taken as an architectural study. Look, for instance, at those examples
of the kind on the Lake of Albano and the Gulf of Gaëta, where the
dwelling itself is connected with grottoes offering cool retreats,
either for sitting in or for the purpose of baths, and upon entering
which the visitor is so fascinated by the magic effect of reflected
light from the water, that he almost fancies the whole scene to be a
visionary and unearthly one. Water, it may be observed, either gushing
in a stream, or exhibiting an expanded mirror-like surface, appears to
have been considered by the ancients indispensable to the charm of a
villa residence. In both the destroyed cities, even the smallest town
houses offered upon entering them the reflection of the sky on the
surface of the water contained in the basin of the impluvium. In larger
dwellings, water was introduced more abundantly, and also in greater
variety of modes; and residences upon the coast were built out quite
into the sea. Besides much else that they have derived from the
ancients, the modern Italians have retained this fondness for the
combination of water and architecture, as many of their villas testify.
For examples of the kind I refer you to the Villa Madama near Rome, and
also to several at Frescati; and yet there the water and the
architecture are not so intimately connected as in the villas and
houses of the ancients. The climate of the north, in a great measure,
prevents our availing ourselves of water as a means of producing
reflection of light in the interior; but we may imitate this principle
in a due arrangement of light and shade, and also in some cases by the
use of mirrors in place of water.
Another very great, though little regarded point of excellence and
architectural effect in the latter consists in the covered ambulatories
and porticoes, which, indeed, were intended chiefly as a defence
against heat and sun, yet recommend themselves equally to us, as
affording protection from rain and wind. Nevertheless it is rarely but
in cloisters that we find this architectural convenience retained.
Great attention seems also to have been paid by the ancients to
planning the internal communication in such a manner, that the
domestics could pass to and fro, and have access to the different
rooms, without incommoding those occupying any of the suite; and in
this sort of arrangement they frequently exhibit so much ingenuity and
contrivance, that we may study for some time ere we shall be able to
surpass them.
For the present, these few hints and suggestions must suffice; but I
could discourse to you for days together of the varied effects of
light, the manifold diversity of form, the richness of play in regard
to decoration, and all the combinations and beauties, both with respect
to circumstances of locality and arrangement, that are to be met with
in the remains of ancient domestic architecture.
Among other questions which you have submitted for my consideration,
is, whether pure Greek architectural forms and details will bear to be
united with such a material as coloured brickwork? And by way of
removing your doubts, I beg to remind you of the highly praised brick
edifices of King Mausolus, described by Vitruvius. Texture and colour
of materials are to be considered merely as the vehicle made use of by
the artist, and may be employed in one style almost equally as well as
in another. Another doubt suggested, is whether arches and vaulting can
properly be admitted into the style above-named? Now, were you to
consult the Delphic oracle, it would probably return you some such
answer as the following: _When the edge of an aperture in a wall forms
a right angle, the archivolt may still descend to the base without
being interrupted by an impost. In vaulting, the diagonal crossing
lines must be considered as secondary ones._
Perhaps this will but ill satisfy you, and you will say that, instead
of solving one enigma, I have merely added another. Yet of one thing
you may be assured, namely, that those difficult problems and mysteries
in art, which have been expounded in formal terms, have been already
actually decyphered, and explained more clearly by the practical
solution of them in productions of art.
