Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/805

 rillNC'li'LES FOR DESIGNING VILLAS. 1424 781 Fig. 1 425 is from Nicolas Poussin. " The arcade, over which there appears to be an iipjicr terrace, has a grand and imposing effect, and the lower terrace unites the whole wilh the surrounding scenery. The round tower biings the pile to the pyramidal shape." 14-23 1662. Eemarks. The preceding vignettes are taken, with some slight alterations and additions, from the M'ork of G. L. Meason (of which only a very few copies were printed) ; and we may state that they were taken with the author's permission ; since, in a correspondence with him in the spring of 1831, just before his departure for Italy, he consented to our making whatever use of his work we pleased. Sir. Meason, at the same time, proposed to us to edit a new edition of his Laiidscape Architecture, incorporating with it a great variety of new matter, which, we hope, will not be lost to the public. Having stated this, we have now to recommend the young Arcliitect to pause, and, turning back to those vignettes, to examine each separately, endeavouring to discover the causes of the satisfaction which they afford him. We advise him to do this before perusing the remaining part of this paragraph. Fig. 1412. The beauty here depends a good deal on the different forms of the terminations of the towers. Two of these to the right are of the same figure, and two on the left are of different figures ; but the greater distance of the tower on the extreme right renders it smaller in appearance ; and, by a difference in dimension, completes the variety. The contrast between these smaller pointed towers, and the square tower with battlements in the centre of the group, contributes materially to the impression or effect of the picture ; and the height of this square tower contributes, with that of the liighest spire, to the formation of a centre to the field of vision; or, in the language of art, to the production of a whole. Fig. 1413. The effect here is produced by the same form in contrasted positions. In the preceding vignette, the contrasts in the forms and stj-les of Architecture was so great as to produce a variety almost approaching to discordance ; here the sameness of the forms is such, that, notwithstanding their contrasted position, the result is a variety of an opposit3 kind, so tame as almost to border on monotony. Fig. 1414. This picture consists of the same foi-ms, of different dimensions and heights^ with two small towers, which may be considered as chimney-tops, and which