k^.mm 
 
 'Mi
 
 
 L I B RAI^Y 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UN IVER^SITY 
 
 or ILLI NOIS
 
 . ' V' /a^t^ *a--'^'VRICE ONE SHILLING. 
 
 ertural mllnini. ^ 
 
 )3>'5) 
 
 TUFTON Slf^EETNEAR DEA/sYAF^D, WESTMINSTER 
 
 
 &■ 
 
 X Visit to the Mchitectural Museum" 
 
 WRITTEN FOR STUDENTS BY 
 
 elohn P.leddoQ, F,R,I,&A, 
 
 rown^Sasket. 
 
 The Royal Architectural Museum. 
 
 With Illustratjons from Photographs & Copies of Sketches 
 BY T. Raffles Davison in the British Architect. 
 
 F KeU.Lit.h. G a.inle St Holborn, LoadimE . C.
 
 / 
 
 r 
 
 A VISIT TO THE 
 
 Architectural Museum. 
 
 asinttcn for StuOcnts 
 
 JNO. P. SEDDON, F.R.I. B.A. 
 
 With Sketches from the Museum by T. Raffles Davison. 
 
 December, 1884. 
 
 PUBLISHED AT THE ARCHITECTURAL MUSEUM, 
 18, TuFTON Street, Westminster. 
 
 C. F. Kell, Lithographer, 8, Castle Street, Holborn.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Caskets of Jewels, without exaggeration, were those 
 buildings of old in which Architecture, Painting, and 
 Sculpture were combined, and from which the treasures 
 contained in this, our own Casket of the Architectural 
 Museum of London, were gathered. 
 
 Jewels owe much to their setting, and the rough 
 diamond has but little lustre till polished and treated as 
 a stone of price. Painting and Sculpture also are but 
 isolated gems, that lose half their value if not designed 
 for a purpose, and the highest purpose they can have 
 is that of decoration, and not exposure in a sale-room. 
 
 Our own Casket, the Architectural Museum, is one 
 crammed with the choicest jewels of art, heirlooms 
 from all ages, collected under exceptionally favourable 
 circumstances which can never recur. Greece and 
 Rome have yielded us Classic works — Venice and Verona 
 the choicest Italian — and France, Germany, and the 
 British Isles, the best of the Mediaeval period. 
 
 Here, even better than the originals, can the casts 
 be handled and examined. Here they have a practical 
 and educational utility, which, from the facilities of com- 
 parison afforded, it is simply impossible to surpass. 
 
 JOHN R SEDDON, 
 
 Architect. 
 
 I, Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, 
 lit Dec. 1884.
 
 O
 
 A VISIT TO THE ARCHITECTURAL 
 MUSEUM. 
 
 The object of my address on the present occasion is 
 to prove the unique value of this Museum, and to soHcit for 
 it the interest and support of another generation of archi- 
 tects from that which founded it, and to induce them to 
 take up and complete the work of their predecessors. Its 
 unique value consists in its comprehensiveness, and its 
 essentially practical character. It cannot pretend to house 
 monuments, such as the Column of Trajan, or the noble 
 portal of Santiago de Compostella, or the other full-sized 
 copies of architectural treasures that find room in the 
 noble galleries of South Kensington ; but it has a yet wider, 
 if not so lofty a grasp, than that ambitious collection. 
 Certainly no other Museum out of England can vie with 
 it in point of catholicity ; for our continental neighbours 
 are sublimely indifferent to or else ignorant of the vast and 
 valuable stores of English architectural ornament. 
 
 Mons. Viollet-le-Duc has ably and fully treated of the 
 figure and ornamental mediaeval sculpture of his country, 
 and he has not said one word too much for it. His claim 
 may be conceded at once, that the sculpture of the 
 Isle de France of the thirteenth century rivalled, and 
 even surpassed, in many respects, that of Greece itself in 
 the age of Pericles ; and the Domaine Royale of France was 
 the veritable Attica of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, he
 
 hardly seems to have been aware that the different styles 
 of the Gothic of France, in comparison with that of 
 En<jland, were ever but half baked, their cooking having 
 been too fast and furious. In our tight little isle the 
 several successive phases of that most wonderful develop- 
 ment of Christian art were each brought to a degree of 
 perfection, which the very fervour of the tentative energy 
 in France prevented from being attained there. Granting 
 that the central creative furnace was in Paris, with lesser 
 distinct fires in other provinces of France, they were fed 
 with fuel from too many various sources to admit of a 
 common harmonious result. Hence, though France out- 
 stripped in grandeur of conception all its rivals in 
 Christendom, it never paused to systematise and work out 
 thoroughly any of its numerous ideals. It seized hold of 
 one element of architectural beauty after another, only to 
 leave them as soon, in its hurried, frenzied straining to 
 reach the " excelsior " of its aim ; and comet-like, mount- 
 ing higher and higher, it at last plunged into a wild and 
 brilliant, but downward course, and blazed itself out, as a 
 meteor, before it was superseded by the Renaissance. 
 
 The gradual development of mediaeval art in England 
 was wholly different. Here, though doubtless each ideal 
 was in succession imported from France, it arrived at 
 maturity, and without all the embryo stages. It was 
 received and dealt with in our characteristic insular 
 sobriety of manner, and was then formulated and worked 
 out with plenty of strong native individuality ; so much so, 
 that it was no easy task to trace whence the inspiration 
 was drawn, and the result, though less ambitious, was more 
 complete. Westminster Abbey, for instance, though more 
 than usually French in conception among English build- 
 ings (as was to be expected from its being the work of our 
 Henry III.), has no exact prototype in France. It is truly 
 an English elaboration under foreign influence, with all our
 
 insular perfection and character of detail and proportion, 
 but without any such startling artistic effects as were then 
 commonly aimed at in France, and not always realized. 
 
