A Text-Book of the History of Architecture Part 24

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 189.--ST. MARTIN'S-IN-THE-FIELDS, LONDON.]

_Sir William Chambers_ (1726-96) was the greatest of the later 18th-century architects. His fame rests chiefly on his _Treatise on Civil Architecture_, and the extension and remodelling of +Somerset House+, in which he retained the general _ordonnance_ of Inigo Jones's design, adapting it to a frontage of some 600 feet. _Robert Adams_, the designer of Keddlestone Hall, _Robert Taylor_ (1714-88), the architect of the Bank of England, and _George Dance_, who designed the Mansion House and Newgate Prison, at London--the latter a vigorous and appropriate composition without the orders--close the list of noted architects of the eighteenth century. It was a period singularly wanting in artistic creativeness and spontaneity; its productions were nearly all dull and respectable, or at best dignified, but without charm.

+BELGIUM.+ As in all other countries where the late Gothic style had been highly developed, Belgium was slow to accept the principles of the Renaissance in art. Long after the dawn of the sixteenth century the Flemish architects continued to employ their highly florid Gothic alike for churches and town-halls, with which they chiefly had to do. The earliest Renaissance buildings date from 1530-40, among them being the Hotel du Saumon, at Malines, at Bruges the Ancien Greffe, by _Jean Wallot_, and at Liege the +Archbishop's Palace+, by _Borset_. The last named, in the singular and capricious form of the arches and bal.u.s.ter-like columns of its court, reveals the taste of the age for what was _outre_ and odd; a taste partly due, no doubt, to Spanish influences, as Belgium was in reality from 1506 to 1712 a Spanish province, and there was more or less interchange of artists between the two countries. The +Hotel de Ville+, at Antwerp, by _Cornelius de Vriendt_ or _Floris_ (1518-75), erected in 1565, is the most important monument of the Renaissance in Belgium. Its facade, 305 feet long and 102 feet high, in four stories, is an impressive creation in spite of its somewhat monotonous fenestration and the inartistic repet.i.tion in the third story of the composition and proportions of the second. The bas.e.m.e.nt story forms an open arcade, and an open colonnade or loggia runs along under the roof, thus imparting to the composition a considerable play of light and shade, enhanced by the picturesque central pavilion which rises to a height of six stories in diminis.h.i.+ng stages. The style is almost Palladian in its severity, but in general the Flemish architects disdained the restrictions of cla.s.sic canons, preferring a more florid and fanciful effect than could be obtained by mere combinations of Roman columns, arches, and entablatures. De Vriendt's other works were mostly designs for altars, tabernacles and the like; among them the rood screen in Tournay Cathedral. His influence may be traced in the Hotel de Ville at Flus.h.i.+ng (1594).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 190.--RENAISSANCE HOUSES, BRUSSELS.]

The ecclesiastical architecture of the Flemish Renaissance is almost as dest.i.tute of important monuments as is the secular. +Ste. Anne+, at Bruges, fairly ill.u.s.trates the type, which is characterized in general by heaviness of detail and a cold and bare aspect internally. The Renaissance in Belgium is best exemplified, after all, by minor works and ordinary dwellings, many of which have considerable artistic grace, though they are quaint rather than monumental (Fig. 190). Stepped gables, high dormers, and volutes flanking each diminis.h.i.+ng stage of the design, give a certain piquancy to the street architecture of the period.

+HOLLAND.+ Except in the domain of realistic painting, the Dutch have never manifested pre-eminent artistic endowments, and the Renaissance produced in Holland few monuments of consequence. It began there, as in many other places, with minor works in the churches, due largely to Flemish or Italian artists. About the middle of the 16th century two native architects, _Sebastian van Noye_ and _William van Noort_, first popularized the use of carved pilasters and of gables or steep pediments adorned with carved scallop-sh.e.l.ls, in remote imitation of the style of Francis I. The princ.i.p.al monuments of the age were town-halls, and, after the war of independence in which the yoke of Spain was finally broken (1566-79), local administrative buildings--mints, exchanges and the like. The +Town Hall+ of +The Hague+ (1565), with its stepped gable or great dormer, its consoles, statues, and octagonal turrets, may be said to have inaugurated the style generally followed after the war.

