Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/104

88 88 POINTED STYLE IN GERMANY. Part II, St. Lawrence are among the best. Tl)e bay window (Woodcut No. 531), from the facade of the former is as pleasing a feature as is to be found of its class in any part of Germany. A more characteristic specimen, however, is to be seen at Bruck on the Mur, in Styria, where there still exists a lai-ge house, the front of which is ornamented with a verandah in several bays, one of which is represented in the annexed woodcut No. 532. It is in two stories, the upper containing twice the number of openings of the lower. The whole design is singularly elegant, but betrays the lateness of the date (1505) in every detail; and, Tiiore than this, exhibits those peculiarly German fea- tures which ai-e so charac- teristic of the later Gothic in tliat country. In the lower story, for instance, the ogee arch instead of being: filled up Avith a decorative piece of construction, is made circular I by a plain piece of stone, which completes the con- struction but violates the dec- oration. Above this we have a balustrade in stone, imi- tating wood in a manner the Germans were so fond of, but which is certainly wrong in jjrincijDle as it is in taste ; but, notwithstanding these defects, we cannot but regret that more examples of the same class have not come down to our time. It is true that in all countries the specimens of domestic art are, from obvious causes, more liable to alteratioii and destruction than works of a more monumental class. Making every allowance for this, Germany still seems more deficient than its neighboi'ing countries in domestic architecture in the pointed style, and one can hardly escape the conviction that this form was never thoroughly adopted by the people of this country, and that it therefore, never having had much hold on their feelings or taste, died out early, leaving only some wonderful specimens of masonic skill in the more monumental buildings, but very few evidences of true art or of sound knowledge of the true principles of architectural effect. 532. Facade of House at Bruck-am-^Mur.