The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1881-03-17
The Capitol Competition.

it will be well to examine into
merits and appropriateness of orna-
ment, consistent with the special
purposes of such a building, which
every plan should represent. The
style found to be best adopted to
the special nature of the plan re-
quired for the building should be
of the most lasting and marked
character, of good taste and substan-
tial appearance.
1t should be combined with bold
and massive form, to secure that
dignity approaching to grandeur,
which should mark the chief build
ing of of the State in its effect ana
impression upon every beholder.
As most of the designs likely to be
considered with view TO selection
are in that style. termed
RENAISSANCE"
it will be well to consider the mean.
inc of the term. and the periods of
its DEVELOPMENT in the history and
art of building.
The term renaissance, or revival,
marks the period when the archi-
tects of Italy undertook to devlate
from those of the Gothic school of
the middle ages. they adopted the
forms and details, of the classic
works. of Greece and Rome. and
applied them with more or less
force and freedom, to building for
their modern necessity. The COM
mencenent of that revival took
place in the sixteenth century, and
the principles and practices of
that school of architecture
continues to the present time, with
greater or less severity of adherence
to the classic detail and proportions
as represented by what is termed
the five orders of architecture. The
Tuscan and Composite orders are of
Roman origin, and the Doric, Ionic
and Corinthian are of Grecian orr
Gin. The whole five orders are repre-
sented in many well-preserved
works and buildings in Greece and
Rome. They are the lasting monu-
ments and examples of classic archi-
lecture, and have never failed to i'm
press the beholder with purity of
form, and that elegance or massive
ness of proportion and that never
firing or fading beauty, which marks
perfection in all art. Periods have
marked the debasement and vita
ton of the purity of detail, which
the best masters have recommended
in their noblest examples; whose
works are monuments of beauty,
and will be a joy forever.
During the earlier periods of the
development of this style, in various
countries, its position for ascenden-
CIV in the public taste, We'd with the
Gothic so closely that at times these
two styles became mixed with in
congruities. and even mOnstrOsities.
Every country in Europe felt the
influence of the taste which was so
strongly and forcibly advocated by
the ablest artistic painters, sculptors,
architects and literati, combined,
at that period, to make the style
success, as their followers have done
since that time to the present, now
upwards of three centuries. This
style has been found TO be the best
adapted to certain modern wants
and necessities which the Gothic
styles, have never supplied with
equally effective results in an equal
ly practical and economical form.
THE PECULIAR FEATURES
which characterizes the plans in the
renaissance are uniformity and sym
metry; these plans are adapted TO the
greatest variety of purposes; and
the planning admits of the greatest
ingenuity and skill; it is of great
err breadth and amplitude than the
Gothic or pointed style, and i'll no
other style of architecture does good
planning and arrangement secure
greater results. To the early renais-
sance in its purity belongs the mob
lest of all structural forms, that of
the dome which Sir Gilbert Scott,
Il strong advocate and the revivalist
and partisan of medieval architec-
ure in England, regretted "that such
q noble structure did not originate
in the Gothic style. or has yet COM
position been made in that style so
as to introduce its FORM" The
grandeur and beauty of the dome
can only be found combined
in The purest examples of this
style in the shape which the
domes of st. Peters and St.PauPs of
Rome and England, and that of the
Capitol at Washington are the best
examples. The magnificent effects
produced in the interior finish in
former times by the carpenter, now
by the cast and wrought ironworker
also by the plasterer with his art of
stucco, papier, mache and scagliola,
successfully advanced by the per-
lection of thefine plasters now man.
ufactured; and the cut stone, which
is in massive and large sized blocks,
with the varieties of special tooling,
chisselling and working, and the
rusticated treatment of its ashlar-
ing. The elegance of its holdings
and carvings, effectively produce
substantial and dignified structures,
by the grand effects of the whole,
rather than by the minuteness and
intricacies of individual parts or
members. To produce such har-
mOnious homogeniety, the proper
tons of the plans, story heights,
openings and solids, and the general
outline and finish of the building
must be in perfect keeping, and
every part must bear proportion
with that of another the symmetri-
cal form must be adhered to; effects
must be obtained by clearly defined
parts. such as centers or wings, and
the keenest sense must be satisfied
with thessharmony of pleasing pro-
portions.
THE MOST SUCCESSFUL
buildings and the most lasting in eff
fective impressiveness are those
which are ornamented IN simple but
elegant manner and with delicacy of
parts, rather than obtrusive Vulgar
ity, and the piling and crowding on
of florid and purposeless ornament,
in every imaginable shape for osten-
tatious display. Gracefulness refine
ment and sturdy dignity are the eff
fects and attributes of successful
treatment in the pure periods OF the
renaissance in the present as well as
the past centuries.
All puzzling intricacies and incon-
sistances must be avoided i'll the or
namentation and plan, and the most
successful periods of this style en-
braces those works which are most
simple and pure; and its most de-
based and vitiated periods embrace
those works that are bizarre, gro
tesque, fiorid, puzzling, distorted, ir-
regular and disconnected.
In the vigorous purity of this
style the buildings of st. Peters at
Rome, the Vatican Palace, the Lii
brary of st. Mark at Venice and the
noble palaces and ecclesiastical