Matthew Brettinghamthe Younger, 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 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 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, 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 ,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,, and the Ware'sPalladio would seem to corroboratethe attributionof the patron Lord ,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 '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 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 Mr Murphew17spent 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,

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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 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 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 , 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 that the thought is Visentino20 could do me those designs, last noted capable of; p.3 before I leave Vicenza I shall esteem it a great Favour, your The Olympick Theatre is a most Elaborate Work and certainly ye goodness will excuse this trouble and put it to ye account of ye most beautifull of ye kind in Being, but I can't say contents me so Civilities that I receiv'd under your Hospitable Roof, I should be much as the Ritonda I find ye Scena of too Minute a Style and too ungrateful not to acknowledge them, and to wish for an occasion much loaded, besides a very great inconvenience is ye Wall (that wherin to show my due Sense of them, I hope you will not good Sr

divides ye stage from ye Seats) projecting so much as to obstruct ye deprive me of that advantage when it occur and believe me with all view of a considerable part of ye Spectators but I shall consider it esteem Sr more attentively, and endeavour to convince myself of those your most humble Servant excellencies which I shall rather think a want of me to perceive, Matthew Brettingham than not to be in so admired a Work, N:B ye Building markd for Palladio on ye Mapp at Lisiera,21 is I have to Thank you Kind Sr for yereception I met with from Sigr positively not by him, there are memoirs in ye House of Count Franco Modena who was so good to provide me with a Lodging Valmarana of its being rebuilt intirely by a modern architect where I board and have every thing to my satisfaction, I have not deliverd the other Letters you was so obliging to procure me, I take ye Liberty obliging Sr to beg you'd please to forward yetwo Palladio takes up so much my thoughts that I can't think of being enclosed letters deprived of enjoying every moment of my time with him I should be glad to know h( how I could Send a Drawing of Monsr I staid only at Padua ye Morning after to see ye Certosa, which Clarisseau22that I unlucky fo. forgot to leave with you.23

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FIG.2: MatthewBrettingham the Younger,1754 (?). Foots Cray Place, "The Front Elevation which Represents all The otherFronts." Pen and inkwithgraywash (243 x 334mm).

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FIG. 3: Matthew Brettingham the Younger, 1754 (?). Foots Cray Place, "The FIG. 4: Matthew Brettingham the Younger, 1754 (?). Foots Cray Place, "The Basement Story Plan." Pen and ink with gray wash poch6 (332 x 246 mm). Principle Story Plan." Pen and ink with gray and amber poch6 (330 x 243 mm).

Thus Consul Smith's copy of the great English edition of Palladio contains two extraneous documents, the autograph letter of Matthew Brettingham the Younger, extolling Palladio and particularly the Villa Rotonda, and a set of four drawings of an English version of the Villa Rotonda. One must entertain the possibility that the letter and the drawings are linked; that is, 5-~-~~-B~--~`---~-~--~---~;~~ that Brettingham may be the author of the drawings and, of Foots Place itself. indeed, Cray ~s~~~~~ If we are to deliberate on the assignment of the Foots Cray -?: drawings either to Ware or to Brettingham, an obvious place to ~"~s-~ j~l:::: ;;::~-----::r-;--::* ~~~~_~ih:l:::n:i ::~II:_~:~~_:::::. I:_:::- begin is with other drawings and designs by the two architects, ~~s ~~,ia~ ~g considered for their content, draftsmanship, and physical $~~~? ~~ ~-.*~" ~? ~~ ??~*s~~lrg~~ii!SZ~:i l BIl--e~g characteristics. The subjects of the Ware drawings in the ~~:15~8D1-?! collections of the Metropolitan Museum and the Avery Library ~~X~~~~~k~ ~~c:,;;;:-; iSS~~~~I of Columbia University, both in New York, are not suggestive "i~:~~*:--"" I for Foots Cray, while the draftsmanship is superior to that of the ~i,~r~~~i Foots Cray drawings.24 In his noted, encyclopedic work, A ~ ~ CompleteBody ofArchitecture, prepared and published in just the years Foots Cray was built, Ware shows no version of the Villa Rotonda, though he does present two buildings with rotonda halls on axis.25 Ware's plate 49, "Design for a person of distinction in the County of York," and plate 50, "Elevation of a FIG.5: Matthew Brettinghamthe Younger, 1754 (?). Foots Cray Place, "The Attick Building intended for a Mansion House for the Lord Mayors of Story Plan." Pen and ink with gray and amber poch6 (242 x 324 mm).

ANDERSON: MATTHEW BRETTINGHAM 431 'I0 -/-/ ii -II

FIG. 6: "Elevation of Foots Cray in Kent, the Seat of Sr Robt Ladbrooke," James Gandon, / 7 delin. Engravingpubl., 1767.

London," both display the comparatively low, windowless, ham's strong, sustained interest in a building type of which the segmental domes preferred by the Burlington circle. In Burling- Villa Rotonda is a leading exemplar. ton's villa at of about 1725 [Figure 16] and the At the Soane Museum, the original table of contents of an elevation on Old Palace Yard of William Kent's design for the album titled "Miscellaneous Drawings ofArchitectural Designs/ Houses of Parliament, as shown in a drawing of 1739, the No.1" specifies pages thirty-six to seventy-three as "Miscella- central hall is lit through thermal windows in a drum below the neous Sketches of Architectural Designs by M. Brettingham vault, a device that also appears in Ware's design for the villa in and others, unknown, numbered 1-41."3o The title, the inclu- the county of York.26 Finally, as would be expected, in his sion of at least one French drawing (no. 29), and the diversity of edition of Palladio, Ware's image of the Villa Rotonda [Figure the other drawings, require that we assign any of these drawings 11] is faithful to that of Palladio's 1570 edition, while the variant to Brettingham with care. Only one drawing (no. 30), in pen of Leoni's edition [Figure 10], disappointing to Burlingtonians and wash on laid paper, is signed "M. Brettingham Roma and the basis for Hoppus's view, is much closer to the design 1752" [Figure 12]. The recent interim catalogue of the Soane of Foots Cray, particularly in the placement of skylights Museum described the drawing as a "Design for a Bookcase in the dome.27 In sum, while Ware was not always rigorously (?),"while Colvin earlier offered "probably a street fountain." It faithful to Burlingtonian neo-Palladianism, the evidence is may be a design for an altarpiece.31 While the object repre- that he would vary from a revered prototype such as the Villa sented is unrelated to the Foots Cray drawings, the technique Rotonda only in the manner that Lord Burlington himself had and style of the Soane drawing compares quite closely with the done. elevation of Foots Cray [Figure2]. The British Architectural Library of the Royal Institute of Several of the drawings in the Soane Museum "Brettingham British Architects preserves the Italian sketchbook of Matthew and others" collection are of a draftsmanship clearly superior to Brettingham the Younger, which contains a sizable number of that of either the signed drawing in that collection or to the studies of central plan buildings, both of ancient buildings such Foots Cray drawings.32 While other drawings in the Soane as the Minerva Medica (fol. 19) and Santa Costanza (fol. 6), and collection could be plausibly related to what we know of studies of villas or larger buildings (fols. 44v, 47v, 70v, 92v).28 Brettingham's style, only one demands attention in the present The RIBA also preserves a set of drawings attributed to context.33 Drawing number 23 [Figure13] is an elevation based Brettingham, described as "(18) Designs for a house proposed on the Villa Rotonda. It shares with Brettingham's signed for the Earl of Leicester" for in London.29 The drawing in the same collection a similar type and level of verso of sheet nine of this group contains a light pencil sketch of technique. With the Foots Cray drawings, it shares the theme of a compact rectangular building with a central octagonal hall the rotonda. These drawings are also similar in their moder- with a large staircase to one flank, not unlike the central ately strong draftsmanship and use of pen and wash on laid arrangement at Foots Cray. These materials reveal Bretting- paper, even bearing the same watermark.34 The two Soane

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FIG. 7: "Planof the Basementand Principal Floorsof Foots Crayin Kent,"James Gandon, delin.Engraving, publ. 1767. FIG.8: "Sectionof SirRobt Ladbrooks House at Foots Cray,"J. Gandon,delin. Engraving, publ. 1767.

