. The Civil engineer and architect's journal, scientific and railway gazette. Architecture; Civil engineering; Science. THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. January, are, in fact, less probable than those born of the ocean or the earth. Between animal and vegetable life there is also a sufficient analogy to attach some probability, or at least to afford an apology, for the graceful combinations between these two kingdoms of nature, in- vented by the ancients, and adopted to a very great extent in the compositions before us; but, when we come to combine animal life with unorganized matte
. The Civil engineer and architect's journal, scientific and railway gazette. Architecture; Civil engineering; Science. THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. January, are, in fact, less probable than those born of the ocean or the earth. Between animal and vegetable life there is also a sufficient analogy to attach some probability, or at least to afford an apology, for the graceful combinations between these two kingdoms of nature, in- vented by the ancients, and adopted to a very great extent in the compositions before us; but, when we come to combine animal life with unorganized matter, the probability ceases; and if, as in the case before us, the unorganized portion is something artificial, and totally out of proportion besides, the combination becomes intolerable. Thus we acquiesce in the metamorphoses of Ovid or the Arabian Nights, as long as certain analogies are observed; but the transfor- mation of the ships of Eneas into sea nymphs, is, as one of our greatest critics has observed, a violation of probability to which nothing can reconcile us. No conventional form has been more abused than the terminus. Intelligence and immobility are the attributes which the ancients in- tended it to embody, but their apposite creation is totally different from anomalous compositions like this, into which it has been tortured. The scroll in the half pilaster of this example is greatly superior to that in No. 2. It is more simple in its composition, and the leaves are broad and natural, and fill the space much more satisfactorily than a multiplicity of wiry lines and flimsy objects, producing confu- sion, and destructive of breadth of effect. In No. 5, we arrive at a superior composition; for it must be re- peated, we are examining the decoration of a single member of an extensive whole, and that however beautiful each may be, unity is a beauty in addition. No object in decoration has been so extensively used as the scroll. The ancients do not appear to have been affli
Size: 992px × 2518px
Photo credit: © The Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1800, booksubjectarchitecture, booksubjectscience
