MODERN ARCHITECTURE, 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES), a period that to-day seems to have been compounded of pompous and com placent materialism, conventionality and self-sufficiency. While painters, writers and musicians were preoccupied with develop ing new forms of expression, architects, in both Europe and America, were chiefly concerned with adapting, and much too often awkwardly adapting, the old. In America, the 19th century gave birth to the steel skeleton, but of architecturally memorable design it was almost barren everywhere. Fresh conceptions in mass or line were unknown until its end.
Between great periods of art there is a time of darkness in which inventiveness lies stagnant. For architecture, the i9th century was such. The material world was literally in flux. Such abrupt changes in man's ways of life as then occurred in swift succession might stimulate the painter or the writer, but at first they were appalling to the architect, for while the former may follow the dictates of imaginative impulse, the latter is always strictly governed by the need for buildings and the kind of buildings needed. In the i9th century he was called upon to build on a larger scale, an ever-growing scale, for a larger and ever-increasing number of persons without any special taste or knowledge of what constitutes the beautiful. Dissolution of old conceptions and development of new were alike impossible. Inevitably the age became one of revivals.
A few men persisted, as they still do, in the classic tradition, writing and talking as well as building in their efforts to per petuate it. But the exuberance, the fresh vitality of spirit, that in the early Renaissance had given new meaning to fundamentally old forms, was lacking in the 19th century. Consequently the works in classic style at this time were for the most part unin spired and uninspiring. The so-called Gothic and Romanesque revivals were no more productive.
Art remained alive, but only among small groups. Life was speeded up by mechanical inventions and the attention of those men who had been patrons of the arts was turned from the prob lem of making their environment more pleasing to keeping pace with its improvements. Those who continued to regard building as an art, over-emphasized, perhaps quite naturally, the beauty of past periods. The mind absorbed with Greek or Gothic forms was hardly capable of designing for the steel skeleton when it appeared after the three-quarter century mark had passed. Thus the i9th lost to the loth century what might have been a claim to architectural distinction, had its designers solved creatively the new problems in proportions, masses and spaces to be enclosed. The artists were not alone to blame for their sterility; lack of demand inevitably decreased the production of artistic works. For this there were three reasons.
The human capacity to absorb the arts is limited. When one predominates the others are sacrificed. Throughout antiquity, the middle ages and the early Renaissance, the arts of design were of first importance. Thereafter, the spread of literature was enor mous, and it turned men's minds to reading. The fine arts, in cluding architecture, became secondary and have so remained.
Democracy proved successful, and rulers who were also patrons of the arts vanished with the vestiges of feudalism. Formerly, each ruler and powerful noble created, as a manifestation of his importance, a setting which was designed to surpass his rival's and to which artists, architects and craftsmen all contributed. Various styles of Renaissance architecture resulted from such ef forts of strong personalities, of which Napoleon was the last, to record their existence. Beauty in all its forms was then evidence of superiority. When class barriers were broken down, however, wealth and power passed from an aristocracy, which had employed and inspired artists as a necessary adjunct of its position, to any individual, irrespective of training or background, who could grasp them. The man of wealth but no official title was perhaps no different in his desires for display, but he lacked cultural and material precedents, such as the buildings and their contents be longing to historic families. He was afraid to create an artistic setting of his own, to demand works of art designed especially for himself. Feeling safe in surrounding himself with things of proved value that his bank account could procure, he turned, moreover, to works of art that had already been created and the ownership of which signified wealth.
The tremendous progress of science and invention during the I 9th century is the third reason for the stagnation of the arts. Men's energies, thoughts and talents were absorbed by exploration of these fields which ignorance and dogmatism had kept sealed during the middle ages and the early Renaissance. The subsequent evolution of industrialism with its concomitant mass production and mass consumption helped to turn men's eyes from creation and enjoyment of the arts to the problem of how to achieve more concentration, more production and knowledge of natural forces.
At the beginning of this article it was pointed out that modern architecture is becoming more truly expressive of contemporary culture ; changes in the three conditions cited above indicate that a new flowering of the Renaissance is not impossible. The motion picture increases interest in things visual, and the radio is re placing printed words as a means of setting forth ideas. The quan tity of literature now produced is so enormous that men are be ginning to lift their eyes from printed pages and look about with growing enthusiasm for beautiful surroundings and a slowly awakening critical sense. Democracy, having passed through its formative period, functions more or less mechanically, releasing men's energies from the struggle to maintain it. Science and in vention still occupy men's imaginations, but they produce for all mankind the two things most essential to successful art : wealth and leisure. Possessed of these, both individual and group are be coming less uncertain as to how to express themselves artistically; they are turning from the purchase and display of antiques to settings and environments created by contemporary artists. This demand for beauty is growing on every side and, like the early Renaissance, it encourages fresh design.