In thus reverting13 to the memories of those works of architecture by which we have been most pleasurably impressed, it will generally happen that they fall into two broad classes: the one characterized by an exceeding preciousness and delicacy14, to which we recur15 with a sense of affectionate admiration16; and the other by a severe, and, in many cases, mysterious, majesty17, which we remember with an undiminished awe18, like that felt at the presence and operation of some great Spiritual Power. From about these two groups, more or less harmonised by intermediate examples, but always distinctively19 marked by features of beauty or of power, there will be swept away, in multitudes, the memories of buildings, perhaps, in their first address to our minds, of no inferior pretension21, but owing their impressiveness to characters of less enduring nobility—to value of material, accumulation of ornament22, or ingenuity23 of mechanical construction. Especial interest may, indeed, have been awakened24 by such circumstances, and the memory may have been, consequently, rendered tenacious25 of particular parts or effects of the structure; but it will recall even these only by an active effort, and then without emotion; while in passive moments, and with thrilling influence, the image of purer beauty, and of more spiritual power, will return in a fair and solemn company; and while the pride of many a stately palace, and the wealth of many a jewelled shrine26, perish from our thoughts in a dust of gold, there will rise, through their dimness, the white image of some secluded28 marble chapel29, by river or forest side, with the fretted30 flower-work shrinking under its arches, as if under vaults33 of late-fallen snow; or the vast weariness of some shadowy wall whose separate stones are like mountain foundations, and yet numberless.
II. Now, the difference between these two orders of build[Pg 71]-ing is not merely that which there is in nature between things beautiful and sublime35. It is, also, the difference between what is derivative36 and original in man's work; for whatever is in architecture fair or beautiful, is imitated from natural forms; and what is not so derived37, but depends for its dignity upon arrangement and government received from human mind, becomes the expression of the power of that mind, and receives a sublimity38 high in proportion to the power expressed. All building, therefore, shows man either as gathering39 or governing: and the secrets of his success are his knowing what to gather, and how to rule. These are the two great intellectual Lamps of Architecture; the one consisting in a just and humble40 veneration41 for the works of God upon the earth, and the other in an understanding of the dominion42 over those works which has been vested in man.
III. Besides this expression of living authority and power, there is, however, a sympathy in the forms of noble building, with what is most sublime in natural things; and it is the governing Power directed by this sympathy, whose operation I shall at present endeavor to trace, abandoning all inquiry43 into the more abstract fields of invention: for this latter faculty44, and the questions of proportion and arrangement connected with its discussion, can only be rightly examined in a general view of all arts; but its sympathy, in architecture, with the vast controlling powers of Nature herself, is special, and may shortly be considered; and that with the more advantage, that it has, of late, been little felt or regarded by architects. I have seen, in recent efforts, much contest between two schools, one affecting originality45, and the other legality—many attempts at beauty of design—many ingenious adaptations of construction; but I have never seen any aim at the expression of abstract power; never any appearance of a consciousness that, in this primal art of man, there is room for the marking of his relations with the mightiest46, as well as the fairest, works of God; and that those works themselves have been permitted, by their Master and his, to receive an added glory from their association with earnest efforts of human thought. In the edifices47 of Man there should be found rever[Pg 72]ent worship and following, not only of the spirit which rounds the pillars of the forest, and arches the vault32 of the avenue—which gives veining48 to the leaf, and polish to the shell, and grace to every pulse that agitates49 animal organization,—but of that also which reproves the pillars of the earth, and builds up her barren precipices50 into the coldness of the clouds, and lifts her shadowy cones52 of mountain purple into the pale arch of the sky; for these, and other glories more than these, refuse not to connect themselves, in his thoughts, with the work of his own hand; the grey cliff loses not its nobleness when it reminds us of some Cyclopean waste of mural stone; the pinnacles54 of the rocky promontory55 arrange themselves, undegraded, into fantastic semblances56 of fortress57 towers; and even the awful cone53 of the far-off mountain has a melancholy58 mixed with that of its own solitude59, which is cast from the images of nameless tumuli on white sea-shores, and of the heaps of reedy clay, into which chambered cities melt in their mortality.
IV. Let us, then, see what is this power and majesty, which Nature herself does not disdain60 to accept from the works of man; and what that sublimity in the masses built up by his coralline-like energy, which is honorable, even when transferred by association to the dateless hills, which it needed earthquakes to lift, and deluges61 to mould.
And, first of mere34 size: It might not be thought possible to emulate62 the sublimity of natural objects in this respect; nor would it be, if the architect contended with them in pitched battle. It would not be well to build pyramids in the valley of Chamouni; and St. Peter's, among its many other errors, counts for not the least injurious its position on the slope of an inconsiderable hill. But imagine it placed on the plain of Marengo, or, like the Superga of Turin, or like La Salute63 at Venice! The fact is, that the apprehension64 of the size of natural objects, as well as of architecture, depends more on fortunate excitement of the imagination than on measurements by the eye; and the architect has a peculiar65 advantage in being able to press close upon the sight, such magnitude as he can command. There are few rocks, even among the Alps, that have a clear vertical66 fall as high as the choir67 of Beauvais; and[Pg 73] if we secure a good precipice51 of wall, or a sheer and unbroken flank of tower, and place them where there are no enormous natural features to oppose them, we shall feel in them no want of sublimity of size. And it may be matter of encouragement in this respect, though one also of regret, to observe how much oftener man destroys natural sublimity, than nature crushes human power. It does not need much to humiliate68 a mountain. A hut will sometimes do it; I never look up to the Col de Balme from Chamouni, without a violent feeling of provocation69 against its hospitable70 little cabin, whose bright white walls form a visibly four-square spot on the green ridge71, and entirely72 destroy all idea of its elevation73. A single villa74 will often mar20 a whole landscape, and dethrone a dynasty of hills, and the Acropolis of Athens, Parthenon and all, has, I believe, been dwarfed75 into a model by the palace lately built beneath it. The fact is, that hills are not so high as we fancy them, and, when to the actual impression of no mean comparative size, is added the sense of the toil76 of manly77 hand and thought, a sublimity is reached, which nothing but gross error in arrangement of its parts can destroy.
V. While, therefore, it is not to be supposed that mere size will ennoble a mean design, yet every increase of magnitude will bestow78 upon it a certain degree of nobleness: so that it is well to determine at first, whether the building is to be markedly beautiful or markedly sublime; and if the latter, not to be withheld79 by respect to smaller parts from reaching largeness of scale; provided only, that it be evidently in the architect's power to reach at least that degree of magnitude which is the lowest at which sublimity begins, rudely definable as that which will make a living figure look less than life beside it. It is the misfortune of most of our modern buildings that we would fain have an universal excellence81 in them; and so part of the funds must go in painting, part in gilding82, part in fitting up, part in painted windows, part in small steeples, part in ornaments83 here and there; and neither the windows, nor the steeple, nor the ornaments, are worth their materials. For there is a crust about the impressible part of men's minds, which must be pierced through before they can be touched[Pg 74] to the quick; and though we may prick85 at it and scratch it in a thousand separate places, we might as well have let it alone if we do not come through somewhere with a deep thrust: and if we can give such a thrust anywhere, there is no need of another; it need not be even so "wide as a church door," so that it be enough. And mere weight will do this; it is a clumsy way of doing it, but an effectual one, too; and the apathy86 which cannot be pierced through by a small steeple, nor shone through by a small window, can be broken through in a moment by the mere weight of a great wall. Let, therefore, the architect who has not large resources, choose his point of attack first, and, if he choose size, let him abandon decoration; for, unless they are concentrated, and numerous enough to make their concentration conspicuous87, all his ornaments together would not be worth one huge stone. And the choice must be a decided88 one, without compromise. It must be no question whether his capitals would not look better with a little carving—let him leave them huge as blocks; or whether his arches should not have richer architraves—let him throw them a foot higher, if he can; a yard more across the nave89 will be worth more to him than a tesselated pavement; and another fathom90 of outer wall, than an army of pinnacles. The limitation of size must be only in the uses of the building, or in the ground at his disposal.
VI. That limitation, however, being by such circumstances determined91, by what means, it is to be next asked, may the actual magnitude be best displayed; since it is seldom, perhaps never, that a building of any pretension to size looks so large as it is. The appearance of a figure in any distant, more especially in any upper, parts of it will almost always prove that we have under-estimated the magnitude of those parts.
