Chiswick House

[[File:Plan du Jardin et Vue des Maisons de Chiswick - Full.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|1736 engraving by [[John Rocque]] of the garden layout with sketches of the house]]

[[File:Plan du Jardin et Vue des Maisons de Chiswick - Full.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|1736 engraving by [[John Rocque]] of the garden layout with sketches of the house]]

Chiswick House was an attempt by Lord Burlington to create a [[Roman villa]], rather than a Renaissance pastiche, situated in a symbolic [[Roman gardens|Roman garden]].{{cite book |last=Hewlings |first=Richard |chapter=Chiswick House and Gardens: Appearance and Meaning |editor1=Toby Barnard |editor2=Jane Clark |title=Lord Burlington. Architecture, Art and Life |location=London |publisher=Hambledon Press |year=1995 |pages=1–149 |isbn=978-1852850944 }} Chiswick Villa is inspired in part by several buildings of the 16th-century Italian architects [[Andrea Palladio]] and his assistant [[Vincenzo Scamozzi]]. The house is often said to be directly inspired by Palladio's [[Villa Capra]] "La Rotonda" near Vicenza,{{cite book |last=Yarwood |first=Doreen |author-link=Doreen Yarwood |title=Robert Adam|url=https://archive.org/details/robertadam0000yarw |url-access=registration |year=1970 |publisher=Scribner |page=[https://archive.org/details/robertadam0000yarw/page/104 104]}} as architect [[Colen Campbell]] had offered Lord Burlington a design for a villa closely based on the Villa Capra for his use at Chiswick. However, although this was clearly influential, Lord Burlington rejected this design; it was subsequently used at [[Mereworth Castle]], Kent.{{cite book |last=Mowl |first=Tim |author-link = Timothy Mowl|title=Gentlemen & players: gardeners of the English landscape |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QFY9AQAAIAAJ |year=2000 |publisher=Sutton |page=113|isbn=9780750923248 }} Lord Burlington's library list at Chiswick shows that he was not restricted to the influence of Andrea Palladio. He owned books by influential Italian Renaissance architects such as [[Sebastiano Serlio]] and [[Leon Battista Alberti]], and his library contained books by French architects, sculptors, illustrators and architectural theorists like [[Jean Cotelle]], [[Philibert de l'Orme]], [[Abraham Bosse]], [[Jean Bullant]], [[Salomon de Caus]], [[Roland Fréart de Chambray]], [[Hugues Sambin]], [[Antoine Desgodetz]], and John James's translation of [[Claude Perrault]]'s ''Treatise of the Five Orders''. Whether Palladio's work inspired Chiswick or not, the Renaissance architect exerted an important influence on Lord Burlington through his plans and reconstructions of lost Roman buildings; many of these, unpublished and little known, were purchased by Burlington on his second Grand Tour and housed in the Blue Velvet Room, which served as his study.{{cite book |last=Umbach |first=Maiken |title=Federalism and Enlightenment in Germany, 1740–1806 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EY_RC1RCuRIC&pg=PA87 |year=2000 |publisher=Continuum International |isbn=978-1-85285-177-4 |page=87}} These reconstructions were the source for many of the varied geometric shapes within Burlington's Villa, including the use of the octagon, circle and rectangle (with [[apse]]s).{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Ellen Judy |last2=Reill |first2=Peter Hanns |title=Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1pQ4YG-TDIC&pg=PA444|date=August 2004 |publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-8160-5335-3 |page=444}}{{cite book |title=The Architects' Journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hyNNAAAAYAAJ |year=1990 |publisher=The Architectural Press}}{{cite book |last=Christopher |title=Western furniture: 1350 to the present day in the Victoria and Albert Museum |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PD5QAAAAMAAJ |year=1996 |publisher=Cross River Press, [[Victoria and Albert Museum]] |isbn=978-0-7892-0252-9}} Burlington's use of Roman sources can be seen in features including the steep-pitched [[History of 18th century early modern domes|dome of the villa]], which is derived from the [[Pantheon, Rome|Pantheon]] in Rome. However, the source for the octagonal form of the dome, the Upper Tribunal, Lower Tribunal and cellar at Chiswick may be Scamozzi's [[Rocca Pisana]] near [[Vicenza]].{{cite book |last1=Beltramini |first1=Guido |last2=Vicenza |first2=Centro internazionale di studi di architettura "Andrea Palladio" di |title=Palladio and Northern Europe: books, travellers, architects |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dSdQAAAAMAAJ |date=15 October 1999 |publisher=Skira |isbn=978-88-8118-524-5 |page=144}} Burlington may also have been influenced in his choice of octagon by the drawings of the Renaissance architect [[Sebastiano Serlio]] (1475–1554),{{cite book |last=Laird |first=Mark |title=The flowering of the landscape garden: English pleasure grounds, 1720–1800 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pCbC-QQx6iEC&pg=PA215 |year=1999 |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |isbn=978-0-8122-3457-2 |page=215}} or by Roman buildings of antiquity (for example, Lord Burlington owned Andrea Palladio's drawings of the octagonal mausoleum at [[Diocletian's Palace]], [[Split, Croatia|Split]] in modern Croatia).{{cite book |last1=Turner|first1=Louis |last2=Ash |first2=John |title=The golden hordes: international tourism and the pleasure periphery |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u-grAAAAMAAJ |year=1975 |publisher=Constable |isbn=978-0-09-460310-3|page=37}}