 In France and on the Continent generally, the separate 
 contending elements of Romanesque and Byzantine were 
 mingled in very variable proportions. These so maintained 
 their influence, which is traceable, more or less, almost to 
 the end of the mediaeval period: like the distinctly coloured 
 waters of the Rhine and the Moselle, flowing side by side, 
 separately, yet together. They were overwhelmed, rather 
 than amalgamated, at last, by the ever-increasing flood of 
 Gothic elements ; while in England they were soon 
 absorbed, and ceased to modify the colour of the general 
 current at all. 
 
 Thus it is that Amiens and Salisbury, commenced and 
 finished about the same time (12 17 to 1274 A.D.), show so 
 strongly their respective national characteristics. The 
 lofty vaulted nave of the former soars heavenward, so that 
 could its towers have followed in like proportion, it seems 
 as if they must have cleft the clouds ; but, as there are 
 limits to human ambition, they fail to rise much higher 
 than its ridge, and the aspiration of the whole building is 
 sacrificed to that of a part. Whereas Salisbury, more 
 modest throughout, preserve sa proper pyramidal outline ; 
 and if its ideal be tamer, it is more completely realized. 
 
 It is the same with the sculptured ornament. In 
 France, capitals from some conventional Gallo-Roman or 
 Byzantine type are found side by side with others wholly 
 Naturalesque, and square abaci incongruously crown both. 
 In England no such discord prevails, as the square abacus 
 was soon discarded, with the transitional style to which it 
 belonged ; and circular and octagonal ones harmonise grace- 
 fully with the elegant conventional foliage of the thirteenth 
 century and the later natural type of the fourteenth 
 respectively.
 
 In this Museum alone can these and other types of 
 ornament be examined, and handled if need be, for pur- 
 poses of comparison. Here the architectural student and 
 carver may study at their convenience details brought from 
 the finest buildings both of Pagan and Christian times. 
 Here the history of the civilized world is to be read, as 
 written in stones by the builders of all ages. I shall try to 
 show you how consecutive it is, and hope to induce you to 
 treat it as a library of reference, to which you may and 
 should continually resort. 
 
 The far East has ever been the quarry whence materials 
 for ornamental art have been drawn. But, though full of 
 original and beautiful design, it has never attained the 
 restrained and refined character which befits and constitutes 
 architectural style. Yet the more highly civilized Western 
 world has always prized Oriental art, and turned to it for 
 inspiration. Just as we import Eastern goods, so doubtless 
 the Greeks and Romans and the Venetian and Genoese 
 merchants throughout the Middle Ages brought to Europe 
 as luxuries the richly-carved and woven goods of the East- 
 The character of this Oriental art has always been conven- 
 tional and stereotyped. It has been the slave of priest- 
 craft and tyranny, and divorced from that intellectual 
 freedom which has been the mainspring of the arts in the 
 West. 
 
 The limits of the space in such a Museum as this 
 precludes its possession of many examples of this class. 
 Here we want the works of mature art, and not its materials. 
 Still, there is here a series of original carvings in stone from 
 the ruins of one of the ancient capitals of India, in the great 
 desert of Rajpootana, of the date of about i lOO A.D. These 
 are sufficiently representative of the general character of 
 Oriental art, which changes little from age to age. They 
 may be referred in a comparative point of view, and as 
 ornament they have many admirable qualities. They are
 
 Il"" \ 
 
 I- I'/ ' 
 
 
 if fr ■■%^ 
 
 t«« "ftrfftf, 
 
 ^;3^ 
 
 IchinuS curiae ^j)*^' 
 cap\tal 
 
 f»"¥ 
 
 Panel from l^t -frnf in g.Olcon Chared fi p. Hoo 
 
 \m 
 
 ir'-^.:;- 'It?" J; 
 
 W"'-i 
 
 rotmdlobfd foUfc (f?»m<sn) 
 Tftnplf of jripit^r Slater 
 
 ^'#^^^- 
 
 ■^'^'^v ^^^^ 
 
 A«,: 
 
 
 
 
 fTOin over Ifie ;h*,wtl drrh o(- 
 
 vVifrs 
 
 ;J\ Visil- to 
 
 v^fclt by To(>n P.^fWon frib-i 
 
 
 
 
 C F KgU, FKotoiitLc LoTidon, E C
 
 full of fancy and are elaborately rich, and have a bossyj 
 sculpturesque effect, with crowds of figures, elephants, 
 horses in trappings, and grotesques. They seem, however, 
 more suitable to decorate furniture than any monumental 
 building. 
 