Museum drawings (the signed Brettingham drawing and the Pococke saw Foots Cray in construction in late August 1754, free copy of the elevation of the Villa Rotonda) and the Foots shortly before Brettingham's return to Britain. Cray elevation [Figures2, 12, 13] make a convincing group by It may still be argued that Brettingham sent drawings ahead content, style, and technique. for the start of construction prior to his return. This possibility Thus the comparison of the Foots Cray drawings with those receives support from other information on Brettingham. His of Ware and of Brettingham better sustains their attribution to "Account book of Works of Art purchased at Rome by the Earl the latter.35But does this argue for Brettingham as the architect of Leicester for " includes a transcript of a letter by of Foots Cray? Any such claim must face a chronological him "To Ralph Howard Esq. in Dublin Jan 10 1755."36 The problem within the records already presented. Brettingham's text reveals that Brettingham had known Howard in Rome and letter to Smith, written from Vicenza, and with which I am had previously sent him a plan and elevation, presumably for a associating the drawings of Foots Cray, is dated 8 August 1754. house (as proposed by Colvin). Brettingham observes that if

ANDERSON: MATTHEW BRETTINGHAM 433 there had been any problem he is sure Howard would have washed in amber ink, apparently distinguishing nonbearing informed him. He then notes that he is returned to London walls. This distinction is significant in the stages of planning and preparing to commence business as an architect. If in his and construction, but is understandably eliminated in the early career Brettingham was making the acquaintance of VitruviusBritannicus engraving [Figure 7]. In the drawing of the patrons in Italy and sending plans and elevations for antici- basement plan [Figure 3] the bake oven is loosely located and pated execution by others, it is at least a possible speculation crudely drawn, while it is neatly organized into the masonry that this was also the case at Foots Cray. pochi of the engraving [Figure 7]. The logic of the argument thus far would require that the While these differences are sufficient to establish the tempo- Consul Smith [Brettingham] drawings are preliminary draw- ral priority of the drawings to the engravings, it is in fact the ings for Foots Cray. There are several reasons to dismiss any close agreement of these two sets of plans that is more notable. suggestion that these drawings record Foots Cray as built. The Other than the differences just noted and a few minor varia- least of these arguments is chronological: If the drawings came tions (the precise location of fireplaces and the organization of into Smith's possession at about the time of the 1754 letter, this interior stairs, for example), the only significant differences are is too early for the completion of Foots Cray.37Also, by the time in the main stairs to the front and back porticos. For this Foots Cray was finished, there would have been no compelling comparison it is helpful to introduce an engraved view of Foots reason for the transmittal of these drawings to Smith. We Cray by William Woollett, which may be dated to 1760 [Figure should also bear in mind that the Smith catalogue that lists the 9].38 In this view, we see Foots Cray sited on sloping ground, Ware volume, bound then as now, was compiled in 1755. approached from the lower side. Note that the Consul Smith A comparison of the Consul Smith drawings with the plan [Figure 4] presumes this condition in that it shows a long representation of Foots Cray in VitruviusBritannicus is conclu- run of continuous risers at the front, but a middle landing and sive that the drawings are earlier than the engravings. In "The thus fewer risers at the rear. The configuration shown in Principle Story Plan" [Figure4] four walls (three defining angles VitruviusBritannicus [Figure 7] differs from the drawing but is of the octagonal central hall and one between the dressing consistent with Woollett's view. At the front, a longer more room and bed chamber) are drawn differently, and crudely gracious stair incorporates landings both at mid-level and at the

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FIG.9: "AView of Foots-CrayPlace in Kent,the Seatof BourchierCleeve, Esqr," William Woollett, delin. and engraver, 1760, second state (330 x 510 mm).

434 JSAH / 53:4, DECEMBER 1994 . To the rear, the VitruviusBritannicus plan shows only a dotted outline that one is led to interpret as a shorthand ------...... notation for a replication of the front stair. What this ambigu- , ous notation conceals is revealed in the Woollett view: in the executed Foots Cray the back portico opens on a high terrace e * that gives access to the rising ground beyond. Additionally, a difference of lesser significance may be noted: while the Consul P a6' 2S ------p, Smith plan and elevation show the main stair flanked by embracing masonry walls (as at the Villa Rotonda), the similar images in VitruviusBritannicus and the Woollett view agree in showing treads that extend over the supporting walls and carry metal hand-rails. Several conclusions are warranted. The Consul Smith draw- ings [Figures2-5] are not an "ideal plan," for they assume a sloping site and thus may, with high probability, already envision the site of Foots Cray. The significant differences at LL11 PL. -L the porticos when matched with Woollett's view assure us that ...... the VitruviusBritannicus engravings do show the executed Foots Cray. The present information supports the received view that Foots Cray was designed and built from ca. 1754. It must have been finished by 1760, and probably earlier. If we consider the graphic similarity of the interiororganiza-

FIG. I I: Palladio.Vicenza, VillaRotonda. Plan and elevation/section in IsaacWare's dmAdft edition of Palladio(London, 1738).

tion as shown in the plans of Consul Smith and Vitruvius Britannicus,the speculation is invited that the former served as ~ the model for the latter, perhaps through an intermediary. ii !! i•- +'•... i+diillTOM! +:•+...... This speculation is encouraged by the agreement of the two sets of plans in the unnecessarily impossible communication be- tween the kitchen and the dining parlor. Returning to Bretting- ham's letter, the latter part of that text is admittedly vague, but may suggest the role of the Consul Smith drawings and the existence of an intermediary set of drawings. Recall the passage of the letter that reads:

[P]ray my Compliments to ye young Gentleman that was pleased to

commend so much my designs, I promise myself ye honour to Send him a draught of ye first I execute in England, after it has passed review before My Lord ye Earl of Leicester, when I am sure it will prove more to my advantage and his Satisfaction.

Could the Consul Smith drawings be ones that Brettingham, after his return to England, transmitted to Smith to be given to ,ye young Gentleman"? This is unlikely for several reasons. If FIG. 10: , Vicenza, Villa Rotonda. Section and elevation from the drawings were incorporated in Smith's volume of Ware by 's edition of Palladio(London, 1715- 16). 1755 (which is admittedly not certain), Brettingham would

ANDERSON: MATITHEW BRET-INGHAM 435 MAIL

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FIG. 12: Matthew Brettinghamthe Younger, design for a bookcase or altarpiece, signed and dated "M. Brettingham Roma 1752." Pen and wash (297 x 235 mm) from the "Miscellaneous Sketches of Architectural Designs by M. Brettinghamand others, unknown," no. 30, in SirJohn Soane's Museum, London.