Chiswick House was an attempt by Lord Burlington to create a [[Roman villa]], rather than a Renaissance pastiche, situated in a symbolic [[Roman gardens|Roman garden]].{{cite book |last=Hewlings |first=Richard |chapter=Chiswick House and Gardens: Appearance and Meaning |editor1=Toby Barnard |editor2=Jane Clark |title=Lord Burlington. Architecture, Art and Life |location=London |publisher=Hambledon Press |year=1995 |pages=1–149 |isbn=978-1852850944 }} Chiswick Villa is inspired in part by several buildings of the 16th-century Italian architects [[Andrea Palladio]] and his assistant [[Vincenzo Scamozzi]]. The house is often said to be directly inspired by Palladio's [[Villa Capra]] "La Rotonda" near Vicenza,{{cite book |last=Yarwood |first=Doreen |author-link=Doreen Yarwood |title=Robert Adam|url=https://archive.org/details/robertadam0000yarw |url-access=registration |year=1970 |publisher=Scribner |page=[https://archive.org/details/robertadam0000yarw/page/104 104]}} as architect [[Colen Campbell]] had offered Lord Burlington a design for a villa closely based on the Villa Capra for his use at Chiswick. However, although this was clearly influential, Lord Burlington rejected this design; it was subsequently used at [[Mereworth Castle]], Kent.{{cite book |last=Mowl |first=Tim |author-link = Timothy Mowl|title=Gentlemen & players: gardeners of the English landscape |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QFY9AQAAIAAJ |year=2000 |publisher=Sutton |page=113|isbn=9780750923248 }}

