the windows. The chimneypiece, of ferent conceptions. He would like to ingenious shape, harmonizes with the see stuffs play a new and a larger 250 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

No. 7. CHINA DECORATION. By M. Vuillard.

part in decoration. He would paint is always of great beauty, and no arti- them, and at the same time let the ma- cle of the kind can be reproduced in terial itself remain visible and palpa- a different material without losing ble, an apparently insoluble problem. thereby the very flower of its elegance. Yet he seems to have solved it. Now, in the matter of furniture M. Isaac's starting point is the old stuffs, we are very poor. We are re- and sound rule, which is often forgot- stricted to cretonne prints, woven ten nowadays, that each material re- silks, brocades, velvet, plain or quires to be treated in a particular stamped, and the uniform tints of reps fashion and in accordance with its own and plushes. Yet how interesting it nature : in other words, that each ma- would be to take a stuff of a certain terial calls for a special method of texture velvet, plush, reps or can- work, a certain technique. This seems vas and cover it with a decoration a self-evident truth, and yet it is one which would religiously respect the that is violated constantly at the pres- tissue and leave unimpaired the spe- ent day. Every intelligent artist cial reflex of the material employed: knows how to bend to his material; the softness of the velvet, the irides- he respects it and tries to make it ren- cent depth of the plush, the clear der only those effects which it is sus- markings of the reps, etc. Even more, ceptible of rendering. In some coun- the process followed might cause the tries the humblest workmen have this stuff itself to contribute to the effect sense of the capabilities of the mate- produced by the decoration applied to rial, and their knowledge is displayed it, certain subjects and certain colors in the most insignificant productions being particularly suitable for certain of industrial art. For instance, it is kinds of stuffs. these qualities of the material which It is thus, I imagine, that M. Isaac give so much value to Japanese arti- has been led to undertake the decora- cles of virtu. The material employed tion of a drawing-room with canvas MODERN DECORATION. 251

panels, treated in an novel entirely which enters into the stuff and forms manner. He employs three different one body with it. The stuff is then processess : subjected to the tinting methods al- a stuff of (a.) Upon a given color, ready mentioned. dark for he blue, instance, sketches As is shown above, the material em- the which he has he design chosen; ployed, the special texture of each then covers over the parts drawn stuff, is respected and remains intact. upon, them thus in The keeping reserve, decoration forms an integral part and submits the entire canvas to the of the stuff itself. One easily sees action of an acid. The acid bites the what a great variety of effects can be color off the canvas, except at the arrived at in this manner, how the covered which the parts, keep origi- most opposite tones are brought, nal tone. the Finally, artist is able, thanks to the shading, to melt into by leaving certain parts of the canvas and unite with each other. in more or less prolonged contact M. Isaac has decorated an entire with the acid, to obtain the shades room at L'Art Nouveau. The wooden

No. 8. CHINA DECORATION. By M. Vuillard. which seem to him the most suitable frames have been treated with acids for the decorative effect desired. in the same manner as the stuffs, al- (b.) The process is inversed; only though the result is less frank and less the parts; covered by the drawing are happy. Illustration No. 3 shows two subjected to the action of the acid, the panels and a door-curtain of this room. stuff being reserved. The artist can What appears to me specially wor- then either leave the parts bitten by thy of notice is the artistic freedom of the acid in the tone produced, or mod- work which this process allows of. ify them by putting on such tones as China crepe, velvets and plushes can he considers best. In this case also, be treated in the same way without the parts exposed to the action of the losing the properties peculiar to them acid are so exposed for a length of their suppleness, their twill, their time which varies according to the ef- individual appearance. Thus, not fect sought for. only decoration, but the fashions them- the researches (c.) A variation of the two preceding selves, can benefit by will be able to processes. The parts drawn upon are described above. One impregnated with melted candle-wax, have a gown decorated. It is to be 252 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

No. 9. CHINA DECORATION. By M. Vuillard. hoped that a number of artists will surmounted by a fine stained window follow in the track opened up by M. executed by Mr. Louis Tiffany, from Isaac. a design by M. Rauson. The furni- In the dining-room of the same ture of the room is in cedar wood, house, wood is the principal feature. with the same brass incrustations. It The wainscoting reaches as high as 5 has been made, like the dining-room, feet 8 inches. It is surmounted by a by M. Van de Velde. The general console, upon which vases, jars and tonality and the form of the furniture plates will be placed peasant fashion. make it a delicious summer dining- Above, there is a painted decoration room suite for a country house. by M. Rauson, the general effect of Henceforward, new combinations of for which is, perhaps, not so satisfactory wood and metals can be invented as we have a right to expect from such the woodwork. There is no doubt but a sincere and clever artist. But what that equally satisfactory results will interests us most is the woodwork, be obtained with other kinds. which is inlaid with brass. The wood The artists who are endeavoring to is polished cedar, of a clear, warm give decorative art a .new direction, color. In each panel an ornament in and to provide contemporary society polished brass is inlaid. This alliance with forms that are not merely retro- of wood and brass is very happy, and, spective, have tried their hands in very for such a purpose, quite novel. The different domains. At the inaugura- illustration (No. 4) which we give tion of the Hotel de L'Art Nouveau, only serves to give the lines and an there was on view in the dining-room idea of the brass ornamentation; in a china dinner service, the entirely reality, these two substances combine original decoration of which was high- together in the most charming fash- ly pleasing. It is the work of M. Vuil- ion. The chimney-piece, where the lard, one of those young painters from brasswork mingles with the bricks, is whom great things are expected. At MODERN DECORATION.

No. 10. CHINA DECORATION. By M. Vuillard.

this first attempt at china decoration to adapt himself to the exigencies of a he has produced something masterly. different substance and a different M. Vuillard has proceeded with sin- kind of decoration. We know what gular sureness in the path which he the ordinary decoration of dinner ser- has chosen. His decoration of an en- vices is, and how much remains to be tire drawing-room on canvas, with done to finally give china an artistic size colors which can be seen and character. In no other direction, we admired at M. A. Netanson's house, think, has such poverty and such a total in Paris, had already drawn attention absence of the decorative sense been to him as an artist who is extremely manifested. Wretched plates on which thoughtful and conscious of the re- are depicted scenes of gay life, shep- sources and of the limitations of his herds in eighteenth century costume art. M. Vuillard is a painter in the uttering weak compliments to their fe- true sense of the word; that is to say, male companions, landscapes faith- a man for whom the world of color fully copied, mythological scenes, or- exists, for whom the greatest joys lie naments without reason and without in a beautiful association of tones, in any necessity these are the things a tuneful scale of friendly colors and currently sold. We have seen a lux- in contrasts brought into play in a urious dinner service on which were harmonious manner. At the Hotel pictured Tritons and dolphins ejecting Binet, M. Vuillard also exhibited water from their wide open mouths, some drawing-room panels, in which and, the appetite once satisfied, jt was he has attained a formula still richer impossible to resist a feeling of disgust and more complete. In the china din- to see these creatures mingling so ner set, which he has decorated, and much water with the food. And which belongs to the writer, he has, even when the decoration is only veg- the absolute in- on the contrary, handled new prob- etable or geometrical, want of skill lems, and nothing is more interesting digence of color and the than to see how well he has been able on the part of the painters, who, it is THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

No. 11. CHINA DECORATION. Bv M. Vuillard. easy to see, are simple workmen with- ful not to treat them as might have out any concern for art, also displease done a portrait painter or a designer the eye. M. Vuillard thinks it is pos- of fashion plates. He has only taken sible to decorate a plate artistically, so much of them as can be taken for and that if decoration be the sole ob- decorative purposes. He has sought ject kept in view, many of the gross inspirations in the fashions of the day, faults committed by china manufac- and has made use of whatever was turers can be avoided. He has chosen suitable to the work he desired to pro- three simple colors, the effect of which duce, and thus, reduced by him to he has tried by burning in: a warm their essential decorative signification, reddish brown, a green and a blue. we have large spotted sleeves, silk, He has composed the service with blouses of assorted patterns, the low these three colors alone. There is a bodices, the large bows and the ribbons different pattern for each dozen plates, with which our women folk bedeck seven in all. The dishes, the cooked their persons; the immense hats with fruit dishes and the sauce boats match feathers, the waving plumes with the plates which they accompany. which they crown themselves in fact, As can be seen from the photo- all the frivolous and charming side of graph which we reproduce, the orna- feminine life of the present day. mentation is everywhere treated in the The tones of each dozen plates vary boldest manner. Broad scrolls, some as regards their relative proportions. curled and some waved, adorn the Thus, in the fish plates green predom- the artist care plate ; but has taken .to inates over the white at the bottom,, preserve the form of the plate, and to and the plate is delicately light. In display its characteristics. For the the vegetable plates brown and light central motive of the decoration he blue give the prevailing note, which, has taken women not Louis XVII, in the meat plates, is indicated by shepherdesses, but women of the pres- dark blue. ent day. He has, however, been care- In this way, using the three same MODERN DECORATION. 255 colors, diversely gilded, the artist has most unexplored field of modern dec- attained a great variety of effects while oration. We cannot doubt but that confining himself to the same gamut these efforts will inspire others, and of color. There is here a great suc- in this manner, step by step, we shall cess in the domain of porcelain decor- see the decorative arts spring up ation, and it is a pleasant thing to see again with new life; the taste of the art lending its aid to the beautifying public as well as of artists will become of the most familiar and common ar- more and more refined, on each side ticles. a desire will be ielt to cut away from Such are a few of the novelties the past and to give a new society a which have been produced in the al- new frame and a new decoration. Jean Schpofer. VILLA SACCHETTI, FROM AN OLD PRINT BY G. VOLPATO. Designed by Pietro de Cortona about 1626 In ruins for more than one hundred years.

THE VILLAS OF ROME.

N matters architectural and artistic is giving place in popular favor to the we find ourselves in much the same I revived Colonial. position that other people have It is safe, therefore, to predict occupied at the approach of the great that in the near future our country- movement which is known as the seats will be designed in some recog- Renaissance. Like them we are nized style of classic architecture, and emerging from a period of disorder that the surroundings of these build- during which we have had neither ings will show some recognition of the the time nor the means for the culti- classic principle that there must be no vation of artistic tastes, and like them abrupt transition from the formal arch- we have suddenly found ourselves pos- itecture of the building to the unre- sessed not only of the desire for artis- straint of nature that there must be tic objects, whether of architecture, a middle ground where nature is in- sculpture or painting, but with the deed present, but restrained by archi- means by which that desire may be tectural lines. gratified. We have already felt the in- We have, indeed, always recognized fluence- of the object lessons of the these principles, though we have Chicago fair, itself but an evidence of adopted quite different means than revival. the those of Italy, France and England The Victorian Gothic, the Roman- for meeting their requirements. Pre- esque and the badly designed attempts vious to the Centennial our suburban at Classical architecture, which for dwellings, however badly designed many years divided the field of they may have been, were still classi- city building, are becoming more cal in outline, and we felt, though half rare. Even in the country which unconsciously perhaps, that there was is better adapted for picturesque archi- something incongruous between their tecture, the so-called Queen Anne cot- rigid outlines and the equally uncom- age, which for the last twenty years promising level on which they were has run riot in the unbridled license of placed. We tried to soften the vertical shingled turrets and creosote stains, outline of the building with trellises THE VILLAS OF ROME. 257

and by breaking up the horizontal and plan with those of classic times level of the lawn with shrubs to con- that a short consideration of ceal the the latter ugly angle. Ignorant of other will not be out of place. motives of landscape we gardening It was during the last of the abandoned the unsuccessful century compro- Republic that the great villas' of the mise, and instead of the sur- making wealthier citizens grew out of the un- roundings harmonize with our build- pretentious country-seats of more ings we made our architecture sub- austere times, but it was not until the servient to its accessory. Imperial period that they attained It now became our to make object their fullest development. our buildings spontaneous in the land- While a few of these villas were scape. Rock-hewn ashlar and even erected within the city walls, by far fieldstone carried the lines of up the the greater number were in the sub- undulating grounds which were now urbs, where there were greater facili- selected for the more picturesque set- ties for the gardens which formed an ting of the new style of suburban house, important adjunct to the villa, or cas- while above the strong colors of the .ino, itself. shingles blended with the landscape. It is difficult for a person, who tra- Our forefathers in colonial days verses the desolate tract of the Cam- solved the in the problem other way, pagna, to believe that the fever-breed- and In very successfully. the formal ing plain which surrounds Rome on in the boxhedged approach, disposi- every side was once a fertile valley, tion of their lawns and gardens, in that the barren waste, whose grey their arbors and found terraces, they fields, unbroken by tree or dwelling, a but simple effective setting in char- are now so deserted, was once a dense- acter with the severe lines of their ly peopled garden, covered for many dwellings, whose charm is the more miles in every direction with fertile apparent in contrast with our revived farms and luxurious villas. colonial destitute of these surround- Here alike were the modest coun- ings. try-seats of the upper classes, the ma- A growing love of luxury and dis- nors of the great patrician houses such play will tend to increase the number as the Servian, Flavian, Claudian and and elaboration of our great estates Valerian families, and here were the and country houses. It is therefore magnificent establishments of the Em- timely to consider in what ways the perors Titus, Claudius, Hadrian and architects of the Renaissance solved Domitian, the solitary ruins of which problems similar to those which will still stand to further enhance the des- soon present themselves. olation of the Campagna. As the villas of Italy have served To many of the great families be- as models to all the other countries longed a number of villas situated in which have with more or less success different parts of the Campagna. It was attempted landscape gardening on from no extravagant display of riches classic lines, it is proper that we turn that they possessed so many luxurious to the fountain source for our inspira- homes. The English aristocracy is tion but ; before we can study the villas very similar to that of Rome, and from of the Renaissance we must know an identity of principles and education something of the social causes which came identity of ways of life. led to the erection of this type of Like the English aristocracy the dwelling. younger members of the families served While it is not within the scope of in the army or in the diplomatic ser- the present article to enter into any vice, while those of maturer age sat in lengthy description of the villas of the the Senate or held other places under Republic or of Imperial Rome, still the government. This compelled them villas of the Renaissance are so inti- to remain near Rome during the heat mately connected both in conception greater part of the year, while the THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

and unhealthfulness of tfie city made a rupted view and because a small sup- residence in the country within easy ply of water which played such an im- reach of the city desirable. portant part in the landscape garden- The Roman season was short, so ing, could be used many times in a that during the greater part of the year great variety of fountains, cascades the family lived in the country, and as and nymphaea. the comfort of the house depended Attached to the main dwelling- largely on its situation, those who house were smaller buildings, placed could afford it built themselves several in suitable situations among the gar- villas, some on the cooler heights of dens, such as libraries, swimming the hills or in the Alban mountains, pools, gymnasia, porticos and exedras. some in the warmer plain of the Cam- The terraces were adorned with stat- pagna, some facing the south that ues in bronze and marble, while foun- so as they might profit by the warmth of tains and temples were disposed the sun, others to the north, east or to terminate the long alleys of ilex or west, according as their owners court- cypress. ed or avoided the various winds, which The hedges of box, myrtle or laurel were trimmed into walls in then as now play an important part carefully in the Roman climate. which doors and other architectural details were the We are possessed of very accurate depicted. Even pome- and trees were information, not only of the plans and granates, yews, plane cut in to harmon- designs of the villas themselves, but geometrical shape, ize with the of which of the arrangement of the gardens and spirit symmetry the whole. shrubbery which surrounded them and pervaded the modes of life of their owners. This The vines were trained over arbors of marble col- is derived from three sources; from cane, supported upon and even the cro- descriptions, such as the well-known umns, violets, roses, and the fav- letters of Pliny, in which he details cuses, poppies amarynths orite flowers of the were con- minutely his Laurentine villa, and Romans, fined within beds of formal and many passages in the writings of Ci- geo- metrical cero; from fresco representations, design. Such was the villa of the such as are depicted on the walls of Imperial How the architects Pompeii, in the greenhouse of the gar- period. closely of a later followed their dens of Maecenas on the Esquiline day models, and in the Villa Livia on the Via and how few features they abandoned or invented will be seen Flaminia; and lastly, from the remains by comparing of the villas themselves. From these the Renaissance villas with their clas- many sources we may obtain a clear sic prototypes. When Rome was the picture of a typical villa of the classic besieged by villas of the were period. Goths,the Campagna deserted their owners took The grounds were divided into two by who in the were sacked distinct parts, the lower which was refuge city. Many and burned the the others devoted to the barns, stables, dwellings by Goths, for slaves and other out-houses con- fell into ruin and decay, and what was be- nected with the farms and vineyards, once a highly cultivated garden and the upper portion where were the came the pestilential prairie which we gardens and dwelling of the proprie- know to-day. tor himself. A civilization, which for a thousand a for The latter was built upon a hill, years had made Rome synonym where nature had provided one, or if all that was highest in art and culture less favorably situated a large area had come to an end. was raised on terraces upon artificial Classicism was dead and feudalism foundations. This arrangement had reigned in its stead, and with changed double advantages because from every conditions came new modes of life, terrace the eye could have an uninter- Rome was transformed into an armed THE VILLAS OF ROME. 259

men no had the time cient camp, longer or models, men came to regard indeed the inclination for learning, with aversion and contempt all that new were no had buildings longer erected been done from the days of Trajan since the old ones were made to do to those of Nicholas V. and turned duty as fortresses, and no others were from all that savored of feudalism needed. or monkery too indifferent to be hos- We must pass over the centuries tile. Greek became the fashionable of under cover whose darkness Rome language of the court, and classic lit- was for battling existence, continually erature and art were the only subjects threatened by her foreign enemies, and thought worthy of discussion. over the period when the struggle be- In Rome Gothic architecture had tween Pope and Emperor left little never obtained a footing. The build- time for the cultivation of other arts ings which had been left as a rich her- than those of war. itage of classic Rome had sufficed for the of The suppression by Pope Nicholas needs a much smaller city. In V. (1450) of the conspiracy of Por- repairing these or in constructing new caso, the last struggle for municipal ones the invention of the architect was freedom in Rome, marks also the death too greatly enthralled by the beauty of feudalism and the birth of the Re- and abundance of his models to per- naissance. With the loss of independ- mit him to become more than a faith- ence the people turned away from pol- ful imitator. itics to live for art and literature, so Accordingly, the architects and that the era of the final establishment builders, though few in number, were of the Popes as temporal sovereigns not unprepared for the sudden de- of the city is also that of the dawn of mand for new and more elaborate the Renaissance. The spirit of the Re- buildings. naissance whether we call it skeptical No employment could have been or analytical or merely secular the better suited to the court of Rome. spirit which was the exact antithesis of The Papal artistocracy were indolent, mediaeval mysticism broke through wealthy and fond of displaying both its barriers and swept feudalism be- their riches and their good taste. As fore it with all the force of a pent-up each new pontiff was created, a torrent. wealthy and powerful family was add- All Italy felt the impulse and burst ed to the aristocracy and several pal- into new life. Poets, whose discour- aces and villas were erected to accom- aged song, drowned by the drums and modate the numerous relatives of the turmoil of a thousand years, had long Pope. been silent, found in love and beauty It is impossible to state with preci- more congenial themes than wars. sion the date when it became the fash- Scholars, whose philosophy had long ion to erect villas. A comparison of the stern of the been fettered by the chain of faith, no facades early Roman longer wrote as others taught. To palaces, which seem to have been de- the artist and the architect whose skill signed with the view to resisting at- had been confined to the painting of tack, with the light and unprotected of the villas would indi- a Byzantine pieta, or the building of a architecture fortress, a new world was thrown cate that sufficient time must have open. elapsed between the two types of The fire of old Rome had indeed dwelling for an important change to in the social life of exhausted itself, but beneath the ashes have taken place the of a buried city the embers still lived; city. at these the artist artisans rekindled It is quite probable that the great the villas the torch of learning which was to il- popularity which enjoyed the fashion lumine the darkness of the ages and was due quite as much to reveal a different world. of imitating Roman modes of life as to se. Enchanted by the beauty of the an- any real necessity for the villas per Vol. VI. 3.- 2. d

THE ANCIENT THEATRE IN TAORMINO, SICILY. From a fresco in the Burg Theatre, Vienna. LOGGIA OF THE FARNESINA, WITH FRESCOES BY RAPHAEL. 262 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

It is certain, moreover, that the tance limits its use to fountains and character of villas and plan these were grottos. those of ancient directly inspired by The villa itself is also affected by the for we know that all Rome, descriptions proximity of the palace of its owners of the latter studied and were carefully and is seldom more than a casino for that the architects of several villas, the exhibition of statuary and fres- such as the Villa Pia in the Vatican coes. Few of them were intended as and the Villa Barbarini at gardens, residences, but they were designed Castle Gondolfo, prided themselves on rather to serve as rendezvous for the having reproduced as perfectly as pos- entertainment of visitors and the dis- the sible the villas which had occupied play of the fine arts. same sites. The oldest of the existing villas is In the Renaissance villas we find the that erected by Agostino Chigi, the dual division into and out- same park wealthy papal banker of the sixteenth houses on the one hand and gardens century, famous for his patronage of the casino on the other. There is and the arts. This villa, now known as the of terraces the same employment and Farnesina, was created in 1510, from use of water in the same cascades, the plans of Baldassare Peruzzi, upon* fountains, grottos and nymphaea. the site of the gardens of the Emperor The gardens are planned on archi- Geta, where many bronzes and mar- tectural lines with carefully hedged bles, now in the Vatican collection,, walks which radiate or intersect at a were discovered. The villa lies in Tras- fountain, temple or statue which ter- tevere, upon the banks of the Tiber, minates the vistas. The statues, obe- nearly opposite the Farnese palace. lisks and Hermea which once adorned The gardens, which have been greatly the villas of Imperial Rome are curtailed by the recent alterations- brought forth to again perform a sim- made in the course of the river, were- ilar service. Even the sarcophagi of once very extensive, and were laid out the Romans themselves are found em- on architectural lines, although the ployed as fountains by their ardent flatness of the ground would have- admirers of a latter day. made an elaborate treatment impossi- No happy scheme of classifying the ble, even if the fashion of extensive villas presents itself. So many have terraces and ramps had been in vogue. been destroyed during the last twenty Nothing could be more simple than- years that it is difficult to discern the the plan of the villa itself, nor better traces of chronological development, adapted for the purposes of a building and the influence of one villa upon the designed wholly for pleasure. As the architecture of another is not appar- villa was never intended to be occu- ent. Nor can they be classified ac- pied as a dwelling, all restrictions of cording to plan, for their plans were convenience were wisely sacrificed, entirely controlled by the character of that the salons and galleries might be their sites, and no two are alike. There suited for entertainments and adapted is, however, a marked difference be- to receive fresco and other decorations- tween the villas within or just beyond of the most elaborate description. the city walls and those situated in the The plan of the building is an ob- suburbs. In the former the grounds long, which is broken in front by two- are often limited or are employed in projecting wings. Between these is a a more naturalistic way that their loggia (64x23 feet), which is now walks and drives may offer a marked enclosed. Adjoining this on the contrast to the streets of the surround- left is a similar room, which, also, was- ing city. There are fewer advantages originally without its protecting win- of hill and valley. The absence of an dows and opened upon the gardens. attractive view restricts the use of ter- The other rooms upon this floor are races, and the expense of employ- of minor importance. The first of these,. ing water brought from a great dis- of which an illustration is here givenv THE VILLAS OF ROME. 263

was decorated in fresco by Raphael, The upper rooms of the villa are assisted Guilio by Romana, Francesco also rich in frescoes by Peruzzi, So- Penni, Giovanni da Udine and others doma and other masters. Here are of his pupils. depicted Deucalion and the flood, Ap- The coved surfaces of the ceiling ollo and Daphne, Venus and Adonis. are adorned with ten illustrations of Bacchus and Ariadne, Endymion and Psyche, according to the story of Ap- Luna, Cephalus and Procris. uleius, a Latin author of the second These frescoes have been dwelt on read century, much by the Renais- not only because they are remarkable sance court. the itself On ceiling are in themselves and more than anything depicted in two large frescoes the ap- else have made the Farnesina a shrine of at the pearance Psyche feast of the for lovers of art, but because they gods and the celebration of the nup- emphasize two important facts: that tial banquet. the villas were erected not for any util- In spite of the fact that these fres- itarian purpose, but that they might coes have suffered severely from the afford their builders opportunities to weather and from the unhappy restor- display their learning and good taste ation of Carlo Maratta, who restored and their patronage of the allied arts the once soft background with a blue of architecture, painting and sculp- of such strong quality that the out- ture; and, secondly, that the Roman lines appear hard, and the figures villas express in their purpose and themselves suffer in contrast, the ef- character more plainly than do the fect is charming and, brilliant, for the churches, palaces or any other erec- beauty of the design and the skill with tion of the Renaissance, the intensity Which it has been executed made the of the newly born love of classicism. room renowned even in a period so Great opportunities were offered rich in noble creations of art. for elaboration, and here, without im- The other large room contains a propriety, the decoration could be second mythological picture by Ra- wholly pagan. The walls are, there- phael, which is no less charming than fore, decorated in fresco with scenes from or with the Pschye series; while being entire- pagan myths arabesques in the ly from the master's own hand it sur- suggested by those discovered or in stucco passes it in execution. This is the ruins of Roman buildings of a like The rooms and iamous Galatea, who is depicted sur- inspiration. statues and rounded by nymphs, tritons and cu- gardens are adorned with fountains and the walls with architec- pids. tural from the of The ceiling was designed and exe- fragments buildings classic Rome a for the cuted by Baldassare Peruzzi, who de- fitting setting of cardinals, picted there the constellations by gay throng princes, poets, and artists who constituted scenes from the fables of mythology, scholars the court and who strove im- the signs of the zodiac and the gods papal by the art and of Rome of the seven planets. These are con- itating learning to delude themselves that the great- tained in panels whose frames are so ness of Rome had returned, and that skillfully painted to resemble stucco the counterfeit could for relief that it is said that Titian would compensate the loss of freedom, a national spirit not believe that the effect was pro- and the of civil life. duced by paint alone. activity As be from the ear- The lunettes were filled by Sebasti- might expected date of its erection the exterior of ano del Piombo with subjects taken ly Farnesina is of a more sober archi- from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Tereus the with the Roman with Philomela and Procne, Daedalus tecture than is usual villas and is admirably in keeping with and Icarus, Juno in her chariot, drawn richness and of its inte- bv peacocks; Boreas and Orithyia, the elegance decoration. Traces of ornament Flora and Zephyr and other scenes rior in various make it evident that from the kingdom of the air. places 264 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

GARDEN FACADE OF THE VILLA MEDICI.