 There is here a considerable and valuable collection of 
 Classic casts, whence may be traced the parentage of all 
 subsequent styles. Here are embodied the Greek highly 
 intellectual ideals, with perhaps the greatest material 
 perfection ever attained in art. The typical Doric and 
 Ionic orders, to be studied here in models, may or may not 
 be indebted for suggestions of sundry details to objects 
 found amidst the chaos of Oriental art, but are virtually 
 creations of the gifted Greeks. Dealing now only with the 
 decorations of these orders, in Nos. 120 to 125 (top floor — 
 Sketch No. 5), we have examples of the figure and animal 
 sculpture of the Parthenon, and may note in them the noble 
 abstraction of natural form, in calm and unimpassioned 
 excellence ; and yet, fitted as are the ornament and its 
 framework — the order — to each other, they have not grown 
 together. The sculpture is separable from the architecture, 
 and has the look of studio work about it, and seems to be 
 as much or more at home in the British Museum, where all 
 its exquisite detail can be studied, as on the shelf of the 
 pediment of the temple, where a large part of it would 
 necessarily be lost 
 
 We see in the echinus curve of the Doric capitals, 
 Nos. 176 to 179 (top floor— Sketch No. i), the prototype, 
 as Mr. Ruskin points out, of all the convex capitals of the 
 later world ; and in the hollow one of the Corinthian capital 
 of the Temple of Vesta, No. 24 (Sketch No. 2), that of all 
 the concave capitals of later times. Then again, in the 
 sharply pointed Greek leafage, as in No. 7 (Sketch No. 3), 
 and in that of the Choragic monument of Lysicrates, Nos. 90 
 to 100, we can trace the origin of the later Byzantine work,
 
 1(5 
 
 which influenced so widely Western art ; and in the round- 
 lobed Roman foHage of the Temple of Jupitor Stator, No. 6 
 (Sketch No. 4), that of its still more widely-diffused rival, 
 the Romanesque. Both these may have been primarily 
 derived, as stated, from varieties of the natural acanthus 
 plant ; but then each type has become highly convention- 
 alised ; and, though in the Greek example it is very freely 
 carved, throughout the Classic period all ornament was 
 subordinated to the exigencies of the architectural frame- 
 work, so that not a leaf must wander, or presume to have a 
 sweet will of its own, but stand in its ordered rank with 
 its fellows, all identically, and somewhat monotonously, 
 alike.* 
 
 At the fall of Rome, whose architecture and ornament- 
 ation had been in keeping with its politically pompous 
 character, and consistent with its Pagan religious motifs, 
 Europe was left strewn with the debris of Classic monu- 
 ments. Then in the Western part of the Empire the 
 round-lobed acanthus was feebly copied by the rude 
 invaders, together with grotesques more to their mind ; 
 while in the Eastern half, nearer Greece, the sharp-leaved 
 variety remained the fashion, and lingered long in Syrian 
 cities, till the inhabitants thereof were swept away by the 
 Ottoman invasion. European art thus slumbered through 
 the Dark Ages, with most, and yet feeble, life at Constan- 
 tinople, and there in a strictly conventional and hierarchial 
 manner, until Charlemagne strove in the eighth century to 
 effect a renaissance of art in Europe by help of artists from 
 Constantinople. His success was but small and short- 
 lived, but has yet left its effects, principally in Germany, 
 where it followed the northward course of the Rhine ; an,d 
 
 * The Ionic capital, so thoroughly conventional, seems to have but little 
 influence comparatively, and yet I noticed but the other day at Christchurch, 
 Hants, capitals more resembling its volutes than the caulicolae of the 
 Corinthian.
 
 n 
 
 it was owing to this that the German developments of the 
 Romanesque and Gothic took a distinct character of their 
 own. 
 
 Christianity was, during this long interregnum of art 
 down to looo A.D., welding together for future use the 
 several elements of the antique types of both Greece and 
 Rome, supplied by the remains of the works of the Roman 
 Empire, with fresh material derived from the undisciplined 
 freedom and energy of the barbarian invaders ; and it was 
 at the same time teaching a higher spiritual ideal and a 
 truer system of construction, founded upon common sense, 
 than that of the Romans. 
 
 Christendom awoke with the commencement of the 
 eleventh century, and the Church directed the new-born 
 efforts after art. It did not disdain the Pagan materials 
 which it found to its hand ; for thence in Rome and the 
 western part of Europe it developed the plan of the Latin 
 cross, the construction of vaulting, the round arch, and the 
 ornament of the round-lobed acanthus foliage. This is the 
 style of the Romanesque. Simultaneously in Byzantium 
 and the Eastern Empire it produced the Greek cross plan, 
 the domical construction, and the sharp-leaved Greek 
 acanthus ornamentation which formed the Byzantine style. 
 The Crusades* blended both these together, and brought 
 the East and the West face to face, and the Christians who 
 joined them learned art lessons even of their Saracenic 
 foes. At the same time merchants imported from Constan- 
 tinople and Damascus into France eastern stuffs, jewellery, 
 carvings and paintings. Another strange influence had 
 before been brought by the Scandinavian sea rovers to the 
 north-east coast of Europe, to England, Ireland, Normandy, 
 and Poitou, and the Normans had taken another to Sicily, 
 as also the Lombards to North Italy, while direct Oriental 
 influence had been brought to Venice, Ravenna, and 
 
 * First Crusade, 1098 a.d. ; second, 11 17 a.d. ; third, 1189 a.d.
 
 12 
 
 Pcrigucux. Of this pre-Norman period, which would be the 
 Saxon of England, this museum has but casts of some 
 turned balusters from Dover (Sketch No. 6) of a Runic 
 cross, and of two most interesting figures of angels, the 
 originals of which are over the chancel arch of the Anglo- 
 Saxon church of Bradford, in Wilts (Sketch No. y). 
 
