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474. The interior of the nave and choir are each designed with three arches longitudinally springing from piers, strengthened, as well as decorated, on their inner faces, by an entablature, whose cornice reigns throughout the nave and church. Above this entablature, and breaking with it over each pilaster, is a tall attic from projections, on which spring semicircular arches which are formed into arcs doubleaux. Between the last pendentives are formed, terminated by horizontal cornices.

Small cupolas, of less height than their semi-diameter, are formed above these cornices. In the upright plane space on the walls above the main arches of the nave, choir, and transepts, a clerestory is obtained over the Attic order, whose form is generated by the rising of the pendentives. The inner dome is plastered on the under side, and painted by Sir James Thornhill, with subjects relating to the history of St. Paul.

475. For external elegance, we know no church in Europe which exhibits a cupola comparable with that of St. Paul's, though in its connection with the church by an order higher than that below it there is a violation of the laws of the art. The cost of the church was 736,7521., exclusive of the stone and iron enclosures round it, which cost 11,2021. more; in all 747,9541. About nine-tenths of that sum were raised by a tax on coals imported into London. As compared with St. Peter's, we subjoin a few of the principal di

mensions of the two churches.

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476. If we suppose sections to be made through the transepts of the four principal churches of Europe, we have their relative sizes in the following ratio : —

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477. Notwithstanding its imposing effect as a whole, and the exhibition in its construction of a mechanical skill of the very highest order; notwithstanding, also, the abstract beauty of the greater number of its parts, it is our duty to observe that many egregious abuses are displayed in the fabric of St. Paul's, the first and greatest whereof is the great waste of interior effect as compared with the total section employed. If we suppose, as before, sections from north to south to be made through the transepts of the four principal churches, the following table will exhibit the proportion of their clear internal to their external areas:

St. Peter's, Rome

Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence
St. Paul's, London

St. Genevieve (Pantheon), Paris

8,325 10,000 - 8,855 10,000 - 6,865 10,000 6,746 10,000

Whence it is seen how highly in this respect the Duomo of Florence ranks above the others. The defect of St. Paul's in this respect is mainly induced by the false dome; and though we may admire the ingenuity that provided for carrying a stone lantern on the top of a truncated cone, deceitfully appearing, as it does, to stand on the dome from which it rises, we cannot help regretting that it afforded the opportunity of giving the building a cupola, liable to the early attack of time, and perhaps that, more to be dreaded, of fire.

478. In the skill required for raising a building on a minimum of foundation, Sir Christopher Wren appears to have surpassed, at least, those who preceded him. In similarly or nearly so formed buildings, some criterion of the comparative skill employed in their construction may be drawn from comparing the ratio between the area of the whole plan, and that of the sum of the areas of the horizontal sections of the whole of the piers, walls, and pillars, which serve to support the superincumbent mass. The similarity of the four churches already compared affords, therefore, a criterion of their respective merits in this respect. We hardly need say that one of the first qualifications of an architect is to produce the greatest effect by the smallest means. The subjoined table is placed before the reader as a comparison of the four churches in reference to the point in question.

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The merit, therefore, shown in the construction of the above edifices will be nearly as 15, 17, 20, 26, or inversely proportional to the numbers in the last column.

479. We must here mention one of the most unpardonable defects, or rather abuses. which this church exhibits, and which must be learnt from reference to fig. 214. Therein is

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given a transverse section of the nave and its side aisles. From this it will be seen that the enormous expense of the second or upper order all round the church was incurred for no other purpose than that of concealing the flying buttresses that are used to counteract the thrusts of the vaults of the nave, choir, and transepts, - an abuse that admits of no apology. It is an architectural fraud. We do not think it necessary to descend into minor defects and abuses, such as vaulting the church from an Attic order, the multiplicity of breaks, and want of repose; the general disappearance of tie and connection, the piercing, as practised, the piers of the cupola, and mitering the archivolts of its great arches, and the like, because we think all these are more than counterbalanced by the beauties of the edifice. We cannot, however, leave the subject without observing that not the least of its merits is its freedom from any material settlement tending to bring on premature dilapidaIts chief failures are over the easternmost arch of the nave, and in the north transept, for the remedy whereof (the latter) the architect left written instructions. There are also some unimportant failures in the haunches of most of the flying buttresses, which are scarcely worth notice.

tion.

