VOL. LXX.

Copyright, 1900, by the AMERICAN ARCHITECT AND BUILDING NEWS COMPANY, Boston, Mass.

A Protest against the Scheme proposed for altering the White House. The "Curved Corridors" and Rounded Angles of the Design. Some Discrepancies between the Plans and the Perspective Drawing of the Design.-The Rape of Prince Chigi's "Madonna," by Botticelli.-An American said to be the Purchaser.-The Wrong done to Private Owners of Italian Works of Art by the Paca Edict.-A Mighty Electrical Power-plant on the St. Lawrence. -Strife between Painters and Paper-hangers in New York. - The Condition of the Doge's Palace, Venice.

THE MOVEMENT OF COERcion.

WE

E trust that we may be allowed, in the name of American architecture, to protest, and to call upon all citizens who care for American art, to join us in protesting, before it is too late, against the carrying out of the present scheme for the alteration of the White House, at Washington. It is evident that a determined attempt is to be made to pass through Congress early in the session an order and appropriation for executing the project originated, we are told, by Mrs. President Harrison, and now being worked up by Colonel Theodore A. Bingham, the Government engineer in charge of the Executive Mansion. From time to time short paragraphs appear in the daily papers, referring to the fine scheme in contemplation; to the interesting history of the White House; its importance as a work of art; the necessity for enlarging it, and so on; and, recently, a long, and beautifully illustrated, article on the history of the building appeared in a magazine of very wide circulation, followed, two or three months later, by another, giving the Harrison-Bingham plans, together with laudations of them as "particularly clever," remarkable for their "preservation of architectural harmony," and other valuable qualities.

PLAN

No. 1297.

nade, corresponding, to a certain extent, with the colonnade of the present portico, and the professional architect, who knows what it is to lay out details of Classical cornices, will best appreciate the circumstance that the entablature of each of the Harrison colonnades comprises, in plan, four straight lines, one circular arc, of about one hundred and fifty degrees, and four angles, not one of which is a right angle. It is hardly necessary to say that the spacing of the columns to support such an entablature is necessarily so irregular as to be the reverse of monumental; and the plan and elevation, as published, are very far from agreeing in regard to the spacing, the draughtsman having, apparently, solved in this simple way the difficulty of reconciling them so as to be presentable in his drawing This difficulty, it may be remarked, is not likely to have disappeared when the time comes for carrying the scheme into execution, and the public should be permitted to form its judgment from accurate drawings, rather than "fudged " show-pictures.

IN

TN plan, these "curved corridors" are made symmetrical with the palm-houses of a conservatory, an arrangement which will suggest thoughts to the professional architect. Otherwise, the arrangement of the proposed new wings is not unlike that of the present White House, and, although no trained architect in these days would repeat, on such a scale, the close and dark central corridors of the last century, the people of Washington are, perhaps, too much accustomed to them to find them objectionable. It is not so, however, with the ridiculous little porches which we find scattered over the Harrison plan, and which were evidently suggested by the newest fashion of Colonial porch in the wooden dwellings of Indianapolis. Here, again, the draughtsman has come to the rescue of the design, and has lavished on these features in the elevation columns which do not appear on the plan, and which would have the practical disadvantage of standing in the middle of the driveway which is shown passing under some of them. We are informed, in the article which accompanies the plans, that "white marble should be used for the extension." It would be interesting to know how those who have the scheme in charge propose to build with white marble an entablature, the span of which, according to the plan, is more than thirty feet. As our readers know, we are not much disposed to criticism, and, realizing that nothing human is perfect, we should view with forbearance, at least, any scheme which offered a possibility of reasonable artistic success; but we think that the profession will agree with us that such success is hopeless with the Harrison design, or with anything approaching it.

GREAT deal of interest has been aroused by the application of the Italian laws in regard to the exportation of works of art to a case in which Americans are concerned.