 Out of all these several elements was developed variously 
 in Germany, Lombardy, France, and England, the Roman- 
 esque of the eleventh century. This is the style of the 
 round arch called Norman with us, massive in character, 
 and admirably adapted to be representative of the feudal 
 system. It lasted till 1115 A.D. At first it was plain and 
 simple, as seen in the chapel of the Tower of London. Its 
 English character of ornament is represented by the casts 
 of the archaic fonts of Winchester and East Meon (Sketch 
 No. 8), the originals of which are in black marble (date 
 about 1080). As the style advanced the ornamentation 
 became richer and more refined, and we see it in its per- 
 fection in the cast in the museum of the beautiful doorway 
 of Barfreston Church (Sketch No. 9) and in the fine 
 fragments from Bridlington Priory (Sketch No. 10). But 
 that of the monumental slab from Lewes Abbey of 
 Gundreda, the daughter of William the Conqueror, is of 
 special beauty and interest. In it may be seen the influence 
 of Byzantine works in the sharp-leaved Greek acanthus- 
 like foliage, the pearled stems and doubled ends of the 
 
 leaflets. 
 
 * * it -X- * * 
 
 In figure sculpture we find the French far ahead of us, 
 and in the casts from the west doorway of Chartres 
 Cathedral (see Sketches A, B, D) in the museum, and a 
 drawing of one of its figures presented by Mr. Ruskin, we 
 see the strong Byzantine influence in the treatment of the 
 body and its dress, which, though of local French 
 character, has the straight folds and rigid lines found in
 
 u 
 
 5 i^lffMS^j^ 
 
 ^0 fv^^ '^ 
 
 
 
 
 ^^ '}^ cju<yh^-jo{\ panel 
 
 A .D . l?O0 circa 
 
 \ 
 
 \i r^ 
 
 k 
 
 C F Kell Photo-LitU LoailoB.E C
 
 13 
 
 Byzantine triptychs, while the face is evidently a study 
 from nature. All these points show strongly conflicting 
 influences at work in France from which England seems to 
 have been free. 
 
 Again, in the casts of the fine capitals from the eastern 
 portion of the crypt of York Minster (Nos. 324, 1035, on first 
 floor, see Sketch C), we may note not only the Byzantine 
 sharp leafage, but the manner of the carving cut down into 
 the surface of its convex outline, which has become unlike 
 that of the Doric echinus — viz., straight at bottom and 
 bending out at top — but the reverse, which shape, as 
 Mr. Ruskin says, is the truer supporting form, and the 
 essentially characteristic one of the Byzantine convex 
 capital. 
 
 The twelfth century (1115 to 1190) is the period known 
 in England as the Transitional, as that in which round and 
 pointed arches were mixed^— the latter for constructional 
 reasons, to meet the difficulties of vaulting ; the former by 
 choice, as a matter of taste for ornament. In England this 
 phase was wrought out to great perfection, as in the round 
 part of the Temple Church in London, with greater 
 elegance than the Norman, and yet with sufficient solidity ; 
 so that, as Mr. Sharpe used to contend, it seemed to have 
 reached almost the zenith of architectural excellence — 
 since the Early English, which followed it, though more 
 graceful, is almost too slight in construction. In Germany 
 also this phase embraces its noblest works : but in France 
 it can hardly be distinguished from other periods, the 
 whole course of Gothic there having been and remaining 
 in continual transition. In ornament it is marked here by 
 the square abacus, combined with endless varieties of the 
 development of the Norman cushion-like capital into 
 embryo conventional foliage. The museum contains a 
 remarkable series of capitals from St. David's Cathedral 
 (Nos. 69 to 82), in which this process is seen in every 
 stage.
 
 At this period in France great exertions were being 
 made to emancipate architectural ornament and sculpture 
 from traditional trammels, and to discover new types to 
 study. Several distinct schools existed, which are thus 
 classified by M. Viollet-le-Duc : (i) that of the Rhine 
 Provinces, which may be well studied in Mr. Sharpe's 
 " Ornamentation of the Transitional Period in Central 
 Germany ; " (2) that of Toulouse ; (3) that of Limoges ; 
 (4) of Provence ; and (5) that of the Clunisians. Of these 
 we have in the museum an interesting and picturesque 
 example of the Toulouse school, based on the study of the 
 rich Oriental imports. 
 
 The school of Cluny was, however, at that date, the 
 most progressive, and under its powerful monastic estab- 
 lishments in Burgundy, great efforts were made to get rid 
 of the traditional conventional types by a closer study of 
 nature and reference to the paintings from Byzantium, 
 which were greatly in advance of the Byzantine sculptured 
 triptychs, which were taken as models elsewhere. Of this 
 school we have Nos. 397-400 and 500 from the Abbey 
 of Vezelay. 
 
 We thus see throughout the Continent a strange 
 seething and mingling of various influences during the 
 twelfth century, with general dissatisfaction with what 
 had previously existed, and a straining after new, or 
 rather foreign, elements, auguring great things in future, 
 but failing then to realise their ideal. Also we note that 
 the clerical direction was dominant, which permitted and 
 even urged artists to progress, but that only to a limited 
 extent. In the series of casts from Notre Dame, Paris 
 (see Sketches A, B, C, D, E), the marked variety and 
 unrest are strongly marked. The Byzantine element is 
 predominant in some, while others recall the Gallo-Roman 
 and others seem prematurely Naturelesque, and the 
 specially French type of capital called " a crochet " is 
 making its appearance.
 
