vu
A DKKKNOB OF OATALINE.
VOIi. VIII,
of conception and vastnoss of thought he.
yond all his contemporaries. His images
are all characterized by being of that
same lofty style. How admirably blended
are the frightful ami sublime in that flue
work, " The Great Judgment."
Rapluul puts his great power into the
expression, lla forms are fault', but you
lose sight of all this, in seeing the soul
looking out from his faces. His greatest
work, The Transfiguration," is such, that
viewed at a distance, the lower portion
seems but darkness, and the upper part
brightness; as you approach, it becomes
more distinct and you see below, a mass
of struggling, helpless humanity, and
above, the Christ. Raphicl has been
criticized severely, hut his critics are those
Avho are about as just as was Voltaire of
"that barbarous, imbecile Shakespeare."
From 1000 the Homaine stvle began to
decline and to merge into what has the
irrelevant title of Gothic. Round arches
gave way to pointed ones, and by lfiOO,
the Gothic was acknowledged throughout
Europe. Dining the transition period,
cdiliccB appeared as part Romanic and
part Gothic, and sometimes could be seen
an old Greek building with Round ne pro-
jected from one side and finally a mug.
nificent Gothic front. As the pointed
arch appeared immediately after tho first
crusade, there is good reason to believe
that the idea was brought by the Crusaders
from the Holy Land.
Italy was inferior to most of the Euro
pean countries in examples of the trans
ition from round to pointed arch. The
Italians never welcomed the Gothic, but
accepted it as a necessity. They were ig
norant of its true spirit and so put no life
into their work, rarely oven properly fit.
ting the arch. mold into the cap. Among
them the clustered Hhafts aro almost un
known. In France was the pointed arch most
highly developed, though not at first ac
companied by the ilelicate tracery that
makes it so beautiful. Although the
Gothic edifices show great elegance ami
beauty, it seems hardly appropriate for
slender pillars to support enormous mas
ses, giving tho building tho air of being
upheld by numerous little props. Owing
to the thinness of the fine, lacclikc work,
the top portion is not as heavy as ono
would suppose, but often the idea of the
supernatural is carried to excess, and all
seems to be out of proportion, and tho im
pression left upon the mind is a disagree
able one. Ono author says; "Arches
sank from poetry to romance, from tho
marvellous to tho absurd, when in tho
fifteenth century pyramidal forms reversed
their spires." This ridicule seems hard
ly out of place; hut tho same writer is too
severo when ho remarks, " Tho Greek
style renders tho brute divine, the Gothic
reduces man to beast." Tho Gothic arch
ilecturo has been compared to frozen mu
sic; and following with tho cyo the fine
delicate tracery and rich ornamentations,
you see the peculiar fitness at once.
There is felt to be a difilculty in rccon
cilingthc low moral state of society with
this regeneration of art. Tho Christian
Church has been so corrupted, that the
people unwisely considered grave faults
among tho Ecclesiastical order as defects
in the system, and so rejected all hitherto
fore accepted doctrines.
Tho Renaissance was sadly needed then,
and one more would bo very welcome if
it would reduce our miserably deformed
architecture to a system embodying spirit
and life and conforming to ordinary ideas
of taste. Spiiynx.
A DEFKNQE OF GATALIXE.
7JV KT us examine the account handed
JLC down to us of the unsuccessful at
tempt of Lucius Sergius Catalinc to de
liver the Roman Republic from party
rule, commonly known to Ciceronian
students ns the "Conspiracy of Catalinc,"
and endeavor to discover the better part
of the man, to which the orator lias blind
ed us.