It seems that Prince Chigi, who had inherited from his ancestors a collection of valuable pictures, without very much other property, found himself constrained to raise money in such way as he honorably could, and, naturally enough, bethought himself of selling some of the personal property of which he had a superfluity. Among his pictures was a "Madonna," by Botticelli, long familiar to connoisseurs, which easily found a purchaser, in the person of a London dealer, who, after some LANS for a public building, appearing in the public prints, negotiation, agreed to pay sixty-three thousand dollars for the are certainly subjects for legitimate criticism, and it may picture. As the removal of such objects from Italy is forbidden, be said at once that the Harrison design, as might be ex- some ingenuity was needed to secure its delivery to its purpected of one produced by a person with no proper training, is chaser; and it is said that an artist was employed to paint over artistically ridiculous. Mrs. Harrison is said to have had the the picture some unmeaning group, in pigments which could be assistance of a Mr. Owens, "a man of artistic temperament easily washed off later. Thus disguised, the "Madonna" was and large experience," in laying out her scheme; but the "ar- removed from the Chigi palace, and shipped to London. Not tistic temperament and large experience" were either not many days afterward, the Government detective, who makes largely availed of, or had been acquired in other fields than frequent visits to private galleries, to see whether their owners that of architectural designing on a great scale, for the plan have parted with any of their property, discovered that the bristles all over with the marks of the ignorant amateur. In Botticelli "Madonna" was missing; and Prince Chigi was general, the scheme is to build two wings, at right angles with summoned to account. He seems to have made no attempt to the present structure, connected with it by what are called conceal the transaction, and has been condemned, in accordance "curved corridors." All architects know that to round the with the law, to suffer a short imprisonment, pay a fine, and corners is the most effective of all means for spoiling an archi- forfeit the entire sum obtained for the picture; the American tectural group; but, in the present case, the corridors on each purchaser, for whom the London dealer acted as agent, being side are not merely curved, but splayed and bent in the most ex- condemned, in default, to suffer the same penalty, as an accom traordinary manner, Each corridor is furnished with a colon- plice in the crime,

huge manufactories, are supplied with current in this way. The original experimental plant at Neuhausen has grown into an immense cluster of establishments, devoted now mainly to the production of aluminium, while the Niagara plant, besides supplying current for making aluminium, carborundum and calcium-carbide, operates the street railways of Buffalo, and furlarge city near Massena, and transmission of current to a distance has not proved economical, it is probable that the power of the St. Lawrence will be utilized for metallurgical or electro-chemical operations of various sorts. At present, turbines and generators for converting seventy-five thousand horsepower are being installed, while the canal, now in process of excavation, will bring water enough to supply twice that

HE identity of the American purchaser is not yet established, some reports assigning him to Philadelphia, and others to Boston; but, whoever he may be, the case is peculiarly adapted to the raising of legal and economical points which will, we hope, be carried to the highest courts in Italy. It is obvious enough to every one that the law, which is a relic of the Papal attempts at civil government, is, in theory, tyran-nishes power to multitudes of small motors. As there is no nical and oppressive to the last degree. If there is any property which a man can justly call his own, it is that which his ancestors bought and paid for, held, without opposition or adverse claim, during their lives, and gave or bequeathed to him; and to forbid him to use it to pay his honest debts, or to provide for the support of his family, is simply confiscation by brute force. Even the Italian Government does not deny this, but claims that such violation of the rights of citizens is necessary, in order to prevent the country from losing the works of art which now attract foreigners to Italy, and, in this way, increase the income of hotel keepers and other persons; just as, in time of war or other public distress, it is held to be allowable to make requisitions on private citizens for property which may be of use in military operations.

Ν

IN practice, there is a difference between military requisition and the Italian confiscation of works of art, in that, in the former, there is always, in civilized countries, some attempt at payment for the goods taken, while the Italian law makes no pretence at compensation to the owners of works of art for depriving them of their property-rights in them, the operation being one of pure tyranny; and it is interesting to enquire whether the results have been sufficiently valuable to offset the spectacle of acknowledged oppression and injustice continually displayed before the eyes of Italian citizens. That a good many people go to Italy to see the pictures and statues there is undoubtedly true; and that they spend money there is also true; but nearly all the foreigners who visit Italy and spend money confine their studies to the great galleries, the treasures of which have been honestly acquired by the public, not one in a thousand ever seeing the pictures in the Chigi or any other private collection. The amount of money spent on hotelkeepers and cabmen by foreign visitors to private palaces in Rome and Florence must, therefore, be trifling; probably fifty thousand dollars would cover all the profit which such persons would derive from their visits in a generation; and, in fact, as the proprietors of nearly all the large hotels in Florence and Rome are Swiss or Germans, the greater part of this sum goes beyond the Alps; so that, by preventing Prince Chigi, to take a single example, from selling his Botticelli, his Government keeps out of Italy more money, probably, than has been legitimately spent there by all the foreigners who have ever seen it since Botticelli painted it; and, by condemning the purchaser in contumaciam, and thus forever excluding him from Italy for the future, it deprives itself of any benefit from his future expenditure. It is not difficult to foresee that such a course will lead, sooner or later, to the surreptitious exportation of the greater part of the private property which forms the subject of the law, and the removal of which cannot be prevented except by its actual seizure and storage in the public galleries, in return for annuities, or some equivalent which cannot be reached by judicial process, and which will not profit the community, morally and practically, as would the honest payment, for instance, of Prince Chigi's debts, in cash, from the proceeds of the sale of his property. If the Italians wish for light from history on the subject, they need only be reminded that their country has been visited by lovers of art for two thousand years; that the periods in which property-rights were most scrupulously regarded, both in Rome and, later, in the free cities, were those, not only of the greatest prosperity, but of the most brilliant art; and that interference with those rights, under any pretext, has always preceded misery and decay.