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FIG. 13: M. Brettinghamthe Younger (attributed), a free copy from, or preliminarydesign based on, engravings of the elevation of Palladio'sVilla Rotonda, 1754(?). Pen and wash (233 x 314 mm); from "Miscellaneous Sketches," no. 23, see fig. 12.

have had to send the drawings to Italy as soon as he arrived in ham left his designs that pleased "ye young Gentleman" in the England. More tellingly, if it might be contended that Bretting- shop of the noted Venetian architect/draftsman Antonio Visen- ham would go to the trouble to send to his Venetian admirer, tini in order that a new set of drawings of the design might be via the eminent Consul Smith, the somewhat scruffy plans of made, superior in the subtleties of the classical orders as well as the basement and principal floors, it is inconceivable that he in draftsmanship and consistency. These drawings Bretting- would have sent the "Attick Story Plan." This plan is inconsis- ham was to receive before his departure from Vicenza en route tent with regard to the level at which the plan section is cut (at to England where he would be able to make the finest possible the normal window level of the attic but at the floor level of the presentation to his economic and intellectual patron, the earl of spaces behind the pediments), and it is especially burdened Leicester, and to the patron of Foots Cray. with crude emendations of nonstructural walls. This plan, My observations are thus the following: There is no direct though of interest to the patron, is in no way intrinsic to the evidence linking Isaac Ware and Foots Cray. From the available concept of the design; in this form it surely would not have been evidence there is no compelling reason to attribute either Foots sent to Venice. Cray or the Consul Smith drawings to Isaac Ware. The Consul We may now resume Brettingham's letter where we left off: Smith drawings are not of Ware's normal standard. Architec- turally, it would not be inconceivable for Ware to have designed [I]f SigrVisentino could do me those designs, last noted before I leave Foots Cray; but from the information adduced here, including VicenzaI shallesteem it a greatFavour. the Soane Museum drawing of the Villa Rotonda, which may May I interpret this passage as follows? Matthew Bretting- now more securely be attributed to Brettingham, Foots Cray is

ANDERSON: MATTHEWBREITINGHAM 437 more consistent with the predilections of Brettingham. The VitruviusBritannicus presentation of Foots Cray reflects Thus it may be asserted that the set of drawings affixed in knowledge of the siting and exterior details of the house as Consul Smith's copy of Ware's Palladio and now preserved in built. However, the close correspondence of the interior organi- the British Library are Matthew Brettingham the Younger's zation in Brettingham's original (Consul Smith) design and that design for Foots Cray. The plans of this set are composed of the of the Gandon engravings in VitruviusBritannicus suggest the carefully drafted elements which comprise the conceptual possibility that the putative Visentini drawings still served as design as well as a rendering of the principal masonry walls. source material for Gandon. It may be noted that the two sets of These drawings, perhaps initially Brettingham's retained plans, measured by their respective graphic scales, yield the "draught" of presentation/construction drawings sent to En- same principal dimensions. Even more remarkably, the gland, could serve as the basis for more refined drawings by elevations of the two sets correspond dimensionally for Visentini or his assistants. When Consul Smith sent the Visentini heights of the portico landing, cornice, top of pediment, drawings to Brettingham in Vicenza in 1754, he retained, I and top of attic wall. suggest, Brettingham's originals, placing them in his copy of What, then, may be said of Foots Cray, which Ware for their mutual association with Anglo-Palladianism. The ranks as the least of the four British neo-Palladian villas hypothesized set of drawings by Visentini were carried to commonly associated with the Villa Rotonda-namely Mere- England by Brettingham where they served as presentation worth in Kent (ca. 1721-22) by ; Chiswick drawings and perhaps even in the final stages of construction of House near London (ca. 1724) by Lord Burlington; Nuthall Foots Cray, further adapted for site conditions as previously Temple, Nottinghamshire (ca. 1754), attributed to Thomas discussed. Woollett's engraving [Figure 9] gives us the best Wright; and Foots Cray Place (ca. 1754)?39 To this list, Harris eighteenth-century view ofFoots Cray as built. proposes the additon of a fifth villa based on designs ofJohn Sanderson (ca. 1753).40 Kurt Forster, seeking verifiable antecedents for the Villa Rotonda, proposed a set of criteria "to define adequately the villa's typological identity": 1. An elevated site with a privileged view over the surround- ing gardens and the countryside, yet not far removed from a town; 2. Use of the building as a place of studia and otium [study and leisure]; 3. A cubic unity in the outer shape, and 4. A conspicuously symmetrical plan, relating both to the siting and the stereometry of the building; 5. A central domed hall; 6. An integrated series of proportional relationships throughout the distribution of architectural parts (with a preference for the ratios 1:2 and 4:5:10); 7. Neo-antique formal elements, partly related to those employed in sacred architecture.41 While any such list must reflect the compiler's interpreta- tion of the work in question, I reproduce this example because Brettingham's letter touches on all seven of For- TE:L ster's criteria. Brettingham, however, adds another crite- rion, which, if accepted, would rule out the massive Sicilian I!l precedents offered by Forster-namely, Palladio's grace and delicacy, "more purged and correct," in comparison to the ancients. Ifwe look now to the English Palladian villas cited as versions of the Villa Rotonda, and if we accept, as I think we must, FIG.14: Colen Campbell, Mereworth, preliminary design: site planwith planof the Forster's admonition that we apply any proposed set of typologi- villaand elevation with sectionthrough the moat. Drawingby Campbell,pen and cal criteria "integrally and not singly," then the later works are wash(730x 510 mm.), ca. 1721/22. divergent.42 Indeed, I shall argue that Nuthall and the design

438 JSAH / 53:4, DECEMBER 1994 AAW

FIG.15: Campbell, Mereworth, "A View of the Earlof Westmoreland'sVilla in the Countyof Kent,taken from the Park,"William Woollett, delin. Engraving (324 x 510mm), ca. 1760.

by Sanderson should not be taken to have the Villa Rotonda as additional criteria. There is the criterion of "grace and their most significant precedent. delicacy" adduced in Brettingham's letter. More significant Campbell's moated Mereworth [Figures14, 15] and Burling- is the privileging of the perceptual over the conceptual ton's level-sited Chiswick do not possess elevated sites. Wool- experience of the viewer. Chiswick is early and emphatic in lett's view of Foots Cray [Figure9] amply demonstrates that this this respect, from its complex, multiple-entry stairs, to the house enjoyed "a privileged view over the surrounding gardens circuit of diverse interiors [Figure 16],43 to the position of and the countryside," though even it did not crown a hill as the villa itself as one among many architectural adornments Brettingham himself had admired at the Villa Rotonda. Of the of the garden. Sanderson's design [Figures 17-18], like English examples, only Chiswick could be said to be "not far Chiswick, offers biaxial internal movement and a circuit of removed from a town," and then not with the intimacy of varied rooms, but without the garden access. Most unusu- Vicenza and the Villa Rotonda. The rigorous bi-axiality of ally, Sanderson shifts the main orientation of interior Palladio's Villa Rotonda [Figure11], which might be seen as the spaces to the cross-axis. [Figures 19-20] ideal of Forster's fourth point, is diminished or destroyed in the begins with a return stair to a portico in antis and extends English examples, a point to be elaborated below. Since the the main axis only to, not through, its octagonal central principal rooms of the Villa Rotonda only approximate the space. There is neither direct nor cross-axial communica- proportion of 3:5 (15:26), and this is not one of the ratios that tion among the rooms, though they are located on axes. Forster cites as being favored, it is difficult to say whether the Rather, complex diagonal and tangential routes are re- English works show any less concern with proportional relation- quired to move from one to another. As compared to the ships, except where they allow "unclassical" ratios, as in the experience at the Villa Rotonda, where arrival at the center characteristically English long halls or galleries of Mereworth of the villa places one also at the crown of the hill and arrays and Foots Cray [Figures14 and 4; both of ratio 1:4] or the more both the villa and its surroundings in static order, Chiswick articulated one in Sanderson's design. and its sisters offer formal, functional, and phenomenologi- With the latter point we touch on the real difference of the cal promenades. If it can be argued that Scamozzi's Rocca English examples from that of Palladio. It is not only that the Pisani, which employs diagonal lines of movement from the English works fail the proposed criteria but that they demand central rotonda [Figure 21], is the more appropriate prece-

ANDERSON:MATIHEW BRETTINGHAM 439 dent for Chiswick,this is still more true for Sanderson'sdesign siting, movement, and differentiation of rooms. Sander- and emphaticallyso for NuthallTemple.44 son's design extends this drive, and Nuthall distinctly Chiswick is the intermediate, historically mediating, jumps out of the type of the Rotonda. Only Mereworthand example in this set of Anglo-Palladian villas, a complex Foots Cray should properly be seen as closely allied to the ensemble combining Italian precedent, the example of VillaRotonda, and even here we note significantdifferences. In Mereworth, and innovation-all appropriate to the in- comparison with the rigor of the Villa Rotonda's bilateral formed and energetic amateur who was its author. The topology of its internal organization is not so different from that of the Villa Rotonda, as is its pursuit of visual variety in

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FIG. 17: John Sanderson, country house (possibly a design for Copped Hall), plan, ca. 1753. Pen and wash (300 x 285 mm).

