Matthew Brettingham of Palladio's Villa Rotonda in England
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Matthew Brettinghamthe Younger, Foots Cray Place, and the Secularization of Palladio'sVilla Rotonda in England to thememory of Rudolf Wittkower STANFORDANDERSON should have been placed in this volume. We can go some distancein this This British of MassachusettsInstitute of Technology answering question. Librarycopy Ware'sPalladio is bound in fine blue leatherwith gilt decoration n the BritishLibrary, affixed at the backof a copyof Isaac bearing the arms of Joseph Smith, the famous Englishman Ware's Palladio (1738), are four previously undiscussed resident in Venice from about 1700 until his death in 1770. eighteenth-centuryarchitectural drawings [Figures 2-5].1 The Smithwas the Britishconsul in Venice from 1744 to 1760. Also drawingscomprise a set of three plans (the basement, princi- in the BritishLibrary is a copy of the catalogueof the libraryof pal, and attic-storyplans) and a corresponding"Front Eleva- ConsulSmith of 1755, annotatedfor the purchaseof the library tion which Representsall The other Fronts"for a villa on the for KingGeorge IIIin 1763, a collectionthat later came into the model of Palladio'sVilla Capra, or Villa Rotonda. It is com- libraryof the British Museum, now the BritishLibrary. The monly said that four such villas were built in England in the Smithcatalogue contains an entryfor a copy of Ware'sPalladio eighteenth century.2It is readily revealed that the unknown that can only be the one in the BritishLibrary.8 The catalogue drawingscorrespond closely to the engravedrepresentations in entry makes no mention of any extraneous materialsin this VitruviusBritannicus, vol. 4 (1767) of one of these Anglo- Palladio.Nonetheless there are at least two reasons to assign Palladianvillas, Foots Cray Place in Kent[Figures 6-8]. more than casualsignificance to the appearanceof the English Foots CrayPlace [Figures1, 9] is of uncertainauthorship. In drawings in this volume. That the drawings are fixed in a a publicationof 1767, Thomas Martynobserved that Foots volume thatbears the armsofJoseph Smithand correspondsto Cray "was built" by its original owner, Bourchier Cleeve.3 the contemporarycatalogue argues that Smithwas involvedin Although"was built" could simplypoint out that the house was giving the drawingsthis home, probablyby 1755, and no later built by the present owner rather than being inherited or than its sale to King George III in 1763. Furthermore,Smith purchased, or indicate that Cleeve oversawthe construction was not only knowledgable about architecture,but was a himself, or aggrandize collaborationwith an architect,in the particulardevotee of Palladioand an activeagent in fostering absenceof a knownarchitect some scholarsassign the building the extraordinaryappreciation of Palladio by eighteenth- to Cleeve.4The house has also been attributedto IsaacWare, a century Englishamateurs and architects.9The appearanceof noted architectwithin the Palladiancircle of Lord Burlington, these drawingsin this place is, then, not to be taken casually. and the translatorof the Burlingtonianedition of Palladioin a Drawingsof a buildingusually attributed to Wareappearing in copy of which the drawingsin questionare to be found.5Foots Joseph Smith'scopy of Ware'sPalladio might lend at least a Crayis commonlysaid to havebeen designedca. 1754, corrobo- degree of supportto the attributionof Foots Crayto Ware. rated by a visitof Dr. RichardPococke in August 1754 with the However, preceding the title page of Smith'svolume, yet house in construction.Pococke writes of "a house which is another-and the only other-extraneous document is af- buildingfor Mr Cleves... on the design of Palladio,"but gives fixed, a letter from Matthew Brettingham the Younger to no informationon the designer.6Though the date of the house Joseph Smith, dated Vicenza,8 August 1754.10Matthew Bret- is thus known to a close approximation, attributionof the tingham the Elder (1699-1769)" was a provincialbuilder- design of the house, whichwas demolishedafter a fire in 1949, architectwho rose to some renown as the executant in the is unresolved.7 constructionof the greatneo-Palladian house, HolkhamHall, a The appearanceof these drawingsof FootsCray in a copy of collaborativework of Lord Burlington,William Kent, and the Ware'sPalladio would seem to corroboratethe attributionof the patron Lord Leicester,12conceived ca. 1730-34. The younger villa to Wareand to invite the question of why these drawings MatthewBrettingham (1725-1803), setting out from England 428 JSAH / 53:4, DECEMBER 1994 in August 1747, studied both architecture and sculpture in the same Soul, from observing this perfect correspondence to ye Mediterranean for some years. In 1748, he visited Naples in the Antique Gout in our great