It has often been observed that a building, in order to show its magnitude, must be seen all at once. It would, perhaps, be better to say, must be bounded as much as possible by continuous lines, and that its extreme points should be seen all at once; or we may state, in simpler terms still, that it must have one visible bounding line from top to bottom, and from end to end. This bounding line from top to bottom may[Pg 75] either be inclined inwards, and the mass, therefore, pyramidical; or vertical, and the mass form one grand cliff; or inclined outwards92, as in the advancing fronts of old houses, and, in a sort, in the Greek temple, and in all buildings with heavy cornices or heads. Now, in all these cases, if the bounding line be violently broken; if the cornice project, or the upper portion of the pyramid recede93, too violently, majesty will be lost; not because the building cannot be seen all at once,—for in the case of a heavy cornice no part of it is necessarily concealed94—but because the continuity of its terminal line is broken, and the length of that line, therefore, cannot be estimated. But the error is, of course, more fatal when much of the building is also concealed; as in the well-known case of the recession of the dome95 of St. Peter's, and, from the greater number of points of view, in churches whose highest portions, whether dome or tower, are over their cross. Thus there is only one point from which the size of the Cathedral of Florence is felt; and that is from the corner of the Via de' Balestrieri, opposite the south-east angle, where it happens that the dome is seen rising instantly above the apse and transepts. In all cases in which the tower is over the cross, the grandeur96 and height of the tower itself are lost, because there is but one line down which the eye can trace the whole height, and that is in the inner angle of the cross, not easily discerned. Hence, while, in symmetry and feeling, such designs may often have pre-eminence, yet, where the height of the tower itself is to be made apparent, it must be at the west end, or better still, detached as a campanile. Imagine the loss to the Lombard churches if their campaniles were carried only to their present height over their crosses; or to the Cathedral of Rouen, if the Tour de Beurre were made central, in the place of its present debased spire97!
VII. Whether, therefore, we have to do with tower or wall, there must be one bounding line from base to coping; and I am much inclined, myself, to love the true vertical, or the vertical, with a solemn frown of projection98 (not a scowl), as in the Palazzo Vecchio of Florence. This character is always given to rocks by the poets; with slight foundation indeed[Pg 76] real rocks being little given to overhanging—but with excellent judgment; for the sense of threatening conveyed by this form is a nobler character than that of mere size. And, in buildings, this threatening should be somewhat carried down into their mass. A mere projecting shelf is not enough, the whole wall must, Jupiter like, nod as well as frown. Hence, I think the propped99 machicolations of the Palazzo Vecchio and Duomo of Florence far grander headings than any form of Greek cornice. Sometimes the projection may be thrown lower, as in the Doge's palace of Venice, where the chief appearance of it is above the second arcade100; or it may become a grand swell101 from the ground, as the head of a ship of the line rises from the sea. This is very nobly attained102 by the projection of the niches103 in the third story of the Tour de Beurre at Rouen.
VIII. What is needful in the setting forth105 of magnitude in height, is right also in the marking it in area—let it be gathered well together. It is especially to be noted106 with respect to the Palazzo Vecchio and other mighty107 buildings of its order, how mistakenly it has been stated that dimension, in order to become impressive, should be expanded either in height or length, but not equally: whereas, rather it will be found that those buildings seem on the whole the vastest which have been gathered up into a mighty square, and which look as if they had been measured by the angel's rod, "the length, and the breadth, and the height of it are equal," and herein something is to be taken notice of, which I believe not to be sufficiently108, if at all, considered among our architects.
Of the many broad divisions under which architecture may be considered, none appear to me more significant than that into buildings whose interest is in their walls, and those whose interest is in the lines dividing their walls. In the Greek temple the wall is as nothing; the entire interest is in the detached columns and the frieze109 they bear; in French Flamboyant110, and in our detestable Perpendicular111, the object is to get rid of the wall surface, and keep the eye altogether on tracery of line; in Romanesque work and Egyptian, the[Pg 77] wall is a confessed and honored member, and the light is often allowed to fall on large areas of it, variously decorated. Now, both these principles are admitted by Nature, the one in her woods and thickets112, the other in her plains, and cliffs, and waters; but the latter is pre-eminently the principle of power, and, in some sense, of beauty also. For, whatever infinity113 of fair form there may be in the maze114 of the forest, there is a fairer, as I think, in the surface of the quiet lake; and I hardly know that association of shaft115 or tracery, for which I would exchange the warm sleep of sunshine on some smooth, broad, human-like front of marble. Nevertheless, if breadth is to be beautiful, its substance must in some sort be beautiful; and we must not hastily condemn116 the exclusive resting of the northern architects in divided lines, until at least we have remembered the difference between a blank surface of Caen stone, and one mixed from Genoa and Carrara, of serpentine117 with snow: but as regards abstract power and awfulness, there is no question; without breadth of surface it is in vain to seek them, and it matters little, so that the surface be wide, bold and unbroken, whether it be of brick or of jasper; the light of heaven upon it, and the weight of earth in it, are all we need: for it is singular how forgetful the mind may become both of material and workmanship, if only it have space enough over which to range, and to remind it, however feebly, of the joy that it has in contemplating118 the flatness and sweep of great plains and broad seas. And it is a noble thing for men to do this with their cut stone or moulded clay, and to make the face of a wall look infinite, and its edge against the sky like an horizon: or even if less than this be reached, it is still delightful119 to mark the play of passing light on its broad surface, and to see by how many artifices120 and gradations of tinting121 and shadow, time and storm will set their wild signatures upon it; and how in the rising or declining of the day the unbroken twilight122 rests long and luridly123 on its high lineless forehead, and fades away untraceably down its tiers of confused and countless125 stone.
IX. This, then, being, as I think, one of the peculiar elements of sublime architecture, it may be easily seen how neces[Pg 78]sarily consequent upon the love of it will be the choice of a form approaching to the square for the main outline.
For, in whatever direction the building is contracted, in that direction the eye will be drawn126 to its terminal lines; and the sense of surface will only be at its fullest when those lines are removed, in every direction, as far as possible. Thus the square and circle are pre-eminently the areas of power among those bounded by purely127 straight or curved lines; and these, with their relative solids, the cube and sphere, and relative solids of progression (as in the investigation128 of the laws of proportion I shall call those masses which are generated by the progression of an area of given form along a line in a given direction), the square and cylindrical129 column, are the elements of utmost power in all architectural arrangements. On the other hand, grace and perfect proportion require an elongation in some one direction: and a sense of power may be communicated to this form of magnitude by a continuous series of any marked features, such as the eye may be unable to number; while yet we feel, from their boldness, decision, and simplicity130, that it is indeed their multitude which has embarrassed us, not any confusion or indistinctness of form. This expedient131 of continued series forms the sublimity of arcades132 and aisles133, of all ranges of columns, and, on a smaller scale, of those Greek mouldings, of which, repeated as they now are in all the meanest and most familiar forms of our furniture, it is impossible altogether to weary. Now, it is evident that the architect has choice of two types of form, each properly associated with its own kind of interest or decoration: the square, or greatest area, to be chosen especially when the surface is to be the subject of thought; and the elongated134 area, when the divisions of the surface are to be the subjects of thought. Both these orders of form, as I think nearly every other source of power and beauty, are marvellously united in that building which I fear to weary the reader by bringing forward too frequently, as a model of all perfection—the Doge's palace at Venice: its general arrangement, a hollow square; its principal fa?ade, an oblong, elongated to the eye by a range of thirty-four small arches, and thirty-five[Pg 79] columns, while it is separated by a richly-canopied window in the centre, into two massive divisions, whose height and length are nearly as four to five; the arcades which give it length being confined to the lower stories, and the upper, between its broad windows, left a mighty surface of smooth marble, chequered with blocks of alternate rose-color and white. It would be impossible, I believe, to invent a more magnificent arrangement of all that is in building most dignified135 and most fair.
X. In the Lombard Romanesque, the two principles are more fused into each other, as most characteristically in the Cathedral of Pisa: length of proportion, exhibited by an arcade of twenty-one arches above, and fifteen below, at the side of the nave; bold square proportion in the front; that front divided into arcades, placed one above the other, the lowest with its pillars engaged, of seven arches, the four uppermost thrown out boldly from the receding136 wall, and casting deep shadows; the first, above the basement, of nineteen arches; the second of twenty-one; the third and fourth of eight each; sixty-three arches in all; all circular headed, all with cylindrical shafts137, and the lowest with square panellings, set diagonally under their semicircles, an universal ornament in this style (Plate XII., fig80. 7); the apse, a semicircle, with a semi-dome for its roof, and three ranges of circular arches for its exterior138 ornament; in the interior of the nave, a range of circular arches below a circular-arched triforium, and a vast flat surface, observe, of wall decorated with striped marble above; the whole arrangement (not a peculiar one, but characteristic of every church of the period; and, to my feeling, the most majestic139; not perhaps the fairest, but the mightiest type of form which the mind of man has ever conceived) based exclusively on associations of the circle and the square.