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a FIG. 16: Lord Burlington,, ca. 1724, front elevation and main floor FIG. 18: John Sanderson, country house, elevation with high dome drawn on plan. Engraving,publ. 1727. hinged leaf, ca. 1753. Pen and wash (300 x 285 mm).

440 JSAH / 53:4, DECEMBER 1994 symmetry and the replication of identical quadrants (except for mirror symmetry), Mereworth is only strictly symmetrical about the main axis; and Foots Cray, while clearly a variant of Mereworth, pursues a more conventionally livable plan that retains only notional symmetries. Chiswick, as an addition to an existing house and as Lord Sam Burlington's architectural polemic in bricks and mortar, was largely absolved of practical demands, yet even it entered upon what is emphatic at Mereworth, Foots Cray, Nuthall Temple, rm= and in Sanderson's design: the increasing worldliness of what was previously acknowledged as the hybridization of sacred elements with the domestic. In Nuthall Temple, Mereworth, and Foots Cray, the pursuit of domestic organization familiar to the privileged classes led not only to the variation of rooms that broke formal symmetries, but also to the incorporation, in Mereworth and Foots Cray, of the previously mentioned long hall or gallery across the garden fronts of these villas (and in Sanderson's design on the cross-axis). If, then, we extend the list of criteria required to embrace these Anglo-Palladian villas, and if we continue to apply the criteria integrally rather than singly, then even Mereworth and Foots Cray do not possess the Villa Rotonda typologically, but only as one significant source. In all these villas, we observe the mail use of formal increasingly quotidian "neo-antique elements, -1 partly related to those employed in sacred architecture,"45 "4 which would shortly lead to the increasingly picturesque use of antique precedent, the pasting of pediments on groups of row houses, and the theatricalization of entire urban sectors as in S. ..il John Nash's Regent Street. Yet in the villas under consideration here the dialectic FIG. Thomas Nuthall of the between the sacred and the domestic is not yet empty of 19: Wright, Temple, ca. 1754, plan principalfloor, J. 1767. meaning; indeed, it still deserves consideration. It then might Gandon, delin. Engraving,publ. be posited that, if one moves away from the ideal rigor of the Villa Rotonda to a position that incorporates the additional criteria already mentioned, then the quotidian aspect of this sacred/domestic spectrum should receive due attention. And if this step is taken, then Foots Cray may after all not be the least of the English villas. Consider, for example, the architectural form and use of the porticos/pavilions that extend from the sides of the cubic core of these villas. With Palladio all four porches are open, pro- jected entrances. Despite that fact, these porticos take the curious form of mixing the columnar temple-front with side wall elements that do not even allow an intercolumnal space at the corner (as engraved in Palladio's QuattroLibri, and in the Ware edition, the are engaged at the end of the

side walls [Figure 1 1]).46 Seeking further to "purge and cor- :tu~'~ rect,"47 both Campbell and Burlington, rather than the wall unit, use a single column in the return of the portico. Camp- bell's Mereworth preserves four porches, two as entrances and FIG. 20: Thomas Wright, Nuthall Temple, front elevation, James Gandon, delin. two as loggias [Figure 14], while the designs of Burlington Engraving,publ. 1767.

ANDERSON: MATTHEW BRETTINGHAM 441 PARTE ATRaM tion as "avery competent, novel, architect"49and commenda- tion from ChristopherHussey.50 Foots Cray Place, when not treatedas anonymous,has receivedan unlikelyattribution to its originalowner, BourchierCleeve or an uncertainone to Isaac Ware.51 If the argumentof the present paper is accepted,not only does Foots Cray Place receive an author, but Matthew ki.00 4 Brettinghamthe Younger,possessed now of an executedwork that goes beyond remodeling,is given a presence. Further,by insistingon the necessityof distinguishingthe Anglo-Palladian villas from their oft-citedprecedent, one admits of additional architecturalconcerns that Brettingham,at Foots Cray Place, innovativelyaddressed in a dialoguewith the rigorsof the Villa Rotunda. fAMg&AMEZO GIORNOO

APPENDIX1 list of works ALrOamAPItsPCL(OI Chronological by MatthewBrettingham the Younger (1725-1803) Foots Cray Place, Kent. 1754 to no later than 1760. See, Ikas:AmY~kORAL OPRESSoloe appendix 2. Ireland. "Plan and elevation," presumably for a house in Ireland, 1754. Noted as having been sent previouslyin a letter to Ralph Howard Esq. in Dublin, 10 Jan. 1755. (Holkham MS 744, 133.) " 'Plan and elevations' " (no doubt for a house in Ireland) for Ralph Howard, later Viscount Wicklow, but it does not appear to have LL been built." [see n. 5], Vlme.S,C•.faK. (Colvin, BiographicalDictionary 137-38.) FIG. 21: , Lonigo, Rocca Pisani, plan and elevation from L'idea London (?). "Tis proposed to build a Small Academy,"last della architetturauniversale, 1615. half 1750s. (HolkhamMS 744, 139.) Plansfor building"an Academyof Designin England."Colvin, relying on Holkham [Figure16] and Sanderson retain only the front portico entered MS744; but is Colvincorrect in implyingthat Brettingham's aclassically,but with experiential delight, from the side. Bretting- plan was more thanverbal? ham makes a sensible move: he returns to the walled portico of London. Berkeley Square. Designs for a house proposed for Palladian precedent, but now for the reason that these flanking the earl of Leicester,d. 1759. London, RIBA, Catalogue wall elements allow the projection, on the cross-axis, of princi- (see n. 28), 103. Drawings1-18, presented to the RIBAin pal interior spaces beyond the cubic core [Figures 2, 9]. In 1964. Unsigned, but stronglyattributed by the RIBA,with so doing, he facilitates both spatial variety and functional referenceto the signed drawingof the Soane Museum.In a requirements, while restoring a significant formal attribute of personal communication,Damie Stillman calls these de- Palladio's villa. signsas "probablyby MatthewSr." Or again at Foots Cray, the large terrace to the rear [Figure Plan of a house with an octagonal rotunda or hall. In the 9], which seems to have been an embarrassment to the RIBA drawings noted above for the proposed house for the compilers of VitruviusBritannicus [Figure 7], may be seen as an earl of Leicester, no. 9 verso: (in pencil) plan of a house with inventive resolution of the rising site condition while also an octagonal rotunda or hall. Insc. verso "A sketch of a Plan offering a sensible sequence of progressively less closed and 100 x 90 ft." (By implication, this is a different project on the covered spaces as one moves, with minimal changes of level, back of a Berkeley Square drawing.) from the center of the villa to the gallery, porch, terrace, Possible collaborations on projects with his father (dates are gardens, and further landscape.48 those of journeys to the sites by father and son as noted in When Matthew Brettingham the Younger has been noticed the father's account book at the Public Record Office, at all, it has often been for how little is known of him. His London (C 108/362): extensive remodeling of Charlton Park, Wiltshire [1772-76; Beechwood for Sir Thos. Sebright. 5 Sept. 1759; Figure22], his only known executed work, earned him recogni- Shadwell for John Burton. 25Jan. 1760;

442 JSAH / 53:4, DECEMBER 1994 ) ii i i • II• : / ( : •• •I i : . :i : ' (:ii / • • ? ..:

FIG.22: MatthewBrettingham the Younger,Chariton Park, Wiltshire, the hall.

