But this contrast
must not be sudden, or it will be startling and harsh; and therefore, as
we saw above, the villa must be placed where all the severe features of
the scene, though not concealed, are distant, and where there is a
graduation, so to speak, of impressions, from terror to loveliness, the
one softened by distance, the other elevated in its style: and the form
of the villa must not be fantastic or angular, but must be full of
variety, so tempered by simplicity as to obtain ease of outline united
with elevation of character; the first being necessary for reasons
before advanced, and the second, that the whole may harmonize with the
feelings induced by the lofty features of the accompanying scenery in
any hill country, and yet more, on the Larian Lake, by the deep memories
and everlasting associations which haunt the stillness of its shore. Of
the color required by Italian landscape we have spoken before, and we
shall see that, particularly in this case, white or pale tones are
agreeable.
106. We shall now proceed to the situation and form of the villa. As
regards situation; the villas of the Lago di Como are built, _par
preference_, either on jutting promontories of low crag covered with
olives, or on those parts of the shore where some mountain stream has
carried out a bank of alluvium into the lake.
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