I am now, however, trenching upon ground which I desire to reserve for more careful examination, in connection with other ?sthetic questions: but I believe the examples I have given will justify140 my vindication141 of the square form from the reprobation142 which has been lightly thrown upon it; nor might this be done for it only as a ruling outline, but as occurring[Pg 80] constantly in the best mosaics144, and in a thousand forms of minor145 decoration, which I cannot now examine; my chief assertion of its majesty being always as it is an exponent146 of space and surface, and therefore to be chosen, either to rule in their outlines, or to adorn147 by masses of light and shade those portions of buildings in which surface is to be rendered precious or honorable.
XI. Thus far, then, of general forms, and of the modes in which the scale of architecture is best to be exhibited. Let us next consider the manifestations148 of power which belong to its details and lesser149 divisions.
The first division we have to regard, is the inevitable150 one of masonry151. It is true that this division may, by great art, be concealed; but I think it unwise (as well as dishonest) to do so; for this reason, that there is a very noble character always to be obtained by the opposition152 of large stones to divided masonry, as by shafts and columns of one piece, or massy lintels and architraves, to wall work of bricks or smaller stones; and there is a certain organization in the management of such parts, like that of the continuous bones of the skeleton, opposed to the vertebr?, which it is not well to surrender. I hold, therefore, that, for this and other reasons, the masonry of a building is to be shown: and also that, with certain rare exceptions (as in the cases of chapels153 and shrines154 of most finished workmanship), the smaller the building, the more necessary it is that its masonry should be bold, and vice155 versa. For if a building be under the mark of average magnitude, it is not in our power to increase its apparent size (too easily measurable) by any proportionate diminution156 in the scale of its masonry. But it may be often in our power to give it a certain nobility by building it of massy stones, or, at all events, introducing such into its make. Thus it is impossible that there should ever be majesty in a cottage built of brick; but there is a marked element of sublimity in the rude and irregular piling of the rocky walls of the mountain cottages of Wales, Cumberland, and Scotland. Their size is not one whit27 diminished, though four or five stones reach at their angles from the ground to the eaves, or though a native rock happen[Pg 81] to project conveniently, and to be built into the framework of the wall. On the other hand, after a building has once reached the mark of majestic size, it matters, indeed, comparatively little whether its masonry be large or small, but if it be altogether large, it will sometimes diminish the magnitude for want of a measure; if altogether small, it will suggest ideas of poverty in material, or deficiency in mechanical resource, besides interfering157 in many cases with the lines of the design, and delicacy of the workmanship. A very unhappy instance of such interference exists in the fa?ade of the church of St. Madeleine at Paris, where the columns, being built of very small stones of nearly equal size, with visible joints159, look as if they were covered with a close trellis. So, then, that masonry will be generally the most magnificent which, without the use of materials systematically160 small or large, accommodates itself, naturally and frankly161, to the conditions and structure of its work, and displays alike its power of dealing162 with the vastest masses, and of accomplishing its purpose with the smallest, sometimes heaping rock upon rock with Titanic163 commandment, and anon binding164 the dusty remnants and edgy165 splinters into springing vaults and swelling166 domes167. And if the nobility of this confessed and natural masonry were more commonly felt, we should not lose the dignity of it by smoothing surfaces and fitting joints. The sums which we waste in chiselling168 and polishing stones which would have been better left as they came from the quarry169 would often raise a building a story higher. Only in this there is to be a certain respect for material also: for if we build in marble, or in any limestone170, the known ease of the workmanship will make its absence seem slovenly171; it will be well to take advantage of the stone's softness, and to make the design delicate and dependent upon smoothness of chiselled172 surfaces: but if we build in granite173 or lava174, it is a folly175, in most cases, to cast away the labor176 necessary to smooth it; it is wiser to make the design granitic177 itself, and to leave the blocks rudely squared. I do not deny a certain splendor178 and sense of power in the smoothing of granite, and in the entire subduing179 of its iron resistance to the human supremacy180. But, in most cases, I believe, the labor[Pg 82] and time necessary to do this would be better spent in another way; and that to raise a building to a height of a hundred feet with rough blocks, is better than to raise it to seventy with smooth ones. There is also a magnificence in the natural cleavage of the stone to which the art must indeed be great that pretends to be equivalent; and a stern expression of brotherhood181 with the mountain heart from which it has been rent, ill-exchanged for a glistering obedience182 to the rule and measure of men. His eye must be delicate indeed, who would desire to see the Pitti palace polished.
XII. Next to those of the masonry, we have to consider the divisions of the design itself. Those divisions are, necessarily, either into masses of light and shade, or else by traced lines; which latter must be, indeed, themselves produced by incisions183 or projections184 which, in some lights, cast a certain breadth of shade, but which may, nevertheless, if finely enough cut, be always true lines, in distant effect. I call, for instance, such panelling as that of Henry the Seventh's chapel, pure linear division.
Now, it does not seem to me sufficiently recollected185, that a wall surface is to an architect simply what a white canvas is to a painter, with this only difference, that the wall has already a sublimity in its height, substance, and other characters already considered, on which it is more dangerous to break than to touch with shade the canvas surface. And, for my own part, I think a smooth, broad, freshly laid surface of gesso a fairer thing than most pictures I see painted on it; much more, a noble surface of stone than most architectural features which it is caused to assume. But however this may be, the canvas and wall are supposed to be given, and it is our craft to divide them.
And the principles on which this division is to be made, are as regards relation of quantities, the same in architecture as in painting, or indeed, in any other art whatsoever186, only the painter is by his varied187 subject partly permitted, partly compelled, to dispense188 with the symmetry of architectural light and shade, and to adopt arrangements apparently189 free and accidental. So that in modes of grouping there is much dif[Pg 83]ference (though no opposition) between the two arts; but in rules of quantity, both are alike, so far forth as their commands of means are alike. For the architect, not being able to secure always the same depth or decision of shadow, nor to add to its sadness by color (because even when color is employed, it cannot follow the moving shade), is compelled to make many allowances, and avail himself of many contrivances, which the painter needs neither consider nor employ.
XIII. Of these limitations the first consequence is, that positive shade is a more necessary and more sublime thing in an architect's hands than in a painter's. For the latter being able to temper his light with an under-tone throughout, and to make it delightful with sweet color, or awful with lurid124 color, and to represent distance, and air, and sun, by the depth of it, and fill its whole space with expression, can deal with an enormous, nay190, almost with an universal extent of it, and the best painters most delight in such extent; but as light, with the architect, is nearly always liable to become full and untempered sunshine seen upon solid surface, his only rests, and his chief means of sublimity, are definite shades. So that, after size and weight, the Power of architecture may be said to depend on the quantity (whether measured in space or intenseness) of its shadow; and it seems to me, that the reality of its works, and the use and influence they have in the daily life of men (as opposed to those works of art with which we have nothing to do but in times of rest or of pleasure) require of it that it should express a kind of human sympathy, by a measure of darkness as great as there is in human life: and that as the great poem and great fiction generally affect us most by the majesty of their masses of shade, and cannot take hold upon us if they affect a continuance of lyric191 sprightliness192, but must be serious often, and sometimes melancholy, else they do not express the truth of this wild world of ours; so there must be, in this magnificently human art of architecture, some equivalent expression for the trouble and wrath193 of life, for its sorrow and its mystery: and this it can only give by depth or diffusion194 of gloom, by the frown upon its[Pg 84] front, and the shadow of its recess10. So that Rembrandtism is a noble manner in architecture, though a false one in painting; and I do not believe that ever any building was truly great, unless it had mighty masses, vigorous and deep, of shadow mingled196 with its surface. And among the first habits that a young architect should learn, is that of thinking in shadow, not looking at a design in its miserable197 liny skeleton; but conceiving it as it will be when the dawn lights it, and the dusk leaves it; when its stones will be hot and its crannies cool; when the lizards198 will bask199 on the one, and the birds build in the other. Let him design with the sense of cold and heat upon him; let him cut out the shadows, as men dig wells in unwatered plains; and lead along the lights, as a founder200 does his hot metal; let him keep the full command of both, and see that he knows how they fall, and where they fade. His paper lines and proportions are of no value: all that he has to do must be done by spaces of light and darkness; and his business is to see that the one is broad and bold enough not to be swallowed up by twilight, and the other deep enough not to be dried like a shallow pool by a noon-day sun.
