Letters of an Architect from France Italy and Greece

This illustrated volume was published in 1828 and is volume one of two.. Excerpt from the Preface:. Many books of travels in the south of Europe have been pub- lished ; some of them written by men of talents and information who were attached to the fine arts and to architecture as one of them ; and many professional works treating on the architecture of Italy and Greece of greater or less excellence have been given to the world ; but I do not know that there is any one in which the author after examining the most celebrated edifices of ancient and modern times endeavours to explain to what circumstances they owe their power of pleasing ; and what are to be considered as defects tending to diminish that power. The subject has been slightly and incidentally touched upon by more than one traveller but not treated with that care and detail which it deserves. To the architect it is of the greatest importance : it is no less than the knowledge of what he is to shun and what to and details of a great many edifices have been measured with care and published with considerable accuracy; and knowing the original building to be beautiful we copy and re-copy its parts without considering whether all the particulars conduce to the same harmonious effect or whether those forms which please under certain circumstances may not displease in others : nor are we entirely free from the danger of neglecting that character and propriety of ornament on which the beauty of the whole must in some measure depend. In all the fine arts but particu- larly in architecture the eye is frequently pleased without our being able to explain why; and this why has sometimes escaped in the drawings and measures which have been published of the edifices. This connexion of cause and effect is then the great end and object of the architect ; the completion and consumma- tion of his studies; and this it is the object of the author of the present work to explain as far as his abilities and opportunities will admit. The sentiment of wanting such guidance on his own part first incited him to make the attempt and the frequent ob- servation of how little the student in architecture on first setting out on his travels knows how or what he is to study has en- couraged him to persevere. He wishes to shew that the young architect has a more important task to perform than that of mea- suring and re-measuring what has been a thousand times measured : a task requiring much more mental exertion and conducing in a much higher degree to his future excellence. The first place in the art is still unoccupied. The ancients had a Phidias excellent alike in sculpture and architecture; but the moderns have certainly yet produced no one who can occupy in architecture the lofty eminence which Raphael does in painting................................................................................................ Book Excerpt:. If on entering the Place of St. Mark under the arcades where once stood the church of St. Geminiani you keep to the left and walk under the arcade on the northern side you gradually obtain a view of the Ducal Palace. Another great edifice thus opening upon you stimulates the imagination and enhances the beauty of this square. Still farther you catch a view of the great harbour and some of the fine buildings around it which still increases the variety of the scene without destroying its unity ; and strengthens the sentiment. The Ducal Palace is even more ugly than any thing I have previously mentioned ; it offers a double range of comparatively small arches supporting a great wall with a few large windows in it. Considered in detail I can imagine no alteration to make it tolerable but if this lofty wall had been set back behind the two stories of little arches instead of standing upon them it would have been a very noble production.