Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Dictionary of Architecture, Vol. 4
Imitation in architecture is the acceptance, in designing, of some architect, or of some particular class of buildings, as a model. It may be tolerated, as it is in poetry and painting, so long as the style and spirit of the original are preserved. Thus Virgil imitated Homer; and Andrea del Sarto imitated Raffaello. Imitation is designing in the spirit, copyism is fol lowing the lines, of the original. The imitator, however, should have natural and original genius of his own, although he may be obliged to submit to certain conventional rules. He must endeavour to do what the original author would have done had he been in his place; he must be his disciple and not his mimic; still less must he pilfer, and especially should not claim the praise due to his model. It must be left to evcrv one's own good sense to determine how far he may venture to imitate and to follow another, as various circumstances control the artist in various ways. It must not, however, be forgotten that straining after originality frequently leads to eccentricity, and, still worse, to deformity, as too often illustrated in the works of the modern Gothic and Italian schools. A. A.
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