IX. The Principal Doorway to the Cathedral at
Trani, Italy.

THE BROCHURE SERIES

OF ARCHITECTURAL ILLUSTRATION.

VOL. I. FEBRUARY, 1895. No. 2.

BYZANTINE-ROMANESQUE DOORWAYS IN SOUTHERN
ITALY.

The illustrations chosen for this issue are all from the
Byzantine Romanesque work in the province of Apulia, that
portion of Southern Italy familiar in school-boy memory as the
heel of the boot. Writers upon architecture have found it
difficult to strictly classify the buildings of this
neighborhood, as in fact is the case with most of the medieval
architecture of Italy, although the influences which have
brought about the conditions here seen are in the main plainly
evident. The traditions and surroundings, of Roman origin, were
modified by trade and association with the Levant through the
commerce of Venice and Pisa, resulting in a style embodying
many of the characteristics of both the Romans and the builders
of Byzantium. Oftentimes these characteristics are so blended
and modified by one another as to be entirely
indistinguishable, while at other times features unquestionably
belonging to the Romanesque or the Byzantine will be found side
by side. An illustration of the latter condition may be seen in
the two views of the doorway to the cathedral of Trani. (Plates
IX. and X.) On account of the intimate relations maintained
during the Middle Ages between this province and Magna Grecia,
and it may be partly on account of the comparative remoteness
from the principal cities of the north, the Byzantine influence
is here more strongly marked than in the cities of Central and
Northern Italy.

According to the classification adopted by Fergusson, the
church of San Miniato at Florence is one of the oldest examples
and a good type of this rather mixed style. It was built about
the year 1013. It is rectangular in plan, nearly three times as
long as wide, with a semicircular apse. Internally it is
divided longitudinally into aisles, and transversely into three
nearly square compartments by clustered piers, supporting two
great arches which run up to the roof. The whole of the inner
compartment is occupied by a crypt or under church open to the
nave, above which is the choir and altar niche, approached by
flights of steps in the aisles. This general arrangement is
followed more or less closely in the churches at Bittonto,
Bari, Altamura, Ruvo, Galatina, Brindisi, and Barletta. The
scale of the southern churches is, however, much smaller than
those of the north, the width of the nave of the cathedral at
Trani being only 50 feet, and the length 167 feet, while the
corresponding dimensions of the cathedral at Pisa, which is
referred to by Fergusson as the most notable example of this
style in the north, are 106 x 310 feet.

In these smaller churches, as far as external treatment is
concerned, the main attention is devoted to the principal
façade, and here most of the ornament is usually covered
with a rich hood supported by pillars resting on monsters,
following the custom prevalent throughout Italy during this
period. Above this is either a gallery or one or two windows,
and the whole generally terminates in a circular rose window
filled with tracery.

X. The Principal Doorway to the Catherdral at
Trani, Italy.

Fergusson’s final summing up of the architecture of this
neighborhood can scarcely be considered too enthusiastic in the
light of the eight illustrations here given. He says: “No one
who takes the pains to familiarize himself with the
architecture of these Southern Italian churches can well fail
to be impressed with their beauty. That beauty will be found,
however, to arise not so much from the dimensions or
arrangement of their plans, or the form of their outline, as
from the grace and elegance of their details. Every feature
displays the feeling of an elegant and refined people, who
demanded decoration as a necessity, though they were incapable
of rising to any great architectural conception. They excelled
as ornamentists, though at best only indifferent
architects.”

The examples of doorways chosen for illustrating this number
unquestionably show the work of men who labored for the
enjoyment and satisfaction to be got from their work. This is
sufficiently evident in the results before us. Its logical and
constructive bearing can of course be called in question, as in
fact is the case with all but the merest fraction of the
architectural efforts of the world. As decoration we can but
admire the masterly way in which the ornament is distributed,
the refined sense of scale and proportion, and the skilful and
subtle treatment of light and shade, even if the detail of the
ornament itself is crude and archaic.