And that this may be, the first necessity is that the quantities of shade or light, whatever they may be, shall be thrown into masses, either of something like equal weight, or else large masses of the one relieved with small of the other; but masses of one or other kind there must be. No design that is divided at all, and is not divided into masses, can ever be of the smallest value: this great law respecting breadth, precisely201 the same in architecture and painting, is so important, that the examination of its two principal applications will include most of the conditions of majestic design on which I would at present insist.
XIV. Painters are in the habit of speaking loosely of masses of light and shade, meaning thereby202 any large spaces of either. Nevertheless, it is convenient sometimes to restrict the term "mass" to the portions to which proper form belongs, and to call the field on which such forms are traced, interval203. Thus, in foliage204 with projecting boughs206 or stems, we have masses of light, with intervals207 of shade; and, in[Pg 85] light skies with dark clouds upon them, masses of shade with intervals of light.
This distinction is, in architecture, still more necessary; for there are two marked styles dependent upon it: one in which the forms are drawn with light upon darkness, as in Greek sculpture and pillars; the other in which they are drawn with darkness upon light, as in early Gothic foliation. Now, it is not in the designer's power determinately to vary degrees and places of darkness, but it is altogether in his power to vary in determined directions his degrees of light. Hence, the use of the dark mass characterises, generally, a trenchant208 style of design, in which the darks and lights are both flat, and terminated by sharp edges; while the use of the light mass is in the same way associated with a softened209 and full manner of design, in which the darks are much warmed by reflected lights, and the lights are rounded and melt into them. The term applied210 by Milton to Doric bas-relief—"bossy211," is, as is generally the case with Milton's epithets212, the most comprehensive and expressive213 of this manner, which the English language contains; while the term which specifically describes the chief member of early Gothic decoration, feuille, foil or leaf, is equally significative of a flat space of shade.
XV. We shall shortly consider the actual modes in which these two kinds of mass have been treated. And, first, of the light, or rounded, mass. The modes in which relief was secured for the more projecting forms of bas-relief, by the Greeks, have been too well described by Mr. Eastlake[I] to need recapitulation: the conclusion which forces itself upon us from the facts he has remarked, being one on which I shall have occasion farther to insist presently, that the Greek workman cared for shadow only as a dark field wherefrom his light figure or design might be intelligibly214 detached: his attention was concentrated on the one aim at readableness, and clearness of accent; and all composition, all harmony, nay, the very vitality215 and energy of separate groups were, when necessary, sacrificed to plain speaking. Nor was there any predilection216 for one kind [Pg 86]of form rather than another. Bounded forms were, in the columns and principal decorative217 members, adopted, not for their own sake, but as characteristic of the things represented. They were beautifully rounded, because the Greek habitually219 did well what he had to do, not because he loved roundness more than squareness; severely220 rectilinear forms were associated with the curved ones in the cornice and triglyph, and the mass of the pillar was divided by a fluting221, which, in distant effect, destroyed much of its breadth. What power of light these primal arrangements left, was diminished in successive refinements222 and additions of ornament; and continued to diminish through Roman work, until the confirmation224 of the circular arch as a decorative feature. Its lovely and simple line taught the eye to ask for a similar boundary of solid form; the dome followed, and necessarily the decorative masses were thenceforward managed with reference to, and in sympathy with, the chief feature of the building. Hence arose, among the Byzantine architects, a system of ornament, entirely restrained within the superfices of curvilinear masses, on which the light fell with as unbroken gradation as on a dome or column, while the illumined surface was nevertheless cut into details of singular and most ingenious intricacy. Something is, of course, to be allowed for the less dexterity225 of the workmen; it being easier to cut down into a solid block, than to arrange the projecting portions of leaf on the Greek capital: such leafy capitals are nevertheless executed by the Byzantines with skill enough to show that their preference of the massive form was by no means compulsory226, nor can I think it unwise. On the contrary, while the arrangements of line are far more artful in the Greek capital, the Byzantine light and shade are as incontestably more grand and masculine, based on that quality of pure gradation, which nearly all natural objects possess, and the attainment227 of which is, in fact, the first and most palpable purpose in natural arrangements of grand form. The rolling heap of the thunder-cloud, divided by rents, and multiplied by wreaths, yet gathering them all into its broad, torrid, and towering zone, and its midnight darkness opposite; the scarcely less majestic heave of the mountain side, all[Pg 87] torn and traversed by depth of defile228 and ridge of rock, yet never losing the unity229 of its illumined swell and shadowy decline; and the head of every mighty tree, rich with tracery of leaf and bough205, yet terminated against the sky by a true line, and rounded by a green horizon, which, multiplied in the distant forest, makes it look bossy from above; all these mark, for a great and honored law, that diffusion of light for which the Byzantine ornaments were designed; and show us that those builders had truer sympathy with what God made majestic, than the self-contemplating and self-contented Greek. I know that they are barbaric in comparison; but there is a power in their barbarism of sterner tone, a power not sophistic nor penetrative, but embracing and mysterious; a power faithful more than thoughtful, which conceived and felt more than it created; a power that neither comprehended nor ruled itself, but worked and wandered as it listed, like mountain streams and winds; and which could not rest in the expression or seizure230 of finite form. It could not bury itself in acanthus leaves. Its imagery was taken from the shadows of the storms and hills, and had fellowship with the night and day of the earth itself.
XVI. I have endeavored to give some idea of one of the hollow balls of stone which, surrounded by flowing leafage, occur in varied succession on the architrave of the central gate of St. Mark's at Venice, in Plate I. fig. 2. It seems to me singularly beautiful in its unity of lightness, and delicacy of detail, with breadth of light. It looks as if its leaves had been sensitive, and had risen and shut themselves into a bud at some sudden touch, and would presently fall back again into their wild flow. The cornices of San Michele of Lucca, seen above and below the arch, in Plate VI., show the effect of heavy leafage and thick stems arranged on a surface whose curve is a simple quadrant, the light dying from off them as it turns. It would be difficult, as I think, to invent anything more noble; and I insist on the broad character of their arrangement the more earnestly, because, afterwards modified by greater skill in its management, it became characteristic of the richest pieces of Gothic design. The capital, given in[Pg 88] Plate V., is of the noblest period of the Venetian Gothic; and it is interesting to see the play of leafage so luxuriant, absolutely subordinated to the breadth of two masses of light and shade. What is done by the Venetian architect, with a power as irresistible231 as that of the waves of his surrounding sea, is done by the masters of the Cis-Alpine232 Gothic, more timidly, and with a manner somewhat cramped233 and cold, but not less expressing their assent234 to the same great law. The ice spicul? of the North, and its broken sunshine, seem to have image in, and influence on the work; and the leaves which, under the Italian's hand, roll, and flow, and bow down over their black shadows, as in the weariness of noon-day heat, are, in the North, crisped and frost-bitten, wrinkled on the edges, and sparkling as if with dew. But the rounding of the ruling form is not less sought and felt. In the lower part of Plate I. is the finial of the pediment given in Plate II., from the cathedral of St. Lo. It is exactly similar in feeling to the Byzantine capital, being rounded under the abacus235 by four branches of thistle leaves, whose stems, springing from the angles, bend outwards and fall back to the head, throwing their jaggy spines236 down upon the full light, forming two sharp quatre-foils. I could not get near enough to this finial to see with what degree of delicacy the spines were cut; but I have sketched237 a natural group of thistle-leaves beside it, that the reader may compare the types, and see with what mastery they are subjected to the broad form of the whole. The small capital from Coutances, Plate XIII. fig. 4, which is of earlier date, is of simpler elements, and exhibits the principle still more clearly; but the St. Lo finial is only one of a thousand instances which might be gathered even from the fully218 developed flamboyant, the feeling of breadth being retained in minor ornaments long after it had been lost in the main design, and sometimes capriciously renewing itself throughout, as in the cylindrical niches and pedestals which enrich the porches of Caudebec and Rouen. Fig. 1, Plate I. is the simplest of those of Rouen; in the more elaborate there are four projecting sides, divided by buttresses238 into eight rounded compartments240 of tracery; even the whole bulk of the outer pier84 is treated with the same feeling; and though composed partly of concave recesses, partly of square shafts, partly of statues and tabernacle work, arranges itself as a whole into one richly rounded tower.
PLATE V. PLATE V.—(Page 88—Vol. V.)
Capital from the Lower Arcade of the Doge's Palace, Venice.
