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LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
of buildings in the Roman style. These very circumstances, 
while they rendered the style less perfect as a fine art, or for 
public edifices, gave it a pliability, or facility of adaptation, 
which fits it more completely for domestic purposes. For 
this reason, a great portion of the finest specimens of the 
modern domestic architecture of the other continent, is to 
be found in the Roman style.* 
The Italian style is, we think, decidedly the most beauti- 
ful mode for domestic purposes, that has been the direct off- 
spring of Grecian art. It is a style which has eviderffly 
grown up under the eyes of the painters of more modern 
Italy, as it is admirably adapted to harmonize with general 
nature, and produce a pleasing and picturesque effect in fine 
landscapes. Retaining more or less of the columns, arches, 
and other details of the Roman style, it has intrinsically a bold 
irregularity, and strong contrast of light and shadow, which 
give it a peculiarly striking and painter-like effect. 
“ The villa architecture of modern Italy,” says Mr. Lamb, 
an able architect,! “is characterized, when on a moderate 
scale, by scattered irregular masses, great contrasts of light 
and shade, broken and plain surfaces, and great variety of 
outline against the sky. The blank wall on which the eye 
sometimes reposes ; the towering campanile, boldly con- 
trasted with the horizontal line of roof only broken by a few 
straggling chimney-tops : the row of equal sized, closely 
placed windows, contrasting with the plain space and single 
window of the projecting balcony ; the prominent portico, 
the continued arcade, the terraces, and the variously formed 
* Perhaps the finest facade of a private residence, in America, is that of the 
“ Patroon’s house,” near Albany, the ancient seat of the Van Rensselaer family, 
lately remodelled and improved by that skilful architect, Mr. Upjohn, of New-York, 
t Loudon’s Ency. of Arch. p. 951. 
