which then separated Italy from
the Teutonic nations. But this is not all. Spiritual quality in
the architect himself finds clear expression in his work. Coldness
combined with violence marks Brunelleschi's churches; a certain
suavity and well-bred taste the work of Bramante; while Michelangelo
exhibits wayward energy in his Library of S. Lorenzo, and Amadeo
self-abandonment to fancy in his Lombard chapels. I have chosen
examples from one nation and one epoch in order that the point I seek
to make, the demonstration of a spiritual quality in buildings, may be
fairly stated.

* * * * *

Sculpture and painting distinguish themselves from the other fine
arts by the imitation of concrete existences in nature. They copy the
bodies of men and animals, the aspects of the world around us, and the
handiwork of men. Yet, in so far as they are rightly arts, they do
not make imitation an object in itself. The grapes of Zeuxis at which
birds pecked, the painted dog at which a cat's hair bristles--if such
grapes or such a dog were ever put on canvas--are but evidences of the
artist's skill, not of his faculty as artist. These two plastic, or,
as I prefer to call them, figurative arts, use their imitation of
the external world for the expression, the presentation of internal,
spiritual things. The human form is for them the outward symbol of the
inner human spirit, and their power of presenting spirit is limited by
the means at their disposal.

Sculpture employs stone, wood, clay, the precious metals, to model
forms, detached and independent, or raised upon a flat surface
in relief. Its domain is the whole range of human character and
consciousness, in so far as these can be indicated by fixed facial
expression, by physical type, and by attitude. If we dwell for an
instant on the greatest historical epoch of sculpture, we shall
understand the domain of this art in its range and limitation. At a
certain point of Greek development the Hellenic Pantheon began to be
translated by the sculptors into statues; and when the genius of the
Greeks expired in Rome, the cycle of their psychological conceptions
had been exhaustively presented through this medium. During that long
period of time, the most delicate gradations of human personality,
divinised, idealised, were presented to the contemplation of the
consciousness which gave them being, in appropriate types. Strength
and swiftness, massive force and airy