[Pg 89]
XVII. I cannot here enter into the curious questions connected with the management of larger curved surfaces; into the causes of the difference in proportion necessary to be observed between round and square towers; nor into the reasons why a column or ball may be richly ornamented241, while surface decorations would be inexpedient on masses like the Castle of St. Angelo, the tomb of Cecilia Metella, or the dome of St. Peter's. But what has been above said of the desireableness of serenity242 in plane surfaces, applies still more forcibly to those which are curved; and it is to be remembered that we are, at present, considering how this serenity and power may be carried into minor divisions, not how the ornamental243 character of the lower form may, upon occasion, be permitted to fret31 the calmness of the higher. Nor, though the instances we have examined are of globular or cylindrical masses chiefly, is it to be thought that breadth can only be secured by such alone: many of the noblest forms are of subdued244 curvature, sometimes hardly visible; but curvature of some degree there must be, in order to secure any measure of grandeur in a small mass of light. One of the most marked distinctions between one artist and another, in the point of skill, will be found in their relative delicacy of perception of rounded surface; the full power of expressing the perspective, foreshortening and various undulation of such surface is, perhaps, the last and most difficult attainment of the hand and eye. For instance: there is, perhaps, no tree which has baffled the landscape painter more than the common black spruce fir. It is rare that we see any representation of it other than caricature. It is conceived as if it grew in one plane, or as a section of a tree, with a set of boughs symmetrically dependent on opposite sides. It is thought formal, unmanageable, and ugly. It would be so, if it grew as it is drawn. But the power of the tree is not in that chandelier-like section. It is in the dark, flat, solid tables of[Pg 90] leafage, which it holds out on its strong arms, curved slightly over them like shields, and spreading towards the extremity245 like a hand. It is vain to endeavor to paint the sharp, grassy246, intricate leafage, until this ruling form has been secured; and in the boughs that approach the spectator, the foreshortening of it is like that of a wide hill country, ridge just rising over ridge in successive distances; and the finger-like extremities247, foreshortened to absolute bluntness, require a delicacy in the rendering248 of them like that of the drawing of the hand of the Magdalene upon the vase in Mr. Rogers's Titian. Get but the back of that foliage, and you have the tree; but I cannot name the artist who has thoroughly249 felt it. So, in all drawing and sculpture, it is the power of rounding, softly and perfectly250, every inferior mass which preserves the serenity, as it follows the truth, of Nature, and which demands the highest knowledge and skill from the workman. A noble design may always be told by the back of a single leaf, and it was the sacrifice of this breadth and refinement223 of surface for sharp edges and extravagant251 undercutting, which destroyed the Gothic mouldings, as the substitution of the line for the light destroyed the Gothic tracery. This change, however, we shall better comprehend after we have glanced at the chief conditions of arrangement of the second kind of mass; that which is flat, and of shadow only.
PLATE VI. PLATE VI.—(Page 90—Vol. V.)
Arch from the Fa?ade of the Church of San Michele at Lucca.
XVIII. We have noted above how the wall surface, composed of rich materials, and covered with costly252 work, in modes which we shall examine in the next Chapter, became a subject of peculiar interest to the Christian253 architects. Its broad flat lights could only be made valuable by points or masses of energetic shadow, which were obtained by the Romanesque architect by means of ranges of recessed254 arcade, in the management of which, however, though all the effect depends upon the shadow so obtained, the eye is still, as in classical architecture, caused to dwell upon the projecting columns, capitals, and wall, as in Plate VI. But with the enlargement of the window, which, in the Lombard and Romanesque churches, is usually little more than an arched slit255, came the conception of the simpler mode of decoration, by penetrations256 [Pg 91] which, seen from within, are forms of light, and, from without, are forms of shade. In Italian traceries the eye is exclusively fixed257 upon the dark forms of the penetrations, and the whole proportion and power of the design are caused to depend upon them. The intermediate spaces are, indeed, in the most perfect early examples, filled with elaborate ornament; but this ornament was so subdued as never to disturb the simplicity and force of the dark masses; and in many instances is entirely wanting. The composition of the whole depends on the proportioning and shaping of the darks; and it is impossible that anything can be more exquisite258 than their placing in the head window of the Giotto campanile, Plate IX., or the church of Or San Michele. So entirely does the effect depend upon them, that it is quite useless to draw Italian tracery in outline; if with any intention of rendering its effect, it is better to mark the black spots, and let the rest alone. Of course, when it is desired to obtain an accurate rendering of the design, its lines and mouldings are enough; but it often happens that works on architecture are of little use, because they afford the reader no means of judging of the effective intention of the arrangements which they state. No person, looking at an architectural drawing of the richly foliaged cusps and intervals of Or San Michele, would understand that all this sculpture was extraneous259, was a mere added grace, and had nothing to do with the real anatomy260 of the work, and that by a few bold cuttings through a slab261 of stone he might reach the main effect of it all at once. I have, therefore, in the plate of the design of Giotto, endeavored especially to mark these points of purpose; there, as in every other instance, black shadows of a graceful262 form lying on the white surface of the stone, like dark leaves laid upon snow. Hence, as before observed, the universal name of foil applied to such ornaments.
XIX. In order to the obtaining their full effect, it is evident that much caution is necessary in the management of the glass. In the finest instances, the traceries are open lights, either in towers, as in this design of Giotto's or in external arcades like that of the Campo Santo at Pisa or the Doge's[Pg 92] palace at Venice; and it is thus only that their full beauty is shown. In domestic buildings, or in windows of churches necessarily glazed263, the glass was usually withdrawn264 entirely behind the traceries. Those of the Cathedral of Florence stand quite clear of it, casting their shadows in well detached lines, so as in most lights to give the appearance of a double tracery. In those few instances in which the glass was set in the tracery itself, as in Or San Michele, the effect of the latter is half destroyed: perhaps the especial attention paid by Orgagna to his surface ornament, was connected with the intention of so glazing265 them. It is singular to see, in late architecture, the glass, which tormented266 the older architects, considered as a valuable means of making the lines of tracery more slender; as in the smallest intervals of the windows of Merton College, Oxford267, where the glass is advanced about two inches from the centre of the tracery bar (that in the larger spaces being in the middle, as usual), in order to prevent the depth of shadow from farther diminishing the apparent interval. Much of the lightness of the effect of the traceries is owing to this seemingly unimportant arrangement. But, generally speaking, glass spoils all traceries; and it is much to be wished that it should be kept well within them, when it cannot be dispensed268 with, and that the most careful and beautiful designs should be reserved for situations where no glass would be needed.
XX. The method of decoration by shadow was, as far as we have hitherto traced it, common to the northern and southern Gothic. But in the carrying out of the system they instantly diverged269. Having marble at his command, and classical decoration in his sight, the southern architect was able to carve the intermediate spaces with exquisite leafage, or to vary his wall surface with inlaid stones. The northern architect neither knew the ancient work, nor possessed270 the delicate material; and he had no resource but to cover his walls with holes, cut into foiled shapes like those of the windows. This he did, often with great clumsiness, but always with a vigorous sense of composition, and always, observe, depending on the shadows for effect. Where the wall was thick and could [Pg 93] not be cut through, and the foilings were large, those shadows did not fill the entire space; but the form was, nevertheless, drawn on the eye by means of them, and when it was possible, they were cut clear through, as in raised screens of pediment, like those on the west front of Bayeux; cut so deep in every case, as to secure, in all but a direct low front light, great breadth of shadow.
PLATE VII. PLATE VII.—(Page 93—Vol. V.)
Pierced Ornaments from Lisieux, Bayeux, Verona, and Padua.
The spandril, given at the top of Plate VII., is from the southwestern entrance of the Cathedral of Lisieux; one of the most quaint271 and interesting doors in Normandy, probably soon to be lost forever, by the continuance of the masonic operations which have already destroyed the northern tower. Its work is altogether rude, but full of spirit; the opposite spandrils have different, though balanced, ornaments very inaccurately272 adjusted, each rosette or star (as the five-rayed figure, now quite defaced, in the upper portion appears to have been) cut on its own block of stone and fitted in with small nicety, especially illustrating273 the point I have above insisted upon—the architect's utter neglect of the forms of intermediate stone, at this early period.
The arcade, of which a single arch and shaft are given on the left, forms the flank of the door; three outer shafts bearing three orders within the spandril which I have drawn, and each of these shafts carried over an inner arcade, decorated above with quatre-foils, cut concave and filled with leaves, the whole disposition274 exquisitely275 picturesque276 and full of strange play of light and shade.