 • 15 
 
 In England our aims seem then to have been lowef^ 
 and confined to simpler but more original working out of 
 new types of ornament, springing, however, directly from 
 the Anglo-Norman. This can be well studied in Mr. 
 Sharpe's " Ornamentation of the Transitional Period in 
 England," and in a host of examples the casts of which 
 are in this museum ; and as Sir Gilbert Scott says in his 
 admirable Guide, " It is difficult to select special types 
 owing to an embarras de richesser 
 
 Late in the century the English transition, as pointed 
 out by that high authority, became strongly influenced by 
 that of France, owing to the employment of William of 
 Sens as architect at Canterbury Cathedral, where, among 
 other foreign details, appear the Byzantinesque version of 
 the Corinthian capital and the crochet type. Henceforth 
 till its close we find the latter especially constantly mixed 
 with our own insular work, as at Glastonbury and the 
 Temple Church. 
 
 The thirteenth century ushered in an entirely new era 
 in art throughout Christendom (1190 to 1245) : tradition 
 was then thrown aside and the ecclesiastical trammels 
 broken down. This movement on the Continent has been 
 well described by M. Viollet-le-Duc : he attributes it to 
 the freedom and emulation of a new lay school, fostered by 
 the prelates of municipalities, in opposition to the monastic 
 establishments and feudal system, without foreseeing its 
 tendency to become independent even of themselves. 
 
 The Isle de France, or Domaine Royale, with Paris as 
 its centre, was the head-quarters of this noble school, 
 although Amiens, Rheims, Rouen, Chartres, and other 
 cathedral towns followed close in its wake. The amount 
 and quality of the work done in these was truly astonish- 
 ng. From Notre Dame in Paris we have here as repre- 
 sentative of its fine figure sculpture (Nos. 1280- 1282), three 
 bas-relief panels, representing the Death, Assumption, and
 
 i6 
 
 Funeral of the Virgin, from the aisle of the chevct of that 
 cathedral. Nothing can surpass the sweet serenity of the 
 countenance of the Virgin in the first of this series, or the 
 pathos in the pained expressions of the several spectators 
 (see Sketch E). In the Assumption the principal figure is 
 most dignified and graceful, and the hovering angels 
 charming. The scene of the Funeral is very dramatic, and 
 contains a humorous passage, in that of the two irreverent 
 lads, who have been miraculously punished for mocking 
 the ceremonial ; one of these has fallen to the ground 
 without his hands that he had dared to lay on the sacred 
 coffer. These remain attached to that, as also does his 
 companion, bodily. (See Sketch E 2), 
 
 But a still nobler work is that of the group in full relief 
 of the subject of " Noli-me-tangere " from the same 
 cathedral. (See Sketch F.) Here is dramatic sculpture 
 indeed, with admirable expression in attitudes and features! 
 The gracious shrinking yet revealing posture of our Lord's 
 figure, with its lovely countenance, together with that of 
 the refined adoring females who are regarding Him, 
 touches a higher note than even the far more perfect work 
 in mere material qualities of the Parthenon, which, being 
 placed close above, can be easily compared. Here we 
 have not only intellect, but soul ; and the Christian ideal far 
 surpasses the Pagan, even if it do not reach its aim so 
 completely. One feels here the " Excelsior " which is 
 beyond human attainment, and that even the suggestion of 
 such is better than the fuller realisation of a lower one. 
 
 Nor are the English examples in the Museum of the 
 figure sculpture of this prolific period far behind. Pro- 
 fessor Cockerell has done justice to the splendid choir of 
 angels from the spandrils of the clerestory of Lincoln 
 Cathedral, which are quite original in idea, and full of senti- 
 ment and actual beauty, both of expression, attitude, and 
 drapery. The graceful figures from the Westminster
 
 17 
 
 Chapter House are somewhat French in type ; but when 
 we think of the magnificent sculptured conceptions of the 
 fa9ades of Wells Cathedral, and of the character of its 
 sculptures in detail, as well as of those of Lincoln, we may 
 feel that we have works of which our nation may be almost 
 as proud as M. Viollet-le-Duc is justly of those of the great 
 French school of the thirteenth century. 
 
 When, however, we turn to the ornamental carving, I 
 think we may claim the palm. There is no hesitation in 
 English work of this date as to what type it should follow, 
 while that of France seems yet embarrassed by the multi- 
 tude of types to choose from, and to be retarded by its own 
 restless energy and want of concentration. We may have 
 learned from our neighbours to go to nature for study, but we 
 have studied its essence to better purpose, and not lost our- 
 selves in its detail. Here, at any rate, all the old traditional 
 types were discarded, and no further help sought in Oriental 
 sources ; whereas in France, even yet, square abaci and 
 Byzantine and Corinthian elements still appear, even while 
 wreathed with foliage so closely imitated as to have lost its 
 true stone character. 
 
 In the arcades from the choir of the Cathedral of Paris, 
 which are on the ground floor of the Museum, may be 
 seen all this tentative energetic striving after novelty, to- 
 gether with the incongruity of the mixture of types and the 
 lack of harmony in style, as compared with the calm and 
 complete rhythm of contemporary English work. Their 
 slender shafts and delicate bell-shaped capitals, with elegant 
 crochet horns budding into foliage, carry heavy square abaci 
 and poor unmoulded arches ; while in the sculptured bas- 
 reliefs, among other exquisite compositions, is that of St. 
 Michael and the Dragon, which M. Viollet-le-Duc says 
 " possesses all the best qualities of sculpture, viz., excellent 
 composition of lines, arrangement of masses, movement felt 
 and expressed, sobriety of means, and nobleness of style,
 
 i8 
 
 rivalling the best works of antiquity." Turn thence and 
 watch the lovely mouldings from the west doorway of St. 
 Alban's, with its rich bosses of the Early English charac- 
 teristic foliage, with the perfect capitals with their graceful 
 circular abaci, and it must be acknowledged that, leaving 
 out of the question the higher figure sculpture, the Conti- 
 nental work is far inferior to this refined and accomplished 
 work of the same time in England. We have in the 
 Museum two French scrollwork ornaments from Notre 
 Dame, Paris, of nearly the same date, the one a version of 
 the well-known ancient Roman in design, with Gallo- 
 Roman conventional foliage of fine execution, while the 
 latter is an almost purely Naturalesque of some conven- 
 tionalised type, but equally with the other a noble piece of 
 ornament. 
 
