American renaissance; a review of domestic architectureDow, Joy Wheeler
History
American renaissance; a review of domestic architecture
Dow, Joy Wheeler
Architecture -- United States; Architecture, Domestic
In some recent and necessary researches for this and other work I have
run across the names of a few of these architects. Their biographies are
not to be found in libraries, though they merit shelf-room beside those
of our greatest heroes, statesmen and authors. Samuel McIntyre of Salem,
Massachusetts, and Russell Warren of Bristol, Rhode Island,
respectively, are _two_ I could mention in particular that should be
done up in full levant with notes and comments upon their work and
times, edited by Mr. Russell Sturgis or some one else equally competent
to do so. And then the fun of it was that many a most refined and
skilful artificer of the ancient _régime_ never considered the propriety
of adding the word “Architect” to his subscription. I suppose he fancied
he lacked his diploma or the requisite reputation afforded by some
stupendous public work. Yet, Fouquet with his celebrated _Vaux le
Vicomte_, or Louis XIV at Versailles had no better architectural advice
than had the colonists of America. The greatest architects of the world
really directed the planning of the Colonial houses. Unseen, the
master_hands_ and _minds_ were working through the agency of deferential
and obedient apprentices.
These apprentices essayed no--what boys denominate--“stunts” (see Plate
XV), and their masters, to whom they frequently served life-long
apprenticeships, affected no “stunts” either. Sir Christopher Wren,
himself, and Inigo Jones never tried “_stunts_” nor did Palladio in
Italy, before them, nor even the great Michelangelo. Now, if there ever
was an architect justified in exploiting “_stunts_” it was Michelangelo,
to whom marble or pigments, chisels or brushes were as subservient as to
magic. But what did this
PLATE XV.
[Illustration: THESE APPRENTICES ESSAYED NO STUNTS.
Munro-French House, Bristol, R. I. A. D. 1800.]
[Illustration: AN ANCIENT FARMHOUSE AT DURHAM, CONN.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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