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    446 Vy--^.^^-.^ : 4 : ^^ : ^ : - . [S^ti...

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    CHANT'S HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY. History of...

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    Owen Jones Ok Decobative Aet. ¦An Attemp...

    ruling harmonies ; the secondaries and tertiaries , fi-oin being subordinate , became dominant , and muddiness and indistinctness resulted . . . , "In Egypt , during the reigns of her native kings , the primaries mainly prevailed ; whilst under her Greek rulers art languished , and being practised rather from imperfect tradition than from poetic inspiration , the secondaries usurped the place of the primaries , and the beautiful harmonies which had before been produced by their" combination were lost . " The progress to further decline is again remarkable under the Romans , who taught the Egyptians to build up temples of greater magnitude , with stones more nicely fitted , with the mechanical processes more advanced , but with the poetic fire wantingand naught but a barren work of skill remaining .

    , " The same decline may be observed with Greek architecture . In the temples of Greece , as far as we are acquainted with them , the primaries were dominant ; whilst in Greek towns under Roman rule , the true principles of their noble ancestors were thrown aside , and the caprices of their Roman masters substituted . " It is very strange , considering the amount of trouble ( not to mention money ) , people bestow on the furnishing of their houses , how much research , discussion , shopping , and consultation with ignorant shopmen , and still more ignorant friends , that they never think of settling a few general principles , and acting upon them . If you are going to furnish a room look at it as if you were going to paint a picture . If you have a fancy , tor the Manchesterit

    G-othic , for the Renaissance , for the Rococo , or the modern , matters not , so that in the first place you adhere to the style chosen , and in the next place you arrange the details into an ensemble . ± or tins purpose bear in mind the following—especially the concluding sentences : —

    " PEorosiTiptf IV . " The primary colours should he used on t / ie upper portions of objects , the secondary and tertiary on the lower . " This proposition , founded also on observation of Nature ' s works , was generally obeyed in the best periods of art , but nowhere so well or so universally as in the buildings of the Moors , who confined the primary colours entirely to the upper portions of their buildings , and the secondary and tertiary to the lower . In Egypt we do see occasionally the secondary ( green ) used in the upper portions of their temples ; but this arises from the fact that ornaments in Egypt were symbolical , and more nearly represented natural objects than in other styles . If a lotusleaf were used in the upper portions , of a building , it would necessarily be coloured green , but the law is true in the main : the general aspect of an Egyptian building ives us the primaries above and the secondaries below .

    g " Even in Pompeii , we find this sometimes ; in the interior of their houses there is a gradual gradation of colour downwards from the roof , from light to dark , ending with black : but this is by no means so usual as to convince us that they felt it as a law , for there are many examples of black immediately under the ceiling . This law will be found of great use in the decoration of the interiors of our dwellings . Ceilings and cornices may be decorated with the primaries of prismatic intensity on the small surfaces of their mouldings ; the walls , on the contrary , from presenting larger masses , should be of secondary colour , of low tones and , huca . Tho dados still etrongor in colour , and more broken in hue . The carpets should be darkest of all , composed of broken secondaries and tertiaries , so inter-Avovcn and neutralized that they retire from the eye , both as furnishing repose for the colouring of the upper portions and as backgrounds to the furniture placed

    upon them . And this , — „ " Proposition XXI . " Imitations , such as the graining of woods and of the various coloured marbles , allowable only when the employment of the thing imitated would not have been inconsistent . , " There has often been much discussion upon tho propriety of imitations m Docorative Art , such as imitations of the graining of woods and various coloured marbles ; there is no doubt that , of late years , the skill obtained by our artisan * in producing these imitations , has caused tho practice to he very much abused , but it need not for that be entirely discouraged . . . .

