Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/1035

 INTERIOR FINISHING OF VILLAS. lUil Sect. II. Of the Interior FiniMny of Villas. 2003. The Interior Finishings of the Apartments of a Villa embrace a variety of details, the principal of which may be included under those relating to architectural style, and those relating to decorations independent of style. To the latter belongs the consideration of the materials with which the walls, floors, and ceilings are covered, and of the colouring with which the whole is finished. 2004. The architectural Style of an Interior, it is sufficiently obvious, should correspond with the external appearance of the building ; and the degree of decoration should be great, in the former case, in proportion as it is in the latter. The display of style in an interior is in general made on the same parts as in the exterior; viz., on the doors and windows, also on the chimneys which correspond to the chimney-tops, and on the ceil- ings which may be considered as corresponding to the roofs. The ceilings of rooms, next to the walls, are the principal parts where the expression of architectural strength requires to be given ; and this is admirably done, in the Grecian style, by horizontal beams and rectangular compartments; and, in the Gothic style, by beams supported by brackets, and other projections, in the manner of what are called groined ceilings. 2005. /. trnal- '^ "^f^nns which are independent of Style are comparatively few. They are el'Jefly the u.^i^osition of mirrors, or of chandeliers, or other fixed lights, and of fixed scidptures and statuary. Perhaps the time is not far distant, when the regulators for ventilation, and for the admission of heat, which are fixed in floors, walls, and ceilings, will be included under this class of finishings; but the improvements in warming and ventilating are not yet sufficiently disseminated for this purpose. Though certain interior decorations may be considered independent of style none whatever are inde- pendent of construction. " The spirit of decoration," Percier and Fontaine observe (or rather Quatremere de Quincy, who obviously wrote the introduction to their work observes), " separated from that of construction, and not operating in concert with it, will make light of absurdities and contradictions : it will not only pervert the essential forms of the edifice, but it will make them disappear. Looking-glasses iJI placed, or tapestry awkwardly fastened, will produce voids where there ought to be none, and vice versa. Construction is to buildings what the bones are to the human body : it ought to be embellished, wiihout being entirely concealed. It is the construction which, according to the counti-y, the climate, and the sort of edifice, gives the motive for the ornaments. Construction and decoration have thus an intimate connection ; and, if this connection does not appear, the whole is vicio'is. The execution of the work, whatever may be its extent and its importance, will have no effect on the mind, if the construction has not dictated the embellishment ; if the first form does not seem in accordance with its acces- saries ; and if, in short, it is perceived that two wills, without harmonising together, have operated in the execution of the ^.jrk." In accordance with this principle, whether a chandelier hang from a Grecian c a Gothic ceiling, it ought to be, or to appear to be, suspended from a beam, or other part of the construction, obviously sufficient for its sup- port, To suspend any light of this kind from a plastered ceiling, perhaps painted in imitation of the sky, without any intervening decoration or preparation, but the hook to which the chain is attached, every one must feel to be inconsistent with the principles here laid down. 2006. The Materials with which the Walls and Ceilings of Rooms are covered have varied in diffijrent ages, and with different styles of Architecture. In ancient times, tapestry was the principal article employed, and this is still an appropriate covering for the walls of rooms in the Gothic style, and even in the most ancient Italian manner of building. To tapestry succeeded wainscoting, and to the latter the use of lime and hair plaster and stucco, and of printed papers pasted to these, or to canvass. The most durable mode, and that least susceptible of injury from fire, is the covering of plaster or stucco ; even if this should require, from the style of Architecture, to be finished so as to resemble wainscoting. 2007. Scagliola is a mode of finishing with stucco which deserves adoption, more par- ticularly in houses in the Grecian or Italian manner. The object is an imitation of marble, and the success is most complete. The art of making scagliola has been long well known and extensively practised in Italy ; and also by Italian artists in most of the capital cities on the Continent ; but it was not introduced into Britain till about the end of the last century. " In order to execute columns and their ant£B, or pilasters, in scagliola, the following remarks and directions are to be observed : when the Architect has finished the drawing, exhibiting the diameter of the shafts, a wooden cradle is made, about two inches and a half less in diameter than that of the projected column. This cradle is lathed all round, as if for common plastering, and is afterwards covered by a pricking. up coat of lime and hair: when this is quite dry, the workers in scagliola commence their peculiar labours. The scagliola is capable of imitating the most scarce and precious marbles; the imitation taking as high a polish, and feeling to the touch as