amount.

H

As

NEW sort of strike has been invented in New York. all architects know, paper-hanging, in New York, is done by the piece, by a small and compactly organized body of men, who easily earn seven dollars or more a day, working eight hours. It appears that the sight of this "plum" has brought water to the mouths of the Amalgamated Painters' Socity, whose members are glad to work for three dollars a day, and conceive themselves to be quite capable of doing paperhanging, as well as painting. In consequence of the emotions excited by the prosperity of the paper-hangers, the Painters' Society has determined, it is said, either to reduce their income to that of the painters, or drive them out of New York, and do their work by means of its own members; and, with a view to this end, the Painters' Society recently demanded, and obtained, the discharge of three paper-hangers who were at work in a building in Seventy-second street, under threat of a strike unless the pay of the paper-hangers was reduced at once to their own standard. The paper-hangers appealed to the Central Federated Union, and the matter will probably be compromised, but the idea of striking to prevent other people from earning more money than is good for them will probably not be lost. In the unions themselves it has long been common to prevent, by threats of strikes, any particularly expert workman from receiving higher wages than the average standard, and it is obvious that the principle is applicable between different unions, as well as between members of the same union.

TH

HE Builder makes some observations on the present condition of Venice, as illustrated by the last report of the local Commission of Monuments. This body, which seems to be an efficient one, has taken in hand the case of the Du

cal Palace, which is by no means so distressing as has been supposed. The later portion of the building, fronting on the canal spanned by the Bridge of Sighs, seems to have had a bad foundation, and has been settling slowly for many years. Relighten the load on the foundation, the books in the library, and cently, the settlement has attracted more attention, and, to many of the marble statues in that part of the building have been removed.

the fees paid by visitors for admission to the Palace amount, on It is interesting to learn that the receipts from an average, to seventy thousand francs a year, a sum which not only pays the salaries of the persons employed in it, but affords funds for the necessary repairs. In fact, as the Builder though the population is probably larger now than it ever was says, strangers are the main financial resource of Venice. Albefore it consists mainly of the poorest class, the great families completely disappeared that they are said to be represented who once inhabited the palaces on the Grand Canal having so have mostly fallen into the hands of strangers. Many of them now by less than ten persons. The palaces themselves

ernment offices, and the rest are occupied, either as dwellings are transformed into hotels; others have been taken for Govor manufactories, by German, French, or English people, or by natives of other parts of Italy. Even the serenading, which N electrical power-plant, far surpassing that at Niagara still goes on vigorously in front of the hotels on the Grand Falls, is in process of construction on the St. Lawrence Canal in summer evenings, is said to be done by Neapolitans, River, at Massena, N. Y. It is hardly necessary to say and the stately Venetians who sat for their portraits to Titian that the utilization of water-power by means of electrical trans- and Paul Veronese seem to be vanishing. They have not all mission is now an everyday matter almost all over the world. disappeared, for the visitor to the Lido on Sunday afternoons If we are not mistaken, the first attempt of the kind was that can still see many specimens of the fair-haired, quiet type by which power was transmitted from the Rhine Fall, at which the world considers characteristic of the descendants Schaffhausen, or rather, Neuhausen, to the Electrical Exhibi- of the Veneti; but the modern Venetians are poor and hardtion at Frankfort, not many years ago. Now, millions of elec-working, and the people who display their fine clothes on the tric lamps, hundreds of miles of electric railway, and scores of

Grand Canal are all foreigners.