    , , . « The principle which should regulate the employment of imitations has never yet been defined : it appears to me , that imitations are allowable whenever the ' employment of the thing imitated would not have been inconsistent . " For instance , there can bo no objection to grain a deal door m imitation of oak , because tho mind would he perfectly satisfied if the door were oak ; but it would bo an absurdity and abuse of means to paint it in imitation ot marble . " AKnin the practice of covering tho walls of halls and staircases with paper , in imitation of costly marbles , is very objectionable , because the employment of marble tho character of most housesand

    to such an extent would bo inconsistent with , consequently the sham is much too glaring : on tho contrary , wore the pilasters and columns of a hall only painted , the objection would cease , seeing that tho mind would be satisfied with the reality . A violent instance of tho abuse of groining ovisted formerly in tho Elgin Room at the British Museum , where beams on the coiling , thirty feet long , wore splashed in imitation of granite Here whs a mamfold absurdity , us no granito beam could have supported itsel in any such situation . The door-iambs of an opening , on tho contrary , might bo imitation granite without incoiwiHtoncy , as in imch u situation granito would bo useful tv » indicating

    / strength . " Indeed we would rocommond you to study tho whole lecturo , and master its principles . , „ .,. To the extracts already made we must add tins on

    NATIONAL STYLlfl IN ABCHITECTUKE . « As each now architectural publication appears , it immediately generates a munm for that particular « tylo . When Stuart and Ilovott returned from Athens , and published their work on Greece , it generated a inuuia for Greok architecture , from which wo are barely yot recovered . Taylor and Cresy did an much for tlio architecture o £ Home . Tho travels of Boteoni and hid mmmaon produced tho jLvutiun Half , and oven- Egyptian-faced railway tunnels . Tho celebrated I ranch work on tho architecture of Tuscany , and Lotm-ouilly ' a Modern Rome ,, have more recently inspired us with a desire for Italian palnccs . " The works of tho elder Pugin and Britton , with a host of follower * have Hooded tho country with Gothic buildings ; with which , notwithstanding tho learning and roBoarch they exhibit , I must frankly avow I have but little Hyinpathy . I admire and appreciate tho Gothic buildings , which wore the expression of the tooling « of the ago in which they wore created , but I mourn over tho leas winch this

    age has suffered , and still continues tft suffer , by so many fine minds devoting all their talents to the reproduction of a galvanized corpse . ¦ ' * Instead of exhausting themselves in the Vain attempt , who will dare say tliat had these sanae men of genius , its they certainly ajre , directed their steps forward instead of backward , architecture would not have made some progress towards becoming , as it is its office * the trueexpression of the wants , the faculties , and the Sentiments of the age in which we live ? . . 1 " Could the new wants to be supplied , the new materials at command , the new sentiments to he expressed , find no echo to their admonitions ? AMI iron las been forged in vain , —the teachings of science disregarded , —the voice or the poet has fallen upon ears like those of the deaf adder , which move not , charm the miasir cian never so wisely * . ;

    " More than this , instead of new materials and processes suggesting to the artist new forms , more in harmony with them , he has moulded them to his own will , and made them , so to speak , accomplices of his crime . The tracery of Gothic windows , generated by the mason ' s art , have been reproduced in cast iron ; the Doric columns of Greek temples , which owe their peculiar form and bulk to the necessities of stone , have been a hollow iron sham . "We have gone on from bad to worse : from the Gothic mania we fell into the Elizabethan—a malady , fortunately , of shorter duration ; for we then even worshipped not only a dead body / but a corrupt one .

    "We have had an Italian mania without an Italian sky ; and we are even now threatened with the importation of a Renaissance mania from -France . It would be most unfortunate if the attention which hasbeeh directed to the peculiar beauties of the East Indian collection of the Great Exhibition should result in an Indian mania ; but if this disease , like measles , must come , the sooner it comes and goes the better . What we want to he convinced of is , that there is good mixed with evil in all these styles ; land I trust , when each has strutted its brief hour oh the stage , recording for posterity the prevailing affectation of the day , we shall . We want to be convinced that all these styles do but express the same eternal truth , but in a different language : let us retain the ideas , but discard the language in which they are expressed , and endeavour to employ bur own for the same purpose . We have no more business to clothe ourselves hi mediaeval garnaents , than to shut ourselves in cloisters and talk Latin r to wrap ourselves in Indian robes than to sit all day on divans , leading a life of voluptuous contemplation .