Owing to the lack of stone, brick was almost universally employed, and stone imported by sea was only used in edifices of exceptional cost and importance. Of these the +Town Hall+ at Amsterdam holds the first place.

Its facade is of about the same dimensions as the one at Antwerp, but compares unfavorably with it in its monotony and want of interest. The +Leyden Town Hall+, by the Fleming, _Lieven de Key_ (1597), the Bourse or Exchange and the Hanse House at Amsterdam, by _Hendrik de Keyser_, are also worthy of mention, though many lesser buildings, built of brick combined with enamelled terra-cotta and stone, possess quite as much artistic merit.

+DENMARK.+ In Denmark the monuments of the Renaissance may almost be said to be confined to the reign of Christian IV. (1588-1648), and do not include a single church of any importance. The royal castles of the +Rosenborg+ at Copenhagen (1610) and the +Fredericksborg+ (1580-1624), the latter by a Dutch architect, are interesting and picturesque in ma.s.s, with their fanciful gables, mullioned windows and numerous turrets, but can hardly lay claim to beauty of detail or purity of style. The Exchange at Copenhagen, built of brick and stone in the same general style (1619-40), is still less interesting both in ma.s.s and detail.

The only other important Scandinavian monument deserving of special mention in so brief a sketch as this is the +Royal Palace+ at +Stockholm+, Sweden (1698-1753), due to a foreign architect, _Nicodemus de Tessin_. It is of imposing dimensions, and although simple in external treatment, it merits praise for the excellent disposition of its plan, its n.o.ble court, imposing entrances, and the general dignity and appropriateness of its architecture.

+MONUMENTS+ (in addition to those mentioned in text). ENGLAND, TUDOR STYLE: Several palaces by Henry VIII., no longer extant; Westwood, later rebuilt; Gosfield Hall; Harlaxton.--ELIZABETHAN: Buckhurst, 1565; Kirby House, 1570, both by Thorpe; Caius College, 1570-75, by Theodore Have; "The Schools," Oxford, by Thomas Holt, 1600; Beaupre Castle, 1600.--JACOBEAN: Tombs of Mary of Scotland and of Elizabeth in Westminster Abbey; Audsley Inn; Bolsover Castle, 1613; Heriot's Hospital, Edinburgh, 1628.--CLa.s.sIC or ANGLO-ITALIAN: St. John's College, Oxford; Queen's House, Greenwich; Coles.h.i.+ll; all by Inigo Jones, 1620-51; Amesbury, by Webb; Combe Abbey; Buckingham and Montague Houses; The Monument, London, 1670, by Wren; Temple Bar, by the same; Winchester Palace, 1683; Chelsea College; Towers of Westminster Abbey, 1696; St.

Clement Dane's; St. James's, Westminster; St. Peter's, Cornhill, and many others, all by Wren.--18TH CENTURY: Seaton Delaval and Grimsthorpe, by Van Brugh; Wanstead House, by Colin Campbell; Treasury Buildings, by Kent.

The most important Renaissance buildings of BELGIUM and HOLLAND have been mentioned in the text.

CHAPTER XXIV.

RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN GERMANY, SPAIN, AND PORTUGAL.

BOOKS RECOMMENDED: As before, Fergusson, Pal.u.s.tre Also, von Bezold, _Die Baukunst der Renaissance in Deutschland, Holland, Belgien und Danemark_ (in _Hdbuch. d. Arch._). Caveda (tr.

Kugler), _Geschichte der Baukunst in Spanien_. Fritsch, _Denkmaler der deutschen Renaissance_ (plates). Junghandel, _Die Baukunst Spaniens_. Lambert und Stahl, _Motive der deutschen Architektur_.

Lubke, _Geschichte der Renaissance in Deutschland_. Prentice, _Renaissance Architecture and Ornament in Spain_. Uhde, _Baudenkmaler in Spanien_. Verdier et Cattois, _Architecture civile et domestique_. Villa Amil, _Hispania Artistica y Monumental_.

