ic
architecture began to decline, lured by the "fascination of the statical
_tour de force_, the craving to bring down to an irreducible minimum the
amount of material that would suffice to the stability of a building
extravagantly lofty."

Many more extracts we would gladly make, whether from the account of the
French sculpture of this period, marked as it was by "sincerity and
freshness, often by great beauty and stateliness;" or from the criticism
of such artists as Jean Cousin, who painted windows which were "limpid
with hues of amethyst, sapphire, and topaz, and fair as a May morning;"
or again, of Watteau, of whom we are told that "in the vivacity and
grace of his drawing, in the fascination of his harmonies, rich and
suave at once, in the fidelity with which he reflected his times without
hinting at their coarseness, this wizard of the brush remains one of the
most interesting, as he is one of the most fascinating, masters of his
country's art."

In the Discourse of 1893 the History of Gothic Architecture was pursued,
from its native France to its adopted home in Germany. At the end of
last century Goethe declared that not only was the Gothic style native
to Germany, but no other nation had a peculiar style of its own; "for,"
he said, "the Italians have none, and still less the Frenchmen"!
According to Leighton, "the Germans, as a race, were, speaking broadly,
never at one in spirit with ogival architecture. The result was such as
you would expect; in the use of a form of architecture which was not of
spontaneous growth in their midst, and unrestrained, moreover, as they
were, by a sound innate instinct of special fitness, German builders
were often led into solecisms, incongruities, and excesses, from which
in the practice of their native style they have been largely free." Of
this style, which may be called the German-Romanesque, the best examples
are to be found among the churches of the Rhineland. In the thirteenth
century this style, admirably as it expressed the genius of the Teuton,
succumbed to invading French influence. "I have often wondered," he
continued, "at the strange contrast between the reticent and grave
sobriety of the architecture of Germany before the fall of the
Hohenstaufens, and its erratic self-indulgence in the Gothic period."
There is much, however, to be said in praise of the Gothic churches of
Germany, their fine colouring, suggestiveness, and variety. Take the
description of the Ch