ARCHANGEL — ARCHITECTURE
- not too literal. Other paintings found at Rome range
with or even excel those of Pompeii, notably the remarkable wall-paintings representing artificial gardens with shrubs and flowers, which have been found at Prima Porta. The whole subject of Roman art has been recently ■discussed by Prof. Wickhoff of Vienna in an essay translated into English by Mrs. Strong. This writer claims for the art of Italy and of Rome greater independence and more importance than had been conceded to it by other writers. He regards the art of the Augustan age as the last efflorescence of the Greek creative genius, which at that time had passed by a reaction against the strained and theatrical tendencies of the Pergamene school to a somewhat dry and insipid naturalism, a style of which the portraits of Augustus, the reliefs of the Ara Pacis at Rome, and some of the paintings of Pompeii are good examples. Against the jejuneness of this art the national spirit of Italy, which had for long been expressed in a series of portraits, lifelike if somewhat coarse, revolted towards the end of the 1st century. The result is to be observed in the portraits of the Flavian age, which are far more vivid than those of the Caesars, as well as in the remarkable reliefs of the arch of Titus and the column of Trajan. In this national Roman art, Prof. Wickhoff does not hesitate to see illusionism, as opposed to the typical art of Greece, and the naturalism of the early empire. Its chief features are the attempt to produce a vivid and individual effect, often worked by very simple means, and the continuous method of representation of events, a method according to which successive scenes of a transaction follow one another without any separation, and the actors appear again and again in the same relief. Thus Trajan appears eighty-five times over in the continuous scroll of relief which adorns his column; and on Roman sarcophagi the successive scenes of a mythical tale follow one another without division. It was, according to Prof. Wickhoff, from illusionist Roman art that the earliest Christian art took its origin; hence its effects lasted far ■on into the Middle Ages. It is evidently impossible in this place to criticize these novel views; their importance lies in the fact that they are perhaps the first attempt to set forth the course of Roman art as a valuable development rather than as a mere process of degeneration; but most readers will think that Dr Wickhoff overvalues Roman, and undervalues Greek art. (p. g.) Archangel.
See Arkhangelsk.
587
Arch bald, a borough of Lackawanna county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in the anthracite coal region in the northeastern part of the state, on several railways. Population (1890), 4032; (1900), 5396. Arches, Court of the.—The court of the Arches is the court of appeal of the archbishop of Canterbury as metropolitan of the province of Canterbury from all the consistory and commissary courts in the province, and its decisions are in most cases appealable to the judicial committee of the Privy Council. (See Ency. Brit. vol. ii. p. 378.) The judge (known as the dean of the Arches) was until 1874 appointed by the archbishop of Canterbury by patent which, when confirmed by the dean and chapter of Canterbury, conferred the office for the life of the holder. He took the oaths of office required by the 127th canon. But by the Public Worship Regulation Act, 1874 (37 and 38 Viet. c. 85), the two archbishops were empowered, subject to the approval of the sovereign by sign-manual, from time to time to appoint a judge for the purpose of exercising jurisdiction under that Act, and it was enacted (sec. 7) that on a vacancy occurring in the office of dean of the Arches, the judge so to be appointed should become ex officio dean of the Arches. In this way the late Lord Penzance became dean on the retirement of Sir Robert Phillimore in 1875. Lord Penzance received in 1878 a supplemental patent as dean from Archbishop Tait, but did not otherwise fulfil the conditions observed on the appointment of his predecessors. On Lord Penzance’s retirement in 1899, his successor, Sir Arthur Charles, was appointed dean by patent from the archbishop of Canterbury, and he took the oaths of office according to the practice before the Public Worship Regulation Act. He was subsequently and separately appointed judge under that Act. Under the Clergy Discipline Act, 1892 (55 and 56 Viet. c. 32, sec. 4) an appeal lies from the judgment of a consistory court under that Act, in respect of fact by leave of the appellate court, and in respect of law without leave, to either the court of the Arches or the judicial committee of the Privy Council at the option of the appellant. Under the Benefices Act, 1898 (61 and 62 Viet. c. 48, sec. 3 (4)), the official principal of the archbishop is required to institute a presentee to a benefice if the tribunal constituted under that Act decides that there is no valid ground for refusing institution and the bishop of the diocese notwithstanding fails to institute him. For many years past there has been but little business in the court of Arches. On the rare occasions when a sitting of the court is necessary, it is held in the library of Lambeth Palace, or at the Church House. (l. t. D.)
AECHITECTUEE. I. Modern. OTH in England and in the United States, the last quarter of the 19th century was a period of unusual interest and activity in architectural development. While other nations have been content to carry on their architecture, for the most part, on the old scholastic lines which had been prevalent since the Renaissance, in the two countries named there has been manifest a spirit of unrest, of critical inquiry into the basis and objects of architecture; an aspiration to make new and original creations in or applications of the art, without example in any other period in the modern history of architecture. In England, the “note”—heard with increasing shrillness ■of crescendo towards the very last year of the century—
has been the cry for originality, for throwing off the trammels of the past, for rendering architecture more truly a direct expression of the conditions of practical requirement and of structure. This was no doubt to some extent the effect of a reaction. During the greater part of the century architectural strength had been spent in revivals of past styles. First came the Greek revival, of which the best result was St George’s Hall at Liverpool, and the worst the formation of the tower of St Pancras Church in London by piling three Greek temples or shrines one upon another. Then followed the Gothic revival, which gained an immense impetus from the fact that it coincided with the spiritual and ecclesiological revival of the English church—and indeed it is rather difficult to apportion cause and effect between
