ARCHITECTURE, iiekT-16kltir (Lat. arc)ri tect (Ira, Gk. 6n arch i t ek t on ia, from 6pxt-, orchi-, chief + ritcrw, tckt6sr, worker in wood; carpenter. craftsman). In its widest sense this term includes any kind of construction, such as work; of military and naval architec ture and civil engineering; but strictly speak ing it is building raised by certain astlietic qual ities to the rank of art, as distinguished from purely utilitarian or mechanical building. Its name shows that it was regarded by the ancients as the chief art, comprising all others. the archi tect being director of works, and responsible for whatever sculpture and painting was used in connection with .the building. This ancient tra dition ruled throughout the :Middle Ages, and it was not until the Renaissance in the Fifteenth Century that architecture lost its right to govern the other arts. Because architecture had this character of the most universal art, using sculp ture and painting, in subordination, the forma tion of what we call an architectural style—like the Greek or the Gothic style—was a complex and gradual prose's. For architecture, being one
of the earliest and most constant expressions of civilization, is not the artificial product of the free conception of a few artists, but is funda mentally affected, on the one side by the religious and social elements of society, whose demands it must meet, and on the other by the material elements such as the influences of climate, of materials of eon.:tru•tion and decoration, which limit or in certain directions stimulate artistic originality. So that in every age, architecture is a faithful mirror of contemporary society, and at once the most material and the most ideal of the fine arts.