480. The wretchedly naked appearance of the interior of this cathedral is a disgrace neither to the architect nor to the country, but to the clergy, Terrick, bishop of London, and Potter, archbishop of Canterbury, who refused to sanction its decoration with pictures, gratuitously proffered by artists of the highest reputation; and this after the cupola itself had been decorated. The colour of the sculpture is of no use in heightening the effect of the interior.

481. The Parentalia contains a description of the manner in which the walls of the old

cathedral were destroyed, and those of the present one raised; which should be read by all those engaged in the practice of architecture.

482. Wren, having lived to see the completion of St. Paul's, died in 1723, at the age of 91, and was buried under the fabric, "with four words," says Walpole, "that comprehended

his merit and his fame.

"SI QUÆRAS MONUMENTUM CIRCUMSPICE."

483. It will be impossible, consistently with our space, to describe the works of Sir Christopher Wren. One upon which his fame is as justly founded as upon St. Paul's itself, is St. Stephen's Church in Wallbrook, in which, on a plot of ground 80 ft. by 594 ft., he has contrived a structure whose elegance is not surpassed by any one we know to have been raised under similar restrictions. The church in question is divided longitudinally into five aisles by four ranks of Corinthian columns standing on pedestals; the places of four columns near the centre being unoccupied; the surrounding central columns form the angles of an octagon, 45 ft. diameter, on which arches are turned, and above which, by means of pendentives, the circular base of a dome is formed, which is in the shape of a seg'ment of a sphere, with a lantern thereon. The ceiling of the middle aisle from east to west is vaulted in groins. The rest of the ceiling is horizontal. The interior of St. James's, Westminster, is another beautiful example of the master, though recently underrated by an ignorant critic.

484. One of the peculiarities remarkable about Wren's period is the investment of the form of the Gothic spire with a clothing of Italian architecture, by which the modern steeple was produced. If any example could reconcile us to such a practice, it might be found in that of Bow Church, another of Wren's works, which rises to the height of 197 ft. from the ground, the sides of the square from which it rises being 32 ft. 6 in. There are, in the leading proportions of this tower and spire, some extraordinary examples in relative heights as compared with widths sesquilaterally, which would almost lead one to suppose that, in this respect, our architect was somewhat superstitious.

485. In St. Dunstan in the East, Wren attempted Gothic, and it is the least offensive of his productions in that style. It is an elegant composition, but wants the claim to originality. St. Nicholas, Newcastle, and the High Church, Edinburgh, are its prototypes. 486. The Monument of London is original, notwithstanding columns of this sort had been previously erected. Its total expense was 88561., and it was commenced in 1671, completed in 1677. The height is 202 ft. ; hence it is loftier than any of the historical columns of the ancients. The pedestal is about 21 ft. square, standing on a plinth 6 ft. wider. The lower diameter of the column on the upper part of the base is 15 ft., and the shaft incloses a staircase of black marble, consisting of 345 steps. It was fluted after the work was carried up. The quantity of Portland stone whereof it is composed is £8,196 cubic feet. The Antonine column at Rome is 175, and that of Trajan 147 ft. high. erected by Arcadius at Constantinople, when perfect, was of the same height as that last mentioned. The structure of which we are speaking loses much by its situation, which has neither been improved nor deteriorated by the streets consequent on the rebuilding of London Bridge: and though it cannot compete with the Trajan column in point of intrinsic beauty, it is, nevertheless, an exquisite and well-proportioned work, and seems much better calculated with propriety to record the object of its erection, than the other is to be the monument of a hero. In these days, it is singular to see that no other mode than the erection of a column could be found to record the glorious actions of a Nelson. Such was the poverty of taste that marked the decision of the committee to whom that object was most improperly entrusted.

That

487. Among the works of Wren not to be passed without notice is the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. It is one of his finest productions, and one with which he himself was well satisfied. It consists of two orders; a Doric arcade below, open to a basement supported by columns, which has a flat ceiling, exceedingly convenient as an ambulatory, and itself simple and well proportioned. The principal story is decorated with threequarter columns of the Ionic order, well proportioned. From their volutes, festoons are pendent, and the key-stones of the windows are carved into cherubs' heads, &c. This is the elevation towards Nevill's Court; that towards the garden has three Doric doors below, but above is without columns or pilasters in the upper stories. Without ornament, it is not the less graceful and imposing. The interior, as a single room, is designed with great grandeur and propriety.

488. We cannot further in detail continue an account of the works of this extraordinary architect, but shall now proceed to submit a list of his principal works, together with a catalogue of those of his principal churches whose estimates exceeded the cost of 50001.

