Ralph Adams Cram: What happened about 1825 was anomalous... for the first time whatever man tried to do in art was not only wrong, it was absolutely and unescapably bad. I should like to deal with this matter in detail, but we have no time. In a word, what had happened, it seems to me, was this: the Renaissance had struck a wrong note — and in several things besides architecture; for the first time man self-confidently set to work to invent and popularize a new and perfectly artificial style. I am not concerned here with the question whether it was a good style or not; the point is that it was done with malice aforethought; it was invented by a cabal of painters, goldsmiths, scenic artists, and literary men, and railroaded through a stunned society that, busied with other matters, took what was offered it, abandoned its old native ways, and later, when time for thought offered, found it was too late to go back. Outside Italy there was as little desire for the new-fangled mode as there was for the doctrinal Reformation outside Germany. In France and England good taste still reigned supreme, and though the dogmatic iconoclasts took good care that the best of the old work should be destroyed and that suspicion should be cast on what — from sheer exhaustion — they allowed to remain... they continued building lovely things that were good in spite of their artificial style... It could not last, however: certain essential elements had been l ...
Anytime