In making the choice of these subjects this point was kept
in mind, and they are not offered as material which can be cut
out in portions of the size and shape desired and transferred
bodily by the designer to embellish a modern masterpiece, in
the manner in which the Gothic architects of Venice used their
patterns of window tracery. These plates show certain qualities
in decorative design in their fullest and best development, and
are on this account invaluable as suggestions to designers of
the present day. For “cribbing material” they do not stand for
much; but this should not be counted as against their
usefulness, for the draughtsman who has not advanced beyond the
“cribbing” stage has much still to learn before he can do the
best and most satisfactory work.

IX. and X.
PRINCIPAL DOORWAY TO THE CATHEDRAL AT TRANI, ITALY.

The cathedral at Trani dates from about the middle of the
twelfth century. Its main features have been indicated above in
describing the general characteristics of the class of churches
to which it belongs. The bronze doors shown in the illustration
were made in 1160, and are exceptionally fine examples of the
work of this period.

XI.
PRINCIPAL DOORWAY TO THE CATHEDRAL AT CONVERSANO, ITALY.

Doorways of this general design are so familiar in the
so-called Romanesque architecture of our American cities that
it seems almost like an old friend; but we regret to say that
most of our American designs would hardly show to advantage if
compared side by side with this.

XII.
PORTION OF THE FACADE OF THE BASILICA AT ALTAMURA, ITALY.

The remarkable sense of spotting and distribution of
ornament shown in the designing of this facade can hardly be
too much commended. The strong light and long slanting shadows
of the photograph are well calculated to emphasize this quality
in the design, and we can readily find justification here for
the estimate of Fergusson quoted above.

XIII. and XIV. PRINCIPAL DOORWAY TO THE BASILICA AT ALTAMURA,
ITALY, AND DETAIL OF THE SAME.

XV.
DOOR OF MADONNA DI LORETO, TRANI, ITALY.

XVI.
ENTRANCE TO THE CHURCH OF THE ROSARY, TERLIZZI,
ITALY.

XI. The Principal Doorway to the Cathedral at
Conversano, Italy.

Advice to Young Architects.

Prof. Aitchison’s Royal Academy Lectures upon Architecture
should be read by all students who can obtain access to them,
and this is not really very difficult to accomplish, as they
are always reported at length in the English architectural
periodicals, and then usually reprinted without credit by one
or more of the American papers. The latest one, reported in the
Builder of Feb. 16, is that delivered on Feb. 4, under
the general title “The Advancement of Architecture.” It deals
in a common-sense fashion with the aesthetics of architecture,
and contains many valuable suggestions upon the study and
practice of architecture as an art. The three following
quotations are well worth attentive reading:–

“Swift, in his ‘Letters to a Young Clergyman,’ says: ‘I
cannot forbear warning you in the most earnest manner against
endeavoring at wit in your sermons, because, by the strictest
computation, it is very near a million to one that you have
none.’ Perhaps that would be good advice to all who consciously
seek for what is called originality, which is mostly attained
by exaggeration, disproportion, and oddness of arrangement;
real originality only comes from original minds, and will in
that case show itself properly and naturally, just as wit shows
itself spontaneously in the witty; for surely those original
architects, who have only been able to raise in us emotions of
contempt or disgust, would have been judicious had they
abstained from the attempt. I think that most architectural
students, if they will only study the best buildings, will make
their plans to accurately answer the purposes wanted, including
the efficient lighting of the rooms, will study the Vitruvian
symmetry until their eye revolts from disproportion, will try
and make their profiles tell the story they want told, and will
try and bring such parts that, from the exigencies of the case,
obtrude themselves in odd places into harmony with the whole,
that they will produce an effect which will raise their
buildings to the dignity of humanity, and out of the range of
the dog-kennel and rabbit-hutch type, and will not exhibit
ugliness, disproportion, or vulgarity. We see plenty of
examples where the designs have sunk much below this level; no
building of dead walls, with holes in it for doors and windows,
could cause us such disgust. Let me here say, by way of a
parenthesis, that if you candidly consider that your design is
more offensive than a dead wall, do not waste money and
materials in making the wall more repulsive, but let it
alone.”

