THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
350 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
VILI.A 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 tardv 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 
mam 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 .*\nd the entrance to the villa. 