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489. We must here close our account of Wren. Those of our readers who desire further information on the life and works of this truly great man will do well to consult the Parentalia, or Memoirs of the Family of the Wrens, compiled by his son, and published by his Fol. Lond. 1750. grandson Stephen Wren.

490. Among the architects of Wren's time, there was a triad of amateurs who would The first of these was Henry have done honour to any nation as professors of the art.

Aldrich, D. D., Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, who died in 1710. He was attached to the Venetian school, as we may see in the three sides of Peckwater quadrangle, and the garden front of Corpus Christi College, a façade which for correct taste is not surpassed by any edifice in Oxford. The second of these amateurs was Dr. Clarke, one of the Lords of the This distinguished amateur sat for Oxford in Admiralty in the reign of Queen Anne. fifteen sessions. The Library of Worcester College, to which he bequeathed his valuable He built the library at architectural collection of books and MSS., was from his design. Christ Church. The third was Sir James Burrough, Master of Caius College, Cambridge; by whom, in 1703, the chapel of Clare Hall in that University was beautifully designed and executed.

491. We now approach the works of a man who, whatever some have thought of them, has a stronger claim on our notice as an inventor than any of his predecessors. It must be anticipated that we allude to Sir John Vanbrugh. Upon no other artist has Walpole delivered criticisms more unworthy of himself, nor is there any one of whose The singular mind of Vanbrugh genius he had less capacity to appreciate the powers. was distracted by control: his buildings are the result of a combination of forms and anticipation of effects, originating solely from himself; effects which none before had seen nor

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Fig. 215.

contemplated. As a wit, he was inferior to none that levelled its shafts at him, and hence his novel compositions in architecture became among the professed critics of the day so much the more an object of derision, as, in their puny notions, his only assailable point. Attacked from party feeling, the public allowed itself to be biassed by epigrams and smart verses from the pens of Pope and Swift; and when the former, in his fourth epistle, in allusion to Vanbrugh's works, exclaims,

"Lo! what huge heaps of littleness around,

The whole a laboured quarry above ground,"

he little thought he was leaving to posterity a record of his consummate ignorance of art, and of his total insensibility to grandeur, in all that relates to composition in architecture. 492. The opinion of Sir Joshua Reynolds first enlightened the public upon the thitherto condemned works of this extraordinary architect. "I pretend," says Reynolds, in his fifth discourse, "to no skill in architecture. I judge now of the art merely as a painter. When I speak of Vanbrugh, I speak of him merely on our art. To speak, then, of Vanbrugh in the language of a painter, he had originality of invention, he understood light and shadow, and had great skill in composition. To support his principal object, he produced his second and third groups of masses; he perfectly understood in his art what is most difficult in ours, the conduct of the backgrounds by which the design and invention is (are) set off to the greatest advantage. What the background is in painting is the real ground upon which the building is erected; and as no architect took greater care that his work should not appear crude and hard, that is, that it did not abruptly start out of the ground, without expectation or preparation, this is the tribute which a painter owes to an architect who composes like a painter." The testimony of Mr. Payne Knight, a person of a taste highly refined and cultivated, in his Principles of Taste, is another eulogium on the works of this master. And again we have the concurrence therein of another able writer on these subjects, who, though frequently at variance in opinion with Mr. Knight, thus expresses himself in his Essay on the Picturesque, vol. ii. p. 211.: "Sir J. Reynolds is, I believe, the first who has done justice to the architecture of Vanbrugh, by showing it was not a mere fantastic style, without any other object than that of singularity, but that he worked on the principles of painting, and that he has produced the most painter-like effects. It is very probable that the ridicule thrown on Vanbrugh's buildings, by some of the wittiest men of the age he lived in, may have in no slight degree prevented his excellencies from being attended to; for what has been the subject of ridicule will seldom become the object of study or imitation. It appears to me, that at Blenheim, Vanbrugh conceived and executed a very bold and difficult design, that of uniting in one building the beauty and magnificence of the Grecian architecture, the picturesqueness of the Gothic, and the massive grandeur of a castle; and that, in spite of many faults, for which he was very justly reproached, he has formed, in a style truly his own, and a well-combined whole, a mansion worthy of a great prince and warrior. "His first point appears to have been massiveness, as the foundation of grandeur: then, to prevent the mass from being a lump, he has made

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PLAN OF BLENHEIM.

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