to none that Britain has produced, and whose fame stood so high as to have thrown into obscurity the rest of his contemporaries, so that we scarcely know the name of another architect of that time. Jones was born about the year 1572; and by the liberality of some one of the English nobility, he was enabled to visit Italy. The first style of Inigo bordered too much on the bastard manner which then prevailed, and, though not Gothic, his works are disfigured by a littleness of parts, and loaded with barbarous ornaments, tasteless in their design, and tending rather to disfigure than decorate the parts to which they were attached. On a second visit to Italy, assisted by maturity of judgment, he reformed his taste, and shook off what remained of his original style. In the year 1619, he began to erect the banquetting house at Whitehall, a small part of the pile designed for the palace of our kings, but so complete in itself, that it stands a model of the most pure and beautiful taste; and the whole fabric as originally designed, "was so glorious an idea," says Walpole, "that one forgets for a moment, in the regret for its not being executed, the confirmation of our liberties obtained by a melancholy scene that passed before the windows of that very banquettinghouse." He was employed by the court and nobility, during the reigns of King James and King Charles the First. He planned the square of Covent-Garden, a part of which only was finished. The church of St Paul's, which occupies the centre of the west side, is of the Tuscan order, and is one of the most simple and elegant edifices of the kind in London. Walpole enumerates his principal works, and describes the Grange, the seat of the Lord Chancellor Henley, in Hampshire, as one of the finest specimens of his taste. "The hall," he says, "which opens to a small vestibule with a cupola, and the staircase adjoining, are beautiful models of the purest and most classic antiquity.” The Queen's house at Greenwich, which still remains, is another example of the finest taste, and shews the attention he had paid to the principles on which the ancients attained such excellence in their architectural works. He died 1651. Sir Christopher Wren, the next artist of eminence, began his career under Charles the Second. "The length of his life," says Walpole, "enriched the reigns of several princes, and disgraced the last of them. A variety of knowledge proclaims the universality, a multiplicity of works the abundance, St Paul's the greatness of his genius. The noblest temple (St Paul's,) the largest palace (Hampton Court,) the most sumptuous hospital (Greenwich) in such a kingdom as Britain, are all works of the same hand. He restored London, and recorded its fall.+"Hismathematical abilitiesappeared so early, that at the age of twenty he was elected Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, and eight years afterwards, Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. His discoveries in philosophy, mechanics, &c, contributed to the reputation of the newly established Royal Society, and his skill in architecture had raised his own name so high, that, in the first year of the Restoration, he was appointed coadjutor to Sir John Denham surveyor of the works, whom he succeeded. His principal buildings were, the li brary of Trinity College, Cambridge; the chapel of Pembrokehall; the thea *At the age of eighty-six he was removed from being surveyor-general of the works by George the First. + He built above fifty parish churches, and designed the Monument. tre, at Oxford; the tower of St Dunstan's Church, near the Tower, London; the church of St Mary, at Warwick; the great steeple at ChristChurch, Oxford; the church of St Mary-le-Bone, Cheapside, the spire of which is reckoned the most elegant in London; the church of St Ste phen, Walbrook, near the Mansionhouse this is esteemed the most beautiful church in London, and is remarkable for the elegance of its proportions, and the simplicity of its style; Greenwich Hospital, a magnificent edifice; the Cathedral of St Paul's, and the Monument; he also designed the two towers of Westminster Ab. bey. Walpole very justly observes, that he was not happy in all kinds of buildings, and that he had great abilities rather than great taste. His best works are in general deficient in simplicity, and crowded with small features and numerous breaks; and his Gothic structures show, that he was unacquainted with the principles of that style. In the constructive part of the art, he was the most scientific artist that has yet appeared, as is testified by the vast dome of St Paul's, which is a masterpiece in its kind. Sir John Vanburgh is the next architect of eminence. He was a man of a bold and original genius, who, in following out his conceptions, disregarded alike the principles of the ancients and all recognized rules of architectonic composition, and formed mighty masses, which claim our admiration for their highly picturesque variety of contour, and the sublimity and grandeur of effect by which they are characterized. In analysing, however, the various parts of his works, we are forcibly struck by the flagrant improprieties which so frequently meet our eye; rusticated columns, broken pediments, and the like, and the want of elegance and simplicity which reigns throughout; yet such is to his their excellence as a whole, that, like Lie heavy on him, Earth! for he Blenheim, and Castle Howard, are amongst his greatest and best works and let no one, who has not seen and examined with candour and impartiality those two magnificent piles, venture to pronounce a hasty decision on the genius