191 ESSAY VIII. CHARACTER, OR THE DECOR OF VITRUVIUS. Nec facundia deserit hunc, nec lucidus ordo, HOR. A. P. POET. v. 41. Servetur ad imum Qualis ab incepto processerit et sibi constet. Ibid. 126. the art on by cha 1. It has been somewhere justly said, "that it is Effect of not for its utility alone," although in this it surpasses the mind every other of the fine arts, "that Architecture racter. stands pre-eminent as a polite and liberal art and study; but as it inspires sentiment, fills the mind. with great and noble ideas, enlarges our intellect, assists our judgment, and makes a lasting impression on our understanding and feelings." tency and 2. These splendid qualities in this noble art are Consisthe effect of that consistency, harmony, and cha- harmony. racter, which the Architect of real taste almost instinctively bestows upon his productions, and without which no great architectural work is worthy of existence. The two first of these qualities belong in Character almost in some measure to subjects we have already discussed: for consistency, or what is nearly the same thing, uniformity, necessarily exists wherever there is a just attention to taxis; indeed the author of the Analysis of Beauty considers uniformity as excellent in no other way than as giving ideas of fitness; this, therefore, belongs to the fourth essay: harmony also may be considered a refinement on proportion, and therefore belonging to the fifth essay. Notwithstanding this, we shall find them giving origin to a source of pleasure, independent of the mere beauties of utility and proportion. 3. This source of pleasure in Architecture, which, stinctive, I say, the Architect of true taste almost instinctively introduces into his compositions, is the subject we are now entering upon, and which may be denominated character, because in character both consistency and harmony are essential requisites. allowed by others. 4. In all ages Architects seem to have confessed some quality in a design coincident with this prinThe decor ciple: Vitruvius has not handed down to us the of Vitru vius. Greek term for it, but he gives us the Latin term "decor," which seems the one most fairly to be considered synonymous with it: decor, however, as it literally means nothing more than propriety, might as well be applied to any of the excellencies we have already discussed: but as part of his explanation obviously attaches to character, and as we shall in this excellence attain to the greatest degree of propriety and beauty, we may very properly consider the Latin word decor as technically the same as cha racter. |