Text: C. F. Briggs (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), March 8, 1845, vol. 1, no. 10, p. ??

[page 146, column 2, continued:]

GLOSSARY OF ECCLESIASTICAL OMPILMENT AND COSTUME. Compiled and illustrated from ancient authorities and examples, by A. Welby Puyin [[Pugin]], architect. London, 1844. Imported by Wiley and Putnam, New York.

THE art of book-making has been carried to the highest reach of elegance in the superbly illuminated volume before us. Gold and color can do no more, with the aid of manipulative skill alone, in making a beautiful book. Invention, of course, is not looked for in a work like this, which, brilliant as it appears, derives its main value from its sober truthfulness. It reflects, as in a mirror, the best specimens of mediaeval ecclesiastical ornament to be found in Europe, explained and illustrated by the pen of the accomplished author, and by extracts from the works of Deorandus, Georgius, Bona, Catalani, Gerbert, Marlene, Molrenus, Thiers, Mabil-i ton, Ducange, etc.

The plates are 73 in number, and arc altogether the most brilliant examples of this style of illustration that we have ever seen; the letter-press forms over 200 pages, which are copiously illustrated with wood cuts, worthy to accompany the other ornaments of this superb volume.

Welby Pugin has done more to revive a love of mediaeval art, than any other man of his time; he is a devout Catholic, as every genuine enthusiast in ecclesiastical architecture must be, and is sustained in his labors to revive the dead forms of a departed age, by an ardent religious faith. He is the true apostle of Gothic architecture, and his churches are the only specimens of religious structures that seem to be invested with that feeling of sincerity, which so charms us in the old cathedrals, that have been erected in Europe or America during the last two centuries. But even his churches do not preserve the genuine character of the ecclesiastical buildings of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when the, so called, Gothic style reached its highest point of expression. Rudeness of execution and a poverty of invention, or a meagreness of details in imitation, distinguished the Gothic style as much as profuseness of ornament, and grandeur of feeling; we cannot in a refined age imitate the barbarisms of a semi-civilized one, and our attempts at Gothic architecture must therefore be tame and lifeless when compared with the examples of this religious enthusiasm which still remains. When religious zeal burnt heretics at the stake, and girded a sword upon the thigh of a bishop, it was unavoidable that the same violent feeling should lavish the wealth of an empire upon the decorations of a house of worship, and [page 147:] that more thought should be given to the nimbus of a saint than to the glory of God. But in these days of colporteurs and Bible Societies, when christians go to Jerusalem to convert the Musselman and not to slay him, it is a feeling closely verging upon the ludicrous, which animates men, in striving to revive the forms and symbols of worship which belonged to an age whose enlightenment was thick darkness, when compared with ours. But if these things appear absurd, even among Papists and Episcopalians, who do at least preserve the creeds, though they have long since abandoned the practices of their fathers, how doubly absurd must they appear in the dissenters who repudiate all creeds, practices, forms, ceremonies and vestments, which they do not invent themselves. Man, however, is an imitative animal, at best, but in the present age he is pre-eminently so, and he can do nothing, not even build a church, without a precedent. Some potent voice seems to have arrested us in our march by a command of “about, face!” and we all stand looking backwards, as though we were nothing of ourselves or had nothing to look forward to. The last twenty years has been elaborately wasted in attempts to revive dead things. Even in the drawing rooms of our humblest citizens, we are startled by the appearance of fauteuils, copied after examples brought from the boudoirs of Louis Quartorze's Mistresses, and there is scarce a house in town which has not an article of furniture imitated front some portion ofa Gothic cathedral; the tunacle of a priest of the fourteenth century is faithfully copied in a dandy's robe de chambre; and a fire poker is fashioned after the pastoral staff of a bishop. Were it not for the terrible necessities which compel mankind in all ages to be true to themselves in some things, we should have nothing to show as evidence that we had not dwindled into apes who had no power to originate or invent; but we have railroads, canals and stores; and comfortable houses fur day laborers, monstrous hotels and snug little chapels of ease, where pious ladies may exhibit their elegant dresses, and their wearied husbands enjoy a quiet nap of a warm Sunday afternoon, as proof that we do not depend upon the past for everything.

The rage for Gothic architecture and ornament we think must have reached its calenture in this country at this time, and we shall look for its cooling off when the cross shall be affixed to the spire of Trinity Church in Broadway. There are now in the course of erection in Brooklyn four churches in the Gothic style, so close together, that the preacher's voice may be heard from each at the same time, dedicated to four different religions, and neither of them claiming to have any affinity with the religion whose outside expression they have endeavored to copy. One of them is a Baptist, another a Unitarian, a third an Episcopalian, and the fourth, shade of Cotton Mather defend us! the church of the Pilgrims. Without any reference to the religious principle involved in Mr. Pugin's introduction on “Symbolism in Art,” we make a short extract for the sake of the sound philosophy in respect to ornamental art which it contains. We would advise the genius who furnishes the ornaments of a certain “illuminated” work, to procure the book and study it, not only the letter press, but the magnificent scroll work and diapering of the plates.

“That Art has its fixed principles, any departure from which leads to inconsistency and unmeaning effect, is a truth never to be lost sight of. And if all art is subject to fixed laws, which define her province and inform her purpose least of all is Christian Art to be regarded as exempt from rule, not merely of ecclesiastical precedent, but of Philosophical and scientific principle. — Ornament, in the true and proper meaning of the word, signifies the embellishment of that which is In itself useful, in an appropriate manner. Yet by a perversion of the term, it is frequently applied to mere enrichment, which deserves no other name than that of unmeaning detail, dictated by no rule but that of individual fancy and caprice. Every ornament to deserve the haute must form an appropriate meaning, and be introduced with an [column 2:] intelligent purpose, and on reasonable grounds. The symbolical associations of each ornament must be understood and considered: other. wise things beautiful in themselves will be rendered absurd in their application. It is to the neglect of these principles that we may trace half the blunders and monstrosities that disgrace modern Art. Ornaments have been regarded as mere matters of whim and caprice. Accordingly, the most opposite styles have been mixed: and emblems of characters the most distinct, Christian and Pagan, ecclesiastic and civil, have been jumbled together in unutterable confusion. Only for ornament is the usual reply to an enquiry respecting the intention of views, detail and combinations, frequent in modern designs, although it is not possible for any forms or enrichments to be ornamental which are not appropriate and significant, if their utility extends no further. It has been said poetically, that, ‘where use is exiled, beauty scorns to dwell,’ and the sentiment is founded in truth and reason.”