It is, in
general, crowned with a light balustrade, surmounted by statues at
intervals. The windows of the uppermost floor are usually square, often
without any architrave. Those of the principal floor are surrounded with
broad architraves, but are frequently destitute of frieze or cornice.
They have usually flat bands at the bottom, and their aperture is a
double square. Their recess is very deep, so as not to let the sun fall
far into the interior. The interval between them is very variable. In
some of the villas of highest pretensions, such as those on the banks of
the Brenta, that of Isola Bella, and others, which do not face the
south, it is not much more than the breadth of the two architraves, so
that the rooms within are filled with light. When this is the case, the
windows have friezes and cornices. But, when the building fronts the
south, the interval is often very great, as in the case of the Villa
Porro. The ground-floor windows are frequently set in tall arches,
supported on deeply engaged pilasters as in the Villa Somma-Riva. The
door is not large, and never entered by high steps, as it generally
opens on a terrace of considerable height, or on a wide landing-place at
the head of a flight of fifty or sixty steps descending through the
gardens.
124. Now, it will be observed, that, in these general forms, though
there is no splendor, there is great dignity.
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