Packington for the earl of Aylesford. 19 Aug. 1762, and 30 Charlton House, or Charlton Park, Wiltshire. Extensive July 1763; remodeling, 1772-1776. Hussey, "Charlton Park" (see n. London, Pall Mall, new house for the Duke of York. Travels to 50). "[R]ebuiltthe north and east fronts and remodelled the Oxfordshire to negotiate leases in Pall Mall and making interior,filling the centralquadrangle with a domedhall in plans of the house, 20 Nov. 1760. an elegantneo-classical style. Even here the hall was left (I am indebted to Damie Stillman for this information unfinishedat LordSuffolk's death in 1779,and was still in and the information in the following entry.) an incompletestate in the earlynineteenth century .... " London, Piccadilly. House of Sir Richard Lyttleton, 1761-64. Colvin,Biographical Dictionary (see n. 5). Collaboration of unknown extent with his father. Hertford- Copyof measureddrawing, before alterations, 1772-76. shire Record Office (Ashbridge MSS II), a bill from father Harris, BritishDrawings (see n. 24), 36-37. and son for the building of the house. Cambridge University. Plans and estimates for a botanical London. Designs for rebuilding part of Lincoln's Inn, 1771ff. and chemical lecture room at the southeast corner of the Not adopted. W. P. Balldon, ed., The Recordsof the Societyof Botanical Garden. Commissioned 3 Dec. 1784; submitted Lincoln'sInn: The Black Books (London, 1897-1968), 3:407, in 1785. Not approved. Robert Willis and J. W. Clark, The 410; 4:5, 7. Drawings formerly preserved in the library of ArchitecturalHistory of the Universityof Cambridge,4 vols. Lincoln's Inn, since lost. (Colvin, BiographicalDictionary [see, (1886), 3:153. Colvin, BiographicalDictionary (see n. 5). n. 5]). Paul Jeffery, "The Church that Never Was: Wren's St Cambridge University. Plans and estimates for the comple- Mary, and other projects for Lincoln's Inn Fields," Architec- tion of the Quadrangle of the Senate House. 1785. Not tural History31 (1988):136-47; tentatively attributes five of approved.Willis and Clark,3:74; not in Colvin. the Soane Museum drawings (see n. 30), including no. 12, to Trewithen,Cornwall."Unexecuted designs for remodelling that Brettingham and this project for Lincoln's Inn. house c. 1790 endorsed 'Brettingham's plans."'"Colvin, 138.

ANDERSON:MATTHEW BRETINGHAM 443 APPENDIX 2 Floorsof Foots Crayin Kent [also in French].""J. Gandon Foots Cray Place, Kent, England del. et sculp." Archival and Other Primary Material John Hassell (1767-1825). "Foots Cray Place, the London. British Library (BL). Three plans and front eleva- seat of Harence Esqr""Drawn by I. Hassell, Aquatint D. tion of Foots Cray Place (identified and discussed in the Havell, Publ. London, I. Hassell 1 Nov 1817." Inserted article above).Affixed at the back ofJoseph Smith's copy at p. 106 (p. 107 of BL copy) of J. Hassell, Picturesque of Isaac Ware's edition of Andrea Palladio, The Four Rides and Walks, vol. 2 (London, 1818). Harris (see Books ofAndrea Palladios Architecture (London, 1738), BL "Other Prints" below), 21b. BL 290.c.18,19. See also 60.g.1). This volume acquired for King George III, 28 Ronald Russell, Guide to British TopographicalPrints January 1763; see Smith, BibliothecaSmithiana (Venice, 1755), (London and North Pomfret, Vt., 1979), 200. BL 823.h.26. "The Front Elevation which Represents all John Preston Neale. Viewsof the Seatsof Noblemenand The other Fronts." Pen and gray wash on paper with half of Gentlemenin England, Scotland,Wales, and Ireland,series a watermark: crown above half ofa shield (see next drawing). 2, vol. 4 (1828), unpag. Harris (see "Other Prints" Graphic scale. (243 x 334 mm.) "The Basement Story Plan." below) 30d. BL 10362.b.2. From the description to the Ink with gray wash pochi on paper with other half of above engraving titled "Foot's-CrayPlace, Kent; the Seat of the watermark: bottom of shield withfleur de lys, below which is Right Honourable Nicholas Vansittart, Lord ": LVG. All spaces except central octagon and axes are la- "This elegant Villa was built in the year 1752, by belled. Same scale as elevation. (332 x 246 mm.) "The Bourchier Cleve, Esq. . . ." The Vansittartfamily owned Principle Story Plan." Ink with gray poch&and amber poche Foots Cray from early in the nineteenth century until (for thinner walls) on paper with countermark IV [same as gradual dispersal in the twentieth. KAO U855; family Brettingham collection, no. 23, Soane Museum]. All rooms descent, E16. labeled. Same scale. (330 x 243 mm.) "The Attick Story London. National Monument Record. FortressHouse, 23 Plan." Ink with gray and amber pochi as above, on paper SavileRow, London without watermark. No rooms labeled. Same scale. (242 x Photographs. Numerous excellent photographs of Foots 324 mm.) Cray,its interior,gardens, and dependencies. Prints. William Woollett. Engraved view of Foots Cray Print. "Foots-crayPlace, the Seat of Benjn Harenc Esqr."A [1760]. First State. Fagan saw it in British Museum and naive delineationand engraving,not furtheridentified. ca. in the collection of I. B. Muir, 78, Alderney Street, W. 1800; Harenc bought Foots Cray on 4 Dec. 1772. KAO, Louis A. Fagan, A Catalogue Raisonni of the Engraved U855 T1/3. Harenc'sproperty placed at sale in Sept. 1820. Works of William Woollett (London, 1885), 15. Second KAO,U855 E4/3. State. "A View of Foots-Cray Place in Kent, the Seat of Maidstone, Kent. Kent County Council, County Hall, Bourchier Cleeve, Esqr [also in French]" "Printed for Kent Archive Office (KAO) "Particularsof and Condi- John Boydell in Cheapside, John Bowles in Cornhil, tions of Sale for, that Magnificent Freehold Villa, With Carington Bowles in St Pauls Church Yard, Robert Sayer the Park, , River, Plantations, and Estate of the in Fleet Street, and Henry Parker in Cornhil." And Late Bourchier Cleeve, Esq; Deceased; Called Foots- to the right: "W. Woollett del. et Sculp." (330 x 510 mm.) Cray-Place,In the County of Kent. Which will be sold by BL Map Library Kings 17.36.1. The print also exists at Auction, On Tuesday the 14th of April 1772. . . Lot .... the Victoria and Albert Museum, Prints and Drawings I. This Villa is built of stone, on a plan of Palladios, with Division. portico's, &c. and contains a Rustic Story, a Principal J. Woolfe and J. Gandon, VitruviusBritannicus, 4:1767. Story, and an Attic Story." Continues in two pages of Text, p. 3: "This house was built by the late Bourchier description and one page of conditions of sale. 4pp. Cleeve, esquire, and is now the property of Sir William KAO, Cat. Mark U855 T1/3. "Particulars of the very baronet." In BL note scratches out valuable freehold and small leasehold Estate, Yonge, copy, pencil part . William and gives "George." No designation of architect. No Foots Cray, in the County of Kent. Lot 1. The elegant explanation of discrepancy of Ladbrooke on plates and Villa, Foots Cray Place, erected in the Italian style ." ... Yonge in text. P1. 8: "Elevation of Foots Cray in Kent, the Continues with brief descriptions of the principal rooms. Seat of Sr Robt Ladbrooke [also in French]." "J. Gandon 1 p. (incomplete copy ?) plus site plan. There is no del." "M. Darly sculp." P1.9: "Section of Sir Robt Ladbrooks description of lots other than Lot 1. KAO, Cat. Mark House at Foots Cray [also in French]." '3. Gandon del.t ." M. U855 E4. Darley sculp." (Transverse section looking toward the front Other Prints. See John Harris, A CountryHouse Index (Isle of of the house.) P1. 10: "Plan of the Basement and Principal Wight, 1971).