 Then of our Early English foliage, what a creation it is ! 
 From what plant was it taken ? Who knows and who 
 cares ? It has the spirit of vegetation, and not its body 
 only. It grows ! and yet is stone ! Look at that from 
 the Cathedral of Llandaff (Nos. 239 to 254). (See 
 Sketches G.) No Greek work ever had such grace and 
 such life ; the acanthus foliage of the Choragic monument 
 of Lydicrates is dead beside it. It springs from its elegant 
 stems with such vigour and yet delicate gradation, and its 
 leaves spread out into trefoils and other equal ideal shapes, 
 with perfect truth of form and curvature. Or take some 
 of the spandrils from Wells west front, on a simpler, 
 bolder, and larger scale, and yet equally well drawn and 
 modelled ; or those from Stone Church. But the examples 
 are endless, and never monotonous. 
 
 These English carvers took the early spring budding 
 vegetation for their type, as it pushes out of the ground 
 with all the vigour of its youth. They saw its suitability 
 for the material and purpose, but the French were already 
 hankering for the developed leaves, and soon began
 
 
 ^^'V?' 
 
 /^oU me Teinjreve"' 
 
 ^1 John f . 5j«/«r. f.r...fc. 
 
 ^>' r; 
 
 ^C<, 5)dM.W 
 
 F Kell PLotoiitho London E
 
 19 
 
 twining wreaths of them, as if plucked and bound round 
 and not growing out of the stone capitals. Now, the 
 English foliage is in accord with the stems, and forms 
 graceful horns, not so obtrusive as, but more consistent 
 than, the stiff French ones, at the end of which a few leaves 
 are stuck, so that one wonders how they got or can remain 
 there. 
 
 But I must leave, though with regret, this fascinating 
 period of art ; nor will time permit me to speak of many 
 other treasures of the thirteenth century stored in this 
 Museum ; of the fragments of its jewel-like glass, from 
 which our glass painters might learn much of which they 
 seem ignorant or oblivious ; of the rich wrought ironwork 
 from the great doorways of Notre Dame, Paris ; of the 
 many fine effigies, and the lessons they can give in 
 costume ; — I will only point out how here some things, like 
 the casts of the splendid bosses from Chester, can be better 
 studied, because easier reached, than even the originals 
 themselves. This is the case also with the uniquely carved 
 capital from the pier in the centre of the Westminster 
 Chapter-house, which, unlike most mediaeval works, is not 
 happily treated for its position ; for though the leafage, 
 executed in Purbeck marble, is of the most refined and 
 exquisite class when it can be examined, as it can here, it 
 is really thrown away in the position of the actual work. 
 One special treasure of the Museum must be mentioned, 
 viz., that of the quite unique and unequalled series of 
 encaustic tiles from Chertsey Abbey, illustrating the 
 romance of Sir Tristram and of Richard Coeur de Lion, 
 showing how the very pavements at that time were made 
 the vehicle for art of a noble kind. 
 
 The fourteenth century finds Continental art so far 
 advanced as to be already on the road of decline, but that 
 of England has paused again to form a fresh development* 
 We have no new type abroad, but their complete Gothic
 
 20 
 
 which had outstripped our Early English, gradually turns 
 into the Flamboyant, the very name of which expresses the 
 redundant and unrestrained — for stone has other office 
 than to imitate flames. We have a large store of this class 
 of work from Amiens, and it is the only one of which 1 
 think we have too much. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin, in his spirit of curious analysis, has dis- 
 covered that dried dead leaves may be placed side by side 
 with Flamboyant, and a striking resemblance between 
 them seen. Now, though he is not enamoured of the 
 strait-jacket-like traceries of English Perpendicular, he 
 could not but allow that such intricate carving as that of 
 the poppyheads in Ludlow Church are redolent with 
 nervous, energetic life, and drawn and modelled in a 
 marvellous manner. 
 
 But following the French ornament has led me too fast, 
 for in England our fourteenth-century Naturalesque work 
 was, like the thirteenth-century conventional work, elabo- 
 rated into a style, and was dwelt upon till developed to 
 perfection. The capitals and carvings from Southwell 
 Chapter-house show how far human skill can be carried in 
 life-like and minute imitation of natural foliage, and can be 
 compared with advantage with the comparatively scraggy 
 and formless capitals from the Sainte Chapelle of Paris, 
 which happen to be placed alongside. 
 
 There is another distinctively English type of conven- 
 tional ornament of this fourteenth century, belonging to 
 our Decorated period of architecture. It is more architec- 
 tural than the somewhat too-closely imitated Naturalesque. 
 It is fine, free, flowing, and well modelled. 
 