It seems you think I have not yet given you any satisfactory reason for
my position, that the present improved state, both of painting and
sculpture, renders it difficult to reconcile them with the conditions
required by Gothic architecture. I admit this would be otherwise were
we to go back to the hard dry style of the Van Eyck school. I can only
say that such an attempt has been made by some of the best artists in
Germany, and that after persisting in the trial for some time, they
have now abandoned the imitation of the early German style, and have
preferred the Italian. At any rate, my opinion is not contradicted by
history, since the latter informs us that the powerful impression
produced by the broad handling and simple masses of the ancient works
of sculpture, then first discovered in various parts of Italy, had the
effect of giving the representation of nature an entirely new
direction. It is also a striking circumstance that, owing to the fresh
impulse which both painting and sculpture hence received, not only the
taste for Gothic architecture declined, but the system itself was
opposed both by painters and sculptors, who attempted to make
architecture subsidiary to their productions. Such being the case, as
they alleged, in regard to ancient art. With what eagerness not only
the learned men of Italy, and the architects who were urged on by them
to the study of classical antiquity, but also both sculptors and
painters, entered the lists against Gothic art, is sufficiently evident
from Ghiberti's journal; and again afterwards, when a decided victory
had been already obtained over it, from Raphael's report to Leo X. on
the ancient edifices and other remains at Rome.
It is perhaps not so generally known, that in more northern countries
it was the painters who set up for reformers in architecture. Holbein,
there is reason to think, erected the first specimen of the antique in
England: the portal of Wilton House, for his patron the Earl of
Pembroke, still existing. About a hundred years later, Rubens, with the
view of giving the death-blow to the still lingering taste for Gothic
architecture in the Netherlands, made drawings of the Palaces of Genoa,
and caused them to be disseminated in engravings. At the present day,
indeed, we may be excused for smiling at the classical zeal of the
worthy Peter Paul, who, in his preface to that collection of designs,
inveighs against Gothic architecture as barbarous, at the same time
that the plates themselves which he gives, are little better than
hideous caricatures of the modern Genoese style, which, at the best is
by no means remarkable for purity of taste.
Should Gothic architecture, which is just now employed upon a liberal
scale, and with more or less of true feeling for it, in your country
ever obtain firm footing there again, depend upon it my professional
brethren who have, I think, adopted it without due consideration of the
present condition of the other fine arts, will have to encounter
serious, and, perhaps, unforeseen difficulties from the painters and
sculptors. Were some gifted sculptor to apply himself to architecture,
I am persuaded he would drive us all out of the field, for the charm
with which that art is capable of investing architecture by a skilful
union of the flesh-like sculpture with the hard bones of architecture,
would produce an irresistibly fascinating effect.
From this long letter you will collect that, whilst on the other hand I
do not mean to be confined either to a servile imitation of a pure
Pompean house; so, on the other, I do not mean to be tied down to
repeat your Elizabethan architecture, or the Gothic of Germany or
England. Nor do I propose to give you a fac-simile of any building of
the Renaissance school. To the best of my power, I propose (as the best
style) that which adopts the pure broad principles of beauty in
building, and which were, I sincerely believe, best propounded by the
Greeks; and which all experience has shewn to be best suited to receive
addition from the highest style of painting and sculpture; and which
are, in fact, parts of architecture. How far I may succeed is another
point.
It is indeed difficult in all cases, even to select what is best; but
with the most lofty aspirations, I am aware that I may indeed fall very
short of the execution of my wishes; perhaps, I have already done
myself some harm in this very discussion of style, by preparing you to
expect too much.
Yours, &c.
A. C.
[Heading illustration]
LETTER V
DEAR SIR,
THE letter you send in answer to mine, on the question of the most
preferable style, I must allow, contains many good reasons in support
of your opinion and views; and laying aside prejudice and early
associations, I am willing to admit that it is wise to adopt that style
which possesses the most completely the elements of beauty, and which
is most susceptible of being united to painting and sculpture,
essential accessories of architecture, or rather, important branches of
that art. Some of the facts which you mention are very interesting and
striking, indeed, convincing; and the more I have reflected on the
subject, the more I feel the advantage of breadth, and the superior
beauty of the simple and grand lines of Grecian architecture; and my
curiosity to see the mode in which you will follow out your precepts by
your example, is hourly increasing, although I am quite aware that one
specimen of a building will not be sufficient to illustrate the general
positions you have, I think, so well established.