444 JSAH / 53:4, DECEMBER 1994 A NewDisplay ofthe Beauties ofEngland, vol. 1 (1776); Harris, the Brettinghamletter has no reasonto be associatedwith Ware in and of itself. 3la. Only if the letter is first associatedwith the drawings,and then all of these extraneous materialsare associatedwith the development of English neo- Harrison& Co., PicturesqueViews of thePrincipal Seats of the Palladianismdoes the ensemble make sense. Since the letter is addressedto Nobility ... (ca. 1788); Harris, 20. Not found BL; possibly Smiththe yearbefore the volumeis cataloguedand shortlybefore its saleto King III, the most is thatSmith inserted these materialsin that in the NMR (see above)? George plausibleargument his copy ofWare,perhaps even havingthem glued in. IIColvin,Biographical Dictionary (see n. 5), 134, providesa familytree of the Brettinghamsas wellas entrieson the severalarchitects of the family. 12 Notes In 1744, the yearafter the deathofJocelyn Sidney, Lord Leicester, Thomas BaronLovel wasmade earlof Leicester. I IsaacWare's edition of Palladio,The Four Books ofAndrea Palladio's Architec- Coke, (ca. 1695-1759), n. 5); but the and Stuart ture(London, 1738),British Library shelf-mark 60.g.1. 13Colvin,Biographical Dictionary (see Brettingham articles don't David AthenianStuart: Pioneer the Greek 2 Dorothy Stroud, "FourPalladian Villas," Country Life 104 (8 Oct. 1948): fully agree. Watkin, of Revival(London, 1982), 15-17, the of the to 728-31, and often repeatedby such authoritiesas John Summersonand John repeats story trip Naples (without citation),but notes the of Hamiltonand Harris.These villaswill be more fullydiscussed below, along with a fifth design documentary separation Brettingham from the Greek and does not of visit to introducedinto the group by Harris. enterprise speak any by Brettingham Greece. 3 Thomas Martyn,The English Connoisseur (Dublin,1767), 1:34: "Foot'sCray first earl of Dartmouth and Charles Place.The Seat of BourchierCleeve, Esq. in Kent,Was built by himself,after a 14WilliamLegge, (1672-1750), Wynd- " ham, secondearl of (1710-63). design of Palladio.. The Dictionaryof NationalBiography (London, 1887), Egremont "Accountof Monies Recievd on Lord the Earl of 11:23, describesCleeve (-1 Mar. 1760) as "awriter on finance,a prosperous 15Brettingham's My LeicestersAccount and of Fathers from first out of pewtererin London."Additional information on Cleeveand other earlyowners my Beginning my Setting 1747"(Holkham MS See also the of FootsCray appears in notes 37 and 38 below. EnglandAugust 744). Brettingham Younger's and additionsto the secondedition of M. The 4Among thosewho attributeFoots Cray to CleeveisJohn Harris,Sir William preface Brettingham[the Elder], elevationsand sections, in theseat thelate Earl Leicester. Chambers:Knight ofthe Polar Star (University Park, Pa., 1970),45-47. plans, ofHolkham , of of Towhich are added, the and andalso a account the 5W. H. Leeds, "ChronologicalLists of Worksof Architectswho died in the ceilings chimney-pieces; descriptive of statues, and notin the edition(London, 1773). 18thand 19thcenturies," Civil Engineer andArchitect'sJournal 3 (1840): 113, gives pictures, drawings; former Caulfeild(sometimes fourthViscount first earl of the design of FootsCray to IsaacWare. H. M. Colvin,A BiographicalDictionary of 16james Caulfield), (later Charlemont Irishstatesman. Francis Memoirs thePolitical BritishArchitects 1600-1840, 2d edition (London, 1978), 866, observes:"There (1728-99), Hardy, of and Private Earl Charlemont 2d edition, 2 vols. seems to be no evidencethat this Palladianvilla was designed by Ware,but the LifeofJames Caulfield, of [1810], (London,1812); TheVolunteer Earl, the andTimes attributionis acceptableon stylisticgrounds." John Summerson,"The Classical MauriceJamesCraig, Being Life FirstEarl Charlemont CountryHouse in 18th-CenturyEngland: Three CantorLectures,"Journal ofthe ofJamesCaulfeild of (London,1948). 17Rev. Edward from 1744 tutor, and later to RoyalSociety of Arts 107 (July 1959): 577-78, acceptedWare as the probable Murphy, major domo, Charlemont.Not an architect,he served as Charlemont'sassiduous architectof FootsCray. cicerone, him his travels, their travelto 6 Richard Pococke, The Travelsthrough England of Dr. RichardPococke ... accompanying throughout including notablyearly Greece, and in 1749 also included Richard during1750, 1751, and lateryears, ed. J. J. Cartwright(London, 1889), 2:69: Constantinople, Egypt (which Dalton,an architecturaldraftsman, whom we have noted as later "Knole,Aug. 28th, 1754. On the 20th I rode at the backof SrGregory Page's, already making .... the of ConsulSmith's n. See VolunteerEarl I went by Elthamand about three miles fartherto Crayfoot,to a house whichis King'sinventory library[see 8]). Craig, (seen. 16), 29-30, 45-55. buildingfor Mr Cleves,a pewtereron Cornhill,on the design of Palladio,after This word is unclear due to written over; the is whichmy LordWestmoreland's house is built;but theysay it is on a smallerscale, 18 being meaning surely "latter." however,by takingin twoof the porticosinto the house.The two side rooms are 9 Charlemontdid not build a facsimileof the Villa Rotonda. the largerthan his Lordship's;the staircaseis takenout of one side of it. This has a However, "Casino" n. 1:322,calls a at his Irish verybad effect on the outside,as have fourugly chimneysround the dome; but (whichHardy, Caulfield [see 16], "Temple") seat Marinonear Clontarfcould be seen as a radicaland inventivetransforma- the water of the Newel made serpentine,and the to it is very fine. This tion of the of the VillaRotonda. The Casino is house is builtby contractfor ?8,000, and some thousandsmore hasbeen laidout underlyingconcept (1758) usually attributedto WilliamChambers Charlemonthimself is often much on this place." though given credit 7Anon., "FootsCray Place: Destruction of a PalladianVilla," Builder 177 (28 (Hardy,op. cit., 2:436). Oct. 1949):541. Ifwe mayfollow Steffi Roettgen, Anton Mengs painted anAllegorical 8 BibliothecaSmithiana (Venice, 1755), with a note at the end of the "Addenda" Portraitof James Caulfield(1755-56; National Gallery,Prague) in which the the attributesof signedRichd Dalton, dated "Venice28January 1763," acknowledging the receipt young Caulfield,holding an architect,is confrontedby the of Architecturewho commendsthe of the books mentionedin the catalogue,in good order,for the Libraryof King figure eximple of Palladioas a practitioner rather than the of George III. On page cccxlviof the catalogue,ticked off in chalk,presumably in theory Vitruvius (see Roettgen, Anton RaphaelMengs Dalton'sinventory, is this item:"Palladio... translatedinto English... London, 1728-1779 and his BritishPatrons [London, 1993], 52-55). printedby IsaacWare, 1738. fol bound in blewTurkish leather, and richlygilt." 20Antonio Visentini (1688-1782), Venetian architect, draftsman, and en- 9 See the writingsof FrancesVivian, including "Joseph Smith and the Cultof graver, closely allied with Consul Smith, not least in the propagandizing of Palladianism,"Burlington Magazine 105 (1963): 157-62; and II ConsoleSmith, Palladio. See McAndrew, Antonio Visentini(see n. 9). mercantee collezionista (Vicenza, 1971). See alsoJohn McAndrew'sintroduction to 21The Villa Valmarana-Scagnaroli at Lisiera, near Vicenza. The existing the Catalogueof the DrawingsCollection of the RoyalInstitute of BritishArchitects: building is radically different from that shown in Book 2, plate 42 of Palladio's I AntonioVisentini (Farnborough, 1974). QuattroLibri dell'Architettura(Venice, 1570). Since some of those changes are of 10Kevin Fromings of the preservationsection of the BritishLibrary informs the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Brettingham may well have seen me that one cannot determine when the drawingsof Foots Cray Place were documents that suggested removing this work from Palladio's oeuvre. into the glued backof Smith'scopy of Ware.The Brettinghamletter (unlikethe 22Charles-Louis Cl~risseau (1721-1820), French architect, archeologist, and drawings)is hinged on paper that Fromings estimates to be of the early artist. At the time of Brettingham's letter, Cl&risseau was just departing, nineteenthcentury. Assuming this to be the case, then at least the presentform acrimoniously, from the French Academy in Rome, where he had spent the of attachment of the letter is well after the time of Smith. The attribution of Foots years 1749-54. Cl~risseau was briefly the teacher of William Chambers and in to from at least Cray Ware, dating as early as 1840, could also suggest that the 1755 began a long and involved association with Robert Adam. Since Bretting- inclusion of these extraneous materials in Smith's copy of Ware is a late action of ham had been in Rome until June 1754, his reference to a drawing of Cl~risseau British librarians. However, this seems unlikely. Interpolated materials in may indicate that he was bearing a gift from Cl~risseau to Smith. It was Smith architectural treatises in the British Library are not common. More importantly, who sponsored Robert Adam's research at Diocletian's palace at Spalato (1757),