 We have now, however, reached the fifteenth-century 
 work, and I have already anticipated most of what I need 
 remark as to the comparative character of the Continental 
 and English. We are now certainly on the downward 
 course, and have passed the zenith of Mediaeval sculpture
 
 21 
 
 and ornament, whatever may be thought of its architecture. 
 The aspiring principles of Gothic may be found to have 
 been carried further in this style. We cannot but view the 
 fan-vaulting, and other of its great constructive achieve- 
 ments, as steps in advance. The general effect of the 
 buildings may be grander, and more light and airy, but 
 the excellence of the separate details has been sacrificed to 
 these. The sculpture has become mannered, and its ideal 
 is less elevated and its execution inferior. Yet it still 
 possesses great interest, and the examples in this Museum 
 of the figures from Nuremberg and elsewhere (Nos. 844- 
 847) may be studied with advantage. (See Sketches H.) 
 Much of the Perpendicular carving is of elaborate design 
 and splendid execution — terms which can be applied to 
 little of the Continental cotemporary work, which has 
 degenerated there into unmeaning over-luxuriance, as in 
 the Flamboyant of France, the coarse detail of- Burgundy, 
 and fantastic extravagance of Germany. 
 
 We must not, however, pass so hastily the very fine 
 and unique collection of Venetian sculpture and carvings 
 presented by Mr. Ruskin. The work of Italy during the 
 Middle Ages was so distinct from other Mediaeval north of 
 the Alps, that it seemed better not to interrupt the 
 description of the successive phases of those by any 
 reference to the cotemporary Cisalpine work. The 
 Italians were so surrounded by the remains of ancient 
 Classic that they never could escape that influence. They 
 seem to have been busy all the time with the prepara- 
 tion of what should follow when the Northern Gothic 
 should have run its course, and, in fact, to have held a 
 brief to usher in a Classic Renaissance on the first oppor- 
 tunity. In painting and in sculpture they were not idle, 
 but tentatively engaged in preparing for the restoration 
 of those higher arts. But they quite failed even to aim 
 at such a combination of architecture and artistic decora-
 
 22 
 
 tion as we have seen to have been realized in France 
 and England. 
 
 Venice, however, was an exception to this general rule, 
 and in that cosmopolitan city all the diverse artistic 
 elements, Oriental and Occidental, met and produced a 
 unique result, which has been so admirably and eloquently 
 analysed by Mr. Ruskin. Those who would study the 
 stones of Venice should come here to examine their casts. 
 We have many from the noble capitals of the Doge's Palace 
 and the Church of St. Mark ; and in the latter may be 
 noted the peculiar treatment of sculpture enforced by the 
 nature of the material, which in this case was the costly 
 one of marble. But the progress of art in Italy leads 
 necessarily to the renaissance of Classic art, unfortunately 
 based on that of Rome rather than of Greece, and to the 
 development of its studio nature and characteristics. 
 Roman art was false, though splendid, and Renaissance 
 falser and even more the ministrant to luxury. Art no 
 longer sought to teach or please the people, but to gratify 
 and pamper the rich and the learned. It ceased to be 
 original, and became the copier of copies. Painting, indeed^ 
 and Sculpture, bent on selfish courses, had a glorious inde- 
 pendent existence, but as handmaids of Architecture they 
 no longer existed or grew with it. Architectural 
 ornament decayed ; it sought no fresh motifs ; it no 
 longer studied nature, but began to reproduce contin- 
 ually the Roman acanthus, only with feebler and more 
 formless foliage 
 
 The Museum is not without casts of that nondescript 
 stuff which the ornamentalists of the Renaissance copied 
 from the Roman, and which our eclectic school of the 
 day is fain to copy over again. This is the fashionable 
 frippery which sprawls over and spoils our modern 
 buildings, but it is not this which it is the ambition and 
 desire of the school of this Museum to teach.
 
 23 
 
 I have shown you what tho Museum is and contains, 
 and the h*st has been a long one. I would fain tell you 
 what the Museum might be, and what it does not, but 
 should, contain ; but the list would be longer. We ought, 
 for instance, to have a sufficiently representative collection 
 of the several schools of sculpture and ornament of the 
 different provinces in France and in Rhineland ; and at 
 any rate much good might be done by obtaining and 
 arranging good photographs of the figures and details 
 at Amiens, Rheims, Chartres, &c., that we might compare 
 them with others from our own country. Expeditions 
 might be arranged for sketching tours, with the object 
 of examining and reporting on their remains m situ, and 
 studentships for careful, prolonged research in different 
 districts. 
 
 But seriously — Do we want art at all } and if so, 
 should it not be healthy and Christian art, 'with aims 
 higher even than that of the schools of Paris and Rheims, 
 of Lincoln and Wells ? We must then go in the same 
 spirit as they did — to the same nature, which is as full of 
 subject to us as to them. Nay, that store has hardly been 
 even tapped as yet, its resources being boundless. But we 
 must come here, or to a larger Museum which may grow 
 out of this on the same lines, to study, and not to copy 
 merely ; and the several arts must be united and grow 
 together again, and not remain as now in stupid selfish 
 isolation ; and instead of pandering to the purses, they 
 should preach to the hearts of the people.
 
 / feel strongly the necessity for more fiilly illiistrating 
 
 the foregoing Pamphlet^ i?t order to make it sufficiently 
 
 intelligible to those ivho are not fully conversant zvith all 
 
 the examples referred to; and I should like to expand the 
 
 Pamphlet itself It will depend npon the encouragement 
 
 that this small attempt meets with, whether or not I venture 
 
 hereafter to develope it as I cotild wish. 
 