of Sir John Vanburgh. The disciples of Vanburgh, seeming to think that he had delivered the art from shackles, and that they might build whatever seemed good in their own eyes, adopted the most extravagant ideas. The church of St John, Westminster, by Archer, is a specimen of the absurdity of this class of artists. Nicholas Hawksmoor was another architect of this time, who, though educated under Sir Christopher Wren, adopted in his buildings much of the style of the school of Vanburgh; he built the churches of St Mary Woolnoth, Lombard Street; Christ-Church, Spital-Fields; St George, Middlesex; St Anne, Limehouse; and St George, Bloomsbury. He is said to have been well versed in all the sciences connected with his art; and he repaired a defect in the minster of Beverley by a machine of his own invention. Of this machine, by which he screwed up the fabric with extraordinary art, he published a print. Gibbs, a native of Aberdeen, studied in Italy; and, on his return, was much employed in churches, and other great works throughout England. St Martin's and St Mary-le-Strand, the new church at Derby, and the Rat cliffe Library, are amongst his most celebrated works. Gibbs was the direct opposite to Vanburgh; destitute of imagination, genius, and taste, his works are regular in their design, and though without striking faults, they never strike by their originality or grace. St Mary's, in the Strand, for instance, wants grandeur by being divided into two orders over each other, and is frittered into littleness by the numerous breaks by which it is disfigured. "His arched windows, his rusticlaced windows, his barbarous buildings, his cumbrous chimney-pieces and vases without grace, are striking proofs of his want of taste." His portico at St Martin's Church has, however, always been admired as one of the finest works of the kind in London. Colin Campbell, also a native of Scotland, was an architect of some celebrity; he had fewer faults, but not more imagination than Gibbs. Wanstead House, in Essex, is amongst his best works, and is a chaste and beautiful building. He is also known as the author of three large folios, published under the name of the Vi. truvius Britannicus. John James, another architect of this time, designed the churches of St George, Hanover Square, and St Luke; the former of which has a handsome Corinthian portico, and the other is remarkable for its spire, which is in the form of a fluted obelisk. We now come to two noblemen to whom the art of architecture in Eng. land owes the greatest obligations, whether in the character of artists or munificent patrons. They are, Henry Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington, whose character has been ably drawn by Walpole. Speaking of the Earl of Pembroke, he says, "The soul of Inigo Jones, who had been patronized by his ancestors, seemed still to hover over its favourite Wilton, and to have assisted the muses of the arts in the education of this noble person. The towers, the chambers, the scenes which Holbein, Jones, and Vandyke had decorated, and which Earl Thomas had enriched with the spoils of the best ages, received the last touches of beauty from Earl Henry's hand. He removed all that obstructed the view to or from his palace, and threw Palladio's Theatric Bridge over the river. No man had a purer taste in building than Earl Henry, of which he gave a few specimens; besides his works at Wilton, the new lodge at Richmond Park, the Countess of Suffolk's house at Marblehill, Twickenham, the water-house at Lord Oxford's Park at Houghton, are incontestable proofs of Lord Pembroke's taste. It was more than taste, it was passion for the utility and honour of his country, that engaged his lordship to promote and assiduously overlook the construction of Westminster Bridge, by the ingenuous Monsieur Labelye, a man who deserves more notice than this slight encomium can bestow."* Of the Earl of Burlington, says Walpole, "Never were protection and great wealth more generously and more judiciously diffused than by this great person, who had every quality of a genius and an artist, except en *Of Labelye little is known. He was a native of Switzerland, and was naturalized in England; he afterwards retired to France for his health, and died at Paris in 1:62. vy."-" Nor was his munificence confined to his own houses and gardens; he spent great sums in contributing to public works, and was known to choose that the expense should fall on himself, rather than that his country should be deprived of some beautiful edifices. Besides his works on his own estate at Lonsborough, in Yorkshire, he new-fronted his house in Picadilly, built by his father, and added the grand colonade within the court. His house at Chiswick, the idea of which is borrowed from Palladio, is a model of taste, though not without faults, some of which are occasioned by too strict adherence to rules of symmetry." Under the auspices of Lord Burlington and Lord Pembroke, architecture thus recovered its lustre, and the structures which now began to be erected display more simplicity and elegance; and landscape-gardening for the first time was practised by Kent, a person patronized by Lord Burlington, both as an architect, and in this new department of art. Kent had been bred a coach-painter, and by his promising talents ob tained sufficient patronage to enable him to visit Italy to improve himself as a historical painter; but in this capacity he never reached even mediocrity. On his return to England, however, the influence of Lord Burlington procured him a rich harvest of employment, both in history and portraits, and particularly in