Lord Burlington's library list at Chiswick shows that he was not restricted to the influence of Andrea Palladio. He owned books by influential Italian Renaissance architects such as [[Sebastiano Serlio]] and [[Leon Battista Alberti]], and his library contained books by French architects, sculptors, illustrators and architectural theorists like [[Jean Cotelle]], [[Philibert de l'Orme]], [[Abraham Bosse]], [[Jean Bullant]], [[Salomon de Caus]], [[Roland Fréart de Chambray]], [[Hugues Sambin]], [[Antoine Desgodetz]], and John James's translation of [[Claude Perrault]]'s ''Treatise of the Five Orders''. Whether Palladio's work inspired Chiswick or not, the Renaissance architect exerted an important influence on Lord Burlington through his plans and reconstructions of lost Roman buildings; many of these, unpublished and little known, were purchased by Burlington on his second Grand Tour and housed in the Blue Velvet Room, which served as his study.{{cite book |last=Umbach |first=Maiken |title=Federalism and Enlightenment in Germany, 1740–1806 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EY_RC1RCuRIC&pg=PA87 |year=2000 |publisher=Continuum International |isbn=978-1-85285-177-4 |page=87}} These reconstructions were the source for many of the varied geometric shapes within Burlington's Villa, including the use of the octagon, circle and rectangle (with [[apse]]s).{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Ellen Judy |last2=Reill |first2=Peter Hanns |title=Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1pQ4YG-TDIC&pg=PA444|date=August 2004 |publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-8160-5335-3 |page=444}}{{cite book |title=The Architects' Journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hyNNAAAAYAAJ |year=1990 |publisher=The Architectural Press}}{{cite book |last=Christopher |title=Western furniture: 1350 to the present day in the Victoria and Albert Museum |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PD5QAAAAMAAJ |year=1996 |publisher=Cross River Press, [[Victoria and Albert Museum]] |isbn=978-0-7892-0252-9}} Burlington's use of Roman sources can be seen in features including the steep-pitched [[History of 18th century early modern domes|dome of the villa]], which is derived from the [[Pantheon, Rome|Pantheon]] in Rome. However, the source for the octagonal form of the dome, the Upper Tribunal, Lower Tribunal and cellar at Chiswick may be Scamozzi's [[Rocca Pisana]] near [[Vicenza]].{{cite book |last1=Beltramini |first1=Guido |last2=Vicenza |first2=Centro internazionale di studi di architettura "Andrea Palladio" di |title=Palladio and Northern Europe: books, travellers, architects |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dSdQAAAAMAAJ |date=15 October 1999 |publisher=Skira |isbn=978-88-8118-524-5 |page=144}} Burlington may also have been influenced in his choice of octagon by the drawings of the Renaissance architect [[Sebastiano Serlio]] (1475–1554),{{cite book |last=Laird |first=Mark |title=The flowering of the landscape garden: English pleasure grounds, 1720–1800 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pCbC-QQx6iEC&pg=PA215 |year=1999 |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |isbn=978-0-8122-3457-2 |page=215}} or by Roman buildings of antiquity (for example, Lord Burlington owned Andrea Palladio's drawings of the octagonal mausoleum at [[Diocletian's Palace]], [[Split, Croatia|Split]] in modern Croatia).{{cite book |last1=Turner|first1=Louis |last2=Ash |first2=John |title=The golden hordes: international tourism and the pleasure periphery |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u-grAAAAMAAJ |year=1975 |publisher=Constable |isbn=978-0-09-460310-3|page=37}}