"hill certain portions, if not all, of the exte- of gardens and villas." Nor rior was originally decorated with were the builders of the Renaissance paintings in grisaille. slow to appreciate the advantages, for While the proportion of the orders as early as 1540 Cardinal Ricci da Anni- and the heaviness of the entablature Montepulciano commissioned may be adversely criticised, the happy bale Lippi to erect on the steep side of projection of the wings, the richness the hill the large villa known to-day of the loggia and the grace and ele- as the Villa Medici from its subse- gance of the whole building justify the quent owner, Cardinal Alessandro de expression which Vassari applied to Medici, who became possessed of the the villa: "Non murato, ma veramen- property in 1600. te nato." Seen from the city below or from In 1580 Cardinal Al. Farnese inher- the opposite side of the river the great ited the villa, which remained in the yellow building, with its two belve- of forms a in possession the Farnese family until dieres, conspicuous object its extinction in 1731. Together with the landscape, but the faqade is bare the rest of the Farnese property it and uninteresting, since the lower half passed to the King of Naples, and in is in reality nothing but a lofty sub- 1 86 1 it was let by Francis II. for 99 basement, while in the upper there has years to the Duke of Ripalda. been no attempt at decoration. In ancient as in modern times the From the broad terrace shaded with Pincio has been recognized as a spot ancient ilex trees, which lies before the well adapted to the requirements of a villa, a ramp leads to the gardens villa. Here were the famous gardens which occupy the crest of the hill. It of Lucullus, around which clustered is on this upper level that the main others of less note until the hill was so fagade faces. The grounds are divi- closely covered that Ovid terms it the ded into three parts: the park, which THE UPPER TERRACE OF THE VILLA MEDIGI. 266 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

occupies the northern portion; the low fagade, relieved by the panels of central garden, which lies before the white marble, is still further enhanced villa; and the upper park, which ad- by contrast with the shadows cast by joins it on the south. The first of the wings and by the deep shade these parks, to which the ramp as- within the portico. cends, is laid out on architectural lines The Villa Medici marks a new and filled with trees and shrubbery. treatment of the facade, or rather, it The broad driveway, which surrounds is an expression of a different concep- it, commands on the west an exten- tion of villa architecture. The Far- side view of the city lying more than nesina had been treated in a dignified two hundred feet below, and an equal- and monumental style which savors of ly fine view of the park of the Borg- the palace; here for the first time the hese villa which adjoins it on the east, architecture shows that the villa is while at the north it opens upon the considered rather as a casino or pleas- gardens of the Pincio. ure-house than as a palace. In the pro- The oblong thus contained is divided portions of its masses as in its decor- into many smaller plots by straight ations one may plainly see a striving paths, adorned with hermea and an- for picturesque effect. Such being the tique statues. The vistas between the case one cannot justly criticise its hedges of well-trimmed box, over composition or design, but must con- which hang the branches of trees and fess that the architecture is not only shrubs, are terminated by fountains, charming, but is well adapted to its statues or pavilions placed at the in- purpose. tersection of the paths or by exedras The prominence given to the many and grottos placed at the ends. architectural fragments which adorn As has been said, the villa stands on the house and the grounds is another the of the hill it very edge ; before is a evidence of the attention which was large open square where the coaches lavished upon all that appertained to of the guests might congregate, while classic art. This building exercised a the remaining portion is devoted to great influence upon the architecture the garden. A high wall, treated as a of subsequent villas, many of which, closed arcade and half hidden beneath such as the Villa Pamphily and the rose trees, bounds the garden on the Villa Borghese, employed ancient bas- south and separates it from the wood- reliefs in the same manner, while in ed park which occupies the highest many others decoration in plaster was portion of the hill. used to obtain the same effect. Our illustration shows this garden In 1801 the villa, which had for wall and a charming group of archi- many years belonged to the grand tectural fragments, which terminates dukes of Tuscany, became the Roman the central alley. Here two ancient home for the French Academy of Arts, columns support a broken architrave and it is due to this fact that the build- and pediment, below which is a Greek ing and grounds have been so carefully statue, said to be from the hand of preserved. Scopas. The traveller who visits Rome to- In strong contrast with the bare day knows the Palatine only from its walls of the west facade is the elabora- ruins, which the excavations of the tion of that which fronts upon the gar- last thirty years have brought to light. den. The whole fagade is richly On every side are the broken arches, adorned with panels and niches filled great piers and gloomy vaults which with fragments of classic carving un- once supported the palaces of the Cae- earthed in the vicinity. These have sars, while on the summit are the been so skillfully disposed in appro- ruined walls and foundations which priate places that the effect is not in made the oldest of the Roman hills the least bizarre, but rather playful and renowned for its magnificence. In the The charming. brilliancy of the yel- middle of the sixteenth century the Pal- @ m i 4>^t *********

PLAN OF VILLA MEDICI, BY PERCIER AND FONTAINE. 268 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

THE VILLA FARNESINA ON THE PALATINF. atine presented a very different ap- family, laid out all the northeastern pearance, for its ruins, now so naked, part of the hill in extensive gardens. were then clothed with ivy and con- To him is also due the credit for the cealed behind the foliage which cov- skillful arrangement of ramps and ter- ered the hill and gave it much the races, of fountains and grottos, which, same aspect which it wore when the with the contrasting plots of turf or shepherds from Alba Longa selected shrubbery, make the ascent of the hill it as the site of their new city. more than usually attractive and the What site could be more rich in famous entrance of the Farnesiana on historic associations? The level pla- the Campo Vaccino. teau, whose very soil teemed with The great casino was never built, fragments of the palaces of the Cae- for in 1549 Paul III. died, and the sars, overlooked the city of which the work was interrupted when the ap- most striking landmarks were still proach alone was completed, as his those of ancient Rome; to the south, heir, Cardinal Alexander Farnese, was the Aventine with the ruins of the too greatly involved with his villa at Circus Maximus, to the north and Caprarola to continue a work only west the Forum and the Capitol, to the just begun. In 1612 two large aviar- east the Colisseum, and the arches of ies, covered with low glass domes, Titus and Constantine still stood to re- were erected above the grotto from call the splendor of the past and to plans by Rainaldi. encourage the builders of new Rome In later years the domes were re- to greater efforts. moved, the court, which separated Such was the spot that Paul III. se- them, was enclosed, and the whole lected as the site for a villa, which was roofed as a single building was trans- to be planned on the largest scale. Ac- formed into the casino, shown in the cordingly under his direction Vignola, illustration. The walls of the approach, the favorite architect of the Farnese of the terrace at the side, and of the PLAN OF VILLA PAPA GIULIO, BY PERCIER AND FONTAINE. 2JO THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

of while one casino itself, which now appear bare work Michael Angelo, and unfinished, were once decorated can recognize everywhere the ingeni- ous the and the with paintings in sgraffito, the niches motives, elegant style, were filled with statues and the grottos charming details which characterize were green with water plants, so that Vignola. the effect was very different from that Limited by the necessity of adher- he felt it ad- now produced. ing to sketches which In 1861 the villa was purchased by visable to modify in many ways, re- stricted the surveillance of two as- Napoleon III., under whose patron- by age the excavations in the Farnese sociates whose advice the Pope pre- gardens were begun. These have been ferred to his own, and hampered by continued with great energy under the the whims and caprices of the Pope Italian government. The gardens himself, Vignola found the position have now completely disappeared, and untenable and resigned it before the the casino serves as an office for the building was completed. director of the archaeological com- The plan of the villa shows a dispo- mission. sition which at first glance seems fan- At the beginning of the fifteenth ciful if not capricious, but which on century Cardinal Fabiani di Monte examination exhibits careful study possessed a vineyard lying to the north and unusual ingenuity, for nothing es- of the city, on the Via Flaminia. Here sential has been omitted and yet one he determined to erect a villa in ac- can discover nothing which is not the cordance with the fashion of the day. expression of a necessity. To this end he commissioned Jacopo The pleasure-house of a Pope should Sansovino as his architect, under be dignified and severe on the exte- whom the so-called Vigna was begun. rior, while the interior should be rich The sacking of Rome in 1527 by the and palatial as becomes the dwelling Constable of Bourbon interrupted the of a sovereign, and decorated with the work and necessitated the appoint- work of the best artists, whom it was ment of Peruzzi in place of Sansovino, the pride of the Pope, as patron of the who had fled to Venice. The death arts, to encourage. It should contain of the Cardinal in 1533 caused the great rooms for state receptions, work to be postponed, until his smaller rooms for habitation, and finally nephew and heir, having been elected apartments so placed as to insure quiet Pope, in 1550, under the name of Ju~ and privacy for the Pope himself. All lius III., wishing to emulate the ex- these conditions are here fulfilled. In ample of his predecessors determined the main building one can recognize to erect a pleasure-house which should the public rooms by their size and surpass all others in its magnificence. prominent position, while in the wings Much doubt attaches to the ques- are the private apartments, which are tion who were the architects, and properly of a smaller size. The fa- what part each took in the construc- qade also perfectly expresses this dis- tion. It now seems probable that the tribution. Pope himself planned the general dis- In the first story are disposed the position and character of the building; large hall for the guards, waiting that these ideas were embodied into rooms and minor dependencies, in the sketches by his friend Vasari and sub- second are the great halls for the re- mitted to Michael Angelo, who made ceptions, and in the wings the bed- many changes in them. At Vasari's rooms, the library and the study of request Vignola was appointed archi- the pontiff. In the entresols are the tect, and to him must be attributed rooms for the secretaries and other the credit of the building, for there is persons attached to the immediate in the architecture neither the weak- service of the Pope. ness of Vasari nor the independence The insignificance of the main stair- of canonical laws, which marks the case, or rather ramp, for there are, THE VILLAS OF ROME.

FACADE OF THE VILLA PAPA GIULIO.

properly speaking, no steps, which is lines are prolonged by a colonnade of not seen from the main vestibule, and antique Ionic columns of different can only be entered from the court, colors. Here the members of the pa- may be unfavorably criticised, but it pal court might congregate during the must be remembered that if it hadbeen receptions which it was the pleasure placed in the main building it would of Julius III. to give in the villa in have seriously interfered with the dis- which he took such pride. position of the important rooms in This court, while actually of small the upper story, and would have al- area, has the rare merit of appearing- lowed the sounds from the vestibule much larger than it really is. Several filled with servants and coaches to reasons unite to produce this effect, ascend to the rooms above. so unusual that it deserves attention. Moreover, as the corridors in the The court is large when compared first and second stories, which it serves with the shallowness of the main to connect and which, more than any building and with the scale of the others, were filled by the promenaders, other buildings by which it is bound- had received the most elaborate dec- ed. Moreover, while the main build- oration, it was well to exhibit their ing is of two stories, those at the end beauty and magnificence to the guest of the garden consist of but a single the on his first arrival, so that before he story and an attic, so that length reached the audience chamber he of the court is greatly exaggerated; is increased the arcades might be suitably impressed by the this effect by little Ionic columns which grandeur of this noble dwelling*. and the so that the Behind the main building is the form the enclosing walls, successive court of honor, on which the broad eye, following the arches, the distance. The lines semicircular corridor opens, whose exaggerates 27* THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

COURT OF HONOR, VILLA PAPA GIULIO. of the semicircular colonnade in were to have continued the lines of the which the observer stands, all tend semicircular colonnade, but the ca- to increase the illusion. Finally, the pricious Pope compelled the abandon- deep shadows of the colonnade con- ment of the scheme after the work had trast with the flood of light which fills been begun, and necessitated the con- the court, and gives the sides a certain struction of the two lateral walls, uncertainty as to the limits, which in- which so greatly injure the composi- creases the apparent width. tion of the main faqade. At the end of the court were the The distribution of masses and the loggia and pavilion reserved as the proportions of the stories of the fa- private retreat for the Pope. From qade mark the sure and skillful hand this open loggia two winding stair- of a master. The heavy rustication cases gave access to the lower court, of the entrance, which is also used in in whose seclusion the Pope might en- the windows, gives an appearance of joy the fresh air protected from the dignity and security, which, while of- wind and secluded from the gay fering a strong contrast, is not out of crowd which thronged the court of harmony with the lightness and ele- honor. On the opposite side is an gance of the second story. open loggia which gives access to the It must be admitted, however, that private gardens in the rear, and which the windows of the first story are of affords a glimpse of the villa and the insufficient size and that the transition court of honor, seen through the log- from the heavily rusticated Tuscan gia which separates the two courts. order to the richness of the Composite If Vignola's design had been car- is too distinct and that the openings ried out these gardens might have in the niches of the second story are been reached by two galleries, which unskillful makeshifts. Vignola him- LOWER COURT OF THE VILLA PAPA GIULIO. ENCLOSING WALL OF THE COURT OP HONOR, VILLA PAPA GIULIO. THE VILLAS OF ROME. 275 self felt this, for an ancient the drawing two new doors in quite a different shows that these windows were con- style, which by all laws of symmetry cealed behind statues. should have corresponded to the The court facade is even more suc- others. when we consider cessful, especially From this loggia two ramps de- that the architect was obliged to util- scend in a wide curve to the lower ize columns taken from an- which, court. The design of this court is cient buildings, differed from one an- quite inferior to that of the other other in size and color. The whole buildings, lacking, as it does, any con- composition is most massed, happily trolling and determined scheme ; cer- and the with the details, exception of tain portions seem crowded with mo- the large window by Michael Angelo, tives which bear no relation to one are as ingeniously adapted as they are another, while others are too bare and elegantly proportioned. severe. The walls and of the ceilings por- It is easy to discover here the un- the and the tico, upper gallery princi- stability which characterized the policy rooms are decorated in fresco pal by of the Pope and .the different tastes the greatest artists of the day, among of the three artists to whom he con- whom may be mentioned Taddeo fided the work. Zuccheri and his pupils Prospero Beneath the larger loggia is a room Fontana and Georgio Vasari. whose vaulting is decorated with the These frescoes were executed in most beautiful frescoes. The elabora- brilliant colors with great freedom of tion which this minor room has re- touch well suited to the decoration of ceived is not surprising, as it must a pleasure-house. The vaults are cov- have been a charming retreat during ered with a tracery of vines, flowers the heat of the day. Here one could and grapes, among which disport chil- hear the water splashing in the nym- dren and youthful fauns and birds of phaea below and the singing of the brilliant plumage. birds within the two aviaries in the The closed colonnade which contin- panels of the opposite wall. ues the line of the portico was no less The Pope made the villa his habit- elaborately decorated. Here the me- ual residence, and established here all dium is stucco, which is employed in the magnificence of the papal court. much the same way as in the Villa Leaving the Vatican, it was his custom Madama, though the relief is higher to proceed up the Tiber in a stately and the design more sober, as befits barge, attended by the officers of his the open air. The spaces between the household. columns were once filled by statues Arrived at the gardens, which then since removed to the Vatican. reached to the river's edge, he was The open loggia at the end of the met by the gay company which had court of honor was originally closed, ridden by the Via Flaminia, and pro- of the insuring greater privacy for the ceding to the main apartments private apartments of the Pope. casino, he received the princes, pre- men to whom It was while this loggia was in lates and distinguished course of erection that Vignola re- the Pope was never tired of display- beauties of his villa. signed his oosition as architect. ing the but a few to Ammanati, who was appointed in his He lived years enjoy the which he had been at such place, wishing to stamp his own indi- luxury to create. On his death the viduality upon the work, changed pains were abandoned and the what had been designed as a simple buildings Pius IV. restored corridor into the wide loggia which treasures dispersed. the villa to serve as a dwelling for for- exists to-day. To still further mark ambassadors. The buildings the point at which he assumed control, eign were during the war not content with carving his name greatly injured with when they were occupied upon one of the pilasters, he designed Naples, Vol. VI. 3. 3. 276 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

PAVILION, LOWER COURT AND NYMPHAEA.

Nos. 5, 6 and 7 on Plato of Villa Papa Giul.io.

as a hospital by the Austrian . troops. is rather a resting spot among the gar- Restored again under Clement XIV. dens than a dwelling. Here Pius IV. and by Pius VI., the buildings under might find seclusion and quiet, and Leo XII. were used as a veterinary here he gave many of the splendid en- college. In 1830 they 'were rescued tertainments for which his reign is from this ignoble use, but only to re- famous; indeed, it was erected for that main for many years unoccupied, un- purpose, as at that time no woman til 1888, when they were fitted up as a could enter the Vatican. Here, also, museum for Etruscan curiosities. Leo XIII., in his self-imposed im- The example of Julius JII. was fol- prisonment, enjoys the air within the lowed by his successor, Pius IV., Ber- limits of the Vatican. nardino de Medici. That pontiff, on The property is divided into two his election to the chair of St. Peter, nearly equal parts. The lower is laid in 1559, commissioned his architect, out in the straight walks and beds of Perro Legorio, to erect upon the level geometrical design which character- piece of ground which adjoins the ize an Italian garden. A high terrace Vatican upon the west, the villa called surrounds it on three sides, whose .wall from its builders the Villa Pia, protects the garden from the north This spot had been occupied in clas- wind, while it offers opportunities. for sic times by the villa and gardens of grottos and niches, and for the cul- Nero, whose casino was probably tivation of orange trees against its upon the rising ground where now is side. the Casino del Papa. The proximity The southern portion is treated in of the Vatican removed the necessity a different manner. Here nature is for dwelling rooms, so that the casino less restrained, and the pines have been I PLAN OF VILLA PIA, BY PERCIER AND FONTAINE. 278 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

COURT. PORTICO AND CASINO, VILLA PIA. Nos. 6, 7 and 8 on Plan. allowed to grow at will; but the an- This loggia is a charming retreat, cient hedges, which line the walks, under whose shade can be enjoyed the show that here also the planning has splashing of the fountains and the been carefully studied. The paths ra- view of the trees in the garden below diate from an open space on which all the more refreshing by contrast fronts the loggia; behind this is an with the brilliancy of the sunlight, open elliptical court entered from ex- which fills the marble-paved court and edras in its longer axis and the casino is reflected from the light walls of the proper, which is opposite the loggia. casino opposite. Standing on the lit- The architecture of the basement tle balcony one can see the grottos story was fantastic as becomes a grot- and statues of the basement mirrored to. Four fauns, now destroyed, of he- in the basin below, a favorite device roic size, adorned the piers, and be- of the architects of many of the villas. tween them in of decorated The centre of the court is panels elliptical stucco are two antique statues, while filled by a marble fountain, and around a third fills the central niche. the sides are marble seats protected The architecture of the loggia above, from the wind by the low walls which while decorative, is much more digni- connect the loggia and the casino. fied. Eight antique columns of Nu- These walls are broken midway by the midian marble support the vaulted two little buildings which serve as ceiling, which is richly decorated with exedra. These are also ornamented plaster work. The apses at the ends in stucco mosaic on both their court contain two fountains of carved mar- and garden facades, but it is on their ble, whose jets are thrown in contrast interior walls and vaulted ceilings that against the light of the open windows the greatest elaboration is displayed. behind. These are covered with delicate orna-

I

2 SO THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

MAIN FACADE, VILL.A BORGHESE.

ment in relief hardly inferior to that without the building, was covered with in the Stanzzas of Raphael or in the ornament in relief, which has all the Villa Madama. freedom and brilliancy of a freehand The casino, a two-storied building, sketch. whose facade is ornamented in a man- This excess is much more suited to ner similar to that of the loggia, is at a little casino, intended wholly as a the opposite end of the court. pleasure-house than in buildings large The Villa Pia illustrates the possibil- and palatial, as are many of the villas ities which lie within such a poor and which are thus treated. common material as plaster in the The Villa Borghese is perhaps bet- hands of a master. Its very cheapness ter known than any Roman villa, a necessitated an elaborate treatment, reputation gained partly from the while the ease with which it could be large collection of paintings and an- moulded permitted an excess of decor- tiques which are here exhibited, partly ation which the cost of a more valua- from the magnificence of the casino it- ble material would have prohibited. self and partly from the extensive park The introduction of bas-reliefs as which, on certain days, has always panels in the facade had set the fash- been thrown open to the public. The ion for the decoration of surfaces visitor passes through a gate between which had previously been left bare, two lodges, which resemble classic a fashion which the artists were glad temples, and ascends a shady drive- to encourage, as the plastic and yet way which winds through the lower durable material tempted them to dis- park. On one side is a common, and play their skill in modeling. So fasci- on the other the private gardens nating was it that it was soon carried which are laid out in the Italian style to excess, and every surface of wall, and surround a little lake. pilaster or vault, whether within or Passing a second gate designed to I THE VILLAS OF ROME. 281

TEMPLE AESCULAPUS, WHICH TERMINATES AN AVENUE OF THE VILLA BORGHESE.

imitate the The is Egyptian pylons, upper facade ornamented with dec- park is reached. This is laid out in a orations in plaster relief, in the fashion more natural style with groves of set by the Villa Medici. Between the pines and oaks, but even here a sys- two projecting wings is a spacious tematic scheme is evident, for the vestibule, the walls of which are orna- paths and driveways take the form of mented with bas-reliefs and statues. avenues and hedged alleys, with here The other/rooms of the villa are char- and there a ruined temple, a piece of acterized by the splendor and magnifi- statuary or a fountain to break the cence of their decorations. The door- vista. ways are of colored marble, the walls These artificial ruins show to what are hung with silk or are covered with extent the love of classicism had per- incrustations of some precious stone, vaded the artistic world, for in this such as malachite, spar, porphery, villa alone there are four of these Siena and other colored marbles. The mimic ruins. vaulted ceilings are adorned with fres- The casino is placed on a hill in the coes or with gilded reliefs. The rooms most remote portion of the park. Be- are filled with antique sculpture, with fore it is a square court surrounded vases, statuary and sarcophagi, and on with a balustrade where the carriages the walls are hung the best private col- might stand, or where the guests lection of paintings to be found in might find seats. The entrance is be- Rome. tween two fountains, which spout on In one of the galleries there hangs a the ca- every side from the terminal piers of little water color, which shows the balustrade. The casino was erect- sino as it appeared in 1640, before the had removed ed in 1615 for Cardinal Scipio Borg- restorations of 1782 The court be- hese, nephew of Pius V., from designs many of the bas-reliefs. by Vasanzio. fore the casino is filled with gilded 282 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

LITTLE TEMPLE AT THE INTERSECTION OF TWO WALKS IN THE VILLA BORGHESE. coaches, drawn by four or six horses vate gardens is a menagerie. The heavily caparisoned. Here and there casino is employed as a museum for are sedan chairs, attended by a band the collection of paintings transported of liveried servants, and on the marble hither from the Borghese palace. The seats or leaning over the balustrade park is used by picnickers, and the is a gay company of cardinals and drives are open to cab and carriage princes in the brilliant costumes of the alike. eighteenth century. In spite of this desecration the beau- Things wear a different aspect now. ty of the villa has not been permanent- Since the financial difficulties which ly injured, nor is it now greatly affect- overwhelmed Prince Borghese some ed, for the park is so large that, the five years ago, the villa has been in the entrance once passed, the presence of hands of his creditors. The driveway, the intruders is not conspicuous. which surrounds the common, is now By far the largest villa in Rome is used as a trotting track, in another the Pamphily Doria, erected in 1644, part a bicycle course has been fitted by Alessandro Algardi for Prince up, near by is a dairy, and in the pri- Pamphily, nephew of Innocent X. It THE VJLLAS OF ROME.

MAIN* FACADE. VILLA DORIA-PAMPHILY.

lies to the southwest of the city, and the terraces necessitated, have been so occupies the site of the gardens'of the skillfully treated with niches full of Emperor Galba. green plants and statuary and the oc- At the entrance a triumphal arch casional deeper recess of a grotto, that spans the driveway, which winds up so far from detracting they greatly add the crest of the hill, commanding on to the beauty of the gardens. one side a fine view of St. Peter's and By tar the greater area of the villa on the other the meadows of the villa is devoted to an extensive park, which which adjoin the casino and the gar- is a favorite resort of fashionable Rome dens on the east. The latter have been on the days that it is thrown open to skillfully adapted to theslopingground the public. Xot far from the casino is by means of a succession of terraces. a grove of pines, covering many acres. On the uppermost is the casino, the fa- These are said to have been planted by qade of which is ornamented with the Le Xotre. The rest of the park, which reliefs which characterize so many of includes a small lake, has received a the casinos of the seventeenth century. tnffrti more naturalistic treatment. It shows, however, a tendency towards The most modern of the Roman vil- last to be the more architectural if less pict- las of importance and the uresque treatment of a later period. considered in this article, is the Villa Behind the.vflla, and at a lower lev- Albani, erected in 1760, by Cardinal from of el, is the garden, which is laid out in Alessandro Albani. designs beds of fantastic design and basins, Carlo MarchionnL a broad which reflect the orange trees trained From the entrance path, with box leads to the against the surrounding walls. At a bordered hedges, which the centre of still lower level reached by two flights fountain, occupies which is thus entered on of stairs is a broad expanse of lawn, the ITI m % its shorter axis. To the left is the ca- broken here and there by a statue, a with the which flank it fountain or a group of palms. sino, galleries is a small The walls, which the arrangement of on either side: opposite PLAN OF GARDEN AND BUILDINGS, VILLA ALBINI, BY PERCIER AND FONTAINE. THE VILLAS OF ROME.

GARDEN FACADE, VILLA ALBANI. building, known as the Bieliardo, building operations which marked the while on the right is the circular- early days of the present government. "Caffe." shaped The value of Roman property These buildings were designed to doubled and quadrupled in a few receive the extensive collection of an- months, so that it was not strange that tiquities which Cardinal Albani had the temptation proved too strong for brought together under the direction the owners of the parks and gardens of his friend Wincklemann, the cele- which were near enough to the city brated German archaeologist, and, to be affected by the unexampled de- though nearly 300 of the more valua- mand for real estate. Many of the ble pieces were carried off by Na- casinos were demolished and the prop- poleon, there are still enough remain- erty thus thrown upon the market was ing to tax the capacity of the build- soon covered by the blocks of tene- ings and to decorate the gardens. ments and apartment houses which The illustration shows the formal form the newer portion of the city. architecture of the buildings, and the Among these were the Villa Negroni, arrangement of the gardens, which are built by Fontana, as early as 1570; laid out in the prim style which char- the Villa Ludovesi, famous for its col- acterizes the later Italian gardens. lection of antiques, erected in 1623; ^So numerous are the villas which and the Villa Geraud, erected in 1650. still exist or have been but lately de- It may be noticed that all of the villas stroyed that it is impossible to discuss described in this article belonged to them all within the limits of a single the members of the papal aristocracy. article. The article would be incom- This is due to the fact that the patri- plete, however, if no mention were cian aristocracy, poorer, perhaps, than made of the many famous villas which the others, and richer in land than in were destroyed during the extensive pride, did not hesitate to demolish the 286 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

THE GARDENS OF THE VILLA ALBANI, FROM THE CASINO. villas which had borne their name for the palace architecture of the day. In centuries, so that to-day none remain. fact it differs from a palace only in the Among these may be mentioned the two large loggias of the first story, in Villas Patrizi, Sciarra, Massimo, Guis- the lightness of the details and in the tiniani, Campana and San Faustino. elegance of the interior decoration. Even more dishonored are the villas The grounds, though laid out on whose gardens have been sold, but architectural lines, exhibit none of the whose casinos still stand to serve some elaboration which characterizes the other purpose, such is the Altiere, later gardens. now used as a nunnery, and the Bar- The Villa Medici, 1540, shows a new berinni, which has been converted into departure in that the facade is abun- an insane asylum. dantly adorned with reliefs, most of Even with the loss of these many which are antiques, while the others examples, we are able to trace the con- in plaster are used -rather to fill out tinuous development of villa architect- the deficiencies than as a new material. ure from its first beginnings. With While the level nature of the grounds this object in view, only such villas did not invite a complicated arrange- have been here considered as mark ment of terraces, the ramp and ter- some new departure or serve to bridge race are still present as important feat- over some gap in the series. ures. A portion of the grounds is de- It may be well to take a short re- voted to a park, and the gardens have view of the subject, that the main facts, the architectural outline, the box- obscured, perhaps, by too close ob- hedged paths, the statues and foun- servance, may appear more distinct in tains which characterize the Italian retrospect. garden. The Villa Farnesina, erected in The Farnesiana, begun about 1545, 1510, shows plainly the influence of and never completed, is interesting as THE VJLLAS OF ROME. 287

GARDEN OF THE VILLA PAMPHILY. showing the application of an exten- a low hedge of box and filled with sive system of ramps and terraces to a flowering plants. villa within the limits of a city. The Villa Borghese, erected in 1615, Villa Papa Giulio, 1550, is impor- exhibits a casino whose exterior treat- tant as exhibiting the highest perfec- ment indicates a return to the more tion and elaboration of plan of any of palatial architecture which char- the casinos. For the first time there is acterized the earlier villas. The facade a succession of interior courts, loggias is still ornamented with plaster reliefs, and nymphaea, all contained within but these are on a larger scale, and are the limits of the casino itself. Plaster used as architectural motives rather reliefs are here used as a legitimate than as pure ornament. The interior medium for exterior decoration. is considered rather as that of a palace In the Villa Pia, 1561, is seen a casi- than of a villa. The walls and floors no, erected as closely as possible upon are of marble, and the frescoes, in- the lines of an ancient Roman villa of stead of the half rural and playful de- Imperial times. The plaster reliefs signs of the earlier work, are treated used with moderation in the Villa with a grandeur and magnificence in Giulio, are carried to the greatest de- keeping with the new conception. The velopment both' as to extent of their grounds consist of common and park, use and the skill of their modeling. in which are disposed temples, and The gardens show the introduction of fountains on a larger scale than hith- a new treatment. Instead of the divi- erto employed. sion into broad masses of grass or The Doria-Pamphily, erected in shrubbery, surrounded by high hedges 1644, shows a similar treatment with of clipped box or laurel, we find small the added charm of a terraced garden, beds of fantastic shape, outlined with a portion of which is treated in the 288 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. style of the later Italian gardens, ly than words the charm which at- while a portion is devoted to a simple taches to these monuments of an art expanse of lawn. and a social life which flourished and The Villas Geraud, Patrizi and Bo- have passed away together. In an- lognetti, which were erected during other article the villas of the suburbs the following century, have all been of Rome, such as Viterbo, Tivoli and destroyed, so that; the development to Frascati will be considered, where un- the most dignified palatial architect- confined by limits of space and with ure which characterizes the Villa Al- greater opportunities of site, the gar- bani, erected in 1760, cannot be dens, which are the greatest attrac- traced. tion of the Italian villa, reached a de- The illustrations show the features velopment which has made them the which impart an individuality to each inspiration and models for the land- of these villas and convey more clear- scape architects of every country. Marcus T. Reynolds. MONTE PELLEGRINO, PALERMO, SICILY.

