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FERG17SSONIS HANDBOOK OF ARCHITECTURE.* THE name of Murray is identified with the term Handbook. That term is true of Mr. Murray's publications historically, and it sticks to those of the present day by traditional association, though it has ceased to de- signate them descriptively. The recent Handbook of the Arts of- the Middle Ages was a stout handful ; and now Mr. Fergusson's Handbook, in its two volumes numbering more than 1000 pages together, is the like for both hands at once. In other words, it is not a handbook, but a table or library book.
The author's object is a comprehensive and onerous one—that of "sup- plying a succinct but popular account of all the principal buildings in the world," and giving the essence of a whole architectural library. Towards this end, his first step is to divide the entire field of architecture into two sections—the non-Christian and the Christian. These he sur- veys according to a classification combined of the chronologic and the topographic, but more intrinsically belonging to the latter.
To have his hands clear, when he comes to Egypt, for tracing out her architecture, through Greece and Rome, even into the Gothic period, he begins with India, although her oldest monuments, being no more ancient than 250 B.C., are as of yesterday in comparison with those of Egypt. First comes the Buddhist architecture, with its topes and cave-temples, in India, Ceylon, Java, Thibet, and Nepal, and in Burmah, whore con- struction is entirely wooden with the single exception of religious edifices. To this is added the architecture of Jainism,—a faith which appears to be a corrupted reform of Buddhism. The expression of wonder at "rock-hewn temples;" as works of colossal labour has become a matter of course ; but Mr. Fergusson, with his dumb-line and yard-measure, steps in to correct us : the excavating process would cost, in labour and money, about one-tenth of the cost of the building process. The Hindu architectures, Southern, Northern, and Cashmerean, differ from the Indo-Buddhist, and differ inter se, "surpassing even the cathedrals of the middle ages in complexity of design and variety of de- tail "; but—to express curtly what Mr. Fergusson mildly " fears "—as inferior to them in the higher elements of design and ornamentation as Beverley's scene-painting is to Turner's landscape-painting, or an ordi- nary Gobelins tapestry pattern to Raphael's cartoons. However, Mr. i Fergusson calls upon those who have not seen Indian architecture in In- dia to suspend judgment. China may be said to have no architecture ; as she "seems incapable of poetry in any form, either written or struc- tural." A verdict to which most people will be inclined to assent, though we doubt whether China yet obtains sufficient credit for the ge- nuinely artistic faculty of a certain kind displayed in her decorative pro- ducts. Central America is classed with China ; the savage profusion of Mexico, the savage baldness of Peru. Western Asia closes this division of the subject. The account of Assyria and Persia is mainly an abridg- ment of the author's "Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis Restored"; Syria follows, with a conjectural plan of Solomon's Temple, whose exter- nal dimensions were "probably less than those of an ordinary parish- church in this country" ; and then Asia Minor. Next Mr. Fergusson proceeds to Egypt; the greatness of whose art, "unequalled by any state which has existed from that time to this," ap- pears beyond all others, to excite his heartfelt enthusiasm. Grecian architecture, traced in its every detail to either an Assyrian or an Egyp- tian source, succeeds ; hailed as "the purest and most intellectual of all styles," but treated with somewhat less amplitude than its devotees might have expected. Roman architecture, with its Etrurian predecessor and part-original, follows ; its orders and temples,—its basilicas, theatres, and baths, its triumphal arches, tombs, and domestic and civic buildings. Sassanian architecture, and finally the Saracenic, close the cycle of the non-Christian art ; the Saracenic being pursued into its Syrian and Egyp tian, Persian, Indian, Spanish, and Turkish manifestations. Mr. Fer- gusson refuses to call the Saracenic races " great "; but he allows them unsurpassable grace and elegance. " In the higher qualities of art," he says, "this style is certainly inferior to the Egyptian, Grecian, or Gothic style : but it surpasses them all in endless fertility of invention, as well as in the variety of ornament and detail which lend such a charm to every work they ever produced." The judgment, however. moderate in its principle, seems to us open to revision in terms. If, in the phrase "fertility of invention," the author speaks professionally as an architect, we leave the question to architectural suffrages ; but if he speaks ac- cording to the ordinary rules of fine art, we fail to perceive the greater fertility of Saracenic than of Gothic invention or ornamental variety. Not invention and variety, but rather ingenuity and multiplicity, appear typical of the style ; and with these the most exquisite known combina- tion of artistic enjoyment—supreme grace with the first, supreme purity and repose with the second.
The review of the Christian architecture opens with some considera- tions on current nomenclatures,—the abuse of the term "Byzantine," and a suggestion, carried out in the sequel, for distinguishing the Gothic sub-styles by the names of the kings with whose reigns they correspond, as Plantagenet, Edwardian, Lancastrian, &e. The plan answers well in such a book as this, and would do so otherwise for those who have some present knowledge of the subject; but the nomenclature, being in no degree a descriptive one, will not conduce to practical observation for beginners. The man who is told that itparticular cathedral is Edwardian learns no architectural property of it ; whereas, if told that this is of the Decorated style, while another class of buildings is Lancet, or Perpen- dicular, he is led to exercise his own eyes whenever afterwards he comes across a Gothic structure, and to trace the analogy of one feature to another.
• The Illustrated Handbook of Architecture : being a concise and popular Ac- count of the different Styles of Architecture prerailing in all Ages and Countries.