ornamenting ceilings and staircases. He seems to have been more successful in architectecture; for, according to Walpole, "his taste was deservedly admired," (but of this we cannot judge from our own knowledge.) "Of all his works," continues Walpole, "his favourite production was the Earl of Leicester's house at Holkham in Norfolk. The great hall, with the flight of steps at the upper end, in which he proposed to place a colossal Jupiter, was a noble idea." The few specimens of his works with which we are acquainted, do not impress us with a high idea of his taste or genius. His taste in designing ornaments was much admired in his time, and his oracle was not only consulted for furniture, as frames of pictures, glasses, tables, chairs, but for plate, a barge, a cradle; and so impetuous was fashion, that two great ladies prevailed on him to make designs for their birth-day gowns. The one he dressed in a petticoat decorated with columns of the five orders; the other like a bronze, in a copper-coloured sattin, with ornaments of gold. His style of ornaments, if we may judge from those that have been published, are however as tasteless as his other productions, not excepting his celebrated monument of Shakespeare in Poets' Corner. As the father of English landscapegardening he seems to have more unequivocal claims to our praise. "He felt the delicious contrast of hill and valley changing imperceptibly into each other, tasted the beauty of the gentle swell, or concave scoop, and remarked how loose groves crowned an easy eminence with happy ornament; and while he called in the distant view between their graceful stems, removed and extended the perspective by delusive comparison. Thus the pencil of his imagination bestowed all the arts of landscape on the scenes he handled. The great principles on which he worked were perspective and light and shadow; groupes of trees broke too uniform or too extensive a lawn; evergreens and woods were opposed to the glare of the champaign; and where the view was less fortunate or so much exposed as to be beheld at once, he blotted some parts by thick shades to divide it into variety, or to make the richest scene more enchanting, by reserving to a further advance of the spectator's step: Thus select ing favourite objects and veiling deformities by screens of plantation, sometimes allowing the rudest waste to add its foil to the richest theatre, he realized the compositions of the greatest masters in painting, and where objects were wanting to animate his horizon, his taste as an architect could bestow immediate termination; his buildings, his seats, his temples, were more the works of his pencil than of his compasses." Sir William Chambers was a member of the Royal Academy, and executed many fine works throughout England; his most extensive work is Somerset Place, London, which however has never been finished. The details of this edifice are possessed of more elegance than the greater number of architectural works that preceded it; but, as a whole, it is heavy and inexpressive, and deficient in boldness, relief and breadth of effect, for want of those striking and prominent features which such an extent of front would require, particularly on the front facing the Thames, where this defect is most striking; the height of the rustic storey, containing the arcade and terrace, bears a most extra vagant disproportion to that of the whole front, and the cupola, columns, &c. in the centre, are paltry and diminutive for an edifice of such magnitude, and in such a situation. The progress of architecture began to be greatly promoted towards the middle of the last century by the spirit and enterprize of several individuals of taste, who visited Greece, Asia Minor, &c. and published several splendid works, containing accurate measurements and delineations of the most splendid remains of antiquity, and disseminated a knowledge of the architecture of these countries. The Dillettanti Society of London also sent out a mission with the same object, in the year 1764. The most distinguish ed of these undertakings were the Ruins of Balbec and Palmyra, by Messrs Bouverie, Dawkins,and Wood; the Ruins of the Palace of Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia, by Mr Adam; the Ionian Antiquities, by Dr Chandler, Messrs Revett and Pars, published at the expense of the Dillettanti Society; and the Antiquities of Athens; containing also many of the finest edifices in other parts of Greece, by Messrs Stuart and Revett, a work to which the great superiority of the present taste in architecture must be primarily ascribed. SECTION IV. Present State of Historical Painting, Amongst the living artists of England, the venerable president, Mr West, undoubtedly holds the first rank in the walk of historical painting, His composition is chaste and learned, his grouping displays great taste, his drawing is vigorous, and evinces profound anatomical knowledge, his draperies are conceived in a style of much grandeur and simplicity, and his colouring is clear and harmonious. Mr West, at a very advanced age, received a great addition to his fame by his great work "Christ healing the Sick and Lame," a picture purchased by the directors of the British Institution, and more recently, "Death on the Pale Horse," a subject taken from the Revelations, treated with all the fire of a poetical imagination. Amongst his other esteemed works are a scene from King Lear, painted for the Shakespeare Gallery, and an altarpiece for the chapel at Greenwich Hospital; "St Paul in the Isle of Me. lita," a very fine work, and remarkable for the admirable disposition of its parts. |
