Grouping in General, and Buildings 33 



designs of the ancient villas and country houses, 

 as we may gather from the ruins. The most note- 

 worthy example is perhaps the villa of Hadrian 

 near Tivoli. Traces of this principle are also 

 found in the Italy of the Renaissance, in the fif- 

 teenth and sixteenth centuries: buildings half 

 hidden by others, large and small windows on the 

 same face of the building, side doors, projecting 

 and receding corners, occasionally a high, bare 

 wall with a richly ornamented cornice, roofs jut- 

 ting out, and balconies unsymmetrically placed, 

 in short, everywhere a great but by no means in- 

 harmonious irregularity, which pleases the fancy 

 because the reason for every departure from reg- 

 ularity is evident or may be surmised. 



The site of a building must also be carefully 

 considered. For instance, a feudal castle in the 

 midst of a level field of grain, as we find at Ma- 

 chern near Leipzig, appears somewhat comical ; 

 and so is the Egyptian pyramid which is to be 

 found there in the idyllic surroundings of a gay 

 birch wood. As well imagine a straw-thatched 

 hut surrounded by a French parterre. All these 

 are undesirable contrasts that destroy the har- 

 mony. For example, pointed Gothic buildings 

 would make an unfavorable impression if set 

 among spruces and Lombardy poplars, while 

 among oaks, beeches, and pines they would be 

 quite in place. On the other hand, spruces and 

 poplars harmonize with the horizontal lines of 

 an Oriental villa. 



The importance of harmonious beauty has for 



