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Article ODD WORDS. ← Page 2 of 2 Article ON ARCHITECTURAL ART. Page 1 of 3 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Odd Words.
like a crutch . Of compound crosses there is scarcely any end—cross batteries , cross bar shot , crossbills , crossbites , only leading the couut-np to cross marriages ancl a long vista of other crosses too numerous to mention . Box , for another example , suggests dozens of things , from a coat to a cuff on the car . Referring again to names , though this time to
Christian names , we have certainly cause for congratulation , and scope for augury in the baptismal names of the Prince of Wales . " The first , Albert , England will evermore associate with every virtue ; and the second , Edward , has been already borne by nine English kings , most of whom have been worthy of the title . It signifies " happy keeper . "
On Architectural Art.
ON ARCHITECTURAL ART .
An address was delivered on Tuesday week , at the ¦ theatre of the South Kensington Museum , on "The Condition and Prosperity of Architectural Art , " by Mr . A . J . B . Beresford Hope , M . A ., D . C . L ., President of the society . He said , that it had heretofore been the practice to commence the session of the Architectural Museum by an evening devoted to conversation and to
the distribution of prizes . On that occasion they would deviate from that custom , without , however , ceasing to uphold architectural art in the various forms in which the Museum existed to promote it . They were met at a time of considerable interest in the architectural world . Last year was a kind of saturnalia of art , with its great Exhibition held in that neighbourhood audits little
exhibition held in the building in which they were assembled . They bad had an autumn to collect their senses , and were now , he hoped , wiser and better instructed than before . The present was a year of unusual interest , but there was nothing like a crisis in art to be apprehended . They were long warned against the prophet who cried , " Peace ! ! " where there was no peace ; and they
peace should eb also on their guard against the equally false prophets who cried , " Crisis ! crisis ! " when there was no crisis . Everything with respect to the Museum and to architectural art was going on as heretofore , but with the greatest impulsion which it had received . He selected the term " architectural art" not without due
consideration , but with a special view to the functions of the Architectural Museum . Architectural art was not architecture . Architecture might be an art , it might be a science , or it mi g ht be a business . It was a business in many senses ; it was a science so far as it dealt with obscure and naked rules of mechanics . To set things on endso that thoy would not tumble downwas
, , the first and simple function of architecture ; but it became an art when it dealt with the consideration of how to make things so set up on end , beautiful , without the elaboration of their beauty interfering with their stability . If it did so interfere , it might be an art , but it was not architecture . The museum did not deal with
architecture as an art , —it dealt with architectural art . The difference between architecture as an art , and architectural art was very simple . Tbe former dealt with the mass—the outline , the skyline , the vista , the relation of one apartment to another ; it dealt with proportion ; in fact , with the building as a whole ; and for the development of architecture as an art , many societies
were in existence . Architectural art however , —of which the museum took special charge , —consisted in the fringing , the flmuncing , if he might so say , of architecture as an art ; it dealt with delicate details , with the manipulation of form , —the carvings , the colourings , and all the other accessories which are to architecture what the lazingwhich painters las a finishinto their
g , appy g works , is to the picture . That was the special work of the museum , and it was right that such a body should exist , in order to supplement that which might be forgotten in the grand scramble for big effect . They existed ,
as he had specially defined it , for architectural art , which was something more minute than architecture itself as an art . How did they exist for tbat ? There had been of late years a great improvement in this country , in respect to whatwere called " Schools of Design , "—schools that should teach people the art of drawing , and of elementary forms . Was the museum a school of design ?