SICILY, THE GARDEN OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.

its vineyards, orange commences with the Greek adven- and olive its tures WITHgroves trees, in the eighth century, B. C., lands and mountain pasture and the Greek history is the most bril- has from liant of fastnesses, Sicily been, very all. Art, science, poetry, all ancient times, the prize and strong- that constituted the intellectual life of hold of contesting tribes and nations. the Greeks, here became naturalized. And, notwithstanding the somewhat These Greek colonies became so many primitive cultivation of its soil, the independent cities without any alle- island to-day sends out two-thirds of giance to the parent state. all Italian wines and most of the green In the beginning of the third cen- fruits of all Italy. With its irregular tury, the Carthaginians were success- coastline and its good harbors, it has ful conquerors; and the Marmatines attracted the fleets of ancient Carthage, (Campanian mercenaries) who had of Greece, Imperial Rome, and of the possessed themselves of Messina, in- Orient. It has been the battlefield of vited the Romans to protect them many nations, and its history, there- against the Carthaginians. This Ro- fore, is most varied and eventful. man interference was the cause of the In the eleventh century, B. C, the first Punic war, and the Romans con- Sikels, of Latin origin (from whom quered Syracuse 212 B. C. After the most likely the present name of the downfall of the Roman Empire, the island is Straits island fell into the hands of the derived), crossed the Goths ; from the mainland of Italy and found but was conquered by the Byzantines upon the island the so-called Sikans. under Belisarius, and remained under But three hundred years later, the Byzantine rule until the ninth century, Sikels were hindered by the coming when it was invaded by the Saracens. of the Greeks from reaching the same Toward the latter part of the elev- independence as their kinsfolk 'in enth century, the Normans were suc- Italy. The proper history of the island cessful invaders, and Roger L, son of THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD the Norman Duke Roger, was Gently, as we sailed the seas, crowned king of the two Sicilies (Na- the city came distinctly into view. ples and the island) in 1127. He was What were mere spots among the del- the first monarch who had ever ruled icate tints of the city grew to be bal- over the whole of Sicily. Through conied windows. The classic dome of the marriage of Henry VI., of the Cathedral stood boldly forth in the Germany, to Constance, daughter of midst of all, and its Gothic towers rose King Roger L, the crown fell to high also in graceful outline. the German Emperor, and later to his The embarkation was but little son, Emperor Frederick II. Manfred, trouble; and after a nominal examina- a natural son of Frederick II., upon an tion of our baggage, we were at lib- unfounded report of the death of Con- erty to take the services of one of the in suc- rad (so-called Conradin), heir many men waiting with their traps. cession to the throne, and grandson Through white streets lined with bal- of Frederick II., declared himself conied houses, past round-arched king. But the Popes took this oppor- doors, and narrow streets, whose vista tunity to assert their lordship and be- was a conglomeration of balconies and stowed the kingdom upon Charles of clothes lines, gay with color, stretch- Anjou. Manfred died heroically, near ing from house to house, and flowers Benevento, in defense of the Sicilies; and bright-eyed Sicilians withal at and Charles entered Naples and later last we arrived at our destination. put to death the youthful Conrad. Un- One thinks but little of ascending der the rule of Charles of Anjou were flights of stairs in Sicily,and we were enacted the wars of the Sicilian Ves- soon initiated into climbing the three the pers. Later, Spain, Austria, and flights to the topmost story of the Kingdom of Naples have been posses- apartment house in which was situ- sors of Sicily. But in 1860 Garabaldi ated our pension. But, having reached landed at Marsala, entered Palermo, the top, the cheerfulness of the inte- crossed to Calabria, and marched upon rior repaid one for the climb, and the Naples and annexed the whole, under affable manners of our English host the house of Savoy, to the new King- and hostess made one feel at once "at dom of Italy. home," and willing to dream awav the Such, then, is the varied and thrill- days of life amidst such pleasant sur- ing history of the island to which we roundings. were sailing across the Mediterranean The large casement windows of our toward the beginning of the month of rooms opened upon the always pres- May. The morning of our arrival upon ent balconies, where flowers were the island was a beau-ideal of a Sicil- freshly blooming, and one saw the sea ian May-day. The blue blue waters of beyond the house-tops. Below our the Mediterranean, the cloudless sky, balcony were two Sicilian house-top the blue mountains appearing as we gardens. The floors of these were approached, the quiet early sunlight, tiled, for tiles are cheap in Sicily, and and the fresh, sweet air as our ship where one does not find a floor of gently rode the waters, were inspira- stone, either within or without a tions -in themselves. Palermo, in its house, one generally finds glazed tiles. tints of pale brown, greys, and creamy The effect is always clean and pretty. whites, and its "eretrine" trees along These gardens were no exception; and the Marina a mass of red blossoms, the flowers in the boxes were bloom- came into sight. Monte Pellegrino, in ing luxuriantly, and the rose vine hung greyish blue, was on the harbor's full of yellow blossoms on the white right. With an outline as bold as wall below. A goat and some cack- Gibraltar, the mountain rose majestic ling hens lent life to the garden scene from the sea. Our horizon, peacefully and the dark-eyed Sicilian matron bathed in the quiet morning light, was and her bright-eyed laughing daugh- the high hills and higher mountain ter, who, on starry evenings, took a peaks. breath of sea air from their house-top SICILY, THE GARDEN OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. 29i

LACE-MAKERS IN POOR QUARTER OF PALERMO.

were garden, no doubt as happy, with small, have their "marina," which their macaroni and flowers,their chick- rises from the water with well built ens and goats as their richer sisters in walls and pavements, by the side of the villas, with the palm trees and which are anchored the merchant ma- swans, of the fair country around. rine or smaller boats. Where the In consequence of the many differ- town is of maritime importance, as at ent nations that have had possession Palermo or Messina, the "marina" of the island at various times, there rises to great dignity, and is lively with is the much variety in the examples of the commercial business of the city. architecture extant. The Greek has The marina usually extends along the left the most beautiful remains at Seli- sea beyond that devoted to its com- nunto, Girgenti, Syracuse and other merce, and affords a road of pleasure places; the Roman many examples; and of beauty. and at Palermo many traces of the I know not how to tell of the air of works of the Goth, Byzantine, Saracen loveliness around Palermo, with its and Norman are found. Of course, the two hundred thousand and more in- Renaissance occurs in every town, and habitants, its picturesque gateways, its rich in there are few fields, if any, in which huge Cathedral, details, its three to-day so many different examples re- hundred churches with their treasures main side by side, or combined within of mosaics and art; its gardens; its the same building. Traces of the Clas- streets, where can be seen the Sicilian sic, the Gothic, the Byzantine and the in all his characteristics, and then its Saracenic are frequently found within beautiful marina, curving on the sea the same building; and a study of the the marina, where one rides, one buildings themselves is closely con- walks, one sits or meditates and sees nected with the very history of the isl- the waters just below rising in blue and. waves along the stone walls. Monte All Sicilian sea towns, however Pellegrino juts boldly forth into the Vol. VI. 3. 4. RECORD. 292 THE ARCHITECTURAL

CENTRAL DOORWAY CATHEDRAL OF MESSINA.

sky and sea, and the air is sweet with haps, little left of Saracenic work of pleasant odors from the flowers of bal- older date than the Norman conquest conies and gardens. Here amidst the of the island. blue waters of the Mediterranean na- There are some very beautiful ex- ture has made unto herself a garden, amples of Gothic work in Palermo and the conquering nations as they from the picturesque Gothic cloisters have come and gone have left remains of San Giovanni to the more ornate and traces of their characteristic arts. cloisters of Monreale, which latter, al- The five unadorned domes of San though Norman in detail, especially in Giovanni Degli Eremiti, erected by the columns, is distinctly of a Gothic has King Roger, about 1132, are of the spirit. San Francesco de Chiodari true Eastern type, and shelter Norman a very beautiful Gothic faqade, again work of strongest Saracenic influ- with much Norman detail and influ- ence. And from the beautiful ruined ence, and has lately been restored. The Gothic cloister surrounding the pic- Gothic work to be seen at Palermo, al- turesque old well and garden, the though generally with strong Eastern of domes look truly oriental. influence, is, with some exceptions, But with the exception of the "Cu- simple, graceful design, with no ex- ba" and "Zisa" at Palermo, which are uberance of ornamentation. And, al- very generally admitted to have been though the Cathedral has an incon- in bold erected by the Sarcens, there is, per- gruous later classic dome SAN GIOVANNI, PALERMO, SICILY. 294 THE ARCHI1 RCTURAL RECORD.

CHURCH OF SAN FRANCISCO, PALERMO, SICILY. contrast to the very beautiful Gothic east end showing the (restored) black bell towers, which dome was erected ornamentation. in spite of the remonstrances of the From the Cathedral, through the Sicilian architects, yet the graceful Porta Nueva, is a short walk to the Gothic forms remaining, together with "Palazzo Reale" or Royal Palace. the delicate details, attest, notwith- This latter has always been the site of standing the later additions, the refine- a city castle. However, but one tower ment of the workers upon the building remains the remnant of Norman as early as the twelfth century. The times. Entering the Palace court and old bell towers, dating from the twelfth ascending the staircase we reach the century,and connected with the Cathe- Cappella Palatina, and are surrounded dral by two arches (restored), have a at once with all the splendors that art very picturesque effect. The broad can give. The interior is forty-two feet gable to the south portico was added wide and one hundred and eight feet in 1450, but the character of the an- long. The wooden roof, with ancient cient building is well preserved in the Arabic inscriptions, and distinctly SICILY, THE GARDEN OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. 295

eastern in its treatment and decora- Surely this is a royal chapel with a tion, is supported by the pointed wealth of art dating from the Norman arches and these in below, turn are a richness borne period, of material, and a by columns of polished granite mediaeval and splendor unsurpassed by "cipallino." Many of the capitals other any royal chapel. One stops and are of the Roman period, a prize from wonders if ever anything could be ancient temples long since despoiled more beautiful, were, ever. marbles and of all their art. Mosaics of the time of porphyry more rich could King Roger L, who commenced the splendors of the Orient surpass them. in the middle of the twelfth chapel cen- Near this chapel, so rich and royal in art, and';,through the Porta Nueva, the road -leads to the Cathedral of Monreale (3fr the Royal Mount). The road to the Monreale (less than four miles) is very beautiful. The morning of our expedition to the Royal Mount was as bright and clear a as ever Sunday shone in Sicily. The Sicilians were up betimes, and the road was lively with country folk mak- ing excursions to Palermo that pride of all Sicilian hearts and one of the fairest cities under sunny skies. How different the scenes this day in May from that which occurred 'but little over six hundred years ago. Here, on apparently as peaceful a day, in the year 1282, occurred the very beginning of the wars of the Sicil- ian Vespers the darkest blot in the eventful history of the island. It was then the ambitious Charles of Anjou, with his arrogant wife, at the sugges- tion of the Pope, Clement IV., had usurped the throne of Sicily, and later put to death the heir by right of suc- cession, the youthful Conrad. For twenty years the Sicilians endured the unrighteous rule of Charles. But with no word of warning to their hated masters, they rose and enacted, on the 3 ist day of March, 1282, the terrible massacre of the Sicilian Vespers. THE TOWERS OF THE CATHEDRAL OF PAL- The French, whom Charles had ERMO. brought into the island to rule the con- quered and to sap the life blood out tury, adorn the choir. The mosaics of those they ruled, and Sicilian men are Greek or Byzantine, and in com- and women were on the road to Ves- bination with gold and rarest marble pers. The Vesper bells were ringing are of unusual splendor. The wealth sweetly, and, like a calm before the of mosaic is marvellous. All is mo- storm, there seemed to be no warning saic, with not an inch of other on walls on that peaceful afternoon of the trag- or floor remaining. The intricate pat- edy to follow. In submission the rule terns on the marble floors are only of Charles had been endured so long, surpassed by the rich work and gold- and the hatred for him and his had en background of the walls themselves. been cherished so long in silence, that

SICILY, THE GARDEN OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. 297 the flame was to smouldering ready And their son, Frederick, was later burst forth in horrid and redoubled acknowledged King of all Sicily. but at the most unex- patriotic fury Teeming with the memories of these cause. pected incidents was the road to Monreale. A so we are dared Frenchman, told, Here,high on the mountain,the Cathe- to insult a Sicilian of lady high degree, dral stands, surrounded by a town of this and the Sicilians upon very road; good size. We lost but little time in one and as the bells were all, ringing entering, and stood within a church out their chimes, and candles lighted one hundred and thirty-one feet wide, were the sacred burning upon altars, and three hundred a"nd thirty-three arose then and there with re- great feet long, and one of the most magnifi- venge. Two hundred Frenchmen were cent interiors in the world. The killed the roads toward Monreale upon ; pointed vaulting (quite eastern in and the the through night streets and character) was supported by eighteen houses of Palermo were searched for gigantic columns of oriental granite, the hated nationality. The insurrec- and of exquisite workmanship. Over tion continued, and soon two thousand seventy thousand square feet of mosaic foreigners lay dead within Palermo. occupied every available space of the The insurrection spread throughout walls. The mosaics, of the Greek

MARBLE MOSAIC CAPPELLA PALATINA. the island; and but one Frenchman in school, were of the richest and rarest all the number was allowed to live. description. The ornamental devises Nothing saved them; priests at the and the roof were Saracenic; but very altar, monks within their cloister throughout the whole the Norman was cells, all. alike fell dead. To be a often intermingled. However, since Frenchman was the death sentence. a fire in 1811, much of the work is a The domination of the French, and the restoration. This famous cathedral cruel subjections of the Sicilians, could was erected by William II., in the of no longer keep the patriots under con- twelfth century, after the founding trol. At last the Sicilians arose for a Benedictine monastery the clois- their freedom, and in the very face ters of which in the pointed style are of the Pope, and from the ringing of rich in columns, inlaid with mosaics, the Vesper bells until their successful and the whole one of the most superb defence of Messina, the people fought convents existing. are full for liberty and right, and brought The cloister capitals of^gro- into the island Peter of Aragon and tesque heads and figures. The pointed are of in his good wife, Constance, the daugh- arches and walls pattern the col- ter of Manfred, the late king, killed in light and dark stones, and with the defence of his country, and cousin umns, where not inlaid mosaics, to the executed and lamented Conrad. are most beautifullv carved. In one THE CLOISTER OF THE MONREALE. SICILY, THE GARDEN OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. 299

IN THE CLOISTER OP THE MONREALE. corner of the cloisters is a fountain, above the other. In the dim light the placed amidst a grouping of columns corridors were most grotesque and in adorned in the Saracenic style, which one old monk, dusty, holy robes, no doubt lent a pleasant accompani- stood upright with his mouth agape. It ment to the meditations of the Bene- takes but a gentle touch to set his dictine monks, as they walked among shrivelled tongue a-wagging within his the orange trees or within the shad- open mouth. A long-bearded Cap- ows of the arches. puccin Brother took grim pleasure in Returning from the Monreale, it was showing us this gastly curiosity; and but a short detour to stop at the "Con- in the dead man's mouth he thrust his vento di Cappuccini," in the under- own fingers, and set the tongue a-go- ground corridors of which are pre- ing; silently it wagged, as we looked served the mummified bodies of many at his shrivelled skin and sunken eyes. wealthy Palermitans. The bodies, But we cannot remain always in Pa- with the exception of a few fastened lermo, and must speed on, leaving be- learned to love upright Against the walls, were ar- hind us all that we have ranged in boxes with glass covers one so much. THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

J

TEMPLE OF JUNO LUCINA, GIRGENTI, SICILY.

We left shortly after dejeuner for above the sea, has stood since the fifth Girgenti. We were comfortably seaccd century, B. C. The temple is perip- in a compartment of the cars with a teros hexastylos, with formerly thirty- fat German, a little English woman, four columns of the best period of the her tiny dog and her big son, and in- Greek Doric order. But earthquakes numerable traps their belongings. and the sirocco have left but a rem- When the sun had set, we arrived at nant of its former grandeur. How- Girgenti, the ancient Agrigentum of ever, there is still a remnant left and the Romans, and the Acragas of the the Doric columns standing on the Greeks. The sea has receded some- precipice near the sea, amidst the what from the ancient shore, but the grass and wild flowers, are beautiful in the art of lands around are still, perhaps, as fair over two thousand years and the sea as blue as in the old Greek ago. Nearby is the temple of Con- days when the immortal Pindar wrote cord, also a peripteros hexastylos of the ancient city where dwelt two temple, and also in the Doric order. hundred thousand colonists: This is one of the best preserved Doric in existence, and its " temples thirty- Lover of glory, fairest queen four columns are still standing. It Of cities raised by human skill, was once used as a Christian church. That dwell'st beside the margent green There are also the lesser ruins of the Of flock-frequented Acragas, temple of Hercules, the tomb of The- on High the temple-crested hill, ron and the so-called temple of Castor The fair chosen Proserpine's place." and Pollux (four columns and the en- tablature of which have been re-erect- The present town is on the old acrop- ed); and the latter showing distinct olis, but, by far, the objects of greatest traces of stucco and coloring. interest are the ruined Greek temples. But the former civilization is gone; The finest of these are the "temple of and the beautiful remains tell us of Juno Lacinia" and the "temple of the refinement and high state of cul- Concord." The former, situated on a tivation of a nation and its colonies precipice nearly four hundred feet that made and perfected an architect-

THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. ural order that has never been ex- into water loses as much of its weight celled in simplicity and beauty. as is equal to the weight of an equal Leaving Girgenti for Syracuse we volume of fluid. pass through an interesting country. Theocritus was born at Syracuse, The hue of the ground, owing to the and lived at the brilliant court of Hiero II. " The sweet Theocritus, with softest strains, Makes piping Pan delight Sicilian swains, Through his smooth reed no rustic numbers move, But all is tenderness and all is love, As if the muses dwelt in every vale, Inspired the song and told the melting tale."

The modern town (which occupies but a small part of the ancient town) is most beautifully situated upon an island connected with the mainland of

Sicily. The seas at times dash wildly up against the stone walls and para- pets. The modern town itself has nothing in it of especial importance. However, it is very picturesque and and the bits of mediaeval door- quaint ; ways and windows now remaining are very interesting, the immense voissoirs of some being a noticeable and pleas- ing feature. The shady, narrow streets are in great contrast to the sunny TEMPLE OF CASTOR AND POLLUX, GIR- seas around. The country around GENTI, SICILY. Syracuse is of pastoral beauty, and the road to Fort Eurelus, which latter mines, is many sulphur very peculiar. stands at the of the ancient For miles one sees extremity sulphurous greens ; city, is splendid with waving golden but the colors are pleasing, and the grain and verdant fields, with red pop- scene a novel one. At evening we ar- rived at Syracuse, once the most im- portant town oi' Sicily and the most important of all the Hellenic cities but now only a remnant of its former greatness. With a stirring history of over twenty-six hundred years, it has been the prize of contesting nations. At first a Phoenician settlement, it was founded in the eighth century, B. C, by the Dorians and Corinthians. The Greeks and the Romans have fought for it, and in later years the Arabs and the Normans, and all in turn have con- quered and been conquered. It was in the reign of the King fiiero II. A DOORWAY, SYRACUSE. that Syracuse rose to the highest pitch I of glory it ever attained. In his reign pies and great yellow daisies border- lived the the roadside and notes of Archimedes, mathematician, ing ; giving the first to establish the important bright color among the greens and truth in physics that a body plunged goldens of the grasses. THE GARDEN SICILY, OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. 303

Fort Eurelus is where the north and tect any conversation among the pris- south walls, erected by Dionysius, oners. converge. It terminates in four Near great the Latomia dei Cappuccini is towers flanked two by deep fosses, the church of San Giovanni and the in the rock. hewn From one of these Catacombs of the same. Both date fosses a number of subterranean out- from about the fourth century, A. D. lets are connected with each other, and The catacombs are very extensive and form accessible not to passages only among the most interesting in exist- but to as well. The ence. infantry cavalry There is comparatively little "Greek Theatre," on a hillside without decoration left within them; but the the was the third lar- present town, large circular chambers are a peculiar gest of its kind erected. It was hewn and an unique feature. The church in in the fifth the rock century, B. C., of San Giovanni contains a most in- and is semicircular, .and four hundred teresting crypt which dates from the and ninety feet in diameter. There fourth century. Here are remnants of tiers of were, perhaps, sixty-one seats. capitals and pillars of an ancient Greek Near this on the of theatre, upper part temple. A most beautifully carved the is the hill, "streets of tombs," cut Greek Ionic cap is used reversed for also out of the solid rock. But no lon- the bishop's chair the volutes form- within. The ger sleeps anyone tombs ing the arms. It was in this crypt that have long ago been despoiled of all St. Paul is said to have preached on their decorations. No trace is left of his way to Rome; and the faithful may the cultivated audience that once sat believe they see the very spot on within the theatre except King which he stood. Hiero and Queen Philistis, whose In Syracuse the great temple of Ju- are still names traced upon the stone. piter Olympium (Cicero informs us) How easily our imagination can was erected, but not a vestige remains picture here the multitude listening to unless we except the broken shafts of the plays of Greece, near the beautiful two columns. Ionian sea! As we leave the walls of Syracuse, One of the most interesting sights and follow the border of the Ionian of Syracuse are the Latomie or ancient sea, the snowy peak of Aetna grows quarries, from which was taken the larger and greater until we reach Ca- material for the ancient city. The two tania. There are few cities with a principal ones are the "Latomia del more stirring history than Catania. It Paradise," and the "Latomia dei Cap- was founded by Chalcidians in 729, B. puccini." The former has been hewn C. By wars and earthquakes it has in the rock to the depth of one hun- suffered greatly, and there was little of dred and twenty feet, and now, with antiquity left after the great earth- the luxuriant vegetation that has quake of 1693, since which time the sprung up, looks like a work of nature. present town has been rebuilt. The in- One imagines himself in a wild ravine, habitants have in turn been trans- with the rocks rising in picturesque planted to other parts, as in the time to and grotesque masses around him. of Hiero I., and have been reduced Here in the Latomia del Paradiso is a state of slavery, as in the time of Di- the so-called "ear of Dionysius," a onysius. The Goths, Saracens, and grotto hewn in the rock in the form of Normans have fought for the city. The the letter S. It is two hundred and ten first Sicilian University was founded the liter- feet long and seventy-four feet high. It here, and Catania was long contracts toward the summit and ary centre of the island. With all its Catania is al- forms peculiar acoustic properties. varied history, to-day, historic monu- From an opening in the top one can though not rich in hear a at in the in- ments and works of art, a well-built whisper any point ^ in to Pa- terior. This ear is supposed by some city, second only population to be one of the prisons erected by lermo. Dionysius in order that he might de- There is a Greco-Roman theatre in 304 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD,

Catania that is very impressive. Only country, to pick motes out of bright an imperfect idea can be obtained of it, eyes, or, as I shall say of this, to find for it is mostly underground. One fault with those who are our peers in can trace the tiers of seats and see, at courtesy and gentle manners. Luxury, places, the pure white marble of the after all, is a relative term. A mechan- graceful seats remaining, while the ic's luxury would be to see and learn houses of the modern town rise in pic- in some of our great machine shops; turesque confusion over the very top an artist's luxury, to walk among the of the ancient structure. The Bene- very kind of towns and scenes that dictine monastery of San Nicolo at Ca- Sicily possesses. tania is extensive and covers twenty- The first time I was invited to a Sic- one acres of ground. ilian home to dine, the remarkable ad- Aetna, the landmark everywhere, is vice "not to eat any breakfast," was most impressive from Catania and its given to me. As dinner was at four environs. From the streets themselves in the afternoon, I replied that I should Aetna towers over all in majesty and become very hungry. Again, I was glory. The clear atmosphere, the bril- told that if I ate much in the morning liant sky, and the snowy peak of Aet- I would be unable to eat any dinner. na will always make Catania delight- A roll and a cup of coffee is rather a ful. light breakfast for an American; so Comparatively speaking, the Sicil- long before dinner, the pangs of hun- is therefore deserves all had overtaken but before ian poor, and ger me ; long the more credit for his hospitality and dinner was over the pangs of hunger generosity so often shown. Of course were thoroughly satisfied. During the there are Sicilians and there are Sicil- course of the dinner, I began to un- ians; as also there are Americans derstand why my friend had advised and Americans. But a Sicilian's me to eat nothing beforehand. 1 soon kindness is amazing, especially when learned from a Sicilian lady next to me one considers (what seems to us and that a guest was expected ("out of which often is) the small amount with- compliment to the host and hostess") in his pursestrings. To a stranger he is to eat more than anyone else at the courteous and kind to an extreme. He table. The lady on one side and my will allow a stranger, if he be a guest friend on the other kept telling me, or a friend to pay for nothing while in as each course was served: "Oh! his company. "Oh!" he will say, but you ought to take more, even "We are in Sicily, and I'm a Sicilian!" if no one else does, or you will Those are his oft repeated words. His offend the hostess." In the early friends, from other cities or countries, part of the dinner this was all de- he considers always his guests. Al- lightfully pleasant, but toward the lat- though he might have to stint himself ter courses, having followed the ad- for days thereafter, he will give his vice of my friend, I found I was at my friends the best his larder can possess. wits' end to know what to do, as wine But it may be mentioned here that an and dainties in succession followed. American who always longs for the We, therefore, left Catania with luxury that surrounds him at home to happy memories of a kind and pleas- accompany him abroad and who can- ant people, ever thinking of the flow- not take pleasure and interest in any- ers and hospitality, we, perhaps, might thing unless done as he or his country- never see again.

men would do it, had better remain Our destination was Taormina. forever away from Sicily; for he can- The railroad skirts the sea, and the not be congenial to the Sicilian and scene was ever changing and always the Sicilian will not be congenial to beautiful. With Aetna always in sight, him. In no country is the saying so we rode past ancient lava streams and true that "When in Rome, do as the orange groves, and pitcuresque Sicil- Romans do." One must not go to ian towns and finally arrived at Taor- Sicily, as some one has said of another mina, at one time one of the most eel-

jo6 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

THE CITY GATE FROM ROAD TO GIARDINI AT TAORMINA. ebrated cities of all Sicily. It was the of sea grew larger. Up, up, and at last last of the Sicilian cities to yield to we reached the city gate, a mediaeval Saracen invasion; and only after a structure, picturesque with greens siege of eight months it surrendered and prickly pear. Almost on level to the enemy. And in the time of the ground we entered the town itself. I Norman invasion, a siege of six was going to say we entered the mid- months was held around its ancient dle ages. fortifications. The town itself is three Centuries had not seen a change hundred and eighty feet above the sta- within the city gates. tion of Giardini. A road winds pic- Women and children, physiques turesquely up the hill to the quaint old erect, still carried, as in the days of town. With our luggage we seated old, great water jugs of graceful out- ourselves in the trap awaiting us. Up, line, upon their heads, and went to up we rode the tortuous road. Great picturesque old fountains for crystal prickly pear grew along the roadside; water, fresh from Aetna's snows. Our orange trees perfumed the air; and carriage, with things of beauty on dirty children ran out from behind every side, rattled through the mediae- stone walls and hedges, begging for val street. To our left the town soldi. Donkeys, with ladened pan- climbed up the hill, to our right below niers, were trudging up and down, and us was the sea. Fine old doorways, boys and men, the very perfection of with decorations that were works of Apollos, were accompanying them. art, in every detail, some of Renais- Up, up our horses pulled, and at sance and others Gothic, we passed on every turn the scene grew more beau- every turn. We began to feel that the tiful, and Giardini, with its straggling hands of time had been turned back houses, grew smaller, and the expanse to mediaeval days, for there was noth- SICILY, THE GARDEN OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. 307