ANDERSON: MATTHEW BRETTINGHAM 445 a tripin whichCl6risseaujoined and forwhich he made drawings,some ofwhich XXXIV)includes both "W.Woollett del. et sculp."and "Publishedaccording to appear, unacknowledged,in RobertAdam, Ruins of the Palaceof the Emperor Act of ParliamentJuly 1760 & Sold by John Tinney... " Thus the engraving Diocletianat Spalatroin Dalmatia(London, 1764). See ThomasJ. McCormick, cannotbe earlierthan 1760. In a publicationof the FineArts Society, Catalogue of Charles-LouisCrlinsseau and the Genesisof Neo-(New York and Cam- theEngraved Works, etc. of WilliamWoollett (London, May 1885),cat. no. 36, Fagan bridge,Mass., 1990), chap. 3. notes that Woollettwas apprenticedto Tinney, and that his firstwork of note, 23Manuscriptletter from Matthew Brettinghamthe Younger to Joseph Niobe,after RichardWilson, appeared in 1761. This led to an agreementwith Smithaffixed in the frontof whatwas originallySmith's copy of Ware'sPalladio John Boydell,publisher. The second stateof the FootsCray engraving is altered (BritishLibrary shelf-mark 60.g.1). only in the omission of the referenceto the Act of Parliamentand in noting " 24See John Harris,A Catalogueof BritishDrawings for Architecture,Decoration, "PublishedforJohn Boydell Faganalso notes (6) that on those engravings Sculptureand LandscapeGardening 1550-1900 in AmericanCollections (Upper "whichwere producedfor Tinney,... Woollett's name occursboth as designerand SaddleRiver, N.J., 1971). engraver."Adding to this informationthe fact that BourchierCleeve died on 1 25 IsaacWare, A CompleteBody ofArchitecture (London, 1756), pls. 49 and 50. Mar. 1760 (Dictionaryof NationalBiography [London, 1887], 11:23),we may be 26The drawingis preservedat the Victoriaand AlbertMuseum, London, and quite securein placingthe firststate ofWoollett's Foots Cray engraving in 1760. is illustratedin RudolfWittkower, Palladio and English Palladianism (London and The lastwill (12 Sept. 1759) of BourchierCleeve designates his wife Maryas NewYork, 1974),fig. 153. heirand, afterher death, theirdaughter Anne (Maidstone,Kent Archives Office, 27Giacomo Leoni, ed., The Architectureof AndreaPalladio in Four Books Doc. U855 TI/1). Accordingto the DNB, Cleeve'swife (identifiedas Elizabeth) (London, 1715-16), pls. xiv-xv.Edward Hoppus, ed., AndreaPalladio's Architec- died on 28 Dec. 1760. Cleeve's estates were inherited by their daughter turein FourBooks (London, 1735),pls. xiv-xv. (variouslyidentified as Elizabethand Anne, but the latteris the name given in 28London, Royal Instituteof BritishArchitects, Catalogue of the Drawings the willjustcited), and then came into the possessionof SirGeorge Yonge, bart, Collectionof the RoyalInstitute of BritishArchitects, vol. B (Farnborough,1972). upon his marriagewith her. Though not specificallynaming Foots Cray,the Brettingham'sItalian Sketchbook has the referenceL/4. DNB, in the articleon Yonge, notes that "he parted with variousproperties." 29 Ibid. The VitruviusBritannicus engraving of Foots Cray(published 1767) identifiesit 30 London, Soane Museum,a leather-boundvolume inscribedon the spine: as the "Seatof Sr Robt Ladbrooke";however, the text of the same volume (3) MiscellaneousDrawings of ArchitecturalDesigns No. 1 (4D, ff. 36-73: "Miscella- makes it "the propertyof Sir WilliamYonge, baronet,"which, in the British neous Sketches of ArchitecturalDesigns by M. Brettingham and others, Librarycopy is correctedin pencil to "George"Yonge. (SinceYonge traveled,it unknown,numbered from 1-41"). may be that Ladbrokeleased the property. The DNB notes only a Robert 31Margaret Richardson, assistant curator of the Soane Museum, in a Ladbrooke"of humble origin"who was a landscape painter ca. 1800. The personalcommunication notes thatthe drawingcannot be of a fountainand that cataloguesof the BritishLibrary do lista SirRobert Ladbroke who wasa "Senior it would also make a ratherstrange bookcase. She adds that a formercurator, Aldermanand One of the Representativesof the City of London"in notes of WalterSpiers, listed the design as an altarpiece. 1769 and 1771.) 32 This group of drawingswould include those numbered20, 22, 27, 34, and Accordingto another document in the Kent Archives(KAO, U855 T1/3), possibly39. Ms. Richardson,who is engaged in a studyof these drawings,kindly FootsCray was put up for sale at auctionfrom the "Estateof the late Bourchier suppliedme withcopies and her tentativeattributions to whichI referin this and Cleeve"on 14 Apr. 1772; the sale of the mansion and grounds by Yonge to the followingnotes. She tentativelyattributes number 22 to MatthewBretting- BenjaminHarenc of HenriettaStreet, Cavendish Square, Middlesex County, for ham the Elder,as she does 19 and 23. ?12,000, wasconsumated on 4 Dec. 1772. 33In this group, I would include the finisheddrawings numbered 7, 11, 13, 39JohnHarris, The Palladians (London, 1981), 38. Generalcomment on the 19, 23, 31, and 36-38, though it must be admittedthat some of these are of a groupwas initiatedin Stroud(see n. 2), 728-31. See also, in additionto Harris, sufficientlyconventional drafting style that attributionis not easy. There are John Summerson,"The Classical Country House" (see n. 5); CinziaM. Sicca,"II other sheets with sketches or incomplete drawings(1-5, 8-10, 12, 15-16, palladianesimoin Inghilterra,"in the exhibitioncatalog, Vicenza, Palladio, la sua 24-26, 28, 32, 35, and 40-41) that are not easily compared to the signed eredithnel mondo(Venice, 1980), 31-71; and James Ackerman,"The Palladian drawingby Brettinghamthe Younger.It is from this group that Ms. Richardson Villa in England,"in The Villa (Princeton, 1990), chap. 6. On Mereworth: attributesdrawings to Brettinghamthe Younger (nos. 1-3, 12, 24, and 32). ChristopherHussey, EnglishCountry Houses: Early Georgian(London,1955), Withinthis group, attributionscould most readilybe made by comparisonswith 58-65; and HowardE. Stutchbury,The Architecture of Colen Campbell (Manches- Brettingham'sItalian Sketchbook referenced at note 28, but also by first ter, 1967). On ChiswickHouse: Rudolf Wittkower,"Lord Burlington and attemptingattributions within the firstgroup mentionedin thisnote. WilliamKent," Royal ArcheologicalJournal 102 (1947), reprintedin his Palladio 34The drawingis surelymade afterpublished elevations of the VillaRotonda. and EnglishPalladianism (New York, 1974), 113-32; and John Charlton,A In not being strictlyfaithful to any suchelevation, it maybe a preliminarydesign. Historyand Descriptionof ChiswickHouse and Gardens(London, 1958, and later Asidefrom the windowlessdome, it is in most respectsclose to the VillaRotonda editions).On NuthallTemple: ChristopherHussey, "Nuthall Temple, Notting- elevationsin the Leoniand Hoppus editionsof Palladio. ham:The Seat of The Rev. R. Holden,"Country Life (28 Apr. and 5 May 1923): The watermarkis the crownedfleursde lys with the initials"LVG" of Lubertus 570-76,606-12. van Gerrevink,with the countermark"IV" ofJ. Villedaryof Hattem, Holland. 40 In the Catalogueof the DrawingsCollection of the RoyalInstitute of British Seewatermark no. 406, p. CCCI,W. A. Churchill,Watermarks in Paper in Holland, Architects(Farnborough, 1973), 4:14, John Harrisnotes that ".... theremay have England, France, etc., in the XVII and XVIII Centuriesand Their Interconnection been a fifth [executed Anglo-Palladian villa based on the Villa Rotonda] if The references of the initials (Amsterdam, 1935). are taken from related designs by John Sanderson in the RIBA are to be regarded as working watermarks nos. 408 and 414. drawings." In vol. S [13] of the same Catalogue Margaret a a of the (1976),18-38, 35In personal communication, supporter attribution of Foots Cray Richardson treats these as unexecuted designs for Copped [Copt] to Cleeve that the preliminary, argues Smith drawings might be by Cleeve, sent to Smith for Hall, Essex, the house from which the drawings came into the RIBA collection. his comment. Indeed anything is possible, but there is no way to support an Harris also notes this possibility and gives a date of about 1753 (Harris, attribution of the drawings to Cleeve (as I have attempted to demonstrate for Palladians [see n. 39], 24). and little reason for Cleeve to so far afield for Brettingham), go advice with so 41 Kurt Forster, "Is Palladio's Villa Rotonda an Architectural Novelty?" in K. Palladian architects and connoisseurs at hand in many Britain. Forster and Martin Kubelik, eds., Palladio. Ein Symposium(Rome, 1980), 27-34, MS. 36 Holkham 744, 133-34. figs. 1-8. Forster's last point would include the dome-the particularly innova- Cleeve the estate on 37 bought only 22 Dec., 1752 (Maidstone, Kent Archive tive element of the Villa Rotonda. See Wolfgang Lotz, "La Rotonda: edificio Office, Doc. U855 Ti/ 1: Bargain and sale in process of the final sale of Foots civile con cupola," Bollettinodel CentroInternazionale di StudidiArchitetturaAndrea Place to Bourchier Cleeve, ?5450 for all live Cray lands, stock, etc.) Palladio'4 (1962): 69-73; translated as "The Rotonda: A Secular Building with a view identifies Foots as the 3This engraved Cray "Seat of Bourchier Cleeve Dome," in his Studiesin Italian RenaissanceArchitecture (Cambridge, Mass., 1977), Esqr." The first state of the engraving (as described in Louis Fagan, A Catalogue 190-96. Raisonnr of the Engraved Worksof William Woollett[London, 1885],15, cat. no. 42 Forster, "Villa Rotonda" (see n. 41), 28.

