Architecture: A Very Short Introduction

The matter of artistic accomplishment works by altogether different means, and can be reached only by acquiring familiarity with culture and by developing skills. Buildings often acquire meaning by artfully alluding to earlier buildings — admired prototypes — as we have seen before. Here there was the model of the Villa Capra, and also a villa designed by Scamozzi, Palladio’s pupil, the Rocca Pisani near Lonigo, the design of which was published in Scamozzi’s book, L’idea della architettura universale, of 1615. Colen Campbell had already built a version of the Villa Capra as Mereworth Castle (1722–5), and the villa at Chiswick has variation from one façade to another, rather than making them all identical. Nevertheless, all the elements in the building have their precedents in either Palladio or Scamozzi, and the building was therefore authoritatively Italianate. Why was that seen to be a good thing? Because at this time the English gentry all knew that Italy was the cradle of the arts and culture, and therefore travelled there if they could. One of the important educational accomplishments that gave a man social standing and ease in polished company was the Grand Tour, usually a visit to France and Italy, made at an impressionable age by way of education. The grandest of the grand tourists would take a retinue of servants and a tutor with them, but they would also meet artists and scholars who were resident in the places they visited. Indeed Burlington met Kent when he was travelling in Italy. The tour could take years — the point was to absorb the culture, not to cover a great distance. Young men whose schooling had immersed them in Latin literature therefore learnt to appreciate the ruins of Roman buildings, and the splendours of Italian art and countryside. It was also an important part of growing up, and being away from home left them feeling liberated. There was scope for romantic adventures without fear of having to live with the consequences, and they came back with reports of how free and easy the Italian women’s sexual morals were. On their return to England they would be expected to find a profession or a role in the running of the family’s estate, and adult responsibilities would come crowding in. The love of Italian architecture therefore was part of an association of pleasurable ideas involving youth, freedom, pleasant climates, and carefree living. There should also have been a steady application to study along the way, and introductions to the high society of the places en route, so when they returned they were socially polished men of the world, who carried with them a nostalgia for Italy and antiquity. This aspect of the architecture touched personal memories and experience, and could not be pinned down and codified, but it was certainly present as a spontaneous emotion. The rules that architects such as James Gibbs and Colen Campbell did try to set down were rules that would have produced architecture that looked appropriately Roman, and would produce sentimental feelings in men of the patron class, even when the architects might not have those feelings themselves.

Reviving Rome