82 ARCHITECTURE AND PAINTING

2. That ornamentation is the principal part of architecture.

3. That ornamentation should be visible.

4. That ornamentation should be natural.

5. That ornamentation should be thoughtful.

6. And that therefore Gothic ornamentation is nobler than Greek ornamentation, and Gothic architecture the only architecture which should now be built.

58. Proposition 1st.-Gothic or Romanesque construction is nobler than Greek construction.* That is to say, building an arch, vault, or dome, is a nobler and more ingenious work than laying a flat stone or beam over the space to be covered. It is, for instance, a nobler and more ingenious thing to build an arched bridge over a stream, than to lay two pine-trunks across from bank to bank; and, in like manner, it is a nobler and more ingenious thing to build an arch over a window, door, or room, than to lay a single flat stone over the same space.

No architects have ever attempted seriously to controvert this proposition. Sometimes, however, they say that “of two ways of doing a thing, the best and most perfect is not always to be adopted, for there may be particular reasons for employing an inferior one.” This I am perfectly ready to grant, only let them show their reasons in each particular case. Sometimes also they say, that there is a

* The constructive value of Gothic architecture is, however, far greater than that of Romanesque, as the pointed arch is not only susceptible of an infinite variety of forms and applications to the weight to be sustained, but it possesses, in the outline given to its masonry at its perfect periods, the means of self-sustainment to a far greater degree than the round arch. I pointed out, for, I believe, the first time, the meaning and constructive value of the Gothic cusp, in [ch. xi.] of the first volume of the Stones of Venice. That statement was first denied, and then taken advantage of, by modern architects; and considering how often it has been alleged that I have no practical knowledge of architecture, it cannot but be matter of some triumph to me, to find The Builder of the 21st January 1854, describing as a new invention, the successful application to a church in Carlow of the principle which I laid down in the year 1851.¹

¹ [The passage referred to in the Stones of Venice is in this edition, Vol. IX. p. 167: see note thereon. The church in Carlow is the Bruen Testimonial Church (architect, J. Derick).]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]