aly, especially, though we can even here
dispense with one component part of elevation of character,--age, we
must have all the others: we must have high feeling, beauty of form, and
depth of effect, or the thing will be a barbarism; the inhabitant must
be an Italian, full of imagination and emotion: a villa inhabited by an
Englishman, no matter how close its imitation of others, will always be
preposterous.

We find, therefore, that white is not to be blamed in the villa for
destroying its antiquity; neither is it reprehensible, as harmonizing
ill with the surrounding landscape: on the contrary, it adds to its
brilliancy, without taking away from its depth of tone. We shall
consider it as an element of landscape, more particularly, when we come
to speak of grouping.

121. There remains only one accusation to be answered; viz., that it
hints at a paltry and unsubstantial material: and this leads us to the
second question. Is this material allowable? If it were distinctly felt
by the eye to be stucco, there could be no question about the matter, it
would be decidedly disagreeable; but all the parts to which the eye is
attracted are executed in marble, and the stucco merely forms the dead
flat of the building, not a single wreath of ornament being formed of
it. Its surface is smooth and bright, and altogether avoids what a stone
building, when not built of large masses, and uncharged with ornament,
always forces upon the attention, the rectangular lines of the blocks,
which, however nicely fitted they may be, are "horrible! most horrible!"
There is also a great deal of ease and softness in the angular lines of
the stucco, which are never sharp or harsh, like those of stone; and it
receives shadows with great beauty, a point of infinite importance in
this climate; giving them lightness and transparency, without any
diminution of depth. It is also agreeable to the eye, to pass from the
sharp carving of the marble decorations to the ease and smoothness of
the stucco; while the utter want of interest in those parts which are
executed in it prevents the humility of the material from being
offensive: for this passage of the eye from the marble to the
composition is managed with the dexterity of the artist, who, that the
attention may be drawn to the single point of the picture which is his
subject, leaves the rest so obscured and slightly painted, that the mind
loses it altogether in its attention to the principal feature.