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Article OIFK, AEGHITEGTURAL CHAPTEB. ← Page 3 of 5 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Oifk, Aeghitegtural Chapteb.
Drury Lane or the Opera , we get from the slides of the microscope to the scenes of the atage , where it may be a Stanfield or a Beverley has wrought a landscape which the public are content to enjoy and applaud , though it is daubed on rags , and will be painted out in a few days . Stanfield is an artist we are to admire at the Royal Academy and to shut our eyes and hearts to at Drury Lane ; and yet his colours in
Trafalgarsquare may be as little durable as those of Poussin or Sir Joshua ; but his art must he made to depend , not on the moral effect , but on material and pecuniary conditions , for so the questions at issue may be broadly stated . It may be very desirable , as Raskin has argued , that the artist should ajyply his powers to the production of lasting works instead of expending them in fleeting efforts ; but whatever the material or whatever the duration , the effect being the same , it is art alike .
Waxwork is a favourite type of abomination to those who are most pure-minded in matters of art ; for do not the vulgar multitude go to Madame Tussaud's , to see dummies decked out in fine clothes and silks arid satins , and provided with shell-like skulls of wax , having periwigs for hair , and painted eye-balls ? These are dreadful things to be enjoyed , but they are enjoyed ; and what makes the matter more dreadful is , that an art is mixed up in these matters , which the . gestheticists denounce as no art or a sham , but which gives the semblance and the fruits of art to these exhibitions .
This subject may he pursued to considerable length and with abundant illustrations , and we shall have occasion enough to refer to it ; hut we will now come rather abruptly to Mr , Barry and his arraignment for perpetrating shams . In his opera house he has set up a building commanding * in its proportions and magnificent in its internal decorations , and it is assumed that cement should not have been allowed to cover the walls of a
monumental structure , but that stone should have been there displayed ; though some sticklers would rather have seen bare brick even than cement . We agree with the remonstrants that stone or marble would have made a nobler outward covering for this edifice ; but we reflect on this , that a theatre is not like a church , a town-hall , or an exchange , which may hope to last for ages , and is made for such a purpose , but that it belongs to a class of perishable structures , having fire for its enemv ? and with especial regard to
which many of the arrangements of the architect have been dictated . This new and grand opera house replaces one lately burnt , and which was the successor within this half-centuiy of a predecessor so burnt—the history of theatres being a history of fires ; for , as in their night displays inflammable scenery , dresses , and decorations must be brought in contact with gas and with fire , ° so there is a great risk in a theatre , as if it were some factory , like a sugar baker ' s or tallow chandler ' s , in which fire is to be dreaded .
Had some lavish patron yielded the funds , and had Mr . Barry adorned the building with a marble peristyle , so surely , at an earlier or later time , would fire have burst forth and all the costly decorations been doomed ; whereas the cement coating affords sufficient comeliness of appearance without exposing the proprietors to a needless expense . Within the last few nights the wayfarers have been led to stop on
Ludgate Hill to gaze on the great dome of the Grand Master , Wren ; for the windows of the lantern , catching the rays of the moon , lighted up , and a strange and sublime effect irresistibly claimed attention , ^ the building seeming as though lighted from within , and as if the Grand Master or other student of the night were studying far above the busy haunts of the dwellers in the city . On Tuesday week there was a periodical gathering , commonly of interest
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Oifk, Aeghitegtural Chapteb.
Drury Lane or the Opera , we get from the slides of the microscope to the scenes of the atage , where it may be a Stanfield or a Beverley has wrought a landscape which the public are content to enjoy and applaud , though it is daubed on rags , and will be painted out in a few days . Stanfield is an artist we are to admire at the Royal Academy and to shut our eyes and hearts to at Drury Lane ; and yet his colours in
Trafalgarsquare may be as little durable as those of Poussin or Sir Joshua ; but his art must he made to depend , not on the moral effect , but on material and pecuniary conditions , for so the questions at issue may be broadly stated . It may be very desirable , as Raskin has argued , that the artist should ajyply his powers to the production of lasting works instead of expending them in fleeting efforts ; but whatever the material or whatever the duration , the effect being the same , it is art alike .
Waxwork is a favourite type of abomination to those who are most pure-minded in matters of art ; for do not the vulgar multitude go to Madame Tussaud's , to see dummies decked out in fine clothes and silks arid satins , and provided with shell-like skulls of wax , having periwigs for hair , and painted eye-balls ? These are dreadful things to be enjoyed , but they are enjoyed ; and what makes the matter more dreadful is , that an art is mixed up in these matters , which the . gestheticists denounce as no art or a sham , but which gives the semblance and the fruits of art to these exhibitions .
This subject may he pursued to considerable length and with abundant illustrations , and we shall have occasion enough to refer to it ; hut we will now come rather abruptly to Mr , Barry and his arraignment for perpetrating shams . In his opera house he has set up a building commanding * in its proportions and magnificent in its internal decorations , and it is assumed that cement should not have been allowed to cover the walls of a
monumental structure , but that stone should have been there displayed ; though some sticklers would rather have seen bare brick even than cement . We agree with the remonstrants that stone or marble would have made a nobler outward covering for this edifice ; but we reflect on this , that a theatre is not like a church , a town-hall , or an exchange , which may hope to last for ages , and is made for such a purpose , but that it belongs to a class of perishable structures , having fire for its enemv ? and with especial regard to
which many of the arrangements of the architect have been dictated . This new and grand opera house replaces one lately burnt , and which was the successor within this half-centuiy of a predecessor so burnt—the history of theatres being a history of fires ; for , as in their night displays inflammable scenery , dresses , and decorations must be brought in contact with gas and with fire , ° so there is a great risk in a theatre , as if it were some factory , like a sugar baker ' s or tallow chandler ' s , in which fire is to be dreaded .
Had some lavish patron yielded the funds , and had Mr . Barry adorned the building with a marble peristyle , so surely , at an earlier or later time , would fire have burst forth and all the costly decorations been doomed ; whereas the cement coating affords sufficient comeliness of appearance without exposing the proprietors to a needless expense . Within the last few nights the wayfarers have been led to stop on
Ludgate Hill to gaze on the great dome of the Grand Master , Wren ; for the windows of the lantern , catching the rays of the moon , lighted up , and a strange and sublime effect irresistibly claimed attention , ^ the building seeming as though lighted from within , and as if the Grand Master or other student of the night were studying far above the busy haunts of the dwellers in the city . On Tuesday week there was a periodical gathering , commonly of interest