How to Study Architecture by Charles H. Caffin (free reads .txt) 📕

while along the left is the College, terminating in the Palace. But the chief feature is in front of us, the vestibule of the church.

The latter is built over the mausoleum-crypt, in the form of a Greek cross, after the original plan of S. Peter’s, Rome. Its Capilla Mayor adjoins the small projecting annex, which contained the private apartments of the royal family: the King’s small, cell-like bedroom, commanding a view of the High Altar, so that, unseen, he could participate in the service of the Mass.

The work was begun by Juan de Bautista and continued by Juan de Herrera. But Philip himself perpetually supervised the design, which reflects his character not only in the ambitiousness of its dimensions but also in the grim plainness of the façades. Constructed of grey granite, cut in large blocks, they are composed of five stories, the windows of which are square headed, without dressing of any kind, and ranged in rows, without any attempt at grouping, so that the façades present a bare and barrack-like appearance. Meanwhile an effect of grandeur is produced by the immense scale of the whole mass, while the sky-line is rendered imposing by the towers, crowned with lanterns, which flank the façade of the church, and by the noble dome and lantern, built entirely of stone, on which rises in sequence a pyramid, a hollow ball, and a cross. The interior of the church, designed in the Doric order with flattish vaulting, is again of majestic scale and of extreme simplicity, which, however, is contradicted by the extravagant paintings on the ceilings. A feature of the church is the removal of the coro from the floor to a gallery so that there is less interference than usual in a Spanish church with the impressiveness of space.

The severely classical style of the Escoriál was a reaction from the luxuriousness of the plateresque and the extravagance of the so-called “Grotesque Style,” which Berruguete, a pupil of Michelangelo, introduced into his sculptural decorations. The absence of embellishment and reliance upon a strict use of the orders caused the classic style to be known as Griego-Romano, though, as a matter of fact, it was in nowise Greek.

Churrigueresque Style.—By the seventeenth century Spain, denuded of her foreign possessions by Holland and England and impoverished with war and corrupt government, had reached a condition of national exhaustion. In consequence no new buildings of importance were created, and such additions as were made to existing ones were chiefly in the nature of sculptural embellishments, which reflected the prevailing taste for the baroque. This, toward the end of the century, passed into the glaringly ostentatious and vulgarly meretricious Churrigueresque style, called after its principal perpetrator, the sculptor Churriguera.

FLEMISH AND HOLLAND RENAISSANCE TYPES

At the beginning of the sixteenth century the Netherlands, especially the southern provinces now comprised in Belgium, entered upon a period of enhanced commercial prosperity. Through their textile industries, their overland trade with Italy and the East, and their sea traffic with Cadiz and Lisbon, which tapped the trade routes to India and the New World, they had become the richest country in Europe. They were the favourite dominions of Charles V, who was born in Brussels, and, while he allowed his “dear Netherlander” municipal self-government, taxed them roundly for the privilege. It was inevitable that Netherlandish art should become affected by the Italian influence.

It showed itself first in painting: Mabuse, Floris, Van Orley being among those who sought inspiration in Rome, where Raphael’s and Michelangelo’s fame was supreme. One can picture the sensation in Brussels, in 1515 and 1516, while the former’s cartoons for the Sistine Chapel were being executed in tapestry by Flemish weavers. Brussels shared the glory of the achievement and her artists and decorators may well have aspired to emulate the Italian manner. At any rate, it shortly began to appear in the decorative treatment of certain buildings: the superb chimney piece in the Council-Chamber of the Palais de Justice, in Bruges (1529); the façade of the gild-house of the Fishmongers in Malines, known as the Salm or Salmon House (1534), and the two courts of the Archbishop’s Palace, now the Palais de Justice, in Liège (1533). These courts, attributed to François Borset, are surrounded by vaulted arcades, in which occur baluster columns, and capitals carved with grotesque masks and fantastic figurines and foliage—features that suggest a Spanish influence.

Then, about 1565, was built the City Hall of Antwerp, which represents the most imposing example of the Renaissance in Belgium. It corresponds to the importance which the city had now attained as the chief commercial emporium of the Netherlands. For the supremacy of Bruges was past: her harbours had been allowed to fill up with silt and in 1505 the Fuggers, merchant princes of Augsburg, removed their affairs to Antwerp, whither the “factories” of the Hanseatic League soon followed. By the middle of the century a thousand foreign commercial firms were represented there; her great fairs attracted merchants from all parts of the world; the Scheldt was filled with shipping and over a hundred vessels are said to have passed in and out of her harbour daily. She surpassed in wealth and prosperity even Venice and Genoa.

