Identifier: robertadamhisbr00swar (find matches)
Title: Robert Adam & his brothers : their lives, work & influence on English architecture, decoration and furniture
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Swarbrick, John, b. 1879
Subjects: Adam, Robert, 1728-1792 Adam, James, d. 1794 Architecture
Publisher: London : B.T. Batsford
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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ies of the past ; but he realised that, gifted thoughthey had been, he too was gifted, and with an ability that justifiedhim in exercising his own judgment, and in being original to anextent that carried him beyond the limits of any known precedent. In later years the inlluence of the Low Countries in Englandbecame so great that it even extended into the sphere of architecture.To a versatile, creative genius like Wren the change presented nodifficulties. On the other hand, suggestions were afforded that helpedhim to find new expression in his work, and to record some indicationof national temperament and personal individualit). The so-calledpurists who succeeded Wren, and reverted more closely to the style ofPalladio, possessed but a part of his powers, and, unable to appreciatethe grandeur of his work, imagined that more careful compliance, ifnot complete adherence, to the precepts and formuLe of ancientauthorities would enable them to design in a more pure, classic INTRODUCTORY NOTE
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Fig. 6.—St SxhPHENs, Walbrook. Sir (Jliristopher Wren, Architect. lo THE LIVES AND WORK OF ROBERT AND JAMES ADAM manner and achieve nobler effects. Amon^- the pseuclo-purists wasColin Campbell, a capable designer, and the compiler of the firstthree volumes of the \itruvius Britannicus, and Hawksmoor, whoentered the service of Wren as scholar and domestic clerk.Though Hawksmoor may be classed with the orthodox stylists,it will not be forgotten that he has left us some works of freetreatment and distinct merit, as the buildings in the fine southquadrangle of Queens College, Oxford. The pedantry of the newschool is observable in the description by Campbell, of one of hisown designs for a church : the aspect of this Church, he wrote,is Prostvle, Hexastvle. Flustvle, which by \itruvius, Palladio,and the general consent of the most judicious architects, bothancient and modern, is esteemed the most beautiful and usefuldisposition. During the early part of the eighteenth century Palladianis

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