For some time the penetrative ornaments, if so they may be for convenience called, maintained their bold and independent character. Then they multiplied and enlarged, becoming shallower as they did so; then they began to run together, one swallowing up, or hanging on to, another, like bubbles in expiring foam—fig. 4, from a spandril at Bayeux, looks as if it had been blown from a pipe; finally, they lost their individual character altogether, and the eye was made to rest on the separating lines of tracery, as we saw before in the window; and then came the great change and the fall of the Gothic power.[Pg 94]
XXI. Figs277. 2 and 3, the one a quadrant of the star window of the little chapel close to St. Anastasia at Verona, and the other a very singular example from the church of the Eremitani at Padua, compared with fig. 5, one of the ornaments of the transept towers of Rouen, show the closely correspondent conditions of the early Northern and Southern Gothic.10 But, as we have said, the Italian architects, not being embarrassed for decoration of wall surface, and not being obliged, like the Northmen, to multiply their penetrations, held to the system for some time longer; and while they increased the refinement of the ornament, kept the purity of the plan. That refinement of ornament was their weak point, however, and opened the way for the renaissance278 attack. They fell, like the old Romans, by their luxury, except in the separate instance of the magnificent school of Venice. That architecture began with the luxuriance in which all others expired: it founded itself on the Byzantine mosaic143 and fretwork; and laying aside its ornaments, one by one, while it fixed its forms by laws more and more severe, stood forth, at last, a model of domestic Gothic, so grand, so complete, so nobly systematised, that, to my mind, there never existed an architecture with so stern a claim to our reverence279. I do not except even the Greek Doric; the Doric had cast nothing away; the fourteenth century Venetian had cast away, one by one, for a succession of centuries, every splendor that art and wealth could give it. It had laid down its crown and its jewels, its gold and its color, like a king disrobing; it had resigned its exertion280, like an athlete reposing281; once capricious and fantastic, it had bound itself by laws inviolable and serene282 as those of nature herself. It retained nothing but its beauty and its power; both the highest, but both restrained. The Doric flutings were of irregular number—the Venetian mouldings were unchangeable. The Doric manner of ornament admitted no temptation, it was the fasting of an anchorite—the Venetian ornament embraced, while it governed, all vegetable and animal forms; it was the temperance of a man, the command of Adam over creation. I do not know so magnificent a marking of human authority as the iron grasp of the Venetian [Pg 95] over his own exuberance283 of imagination; the calm and solemn restraint with which, his mind filled with thoughts of flowing leafage and fiery284 life, he gives those thoughts expression for an instant, and then withdraws within those massy bars and level cusps of stone.11
PLATE VIII. PLATE VIII.—(Page 95—Vol. V.)
Window from the Ca' Foscari, Venice.
And his power to do this depended altogether on his retaining the forms of the shadows in his sight. Far from carrying the eye to the ornaments, upon the stone, he abandoned these latter one by one; and while his mouldings received the most shapely order and symmetry, closely correspondent with that of the Rouen tracery, compare Plates III. and VIII., he kept the cusps within them perfectly flat, decorated, if at all, with a trefoil (Palazzo Foscari), or fillet (Doge's Palace) just traceable and no more, so that the quatrefoil, cut as sharply through them as if it had been struck out by a stamp, told upon the eye, with all its four black leaves, miles away. No knots of flowerwork, no ornaments of any kind, were suffered to interfere158 with the purity of its form: the cusp is usually quite sharp; but slightly truncated285 in the Palazzo Foscari, and charged with a simple ball in that of the Doge; and the glass of the window, where there was any, was, as we have seen, thrown back behind the stone-work, that no flashes of light might interfere with its depth. Corrupted286 forms, like those of the Casa d'Oro and Palazzo Pisani, and several others, only serve to show the majesty of the common design.
XXII. Such are the principal circumstances traceable in the treatment of the two kinds of masses of light and darkness, in the hands of the earlier architects; gradation in the one, flatness in the other, and breadth in both, being the qualities sought and exhibited by every possible expedient, up to the period when, as we have before stated, the line was substituted for the mass, as the means of division of surface. Enough has been said to illustrate287 this, as regards tracery; but a word or two is still necessary respecting the mouldings.
Those of the earlier times were, in the plurality of instances, composed of alternate square and cylindrical shafts, variously associated and proportioned. Where concave cuttings occur,[Pg 96] as in the beautiful west doors of Bayeux, they are between cylindrical shafts, which they throw out into broad light. The eye in all cases dwells on broad surfaces, and commonly upon few. In course of time, a low ridgy288 process is seen emerging along the outer edge of the cylindrical shaft, forming a line of light upon it and destroying its gradation. Hardly traceable at first (as on the alternate rolls of the north door of Rouen), it grows and pushes out as gradually as a stag's horns: sharp at first on the edge; but, becoming prominent, it receives a truncation289, and becomes a definite fillet on the face of the roll. Not yet to be checked, it pushes forward until the roll itself becomes subordinate to it, and is finally lost in a slight swell upon its sides, while the concavities have all the time been deepening and enlarging behind it, until, from a succession of square or cylindrical masses, the whole moulding has become a series of concavities edged by delicate fillets, upon which (sharp lines of light, observe) the eye exclusively rests. While this has been taking place, a similar, though less total, change has affected290 the flowerwork itself. In Plate I. fig. 2 (a), I have given two from the transepts of Rouen. It will be observed how absolutely the eye rests on the forms of the leaves, and on the three berries in the angle, being in light exactly what the trefoil is in darkness. These mouldings nearly adhere to the stone; and are very slightly, though sharply, undercut. In process of time, the attention of the architect, instead of resting on the leaves, went to the stalks. These latter were elongated (b, from the south door of St. Lo); and to exhibit them better, the deep concavity was cut behind, so as to throw them out in lines of light. The system was carried out into continually increasing intricacy, until, in the transepts of Beauvais, we have brackets and flamboyant traceries, composed of twigs291 without any leaves at all. This, however, is a partial, though a sufficiently characteristic, caprice, the leaf being never generally banished292, and in the mouldings round those same doors, beautifully managed, but itself rendered liny by bold marking of its ribs293 and veins, and by turning up, and crisping its edges, large intermediate spaces being always left to be occupied by intertwining stems (c, from Caudebec).[Pg 97] The trefoil of light formed by berries or acorns294, though diminished in value, was never lost up to the last period of living Gothic.
XXIII. It is interesting to follow into its many ramifications295, the influence of the corrupting296 principle; but we have seen enough of it to enable us to draw our practical conclusion—a conclusion a thousand times felt and reiterated297 in the experience and advice of every practised artist, but never often enough repeated, never profoundly enough felt. Of composition and invention much has been written, it seems to me vainly, for men cannot be taught to compose or to invent; of these, the highest elements of Power in architecture, I do not, therefore, speak; nor, here, of that peculiar restraint in the imitation of natural forms, which constitutes the dignity of even the most luxuriant work of the great periods. Of this restraint I shall say a word or two in the next Chapter; pressing now only the conclusion, as practically useful as it is certain, that the relative majesty of buildings depends more on the weight and vigor195 of their masses than on any other attribute of their design: mass of everything, of bulk, of light, of darkness, of color, not mere sum of any of these, but breadth of them; not broken light, nor scattered298 darkness, nor divided weight, but solid stone, broad sunshine, starless shade. Time would fail me altogether, if I attempted to follow out the range of the principle; there is not a feature, however apparently trifling299, to which it cannot give power. The wooden fillings of belfry lights, necessary to protect their interiors from rain, are in England usually divided into a number of neatly300 executed cross-bars, like those of Venetian blinds, which, of course, become as conspicuous in their sharpness as they are uninteresting in their precise carpentry, multiplying, moreover, the horizontal lines which directly contradict those of the architecture. Abroad, such necessities are met by three or four downright penthouse roofs, reaching each from within the window to the outside shafts of its mouldings; instead of the horrible row of ruled lines, the space is thus divided into four or five grand masses of shadow, with grey slopes of roof above, bent301 or yielding into all kinds of delicious swells302 and[Pg 98] curves, and covered with warm tones of moss303 and lichen304. Very often the thing is more delightful than the stone-work itself, and all because it is broad, dark, and simple. It matters not how clumsy, how common, the means are, that get weight and shadow—sloping roof, jutting305 porch, projecting balcony, hollow niche104, massy gargoyle306, frowning parapet; get but gloom and simplicity, and all good things will follow in their place and time; do but design with the owl's eyes first, and you will gain the falcon's afterwards.
