Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/579

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

GERMAN RENAISSANCE. 521 account for a good deal of the grotesqueness and crudity which it possesses, German Renaissance differs from French in lack of refinement, and in a general , heaviness and whimsicality of treatment, while it resembles in some respects our own Elizabethan. It forms, in fact, a connecting link between Elizabethan architecture and French Renaissance of the time of Henri IV. Examples are mostly found in towns, whereas in France they are principally found in the country (page 499). The later period, which commenced at the beginning of the nineteenth century, has been called the " Revival," and was chiefly confined to Munich, Berlin, and Dresden. It consisted in the adoption of Classic forms in toto, without reference to their applicability, or appropriateness. 3. EXAMPLES. SECULAR ARCHITECTURE. Heidelberg Castle has interesting examples of the style, especially the fagade of the Heinrichshau (1556) (No. 227) of the early period, and the Freidvichshau of the later period (a.d. 1601), which have elaborately-carved string courses, with an order and its entablature to each story, and classical details surrounding the windows. Symbolical statuary was prominently introduced (No. 231 A, B, c), but the design suffers much from over- ornamentation. The Gewandhaus, Brunswick, originally executed in the Gothic, has its eastern gable (a.d. 1590) in this style. The three- quarter columns, with pedestals and entablatures, marking each floor, and the immense gable comprising four stories, each provided with an order of vase-shaped pilasters, as in Elizabethan work, are characteristic features. The scrolls by which the stages of the gable are contracted are also typical. Nuremberg and Hildesheim are also rich in domestic examples of the period. The Rathhaus (Town Hall), Cologne, has a fine two-storied porch (1571) (No. 228), in a style purer in detail than usually found. It consists of semicircular arcading, with detached Corinthian columns, and a stone vaulted roof. The arches on the first floor are pointed, as is also the vaulting. The Town Hall, Lemgo, with mullioned windows and shaped gables (No. 229 a), and the Town Hall, Solothurn (No. 229 b), with pilasters and entablature to each story, are other characteristic examples. The Pellerhaus, Nuremberg (a.d. 1605) (No. 230), is an