ROMAN VILLAS 
space thus cleared the villa is built, some ten or fifteen 
feet away from the wall, so that its ground floor is cool 
and shaded without being damp. The building, which 
is long and narrow, runs lengthwise into the cut, its 
long fagades being treated as sides, while it presents 
a narrow end as its front elevation. The propriety of 
this plan will be seen when the restricted surroundings 
are noted. In such a small space a larger structure 
would have been disproportionate ; and Ligorio hit on 
the only means of giving to a house of considerable size 
the appearance of a mere garden-pavilion. 
Percier and Fontaine say that Ligorio built the Villa 
Pia “after the manner of the ancient houses, of which 
he had made a special study.” The influence of the 
Roman fresco-architecture is in fact visible in this deli- 
cious little building, but so freely modified by the per- 
sonal taste of the architect that it has none of the rigidity 
of the “reconstitution,” but seems rather the day-dream 
of an artist who has saturated his mind with the past. 
The fagade is a mere pretext for the display of the 
most exquisite and varied stucco ornamentation, in 
which motives borrowed from the Roman stucchi are 
harmonized with endless versatility. In spite of the 
wealth of detail, it is saved from heaviness and confu- 
sion by its delicacy of treatment and by a certain naivete 
which makes it more akin (fantastic as the comparison 
may seem) with the stuccoed fagade of San Bernardino 
at Perugia than with similar compositions of its own 
9 
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