+AUSTRIA+; +BOHEMIA+. The earliest appearance of the Renaissance in the architecture of the German states was in the eastern provinces. Before the close of the fifteenth century Florentine and Milanese architects were employed in Austria, Bohemia, and the Tyrol, where there are a number of palaces and chapels in an unmixed Italian style. The portal of the castle of Mahrisch-Trubau dates from 1492; while to the early years of the 16th century belong a cruciform chapel at Gran, the remodelling of the castle at Cracow, and the chapel of the Jagellons in the same city--the earliest domical structure of the German Renaissance, though of Italian design. The +Schloss Porzia+ (1510), at Spital in Carinthia, is a fine quadrangular palace, surrounding a court with arcades on three sides, in which the open stairs form a picturesque interruption with their rampant arches. But for the ma.s.siveness of the details it might be a Florentine palace. In addition to this, the famous +a.r.s.enal+ at Wiener-Neustadt (1524), the portal of the Imperial Palace (1552), and the +Castle Schalaburg+ on the Danube (1530-1601), are attributed to Italian architects, to whom must also be ascribed a number of important works at Prague. Chief among these the +Belvedere+ (1536, by _Paolo della Stella_), a rectangular building surrounded by a graceful open arcade, above which it rises with a second story crowned by a curved roof; the Waldstein Palace (1621-29), by _Giov. Marini_, with its imposing loggia; +Schloss Stern+, built on the plan of a six-pointed star (1459-1565) and embellished by Italian artists with stucco ornaments and frescoes; and parts of the palace on the Hradschin, by _Scamozzi_, attest the supremacy of Italian art in Bohemia. The same is true of Styria, Carinthia, and the Tyrol; _e.g._ +Schloss Ambras+ at Innsbruck (1570).

+GERMANY: PERIODS.+ The earliest manifestation of the Renaissance in what is now the German Empire, appeared in the works of painters like Durer and Burkmair, and in occasional buildings previous to 1525. The real transformation of German architecture, however, hardly began until after the Peace of Augsburg, in 1555. From that time on its progress was rapid, its achievements being almost wholly in the domain of secular architecture--princely and ducal castles, town halls or _Rathhauser_, and houses of wealthy burghers or corporations. It is somewhat singular that the German emperors should not have undertaken the construction of a new imperial residence on a worthy scale, the palaces of Munich and Berlin being aggregations of buildings of various dates about a nucleus of mediaeval origin, and with no single portion to compare with the stately chateaux of the French kings. Church architecture was neglected, owing to the Reformation, which turned to its own uses the existing churches, while the Roman Catholics were too impoverished to replace the edifices they had lost.

The periods of the German Renaissance are less well marked than those of the French; but its successive developments follow the same general progression, divided into three stages:

I. THE EARLY RENAISSANCE, 1525-1600, in which the orders were infrequently used, mainly for porches and for gable decoration. The conceptions and spirit of most monuments were still strongly tinged with Gothic feeling.

II. THE LATE RENAISSANCE, 1600-1675, characterized by a dry, heavy treatment, in which too often neither the fanciful gayety of the previous period nor the simple and monumental dignity of cla.s.sic design appears. Broken curves, large scrolls, obelisks, and a style of flat relief carving resembling the Elizabethan are common. Occasional monuments exhibit a more correct and cla.s.sic treatment after Italian models.

III. THE DECLINE OR BAROQUE PERIOD, 1675-1800, employing the orders in a style of composition oscillating between the extremes of bareness and of Rococo over-decoration. The ornament partakes of the character of the Louis XV. and Italian Jesuit styles, being most successful in interior decoration, but externally running to the extreme of unrestrained fancy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 191.--SCHLOSS HaMELSCHENBURG.]

