s they had seen in Rome, Florence, Genoa and Padua. It
is generally admitted that the ramifications of Gothic architecture had
reached their utmost limit, and the style was getting out of hand, as
is seen by the flamboyant buildings on the continent. The revival of
classical literature in western Europe gave an impetus to the movement
which was largely intended to enfold art within the shelter of an
enlightened taste, and protect it from the licence of unordered
enthusiasm. How far it succeeded is not a question that can be discussed
at length here, but, however good their intentions may have been, the
architects used little discrimination in the selection of buildings
which were to serve as models for Christian churches, and although
subsequently considerable improvements were made, yet, most of the
defects in the pagan buildings of the ancients were retained in such as
were intended to be utilized for Christian worship, and even considered
purely as exercises in architecture it was not until the more chaste
remains of antiquity began to be studied that the spirit and harmony of
the good examples were attained. A greater contrast than the methods
employed by the Gothic mason and the Renaissance architect could not
well be imagined. The former shaped his material with his own hands; the
foster mother of his art was tradition and its cradle the craftsman's
bench; whereas the latter, with no builder's training, worked out his
flawless and precise plans in the exotic atmosphere of the office and
the study. The practice of making working drawings for every detail
of the building was the cause of the decline of ornamental sculpture,
with the result that all life and growth in the building ceased. Some
authorities are very severe on the Renaissance movement. Dr. Fergusson,
in his "_Modern Styles of Architecture_," says: "During the Gothic era
the art of building was evolved by the simple exercise of man's reason,
with the result that the work of this period is the instinctive natural
growth of man's mind. The buildings, on the other hand, which were
designed in the imitative styles, and produced on a totally different
principle, present us with an entirely different result, and one
which frequently degrades architecture from its high position of a
quasi-natural production to that of a mere imitative art."

[Side note: Inigo Jones and Wren.]

Be this as it may, the severe classical style introduced into England by
Inigo Jone