Many of these, like the contemporaneous buildings of France, are of great size and magnificence; but they are usually tame and cold in design, and a sameness pervades them all. They generally consist of a rustic basement-story, with a portico over the center, and an equal number of windows on either side. The portico is considered essential, and although perfectly useless, the light and convenience of the house are invariably sacrificed for it.
The further study of the buildings of Greece and Rome led, in the beginning of the , present century, to the fashion of reproducing them more literally. All important pub lic buildings were now required to be absolute copies of ancient buildings, or parts of them, or to look like such, and then the architect had to work out the accommodation as best he might. St. Pancras's church in London is a good example. It is madeup of portions from nearly every temple in Greece! Many really successful buildings, such as St. George's ball, Liverpool, the high school and royal institution in Edinburgh, have been erected in this style; but they owe their effect not to their being designs well adapted to their requirements, but to the fact that they are copies from the finest build ings of antiquity.
Sir Charles Barry was the first to break away from this thraldom, and to return to the true system of designing namely, which have their general features arranged so as not only to express the purposes they are intended to serve, but in so doing to form the decorative as well as the useful features of the buildings. The Trav eler's clith-house and Bridgewater house in London are admirable specimens of his design. There are no superfluous porticoes or obstructive pediments, but a pleasing and reasonable design is produced by simply grouping the windows, and crowning the build ing with an appropriate cornice.
As already noticed, a similar style of domestic architecture is now being worked out in France; but both there and in this country there has been a reaction agaiust every thing classic, and a revival of mediaeval architecture has superseded that of classic, especially in ecclesiastical buildings. A very large number of churches has been erected within the last 20 years in the Gothic style, but it cannot be said that these are usually well adapted to the modern Protestant service. The most magnificent example of this the palace or houses of parliament at Westminster.
In Germany, Russia, and every country of Europe, the renaissance prevailed in a manner similar to that above described. In Germany there are few specimens of early renaissance, the picturesque castle of Heidelberg being almost unique as an early exam ple. The Zwinger and the Japanese palace at Dresden, which are nearly alone as edifices
of the begiuning of the 18th c., show how poor the architecture of Germany then was. In the domestic buildings of Nuremberg, Dresden, and other towns of the n. of Ger many, there are many instances of the picturesque application of classic detail to the old Gothic outlines.
One of the most striking examples of the revival of classic art occurred in Bavaria during the first half of the present century, under the auspices of King Louis. Ile caused all the buildings he bad seen and admired in his travels to be reproduced in Bavaria. Thus, the royal palace is the Pitti palace of Florence on a small scale; St. Mark's at Venice is imitated in the Byzantine chapel-royal; and the Walhalla, on the banks of the Danube, is an exact copy (externally) of the Parthenon. The finest build ings of Munich are the picture-gallery and sculpture-gallery by Klenze, both well adapted to their purpose, and good adaptations of Italian and Grecian architecture.
In Vienna and Berlin there are many examples of the revived classic and Gothic styles, but the Germans have always understood the former better than the latter. The museums at Berlin, and many of the theaters of Germany, are good examples of classic buildings.=The domestic architecture of Berlin is well worthy of notice, ninny of the dwelling-houses being quite equal in design to those of Paris.
Of the other countries of Europe the only one which deserves remark for its renais sauce buildings is Russia. St. Petersburg is, of all the cities of Europe, the one which best merits the title of a city of palaces. From the date at which the city was founded, these are necessarily all renaissance in character. They are nearly all the works of Ger man or Italian architects, and are unfortunately, for the most part, in the coldest and worst style. The ornaments of the palaces are chiefly pilasters running through two stories, with broken entablatures, etc., and ornaments of the flimsiest rococo. The new museum, by Klenze, is, however, a marked exception.
Along with architecture, during the period of the renaissance, painting and sculpture (q.v.) and all the other arts took their models from the classic remains which were so carefully sought for and studied. All ornamental work, such as carving, jewelry, and metal-work of all kinds, followed in the same track. Mediaeval niches and pinnacles gave place to the columns and entablatures of the classic styles, and the saints of the middle ages yielded to the gods and goddesses of ancient Rome.