XXIV. I am grieved to have to insist upon what seems so simple; it looks trite307 and commonplace when it is written, but pardon me this: for it is anything but an accepted or understood principle in practice, and the less excusably forgotten, because it is, of all the great and true laws of art, the easiest to obey. The executive facility of complying with its demands cannot be too earnestly, too frankly asserted. There are not five men in the kingdom who could compose, not twenty who could cut, the foliage with which the windows of Or San Michele are adorned308; but there is many a village clergyman who could invent and dispose its black openings, and not a village mason who could not cut them. Lay a few clover or wood-roof leaves on white paper, and a little alteration309 in their positions will suggest figures which, cut boldly through a slab of marble, would be worth more window traceries than an architect could draw in a summer's day. There are few men in the world who could design a Greek capital; there are few who could not produce some vigor of effect with leaf designs on Byzantine block: few who could design a Palladian front, or a flamboyant pediment; many who could build a square mass like the Strozzi palace. But I know not how it is, unless that our English hearts have more oak than stone in them, and have more filial sympathy with acorns than Alps; but all that we do is small and mean, if not worse—thin, and wasted, and unsubstantial. It is not modern work only; we have built like frogs and mice since the thirteenth century (except only in our castles). What a contrast between the pitiful little pigeon-holes which stand for doors in the east front of Salisbury, looking like the entrances to a bee[Pg 99]hive or a wasp's nest, and the soaring arches and kingly crowning of the gates of Abbeville, Rouen, and Rheims, or the rock-hewn piers310 of Chartres, or the dark and vaulted311 porches and writhed312 pillars of Verona! Of domestic architecture what need is there to speak? How small, how cramped, how poor, how miserable in its petty neatness is our best! how beneath the mark of attack, and the level of contempt, that which is common with us! What a strange sense of formalised deformity, of shrivelled precision, of starved accuracy, of minute misanthropy have we, as we leave even the rude streets of Picardy for the market towns of Kent! Until that street architecture of ours is bettered, until we give it some size and boldness, until we give our windows recess, and our walls thickness, I know not how we can blame our architects for their feebleness in more important work; their eyes are inured313 to narrowness and slightness: can we expect them at a word to conceive and deal with breadth and solidity? They ought not to live in our cities; there is that in their miserable walls which bricks up to death men's imaginations, as surely as ever perished forsworn nun314. An architect should live as little in cities as a painter. Send him to our hills, and let him study there what nature understands by a buttress239, and what by a dome. There was something in the old power of architecture, which it had from the recluse315 more than from the citizen. The buildings of which I have spoken with chief praise, rose, indeed, out of the war of the piazza316, and above the fury of the populace: and Heaven forbid that for such cause we should ever have to lay a larger stone, or rivet317 a firmer bar, in our England! But we have other sources of power, in the imagery of our iron coasts and azure318 hills; of power more pure, nor less serene, than that of the hermit319 spirit which once lighted with white lines of cloisters320 the glades321 of the Alpine pine, and raised into ordered spires322 the wild rocks of the Norman sea; which gave to the temple gate the depth and darkness of Elijah's Horeb cave; and lifted, out of the populous323 city, grey cliffs of lonely stone, into the midst of sailing birds and silent air.
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eminence
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durability
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judgment
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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6
necessitated
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| 使…成为必要，需要( necessitate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7
ebbing
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的现在分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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8
cleft
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| n.裂缝；adj.裂开的 | |
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9
excavated
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| v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘 | |
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10
recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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12
primal
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| adj.原始的；最重要的 | |
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13
reverting
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| 恢复( revert的现在分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
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14
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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15
recur
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| vi.复发，重现，再发生 | |
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16
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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17
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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18
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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19
distinctively
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| adv.特殊地，区别地 | |
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20
mar
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| vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟 | |
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21
pretension
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| n.要求；自命，自称；自负 | |
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22
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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23
ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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24
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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25
tenacious
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| adj.顽强的，固执的，记忆力强的，粘的 | |
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26
shrine
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| n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣 | |
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27
whit
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| n.一点，丝毫 | |
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28
secluded
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| adj.与世隔绝的；隐退的；偏僻的v.使隔开，使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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29
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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30
fretted
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| 焦躁的，附有弦马的，腐蚀的 | |
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31
fret
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| v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损 | |
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32
vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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33
vaults
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| n.拱顶( vault的名词复数 )；地下室；撑物跳高；墓穴 | |
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34
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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35
sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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36
derivative
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| n.派(衍)生物；adj.非独创性的，模仿他人的 | |
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37
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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38
sublimity
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| 崇高，庄严，气质高尚 | |
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39
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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40
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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41
veneration
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| n.尊敬，崇拜 | |
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42
dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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43
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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44
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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45
originality
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| n.创造力，独创性；新颖 | |
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46
mightiest
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| adj.趾高气扬( mighty的最高级 )；巨大的；强有力的；浩瀚的 | |
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47
edifices
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| n.大建筑物( edifice的名词复数 ) | |
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48
veining
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| n.脉络分布；矿脉 | |
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49
agitates
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| 搅动( agitate的第三人称单数 )； 激怒； 使焦虑不安； （尤指为法律、社会状况的改变而）激烈争论 | |
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50
precipices
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| n.悬崖，峭壁( precipice的名词复数 ) | |
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51
precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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52
cones
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| n.（人眼）圆锥细胞；圆锥体( cone的名词复数 )；球果；圆锥形东西；（盛冰淇淋的）锥形蛋卷筒 | |
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53
cone
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| n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果 | |
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54
pinnacles
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| 顶峰( pinnacle的名词复数 )； 顶点； 尖顶； 小尖塔 | |
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55
promontory
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| n.海角；岬 | |
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56
semblances
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| n.外表，外观（semblance的复数形式） | |
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57
fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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58
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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59
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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60
disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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61
deluges
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| v.使淹没( deluge的第三人称单数 )；淹没；被洪水般涌来的事物所淹没；穷于应付 | |
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62
emulate
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| v.努力赶上或超越，与…竞争；效仿 | |
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63
salute
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| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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64
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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65
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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66
vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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67
choir
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| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
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68
humiliate
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| v.使羞辱，使丢脸[同]disgrace | |
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69
provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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70
hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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71
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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72
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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73
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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74
villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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75
dwarfed
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| vt.（使）显得矮小（dwarf的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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76
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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77
manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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78
bestow
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| v.把…赠与，把…授予；花费 | |
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79
withheld
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| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
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80
fig
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| n.无花果(树) | |
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81
excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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82
gilding
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| n.贴金箔，镀金 | |
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83
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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84
pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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85
prick
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|
| v.刺伤，刺痛，刺孔；n.刺伤，刺痛 | |
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86
apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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87
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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88
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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89
nave
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| n.教堂的中部；本堂 | |
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90
fathom
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| v.领悟，彻底了解 | |
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91
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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92
outwards
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| adj.外面的，公开的，向外的；adv.向外；n.外形 | |
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93
recede
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| vi.退(去)，渐渐远去；向后倾斜，缩进 | |
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94
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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95
dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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96
grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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97
spire
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| n.(教堂)尖顶，尖塔，高点 | |
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98
projection
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| n.发射，计划，突出部分 | |
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99
propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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100
arcade
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| n.拱廊；(一侧或两侧有商店的)通道 | |
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101
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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102
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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103
niches
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| 壁龛( niche的名词复数 )； 合适的位置[工作等]； （产品的）商机； 生态位（一个生物所占据的生境的最小单位） | |
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104
niche
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| n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等) | |
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105
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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106
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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107
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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108
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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109
frieze
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| n.(墙上的)横饰带，雕带 | |
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110
flamboyant
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| adj.火焰般的，华丽的，炫耀的 | |
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111
perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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112
thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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113
infinity
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| n.无限，无穷，大量 | |
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114
maze
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| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
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115
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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116
condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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117
serpentine
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| adj.蜿蜒的，弯曲的 | |
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118
contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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119
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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120
artifices
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| n.灵巧( artifice的名词复数 )；诡计；巧妙办法；虚伪行为 | |
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121
tinting
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| 着色，染色（的阶段或过程） | |
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122
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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123
luridly
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| adv. 青灰色的(苍白的, 深浓色的, 火焰等火红的) | |
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124
lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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125
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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126
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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127
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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128
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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129
cylindrical
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| adj.圆筒形的 | |
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130
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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131
expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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132
arcades
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| n.商场( arcade的名词复数 )；拱形走道（两旁有商店或娱乐设施）；连拱廊；拱形建筑物 | |
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133
aisles
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| n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊 | |
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134
elongated
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| v.延长，加长( elongate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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135
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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136
receding
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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137
shafts
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| n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等） | |
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138
exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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139
majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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140
justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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141
vindication
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| n.洗冤，证实 | |
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142
reprobation
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| n.斥责 | |
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143
mosaic
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| n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的 | |
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144
mosaics
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| n.马赛克( mosaic的名词复数 )；镶嵌；镶嵌工艺；镶嵌图案 | |
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145
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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146
exponent
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| n.倡导者，拥护者；代表人物；指数，幂 | |
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147
adorn
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| vt.使美化，装饰 | |
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148
manifestations
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| n.表示，显示（manifestation的复数形式） | |
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149
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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150
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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151
masonry
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| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
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152
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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153