The brick-built Villa's façade is faced in [[Portland stone]], with a small amount of [[stucco]]. The finely carved [[Corinthian capital]]s on the projecting six-column portico, carved by [[John Boson]], are derived from the [[Temple of Castor and Pollux]] in Rome.{{cite book |last=Coleridge |first=Samuel Taylor |author-link=Samuel Taylor Coleridge |title=Encyclopaedia Metropolitana: Difform-Falter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9wlGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA397 |year=1845 |publisher=B. Fellowes |page=397}} The inset door, projecting plinth and 'v'-necked rusticated vermiculation (resembling ''[[tufa]]'') were all derived from the base of [[Trajan's Column]]. The short sections of crenellated wall with ball finials which extend out either side of the villa were symbolic of medieval (or Roman) fortified town walls, and were inspired by their use by Palladio at his [[church of San Giorgio Maggiore]] in Venice and by [[Inigo Jones]] (1573–1652) (Palladio produced woodcuts of the Villa Foscari with crenellated sections of walls in his ''[[I quattro libri dell'architettura]]'' in 1570, yet they were never built). To reinforce this link, two full-length statues of Palladio and Jones are positioned in front of these sections of wall. Palladio's influence is also felt in the general cubic form of the villa with its central hall with other rooms leading off its axis. The villa is a half cube of {{convert|70|ft|m}} by {{convert|70|ft|m}} by {{convert|35|ft|m}}.{{cite book |last1=Harris |first1=John |last2=Burlington |first2=Richard Boyle Earl of |title=The Palladian Revival: Lord Burlington, His Villa and Garden at Chiswick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oUlQNnIxyrkC&pg=PA107 |date=31 August 1994 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0-300-05983-0 |page=107}} The house when built was described by [[John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey|John, Lord Hervey]] as "Too small to live in, and too big to hang to a watch". [[John Clerk of Penicuik]] described it as "Rather curious than convenient", while [[Horace Walpole]] called it "the beautiful model".{{cite book |last=Bryant |first=Julius |title=London's country house collections |publisher=Scala Publications and [[English Heritage]] |date=1993 |isbn=978-1857590135 |page=31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IJkzAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Too+small+to+live+in,+and+too+big+to+hang+to+a+watch%22+Hervey }}{{cite book |last=Bryant |first=Julius |chapter=Preserving the Mystery: a tercentennial restoration inside Chiswick House |editor=Dana Arnold |title=Belov'd by Ev'ry Muse. Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington & 4th Earl of Cork (1694–1753) |publisher=The Georgian Group |location=London |year=2004 |pages=29–36 |oclc=1156718283 }}

The brick-built Villa's façade is faced in [[Portland stone]], with a small amount of [[stucco]]. The finely carved [[Corinthian capital]]s on the projecting six-column portico, carved by [[John Boson]], are derived from the [[Temple of Castor and Pollux]] in Rome.{{cite book |last=Coleridge |first=Samuel Taylor |author-link=Samuel Taylor Coleridge |title=Encyclopaedia Metropolitana: Difform-Falter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9wlGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA397 |year=1845 |publisher=B. Fellowes |page=397}} The inset door, projecting plinth and 'v'-necked rusticated vermiculation (resembling ''[[tufa]]'') were all derived from the base of [[Trajan's Column]]. The short sections of crenellated wall with ball finials which extend out either side of the villa were symbolic of medieval (or Roman) fortified town walls, and were inspired by their use by Palladio at his [[church of San Giorgio Maggiore]] in Venice and by [[Inigo Jones]] (1573–1652) (Palladio produced woodcuts of the Villa Foscari with crenellated sections of walls in his ''[[I quattro libri dell'architettura]]'' in 1570, yet they were never built). To reinforce this link, two full-length statues of Palladio and Jones are positioned in front of these sections of wall. Palladio's influence is also felt in the general cubic form of the villa with its central hall with other rooms leading off its axis. The villa is a half cube of {{convert|70|ft|m}} by {{convert|70|ft|m}} by {{convert|35|ft|m}}.{{cite book |last1=Harris |first1=John |last2=Burlington |first2=Richard Boyle Earl of |title=The Palladian Revival: Lord Burlington, His Villa and Garden at Chiswick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oUlQNnIxyrkC&pg=PA107 |date=31 August 1994 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0-300-05983-0 |page=107}} The house when built was described by [[John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey|John, Lord Hervey]] as "Too small to live in, and too big to hang to a watch". [[John Clerk of Penicuik]] described it as "Rather curious than convenient", while [[Horace Walpole]] called it "the beautiful model".{{cite book |last=Bryant |first=Julius |title=London's country house collections |publisher=Scala Publications and [[English Heritage]] |date=1993 |isbn=978-1857590135 |page=31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IJkzAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Too+small+to+live+in,+and+too+big+to+hang+to+a+watch%22+Hervey }}{{cite book |last=Bryant |first=Julius |chapter=Preserving the Mystery: a tercentennial restoration inside Chiswick House |editor=Dana Arnold |title=Belov'd by Ev'ry Muse. Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington & 4th Earl of Cork (1694–1753) |publisher=The Georgian Group |location=London |year=2004 |pages=29–36 |oclc=1156718283 }}