By James Fergusson, Author of .• Palaces of Ninereh and Persepolis Restored." In two volumes. With 850 Illustrations on Wood. Published by Murray. Christian architecture falls under four broad divisions,—the Roman- esque, the Lombard and Rhenish, the Gothic, and the Byzantine. Of the first, basilicas and circular churches are prominent members. For the Rhenish or round-arched German Gothic Mr. Fergusson entertains an evident predilection ; enforcing its value as a product of the soil, and deploring the irruption of French or pointed-arch Gothic, to which it succumbed; without, as he argues, any real national adaptability or true understanding of the latter on the part of the Germans, who attenu- ated it to skin and bone, played "fantastic tricks" with it, and exhibited rather the confident knowledge of masons than the poetry of architects. To the pointed Gothic, however, even in its origin and genuineness, he denies the praise of any startling novelty or originality, save in one mat- ter—painted glass. "Window tracery, and perhaps pinnacles and fly- ing-buttresses," are also conceded, as of secondary importance; but the painted glass is so paramount that "there would be more meaning in the name if we were to call it the painted glass style, instead of the pointed arch style." About two-thirds of the second volume are oc- cupied in tracing the course of the magnificent Gothic art in the various French provinces, in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal, Northern Europe, and Great Britain. Mr. Fergusson is no lover of the Northern Italian Gothic; while as regards Spain, he points out the scantiness of our knowledge and the richness and individuality of the subject. The English section is naturally a detailed one. The author stands up for the rich architectural endowment of England, whether in the number of its buildings, their beauty, round-arched and pointed- arched, or the various indigenous elaborations and inventions of Gothic detail. The peculiarities of Scotland and Ireland are also exhibited. The Byzantine style, strictly so called, closes the survey. It is treated under its Asiatic and Russian sections ; and British patriots may not be sorry to have it upon Mr. Fergusson's authority that no form of architecture is less worthy of attention than that of their Muscovite antagonist.
It gill be observed that Renaissance architecture is not included in this classification. The reason, if not stated in so many words, is obvious enough. Renaissance architecture is not a national form of art, but a fashion. It belongs to the history of architecture only in so far as it marks a considerable track of time and space, and has produced con- spicuous buildings ; not for having added any new types to the art, nor for exhibiting any national relation to the art except that of indifferentism, lack of invention, or caprice ; or, as Mr. Fergusson expresses it, the fact simply being that no sham was ever permanently successful, either in morals or in art, and no falsehood ever remained long without being found out, and when detected it inevitably ceases to please."
We are unable, however, to follow Mr. Fergusson when ho infers from this principle the impossibility of a Gothic revival ; or probably he applies his argument in a more restricted sense than many might under- stand it in. If the question is, whether it be advisable to copy indi- vidual Gothic edifices, reproducing every detail as it existed centuries ago, independently of the consideration how far the purposes of the pre- sent day are subserved by those details,—if that is Gothic revival, no term of reprobation for it could be too strong •, it were a sham and a mon- strosity. But the principle of Gothic is to be read otherwise ; and the only way of reviving the architecture is to revive the principle. Every production must start from something. The pointed arch, the traceried window, the porch, the clustered shaft, the ribbed vaulting, the buttress, &c., form such a combination of excellent constructive features and beautiful architectural features as architects of the present day cannot hope to im- prove upon. They are features of Gothic architecture. A race of builders may surely start from these without incurring the re- proach of enacting a sham. But, when they have constructed their building, they will be working against the Gothic spirit, and not in it, if they are unable themselves to invent a new decoration for each and all of their erections. As Mr. Fergusson says in another place—" The adaptation of every part to the thousand different purposes to which it may be applied necessarily causes an infinite variety. This, in fact, is the great secret of architectural propriety, but which the Indian and Gothic architects seem alone fully to have appreciated." Adaptation and invention are as much necessities of a true Gothic movement as the defined starting-point ; but without the starting-point, there is nothing to adapt or invent for.
Mr. Fergusson's qualifications for writing a book such as that before us are many and important. His range and research are remarkable ; as a list of his previous works, on Assyrian Architecture, on the true prin- ciples of Beauty, on a new system of Fortification, will testify. His sympathies are not confined to one country or school, but are, on the contrary, diffusive and critical at the same time, and extend even to "the coming style." He has visited many countries, some of them out of the ordinary track of study ; and he speaks with the weight of personal knowledge. His tone is not controversial, but affirmative ; so that, ex- cept on particular occasion, he is not tempted to digress from the history of architecture into its debateable land; but he is speculative also, and not disposed to the humdrum of such knowledge as is universal property. With nothing approaching to eloquence, he succeeds in making his sub- ject impressive and interesting to a high degree. On the per contra side, we fancy a certain deficiency in reverence rather latent than con- fessed; and a disinclination to admit originality of conception, evidenced by the continual tracing of forms and expedients either to the imitation of an abandoned method of construction—as of wooden houses in stone— or to immediate transmission from one art and country to another. This may be true as well as learned; but it leaves, perhaps unduly, the im- pression of a somewhat carping tendency. Connected with this is a want, as it appears to us, of any insight deeper than ordinary into that aspect of art which is called by the ambiguous and now almost canting but generally understood term aesthetic.' Accustomed as one now is to such a critic as Ruskin, one has become fastidious on this point ; de- manding a balance of the rarest between clear-headedness and originality. The illustrations, as the titlepage indicates, are lavishly numerous. They are taken from many sources, several of them being original, and are in general as satisfactory as can well be expected for so small a size. Attention has been paid to uniformity of scale, or the notifying of any departure from it. Although over-technicality is guarded against in the text, a glossary of architectural terms—with definitions the briefest to be intelligible—would be an acceptable aid to many into whose hands the book may come.
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