TAORMINA.

here ing to mar our delusions. At properties that words uttered in a low last we arrived at what seemed to be voice in the proscenium were distinctly the end of the street, and where were heard at the top of the tiers of seats. the of gates Hotel Timeo. Our smil- The morning light and evening ing, bright-eyed, dark-mustachioed shades are ever varying. One evening host greeted us cordially as we alight- I remember a glorious sunset colored ed. The hotel commanded a view all the scene. The storm had passed, unique, and there is none more beau- and the horizon clouds had deepened tiful in all the world, and stood next to a purplish grey, until they touched the ancient theatre. the purpler sea below. The clouds The theatre was of Greek origin, above, lit with a rosy hue, reflected but owes its present form to the Ro- pinks upon the blues of waters near mans. It is also one of the best pre- the shore. With orange trees and cy- served ancient theatres in existence, presses, the rocks held up Taormina and commands a view unequalled. The high above the sea; and the hill of theatre was so perfect in its acoustic Mola, with its town perched on its Vol. VI.-3. 5. 308 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. very peak in precipitous height, and in little remains of the style of the origi- its emerald green, rose higher still nal. The best part of the structure is above Taormina. The castle wall was the lower part of the facade. This is tinged with pink, and Mola's houses Gothic, and is very beautiful in the were a thousand tints against the red- treatment of the style, suggesting the dened sky. Beyond the Corinthian style as treated at places on the main- columns of the theatre lay the valley land of Italy. Its principal character- of the Alcantara and the mountains istics are its fine detail, proportion, the of Castiglione, in gay attire, and great horizontal flat bands of inlaid marble, Aetna from the sea of blue and pink and the scheme of coloring so effect- had snow fields faintly red. With a ively produced by the latter. The gen- blaze of glory, the setting sun sank be- eral result is most chaste and artistic, yond the mountains, and great shad- but the pediment over the principal ows hid a scene of unsurpassed beauty. entrance is a later addition. The two The town grew quiet in the evening Renaissance tablets between the doors, shadows save for music of guitar and although not bad in themselves, are sweet Sicilian voices. The air was incongruously out of place. The freshened by the ozone from the sea; bands upon the facade become larger, and Aetna, silvery white, was high and the design less intricate, as they stars clouds. the but among the and fleeting approach top ; nowhere, owing We left Taormina and the most to the variety of design and delicate beautiful surroundings of all Sicily, coloring, do they become monotonous. Black and following the Ionian sea we and white marbles are freely reached Messina. used in combination with colors, and Here ended the wars of the Sicilian the treatment is everywhere delicate. Vespers in the memorable siege when The widest horizontal band, as it were, Messina was attacked by Charles of divides the front vertically into two Anjou. The whole island from one parts, the upper part being one-half end to the other had been stirred to the size of the lower part. In the same the highest pitch of patriotism, after proportion are the doors; the centre one the successful rout of the French being about one-half as high and all alike were willing to risk every- again as each of the other two. The thing for their country's sake. None coloring on this facade produced by were more brave than the citizens of the designs in marble is one of the most beautiful Messina. In those memorable days effects in Sicily. We the wives and maidens took part in would wish that the whole facade had been the defence of the city. Women of carried out in the design of the lower high degree, with their lowlier sisters, part. What has already been carried stones and combustibles to done in this Gothic work is so ex- hurl at the enemy. In fact it was a ceedingly beautiful that the work young woman who first gave the above it appears very mean and clum- alarm of attack, and she hurled a huge sy in its heavy classic forms and de- fragment down and killed several tails. French soldiers; and another, her com- The harbor, one of the finest in the panion, set the bells ringing, and Mes- world, is always busy with traffic. sina was saved, and the way opened Boats in all direction are plying across for the entrance of their chosen Con- its waters. Bright-eyed Sicilians are stance of Arragon. working hard with the incoming and Owing to the many vicissitudes outgoing cargoes. Great lumbering this city has sustained, both from the carts rumble along the wharves, and hand of man and nature, the town re- boatmen, in gaudy red caps, and fish- tains but few relics of antiquity. The ermen lounge about upon the piers. most interesting object in Messina is Horses in harness of bright colors, its cathedral. The latter was begun in brass and feathers, pull wagons paint- 1098, but it has been so changed and ed in all gay colors and with scenes modernized that but comparatively from the lives of the saints depicted SICILY, THE GARDEN OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. 309 thereon, and the woodwork of aston- "In the beginning," she said, "God ishing design. Women in gay dress created everything, but when his hand vend fruit and flowers. became more cunning, he paid more The cafe doors are open, and with attention to detail, until at last he made the odor of the cigarettes is mingled and finished Sicily His most beauti- that of the ever delicious choco- ful masterpiece." late and coffee. The macaroni hangs And so we leave the land of Grecian out in the sun, and whole shop-fronts, temples, and the flowers and orange with the same on long poles, are cov- blossoms, and the blue hills and moun- ered; and the ceilings within are ob- tain peaks under the sunny skies and scured by its presence. Small chil- sail awav into the seas. Sicily, like an dren and hungry beggars look long- ever-beautiful dream, fast melts into ingly up as it dries in the air, while the blue waters, and Aetna's peak is swarms of flies blacken its surface and faintly white above the vanished isle. eat up their fill in peace and content. At last the distance veils it all, and A lady I became acquainted with in nothing is left to us but the azure of Sicily most aptly described the island : the skies and seas. Albert M. Whitman. CORNER HOUSES IN PARIS.

our modern cities, where the now under consideration, it is cer- IN municipal authorities, scrupu- tain that owing to the duty incumbent lously respectful of the equality upon the architect of providing the of the inhabitants, too often forget greatest possible amount of house- that the equality of all means the lib- room and the natural obligation of erty of each; where the regulations re- placing the larger number of windows lating to public ways, inflexible in the part of the house looking out though antiquated, form barriers to upon the street, with the consequent private initiative and cause our streets distribution of spaces and solid parts, and avenues to be bordered from end he has very little latitude left to him to end by long, unvaried ribbons of for innovations. Even if he had any stone, any innovations on the part of inclinations in this direction, the land- architects, any attempts to modify lord would not be likely to give him the appearance of our buildings and any encouragement. As a rule, a land- make them more attractive to their lord wishing to erect an apartment occupants and to passers-by, are kept house fights shy of architects who within the very narrowest limits.* want to produce something architect- What, indeed, is to be done when the ural: he merely requires that the height to which houses may be built house should be built, for, in matters and the distance to which their exte- of art, the public are now so well edu- rior projections can extend, are fixed cated that they know architecture and by the terms of a regulation, and housebuilding are two different things, when the municipality, without whose and for the former it is the landlord license one stone cannot be placed who pays, while it is the architect upon another, decapitates every dar- who reaps all the glory. ing summit and lops off every exu- One of the rare occasions in house- berant ledge? Confined in this man- construction on which an architect is ner, above, in front, and on each side, able to introduce a little architecture how is it possible for the outline of a reducing the term to the sense at- house to offer any novelty; how can tributed to it by the close-fisted land- it differ from its neighbors, unless it lord is when the ground upon which be by the style of its decoration, by or- the house is to be erected is located at namentation more or less bombastic, the intersection of two streets and can which frequently appears misplaced consequently present two faces in- because one feels that it is only ve- stead of only one. The edifice then neering that it might be very dif- becomes a complete thing, being no ferent from what it is, and that it is longer a mere slice of a block of build- in no wise needed for the setting-off ings, so that the architect's talent, if of the architectural features of the ed- he has any, finds scope to display it- ifice? self. This is why it has occurred to But, though the monotonous uni- us that it would be interesting to see, formity of so many of our lar^e public by the inspection of a few recent ex- arteries is partly imputable to the re- amples, what French architects have quirements, theoretically justifiable no been able to do of an original character doubt, of a too paternal Highway in later years, and to devote these few Board, it is not always due to this pages to a study of corner houses, cause alone. In the case of apart- confining ourselves, of course, to ment houses,which are the only ones apartment houses, those for which a uniform programme is laid down, The author here, of course, Is referring to which be Paris and to other cities of the European conti- may always summarized nentEditor. thus : provide the greatest extent of ac- CORNER HOUSES IN PARIS. 3" commodation obtainable, in order to when the staircase runs round a well produce the highest possible amount starting from the ground. We have in rentals. an example of the latter in a contem- We should like to go back to for- porary edifice, le Cercle de la Librai- mer centuries and see how our ances- ne (Publisher's Club), erected by M. tors managed in this respect; but, in Charles Gamier, on the corner of the the first place, apartment houses are Boulevard Saint-Germain and the rue things of quite modern invention, like Gregoire de Tours. It be that in the enormous increase in land may values, adopting this arrangement the emi- which necessitates paying for the nent architect of the Paris Opera ground alone a price that would for- House allowed himself to be guided merly have sufficed for the erection his by partiality (justified by success of a palace, and entails, in conse- we for admit) staircases of magnificent quence, increased height in order to proportions; but, however great the make up for the space impossible to talent displayed, the dimensions of this be had laterally; in those staircase secondly, appear excessive in compar- much maligned days of yore, the civic ison with the size of the edifice itself. powers were far more lenient than the Employing well-known descrip- are at and left tion they present, every of a canon, namely, a hole with man free to lodge himself as he saw some metal around it, we might say fit. Houses of several floors did ex- of the Cercle de la Librarie that it is a it is but were in each ist, true, they staircase with something at the case a and top. occupied by single family, But what is perfectly admissible in the a few boards did not then, as case of a now, great public edifice, not in- form the between be- only separation tended for habitation, and which calls ings utterly indifferent to one another, for a certain ostensation of style, is or their perhaps enemies, passing lives less justifiable in domestic architect- side side without ever face ure in the by meeting great majority of private to face. When a house was located buildings which form the subject of on a corner, this position used to be this article. utilized the construction of a wind- by Our public thoroughfares, which all staircase, from the first run in a ing which, more or less straight line, floor upwards, overhung the sidewalk. traverse one another in such a way as of we an il- to form three kinds of By way retrospect give angles, viz. : ob- lustration (Fig. i) of a charming spec- tuse, right, or acute. It goes without of the fif- imen this style, dating from saying that the shape of the plot re- teenth century and still standing in the sulting from these three different an- old Marais quarter, at the junction of gles determines the manner of plan- the rue Vieille du Temple ana the rue ning the house to be erected thereon. des Francs-Bourgeois. This system An obtuse angle, when only a slight was a very rational one, considering one, is manifested by a simple devia- that the starting point of the staircase, tion of the frontage, which appears for the use of a single family, was sit- broken. The bend is necessarily a uated inside the dwelling. The projec- solid part, merely uniting two por- tion thus commencing only above the tions of facade and gives little oppor- basement, the whole of the corbelling tunity for any specially interesting ar- was gained from the street, whereas if rangement. We present a good ex- the stairs had been required for sev- ample of this kind of corner in Fig. 2, eral .distinct families, it would have being a house lately erected in the been necessary to make the turret Avenue Henri Martin. It is just the start from the ground in order to es- average kind of house met with in our tablish an exterior entrance to it. large avenues; there are many like it This corner arrangement, consist- and the sole difference between one ing of a small overhanging staircase and another consists in the greater or winding round a central newel, was less profusion of sculptural ornamen-

: over the front perfectly logical it is, perhaps, less so tation, distributed FIG. 1. ANGLE TOWER, RUE VIEILLE DU TEMPLE. CORNER HOUSES IN PARIS.

FIG. 2. APARTMENT HOUSE, AVENUE HENRI MARTIN, PARIS.

the is When angle a right one, smaller portion of the angle, so as to which is most frequently the case, admit of putting one, two or even a three courses can be adopted: retain larger number of windows. When cut it or it. it, off, round In practice, the corner is cut off in this way to a the angle is scarcely ever retained, and considerable depth, the front obtained it may be said that the first hypothesis is really the principal part of the fa- is never realized, as, this position at gade, the returns being merely acces- the crossing point of two streets be- sory parts. All the private mansions ing a particularly agreeable one, it surrounding the Arc de Triomphe, on would be unwise not to profit thereby the Place de 1'Etoile, have their fronts and obtain a view by placing a win- formed in this manner, with the tri- dow there. Cutting off the corner is, angular piece of ground before the therefore, the plan most generally fol- house which we may call the product lowed, especially for houses located of this slicing-off process made into on streets of moderate width, where a tiny garden, separating the house the process of rounding, to be touched from too direct contact with the pub- upon presently, would require more lic road. This is a very pleasant ar- space than could conveniently be rangement, but involves too great a spared. According to the size of the sacrifice of ground to be frequently room placed on the corner and the adopted. Pre- consequent amount of light required, A house in the rue Frangois the architect slices off a larger or mier in the Champs-Elysees district 3*4 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

FIG. 3. APARTMENT HOUSE, RUE FRANCOIS PREMIER, PARIS.

(Fig. 3), shows us a modification of and the Bois de Boulogne. In this the method just described. As will neighborhood, where grass was still be seen, the architect seems to have growing a hundred years ago, apart- taken pleasure, and we cannot blame ment houses are springing up daily, him, in varying as much as possible filled with the newest aopliances the shape of the rooms of the house contributing to comfort. The rent- by putting two faces on the corner, als of these houses remain rela- one having two windows and the tively within reach, for, notwith- other, not so large, with one window. standing the complaints of bad In order to see the latest achieve- times emitted by architects and ments of architectural art in the do- builders, it is not that the number of main of house-building one must al- new erections has diminished, but ways examine the districts that ex- that constructors have multiplied so tend towards the west of Paris, be- that they now do a less profitable tween the Seine, the Champs-Elysees business. CORNER HOUSES IN PARIS. 315

FIG. 4. APARTMENT HOUSE, RUE DE VILLEJUST AND AVENUE VICTOR HUGO, PARIS.

Three houses in the Avenue Victor the architect has foreseen nothing for Hugo, quite recently completed, give him. He may some day become less us three types of one and the same ar- of a cipher in the household, and may rangement. We will not pause to oe provided with a cabinet opening speak at length of the internal dispo- into the drawing-room, where his visi- sition, which varies but little in apart- tors could wait. After this little com- ment houses: There is always a large plaint pro domo mea, which it is not a and a small drawing-room, a dining- bad thing to make from time to room, from two to five bedrooms, time, without much prospect, how- sometimes with, but more often with- ever, of changing deep-rooted habits, out, dressing-rooms, a bathroom, an we will say that we freely approve of ante-chamber, a servants' room and a the rule, in the case of corner houses, best kitchen. That is all very well, and it of giving the drawing-room the we is quite possible to live comfortably in position. The three examples that in one of these flats, especially if the here offer follow this plan, as, each, master's occupations keep him out of the drawing-room has a view on three is doors all day,' for we must note here, different sides. Certainly nothing a in passing, that in a flat it is always the better calculated to brighten room; ob- master who is sacrificed. Madame has but this agreeable effect is not the fur- one or two salons in which to pass her tained without interfering with the time, but there is no study or working nishing of the room. In effect, room for Monsieur; if he desires one abundance of windows on three sides he must make shift with one of the leave but little wall space, except on chambers intended for bedrooms, as the side facing the middle window, THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

FIG. 5. and even this is usually occupied, in fast, unsilvered mirror in place of the its central part, by the fireplace, which French window. This plan has a triple is flanked right and left by a door advantage; daylight enters the room leading to the two sides of the house. as before, while a piece of furniture Therefore, in a room of restricted di- can be placed underneath the glass, mensions, whose walls are pierced and outside, especially if there is a with three windows and two doors, to balcony running round the apart- say nothing of the parts taken up by ment, flower-boxes can be so disposed the windows and door hangings, what as to surround the bay with a frame space is there left for the furniture? of verdant climbing plants. The house This is a serious inconvenience to which stands at the angle of the Rue people who delight to surround them- de Villejust and the Avenue Victor selves with those personal objects Hugo (Fig. 4), presents an example that give an individual stamp to a of this arrangement. As an illustra- room and distinguish it from ordinary, tion of the opposite disposition we commonplace apartments. In order have the house shown in Fig. 5, where to avoid the drawbacks, while profit- the glazed space has been increased ing by the advantages of this kind of by dividing the corner window into room, the architect has in many cases, three parts instead of two. This fig- and wisely, we think, stopped up the ure also demonstrates an arrange- corner window by raising its block- ment that is frequently adopted. On ing course breast-high and putting a each of the side frontages there is a FIG. 6. 3'* THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

in Paris about the on carriage entrance, thus permitting ve- built year 1750 hicles to go in on one side of the what is now called the Boulevard des house and come out again on the other Italiens. But it is especially during side after taking up or depositing the the last thirty years that apartment- visitors at the foot of the staircase at houses have been built after this fash- the bottom of this circular passage. ion; and we must believe that the In dealing with flattened corners, tower has a great fascination for land- as we have just described them, the lords, seeing that every house of any constructor has not much field for the consequence possesses this append- exercise of his talent, the corner age, which in most instances is a mere front being merely a continuation of decoration and is sometimes quite in- the lateral facade. We may remark, appropriate. Fashion has also had however, without entirely approving something to do with it; in our era the result, the great pains taken by the of wealth the rich man wants to have to architect of the third house (Fig. 6) his tower, just as in former days every modify the triteness of its facade. powerful noble had his dungeon. The have Some better method might surely tower is precisely the dungeon of the been found for joining the two sides bourgeois, who wishes to assert by than to leave the corner face plain after some external sign the might of his col- having adopted those voluminous shekels and the solidity of his credit. umns reaching to a height of two We are bound, in fact, to recognize floors. Besides, what function is per- that although this tower arrangement formed by these columns, which rest has certain advantages it is principally on consoles and sustain a cornice that adopted for the sake of show, and that, is totally useless, as it caps nothing, here again, inside comfort is sacrificed two and is, moreover, surmounted by to external appearance. It is the pass- floors. Yet, remove this useless cor- ers-by who reap the enjoyment, and it nice and the columns no longer have cannot be denied that the lantern or any raison d'etre, or the consoles dome-shaped summits standing out either. It is, in fact, pure ornamen- here and there from the straight line tation, and as such, we find it rather of roofs do vary the monotony of our encumbering. avenues. The tenants also are flat- Though the architecture of these tered, by the same sentiment as the houses is somewhat commonplace, it landlord,at the idea of living in a house has the merit of being for the most which attracts notice and gives peo- and a of them. part simple unpretentious, qual- ple a good opinion Conse- met with in the edi- ity not invariably quently, they submit meeklv enough fices forming the third of the three cat- to the inconveniences connected with egories spoken of above, that is to say, the internal arrangement of their flats. those whose corner is rounded off and The drawing-room could not well oc- presents a circular shape. This course cupy any other position than this place is not usually followed unless the of honor; but, if as we have said, it is house is located on a square sufficient- a difficult matter to furnish a room ly large, or on an avenue sufficiently containing numerous windows, the ar- wide, to allow of the recoil; it is, in rangement of the furniture in a room reality, not a simple rounding off or of circular shape is still more embar- of the but a veritable besides it is cer- softening angle, rassing ; which, pretty tower is placed at the intersection of tain that, in whatever position one sits the two streets. This is not an innova- there will be a window at one's back, tion, as, apart from the circular pa- and, while everybody is not incom- vilions, which in past times flanked the moded by this, we think it detracts to angles of chateaux in memory of the some extent from the comfort of the ancient towers of defense, urban edi- room and gives one the impression of fices were also built in this form, as is living in the street. evidenced by the Pavilion de Hanovre, Paris contains a hundred houses in CORNER HOUSES IN PARIS. 3*9

FIG. 7. APARTMENT HOUSE, RUE BOISSIERE AND RUE DE LONGCHAMPS, the same style as the building shown cornice serve any useful purpose. It in Fig. 7, which is located at the cross- is an open question; the former justify ing point of the Rue Boissiere and the the latter without having in themselves Rue de Longchamps, with its principal or in the necessities of the construction view toward the Place d'lena. You their own proper justification. How- will see everywhere the same mode oi ever, we can understand the architect's decoration, consisting in placing im- desire to enrich the outline of this bedded columns on the balcony of the tower, which, if left bare, would have second floor, their capitals supporting resembled a cylinder covered by an ex- the cornice on which rests the fourth tinguisher. Still, we hope that one floor balcony. Here again we may day something better will be found. ask ourselves whether the columns and The constructor of the house repre- 320 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

FIG. 8. APARTMENT HOUSE, RUE WASHINGTON AND AVENUE DES CHAMPS ELYSEES, PARIS.

sented in Fig. 8, located on the corner unexpected end-ornament. We can- of the Rue Washington and the Ave- not imagine the purpose of the belve- nue des Champs- Elysees, and to which dere, or who, in an apartment-house, the finishing touches are now being can enjoy the use of it. Will it be the put, does not seem to have done any domestics, who are the usual denizens better. Instead of one column he has of these upper regions? On the whole, put two. Perhaps this was necessary we incline rather to the theory that in order to satisfy the eye and to have this terrace is intended by an obliging the appearance of supporting the pe- attention on the part of the landlord, culiar crown with which he has capped to enable the tenants to look over their his cylinder. A cupola was not neighbors' heads and see the fireworks enough for him, so he has added there- which illuminate the four corners of to a belvedere surmounted bv a rather Paris on the Fourteenth of July. An- CORNER HOUSES /A PARIS. 321

FIG. 9. APARTMENT HOUSE, AVENUE HENRI MARTIN, PARIS. other and more probable explanation difficulty has been solved in a very in- of this exuberance lies perhaps in the genious and yet simple fashion. From landlord's desire to have something the second floor upwards the architect strictly novel and to build a house has dilated the walls and supported higher than the neighboring ones, for them by corbelling. He could not com- it will be noticed that the illustration mence at the first floor because the shows another house which likewise regulations forbid balconies or projec- has the inevitable corner tower. tions of any sort below the second One more, and a last example, lo- floor. This interdiction, it appears, is cated on the Avenue Henri Martin, a relic of the Middle Ages and was en- in the Trocadero district, displays acted because, with the narrow streets greater ingenuity and sounder taste, of those days, any corbelling at a lower and furnishes us furthermore with a height would have obstructed the specimen belonging to the last of the passage of vehicles, especially wagons three kinds of corners above named, with high loads of hay. It is evident that of the acute angle. Sharp enough, that in the present case, particularly as in truth, was the tongue of ground there is a garden in front of the house, which the architect had to utilize, and the corbelling would not have ob- narrow enough the space for placing structed anything or anybody; but un- a principal room on the corner, yet the fortunately argument has never yet position was too good to be wasted by prevailed against a regulation. The putting a minor chamber there. The increased width thus given to the three 322 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

upper stories has made it possible to which we meet again and again the place a window in the front part of the whole arsenal of musty formulas, the tower, thus making up in a measure eternal stock of antiquated elements for the insufficiency of the ground. It that have served hundreds and hun- will be noticed also that the edifice has dreds of times and yet without which it been rendered more graceful by the would seem that architects could not obligation of keeping the basement exist. We Frenchmen still retain our of for build- solid, which affords another proof partiality stone ; we wish our the adage that "necessity is the mother ings to last forever and we believe that of invention" and is often a surer guide outside of this material there is no sal- than complete liberty. vation. Iron has not yet established The few examples cited are, as we its reputation and can produce no title- of recent deeds to its it is have said, for the most part prove high antiquity ; a an and as construction ; they will, therefore, give newcomer, upstart, such a fair idea of what is being done in is still regarded with suspicion. And Paris in this direction. We do not as- yet iron seems to be the material that sert that we are entirely pleased with is destined to infuse into modern them, or indeed with the majority of architecture the new blood of which it other contemporary erections, in stands in such great need. P. Frantz Marcou. THE CLOISTER; CAVAILLON CATHEDRAL.

FRENCH CATHEDRALS.

Part IX.

THE CATHEDRALS OF PROVENCE. V.

I.

cathedral of Orange, though An entrance on the south side opens of THE little architectural import- into the second bay. The chapels are ance, offers one of the sim- lighted by small round-arched win- plest plans in Provence, and is dows in the upper part of the walls, one of the best types of the hall and on the south side small windows basilica in France. It is a rectangle have been cut into the vaulting in the with a pointed tunnel vault carried on second, third and fourth bays. The plain double arches, which divide it choir, somewhat narrower than the into four large bays. They rest on nave, and entered by a series of plain plain pilasters applied to the inner recessed pointed arches, of which the faces of large piers which are internal lower rest on barbarous corbels, fills buttresses, forming deep recesses con- the lower part of the tower. It is cov- nected with round arches with inner ered by a dome with an octagonal base broader arches behind them. These and the usual pendentives. Beyond is recesses are now used as chapels, but a small semicircular apse pentagonal their shallow form is not suited to that externally now walled up and not purpose. There is a striking similarity forming part of the cathedral interior. between this plan and that of the ca- Externally the cathedral is closely sur- thedral of Frejus, though the latter rounded, in large part, by unimportant has cross vaults. buildings. The south porch retains

Vol. VI. 3.- 6. I H

5 FRENCH CATHEDRALS. 325

TRANSVERSE SECTION, ORANGE CATHEDRAL. some fragments of the twelfth century will iind little to interest him. The in its lower parts, while its very irregu- western door dates from the present lar upper portions, entirely without century. The south portal, though in a beauty, date from the fourteenth. The very bad state, is the most pretentious tower, built in 1338, ruined by the external feature. The doorway is of Protestants, and subsequently restored a debased Renaissance type, with in part, is not wanting in mass, but in three Tuscan columns carrying a pedi- its present almost dismantled state it ment. The porch is enclosed within is of little interest. three irregularly centred pointed The cathedral of Orange was built arches, resting on a series of small in 1085 and a consecration is recorded pedestals carrying a continuous cor- in 1208. It suffered so severely from nice, which serves as their capitals. Protestant injuries, the tower and Fortunately the visitor to Orange vaulting being destroyed, that though will find so much to interest him in its the latter was rebuilt in the sixteenth superb Roman remains, that a visit to century in its original form, the build- the city will not be regretted because of its cathedral. it ing, as we now have it, is scarce more of the poverty Yet than a copy of the original. Yet it is is a striking fact that the builders of a fair type of a Provencal church of the this cathedral made no use of the eleventh century, though its chief in- abundant and suggestive materials at terest at present is in its plan and con- their very doors. The city of Avignon struction. Its interior is covered with offers almost nothing in Roman re- tawdry and unimportant painted dec- mains, yet the detail of its cathedral is orations which cover up the stone- distinctively of this class, the cornice of the work without giving it beauty. The which supports the ancient parts small size of the church, and the sim- tower being in fact a reproduction of of the trium- plicity of its structure, with the ab- the cornice of the attic sence of carved ornament, form a phal arch at Orange. Obviously, at the cathedral of whole in which even the archaeologist the time when Orange 326 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

of five each smaller than at was builtthe predilection of Provencal and bays, builders for Roman motifs had passed Orange, while the internal buttresses are thicker. The which has a away. Certainly it is difficult to find choir, dome, is the same width as the nave, and is inclosed by a polygonal apse. The pointed tunnel vault of the nave rests on double arches, as at Orange, but the outer piers, applied to the but- tresses, have small upper columns as at Aix and Aries; the central piers have been cut away below these col- umns and are supported on corbels, below which are large sculptured groups. A round archway forms the entrance to the choir, whose dome is of the usual type, with pendentives rather large with the symbols of the Evangelists, and a rib in the centre of each face. The semidome of the apse is an ugly recent restoration, with a skylight cut in its top. The whole of the interior is painted or gilded in the worst possible taste, with the ad- ditional disadvantage of covering up much of the primitive construction. At the western end of the nave is an inner porch or tribune supported by Ionic columns, built in the seventeenth century. PLAN OF ORANGE CATHEDRAL. The chapels between the buttresses, which entirely modify the character of other grounds for its ignoring, unless, the interior, are of great variety. On indeed, it was destroyed when it was the north side, beginning at the west, rebuilt, for in the sixteenth century the is the chapel of Veran (fourteenth cen- meaning and purpose of the true art tury), whose Gothic structure is almost of Provence had long been forgotten. hidden by a sumptuous gilt decoration in the Renaissance style. Then comes II. a plain one, with a round tunnel vault at right angles to the nave. The third Few facts have survived in the his- vies with the first in the elaborateness tory of the cathedral of Cavaillon; it of its decoration, and perhaps sur- was dedicated in 1023 and again in passes it with its coffered vault. The 1232, and considerable additions to it fourth and fifth chapels on both sides were made in the seventeenth century. of the nave are plain, with tunnel But no record tells us what was done vaults. The fourth on the south side in the early period of its history, and has, however, been recently decorated even the fact of a destruction by fire with an attempted "restoration." immediately after the dedication of The first three chapels on the south 1023 is not known to have actually side have outer bays of the seven- occurred. In plan it is exactly that of teenth century, in a severe style of ar- its near neighbor, the cathedral of chitecture, with domical ceilings and Orange, though its cloister and later plain pilasters. The first is two bays additions materially modify it. It dif- deep, the second is three, and the third fers considerably in dimensions and forms an entrance from the cloister to arrangement, the nave being narrower, the cathedral, by which the church is FRENCH CATHEDRALS 327

effect, the west porch of the cathedral of Avignon, the partly dismantled west entrance of the cathedral of S. Paul Trois Chateaux, and the west door- way of the south aisle of the cathedral of Aix. But the date is obviously later than any of these. The channelled shafts of the columns might be appro- priately surmounted with Corinthian capitals, but though the acanthus leaf is present in the capitals they are not classic, and the introduction of gro- tesque shows a wide departure from the earlier usage. M. Revoil inclines to the belief that this decoration may date from a time not much before the second recorded dedication of the ca- thedral by Pope Innocent IV. in 1232, but the style of the carving is consid- erably earlier than that of the oc- tagonal tower, which he dates at the end of the twelfth century, but which, of the two parts, is more probably the CAVAlILLON. RESTORATION OF APSE BY less ancient. REVOIL. The lantern surmounts the dome of the usually entered. A third bay to this choir. A low plain circular base passage is a small chamber with a flat finished with a roll moulding, stands on a above the roof. ceiling" used as a baptistery. large square rising Like the cathedral of Orange the ca- Above is the octagon, with columns thedral of Cavaillon is better studied in its plan than in the structure itself, but unlike that cathedral it possesses external features of the greatest inter- est, though now much injured by time. Its outer apse wall, its central tower, the friezes on the walls of the nave, and the cloister are each worthy some extended study. In some respects the apse is the most interesting. Exter- nally it has five sides, though it has seven within. A channelled column, save next the cathedral where it is plain, stands on a ledge at each angle. The capitals are of acanthus leaves or acanthus and grotesques. Round arches with an upper moulding or hood, connect the columns, the cen- tral one being" decorated with small rosettes. In the middle of the central bay is a small round-headed window, now closed. The wall is crowned with PLAN OP CAVAILLON CATHEDRAL. a small foliated cornice on consols abaci of whose carved with leaves or heads. on each edge, the forms a line around it. A low There is some classic feeling in this capitals recessed wall above supports a flat decoration; it recalls, in its general SOUTH PORTAL, CARPENTRAS CATHEDRAL FRENCH CATHEDRALS. 329

