(Soane), the British Museum (Smirke), public buildings in Edinburgh (Candon), St. George's Hall, Liverpool (Elmes). Sir Charles Barry, besides the Houses of Parliament, left various works inspired by the Italian Renaissance. The Gothic Revival struck deeper root in England than in France. The names of Sir Gilbert Scott, G. E. Street, J. L. Pearson, Alfred Waterhouse, are associated with numerous edifices scattered through the years from 1840 to our own day. There is little to be said of these works: superficial studies, they are already out of date. Contemporary art is more interesting. Richard Norman Shaw seems to have knotted the ends of the thread of tradition broken by the "revivals." In his London works (Gayety Theatre, Piccadilly Hotel) and still more in his numerous country houses, his originality makes itself felt and inspires a whole group of architects. Belcher, Marshall MacKenzie, Wilson, Reginald Blomfield, Sir Aston Webb, G. F. Bodley, M. H. Baillie Scott, E. I. Lutyens, in an architecture inspired by the Renaissance but of an unmistakably national flavor and very modern, have changed the aspect of London streets, created types of country house of a cultivated elegance that yet preserves the picturesque and random charm which has always belonged to the English School. 4. GERMANY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY In Germany and Austria, as might have been expected, the Classic Revival was none of those free interpretations of classic motives in which the personality of the author transpires through borrowed trappings. Nowhere else has architecture been so servile a copying of documents. The Royal Theatre of Berlin, the Nicolai Kirche at Potsdam (Schinkel), the Propylea at Munich and Rümes Halle (von Klenze) have all the rigor of that Neo-Greek of 1830 to 1840 which sets out to employ the forms of Greek architecture and proceeds to employ them with a vengeance. A little later, Gottfried Semper brought the study of the Italian Renaissance to lend something of flexibility to the stiff lines then in favor. His museum at Vienna, his theatre at Dresden, are interesting solutions of a new program by modern formulas. With this influence may be associated the Lessing Theatre, Berlin (by Hude and Hennicke). Traces of the Gothic Revival are also to be found, for example, in the Parliament Buildings of Buda-Pest (Steindl). But it is only after 1870 that German architecture takes a fresh start. The Neo-Classicism of Paul Wallot (Parliament Buildings, Berlin) begins to show, along with much that is heavy, an interesting orginality of study. There is created a very modern school which, without repudiating anything of the past, succeeds in giving to all its works a distinct national character and moreover in finding new solutions for new problems. The exterior forms, the lines of the roof, often remain heavy; but a very intelligent study of the interior gives perhaps the newest note in decorative setting, and remains free from the exaggeration of those Art-Nouveau effects that have made themselves prominent in more recent works. Architects like Ludwig Hoffmann, Messel, Otto Rieth, Bruno Paul, produced works of great value in every program: railroad stations, commercial buildings, schools, museums, theatres, that are more than a promise of a rejuvenated art. 5. OTHER COUNTRIES In Sweden, we find also interesting tendencies toward new expressions in the works of men like: Östberg, Grut, Westman. In Belgium, in Holland, in Switzerland, numerous are the works that merit citation. Italy and Spain are less well off in the modern period. But we must bring our enumeration to an end. It will, we hope, serve to show the general course of modern architecture. The years to come will show other programs, other forms, other works. It is impossible to foresee what direction progress will take. What we have tried |