446 JSAH / 53:4, DECEMBER 1994 43This is the distinction,involving the loss of strict symmetry,by which James Wyatt.The issue of 4 Nov. containsa letter from Hussey to the editor, ChiswickHouse is removed, I think rightly, from the progeny of the Villa statingthat he has learnedfrom an inscriptionin the roof that the remodelingis Rotonda in ChristiaGoedicke, MartinKubelik, and Klaus Slusallek,Palladios the work of MatthewBrettingham the Younger, 1772-76. Hussey notes how Rotonda.Einige Bemerkungen (Vienna, 1989), 5-9. littleis knownof thisarchitect. 44Thisis to make more emphaticand to extend the reachof the argumentin 51This is not to deny the possibilitythat Cleeve took a hand in the conception Goedickeet al., PalladiosRotonda (see n. 43). The authorsquite plausiblysee and executionof his seat.The most obviousprecedent, Mereworth, was nearby, VincenzoScamozzi's Rocca Pisaniat Lonigo as a more adequateprecedent for and as we have seen, constructionof Foots Cray began before the return of ChiswickHouse. The range of criteria discussed in the present text give Brettinghamto England. The eighteenth-centuryreferences to Cleeve and additionalreasons to resistthe primaryassociation of ChiswickHouse with the FootsCray require, indeed suggest,no more than this. Villa Rotonda, and the same may be said of Nuthall Temple. Among other issues,Nuthall Temple also shareswith the RoccaPisani a porticoin antis.One may argue that houses such as ChiswickHouse and NuthallTemple (and the Sandersondesign) have basicallysquare plans but that they share their most Photo Credits importantqualities with rectangular-plannedAnglo-Palladian villas that have a Fig. 1.AmericanArchitect and Building News, 75 (25Jan. 1902):unpag. plate single principle fagade and a central rotunda. One then concludes that the Figs.2,3, 4, 5, 10. BritishLibrary Englishvariants of the Villa Rotonda (and then significantlyvaried) should be Fig. 6. VitruviusBritannicus, 4: pl. 8 limitedto Mereworthand FootsCray Place. Fig. 7. VitruviusBritannicus, 4: pl. 10 45Forster, "Villa Rotonda" (see n. 41), 28. Fig. 8. VitruviusBritannicus, 4: pl. 9 46Palladio, Quattro Libri (see n. 21), Book 2, 19. Fig. 9. BritishLibrary, Map Library,Kings 17.36.1 47 Brettingham'sletter, reproduced above. Fig. 11. MIT,Rotch Library 48This resolution of the main axis is anticipatedat Mereworth(Fig. 15) Fig. 12, 13. SirJohnSoane Museum,London where,despite the levelinginfluence of the moat,a berm to the rearof the house Figs. 14, 17, 18. BritishArchitectural Library, RIBA, London permitsa more gentle descentto the gardensthan do the monumentalstairs at Fig. 15. BritishLibrary, Map Library,Kings 17.42b the frontof the house. Fig. 16.William Kent, The Designs oflnigoJones, 1: fig. 71 49RIBA catalogue (see n. 28), 102. Fig. 19. VitruviusBritannicus, 4: pl. 56 50oChristopher Hussey, "Charlton Park, Wiltshire," Country Life 74 (14 and 21 Fig. 20. VitruviusBritannicus, 4: pl. 57 Oct. 1933): 388-94, 420-25; and (4 Nov. 1933): 483. Part 1 concerns the Fig. 21. Scamozzi,L'idea della architettura universale (Venice, 1615) seventeenthcentury house of the countess of Suffolk.Part 2 concerns "large Fig. 22. ChristopherHussey, "CharltonPark. Wiltshire," Country Life, 74 (21 alterations..,.made 1774ff' and whichHussey here ascribesas the earlyworkof Oct., 1933):421; photo: BritishLibrary)

ANDERSON: MATITHEW BRETTINGHAM 447