The Theosophical Path Illustrated Monthly Volume 1, July-December, 1911
Religion
The Theosophical Path Illustrated Monthly Volume 1, July-December, 1911
Theosophy -- Periodicals
Standing beside Wren is Inigo Jones, one of the first and most highly
accomplished English architects of the Renascence. His fame chiefly
rests upon his design for the palace of Whitehall, commanded by
James I. The Banqueting Hall was the only part actually carried into
execution. A window of this splendid building is still pointed out as
the fatal one from which Charles I stepped to the block.
Vanbrugh, standing behind Wren, was the latter's famous pupil. He built
Blenheim, the seat of the great Duke of Marlborough. To the right of
Inigo Jones is Mansart or Mansard, the French architect whose memory
is immortalized in the "Mansard roof," which he invented. Palladio
and Vignola, to the extreme right, were Italian Renascence architects
whose influence upon the classic revival was very great in England
and France; the Palladian style being particularly followed in the
former and that of Vignola in the latter country. A striking group of
buildings was erected by Palladio in Vicenza, Italy, in the sixteenth
century, which became the model on which a large proportion of the
Renascence work in England was based.
Of the modern English architects on the left, Sir Charles Barry is the
most notable. He was among the first to depart from the fashion so long
prevalent of introducing Greek and Roman forms into every building
of importance, and was one of the pioneers of the Gothic revival of
the nineteenth century, a century without a distinctive style of its
own. He designed the British Houses of Parliament, which, in spite of
some weaknesses, is a striking building with an eminently picturesque
sky-line.
The kneeling figure at the right of the second illustration is the
great art reformer Giotto, (1276-1336) the admirable Florentine who
liberated the art of painting from the stiff Byzantine traditions which
had been dominant for many centuries. He exercised a lasting influence
upon the arts in every part of Italy, and thereby, upon the whole
western world. Carved in low relief as a background are the Dome and
Campanile of Florence Cathedral, the latter being a masterpiece proving
that Giotto had supreme ability as a builder in addition to his skill
with the brush.
Seated beside Giotto is Arnolfo di Lapo, a successor of the celebrated
Niccolo Pisano, one of the few great sculptors of the Gothic period.
On Giotto's left is Brunelleschi (1377-1446), sculptor and architect.
To him we owe the completion of the great Dome of Florence Cathedral,
which is unequaled for beauty though not so high as several later
ones. He is also noted for his treatment of the "rusticated" work on
the Pitti Palace, Florence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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