EAST END, CATHEDRAL OF CAVAILLON. pointed roof. Each face has a small bell turret that immediately adjoins round-headed window enclosed in col- the apse, standing between it and the umns carrying an arch, the abaci here unimportant door that leads to the being also carried around the octagon cloister. It is surmounted by a gabled as a string, passing around the corner arch for a bell; much of its inner or columns. It is an exceedingly inter- western part has been rebuilt. esting structure, though suffering The exterior walls of the cathedral somewhat from its unfavorable posi- are largely rough plastered. In the tion and comparatively low height. uninteresting mass of applied build- The east wall of the cathedral, to ings on the south it is still possible to which the apse is applied, ends ab- distinguish the upper parts of the ruptly in a horizontal line, and thick nave buttresses, with two small nothing therefore leads up to the lan- applied arches, like the fragments of tern. But seen from the cloister, or a blind arcade, on their upper surfaces. from the open square beyond the The buttresses are stopped below the be- -cloister, it is completely visible. Here, roof, and a connecting wall built is cov- ;also, may be seen the singular narrow tween them, which, with them,

FRENCH CATHEDRALS.

a tiled roof. At the ered with top of lery where it is omitted. The carving on the south is the nave wall, side, a of the capitals is so greatly defaced as frieze of wreath-like to rich foliage, now be scarcely intelligible, but a few much decayed. The nave is roofed pictorial ones can be distinguished, as with stone with strongly marked lon- well as some of the Corinthian type. gitudinal lines on the south side, and The walks have round tunnel vaults, tiles on the north its with a with ; along ridge single arch in the centre and at is the original stone crest of interlaced each end, where they enclose cross half-circles. vaults, those on the west side having On the north side of the cathedral ribs and those on the east none. The more of the stone construction is visi- vault arches and the diagonal ribs at ble, though there are no buttresses, the angles rest on rounded corbels and the chapels are scarcely more in- much defaced. The west gallery is teresting than the featureless struc- slightly narrower than the others, and tures on the south. But the frieze is its inner arches have semi-octagonal richer and more elaborate than on the piers with string-like capitals, instead other side of the church. It is much of the applied columns of the other defaced, but the subjects show a suc- walks. The buildings which enclose cession of men, emblems, animals and the cloister on the east and west are featureless the exterior of the ornamental objects whose sacred sig- entirely ; nificance must at one time have been south wall has three deep round well known, but whose meaning has arches. The cloister is not restored, long since been lost. This cornice is save for some slight patchings in the not visible from the street, but an vaults, but its generally decaved con- obliging iron-worker will take you to dition is not untypical of the state of his room at the top of the opposite this cathedral. house, and charge nothing for the III. courtesy he extends to you ! ^- The cloister is on the south side of of S. at Car- the cathedral, and is evidently of the The cathedral Siffrein, is a Gothic structure of the eleventh or early part of the twelfth pentras, but connected with century. It has none of the light and fifteenth century, its are graceful character which distinguishes it, and partly covering sacristy, cathedral of S. the cloisters of Aix and Aries, but some remains of the somewhat suggests the cloister of Vai- Pierre which immediately preceded of the son in the heaviness of its forms and it. All that is left is the dome a of the nave, the lowness of its proportions. It is a choir and fragment formed of a small rectangle enclosed within plain which evidently part of the of the twelfth solid walls, of which the northern is church early part been dated as late as the south wall of the cathedral, and the century. It has the western the wall of the third or en- the thirteenth century, but neither structure nor the detail that remain trance chapel. It has four bays on the so late a time. east and west, six on the north and warrant data has survived to five on the south. The two long sides, Sufficient per- of the It had however, are approximately of the mit a reconstruction plan. an or vestibule bay at the same length, an arch of extra width introductory a nave of five with a being inserted on the south as an en- west end, bays, tunnel and bordered trance to the quadrangle. The arcade pointed vault, between the but- is formed of a double series of round with chapels heavy a choir with an octagonal arches, of which the outer rest on tresses, a and a semicircular apse ; plan broad piers, to which are applied the dome, resemblance to the short columns carrying the inner with very striking cathedrals of Cavaillon and Avignon. arches. The arches are plain, with a of resemblance in small hood moulding on both inner Nor are the points the alone. The fragment of the and outer faces, save in the east gal- plan 332 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

INTERIOR OF S. SIFFREIN, CARPENTRAS. nave shows the inserted column in the ribs in the centre of each face, meeting upper part of the piers, and above is a at the summit in an open ring. broad carved frieze or cornice, as at The belfry or tower which rises Avignon. Only one of the decorated above the dome is much later in date columns remains, and its capital is a than those of Avignon or Cavaillon, heavy piece of sculpture not even fitted and may be as recent as the early part in size to its column. of the thirteenth century. Instead of The dome bay, with the tower above the low towers which surmount the is a it, remains intact, standing free over domes of those cathedrals, there the sacristy of the present cathedral. lofty chamber, with applied columns in It is supported on the north and south the angles, whose bases and capitals sides by a series or recessed arches, are Romanesque, but which carry very much as the domes of the cathe- Gothic vault-ribs and a slightly drals of Avignon and of La Major at pointed vault. Above are the frag- Marseilles. But here the arches rest mentary remains of the windows of an on piers rising from the ground, while upper stage, but the original finish of in the other churches they are applied the tower has long since been lost. to the east and west arches of the en- This fragment is a most interesting closing bay. Pendentives of the usual monument of the transition period in type, with the symbols of the Evangel- which the characteristics of several ists, form a slightly irregular octagon, epochs may be distinguished. It is around which runs a carved string va- certainly to be regretted that the disas- riously ornamented with human ters which befell the city of Carpen- masks of barbarous character in the tras in the thirteenth and fourteenth corners. The dome has column-like centuries, and especially its burning in SECTION OF THE TOWER OF S. PIERRE, CARPENTRAS. 334 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

1312, should have caused the decay of The architectural interest of this this church and necessitated the build- building is comparatively unimport- ing of a new one. Notwithstanding ant. It consists of a nave of six bays,, that a part of this later structure was from which open chapels, and a small built under what remained of the choir and apse. The detail is thin and older, it is probably to their close jux- slight, characteristic, indeed, of the taposition that we owe the survival of Gothic of Provence. The church need the older fragment. The final collapse not, therefore, detain us further than of the cathedral of S. Pierre appears, to remark that the interior decorations, however, to have been a matter of especially those of the high altar and some time. A writer as late as 1649 the east end are in very bad taste, and speaks of four of the chapels of the produce a result that, in this meagre nave as still existing, and it is well interior, is almost disheartening. known that the remains of the cloister The exterior, however, has in its that once formed a part of the cathe- south door one of the most charming dral group were removed in 1829, to pieces of late Gothic art in the south make room for some prisons. of France. As everywhere in this The present cathedral of Carpentras, region there is a poverty in the detail the cathedral church of S.Siffrein,with that at once stamps it as an exotic which the fragment of the ancient type of architecture; but the designer church is connected, offers little of in- of this portal enjoyed a great advan- terest to the traveler, the archaeolo- tage in being able to set his jewel for gist or the architect. It was begun by such it really is in a plain wall other- Pope Benedict XIII., while resident at wise practically devoid of architect- Avignon, who regarded Carpentras ural character. The crockets and with especial favor, retaining to him- finial of the outer arch are, indeed, of self, in 1403, the title and function quite stately in design, but the detail of the bishop of Carpentras. The first the supporting columns and even the stone of the present edifice was laid in mouldings of the recessed arch are and dele- 1404 by his representative wanting in strength. On the pier that the gate, Artaud, archbishop of Aries, divides the doorway into two is a architect, as an inscription tells us, charming statue of the Virgin, Notre one Colinus Thomacii. being Dame des Nieges, and the tympanum The work of building progressed is filled with a fresco representing the These were troublous times slowly. Coronation of the Virgin, now much for the was collected region, money defaced. The portal is really a de- slowly and for many years the people lightful bit, but the busy traveler, in- were quite incapable of continuing the tent on seeing the most within the least erection of even the modest building time, not unwisely deem it best to that is still the most conspicuous struc- may omit from his itineracy, if ture in the city. It was dedicated Carpentras this be the as it that its cathe- more than a hundred years after it had most, is, offer him. been begun in 1519. dral church has to Barr Ferree. CHAPEL AND LIBRARY, RUTGERS COLLEGE (1873). Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect.

HENRY JANEWAY HARDENBERGH.

JANEWAY HARDEN- in New York was not so extensive as was born at HENRYBERGH New it deserved to be. A glass warehouse Brunswick, N. J., Feb. 6, 1847, of his design in Howard street was for although his family removed, when he many years after its erection one of the was two years old, and he has since most interesting and respectable of our resided in Jersey City and New York commercial buildings, with touches of City. He comes of the Dutch stock the neo-grec in detail that did it neither which has been so potent in the de- much good nor much harm, but with velopment of New Jersey. His first the evidence of artistic sense and train- American ancestor emigrated from ing in its proportion and its fenestra- Amsterdam about 1644. His great tion, and with a straightforward and great grandfather, Jacob Rutsen Har- structural treatment throughout, that denbergh, was one of the founders of were very rare then and are not very Queen's, now Rutgers, College and common now. This work was seriously became its first President in 1785. marred by the addition of a story or In 1865 Mr. Hardenbergh entered two, I know not whether or not by the office of Detlef Lienau, a German the original architect, but at any rate by birth and temperament, and both a necessary disturbance of a design al- German and French by professional ready complete. By the same author training. He was a pupil of Henri was evidently also an office building Labrouste and had imbibed in that in Cedar street, much later in date, atelier a partial belief in the neo- though still before the elevator had grec of which his "patron" was the begun to work its influence on the apostle. Mr. Lienau's professional work design of commercial buildings, and 336 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. by no means so successful in compo- grammar school of Rutgers College attract- or less an sition, though it had the same (1870) was more example. iveness of a rational following out of Three years later, however, a more and the ground-plan in the elevation, important and more significant work, of a straightforward and structural the combined chapel and library of the treatment of detail. I recall nothing college, is Gothic, indeed, but no more else of Mr. Lienau's in New York, of the "Victorian" variety than it is North though on the Jersey side of the neo-grec. It is even quite as much River he erected some warehouses German as English Gothic, deriving in that were very conspicuous objects its German character chiefly from the before the skyline of that low shore composition and detail of one of its be- it was as crowded as it has since most attractive features, the triple come. porch, with its tall pointed openings Mr. Lienau's neo-grec had no great without exterior mouldings, its but- influence on his pupil, as it has long tresses produced through the parapet ceased to have any influence on any and crowned with finials,and the gable- first of Mr. designers, although the mouldings similarly produced and Hardenbergh's apartment houses, the crowned. It is still a creditable piece Van Corlear on Seventh avenue, of work, which is so straightforwardly shows in some of its details the efforts designed that it cannot conceivably of his studies. Much more than become ridiculous with in special any change in detail it reveals them in what I am its surroundings and that it harmon- compelled, for want of a better word, izes with the surroundings for which which to call the spottiness of effect it was designed in spite of the want the seems to belong to all neo-grec of technical congruity of its style. work done on this side of the water, As the work of a young archi- be more re- at least. Nothing could tect, almost a beginner in 1873, the mote from the which it is what quietness ^ remarkable, considering architect has cultivated and attained the ambitious and modish young this and in his riper work than jerky architects of that time were doing, for Lienau's own detonating style. Mr. its renunciation of the kind of effect work in it was by no means so explo- and the means of effectiveness which works in it of Mr. sive as the early most of them sought. It would not be was the of it in Hunt, who apostle just to call its sober monochrome dull, New York. But Mr. Lienau's work for there is no lack of animation in the that were inde- shows qualities quite composition. But it shows that the of this and that pendent special style, designer was less afraid of dulness were calculated to be of advant- great than of restlessness, and it shows that to an Chief age apt pupil. among he was more impressed than his con- them was what I have called the temporaries were apt to be with "the and structural treat- straightforward value of peace and quietness." He has ment of his the habit of con- designs, continued ever since to exhibit his ap- the artistic as inex- sidering problem preciation of those excellent qualities. connected with the mechanical tricably It was ten years later, after a variety of his de- problem, regarding paper of professional employments that were as the of a sign drawing building mainly useful to the architect, artistic- rather than the execution of it as the ally speaking, as studies, that Mr. Har- building of a drawing. denbergh began to produce a series of When Mr. Hardenbergh was gradu- works which showed unmistakably that ated from Mr. Lienau's office, "Vic- he had "found his handwriting;" that he torian Gothic" was in full possession had attained the power of putting an of the aspiringandactivemindedof the individual stamp upon his handiwork. younger American architects. Of this, This proclamation was made most his first work, the building for the powerfully, though not quite first, in TE ir

: * Iffl 1 1 Hi;

Ill I,

THE "DAKOTA" APARTMENT HOUSE (18&4). J. Hardenbergh, Architect. Central Park West and 72d St. Henry RECORD. 338 THE ARCHITECTURAL

the attractiveness of the Dakota, which is of special signifi- tive addition to the an attainment which the cance in that we may suppose that the Park was could have ventured success of it determined its author's architect scarcely a builder of hotels, to to himself. Yet in the Da- special "line" as promise success has been in which his most conspicuous work kota this complete has since been done. Thirteen years attained. The building actually helps house was an the Park. Its of out- ago the lofty apartment picturesqueness is attained without architectural novelty, as the associated line and effect any in in- sacrifice of or even of formal apartment house was a novelty unity, vestment. The busiest designers of symmetry, for each front is laterally, the most as well as a apartment houses were also vertically, triple compo- which in both cases is successful promoters of associations. sition, carefully Upon the whole the architectural re- studied in mass and carefully carried out in detail. sults of these operations were much more successful than there was any It is questionable whether the ver- more not have been still good reason to expect; much tical division might successful, as everybody knows, than more emphasized to its advantage by the financial results, which were so dis- constructing the whole of the two- couraging to the investors that for story basement in the olive sandstone to which is in the quite a decade nobody has ventured employed wrought go about the promotion of a new "as- work; but the division, emphasized by im- sociated dwelling." At any rate, the a broad belt of terra cotta at the architectural results were so successful post of the arches and a vigorously course in is that it is a very considerable distinc- moulded string stone, tion to have designed the best apart- quite unmistakable. Above, the arch- ment house in New York. The Da- frieze in terra cotta that marks off the kota was acclaimed upon its comple- roof from the wall does not lack em- tion of having attained that distinction, phasis. The lateral division, into a cen- which after thirteen years it continues tral and two terminal pavilions, is to hold, and which is only empha- almost equally effective whether the sized by the erection of newer apart- central feature is crowned with a steep ment hotels in its neighborhood, with hood, relieved with a crow-stepped all the illumination that its design dome and rows of spire lights, on the could convey to their designers. The avenue front, or carried up into a pic- Dakota, of course, was not an asso- turesque gable on the street front. ciated dwelling, but an individual in- Though the projection of the pavil- vestment. The architect had an un- ions is slight, they are effectually de- usual opportunity in a whole block- tached by the plainer treatment of the front facing Central Park, but the op- strips of curtain wall, by the separate portunity involved a corresponding re- and subordinate roofing of these, and sponsibility. Central Park is the one bv the omission from them of the cor- municipal possession of which we have belled cornice with its balcony. All a clear right to be proud, and to erect the features are successfully stud- what was in 1883 a towering building ied, noticeably the seven-story of eight stories fronting it, and visible oriels of the end pavilions on the from a great part of it, was for an arch- street front. The detail is avow- itect, artistically speaking, to take his edly eclectic, and the general re- life in his hand. Even if he made what minder the building gives of the in any other place would have been a French transitional is due much more success, the chances were that the ju- to the picturesque composition than dicious visitor to the Park would pre- to the detail. One might wish for a fer nothing in its place, or at least an more vigorous modelling of this de- inconspicuous four-story front which tail, especially for a more forcible ex- he could ignore. That an eight-story pression of depth in the modelling in apartment house could become a posi- the openings. A certain flatness pre- If 1 1

WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY'S BUILDING (1883). Broad St., N. Y. City. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect

Vol. VI. 3. 7. 340 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY'S BUILDING (1884). Fifth Ave. and 23d St., N. T. City. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect. vents the design from making its full darker tint being used with unfailing effect. But this is the sole drawback, structural propriety to accentuate the and it does not prevent the Dakota design. from being by far the most consider- Before the Dakota had been com- able, architectural!^, of all the apart- pleted, the first, or, at all events, the ment houses. The agreeableness of its first that counts, of its author's com- composition and its detail is much en- mercial buildings had been begun, hanced by the agreeableness of its the Broad street office of the West- combination of color, the olive sand- ern Union company. Its altitude of stone being employed in conjunction eight stories seems modest now, with with a salmon-colored brick, and the its towering neighbors, but made it HENRY JANEWAY HARDENBERGH. much more fourteen conspicuous years height is but of seven stories, two are The lateral doubt- ago. triple division, unmistakably set off as the base, being less determined considerations of by divided from the superstructure by an is architect- practical convenience, emphatic string-course, still further effective and the front an urally gives accentuated by a decorated belt of scale. the com- terra impressive Vertically, cotta below it, and united in position is not so happy. The single themselves by the withdrawal from story of stonework is inadequate as the plane of the wall of the intermedi- the base of an eight-story building, ate floor-line. This is subdued to a mere the more as it stands directly upon transom, but is yet of more import- the Another similar pavement. story, ance in fact than it appears in the in material and would have treatment, photograph in which* it is so nearly the and enabled helped proportion, obliterated as to give the openings a the to make of his middle designer gaunt and spindling aspect which they section a and single predominant do not really present. This is of course feature. As it is, the composition is on the long side. The narrower front fourfold instead of and the re- triple, on the avenue, is but of twenty-five lation of the parts lacks the rhyth- feet, about half that of the Broad street that to mical result of a division seems building, but it is a far more effective come of itself and looks capricious and design. The treatment of the lower rather than and in- arbitrary necessary stage is especially ingenious. The large evitable. It was undoubtedly a" mis- opening which extends through both take to make two middle sections. If its stories is closed by a segmental arch the basement had been of two stories of which the piers seem an inadequate instead of one, and four stories in- abutment. The abutment is accord- stead of three had been included under ingly reinforced and the thrust of the the segmental arches of what is now arch counteracted by a tie-rod, at the the fourth story, the front would have point where the opening is contracted gained the unity which now it lacks. by corbelling its sides inward. The It is only fair to add that the base- tie-rod comes just below the floor-line, ment is in itself very well designed, as and is produced through the wall at is also the crowning member, includ- the corner and emphatically capped ing the double square-headed open- with metal. This disposition is empha- ings of the seventh story, the cornice sized and decorated by the modelling and the range of dormers. The detail of the piers and the corbels, and by throughout is interesting in design the insertion in the upper and nar- and successful in scale. rower stage of the opening of a light It is gratifying to remark that the oriel in metal. While evidently pro- criticisms we have been making seem ceeding from a structural necessity, to have suggested themselves to the and thus relieved of the impression of architect from the contemplation of his capriciousness, the feature is one of the work in execution, and that when he happiest bits of our street architecture. had a subsequent building to do, for The counterparting feature at the other the same primary purpose, and of simi- end of the long front is almost equally j lar general requirements, he should successful in its way. Here the arcade of the two stor- I have obviated them very successfully. ceases, the separation For ies of the basement united in the ar- I the building for the Western Union company at Twenty-third cade is completed and emphasized by j at the floor line of street and Fifth avenue is, in its kind, the re-emergence one of the most successful commercial the string course of the other corner, wall is so solid as to buildings we have, and its quaint pic- and the kept pro- for the turesqueness is the more valuable for vide a visibly ample abutment seeming to have come unsought from arcade. As is indicated by its separate end of the most straightforward treatment and subordinate treatment, this means of of the problem. Here, although the the building contains the 342 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

ENTRANCE TO THE ASTOR BUILDING.

Wall St., N. Y. City. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect. access to the upper stories, and can and especially by the reproduction in properly be much more solid than the stone carving, upon the* faces of the rest, the solidity being emphasized by piers left in the plane of the principal the unbroken chimney shaft. Advant- wall, of the offsets which terminate the age is taken of this fact to diminish piers of the basement. The design of the window of the second floor, and the roof, whether in the gable of the to insert in part of its opening a panel narrower front, or the dormers of the which is one of the most idiomatic and wider, with the characteristic treat- successful pieces of decoration in terra ment of their brickwork and of the cotta that are to be seen in New York. metal in the connecting railing, fitly The proportions of the main divisions crowns the edifice. are just and harmonious. While the The Astor building in Wall street central three stories are kept plain, is a work of the same period, and in and the ornament reserved for the up- this also the designer profits by the per and lower divisions, one of the consideration of his own mistakes. The happiest points of the composition is front is of some sixty-five feet, and the alliance between these, the recall- thus sufficient to allow of an expres- ing of the base in the design of the sion of breadth even in a commercial attic. This is effected in great part by building of eight stories, which was the withdrawal of the upper story about the vertical limit of commercial from the plane of the main wall, the buildings a decade ago, far as it has since substitution of the single opening of been exceeded. It was the limit, thai the basement for the small opening of is to say, before the steel frame came ir the superstructure, the intermediate to supplement the work of the elevator pier being reduced to a mere mullion. the limit imposed by the necessity HENRY A NEWAY J HARDENBERGH. 343 employing real walls that would the equally evident fact that the pol- carry themselves, and of subtracting ished granite of the columns is strong- the area occupied by these supporting er than the sandstone of the piers. It masses from the available of the space would probably have been better to interior. The Astor is a ex- very good signalize the porch by an enriched en- of this transitional class. The ample trance between the piers. But if we main motive is that of the Broad street waive this, we must own that the col- we have building already considered, umns are very vigorously modelled, an arcade between a basement and an and that their detail, as well as that but so much better worked out attic, of the shouldered lintel between them, as to obviate the criticism suggested is very clever and happy, and makes the earlier work. Here the base- by up what is in itself an extremely effect- ment includes two stories marked by ive feature. of material as well as of separateness In another noteworthy commercial dark brown stone design, supporting building of Mr. Hardenbergh's, though a superstructure of red brick, the ar- this time a store and warehouse and cade includes four stories instead of not an office building, at the corner of three, and a inter- Great single plain story Jones street and Lafayette place, venes between it and the roof. All this is the peculiarity of design we have been a decided the improvement. Moreover, criticising in the Astor building is additional width gives an opportunity carried very much further. The main for framing the arcades at the sides structure within two solid flanks ot with flanks of wall, kept as solid as wall at the extremities that seem to be may be, and, by supplying an evident- assigned to the staircases and eleva- to the central ly ample abutment arches, tors, is a skeleton of brick piers, and for imparting an aspect of strength each one of these is modelled at its and repose which cannot be gained base into a dwarf column like the col- when an arcade is enclosed only be- umns of the Astor entrance, but more tween thin piers. This disposition en- squat, since they extend upward only ables the designer to attain, without to the impost of the arches of the first it, in the division. and since forcing unity upper story ; they are here of sand- The gable covered with an effective stone instead of granite, they are open diaper in terra cotta appropriately to the same objection, logically, with crowns the central division containing the others, but the force of it seems to the arcade, while the sides are with- be weakened by the powerful effect of drawn above the arcade and crowned multiplication. The rows, four on one by the main transverse roof. All front and five on the other, certainly this is discreetly and skilfully make an impression, and an impres- carried out and the result is sion primarily of massiveness, though very satisfactory. Satisfactory also they are in fact so much less massive is in general the treatment of the base- than the piers they carry. The design ment, of which the unity is maintained of the capitals and bases, simple even by carrying the piers through both to rudeness, and emphasized by con- stories unbroken, the floor-line being trast with the more developed model- indicated by transoms of stone cor- ling of the enclosing wings of wall, belled out from the piers. The one promotes this effect. If the scheme is questionable point in its design is the not successful it is certainly interesting reduction of the bases of the central and that may be said of the design of pier into dwarf columns to signalize the building in general, which pre- the entrance. This is disputable, from sents a number of novelties provocative the awkwardness of the superimposing of interest. One of these is the unusual difference upon a modelled pier of an unmod- employment of color. The buff delled pier of greater area than itself, in the tint of the brickwork, light of and the look of weakness thus given, and dark brown, is an integral part color is em- which is only in part counteracted by the design. The darker THE ASTOR BUILDING (1885). Wall St., N. Y. City. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect. HENRY JANEWAY HAKDENBERGH. 345

HHfl II M If! 'll**'!!