“Any one can be original if he be only impudent enough; any
one can be graceful if he is servile enough to copy: but to be
both original and graceful requires deep study, much striving,
and natural talent.”

“I have also to remind you that architecture cannot be
brought into vigorous life again, so long as architects insist
on using old forms for beauty that are inseparable from a
construction that has been abandoned; so long as this practice
persists, so long will architecture be a kind of potted art; to
be vigorous it must learn how to take the materials, and
construction that would be ordinarily used in buildings for
purely practical purposes, and give to these materials and this
construction forms that will excite the proper emotions. You
must not suppose that I mean that if you have a vast hall, or
what not, that because you can put an iron trussed roof over it
from wall to wall, that this will make it into a hall that will
raise emotions. You will only get a rail-way platform or a coal
shed. You have got to set your wits to work to see how it can
be properly brought within the pale of aesthetics, and not only
as to the shapes and proportions of the parts, but the dividing
of the whole by supports. It is probable that if you were
obliged to vault a cathedral in stone, with no more money than
was necessary, and to have a clearstory to it, that you could
not do it cheaper, and perhaps not better, than the Gothic
architects did it; but to vault such a building in stone when
you could do it much cheaper and better with iron ribs and
concrete is, in my opinion, dilettante art. Groins are
not beautiful things, but, on the contrary, are ugly, and we
should wish to obviate their ugliness if we could; but when
they were merely unavoidable methods of cheap construction, we
admire them for the invention and skill of their architects,
and we have to some extent got to love even their ugliness from
old association; though perhaps the ribs at Westminster Abbey,
as seen from the west end, are not
offensive.”

XII. A Portion of the Façade of the
Basilica at Altamura, Italy.

The Brochure Series

of Architectural Illustration.

PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY

BATES & GUILD,
6 BEACON STREET, BOSTON, MASS.

Subscription Rates per year 50 cents, . in advance
Special Club Rate for five subscriptions . . $2.00.

All who wish for a complete file of THE BROCHURE SERIES
should send in their subscriptions at once, as owing to the
necessity of limiting the edition of the first numbers and the
impossibity of reprinting when this edition is exhausted,
subscriptions will have to date from the current number at the
time the order is received. Until the present stock gives out,
all subscriptions will be dated from the January number, but no
copies will be reserved for this purpose after April 1.

Response to the call for subscriptions to THE BROCHURE
SERIES has been gratifyingly prompt and generous. The first
subscriber was Mr. George B. Howe, 13 Walnut Street, Boston,
the architect of the New Hampshire State Building at the
World’s Fair. The first club came from the office of
Longfellow, Alden & Harlow, and was made up as follows:
F.B. Wheaton, R.T. Walker, H.W. Gardner, H.M. Seaver, and J.H.
Buttimer. This was closely followed by a club of eight from the
office of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, and another of five
from the office of Edwin J. Lewis. The first response from out
of town was a club of five from the office of Martin & Hall
of Providence, R.I. Others “too numerous to mention” came along
in quick succession, and the new magazine may now be considered
well launched on its trial trip.

As the plan of THE BROCHURE SERIES is unique in
architectural journalism, much of the work to be done during
its first year will necessarily be, to a certain extent,
experimental. Although the publishers have for a number of
years tried to keep as closely as possible in touch with the
profession throughout the country, the diversity of tastes to
which the new magazine is intended to appeal, and the practical
requirements which it is intended to meet, make even the simple
matter of selecting proper material for publication a difficult
task. Consequently suggestions or criticisms which may lead to
its improvement in any particular will be welcome.

