RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Architecture
While the history of English Gothic architecture is largely written in its cathedrals, the great churches are very far from completing the record of English medieval building. The English parish church is a thoroughly interesting and highly characteristic form of building, often very mixed as to styles and dates, most generally small and low in proportions, but almost always beautiful in design 5. The and charmingly environed. Some few Smaller of them are churches of great size, but English the larger number are of modest pro- Churches, portions. The royal and college chapels also constitute an important group of typical English churches. The royal chapels at Windsor and Westminster, King's College Chapel at Cambridge, and Merton College Chapel at Oxford are among the most notable achievements of English Gothic architecture. Nor should the lesser monuments, the chapels within churches, the screens and tombs, be neglected by the student of English medieval architecture, for the architectural and sculptured parts of these minor structures often exhibit an exquisite delicacy of design and remarkable command of decorative forms.
Of churches built in the Renaissance style England has but few. The most notable is St. Paul's Cathedral in London. This great and splendid church is the masterpiece of Sir Christopher Wren. It was begun in 1675 and the upper-
6. Renais- most stone was placed on the lantern sance Ar- of the dome in 1710. The dome is chitecture. one of the most impressive in Europe
and ranks among the greatest domes of the world. Wren's churches in the city of London are an important group of English churches. Designed in a characterized rendering of the classic style, they constitute the last original contribution to English church architecture.
Modern English church architecture is almost wholly a restudy of the architecture of the past. Up to within the last quarter of the nineteenth century this study, while often zealously made,
was without real understanding of the
7. Modern nature of either Romanesque or Goth- English Ar- ic architecture. Gothic models were chitecture. copied with avidity, and the designers
imagined that in copying Gothic forms, they were doing all that was necessary to obtain a genuinely Gothic building. But the spirit, the feeling, the truth of the older art was forgotten or ignored in the new. Even the old forms were unintelligently used and the spirit was completely wanting.
Toward the close of the nineteenth century, however, a group of London architects attacked the problem of church-building in a new way. The old forms were restudied and used as the old builders might have used them. A new spirit of reverence in church architecture was developed, and a number of notable churches built which illustrated a genuine mastery of Gothic forms and uses that "Bake the best of recent English churches structures truly worthy of attention. . HI- EcclesiasticalArchitectureinAmerica: Ecclesiastical architecture in America is much more a reproductive architecture than in any other country.
Alone of all the great countries of modern times the United States has no historic architecture of its own. Great Britain and the Continent abound in historic examples of building of every sort, but America has nothing that is old save what it itself has created. The earliest architecture of America was necessarily purely constructive, that is to say, without artistic intent or purpose. As the colonies developed, more attention was given to the building of churches and meeting-houses, and some of the structures erected in this period have genuine interest and real merit. But colonial architecture was but the copying of English forms, in most cases by untrained men who hardly understood what they were copying. The interest which attaches to these buildings, which were confined to New England, the eastern, and some of the southern States, is often very real, but they offer little material for the modern architect, who, even at his best, is scarcely more than a copier or a modifier.
The later history of church architecture in America affords little occasion for congratulation. Being without historic models of their own, American architects have been forced to use the models of Europe as a basis for their church designs. For many years this translation of architectural materials was accomplished with little credit to all concerned. As in England, American architects copied forms without understanding their meaning, with results little removed from the commonplace. In the last few years a more enlightened conception of the meaning and purpose of church architecture has taken root among American architects, and some few churches have been built worthy of our time and the purpose to which Christian structures are dedicated. Barr Ferree.
Bibliography: Dictionaries: A. Cates, Dictionary of Architecture, 22 parts, London, 1852-92 (a monumental work); Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire raisonne de V architecture franchise, 10 vols., Paris, 1854-69; W. J. and G. A. Audsley, Dictionary of Architectural and Allied Arts, 10 vols., London, 1880-83; J. W. Mollett, Dictionary of . Art and Architecture, ib. 1883; J. Gwilt, Encyclopedia of Architecture, ib. 1888; P. Planat, Encyclopedic de I'archilecture, 6 vols., Paris, 1886-92 (a standard); H. Louppen, Dictionnaire d'architeciure, Paris, 1891; Russell Sturgis, Dictionary of Architecture and Building, 3 vols., New York, 1901.
History of architecture: C. J. Bunsen, Die Basiliken des christlichen Roms, mit Atlas, 2 vols., Munich, 1842; A. A. Lenoir, Architecture monastique, 2 vols., Paris, 1852-56; J. A. Messmer, Ursprung, Entwickelung und Bedeutung der Basilica, Leipsic, 1854; C. von Liitzow, Die Meisterwerke der Kirchenbaukunst, Leipsic, 1862; E. Hiibsch, Monuments de V architecture chretienne, Paris, 1866; J. Fergusson, History of Architecture in all Countries, i., ii., iv., 4 vols., London, 1874-76 (the standard work); C. E. Norton, Studies of Church Buildings in the Middle Ages, New York, 1880; T. R. Smith and J. Slater, Classic and Early Christian Architecture, London, 1882; G. Dehio and G. von Bezold, Die kirchliche Baukunst des Abendlandes, 2 vols, text, 8 vols, plates, Stuttgart, 1884; G. B. Brown, From Schola to Cathedral, Edinburgh, 1886 (on the relation of architecture to the life of the church); W. Liibke, Geschichte der Architektur, Leipsic, 1886; A. Gosset, Evolution historique de la construction des eglises chretiennes, Paris, 1887; Great Cathedrals of the World, 100 photographs, Boston, 1888; J. Ruskin, Stones of Venice, 3 vols., London, 1886; idem, Seven Lamps of Architecture, London, 1888; H. Holzinger, Die altchristliche Architektur, Stuttgart, 1889; G. Clausse, Basiliques et mosaiques chretiennes, 2 vols., Paris, 1893; Der Kirchenbau des Protestantismus, Berlin, 1893; J. T. Perry, Chronology of Mediaeval and Renaissance Architecture, London, 1893 (careful and trustworthy); R. P.
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