1 -

WAREHOUSE (1892). Broadway and 51st St., N. Y. City. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect.

ployed to emphasize the structure. The the effect of being designed in piers that form its skeleton, with their layers, which the designer was very connecting arches, are built of it, and properly anxious to avoid. It is not the walls of the pavilions up to the top clear how the scheme could have been of the second story, while above this better carried out, and yet the execu- point the walls of the pavilion as well tion of it is evidently not satisfactory. as the wall of the building between Another questionable point is the them is in the lighter material. This withdrawal of the plane of the pier as seems logical, but in fact it produces well as of the walls, above the second the effect of a frame weaker than the story, and the masking of the offsets, thing framed, an effect which is not in the piers themselves, by the cano- dispelled by the expedient of quoining pied gablets. This device serves the the outer edge of the wall in the purpose of designating the lower two darker brick; like giving a strong stories as the architectural base, but it black outline in a drawing. Undoubt- seems that it should have been supple- edly the enclosure and abutment of mented by a still further differentia- the arcade would be more competent tion. On the other hand, the treat- if the outer walls had been laid in the ment of this lower stage in the flanking darker brick, but this with the light pavilions is as good as can be, the brick retained in the fifth and sixth openings rather emphasizing than en- stones would have given the building feebling the solidity of the mass, and 346 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

its visible sufficiency as the frame and in the same plane throughout, is em- abutment of the arcade. The upper phasized at the base by the single arch stages are almost equally good, though in the second story, and at the top the detachment from the building by the withdrawal of the floor-line at might,with advantage, have been made the centre from the plane which is kept more complete, and the picturesque in the ends so that these count as solid crowning features correspondingly and fortified masses. _This work is es- more effective. The detail is well pecially exemplary because of its per- studied throughout, and the drawbacks fect plainness, and it shows that build- to the complete success of the building ings of a class which are not common- are defects in the execution of a ly regarded or treated as works of ar- scheme as difficult as it is interesting. chitecture at all can become so with A warehouse, which is also appar- no other additional expenditure than ently a factory, at the corner of Seventh that of thought on the part of the avenue and Fifty-first street, aims, designer. architecturally, at nothing more than None of these buildings, however, is inoffensiveness, but it attains this neg- a "skyscraper," in the acceptation of ative object with such success as to that term, which requires a minimum make it positively attractive. There is of ten stories. Neither is any an ex- scarcely an ornament in it, excepting ample of the steel-frame construction the detail of the anchors and fire es- in which the structure, instead of con- capes in metal. The stone capping of sisting of visible walls, is only masked the basement piers shows no more by them. The latest of our arch- elaboration than is necessary to define itect's commercial buildings is a the stone binders, and the mouldings skyscraper, in both these senses, of the large arches are likewise the and it is a great encouragement simplest possible definitions. The cor- to find it by far the best of all. nice and the transoms that mark the Not only that, but it is one of the very floor-lines in the arcades show patterns few examples we can adduce to show that are formed by the bricklayer, and that the skyscraper is artistically tract- the capitals of the piers are likewise able, if it be intrusted to an artist. I mere exercises in bricklaying. The de- have already, and in these pages (Arch- sign resides purely in the disposition itectural Record, Vol. V., No. 3), de- of the masses, and is especially exem- scribed this work at greater length plary because it is attained with scarce- than is possible under the present limi- ly any interference with the equal tations. It must suffice here to indicate spacing of the openings, which in such how unpromising the conditions were a building is practically desirable. Yet, for an artistic success, and how such a by mere force of this disposition, the success has been won in spite of them. factory becomes a work of art. The The site is evidently inadequate in terminal piers are in fact but little area as the site of a twelve-story build- wider than the intermediate piers, but ing, and it is not only inadequate in they completely assure the eye of their size but irregular in shape. This irreg- sufficiency. The effect of the building ularity seems to deal the final blow at comes mainly from the reinforcement any attempt to make a work of art in the design of these angles. Whereas out of a twelve-story building on such the whole central part of the building a site. Most architects even artistic is treated as an arcade four stories architects would give it up when the high, three bays wide on the narrower plot of the site was put before them; front and five on the wider, the bay would content themselves with a at each end is left plain and unbroken "swagger" entrance and an umbrage- except for the necessary openings, ous and elaborate cornice and a wall which do not at all impair its effect of between of no pretence of architect- massiveness. The difference between ural interest. In fact, -we have a build- centre and wings, though the piers are ing which is studied in every story and THE JOHN WOLFE BUILDING (1895). Maiden Lane and William St., N. Y. City. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect. 34$ THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. at every point, and so successfully this flower safety. What, at the first studied that it becomes a highly pic- view, could be more hopeless than the turesque object, as impressive in mass predicament of an architect required to and outline as it is interesting in detail. rear twelve rentable stories at the acute This is a very rare success. And ob- angle of this site and make the result serve, moreover, that the individuality presentable? The difficulties have been and picturesqueness of the building so triumphantly overcome that they be- come factors in the success. Is there anything happier in contemporary work that the art with which the acute angle, bevelled by successive trun- cations, becomes an equal half of a front which by another truncation gains a central and dominating feature? To appreciate how good it is compare it with the buildings offered by other designers as solutions of somewhat similar problems. Mr. Hardenbergh has here so overcome the difficulties that it is only the critical spectator who infers them, whereas other buildings in similar situations continue, after they are completed, to bristle with the diffi- culties of the original problem. Designing country-houses is not perhaps the line of professional em- ployment that is likely to be most con- ducive to an architect's fortune or to his fame, unless, indeed, he have the luck of building palaces at the summer resorts. But it must be about the most amusing department of design, seeing that the limitations of space and neigh- borhood that restrict him in urban work are removed, and that he is at liberty to plan his dwelling according to the needs of his client and the lay of the and to out in his ex- land, carry terior the architectural indications fur- nished by the plan. The expressiveness and the effectiveness of the result are sub- ject to no conditions except that of ex- pense and of the limitations of his own talent. In proportion to the whole body LONDON AND LANCASHIRE FIRE INSUR- of his work, Mr. Hardenbergh's coun- ANCE CO. try houses are not very numerous or William St., N. Y. City. H. J. Hardenbergh, Ar't. important. Perhaps the most import- ant of them is the house on the shore come not by ignoring or shirking at Mamaroneck, which those who any of the hard conditions of the prDb- have seen it will agree to be highly suc- lem, but by faithfully grappling with cessful. Those who have not seen it them. It is indeed from these very will not be able to appreciate it from conditions that the individuality of the a photograph which, effective as it is work in great part proceeds. Out of bv itself, can show but one of four this nettle danger the artist has plucked faces, and can not show at all the de- COUNTRY HOUSE (1884).

Mamaroneck, N. Y. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect.

COUNTRY HOUSE (1887).

J. Hardenbergh, Architect. Orange, N. J. Henry 350 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

COUNTRY HOUSE (1881).

Babylon, L. I. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect. pendencies which in fact add so much diate neighbors. On the other to the effect of the house and extend hand, it would be very much out of while the it into a "place." place in lower Fifth avenue, Town-houses, and especially town- street front in the latter quarter would houses which, like the great majority, be unconscionably queer if it were consist, architecturally, only of street transported to the West Side. Flanked fronts, are in a very different category. and surrounded by the demure bour- Here congruity is the first thing to be geoisie of the architecture of two gen- considered. A clever design, which erations ago, it is very discreetly puts its neighbors unnecessarily out adapted to its place. There is no af- of countenance, and makes the block fectation of reproducing one of the old front of which it forms a part uglier fronts on the part of an architect who than it would otherwise be is by no knows better. The new front is frank- old means vindicated by its own superior- ly half a century later than the ity, or by the fact that it would be good mechanic's work. But it does not show somewhere else. Conformity is here the old any wantonness of insult, and one of the first requisites. Although of it adds a touch of picturesqueness to course it is not to be demanded of a the prim respectability of its predeces- cultivated designer that he shall re- sors without disturbing that quality. duce himself to the level of an uncul- A less hampered design, though still tivated designer for the sake of con- architecturally only a street-front, formity, it is to be demanded of him is the dwelling in Newark, in that his "purple patch" shall not hold which the sacrifice of symmetry the garment up to public odium. It to convenience, though empha- seems to me that in the single dwell- sized by the return to symmetry in the ings here illustrated Mr. Hardenbergh upper stories, does not entail weakness has kept this civic duty well in view. or lack of repose, while the detail in The dwelling in West End avenue is terra cotta is interesting and ingenious in place where it stands, although it and the double loggia of the upper is by no means fortunate in its imme- story is a notably effective feature. DWELLING (1887). Newark, N. J. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect.

JAY GOULD MEMORIAL CHURCH (1894). Architect Roxbury, N. Y. Henry J. Hardenbergh, 352 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

Otsego Lake, N. Y. WATER TOWER. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect.

A much more complicated problem behind. When the West Side was opened than the design of a single street-front for settlement and the speculative is the design of a row, so as to pre- builder was credibly informed that the serve a unity of aspect while individ- buvers and even the tenants of dwell- ualizing the various dwellings that ing houses demanded "variety" in the make it up. A generation ago this was fronts, he set himself to supply the not a problem at all. The speculative new demand by instructing the same builder who at that time housed the incompetent draughtsman whom he well-to-do of the population of New had before instructed to make the York, after his draughtsman had pro- fronts all alike, to make them all differ- duced one elevation of a brownstone ent. The results were awful. Instead front with the conventional "trim- of producing mere melancholy the new mings" merely repeated that front in the order threatened the reason of the same material as many times as he had spectator, and in contrast with the houses to build. Unity was doubtless wild work of the draughtsman goaded thus preserved, but inasmuch as the to be various, his tame work when he single design that was repeated was of was allowed to be monotonous seemed no interest whatever, it became ex- to take on repose and dignity. The tremely dismal by repetition. There just mean was not for him to attain. are few things more depressing than a Of the comparatively few competent blockfront in a fashionable quarter, architects who have striven to attain it erected between 1860 and 1880, and it Mr. Hardenbergh seems to me to have may well have seemed that nothing been pretty clearly the most success- could be worse. But worse remained ful. DWELLINGS (1887).

Lexington Ave., New York City. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect. DWELLINGS (1883).

West 73d St., New York City. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect.. HENRY JANEWAY HARDENBERGH. 355

There are scattered about New the taller apartment house at the cor- York, and especially in the region be- ner of Ninth avenue, which is included tween the Park and the East River, a in the architectural scheme. The effect considerable number of rows, of from of unity is given by the facts that the three houses to three times as many, two-story basement of olive sandstone of which the design identifies them as is continuous from one end of the row his work by those who are familiar to the other, emphasized at the ends by with it. They are decorous edifices, of including an additional story, and that which the detail shows study and re- the moulded cornice of the same mate- finement, but in general the houses in rial is continuous, except where it is each row repeat a single design. In suspended to admit of the treatment of two conspicuous instances, however, the upper story as part of the wall and not as a roof story. The differences are enough to secure variety without carrying it to the point of violence. The second story of each dwelling shows a feature, which is now a cor- belled oriel, now the upper stage of a two-story bay, now a projecting win- dow in stonework, and now a recessed arch with a balcony. Continuity is again preserved in the similar design of the third story throughout, and va- riety again secured in the treatment of the crowning story sometimes as a full fourth story with a hipped roof, some- times with a gable occupying the whole front, or a gabled dormer, or two sep- arate dormers relieved against the mansard roof. These devices avail to avoid monotony without disturbing re- pose. Another expedient for avoiding monotony, though quite effectual for its purpose, is more questionable, and that is the use of different tints in the brickwork of the superstructure, red brick being employed in rather more than half the fronts and buff in the re- mainder, though the party wall is in every case indicated by a line of quoin- it that ing. Upon the whole, is likely the row would have seemed monoton- ous without this device. The occas- DWELLING (1894). in ional interpolation of a lighter front West End Ave., New York City. the monochrome of red would be en- Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect. of the two ma- livening, but the mass it is not being he has gone further and attempted to terials, though equal, in the of one and a- make a composition of a group of about proportion half in the stronger tint to one of the dwellings while distinguishing the is too nearly equal components. The earlier and the more weaker, perhaps best effect. Another defect, extensive of these is the block-front op- for the which is also a defect of the Dakota, posite the Dakota, lining the north as we have noted, is a want of decision side of Seventy-third street from and in the modelling of the de- Eighth avenue to Ninth. There are vigor and this entails a certain tameness. twenty-seven of the dwellings, besides tail, Vol. VI. 3. 8 DWELLING

Fifth Ave. and 80th St., New York City. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect. HENRY JANEWAY HARDENBERGh 357

But this defect does not prevent the considerable masses of virtually blank treatment of the row from being in wall, and to get a notably massive pier many respects a model, the more cred- at the angle itself. Above this the itable to the designer when we con- three-story oriel, with its steep hood, sider that it is a work of 1884, when not only makes a very picturesque there were no precedents for such an combination with the steep gable on attempt at unity in variety, and when one side of it, and the expanse of roof the choice was between rows depress- on the other, relieved by its unequal it and ingly tame and rows outrageously dormers, but supplies a central wild. This work set a precedent, and dominating feature upon which the a valuable precedent, albeit neither its two fronts may converge. This i: does author, nor, so far as we recall, any other designer, has been encouraged to repeat its most striking peculiarity, the change of material. It would no doubt have been better if the color had been used to accentuate the architect- ure, in particular if the ends of the row had been in the stronger color, and if this had been employed throughout to emphasize divisions and projections, while the intervals were left in the weaker, the actual arrangement being the reverse of this. For which reason, among others, a later work in the same kind, a group of dwellings at the corner of Lexing- ton avenue and Eighty-ninth street, seems to me more successful than the earlier essay. There are eleven houses on a plot 150 feet by 100, and they are consequently less spacious than those we have been considering. Seeing that the plan involved the occupancy of the corner by two sides of the nearly square house which is considerably the largest of the group, it is evident that the remaining houses must be packed very closely, and in an attempt to in- dividualize them while uniting them into a group the danger was of a hud- dled effect. It cannot be said that this DWELLING (1884). danger has been entirely avoided. Lower Fifth Ave., New York City. They do look crowded, especially upon Architect. the longer front, and that is the chief Henry J. Hardenbergh, drawback to the complete success of the group. But when one considers very successfully, and the success is a the conditions, the wonder is that the proof of the care with which the de- designer was able to attain so much as sign has been studied in perspective he has attained of breadth and repose. as well as in elevation. Each front is, in itself a hav- This is largely the result of the fortu- moreover, composition if formal nate treatment ol the corner house, ing an effective balance no The end house in each is in which at the most important point symmetry. to denote that it is of hVs"cornposition^he was able, with- projected enough the terminal feature, and the mterme- out any practical sacrifice, to retain ADELAIDE APARTMENT HOUSE (1887).

635 Park Ave., New York City. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect. HENRY JANEWAY HARDENB ERG1L 359

houses treated as a diate curtain wall it needs, which will be dwarfed by the between two while dif- pavilions, they neighborhood of more impressive fer them- quite sufficiently among buildings for less impressive purposes. selves. One that might say they Neither horn of the dilemma is really themselves. differ too much among eligible, and the dilemma is not con- the side the division On long adopted, ducive to the construction of a city, no doubt, from a consideration of the in which the magnitude of buildings probable preferences of tenants, of the should bear a proportion to the im- nouses into "high-stoop" and "base- portance of their uses. But of the two ment" made impossible the carrying it is more to be desired that an insti- through of any horizontal lines, even tution should house itself by itself, at of the line of a common cornice. The the risk of being effaced by towering shorter front, in which the main lines neighbors, than that it should efface it- are continuous between the pavilions, self by occupying only a small part of is for this reason the more effective com- its own building. The Fine Arts build- position,although compared with almost ing is a case very much in point. The any other effort of the same kind the dimensions of its front are not far from long front is very successful. The most those of the front of the old Academy decided advantage these houses have of Design, which is indeed no taller over the earlier row is in the character of than the dwellings that adjoined it the detail. There is here no lack of vigor when it was built, but which then dom- and spirit in the modelling, and the inated them by force of architecture, in the successful adjustment scale of although it has lately been belittled by features and the detail shows the more a commercial neighbor. The Fine practiced hand. The things, the crow- Arts building, though built in what is stepped gables, the shell-frieze in terra still a residential quarter, is overborne cotta, the balconies, and the porches, by the huge and ugly apartment house all good in themselves, are all better w'hich almost adjoins it. But, in this in their places. This, no more than the case as in the earlier, the smaller build- Arts earlier work, aspires to the praise ing is difficult to kill. The Fine Mr. of academic correctness, and many building is noteworthy among of its features are of the French Hardenbergh's works as the only one, Renaissance in which that may be so far as I know, in which the main said, though very loosely, to have motive of the composition is borrowed. a been designed. But along with This is quite frankly and avowedly the shell-frieze appear here the crow- copy of the so-called House of Francis the com- stepped gables and other features that I. at Paris, of which not only of decoration tell of a Batavian origin and are cer- position but the scheme tainly of a quaint and attractive do- and some of the detail is reproduced. is but of two mesticity. This unpretentious group The original, however, the of dwellings is not the least successful stories, and without a visible roof, of its author's works, while it is one of third term of the proportion being sup- of the terrace the most exemplary. plied by the revetment One curious result of the elevator with its balustrade upon which the and the Chicago construction has been building stands. The place of this is base- to diminish the architectural import- taken in the reproduction by a the ance of public buildings. A municipal ment which unfortunately practical the to "institution," when it comes to house exigencies compelled designer and least massive itself, has the choice between putting make the most open to attenuate the up a building impressive by its magni- division of his front, limit of tude, indeed, even among its purely terminal piers to the safety, the force of his main money-making neighbors, but in which and to impair centre between solid its own quarters are merely an inci- motive, an open The is reduced to dent, and putting up a building for its wings. impairment the simplicity own exclusive use, and no bigger than its minimum by perfect OFFICE BUILDING (1893).

Front St., New York City. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect. HENRY JANEWAY HARDENBERGH. 362 of the treatment of the lower openings, seems likely to be the ul- but it is accepted necessarily injurious. An- timate in commercial other building, in addition to the original is the of the spite almost necessarily un- visible roof, and the treatment of this gainly exceptions. To multiply by is not so fortunate. It is pretty plainly three the capacity of a given of either too piece important or not is a important ground sufficiently revolutionary enough. The treatment or the lack of performance to be accomplished treatment indicates that it is meant to within a quarter of a century, and to be as much as possible ignored. But minimize the architectural dislocation as it is not possible wholly to ignore it, it seems that it would be the better for a crowning feature which should em- phasize the disposition of the main wall. Here this is continued only by the opening in a balustrade of the cen- tre of a parapet left solid at the sides. This, like the powerful cornice under- neath, is an innovation, and a happy one. Although the front of the Fine Arts building makes something of the same effect of a union of massiveness with elegance that is made by its origi- nal, it is by no means so ornate, and lacks the chief enrichment of the belt of sculpture between the two stories, a feature which would especially lend itself to the plasticity of terra cotta, albeit the front of the Fine Arts building is in cut stone. In spite of the abatements it is a taking front and an addition to the short list of our public buildings that are worth talking about. By far the most conspicuous and familiar of Mr. Hardenbergh's works are the three great hotels which have been erected in the middle part of New York from his designs since the ele- vator and the steel frame have done

. their perfect work. The series fur- nishes an interesting exemplification of how fast we have moved in these things, for the Waldorf, the eldest of HOTEL ALBERT (1883). the is five of series, scarcely years age, University Place, New York City. and yet it is already somewhat anti- Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect. quated by its towering neighbor. Not that in the interval any radical novel- entailed by it a sufficiently trying prob- ties in construction have been intro- lem for designers. duced, but that architects have been In the Waldorf the architect es- emboldened to push the existing sys- sayed a picturesque composition, in tem further towards its logical devel- which symmetry is abandoned in opment, a development which at pres- favor of the predominance of the ent seems to be arrested, it would be huge mass at the corner to which the hard to say why, at fifteen stories. In wing of the street front is distinctly hotels, at all events, this seems subordinated, and from which it is de- to be the non plus ultra, and it tached bv the recessed centre. From WAREHOUSE (1894).

West 23d St., New York City. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect. WAREHOUSE (1893) Arch St., Philadelphia, Pa. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect. THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

the assumed point of view, the point terior architecture, it would not be fair of view from which the illustration is to pass over. The architect's own work taken, this disposition is not without its in the interior of the Waldorf is as effectiveness, but it has the drawback noteworthy as anything in its exterior. of sacrificing the elevations, or at least The open court at the centre and its the longer elevation, to the perspective. dependencies are among the most ar- By consequence the Thirty-third street tistic examples of his design and of front comes to lack coherence and high interest. But the uniqueness of the first unity, and is not in itself an architect- interior is that in it, for almost the ural composition, nor has it become time, a systematic attempt was made more nearly a composition by the ex- to secure in a hotel decoration that had tension of it to the westward since a more artistic value and a more seri- the hotel was built. The interest of it ous purport than the journeywork is in the parts, which do not constitute which it had been the rule to employ. a whole. This interest, however, is The value of such an attempt is not to very considerable. The central feature, be measured by the actual success of the recess with its loggie and its turret, the experiment, so it be successful is a picturesque and attractive design, enough to be encouraging. Of this in which some Italian detail does not there is no question in the Waldorf, interfere with the general expression which shows some instances, and very of homeliness and quaintness which notably the cafe, or more properly characterizes the German Renaissance, the "weinstube," in which the indica- and which is enhanced by the treat- tions of the architecture are skilfully ment of the roofs. Above the cornice- and appreciatively carried out in the lines, indeed, the design is almost un- decoration. Nowhere else perhaps is failingly successful. The subdivision of the success quite so complete, and the taller eastern wall into two fronts is there may be even instances in which less successful, and is confused and the work of an easel-painter suddenly weakened by the fact that the pier by summoned to do decoration shows an which the division is marked stands amateurish quality that makes the be- upon a void, the entrance, which is holder regret the absence of the less the largest opening in the front. On sensitive journeyman who had learned the other hand, the roof-treatment is his trade, and was aware of its conven- equally distinguishing and fortunate. tions. To set the gabled front of a three-story The Manhattan has much less archi- North German dwelling bodily above tectural pretension than the Waldorf. the cornice of a huge nine-story schloss It is in fact the conventional sky- by way of dormer was a bold device scraper, as straightforwardly treated as quite justified by its results. The is possible for the masonry veneer of a avenue front is, as a whole, much more concealed metallic construction, and it successful than the street front, having conforms to the accepted division. A a general symmetry that is not im- three-story base, itself subdivided, sus- paired but only made piquant by the tains a shaft of nine stories and a roof differences entailed by the occurrence division of two. It is well adjusted in of the turret at one side balancing a proportion and in scale, but offers no flank of plain wall at the other. This salient points for comment. In the in- front has a stateliness with its pictur- terior, however, the designer has re- esqueness that makes it impressive peated the experiment of the Waldorf, even now that its importance has been and has secured the aid of competent diminished by its huge overtopping hands in the broad symbolical frieze neighbor. of the entrance hall, in the frieze of the It was in the interior of the Waldorf cafe, and in the successfully sumptu- that its architect rendered a very con- ous dining-room. siderable public service which, al- We may hope to see these experi- though we are dealing only with ex- ments carried further and to a still HOTEL WALDORF.

Fifth Ave. and 33d St., New York City. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect. IN THE WALDORF HOTEL.

VIEW IN DINING-ROOM, WALDORF HOTEL.

368 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

DETAIL IN CAFE, WALDORF HOTEL.

more conclusive success in the new ho- turesqueness, such as we find in the tel that adjoins the Astor and that, full blown Renaissance of North even in the incompleteness it exhibits Germany and the Low countries. at this time of writing, challenges the Though the detail is classic nothing comment of the wayfaring man. It is could be further from the spirit of quite impossible to ignore it, and, in- classic architecture than the aspect deed, even in these days, its bigness is of the front. The three-story overpowering. Luckily it is bigness, order of the centre shows the Teutoni- and not an exaggeration of one di- zation of Hellenic forms which char- mension. On the avenue the nar- acterizes the whole performance. It rower front may be nearly twice as is not so irresponsible, however, as the high as it is wide, taken by itself. But extreme German examples, as the it is so far incorporated with the Wal- Zwinger palace at Dresden. The later dorf by a common base and a common designer is restrained from the ex- cornice-line that the whole block-front travagances of the earlier by an abid- helps to sustain its height, while upon ing sense of structural significance the street front the lateral extent is which prevents him from doing what ample even for fourteen stories. The has no meaning, as well as by the tact attempt at picturesque irregularity of that is most of all needed where a de- outline, which in the Waldorf was signer is not restrained by his "stvle." made with but partial success, has in The essential motive of the new build- the larger and later structure been ing may perhaps be found in the ne- frankly abandoned in favor of a for- cessity for some conspicuous feature mal symmetry. Each front makes the to differentiate the building from its impression of symmetry in spite of the lower neighbor above the cornice line, indication at one end of a huge feature below which it conforms to that, but including three stories which has no above which it cannot conform. Such counterpart at the other. This long a feature is supplied in the tall triple ar- front cannot fail to make an impres- cade, which, repeated on the adjoining sion, though there is much variety in side, becomes the feature of the ter- the impression it makes. I find it ex- minal pavilion and repeated at the other tremely successful. In spite of the end frames the front. Of the crown- formality of the general composition, ing of these features it doth not yet ap- the impression is of an exuberant pic- pear, except from the drawings, what

MANHATTAN HOTEL

42d St. and Madison Are., New Ycrk City. Henry J. Hardenbergh, Architect. ENTRANCE HALL, MANHATTAN HOTEL.

Vol. VI.-3. 9.