The design used for the cover of THE BROCHURE SERIES is the
result of a competition in which twenty-three drawings were
submitted, and is the work of Charles Edward Hooper of 250 West
14th Street, New York. The other competitors, whose designs
were all of a high order of excellence, were: J. Mills Platt,
Charles S. King, Francis S. Swales, Edwin S. Gordon, Fred A.
Miller, J.F. Strobel, Jr., George E. Roberts, of Rochester,
N.Y.; G.H. Ingraham, E.P. Dana, F.H. Hutchins, C.E. Patch, of
Boston; J.W. Cinder, W.B. Papin, H.G. Helmerichs, of St. Louis;
Louis E. La Baume, H.H. Braun, of New York City; and Stephen W.
Dodge, of Brooklyn.

Following out the general plan adopted in the first two
issues, which, contrary to the expectation of the publishers,
has proved even so soon an important feature of the magazine,
the illustrations in the next two numbers will be made up of
related subjects. The March number will have a collection of
capitals (Byzantine and Romanesque) from Ravenna and Palermo,
and the April number eight windows from Apulia, of the same
general character as the doorways in the present number.

Hints to Draughtsmen.

Architectural students and draughtsmen will find the series
of papers begun in the Feb. 16 number of the American
Architect, entitled “Hints to Art Students on Travelling
Abroad,” filled with valuable suggestions. The writer of these
papers is Mr. J.W. Case, the latest of the Rotch scholars
returned. In the first paper Mr. Case points out the
desirability of preparatory training in academic design,
drawing, modelling, etc., and a knowledge of architectural
history and of the French language in order that the student
may make the best use of the opportunities open to him. He
continues with a number of useful hints upon the best methods
to pursue in gaining this preparatory
training.

XIII. The Principal Doorway to the Basilica
at Altamura, Italy.

The second paper is devoted to practical suggestions of such
immediate value that it is worth while to quote a portion of
them in full:–

“To get the most good out of a trip, one should be prepared
to work in all sorts of ways,–to make measured drawings,
sketches, color notes, squeezes, rubbings, sections with the
lead; to study from plates and make T-square sketches,
scratch-book notes, photographic notes, and memory
sketches.

“Travelling students are apt to place too much value on
perspective sketches. Good ones make a nice showing on
returning home, but they are of little value to any one but the
maker. It is usually possible to find photographs of the things
over which one spends so many hours making pretty sketches. But
sketches do have a certain value in teaching rendering, and
encourage the habit of observing closely the effect of light
and shade.

“Beautiful pencil sketches may be made on English metallic
paper by simply drawing the shadows on carving in full
sunshine: colored papers are very useful to gain quick effects
with the use of Chinese white. A pad of Whatman water-color
paper, imperial size, is much better to work on than a small
cramped little book; and it may be used as a drawing-board,
thus diminishing the number of articles to carry. The T-square
will run along the edge of the block well enough for sketches,
but it is better to carry a straight-edge to clamp on the edge
of the block with thumb-screws for the square to work on. Have
a canvas bag made with a flap in which to carry the block. It
will keep out the dirt and dust of travel and be of great
service.

“Sometimes valuable color notes are to be had in crowded
buildings where it is not convenient to sit down and make a
large study. For such cases a small pocket water-color block
will be very useful. There is a small vest-pocket water-color
box carrying six colors, which may be set over the thumb, a
water-bottle attached, and with it one can stand unobserved in
a corner and get color notes which otherwise must be passed by.
In studying fresco painting, tempera is very useful. It is
mixed up with water and applied to paper, but may be worked
over in the manner of oils,–a great advantage in making
studies.

“The chambre éclaire is invaluable as an aid
to drawing, in blocking out water-colors. It will enable one to
make a drawing in an hour which otherwise would require all
day. It is an instrument little known outside of Paris, but is
much in use there among architects. It consists of a prism
mounted on a telescoping leg which may be fastened to the
drawing-board. The eye looks through the prism and sees the
building reflected on the paper; all that remains to do is to
trace this outline. It does not teach one to draw, but it does
save time, and produces better drawings than can be made
without it. The best place to buy them is of Cevalier, on the
Seine, near the Pont Netif, Paris. Only those with the best
prisms are of any use: such a one, with two adjustments only,
can be had for sixty-five francs. The table which is necessary
for its use costs fifteen francs additional; that is, a total
cost of sixteen dollars. In buying a table, be sure and get one
with sliding legs which can be taken off the head and packed
flat.

