New York buildings as the University or the Century Clubs, or the shops of Tiffany and Gorham. A more ornate dignity may appear in such a building as the bank building, originally for the Knickerbocker Trust Company on Fifth Avenue, or a degree of humanism almost approaching frivolity may appear in such a cheerful façade as the sgraffito shop front shown in one of the illustrations. Another shop, of Italian derivation in design, rears a delicate façade of white marble, effectively lightened by an open, triple-arched loggia, and similar treatments form a happy solution for the narrow-lot problem of city house design.

It must be apparent, from the foregoing remarks, and from a study not only of the buildings illustrated in this chapter, but of the buildings with which we are all familiar, that the style of the Italian Renaissance is one peculiarly adaptable to the successful solution of a variety of architectural problems-problems not only of site or type of building, but problems involving the proper expression of such unarchitectural qualities as dignity and distinction. It would be difficult to contrive a short arcade of greater combined dignity and richness than the triple arched street front of the Gorham shop, in New York City, shown in one of the illustrations. In the style of the Italian Renaissance, the media for this kind of expression are inexhaustible, and a study of their range and infinite possibilities would form an exhaustive architectural study in itself.

In the consideration of Italian derivations in the form of the country villa, we are confronted by somewhat of an architectural paradox, in that we have adapted, and even welcomed, a type of country house intended to form the setting for American country life, when the original, the villa of the Italian noble of the

Renaissance, formed the setting for a very different kind of country life. It has been a case in which architectural form, alone, has been borrowed, and this, with certain added elements of romance (more literary than architectural) has been developed, with really extraordinary success, into a modern American dwelling. The American adaptation of the Italian villa satisfies us not because its prototype was in any way expressive of American tastes or American modes of life, either as a reflection or a criterion, but rather because it is a beautiful thing to look at-beautiful with the same classic purity as the Parthenon, though far more linked with the human life of to-day. The Venus of Milo appeals to us not because it typifies the woman of to-day, but because it deifies woman of all time, typifying woman, the goddess, as an idea rather than a personality. The appeal is literary, romantic and æsthetic. Queen Elizabeth appeals to us as an actual woman, just as the English country house appeals to us as an actual house. The Italian villa is more in the realm of the ideal-and it has been the task of the modern architect to make it real and habitable, which he has done with conspicuous success.

Let us look back at some of the great and famous villas of Renaissance Italy, and at the country life for which they formed the setting, for in this way we may best come to see clearly wherein the Italian villa partakes, in our American adaptation, of qualities both appropriate and alien.

In one respect the Italian villa of the Renaissance was a logical and real expression of a purpose which most modern country houses hold in common with it-it was a retreat. Wearied by the endless intrigues and the nervous strain of city life in the great palazzi of

Florence or Rome, the nobles, with their families and friends and servants, found it most enjoyable to repair to the cool loggias, the quiet terraces, and wonderful gardens of their villas, to rest and read poetry. The American family of to-day, no less wearied by endless social activities and business cares, must find the same rest and the same pleasure in an environment created to resemble the country retreat of the old Italian nobles. The anachronism exists in the difference between the effete and indolent idea of country life which characterised the Renaissance Italian noble, and the wholesome and vigorous idea of country life which should characterise the modern American country gentleman. The Italian entertained with formal ceremony, his power was almost equal to that of a feudal lord. He engaged in no active sports or energetic outdoor life, and too often brought with him the spies and poisoners and parasitic friends whom he should have left behind him in the city. Villa life in Renaissance Italy was not, by all we have heard, very wholesome, or in any way a desirable sort of thing on which to pattern our own country life of to-day. Our architects took the stage settings, and, modifying them to some extent, let us devise and enact new dramas in place of the old.

This, perhaps, brings the most clear understanding of the propriety of the American villa of Italian derivation-it is a stage setting, and one in which we have come to feel at home because of its inherent beauty and charm, and in spite of its associations of a life and a period entirely different from our own. Renaissance depravity, mellowed by time, is further cloaked by the kindly mantle of "romance," so that we find much historic association of real charm, where old, forgotten family histories could tell (if we lifted the mantle of

romance) of much sordid intrigue, blighted hope and a kind of life entirely different either from what most of us suppose, or from what we conceive to be the modern American ideal.

Of all American architects who have essayed the Italian villa, adapted, the master is Charles A. Platt, who has combined with a rare degree of architectural skill and surety an equally rare degree of imagination, sympathy and real artistic feeling. The result of these abilities has been apparent in his work. He has retained the charm, the romance, and the peculiar architectural chastity of the Renaissance Italian villa, and has given his rendering, at the same time, and in a manner at once subtle and forceful, something of a modern vigour of expression and a modern note of appropriateness. Other American architects have attained conspicuous success in the designing of Italian villa derivations, but Mr. Platt is the accredited master, and his works will rank always as monuments of remarkable architectural sincerity in intelligent adaptation.

It should be obvious that the Italian villa, from its nature, is inappropriate in a cold northern climate, yet, though the greater part of the United States is, during several months of the year, a country of most unpleasant climate, the villa of Italian type is built as a retreat for the warm months, and as such, it comes well within the pale of suitability. Southern California and the southern states are to be regarded as the more obvious habitat of houses of the Italian villa type, as well as of the Spanish type.

The superficial characteristics of the Italian villa are readily recognisable, and reasonably familiar: lowpitched roof of corrugated tile, stucco walls, occasional iron balconies, arcaded loggias, garden terraces, and

Photograph by Julian Buckly AN ITALIAN VILLA DERIVATION IN AN AMERICAN COUNTRY HOUSE There is apparent here a faithful and sympathetic truth to type. The elevation of the house on an architectural terrace, the arcaded loggia and court, the plain wall-surfaces, wide eaves and low-pitched tile roof are all salient features of the great villas of the Italian Renaissance