No , for they had no systematic teaching . What then were its functions ? He would give them a very practical answer . Such of them as had mixed in public life knew that there were no such useful people as those who filled offices to which no assignable line of duty could be allotted , for it was universally found that there were a great many things which fell out of the category of
cutand-dried official duties , but which must be done , and of course required somebody to do them , and these duties were fulfilled by the people to whom he alluded . The persons who filled those offices were the odd men of the administration . There was a deal of odd work to be done , ancl somebody must do it , and odd men were found to do it . The architectural museum was the odd man of
the architectural and artistic world , and did a great deal more than was a return in money ' s worth for the money invested . If their income reckoned by thousands as it reckoned by hundreds—if they had a grand palace of their own , and had a subsidy guaranteed by Parliament , they might effect a good deal more than the odd man ' s work ; but with their limited income their exertions were also
limited , but they had a very hearty zeal , and a determination to do their best within their own limits . Under other circumstances they might do more ; but , standing in the position they occupied , they fulfilled a very useful function in the artistic movement of the day . In the first place , they had collected a museum of specimens , which , to say the least , exemplified many phases of Gothic art
of the thirteenth , fourteenth , and fifteenth centuries ; these they distributed , of which he would say more hereafter ; and they gave a course of lectures , of which they commenced the session that evening . These lectures were not and could not be intended as a systematic teaching . The idea of systematic teaching by lectures was a fallacy . The lecturer might generalise truths , and
might set folks a-thinking ; and in that way lectures possessed a marked value ; but beyond this they did not pretend to )' go . The Society then provided a museum for people to study in ; for the art-workmen to copy the best models that could be provided ; for the architect quietly to work out those details which he had already conceived , but to complete which it was necessary for
him to resort to ancient models . Those whom he addressed had not attended that evening to support the Government institution in which they were assembled , and to which they owed a great debt of gratitude . They were not assembled to support one of those many excellent schools of design which now existed iu various parts of the countrybut they were come to take part
; in an association which existed for itself and by itself , and with a view to supplement certain great elements that were found to be wanting , and which , until they were supplied , would leave the machinery of art defective . Before he came to speak of architectural art he would dwell for a moment on architecture as an art .
Without being exclusively or bigotedly , they had been always consistently , supporters of the Gothic rather than the classical side of the architectural movement . Had they been worshippers of a past antiquity—had they been archasologists purely and simply—had they beeu looking to the thirteenth century as an Elysian age , as a kind of millennium , which began and ended in that
century ? Far from it . They , of course , respected antiquity , for without it they would remain perpetual children in art ; but he appealed to all who had taken an intelligent part in the operations of tbe society to testify whether they had not , with one united and strong voice , declared that they had taken tip the Gothic movement most practical for the material , and the social ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Odd Words.
like a crutch . Of compound crosses there is scarcely any end—cross batteries , cross bar shot , crossbills , crossbites , only leading the couut-np to cross marriages ancl a long vista of other crosses too numerous to mention . Box , for another example , suggests dozens of things , from a coat to a cuff on the car . Referring again to names , though this time to
Christian names , we have certainly cause for congratulation , and scope for augury in the baptismal names of the Prince of Wales . " The first , Albert , England will evermore associate with every virtue ; and the second , Edward , has been already borne by nine English kings , most of whom have been worthy of the title . It signifies " happy keeper . "
On Architectural Art.
ON ARCHITECTURAL ART .
An address was delivered on Tuesday week , at the ¦ theatre of the South Kensington Museum , on "The Condition and Prosperity of Architectural Art , " by Mr . A . J . B . Beresford Hope , M . A ., D . C . L ., President of the society . He said , that it had heretofore been the practice to commence the session of the Architectural Museum by an evening devoted to conversation and to
the distribution of prizes . On that occasion they would deviate from that custom , without , however , ceasing to uphold architectural art in the various forms in which the Museum existed to promote it . They were met at a time of considerable interest in the architectural world . Last year was a kind of saturnalia of art , with its great Exhibition held in that neighbourhood audits little
exhibition held in the building in which they were assembled . They bad had an autumn to collect their senses , and were now , he hoped , wiser and better instructed than before . The present was a year of unusual interest , but there was nothing like a crisis in art to be apprehended . They were long warned against the prophet who cried , " Peace ! ! " where there was no peace ; and they
peace should eb also on their guard against the equally false prophets who cried , " Crisis ! crisis ! " when there was no crisis . Everything with respect to the Museum and to architectural art was going on as heretofore , but with the greatest impulsion which it had received . He selected the term " architectural art" not without due