“One of the very best ways to study, and one which has very
direct tangible results, is by the aid of printed plates. Take
such a book as Letarouilly’s Edifices de Rome Moderne.
Go to the buildings themselves and compare the drawing with the
building; see what drawings on paper really mean when executed;
mark up the plate; note the proportion of masses, the size of
ornament, the relative proportion of openings, and wall spaces,
the effect of color and texture, and the use of material. Make
suggestions for better ornament, proportion, etc., and then go
home and make a new design with all the improvements you have
noted.

“The reverse of this method is, to sit down in front of the
building with T-square and triangle and translate the
perspective building back on to paper in
elevation.

XIV. Detail of the Principal Doorway to the
Basilica at Altamura, Italy.

“These two methods will aid one to tell from a drawing how
the building will actually look when executed. It will give an
idea of the scale of ornament, if a cornice looks just the
right size on a certain building, the plate will tell you just
how high that is. The T-square sketch is very valuable in
cultivating the sense of proportion. Draw to scale such parts
of the sketch as can be easily measured, and put in the
remainder in proportion, and make these sketches at the scale
at which you are used to working in the office. They will be of
immense advantage in giving you a sense of absolute scale.

“There is such a thing as ‘absolute scale,’ and scale is not
simply proportion. A drawing might be made in good proportion,
and the building look well if executed a thousand feet long,
and yet lose all its effectiveness if executed but one hundred
feet in length, the relative proportions of the parts remaining
the same. It is a fact that certain designs, which look well on
paper, will not look well in execution, except at a large
scale. Therefore it is valuable in making a sketch to put on it
some of the measurements; and freehand sketches with
measurements marked on them have a value in giving absolute
scale.

“The back of a photograph is a very convenient place on
which to make notes of the building itself, in regard to color,
material, suggested changes, etc., and will be very useful in
recalling the building to memory.

“Measuring buildings and drawing them out to scale is solid
architectural work, and nothing else can take its place. It
gives a realization of the actual size and appearance of
things, and brings to notice the stone-jointing, sections of
mouldings, vaulting, roofing, and construction in general.
Measured work must be done very accurately, or else the results
have no more value than approximate measures on sketches.

“The drawing should be made exactly as the building exists,
without any change or improvement, or else the drawing will
lose a great deal of its value as a basis for study. Many of
Letarouilly’s are nearly valueless as data for study because he
has improved on the original, and thus his drawing does not
represent the building as it actually exists.

“A good method of measuring buildings is to measure first
the general dimensions and block out the building on paper at a
small scale, then measure up windows, columns, etc., and set
off full-size sections of all the mouldings with a strip of
thin lead, such as may be had at any whole-sale lead store:
only the thinnest sheet-lead will work, as the thicker leads
are too stiff to bend. The large final drawings can then be
made away from the building. It is important to draw out the
building completely at a small scale, however, as it is very
annoying when making the final drawing far away from the
building to find that some important dimension has been
forgotten.

“The ordinary tape stretches so much in long dimensions that
it is inaccurate. It is best to get a tape with a metallic
strip in it, and it should be at least fifty feet long in order
to take dimensions over all, which is much more accurate than
measuring with a short tape from point to point.

“The metric system is very convenient, but it is better for
American students to use the English measure that they will
have to use in practice, and take the tape over with them, for
it is difficult to find them on the Continent. A sliding
measuring-rod is nearly indispensable, and it will be most
convenient to carry if it folds up to the length of the
imperial drawing pad. Two large triangles are very useful in
getting the projection of mouldings, as they can be held
together to form a right angle.”

XV. Door of the Madonna di Loreto, Triani,
Italy.

Books.

Verona and Other Lectures. By John Ruskin, D.C.L.,
LL.D. New York: Macmillan & Co., 1894. 8vo, pp. 204, plates
xii. $2.50.

