Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/952

 9^28 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. Architecture began now to be studied as an independent profession. The practitioners of that time, too, like many of our own, found it a much e:tsier tiling to fall in with the fixed and mechanical rules of ItaUan composition, than to venture on a species of design for which there are no such absolute laws; and which, on the other hand, demands of the Architect the exercise of a vigorous fancy, in connection with patient and ex- tensive study ; jilacing the great test of excellence in the correctness and depth of feeling by which he is influenced. Besides this, we may remark that the Italian style, by the period at which it had attained any thing like purity in this country, had so accommodated itself to, and identified itself with, the conveniences which the now daily increasing refinement of the times demanded, that it threw a shade over the old system, which had no precedents to offer for the architectural contrivances of a more luxurious age. Not, indeed, that there then were, or even now are, any of the conveniences of domestic construction to which Pointed Architecture is essentially incapable of appli- cation ; but that the artists of the times were more willing to improve upon examples of such features already numerous and suited to their own taste, than to exercise their judgment and feeling in the task of adapting an obsolete style of building to new and unprecedented purposes. Indeed, even in our own day, it is to be apprehended that the pointed style may have been depreciated, on account of a supposed intractability of cha- racter ; when, in truth, the fault attaches, not to the style itself, but to the precipitancy of those who reject it, without having studiously endeavoured to become acquainted with its resources. We will not, however, deny that there are some essential characteristics in the adaptation of this class of Architecture to ordinary purposes, which are calculated, at first sight, to place considerable difficulty in the way of the practitioner ; and of which the two following may be regarded as the chief, being, at the same time, matters fiinda- men tally opposed to the procedure of the classic styles. 1878. Difficulties in the Pointed Style. One of the characteristics of the pointed mode is, that, for the maintenance of strict consistency, no mass of material should ever -^ceive its apparent support from a horizontal bearer, but always from the intervention of an arch ; the other is, that, in the details of this style, decoration is obtained rather by a cutting-out of the solid than by an application of mouldings to the surface. The former of these principles entirely forbids the use of a square-headed door, a square- shaped chimney-piece, or a straight beam on columns ; and scarcely even admits of the adoption of a flat ceiling : the latter altogether rejects decorations so easy of attainment as those of pilasters, fascias, and architraves, knowing only the embellishments of moulded jambs and reveals, solid mullions, tracery sunk into the substance of its material, and the like. These matters are, however, difficulties only in the way of the learner ; the judicious practitioner will find it easy to turn them to the most advantageous account, while he discerns in them a test for the skill and feeling of competitors around him. 1879. The Progress and the Characteristics of Pointed Architecture in general, from the Time of its Rise down to that of its Disiise, next demand our attention; and, where the nature of the subject will permit, cur remarks will tend chiefly to the illustration of Domestic Architecture. This latter application, however, we shall not be able to effect with any success, in reviewing the more remote history of the pointed style, which we shall, therefore, notice only for the sake of displaying to the reader the connection which subsists between the earlier and later varieties of the art ; and the increase in refinement and beauty by which those varieties are progressively characterised. The limited extent of our information on the subject of domestic construction, so far back as the thiiteenth century, or, perhaps, we should rather say, the non-existence in that age of what might be considered fair specimens of Domestic Architecture (in the sense in which we ordi- narily understand the term), will compel us to illustrate our remarks upon the earlier modes by a reference to ecclesiastical remains. Indeed, the ideas of our ancestors, as exemplified in the construction of those domestic structures which have been transmitted to our own times, were so obviously formed upon the models of ecclesiastical works, subject to reasonable modifications, that we shall find an investigation of the latter the means of introducing us to a comprehensive knowledge of the former. It is not, how- ever, our intention to make this the place for a disquisition upon Sacred Architecture ; or, indeed, to notice it to any greater extent than may be absolutely requisite for the elucidation of the pointed style in general, and, eventually, of Domestic Architecture in particular. 1880. Origin of the Pointed Style. It would be of little benefit or interest to the general reader, to enter into a review of the various opinions that have been entertained upon the obscure subject of the origin of the pointed arch. To say nothing of the influence of capricious fancy, which might have suggested the trial of so novel a device, we think the only two hypotheses to which any plausibility whatever can attach are, that the pointed arch was either introduced from the East, after the expedition to the Holy Land under Richard I., or that it was a feature suggested by the forms arising from