a, Italy.]

XXIV.

CAPITAL IN THE MUSEUM OF THE ACCADEMIA DI BELLE ARTI, RAVENNA, ITALY.

Whether this capital was originally intended for S. Vitale or some of
the other churches of Ravenna we cannot state, but at all events it is a
fitting companion for the others illustrated in this number.

The Brochure Series

of Architectural Illustration.

PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY

BATES & GUILD,

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

Entered at the Boston Post Office as Second-class Matter.

* * * * *

An illustrated catalogue has come to be one of the important features of
exhibitions of architectural drawings, and these catalogues are now
exceedingly valuable records of recent progress in architecture. The
contributions of the present year to this department of an architect's
library are especially notable. Of the catalogues which have come to our
notice, that of the architectural exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts
in Philadelphia is in point of illustration the most complete, and shows
the most judicious selection of material. In this there was a marked
endeavor to give as large a number of geometrical drawings as possible,
and it is unquestionably a move in the right direction. The desire for
the picturesque, which has been until recently the ruling motive with
American architects, has had its day, and trained and conservative
designers have gradually taken the place of the pyrotechnic draughtsman
of the past. The change has been working gradually to be sure, but scale
and detail drawings both in the exhibitions, which of necessity are
intended to appeal to a more or less popular taste, and in the
professional journals are from year to year growing more prominent. In
their recognition of this tendency, the Philadelphia catalogue committee
are to be highly commended.

The same trend may be observed in a little less marked degree in the
Architectural League catalogue. The exhibitions of the League have for
years been the models by which minor exhibitions have been ruled, and
its catalogue has been a guide to all others. As usual there is a great
deal of valuable and interesting material presented in its
illustrations.

The Catalogue Committee of the St. Louis exhibition have made a
departure from the general rule, and increased the size of their pages,
allowing the use of much