The design is by the sculptor and architect, Cornelius de Vriendt, also known as Cornelius Floris. The principal façade, over three hundred feet long, consists of four stories; the first being of rusticated masonry, forming an open arcade; the second and third embellished with pilasters and entablatures, framing a regular repetition of mullioned windows, while the fourth comprises, as occasionally in Spain, an arcaded loggia, the shadowed effects of which correspond to those of an Italian cornice. The roof has a slight curb inward and is studded with two tiers of small dormers. The monotony of the façade is somewhat relieved by the projection in the centre. But, though this involves a change in the shape of the windows, there is a new kind of repetition, while above the third story the place of a dormer-gable is taken by an erection that has no structural significance and is merely a piling up of ornamental details to produce a colossal embellishment. It is instructive to compare this pavilion with the Pavillon de l’Horloge of the Louvre, which represents a logical as well as flexible and original application of the Palladian style. Compared with it De Vriendt’s design exhibits a formality which suggests that it had been copied from some work in the Orders of Architecture, while the top part proclaims him a sculptor of florid taste, rather than an architect.

The best examples, however, of Flemish Renaissance are to be found in the gild houses and domestic buildings. Magnificent examples of the former are the Houses of the Brewers, Tanners, Archers, and Cordeliers or rope-makers, in Antwerp, and in Brussels those of the Archers, Butchers, Carpenters, and Skippers; the gable-end of the last-named representing the stern of a vessel with four protruding cannons.

Musée Plantin.—The most interesting example of domestic architecture is the Musée Plantin-Moretus, originally the home, office, and printing house of the great publisher, Charles Plantin, who obtained from Philip II a monopoly in the printing of breviaries and missals for the Netherlands and Spain. After his death the business was continued in the family of his son-in-law, Moretus; and the building which had been erected in 1549, received various additions down to the middle of the seventeenth century. Meanwhile the interior presents a complete picture of the combined residence and place of business of the period, since there are still preserved the wainscots, Spanish wall-leather, panelled ceilings, chimney-pieces, stained glass, and other furnishings, as well as the fittings of the various departments of the shop, devoted to composing, printing, proof-reading, binding, and display of goods.

Carillons.—An incidental feature of the Flemish Renaissance is the Carillon, or set of bells, tuned to the chromatic scale and connected with a manual keyboard, so that they can be played by hand. The most famous of these is in the Cathedral Tower of Malines (Mechlin). It comprises 45 bells, most of which were cast in the seventeenth century by the great bell-founder, Hemong, of Amsterdam. They surpass in volume and tone even the famous chimes of the Belfry of Bruges, which were set up in 1743.

HOLLAND

The earliest Renaissance City Hall in Holland is that of The Hague. Erected in 1564, it exhibits the picturesque features of stepped gables and octagonal turrets that became characteristic of later examples, such as the City Hall at Leyden (1597) and the Renaissance addition made to that of Haarlem between 1620 and 1630. While the decorative details of the façade are of stone, the walls are constructed of red brick. This material is the distinctive feature of Holland domestic architecture, and the combination of its red, blue, or buff tints, weathered by time, with the green of foliage, reflected in the sleepy waters of the canals, gives a colourful picturesqueness to the quaint street fronts that is peculiarly fascinating.

Weighing Houses.—The best preserved buildings of the seventeenth century are to be found in the South at Dordrecht and Delft, and in the North in Leyden, Haarlem, Alkmaar, Hoorn, Enkhuisen, and, across the Zuyder Zee, in Leuwarden, Bolsward, Zwolle, and Kampen. Of particular interest are the Waaghuisen, or Weighing Houses for cheese, which are often of imposing size and richly decorated.

During the latter part of the seventeenth and the following century Holland architecture emulated the styles of Louis XIV and XV, though without the refinement of the French models.

CHAPTER VI

RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND AND AMERICAN COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE

Transition.—The direct effect of the Italian Renaissance did not reach English architecture until the seventeenth century, when Inigo Jones introduced the Palladian style. The so-called “Anglo-Classical” style which then ensued had been preceded by a period of transition from the Gothic, which is usually divided into “Elizabethan” and “Jacobean.” These represent not so much styles as mannerisms. Just as, according to Shakespeare, the Englishman derived the fashion of his clothes from various foreign sources, so, at this time, he decked out what was left of the Gothic style with details borrowed from Italian, French, Netherland, and German models.

The debased form of Gothic, known as Perpendicular, involving the use of the low, four-centered arch, emphasising vertical and horizontal lines, and covering surfaces with mechanically repeated geometrical patterns, lingered on into the sixteenth century. But conditions in England were changing. The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485), waged by the nobles on one another, had completed the break up of the Feudal System. Castles were destroyed and the powerful families exterminated or represented mainly by minors. Statesmanship passed into the hands of an intellectual middle class whose power was advanced by the growing prosperity of trade and commerce.