+CHARACTERISTICS.+ In none of these periods do we meet with the sober, monumental treatment of the Florentine or Roman schools. A love of picturesque variety in ma.s.ses and sky-lines, inherited from mediaeval times, appears in the high roofs, stepped gables and lofty dormers which are universal. The roofs often comprise several stories, and are lighted by lofty gables at either end, and by dormers carried up from the side walls through two or three stories. Gables and dormers alike are built in diminis.h.i.+ng stages, each step adorned with a console or scroll, and the whole treated with pilasters or colonnettes and entablatures breaking over each support (Fig. 191). These roofs, dormers, and gables contribute the most noticeable element to the general effect of most German Renaissance buildings, and are commonly the best-designed features in them. The orders are scantily used and usually treated with utter disregard of cla.s.sic canons, being generally far too ma.s.sive and overloaded with ornament. Oriels, bay-windows, and turrets, starting from corbels or colonnettes, or rarely from the ground, diversify the facade, and spires of curious bulbous patterns give added piquancy to the picturesque sky-line. The plans seldom had the monumental symmetry and largeness of Italian and French models; courtyards were often irregular in shape and diversified with balconies and spiral staircase-turrets. The national leaning was always toward the quaint and fantastic, as well in the decoration as in the composition. Grotesques, caryatids, _gaines_ (half-figures terminating below in sheath-like supports), fanciful rustication, and many other details give a touch of the Baroque even to works of early date. The same principles were applied with better success to interior decoration, especially in the large halls of the castles and town-halls, and many of their ceilings were sumptuous and well-considered designs, deeply panelled, painted and gilded in wood or plaster.

+CASTLES.+ The _Schloss_ or _Burg_ of the German prince or duke retained throughout the Renaissance many mediaeval characteristics in plan and aspect. A large proportion of these n.o.ble residences were built upon foundations of demolished feudal castles, reproducing in a new dress the ancient round towers and vaulted guard-rooms and halls, as in the Hartenfels at Torgau, the Heldburg (both in Saxony), and the castle of Trausnitz, in Bavaria, among many others. The +Castle+ at +Torgau+ (1540) is one of the most imposing of its cla.s.s, with ma.s.sive round and square towers showing externally, and court facades full of picturesque irregularities. In the great +Castle+ at +Dresden+ the plan is more symmetrical, and the Renaissance appears more distinctly in the details of the Georgenflugel (1530-50), though at that early date the cla.s.sic orders were almost ignored. The portal of the Heldburg, however, built in 1562, is a composition quite in the contemporary French vein, with superposed orders and a crowning pediment over a ma.s.sive bas.e.m.e.nt.

Another important series of castles or palaces are of more regular design, in which the feudal traditions tend to disappear. The majority belong to the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. They are built around large rectangular courts with arcades in two or three stories on one or more sides, but rarely surrounding it entirely. In these the segmental arch is more common than the semicircular, and springs usually from short and stumpy Ionic or Corinthian columns. The rooms and halls are arranged _en suite_, without corridors, and a large and lofty banquet hall forms the dominant feature of the series. The earliest of these regularly planned palaces are of Italian design. Chief among them is the +Residenz+ at +Landshut+ (1536-43), with a thoroughly Roman plan, by pupils of Giulio Romano, and exterior and court facades of great dignity treated with the orders. More German in its details, but equally interesting, is the +Furstenhof+ at +Wismar+, in brick and terra-cotta, by _Valentino di Lira_ and _Van Aken_ (1553); while in the +Piastenschloss+ at Brieg (1547-72), by Italian architects, the treatment in parts suggests the richest works of the style of Francis I.

In other castles the segmental arch and stumpy columns or piers show the German taste, as in the +Pla.s.senburg+, by _Kaspar Vischer_ (1554-64), the castle at Plagnitz, and the +Old Castle+ at +Stuttgart+, all dating from about 1550-55. +Heidelberg Castle+, in spite of its mediaeval aspect from the river and its irregular plan, ranks as the highest achievement of the German Renaissance in palace design. The most interesting parts among its various wings built at different dates--the earlier portions still Gothic in design--are the +Otto Heinrichsbau+ (1554) and the +Friedrichsbau+ (1601). The first of these appears somewhat simpler in its lines than the second, by reason of having lost its original dormer-gables. The orders, freely treated, are superposed in three stories, and twin windows, niches, statues, _gaines_, medallions and profuse carving produce an effect of great gayety and richness. The Friedrichsbau (Fig. 192), less quiet in its lines, and with high scroll-gabled and stepped dormers, is on the other hand more soberly decorated and more characteristically German. The Schloss Hamelschenburg (Fig. 191) is designed in somewhat the same spirit, but with even greater simplicity of detail.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 192.--THE FRIEDRICHSBAU, HEIDELBERG.]