I almost wish that you had been tempted to extend your letter, already
long, for the purpose of entering still further into a subject of such
interest. I should be curious to learn to what extent the arts of
painting and sculpture had been applied, in conjunction with the
Gothic; and where they had most failed, and to ascertain whether those
instances fully corroborate your positions. As regards your oracular
distinction between the two styles, I am not sure I quite understand
you. I shall, however, leave this till the termination of the
discussion of the plan. The merits of the arrangements and contrivances
of the ancient villas, as ascertainable from the descriptions extant,
and the plans of those of Pompeii had not entirely escaped me. In
addition to the published information, I recollect to have received,
many years since, much information and instruction on the subject from
Mr. Cocherell, soon after his return from Italy; he having devoted much
attention to the arrangement of ancient villas, and having selected
some very interesting materials to illustrate the ingenuity of the
contrivances, and the judicious selection of the sites, &c.
Every part of your letter is tantalizing, and makes me regret that you
have merely touched on subjects of such deep interest; whilst reading
it, I forgot that I had commissioned you to give me the plan of a
house, not to write a complete treatise on ancient and modern
architecture. Conceding to you the choice of the style, convinced by
your reasons and arguments in favour of its superior beauty and
capability, I own to you I do so reluctantly, not without a sigh, and
not without much hesitation. Although, abstractedly, a building
constructed on the principles you advocate, may have more beauty than
our own Gothic or Elizabethan, and may be more susceptible of a union
of the three arts; yet there is one part of the subject to which you
have not adverted, and on which, perhaps, you are not likely to feel so
strongly as we do in England, the most aristocratic country in the
world. Some of our most beautiful houses are in this the rejected
style, and with them are connected all the prejudices and associations
of antiquity, of ancestral dignity and greatness; and a house of this
kind carries the mind back to other times, and awakens recollections
that it has been enjoyed by a long line of ancestry, and hence,
perhaps, has in a great degree arisen the desire of many who have built
modern houses, to imitate those of the elder time; not indeed from any
attempt actually to devise and construct a forgery, but to avail
themselves to a certain degree of the associations to be derived from
the recollections associated with the buildings of former ages, and in
the construction of which, at least, the most skill and talent had been
employed; and again perhaps, the very clumsy and unsuccessful
adaptation of the principles of the revived Grecian and Roman, or
Palladian architecture, to our modern houses, (especially in the
smaller ones,) may have tended to keep alive the prejudice in favour of
that style, which even if it were not the best, was at least the best
executed; more especially in its adaptation to the fitness of domestic
arrangements and comfort. Whilst I have been advocating the merits of
our Elizabethan houses, you must not suppose I refer to the multitudes
of grotesque little villas which grow up every summer round London; or
to those alterations and adaptations, by which one sees Gothic spires,
plastered over with stucco, starting up out of one half of an old farm
house; the walls notched into battlements, and uncouth animals set a
grinning against each other over the gate posts, and the hall crammed
and fortified with rusty swords and pikes of all ages and fashions. And
on the other half, Venetian windows slices of pilasters, balustrades,
and other parts of Italian architecture. Although I have not such a
greedy appetite for every thing Gothic, as Horace Walpole had, yet I
own I partake somewhat of his feelings, as expressed in a letter from
Stowe, when he says, "The Grecian Temple is glorious, this, I openly
worship, but in the heretical corner of my heart I adore the Gothic
building." Though I own the character he gives of the Gothic building
he so adores is barbarous enough, for he says, "That some unusual
inspiration of Gibbs has made it _pure_ and venerable, with a
propensity to the Venetian, or Moresque Gothic; and the great column
near it puts me in mind of the Place of St. Mark." Strawberry Hill,
however, is a sufficient proof of his knowledge and taste for pure
Gothic. There is one point on which I entirely agree, which is that the
style of decoration should be consistent with the style of the
architecture. I think we have been more deficient in attention to the
style of decoration, than even to the choice of the style of the
building itself; and nothing is now more common than to plaster the
walls of a modern London house with the Gothic paper of Henry VII.'s
Chapel, and to fill it with a load of old carving of all ages and
times; and to finish with a cartload of Louis XIV.'s clocks, and other
similar ornaments: but of this, more when we come to discuss the
decoration of your rooms.