Author, it goes a great way to make me company of Gavin Hamilton, James Stuart, and Nicholas believe Pythagoras's doctrine of Transmigration, and that Vitruvi- Revett, when a project of documentary research of Greek us's Soul after many Changes had at last appeard again in ye Body antiquities was conceived. Colvin claims that Brettingham of Palladio, with this difference however that whereas Vitruvius's visited Greece in the company of Stuart and Revett when they Tast of Proportion is generally heavy and inelegant, Palladio's on carried out their celebrated studies (1751-53). There seems, the contrary is always Gracefull and delicate, with more of ye true than what find in however, no evidence to support this claim.'3 Brettingham Polish'd Nobleness of Style, and Elegance; we any remained in Rome until 1754, studying, supporting himself as of ye other followers of Vitruvius, we may conclude then that an agent for the English nobility, notably in collecting paintings Nature had given his that nice discernment to pick and Cull out and sculpture for Lord Leicester, Lord Dartmouth, and Lord what was Beautyfull in ye Antient Author and to reject ye rest, and as Egremont,14 as well as his father.15 Since Brettingham is known it has been always the Case, were one great Genius has followed the to have been back in England in 1754, it must have been en steps of an other, having possessed himself of what his Master route to England that he stopped in Venice and Vicenza, knew, by ye strength of an equal Genius went on still farther having the occasion to reside with, and then write to, Consul refining till by the light of ye Antient remains of Architecture Smith. Since Brettingham's letter is unpublished and so well withall, he had formed to himself a Manner more purged and illuminates the setting we encounter, it is appropriate to quote correct- not to tire you with these dry reflections, I proceed to it in full: assure you that ye Rotonda of Marchesa Capra please me as much as it has even done ye rest of our Country Man. I am told that My p.1 Vicenza Agosto 8' 1754 Lord Charlimont16 and MrMurphew17 spent many hours consider- /Sr ing of it and that ye Later18 measured it very minutely, my Guide I have the pleasure to find myself in ye Place which after so (who is ye keeper ofye Theater Olympico) tells me moreover many years desire to See, answers fully my expectation, I need not p.2 by what he could gather from their discourse his Lordship has a enter into a description of Palladio Works so well known to yourself mind to build it again in Ireland'9, tis certainly one of ye com- already, no farther than to Remark that I find in them all ye pleatest thoughts that ever entered into ye head of Man, The Eye is Beauties of ye Antique Architecture of Rome and many more that so perfectly contented and finds a Harmony and concurrance in this divine Architect has known how to Supply, we may say that every Part, neither is its conformity to ye situation less admirable, Palladio so fully imbibed the August Tast of ye Antients by a long no form of Building can be so proper to Crown ye Summit of a Hill, and attentive Study of their most correct Peices, so as to become that ascends gradually on every side, and whose Slopes meeting on intirely Master of their Principles to act as it were animated with ye ye Point, just leaves a level space above for ye extent of ye Building, t :: I : : :: - ? I- : i :li ::::I: : : : : :::: - : i : : :~:::i:: e~ -r -; -~~r-----~~: --- : -'ii :: :: ~ ?~- : I::- ---??::g ~ :: r"l--_:_ ";:E~'-~,~~~~'~~~"~~~~f~i~~:~!~ -~--~?~~:li-,llr.i~-~~`- II~ ~I F-:--- ~ur~?~ea : :::::: :::::- ~?ae~r~jb~L~iYa~ :: : :::: ---: : : : : ul-?rr~~sg~ -rrurryr I -?1119~i:: _ : : ::P3eE~~~ ll!l~c~!c; -:--: : : ' :- _,: :: ; --; : - : : ;::-:-:::-1: :::: -: -: ::: :: : :: !~~, E?.l: ~~13x3?1:~ ~n~ ~8_ FIG. I: Foots Cray Place, "Terrace Gardens Foots Cray Place ... ," signed and dated C. F. Mallows [18]91 from AmericanArchitect and BuildingNews (1902). ANDERSON: MATTHEW BRETTINGHAM 429 which is so formed as to become its proper Terminus, if it had been pleased me much and ye Saturday following arrived at Vicenza, only a Round Portico coverd with a Dome, a proper contrast would pray my Compliments to ye young Gentleman that was pleased to have been wanting, but Palladio by uniting ye Square of ye Body, ye commend so much my designs, I promise myself ye honour to Porticos breaking out of each Side, and by Crowning ye Mass with a Send him a draught of ye first I execute in England, after it has Rotondity, has known how to give harmony at once and Variety, passed review before My Lord ye Earl of Leicester, when I am sure and at ye same time to adapt all together to y shape ofye Hill-and it will prove more to my advantage and his Satisfaction, if Sigr this I take to be ye utmost degree of finesse