    "After the expression of so much heresy , I must "beg to say that the . fault does not at all lie with the architectural profession , to which I esteem it an honour to belong . The fault lies with the public j the public must educate themselves on this question . Architects , unfortunately , can but obey their clients : this one will have an Elizabethan mansion ; this clergyman can admit no other than a mediaeval church ; this club of gentlemen must be accommodated in an Italian palace ; this mechanics' institute committee must be located in a Greek jfcenrple , for there alone wisdom can be found or philosophy taught ; this railway director has a fancy for Moorish tunnels or Doric termini ; this company , again , an-Egyptian

    suspension-bridge—the happy union of The alpha and the omega ' of science ; the retired merchant must spend his surplus in Chinese follies and pagodas . And , to wind up the list of these melancholy reproductions , I will cite the worst I ever saw , though , fortunately , not an English one . We have here a client , who , requiring a steamengine for the purposes of irrigation for his garden , caused his architect to build an engine-house in facsimile of one of-tho beautifnl mosque tombs of the caliphs of Cairo . The minaret was the chimney-shaft . Nothing was omitted : even tho beauti ful galleries , which you all know were used for the purpose of calling the Moslem to his prayers , here surrounded a chimney without a means of access , will make

    " I again repeat , tho fault lies with the public ; an ignorant public complacent and indolent architects . Manufacturers , again , will always tell you , m answer to a reproach for the bad designs they produce , that they aro only wJiat the public require , and will have : let us trust that this excuse will no longer avail them . The Great Exhibition has opened the eyes of the British public to our deficiencies in art ; although they were unable to suggest better things , they were found quite able to appreciate them when put before them . There must ho on the part of manufacturers , architects , artists , and all who in any way minister to tho wants and luxuries of life , a long pull and a strong pull , and a pull all together ; they have one and all , like dramatic authors , written down to the tasto ot tuo audience , instead of trying to elevate it . The public , on the other hand , must uo their part , and exercise a little pressure from without . lof architecture

    " I know that I shall bo told that tho production of a now styo is not so easy a matter ; that it has nover been the work of nny ono man , or set 01 men , but rather something in tho like of a revelation , for which , probably , wo may bo told to wait . Mnch of what I have said here this evening will bo sot down as tho ravings of folly . Some will nay , Architecture is a thing of five orders , discovered and perfected onco for all , beyond which wo cannot go , and all that is loft us is an adaptation of it to our own wants ; others will tell yon that a Christian peon should have no other than Christian architecture , and will tell us to go back MM thirteenth century in search of architecture , and beyond this thoro is no snlvatio but I answer , that this architecture is dead and gono ; it has passed throng " 1 Hovcral periods of faith , prosperity , and decay ; and had it not been so , tho ^ ivci xnation , which separated tho tio which ever existed bctwoon Religion and Art , gi to Christian urchitccturo its death-blow . "

    446 Vy--^.^^-.^ : 4 : ^^ : ^ : - . [S^Ti...

    446 Vy-- ^ . ^^ -. ^ 4 ^^ ^ - . [ S ^ tiRD ^

    Chant's History Of Astronomy. History Of...

    CHANT'S HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY . History of Physical Astronomy . From tho Earliest Ages to the MiMU" / ^ Nineteenth Century . Comprehending a Detailed Account of tho estabUsun ' tlio Thoory of Gravitation , by Newton , and its development by ^^^ J ^ i , ) . ltobort Grant , F . B . A . S . X Tins is a valuable though a misnamed book . A history of Afltr ™ ° y of cannot call it . Thoro is neither tho progression nor * « on V ? JJ'jL of history ; but in lieu thereof aovcral important essays on tho jw * j astronomical discovery , and on the efforts to elucidate the mo < ill ^" lL of ciplofl which regulate celestial movements . As a p hilosophic sui ^ j ^ astronomical history we can say little in its favour ; but wo u * . highly applaud the diligence , erudition , pains-taking cxttctituao , » n ^ details of those chapters , especially those dovotod to tho lheory w ft tntion , which are truly exhaustive . Tho whole book is , so l 0 B * i () U 8 hymn to tho glory of Newton , of whom Mr . Grant montions a ^ reservation with respect to the movement of tho lunar apogee . * i ^ odition of tlio Prinaipia ho gave tho results of an ^ f ^ S treated movomont of tho lunar- apogoo which eeomed to imply that lie ««"

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 8, 1852, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08051852/page/18/