Two Virtues of Architecture

Progress, Volume XII, Issue 1, 1 September 1916, Page 724

Two Virtues of Architecture

The first thing Are have to ask of the decoration is that it should indicate strong liking, and that honestly. It. matters not so much Avhat the. thing is, as that the builder should really love it and enjoy it, and say. so plainly. The architect of Bourges Cathedral liked hawthorns; so he has covered his porch AA'ith hawthorn,it is a perfect Niobe of May. Never AA r as such haAvthorn; you would.try to gather it forth Avith, but for fear of being pricked. The old Lombard- architects liked hunting; so they covered their Avork with horses and hounds, and men bloAving trumpets two yards long. The base Renaissance architects of Venice liked masquing.and fiddling; so they , covered their Avork AA’ith comic masks and musical instruments. Even that Avas better than our English Avay of liking nothing, and professing to like triglyphs.

But. the second requirement in decoration, is that it should show avc like the right thing. And the right thing to be liked, is God’s work, which He made for our delight and contentment in this Avorld. And all noble ornamentation is the expression of man’s delight in God’s work.- — ..