The art of Northern Italy has furnished the text for a very
considerable part of the writings of Mr. Ruskin, and there is
no one writer among those who have ventured to investigate and
write upon this extremely engrossing subject whose work has so
great an interest for the architect, or in fact is of so much
value to him. It is not necessary to agree with all of Mr.
Ruskin’s elaborate theories or to unqualifiedly admire his
drawings in order to find much of real value in his books. No
student of architecture can afford not to read “The
Stones of Venice,” and there are few books which should take
precedence over it in the formation of an architect’s
library.

Apropos of the illustrations in the last number of THE
BROCHURE SERIES, in the descriptive notices of which we had
occasion to refer to Mr. Ruskin, his latest published work will
be found interesting. The title, “Verona and other
Lectures,” does not convey a very complete idea of the
contents of the book. None of the five lectures included is
strictly architectural in subject matter, and but one, the
first, “Verona and its Rivers,” has any direct bearing upon
architecture, and this only from the historical side. The
illustrations, with a single exception from drawings by the
author, although lacking in most of the qualities of good
draughtsmanship, are well worth examination and study. Plates
II. and V., “A Fountain at Verona,” and “The Castelbarco Tomb,
Sta. Anastasia, Verona,” the first made in 1841 and the second
in 1835, are from the point of view of the architect the most
interesting. They are both pencil sketches, the first accented
with a few touches of wash in the shadows and darker portions
of the drawing. Plate IX. represents the angle of the Ducal
Palace, Venice, the same given as the frontispiece in the last
issue of THE BROCHURE SERIES. It would hardly be possible to
come nearer the same point of view if the coincidence were
intentional. In the comparison which this forces upon Mr.
Ruskin very naturally suffers, as might be expected, from the
fact that his training in drawing was not the most thorough.
His proportions are somewhat faulty and the detail is only
vaguely suggested, in fact this is more or less true of all his
drawings. Nevertheless the book will be welcome to many
architects for the valuable suggestions it contains both in
text and illustrations; and the author’s wonderful and
fascinating literary style is here as unmistakably in evidence
as in any of his older works. This alone is sufficient
inducement to tempt the reader to take it up.

Club Notes.

At the suggestion of several subscribers, the addresses are
given below of the secretaries of the principal architectural
clubs as far as they are known to us, but there are several
omissions and possibly some mistakes. In order that these
associations may be of as great mutual assistance to each other
as possible, through correspondence, the exchange of notices of
competitions, etc., it is requested that any not included in
the following list will communicate the desired information to
the editor of THE BROCHURE SERIES. Corrections or additions
will be made in later issues, and the various secretaries will
confer a favor by keeping the editor informed of any changes of
address or organization.

LIST OF CLUBS.

Sketch Club of New York, club rooms 1473 Broadway; recording
secretary, Alfred F. Evans; corresponding secretary, Hobart A.
Walker.

Boston Architectural Club, rooms 5 Tremont Place; secretary,
F. Manton Wakefield.

The T-Square Club, Philadelphia, rooms Broad and Pine Streets;
secretary, A.C. Munoz, 212 South Third Street.

Chicago Architectural Club, rooms 274 Michigan Avenue;
secretary, John Robert Dillon.

St. Louis Sketch Club; secretary, E.G. Garden, Telephone
Building.

Art League, Milwaukee, Wis.; secretary, Elmer Grey, 904
Winchester Street.

St. Paul Architectural Sketch Club, rooms 239-241 Endicott
Building; secretary, John Rachac, Jr.

Cleveland Architectural Club, rooms 1002 Garfield Building;
secretary, Herbert B. Briggs.

Denver Architectural Sketch Club; president, William Cowe, 706
Cooper Building.

Rochester Sketch Club, secretary, G.F. Crump, Wilder
Building.

The Architectural League of New York, American Fine Arts
Society Building; secretary, Charles I. Berg, 10 West 23d
Street.

The Society of Beaux Arts Architects. New York City.

XVI. Entrance to the Church of the Rosary,
Terlizzi, Italy.