Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/340

 280 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [October, the Byzantine pinnacles towering above them, apparently ready to topple down. The Roman church was the great patron of this style — one as devoid of grace, stability, and all the other virtues of architecture, as could be found. The chief cause of the disgrace into which the pre-doomed Byzantine fell, in this country, was the venturous ignorance of young and inexperienced architects rear- ing those giddy towers on insecure foundations ; and the consequent lapsing of their work and their reputation into one wild, worthless heap. Doubtless some church society, that has suffered, will bear me out in this " settlement" of the style Byzantine. The Norman, or Anglo-Norman, rather, was likewise imported, per books ; and soon showed its graceful segment heads in our buildings, the largest of which, the Smithsonian Insti- tute, at Washington, though liable to the severities of artistic criticism, is yet an object of interest, if not for perfect purity of style, at least for a happy modulation of parts ; and had it been built in a different location, on rising ground, might claim admiration as the tasteful residence of some shoddy baron, whose heart might be aptty cut, in alto, on the kindred stone shields. The church has laid its hand on this style, also ; and, indeed, some of the best specimens of Anglo-Norman, which have been executed in this country, are ecclesiastic buildings. The Romanesque and Norman are sometimes confounded — on account of their mutual feature of semi-circular heads — not alone by the spectator, but by the pseudo-architect, whose lack of professional reading is apt to lead him into unintentional eccentricities. It is not an uncommon thing to see Saxon, Norman, and Romanesque jumbled up together, in one composition, without a question of purity, on the part of the brain, that gave the mass an existence. Passing in review these styles of modern adaptation, we have not for- gotten the claims of the Gothic. To it we are indeed indebted for many de- signs, that are well calculated to generate a feeling of warm respect, if not of actual love for the art, that could so intensify thought and transmute dull stone into poetic beauty. However in- clined the taste may be to turn, from long experience of any style, as a relief, to some other, it does not seem possible that the Gothic can ever be laid aside. It is always fresh, from the very expan- sive nature of its characteristics, which may be said to be kaleidoscopic. For, there is no locality ; no form of site, however intricate ; no clime ; for which this omnifarious style is not admirably fitted. Never under any restraint, nor losing its susceptibility of tasteful treat- ment ; in fact, there is no other style in architecture which can be at all com- pared to it in general adaptability. The lighter styles, such as the Vene- tian, French, and Swiss, have all had their introduction to this heaven of the emigrant, y'clept the United States ; and we sometimes see the three triumphantly blended in an united state of their own, through the doubtless patriotic spirit of some unsophisticated designer, defiant of all received rules, but freighted with the single idea, that this is a land of freedom, where every man has an indis- putable right to think and act as he pleases. But, in a state of things such as the present, we cannot restrain block- headism by any means, save stringent criticism ; and architecture is too young among us yet, to deal severely with its votaries, however senselessly they inay act. Our business is charity — leave them to time. No matter how faulty, through want of education, the great majority of our architects may be, yet, it must be al- lowed, that they keep utility in view, in all their adaptations ; and seldom sacri- fice comfort to mere show — as is so commonly the fault, with the majority of architects, in the more settled world. Neither is there such an insane desire,