HENRY ANEWAY J HARDENBERG.H 375

it shall be, but these indicate that the have made of this scheme. Perhaps it roof will be much the most exuberant was John Root's recognition, in the of the The wall between part design. "eclectic" work of a fellow-architect, of these features is as properly kept plain the advantage of substituting self-re- as the central the ar- possible, feature, straint for the artificial regulation of cade with the colonnade beneath and the styles, an advantage to which his above, confined to the lower di- being own work bore striking witness, that vision, which in turn is flanked by accounted for the hearty admiration walls as treated as be. The simply may of Mr. Hardenbergh's I have result of these is a front dispositions heard him express. At any rate and even undeniably pompous swag- one may say of Mr. Hardenbergh's which has an of home- gering, yet aspect successes that they attest in a liness and quaintness that is tak- very peculiarly high degree the value ing. If what remains to be done car- of restraint and discipline. Some of ries out the promise of what has been his earlier work we have found done the success of a already, daring lacking in animation, but that is will be secure. essay evidently a "good fault" in work which It is worth while pointing out that in spite of it manifests individuality the success of this work, in which lib- and compels interest. It is the erty of design goes at least to the verge solicitude to be on the safe side of license, could not have been attained which has enabled him to carry off except by a designer trained in much with success enterprises which were severer tasks, that the magnified detail, so venturesome as to involve a dis- and the intentionally baroque crown- tinct risk of failure, such as the design ing features, would have been offensive of the Wolfe building, and, so far as if the solidity and repose and balance we can judge it now, of the new Astor of the structure they crown had not hotel. In Mr. Hardenbergh's work are been already assured. It is only the the evidences of an individual talent of tact disciplined designer who can allow accompanied by the evidences his himself these perilous freedoms. and measure and discretion; and is on this ac- One can fancy, with shudderings, most characteristic work what an undisciplined designer would count as exemplary as it is interesting. Montgomery Schuyler. CONSTRUCTIVE ASYMMETRY IN MEDIEVAL ITALIAN CHURCHES.

various sources. a preliminary Paper on "Opti- traves, borrowed from IN cal Refinements in Medieval Arch- The church of S. Giorgio in Velabro, at will also illustrate the itecture" (Vol. VI., No. i, of The Rome, hap- columns and Architectural Record), announcement hazard use of ancient was made of a series of observa- capitals. In churches of this class, we tions in Medieval Italian churches, must allow a wide latitude for variety as due to carelessness or which it is the purpose of the follow- of dimension, or to the re-use of old hetero- ing Papers to treat in more extended haste, detail. These observations have been geneous material. In such buildings classified under the heads of "Per- the evidence for constructed asymme- must lie in some scheme of ar- spective Illusions" (in the last issue); try whose features forbid the "Constructive Asymmetry" (the pres- rangement of accident. For ent issue); "Horizontal Curves;" and hypothesis instance, "Vertical Curves and Vertical Leans." it is wholly improbable that both aisles also the nave of S. in Ve- Both of these last two topics, assigned and Giorgio all narrow in one direc- to future Papers, may be regarded as labro should to the total sum of phases of constructive asymmetry, but tion by chance, 1 8 feet 21 in the in the present Paper this subject has about (see Fig. pre- been confined to the cases of con- ceding Paper). That the given device structed asymmetry in the dimensions is the same as that found in a series of of arcades and arches, in oblique hor- other cases is also a contributory izontal lines and in ground-plans. proof of design. In this church, how- As an introduction to this topic, a ever, the construction is so rough that few words are in place about those we could not argue constructive asym- irregularities of Italian medieval archi- metry from the irregular dimensions tecture, which are the result of rough of arches or intercolumnar spacings, and careless building and of the use because the evidence of intention gath- of heterogeneous materials from an- ered from the comparison of measures cient ruins. in the intercolumniations is of doubtful In the first centuries of church character.

architecture the Pagan Roman build- There is, however, evidence of con- ings were the quarries of church structive intention in the columnar building material, and their remains arrangements of S. Saba at Rome, were often recombined in the most ex- where the building material and build- peditious and consequently hap-haz- ing methods are equally rough. The ard fashion. In many early basilicas, columns are arranged on both sides columns of all sorts and sizes are fitted in a curved line, dropping heavily on with capitals which were not made for both sides toward the choir. (See them. Even if new capitals were Fig. 23 of the last Paper). An ar- made, they were frequently not cal- rangement of columns of irregular culated for the diameter of the col- heights in such a way as to make a umns on which they were placed. The pronounced curve in elevation could basilica of S. Lorenzo, at Rome, of- not be due to chance, especially when fers an illustration of the rough fitting found on both sides of the church, together of blocks of ancient archi- and when so arranged as not only Fig. 1. PLAN OF S. PIETRO, TOSCANELLA. 378 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. to offset a constructed rise of the design, but it is perfectly certain that pavement, but also to exaggerate the there was purpose in an arrangement resulting convergence of lines. which placed these capitals in corres- That this constructed convergence ponding pairs on the sides of the nave of lines is found in many well-built so that two Ionic capitals, two Corin- churches is also contributory proof of thian capitals, and two medieval capi- purpose. tals, of similar, though not identical In like manner the columns used in design, are brought to face one an- the church of S. Maria Ara Coeli at other. From this example, it appears Rome are of irregular sizes, but the fact again that irregularity of one sort does that they are arranged on a pavement not negative purpose of another sort. sloping upward toward the choir (with Carelessness as to correspondence of a pitch of over 3 feet for the whole details in one point say in exact simi- length of the church) in such a way as larity of design does not argue care- to allow the construction of hori- lessness as to arrangement. To put it zontal lines of arches, is a clear proof in another way, artistic preference for of constructive intention (see Fig. variety of details is not carelessness at 22 of the last Paper). all. There were many different stand- These cases, from a class already ards of masonry refinement and of ac- disposed of, show that proofs of curacy in measurement in medieval intention in the matter of irregu- buildings, some due to period, some lar can be offered from building due to locality, some due to wealth or churches whose building materials are poverty, and some due to the personal heterogeneous and roughly put to- influence or character of the individual The of gether. position modern builder. The most important element criticism has so been, far, wholly of the problem is the presence or ab- adverse to the of possibility optical sence of Byzantine subtlety. Byzan- refinements been in having employed tine design is the most systematically medieval \vork; first, because obvi- irregular and the least obtrusively so. ously rough work in the construction All these things must be considered, of certain churches in certain particu- and must be considered afresh in face lars (due mainly to the use of bor- of each individual building, when we rowed materials) has been presumed speak of medieval irregularities, never to indicate indifference to optical forgetting that there was in many me- effects in other particulars in the dieval buildings however great the given churches; second, because refinement of masonry and detail a obviously rough work in certain grand and artistic indifference to reg- churches has been assumed to ex- ularity, considered as an ideal or all cases of plain irregularity of con- standard of perfection, which will ex- struction in other churches, in which, plain a great many facts. as a matter of fact, the masonry indi- Modern students have so far over- cates careful construction, and in looked or neglected an enormous which, as a matter of fact, the measure- number of facts which are not very eas- ments prove careful construction. ily collated or collected. Then they As to the presumption that the use have jumbled together in their concep- of heterogeneous materials implies in- tion of medieval building three differ- difference to appearances or to artistic ent phases of irregularity, viz.: first, effects, we may take a case from S. rough work and the use of hetero- Pietro, at Toscanella, which has no geneous material from older buildings; reference to the perspective illusions second, irregularities which are part of discussed in our last Paper. schematic arrangements; and third, in- Some of the capitals in this church tentional irregularities without sche- are antique and some are medieval and matic arrangements. If we take the all are of irregular size and varying standpoint of the medieval builder

THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. himself, we shall find no inconsistency between indifference to regularity in one place and purposely constructed irregularity in another. For his make- up both these attitudes were inter- changeable and matter-of-course. Indifference, or careless building, or the use of heterogeneous materials cannot be called up as explanations when we are dealing with measure- ments, which show the existence of a scheme. The perspective deceptions so far quoted, in the preceding issue, bear, on the face of things, that evi- dence of design which is furnished by a scheme, i. e., by an arrangement of measurements which the law of chances would lead us to suppose could not be accidental in one case and which certainly could not be acci- dental when found in a series of repe- titions. But evasions of regularity were also practiced from a definite ar- tistic feeling and purpose and gener- ally without the design of obtaining an effect of dimension by palpable trickery. Here is an illustration from the basilica at Palaja. (Palaja is reached by carriage from Pontedera, which is on the railroad between Flor- ence and Pisa.) The measures for the interior pier spacings in metres and centimetres on one side of this church, beginning at the entrance and moving toward the choir, are as fol- lows: 4.92; 4.87; 5.11; 4.86; 4.92. These measures were taken hastily, and yet the first bay and the last bay tally exactly; the measurements next adjacent tally within a centimetre. The middle bay is largest by twenty-four centimetres, or say ten inches. We will not debate the purpose at present. The proof offered is the proof of inten- tion. Where is the objector who will say that the larger arch is due to care- less building, when the measures tally within a centimetre for the corres- ponding pairs on either side of it? Another illustration may be taken from San Pietro, at Toscanella, just quoted for the case of its capitals (Fig. i). The measures are given in feet -r......

* rv^_. r ^r

...... -23.71-

; 1

H

Fig. 4. -PLAN OF THE SIBNA CATHEDRAL. 382 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. and decimals and represent the pier three centimetres, or a little over one spacings, beginning at the entrance: inch, will represent the amount of er- ' Left, 13.30; 13.55; I57o; 1 S- IO ror due to carelessness in the interior, 14.80; 15. because the arcades on either side of Right, 12.75; 13.70; 15.95; 15.05; the door correspond exactly, and the I5-05; I5-30. outer arcades vary in measurements On both sides the second span is only three centimetres. larger than the first; on both sides the Mr. Penrose has fixed the limit of third span is larger than the second; error in the masonry of the Parthenon on both sides the fourth span is nar- at i~5oth of an inch, by comparing rower than the third; on both sides the the measures for the two opposite ends sixth span is wider than the fifth. of the building, which tally within that These correspondences cannot be ac- limit. By similar means we may often cidental. fix the limit of error due to natural The proofs that Italian builders con- causes in a medieval building. It can structed irregular designs with malice be shown that three inches is a fair al- aforethought can be multiplied indefi- lowance for the irregularities due to nitely when detail measurements are natural causes in churches where taken and compared. Another proof no refinements have been detected; is offered from the survey of San for instance, in the bays of the ca- Michele ai Scalzi, at Pisa. The reader thedrals of Milan, Bologna and is to consult measurements asked the Florence. This appears from a com- of the sections (Fig. 2), noting the fol- parison of dimensions which in these facts. The columns and lowing capitals churches were certainly intended to be are taken from ancient and buildings equal. are so that varia- heterogeneous many In S. Frediano, at Lucca (Fig. 3), tions of dimension will be due to the ir- there is a scheme in the arches, which regularity of materials used. We next drop toward the choir on both sides of notice that the largest arch defines the the church (and the pavement steps up span needed for the dimensions of the at three different stages before the choir choir. The arches drop toward the is reached), but in this church there choir, but so slightly that the inter- is no scheme in the spacings. The mediate irregularities and breaks in the measurements of intercolumnar spac- scheme would forbid the drawing of ing in this church, which has twelve conclusions from this one fact. The bays, tally within 2-10 of a foot. This columns are, however, selected in such will be the limit of variation due a way that the capitals drop between to accident in this church, which two and three feet on both sides of the is more roughly built than a church in the last three bays toward great many which could be mentioned. the choir. This arrangement of capi- In the cathedral of Arezzo, where tals has so many parallels that it is cer- the third bay is four and a-half feet tainly a perspective device. The minor narrower than the two first bays, variations of measurement speak for and the sixth bay is seventeen feet themselves. The measures for the narrower than the fifth, we can show arcades of the exterior facade are here that the limit of error due to acci- given in metres (whereas the interior dent is 2- TO of a foot. The meas- survey measures are in feet and deci- urements on the two sides of the mals) : church tally for every bay in the 2.27; 2.36; 3.33; 2.36; 2.30. church to that degree of exactitude or The centre measure represents the inside of it. (See Fig. 13 of the last arcade of the doorway. On either side Paper.) of it the arcades diminish in span in A comparison of measurements fo: corresponding gradation. These meas- the bays of the nave in the Siena Ca urements prove that an allowance of thedral (Fig. 4) shows accurate co: Fig. 5. PLAN OP THE PISA CATHEDRAL. This plan includes the levels of the exterior pavement and string-courses and the curve of the south wall. 3*4 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

we derive a fair respondence within 3-10 of a foot for temples,* argument of the Pisa the second, third, fourth, and fifth pair. from the transept measures in that variation abovt We are justified, therefore, arguing Cathedral, any of the purpose for discrepancies of measure- 12-100 of a foot on the sides ment in the bays crossing the transept, church is intentional. which show a variation in one case Let us next examine the intercol- of two feet. In speaking of these dis- umnar spacings of the nave (Fig. 5). the at crepancies Jacob Burckhardt, On both sides of the nave we begin the sub- the entrance with decimal. On greatest living authority on 15. in his Cicer- both sides we find at the second ject of Italian art, says bay 17. one'. "Der Dom von Siena . . . decimal. On both sides we find the empfangt den Beschauer gleich mit fourth bay to have the widest span einer Reihe von Rathselfragen, welche with 17. decimal. On both sides we der Verfasser so wenig wie die meist- find the measures diminish beyond this en Andern zu losen im Stande ist" bay. On the south side they diminish "the Cathedral of Siena meets the ob- from the fourth to the ninth bay 68-100 server with an array of riddles which of a foot. On the north side they di- the author is as little able to solve as minish in the same distance 45-100 of a number of other people." a foot. (The comparisons for the tenth A comparison of the intercolumnia- bay are best taken from the gallery lev- sides of the nave in tions on opposite els (Figs. 6, 7), where we shall find the S. Bartolomeo at Rome shows measures are taken between columns, the extreme limit of error in that whereas on the plan they are taken church to be 3-10 of a foot (Fig. 14). between centres, and the last measure- A comparison of exterior arcade ment runs only to the surface of the in the Pisa Cathedral will spacings piers.) prove very instructive (Fig. 5). On If we compare these intercolumma- south the the west side of the transept tions with the heights of the arches in five to measurements tally bays (see gallery levels, Figs. 6, 7) we shall 3-100 of a foot. On the west side of find them to be connected with a the 'north transept they tally to scheme on both sides of the nave, 12-100 of a foot. This gives a fair es- which the arches drop gradually on timate for the limit of error due to acci- both sides, towards the transept, but dent elsewhere. Now let us take the with the maximum drop lying betw< exterior sides of the cathedral and ex- the fourth bay and the tenth; amount- amine the spacing of the arcades. On ing to 1.98 on the south and 1.64 on the the south side, beginning at the fagade, north. To this again corresponds on the first bay measures 11.18 (feet and both sides a bend in the galleries, decimals). The bays diminish with which occurs on both sides over the slight irregularities of intermediate third column from the entrance and measurements to 9.40 at the sixth bay.. for which the measures are entered on On the opposite north side the same bays the surveys. Above the gallery bends diminish from 11.16 to 9.06. This ar- the schemes vary. In the south gallery rangement cannot be accidental, nor the piers rise and then drop with the can it be accidental that on the oppo- gallery and the small arcades adhere site sides of the church the measure- to the same scheme. On the north ments run for nine bays (including the side the gallery piers are built to a level sixth), at 9. decimal, and then rise on for the first four bays near the facade, both sides in the last bay next the tran- so as to offset a rising pitch of eight sept to 10. decimal. inches in the cornice of the gallery on As incommensurate measurements which they stand; they then drop the and incommensurate spacings, both gradually and continuously for with and without a scheme, are already *See "Architectural Record," Vol. IV., No. 4, known to be intentional in the Greek "Origin of Greek Horizontal Curves." i 3 MEDIEVAL ITALIAN CHURCHES. 3*7 whole distance between the fourth from causes wholly outside the control of the The small bay and transept. the builders. On the other hand, many follow the arcades same line, but features of the building show definite with a more pronounced pitch. planning for definite optical effects in small of The columns, varying a given direction, for instance, the as due to their derivation sizes, from lines of the nave arches. Experts in Sicilian are on ruins, arranged both optics will admit that the gallery bends sides, partly to accent and partly to produce an effect of dimension in both break up and vary the schemes which directions. I believe that most of the are already sufficiently perplexing. irregularities were intended for effect in The smaller columns on the south side any and every direction; in other are arranged to exaggerate the rise and words, that they were intended to pro- fall of the the gallery cornice; on north duce an optical mystification. This is, side they adhere with minor variations no doubt, contributory to an effect of in- to the pitch of the arches and piers. creased magnitude, but there is a sub- The perplexities and mystifications of tlety in the means adopted which al- the eye are still further increased by a lows us to use the term of optical re- wilfully broken system of masonry finements in speaking of them. When stripings in which no pier has a regu- we come to the subject of curves in lar system of striping, either as regards greater detail, which is already sug- itself or its neighbors (see Figs. 6, 7). gested by the bends of the gallery lines, (On this head it must be remembered we shall be able to show that optical re- that the regular stripes above the gal- finements were used at Pisa and else- lery piers, of which very little appears where in Italy, in the exact sense which in these sections, are modern coloring applies to the Greek temple refine- and not ancient masonry.) ments. From the facts so far brought out in It is not necessary to assert that an this part of the argument, it appears optical theory was present to the minds that a purpose can be proven in many of the Italian Romanesque builders, in irregular arrangements of the Italian the matter of every intentional ir- but it is clear that their Romanesque; first, by showing that regularity, correspondences of irregularity can be ideal of art was to make every used as a proof of intention; second, part of a building interesting to the by showing that there are means, in eye by giving to every part some many cases, of fixing a limit of error subtle variety of form and aspect. due to accident; third, by urging the That an optical mystification is pro- point that we cannot admit the duced by such a system of build- purpose of definite schemes in one ing can be argued from some of the part of a church and assert at the same experiences of our own survey. time that the builders did not know In the south transept of the Pisa Ca- what they were doing in another part. thedral the columns on the west side av- We have, for instance, such proof of erage two feet and a-half higher than the use of the same definite schemes in those on the east side of the same tran- both gallery levels of the Pisa Cathe- sept. The explanation is that when we dral in some cases, as to indicate that a enter by the bronze doors of Bonanus, different scheme was purposely em- as most people do who do not enter ployed in each gallery in other cases. the main door of the cathedral, we The Pisa Cathedral is a remarkable "size up" the transept columns in gen- illustration of three different phases of eral by the dimensions of those that first irregular building. Its materials are strike the eye in their full height. The largely heterogeneous and combined architect has put his best foot forward with a magnificent disregard of formal for a good first impression. His col- correspondence. The columns of the umns came from Sicily and were of ir- nave, for instance, are of irregular sizes regular sizes, but it cannot be chance Vol. VI.-3.-10. 388 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

that all the big ones are on the and the cornice of the aisle roof drops same side of the transept and that side a foot towards the transept. Neither the one facing its entrance door. Our Mr. McKecknie nor I noticed the vari- surveying party worked over four ations in arch dimension and height of weeks on the Pisa Cathedral without the capitals until the measures had detecting this trick. I finally discov- been taken. ered it by pure accident. In plumbing A corresponding mystification is the columns for the amount of their found on the side of the cathedral of a leans, I employed a man to carry pole Prato (Fig. 9). As at Troja the wall and was much surprised to find him arcades gradually increase in size to- stretching to reach the capitals on the ward the transept, and the pilasters west side of the transept. I then no- gradually decrease in height in the ticed the discrepancy of size in the lines same direction. The arcade spacings of columns and took the measures, are given in detail on the ground-plan with the results specified. of Prato Cathedral (Fig. 18 of the last It is quite likely that one discrepancy Paper). A summary of the measures of such a character would be more taken is as follows : The arcade spaces speedily detected and quite certain widen gradually from 9.33 to 12.34 that the multitude of these devices in (feet and decimals), a difference the Pisa Cathedral so mystifies the eye of three feet. (In the following that any given one is more likely to measures for heights, the constants rise from pass undetected. are omitted.) The arcades to a difference of A still more interesting case is that 3.80 4.20, .40. from 1.20 to a of the south wall at Troja (Fig. 8). The capitals drop .85, If the reader will examine this sur- difference of .35. As at Troja, the vey he will see that the arcades gradu- arcade next the transept reverses the scheme. At the ar- ally increase in width from facade to Prato, transept, to the amount of two feet, cades containing the doors also break in while the pilasters gradually decrease with the scheme of spacings. (It has height in the same direction to the been shown in my last Paper that both amount of two feet. The regularity of Troja and Prato have interior schemes the variation in one given direction is bearing on the effect of the choir.) such, in both cases, as to eliminate all I shall ultimately give a more careful suspicion of accident. Gentlemen who account of the reasons for believing the play poker are aware that a sequence of subtleties in question to be of Byzan- five cards does not often fall into their tine derivation. At present I wish to hands before they draw, and that it of- point out that they are by no means ten fails them when they draw to it. universal, and if it were possible to con* Let them now consider the chances, sider any one of the given cases acci- after shuffling the ten spot cards to- dental, it would then devolve on the gether, of dealing them out in the objector to explain why our survey has regular order of number from one to not found these subtleties in the Gothic ten ten, or in the regular order from of Northern Italy, why in the Italian to one. They will then be able to esti- Gothic of Tuscany they center in the mate the chances against accident in buildings which are most nearly re- the double scheme of Troja. lated to" the Pisan Romanesque, why in From the standpoint of perspective, the Romanesque period the phe- the effects are contradictory, but this nomena are multiplied and well de- very contradiction produces an effect fined, according to the known historic of optical mystification and perplexity facts regarding the centres of Byzan- which must have been the result in- tine culture in Italy, and why they ap- tended. This mystification is also con- pear to radiate from these Byzantine tributory to an effect of dimension. centres with weakening intensity ac- In this wall the plinth line is level cording to the amount of distance and >// -3 .... .;._.- J ', M*,- 39 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

according to the Byzantine influence teriors. A remarkable instance of this apparent in decorative details. It will use is offered by the north side of S. also devolve on the objector to ex- Paolo Ripa d'Arno at Pisa (Fig. 10). The south side of this church is of plain why in the Byzantine centres of Italian culture the phenomena are rough masonry and unfinished as re- most numerous and best defined in the gards the casing. richer and important churches, and In the direction from facade to tran- the and why they tend to disappear in the sept plinth drops 2.48 (feet humbler and more rudely built decimals), the earth's surface drops churches, in which latter class acci- i.O I and the arches rise 1.20, as meas-

Fig.9. SIDE OF THE CATHEDRAL, OF PRATO.

dental irregularities would naturally ured.to the plinth. This is an instance be most common, according to the where settlement of the wall would present prevailing prejudice. probably be suggested by a hasty It has been shown in the last Paper sceptic, but these measures show, if that obliquities in presumably hori- there has been such a settlement, that zontal lines of architectural members the arcades must have been originally were employed in interiors for pur- 1.28 above level at the transept. The poses of direct perspective effect in sceptic would then be obliged to ac- one given direction, but it appears count for an obliquity of the arcades from the instances at Prato and Troja and cornice above them, instead of ac- that they were also employed as a counting for an obliquity of the plinth. means of optical mystification in ex- Constructive obliquity being proven MEDIEVAL ITALIAN CHURCHES. 39*

case one for this cannot suggest any Life" in the "Seven Lamps of Archi- design excepting optical mystification. tecture." That such a mystification exists here is certain. The earth's surface, which really falls towards the transept, has the appearance from all points of view of rising toward the transept so dis- tinctly that Mr. McKecknie took four successive levels and then concluded that his instrument had been damaged. My eyesight agreed with his in the matter so decidedly that we determined to obtain another instrument. We were much disturbed by our results because a number of previous surveys would have been vitiated by a damaged in- strument. We could not say where or when the accident had occurred and we gave up work for the day with the belief that much of our labors in Italy might go for nothing. We accord- ingly went the next morning to an instrument dealer, deposited a hundred and fifty francs as security for a borrowed level, and returned to the church for another survey. After all this trouble it appeared that our own instrument had been accurate in the first instance. But the evidence of our eyesight continued to affirm what the evidence of the level denied. This instance does not prove that the mere illusion of a rising surface was the one especially sought, but the existence of this illusion is an illustra- tion of the optical mystification which such a system of building produces. (The principle by which the falling sur- face appeared to rise, by contrast with the more pronounced fall of the plinth line, is familiar to experts in optics.) In these various cases we find one controlling idea which takes us back to the round arch cornice of San Ste- fano at Pisa.* Every arrangement of like parts in unlike dimensions, or un- like relation, disturbs the point of view, puzzles the eye and throws the build- ing into optical vibration producing that effect of "life" which Mr. Ruskin has wonderfully described for a simpler tlass of phenomena in his "Lamp of The constructed obliquities ol the See the October No., pp. 164, 165, and Fig. 3. Troja Cathedral, the Prato Cathedral THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. and S. Paolo Ripa d'Arno at Pisa, sug- tape; and one couid fix the centre in gest a reconsideration of the effects of any building which has a horizontal the sloping string-courses of the Pisa string-course without the slightest dif- Cathedral (matter of my last Paper). ficulty, by selecting the point opposite The effects are by no means con- to which the string-course appears to fined to that of direct perspective be horizontal. There which has been so far indicated. The mysteries of the south wall are is mystification from every point not yet exhausted, for it has also a pronounced curve in plan, to be illus- trated in my next Paper. The foregoing are a few facts chosen from a multitude brought out by the survey of 1895. When fairly viewed they prove that optical mystification, as distinct from a direct increase of magnitude, was intended by some of the irregularities of Italian medieval building. Some of the most important phenomena of this class have yet to be described. In the ground-plans of Italian churches there are deviations from regularity which undoubtedly contri- bute to an effect of the picturesque. The proofs of intentional construction are of various kinds. We have, for instance, surveyed a series of cases in which the walls are oblique to the fa- c,ade in one and the same direction. Among the most remarkable instances surveyed are S. Chiara at Assisi (Fig. n), S. Nicola at Bari (Fig. 12), the cathedrals at Ruvo (Fig. 13) and Troja (Fig. 2i),S. Bartolomeo at Rome (Fig. 14), the basilica of Castel St. Elia near Nepi, the Church of S. Giovanni in Zoccoli at Viterbo (Fig. 15), the Church of S. Maria della Pieve at Arezzo (Fig. 9 in Vol. VI., No. i), the cathedrals of Orvieto (Fig. 16), Pia- cenza and Cremona (Fig. 17), and the churches of Toscanella (Figs, i and 18), etc. Some of these churches have Fig. 11. PLAN OF S. CHIARA, ASSISI. one wall longer than the other. The Cathedral of Orvieto is twelve feet of view. If we stand opposite the cen- longer on the north side, the Church of tre of the south wall, one effect, that S. Giovanni in Zoccoli at Viterbo is argued by the eye from the distances six feet longer on one side than on the to the ends of the wall, is the effect of other. a centre view, but another effect, pro- Let us first take a proof of intention duced by the string-course, is that of from S. Chiara at Assisi (Fig. 11). Both being on the left of the centre. I will walls are oblique in one direction; the defy any one to fix the centre of the widths of the church are identical to the south wall at Pisa without a measuring hundredth part of a foot at the faqade I Fig. 12. PLAN OF S. NICOLA, BARI. v - $

-->

2

Fig. 13. PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL OF RUVO. Fig. 14.-PLAN OP S. BARTOLOMEO, ROME. 396 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. and at the transept. In other words, the right wall. To show that this is the walls are exactly parallel in a de- not accidental we have only to exam- flection amounting to 5.30 for the ine the pier spacings of the nave. With length of the church. Can any one be- exception of the bays next the en- lieve that these two walls are accident- trance, where the discrepancy is only ally parallel? 22-100 of a foot in the other direction, At Orvieto, we have a proof of in- every bay on the left is laid out in a tention as to the irregular length of larger dimension than the one on the walls, which is obtained from the lay- right. This proves that the extra ing out of the piers of the nave (Fig. length of the left wall and the conse- 15). After the entrance bay, for which quent obliquity of the wall of the apse, the measures tally on both sides, each as compared with the facade, belong pier spacing on the left is longer than to the original plan of the church. the corresponding one on the right. Our plan of S. Maria at Toscanella In the laying out of the nave the left (Fig. 1 8) also contains internal proof side is therefore 2.35 longer than the of purpose as regards the unequal right. This is obtained by a series of length of the walls. The left wall is 4 increments of which the lowest is 2-10 ft. the longer. Let us now compare of a foot. This establishes two points the' related measures for the intercol- first, that the irregular length of the umniations of the nave. As found in walls is because it is related intended; the plan the measures run : to an constructed intentionally and Left, 15.90; 15.80; 14.10; 13.80; of the corresponding irregular length 13-85. lines in the of piers nave; second, that Right, 14.50; 15.50; 13.85; 13.80; the limit of error to carelessness due 13.80. at Orvieto is under 2-10 of a foot. The It thus appears that an extra length of measurements are found on our plan 4 ft. in the left wall was connected with and are also given here: an increment of spacings on the left Left, 32.0 ; 31.70 ; 32.45 ; 31.90 ; side of the nave ranging from .05 to 31.40. .60. The measures for the choir show Right, 32.0; 31.40; 31.40; 3170; an increment of .90 on the left. (Stu- 31.20. dents of this plan are warned that a have another of We means proving comparison of the measurements for the of at Orvieto to be obliquity plan the wall arcades is complicated by the because an of line intended, obliquity fact that there are eight on the left wall is found in the of projecting chapels and seven on the right wall.) the left which are built wall, 'gradually For the question of intention in ob- shallower in the direction of the tran- liquities of interior plan the survey of sept. The whole variation is one of S. Pietro at Assisi is instructive. For a about two feet, and it is produced by section of this church showing a drop a graded series of minor deviations. in the arches of 2.60 and a rise in the As the chapels grow shallower, they pavement of 1.70, see Fig. 7, Vol. VI., also wider. This grow gradually No. i, of The Architectural Record. scheme is broken at the chapel next See also the photograph of this issue the the transept (Fig. 16). (Fig. 19). We will now consider For the Church of S. Giovanni in ground-plan (Fig. 20). The nave pier Zoccoli at Viterbo we have already il- spacings are as follows : lustrated the rising pavement (Fig. 24 Left, 18.50; 18.90; 17.80. of my last Paper). We turn now to Right, 18.30; 19.0; 17.80. the ground-plan (Fig. 15). The centre Thus the first pair of arches are equal of the nave is deflected 4.90 from the within 2- TO of a foot; the second pair normal line and the walls of the church are equal within i-io of a foot; the are oblique to the faqade in one direc- third pair are equal exactly. We tion. The left wall is 6.68 longer than therefore have the proof that the build- Fig. 15. PLAN OF S. GIOVANNI IN ZOCCOLI, VITERBO. 39$ THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. crs knew what they were doing within lines of the nave diverge to the choir 2-10 of a foot, and that they purposely there is an increase of perspective ef- made the second bay longer than the fect as regards the lines of arches, which the first, and the third bay shorter than are thrown into more pronounced ap- second. This appears because the va- pearance of recession, although the riations are the same on both sides of lines in plan contradict the natural ef- the within 2-10 of a foot. nave, Now fect of perspective. Mystification of for the of lines in the choir. obliquity the eye, as distinct from direct in- Before reach the choir the left aisle we crement of dimension, seems to have shows measures at the two ends which been the purpose of most cases of con- within i-io of a foot. The correspond structed asymmetry in the plans of measures for the nave at tally exactly Italian churches. its two extremities. It does not there- To continue the argument concern- fore appear to be carelessness which ing constructive purpose of the ob- causes the right aisle to be 1.85 lique plans, we note the following as narrower than its fellow at the so far dealt with successfully: S. entrance and i.io narrower than its Chiara, Assisi; the Cathedral of Or- fellow at the rise of the steps. If the of S. Giovanni in Zoc- builder could make the widths of his vieto,Church coli at Viterbo, Church of S. Maria nave tally exactly as far as the rise of at Toscanella. We now add S. the steps, he probably knew what he may Pietro at Toscanella on the was doing when he first widened it 1.60 (Fig. i) of the evidence for in and then contracted it i.io beyond that ground design the It is also im- point. pier spacing (p. 377). lines of the of All of the Italian ground-plans which possible that the facade this church should have been bent in have oblique exterior walls have inte- accident. This rior obliquities in the lines of nave and plan by symmetrical bend in plan of the to aisles. In most cases there is a slight facade belongs a class of facts to be considered in the spread in the lines of the nave and a next issue. slight convergence of the lines of the An case of constructive aisles in the direction toward the choir. impregnable is offered the of The purpose seems to have been an asymmetry by plan S. Nicola at Bari. The side walls are avoidance of mathematically parallel broken by recesses for side entrances lines, with a view to an increase of at two points on each side (Fig. 12) picturesque effect. and yet the continuity of the obliquity From the of standpoint purely per- is unbroken in the main exterior lines. spective effect there are contradictory Incredulity as to constructive purpose, appearances in all uses of converging in face of this plan, is either the re- lines in and this is plan, probably why sult of stupidity or of wilful indiffer- the convergence of church walls toward ence. the choir had no wide application. For all the cases of the oblique plans six cases are known to in (About me taken collectively it is a point that our see last Italy, Paper.) If the lines of a survey has found no churches in which nave in toward the choir converge plan both walls make an obtuse angle with and the arches do not drop corre- the fagade. The fact that the walls are spondingly, the effect of the arches always oblique in one direction is a contradicts that of the lines in plan. strong argument in favor of design. Ex- If both devices are employed at once, planations based on local causes are out detection of the trick is generally of the question, in view of the number easy. (I do not know of any medieval of examples (about thirty-five cases), Italian church in which both schemes and this possibility has, moreover, al- were but it was the received careful attention from employed, method ways of Bernini in the Scala Regia of the our survey in face of the monuments, Vatican.) On the other hand, if the but without finding anything in its Fig. 16. PLAN OP THE CATHEDRAL OF ORVIETO. 4oo THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

favor as a universal or general expla- (compare the last Paper), at Piacenza-, nation. Toscanella (schemes in the arches or Another kind of evidence as to in- pier spacings); at Viterbo and Assist tention is that drawn from other pro- (the sloping pavements), etc. nounced irregularities of a given plan. The theory that the builders of such In the case of S. Nicola at Ban churches were unfamiliar with the (Fig. 12) or of S. Maria della Pieve methods of laying out regular plans is .at Arezzo (Fig. 9, in Vol. VI., negatived by the number of regular No. i), the variations of pier spacing plans. There are, for instance, five

f I ?