[Heading illustration]
LETTER VI.
BY my first letter you will see I have explained to you the _site_, and
I think the next point which we have to settle will be the advantages
and disadvantages of _aspect_; and whether the house should be placed
at the top of the low hill I have mentioned to you, or half way down,
or at the bottom. I think in general, the modern fashion has been to
seek a lofty spot, without reference to shelter; so that the
architect's work should shew well to the surrounding country. My object
is that the house should be placed in the most convenient spot as to
_shelter_, with the best aspect suitable to our uncertain climate,
always taking care that there be sufficient drainage, an essential,
though often a neglected point.
Having explained the essential, I come next, to the ornamental; I do
not think it is so necessary that the house should form a handsome
feature of the surrounding landscape, as that it should form an
harmonious picture in combination with the grounds in immediate
connexion with it; I must refer you again to a description of the
_locale_. I have nothing to add to this. You will see that the spot I
have chosen has somewhat of an amphitheatrical shape, and that I have
the means of making a terrace; that I am well backed at the north by
trees and hill, and open well to the south-east. You have the choice of
aspect within the range of south-east to south-west; yet the house, for
meteorological reasons, should not be placed too low down in the
valley. I refer you to Mr. Professor Daniell's essays on the subject of
the difference of temperature between the top and bottom of a hill;
this, though it applies principally to the position of a garden, has
some weight even in the site of a house.
It will be necessary that the approach should be from the south-west;
and as regards plantations and protection from wood, I am well defended
on all sides. I had meant to have added some observations on the
_picturesque_, of which we fancy we are the discoverers; but at
present, I have not time. I may, perhaps, (if I find you inclined to
enter into the subject,) send a few remarks on this; particularly, as I
believe it is considered that the ancients did not, in the situations
of their houses or buildings, consult those principles of taste which
we call the picturesque. I think Dr. Copplestone, in his lectures on
ancient poetry, states this, and yet one should judge otherwise, from
seeing the sites of many of the Roman buildings in this country. That
at Bignor in Sussex is particularly beautiful, nay, grand; but yet it
was low: perhaps, the advantage of a running stream was the general
cause in former times of building quite down in the valley.
I think it will be an object to have as much veranda as possible,
closed in and very wide, but not, perhaps, in front of the best
windows; but somewhere so as to have both a shaded and a winter's
sheltered walk.
I must apologize for the indefiniteness of this letter, but I think I
have given enough to serve as a text for the answer. The style and site
settled, I propose we should at once come to materials to be used,
ground plan and elevation. As regards offices, I will mention such as
are essential; as you may, in consideration of the plan, like to know
this; there will be one small lodge at the entrance on the south-west,
and should have no objection to a back entrance at the north; as this
may be used as a labourer's cottage. There will be a double
coach-house, stables for six horses; a small ice-house and gardener's
cottage. The two latter may be arranged so as to form part of the
garden wall. I mean the kitchen garden, which will be at some small
distance from the house, at the back, or north; but I mean it to be
connected with the house by the flower-garden and plantations.
Yours, &c.
H. B.
[Decorative illustration]
[Heading illustration]
LETTER VII.
