Brooklyn Museum Quarterly . editated irregularities of a differ-ent character, which give much charm to medieval building,be reproduced by a less ingenuous and more self-consciousperiod like our own. Again, throughout the Romanesque 6 See the American Architect, Aug. 4th, Sept. 8th, Oct. 27th, Dec. 1st, 1P09;Jan. 26th, March 26th, 1910. 224 and Gothic periods it was the rule that the individual stonecarver created his own designs in the matter of capitals andothers sculptured details. Thus, the capitals of RheimsCathedral or of the Doges Palace at Venice were producedunder conditions which can
Brooklyn Museum Quarterly . editated irregularities of a differ-ent character, which give much charm to medieval building,be reproduced by a less ingenuous and more self-consciousperiod like our own. Again, throughout the Romanesque 6 See the American Architect, Aug. 4th, Sept. 8th, Oct. 27th, Dec. 1st, 1P09;Jan. 26th, March 26th, 1910. 224 and Gothic periods it was the rule that the individual stonecarver created his own designs in the matter of capitals andothers sculptured details. Thus, the capitals of RheimsCathedral or of the Doges Palace at Venice were producedunder conditions which cannot he revived in days when theoriginal designs for detail are prepared in an architectsoffice. Even if these designs be individually varied and therepetition of one formula be avoided, the fact that the carveris working from a design which he did not originate, depriveshis work of the swing of independent initiative and of tlieimpromptu effectiveness of the old work. The conditions which Choisy so aptly describes and which. Fig. 4. Sta. Maria Novella, Florence. Interior view. Illustrating per-spective illusion. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1895. See notes on theIllustrations at the close of the article. 225 illustrate the medieval builders willingly toleration andgrateful acceptance of departures from formal symmetryare all obviously lacking in modern work. To dwell on thisphase of the matter for a moment longer we might develop itby remembering how many interesting variations of detailare due to the length of time dui-ing Avhich a given cathedralwas in process of construction and to the fact that the evolu-tion of each successive medieval style involved changes ofdetail according to the sequence of time. In both Roman-esque and Gothic there was a gradual movement from thesimple to the ornate and from the ornate to the the fashions of window tracery, for instance, werechanging within periods of ten or fifteen years and from thiscause alone there might be endless va
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