CHAP. IV. VICENZA.-PALLADIO AND HIS CRITICS.-REMARKS ON A JOURNEY of eighteen miles, through a flat yet not unpleasing country, bearing every where ample evidence of the fertility of the soil, and marked by the soft luxuriance of verdure, brought us to Vicenza, a place of some note in itself, and not a little remarkable for the treatment it has received from Matthews in his Diary of an Invalid. That writer despatches it at once with the following remark: "The rain prevented my seeing any thing; but I console myself with hoping there was nothing to see." Nothing can be more injuriously insulting, so expressive of contempt; for, unless he had fallen from the clouds, Matthews could not but have been aware that Vicenza is particularly celebrated; almost, indeed, is it consecrated in the eyes of ciceroni and architects, as having been the birthplace of Palladio, and containing many of his finest works. What the Vicentines would have said to his book, had they ever met with it, may easily be guessed; for like as Shakspeare is to us Englishmen, Palladio is to them "the god of their idolatry." Neither is he much less idolised by many among ourselves; and that, too, even at the present day, when our acquaintance with genuine Grecian models, to say nothing of a more intimate knowledge of other styles of architecture, must have, in some degree, diminished our relish for his particular system. Forsyth, Beckford, Hope, all concur in lauding him as a paragon of excellence in his art; and could we, indeed, detect those superlative merits they so liberally ascribe to him, we could hardly do less than admit him to be a paragon of architectural taste and ability; but, unfortunately both for his reputation as an artist and their own as discrimating admirers, their encomiums are couched in such very general terms as to convey no definite meaning-hardly any meaning at all. Most carefully do they abstain from particularising any of those egregious beauties—from attempting to point out wherein consists that curiosa felicitas for which they make such enormous demands upon our faith. Mere laudatory assertion is not criticism; nevertheless, instead of deeming it incumbent upon them to explain to others those charms which they themselves so highly relish, they rather appear, one and all, to be of opinion that the less Palladio's merits are scrutinised the better. In one sense, this evitation of discussion may be discreet enough; but it is, assuredly, not particularly complimentary to the object of their enthusiasm. It would seem that liberality of commendation arises, in this and similar cases, both from the inability to point out any one specific point of beauty, and from its being so much more convenient and safe withal to adopt current opinions than to examine unprejudicedly, and to report accordingly, fearless of the censure that may thereby be incurred. So very long has Palladio's name been used as one of the highest authority, so closely has it been identified with the idea of all architectural excellence, that it is not easy to rid the mind of the associations thus formed; yet, when unbiassed by prejudices of this nature, and by the jargon of criticism, we frankly ask ourselves whether we can really discern those peculiar beauties attributed to him, we may be excused for withholding our assent. It will be objected that, without extraordinary merit, his reputation would never have maintained itself so long; yet that it has done so may be ascribed quite as much to his being the originator of the system passing under his name, and from his writings having been employed as a sort of code of instruction both by foreigners and his own countrymen; nor is it surprising that his pretensions should have escaped being freely canvassed by those who have been taught to look up to him as a standard, and whose pride is engaged in vindicating his superiority. Considered merely with reference to his own time and country, he may fairly be admitted to be not undeserving of praise. Only with this limitation can our applause be extended to him. In very few of Palladio's works is there any evidence of invention or fancy, or of refined taste; while there is, certainly, a wearisome degree of mannerism in them, constant repetitions, and much frigid preciseness combined with not a little that is as frigidly licentious. Great stress has been laid upon the faultlessness of his proportions; and if by proportions we are to understand the term only in regard to the individual parts of an edifice, which is, after all, but a very inferior and mechanical species of merit, we may, for argument's sake, allow him to have possessed that ; yet that avails nothing, if unaccompanied by that general harmony which should.invariably diffuse itself over the whole of a piece of architecture. Instead of such harmony, Palladio's buildings exhibit, for the greater part, the most grating discords. We frequently find features of the homeliest description placed in contact with others so overburdened with ornament, as to degenerate into positive deformity; we behold columns that appear absolutely puny and insignificant in comparison with the windows placed between them, which latter thereby are made to look as preposterously heavy as the order itself becomes mean. Were some of his façades unexceptionable in other respects, the ugly-proportioned attics he has placed upon them would alone render them uncouth. The practice of not only leaving a hole in a frieze, but 90 THE VILLA CAPRA. cutting away the architrave likewise, is one of the happy inventions or adoptions that perpetually recur in the works of the chaste and correct Palladio. The celebrated Villa Capra, situated about a mile from Vicenza, and misnamed the Rotunda—it having nothing of the rotund about it, except in the odd-shaped dome rising from its centre enjoys a reputation for which it is difficult to account otherwise than by attributing its continuance to that superstition and indolence on the part of criticism, which induce uninquiring acquiescence in opinions no one would now venture to bring forward for the first time. Of regularity there is no want, the four fronts being perfectly alike, except as to some slight details, and each having an advanced hexastyle Ionic portico, with a lofty flight of steps leading up to it; yet, regularity here seems carried to excess, for not only does it occasion a rather monotonous repetition where propriety would have admitted of some variation of design, but it occasions the house to look as if nearly all entrance, and, in fact, it renders it much smaller as a residence than at first sight it promises. No space is left for rooms, except at the angles, the internal plan being cut up by the four passages leading from the porticoes to the central hall or salone. This last mentioned, again, by no means answers to our English ideas of a saloon; since, instead of being the principal apartment, it is a mere vestibule, and one, moreover, that is necessarily a common thoroughfare; added to which, its space |