DEAR SIR,
WE come now to fix upon a part of the grounds that shall appear most
healthy, neither too confined nor too exposed; commanding a good
prospect, yet well sheltered. This is a very material point, and not
indeed altogether free from difficulty; nevertheless, proper attention
to the two circumstances just mentioned would perhaps, in the
generality of cases, lead at once to the selection of the most
favourable site for building upon; both as regards prospect from the
house, and the view towards it; so that as regards the latter, it would
display itself to the utmost advantage. With respect to the mode of
combining buildings with the surrounding scenery, the following
principles and directions are laid down by the ablest of our writers
in the German language, on the subject of landscape gardening.[3] "If
due care be taken to distribute the masses of light and shade, so that
they shall judiciously relieve and balance each other, satisfactory
effect, as regards the general grouping and composition of the scenery,
can hardly fail to be secured. Grass, water, and level lawns, which
throw no shadow upon other objects, but merely receive those which the
latter cast upon them, are to be considered as _lights_ in landscape
gardening, while trees, woods, buildings, and rocks, (should there be
any) afford the artist his _shadows_ and darker tints. In making use of
these contrary elements, care must be taken lest breadth of effect be
destroyed, and a disagreeable spottiness substituted for it; in
consequence of there being too many separate and partial effects
independent of each other; or else by there being too great a
proportion of unbroken _light_. On the other hand an equal fault is
committed, if a few dark masses of shadow are allowed so to
predominate, as to overpower all besides; or again, if lawn and water
exhibit naked unbroken surfaces of light too harshly defined; whereas
they ought to be left partially to lose themselves in indistinctness,
or the shadow of deep vegetation; or to detach themselves from a darker
background as brilliant lights opposed to it. With respect to
buildings, these ought never to stand perfectly isolated, because in
that case they become spots, and look as if they had no business there,
nor belonged to any of the rest. Besides, a partial concealment is
always advantageous to every kind of beauty, and it is highly desirable
that the imagination should be interested by there being something for
it to exercise itself upon, and to divine. The eye frequently rests
with more satisfaction upon a chimney peeping out in the distance, and
emitting a gray volume of smoke from amidst the dense foliage of trees
that embower and exclude from sight the building whose presence is so
indicated, than it does upon a large formal mansion standing fully
exposed to view, with no shelter or skreen on any side, with nothing to
break its outline, with nothing to render it an appropriate and
consistent feature in the general scene." From the beginning of what I
have here extracted, you perceive that this writer treats the subject
in a masterly manner, taking a comprehensive view, and is guided by
such sound theoretical principles, as to be able to determine
beforehand, the results of his art with almost as much certainty as an
architect can judge of an intended building from its ground plan.
[3] Prince Puchler Muskau. Andenkungen über Landshaftgärtnerei.
Stuttgart, 1834.
Having determined upon the precise site, that which seems most
recommended by considerations of healthiness, convenience, &c.; we have
next to attend to what appertains exclusively to architectural
treatment and character. The general idea of the building, as to its
chief masses and parts, extent and arrangement, being sketched out,
regard must be had to the greater or less space of the immediate site;
to obtaining for it due effect of light and shade, and a background
calculated to set it off, upon all which circumstances, it depends
nearly as much as a work of sculpture does. In like manner as statues
in general have only three sides from which they are calculated to be
seen, so also have buildings; nor can I help being of opinion that much
harm has been done of late years, both in architecture and sculpture by
the attempt at equal display on all sides. The greater part of antique
statues were evidently intended to have a wall or background behind
them; nor is there, perhaps, any thing more at variance with the effect
which statues ought to produce, than the present frequent practice of
erecting them in the centre of large squares.
Nearly all productions of architecture, more especially structures
adapted for habitation, offer one side stamped as the principal or
front, and another, which is its reverse; in which respect they bear a
greater analogy to living beings than to plants; the latter having no
definite foreside, on the contrary, any part becoming the front, that
is towards the spectator. Such being the case, the same rules that are
to be observed for displaying a statue, or representation of a living
figure to advantage, ought to be attended to in regard to the position
of buildings. Agreeing with you that a sheltered situation is the most
desirable for your intended villa, I will attempt to explain it upon
the theory of the following general principles; namely, upon our
beholding any building of the kind, it ought immediately to be evident
wherefore it is so placed, and that by being placed precisely where it
is, it is part and parcel of its immediate vicinity.