On The Use Of Colour In Diagrams Illustrating The History Of Architecture.

ON THE USE OF COLOUR IN DIAGRAMS ILLUSTRATING THE HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE .

A Paper read by Mr . Fdmund Sharpe , M . A . 'F . E . IB . A ., before the Architeciual Association . Mr . Sharpe , in his introductory remarks , said he thought the members of the Association would accept him as a friend who , having long ago withdrawn from the practice of architecture as a profession , and having therefore no personal object to serve , desired to assist

the junior members of the profession in the pursuit of a study to which he had devoted a considerable portion of his life , and upon a tolerably complete knowledge of which depended their future excellence as professional men—he meant the study of the histoiy of church architecture , When he spoke of the study of the history of church architecture he meant the serious study of a

great art—the art of building during the middle agesand not that spnrinus dil . lcla . nti study of Mediaeval art which , mixed up with the examination of barrows . and tumuli , the investigation of British earthworks and Roman roads , and tho rubbing of brasses , passed under

the general term of " arebasology , " Nor did he mean that attempt to unite ancient art with modern practice in church building and church observances which called itself " ecclcsiology . " To the true architectural student a far simpler and nobler course was open . He had to trace out and follow the progress of Mediasval architecture bj- the help of the admirable illustrations of it

that existed in every part of Christendom . He had to note the changes of form through which Media _ val architecture passed from its rise in the eleventh century to its complete development in the thirteenth century and its subsequent decline in the sixteenth century—changes of form in outline and in carved work . In other words , he had to mark and record the indications of its slow , but constant , regular , and simultaneous progress , and to turn the lessons which were thus to be learnt to his

future use and profit , He was aware that it had been the practice in certain quarters , rather to decry the study of our national monuments , and to refer the young architect to his inspiration , to " the light of nature , " and so forth . No more delusive and mischievous counsel could be given , for architecture , as well as poetry , had its alphabet and grammar , and it was as

absurd to expect an original design from the architect who had not studied these as it would be to expect a poem from a man ignorant of language . It had been urged that knowledge acquired by the study of old work led to servility , and disposed the student to copy rather than to invent and design . How was it with the Mediaaval builders in this respect ? They were carefull y trained up in one single school of art , and never had the liberty enjoyed by the architects of the present day ,

but yet they never copied each other . Of the thirt }' churches Mr . Sharpe and some members of the Association visited in August last in Lincolnshire , all within an easy distance of each other , and all erected within a short rime of each other , there were not two of which ib could be said that the principal features were identical . The saying which had been applied to tho poet' —poeta

nascilur , mn jit— applied equally to the architect . It was not the study of good work which produced copyism , but the inability to turn the knowledge acquired in such study to good account . No amount of study would compensate for want of talent and inventive ability . Mr . Sharpe then went on to observe that perhaps the title of the subject on which he had to speak bad not been very

correctly given by him in the syllabus , for though he should have to explain what use he made of colour for the purpose of making distinctions between different periods of architecture , he had much more to say of those distinctions themselves . His first business , then ,

was to point out what those distinctions were , and in order to do this it was absolutely necessary that he should have terms in which to express them . Ib was very desirable , moreover , to make use of terms which were already in general use , but this happened to be impossible to him , for the simple reason that none of the terms in general use at this time were applicable to at least two of the

classes of buildings to which he had to call attention . He had been obliged , therefore , to invent terms to answer the purposes of the minute division of the subject he should follow . Those terms were contained in a little work he published many years ago now out of print ( "The Seven Periods of English Architecture" ) . Of course no one who had paid any attention to this subject

was ignorant of the fact that it was to Mr . Hickman that we were indebted for the terms noiv in use . Rickman divided the whole of our national architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation into four periods , ivhieh he called Norman , Early English , Decorated , and Perpendicular . It was no reflection on Mr . Rickman to say that that division ( which had served its purpose so well

since he wrote ) was scarcely suited to the descriptive requirements of architectural writers at the present day , for , in the first place , it did not include those specimens of Gothic architecture that were constructed during the forty or fifty years that elapsed between tbe first appearance of the pointed arch and the final disappearance of the circular arch ; nor ( secondly ) did ib enable us to

distinguish and classify those buildings which were erected during the seventy years that intervened between the first appearance of tracery in windows , and the assumption by tracery of the flowing form which Mr . Rickniaii indicated as chiefly characteristic of his Decorated period . But during these two periods buildings were erected so unlike those of the other periods , and having such peculiar characteristics of their own , that it was impossible to classify them under or to describe them by

the terms hitherto in use . It was , then , to provide a fitting place in architectural nomenclature for these works that ho proposed in the work referred to , the division of our national architecture into six periods instead of four . He passed over Saxon architecture , as its remains were so very fragmentary and in so imperfect a condition that their study was of very little if of any use to

the architect ; moreover did such work exist in any number and completeness , they would possess scarcely any interest as works of art ; the study of Saxon architecture , therefore , was a matter chiefly of antiquarian interest . As regarded the nomenclature of the six periods into which Mr . Clarke divided English architecture , he said that although everybody might be ready to agree that it was necessary to have these six divisions , every one might not agree as to the choice of the distinguishing terms of these periods . He attached

comparatively little importance to the question of what should be the terms used , provided that any given term always meant the same thing . Therefore he did not say that the terms he proposed were the best that could be adopted ,, but until he was supplied with better he could continueto make use of them . The terms which he employed ¦ were : —( 1 ) Norman ; ( 2 ) Transitional ; ( 3 ) Lancet ; ( 4 )>

Geometrical ; ( 5 ) Curvilinear ; ( 6 ) Rectilinear . He limited the buildings in the Roman style to those in which the circular arch alone prevailed . To the Transitional period he allotted a good many of the works which Mr . Rickniaii classed as Norman . In tho Transitional period both the pointed and circular arch prevailed ( not indiscriminately , however ) in the same building up to the end

of the eleventh century , the former being used for arches of construction , the latter for arches of decoration . The Transitional period Mr . Sharpe placed as commencing at A . D . 1145 , and coming down to 1190 ; the Lancet period as commencing at 1190 , and closing ab 1245 ; the Geometrical period as beginning at 1245 , and ending at 1315 „