THE PALAZZI VIDONI, FABNESE AND MASSIMI
gallery, but noble, pedimented windows set into blank arcades, and
an Ionic order. This is correct according to Roman usage (Theatre
of Marcellus): the sturdier Tuscan Doric must be on the ground
floor, the elegant Ionic on the first and the rich Corinthian on the
second. In this (but only in this) the later second floor of the Palazzo
Farnese follows the archeological example.
The Palazzo Massimi by Baldassare Peruzzi of Siena (1481-1536),
a member of the Bramante-Raphael circle in Rome, begun in 1535,
disregards all canons of the Ancients. Nor does it really show much
regard for the achievements of Bramante and Raphael. Both the
Palazzi Vidoni and Farnese were logical structures in which the
knowledge of any one part gives a clue to the whole. The entrance
loggia of the Palazzo Massimi with its coupled Tuscan Doric columns
and its heavy cornice is in no way a preparation for the upper floors.
Both the Palazzi Vidoni and Farnese are modelled into a generous
though not overcharged relief. In the Palazzo Massimi there is a
poignant contrast between the deep darkness of the ground-floor
loggia and the papery thinness and flatness of the upper parts. The
first-floor windows are shallow in relief compared with what the
High Renaissance regarded as appropriate, the second- and third-
floor windows are small and have curious leathery surrounds. They
are in no way differentiated in size or importance, as the Renaissance
would have done. Moreover a slight curve of the whole facade gives
it a swaying delicacy, whereas the squareness of the Renaissance
front seemed to express powerful solidity. The Palazzo Massimi is no
doubt inferior to the Palazzi Vidoni and Farnese in dignity and
grandeur; but it has a sophisticated elegance instead which appeals
to the over-civilised and intellectual connoisseur.
Now this brings us back to the fact that classicism is an aesthetic
attitude first appreciated during this phase of Mannerism. The Early
Renaissance had rediscovered Antiquity and enjoyed a mixture of
detail copying and a naive licence in the reconstruction of more than
details. The High Renaissance was in their use of Roman forms
hardly more accurate, but the Antique spirit was for a brief moment
truly revived in the gravity of mature Bramante and Raphael. After
their death imitation began to freeze up initiative. Classicism is
imitation of Antiquity and even more the classic moment of the
Renaissance, at the expense of direct expression. The attitude cul-
minated, needless to say, during the late i8th and early ipth
centuries, in that phase of dassicism par excellence which is on die
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