+TOWN HALLS.+ These const.i.tute the most interesting cla.s.s of Renaissance buildings in Germany, presenting a considerable variety of types, but nearly all built in solid blocks without courts, and adorned with towers or spires. A high roof crowns the building, broken by one or more high gables or many-storied dormers. The majority of these town halls present facades much diversified by projecting wings, as at Lemgo and Paderborn, or by oriels and turrets, as at +Altenburg+ (1562-64); and the towers which dominate the whole terminate usually in bell-shaped cupolas, or in more capricious forms with successive swellings and contractions, as at Dantzic (1587). A few, however, are designed with monumental simplicity of ma.s.s; of these that at +Bremen+ (1612) is perhaps the finest, with its beautiful exterior arcade on strong Doric columns. The town hall of Nuremberg is one of the few with a court, and presents a facade of almost Roman simplicity (1613-19); that at +Augsburg+ (1615) is equally cla.s.sic and more pleasing; while at Schweinfurt, Rothenburg (1572), Mulhausen, etc., are others worthy of mention.

+CHURCHES.+ +St. Michael's+, at Munich, is almost the only important church of the first period in Germany (1582), but it is worthy to rank with many of the most notable contemporary Italian churches. A wide nave covered by a majestic barrel vault, is flanked by side chapels, separated from each other by ma.s.sive piers and forming a series of gallery bays above. There are short transepts and a choir, all in excellent proportion and treated with details which, if somewhat heavy, are appropriate and reasonably correct. The +Marienkirche+ at Wolfenb.u.t.tel (1608) is a fair sample of the parish churches of the second period. In the exterior of this church pointed arches and semi-Gothic tracery are curiously a.s.sociated with heavy rococo carving.

The simple rectangular ma.s.s, square tower, and portal with ma.s.sive orders and carving are characteristic features. Many of the church-towers are well proportioned and graceful structures in spite of the fantastic outlines of their spires. One of the best and purest in style is that of the University Church at Wurzburg (1587-1600).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 193.--ZWINGER PALACE, DRESDEN.]

+HOUSES.+ Many of the German houses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries would merit extended notice in a larger work, as among the most interesting lesser monuments of the Renaissance. Nuremberg and Hildesheim are particularly rich in such houses, built either for private citizens or for guilds and corporations. Not a few of the half-timbered houses of the time are genuine works of art, though interest chiefly centres in the more monumental dwellings of stone. In this domestic architecture the picturesque quality of German design appears to better advantage than in more monumental edifices, and their broadly stepped gables, corbelled oriels, florid portals and want of formal symmetry imparting a peculiar and undeniable charm. The Kaiserhaus and Wedekindsches Haus at Hildesheim; +Furstenhaus+ at Leipzig; Peller, Hirschvogel, and Funk houses at Nuremberg; the Salt House at Frankfurt, and Ritter House at Heidelberg, are a few of the most noted among these examples of domestic architecture.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 194.--CHURCH OF ST. MARY (MARIENKIRCHE), DRESDEN.]

+LATER MONUMENTS.+ The +Zwinger Palace+ at Dresden (Fig. 193), is the most elaborate and wayward example of the German palace architecture of the third period. Its details are of the most exaggerated rococo type, like confectioner's work done in stone; and yet the building has an air of princely splendor which partly atones for its details. Besides this palace, Dresden possesses in the domical +Marienkirche+ (Fig. 194) a very meritorious example of late design. The proportions are good, and the detail, if not interesting, is at least inoffensive, while the whole is a dignified and rational piece of work. At Vienna are a number of palaces of the third period, more interesting for their beautiful grounds and parks than for intrinsic architectural merit. As in Italy, this was the period of stucco, and although in Vienna this cheap and perishable material was cleverly handled, and the ornament produced was often quaint and effective, the results lack the permanence and dignity of true building in stone or brick, and may be dismissed without further mention.

In minor works the Germans were far less prolific than the Italians or Spaniards. Few of their tombs were of the first importance, though one, the +Sebald Shrine+, in Nuremberg, by _Peter Vischer_ (1506-19), is a splendid work in bronze, in the transitional style; a richly decorated canopy on slender metal colonnettes covering and enclosing the sarcophagus of the saint. There are a large number of fountains in the squares of German and Swiss cities which display a high order of design, and are among the most characteristic minor products of German art.

