EXAMPLES OF FOREIGN ARCHITECTURE.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 6, 2 April 1906, Page 138

EXAMPLES OF FOREIGN ARCHITECTURE.

. Villa near Vienna. — This is an interesting specimen of a modern Continental villa, and to a certain extent shows by comparison how far German influence is aftectmg American architecture and indirectly (through American books) the buildings in these colonies. It is interesting, too, as showing the influence that climate has upon the designs of buildings — shelter from the severe cold of the Continental winter having to be provided, as well as screens to shut out the hot sun of the Southern European summer. As a design the building is well grouped and picturesque, at the same time it maintains a degree of balance which is so often wanting in freely treated structures.

Interior of Church at Prague. — This illustration has been chosen as showing the extent to which mural decoration is carried in some of the European churches. Whether it is right to emphasise colour at the expense of form is a matter upon which opinions will, at all times, be divided, and which has caused much tribulation in the mmds of man}'- over Richmond's decoration of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. For our part we venture to think that in the illustration given it would have been better to have restricted the picture portion of the decoration to the plain surface, and to have left the mouldings, etc., to the relief which they gam by light and shade, and which is ever charming in its variety.

A Palace in Rome. — This is chiefly interesting as a specimen of quaint draughtsmanship and an ingenious method of showing construction. The plate is a reproduction of an old woodcut of the 1 7th century.