chapels
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| n.小教堂， （医院、监狱等的）附属礼拜堂( chapel的名词复数 )；（在小教堂和附属礼拜堂举行的）礼拜仪式 | |
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154
shrines
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| 圣地，圣坛，神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 ) | |
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155
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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156
diminution
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| n.减少；变小 | |
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157
interfering
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| adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词 | |
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158
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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159
joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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160
systematically
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| adv.有系统地 | |
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161
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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162
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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163
titanic
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| adj.巨人的，庞大的，强大的 | |
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164
binding
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| 有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的 | |
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165
edgy
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| adj.不安的；易怒的 | |
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166
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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167
domes
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| n.圆屋顶( dome的名词复数 )；像圆屋顶一样的东西；圆顶体育场 | |
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168
chiselling
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| n.錾v.凿，雕，镌( chisel的现在分词 ) | |
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169
quarry
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| n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找 | |
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170
limestone
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| n.石灰石 | |
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171
slovenly
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| adj.懒散的，不整齐的，邋遢的 | |
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172
chiselled
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| adj.凿过的，凿光的； （文章等）精心雕琢的v.凿，雕，镌( chisel的过去式 ) | |
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173
granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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174
lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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175
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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176
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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177
granitic
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| 花岗石的，由花岗岩形成的 | |
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178
splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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179
subduing
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| 征服( subdue的现在分词 )； 克制； 制服； 色变暗 | |
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180
supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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181
brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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182
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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183
incisions
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| n.切开，切口( incision的名词复数 ) | |
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184
projections
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| 预测( projection的名词复数 )； 投影； 投掷； 突起物 | |
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185
recollected
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|
| adj.冷静的；镇定的；被回忆起的；沉思默想的v.记起，想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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186
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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187
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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188
dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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189
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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190
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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191
lyric
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| n.抒情诗，歌词；adj.抒情的 | |
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192
sprightliness
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| n.愉快，快活 | |
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193
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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194
diffusion
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| n.流布；普及；散漫 | |
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195
vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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196
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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197
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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198
lizards
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| n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 ) | |
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199
bask
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| vt.取暖，晒太阳，沐浴于 | |
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200
Founder
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| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
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201
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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202
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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203
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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204
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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205
bough
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| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
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206
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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207
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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208
trenchant
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|
| adj.尖刻的，清晰的 | |
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209
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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210
applied
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|
| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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211
bossy
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| adj.爱发号施令的，作威作福的 | |
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212
epithets
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| n.（表示性质、特征等的）词语( epithet的名词复数 ) | |
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213
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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214
intelligibly
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| adv.可理解地，明了地，清晰地 | |
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215
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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216
predilection
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| n.偏好 | |
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217
decorative
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| adj.装饰的，可作装饰的 | |
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218
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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219
habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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220
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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221
fluting
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| 有沟槽的衣料； 吹笛子； 笛声； 刻凹槽 | |
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222
refinements
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| n.（生活）风雅；精炼( refinement的名词复数 )；改良品；细微的改良；优雅或高贵的动作 | |
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223
refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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224
confirmation
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| n.证实，确认，批准 | |
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225
dexterity
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| n.(手的)灵巧，灵活 | |
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226
compulsory
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| n.强制的，必修的；规定的，义务的 | |
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227
attainment
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| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
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228
defile
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| v.弄污，弄脏；n.(山间)小道 | |
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229
unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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230
seizure
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| n.没收；占有；抵押 | |
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231
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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232
alpine
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| adj.高山的；n.高山植物 | |
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233
cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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234
assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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235
abacus
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| n.算盘 | |
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236
spines
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| n.脊柱( spine的名词复数 )；脊椎；（动植物的）刺；书脊 | |
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237
sketched
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| v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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238
buttresses
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| n.扶壁，扶垛( buttress的名词复数 )v.用扶壁支撑，加固( buttress的第三人称单数 ) | |
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239
buttress
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| n.支撑物；v.支持 | |
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240
compartments
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|
| n.间隔( compartment的名词复数 )；（列车车厢的）隔间；（家具或设备等的）分隔间；隔层 | |
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241
ornamented
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|
| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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242
serenity
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| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
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243
ornamental
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| adj.装饰的；作装饰用的；n.装饰品；观赏植物 | |
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244
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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245
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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246
grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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247
extremities
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| n.端点( extremity的名词复数 )；尽头；手和足；极窘迫的境地 | |
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248
rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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249
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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250
perfectly
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|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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251
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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252
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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253
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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254
recessed
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| v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的过去式和过去分词 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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255
slit
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|
| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
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256
penetrations
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| 渗透( penetration的名词复数 )； 穿透； 突破； （男人阴茎的）插入 | |
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257
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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258
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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259
extraneous
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| adj.体外的；外来的；外部的 | |
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260
anatomy
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| n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织 | |
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261
slab
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| n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上 | |
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262
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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263
glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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264
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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265
glazing
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| n.玻璃装配业；玻璃窗；上釉；上光v.装玻璃( glaze的现在分词 )；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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266
tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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267
Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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268
dispensed
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| v.分配( dispense的过去式和过去分词 )；施与；配（药） | |
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269
diverged
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| 分开( diverge的过去式和过去分词 )； 偏离； 分歧； 分道扬镳 | |
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270
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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271
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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272
inaccurately
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| 不精密地，不准确地 | |
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273
illustrating
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| 给…加插图( illustrate的现在分词 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明 | |
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274
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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275
exquisitely
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| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
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276
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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277
figs
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| figures 数字，图形，外形 | |
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278
renaissance
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| n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴 | |
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279
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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280
exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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281
reposing
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的现在分词 ) | |
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282
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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283
exuberance
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| n.丰富；繁荣 | |
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284
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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285
truncated
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| adj.切去顶端的，缩短了的，被删节的v.截面的( truncate的过去式和过去分词 )；截头的；缩短了的；截去顶端或末端 | |
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286
corrupted
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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287
illustrate
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| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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288
ridgy
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| adj.有脊的；有棱纹的；隆起的；有埂的 | |
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289
truncation
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| n.切断；截短；缺棱；截尾 | |
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290
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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291
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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292
banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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293
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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294
acorns
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| n.橡子，栎实( acorn的名词复数 ) | |
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295
ramifications
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| n.结果，后果( ramification的名词复数 ) | |
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296
corrupting
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的现在分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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297
reiterated
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| 反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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298
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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299
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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300
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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301
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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302
swells
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| 增强( swell的第三人称单数 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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303
moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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304
lichen
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| n.地衣, 青苔 | |
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305
jutting
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| v.（使）突出( jut的现在分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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306
gargoyle
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| n.笕嘴 | |
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307
trite
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| adj.陈腐的 | |
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308
adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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309
alteration
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| n.变更，改变；蚀变 | |
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310
piers
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| n.水上平台( pier的名词复数 )；（常设有娱乐场所的）突堤；柱子；墙墩 | |
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311
vaulted
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| adj.拱状的 | |
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312
writhed
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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313
inured
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| adj.坚强的，习惯的 | |
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314
nun
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| n.修女，尼姑 | |
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315
recluse
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| n.隐居者 | |
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316
piazza
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| n.广场；走廊 | |
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317
rivet
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| n.铆钉；vt.铆接，铆牢；集中(目光或注意力) | |
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318
azure
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| adj.天蓝色的，蔚蓝色的 | |
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319
hermit
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| n.隐士，修道者；隐居 | |
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320
cloisters
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| n.（学院、修道院、教堂等建筑的）走廊( cloister的名词复数 )；回廊；修道院的生活；隐居v.隐退，使与世隔绝( cloister的第三人称单数 ) | |
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321
glades
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| n.林中空地( glade的名词复数 ) | |
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322
spires
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| n.（教堂的） 塔尖，尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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323
populous
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| adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的 | |
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