The New York herald., 1922-03-19


ON THE COMPARATIVE METHOD.
BY Sir Banister Fletcher. Charles
Scribner's Sons.
'"HE art of architecture is per-
haps the Oldest of all the arts,
and il remains to-day the
most important OF them ALL 1t is a
compound art and concerns itself
not only with the appearance of tie
objects which it designs but also
with business and engineering prof.
ects not in themselves in the slight
est degree artistic. AS time goes on
the architect has come TO be more
and more consulted about the busi-
ness side of the buildings which he
is to design, and the purely struc-
tural problems have grown cor
stantly more complicated. One can
hardly imagine Phidias having been
consulted by the priests of the Ten-
pie of Athene as to the probable in
creased revenue which could be de-
rived from the worshipers of the
Temple because of the increment 70
their awe which would he added by
enlarging the size of the columns of
the Temple; to-day the architect is
very frequently consulted as to his
opinion of the increased rent which
can be expected if additional money
is spent on the decoration of the ex-
terror of a building. Problems like
these are, however, still but second
ary, and the real function of the
architect is not that of the real
estate agent or the contractor bat
is to SO plan his buildings that their
use may be healthful, comfortable
and agreeable. and to so design the
exteriors that they may produce
pleasure in the minds of those who
behold them. The art of architecture
Is laborious art. 1t is not a thing
which has been acquired in one dag
or in one generation or in one coun-
try or in one epoch, but is a gradual
growth of knowledge and in educa-
ton and form which has been gained
by one generation and transmitted
to the next, mainly through the
structures which that generation
has erected, but also to some exten.
through written documents. OF
these documents the reviewer knows
none of such general excellence as
this book of Sir Banister Fletcher's.
1t is general history, and it's
treatment of each subject is, there
fore, necessarily brief, but in a book
OF some 800 large octave pages, with
$500 illustrations, Banister Fletcher
has contrived to pack more informa-
ton, and more useful information,
than would seem credible to those
who have not seen the book. This
book was written, together with the
authors extraordinary ability to Sc
lect for Illustration those examples
of different periods which most
clearly characterize each period, and
to assemble the illustrations of tile
different periods in such a way that
the logic of the progress of architec-
ture has been very clearly illus
trated.
His book is divided into two parts:
the first he calls "The Historical
Styles" and the second Non His
torical Styles In the historical
styles he includes those which have
directly contributed to our art Of
to-day, beginning with its origin in
the Mediterranean basin, including
Egyptian and western Asiatic archi-
lecture, and proceeding through the
Greek and Roman styles and those
European styles which were de-
veloped in the countries carved out
Of the old Roman Empire. These
styles, different as they are, still pro-
ceeded one from the other by proc
esses of evolution extremely gradual
and yet leading to extraordinary
Emergencies.
The Gothic art is superficially as
different from that of Greece as it is
from the art of China, and yet Gothic