New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-01-10
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
ENGLISH RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE

ENGLISH RENAISSANCE AkCHIlECIUhEI'
Broadly speaking the difference between Renais-
senoe architecture in Italy-where it reached ITS
finest hower-and Renaissance architecture In
Engand-where its growth was rapid, luxuriant'
and productive of beautiful but not perfect re-
sults-is the difference between ciassicisn and
romsntieism, between simple symmetry and IT.
regular picturesqueness between poise and exu-
berance. This difference is illustrated very
clearly in the fourth part of Mr.. j. Alfred Gotchs
Architecture of the Renaissance in England"
which has been sent us by Ticknor & Co. 1t
seems arbitrary and inexact TO style as Re
Nuisance buildings so utterly unlike anything
with which the word is associated as the haW-
timbered fronts Mr.. Gotch reproduccs, the Feath-
ers Inn from Ludlow" in the west of England,
and st. Peters Hospital from Bristol These
exhibit only the least architectural characters
tics of the English builders of the late sixteenth
and early seventeenth centuries, their grotesque
fancy, their effective but uncutivate1 decorative
instinct. But closer and wider view discovers
the genuine tie existing between the halls OF
Elizsbethan England and the palaces Of the
Italy Of that time the tie Of frequent dependence
upon classic details The Italians were filed
with the spirit of the Pagan styles. The English
missed the spirit, but they caught the accidents,
and though not one of the plates in this latest is
sue of Mr.. Gotch's work records a complete alb
sorption In those architectural ideas which are
peculiar to the purest Renaissance there are few
which do not indicate partial sympathy Tor
them. The chaste and graceful details that
passed from Greece to Italy declare themselves
in the most unexpected places. In some of the
interiors figured in Mr.. Gotch's book, eros
combe Church." Room in the Red Lodge at
Bristol" and Drawing Rooms. Canons Ashby,
they minge with the most nsular work Of the
period In the Bristol interior mantelpece,
heavily and very boldly carved in true English
STYLE is supported by Corinthan columns of un-
defled purity and entabloture rather freely
ornamented yet simple and extremely Italian IN
feeling.
Eizabethan exteriors were not richly decor
ated, at least in cases were stone was used, and
the Italiansms are accordingly more directly
visible and more telling on the facades than
within the walls Their irrelevance is palmer,
too, and any one studying the plate Of the en-
trance front Of Charlton House, Wiltshire"
is suro to resent the arcade as q CONSTITUTIONAL
feature, recalling as Mr. Gotch does. that
English climatic conditions are fatal to the
adoption of the open loggia so appropriate In
Southern countries. But, although the arcade IN
this building is q solecism, it is the solecism OF
an architect whose rhetoric was brilliant il his
grammar was not. Paradoxical as it may seem,
he was q purist in his way. The details OF the
stonework not debased. This is TIE case
with many Of the old English architects In
the porch Of "St GATHERINGS Court House. in
that Of the manor at Sydcnham and in the
doorway Of the Stairway Gate House." re-
fined taste appears TO have kept the lines of the
arches and columns graceful the proportions OF
the latter pleasing TO the eye and such details
as capitals fittings and keystones elegant and
artistic. The composition of the porch at
"Westyood Park follows Italian models mar
rowly, and is on the whole balance letter than
Is usual with English work; but hc:c, an
fortunately, what might have lecn made first
rate structure has been marrrd by the intro
duction Of poorly imagined and coarsey carve
ornaments On the other hand. tie designer OF
the porch of "Crarborne Manor House" kept lis
detail well under control and then stumbled
over the entaeis of bis columns In fact it is
not difficult to find flaws in much Of the archi-
lecture of the Renaissance in England if yon
examine il from severely architectural point
of view. The temptation is to judge it by a
more flexible standard Were the bull
modern their slips would be detestablc, but
time has dealt so lovingly with their surfaces
and angles of stone and brick. and nature plays
so identifying a part in nine cases out Of ten,
gardens and vines lending Of their loneliness 70
the work of man, that the general effect leaves
nothing TO be desired. Mr. Gotch's plates are
as fine photography can make them, and. as
their scale is generous and the views are all
carefully chosen. this general effect is repro
duced in the work under consideration Tie
detail drawings are also well executed. Two
more parts of this book are to be published.
Many times that number would be welcome, for
the matter is Of great value and it is presented
in form never surpassed by any architecture!
publication Of the sort, whether English, French
or German.