Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/1141

 EXPRESSION OF STYLE. liT/ which follows its own outline. , The greater simplicity, and consequent beauty, of the latter is such as to strike the most unobservant." To us it appears that the chief cause of this beauty is the unity of form in the two parts, and not the simplicity of the cornice, because the square projection, when taken by itself, is equally simple with the round one. Langham Church is objectionable, not from its want of simplicity, because nothing can be more simple than the form of the main body of the building, which is that of a parallelogram, with a roof and sides as plain as those of a country barn ; or than the spire, which is that of a cone ; but from the want of accordance between the forms of a cone and a parallelogram ; or, in other words, from the want of unity in the whole, which is thus attempted to be produced. Suppose the Architect had taken simplicity as a prin- ciple by which to test his design before it was executed; how far would that have enabled liim to correct his work ? Not far, we think ; for both forms, as we have just shown, are simple enough. Suppose, on the other hand, that he had tested liis work by the prin- ciple of unity ; the want of unity of form between the body of the church and its spire must at once have taught him the risk which he incurred of producing that discordant result, which is now one of the most glaring deformities in the public buildings of the metropolis. It is singular that, among all the different criticisms which were made on this church at the time it was completed, not only in the newspapers, but in parliament, no one ventured to assign any cause for the dissatisfaction which every one felt. Had the principle of unity been familiar to its ci'itics, the cause would have been assigned at once ; and, indeed, in all probability, the bad effect of such a discordance of parts would liave been foreseen before the building was erected, and an alteration would have been made in the Design. 2210. Order and Propriety. Order, in Architecture, implies the relation of one part to another, with reference to the production of a regular or symmetrical whole. The ap- pearance of windows on one side of a building, if not followed up by windows on the next side, indicates a want of order ; as it does, to find the windows of one side differ in size and disposition from those of the other. It is in the order of parts rela- tively to uses, that a porch, or portico, should protect a door ; but, if, under such a projection, we find a window, instead of a door, while the door is perhaps seen in the same elevation without any protection at all, we feel the want both of order and pro- priety. The indication of a roof, where, according to the construction, a roof could not be placed, or would not be required, is, in like manner, a violation of both these prin- ciples. The opposite of order is disorder, which would be conspicuous in a building showing, on the same floor, windows of different sizes, and scattered irregularly over the surface of the elevation, without being grouped, or on a regular axis, vertical or horizontal. 2211. Proportion is one of the principal beauties of Architecture, as an art of design, though none appears to be more difficult to explain satisfactorily. Perhaps the principle on which proportion is founded may be defined to be, that relation between the dimen- sions of things of the same kind, which, in the given age and country, is generally con- sidered the most pleasing. The origin of our received ideas on the subject of proportion must have been habit, perhaps founded on some reasons relative to fitness in the material employed. It is altogether unreasonable to suppose that the same proportions are in their nature equally beautiful, when applied to supports of timber, stone, and iron ; but, from the habit of studying, with profound deference, the proportions of the columns used in Grecian Architecture, these proportions become familiar to the eye, and afford satisfaction, even when applied to different kinds of materials. The idea of certain pro- portions of columns, and of intercolumniations, possessing absolute beauty in themselves, without relation to the associations connected with them, appears to us a species of archi- tectural bigotry altogeth.er unworthy of an enlightened mind. " Our sense of propor- tion in every form," Alison observes, " keeps pace with our knowledge of the fitness of its construction : where we have no acquaintance with the fitness of any form, we have no sense of its peculiar proportions." {Essays, Sec, vol. ii. p. 1S4. ) 2212. The Proportions of Rooms are nearly agreed upon by British Architects. Sir "William Chambers says " that these proportions depend, in a great measure, on the use and actual dimensions of the rooms ; and that all figures, from a square to one in which the length is to the lircadth as three to two, may be employed in the plan, and great licence taken with regard to elevation. Inigo Jones extended the plan to a double square ; and galleries are frequently made four or five times as long as they are wide. When this is the case, however, they are better divided into moderate lengths, by piers projecting from the sides, as in the galleries of the Louvre in Paris, and that of Sana Souci, at Potsdam. " The heights of rooms," Sir William Chambers continues, " depend upon their figures : flat-ceiled ones may be lower than those that are coved. If the plan be a square, the lieight should not exceed five sixths of the side, nor be less than four fiftl-.s; and, when it is an oblong, the height may be equal to the width. But