35 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



VILLA DI MASER, IN PROVINGIA DI TREVISO, 



AND POSSAGNO. 



M 



ASER, built in 1560 for the brothers Daniele and Marcantonio Barbaro, Venetian 

 patricians, is one of those buildings which show traces of Palladio's real 

 independence of the Orders, which here, in fact, play quite an unimportant 

 part in the design (Fig. 366). They are, truly, no more than a surface 

 decoration for the centre block, which the ideas of the time required should have 

 the superficial aspect of a Roman temple. The cruciform saloon, which is the key of the 

 plan (Fig. 367) of this advanced centre, is, of course, a development of the great hall of the 

 earlier house plans, and is in flagrant contradiction with the exterior treatment. Possibly some 

 perception of the underlying contradiction drove Palladio to break his entablature for the 

 rise of the centre arched window, which is the sole and tardy acknowledgment of the truth. It 

 is easy to imagine how he could have treated the centre block with greater frankness, discarding 

 his temple order and harmonising it with the end wings. The latter are said to owe their form 

 to the pigeon-house accommodation essential to the villa. Apart from the temple idea, the 

 main block would be better turned round, broadside fashion, it would then group better with 

 the arcades and the wings, which are, from most points of view, thrown too far back, and, from 



363. PALLADIO'S CHURCH AT MASER AND THE ENTRANCE TO THE VILLA. 