 J. P. S.
 
 / feel strongly tJie 7iecessity for more fiilly illustrating 
 
 the foregoing Pa7nphlet^ i?i order to make it stifficiently 
 
 intelligible to those who are not fully conversant witJi all 
 
 the examples referred to; and I should like to expand the 
 
 Pamphlet itself It will depend -upon the encouragement 
 
 that this small attempt meets with, zvhether or not I venture 
 
 hereafter to develope it as I conld wish. 
 
 J. P. S.
 
 CATALOGUE OF PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN EROM 
 
 SPECIMENS IN THE ROYAL ARCHITECTURAL MUSEUM, 
 
 WESTMINSTER, 
 
 By BEDFORD LEMERE & CO., 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHERS TO THE ARCHITECTURAL MUSEUM. 
 
 lExTKALT-] * • * " I am directed to inform you that if any School of Art should 
 
 apply for the Architectural Photographs this Department would give its usual 
 aid towards their purchase." 
 
 (Signed) 13th April, 1875, Norman MacLeod. 
 
 ALBUM No. l.-£7 7s., bound. 
 
 No. 
 
 1. The Museum. General View from the Rostrum 
 
 2. The Museum. General View showing Lincoln Angels 
 
 3. Athens. Erectheum. Angle Capital, &c. . 
 
 4. Paris. Notre Dame. Capitals . . 
 
 5. Paris. ,, Canopies 
 
 6. Paris. „ Portions of Iron Work 
 
 7. Pakis. „ Portions of Iron Work, &c 
 
 8. Chartres. Cathedral Various details .. 
 
 9. Chartkes. ,, Figures of Aneels . . 
 
 10. Chaktkes. ,, Figures from W. Porch 
 
 11. Rouen. Cathedral. Panels, Adam and Eve 
 
 12. Rouen. ,, ,, Various, and Grotesques 
 
 13. Rouen. ,, ,, Grotesques .. 
 
 14. Rouen. ,, ,, Creation and Grotesques 
 
 15. Nuremberg. St. Srbald's Shrine. The Apostles 
 
 16. Amiens. Cathedral. Misereres 
 
 17. Amiens. ., Spandrils from Stalls 
 
 18. Amiens. ,. Elbows of Stalls 
 
 19. Amiens. „ Elbows and Corbel of Stalls 
 
 20. Amiens. ,, Panels of Foliage 
 
 21. Amiens. ,, Cornice and Panels 
 
 22. German. Panels various and Foliage 
 
 23. Verona. Tombs of the Scalioeri. Panels 
 
 24. Venice. St. Mark's, Panel, St. George and Drag,>ii 
 
 25. Venice. Doge's Palace. Portions of Capitals 
 
 26. Venice. 
 
 27. Venice. ,, 
 
 31. RUTLAND, tXTON, A ' .... 
 
 32. Worksop Priorv ANP .Vi;- 'Jii i, Li.nl. 
 
 33. Llandaff Cathedral Portions nf tjapit.il- 
 
 34. Salisbury Chai'Terhouse. Capitals .and Heads 
 
 35. Salisbury Cathedral. Portions of Capitals 
 
 36. Chertsey and Salisbury. Capitals 
 
 37. Salisbury Cathedral. Elbows of Stalls and Boss 
 
 38. St. Alban's and Ely Cathedrals. Capitals 
 
 39. Wells, Salisbury, and Hereford. Spandrils, Foliage 
 
 40. Hereford Cathedral, AND Stone Church, Kent . 
 41- Ely Catheiikai. Portion of Capitals 
 
 42. Wkstminstm.- 1 in. oln, and Canterbury. Diapers 
 
 43. Wm ii,,i.: \ hi.v Capitals .. 
 
 VII.'s I 
 
 53. Ll.SO.LX LAMIia.KAL, Capit:U.>: M XIII 
 
 54. Lincoln „ Cusp I . xiii 
 
 55. Westminster. Queen Elk.\ liv xiii 
 
 56. Chester Cathedral. Iron W .i xiv 
 
 57. Hereford Cathedral. Figu.=> ;...... l..,,i^...,. 1 .jini. xn- 
 
 58. Hereford Cathedral. Figures fnjm lumb. ^-v... xiv 
 
 59. Ludlow and other Churches. Poppy-heads xiv 
 
 60. Ludlow and other Churches. Poppy-heads xiv 
 
 Tlie Set of Sixty 12 by 10 In Plates, unmounted, £6 6s. Single Copies, 23. 6d. 
 
 Orders to be sent to R. Druce, Esq., Curator of Architectural Museum, 
 18, Tuftun Street, Wes ' 
 
 Mk. Seddon earnestly begs that the recipient of 
 this Paiiiph/et luill, if it meet approval, seiut some 
 Donation or Annual Subscription {if but for the amount 
 of the published price of the Pamphlet), for the sup- 
 port of the Architectural Museum, to the Curator, 
 
 R. Druce, Esq., 
 
 Architectural Museum, 
 
 18, Tufttm .Street, 
 
 Westminster, S.W 
 
 *^* Members of the Architectural Profession are 
 particularly appealed to for the support of the Museum, 
 and to become Annual Subscribers even for a small 
 amount.
 
 
 'm 
 
 *' 
 
 % ._ 
 
 s .\ 
 
 f 
 
 ■^l W' 
 
 # 
 
 :^ 
 
 ¥.% 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 t 
 
 4** 
 
 
 ■'^J 
 
 \h 
 
 M 
 
 •> '-r^ 
 
 II.,