It is also agreeable to the eye, to pass from the
sharp carving of the marble decorations to the ease and smoothness of
the stucco; while the utter want of interest in those parts which are
executed in it prevents the humility of the material from being
offensive: for this passage of the eye from the marble to the
composition is managed with the dexterity of the artist, who, that the
attention may be drawn to the single point of the picture which is his
subject, leaves the rest so obscured and slightly painted, that the mind
loses it altogether in its attention to the principal feature.
122. With all, however, that can be alleged in extenuation of its
faults, it cannot be denied that the stucco _does_ take away so much of
the dignity of the building, that, unless we find enough bestowed by its
form and details to counterbalance, and a great deal more than
counterbalance, the deterioration occasioned by tone and material, the
whole edifice must be condemned, as incongruous with the spirit of the
climate, and even with the character of its own gardens and approach. It
remains, therefore, to notice the details themselves. Its form is simple
to a degree; the roof generally quite flat, so as to leave the mass in
the form of a parallelopiped, in general without wings or adjuncts of
any sort.
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