J I- ** ,*.

Fig. 17. PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL OF CREMONA.

.are so extraordinary, that it is impos- medieval churches in Viterbo with reg- sible to assume either carelessness or ular plans. Oblique plans are the ex- accident. To these considerations are ception, not the rule, when the whole added those based on the appearances in number of churches is considered. the same churches of other schematic A word or two as to the effect of the of a irregularities already considered or to these oblique plans on eye per- be considered. We have this kind of son in the church. Strange and ex- evidence at Bari (Fig. 12, compare the travagant as they appear on paper, last Paper), at Troja (compare the last there is not one of them (not even the Paper and also this one), at Cremona plan of S. Maria della Pieve at Arezzo) OF 8. MARIA. TOSCANELM Flg . 18.- 402 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

which does not keep inside the limit has an oblique plan, but so inconspicu- of conspicuous irregularity. There is ously that I have no survey for the again here an argument against the fact, for I only noticed it on the last supposition that pure indifference to c'ay that I had to spend in Pisa, hav- symmetry is the cause. If this indif- ing given five weeks to its buildings ference were the cause we could not and having been in this church five explain why this limitation of the in- times for measures and photographs. conspicuous is preserved. In the build- We had an amusing experience at ings, one simply has a picturesque re- Castel St. Elia (near Nepi and south of sult. You think yourself at the side Viterbo), where the church is deflected

Fig. 19. S. PIETRO, ASSIST. Compare Fig. 20. Photograph in parallel perspective, showing the rising pavement and drop in arches in the direction of the choir. Compare the section, Fig. 7, Vol. VI, No. 1.

of the church when at the centre, or 8J feet in 80 feet, the walls being par- vice versa. Your point of view is allel. It is a prilgrimage church in an changed or confused or doubled, but out of the way locality, which is in you are not aware of anything irregu- charge of a very intelligent German lar until the measures are taken. At sacristan, a lay brother, who has been Ruvo.where the deflection is eight feet, delegated by his Order at Rome for Mr. McKecknie asked me what I had this work, and who takes great interest brought him to survey, when I first in the building. He had much to show took him inside the church (Fig. 13). us, but was beside himself with sur- The little Church of S. Stefano at Pisa prise and interest when I showed him Fig. 20.-PLAN OF S. PIBTRO, ASSIST. Compare Fig. 19.

Vol. VI.- 3. 11. OF TROJA Fig. 21.-PLAN OP THE CATHEDRAL, Compare Fig. 8. MEDIEVAL ITALIAN CHURCHES. 405

of the obliquity plan. He had never ity for the supposed tradition.* I have seen it before, and remarked that about not found any trace of this tradition visited the fifty students had church in Italy. It may be that this supposed his of to during charge it, make tradition is either a suggestion of some sketches and observations, but that no modern sentimentalist, which has one had ever taken notice of this con- spread from one point to another, or struction. The sacristan at Piacenza else that it was an afterthought of the is, however, well aware of the pecu- Middle Ages, which had lost sight in liarity of this cathedral, and believes some places of its own original mo- it to be due to an earthquake. tive in deflecting these plans. Another Our party had no notion that one possibility would be that some medie- wall of San Giovanni in Zoccoli at val master-mason, or guild of masons, Viterbo is six feet longer than the had found this suggestion more at- ^other until the measures were taken. tractive to the clergy than the true ar- Neither did we know that one wall at tistic reason. How should we, at all Orvieto is twelve feet longer than the events, explain those oblique Italian other until the survey proved it. churches which have no transept and There are no counterparts known to no cross form, as representing the me in publication of such oblique plans bending of Christ's head on the as we have surveyed at Bari, Ruvo, Cross? What suggestion shall we on the basis of such a 1 Troja, Castel St. Elia, Viterbo, Tos- make, theory , canella, Assisi, Arezzo and Orvieto. for the churches whose walls are ob- Cremona and Piacenza approach lique to the facade but whose plans more nearly to some plans known to show no bend? But these plans grade in two directions. the one side me in Northern Europe. There are On over to with the de- published plans of Bari, Ruvo and they grade plans flected choir. On the other side Troja; but they are incorrect. Besides they grade into plans in which the lines of "the churches above named as carefully the nave are curved, but which have surveyed in 1895, 1 have made personal no exterior deflection or obliquity. observation of similar churches at The Cathedral of Fiesole (ground- Andria (near Barletta), Bitetto (near plan in the next issue) will serve as Bari), Nepi, Narni, Spoleto, Perugia, a type of a church having a rectangu- Montefalco (near Foligno)and Monte- lar plan, whose clerestory walls fiascone (near Viterbo). and pier lines are built in parallel We are dealing herewith facts which curves. In this church and in other we have no and bring us face to face with the problem similar ones, transept no cross-form. is at fault of the deflected plans of North Euro- Symbolism here, and constructive purpose cannot pean cathedrals; deflected, that is, as be denied for curves which begin in the regards the choir, but not oblique as foundations of the building. I shall to the cathedrals of facade. Many therefore move to the consideration of Northern deflected Europe have a curves in medieval Italian churches choir. churches of Regarding the by way of the curves in the plans of France and England, it is fashionable the naves, to be first illustrated from to speak of this eccentricity as repre- Fiesole, Ravenna, Toscanella, Siena, and Pisa. senting the bending of the head of Christ on the Cross. It has been *See a discussion of this subject by many com- Sec- petent authorities in "Notes and Queries," proven that there is no literary author- ond Series, Vols. X. and XI. Wm. H. Goodyear. be ( To Continued^]

NEW BOOKS.

JROPEAN ARCHITECTURE: A HISTORI- is not the most deserving of attention. Al- CAL STUDY. Russell A. By Sturgis, M., ready too large a part of our literature deal- Ph. B., P. A. I. A., President of the Fine with art is Arts Federation of New York, Past Presi- ing pure vexation. There is, in- dent of the Architectural League of New deed, some analogy between books upon art York, Vice-President of the National and books upon the manners and customs of Sculpture Society, Honorary Member of people authorship is rarely assumed by the the Mural Painters, &c. New York: The Macmillan Company. London: Macmillan really competent, the artist, the native-born. & Co. Perhaps this is so because all that is so high- ly interesting to the outsider, the foreigner, Of late there has been a noticeable addition in proportion to its novelty, presents to the English architectural literature. Let us be indigine no external aspect, and in that re- inkful, the addition, in the main, has been spect is really foreign to his consideration the very class of works wherein our litera- in proportion to its familiarity. We all know ire has been remarkably deficient. The French how much of his subject even the "intelligent ident of architecture, and the German stud- foreigner", misses or perverts, and in art the it, have had at hand for years an abundant alien view goes scarcely closer to the centre. lementary library, whereas the Anglo-Saxon, Moreover, art is not a subject that itself im- confined to his proper tongue, has been very poses rigorously upon an author unavoidable poorly provided. It is much to be able to say qualifications. With Science or History, for that this deficiency, in its grosser respects, instance, a writer must perforce work from exists no longer. Of handbooks, compendiums recognized, established bases; or at least he and the like, intended for the class-room and must, at the outset, square himself with a the general reader, there have appeared quite body of well-defined knowledge, which is, in recently Hamlin's "History of Architecture," itself, an intensely critical force. Little of Statham's "Architecture for General Read- the kind guards the Fine Arts against unfor- ers," Fletcher's "History of Architecture," tunate intrusion. It is the province of letters Goodyear's "Roman and Mediaeval Art," wherein the writer has least the sense of con- "Modern Art," Mathews' "Story of Architect- vincing police regulations. ure," Russell Sturgis' "European Architect- The foregoing brings us to our immediate ure," in addition to numerous translations, object Mr. Sturgis' new book. It is not only one special studies, and "picture books," of which of a number of works put lately into the hands Mrs. Van Rensselaer's "English Cathedrals" of the public, a serious attempt to interest Is an example. This is only a partial list, but people in architecture, but it is particularly If we may take for granted that publishers notable as being a book by an architect, and Icnow their market, it is long enough to war- an architect of solid attainments, who has rant the supposition that the public is giv- been a life-long practitioner of his art. The ing somewhat more attention to-day than in writer, moreover, is an American, and the the past to the art it is perhaps more ignorant thought must have occurred to many that if of than any other of all the fine arts. How- ever we obtain in English a really sufficient ever, the quantitative aspect of this bookmaking history of architecture, most probably it will 408 NEW BOOKS.

be written by an American. One could not perpetually in sight. The study is, he observes, expect it from an Englishman though this is as it were, conducted always on the spot. The not the British opinion. The Englishman's subject before him is ever a matter of ma- native predilections are naturally too strong, sonry, a method of construction, a circum- except under extraordinary circumstances, to stance of decoration but the last very much permit that complete detachment from tra- more rarely than the others. The eye, in- ditional and innate bias essential to an im- deed, is held so close to the facts of structure- partial and nicely balanced treatment of to column, pediment, vault and buttress an art wherein so many diverse moods that one catches scarcely a glimpse of the and ideals have found expression. In- building free-standing as an artistic whole, deed, is it not in this very matter of in the open air, against the sky, with its unconscious detachment from national historical surroundings. No; it is the an- prepossessions that the German, with all atomy of the styles that we are mainly di- his knowledge, and the Frenchman, with all rected to study, those elements of a building his critical tact and lucidity, fail somewhat that can be dated exactly, accurately meas- when they have to deal with really alien ured and correctly computed. This is the types of artistic creation? It is here that the physiology of architecture. "Wherein does. American is peculiarly and fortunately free. Gothic architecture differ from Romanesque He is supremely independent of any national architecture, and what are the causes of the or traditional attachments for any architect- difference? These causes are to seek in a ural style or phase of style. The very circum- minute comparison of the ivorks of the Gothic stances that have made the practice of arch- and the Romanesque builders." The italics in itecture in the United States so raw, unfixed, this quotation from the preface are ours. eclectic, form for the American historian and These sentences are the keynote of the en- critic a species of natural endowment of a high tire book. It is impossible to be more cau- order. What we have lacked hitherto for tious, to hazard less. The mental element, performance has been interested scholarship, tlie temperamental qualities revealed in the and here, again, Mr. Sturgis' work arouses artistic productions of a period are eliminated, our expectations, for the author's scholarly from consideration. A building, a style, is knowledge of his subject is beyond question. isolated from the civilization of which it is. What, then, is the result? an expression. Yet, some, we are sure, will The title of the book implies limitations affirm that it is in a given civilization that that are more than geographical. A general are to be found the chief constituents of a history of architecture that begins elsewhere given style. There we must seek the funda- than at the beginning must exclude a thor- mental difference between to keep to Mr. ough-going scientific treatment of the sub- Sturgis' example Romanesque architecture ject. Yet, let us admit, at once, the very and Gothic architecture. To search for the last thing a really scientific treatment would causes of that difference "in a minute com- hazard with our present knowledge is a single parison of the works of the Gothic and the definite word about origins. The debt of Greece Romanesque builders" is to make cause and to Egypt, or Mesopotamia may be admitted. effect synonymous and confound the product Nevertheless, so much is pure conjecture that with what produced it. Moreover, if a me- the safest course is to say the least about the chanical principle, as that involved in matter. Therefore, in a book intended for Gothic vaulting, be the centre of a style, general readers Mr. Sturgis is right in ignor- does not that view, in appearance at least* ing the subject. For such, European archi- separate architecture from the other arts and tecture begins in Europe. We refer to the re- from all the other circumstances of the period?" striction solely because an author's choice of If the Gothic style is essentially a certain, his own ground is a matter of significance. system of construction, how are we to bring: It usually indicates broadly his personal way it into relationship with the stained glass, of thinking and shows us the bent of his the stone carving, the iron-work which speculation. In Mr. Sturgis' case we have in- adorn that system of construction? Surely dicated for us at the outset a scholarly cau- the chants that arose in the cathedrals of the tion and an instinctive distaste for all that is thirteenth century, the very vestments of tenuous and unsettled, which are among the the priests, the furniture of the altars, the admirable qualities of this work. This judic- phraseology of the litanies and prayers were ious reticence impresses itself upon the reader innately akin to the structures that were more and more as he proceeds from chapter to their proper setting. Their common denomi- chapter, until he perceives that he has been kept nator was the chief factor of the Gothic style, with unusual rigor to a certain order of facts1 and that common denominator was the spirit the concrete facts. This building or that is of the age. NEW BOOKS. 409

Mr. Sturgis, however, declares that en- About 1420 work upon this began under his quiries in these directions are "rather for the directions, and the present cupola was the result, scientifically inclined than for those to whom This is one of the greatest achievements In decorative art is the chief matter. For these architectural art. The cupola of the Pantheon at Rome, the largest one and obviously last, the analysis and criticism of their be- known, Brunellesco's chief inspiration, is circular, is sup- loved art itself is quite enough." Undoubt- ported by a massive circular wall, and is kept edly, this is exactly the architect's and view; in place by enormous masses of masonry piled if to we turn the architect for our history of upon its haunches. The dome of the so-called architecture we must be prepared to accept temple of Minerva Medica is much smaller, and it with large limitations, finding compensa- this, and all other Roman domes which Brunel- tion for what is missing, as no doubt we shall lesco could have studied, are of a massiveness which he did not try to rival. We have no rea- find compensation, in the treatment of purely son to suppose that he studied H. Sophia of Con- artistic questions. stantinople, or other Byzantine examples, and no Needless to say, we have no with quarrel cupolas properly so called had been built in West- the Mr. takes. position Sturgis We have no ern Europe during the Middle Ages. Brunel- right to insist that he ought to be interested lesco's work was a marvel of invention and bold- in other matters besides the "analysis and ness, for his dome, only two feet less in diameter criticism" of his art. He is not; he says so. than that of the Pantheon, is light and lofty, oc- instead of and raised a True, this position limits the scope of his tagonal round, upon high octagonal drum, which rests upon open arches. work. But that acknowledged, the questions This cupola was calculated, also, to support a are: Is the as worth is work, done, doing; and, terminal structure, which, built after Brunel- it well to done? The answer the first is ob- lesco's death, is in itself a masonry building vious. It is what we need in English before eighty feet high. Later architects, working in the all else. Regarding the performance likewise same direction, have found it very difficult to such a there can be no possible doubt. make a bulging shell of masonry support lantern. This astonishing feat must have given It is admirable throughout in the highest Brunellesco supremacy among the builders of the degree. We have no other book comparable day, but it does not show any marked preference with none that is so substantial. it; quite for Roman forms. He had gained inspiration In thought, matter and style the volume is from them in the right way, and in the right way remarkable. It is the ripe product of high had designed and built an original work. scholarship, and we are sure that every lover In the Pazzi chapel, adjoining the church of S. of architecture will close his reading of the Croce, in Florence, the Roman details appeared, first time 192). The book with the sense of pleasure one obtains probably, for the (see Fig. here is Roman in principle; that Is to from all excellent achievements. vaulting thoroughly shell without say, it is built as a single arched And how delightful the reading itself is. A ribs; but such vaulting was a commonplace of certain of treatment is a marked compactness Italian buildings, and was free to any one to use; characteristic of the work. The compression, the Roman imitation appears in the decoration of however, is obtained without dryness or ob- the surface of the vault by coffering in the col- the elaborate scurity; on the contrary, it is accompanied umns with Corinthian capitals, sys- large and small, and by a notable minuteness of qualification and tem of Corinthian pilasters the frieze decorated with the strigil ornament a fine interjection of detail that deserve par- This is copied from some antique sarcophagus. ticular attention. The following extract is the beginning of modern imitative architecture. a good example of the qualities we have spoken as it It is, moreover, the only building, appears, of: in which Brunellesco tried to use Roman forma When, therefore, men's minds were turned to- as the Romans had used them. Had the church ward a revival of classical learning, as they were S. Maria degli Angeli in Florence been completed, more and more, continually, during the years the Roman experiment would have been tried following 1400, there were found some among more thoroughly in it, but this has remained a the younger students of building and engineering fragment. In the Church of S. Lorenzo, built who were eager to study the Roman monuments during Brunellesco's life, and that of S. Spirito, thoroughly, and with a view to working in the built after his death, from his plans, both in * * * * same style. Florence, the Roman column is used, and a sem- Among these young men was Philippe di Ser blance of the Roman entablature serves as a kind Brunellesco, an able sculptor in 1401, and one of of larger abacus or second capital, but the arches those who, in that year, had competed in the spring directly from the columns in a fashion not matter of the third pair of doors for the Floren- identified with the true official Roman style of tine Baptistry. When Ghiberti had been success- the second century (see Ch. II), and the entabla- ful in this competition, Brunellesco went to Rome ture is so slight and small as to contradict Ro- to study ancient buildings. Returning to Flor- man proportions altogether. Finally, in the front ence at some time before 1415, he proposed to of the palace Pazzi-Quaratesi, there is nothing finish the cathedral by roofing the great octagon that an architect of the Roman Empire could (see Fig. 166 B), not as it had been contemplated, have used. This is a palace-front of the type fa- but in a more classical taste. miliar to us, with pointed arches and arcaded NEW BOOKS. cornices, in the narrow streets of the Tuscan his remarks apropos of present conditions town, but with the details changed. (p. 542) are not only well stated, but deserve The buildings above-named are all in Florence, to be pondered by those who are seeking a and their dates are not so widely separated that way out of the present wilderness of dead they need be distinguished as marking eras in classicism Brunellesco's life. They were all built within and endless copying. The judg- twenty-four years; except S. Spirito, as above ment shown throughout the book is eminently stated. With these was built the beautified Log- sane, so sound, indeed, that we are startled gia of the Foundling Hospital (Spedale degli In- by the strong admiration expressed for the nocenti), and that of S. the first undoubt- Paolo, Caryatide porch, or Southern portico of the edly, the second possibly, by Brunellesco; build- Erechtheion. This piece of work, beautiful ings altogether mediaeval in form, except that as the sculpture undoubtedly is, must surely the mouldings have been made to conform to be as the notable solecism in Greek classic types, and that the columns have a partly regarded classical air. architecture of the prime. It was a regretable In this manner the history of the European misdirection of artistic effort. Few, we think, styles is told. The period covered is about will join Mr. Sturgis in his wish that we had twenty-four hundred years, that is, from more of it. 600 B. C. to the end of the eighteenth cen- The book is illustrated with 266 drawings tury. The number of buildings referred to and reproductions of photographs. The selec- is large, for very few of the 500 pages tion of subjects has been made with care to are given to general considerations or to broad enlighten the text, and not, as is often the sketches of the chief characteristics of the case, for mere pictorial effect. It is a pity, styles. As we have said, the author's plan is however, that the half-tone process was not to proceed from one edifice to another, analyz- more frequently used for exterior views of ing construction and decoration, with, of buildings. Some of the borrowed illustra- course, in later periods, some attention to the tions have suffered from over-reduction. These, architects whose works are considered. Mr. however, are slight defects. They do not im- Sturgis' appreciation is catholic, or perhaps pair the immense usefulness of the work, we ought to say it is thoroughly impartial. which deserves to be studied and restudied In only one place has he allowed himself what by all who wish to familiarize themselves may be strictly termed an expression of per- with the monuments of European architect- sonal preference; we refer to the close of ure. This is now the best text-book we have the chapter on the Byzantine style. Regard- in English, and, with a good collection of Ing the value of modern architecture he is photographs, is an equipment for thorough thoroughly sceptical. He denies that archi- and delightful study. tecture is even alive to-day as a fine art, and H. W. D. edmical department ART WORK IN IRON.

ancients were remarkable for curtains adorning the windows. The THEthe character of their hand- eye then falls on the handsome rail- wrought implements of war- ings which run along the entire front- fare, their household utensils and their age of the hotel, and which are broken ornaments. It has been reserved to up with cleverly executed "grotes- the iron worker of to-day to produce ques," and capped in various places objects of art out of the metal in mass, with clusters of lamps of ornate design. and to weld it into forms of utility for The balconies above are of attractive structural adornment and construction. conception, while the balconies on the The architects of even so recent a top floor form an unusual and remark- period as a quarter-of-a-century ago ably effective skyline. little dreamed of the uses to which Passing on to the Ladies' Entrance,, iron was so soon to be adapted, not on the Madison Avenue side, we find only by mould, but by the skill of a permanent marquee as a protection man's hand and arm. The magnifi- against the elements. This covered cence of our modern structures, and enclosure is one of the most interest- the often boundless freedom given to ing studies of its kind. It has hand- the architect to produce good work, some columns capped with lamps, the has enabled that creator of noble former being of open wrought iron buildings to design the most delicate work. To the north of the Ladies' and also the most striking objects in Entrance is the Driveway, which is both metal and stone. To what ex- also a unique feature. Its doors are tent the former is used in these great of massive oak with metal trimmings. constructions is shown in one of the Although weighing over 1,000 pounds most recent examples of architecture each, these enormous doors can be the Manhattan Hotel, on the north- opened and closed by a child, owing to west corner of Madison Avenue and the very nice adjustment secured by Forty-second Street, New York City. ball-bearing hinges used for the first Architect Hardenbergh has been most time under such conditions, and form- successful in his treatment of the iron ing a most ingenious contrivance. work in this noble structure, and his Returning to the Forty-second Street designs have been carried out by the front we pass through the main en- JACKSON ARCHITECTURAL IRON WORKS, trance and come upon the beautiful a firm that has acquired national re- and stately mezzanine, with its antique pute for this class of work, in which it bronze balcony producing a striking stands in the very front of its com- effect. Underneath the mezzanine peers. All the art metal work as well flat form appear the doors leading to as the iron construction in the Man- the cafe and barber shop. These are hattan Hotel has been accomplished in iron frame and beveled glass with a by that firm, and those interested in delicate art etching in the centre. We fine art work in iron and bronze will then pass on to the main entrance to find a study of this firm's work in th^ elevators, where we find a lavish the Manhattan Hotel well repaid. profusion of ornamental iron work. A view of the exterior reveals to the The enclosures are handsomely and observer a succession of iron window elaborately modelled in high relief, in guards, conforming to, and carrying Louis Quinze style, the doors being of out the design of the carved stone very heavy construction. The sliding panels. These are of wrought iron, doors have the unusual feature that all hand forged, and seem to merge they move noiselessly and with ease, into the delicate tracery of the lace thus avoiding the incessant clatter sc* ART WORK IN IRON. 413 noticeable in many buildings. The The entire metal work done by the of the panels enclosure are in duplex Jackson works in the Hotel shows the bronze and the general sharpness, good highest artistic skill. The Pompeiia and fine of the " moulding finishing cast- bronze finish verdi antique," as it is ings are remarkable. Indeed these are sometimes called is a noticeable fea- features of the entire metal work in ture, as well as the colors and finishes^ which the works to Jackson seem ex- particularly those in rose copper. cel. The work is open grill also a fea- A glance at some important art ture, and also the elevator indicators work in metal may be seen in other in Louis Quinze design. productions of the JACKSON ARCHI- A noticeable improvement in ele- TECTURAL IRON WORKS. Among vator construction meets the observer these are the exceedingly handsome in the heavy glass centrepieces framed bronze stairs and elevator enclosures, in the elevator doors. In order to in the Metropolitan Life Insurance avoid the strong draft that would other- Company's Building, on Madison Av- wise come through the open grill work, enue and Twenty-third Street. These glass doors are built on the inside of are carried out in a very delicate de- the grill doors, thus practically her- tail of enrichment. The iron work in metically sealing up the enclosures, the Progress Club, the Hoffman House yet enabling the guests to see when and the library of the Elbridge T. the operator of the car is coming to Gerry residence is of a rich character their floor and enabling him to see the and contains some of the finest ex- guests. These glass doors can be amples of modern high-class metal swung open inwardly for cleaning pur- work in both finish and construction. poses and can be unhinged in summer The Museum of Natural History con- if required. They possess beauty as tains some fine electro-plated work of well as utility. the Jackson works, while the treat- Ascending to the second floor we ment of the bronze work in the rotunda find the balustrade in polished antique of the Netherland Hotel is admirable. bronze. Here the pleasant and agree- They also produced the stairs, elevator able effect of the grill work in the enclosures and all the ornamental and elevator doors is particularly notice- structural work in the Carnegie Music able. to the of the hand- Hall the massive iron work and stairs, Passing end ; some corridor the in the we come upon enam- the Produce Exchange ; bronze elled iron elevator especially designed counter railing work in the Union for the use of ladies, and running from Trust Company's building, and the the ladies' entrance on the Madison massive hammered wrought iron gates Avenue side, heretofore referred to, to erected for Mr. W. K. Vanderbilt, at every floor in the building. The slid- Newport, designed by the late Richard ing doors of these elevators are a fea- M. Hunt. Among their recent work ture. They are of a particular con- - is that in progress on the New York struction, designed to save space in Savings Bank building, the New York the width. The ladies' stairway around Athletic Club, the American Litho- the elevator enclosure on every floor graph Company's building on Fourth is in enamel work to match the whole. Avenue and Nineteenth Street, and This, by the way, is a cylindrical self- the American Surety Company's high supporting stairway, carried entirely structure, the last named showing an interest to- from the wall strings, and is a most example of engineering of interesting piece of construction. engineers all over the world. Algiers, Africa. FACADE OF CATHEDRAL M Ballu, Architect.