East Front of Blenheim Castle, Volume I, pl. 61 from Vitruvius Britannicus, 1715

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Title : East Front of Blenheim Castle, Volume I, pl. 61 Artist : Colen Campbell (1676-1729) Medium : Engraving on paper (watermark: none visible) Size (sight) : 17 ½ x 11” (14 ¾ x 9 ¾”) Date : 1715 Condition : small holes in the top margin where removed from the binding; age toning visible in the margins. Description : From An Explanation of all the Plates in the First Volume, “This noble fabric is the Seat of his Grace the Duke of Marlborough, in Oxfordshire. The manner is grand, the parts noble, and the air majestic of this palace, adapted to the martial genius of the patron. It was built Anno 1715.” From the Introduction to Volume I: “The general esteem that travelers have for things that are foreign, is in nothing more conspicuous than regard to building. We travel, for the most part, at an age more apt to be imposed upon by the ignorance of partiality of others, than to judge truly of the merit of things by the strength of reason. It’s owing to this mistake in education, that so many of the British Quality have so mean an opinion of what is performed in our own country; tho’, perhaps, in most we equal, and in some things we surpass, our neighbors. / I have therefore judged, it would not be improper to publish this collections, which will admit of a fair comparison with the best of the Moderns. As to the Antiques, they are out of the question; and, indeed, the Italians themselves have now no better claim to them than they have to the purity of Latin. / We must, in justice, acknowledge very great obligations to those restorers of architecture, which the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries produced in Italy. Bramante, Barbaro, Sansovino, Sangallo, Michael Angelo, Raphael Urbin, Julio Romano, Serglio, Labaco, Scamozzi, and many others, who have greatly helped to raise this Noble Art from the ruins of barbarity: But above all, the great Palladio, who has exceeded all that were gone before him, and surpassed his contemporaries, whose ingenious labours will eclipse many, and rival most of the Ancients. And indeed, this excellent architect seems to have arrived to a ne plus ultra of his art. With him the great manner and exquisite taste of building is lost; for the Italians can no more now relish antique simplicity, but are entirely employed in capricious ornaments, which must at last in the Gothic. / For proof of this assertion, I appeal to the productions of the last century: How affected and licentious are the works of Bernini and Fontana? How wildly extravagant are the designs of Borromini, who has endeavoured to debauch mankind with his odd and chimerical beauties, where the parts are without proportion, solids without their true bearing, heaps of materials without strength, excessive ornaments without grace, and the whole without symmetry? And what can be a stronger argument, that this excellent arts is near lost in that country, where such absurdities meet with applause? / It is then with the renowned Palladio we enter the lists, to whom we oppose the famous Inigo Jones: Let the Banquetting-house, those excellent pieces at Greenwich, with many other things of this great Master, be carefully examined, and I doubt not but an impartial judge will find in them all the regularity of the former, with an addition of Beauty and Majesty, in which our architect is esteemed to have out-done all that went before; and then those designs he gave for Whitehall, are published, which I intend in the Second Volume, I believe all mankind will agree with me, that there is no palace in the world to rival it. / And here I cannot but reflect on the happiness of the British nation, that at present abounds with so many learned and ingenious gentlemen, as Sir Christopher Wren, Sir William Bruce, Sir John Vanbrugh, Mr. Archer, Mr. Wren, Mr. Wynne, Mr. Talman, Mr. Hawksmore, Mr. James, &c. who have all greatly contributed to adorn our Island with their curious labours, and are daily embellishing it more. / I hope, therefore, the reader will be agreeably entertained in viewing wh... read more

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