+SPAIN.+ The flamboyant Gothic style sufficed for a while to meet the requirements of the arrogant and luxurious period which in Spain followed the overthrow of the Moors and the discovery of America. But it was inevitable that the Renaissance should in time make its influence felt in the arts of the Iberian peninsula, largely through the employment of Flemish artists. In jewelry and silverwork, arts which received a great impulse from the importation of the precious metals from the New World, the forms of the Renaissance found special acceptance, so that the new style received the name of the _Plateresque_ (from _platero_, silversmith). This was a not inept name for the minutely detailed and sumptuous decoration of the early Renaissance, which lasted from 1500 to the accession of Philip II. in 1556. It was characterized by surface-decoration spreading over broad areas, especially around doors and windows, florid escutcheons and Gothic details mingling with delicately chiselled arabesques. Decorative pilasters with broken entablatures and carved bal.u.s.ter-shafts were employed with little reference to constructive lines, but with great refinement of detail, in spite of the exuberant profusion of the ornament.

To this style, after the artistic inaction of Philip II.'s reign, succeeded the coldly cla.s.sic style practised by _Berruguete_ and _Herrera_, and called the _Griego-Romano_. In spite of the attempt to produce works of cla.s.sical purity, the buildings of this period are for the most part singularly devoid of originality and interest. This style lasted until the middle of the seventeenth century, and in the case of certain works and artists, until its close. It was followed, at least in ecclesiastical architecture, by the so-called _Churrigueresque_, a name derived from an otherwise insignificant architect, _Churriguera_, who like Maderna and Borromini in Italy, discarded all the proprieties of architecture, and rejoiced in the wildest extravagances of an untrained fancy and debased taste.

+EARLY MONUMENTS.+ The earliest ecclesiastical works of the Renaissance period, like the cathedrals of Salamanca, Toledo, and Segovia, were almost purely Gothic in style. Not until 1525 did the new forms begin to dominate in cathedral design. The cathedral at +Jaen+, by _Valdelvira_ (1525), an imposing structure with three aisles and side chapels, was treated internally with the Corinthian order throughout. The Cathedral of +Granada+ (1529, by _Diego de Siloe_) is especially interesting for its great domical sanctuary 70 feet in diameter, and for the largeness and dignity of its conception and details. The cathedral of Malaga, the church of San Domingo at Salamanca, and the monastery of San Girolamo in the same city are either wholly or in part Plateresque, and provided with portals of especial richness of decoration. Indeed, the portal of S. Domingo practically forms the whole facade.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 195.--DOOR OF THE UNIVERSITY, SALAMANCA.]

In secular architecture the +Hospital+ of +Santa Cruz+ at Toledo, by _Enrique de Egaz_ (1504-16), is one of the earliest examples of the style. Here, as also in the +University+ at +Salamanca+ (Fig. 195), the portal is the most notable feature, suggesting both Italian and French models in its details. The great +College+ at +Alcala de Henares+ is another important early monument of the Renaissance (1500-17, by _Pedro Gumiel_). In most designs the preference was for long facades of moderate height, with a bas.e.m.e.nt showing few openings, and a _bel etage_ lighted by large windows widely s.p.a.ced. Ornament was chiefly concentrated about the doors and windows, except for the roof bal.u.s.trades, which were often exceedingly elaborate. Occasionally a decorative motive is spread over the whole facade, as in the +Casa de las Conchas+ at Salamanca, adorned with c.o.c.kle-sh.e.l.ls carved at intervals all over the front--a bold and effective device; or the Infantada palace with its spangling of carved diamonds. The courtyard or _patio_ was an indispensable feature of these buildings, as in all hot countries, and was surrounded by arcades frequently of the most fanciful design overloaded with minute ornament, as in the +Infantado+ at Guadalajara, the +Casa de Zaporta+, formerly at Saragossa (now removed to Paris; Fig. 196), and the Lupiana monastery. The patios in the +Archbishop's Palace+ at Alcala de Henares and the +Collegio de los Irlandeses+ at Salamanca are of simpler design; that of the +Casa de Pilatos+ at Seville is almost purely Moorish. Salamanca abounds in buildings of this period.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 196.--CASA DE ZAPORTA: COURTYARD.]