consideration , but with a special view to the functions of the Architectural Museum . Architectural art was not architecture . Architecture might be an art , it might be a science , or it mi g ht be a business . It was a business in many senses ; it was a science so far as it dealt with obscure and naked rules of mechanics . To set things on endso that thoy would not tumble downwas
, , the first and simple function of architecture ; but it became an art when it dealt with the consideration of how to make things so set up on end , beautiful , without the elaboration of their beauty interfering with their stability . If it did so interfere , it might be an art , but it was not architecture . The museum did not deal with
architecture as an art , —it dealt with architectural art . The difference between architecture as an art , and architectural art was very simple . Tbe former dealt with the mass—the outline , the skyline , the vista , the relation of one apartment to another ; it dealt with proportion ; in fact , with the building as a whole ; and for the development of architecture as an art , many societies
were in existence . Architectural art however , —of which the museum took special charge , —consisted in the fringing , the flmuncing , if he might so say , of architecture as an art ; it dealt with delicate details , with the manipulation of form , —the carvings , the colourings , and all the other accessories which are to architecture what the lazingwhich painters las a finishinto their
g , appy g works , is to the picture . That was the special work of the museum , and it was right that such a body should exist , in order to supplement that which might be forgotten in the grand scramble for big effect . They existed ,
as he had specially defined it , for architectural art , which was something more minute than architecture itself as an art . How did they exist for tbat ? There had been of late years a great improvement in this country , in respect to whatwere called " Schools of Design , "—schools that should teach people the art of drawing , and of elementary forms . Was the museum a school of design ?
No , for they had no systematic teaching . What then were its functions ? He would give them a very practical answer . Such of them as had mixed in public life knew that there were no such useful people as those who filled offices to which no assignable line of duty could be allotted , for it was universally found that there were a great many things which fell out of the category of
cutand-dried official duties , but which must be done , and of course required somebody to do them , and these duties were fulfilled by the people to whom he alluded . The persons who filled those offices were the odd men of the administration . There was a deal of odd work to be done , ancl somebody must do it , and odd men were found to do it . The architectural museum was the odd man of
the architectural and artistic world , and did a great deal more than was a return in money ' s worth for the money invested . If their income reckoned by thousands as it reckoned by hundreds—if they had a grand palace of their own , and had a subsidy guaranteed by Parliament , they might effect a good deal more than the odd man ' s work ; but with their limited income their exertions were also
limited , but they had a very hearty zeal , and a determination to do their best within their own limits . Under other circumstances they might do more ; but , standing in the position they occupied , they fulfilled a very useful function in the artistic movement of the day . In the first place , they had collected a museum of specimens , which , to say the least , exemplified many phases of Gothic art
of the thirteenth , fourteenth , and fifteenth centuries ; these they distributed , of which he would say more hereafter ; and they gave a course of lectures , of which they commenced the session that evening . These lectures were not and could not be intended as a systematic teaching . The idea of systematic teaching by lectures was a fallacy . The lecturer might generalise truths , and
might set folks a-thinking ; and in that way lectures possessed a marked value ; but beyond this they did not pretend to )' go . The Society then provided a museum for people to study in ; for the art-workmen to copy the best models that could be provided ; for the architect quietly to work out those details which he had already conceived , but to complete which it was necessary for
him to resort to ancient models . Those whom he addressed had not attended that evening to support the Government institution in which they were assembled , and to which they owed a great debt of gratitude . They were not assembled to support one of those many excellent schools of design which now existed iu various parts of the countrybut they were come to take part
; in an association which existed for itself and by itself , and with a view to supplement certain great elements that were found to be wanting , and which , until they were supplied , would leave the machinery of art defective . Before he came to speak of architectural art he would dwell for a moment on architecture as an art .
Without being exclusively or bigotedly , they had been always consistently , supporters of the Gothic rather than the classical side of the architectural movement . Had they been worshippers of a past antiquity—had they been archasologists purely and simply—had they beeu looking to the thirteenth century as an Elysian age , as a kind of millennium , which began and ended in that
century ? Far from it . They , of course , respected antiquity , for without it they would remain perpetual children in art ; but he appealed to all who had taken an intelligent part in the operations of tbe society to testify whether they had not , with one united and strong voice , declared that they had taken tip the Gothic movement most practical for the material , and the social ,